Hello Hello! It is good to find the water cooler again. I have been absent for so long I had all sorts of Badges pop up when I logged in. Who knew I have been here 10 years? I can no longer ignore my weight, so here I am.

I retired in January. I will continue to help when needed and will help during harvest; I will attempt to set a reasonable schedule. We will see. I have a tendency to work until the work is done. UGH. Anyway, I put on a few pounds since retiring … on top of the weight gain I previously ignored. Double UGH.

I just got back from Peru. Visiting Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and Lago Titcaca. I am going out of my comfort zone and sharing a picture of my chubby self at Machu Picchu. Maybe it will motivate me to stay on track.

My health goal is to heal my insulin resistance. My dear friend Linda, who I travelled with to Peru, and I have vowed to lose 30# before traveling to Greece in October.

I look forward to catching up with you Tammy and Debora and anyone else who pops in. I miss Sheryl. What a beautiful soul.

Take care and God bless,

~Sue (stacke)

Hello again Sue, I love the pictures and as Debora has said we all have put on those pesky pounds that we all want to get rid of. Sorry Debora for not getting back with you sooner but I have been still exercising and logging all the food that I'm eating. Your trip to Florence sounds like you had a real nice time, then a graduation party not having to cook that is awesome.

Well as for me in the past week or so, I managed to loose that pesky 1.5 pounds but then within 3 days later here came .5 pounds back, but I'm still at it. I went to the chiropractor on May 15th, I had a different message therapist whom I really like so I scheduled my next appointment for June 3rd just so I can keep Alex.

This past Sunday night we had a real good thunderstorm I got 1.8 inches of rain and the worst of it was about 10 miles south where 2 tornado's touched down. 

Well need to go ladies, got to go feed my kitties the daddy cat and his 2 daughters.

Take Care & GOD Bless

My bra feels tight today … TMI.

I think I might be allergic to sardines. I have a lot of allergies. I have eaten sardines the past two days and have been itchy, redness and hives last night. UGH. I just stocked up on Sardines at Costco because the Wild Planet sardines were $3 off a box. SIGH. I will try again in a couple of weeks and if I react again I will be making a return to Costco.

Yesterday, I decided to find the Fitbit I received as a gift a few years ago. In the search process, I ended up organizing the dresser where I found the Fitbit and the cabinets in the bathroom where I found the charger. Win-win. I wonder what else I need to look for to get more organizing done?

It is a beautiful sunshiny day here today. Have a lovely day!

~S

I was up 2.4# on the scale this morning. But I did eat quite a few salty nuts yesterday. I managed to stay within my calorie budget for the day. Was the scale down for you today Tammy?

Our son and DIL invited us to join them for a side by side ride into a very remote place on the Salmon River yesterday; reachable only by jet boat or the road we traversed. The hubs and I have never been to Mackay Bar before and have always wanted to visit. It was a full day commitment. We left home at 6 am driving 2 1/2 hours into the mountains to where our son was camping. The ride started around 10 am. We ran into some snow. Had lunch in the woods. I ate half of the salad I packed for myself before I knocked it off the tailgate and it landed upside down in the dirt. Hence the additional salty nuts. We got to the Salmon River around 3:30 pm. We got back to the camp site around 7:30 pm and home at 10 pm. We capped the day off with our dear friends enjoying the Pisco I brought back from Peru. It was a beautiful sunshiny day.

Today I am cleaning the house … but I will hopefully get out to enjoy the sunshine too.

Hugs, ~S

We are hoping for rain. My son cut some hay down trying to entice the rain. Ha! It is windy. Nearly 80F yesterday and today. But the sun is shining. <3

I am on my way to Spokane with four girlfriends to see River Dance. We had a plan to eat at Chili's so I looked at the menu and decided on an entree and pre-logged it. NOW, with our tickets, there is a special at another restaurant, so plans may change. I printed the menu for my passengers to peruse on the way to Spokane. I found something on the menu that will work … depending on seasonal veg options.

I imagine the scale will be up tomorrow morning from increased sodium from eating out. Lower water intake because of the road trip. Sigh. Onward and Upward!

~S

Debora, you are a busy gal! Sounds.like a fun road trip to see your sister. I like a good road trip.

We're road tripping to the hubs sister's home today. A four hour drive. Each year she and her husband host a potluck singing and drinking party. All of the cousins, and there are a a lot of them, are invited. One musician cousin brings folders of music and percussion instruments for the masses. Lots of fun songs. I am not a drinker or a singer but it is a fun time and good opportunity to connect with the cousin.

We will bing our two Boise grandkids home with us for the week. Amelia is 7 and Oliver is 6. It will be fun having them without their parents. :) They are city kids spending a week on the farm. I called this morning and told them to pack work clothes because they will be going with Grandpa to swath hay.

Still no rain here. Feel free to send some!

Good Sunday Morning Ladies, you both have been busy with visiting family members plus making memories with friends. All my family live in Florida so I don't see them hardly at all and my hubby's family has already pasted and his nieces and nephew have their own lives and don't keep in touch. We have 3 inside cats so we don't take any real trips, every now and then we may make a day trip but it's been 9 mos since we went on one. We took a 6 hour trip to go see my donkey at the Donkey Rescue in San Angelo. I had to give him up last year, I sure do miss him but I know that he is being taking care of much better.

We have no kids so we have no grand kids to enjoy, so you two are very blessed and I am blessed to be able to hear all about them.

Well I've got to go for now, I'm heading to the store.

God Bless and take care.

I am working today. Filling in. The office clerk and manager are out of town today, so I am filling in. The grands are going with me until the hubs picks them up after his dentist appointment.

I have been stress eating a bit. I am out of my normal routine with the grandkids. They are absolutely not causing any problems, just all of the energy. Whew.

Hello Debora & Sue, I too am very blessed to have you both as distant friends.

Sue, how's it going with the grandkids? Once they go home you'll get back on track with good eating habits and work toward loosing those pesky pounds. It's good that you still help out at the office when they need the extra hand. love the picture of the family get together.

My donkey's name is Donkey. I'm not good at picking names for my animals and he is a donkey so I figure that was a good name and he seamed to like it too. The donkey rescue has close to a 1000 donkey's but not one with the name Donkey. I try to give them a donation when I can because they do a lot for them, they a have an on staff Dr. plus they have a farrier come out and trim up their hoofs. I think there is like 250 acres or more and they train those donkey's that are suitable to be adopted out. I really did enjoy going down there and seeing the place.

Debora, 5 inches of rain in 1 day is really a lot and I'm glad you had a safe place to go, visiting neighbors on your way home. The most rain we've had in 1 day so far was 2.25 inches but most of our rain has been coming several days in a row with getting from .5 to 1.8 inches in a day. We didn't get the heavy winds up to 70 mile hr. winds that the weatherman was saying. Up town did get much heavier winds.

The hubby didn't want to take a chance with 1 of our trees because of all the rain we have been getting he thought the ground was way to wet and if we got those heavy high winds it may take it down on top of our house, so we loaded up the cats and went to a hotel up town to ride out the storm. After the storms we came home that night with our power out but it wasn't long and it came back on. The cats were glad to be home they did not like the ride in the car and being away from home not even for 6 hours.

Talk later ladies, be safe and God Bless.

Well, I "survived" two weeks of Bible School. I had 4 grandkids here most of last week and it went well for the most part. The played well, slept well, and were willing to help pick things up the last afternoon. One even surprised me by doing the legos by himself. I still took them all back downstairs but there were a lot spread out on the table. They enjoyed the food. I did things like pigs in a blanket, mac & cheese, pizza, applesauce jello, etc. And I even was able to do a decent job with eating so didn't gain more than half a pound. Pretty amazing since I walked a lot less too. I enjoyed lining the kids up at Bible school each morning and watching them walk in. We ended with a program on Friday evening and the kids went home from that.

Now this week it's getting back to the regular stuff. So far this week I had one day at home, one day with some 4-hers doing the birthday party at the local nursing home and today we went to town for Ralph to get his cortisone shots and other errands. We got whopper jurs. onthe way home so didn't have to think about dinner.

We had more rain too. Yesterday was another 2 and a half inches and some areas got hail and a lot more wind then we did. It resembled the rain of June 3 but without as much water over the roads. Very little of that this time. The farmers are ready to have things dry out with the wheat being ready and time to plant soybeans. It will happen.

Tammy, Donkey lives in a really nice place. And cool that his name is unique. I'm sure your cats are glad to be at home and are hoping for no more trips out. Sorry about your garden. Bigger potatoes would be wonderful. Yes, you can cook small potatoes but…. People have had asparagus and rhubarb but the others stuff will still be awhile. I hear you on stubborn weight. I am hanging at 171.5. I think it would be fun just to see 169 - even if just for a day. But I am not creeping up again so that's a plus for me.

Take care all.

Hi Sue & Debora,

Sue, the quilt is very nice, that's something I've never been able to do. I'm not a very good sower, I'm lucky I can even operate my sowing machine. Sounds like you are quite the handy lady around the house fixen all sorts of things.

So how did next week go for you Sue??

Debora, sounds like you have had a great time with grandkids and the little ones at Bible school. I remember when I was about 8 my grandma would take me to Bible school and I really liked it. There was this lady who lived next to the church and she had goats, she would let us kids come over and pet them until we had to leave.

Well ladies I've finally did it, I got down to 144, now if I can only stay there or even go down another pound or two. Believe you me it wasn't easy, it only took for my hubby to go have a hernia surgery, it was suppose to be just day surgery but they had trouble getting his oxygen levels up in order to release him to come home so they kept him over night. He got to come home the next day, he sure is in a lot of pain. Here it is 5 days later and he still as quite a bit of pain. He goes back to the doctor this coming Thursday afternoon.

Well got to go make dinner, talk later ladies, God Bless

Good Morning my friends! Tammy, I am praying your husband's pain eases soon. Everything as it should be per the doctor? I am sorry it took a surgery for your husband to see 144#, but WOO HOO! Yay Tammy! Well done. I am tickled pink for you.

I feel as though I have been running non-stop for a couple months. Today, our son and granddaughter arrive from Iowa. These are the kids I was visiting in KS when we met Debora. :) Our son works for John Deere and is coming to help with haying. We also have a family of four arriving from Australia. They will be with a couple of nights. Tomorrow is the daughter's 14th birthday, so I am baking a cake for her today. I really should be outside pulling weeds, but here I am saying hello while I wait for my butter to soften. Ha!

The hubs is having a prostate biopsy on Monday. We have a dear friend dying from prostate cancer that metastasized to his bones and then lungs. I think that is why the hubs opted for the biopsy, for a definitive answer over an MRI scan. We will know more next week.

Okay … better get to that birthday cake.

Hugs to you my friends.

~S

Oh my, I did not realize it had been so long since I popped in here and I can't even say it was because of big things happening. We have gone to a few softball games and appointments but somehow the time has flown past.

Tammy, sorry your husband's hernia surgery didn't go as anticipated - that usually not the way we want to get our weight now but so happy you got to where you wanted. Hearing about your hubby makes me very thankful for how it went when my hubby had that done a couple years ago. Your determination will help keep your weight down will keep it there or down a bit more. Keep us informed.

Where are you in relation to all the Texas flooding? What a sad situation.

Sue, your life has left me exhausted. You have projects gong on all the time. Picking up sticks. You'd laugh if you saw me working outside here. The quilt is beautiful.

What a wonderful thing to help out in the office for your hubs cousin. Prayer is the biggest thing we can do but stepping in the way your are is huge. And extra people with your son and friends from Australia - wow. I can't imagine getting all that done. Good thing Book Club is a week away.

My sister, Donna, and I made it out to see our sister Barb again. I'm glad we're dong it but it's one day nothing gets done here. I have lots of "projects" but they re mostly inside things and I break them up into small parts. I can see progress in the room where I'm going through stuff which spurs me on. I have some strings to cut for wordless book bracelets that a family wants to take along to Paraguay and make bracelets as a family project and then hand them out. This week I want to get the letters for the camp kids ready to mail so I can get them mailed when they go to camp next week. Our County Fair is coming up so I'll be gone quite a bit during it. So busy but not physically demanding and I can still be ready to get to bed each night.

I'm getting my meals logged but I'm still kind of hanging in the same circle of pounds.

I would love to send some rain to you. Our son finally got the wheat off the field by our house. The rain and drying from the rain has put things way behind for everyone. He's not sure he'll be able to get beans planted here cause of how late it's getting. And it is sounding like we might get some rain this evening. We have trash to burn. We could burn in April but between rain and wind, it's hard to get it done. One of these days. Wichita had 11 inches during June.

The 4th here was very low key. We did our usual grocery shopping in the morning and were just at home after that. I stepped out and saw a few fireworks. Ralph is not big on watching them so I have adjusted and we take it easy now.

My funny - when we were in to the doctor for our annual checkup, we asked about a handicapped tag for Ralph. Some days he hurts more than others. We got one and drove to Walmart where Ralph would not park in the handicapped spot. And he said if a store only has one or two spots, he won't take it cause others need it worse then him. But it's there for when he needs it.

On that note, I'll leave and aim to pop back in cause it's fun to chat when I get here.

Take care all.

Well shoot. I am so sorry to hear the hubby is still not doing well Tammy. That is the pits! Out of your normal routine and a loved one not feeling well, counting on you for help. Kudos to you for managing/maintaining!

Debora, you too have so much going on! I am glad you got to see your sister again. I imagine it is fun road tripping with your sister too. I like a good road trip!

Today's Gospel reading Luke 10:38-42, Martha serving and Mary sitting at Jesus' feet listening, hit home. For quite some time I have been contemplating the work/life balance. Because tomorrow is not promised and so much can change in the blink of an eye. Right now it is most important for us to be visiting/helping our sister/hubby (good for you Debora & Tammy). I am not good with "letting go" of the "shoulds."

I laughed at Ralph and his handicap permit. I can see where he is coming from! When I was driving my mom to dialysis a friend accused me of parking in handicap spaces when I was shopping while Mom was at dialysis. I was so offended! I tersely replied "I am able bodied" … I am still offended. Ha! I imagine Ralph feels more able bodies some days than others. I imagine it will be hard for me to park in handicap spaces when the need arises.

Company is all gone. The diet has started again. Wheat harvest has started! Harvest is so very early due to the dry weather. Quality is decent, surprisingly. I worked yesterday. I told my young boss I would help with harvest. I will be working from 3 pm to closing M-S. Sundays off … for the most part. I told the office clerk I would fill in for her on a Sunday or two, if she asks, then she could get a day off. Here we go!

Ok … gotta get some bookwork done today. Hang in there Tammy. I will be sending positive thoughts and prayers your way for quick healing and peaceful coping.

Hello, We are in the heat of summer and still getting good rains off and on. Seems to rain each time we go to see my sister - although not all the time. It was an hour on the way this past Thursday and we almost made it home before a bad storm hit so we stopped and Burger King and ate to let some of it pass by. Then we got more rain last night and the floor in the one basement room is not wet again.

We had our County Fair a week ago so i was gone most of the day for several days. I help in several different areas and worked both times our club had it's turn in the concession stand. I enjoy it but my feet did not like all the walking on the concrete floors. Fair clean-up was Tuesday morning and I have not been doing any extra walking and they are feeling better.

Tomorrow night we are getting together at our oldest's son's for family pictures. Finding a date all are free was not easy. We've been trying to do this for at least a couple of years and our 50th coming up in August is the big push. They hope to have pictures on display. I've also been going through pictures her looking for our family thought the years and will take them along and let the girls have them. My wedding dress has been in a box (I worked at a dry cleansers and my boss did this for me) so got it down and we'll get it out and display it and then I'll let it go. I assume it looks okay. I've not looked at tit. The kids are doing a reception or us.

We had a rainstorm Monday night with lots of thunder and lightning. At one point we heard (felt) something different so got up to check. We found the breaker for one room flipped so flipped it. Ralph looked around to make sure we didn't smell anything and eventually went back to bed. He had a men's breakfast first thing and I had fair clean-up so when we got home we did more checking. The phone wasn't working or the TV. So we called our phone/internet place and they were out within an hour. The base of the cordless phone was dead, he fixed something in the box outside the house, put in a new router and helped us realize our DVR was affected. The TV does work. We think the computer was not affected since it's on a surge protector. Very thankful since we just bought it. We have phones on order along with a Tivo. When you are used to recording shows and watching when you want, just a regular TV is not too fun. We'll make it till it comes, but Ralph doesn't enjoy watching the news cause you have to watch all the ads, can't fast forward, etc.

Tammy, glad your weight is staying in a good range and that your hubby is doing better.

Sue, your wheat harvest would be late for us. Glad it's good. You will be putting in quite a few hours during wheat harvest. Are you enjoying being back on the diet?

This week looks to be a bit slower. Sounds good to me.