I am so happy you will see your daughter soon, kathsgrdn. Not having a nice regular sleep pattern is exhausting. Have you tried guided imagery to help you get to sleep? I have spent the day trying to organize the family's schedule through the end of the year. My boys are in different schools, so Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks need more coordination than usual. I have accomplished nothing at all on that score. My husband's schedule is the controlling factor and he has a few things up in the air making planning a pain. I will wait until later next week to nail things down. Mama pinky, fish on the grill sounds lovely. I will try adding Parmesan to my oven baked potatoes in the future (I often use salt, pepper and cumin.) No worries about email- I know all about that ;-) Marilyn_Sue, what fun to get to shop with daughters! I have only boys. Nobody likes to shop with me :-(

woodrose, the Kentucky Governor's cup (and the Tennessee Governor's cup) is always awarded at Contest of Champions, at MTSU. That's the "state" I was talking about. I assume there are other contests and awards given. mama, there's a white supremacist rally that has descended on Shelbyville/Murfreesboro this weekend. 1) they're erring on the side of caution for the sake of the children, and 2) I THINK they want the MTSU campus police to help out since activities on the square are in such close proximity to the campus.

Mamma Pinky, No, he can not eat anything very thin, so he says. He can not get it in his mouth, will not use a smoothy straw even for that. Won't eat any other kind of cooked cereal, won't eat mashed potatoes with lots of gravy or broth to make it smoother. He will eat puddings, sometimes with small pieces of cake soaked into it. Won't eat any Jello. Will eat candied sweet potatoes with lots of syrup and mashed well. I do put eggs, milk, butter, bananas, cheese and such at different times in his oatmeal just to vary it. I don't even know if he tastes his food. Sometimes ice cream on top of the oatmeal. He does eat applesauce and he gets 4 nutritional drinks a day. Drinks some water and that is it. This has been going on for 3 years now. He has gotten worse since the stroke, because he would not continue his speech therapy. Speech and swallowing are sort of linked together, the muscles that is. So, that is the way it is. His speech is so terrible, most of the time I can not understand him. This was his second big stroke. He can not maneuver stairs very well, so twice a day I carry his meals up to him. He only wants to eat twice a day. We live in a bi level home, my kitchen, dining room and family room are down below. Living room and bedrooms up on the upper level, which is also ground level. I am sure there are many on here that have had to deal with a stroke patient. It also affects the mind. Sue

mmmmmmmm.....steak sounds gooooood! the mamo...not so much....lol Just got a call from a medical insurance salesperson, not Obamacare, so it carries a penalty, which she says has not gone into effect yet. I paid it last year! She said Trump has halted all penalities until further notice. lol She was lying & using scare tactics to create a sale.....so frustrating to hear that. "For 2015, the penalty for no health insurance is $325 per person or 2% of your annual household income – whichever is higher. For 2016, the fee is $695 or 2.5% of your income — whichever is higher. For many people, that's more than the yearly cost of health plans they can find on HealthCare.gov.Dec 11, 2015"