Sunny Sunday in Texas

Good Morning sistahs

Woke up early even though I got to bed late.  Busy Week end so far.  Didn't have any plans but as it worked out my calendar got full.  I hosted the monthly luncheon for the ladies in my neighborhood Friday.  One of the ladies asked for a ride and we got to talking. I mentioned a chamber music concert at the college that evening and asked if she would like to go with me and another friend.  She was interested so the 3 of us went.  Patti another friend was there alone so she sat with us.  I noticed on the program that the students were performing a musical Sat. evening.  We decided to go to that as well.  Also figured that dinner before would be nice and that would need to be early to beat the crowds.  Of course a 5:00 dinner and a 7:30 show only 5 minutes apart allowed us to have a margarita with plenty of time for it to metabolize before I had to drive.  We had fun.  Sat morning I got up and went to East End Park and walked 3 miles with Angela, went to lunch, then visited another friend who had a stroke a couple of years ago and doesn't get out too much.  While there she invited me to go with her and her husband to church today in downtown Houston where Paul English is doing a jazz mass at Trinity Episcopal church.  Never been there but downtown Houston churches are huge, old, and beautiful.  So when I get off my puter I will get ready and head to their house for the drive to Houston.  Can you tell my hubby is out of town?  Its been a long time since I had a night much less a week end out with "the girls" .  Joanne and Patti are both widowed.  Joanne lost her husband years ago but Patti's husband died after several years of illness just last August.  I think I will start a regular girls night out.  Maybe once a month or so.  I miss girl time.

Vickie - I drink way too many diet sodas.  I think I am addicted to the carbonation.

They don't even taste good to me but I keep drinking them.  Don't need to worry about my bones.  My doctor is always shocked at how good they are.  Technician actually questioned the accuracy at first because she said she never saw anyone my age with absolutely no traces of any aging or whatever they look for.  I guess that's the only benefit I have of carrying around so much weight for so many years.  I have had two scans and am due another one and the results are always  the same. 

Oops its getting late.  I better get in the shower or I'll be late.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!!!!!!!!!! 

PS  The birds are singing out in the trees behind my house.  So cheerful.

Good morning Linda and my sistas!

Well, if drinking Cokes is killing me, then getting off of them is pure agony.  Oh my head!  Woke up early with the raging headache AND a crick in my neck.  Oh, ouchie!  But I will prevail.

Linda, it's a beautiful weekend in Texas, isn't it?  Yesterday we took the baby down to the Brazos River park and strolled along, loving every minute of our outdoor time.  

I want to give y'all a product review this morning.  A couple of years ago, I bought some Rogaine for Women, but what with my disastrous hysterectomy and then Butch's lengthy illness I never used it but maybe once or twice.  So I brought it along with me to Waco and I've been using it twice a day for over three weeks now.  WOW!  Y'all wouldn't believe the difference it's made in my hair!

Do I have MORE hair?  I don't know.  But I do know what a difference it's made in the hair I DO have.  My hair was dry, brittle, lifeless, and thinning, thinning thinning.  I was ready to just shave my head and be done with it!  Now my hair is soft, shiny and fuller.  I mean, it's like REAL HAIR again!  The first couple of weeks I couldn't see much difference, and I thought, "meh", but all of a sudden I have pretty hair again.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!  (And of course I buy the generic brand from Wal Mart or Target.  No need to pay that ridiculous price for the name brand.)

Today is a quiet day for us.  Hurray.  I am going to start packing up my stuff and making a list of baby's stuff for our trip to my house on Tuesday.  So many things to remember!  I have gotten quite spread out here over the past month.  And even though I have a fairly decent nursery set up at my house, there are still things here that we will need to take with us.  Oh, ask me if I'm excited to be going home!!!  

Tomorrow Miss Caralee has a doctor's appointment at 1:30 p.m., and then after that we go to the photographer's to see the proofs from our photo shoots last week.  So we'll have a busy afternoon.  Better use today to organize and pack as much as possible.  I want us to leave early on Tuesday.  The trip down I35 through Austin is best done BEFORE the lunch hour traffi****urs.

Carrie wants to drive her car to my house.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I guess I understand her desire to have her own wheels, but it's not going to be an easy trip for her and baby to make.  I told her she can just drive my car while she's at my house if she needs to, but that doesn't seem to suit.  So, okay.  We'll make the trip together, but in separate cars.  

Easter is only 4 weeks away.  Unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am looking forward to spending this holiday with my grandchildren.  We will make it fun for the little ones.  Also, Chris is taking a week of vacation during Spring Break in March and we're hoping to make a couple of day trips with the boys (and baby!).  This is the best weather we get all year long here in Texas, unless it rains.  So we're all pleased to have some real family time to spend together.

One thing that I really want to have done next month is a four generation family photo with my mom, my girls, and my grands.  One of Christie's friends is a photographer.  I'm going to ask her if we can maybe do an outdoor photo shoot--maybe in the bluebonnets!  I also want a picture of Mom with her three great grandbabies.  Hopefully Caralee will cooperate and not be so fussy!!!

Well, sistas, my head and neck are killing me.  It's hard to type on the computer because I have to hold my head just so to keep my neck from cracking in two!  Ouch.  Maybe I'll try a hot shower.  Boy, do I miss my bubble tub!  Just two more days!

Love you all!

Vickie,

I've had the caffeine withdrawal headaches before.  Mainline other forms of caffeine.  Coffee, tea, 5 Hour Energy drinks.  Coke and Diet Coke have caffeine, unless they specifically say they don't.  When I went caffeine free pre-WLS, I had to wean off it gradually.  Then, four years ago, when I was in the hospital, they put me on restricted liquids, and I got a migraine, because I went from a steady stream of caffeine all day, to just three 8 ounce coffees, or Diet Cokes.  Now, I keep 5 Hour Energy drinks on hand in case that ever happens again.  One of them is equal to a cup of coffee, with only 2 ounces of liquid.  I know that a lot of people don't like them, but I never want that migraine again.  Plus, they have B complex vitamins within safe limits, and does not contain Apartame.  It was two straight days of agony.  So, I totally understand what you're going through.  I used those little shots in grad school, along with EmergenC immune support.  My diet sucked those three years, and I was working, studying, in class, or at my internship from 7:00 a.m. till midnight six or seven days a week for three straight years.  Exactly one year after I finished my degree, I had my WLS.  

I need to get moving this morning.  Yesterday, I drove out to Flint to volunteer at a campaign headquarters, and drop off water for the residents.  The campaign headquarters is a water pick up spot for the residents.  Then, last night I discovered I left my phone charger there, so I called the organizer, and he put it at the main desk for when I go back.  He also told me that he gets pallets of bottled water at a food bank regularly for the residents there, so he told me to use the money I'd spend on water to donate to the campaign instead.  I met some wonderful folks there, and will be heading back today to do more work, and get my charger.  While I was there yesterday, I picked up a shirt for my Sean.  Michigan's primary is next week, on the 8th.  Pennsylvania's isn't till April 26th.  He and I are full on for this candidate.

We're having a heat wave here in Michigan.  Yesterday, it was about 42 degrees.  Today it's supposed to be 55 or so.  I should be able to shovel my walkway after most of the snow melts away.  Then, we're supposed to get some more later this week.  It's not supposed to be as bad as last week, but we'll see.

Well, Michigan State basketball game started.  They're gonna crush Penn State.

Love and hugs,

Trish

Hello...not much happening here...went to Bingo last night...won BIG...$7.00!!!!! Had to split with 7 others!!!!!! LMAOOOOOOOOO had a few other chances but no more wins!! Oh well...always next week plus its the monthly drawing also!!!!!!

Weather here is nice but getting windy as the day goes on!!! Supposed to hit the mid 60's today!!!

Rick is cooking on the grill today. Think steaks. Fine with me.

OK back to playing my games...I am still hurting all over my body!!!!! Going to see Dr Matt tomorrow and hope he can fix me!!!!!!!!

Thoughts & Prayers for ALL that need them!!!!!!!!!!

HUGSSSSSSSSSSSS

Hi Linda and all to follow,

I think that your women friends are so important...I am so glad that you got to have a few days with women. I have friends that are younger and older and what I have learned from the Olders is that we are likely to be widows at some point and if you don't maintain your friendships with women you could end up quite lonely. 

I am tutoring Emir in a few minutes and then later I am going to be viewing the Academy Awards with a friend. I have watched many of the movies but not all. I tried...

I need to get to gettin'...hope you are all well and taking care of yourselves.

Julia

Linda B and Ladies,

It is cool today but not cold so I am happy. 

Linda, I am like you with the healthy bones. My doctor said that all of us obese folks have strong bones because they had to get thick and strong to support our weight...now that's not to say that we cannot get bone loss but bone loss at our age and with the size of our bones is really insignificant. If we were to live fifty more years, we might catch up to those women who have been normal sized their entire life.  I do have rheumatoid arthritis but that is autoimmune so it is a different attack on my bones. 

Vic, I know how you feel with the caffeine withdrawals and then on top of that, the sugar.  Girl, get you some extra strength tylenol. I am down to one cup of a coffee a day and one diet coke. Remember, I used to drink a pot of coffee (12 cups) all by myself every single day...and when I started decreasing the coffee, I tried to do it all at once and I thought I was going to go blind with the pain so I have decreased it a cup a week and the diet coke is not that stressful on me...in fact, I could stop it today and replace it with a cup of tea but I really like the buzz I get from the cold diet coke and I am not a fan of ice tea.  I have to make a break from it, though...I really need to.  We should do another post on addictions.  

Julia and Linda, I agree that our girl friends are a huge part of who we are...my BFFs and I make sure we spend time together come hell or high-water. I have my grad school friends too and we all do conferences where we meet up and hang out but there isn't anyone who knows me like my friends from my teen and young adult years. We all get together about twice a year for what we call a weekend without men...and we rent a cabin and just hang out.  I'm the only one left who still has a husband--my friends are either divorced or widowed and this is going to sound sick but every single time we all meet up, the first thing they ask is how is the old ball and chain doing?  LOL  They mean well. And when he was getting treatment for his prostate cancer, they all showed up at the hospital and at my apartment to help me with him. They do get frustrated that I am not as free as they are but I do make almost all of the events they plan...

Judy, I'm glad you won, albeit a dollar, but hey, a dollar is something. 

Well, today I am editing a freaking chapter to a book for one of our finance professors and let me just say boring.  He is also from China with very limited English writing skills, so every sentence has major errors. I make him pay me 50 dollars an hour because it is so labor intensive. After he finishes the book, he wants me to index it and copy edit it one more time and he even offered to buy me the software program for indexing, so I am going to do it...but damn, every sentence has a million errors...I really want to scream and sometimes I send him emails and say, really, really, you still haven't learned how to use articles....

Okay, enough of my crap. I am also going to wash some clothes...and maybe crotchet.  I can only do so much and then I need to have some fun and a friend of mine has a sheep farm and she makes her own yarn from her goats and sheep and she also has some alpaca from another friend and because I edited her how to book and her ads for various things she sells, she sent me tons of beautiful natural fiber and I am dying to make something for my granddaughter. The fiber is natural brown, white, sort of reddish and black...it is beautiful.  I found a beautiful cape pattern for young girls like the one I made myself, but I want to make it big enough she can wear it for a few years and that fiber should be good forever.   Maybe I'll make her spread for her bed. I don't know...something. 

Ladies, my name is Jeannie and I am a diet coke addict...I know it is not good for me but I love the way it makes me feel...I am down to one a day but I sweat it when I see the bottle getting close to empty...I really want to drink only diet coke...I'm awful.

Good afternoon Linda and everyone....

Linda ...it sounds like you are having some really fun times with your friends. Good for you!!

I had a Dexa scan two years ago and they couldn't believe how great my bones were. I just had one a month ago. My bones are in serious condition. I couldn't believe it. The doctor said I can very easily break a bone now. Especially in my arms, legs, ankles and feet. Two years....how can that change that much in two years??

As for me.... I had a phone message from my sweet little Gracie at 7:00 AM. She couldn't sleep. I couldn't get back to sleep. That was okay!!

I was so mad yesterday! I went out for my walk. Then I sat out in the sun for about an hour chatting with people coming and going. I came back in and no internet! I spend time on Face Time with Nic trying to figure it out. We couldn't ge*****ler and Mitch called and told me to do the same things Nic and I had done. I finally shut down the computer and left it for the night. I wanted to reply to posts from some of you yesterday. I could have done it on my phone. That is too hard for me to do. Anyway, I finally checked in and now there is internet. Something must have been wrong in this area. 

It was so wonderful yesterday. Today it is 30 with really high winds and very cloudy. I sure feel it today. I hate these rollercoaster days!!

I am going to go lay down now. My hands hurt too bad to answer posts today. I have read them all. You all know I care and love you much!

Prayers for our special OFF Family and their families. Special prayers for those in need.

I did post on Facebook last evening from my phone. I am asking to please keep my Nic in your prayers, swinging chickens, good vibes or whatever you do. Nic is now in Memphis with his dad. They are at St Jude. Nic has testing and scans and all kinds of things from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM tomorrow. They are checking to see how the chemo has effected his body and more things like that too. I so appreciate all of you...please keep him in your thoughts tomorrow. It will be a tough day for him. I will update as I learn anything new.

I know many of you know Nic has been going thru this since he was not quite 3. Nic will be 23 on April 23rd. Nic has spoken about this day to me quite a lot lately. It seems to be the age, if these kids make it to that number, that the cancer gets very aggressive and they don't make it. I believe Nic will be the one to make the difference. Sorry I am rambling. This will not be an easy week at all. The testing is hard enough. The waiting for results after the team of doctors discuss it all is even harder.

Have a good evening everyone. I am not sure if I will be on again today. 

Loads of love and bunches of hugs to all....connie d

Connie, darlin', you KNOW I am praying for Nic and for you this week!  God is in control.  He can do miracles that no doctor can understand.  

I have never had a bone scan.  I think I must need to do that this year.  I think they said to have one done after I went through menopause.

My headache is better now, but neck is still stiff.  UGH.  I've done some packing and we made a long list of things to pack, so I'm feeling more organized now.

Julia, I don't think I've seen a single movie on the Oscar list this year.  Not a single one.  Can you beat that?  I need to get out more.

Love you all!

Hello Ladies

I am home again and what an upbeat church service today.  Rodeo is starting Tuesday so Trinity Episcopal church had their 3rd annual Country Mass.  I thought it was going to be a jazz mass because of Paul English but it wasn't although he had to throw a few jazz licks in there.  The mass celebrated the life and music of Bob Wills the creative genius behind Texas Swing.  It truly combines country, blues, New Orleans jazz, throws in a little syncopation, mixes it up all together and voila....Texas swing.  It was so much fun but I must say I have never taken communion to "Stay a little Longer" before, especially in a dignified church fill with gorgeous stain glass windows.  "Milk Cow Blues" was just as interesting.  A church with reverence an a sense of humor....what could be better?

Vickie guard your checkbook.  You won't be able to choose from all those proofs.  My daughter in law had photos done every month of the first year and then every year since.  You just can't turn them down.  Those things sell themselves.  The 4 generation picture will be priceless and such a keepsake for Caralee and a picture in the bluebonnets.  Can't believe it will be that time of year soon.  At the end of a weekend though the flowers are so beat up from everyone sitting in them.  I do hope your headache goes away.  I had the same reaction when I cut out sugar.  Worse headaches ever.  I drink diet cokes with and without caffeine about equally so I don't get headaches from them.  Feel better!

Patricia - Snow.....what's that????  How far is Flint from where you live.  Do you have to travel far to campaign?  No offense to campaign workers but I will be so glad when super Tuesday has come and gone.  I get phone calls every half hour or so from all the candidates, presidential and state and federal elections that are coming up on Tuesday plus a few other state issues.  I am ready for it to be over already!!

Judy Congrats on your big $1.00 win.  Your can buy a couple of stamps.  Hope you get to feeling better.  Is your new guy still working hard?

Julia, What is this viewing.  Are you getting an early look at the show or is it today?

My ignorance is total.  Haven't been to a movie in years.  Would rather be walking the mountains or desert. ( in pleasant weather of course)  You are so right about girl time.  My husband didn't understand how the group of women we met on a train once were so jovial.  They were all widows and had been for awhile.  He asked me do you think they will look for husbands.  I said, why would they.  They have fun together, they have each other, kids, and grandkids to enrich their lives and they seem to be financially secure so where's the need? 

Jeannie...My girlfriends are more recent acquaintances than high school but since our 50th reunion last September I am in contact more with old high school friends albeit via face book and not face to face.  It still nice to know what is going on in their lives.  I  have an Asian friend who only started learning English a few years ago so I know what you mean.  My husband has been in the US since the late 1960's and he CANNOT use prepositions properly and is often gender confused.

Connie, major bone scan changes in two years...yikes! Did the dr. explain how this happens?  Prayers for Nic.  St Jude does wonderful work.  I have been a contributor of theirs for years.  I love what they do.  What exactly does Nic have it you don't mind my asking?  Hope you get some more sunny days so you can sit out in the sun.

Well, Its time for me to scoot.