Sunday: And On My Way Home

Good Morning,

I'm on my way home, halfway there.  I may not have said it, but I appreciate all the prayers for Mom and what is going on there.  

Even though I have not mentioned it, I continue to pray for Vickie, Eileen, Connie, and Judy's sister.  When I get home, and have time, I will elaborate on the situation with Mom.

Thanks for all the love and prayers.

Hugs, Love, and Prayers,

Trish

Good morning dear friends,

my deep and sincere apologies for going AWOL! I miss you all. Though some of us are connected on FB I cannot get and share the deeper details about your lives, and I miss you. I've kept you all in my heart and in my prayers of course, and shared small updates on FB, but it's not the same.

My my job has been insanely busy, and I am a terrible workaholic to boot. I have been working Monday to Friday out of town, and the hours are very long.  Very long as in, meetings from 6am to midnight every day.  Very unhealthy!  So I don't have any time to post and little time to read, and end up feeling disconnected from everyone.  This week I am "rebooting" on all this and will make 1 hour each day for me time, to catch up with my friends, etc.  I had been making time to exercise most days, but I come home on Friday and just pass out! And most time I have on the weekend is spent trying to soothe and calm my husband, who is really not handling my travel schedule well. 

So anyway, no more excuses.  I'm here, I'm back, and I'm glad! 

A few exciting things have happened while I've been away from OH.  Ron and I bought a summer cottage on Cape Cod.  We will be in a very active community of walkers, bikers, golfers, etc. fantastic for living a healthy lifestyle.  We close on 8/10 and We are every excited!  This is just the right thing at the right time.  Also I've accomplished a few more NSV's like, kayaking! And using one of the tray tables in an airliner! I'm wearing dresses with heels very day at work (haven't done that in nearly 20 years) and I cross my legs too.  Holy cow! So those are some of the really good things.  I'm dealing with hanging skin and all that already... And I have 60 or so pounds to lose so that issue isn't going to get better! Well it's ok, just par for the course.  But I still have my hair (no loss yet) and I'm only 4 pounds from onderland. Life is good, on balance.  

Prayers to you all.  Feels good to be back.  

Much love 

Christine 

Hey Christine...WOW MOMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!! EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!  

And...your new home!!! WOW!!!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

HUGSSSSSSSSSSS

Hello Christine...it has been awhile...I know by Facebook that you were very busy...buying a lovely new home for one...it is just so sweet....I love it!!! Red is my favorite color and it looks awesome on that house!!! I could just move in tomorrow!!! Congratulations!!

I am sure your husband isn't happy with your hours. I guess he will have to adapt. Hopefully your hours can get cut back soon. 

You were missed so much!! I am sorry you don't seem to have much free time...much less finding time to eat along the way. Good for the exercising!! I am so happy for all your "WOW" moments. I am so proud of you! You are knocking this WLS out of the park!!

Come see us as you can...we love you!!

Lots of love and many hugs....take care...connie d

Good morning sistas,

Reentry continues to be rocky on all fronts.  Sat down at the computer yesterday and began opening about 6 weeks' worth of mail.  There were several nasty surprises in there!  The worst one being a letter from an attorney that there is a tax lien on my new house!  Oy vey!  I can't even call about it until tomorrow.  And I had another threatening letter from the HOA here stating that I was in violation of the rules by leaving my little trailer parked in my driveway.  Well, that one I could deal with, and I pulled the little trailer back out to the lakehouse yesterday afternoon.  Geez.  And then there is an ambulance bill for over $1400, which medicare should have paid at least something on, don't you think?  Sigh.

Took the boys swimming last night at the community/neighborhood pool and turns out there is a little key pass card that you need to open the gate.  The HOA has never sent me one.  A kind neighbor opened the gate for us, but I'll have to get on that one tomorrow, too.

One semi-funny story to tell from swimming last night.  There was this very very LARGE Hispanic man there with his 5 year old nephew and the boys were having a great time playing together.  The man seemed very nice and he played with the boys too.  Everything was very pleasant.  Then this very, very, very BIG GIANT of a man turned to me and said, "You know, I just got out of . . . " (I was expecting him to say "the military", since everyone here is in the military) ". . . prison!"  Holy crap!  What do you say to that?  "Gee, that's nice.  What were you in for?"  LOL!  I didn't know what to say.  I mean, not even JAIL, but PRISON.

Still it was fine and we had a good time.  Came home and ate supper together.  Gave the boys their little presents from Corpus.  I got them each a tee-shirt, a book, a "Real Texas Cowboy" magnet, and a little water wheel toy.  

Oh, and yesterday I stopped at my favorite fruit stand out at the lake and lucked into some figs.  I immediately bought some and today I'm going to make fig preserves--my favorite.

Carrie spent most of yesterday texting me baby names.  Apparently we are having a girl.  LOL.  At least that was her focus yesterday.  The one I like the best is Cara Leigh, but Vivian Marie is a close second.  I like the Cara Leigh because it's a play on Carrie's name, and besides I think it goes well with Poe.  

Anyway, I'm glad to see her being excited about the baby.  

Well, I need to get a shower and get to the store if I'm going to make preserves today.  Trish, looking forward to hearing about your trip and your Mom.  Prayers, darlin'!  And Christine, I SAW your new cottage on FB!  Wow!  Congrats!

Love you all! 

Holy Crap Vic!!! When it rains it pours!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! Another reason I do NOT like HOA places to live!!!! You need a pass just to FART!!!!!!! Good grief!!!!!!!! Hope you can get ALL of this "crap" straightened out fast!!!! And as for that ambulance bill...you would think it would be covered!!!!!! Shame on them!!!!! Now for the guys in the pool....OMG!!!!!!!!!! Do they LIVE where you do??? YIKES!!!! I would find out WHAT he was in prison for!!!! Glad you had a good time though!!! WOW!!!!!!

Like the name Cara Leigh!!!! Has a neat ring to it!!! Glad she is happy about the baby....you also!!!

HUGSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Judy, no I don't think he lives here. He said he was visiting his sister, hence the nephew. He really was very nice and kind. I can't imagine!

Hello Sweet Vickie....I can only imagine what you had for mail!! I am sorry you are finding not so good mail too. A lien on the house. How could they sell it that way?? That sure isn't your responsibility. The owner had to have known about that! Call tomorrow and get it straightened out. As for the HOA...they surely don't know what has been taking place lately. Someone is a tattle-tail in your neighborhood!! The Ambulance bill should be covered at least a good portion of it. Good luck with the calls tomorrow. I will be sending extra prayers and hugs to you!! 

So you had fun at the pool with the boys...that is great!! At least the HUGE MAN....was polite...PRISON...not something I would admit to when you first start talking to someone new. 

I am sure the boys loved their little gifts...they always do. 

I hope you get your preserves made...that does sound good!!

I am happy that Carrie is picking out baby names...that is a good sign!! They are all cute names. I am sure she will be changing names several times yet!! I am leaning towards Cara Leigh!! My Carrie loves Vivian Leigh...that is where she got the name for our Kyleigh...I love that name too! She didn't want to go just Leigh so she added a Ky. Most with that name spell it differently.

Have a good day...know that I am thinking about you and love you much! 

Lots more love and hugs....connie d

Vickie, I have had dealings with an association before and swear I'll never do it again. They made me move a cat tower I had in the front window because someone complained it was ugly. But it was in my condo! My box of air! They threatened to sue me. This was right before I was going to have my gastric bypass surgery. It was all because some busybody retired guy decided to make everyone abide by the rules and nobody could have anything on their front doors or in their front windows ... no decoration of any kind. So someone who had to take down a decoration from their window complained about my cat tower and I had to move mine from the front window to the side window. So stupid! After this jerk left as president, things went back to normal, people had decorations on their doors and in their windows and everyone was happy again. 

I like the name Cara Leigh. Good she's excited about the baby. 

Hello Ladies,

I've been missing in action because as you all may remember, I took a trip to Idaho through WY...while in WY, I went to Mt. Rushmore and piddled around the Black Hills Mountains.  Ran around my niece's ranch in WY and found a literal dinosaur dumping ground...when I say dumping, I mean their outdoor potty place. I actually picked up about eight good pieces of fossilized dinosaur crap, eight huge piece of petrified wood, one very large bone, which I think is a small dinosaur but my anthropologists friend will figure all that out.  Oh, and walking around the ranch, I also found a foot long by half a foot wide flint tool...I suspect it was a scraper, more like a very nicely made serrated arrow head but it doesn't have the end or sharp tip.  Anyway, I am a huge rock hound so finding a place so rich in fossils was great.  I am actually going to go back next summer and spend a couple of weeks digging.  

We left my nieces place, and drove through the Grand Tetons and onward to ID....man oh man was I tired.  We drove back through Colorado...and finally got home around midnight last night. 

I am so tired but I have a ton of things to do today such as laundry.  You know, what I love about vacations is leaving work behind but what I hate about vacations is coming home and trying to catch up...anyway, it wasn't really a vacation since I had to present at a conference, which went really well.  

I tried to catch up on what everyone has posted over the last week...it seems that regardless of what we are doing or where we go, life does go on, doesn't it?  You guys have all been so busy...Have a good rest of the day...