JJ5, you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.

Rave--Kids had the day off, so DH took the day off as well and we had a great time snowshoeing! We had the mountain to ourselves and tons of fresh snow!

Rave--I leave in a few days for a spa trip with a friend.

Rant/Rave--A relative who has never smoked was diagnosed with lung cancer. The good news is he just started treatment at a brand new place just for lung cancer treatment!

Sending prayers and best wishes for all of you going through rough times.

Rave: Dear friends came to visit from the town we used to live in.

Prayers and warm thoughts to JJ5 and your family. You seem to have your mother's grace.

Rave: I'm going to celebrate Mozart's 250th birthday tonight with my DH!

HUGE RAVE Just found out this morning older daughter is expecting our first grandchild in September!! What a year this is already shaping up to be--son's wedding in July and daughter's baby in Sept:))

Hey, congrats on such happy news, PrettyLake!! :-D

PL,
Congrats!
DIL had a missed AB at Christmas '04 and a cervical ectopic this Fall: I have no G'Children.
SO's DD had a missed AB in Nov. after the $100K. IVF (her second child) last Spring. SO has six G'C, so not so bad.
M

Wonderful news, Prettylake!

Hey, PM, howyadoin? I have another interview on Monday...

Thanks for all the good wishes. Mikemo, sorry to hear of the difficulties and hoping for successful pregnancies soon. My DD & SIL have been trying for awhile--she finally had a HSG last month and wal-la, 7 days later...Some of us still haven't found the "60 something athletic butts" from last week's FFR&R--was that you with your back to the camera at the grill?

JJ5: I will keep you and yours in my prayers! So sorry for this difficult time for you.
I've had abit of a roller coaster ride emotionally this week, as my sis, who recently asked me to help her plan a trip to europe in May, was told she had a grave disorder on Monday. By Friday PM, she had seen the specialist they referred her to, who says that's not the case at all...will repeat some tests next Wed. to be sure!
At the same time, my step dad is continually going downhill, which is upsetting to watch...worse on my mother who deals with it daily.

Ethel: Congrats on the additional 2# loss, I'm just in a holding pattern, even though I'm trying...it's really hard, but I'm hanging in there!
Congrats on finding the gown...anyway you can post a picture of it?

klr6773: I'm sorry for your BF's injuries, and even more so for his poor hospital experience, but am glad he has you for support! We recently had a death in our area with a very similar circumstance!

OWJ: It does seem we're in a health crisis trend this week! I hope your MIL pulls through well! The hard drive thing is a real bummer too, I know!

PrettyLake: Congrats on the propective Gr Baby! I am SO jealous! I'm not sure I'll ever end up with any, and feel SO READY!

Have a good week, all! Belle

Yippee, stw. Good luck, and please let me know how it went. Finger crossed....

Sorry, I'm not double-jointed enough to cross only one finger. I meant fingerS crossed. A thousand pardons. :-[

I think my brain is frozen because for the first time in several weeks it's getting cold here in Austin, and about an hour ago I noticed that the heater has kicked the bucket. Naturally it will cost megabucks to get someone out here on a Sunday, and they told us he will be here precisely between 8am and 7pm. :-@

I am freezing my buns off!! I just pulled a space heater out of the garage, and thankfully it still works. I think I'll go turn on the oven and open the oven door. Then I'll pour myself a drink.

Congratulations, PrettyLake! What wonderful news!

Good luck, stw! My fingers are crossed as well!

Good grief PM, when I read you were going to turn the oven on and open the oven door I wanted to say "no, no, a broken heater is not that drastic" LOL. Glad you went on to say you were going to pour yourself a drink!!!

Nothing ever breaks down at a convenient time does it? Owning property is a pain in the neck at times. There is always something that needs fixing or replacing. Good luck with the problem.

PM, I hope you get your heat back soon :)

Hi Caph. How are your kids doing? I hope your second graders have calmed down a bit - winter can be a rough time for them if they don't get outside for recess :O

So sorry to hear so much bad medical news this week. Hang in there, y'all.

PrettyLake, that is moi. Did fresh Gulf Red Snapper (Huachinango Golfo) last PM.

M

Gosh, PM, and we have yet to turn the heater on though I suspect this afternoon something will be ablaze in the fireplace. I hope your heater is fixed soon!

LoveItaly, LOL!! I didn't mean that I would stick my head into the oven. However, after seeing the repair bill with the Sunday surcharges, I might be tempted. :-(

I was just about to hit post when the doorbell rang--the repairman is here. Hoping for the best....

OK, I'm in the wrong business. It took him about 2 minutes to diagnose the problem and 3 more minutes to fix it. It was a bad glow bar so he replaced it. The bill wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared, but GEEZ, I wish I could make that kind of money for 5 minutes of work. I think it took him longer to write up the invoice than it took to fix it.

But the good news is that it's fixed, and it didn't cost an arm and a leg. So don't worry, dear LoveItaly, I will not be sticking my head into the oven. :-)

P_M, glad you've got heat again!

Hi stw, my kids are doing well. Seems like longer than a week since our daughter left. But she's settled back in, fully immersed in her Counselor Advocate training (the reason she had to go back for the last half of January Term). And her brother is settling back in to ruling the roost!

This past week with the second graders was much better. The prinicipal decided that the kids need to mix more. Her particular concern is that the Spanish speaking class stays too much to themselves. So they're trying an experiment. Each teacher assigned his/her students one of four colors. And the kids are now sitting in the lunch room according to color rather than class. I still have to work at keeping them from seeking out their classmates at the new table! But it seems to be working well. It may just be the novelty at this point, but they were much better behaved this past week. The teachers seem to have done a good job of separating the kids who tended to get very loud together.

And they do seem to be "mixing". One of the girls who speaks almost no English was quite upset with me when I made her sit with girls from the other two classes. But within a very few minutes, she was smiling and seemed to really be enjoying herself.

As for the lack of recess, that was a problem for a while in December when we had that spell of snow and bitter cold. But, knock on wood, so far January's been okay. I think there's only been maybe one day that they haven't been able to go out. We just got hit with snow, but it didn't start until after school was out on Friday!

Now that I've gone into way too much detail, lol...How are your kids doing? Is your younger son settled back in to school? And have you readjusted to having him gone?