WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR NOVEMBER 2013

Cindy- well done on the dinner :flowerforyou: I find I am often satisfied with just a bite. Mostly it doesn't taste as good as it looks!:laugh:

I am suffering a bit today. My lower back is hurting. It came on suddenly last night as I was lying on the sofa. I don't know if it was a delayed reaction to the freezing yoga. My other thought is that it could be a UTI, but I don't have a fever. Will give it a day and see. I did my gymming this morning, but didn't do the weight training. Did a bit extra on the bike. I have to exercise so I can eat! ! !

More stuff arriving from Amazon. The packaging is ridiculous - huge boxes for tiny things. I have just ordered Christmas paper napkins and some other ones I liked. Free postage. I am very fussy about my napkins and it is a bit of a standing joke!:blushing:

Have booked our Christmas treat hotel for April. They took a huge deposit on my credit card, which is fully refundable up to 48 hrs. Weird :grumble: :noway: I have never known a hotel do that. Usually they just take the number. We are still waiting for the car company to give us final confirmation, but it is ok as far as we know.:ohwell:

I have authorised a builder to do a very temporary repair on my rental's bathroom window. We are getting no joy from the housing association, meanwhile my tenant has a rotten window and wind blowing through. :noway: I am waiting to hear what response they give to my official complaint and my letting agent is regularly on to them. Useless! At least the tenant will be happier. The joke is they regularly send out a glossy magazine saying what a wonderful, happy association they are! ! ! ! !:huh:

I'm going to make the zucchini tots this pm. Might have some myself as it's 3 for 150 cals!:laugh: Rest I will freeze for DGS at Christmas. DH is still eating his way through the first Christmas cake.:laugh:

Anamika - congrats on the veggies. Hope it shows on the scales for you!

Love to all. Dreary weather here, but warmer.

Heather in Hampshire UK

Good Morning! I am spending the morning getting home cleaned and dressed for Thanksgiving. Most of my family is off in other places so it will be quiet but joyous. And I will not be the one cooking

evening dear friends~

well got called in the office again! but this time with the manager and the boss.. because I told them I was looking for full time work, they didnt want me to go. so they raised my hours back up to 30 a week and will keep them there, and basically I can do the 30 hours however I want,so long as it is 30 hrs...
that is a relief,I didnt want to really have to look for another job, and I might still be able to do something part time from home.

Congratulations!! This is positive proof that you are valued and appreciated! :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile: The down side is that you'll still have to put up with the mean girls.

Good Wednesday morning, Ladies-

Here is my hard earned wisdom for this week: It is not smart to wrestle a king-sized mattress off and then back onto the bed all by oneself. It tends to make for two days of twinges and twitches in muscles that shouldn't twinge nor twitch! (Also, can you believe that there is not an exercise calorie count for mattress-wrestling!)

Today I am actually going to pack and leave. I will spend the night with the kitty-sitter friends, and they will get me to the airport in the morning. So, that means I need to put clothes in a suitcase! I can't put it off any longer...... I do hold the reigning title of "Procrastination Queen", ya know!

I have to stop at the store at the pecan facility/grove and fill all of the orders from friends up north. I wonder what the people who run the scanners at the airport are going to think when they see half-a-suitcase full of pecans! I am also going to buy myself a personal-sized bag of roasted cinnamon pecans as my in-flight treat!
Sylvia- Sorry to hear about your son and his wife. What should happen; will happen. It just isn't always fun. Take care, my Friend.

Sue- Fitbit through the CT scan! Lucky it didn't register as some terrible something in your body! I wore my watch during an EKG and it registered as though I were having a heart attack. Just about pushed the poor technician over the edge! She didn't know if she had screwed up or if she should call for the Crash Cart! Thanks for your kind and welcoming words, it is good to be back!

Jill- Thank you, too, for you welcome back. I really don't know why I strayed, but it is nice to be with all of you again.

Grandmallie- I am glad that your bosses realize how important you are! What's the home-based thing?

Joyce & Patceoh- May I put my two cents into this discussion? As I taught, I observed. Each year the kids would have more and more to do that took them out of the home in the evenings and on the weekends. Those activities cut into family time, whether it was a single-parent or dual-parent home, this put the family relationships into second place behind whatever it was that was keeping the kids apart from parents- be it sports, jobs, video games, whatever! As people stopped doing things together as families, things broke down. Now, we have disconnected and unempathetic young people who often do not know what core values are or should be. OK- my two cents, thanks for listening.

Michele- I think PeeVee is at least 12, but I have had so many felines in my family that I really can't remember which showed up when! His age is probably a great factor in his slow recovery from this injury.

Rori- I don't think I am beating myself up, but I do tend to worry in advance! I am working on that because it isn't much fun!

Anamika- I agree with you and your statement about "lack of Idols and Ideals".

TexasGal- I love that poor nervous turkey!

Tina- How did you train your dogs to stand still and get their feet wiped; I can't even get the other human who lives here to do that!

Well, ladies- I am not taking my computer with me, so I will be only able to check in when I can use someone else's computer. I am in a much healthier and more secure place after all of your kind messages, so don't worry that I have jumped ship, I will just be out of range, but still thinking of you. I will try to log my food using my phone app, but I am not always competent and patient enough to do that.

Take care, be well, and Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving, my Friends.

Pat (Phoo)

The zucchini tots were 108 for 4! ! ! And delicious. Mi ne were a bit more as I used full fat cheese.
You could easily use them warmed up as a canapé. I hope DGS appreciates my hard work. :laugh:

Forgot to say that yesterday a big box arrived and it was masses of narcissi, white and yellow, from the Scilly Isles. (Off shore from Cornwall) Our guests had sent them as a thankyou! My house now looks like a florist's! ! ! ! :flowerforyou: :drinker:
Wonderful!

My back is still sore and my front a bit too. Hmmmmm...........

Delicious Hairy Dieters Spanish Paprika Chicken tonight.

Heather UK

Laura, I envy you your swimming. I can't swim until I go through this next round of cardiac rehab. I miss it. It really is the best way to burn calories, at least for me.

Tina, your pit bull story made me laugh. It reminded me of our old dog, Susie, who once went outside after an ice storm and got stuck. The blades of grass were coated and sharp on her feet, I guess. She stood out there howling and trying to stand on as few feet as possible. Anyway, I went out there with the leather sling we used for firewood, slipped it under her tummy and carried her back in the house. She was very happy to let me do it too. She only weighed about 50 pounds, but I didn't think I could pick her up without some help. She was pretty spoiled though. When it snowed I used to go out and stomp a nice path for her to walk on to do her business. She did not like snow. I too am impressed that your dogs wait to get their feet wiped off. With ours it's a mad scramble through the house with a towel.

Meg, I'm so glad to see you're feeling better. Take care of yourself.

I'm feeling a lot better, but now hubby is getting sick. I went to the store and got him chicken soup and hot chocolate, so hopefully he will rebound quickly. I thought I got everything I need, but just realized that I forgot cheese. I'd better go back, because I don't want to go anywhere tomorrow or Friday.

I went to my office at the studio yesterday to do some drafting and one of my pottery friends stopped by. His wife has been in France on sabbatical for several months and gets home Monday, so he's pretty happy about that. He has had some heart trouble recently too, so we were sharing war stories.

I hope you all have a great holiday tomorrow, at least the ones in the US. The rest of you can be secure in the knowledge that we are sticking to our plans the best we can, and logging every bite. Yeah, right.

Sylvia

well it has been a long day, was going to make impossible pumpkin pies tonight, but will wait till the morning..
think I will call it a night, I will check in the morning, all of you that are traveling ,safe travels and enjoy friends and family..
and to all our friends to the North and oversea's have a blessed day

Meg and Cindy - I finally gave in on the statins as the doc wanted the total below 150 and, even with all the exercise, food and weight loss, it wouldn't budge below 200. Because I had a heart valve replaced they want it below 150 -- I just wasn't willing to give up everything, and frankly didn't think I could do much more in the way of dietary change or exercise. (The valve was a malformed - a common birth defect, vs. heart disease per se.) In any event, the Rx is 20mg, and at my blood work earlier this month all the numbers were where the cardiologist wants. Now I'm going to wean it to every other day, OR I might break it in half and take half each day, just to see if the numbers stay down or creep back up. I have to say, though, that I have experienced muscle aches, mostly my arms/elbows which seems so bizarre but that's how it is. I've upped CoQ10 as well, which is said to offset some of that, but may need even more.

I thought I'd have loads of time this week but it has flown by! Dog to vet, DH's car in for service, Xmas shopping, haircuts, grocery stores, etc., but I'm still enjoying it!

This afternoon I made a pumpkin swirl cheesecake from the Diabetic Living website. (DH is diabetic.) It is a no-bake type, so it will be fun to see how it turns out tomorrow. I put part of it in a graham cracker crust, and part of it parfait-style in wine glasses (no crust). We got a turkey breast and will do some mashed potatos and dressing to go with it. Our friend is bringing an appetizer and two vegetable dishes so it will be a feast. DS#2 will be up as well.

Still working on a large jigsaw puzzle on my dining table, so we swapped some of our other tables around to have the big one to eat at tomorrow. I think I'll leave it in the new location through Christmas and put the little tree at the end that butts up to the breakfast area window. Normally its leaves are folded onto itself and I use it as my desk, but now it is opened up. Kind of fun to have a different perspective. There is usually a higher 36" square with stools there, but now that is my desk for the duration. The beautiful embroidered tablecloth my DMIL made fits wonderfully. She made us so many embroidered tablecloths and I just love and treasure them.

Bitterly cold in Atlanta area as well -- we really bundled up when we were out today!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I don't post too often, or do a lot of personal messages, but I follow the thread and think of all of you at various times throughout my days and the week, offering prayers or praises as fits the situation.

Gail, metro ATL

Rori - congrats on keeping up with the personal trainer AND on the inches lost. That's fantastic.

Heather - hope your back is feeling better. We were surprised when we first found out that Amazon increased their free shipping on orders of $25 to orders of $35. Is it that way over there, too?

Tina - in your searches about freezing food, if you come across any information about if a cake can be frozen with the icing on it, please let me know. I usually never do, but one time I had to. I asked the people at the WalMart bakery if I could and they said that it was OK. Still not sure, tho. Let me know what you find out, OK? Kudos on those jeans fitting!

Jessica called earlier. She's getting a $120 bonus for Thanksgiving and she was able to leave work 2 hrs early today.

Well, we'll be leaving early tomorrow for VA. I probably won't be here until we get back Sat. In a way, I can't wait to get the food for Jessica out of the freezer, the brownies, the cookies, the apple pie, the sweet potato casserole, the sweet potato muffins, and the beer bread (I hope I remembered everything). I still need to ice the cake tonight so it's ready to go

Denise called today, too. She said that she just found out that if someone has an ECE (Early Childhood Education) degree, they get $5,000. I wonder if that'll be incentive enough for her to finish her education? We mentioned a few times that we'll see her Friday (she's supposed to be at Jessica's) but she didn't say a word. Does this mean that she won't be there? I can't believe that. But you never know. OK, I've said this before but I really do feel that his mother "enabled" this. What's this? Well, she's been in college for quite a few years now (I've lost track). So far we've paid 100% of her tuition. But we've told her that we will continue to pay books, tuition, 100% BUT she needs to be a full time student. That would mean that she would need to move to NC (which I know that she doesn't want to do) and finish her degree. We aren't made of money. We can't afford to be paying tuition for another who-knows-how-many-years. We will pay the tuition but at today's rate (should she decided to continue up there) but any increase in tuition she will have to cover. If there's an increase, I'm afraid I know what'll happen. She won't be able to pay it and she'll quit college. There isn't much future for someone with just a high school diploma. Now if his mother hadn't cosigned for apartments, given them furniture, etc. this might have been clearer to her sooner. Oh well......

Pat - you're right, PeeVee being elderly is probably what's taking it so long for him to recover from his injury. A few years ago Denise's cat "was hit by a car" and had a broken leg. By the time we got her (because Denise couldn't affrord to pay for the surgery) the vet said that being so young the bone was already healing. We're 99.9% sure what happened is the guy she was with came over, the cat in her excitement went outside, he closed the door, and the cat went across the street. I think Denise was afraid to tell us. This is the same guy who we're 99.9% sure abused Lexi (to the point that the SPCA seized the cat from Denise). Lexi had a dislocated hip and air leaking out of her trachea. Five \years later, she's just now starting to meow. It's pathetic, but she's making a sound

Heather - OK, where did you find the recipe for the zucchini tots? Sounds so yummy, something that I'd definitely try. What thoughtful guests you had!

Meg - woohooo on that loss of yours.

Sylvia - our first cat hated the snow, too. He was an indoor/outdoor cat and would go outside to do his business. If it snowed, he wouldn't go out. He literally held it in for 24 hours. We had a litter box, but he would never use it.

Did 1 hr yoga, then went to the deep water class. Stopped at one store just to get my almond milk and then home. I had cut up a cuke to have as a snack and I found out that this makes a very good snack. Then went to senior bowling. Last week they took a vote as to how many wanted to have this week off and how many wanted to bowl. Considering how many said they wanted to have this week off I was very surprised at how many people were at bowling. That in addition to the fact that it started snowing. Yes, it wasn't bad at all, as a matter of fact, nothing even stuck. But I swear the people down here get so paranoid

Getting ready to leave tomorrow a.m.

I'll do a Personal Training with Jacki Warner DVD before we go and then have some breakfast (I'll have some grapes before exercising). I've packed most of the food that I want to take with me, carrots, Just Peas (freeze dried peas), apple, orange, some grapes, these carrot and green bean small portions (they're actually baby foods, not pureed, but it just contains the green beans and carrots) and raes, I have some turkey sandwiches made that I'll take along with water.

Michele in NC