WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MAY 2013

Hi there Vit F friends!
We walked up to the stately home today, through beautiful bluebell woods. The sun was shining through the trees and the smell of the flowers was wonderful. The gardens are full of azealeas and rhododendrons in their full blaze of orange and pink. We arrived at the same time as two coach loads of German tourists, but the guides let us slip in to the house as we said we had been many times before and just wanted to whip round. It was worth a revisit.
Came back along an avenue of trees and by the time I got to the hill I was quite tired - my hips were feeling it - but I still managed the hill without a stop. My chicken sandwich for lunch tasted sooooo good. DH had a lemon cake at the house, but I just had a small bite of it.:bigsmile:
Lazy afternoon in store as we have a social day tomorrow visiting local friends. I will heft my weights at some point I am sure. My push ups are coming on, but I only do them from the knees.
Pork in cider stew for tonight with leeks. DH is cooking some apricots to have with low fat yoghourt. The scales here show me as heavier than the ones at home, but provided I stay the same while I am here I don't mind. I know I always lean backwards on the ones at home!!!!!!:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Love to all.
Heather in fragrant Cornwall

Quick pop-by - and thanks to everyone sending messages asking after me - I'm fine, just super busy.

I've been working 12 - 16 hour days for the past couple of weeks, trying to keep up with short staff and no managers and a plan that's struggling. I've also had to go into Philly a few times for computer upgrades (don't get me started on how badly that's gone and how far it's set me back) and meetings with upper management. That entails a commute of up to 3 hours total for the day. When I'm not working I'm . . . working. Yard, cooking, shopping, cleaning, . . . just busy.

I'm still managing to work out - not every day but at least four times a week. I'm getting a lot of work done too, so that counts, I suppose. The scale hasn't moved either way, which is a good thing, but my eating hasn't been out of control either. When I'm working so much I'm actually not eating/snacking nearly as much. I'm working VERY HARD to make sure I have good healthy snacks - almonds, cottage cheese, veggies and beans.

DD and GD and my mother all get here on Friday - along with the bride-to-be, so I think I might be picking them all up. I know I'm taking Friday off from work to get the house together in the morning, then head for the airport. I'm going to try to get my mom a dress for the wedding while we wait for the other girls to get here. The shower's on Saturday afternoon - it's supposed to be super hot that day (90+ degrees), so it will be wilting :frown:. My sister said there aren't very many people who can make it, so maybe 20 people in all. I think that's a good amount. Then DD leaves on Sunday, we have a baseball game, and then dinner out for my sister's 25th anniversary. Whew!

The next week it starts all over again - Prom on Friday, DH's parents get here on Saturday, party on Sunday, my mom and DH's extended family leave on Monday, graduation on Tuesday, DH's parents leave on Wednesday as do the kiddos with their mom, who is getting married that week. DH and I leave on Friday for Boston for the weekend and the last break until mid-July. Crazy!

Anyway, I wanted to say hi and I haven't forgotten you. I'll try to be better about posting in June but can't make any promises. July's looking better :laugh:.

Cheers,

M.

Good morning all, army vet here. Went out this morning and did some weed whacking. DH mows but never weed whacks, just like the kitchen he'll do the dishes but won't wipe the stove or counters.Ugh! Love Hume but! I could only do about 20 mins, need to start strength training.

Moxie-are you in GA, both Gail and I are.

Well I'm out to the studio, I have a necklace to finish.

Tigress in GA

Gail-must be the age.. we are all friends and old enough that we know all that petty crap just isn't worth the time...
Heather- your trip sounds lovely and am sooo glad you are enjoying it..:happy:
M- all your work is exsausting me just listening.. hope you get time to stop and smell the rose's
I have finished mowing the lawn and it freakin cold and windy here, feels more like fall than anywhere near spring
got to the gym, then came home and whipped up blueberry french toast.. it is a highly caloric breakfast/brunch casserole that I will cook tomorrow a.m.,needless to say, I wont be indulging, but will give it to the DH, and my dad...
depending on the weather we might take a ride down to the shore tomorrow, for fish and chips:noway: , i am going to look up the menu and see if there is anything that I might be able to enjoy without going over the limit.
Everyone is so busy....hope you find some time to have a little fun in between, because we only live once my friends

Katla. - the cider is a dryish one so it doesn't come out sweet. I sometimes put leeks in but this time they were going to be a side dish. However I have changed my mind and we are having broccoli instead. DH will have potatoes as well. There will be half the stew left over so we can have it tomorrow night when we get back from our friends. Casseroles always taste better the second day, don't they!

Rest up dear Meg, rest up.. you deserve it...
I look like a total goober, here I am with a hoodie on and jacket and my fingers are numb.. and this is late may? what the heck is going on?:grumble:

Moxie/Lea in SC...I just drove through Atlanta on my way home friday afternoon. Was trying my darndest to miss the pre-holiday traffic, and got home by 6pm. 1,000 mile drive from West Midands SC to Kansas City MO.

Lea in SC

Stopping for a quick bit. DH taking a nap. This sun is draining us. In the 90's again. Great News.... Cell phone is working!

We got up and planted the green beans in the front. And watered them. Got some wash started and went over to my sisters near by to drop of a Russian sage plant and wine making equipment. DH used to dabble in making his own wine, and PTL gave that up :bigsmile: Sis's Dh and friend want to try. Went from there to the nursery to pick up a Sweet 100's Tomato plant, and bedding plants for the front planters. Home for a bite to eat and am here while hubby naps. We were so tired yesterday we went to be early.

Michele: River Rock?:noway: That is a good work out!

Rori and Joyce: Rice saved my cell phone! :bigsmile: I really did not want to fork out more money right now.. Thank you both for your ideas.

YannieJannie: When we were over at sis's house you can see the back of the town homes from her front driveway. Looks like all but 1 of the 4 units were totally gone, and I doubt that fourth one can stay if they have to knock the others down.

CityJane: It sounds so beautiful in Corwall. I do hope you are taking a boatload of pictures!

M- Sounds like you are on the run big time! I often work 10-12 hours too and extra because we have a revolving door on help. Hope it evens out soon for you.

Tigress and YannieJannie: Thank you for serving our country....Bless you for that. DH is a Navy Vet.

Katla- the fire was started by a cigarette. I have a sister in Colo Springs that is in that subdivision as well. Homes in front and behind her are gone, but they still stand!! It was a terrible year last year in Colorado for fires and we are still in a drought somewhat.

Special Love and Appreciation to all the Vets out there. We are so bless to live in a free country, and we so appreciate your service to make it that way.

Everyone have a Blessed Memorial Day!

Hugs, Connie
Keeping the water coming in Hot CO :drinker:

Hi All,

Just marking my spot and catching up on posts so I don't get too far behind. I got a haircut yesterday that ended up being shorter than what I wanted but sort of like it. If I ever figure out how to put pics here, I'll show you and see what you think. DH and I had a date night yesterday and went to see the new "Fast and Furious" movie and dinner at Applebee's. I had the under 550 Garlic Sirloin so didn't do too bad although I did go over for the day. Back on track today and may even get to the pool tomorrow. Foot's better today.

Remembering all the sacrifices that our military make to keep us safe! My DH was in the Guard for a bit (long before we met).

Meg - Hope things settle down for you and you get a chance to catch your breathe! :flowerforyou:

Kathy:drinker:

I just finished dinner and now enjoying a cup of decaf tea. I had a good choices day and weed whacked three different times. (My arms kept giving out, got to really start some strength training :ohwell: ). DH should be home tomorrow I will be glad when he's home I don't really sleep well when he's gone. Tomorrow is also weigh in day, please keep those fingers crossed. I've been doing the first couple of weeks with just my usual walking around, but tomorrow I'm adding back walking through the neighborhood. :bigsmile:

Ok on to something else. I need some color combo ideas for necklaces. If you have ever though I wish I had a necklace with these colors. I'm staring at beads all day and some times you can't see the forest for the trees. I made a necklace once that DH said was the ugliest thing he'd ever see. I thought it was nice and guess what it was the first thing that sold at the next art show we went to.

I will be planting more lettuce and other things tomorrow so it will be a long day, and thanks to you ladies I will be wearing sun screen and a hat.

Have a great evening everyone.

Tigress in GA

Jane - so glad you had such a great time at the party. Don't you just wish you could somehow bottle up all the energy that kids have?

barbie and all those in Washington - I couldn't believe that truck hitting that bridge! How horrible to see those cars falling into the river in your rearview mirror

Gail - I, too, love to go shopping with someone who is totally honest. Unfortunately, I really don't have anyone like that. My kids are honest, but they also always want me to get very "youngish" things.

Heather - I just love reading all about Cornwall. You MUST post pics. You know, I normally do my pushups from my knees also. I'm always afraid that I'll use improper form if I do a lot of them on my feet. I can usually do one or two on my feet, but then I go to my knees.

Well, didn't do any "formal" exercise today, but the paper says "mostly cloudy" so we'll be able to work on the rocks some more. It's funny, yesterday's paper was calling for it to be sunny, so I finished the rocks early, took a shower, and got ready for church. Had I known that the weather was going to change, I would have continued to work yesterday. But in a way, maybe it was a blessing in disguise, while I was at church Vince cut the grass.

Actually, it turned out to be a very nice day. It started out cloudy, but the sun came out and it was really really nice.

moxie - glad you had a great trip

Vince said that he wants to go out to start working on the rocks tomorrow around 9:30 so I'll take a DVD to the Y and use their pump euqipment.

M - boy, you sound busy! Have fun in all you're doing

grandmallie - you said it. Knowing the petty stuff isn't worth our time, how right you are!

Meg - take care of yourself.

It doesn't feel like we made much headway on the rocks today, but I know that we did. The good news is that mount rock is FINALLY going down. The bad news is that that means we need to order more rock. The good news is that we won't have to get as much as we did this time. We also need to order more landscape fabric

My cousin sent me some letters that my father had written to her mother (his sister). It's really interesting to see how they WANTED to serve (not be drafted). I never knew that my aunt was considering joining the service. My father didn't want her in harm's way, he was very adamant about that. I just never thought of him in that way. How concerned he was that someone should be home with his parents, how she's doing a great service by just writing letters. He sounded so lonely! That was some generation. His description of Italy makes me really want to go there

You know, I had a dumpcart full of rocks and the front wheels something happened to them, so I called Vince. As it turns out, I just got them into a rut. I was hoping that I didn't ruin it like yesterday. Anyway, Vince pulled the cart to the pool area and then was saying how worn out he was. I did that an awful lot. Guess we work well in that he is the "thinker" (like he measures how long the landscape fabric has to be, what's the best way to dump the rocks), I seem to work the best just doing the work.

Michele in NC

DD is leaving in the morning but I have really enjoyed my week with her here and we got lots done. I even managed to lose the weight I gained last weekend on the trip to Rapid City. She is on long term steroids and has consequently gained some weight. She belongs to a group called " Help I can't get on my horse, I need to lose weight" All of the members are horse people trying to lose weight so we traded advice and recipes. It has been a lot of fun and we are good support for each other. The bridge collapse in Washington was not far from where she boards her horses.

A big thank you to all of our veterans and service members.

Wishing everyone well and a happy holiday weekend. Sue in SD

Good morning beautiful ladies:flowerforyou:

Michele It did turn out to be a wonderful Sunday, I spent most of my time outdoors yesterday and loved every minute! How nice you got those letters !!! You need to go shopping with me...I`m honest...I would tell you if something didn`t look right, or if you look fantastic in it! Once I was in Belk and walking by the shoes, a girl was looking for shoes to go with her prom dress and I made a comment about the pair she picked, she then asked me if I would help her pick the perfect shoe, I had a blast helping her, took me back to days I helped my daughter for her prom!

Lila Sounds like you had a busy day! So Evie likes to eat seeds:laugh: , better than the goose poo Noel wants to sample:sick: ! Hope you had a restful night!

Sue in SD Congrats for getting rid of what you gained:flowerforyou: !!!

Tigress Yippee!!!! Congrats on getting rid of 5 pounds:flowerforyou: !!! Fantastic news!!!!

Meg I hope things settle down for you and you`ll start enjoying your summer off!!! Hope dad is doing okay:flowerforyou: !

I have had a wonderful weekend, good food and great friends:bigsmile: , however I`m ready to get back to a normal routine ! I`m meeting a friend for coffee later, then I hope to get in the closet and do a little work in there, I don`t have a lot of time if I want to finish by the end of this month:noway: !

A big thank you to our Vets and military men and women !!!!

Have a wonderful day ladies!!! Drink your water:drinker: :drinker: :drinker: and log your food!!!!

Hugs,
DeeDee in gorgeous sunny NC:glasses:

Funny, I remembered something: my mother never called today anything but "Decoration Day" or simply : "the 30th of May"--like that was the name of the holiday .........anyone else remember that term? Don't know if it was a regional thing or what. If it was 50 yrs. ago (??!!!!), I'd be in my brownie or girl scout uni. w/ a white sweater (cold mornings there in Pa. this time of year) getting lined up to march in the local prade about this time. Chances are, I would be shivering anyway, as I remember. After the prade, we would go home and get the vases of flowers my mother had picked and aranged the afternoon before and take them to the cemetary to place on the graves of family members. I remember all the bright little flags on some of the graves; we didn't have any deceased military members at that time, our flowers were strictly for family..........irises and peonies from our yard, that's all that would have a chance of being in bloom. In the week prior, she would be checking and worried that enough wouldn't be open to pick. Lunch was always a picnic type meal............cold baked ham, macaroni salad (my mother's speciality--I still make it, same recipe),potato salad from my aunt (her specialty---the goood German stuff w/a warm bacon dressing), chips (Wise, of course,buying local, even then) and usually baked beans. Probably a few other dishes, but those were the standards for summer holidays; Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

Ah.........sweet memories on a beautiful morning,
yanniejannie