7 DAYS 8 HOURS

The freezer on my refrigerator went out. My sister's entire refrigerator went out. Her friend's washing machine went out. My daughters washing machine went out and their phone service is out. Three different cities and two states. Mercury must be in retrograde again. However, it is not and will not be for 7 days and 8 hours. All I can say is that we better watch out next week if all this is happening for no good reason.

Click to check when Mercury is in retrograde

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

DID YOUR MOTHER HAVE A RECOMMENDED CURE-ALL FOR EVERYTHING?

THE GREAT EIGHT 2011

Lined up by age.

Lined up by height.

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING FRUIT BASKET

Last week Ron had a surgical procedure. Nancy, a dear friend of mine, brought us a basket of fruit and a small bouquet of flowers. Because I was with Ron, my daughter told Nancy that she would keep the basket in her car until she could transfer it to my car. Instead she forgot and took it home with her to Oklahoma City. Because the strawberries in the basket were very ripe, she and her family decided the humane thing to do would be to eat them. They also took mercy on the grapes and ate them as well.

My daughter brought her children for spring break and she delivered us our fruit. The remaining oranges and apples went into the refrigerator. Ron and I still had not eaten any of the fruit when the grandchildren decided to share a snack with the neighbor's horses. What could they feed them? Why not apples? Now I have oranges. We better eat an orange before they disappear.

However the goats are jealous of the horses getting those apples so I'm sure...well, you know...if goats like oranges they've got it made:)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Don't you just hate it when you put expensive cleaner in the toilet, walk away to let it soak and almost immediately hear a flush?

F.Y.I. (1) We have wall-to-wall kids here for Spring Break; (2) I have lost total of 25 lbs to date:)

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS

We have a large family gathering scheduled to begin this Friday, March 11th, with ALL the grandchildren coming for Spring Break. Even our California kids are coming! We cannot wait for the group to gather. Our oldest grandson will be heading off to the Navy soon and three other of our eight grandchildren are graduating from high school this year, so this is pretty much the last time they will all get together before the wind blows them in many different directions.

This must be where the expression "When the wind blows, the cradle will rock" comes from:) Our family cradle is really rocking these days.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

How accurate is this chart in your life? .

RON SAYS...

"The 192,000 new jobs that have been created are for handling the job of changing rapidly rising price increase signs in the service stations!"

WHAT THE BEEP, BEEP, BLEEP IS GOING ON?

Something is beeping in our house. We both will hear it and try to search it out to no avail. One of the children must have left some kind of computer game or something and the battery is running down. If the battery is going it is certainly taking a long time to die. It will beep twice, pause then beep twice again and by the time I think I have the position pinpointed it will stop until I go away and then it will begin tormenting me again, only to stop when I need to hear it.

Any suggestions what this might be?

Don't miss my other post for today: YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2011

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2011

YOU
KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2011 when...


1. You accidentally
enter your PIN on the microwave..


2. You haven't
played solitaire with real cards in years.


3. You have a list
of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of
three.

4. You e-mail the
person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for
not staying in touch with friends and family is that they
don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in
your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is
home to help you carry in the groceries.

7. Every commercial
on television has a web -site at the bottom of the screen.


8.. Leaving the house
without your cell phone, which you didn't even have the first
20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic
and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in
the morning and go on-line before getting your
coffee

11. You start
tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12 You're reading
this and nodding and laughing.

13.. Even worse, you
know exactly to whom you are going to email this
message.

14. You are too busy
to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually
scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this
list
~~~~~~~~~~~AND
FINALLY~~~~~ ~~~~~~~

NOW U R LAUGHING at
yourself.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Are there any calories in broken cookies?

'

FYI -- As of this morning I have lost 22 pounds in 8 weeks:)

I WILL FOLLOW CONCHATA FERRELL

The headline read: "TWO AND A HALF MEN SHUTS DOWN" and I breathed a sigh of relief. They were finally going to put the injured sitcom out of it's misery. However the article went on to say: "...suspended for the remainder of the season" and I knew at some point they were going to attempt revival once more. Too many people hang their hats on an alcoholic druggie.

While the supporting cast has been carrying this one time favorite show of mine, they each are beginning to injure their own acting ability trying to pick up the slack for Charlie Sheen. Little Jake is little no longer and his cuteness is gone. Poor Alan appears full of more and more desperation on each episode and Evelyn is aging too rapidly from the stress. Rose already has a separate acting career so she doesn't need the show and they just use her for filler anyway. Only one character has remained stable in the original role and that is Berta played by Conchata Ferrell. I am hoping another show will pick her up and get her going again in a limelight she deserves.

No, I don't really care about what is going on in Hollywood but once in a while I get a little carried away with a weekly TV show like I did with CHEERS and it fills me with separation anxiety as I witness the beginning of the end. Yes, I know there is more to life...

WILL YOU REPEAT THAT PLEASE

Yesterday we took my sister and bil out for lunch. The waitress read off the list of specials and my sister apologized asking the young woman to repeat the list. My sister explained that she had a cold and her ears were stopped up. Yea, right.

The waitress took our orders and my bil said "Teriyaki chicken salad". The waitress adked which bread he would like with it and my bil said "Teriyaki chicken salad". LOL

The waitress asked my spouse if he was through with his salad and he said "yes". She started to take the salad bowl away and he touched her hand and said "I'm not through with that yet".

Of course I was not just and observer of the newly deaf because I said please give me the check and the waitress asked, "for all four?" and I said "No, we want one check for all four".

Perhaps it is time we enlist an interpreter to go out in public with us.

“Old Age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.”

Philip Roth, Everyman.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Do you change clothes in front of your pets?

GRAVE TO CRADLE

This is the year that I will turn 65. In celebration of my upcoming birthday, though several months away, I am receiving mass quantities of mail. These cards and letters are congratulating me on my grand event of turning 65 and volleying for a position of first in line for my funeral:)


Everyone knows that death is inevitable but is it necessary to be reminded daily that we are each only a few moments from that big surprise party? Some of you know that I've already been there once and allowed to return therefore I have no fear of death but I also have no need to be constantly reminded. Should we be made to start each new day with doomsday proclamations?

Yesterday I received a breath of fresh air in the mail. It was from Gerber for "young mothers". There was that sweet Gerber Baby smiling at me from the corner of the envelope. Now, that's more like it.

However those are actually two things I'm not that big on participating in again...death OR raising kids.

WHY WOULD ANYONE SIGN UP

We went out to eat Monday night. Our small town has one restaurant within the city limits. It was Valentine's Day (oops I mentioned it again) and the place was packed.

We were seated near a pastor and his wife. He was a former pastor in our town at one of the large churches (if any of them are large) and almost everyone in the cafe knew the couple. They passed the table and offered friendly greetings and each group that passed by would leave a straggler who just had to make lengthy conversation...regardless of the fact that the man had his wife were out for what I would suppose was to be a romantic evening.

Being the daughter of a minister and the sister of a recently retired minister, I know the drill quite well. Everyone fawns over the pastor and ignores the wife. They might utter a friendly hello to her but their goal is to monopolize the great and powerful OZ. There is not one place that is safe to go out in public because a minister will run into someone they know regardless. Plus, if they try to stay home, someone will have a valid reason to invade even their personal space no matter what the preacher's family might be doing. The preacher expects all that when he makes a decision to enter the ministry but do the wives really know what they are getting into? Do ministers realize how devoted their spouses have to be to put up with living in the shadows?

This woman in the restaurant smiled and nodded and as the crowd grew around her husband I watched her slowly turn and prop her legs across the booth seat, preventing anyone from seating themselves next to her. She managed this slowly and gracefully while smiling and appearing interested. I wished my mom had been a preacher's wife in a time when slacks were proper attire for women. She probably could have used this trick and I can't help but wonder if my Sil knows about it.

Just out of curiosity if you happen to have a church affiliation, do you believe that entitles you to an amount of ownership in your minister over and above his (or her) family?

MORE THAN A PILL

This is the beginning of the 7th week of being on the Alli program for weight loss. As of this morning I have lost a total of 19 pounds. So far I am averaging 3 lbs per week but my actual current loss is 1-2 pounds per week.

Still have not experienced what they call TEs (Treatment Effects). It is simply a matter of following the meal planning, carefully watching the fat grams consumed and exercising. My son observed this weekend that the reason the program is so successful is because by the time I've planned my meals, I'm too tired to eat. LOL

This plan seems to actually work. While the effort has to be my own, the pill increases the amount of weight I lose by 50%.

I am not advertising for Alli and I have no idea if this would work for everyone. I simply know it works for me. My advice for anyone considering this would be that they sign up for the free Alli website and calculate their BMI to determine their recommended calorie and fat gram intake. Then follow the meal plan for at least three days before starting the pills and work it so you begin the pills on the weekend so you can be at home, just in case you experience TEs.

Yes, I'll probably keep talking about this for quite a while. Forgive me, but I'm just so excited. Look at it this way, at least I'm not talking about Valentine's Day anymore:)

New recipes that I like:

Swamp Chicken Chili

4 cans of Northern white beans (not drained!)
Shredded chicken (I used a can of white meat chicken)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups Salsa
1 tsp Thyme.

Mix all in crockpot and cook on low for about 3-4 hours. If cooked on top of stove, bring ingredients to boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 45 minutes. This has 300 calories and 10.5 fat grams per 1 cup serving. Quick and easy to prepare.

Chicken Skillet with spinach

1 tablespoon olive oil
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 onions chopped
1 lb red potatoes cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup white wine
1 teaspoon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups baby spinach

In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat, add chicken and cook till browned on both sides. Add onions, potatoes chicken broth, wine, thyme and salt and pepper. Lower heat; cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Serve on 1/2 cup raw spinach together a much as you can so it wilts correctly. 372 calories 6 fat grams per serving. (serves 6)


ABC Sandwich (Apple, Bacon and Cheese)

One thin sliced apple, two strips of crisp, low sodium bacon, 1/3 cup shredded low fat 4 cheese blend on two slices of wheat or multi-grain bread with Dijon mustard. This has 286 calories and 10.5 fat grams. (I adapted this from a Rachel Ray recipe that is well over 500 calories and almost 30 fat grams and her's contains 5 strips of bacon. Yikes!)

my all time favorite
Breakfast Burrito:

1 wheat tortilla (microwave dampened tortilla on paper towel in microwave for 20 seconds)
1 scrambled egg (I microwave one of my farm fresh, free range, low cholesterol, high omega 3, chicken eggs for about 30 seconds)
1 link of Jimmy Dean turkey sausage chopped into small bites (microwave 15 seconds)
1 sprinkle of low fat 4 cheese blend
1 Tbs. salsa.

251 calories and 15 fat grams.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY ...finally

Grandchildren were here this weekend. Beth baked chocolate chip cookies and made me this Toll House Cookie Heart!!

Famous Valentine's Day quotes:

We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.
Author Unknown

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.
Winnie the Pooh

Without love, what are we worth? Eighty-nine cents! Eighty-nine cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely.
Hawkeye in M*A*S*H

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.
Robert Browning

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!
Lucy Van Pelt
In Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.
Kahlil Gibran

When I get older losing my hair many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out till quarter to three would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I'm sixty-four?
John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.
Robert Frost

One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
Sophocles

Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.
Albert Einstein

True love stories never have endings.
Richard Bach

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
Roy Croft

LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR...

The story told of asking children what they needed to live. "Food," came one response. "Water" and "a house" were volunteered. Then a young girl said firmly, "A neighbor."

This caused me to reflect on the many neighbors I have had in 27 different homes. In only three locations did I have neighbors from hell. Most of the locations yielded persons who pretty much kept to themselves but I knew I could call on them if I needed to. Four of the locations actually blessed me with neighbors who basically saved my sanity by their existence in my life. There is a very long story involved with each of the bad neighbors and the four heavenly neighbors. Perhaps I'll do a follow-up on them one at a time in later blogs.

Right now I am experiencing a new kind of neighbor. My blog neighbors. It would be such a pleasure to live next door to most of my followers and those I follow. We have shared some of our most precious memories and secrets and daily experiences. We're a lot like best friends. Like a good neighbor......bloggers are there!

Hope you all have a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

MILLENNIUM BABY

My new beau had never met my coworkers. For some reason it was important to me for them to like him. On one of his visits to Tulsa I got him to stop by the bank and get acquainted. He dropped by at a busy time for me and I could not take him around to meet everyone. He left only to return in less than an hour with a armload of long stem red roses. He proceeded to give one to every female employee of the bank and introduce himself to them. (Once a sailor, always a sailor.) There was no question after that whether they would like him or not At least the women would. LOL

It seems the occasion was to prepare for the millennium. He had heard on the radio that day was the last day in 1999 for a baby to be conceived for birth on January 1, 2000. As Ron was walking out the door of the bank, he bumped into our bank president, introduced himself and then told the president that he should send all the women home early so they could work on conceiving a millennium baby.

Was the feminist in me horrified? Oh yes. Were my professional sensitivities to the workplace offended? OMG! I had been trapped with customers and could not escape to escort this new man in my life back out the door. I had never known such a spontaneous person. But the look on our bank president's face was absolutely priceless.