Sudokuaholics Anonymous 10

MizT, you posted just as I was about to sign out.
Enjoy your pool visit. It is hard to imagine the cold you are feeling when it is so hot here.
If this post is a topp...

'You're only old once' Dr Seuss.

Another better topp.

You can't have a better tomorrow,if you are always thinking about yesterday.
C Roth

Since this is still supposed to be the world ending day and it expectantly didn't happen....as my son said...Welcome to The World of New Beginnings...and we can use some new ones here on SA...
Love continues to be spread...Suzy...that you took time and money and desire to help make little ones happy on Christmas more is the true spirit of the season....You, more than any thing else , by doing this have spread so much love and happiness around, to say nothing of making all of us here feel good.....Thank you and hubby for your love and kindness, and showing what Christmas is all about.
Heidi, You and others but am happier to know how much we all think fairly much about some real issues and cxhallenges that are a part of life... have sad so many times that I am able to write what you feel, but are unable to write as I do, I thank you for finding the heart and meaning behind my words reaching into your heart.

I finally got all of the Christmas presents wrapped and ready for shipping. Better late than never. I'm gonna make IH post them tomorrow, since they're all for his relatives, and he didn't help or spend a penny getting them.

That post really got messed up a bit, but I was trying to say that those of you who have appreciated my post because I have often been able to capture your feelings in what I write...I am very happy that we all can feel the words from each others hearts...the message I try to send is only as good as what we all feel...so if I have done well, its because I have so many of you to thank for filling my heart with warmth and gratitude.
This post was just interupted by two young men going door to door spreading good cheer and singing carols...it's really beginning to feel like Christmas.
Safe, restorative days ahead will help get you off on the right foot...but if time and things just don't permit...do remember your other foot...lol
Merry Christmas
Happy Kwanzaa
Happy Romadon,?sp.
Happy holidays
Or forget all of the about and just be happy about having new starts available if wanted..

Peace, Love and Joy...and a little Drummer Boy too..or in Bean's case a Drummer Girl.

To get myself in the holiday mood, I've had Christmas carols playing all day instead of old episodes of the Jack Benny radio show on non-stop.

Good morning folks... and it is indeed...
I have been so busy trying to keep a lid on my anxiety that I have been completely oblivious to the fact it is Christmas in only 3 days...
Now what to do... forget about it completely? Probably...

Received a few invites from friends who would like their day to brightened by a touch of the Bean magic and I'm feeling very torn between the offers. I will probably jump on the train and go to Geelong because my best friend needs some moral support with a family 'situation'... If I don't stay the night I will just about be home before Lachie and Jai have surfaced.

A very tempting offer was to spend it aboard a 35' 'boat' on the Gippsland Lakes. Sounds delightful providing the weather was favourable..

As for presents? It's a bit late to be starting thinking about that...
I already have received the best that is/was possible.
I would like to clear out a corner of the lounge to put the tree up.. love a Christmas tree.

Yay... Mama... have just got to your post... 'Drummer Girl'.. I like that
Today will be another quiet day while the cocktail of drugs still in my system ia excreted. From the amount of trouble I am having typing it is obvious it takes more than 24hrs to happen. Didn't do very well on the 'Easy' sudoku which was a good indicator. Was able to think through what number went through but then something was being lost in the translation.. entered them in the wrong squares.

Lead weights are back on my fingers and eyelids so will say sayonara for now xx

Ciao for now everybody

hi everyone. sorry I haven't been around for a while.
Nola, I was so sad to hear about Judy. Please accept my condolences.

Hi all. Had a nice day today. None of the rumors happened. Just the normal last day of school stuff. Kids had waaaay too much candy and were hyper little buggers. Have not heard of anything anywhere else so all is good. I had a first today. I had an entire class absent. All two students. Yes Suzy, I currently have a class of 2 I actually had time to get work done, can you believe it.

I'm typing this on hubby's iPad and it feels a bit strange. #1 son bought it for his birthday in November - he's a good boy.

I have recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and it is taking me a while to get my head around the changes I need to make in my life. loosing weight and exercising is the major change. I now monitor my blood sugar levels, have joined weight watchers (again), visit a dietician and exercise physiologist, been to the optometrist,podiatrist and the dentist as well. Whew, now you know why I have had no time to chat. All this has happened since early November.
So far I have lost a couple of kilos but I'm still not exercising as much as I should. My last blood test results showed that my long term chance of being type 2 is back in the normal range (yay me!) but I still have a long way to go and about another 15 kilos to lose.

Hi Tami! I'm so glad that everything went well on your last day for the year!
My family had an early Christmas gathering this week. My sister couldn't make it this year so she has taken Mum to her place for a couple of weeks. She flew up on Tuesday and took Mum back with her on Wednesday. My family (mum, sister, 2 brothers, niece and her fiancé) joined us at a pub for dinner. We then skyped my other niece who is currently living in London. It was a great night.

It' time I left you all. Unfortunately I need to brave the crowds at the shops. Today I'm going to buy the food for Christmas day. There will be 8 of us - hubby, 2 sons, MIL, my younger brother and my niece and her fiancé.
The fiancé (Steve) wants to come to our place even though his family live close to them. I'll take that as a compliment. My niece has to work on Christmas afternoon so we'll take Steve home later in the afternoon. Steve and #1 son are good mates.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day!!!

Tami - glad your day went well and nothing dire happened.
Nola - love your new Christmas avatar and how lovely to be given the magnolia. I hope your fingers are greener than mine.
Vicki - sorry about the diagnosis. I can't work out how you need to lose over 15kg - unless you've put heaps on since I saw you in June. You'll be stick-thin!

I'm off to bed. Tomorrow the local tractor dealership is having their Christmas party/ customer appreciation party, so I'm heading over there. Then I need to make sure I'm well stocked up on food for the holiday. It turns out that we're having company for Christmas dinner. I plan on serving a leg of lamb, twice baked potatoes, green beans (IH's favorite food) and I'm-not-sure-what-else-yet.

Tami, thank goodness! I read that 33 schools in Michigan were closed due to rumours. They figured the parents wouldn't let the kids go anyway...

I've wrapped Tahli's presents, but that's all. Sigh.

Vicki, sorry about your diagnosis. You're a pretty determined lady so I'm sure you'll get your weight down and nip this bugger in the bud. Bad time of the year to have to do it though!!

Nola, I hope you have better luck than I would with the magnolia! I would hate to be given a plant in remembrance because it would almost definitely die!

Daily anecdote: I just took Tahli home and Dana was telling me a story about Three's brother. A friend of his helped him sign up for a phone plan. Stupid stupid stupid.. A prepaid plan is the only thing he should have! There are fantastic prepaid plans now. Three's bro broke the phone and cancelled it and stopped paying. The friend now has to go to court over a $900 unpaid bill! And there's still more than a year left to go on the plan.

Dana was talking about how horrible Three's bro was to do this and how he yelled at Three for not helping him out of it and how generally nobody should have to do what the friend is having to do...

I didn't say it, I thought it, but I didn't say it. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT SHE DID TO US, except we were able to pay the outstanding balance so it didn't end up in court. We did keep paying for 18 months though...

Morning all.
Still snowing here. Yesterday hubby shovelled the driveway 3 times. Our little side road has not been plowed recently, but it is passable. The lights have been doing a little flickering ... I so hope the power doesn't go off because with the wind chill is -11C right now.

I am up sewing ends in on the blanket and making spaghetti sauce. D is still not well and has called in to work sick for today - her temp is just over 100F. Now her hubby has the same flu and the youngest grandie is starting to feel ill. I hope I manage to avoid it, but .....

Yesterday grandies made 2 and a half snowmen in our back yard. They were out there for hours.

I hope to get back a bit later to read. I also need a sleep today because I got up around 2:30 AM. I am going through a bout of insomnia, which happens every couple of months. Hubby is planning on spending the weekend with his dad. I was hoping he would stay home because of the weather, but I doubt that he will.

Theresa, I still haven't counted my squares, or finished another one since school finished! I thought I'd be feeling less tired by now, but I guess you have to stay home a bit before that happens...

My kids would be so jealous of your grandies making snowmen! Alie sung White Christmas tonight. She rocked. When she changed after precarols she was 'accosted' by 5 cops. (Her dress is pretty special, especially for one that cost $10 from Vinnies - which reminds me, I posted a photo of her in it earlier today and forgot to tell you) Later I went to get my jacket out of the car and one of them asked me when she was on. I told him she was up next. After she'd finished I took her down to the lions food van to get something to eat, a group of cops accosted her again. They really like her singing and they will see her at school next year when they come in to talk to the kids about things like binge drinking...

Suzy. The dress is stunning.
Still lots to do before the family get here tomorrow night. It pays to really go through things and sort things out. Hubby and I are now $100 each richer. I found two birthday cards each with $100 inside. Mine was probably at least three years old.
I did a big shop this morning. Getting all the fruit and vegies for the next week.
Suzy, it will probably take a week or more before you feel relaxed and back to normal after all the teaching you have had lately. And a big congratulations for your generosity to that young mother and her family.

Theresa, I do hope you do not get the cold from your family. You have enough aches and pains without that.
Heidi, I hope you do not suffer too much waiting for the next epidural.
Victoria, sorry to hear about the diabetics. Good luck with the wait loss.
Actually I had some blood tests this week and my sugar was up a bit, also the colesterol. I got told to go easy on the cakes and chocolates (I told him it was more likely to be cheese!) and to loose 5 Kilo. I did get told to take some vitamin D tablets. Alternately spend 45 minutes each day in the garden. I do have three hours each week playing bowls. I do have pretty good skin but I do not want to encourage skin cancers!

Congrats on the unexpected windfalls, June.

I need to get dressed to go to the tractor dealership's Customer Appreciation Christmas party. After I get back, I need to feed hay to the cows. I sure do appreciate having a good tractor now.

Just waiting for IH to show up so we can go......

Morning all,
I've been up for an hour and it's very annoying! I'm still tired and there's no reason at all for me to be up. Yes, there's a million things to do but I can't do them early in the morning because they'll wake everyone up!

Heidi, hope you got to the tractor dealership's party! I'm assuming you did since you haven't posted in a couple of hours...

June, you're probably right about the cheese. Mum once told me that's how she got her cholesterol down, she gave up cheese completely! I've been eating a bit of it lately so I'd better watch out... I've heard 20 minutes a day in the sun is all we need. I wonder why you've been told 45? I couldn't spend 45 minutes outside without sunscreen on either.. forget skin cancer, I'd be in pain from the sunburn!

Theresa, I hope your power stayed on! I'm pretty sure you would have had to go to bed to stay warm if it went out in that kind of weather!

I think I'm up to 2 out of 26... A P plater had a couple of drinks and it was only $20 by taxi to our house and $60 to his so we let him stay the night here. I gave him a lecture about drinking while on his Ps...they can't even have one drink! Turns out I've met his mother, she was in Carols with Alie and is a lovely lady.

Mamacita, I love that we have some of the same Nutcrackers! There were a few hidden behind Alie too. One has a music box as it's base. I started collecting around 1994 and love them!

I waited for IH for 15 minutes after the party started. he finally walked in the door and told me he couldn't go. So I went by myself and had a marvelous time. Once I got home, I went out to my tractor to feed hay to the cows. I was thrilled with what I found! I told IH that all I really wanted for Christmas was a CD player for my tractor..... and when I got in my tractor a little while ago, a good quality CD player was already installed! So I fed hay to the cows listening to the album ''Music From Big Pink'' by The Band, on LOUD.

Hello all .... so much to do and so little time.

Suzy, thankfully we did not lose power. Some people closer to Ottawa did. Hubby went out to shovel this morning, only to be told by one of our neighbours that another neighbour had tried out his new snowblower on our driveway and had done this other neighbour's driveway as well. Then the snowplow came along and threw a whole bunch of ice chunks at the end of our driveway ... but the man who was cleaning out the Youth Centre's driveway with his truck came along and cleared that out for my hubby. There are times living in a small town has its benefits. Left me feeling all warm and squishy inside. Then the lady who drops off catfood once in a while for the outside feral colony just to help out, left two large bags of dry catfood for us. Every bit helps because it does get expensive feeding the feral guys and gals.

The snow stopped some time this afternoon, while I was having a nap. We went from no snow to snow banks at the side of the road a couple of feet high and more. I do believe we will definitely have a white Christmas.

Hubby has gone down to his dad's place to drop off the Christmas presents and do some shovelling. He is not visiting his mom and dad because he has had quite a bit of contact with D and her family (all but one of them now has the flu) and he did not want to spread the germs. So the food I made for him to take to his dad's place will be put in the freezer until next weekend. Next Friday I won't have to spend the day cooking ... how sad is that?

Theresa, what a wonderful way to start the day!! And you get to have hubby home too!

A big hello to everyone and the best of festive greetings to you all and your families.

Suzy, Alie looks stunning!

Hubby just got home half an hour or so ago and is chomping on spaghetti. It's an hour and a half drive one way to his parents. He has a fire going in the fireplace and watching a movie on TV. I am sewing ends in and there doesn't seem to be an end to it. Nice relaxing evening so far.

to our own eaa

Yes, dear eaa!!!!

I'm going to bed early, and gonna watch a DVD in bed. See you all tomorrow!!!

Greetings everyone.
Had hoped to achieve more today but still falling asleep every time I sit down. Heat doesn't help.
The cool change will be very welcome..
have heaps to do tomorrow.
Have read but will comment later.
Catch you all later.

Carols done!! At least they finally put me in the Christmas spirit... I just wish I had already wrapped everything!

Happy Birthday eaa! Come and tell us what it was like!

Heidi, did IH install the CD player? I got a little confused there.

Carols are over! Now I just have to get the rest of Xmas organised....

Family arrived yesterday afternoon. They are now all asleep. Hubby keeps turning off the AC. I know it makes the bedroom cold but then I can sleep.
Shopping all done and wrapped. Just have to collect the prawns and oysters this afternoon.
I do hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve.
Heidi, IH must have ben forgiven a lot of his sins when you saw your Christmas present.

No, Suzy, part of my Christmas present request was to have my favorite tractor mechanic install it so it would be done right. IH wouldn't have a clue as to where to start.

The stitches in my mouth just came loose. It's such a strange feeling to have all of these strings hanging around in there. I can't seem to stop playing with them with my tongue.