Buttons61 wrote: »

Hi all!!

I have tried to remember a time I was so tired, but it has been a while. Sunday was church and they had their trunk or treat Sunday nite. The kids were all so cute and the people had the car trunks and areas decorated so well! Cooked out hot dogs and one trunk "dressed with the Harry Potter theme" served butter beer, so what could be better?

Cooked Sunday nite for my friends memorial service on Monday. A beautiful service and lots of wonderful memories. I left the house at about 9:15 am and did not get back till about 4pm. I am so stiff I can barely move. I have slept off and on all evening even as I struggled to stay awake. So it is 2 am and I am trying for bed, lol. My puppies are none too happy I have been gone.

Chilly here in the mornings but nice fall type days. I did cover my plants, but really need to get out and fall clean.

Val, sorry work is such a pain.Americans do not seem to fair too well on the work happiness schedule as I see it compared to other countries...Things are stupidly expensive. Scary for Em, but you handled it very well.

Maria, not sure what can of a hound may is. She does have cute kissable wrinkles though, lol!

So crazy, I never checked in yesterday, back to zero.... ..Take care..Jan

Buttons61 wrote: »

Good morning!

I do check in in the morning and come back if i need to. I guess yesterday i was half asleep and headed into the reheating and cooking section of the day and did not even turn the computer on. That is okay. I need to recommit and today seems a good day to do that...

I can still barely move. We are catching up on e-mails, cleaning and our rescues for dogs today. Mostly resting!

Chilly in your neck of the woods. Your cargo pants sound pretty awesome and just the ticket for walking! Don't you love it when the days cause you to wear 2 or 3 outfits? That is Alabama weather!! Layering helps, but not always possible, lol!....scary articles with the black death and apple phones. (The link did not show up for N korea, but I am going to see if I can find it!). Scary for different reasons of course. I think I will head to humor to round out the day!

Hope Halloween was happy and haunting for all!! ..Jan

maria3761 wrote: »

Good evening all, sorry I have been so absent! I Had a bit of an unusual past week and time management is not my strongest suit! Last week I took two extra days off along with my regular two days because I reached a year at my job on the 19th so I started using some vacation days. I don't really need to take them all at once (I'm not going on a vacation) so I'm going to spread the vacation days out over the next 12 months. It was so nice having four days off in a row! I'll be doing that again at Thanksgiving... yay!

On the day before my time off started, my boss asked me if I had looked at my paystub from the check I received that week and I had not yet. I asked her why, was there something wrong, and she said no.... she had given me a raise!!!! I was really surprised because I didn't think that was coming . She seemed so unhappy and dissatisfied with everybody's performance lately that I never really thought about getting a raise at the end of my first year, also because I had gotten a raise at the end of my three month probation . My boss is difficult to read . She has a really hard time dealing with stress and can be really grumpy and sometimes even mean, but then other times she can be pretty nice and generous. I used to be very stressed out about it but I've kind of just gotten used to the way she is. My husband and I decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. I had a pass from a local restaurant for two free meals so we decided to use that. Restaurants will sometimes give out little freebies, or in this case a big freebie, to hotel employees so that we can try out their places and then recommend them to guests. Needless to say I wasn't quite on program that night, but I didn't do too bad . I had shrimp pasta and didn't eat all the pasta as I normally would've but I did eat most of the shrimp and it was very very good , extremely fresh. I had a glass of wine, a little calamari, and a couple of small pieces of bread which I did not enjoy that much (that is very unusual for me as I love bread!) I did not have dessert! It was a good night; the only drawback was about halfway through the dinner a party of about six came in and they were so loud and obnoxious that it started to ruin it for me. I really don't understand why people need to talk three times louder than anybody else in a restaurant, bragging and full of themselves.

This past week we also switched over to a different reservation system at work. It has been strange and stressful getting used to so many new things on the computer, and knowing that even the boss isn't sure about herself in the situation makes me feel insecure and more stressed. The changeover wasn't as smooth as it should've been. The new company didn't prepare everything as they should've and promised, so my boss has been stressed out and in a fog all week too, hopefully next week will go smoother! I must say it feels really good each time I know I've learned something new that's going to stick in my head.

Last Friday was my second weigh-in and I'm happy to say I'm down 8 pounds after two weeks (nothing like the beginning weeks of the diet when you lose weight faster, lol). I deviated from the plan Halloween too so this Friday's weigh-in probably won't be so good, but I know that's temporary. I am back on track today and happy to be.

Jan, my condolences at the loss of your good friend, I hope you're doing alright. The weather here has finally started cooling down the way it should be. For the most part nights have been in the low 50s to upper 40s and days have been in the low 60s... Much more comfortable than 80s and 90s! We are even supposed to get some rain on the weekend ! I really look forward to that as we can really use the water.

Val, I'm glad you're feeling better but I hope your incision is okay. Your work sounds extremely stressful I hope that gets better for you. Do you have one teenage daughter? How old is she ? I thought it sounded like you handled that situation with her really well too. I don't have any children but seems like you said the right things.

Roger, the temperatures are definitely dropping in your part of the world! When do you start to see snow there? I see a lot of deer here but I'm not sure I've ever seen any jump over anything super high now that I think about it . Do you have Cardinals in New Jersey ? We don't have them here in California, at least not in my part, they're so pretty. I used to do a lot of birdwatching in the past , though I haven't in quite a while I still am very interested in bird species. It's fun going to different parts of the country and seeing different birds that you don't have in your own particular region. Wow I can't believe how many trick-or-treaters you had ... We had zero, such a huge difference lol! Do you actually answer the door all night long or stop at some point ?

Well I hope you all had a nice Halloween!

It's gotten late here! Fortunately I'm off tomorrow

Maria

maria3761 wrote: »

I too love pasta Roger , and can consume more than I should. Your "Real life comes first" idea makes sense, thank you, I'll remember that.

I see many of those birds here too, except the Cardinal, and yellow finches only in certain specific areas. I see various sparrows, crows, mourning doves, house finches, mockingbirds in some areas, brown towhee (like a large sparrow) and two different blue Jay species frequently. We have vultures in town too...it does seem strange as I always thought of them in wild or rural areas. I was surprised to see one the other day just off the side of a well driven road eating roadkill. That's probably the closest I've seen one. It really illustrated to me first hand the value of their job on earth lol.

50 cent coins, that's generous of you and your brother! Did the kids like them? If it were me as a kid I would have gone home and put it in my piggy bank!

I definitely enjoy my days off, even though I do chores and errands as well as try to relax a little. I get to spend some quality time with my dogs during the day, that's always fun:) I'm off tomorrow too so I'll be sure to check in... In between appointments (real life)

Maria

hope4change_val wrote: »

Hi all. Maria-congratulations on your weight loss. I gave birth to two daughters; one is an adult in Indiana, and my 14yo is home with me. Over the past 4 years, I’ve taken in five homless young adults, two of which still live with me. One previous one just asked if he can come home again, so I’ll have one more in about a week. It’s not a typical situation but we’ve become family and it’s a good thing. During my unexpected hospitalization, I didn’t have to scramble to find someone to care for my daughter or dogs...and their routine didn’t change much in my absence. I’m also honorary “mom” to two of my older daughter’s friends who each lost their moms while in high school...one is married with two boys, and the other is getting married this month. Saturday I’m meeting potential adopters for my former foster dog (the Rescue director picked him up from my house while i was in hospital because he needs more supervision than my kids could provide) My incision is finally looking good. Work is just too much...one guy left last week and now a lady gave notice and she’s leaving next week. Roger- i think the Papa Johns issue has nothing to do with the protests but is based on their company’s social issues. But, that’s just my opinion. Hi Jan! Thanks. Em is doing well. I’ve increased my lessons on independence and that is going well. It’s also helpful that my honorary kids here talk with her about potential pitfalls to independence and completely support me in the things I’m teaching her. Good night...I’m tuckered out!