Good Morning!

Luvs...I like you, haven't gotten my Christmas decorations out yet, in fact I started putting away my T's things and actually went to sleep on the ouch and slept for 5 hours.......5 hours! I never sleep in the day time! I never sleep for 5 hours.....DH came home and just covered me with a afghan and my kitty work me up hours later. DH came home with pizza's so I didn't have to cook and finally got the decorations all into tubs. Today is super cleaning day and then out comes the decorations. Our community is having a special house lighting time on Dec. 6th at 6:30 AM (that's when most of us started flooding in '07) so we have a few days to do the outside. Ours DGS usually helps his Grandpa, which is good.

Yes, we did have snow, crippled the big cities, out here we just stay at home. It was really beautiful, but is now gone.

Speaking about DGS, he is home from his trip to Florida and he loves it there, but mainly the weather. He came home with over 600 pictures and most are of palm trees!

Cali.....Are you and DH retired? We are and it sure makes a difference. DH in the house, housework stops! He sleeps in longer than I do so that is my computer and cleaning time. He also does a lot of the shopping, save me from walking on the cement floors most stores have, they kill my knees.

As Luvs said, hope everyone else is well and just to busy to post.

Take Care,

Hi Everyone,

Luvs and Belle, hope you have gotten your fall things put away. I didn't buy anything new to put away so had plenty of totes to use.

I got laundry done and most of the presents wrapped until I go shopping again this weekend. I am so tired tonight that I will try to get some extra hours in.

Belle, I think my record nap has been 4 hours. You beat me! The first time I did this I couldn't believe one could sleep so long during the day. Now if I need a nap on the weekends, I take one. And if I need more sleep during the week I head to bed early. It sure seems to help.

Loved reading your story about DH covering you up and bringing home pizza. DH cooked for us last night and it was a wonderful surprise to come home to. If he keeps this up, I just might keep him.lol

So glad all your snow left. What are your temps. during the day now? We got more snow today. Have had a couple of bad accidents and that it the worst thing that could take place this time of year.

Hope all of you stay away from the flu season.

Punk

Hi...I'm here finally!! So much going on and only one car to get it done with. Hubby was off last week so we tried to cram in a lot of family time in between our chiro appts, family dinners, Thanksgiving and one Blizzard then another big snow storm (22 inches in one night!!). I got my Christmas tree up but can't find my tote with the lights in it yet. Still not totally organized in my attic yet with only half of it finished. Hubby supposed to work on it over the Christmas holidays.
I have had one home sick with some kind of stomach virus. Trying to keep everything lysol'd down so it doesn't spread thru the family. I have a sore throat that I'm trying to fight with Airborne.
I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet. I'm freaking out a bit. Remember when I used to start and be almost done in October!! Ugh. Luvs~ I haven't started on any of my neighbor gifts or 12 days of Christmas gifts. I've found a few recipes for things like cinnamon almonds (like they sell at our movie theater) and some other little things that I may do up quickly for gifts instead of trying to kill myself to get everything painted that I wanted to do. It seems like I used to be so much more organized!! ha If any of you have any good ideas for quick little gifts I'd sure like to hear about them!!
It's in the 20's here in during the day and has gotten down to below zero a few times at night. With all the snow and freezing temps along with artic winds to freeze everything....getting the kids to school even takes twice as long. It's a snowy mess here. The main roads are cleaned off, but the neighborhoods are huge mounds of snow, slush and ice. We had something like 120 wrecks in one day!! We have our church Christmas party this coming Friday and then our neighborhood block party on Monday. Planning to go if we are not sick. It's gonna be freezin though so we probably won't stay long.
I'm feeling so much better with the chiro appts and physical therapy twice a week. Still not 100%, but way better than I expected to be. The appts last 3-4 hours since there is an hour long massage for both DH and me before the chiro sees us. Big chunks of the day gone to get anything done.
Anyway, I'd better get going. Hope you all have a wonderful week and I will try really hard to get back again. ~Anj

Luvs~ Decided to make a couple of countdown to Christmas block sets and some little sign sets with paper. Working on them now.... by hand. I know you could do them much faster with your cricut! ha

Remind me never to complain about the rain ever again! We are expecting snow flurries tonight and tomorrow, then a warming spell (2 days) then another cold front. But nothing like you Punk or you Anj....Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if our snow was dry and the temp stayed below freezing. It's the cold and then the thawing then the freezing that really makes our roads a mess.

Anj...glad you are feeling better! But girl you wear me out! I have a sister like that! Never stops! Truly wish I had some of her drive.

Punk...visited you home over on the Holiday side....gorgeous! And the BOP! How fun, I always include that area in my decorations.

I am really having a difficult time decorating this year. And have already put away several things I usually use. I also smile every time anyone mentions bins......I have dozens of empty bins. After the big event, so many people brought in bins and we filled them with what we were able to salvage....Ouch! that's an ugly word. What we were fortunate enough to be able to save. That says it much better! Friday with be the 3rd anniversary and our community has planned a gather so that we can reflect back and also share the joy and hope that our area shared during the months of what was a sad time. Anyway!!!!! Wish I could ship all those bins to all of you! Your post reminded me that I need to get them out of the attic and donate them to someone.

Luvs...gotten any goodies lately? I did find a couple of metal trays that I think I will try to paint something on, just don't know what yet.

And to the rest of you gals.....where are you?

Well, DH is looking at his watch...must be time for something, OH! Yes! Food!

Belle

Anj, before I forget, I want to share this blogger's treat with you. So easy to make and comes with a special meaning Christmas story too. It might come in handy for neighbor gifts or for church or school if you need to take a treat. I sent it to my DIL too, and she thought it was really neat. I'm so glad to hear that the massage/therapy is helping. Hope you get a chance to find a replacement car soon--must make it really hard to get the kids to all their activities with only one.

Belle, that is so neat that all your neighbors pulled together to help each other during/after the flood. Hopefully, nothing like that will ever happen again. I can't even imagine how heartbreaking it would be to have so many of your things ruined that way. You sound allot like me--part of me wants to do minimal Christmas decorating because it is so much work, but being on the Holiday forum always inspires me to drag it all out and find a place for it. I made/bought so many things for Halloween/Fall this year that it was difficult figuring out how to stash it all away! Almost afraid to pull the Christmas bins out for fear I won't be able to get it all back in when I go to pack it up! LOL (And yet I love painting new things and going "treasure shopping" for cute stuff.) ;o)

Punk, all that snow you and Anj are getting sounds like it would be beautiful--but I know it is such a hassle too. Yes, I agree, the accidents are the worst part. Belle has the right idea to just stay in as much as possible--but when you have to go to work, there's no way to do that! We've had some rains and cooler temps. Have been seeing snow on the mountain tops north of us too. Nice to look at, better not having to shovel it! ;o)

Better get moving--wish I had a clue what to get everyone for Christmas! Haven't done a bit of shopping yet! And yes, Anj, I do remember how you used to be "so organized" and ready way ahead of time. Your kids are older and busier now so you have less time for all of that now. Besides, I sometimes think we just expect too much of ourselves--no one else expects us to do as much as we expect of ourselves! LOL

Have fun and take care,

Luvs

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy Christmas treat

Well, here it is Saturday already! Boy, the weeks sure seem to whiz by fast, don't they? Just got back from lunch with the girls I used to work with. Had a little gift exchange that was fun too. Always fun to see what we pick out for each other each year. ;o)

Now I need to get serious about family gifts, don't want to wait until the last minute if I can help it! Weekends sure are not the time to shop however, especially when retired like I am and can go anytime.

I'm not painting anything so far. Just need to get some decorations up and figure out the gift things first, maybe then I can think clearly and select a couple of projects to work on. Do the rest of you feel that way too?

Okay, I'm off to the shed to pull out a couple of bins and at least get started. I'll chat more tomorrow.

Luvs

Good to see alot has made it here this week. Went shopping today and didn't get as much bought as I was hoping for. DD will do some more for me next week. I owe so much to her for always being there for me.

So glad your feeling better Anj and hope you continue to improve. I bet it is hard with only one auto with your busy schedule. Can hardly wait to see your blocks. Your weather sounds alot like ours. It's been in the teens but today while in town the sun came out and it hit the 20's.Woohoo

Belle, seems odd anyone could have to many totes. It is nice that all of you will spend time together. Can't imagine what you've gone through. Our roads are pretty good most days. They've started using salt and that scares me for the future of our autos. May have to trade sooner than normal.

Thanks for the commnt on my Holiday posts. You should spend more time there and you will become addicted real fast.lol Luvs is such a great enabler. I no longer have room for new dishes at my home! They are a great bunch but it has taken me away from my painting. I now love doing tablescapes too. I've always loved to decorate for the Holidays but now I'm into tablescapes too.lol

Luvs, great to hear you had a nice luncheon with the girls. I ran into an old co-worker today and she said she would be coming to the office so we can catch up on the lastest. I'm so glad that most of my friends come and visit me there cuz I don't have alot of time to go see them like I use to.

Did you start your Christmas decorating today? You are a smart woman to shop during the week. Town was so busy and it's hard running from store to store to find what gifts one wants. I forget to check on a couple of things and had to go back only to find out they didn't have it any way! I also left my purse in the resturant! Thank goodness when I returned it was still there. That was so scary. All I could do was think of all my cash, cr crds, checkbook, smart phone and tremble...Will say my prayers again tonight for the safe recovery.

We are not sure when we will be moving the office with this weather. We have alot of snow and slush most days and I have no desire to try to move in that. We had a customer in and said the farmers almanac says that we will be getting warmer weather by the 10th and winter is almost over. I sure hope he's right. I haven't read the FA for several years but they use to be pretty close at predicting the weather.

So are all of you cooking Christmas dinner? I will be but we haven't discussed all the details yet. Did you know that they have a turkey fryer that you can use inside your home now? DS wanted to buy one for us but since we have the outside one we didn't get it. In time I'm sure we will tho. That would be so nice to be able to cook out in the garage during bad weather.

I best go over to Holidays and see what's new before heading to bed. I'm pretty tired after shopping all day and then wrapping gifts...

How I wish for the days when my kids were kids! We no longer give "real gifts" we give gift cards! The kids don't have to return "gifts" that way. Bah! HumBug! In someways it is better, I don't have to spend hours trying to figure out what to get a 17 year old step GS or my daughter who is size 2. But, it really takes the spirit out of Christmas and the kids still buy us "stuff, that we grim about or have to return or exchange. Go figure. The best Christmas I can remember is when we all made all of the gifts, no way that is going to happen again.

I have been hanging out over on the Holidays side and it is wonderful, Luvs andPunk, I can see how you can become addicted! If I had a formal dining room I might be tempted.... but as our dining table is off the kitchen it is in use all the time. I do like decorating the house, but put half of the decorations away, not up this year. Just no energy, maybe later.

I am still busy with the orneys - ornies? Anyway, had to repaint the faces on all as I picked up the wrong color and din't notice it until I was ready to do the eyes and nose. OUCH! Now I will have to also re-touch up the mustache and hair as well. Still should be done by tomorrow, hope so as our friend leaves for Austria on Thursday and one goes with her for her DGD. Didn't help that I broke, now that sounds silly, a blood vessle broke in my eye. Didn't hurt but I really have a blood red eye and the side of my face looks like someone hit me only without the bruising. And that doesn't make sense, why would the face swell when the eye is involved? Go figure!

So, back to work and then I can get to the project I really want to do!!!!

Take Care All!

Belle

So, here I am again! Hope everyone is well and just busy.

I finished my ornies and shipped them yesterday, one is on it's way to Austria and some to Idaho. Will try to post a picture later today. If I work really hard and fast to get my housework finished I might even start on a snowman project that I really want to have done before Christmas. My shopping is all done.....whew! But then most of it is gift cards or money. Did a very nice crocheted cowl for my DD, it is supposed to be a stocking stuffer, its so big and bulky it will never fit in her stocking.

So...I'm off to work, hope to hear from you all soon!!!!

Belle

My week has been eventful and stressful! First my power supply was dying on my PC. I had to use the laptop to order another and it took 11 days to get here. I installed it, had to go to HP to download a driver fo the keyboard and viola, or so I thought. Somehow I got malware on it the lst day I used it. I downloaded malwarebytes and it took 16 hours to go through my computer. Most of those hours were last night. Today is the first day it is really working.

Now, that doesn't seem to bad, but the 2nd day my PC was off, DH wanted to watch a basketball game - a site we regularly go to on the laptop. They have changed their video system and a popup told us to down load silverlight. Now I don't usually follow popups but because it was 5 minutes after gametime, and we weren't getting the game, I did. Baddddd mistake. The program had an error in it. And killed the laptop. Then I am without either PC or LT. Ugh!!Finally I get the pc up as stated earlier and I go to computer help here and get info about fixing the laptop.
So Monday night I got the power supply in, Tuesday and Wed I visit the help forum, meanwhile my PC is going slower and slower, but I managed to follow their advice for the laptop before my PC crashed. Both are working now, but the LT needs to update its antivirus and I was using AVG on it which issued a bad upgrade so haven't gone that route yet; I have Norton on the PC but it didn't stop the trojan.

Thanksgiving, I put in my turkey only to have the power go out for an hour. Luckily the turkey was still very cold so I was able to continue cooking it. DH and I just had a light meal.

Enough of my junk! Glad to see the Christmas spirit in the above posts. DH and I are retired. I quit some years ago because the pay scale in this small town wasn't good. It was a blessing because I was able to be rested to take care of my mom when she had her stroke. She came to live with us and died a couple of years later. DH got retired a couple of years before he wanted when the company he worked for closed its doors and moved the business elsewhere. We are fortunate he was close to retirement age, and COBRA has helped too. Lots of blessings abound here.

I know what you meant though, DH likes to sleep late also. I typically am an earlier riser and would like to get housework out of the way. Now I am trying to get into the habit of painting early and cleaning later in the afternoon. Habits are sure hard to change! DH and I shop together most times. We make a day of it, ie going to the library and picking out books, going to lunch, and shopping. Sometimes we just get the shopping out of the way. He helps with cleaning and does his on laundry. We pretty much share in household chores.

I've rattled on too much - glad to see ya'll!!
I have done some painting. Being off line helped there! Now I am trying to play catch-up with email, etc. I will try to get some pics soon.

Good Morning.......Good to see new posts....I had a lot of trouble logging in, but finally got the instruction right and am hoping everything works after I log off.

Calirose, you sound so much like me. DH had a job related injury and was retired at the ripe old age of 49...Boy! Was that a shocker! My DGM lived with us for 7 years before she passed and those were really great years. DH does most of the grocery shopping as he play poker in town, one evening a week. Saves me time and energy. We shop together for most everything else. As to the chores, there is no division of help in that area unless I ask,except for dry moping the floors....or using the vacuum cleaner...he is good at doing these for me. He is also my "go to guy" for any craft help I need. He cuts out all of my projects, I rarely buy pre-cut wood, which is a great savings.

Luvs....where are you? I know Anj and Punk are always busy but you are all missed!

I have started a new snowman painting to go in the 6 frame window DH made several years ago, hopefully I will get the other done before Christmas...if not, Oh! Well! There's next year. It is from Jamie Mills-Price's Christmas Between the Vines Vol 2 and I am taking 5 snowmen plus making one gingerbread face into a snowman. I like her work, but am not including most of the "little" things she adds, just to busy for me, I like things plain and simple.

Well, I best get at it...ever present laundry to do and I need to wipe up the dog prints from my floors, we have a flood watch on our river, and that's scary, but then there are no longer any bridges that can form dams, so we should be safe.

I pray that everyone else is as well!

Belle

Hi everyone, I'm so sorry I haven't made it on here everyday. Been busy with some doctor appts for DH and trying to get all the decorating and shopping done. I cut back on the decorating this year and decided not to mess with putting up the tree since we will do Christmas at our son's--but I'm kinda missing it! ;o( Belle, did you see my decor and Punk's on the Holiday forum?

I love your new snowmen and like that you simplified them a bit. As I said on the other side, that's what has scared me away from some of her designs and Karen Wisner's as well--just too much little detail stuff.

Have a little bad news, DH was diagnosed with dementia. I've known something was going on for over a year, but just couldn't get our doctor to check anything out until now. He diabetic so probably caused from that--will know more in a few weeks after some more testing. At least now I have an explanation for the changes I've seen in him.

Belle, I sure hope that river keeps rolling right along--you don't need another horrible experience like before!

Calirose, nice to have you here with us. So sorry you have been having such horrible computer problems. Hope that's all behind you now. I read about your studio on the other post--you are one lucky woman to have such a nice space to paint in. ;o)

I'll try to make it back by tomorrow.

Luvs

Luvs, so sorry to hear about DH. I had a customer in the other day that was telling me about some new medicine out they gave his mother and it worked miracles for hers. Did they put DH on any medication for that? This growing old can really be something. This could have a huge impact on your vacationing huh?

Enjoyed your decorations and loved your little sheep to match the place mats. Hope you know they call sheep "cotton cows" or my statement wouldn't make any sense to you.

TCMDF,

Punk

((((LUVS))) Prayers are lifted for you and DH that his diagnosis is something treatable. cali

Thanks ladies, I appreciate your prayers and caring. We are doing more testing then treatments or medicine will follow. Will just take it one thing at at time and pray for a miracle.

Punk, yes, our long distance traveling in the motor home has probably ended--we will have to see about local trips--just so much unknown right now.

Anyway, we will just enjoy being together and with our family and continue to enjoy the holiday and see what the New Year brings.

Luvs