Happy Hump Day!

Got an email from Mo - she's still alive, but the Chicago Marathon kind of messed up her plans for shopping. Poor Mo! Anything going on today? Looks to be a quiet day here, it's my Thursday - YAY!! And it's cold!! COLD! COLD! COLD!! But I love it! Actually wore PJ's to bed last night, as opposed to a sleeveless night shirt, and didn't wake up sweating! AMAZING!! Hope everyone's well. I can't believe October's almost over. Where are these months going? Before you know it, I'll be up to my ears in cookie dough and wrapping paper! Actually, nix on the wrapping paper - I HATE to wrap presents - I don't have a problem buying them, but wrapping them? Nuh-uh!!!! That's Mom's job!!!! Actually, if she could wrap presents for a living, she would! She's a little sick that way! I bought some cool choccy chips last night - they were on an end-cap at Mars, and I'm a sucker for anything that says "NEW!" so I had to buy them. They were by Nestle, the only maker of choccy chips as far as I'm concerned, and they were white choccy (not really choccy, by the way), and some were swirled with red and some with green - they looked like starlight mints in choccy chip shape! COOL! School's closed on 11/7, and it's a State holiday (again), so that's the first of our baking days! K makes my job easier, she likes to use my Pampered Chef scoop and plop them on the cookie sheets, and B is a master at flattening sugar and pb cookies, so I let them have at it!!! They both like to decorate, so thank goodness it doesn't matter what they look like - my family will pretty much eat anything! It's just a great way for the 3 of us to spend time together. Mom will make candy with them, but not that day, because if it's too warm in the house, the candy won't set up. I think we're making choccy covered pretzels for the teachers this year. So it's shaping up to be a busy season, but it's funny - two years ago, I would've focused on the food aspect of it, now, I just look forward to the family part of it! Hmmm - maybe I'm growing up??? Have a wonderful day! BTW, Robin, I'm sipping some chocolate covered strawberry hot tea. It's s/f and wonderful!! Since you don't do coffee, I'll have to bring you some of my flavored hot teas for you to try. One of my new addictions since wls! C YA, Tia

Good Morning My day has been busy, busy, busy (as has the past few weeks). I hear ya on sleeping in much heavier clothing and not waking up sweating. I seem like I'm cold all the time since the weather turned. I guess I'd be in trouble if I lived up North. I can't believe October is almost over either. Friday is my sister's birthday. We're taking her out to dinner on Saturday (to where else, Carrabbas (a favorite of both she and I)) and then we'll meet back at my house for birthday cake. She's requested the usual - Strawberry Shortcake, so I'll be busy with that the next few days. I've got a costume dance at church on Friday evening. I need to nail down the final details of for my costume. I've thought about going to Boscov's (which is opening at Marley Station Mall) on Saturday morning but I think I'm gonna wait until Sunday (or later) since I know it's going to be crowded. I don't know what was wrong with me yesterday but I was like a bottomless pit. I ate the following: Morning: protein drink, rice pudding, protein bar, popcorn Lunch: chicken marsala with mashed potatoes and veggies and a half of a small brownie square Afternoon: cheese crackers (out of vending machine here at work (i'm surprised i still remembered where it was), protein bar, 3 slices of a luncheon wrap from costco Evening: half a cold meatloaf sandwich, rice pudding, nuts and oh yeah, another protein drink...WTH?????!!!!!! I don't know what was wrong with me but I just couldn't get filled/satisfied yesterday. I've started today out with kashi cereal w/ground flaxseed, splenda, milk and sf vanilla syrup. I'm planning on not grazing my way through Wednesday! I left work last night and had this thing for baking so I put a sugar free cheesecake in the oven while I completed some work stuff. I haven't tasted it yet (brought a piece for lunch/snack today) but it looks good. I've been stocking up on peanut butter/chocolate/white chocolate chips in anticipation of my Christmas Cookies. I made cookies last year with Splenda Bake. I didn't care for the brown sugar version, so I think I'm going to compromise and use half Nature Sweet (Malitol) half splenda and just use the regular brown sugar. I mean, how bad could it be in an entire batch of cookies? I'm only baking them to take to church functions and so we have a few here. Last year I got by with eating 4 cookies the entire holiday season. I think I'll probably eat a few more this year since the "hunger" is back, but I really want to try to keep a lid on it. I'm not a coffee drinker either (as you know), but I love all kinds of teas. I got one last year by Bigelow and it was called "Eggnoggin" and it did kind of taste like eggnog. I try to watch my caffeine too, so I try not to overdo the tea. Have a wonderful day! T

Good afternoon. Haven't had much time to get on here and post today. Not that I am super busy but other things are happening. Weird. Tia, that chocolate covered strawberry hot tea sounds delightful! I look forward to trying the teas you bring me out. YUMMM! I don't know how much baking I'll do this year. I didn't do any last year because I was so swamped. My mom-in-law and mom were here and thankfully they baked for us. Otherwise we wouldn't have had anything homemade. I plan on trying out some things this year though. I enjoy baking and sharing with others so I know it'll be fun to get back in the kitchen again. The doc said Stephanie's scar is healing just fine. He said that we can apply pressure (skin massages) to it after all the pinkness goes away to help it shrink. It's not really bad and it will be hidden by clothes (except maybe in a bathing suit) but I think for a teenager she is not happy about having a scar in general. We can't use mederma or other creams until the pinkness is gone as well. I got on the scale while at the dr office. It's the same office as my surgeon so the same scale I weigh on when I see him. I have lost 87 lbs to date. That is so cool. I realized yesterday that in just 13 more lbs I will have lost 100 lbs!!! That just blows my mind. I think that deep down I really could not picture that much weight lost both before surgery and since surgery. Terry, I understand about your eating yesterday. I have my moments like that too. I think that at times our bodies just need more food. Don't know why and probably never will understand it. It is frustrating on the one hand but on the other you really made good choices with your food and your body needed that. Your cheesecake sounds really yummy. I am going to try my hand at a sugar free pumpkin cheesecake recipe this weekend. I'll let you know how it turns out. Went for a walk at lunch again. Didn't really pu**** that hard so tomorrow i have to make myself walk faster. It's chilly out but great walking weather. Have a fab day. Hugs, Robin

HELLLLLOOO ALL! Got the 2nd of 3 wisdom teeth pulled today...not doing too bad, it was out in probably less than 5 minutes, so there wasn't much manipulation of it to cause damage. That means I am sipping my foods today...thinking about getting a little bit of tomato soup (I love the stuff, even though I know that it has too much sugar in it. So, I usually only do a couple of sips). But do I love it! I don't know about you all, but I LOVE this weather! Makes me feel more motivated cause the more I move, the warmer I get! Well, got to get back to work, since I was gone for a couple of hours this morning! Talk to ya all soon! I will not be on tomorrow...I have to work in the hospital tomorrow for my annual "skills review." Les