Oh Shari, I am so sorry.....Prayers for you and your family!

Paula…I am sooo excited for you about finding a potential new dog! I hope one of the options turns out to be the special new member of your family! Good luck! Nice too that you found a good attorney. Our long time attorney retired a few years ago and his young partner was “ok” but not the same…then the young partner moved out of state. He sent us notice to either come get our files or they would be destroyed. We found an estate attorney here in AZ and now have our end of life documents with him. He is good but almost too good…very busy (I feel it’s impersonal) and I still miss our excellent small town, very knowledgeable and caring attorney from those good old days.

Shari…good luck with the temporary stress weight gain!🤞. I know you have said you eat less with stress (whereas I eat everything in site and crave sweets)….but even eating less, I believe when we are truly stressed our body hangs onto its weight with a cortisol connection. Your awareness and actually taking steps to deal with your stress is all good, one day at a time…you will win over the weight in the end.

Paula, I hope you hear soon on the new doggie! Would be great just in time for Christmas!😍

DW….enjoy your dogs and dog shows. Busy life!

We are getting organized to go back to MN next week (for 3 weeks). I have my suitcase out and packed a couple essentials yesterday. We shopped for all our family Christmas cards. I tried on slacks in my closet to take back with me. Happy they are just a bit loose and more comfy around waist. I basically wear capris all year round except at Christmas (if we are in MN). Didn’t travel back last winter because of Covid. Am committed to going but worried about traveling by air this year and MN has extremely high numbers. Our grandson in MN has it right now.🙏🏻

HI Everybody! Paula, how exciting to be ready for a new canine family member! I look forward to hearing about your progress! Also happy to hear the WW is going well! I do well and then have a night like tonight when a social event totally derailed my efforts.
Diane, I wish you safe and healthy travels!! Great news about your slacks!!
Shari, I hope things will turn around with your Mom! Ongoing prayers for you and your family!
All the talk about wills is interesting because I've really been thinking about that lately. My husband and I really need to get a will done, but I'm the only one who thinks so....we didn't do one when the kids were little because we couldn't agree on who would raise them if something happened to us. My husband also doesn't have a Dr. and I've long ago given up on badgering him about it. I see mine regularly, and, as adults, my children do too, and I am thankful for that!!
My social event this evening was at the kennel club. Every December (except last year), we have a holiday gathering. In the past it has been a dinner but this year we had appetizers and desserts. We also do an auction of donated items and the proceeds benefit one or two dog organizations. The auction has been a regular one in the past but this year it was a silent auction and, I think that we raised more money this year. The chosen organizations are a medical fund for dogs in need of extensive medical care who are in the county dog shelter and a fund that supports/cares for the pets of women who are victims of domestic violence while they get back on their feet, since many shelters/programs don't allow pets.
I am hoping to get my Christmas package in the mail to Alaska tomorrow and am hoping to actually go to church on Sunday. I believe that masks are still required as well as social distancing. Have a good evening!!

Just a quick update for now. The chihuahua went to the family who was ahead of us on the list. I will keep checking. It hasn't been a good day. I never go to our basement because of mobility concerns. Today I was going to venture down there but got half way down the steps and discovered water on the basement floor. I called a plumbing company and was told they couldn't get anyone here till Monday! (Even though they claim to provide emergency services.) So I called Craig who came over and found that there is a blockage which caused water and worse to back up into the basement through the basement toilet and shower. Craig has worked as a plumber (though not officially licensed) and had access to a commercial grade snake which he used to try to open up the blockage. He was here about 6 hours and still the blockage isn't opened up. For a while he thought it was working ok, but then he found that was not the case. He will come back tomorrow morning to try a few more approaches, and then I will have to try other plumbing services to see if they can come before Monday, if Craig cannot fix the problem. Always something.

Thank you friends for your prayers and good wishes. After an exhausting 2 days, the blockage is finally open (I hope). Craig did the best he could, but the problem remained so I called a company I had never used before. The tech came at 9:30 pm on Saturday. He had it cleared by 11 pm, working outside in the dark and cold. He had been working all day and was exhausted. To my surprise, when he finished he came in and sat and chatted with us for a half hour. I think he was just too exhausted to move right away. I know I was exhausted, and I didn't do the work he did. I found the cost quite reasonable considering everything involved ($275 plus I gave him a tip). Craig is going to come tomorrow to check out the basement again and do any additional clean up that might be needed. I won't feel totally at ease with this until Craig inspects the basement. He was working at another job today (which he missed yesterday to help me), so I didn't want him to come here today to check.

Today was a very nice day for me and John, such a contrast from the previous 2 days. Today we "attended" our online church service this morning and then a Christmas concert online performed in the afternoon by a choir from an Orthodox seminary here in PA. It was very beautiful and well done. After the concert we had another online church service for the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas. Tomorrow is St. Nicholas day (and we will have church tomorrow morning too). Our custom is for children to either get a stocking of goodies filled by St. Nick or for St. Nick to leave presents in the child's shoe. I was raised with the stocking custom so that is what I kept and still keep with John. I tell him he isn't too old for this as long as I am able to provide something.

My eating has been very good. Yesterday John and I ate and drank almost nothing because we didn't want to have any bathroom issues till the problem was resolved. Talk about IF! After a while we weren't really hungry at all. Today was a normal healthy eating day. I stayed well within my WW points. I will be looking forward to my next weigh in...soon I think.

Hi everyone!
So glad your plumbing issues are resolved Paula! Yes, not having a working bathroom can cause issues for certain! Makes me even more appreciative of all my years now having “flush toilets”, lol….we had none of those when I was growing up on the farm. 👍

DW….I surely can identify with late night eating! I had NO willpower over it until starting my IF eating schedule. Now I have been able to not eat after 7:00 since September 3. Why is that? I ask myself that question but don’t have the answer. Certainly a mind over matter because nothing else has changed. 🤔

Shari….it’s good to hear you are finding ways to let yourself relax at least on Sundays…it’s good to have that stress break. I really put myself through a lot of angst over the years trying to do too much, trying “to do everything”, part of being a perfectionist. Did not serve me well sometimes and I am happier now relaxing those standards and allowing myself some (previously I viewed as lazy), “me times”.

Golf yesterday and then invited our playing partners over for drinks and snacks. I had water as I have just not had the urge to have wine lately and others all wanted beer which I have not had since I was maybe 16? Just do not care for it. Good news this morning I am down again in weight. I am now a total of 10.2 lbs lost on my IF program. I have quit recording every food I eat. I am so into eating same things over and over that I know I am in the groove calorie wise. But I am sticking to IF and weighing each day!😍

Hi Everybody! Diane, congrats on the weight loss!! Paula, so glad that your plumbing problems are fixed!! Shari, I'm glad that you are giving yourself some relaxation time!! Well, I had a huge surprise today-both packages were delivered to my son's home today-shockingly FAST!! For the past two days I've been going through storage totes of old photos, photo, albums, etc. My cousin's daughter reached out to me looking for photos of her mom, aunt and grandmother for a Christmas surprise. In many ways it was good-I pulled a ton of photos to send to my son and give to my daughter and I ran into some family tree information to pass on, but it was also sad because most of the people in the photos are gone now. I did come across some photos for my relative's project and am very happy about that! Many of them, I will be able to give her ( vs having her make copies) and be happy to have passed them on!! I am mentally and emotionally exhausted from the project so I will close..have a lovely evening!!