Saturday Salutations

[VTJen]

Good Morning Mates.

Don't even know where to begin. First I can't believe I have not visited in 15 days! How is that possible? Second - come back to find it all new.
I haven't ventured down the posts yet...

I know I must have missed so many happenings. I hope all is well with my cruisemates family! If I have missed anything important please fill me in.

I know I said I was going to downsize my activities - it has yet to happen.
I think, if I can make it thru the Christmas season, then the New Year will bring some changes. It has too.

Last time I posted I guess I had the sinus/resp. infect. Still seem to be battling them - can't seem to get enough rest.
Had so much to do to catch up after that big road trip dh and I had in October. My house still looks horrendous. I had several 12 and 13 hours days to put in at church.
Then last weekend dh and I headed up to New Brunswick, coming home on Tuesday. My husband was able to really help them get some things done at the church, my bestfriends house, her moms and her brothers. So much had piled up after the death of their father.
I unfortunately had a relapse and was quite sick the whole time.
My friend is big into using essential oils - having great results, so I have some ordered and I shall see if they can some how help me.

Wed - back to routine - 12 hour day at church - which included an hour and a half of practice for the Christmas musical - which meant non-stop singing and choreography. Since I seem to now have perpetual raspy throat and two left feet, not sure I am an asset to the show.
Thursday was just a regular office day - got home about 6 then my phone rang for 2 hours - no extra rest to be found, as I had hoped.

Yesterday - quick errand. Off to a meeting. Pulled over by a cop. Expired Inspection sticker (which I don't pay attention to, as my husband is the one in charge of the vehicles) - thankfully I got a warning. THey should have fined me since it was expired in Feb 2009!!! I was very annoyed with my dh.
Arrived at church with no time to get a few things done before meeting as I had planned. Had meeting - then ran to get a trim and eyebrow wax. On Wed. some of the men who attend AA meetings at our church commented that my hair looked like I needed to do something with it. One told me to go get an appointment. So I assume I must be looking horrendous! After hair, ran to my appt. with Neourologist. Ugh. MRI needed on my neck. He has prescribed a low dose of anit-depressant to help manage pain. I just don't know if I should add another med.
I asked him is there away to fix the cause of the pain instead of just treating the pain. He basically told me "no". This made me rather depressed - lol!
Any one out there - have you had to take antidepressants for pain management? I would love any feedback.
After the Doc's had to pick up a friend who had her car in garage. Home - entertained her for a bit.
Brought her to pick up her car - smashed into a guy wire - ugh - damaged my bumper - made a huge dent in the wire. I will send my dh today to check out the wire and the pole - just to make sure I didn't do more damage than I thought. (Last time I hit a guy wire the pole snapped right in half - it was really embarrassing!).
Home - then neighbor popped in. Then niece called - brought her to a Creative Memories open house. Home - recliner, bed.

Today have a 3 hour dancing/sining rehearsal for this Musical at church. It is called Rock Nativity. The music reminds me of Godspell/Jesus Christ Superstar/Joseph...
Fast paced singing and lots and lots of dance moves. I think there are 20 songs. We are on stage for all of them, as the background scenery is minimal. I guess we are the scenery.
Then home? I hope!!! I need to clean, do paperwork and begin to pack as I leave on Wed for Orlando. Monday night at hotel near airport in Manchester, NH. Then arrive Tuesday in Orlando around 11:30 - then leave the following Tuesday. DD works on Wed, Thurs, and Friday, then has rest of time off. She wants me to drive her to work on Wed and Thurs - then I can take her car, go to my cousin's home - Wed help prepare for the Big Mea, then Thursday spend day with my family at Cousins. This means lots of driving - and basically I don't have a clue - she does have a gps - but Orlando, Disney and are confusing to me. And she works until like 11 at night - so those two days will be exhausting.
I think on Friday I may just hole up in her apartment - with black Friday Shopping I don't think it would be wise to venture out into the crowds.
Who knows what the rest of the week will hold.

So glad to check in - I truly hope my dear mates are all well!

[travelgalSue]

I can't believe another week has flown by. My dad used to say the older you get the faster time goes...I thought he was crazy but come to find out he knew what he was talking about! Today is another busy one for us. Hubby is out the door and working until about noon. We will then head to Ashland, KY. where our motorhome will be delivered to the shop for the winter. It has some major repairs to be done and will take months to complete but it will be like a new one in the spring. From there it is a stop at the Verizon Wireless store where we need to do some upgrades to the cell phone service. Since I am a retiree I am hoping to get a deal. They mailed me an offer on a netbook so I am going to check that out. I'd love to have one of those. We plan on stopping somewhere for a nice dinner before it is on to Charleston, WV where hubby has a square dance to call tonight.
The sun is up and shinning even though the temps are in the 30's. Suppose to warm up into the high 50's so that isn't so bad. Will make all of our travels better.
Tommorrow will be church then I'll be planting myself in front of the TV to watch my NASCAR boys. The final race of the season and a new champion will be crowned, or maybe the same guy as the past 3 yrs. Just know my bowtie boys will come through for me.
Everyone have a great day and weekend. Prayers to all in pain.

[beenie weenie]

Good Morning CruiseMates!
Jen, all I can say is WOW girl! I am exhausted just reading it! Go to bed, get some rest and call me next year, you deserve some time off, just for good behavior alone. Hey, weren't you planning a cruise? How's that going?

Well guys, I've had some sort of breakthrough. Ever since I returned from this latest cruise, I am sleeping, like I haven't slept since before the kids were born. I have no idea why either. Used to be, I was the last one to bed at night and the first one to wake up at the crack of dawn. Maybe it was changing time 3 times zones on the cruise, maybe I was just so tired and sleep deprived my body finally submitted to the need to sleep. Dunno, but I like it.

I am now caught up on laundry. I do need to clean house though, but may get to it this afternoon or tomorrow. I should have done more this past week while the weather was icky, but I was too busy complaining about it.
Should be nice weather the next few days highs in the mid 50's. D/H is in the kitchen making crepes for breakfast. That means I will have a big old mess waiting on me when he's finished. But we'll have something nice to eat for breakfast.

The kids have been a lot of fun this week. Found a new game online for them that is absolutely wonderful to teach them multiplication tables. It works like a charm. If you know any kids that are at that stage try bigbrainz.com. It sure beats the old fashioned memorization and repetition.

Looks like we're going shopping in town today. Need to get chemicals today for the hot tub and a few other items. I really did a good job using up a lot of stuff before we went on our trip because we are out of a lot of stuff. It's like everyday I find myself at the grocery store because I have discovered I am out of more stuff I need.

Well that is my ramblings for today. Hope you all have a great day and I will pop in a bit later to read everyone's posts.

[Kuki]

Good Morning cruisemates! Still hanging around in the Arizona desert, though now Mrs. Kuki has been here with me for a week.
She's still searching around the condo for the husband that left her in Calgary back in Oct. She walks around in a daze, as the place is cleaned, laundry done, and even the occassional meal cooked up, and dishes done by her new Az. hubby.

Along with my domestic duties I did manage to sneak in 3 games of golf this week

We're heading down to Tempe today to pick up Kuki Jrst from campus and go out for brunch.

Fellow was supposed to show yesterday, to extend the tile we put in the condo out on the patio... since we like it so much. But showed with the wrong tile. Now delayed until Tues.

Furniture for the other condo to be delivered Monday, so still busy getting that one finished off.

Love the high 70s temps here in the day. The cool nights are a bit like being at home

[ToddDH]

Well Jen, it appears as if you're in your normal routine, which of course is one that were more than a few of us to engage, we'd be in the ground. Hope that crink in your neck gets better. Fran is having what sounds to be a very similar problem and for which our doc gave her a steroid injection. Didn't work though so I guess the next step is an MRI of the cervical spine.

Finally finished getting the leaves all crunched into little pieces with the lawn tractor. Next breezy day we get, they'll now be completely gone.....across the street of course. Can't believe that fellow is so friendly. Were the situation to be reversed, I'd probably leave a rake on his porch.

BeenieWeenie, I had really wanted to get one of those front loader washers when ours (that's so old we've name it "Grandma") finally passes on. One more "illness" and we're gonna' "ration" it's healthcare by treating it ourselves as it's got to the point that maybe it's time to "pull the plug" and "kill Grandma! :-) Fran though has put the Kabosh to a front loader by saying that's way too expensive. Now that you're having problems with your's BW, maybe not getting my wish may not be all of a bad thing as I had intended were we to purchase one, it would have been from Sears.

Kuki, you've a perfect location for the winter. Enjoy.

Todd

[Mike M]

Good, very late, morning to everyone.

I've spent most of the morning trying to make a board change but alas I'll need the folks at the mothership to actually make it. There are places that I'm not allowed and probably for good reason.

We'll be leaving for the airport in about an hour to pick up my brother who is flying in from Phoenix. He heard that Kuki had moved into the area and had to get out of there fast!

Kuki: I bet Mrs. K is relishing "Renaissance Kuki". I have some "recipes" if you want to expand your repertoire.

Otherwise there isn't too much on the agenda. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Take care,
Mike

[CruisinK n J]

A late good morning to all of you VERY busy people! Jen, as usual, it makes me tired just to read your post. I missed you and hope you start feeling better.

For all of you DWTS fans, I read a wonderful article written by a Los Angeles Times entertainment reporter who experienced all the training, aches and pains, makeup and costuming it takes to appear on my favorite t.v. show. She and her pro partner actually performed for the audience before the real show began. They were judged and received a 21; not bad for a beginner with one week's training. If you go on latimes.com for Saturday, you might like to read it. You can also go on latimes.com/dance for videos and more photos.

Keith went to the little arport in Riverside and I might go to a mall . . . maybe. I have a sinus headache, so we'll see.

Have a good day!

Judy

[Travelnut]

Good afternoon to all,,,
1st chance I've had all day to check in,,,finally got rid of dh,, He's off to the woods to try his luck deerhunting.

Since he didn't get to go on his usual trip to Mich this year he's not a very happy camper. So sure hope he gets one today,,,maybe that will help his mood a little.

Wow,,, Jen slow down girl,,,you make me tired just thinking about all you do.

Our weather has been quite nice,,,in the upper 60's so we have been keeping up with all the leaves,,,That is a big job around here. We have lot's of big trees.

I'm off to Sams to get the fixings for T-giving dinner. We are all going to Cape Hatteras, N.C. to the ocean for the 4 day holliday weekend with our entire family. Kid's, grands, bro & his kid's and grands also. We are all staying in the same oceanfront house,,now that should be interesting,,but allot of fun.

Have a great weekend,,,gotta go check the score on the football game,,,Go Blue. A gal can always hope can't she???

Prayers to those that need them,,,

[balabusta]

Good Saturday evening, fellow cruisemates. For some reason I have had trouble getting into the cruismates website for the past week. (I don't know if it was my computer). Any, I am thrilled to be back on the cruisemates website! Right now Rob and I are doing last minute shopping and chores before we head up to Maryland for Thanksgiving on Wednesday. All the Chanukah shopping is done, finally, and now I can sit and relax a bit. Hope all my fellow cruisemates had a great Saturday!