"All I Want for XMas is to Lose a Few..."

[banalien]

to the new thread for December!

Come on and join us as we journey through the twisty, turney path of the Holidaze trying to either lose a few or just plain maintain!

All are !

[banalien]

Marking my spot...will be back later to post....

[BellaHMB]

Me too, cute name!

Bella

[banalien]

Originally Posted by BellaHMB

Me too, cute name!

Bella

Thanx!

I only cruised through the posts on the old thread but I saw something about Netflix from you to me. I will go back and read it in a bit and reply, K?

[TXCutie]

Thanks for starting the new thread, Mitz. I'm here. lol

Patt - Thanks for sharing your story with me. It does get so frustrating. I try and not get depressed, but sometimes it is just so hard. Floyd and I don't buy extras for ourselves either. We spend every thing extra on the kids. Destinie used to ask about Jeremy all the time, and want to call him all the time, but now that she's getting older, she sees how he is, and how he treats the kids. Once in a great while she will ask to call him, but usually gets his voice mail. I do not talk bad about Jeremy or put him down in front of the kids. He does enough of that on his own, and they are old enough to see how he is. Thanks ya'll for letting me vent. I know everyone has problems and worries. Sure is great to get it off my chest.

[Patt3]

Mitz...thanks for starting the new thread!!

Vi...glad to share my story. And these kids do figure it out. But I find it very painful to think my son had to come to terms with the fact that his "real" dad was just not there for him. He kept trying, even after his kids were born. they visited a few times. (His dad is in a different state) But they get nothing back. No Bday cards/gifts for the kids, no effort to maintain the relationship. They have pretty much given up. It is very sad, but I am so, so glad my DH has such a close relationship with my son and has filled the void.

[BellaHMB]

Sure thing Mitz!

Bella

[Meg41]

Good Morning!

Great thread name Mitz.

Vi, I wish I had something brilliant to say or a way to give you a hug. Disappointment is a tough pill to swallow at any age. It must so difficult watching your kids experience it. Some things we have no control over. Other people’s behavior is one of them. We can control how we react to them. Do NOT let him get to you! Even though I’ve only been in this group a brief time, I’ve still be able to see what stability & love you and Floyd provide those children. Be grateful for that. Sure everyone has problems and worries. That’s what makes us human. We’re here to listen and offer anything we can. It’s about healthy living… venting is healthy.

[BellaHMB]

I think it's helpful to remember that our kids have their own personal
work to do, and his relationship with his dad is part of that. My son
has a better rel. with his dad now but it is nothing to write home about.
Brendan will always be closer to me, and I am actually proud of the
relationship we have built. But it is hard to stand by and watch his
dad disregard him for his new family. We include Brendan as part of
our family but not so with the dad.

Bella

[Patt3]

Very quiet day here! Just stopping by to say hello! 2 of our grandkids had a piano recital today. Very fun! Their teacher is a young woman my son went to school with from kindergarten all through high school and they were good friends and played a lot of music together. So it was fun to see her and her parents again! And always fun to watch the grandkids play! They did well! We recently gave them my mother's piano. My sister had it after my mom died and no one was using it. She offered it to me and I suggested givng it to the kids. So it is nice to see them putting it to good use.

I did manage to stay away from ALL the cookies and cheesecake and punch at the recital!
We got the tree decorated last night so we are in good shape here! A few more small presents to buy, but mostly done shopping.
I'm making chicken roll ups for dinner. Just pound a chicken breast flat, place a slice of ham over it and spread a wedge of laughing cow light cheese over it. Roll it up, secure with a toothpick and bake! Very nice and easy! You could use any type of cheese or cheese spread! There's my "yummo" tip for the day!

[Wendalina]

hey ladies, just got in from the farm and wanted to mark my spot...be back later!

Wendy

[Linven]

Hi! Great name for a thread!!! I'm plugging away, you can find me also under "starting over". Do you mind if I join in?

[Stevie]

Happy MOANDay!!!!

Thanks for starting hte new thread Mitz! Linvin...(I'm in the Tyler area!)

Okay - here's what you've been asking me for....this took me days to write...and as I remember other things, I'll post them...

Okay –guys – my holiday was, in short, GRRRRREEEEAAAATTT!

Got there at 2am on Wed night/Thurs. morning and we “reunited” for a few hours. (Yes, ladies, I got my first round of “sexercise” in!) Then had to get up and start with the cooking and food preparation. We did good! I prepared the mashed sweet potatoes (which came out wonderful!), while he prepared the stuffing. It’s funny to see him cook. He refuses to read over the whole recipe – he does it one step at a time and when I had a moment, I asked him what was next and he said “I don’t know, I’m working on this step right now”…lol…He decided to use fresh chestnuts so they had to be roasted first as well and then peeled (what a pain!) and chopped. I made creamed peas with fresh pearl onions as well (from scratch – hadn’t done that in years so winged it and they turned out too!), we did roasted potatoes, and little sausages wrapped up in dough around the turkey. Also did some fresh green beans which I steamed, and then made a sauce of butter, lemon zest and fresh rosemary and did a quick sauté prior to serving. Then we had home baked sourdough rolls. We had plenty, needless to say. It’s funny – we forgot the cranberry sauce and only remembered it later. Lol I did insist on cleaning up all throughout the cooking so that we didn’t have as much of a mess later. I thank goodness we did that, as I surveyed the damage the next day. Alan had gone out and gotten a wonderful fall tablecloth with placemats, napkins and acorn napkin rings that all matched and he set the table and it was cute. I ate what I wanted and didn’t worry about it. We had Greg & Anna (she’s Russian) there along with Lev, a Sri Lankan friend of Alan’s. Lev brought all this alcohol as he wasn’t sure if he should bring anything (he doesn’t drink himself) and also a strawberry rhubarb pie which was to die for. I had a very small piece of each of the desserts. Oh yes…my cake made it without any problems. I got teased a lot all throughout my journey there about bringing “pie” or “cake” for everyone on the planes as I boarded.

We were so tired at the end of TDay (I attribute that to good food, good company, and 5 bottles of wine that we shared – it has nothing to do, of course, with the fact that we got no sleep the night before, right?) that we went to bed early. I got up early and got started in on the kitchen and the table, etc…I didn’t want to leave a mess. After the cleanup (which took a couple of hours) we went out to the City. We had talked that morning about the apartment and what he wants to do with it, i.e. he wants to get a bar for one area and an linen cabinet, a wall unit for his TV and stuff, etc. As I was sitting there, taking in all the knickknacks, I started chuckling though. I pointed out to him that we’ll need glassed in cabinets on the wall unit and he said “Why, sweetie”??? I just grinned and said “Jazzy and Missy”….he said “oh s**t”….lol…so now we’re looking for one with glassed in displays on either side for our pretty stuff. That led to a discussion of where to put everything so we were up and down constantly with the tape measure and back to the computer. When we went into the City, we hit a couple of furniture stores and found one of the bars we had looked at online (pretty nice with a granite top) so we were able to see it up close. Then he said we’re going to 47th Street and grinned. I told him that I had hoped but I dang sure wasn’t going to ask him….lol….We took a cab there (by the way – that day the temp., with the chill factor, was 27 degrees) and got to 47th Street. It’s a narrow street with all these small shops with nothing but jewelry in the windows. It’s funny, as you go from shop window to shop window, they come out and try to get you in, almost like hawking their wares. As you look at the merchandise in the windows though I noticed that it was hard to visualize a lot of the rings since most are only settings, with a stone to still be mounted. I don’t like that at all – it makes it harder. However, it was a fun (and exciting) time nevertheless! He said he thinks he knows what I like now.

On Saturday we went to the Mall nearby – I wanted to look at dresses and see the new stores that have opened up. We ended up at Macys (it’s a very nice Macy’s!!) and I tried on 4 dresses – When I tried on the red one, Alan’s eyes lit up and said “that’s gorgeous and you look gorgeous in it” and everything else was bland compared to it. When I came out of the dressing room, he reached for the dress, looked at the tag and said “I’m buying this for you”. It’s a dark garnet red that fades to a Xmas red (going left to right) with a ruffle going down one side, halter neck, red sparkling glitter on an overlay of sheer netting-type material. It’s very hard to describe but it’s gorgeous. In the meantime, the other dress came in with the one-shoulder that was supposed to be late and it’s just as well Alan bought the dress for me as the other one doesn’t fit.

Bottom line – I had a grand time.

Last week was a killer – worst ever on this case and it’s only going to get worse I think. We were short attorneys to make decisions with Ogre out, I stayed late every night except one, working on it and also worked through my lunch hours except for one day when I had to run an errand. Oh yes, all of this with a massive sinus infection too. I did run to see my doc and put on 875mg amoxicillin twice a day and they also changed my allergy medication, saying it’s clearly not working for me any more since this is the 2nd sinus infection in 3 months. Hopefully it will all break up and drain soon. Anyway, I did not for the life of me want to come in here today.

On Saturday I took my Mom to Canton so was gone all day and then when we got back to her house, I had to move her large TV from the garage to her family room as the sat. TV guy was coming on Sunday to hook her back up so they have TV again. My sister was supposed to clear a path so that the TV could be moved but she didn’t so when I got there, I kinda was “not nice” about it. Lifting that sucker was hard, even with the two of us. Then yesterday morning, I found out that the tree lot was going to be open only another couple of days, so ran out and bought my tree. Prior to going out, the smoke alarms at my house both went on the fritz at the same time (come to find out, when I got one of them down, they were supposed to be replaced in 2003!) and I battled the alarms for about 45 minutes before I could get them off. They wouldn’t even shut off when I took out the batteries. Got one out but the other one does not have a little thingy that you can just pull out so that sucker is hanging down from near my ceiling in my hallway until Alan gets here. I can live with it for now.

It’s been a very trying time since I returned, needless to say, with a lot of difficulties that have been thrown into my path but I’m proud to say that I’m pulling through. I did get on the scale this morning and I’m at 150 so have lost a couple since returning. Willl be back at 149 by week's end.

I noticed that I started the month of November off at around 154 and, only actually lost a couple of pounds for the month, however, I lost a whole size. I’m attributing that to the major workout minutes I did. I am starting my workouts again tomorrow. Missed one day last week due to working late but made my Thursday appointment.

On Saturday night I did end up staying up late talking to DA – just like I had no time to post, we also had not talked at all last week. We did some Xmas shopping for my Sis’ kids online together and looked at more rings – I sent him the pictures. Then last night, he called me….he had apparently spent all afternoon learning about diamonds and the 4 C’s …so it looks like he’s serious. He said he just doesn’t want to get screwed when he goes to purchase one, so he’s educating himself on it. He also mentioned how expensive they are and is worried about the place not having the right stone in stock when he goes to make the purchase. This is a huge purchase too – he doesn’t do credit at all, and pays for everything in cash. So when it comes time to plunk down whatever for a ring, it’s a serious drain on the finances. I’m thinking about telling him if he needs more time, it’s okay, only I’m afraid that if I do so, it’ll be extended to “whenever”…I’ll hold off and see what the signs say while he’s doing this. I did remind him that a friend of ours used to sell jewelry so he’s going to talk to her.

I want to tell you ladies that I don’t have time to do indies – it’s taken me over a week just to type this up but I will say that I’ve been able to read the posts and have celebrated with each of your triumphs and have sympathized with those who had trying moments. I hope to be able to get back on track with daily posting this week – probably in a few days.

Ogre is on his way in so gotta duck out again now but will try to check in with you gals tomorrow, if not later today. Today’s gonna be a killer anyway, with Ogre’s first day back and I need to clean up form last Friday. I only gout out of here at 8:30pm on Friday night and missed my Dad’s birthday dinner, to boot.

Luv and miss ya’ll…bear with me…..

[Peony]

I'm "Rolling" in to say HI. I was at a show this past weekend and I sat at my booth eating candy all weekend. I am ashamed to say that I ate a bag of peach gummie rings and a bag of chocolate snowmen and santas. I think the scales are up about 5 lbs and I feel like a stuffed pig.

The weather was to be terrible--coming from you folks in the west--but as it turned out it was just cold and windy. We did have snow on Sunday morning, but missed the freezing rain that was predicted. I had a great show and sold a few prints, but I also got two nice orders. Now I will be really busy drawing because there is still one here to finish. I also collected business cards from some of the artists that I loved so that "when" I get my gallery I can contact them about putting things in it.

Last night I had a gerd attack. I would hate to live like that all the time. It was horrible! I bolted upright out of a dead sleep and it burned my throat so much that I had trouble getting back to sleep. I think this happened because I had some pb on ritz before bed and all that chocolate, plus I had a big salad for dinner. I guess I was bloated and sleeping on my stomach wasn't a good idea. THis should give me incentive to get back on plan.

Stevie, you really are a busy woman. But you manage to write a book! Sounds like your TG dinner was wonderful. And it was so nice to share it from people from around the world. I'll bet Alan is thinking Christmas when he is looking at those rings.

Welcome to the group, Linven.

Patti, I'll find that recipe for the crepes. I usually don't even use the recipe anymore, but it would be nice to give you the proper amounts to use the first time.

[TXCutie]

Good morning ladies. BRRRR.....it was COLD out there this morning during my walk. I did walk 2 miles, then walked home. My legs were so numb from the cold. The scale was back down this morning. Last week was not a good week for me, and I didn't stay on plan. The scale was up a whole 5 pounds. So, I decided to jump back on a clean induction on Friday. This morning my scale read 170.2!

We are going to Floyd's Christmas party after all. Floyd told his boss we wouldn't be able to make it financially. His boss emailed us yesterday, and told us he would pay for everything. He told Floyd that I've worked too hard this year on my weight loss to miss the party.

Ugh, I need to clean house this week. We will be leaving for San Antonio after we drop the kids off at school on Friday morning. I don't want to leave a messy house.

Oh, Destinie has her poetry reading UIL competition today. She was so excited when we dropped her off at school this morning. They will be going out of town for the competition, and coming home sometime later this evening.

Don't have time for indies right now. I need to go get some bills payed online.
I'll post more later though.

[BellaHMB]

Stevie,

Let dear Alan have his feelings about the major purchase and dont try to make it better for him by saying later is ok! We really want to see you with the ring you are waiting so patiently for!

Bella

[ozres]

Originally Posted by BellaHMB

Stevie,

Let dear Alan have his feelings about the major purchase and dont try to make it better for him by saying later is ok! We really want to see you with the ring you are waiting so patiently for!

Bella

Ditto to what Bella said! He's known for a long time that the time for this special purchase was coming.............

Let him figure it out.

Marla

[ozres]

Good Afternoon All,

Well, I somewhat survived another pre-holiday weekend! DH came home early from his twin-engine flying school training (had to quickly get the boyfriend out of the house!!!! JUST KIDDING!!!!!). The weather didn't cooperate, so they just postponed the training until a sunny moderately windy day comes along. So, Friday night we went to our favorite "tie on the ol' feedbag and pull up a chair" catfish buffet.

Saturday was a HUGE Christmas decorating day. My neighbor's 10-year-old daughter came over and helped my DS (age 10) carry up the plastic tubs of decorations. Oldest DS (a scrawny, but growing!) 13-year-old and I moved living room furniture and we put up the tree.....four times!

We had a little problem getting the tree put together "properly"! How frustrating! DH couldn't help 'cause of his illness and lack of strength, so we did it while he was gone. I didn't want him to feel guilty about not being able to help. And HE always is the mastermind in putting the tree together. DS and I "forgot" that the 10' tree had 4 sections. We had the three bottom sections all put together, lights were hooked up (and working this time!), and we were fluffing branches when we saw the large bottom section laying over on the hardwood floor! D A M N! So we took it back apart.

Then.......it was too wobbly and we had to re-engineer the base to make it more sturdy. At some point I explained to scrawny DS, how to use your legs to lift....not your back. He thought I was crazy until he got under the tree and had to push it upright! See Mom does know something!

Oh, and don't forget about using the somewhat self-leveling thingies on the bottom so the tree stands up straight. What? Your tree isn't self-leveling? We use these high-tech thingies called "folded-up pieces of newspaper" to level the tree!

Anywho, several hours later, the tree was decorated and standing straight, the dining room chandlier and candleabras (sp?) were adorned, the Dept 56 Alpine Village was lit (the light switch to turn on the church lights exploded fire and smoke when DH plugged it in.....that was exciting!), and the coffee table had a new display of snowmen! Dang, earning this "Mother of the Year" award is hard! As a HUGE thank you to my DSs and the neighbor girl, we ordered pizza! I did good..........only ate the toppings.

Tomorrow night, I will decorate the dining room table and be done with it! I may have already told you guys, but on Sunday night we're hosting the dessert portion of a progressive dinner for our church youth. So, I'm trying to get everything ready. I'll have somewhere between 20-30 youth and parents for dessert. Obviously, next Friday and Saturday will be spent cooking.

Weightwise, I'm still at 161.5 - 162.5. Maybe I can drop another pound or two by the weekend.

Mitz, LOVE the new thread title! Thank You! Has Pete started his new job yet? Where ya' at, chick?

Vi, that's great news about Floyd's Christmas Party!!! He must really think a lot of you and Floyd. Concerning the kids and the Ex.......a friend of mine has the same issues and she refers to the ex as the sperm donor. Sad to say, that's about all he ever did for her family.

Peony, my DH has a hiatal hernia and has a lot of the same symptoms. He can't eat anything three hours before he goes to bed or the acid in his belly gives him fits. We used to sleep with the bed elevated, but he doesn't have to do that anymore. Don't sweat the sugerfest this weekend..........just jump back on the wagon!

Bella, I have great respect for non-traditional families that figure out a way to make the family-unit work for them. Sounds like you and your DH include your children from previous relationships in your activities. That's not easy, but I think it's the right thing to do.

Stevie.................WELCOME HOME! So, good to finally hear the Thanksgiving holiday details! I'd love to see the rings that you're looking at. Can you post a link? After reading about your work schedule last week, I can see why you didn't have time to post!

Linvin, welcome to the group! Jump right in and tell us your story.......married, kidlets, weightloss horror stories......... we're nosey, too!

Warden Patt, I hear you about the piano recitals! I took lessons from 3-8 grades and still play for church. I feel for my parents having to listen to me play for all those years....it wasn't always pretty. The chicken rollups sounds really good. I'm looking for some new ideas and this is a possibility.

Wendy and Meg, you guys marked the thread.....now you have to come back!

Rita.........did you find us with the new name?

Gotta go. I've got a Christmas party tonight and need to get home early to fix dinner for the family and wrap a present.

Marla

[Stevie]

Ogre has pretty much left me alone today and hope he does it tomorrow too, since I really need to organize all the documents filed (and oodles of Exhibits) last week.

Peony - I wrote that "book" over the course of 6 days...lol..a bit at a time whenever I had a slim minute...don't worry about the lapse....Heaven knows...the holiday period is going to be hard!!!

Marla - your tree decorating session was hilarious!!! I ended up getting a 7-8 foot tall fraser. They put it in my car but I had to lug it over to the garden table and hammer on the stand, then lug it around to the front so I could take it to the living room. It was very awkward! I decided to leave the netting on it for now and keep it watered. I wasn't going to get one but realized, as DA pointed out to me, that it will be my last "real" tree since it will be impossible to have on on the 18th floor of the apartment building. Too hard to get rid of afterwards. So decided to get one anyway. That'll be one of the sacrifices I'll have to make.....as a lot of stuff starts hitting home...

Bella - I guess I'll have to agree with you and Marla...you guys are right...he's known since last January!!!!

Vi - Glad you guys are going and that you'll get to wear your dress!!! How nice for Floyd's boss to do that! It was cold this morning here..I ended up wearing cords and a heavy sweater to the office.

Patt! Hi hon! I know you'll be here to tonight.

Rings you ask? In the morning I'll post the ones that we looked at on Saturday night. Some of them are with big stones but we saved them anyway since it's the design we're looking at. I don't want big since my small hand won't support a large ring anyway. I told him "aren't you glad I'm not a Diva and am willing to start small and trade up later?"..he agreed wholeheartedly...

Dang....4 minutes to go...I've got to get out of here and go buy cat food at my vet's..my poor babies won't have any for tomorrow if I don't.

I'll talk to you guys in the morning!

[Patt3]

Hi everyone! Glad to "see" everyone! I wasn't thrilled to face Monday today, but at least it's over now! Still cold...it was about 9 degrees this morning. and more snow coming tomorrow! 3-7 inches they are saying...I hope it's only three!
Not much news here.

Linven... As you see, we can get "chatty" at times! Introduce yourself and tell us about you!

Stevie...thanks for sharing your story of thanksgiving. It sounds like you had a wonderful time! And how fun to go ring shopping!! Yes, do let Alan worry about this one! I am picturing you dragging in this 7 foot tree! WEll, enjoy the last real tree! I bet it is goingto be hard for yu to downsize for this move. After having a whole house to yourslef and moving to a shared apartment will be tough! Are you going to have to get rid of a lot of your stuff? But you will take the cats?

Peony..glad you had a good show! I had a good laugh when you said you felt like a stuffed pig! Maybe they will put YOU on the Christmas table this year!! No rush on the crepe recipe, but I would like to hear how yu make the filling.

Vi....I am sooo glad you and Floyd get to go to the party. That is wonderful! And what a great boss to pick up the tab! So is the party this Friday? Hope Destinie had a good time with her poetry thing!

Marla...good visuals of you with the tree too! Well, ya got 'er done! Good job. Wow! 20-30 kids plus parents for dessert? That is a ton of people! Good luck on that one!

That's it for now! See ya later!

[BellaHMB]

Thanks Marla, it is a challenge but we are working on it. My dh and I dont attend his family events and instead have our children here and see individual family members (those who we want to see!).

Just got my huggable hangers from hsn- they are great!

Bella

[BellaHMB]

Welcome Linven!!

Bella

[Wendalina]

ok, I am back as promised.... what a crappy day... I got pick pocketed at WalMart and they got my license and debit card....however I froze my debit card before any damage was done so I guess its not a total loss. I have a few more calls to make before the night is over, but I promise to post back tomorrow.

Have a good night ladies!