WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR AUGUST 2017

bwcetc

Michele ... I was thinking of you today when I received an invitation to the wedding of my friend's son. I commented on the invitation to my friend and she said she only learned of the details when she received hers too. The mother of the groom! Anyways, I went to a full sit-down dinner shower two weeks ago for this couple ... who already live together. Four full courses! And I walked away with a basket raffle prize as well as a shower gift bag with a bottle of wine and wine scented hand soap in it. Then today's invitation included the itinerary for the wedding weekend. Cocktails on Friday from 7-11, the wedding/reception on Saturday and a brunch Sunday morning. Quite the shindig!

suebdew

Happy Anniversary to Machka, Re, Carol and one more whose anniversary was the 23. ( sorry didn't write your name down.
Marcelyn- you are prepared and ready. Sending prayers for all of south Texas. We are SW of Ft Worth and aren't expecting anything except rain later on.
HAve to go make up bed with clean sheets so DH can go to bed. He hurt his back Monday and got steroid shot, muscle relaxer and pain pills at doctor's office today.
SueBDew in TX

coastalgosgal

Dear ladies,
Yesterday, when we came home from visiting our eldest son, I just knew there would be at least one letter from our youngest boot camp son, but nothing! I was really distraught about that, but today we recd 2 letters today! I took pictures of the letters to share with my other sons to keep them in the loop. I want to share just page one with you all, because it speaks volumes!

Can you all read it?
Well it was written by a man not my little Owain!
Becca

pipcd34

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coastalgosgal

Oh and he has started going to chapel a couple of times a week! Granted its the Buddhist services, but he's learning to relax, chant and de stress! He likes to use the pancakes as tortillas, jamming scrambled eggs, sausages in them! OK where is my picky eater??? My heart is lighter!
Becca

klanders30

becca I poured over every word---how very very wonderful to hear how grown up the experience is making him! He is a fine young man and you both should be so proud!

Beth i have a battery operated weed wacker/edger. Not as powerful as gas powered but so much easier. I think ours is a Black & Decker with rechargeable battery, very light weight and easy to handle. WORX brand is also good I've heard.

Marcelyn and other TX and LA folks stay safe and high above the surge. We're all thinking of you and sending strength.

Allie one step at a time, you've got this.

Phew, a very long day of driving and then got lost finding our hotel (extra 45 minutes in the car). I am wired from the frustration/stress/caffeine.

NYKAREN

coastalgosgal

Hugs! NY Karen, thanks for reading! I poured over every word too!
Becca

coastalgosgal

My eldest sons scooter collection!
Becca

GloworminWA

Becca so happy for you and Owain! It must be really hard for a young person to leave the love and comfort of their home and go to a place where they no longer have the freedom they were used to.

Beth so happy to hear that your son is doing better!

Hugs to all in the area o the hurricane - stay safe!

Gloria in WA

DanaReel180

Good evening MFP friends!
To all my Texan friends, stay safe! I have friends in Corpus Christi that evacuated. The grocery stores are empty and the roads packed. 130 mph winds. Cat4 hurricane. The Weather Channel said if you're not leaving, write your name and SS# on yourself with a Sharpie. Hopefully it's not bad as Katrina or Ike. My girlfriends dad who was 90 lived in Galveston Island during Ike. His house was flooded. He had to move up to Austin while the family replaced everything. Got lots of rain and people who needed shelter in Austin.
Arkansas supposed to get 3-4" up here in Hot Springs. Of course we get 52" a year anyway.

Barbie nice picture if you and your group!

Becca pretty rocks. They are starting to be a thing here too. I couldn't read the letter. I'll have to go to my laptop to see it.

Machka, Re and Carol Happy Anniversary to you all and many more!!

I need to do better on my diet. I was doing good until we got to the Mexican restaurant. I need to eat at home. I do so much better. Boo hoo!!

Have a great weekend!
Dana in Arkansas

coastalgosgal

Yeah, it's hard for me to read the letter without enlarging it and moving it around. My other sons wanted to read them, and as everyone mostly reads emails from their cells anyway, I just sent each son the pages on Messenger.

I blame the recruiters for not preparing my son academically. He would have studied if they would've given him the info. Most recruiters nowadays look at their recruiting assignment as a time to chill, and not work. He would arrive early to the meetings and instead of signing off areas he knows, they just signed them at the end right when he was going in. Pure laziness. They taught him the wrong way to do pushups. How that is possible I haven't a clue...

He is happy to still be drinking coffee! Ahhh the simple pleasures of life, even in a chaotic world such as boot camp!

When we arrived at Whidbey island, we kind of surprised my sons room mate. The apartment was a disaster! My son finally realized that this guy was using him, pure and simple. After that first introduction, the room mate avoided us like the plague! And we were quite civil! So come March son will not be renewing lease and we'll share a rental home. He is excited, and we are excited!

Husband helping supervise moving scooters to a storage unit.


What son works on!


A picture of my husband in his Renaissance garb!
Becca

GloworminWA

Ok here's a weird story. Tuesday night I had a dream that I had an abscessed tooth and woke up with my teeth on the upper right hurting - I thought maybe I had been clenching my jaw. By Wed I night I had an abscessed tooth. Went to the dentist today and am on antibiotics and it's a tooth I had a root canal done on about 6 years ago. This is the second time I have had to have root canals redone and they are not even sure that the tooth can be saved. I have always taken very good care of my teeth but unfortunately they are not hard therefore have spent a great deal of time and money at the dentist's for root canals, crowns and bridges. I think this is in my future

Gloria in WA

GloworminWA

Night all - it's only 9:30 but it's been an exhausting 2 days and tomorrow is DGS#1's first football game of the season.

Gloria in WA

Katla49

Karen: Thanks for the reminder of friends who are facing Harvey. I hope they are all safe and dry.

Allie: Stay strong. (((HUGS)))

Becca: I'll bet that letter from Owain made you proud and brought tears to your eyes. You've got a good son, there. WTG, Mom. :bigsmile:

Gloria: I hope your dental issues are resolved without too much pain or difficulty. (((HUGS)))


I went to my 50th class reunion, day 1. I saw a few people I know and was happy to chat with old classmates, but not one of my closest friends was there other than DH. I'm happy and sad all at once. We are not going to the fancy dinner that is planned for tomorrow.


Katla in beautiful NW Oregon

"So many of us believe in perfection, which ruins everything else, because the perfect is not only the enemy of the good; it's also the enemy of the realistic, the possible and the fun."

jmkmomm

Hello all. Becca, the letter was what you needed and more. You will read that so many times, it will be tattered. Better copy it just so you can preserve it. Maybe your son will need to read it some day. You raised quite the boy, or rather a man. How many kleenexes have you gone through?

The news tonight had a sattilite view of the hurricane. How awful. I pray for all of you in in the path or even in regions that will be receiving victims that need a loving arm. We have a couple from our church that are certified by the Southern Baptist Convention as part of the disaster relief team. They serve in different capacities, one is in preparing and serving meals and another in sawing down trees in tornados. They will be going down there. We have another man that just has a heart for serving and whenever there is a disaster, he is part of a team that goes anywhere. He came over and plunged out my commode when Charlie was in the hospital with his meningitis. It was so stuck I couldn't get it to budge. I was just glad I had amother bathroom in the house.

Well I was a good girl and picked up my prescription for the decreased dose of Ambien tonight. I don't know when I will be brave enough to try it. But it have it.

My grand daughter got her drivers permit today. Makes me feel real old! She has to have 60 to 90 hours of supervised driving with an adult. I don't know how they can govern that since there is n drivers Ed. My husband who is very protective of any female on the road pretty well insist that they don't allow her to drive on the highway by herself.mi told him that he has no say in that. But that's pretty much how he feels about me on the highway. I drove about 20 minutes in the interstate to get my haircut and he just knows I am going to do it. He drives me I the winter time.

Melody is finally learning to give back everything Mozart has done to her. I have felt so bad for her. I have never heard the kind of noises I have heard since getting Mozart. But now I am hearing a much smaller version of those howls commode from Mozart. Hopefully he will learn his lesson on what play is and isn't.

Well Evansville has another big weekend. We are having our annual Frog Follies. I think they are called street rods"?????? They are the old cars that have been fixed up, so,e have some crazy paint colors. I don't know the oldest cars they show but I know there are some old Model Ts. There is one very hot orange car that I see running around town. I a, pretty sure that color was not an option! When they come to town, they don't just park them at the 4H center and then drive around town in their regular cars. They love to be seen! One of the hotels by us is by a very serene looking lake and you will, drive by there in the evening after the 4H center closes for the day. The hoods will be up, lounge chairs by the lake and the guys fishing. Betweenness this annual affair and our hydroplane races, those are our big money makers for out of towers. But this year all of our hotel rooms were used for the eclipse.

Love you all. Allie, you can do this. Joyce, Indiana better close this since I don't know what Mozart will write. He is going crazy trying to get the screen,

Katla49

I just saw a news report on the Weather Channel about a hurricane hitting Texas. We have friend Cheri in College Station. I hope her home stays safe and dry. I don't know enough about Texas geography to know whether she is at risk. The map I looked at made me worry.

Katla

Machka9

Machka9 wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Regarding this weekend ... it's going to be a much needed rest weekend for us. Sleep!!
No monstrous bicycle rides or hikes!! We will try to get out for something short, depending on how we feel and what the weather is doing. There's supposed to be another wintery cold front move through and I have no desire to cycle or walk in a cold rain with the way my sinuses feel.
My husband has a fruit grafting course Saturday morning and might do some bicycle maintenance or more study on the fruit industry (that's what he does), and I will study for my database test on Monday ... cramming SQL and PLSQL into my head. But most of that can be done from the comfort of the interior of our house, to classical music, with large cups of tea.

Machka9 wrote: »

Meanwhile, we had another nice walk to the beach and back. It's dark when we go ... daylight hours haven't extended to light up the evenings yet. But I like it whether it is daylight or dark.

This photo of "our beach" was taken last spring ... happily it will be spring again on September 1.

But before that happens, apparently we're supposed to have a cold, windy, rainy, hail-y, and potentially snowy weekend this weekend. One site indicates snow down to 200 metres, another indicates the potential of snow down to sea level. That did happen once before in the 3 years we've been in this house ... we're at about 45 metres above sea level, and we actually had snow! Evidently, it could possibly happen again.

Good weekend to study.


So here you go ... a little piece of the island of Tasmania ...




M in Oz

And during the day ... on my walk there today. That was about all I had the energy for.




Plus some of the flowers in our yard. Most of the trees and plants here are evergreen so even though it is winter, they keep their leaves.







M in Oz

dreamwriter

Allie- Let Go and Let God. The Labour Day tradition sounds like fun. Thinking of you and knowing you will come out the other side that much stronger.

Okiewoman - You must seriously love Christmas. My favourite holiday but I can't even come a close second to you. Wow!

Karen in Virginia - I'll need to take a photo, load it on the computer and then onto here. Not very good or quick on any of those things. All I'm saying is don't hold your breath but I will give it a try.

Rye - Have you tried Black Cohosh?

Margaret - I stalled on my 35+ yr clear out. Made the silly mistake of reading some old court papers. I got stuck in emotions and felt myself drowning in bitterness. Took a step back to regroup. I'll be back at it in the next month.

Katla - 1776 days is an accomplishment and I think it is cool that it made you think of your country becoming a nation.

Becca - I cried when I read Owain's letter. You have raised a man to be proud of.

Dana - Eating out can be a mine field for some of us. I love to eat out but I know it is one of my many danger zones on this journey.

Gloria - Sorry to hear about your dental problem. I hope you are not in great pain. Have fun at the football game. What position does your DGS play?

Machka - thanks for sharing your lovely photos.

Still hoping that Day 5 after the shot starts to give some major relief. I guess I just wait and see.

Talked to DGS and asked how his date went. Dad dropped us at the fair, Mom made us drink water, we had dinner and I went home. I asked "Did you have fun?" Answer "yes" So far, so good. He really doesn't want to talk about it and we are all just so curious.

Went to the Bull-a-rama tonight. I was annoyed because Larry kept coming up with things that just had to be done before we could go. None of them needed doing tonight. It started at 7, we got there at 7:55. I thought I would see more in the 2nd go round but only 4 made it through. Oh well, I should be grateful that I saw any considering how little interest Larry has in anything rodeo. I was picking my favourite riders and bulls. He asks "How do you know so much about it?" He keeps forgetting that I grew up around rodeo. Our son competed on the bulls for 2 summers of his teenage life. (he had to stay with my brother). I have to say I enjoy it a lot more now that my kid isn't on top of one. The fireworks were awesome. Taber does a great job of Cornfest. Tomorrow Larry will be going to the car show but I have to work until 1.

Praying for everyone's safety in the way of this Hurricane.

-Sharon in Lethbridge ( swooning over the Boys from Brazil)

Lagopus

Beth - I also have a Black and Decker battery operated weed whacker (like NYKAREN). One thing I really like about it is that the battery and I both get run down at the same time. It gives me a perfectly good excuse to rest. The battery recharges fairly quickly - it's ready to get back to work before I am.

Becca - So glad you got a double dose of letters from Owain when you'd been without for so long!

Machka - I smiled when I saw the picture from your daytime walk yesterday. I just love the way gulls gather together and stand all facing the same direction. We have huge flocks on our rocky shores right now, what with all the fledglings.

Speaking of rocky shores, driving out to my island paradise yesterday, I had time to spare catching the ferry, so I decided to share the drive with you. I stopped to take pictures when I could. (I apologize in advance to anybody who's on a slow connection! I've reduced the size of all these files, but chances are this post will still be pretty "heavy".)

It was just an ordinary drive on an ordinary, rather rainy day. I'll comment as we go along.

The first picture is missing! I should have a view of the typical Norwegian two-lane high-arched bridge that takes me out of town, but the picture project didn't occur to me until later.

Here's a stretch of "good" road, winding along the shore. Since I usually drive at odd hours and don't encounter much traffic, I'm Queen of the Empty Road! I neither love nor hate driving, but some of the curves and hills along this road are great fun to drive.

Now I've been on the road for 45 minutes and am about 15 minutes away from the ferry landing. It's low tide and the yellowish-brown seaweed is exposed. "My" island is in the drizzle to the right. I'll be driving on that side of the fjord later on.

Now I'm in line at the ferry landing. (That Porsche SUV is NOT my car!) The black-and-white boat is the ferry. All of the land mass in the background is the island where we have our leisure home. It's a big island!

The ferry has arrived. It let off about 10 vehicles, four of which were quite large - a milk tanker (goat milk! there are two or three goat farmers on the island), a delivery truck from the island's seafood factory, another delivery truck and a road repair vehicle. Mine is one of six cars waiting to drive on. The ferry opens at both ends but it isn't a true roll on-roll off so it does a little pirouette before landing. (Roll on-roll off ships can travel equally well in both directions, whereas our little ship has to have its prow pointing forward.) Here I'm driving down a steep slope because it's low tide. At high tide there can sometimes be a slight incline.

Just a couple minutes after driving off the ferry I spotted a sea eagle in a tree by the road. This picture isn't great, but hopefully you can at least see the eagle.

Now I've been driving on the island's gravel road for about 10 minutes. Looking across the fjord I can see where I had been 45 minutes earlier.

This complex of waterfalls is about three miles from my house. It's called Hundfoss - Dog Falls. I don't know why. Unlike many of Norway's waterfalls, this one has water (or ice) year-round, not just during the spring melt.

Now I'm entering my darling little village. Our house is at the end of the public road - and right in the center of the picture. Golden eagles nest on the mountain looming above us.


All in all, with ferry ride and everything, this trip takes about 2½ hours. I've driven it countless times but never, ever tire of it. I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. :flowerforyou:

/Penny, obviously not at the North Pole just now, but happy anyway

grandmallie

Penny-thank you so much for taking us on your trip..feels like we are right there with you