Good Tuesday evening, friends! I am doing fine...was busy over the weekend, was stressed yesterday, and tonight have been taking it easy. The weekend, I was busy with the movie and dinner on Friday night. Terry and I saw "Flight" which we both liked (I already wrote about that). Then on Saturday AM, we ran some errands. The rest of the weekend, I worked on school stuff and we watched TV and just hung out. Then, on Sunday afternoon, I went up to have Sunday dinner with Kelly and watch a movie with the kids and her.

Monday, I got super-stressed at work. It all had to do with the field trip which we went on today and my general dislike of field trips. Anyway, by the time school was over, my body was hurting and I was light-headed. I think it was all stress- and tired-related because once I got home and dealt with paper-work and organized myself, I felt better.

The field trip was fine although I felt like I could not let Mario out of my sight. (He is my ADHD kid.) Constantly, I was having to deal with him not paying attention, not staying in line, talking when the leader was talking, getting too close to the water, etc. Later in the day, I asked my VP if I could request that his mother go on the next field trip with us mainly to monitor his behavior and he said we could. It would allow me to be more available to all the students, not just Mario.

The next trip will be riding the passenger train down to another town to see one of the California Missions; then having a picnic lunch; then some down time; then riding the train back to Anaheim. I dread keeping track of him at the Mission and making sure he is not violating any of the rules, plus keeping track of him during the picnic and the down time while we are waiting for the train. So, thankfully, we can put that on his mother's shoulders!

Paula, 40 pages is fabulous! I am so jealous of you!! If I retire this year, I am definitely going with you next year!

Nancy, sorry you are feeling stressed. That is no good. Is there anything we can do to help you out?

Pat, you are making progress in your decluttering and purging! Keep up the good work!

Rhonda, I'm not sure what to say about your situation. I have never had to close down a business but it must be a very solemn experience, putting it all to rest, especially when you have nothing else to turn to once it's all done. It would be so good to hear some good news from that other company. It's so dang frustrating when you don't get any sort of phone call from the company when you've had an interview...even if the news isn't good. I feel for you and am thinking about you - as always.

Laurie, have you been to the doctor about this light-headedness? If so, what are they saying about it? Might it be a blood-sugar deal? Or blood pressure?

Oh, Paula, I have used Mucinex, and it's pretty good stuff...and with very few side-effects, too.

Well, my work is winding down...whew! I am just about counting down the days...not quite...but I am definitely looking at what I am teaching and how I am trying to wrap things up and not leave things hanging for six weeks. I am also beginning to get super-itchy about what I want to do while I am off-track. I would like to do some decluttering/purging as well as some major scrapping. I will have to do some major motivation to make sure I get that done. I think if I focus on my scrapping room only I could get quite a bit done. So...I just might see what happens.

I've got to go here and hit the hay. I'm tired and my eyes are very weary. Everyone take care. I'll talk to you soon.

Oh...thanks for the well wishes for Ruby...the doggy ibuprofen has done its magic and she is feeling better (thankfully). The lump they removed from her mouth was benign so good news with that, too.

Good morning or maybe not so good depending on your side of the fence.

Stress I feel it all over this group. Yesterday I was a poll watcher. Not wanting to put too much into black and white for the world to see, around noon suddenly I felt the back of my neck and shoulders start to ache. It was a very long day. I was exhausted. But life goes on and tonight I am going to a Journey concert. It's been a long time since I've seen them.

Lizzy I have visions of you leading Mario around with a collar and leash. No wonder they give you frequent breaks. I'd be stir crazy after a day with him. I hope you get all your organizing and scrapping done on your time off.

Paula I gave up on watching the election around 9:30. I got home and crashed. The cookbooks sound fun.

Pat I can't believe you haven't run out of rooms to purge yet. Have you tried out the exercise bike? Sounds like you had fun and made good progress at your friends house.

Rhonda your business closing does sound like its been dragged out. What was the company's primary operation? I sure hope you can find something.

Nancy go do something fun. Take a hot bubble bath. I understand about being so busy with no down time lately. Hope you find some good R & R.

Well I have to go the grocery store. The cupboards are bare here. And I am going to work in my craft room and clean up the house, pay a few over due bills since I haven't had time to do much lately.

Good morning.

Sorry about the sn*w Pat. If you are a horder isn't the purging difficult for you. Jim is a horder, I call him and you savers, but it stresses him out badly when I get in a mood to literally wipe off the kitchen counters into a waste basket. So he has learned then when I start looking at the kitchen, he had better clean up his papers or they will be gone. I can't stand clutter. So when the clutter gets bad, I don't even sort through it. Did you get to the grocery store? I never did yesterday so I will be going later this morning.

The concert last night was a good pick me up. It was fun. We had seats on the floor about 10 rows from the stage. It was loud and the bass subwoofer was so strong it would move the bottoms of my jeans all on it's own. I really don't think I like sitting so close and it being so loud. Oh well it will be a long time before I go again.

Today I must hit the grocery store or Sams club and take a box of brochures down to the office. Pay office bills and enter charges. I did get one 2 page layout done for the baby book. It had a lot of cricut cuts and took me most of the day. I had hoped to get another done but I have book club tonight and haven't finished the book yet. It isn't one of my favorites and maybe that is why.

good evening .. well the snow never did materialize here. I was glad. I worked all day on the upstairs rooms. I went through several boxes of scrap booking supplies from when I was a vendor and kept very little for myself. I still need to move things to the downstairs (so it can be hauled off/put in the trash/put out for p/u next week), but I will need Jim to do that. Of course he got hung up at work today, so none of it will get moved until tomorrow. I am counting the days until next Wed. I am sure I won't be done with everything, but I will at least have all the *stuff* gone and out of my way. I like to think of myself as more of a saver than a hoarder. One thing I don't have is cluttered counter tops. I have so little counter space that I have to keep them clear.

Carrie, I did make it to the grocery yesterday, but I am going to need to go back. I didn't have a list and got only what I could remember.
Hope you got your book read for book club. Not easy when you can't get into it.
Laurie, sorry to hear you are having sugar problems. Is it because you are eating the wrong things? Jim wants to avoid insulin as long as he can. He watched his mother go down hill because she wasn't careful. It was so sad. Please take care of yourself and eat right.

Where is everyone else? Paula, Rhonda, Lizzy, Nancy ?? Hope everyone is OK.

good morning and happy anniversary to Paula & dh. Safe travels today and tomorrow also.

We are going to have a few days of pleasant weather and I would like to take advantage and get some stuff out of the garage. We also need to organize what is in there. This is likely going to be the last weekend, we can do anything outside. Today I am going to try really hard to get the last of the scrapbook/craft type things into boxes for the big sale in Dec. I have got to get this stuff to the organizers so they can get it all priced. I will keep adding to the charity donation pile right up until the last minute.

Still working also on the tiny bows for my cards. Last night I had to do some data base stuff for the society, so no bows got made. I also need to take some time this weekend to buy some holiday decorations for the troops. I have one more box of Christmas cards to ship next week and then we get a little break.
Hope everyone else has a good day.

well, I said good morning and now I'll say goodnight.

Where are you all? LOL

Good morning for WINDY Kansas! The winds are really gusting but it is still very warm. We may hit 80* today, was in upper 70's yesterday. But hold on for the drop tomorrow. Will be 40 degrees cooler. But I still haven't had to turn on the furnace yet, so will love the low utility bills.

Laurie, sorry you had such a big wake up call, but maybe it was needed to get you on track. Glad you felt you could open up to us. We will try to keep you in line. Diabetes is not something to ignore. Feel free to unload on us any time! How is the Curves job going? I see you have been doing some craft classes as well. That sounds like so much fun.

Pat, glad the light is turned on at the end of the tunnel. You will really feel great when this weekend is over and you have all items delivered for sale or donate. Enjoy your good weather as well.

Lizzy, how many more days until your vacation begins? Hope things are smoothing out for you.

Carrie, if the food at the new pub is as good as it looks, I would have trouble staying away!

Paula, Happy Anniversary! Hope you are enjoying Lansing!

Nancy, hope everything is well with you.

I still have not heard on the job I interviewed for, so I am applying for other jobs. I did not go in yesterday and will only go in about an hour or so this week to take care of the little things that crop up. Will continue to do so until end of year close out and close down and hand off to accountant for tax returns and final close. Such an emotional week.

The Sweet Adelines have been using my big garage today and yesterday for their garage sale. So far it has been pretty successful for them and I like having people around.

Not much else going on here. Heading out to the Veterans Day parade. Amber and her band group are marching in it. Then need to stop for some groceries as some point this weekend.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Good Saturday friends! Sorry for being gone for so long....and for perhaps being a bit on the dark side. (I heard what Carrie said.)

Pat, your daughter, Stephanie, is a good, smart, caring Mom who has her son's best interests at heart. I had a boy with autism in my class many years ago and at times it was tough caring for him. No one at the school recognized his needs as he had never been properly diagnosed. Everyone said he had a "problem handling his anger" because when he became overwhelmed he had meltdowns which showed his frustration and anger. (Our school psychologist was such a buffoon and unfortunately the boy's father was in massive denial about the seriousness of the child's problems.) At any rate, managing him was way easier than this Mario is, if you can believe it because he and I had such a strong bond.

At any rate, I have the OK for a parent to accompany Mario on the next one and I'm greatly relieved!

School is moving along just fine. We are accomplishing all sorts of things and making headway toward finishing things up for our break. I am looking forward to it with great delight. I have 8.5 more teaching days. We have Monday off for Veteran's Day so there are four teaching days this week and 2.5 the next. I can't believe it's almost here!!

My big plans for my break involve decluttering the bonus room which is where my office and scrapping stuff are. We have about 5 very tall bookshelves in there and they are mainly filled with the girls' books. I think I will be packing those into book boxes and moving them into the garage so that I can have full use of the bookshelves myself. I want to rework my scrapping area to fully utilize the shelves so that my scrapping stuff doesn't feel so crowded and cluttered. I also want to purge all of my stuff, scrapping and otherwise, and get rid of everything I do not use. I have way too much saved and stored and...well, you all know the rest of that sentence. I've purged my closet, bedroom, and bathroom pretty decently plus the family room and kitchen. It isn't that it can't be done again, but doing it would be a pretty quick thing. The bonus room is the one room I haven't touched. So, if I do it, I will make a huge headway.

I need to make up our Thanksgiving menu - football food - and then begin to work on Christmas ideas.

Sarah got a job offer...she will get the formal offer this next week as it has to go through the university...but it's a combination lab manager and lab associate. She actually does not want to do a post-doc which is what most new PhD's do. She is not convinced she wants to do research and pursue a college-level teaching position - for any number of reasons - so this is exactly what she wants. She liked the guy with whom she interviewed and the research he does is fairly similar to the research she has been doing with apoptosis (cell death). I'll keep you all posted.

Paula, congratulations to you and Greg on your 27th anniversary! And many, many more!!

Rhonda, I'm glad the Adelines are keeping you company in your big garage.

Carrie, you are keeping yourself busy and out of trouble. Same for you, Pat.

We are heading out in awhile to look at new dishwashers. Ours would be fine except the racks are totally destroyed and rusted through. An applicance store nearby is having a sale. Then we are meeting Kat and Malcolm for dinner about halfway between here and LA to give her some paperwork for her car. We might even hit the Sears near the restaurant to see what they have in the dishwasher line if we don't find anything this afternoon. I actually know what I want...I'm generally just checking prices.

Everyone take care.....

Hi again!

Yes, dinner with the kids was nice. We went to an Italian restaurant. I brought half of mine home! Before we went, we stopped at an appliance store here in town. I found the Whirlpool DW I had my eye on. The man "thought" they had a black one in the warehouse but had to check. Ditto on the trash compactor. So, we left with the deal that he would check on the warehouse and call us tomorrow.

We had dinner with the kids and there was a Sears right next to the restaurant. Terry wanted to go to Target, so I went over to the Sears. They had a Frigidaire DW which was comparable to the Whirlpool for less $$, plus a much less expensive trash compactor. We got them ordered, arranged for delivery and installation, plus got the discount which is only for tomorrow, and it's now a done deal! It will be taken care of on Monday, November 19th! It will be nice to have a DW that the racks aren't rusted out! And a trash-compactor that actually works!

Paula, I will keep my fingers crossed for the crop. If I can't make it in March, I should be able to in November since I won't be working then! The only thing that would get in the way would be our 30th anniversary celebration trip...but I really don't know what we will be doing, so hopefully we can arrange it around a weekend-long crop!

Well, I am getting sleepy here so I'm going to say g'night and hit the rack.

good morning.. so glad for another nice weather day. After we return from dropping off the craft donations, we are going to finish cleaning up the yard. At least that is the plan. I have peonies, hostas, and frozen impatiens to cut back. I would like to have Jim pull up about half the glads by the chimney, but I don't think that will happen. Not really the time of year to be doing that. Could probably also rake up a few leaves. I love to rake as it is good exercise.
That will about do it for yard work.

Then I will continue working on the inside stuff. I am going to try to work on the family room and the spare bedroom. Won't be able to finish either, but will be able to get some things put away. Tomorrow we will continue to work on the garage since the weather will be good for one more day. There are a lot of things that can go out for charity p/u on Wed. What doesn't get p/u will have to be hauled off tp Salvation Army or Good Will.

It is time for us to get on the road. Will catch up later.

Hi friends,

I doubt that I could make the March crop, Paula, because of my work schedule (this year) but after this school year...well, I am going to retire unless I get some sort of news that makes me change my mind, but it is more than 50% decided at this time.

I do like our Challenge Get-Together as well and don't want to stop doing those, either. Again, after June, my availability will be much more open which should work better for everyone else, especially Nancy.

Before I worked, I used to have a scrapping page set up all the time and spent some time everyday working on it. I hope to get that going again after I retire!

Paula, I was impressed with the Sears' prices on applicances...so if you have one nearby, it might be worth checking them out. They beat out the competition!

Not doing much today...laundry, tidying up the house, hanging out, keeping up with you guys! I found an old rerun of Mad Men to watch...one I hadn't seen. Hmmmmm!

Good morning ladies!

Lizzy, our Sears closed. There is probably onein South Bend or hen we head north we probably pass one. With Whirlpool headquarters here, we usually can find some deals around here. Guess I have to look around.

Rhonda, the sale sounds like it was fun!! I am glad they were successful!
No snow. It is just wet out there.
How funny that you forgot about the party!! That sounds like something I would do! Have fun tonight!

Not sure what I am doing today. I guess I should start thinking about Thanksgiving. My sister in town is coming with her DH and my nephew (Katie's family) and my sister, nephew and dad are coming from up north. It will be laid back. DH's b-day is that day too. (he was born on Thanksgiving it just doesn't always fall on that day)

Laurie, sorry the one with you is blurry, must be my sweet picture taking skills. Where was Nancy when we needed her???!
Love the ones of Lizzy and Laurie scrapping. Too bad that's all I have. :(

Carrie, was that after you spent the night on the couch, trying to sleep while people scrapped? Poor girl!! hehehe
Those are the only pics I got. Did anyone else take any?
I never heard of using mayo on hair. That was something Serina told us about. It made it really soft.
Nice job on the layouts! You are making progress!
I would like to put my hands on a gypsy and try it out. Rhonda showed me hers while she was here and it seemed like I could use one but I should have actually tried.
I hope your dad gets some answers and can move forward.

My step-dad called today and his wife fell again and broke her other hip. She just went through this with the other one. ugh!

When DS got home from band he and I raked the leaves away from the front entry and then raked a bit to fill up a tarp. And then it was dark!!!! I can't believe it's dark already. boohoo..

Good morning ladies!!

Cold but the only sign of snow is a little bit that has blown in the cracks of the deck.
Today is monster house but DS is going along. At first he helped me out when he wasn't working but now I told him as long as he doesn't work on Tues. he has to go with me. That day is always a big house. :) for me, :( for him. haha

Rhonda, did you have fun last night?

Pat, I don't really know what your doing with the SU ornament, I guess I haven't seen that.
It sounds like you and Jim got a lot done.

What is everyone doing today??