Not so sunny Sunday

[Sunny]

Hi everyone. We just got back from yet another shopping trip, different stores, of course. This time to a huge mall in Fredericksburg. Dh and I drove with ds and dgs. Ddil took the other car with her dmom and dgd. (Neither car will hold all 7 of us). On the way home ds stopped at Harbor Freight and an auto parts store. We had a short 10 minute rain on the way home, but it is really cloudy here now, so we might get some more rain. It is 93* now.

Harmony....the museum we went to yesterday was the first Marine one we've been to. It is huge, 120,000 sq ft and 80,000 more planned for the future. Since ds is Army we have seen the museums on the posts where he was stationed, they are all Army, and the one in AL had an airplane museum as well.

Harriet...whenever we have any kind of pasta I always have a salad or vegetable with it. It doesn't seem so much like a heavy meal to me.

Lucy....I know you will miss your dgbaby while he's gone!

I've been thinking about Indiana today; and Twins in her new house.

Sadie....I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Uh-oh, I hear thunder close by.....bbl

[Harriet]

Sunny, I literally count calories and sodium, so what I should have said was, I'm CERTAIN it was too heavy, lol! As a matter of fact, I am through eating for the day right now, having finished a sandwich for supper and put all my numbers into the online calculator. That's okay, I love to balance out meals with family and have very small meals otherwise, if necessary. You do remind me, though, that I'd be wise to have some veggie sticks.

Sunny, as I post this I suddenly hear amazing thunder, too! Yikes.

I've been doing things all day, but the house still looks the same

Wow, does that sound familiar, Harmony. I need a sign that says, "It may not look like it, but this woman worked awfully hard today!"

[Harmony]

Yeah. Discouraging. This house is. Furniture broken in the corner of living room. Furniture in FR all moved around where it looks awful, wires everywhere, piles of stuff out... it's gonna take a while before this place looks presentable again. I keep coming up with ideas for all this and DH keeps vetoing and I'm discouraged, afraid that I'll end up with stuff I absolutely hate the look of. We're at the perfect place right now to modernize a little bit and I desperately want to streamline and do that...so I'm discouraged. This is my house too, don't I get a say at all?

Keeps sprinkling off and on. I have last week's and this week's recycling in the bin and it is stuffed. I can't set it out in the rain. They come very very early, and though DH is up in time he never takes it out for me. If I can't set it out in the evening it doesn't get picked up. I am just discouraged all the way around.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm exhausted and may end up going to bed soon.

Before we left for the movie, I washed up the lunch and breakfast dishes and am thrilled that I did because we ended up eating out. So all I have to do is wind the clocks and empty the garbage and I can go to bed.

The movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, was superb and I highly recommend it to those over 40 or 45. No sex, no violence but a boring theme (about aging and finding one's place in the world) for younger people. Judi Dench and Maggie Smith were wonderful along with all the other actors. I liked it enough that I'd consider organizing a church group to go see it and pay to see it a second time (although technically we didn't pay since we used dh's gift certificates from Christmas.)

[OKay]

looking around.......hoping to see Indiana posting that she is home

Joining in with those needing rain. Our back pond has dried up which means yesterday the steers had to be given access to the front pond ....which is where the horses are. The steers are fed a special blended feed (nutritionally developed for their size and daily weight gain) which now the horses have access to........which will put too much weight on them too fast. The mare is pg (surrogate with a embryo from high priced stud) which is a concern with her/baby fast weight gain. We need rain!

Church was good this morning. Lunch was at a local cafe we have avoided since LO got sick all over the place several months ago. The waitresses are the same ones as then and I know they remembered but they welcomed us with big smiles. LO went right back to his old habits of going from table to table talking to everyone. I would stop him if I thought anyone didn't want him to, but they are all turned in their seats waiting for him to arrive at their table. Today one of LO new mentors (which happens to be a local attorney) sent a piece of pie to our table for LO to enjoy for a pre-birthday gift.

I spent a couple hours this afternoon cleaning LO room and organizing toys. We are going to work on new habits to keep it this way!

For those who are Amazon Prime and Downton Abbey fans.....they just made all of season 2 episodes free

[Harriet]

According to J and C Indiana has news!

Thanks, Emptynester.

[Harriet]

Harmony, in situations like that, I make up a note - probably a large one - and tape it to the door HRH exits. That way, he gets a last-minute reminder whether I have forgotten by then, or am in another part of the house, etc. "Please take recyclables first thing in AM" or, "Need you to take recyclables first thing in AM". Supposedly, men respond to the word, "need".

Thanks for the recommendation, Kathryn. Maggie Smith is wonderful - just saw her again in Nanny McPhee Returns, and she was consistently great in the HPs. I knew Dame Judy was in that movie because of looking up "marigolds" many months ago and running into pre-news on the movie! But didn't know Maggie Smith was in it.

I thought to record the two Hoarding: Buried Alive segments that come on tonight. I was thinking I need some inspiration and sometimes the last 5-10 minutes show such a happy result (sometimes not). (How I miss the old HCIYH half-hour cleans! To my knowledge, the British ones were never made available as video.) Watched Part I of the Oprah/Peter Walsh 2-part special (may be the one Nancy mentioned a while back) but of course until you get to Part II things are still kinda sad, so that takes even longer to reach satisfactory resolution! (And I'm still hanging until I find time.) Dd13 continues to see no redeeming value whatsoever, although she agrees with me about HCIYH.

[Indiana]

I'm home.

[Norma]

So happy you are home Indiana! I am sure little Jake is excited. You take care!

[Harmony]

Very happy to see Indiana home at last.

Well, Harriet, sometime I may try a note with DH. I took that heavy bin out to the front porch. It is so stuffed I could hardly lift it. I've set my alarm for very early and I will just go back to bed. I seem to have no problems going back to sleep. In the morning, anyway. They went to 1 bin with paper/cardboard/aluminum/plastic all combined. I may go back to 2 bins and put the paper one underneath the other to keep it dry, at least until we're through rainy season.

DWasher is running, lunches are made. Hopefully tomorrow I will make more progress.