Today is our 16th anniversary--Dave's & mine. Peg~I'm not sure I can give you any good advice but I'm certain Tikanis can or someone here. (Thinking b/c Tikanis is a nurse.) Tikanis~Thanks for commenting about the dog. Now we are getting 2. Can hardly wait. I'm so excited. Have already bought most the things we need for them. :) BJ~Hugs [[[ ]]] You are such a Dear. I would be an emotional wreck. You cannot imagine what I went through when the lady asked me to take the 2nd dog. They are rescue dogs. They weren't abused per se. They were taken out of puppy mills. We didn't have the money to pay what she wanted for the 1st dog plus the deposit for both at the apartment so she finally decided that she would give both to us so we could apply the money to the deposit. She knew we would give them a good home & that was the most important thing for her. NH Suzanne~That is one of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen. It should be sent in to a magazine. Honestly!!! Sally~I'm glad you listened to me. It really is the truth. I went to the dr today. We haven't been weighing. I was down 5 pounds. Now, that is from 3 months ago but we were on a 2 month vacation & since we have been back we told everyone we were moving & they have wanted us to go out with them & eat sweets plus we have had Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Super Bowl, & Valentine's just around the corner. :) Down 5 sounded pretty sweet to me! ;) Ivamae~I certainly hope I can force myself to walk the dogs in the cold weather. I have gotten them sweaters. I will have to get myself a heavy coat. Hopefully it will start to warm up once we get there. I'm not counting on it though. We were there last year in April & May & froze to death. UGH! I'm definitely going to do the best I can though. Hope everyone has a great weekend. Patti :)

Hello from London! (I wish!) DeeMarie - June 19th is when her new book, Lean Mean Thirteen comes out. I got 2 B&N GCs from my students, so I will be first in line to get it. I had previously pre-ordered it, but they were holding the rest of my order until June, so I canceled it and ordered something else. Now I am Ready, Willing and Able to start my summer reading. (((DONNA))) - Sending much love and many prayers your way. I have one more graduation to get through tonight, and I only say "get through" because of the way I feel. I finally broke down and made a doctor's appt. for tomorrow. This cough just won't go away and now I have a sinus headache to go along with the cough. Hopefully I will feel better by the weekend. NHSuzanne - How are you feeling? How are the chicks coming along? Raeanne - My DH has this habit of planting trees and then chopping them down when he thinks they are too big, the roots too close to the house or whatever. I came home from work one day this spring and he had chopped down 4 large pine trees that we had planted when we moved in in 1979. He also dinged the house while cutting them down, so I was not happy with him that day. Granted they were getting too tall and spindly, but they hid the neighbor's house from view and believe me when I say that was a good thing. Good luck with your landscaper. Gotta run and get ready for tonight. Later, Marci

Looks like we're all having a busy weekend! I'm happy to report my weight is shifting down - I've recovered from last weekend's visit with my pal and all that food. I've moved from 145 to 143/142ish. Quite happy with that. Slow and steady is my goal. I will stop losing when my body tells me to. I'm focusing on proper portions and healthier food choices. I figure I will settle on a weight when my food balances with my body. Anything around 130-135 is my goal to maintain. Anything lower than 128 I have to be careful because that is a teenager weight and not healthy for me at this age. Too easy to get sick and have little to help me recover from. Besides, I don't do 'thin' - I'm a curvy build and thin looks awful on me. Got there once in the military and everyone told me I looked gaunt. If I were born to be tall fine, but I'm not. My goal is to be able to garden without back spasms and be able to jolt up a couple of flights of stairs without losing my breath. Maintaining a healthy weight is the biggest challenge, not the weight loss. So I plan to be here for some time to come. We're off to the in-laws this weekend. DH's brother is moving back out west after a year of unsuccessfully seeking work in mapping. He's been working 'online' from his original job out west but since nothing has happened in this area he's moving back. He's been living in his parents basement for all this time - not funny. Time to go. I'll miss him but glad we had the time to know him better. Also going to drive a wee bit down a county road tomorrow to practice my driving. Looking forward to that too. I don't do highways because I am not comfortable making turns at higher speeds yet. Take care, I will try to get online this weekend. Cheers, Peggy

Hi, ladies! It's me - back from the world of very little computer access!!!!! I finally can access the internet on my little laptop, the first time in 3 months, so now I can play as much as I want. It was difficult using my friend's computer for very long at a time without being a nuisance, so it became just easier to not even try most days. Looks like I've got a lot of reading and catching up to do. It's the perfect time to have a bad knee, I guess. Unfortunately, it's my artificial knee, and that's worrisome to me because all I did to start this problem was step carefully (I swear!) down off a curb Sunday afternoon, and ever since then, every time I turn around, I'm reinjuring it. Today, I've just stayed in bed with ice wraps until the man came to hook up my 'puter. I've missed everyone. Looks like the divorce may happen next week now because my lawyer and I feel like almost-x's figures are as close to the truth as we can determine. I'll be glad to have that part of my life behind me. He's been more than unpleasant these last 3 months, and I can't handle any more stress. Back in a day or so once I backread y'all's news!