Good day, everyone. Especially you, Jan!((((hugs)))) Ladies, after I wrote the post about our friend Larry getting into MDACC, a friend of mine from BL called to invite me to join the Crosby Meltdown here in town. If you join, you're entitled to go to Curves free until the end of March, so I jumped at the chance to try out the place. We went this morning, I had my trial run-through and really enjoyed myself. The owner of the franchise told me that I could officially start tomorrow through the end of the Meltdown, then switch to a regular membership without the enrollment fees!!! I felt like my old self this whole morning, and I'm still pumped up from the workout! Jan, sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield. Life doles it out randomly to all of us, and fortunately at different times, so we're here for you when you need us, and I doubt that I'm not alone in NEVER rolling my eyes about your posts. You need shoulders; we have them! Marci, you'll definitely deserve a night out with your hubby after Valentine parties for little ones. Halloween and Valentine parties were always the "hyper days" in my preschool classroom. MD Anderson is way far away in downtown Houston, and I'm a chicken about driving there, but I hope to get home early enough on Sunday for hubby and me to go see him if we're nice and healthy. I usually drop off a card and/or a little gifty at their home a couple of times a week instead. Larry has just caught so many things besides all the internal problems he's had with blood clots and renal failure that I haven't wanted to expose him to anything. Where is everyone lately? I know that Donna isn't feeling well and that Gretchen is busy, but where is Suzanne, BJ, Peggy, and Maddie? Check in, ladies! Got to get busy making my "Hugs" cards to accompany the "hugs" bags for my friends tomorrow and my Valentine cards for my son and his family to take on Saturday. Wishing everyone a wonderful day! Here is a link that might be useful: Crosby Meltdown

Where do I start? Yes I am very busy. The weekend was a HUGE success. We have to have one girls! I cannot wait to have one with all of us. I have just been friends with these ladies since Aug. & have met 4 of them. I have only met 2 of you IRL. Yes, I've talked to many more over the phone & seen many pics but then I've seen many pics of my other friends too. Especially since it is scrapbooking. LOL We did some shopping, went out to eat, let the kiddos swim at the waterpark, took lots of pics, did a little sleeping, and generally enjoyed each other's company. Dave came & spent a little time on Sunday too. He already knew 2 of the women so he met the 3rd one. This is a busy month of birthdays for us. So I've been busy doing birthday cards, pages about our adventures, sympathy cards, Mother's Day cards, and such. We've had trips to the commissary, VA, & tomorrow the Renaissance Fair on top of visiting the friend who had his cancer surgery & is in the hospital. We had the resident's association meeting, quilting show, shopping with the girls, & I'm organizing still. So that's been my week. Milkdud~[[[[Larry]]]] Hope you get good news. Glad you are staying so busy & that you are enjoying TOPS so much. My Mom's sis did that with great success for a while. NH Suzanne~Love hearing about the BB. We have had so many birds here this winter. I thought perhaps it was b/c we are so much colder than normal. Many, many more nests it has seemed to us. This would be the ______ in particular that I'm speaking of. If I don't think of it, I'll have to ask Dave what I'm trying to think of. He is off doing clothes right now. BJ~I hope you enjoy your time off the island & that you have better luck with the house this time. Can't wait to hear about Baby V. Little Sweetie Pie deserves to have a good home. Raeanne~The art show sounds divine. I can't wait to see the pics. I know Dave will be interested too especially since it is the Adironack chairs. Wodka~I'm thrilled you are going to Chicago. I've only been in the airport. It was cold. LOL I had to do a 4 hour layover from Orlando to Dallas. IDK, doesn't make sense to me? I know it is a little late but I always take out the honey, lemon, & tea when my throat is hurting. That seems to take care of it right away. Besh~Glad Zoe is doing well. Shopping, yes!! Fun, fun, fun. Well, I hope you have a great weekend. My friend is supposed to take pics of her friend having a baby & she is being checked by the dr so we may have to wait until Sunday to go to the Ren Fest but whenever we go, it will be a great time. Have a good one! Patti :-) Gretchen~I never did hear back from you so should I gather that you decided not to be part of the un-birthday group?

Good morning goils-- Yes, I am among the living, and have missed you all like crazy!!! I have finally gotten a computer for me at home (I can't log on at work, and trying to get to the library is close to impossible!)So, I get to check my emails, and play on here to my heart's content-- Life is good, but so swamped. The company that I work for is a division of a larger corp, and the women that started it are wanting to separate from the main company and run it themselves. Since I am the financial guru, I've been putting in 80 hours weeks since January, and there is no end in sight. I am in the interviewing process for software vendors/tech support, and I am in over my head on this, as I am so not good with computers. However, since the accounting/HR software will make or break my working life, I want to be in on the discussions. One of the CPAs is giving me a fit, but apparently she was like this to my predecessor (which was a big factor in her leaving), but I just won't take it and roll over. We spent an hour on the phone yesterday day about something she screwed up with our AP, which resulted in us almost getting a utility cut-off in one of our group homes. My boss told me to put the bills on the company credit card because we didn't have much choice, and I did (I paid the bill through our weekly AP; corp screwed up the payment; we don't know where the check actually went to; and the utility was due to be shut off on this past Monday. I never heard a peep from corp until yesterday morning (Thursday) when she called b!tching that she has spent all of this time (?? wtf?)working on this issue, and then found out that I had put it on a CC. Alrighy, the the games begin....) I'll be glad to get rid of that insufferable cow. I'm still auctioning; we have one tomorrow. It's huge, but I'm tired, and not looking forward to it. Well, kinda--I just know it's going to be a loooong day. Well, I've lost 15 pounds since the beginning of February, and I am down about 25 pounds from my highest known weight. I bought a pair of jeans last fall that fit a bit loose, but now I can pull them down over my hips without unzipping 'em. My BIL is getting married on Memorial Day weekend (well, the last I heard), and I want to be down about 15 more pounds. (I'm trying to be realistic here). Let's see--I am trying to buy a car. Good Grief. What happened to car prices? I haven't bought one since '96 (Rog got the truck in '01), but geeze louise--10 years car loans? Why?! I'm looking at a used Camry because I want to pay cash (I hate car payments wit ha passion), but I just laugh at some of the prices. (No, I don't want to buy the real estate that the lot is on, I just want to buy a car.) I may have found one, but it's white (which is the one color I specifically did not want), and with this work schedule, I can't get up to the dealer to see it. Rog's cousin owns a dealership (yep--more $$$ than above, and a nice guy to boot), but for some inane, really stupid reason, hubster doesn't want to go to him. (It was OK to see cousin when *he* wanted the truck, but ohhhhnooooo, we can't go when *I* want a car. Go figure.) Hope this finds everyone well--happy birthday Patti! (Dee--lovely job; I couldn't have sang better myself! LOL) Love and hugs, Maddie

Well, I stashed all my TS goodies so DH wouldn't freak out! I told him about them and what I spent on them. Two big multiple TS excursions so close together is probably NOT a good idea! LOL I will take some pics as I work on projects, will try to do some before and afters. I did "paint" yesterday too, but it was just with a spray paint can! LOL I'm getting my metal cake plate and tops ready to paint up pretty. One will be with roses, but thinking maybe the other one should be Christmas or something. Anj, since you "like" to paint walls, would you like to come paint mine????? I would love to paint and "refresh" them, but just dread taking everything off the walls and moving all the furniture. And I'm not very fast anymore, so would take me longer than it used to! LOL Punk, you have been so busy lately. Just one thing after the other. So great that you are close by and able to help your kids get their painting done. Hope your DH feels better soon. Can't wait to see your new Santas and all. So nice that your DH will cut things out for you like that. I keep looking at my books and finding patterns that I like, but can't decide what to paint them on. I still have one more wooden tray to do, and many metal trays. I also picked up a cute little wooden plate that holds a small glass dish. I know I have the perfect pattern to go on it--but am having to search through all my books and magazines to find it! I'm sure I'll run across it someday when I'm looking for something else! So funny how I find "new" patterns while looking through books I've had for years! I developed a "thing" for acorns this Fall and was seeing them in dishes, tablecloths, centerpieces, and just as accents.Well,yesterday I ran across a couple of patterns that had acorns on them in my books and I hadn't even paid much attention to them before! I'm going to keep those books out so maybe I can paint them on something before Fall/Christmas rolls around again! ;o) Guess that's proof that it pays to save your old books and mags, isn't it? LOL You know, I'll bet we are all going to get caught up with other stuff and end up painting and posting at the same time on here! LOL Well, I'd better get to cleaning. I did the kitchen top to bottom yesterday, so will move on to the bedroom/bathroom today I guess. I have mirror closet doors on one whole wall, so those always take me awhile to clean, mainly because I'm short and have to keep getting up and down on the step stool! I'm hoping everyone's weather will start to warm up a bit now. We took the dogs for a walk yesterday and I love seeing all the spring flowers starting to bloom. I love Spring, just that wonderful fresh smell in the air and all the pretty new leaves and flowers on everything. Have a good day. ;o) Luvs