Sudokuaholics Anonymous 9A

Looks like it is time to turn the page. Hope fully one full of love and laughter.

Good morning all!
MizT - so glad that Al is a lot better - fingers crossed for good results on the cat scan.
Heidi - glad the methodone kicked in. With Robert - his heart seems to be in the right place - I find that bad language and inappropriateness (probably not a word) can be forgiven in that case.
June - enjoy the cruise.
Thought and vibes to the miners although daily the situation worsens.

Theresa (Sorry - this has turned into a book in lenghth!!) - your situation is one that keeps me awake at night. Being often responsible for my own grandies - I know they absolutely exhaust me but I don't have them constantly. It's hard to describe to anyone else - it's a sort of mental exhaustion from keeping them safe in my care. It's a huge but mostly rewarding responsibility.
Here in Australia, in a case like your daughter's - our Social Services (Centrelink) would give your son-in-law a carer's pension. It's only about $120 per fortnight but would be enough to provide before and after school care for the girls as well as vacation care. Also your daughter would get free medical and highly reduced pharmaceuticals.
Because Emily has Epilepsy, Andrew gets this pension and is able to put her in this school care to enable him to hold a full-time job. Not all of these school care facilities are good but the one Em goes to is brilliant and she loves it.
Does your Government provide any of the above - it would help you. I'm so worried that you'll get sick or have a breakdown without help and I don't think our kids ever realise that their parents are ageing and can't do what they once could! Please take care!

June, in honour of your TOPP I will send love and hugs to all and sundry... I hope everyone has a great day, and for those whose day started out badly, I hope it improves! Vibes MizT!! Extra hugs to Theresa...

I made coffee from 6am to noon yesterday and didn't mess up an order until 10 - that's when my brain refused to work for a while. I thought that wasn't too bad.

Last night Ally decided she wanted to enter a competition and so whipped up a painting of a koala on a background of glue and paper towels... I've put up a photo for you...

Hello my little lovlies. Have five minutes of ME time, sipping on a coffee. thouhgt I wood spent the time with you all.

I have been Soooo busy, like a blue ass fly in a tripe shop.

Having hubby home fool time have it's minuses and pluses.

I no i have misspelt sum words butt that's me.

I think your butt's just fine eaa!

eaa, I'm flattered you decided to spend your ME time here! BTW, love the photos from the other site, wanted to buy some, maybe next year...

Well the coffee cut MT. So I'm off like a bad stink. ♥ 2 U all.

Suzy i would be more than honoured if and when you buy a piccy/s
cut = cup.

Howdy all. Before I start, HUGS to you all. I wish we could ALL be on June's cruise, sounds wonderful. Maybe it's time for another cruise of our own...

Sorry to have been MIA. I have been reading and thinking of you all, saddened to hear of your burdens, but gladdened whenever there is a snippet of good news. Nothing much happening here, though I don't really seem to have a lot of time to myself. Today is different, hubby has gone into work, a few issues, but he and his partner are stepping in for a week to see if they can steer the ship back on course. Must say I am enjoying the solitude.
I am not actually home alone, Hannah is home too, but I don't expect her to surface much before lunchtime! Her school year has finished (Yr11) and for the last week they have been doing what is called Kickstart week, giving them a feel for Yr12, their final year of school. She does have to go in tomorrow to give an oral presentation for Yr12 English, all the students do it, and I will be going to the secondhand text book sale. Fingers crossed I get everything she needs, new text books are an exorbitant price.

Our recent days have been filled up with journeys to the hospital, nothing serious, just routine (a drag really!) I take all of hubby's blood samples here at home, and we need to go into the hospital to pick up the 'whizzer' (centrifuge for spinning samples) and have to return next day with the samples and the whizzer, bit of a pain but...It is what it is! Hubby and I made a bit of a day of it both days. Monday we did a round trip running some errands then stopped at the local hotel and had a scrummy lunch in the bistro. He had a huge lunch as he needed to fast for the 8 hours of dialysis for the post sample to be taken, it is a cholesterol check, so that meant he was not able to have dinner whilst on the machine, as we usually do. He and I had toasted sammies at midnight! Yesterday we went in to the hospital early, and stopped in the next town and had brunch in the cafe we love. We came home and potted around a little, but hubby is still unable to go outside as the hayfever is still bad.
I have had to water everything each morning as we have had a heatwave out of nowhere. Not very fair when the temp doesn't do a gradual climb. It has not been unbearably hot, even though I am not a hot weather person, but it is so dry and the vegies, herbs and plant pots were looking very sad indeed.

Gail, textbooks are given out free at Ebob's high school, but they are supposed to return them at the end of the year. I hope Ebob is doing that...

Oh, on the exciting side of things, we have been spending! Finally we have a dinner table big enough for the 8 of us (including the kids' partners) and the table is even big enough for when the younger two have a friend as well. If and when grandies come along, they will have to sit at another table, just like we had to, but I think it will be a loooong time before that is ever an issue.
Hubby and I also now have recliner rockers for our lounge, very nice I must say. Our 'end' is starting to really look like a grownups room!

Tell me about the price of text books Gail, I seem to be forking out more and more money for Em's books for Uni.
Elaine has had a clear out and has sold all her Forensic science books, which I bought for her during her time at uni. She managed to sell every single one so has a little cash to spend on frivolities.

I was talking with June on Skype the other day when my husband rang me on my mobile. I ignored the call, well I can talk to him anytime can't I, called him back later to find his call was a bad news one. His work contract has been ended early (3 weeks) so now he is looking for a new job.

Hugs and good wishes to everyone who want or need them.
Suzy, Ally's koala picture is lovely hope she is lucky in the competition.

It was the same with textbooks in my day (oh so long ago) Suzy, and I think it still is in the state we came from. You pay a deposit at the beginning of the year and it is returned if the books come back in reasonable condition. It was one h3ll of a shock when we moved over here and I found out that they were all to be bought new (secondhand if possible), and if you are lucky enough to be able to sell them afterwards, you get a pittance of their original value!
Some of the larger books are around the $60 mark and novels are anywhere up to $25, so you can imagine what the costs can be if a student is doing 10 or more subjects in their junior years, with some subjects requiring more than one text!!!
All very well and good except that at the end of the year, the books come home looking as though they have not even been opened! Hannah has said a few times that certain books were not used.

Oh Brenda, I am so sorry about your hubby's bad news. That sucks the big one! I wish him every success on swiftly finding a better job. :)

Gail - we have a 10 seater table (in the outdoor area) which was still 1 place short when my son was still married - and will be again when he finds a new partner. Speaking of which, he's renewing his friendship that Lisa M, who was on FB with us last night on Karin's post - long story - we don't say much to him but K & I have our fingers, toes and eyes crossed. She would fit in to our family soooo well!!! That last one didn't!
Last Christmas, we just carried the big table into our family room so we could utilise the air-con.

Brenda, I'm sorry about your news. Richard posted on that other page that he was looking for work again, but I thought he was just preparing for the end of the contract...

Not even a deposit here Gail...

I suppose our outdoor table could seat 10, but we wouldn't be carrying it anywhere - it's super heavy, I can barely move it 6 inches or so to sweep the dog hair out from around the legs..

Hi all. Just stopping in for a minute while food is being dekooc. I am now off for 5 days. I wish I could fly up and help Theresa for a little bit. I understand the burden she has. I don't think my mom would do anything less if it was me. She did a lot of babysitting when I needed her.

I hope to be back later and reread the posts as I don't remember what I read.

Brenda - sorry to hear about Richard's job. I hope he gets a new contract asap.
Suzy - our table is very heavy too - timber. Col and Andrew moved it. I couldn't!!

Off to see Harry Potter this afternoon. Anyone seen it yet?

Hello good people, I am back and I have survived!

June, I would very much like to come on the cruise with you, but ....

MizT, glad Al has put on some weight. It will put him in good stead for the next round.

Suzy, I checked out Ally's picture and I love it. Good luck to her in the competition.

I must admit that I have been down in the dumps lately (as if you didn't know). I spent most of the day at my daughter's and both girls are recovering nicely from the flu and were actually in good moods most of the day. I prepared meals and played with them. I came home around 1:00 PM to do some of my stuff, and I fell asleep for 3 hours!!!! My daughter had phoned several times, but I didn't hear the phone. Tomorrow my son-in-law will be home by 3:00, so it's really just getting the girls ready for school in the morning. Then my SIL is off on Thursday, so it's just Friday to get through.

The morphine is helping my daughter with the pain, so that's a good thing. Hopefully after her system gets used to it she won't be quite so groggy.

Gotta run for now and get some chores done. Hope to be back in a while. Thanks for all your well wishes, my friends.

Good Early Evening, Everyone! I should be getting ready to fling food, but since I haven't been able to visit here in a few days, I want to share the updated posts about my nephew:

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2010 12:22 PM, CST
R's head wound is healing REALLY well and he should get his staples removed a week from tomorrow.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2010 9:05 PM, CST
R IS IN A REGULAR ROOM! We are ALL SO THANKFUL for the sweet, heartfelt wishes...THANKS SO VERY MUCH!!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2010 2:48 PM, CST
R has been having some head and derriere pain, so he's been getting some pain pills. Tomorrow is a special day for R; it's his 27th birthday! With so many High School friends heading home for turkey, it will be nice to be close for them to be able to visit him.

{I just had a call from my sister and he's on his way home. He'll need to get some physical therapy through a facility closer to home. The comment about turkey refers to Thanksgiving Day on Thursday.}

Our family wants to thank everyone who has prayed for R and sent positive vibes. We'd be pleased if you can keep them up, as he still has a long road ahead of him. My sister is a bit overwhelmed right now with all of the things that will need to be done with and for him; she's having second thoughts about whether he's really ready to be discharged. We all need to remember: it's one step at a time.

I don't have time to read right now, but just read Theresa's comment above. Theresa, I'm SO glad you survived, but I don't know what you survived. I hope I have time to read the 6 pages I missed sometime tonight!

{{{{{HUGS}}}}}, positive vibes, prayers and to all of you!

Julie, I think your sister may feel like Theresa does on a bad day soon. Sending all kinds of thoughts and wishes to her as well as R. I'm glad he is doing so much better.

Theresa, if you didn't hear the phone you must have needed the sleep. I'm glad you got it!

Cyn, I haven't seen HP yet but a friend on FB did and she posted that it was like watching the book. Another posted underneath 'better!'

Theresa.... Thanks for the PM. Glad you're not mad at me for sticking my 2 cents worth in the mix.


EAA WAS HERE!!!!!! And I was napping. Sorry I missed you, my friend.

Sorry about Hubby's bad news, Brenda. to you both.

Julie - thanks for the update on 'R'. Continued good thoughts and vibes for his full and rapid recovery!
Ciao - closing down now - off to the movies (on my own - can never get anyone else to come to HP movies)!

Just checking the news about the NZ mine and it doesn't sound good. Following is an excerpt:

The Associated Press
Date: Tuesday Nov. 23, 2010 8:27 PM ET
GREYMOUTH, New Zealand — A drilling team on Wednesday broke a narrow shaft through to the section of a New Zealand coal mine where 29 workers have been missing for almost six days, and was greeted by a blast of potentially deadly gases from inside.

Officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of pulling the men alive from a network of tunnels some 2 kilometres deep in the side of a mountain, following a powerful explosion on Friday.

Well folks, I am just about ready to head to bed (again).

Brenda, hope your hubby gets another contract soon. Being out of work is no fun.

Hugs to all who need them.

Morning everyone.

Hugs and ♥ to all especially those that are in need.

So saddened by the latest news from NZ. My heart goes out to the families and authorities involved.

Hi, Everyone! I'm currently reading pages 436 and 437 - obviously have some catching up to do!

Hi, Suzy, Heidi, Broni, Gail, Theresa, Suzanne, MizTricia, Brenda, CynB, Tami the T, June, V Viv

Heidi, how wonderful that you are able to share firewood with people in need - and without having to "discuss" it with IH!

Suzy, I hope you're remembering to take care of YOU!

Broni and Gail, thank you for reminding us to keep the New Zealand miners and their families in our prayers!

That reminds me: a couple of weeks ago our wood turning club hosted a man from New Zealand who did a full-day demonstration and a couple of days of small group hands-on turning classes. We were able to attend the full-day demonstration, which was very informative and enjoyable.

Theresa, it seems you continue to be very busy with two households! I hope you occasionally get time for yourself to regain your sleep, strength and sense of perspective! Sure wish there were a way to get you a quiet day by yourself to spend as you wish! It's perfectly OK to vent here, as I think we all have learned. My hubby sometimes does pretty well with shopping, but sometimes it's like you described. I could even tell him which aisle and shelf an item is on and describe the package and he could bring home the wrong item. I actually think he's doing better now that I count on him to do more of the shopping. Maybe he's just becoming more familiar with the store and what frequently purchased items look like. (BTW, I enjoyed the story of the seamstress - and would have a hard time choosing between George Clooney and hubby.)

Suzanne, I hope you are enjoying your time in the Pacific northwest! Did you get there before the ice and snow?

MizT, it is so good to read your posts from home and see that Al is doing so much better! I continue to send {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, positive vibes and prayers your way for both of you! I can certainly imagine that you might have less time to read. I'm thinking my sister is going to find herself in a similar position as she tends to my nephew. (She had just started working a new job a couple of weeks before his accident; and she has no idea when she'll be able to return to it.) When I talked to her, she sounded overwhelmed by all the instructions given when they checked R out of the hospital.

Tami, belated birthday wishes to Dylan: Happy Birthday Dylan! I hope you had a great day and a yummy cake!

Continued best wishes for R.