On top of all this, our niece just found out that she has thyroid cancer, but it is confirmed that it was all contained/small/etc. Like my husband, she'll be busy the next couple weeks with consults and such.

My weight loss is slow going. I want the last of it all off, all now! Up/down/up/down endlessly. I know that I am whiny; it is not helping that Colorado is being Colorado and every 1-2 weeks in April we get snow, maybe 1.5" last night. It was 60's and 70's for the past week. I am hoping that every last bit will melt today. It is really not likely, but I would guess the majority will.

We invited our new next door neighbors over for dinner next week. One really odd benefit of that is that I thoroughly clean the house (as opposed to just the highlights, so to speak). I am wiping down my kitchen cupboards now. It's sort-of weird; do they really get dirty? I think it is more me knowing that they are clean.

Enjoy the day!

Thanks!

Last weekend, my husband and I attended a party in our neighborhood. So much fun! We invited another couple over for tomorrow night and just invited our new next door neighbor, who we had over a week or two ago (both her and her husband). Her husband is traveling for work all week and she is just a bit unnerved bring by herself in a new house (she’s mid-thirties). She has two dogs and ours comes over to visit, so she has that company, as well.

Hello, @MorticiaAddamsMSFS and @beccaboo1276414 and any others in our group that may be reading! Today, I feel that the good weather is here and here to stay; I was starting to have some doubts for summer. We have had an unusually wet spring (always needed), which makes it a touch colder. We now have temps for the coming 1.5 weeks in the mid-high 60's (and one day of 30% chance of rain). We camp further west (1500' higher), which is typically 8-10 degrees colder than at our home. We've been there a couple times, for the day (1 hour away), and will bring our teardrop trailer there tomorrow. We leave it there for the summer. We have grabbed trees from there (dug up and transplanted to our home) both times (14 spruces and 3 aspen) and may get several more spruces. Our home property is wooded and our camping property is heavily wooded. I think it's funny to plant trees at our house because we have maybe a couple hundred trees. Sometimes you just want one in a certain place. Trees (and probably everything else) grow very slowly at our elevation (shy of 8000'), so these 1' spruces that I'm transplanting probably will be my height in 10 years (hugely guessing). We have a lot of Ponderosa pines; we transplant spruces for some diversity (so if a bug comes by and desires only one kind of tree, we'll have other, remaining trees). The aspen are about 2' in height and I dug them up together (same rootball). They do not like to be dug up, because they are all interconnected, root-wise, and don't like to leave their mother tree. This is our second attempt with aspen; the first five (dug individually) died fairly quickly. Their appearance certainly expressed their displeasure. They were ~4', so I'm hoping for better success. We'll see. I'm pretty sure this will be my last attempt.

Excluding when I'm writing an epistle, like I am today, I read/log mfp on my iPhone. So please forgive me if I do't respond right away; I do read all of your posts (and sometimes think to click a like or a hug)! I'm cheering you on, regardless.

@beccaboo1276414 , I did not know that statins also lower the good cholesterol, but I guess I can understand that (not really, I have no clue). You must have worked hard to bring the good cholesterol up; I believe it takes a bit of time with eating nuts and other 'good' foods. I think that it's odd that some nuts lower the bad and the good and others lower just one or the other. I know that peanuts lower the bad and don't raise the good, so I sometimes make the effort to only eat them. I love all nuts, but the calories can really undermine weight loss efforts.

Depression: hugs. As a therapist, I always want to encourage folks to see a therapist and if they have one, but haven't seen them in awhile, do know that it is nothing (effort-wise) to reengage. Even if you think it may not help, it usually does. But, that being said, there is MUCH to be said for getting outside, like you mentioned. The key is to do that every day, especially when you don't want to (mood or weather-wise). Getting together with friends/not becoming a hermit, it all helps. Write out daily goals (one being getting out of the house one time/day). They don't have to be big goals, just things to keep you busy and having the satisfaction of accomplishing them/checking them off the list. Certainly, bringing your brother's ashes to mountains will allow you one more small part of saying goodbye.

@MorticiaAddamsMSFS Hunger. I think that I have to confess that many of the times that I am 'hungry', I'm not really hungry. It's just that I'm not full and would like more food. I remind myself of that, but it doesn't usually help, sadly.

Well, I am off to dig holes (I usually don't pre-dig my holes, so this is very proactive of me). One of the three trees that I am transplanting is going in a spot where a different baby tree died. The spot is fine and will be re-used (and easy to dig). The other two locations are 'fresh' locations, meaning, not previously dug. And, well, ROCKY mountains. Possibly very invigorating. Many times, you just have to realize that a tree cannot be placed where you want it. A lot of granite and some quartz. Either way, super-hard and sometimes really large rocks.

Onward, ladies! Maggie