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Tigers and Turtles - 2016


Crimsann

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On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 11:36 AM, Crimsann said:

 

I'm still a little taken aback by the change myself when I see this because as we all know while the face is one of the first places you see changes...but when it's all happened rather slowly and you are so used to seeing your own face...I think YOU can be the last person to realize it until you see some kind of before/after like this. 

Anyway, short post (by my standards) and I will try to make time very soon for a vacation picture or two.  Plus, I'm really wanting to do some more recipe exploration for the fall season so those of you who are nose deep in cookbooks right now...any fresh ideas I should look up?!

 

Crimsann, awesome photos. :)  I had much the same experience when I before/aftered myself.  Not only in the amazing difference you can finally see for yourself in the pics, but in that "I did this. Myself." moment.  I am pleased for you. :)

As far as fresh ideas, since I finally realized I could explore a little more while staying within paleo guidelines, I have been all over experimenting with the baking recipes (I am almost a compulsive baker during the winter months, lol).  I have discovered two really awesome recipes for breakfast muffins that I've been playing with - one is pumpkin nut, made with protein powder instead of any form of flour (I used egg white protein), and gives a really pretty muffin with a solid wallop of filling protein for breakfast.  Texture is a bit chewy on the outside, probably due to the fact I used egg white protein instead of the whey they were calling for. :D 

The second is an incredibly filling blueberry coconut flour muffin.  Good enough to be a "no brakes" muffin, but it grows so much after eating, it only takes once of trying to eat more than one to learn the lesson, lol.

For portable lunches, the salad wrapped in collard greens has been fun.  Amazing what 20 seconds of boiling will do for a leaf, lol.

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Hi Everyone!

Crimsann, your progress is amazing! And it's nice to put a face to a name. 

I'm moved in, but far from settled. But that's how it works, right? The hard part is separating the stuff I'll use while I'm here from the stuff I can leave packed. I may make repacking all my boxes a winter project to help make my next move (AAACK!) easier. 

I bought Jill Bauer's paleo cookbook, and unpacked the rest of them. Jill's has a lot of sweet recipes. Might be better to stay away from a lot of those. I think it's time to start trying some of those yummy recipes and get out of my food rut. 

Cynthia, that blueberry coconut flour muffin sounds yummy--any chance you'd share the recipe? I could use something like that to go with my hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

Be back later--duty calls!

 

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Hi

Cynthia, you must be the queen of bake, I would love your muffin recipes, but not sure I should have them until the end of December. Mind you the way I bake I could have them and not do anything until the next turn of the century.

Nancy, good to hear the major move is over with, hope you and your room mate settle in well together.

Still waiting for sun enough to go into the water, it is a bit chilly so far. I am not impressed since in previous years I have been in daily in mid September. Oh well, perhaps we will have a long, long time at the other end.

Hope you are all doing well. 

PS: are we having a Christmas party?

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On 10/9/2016 at 6:20 PM, misslindy said:

I am not doing as well as I would like to be so don't know where to go next with this stuff. I am getting pretty sick of food, thinking, preparing and the only part I really am enjoying is eating. I guess that is progress for me. The biggest problem I think is overall stress so have been trying to combat that with music and relaxation stuff--mostly it annoys me to have to stop what I am doing to relax!!!

 

Good luck finding your way through to the next step, misslindy. Let us know how we can help! Plateaus kinda suck, plus stress is such a huge factor, yes... the increased Cortisol contributes to inflammation, which affects every organ and system in the body. Ugh. My functional medicine MD just opened my eyes to the fact that there are not only external stressors, but INTERNAL stressors (!), such as undiagnosed yeast overgrowth, anemia, microflora imbalances, protozoa/parasite infections, etc. (see below)

On 10/9/2016 at 4:55 PM, C_Cezeaux said:

On the one hand...parasites, ewww - but, actually good news, if killing off the parasites kills off all the awful symptoms with it.

Right, EWW indeed! Yet new research is coming out linking undiagnosed parasite infections to all kinds of symptoms, including GI distress, brain fog, fatigue, skin disorders, autoimmune disorders, heart problems, mental health issues, etc. etc. etc. (the list is endless). I am now convinced that anyone with ongoing symptoms (who has already fixed their diet, yet seen limited change) should have comprehensive stool testing done! How sad that folks are walking around with an underlying TREATABLE infection, yet never getting the proper diagnosis! I am relieved to be getting the treatment I needed, instead of having those critters continue to destroy my intestinal lining and create havoc in my precious body.  *whew*

"Many people believe that parasites only happen to someone else and that they do not have them. But it has been estimated that more than 50% of all people in the Western world have some sort of parasitic or semi-parasitic animal living in their bodies. It is also thought that parasites could be a co-factor in almost every illness that we now suffer from. Dr. Oz from Oprah's show says that 90% of Americans have parasites."

On 10/11/2016 at 9:36 AM, Crimsann said:

IMG_2716small.jpg

Amazing!! Thanks so much for sharing your pics. You are glowing and gorgeous!!  : )

On 10/14/2016 at 4:37 PM, C_Cezeaux said:

The second is an incredibly filling blueberry coconut flour muffin. 

Recipe please!! My grandma is addicted to blueberry muffins, but she also has IBS and diverticulosis and chronic stomach pain, so I'm trying to find grain-free recipes.

On 10/16/2016 at 9:56 AM, NancyW said:

I'm moved in, but far from settled.

Good luck, NancyW. Transitions take some time, be kind to yourself.

 

Fun to hear that some of you are enjoying the Food Freedom Forever book, tell us more about it please! Might get to it at some point, but my reading list is already SO full. I'm currently a voracious reader of books on the topic of gut health, microbiome research, gut-brain axis, etc. As a psychotherapist I am totally fascinated with the link between MOOD and FOOD. I'm doing pretty well overall, staying paleo per MD orders, but she had me add in a little fermented dairy and some occasional legumes (properly soaked and prepped). Will try to check in here more regularly... wishing you all well!

PS I promise I won't talk about parasites all the time!  ; /

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19 hours ago, vozelle said:

PS I promise I won't talk about parasites all the time!  ; /

But if you do, that saves us from reading all those books so it's a win really. 

We had (another) bake sale this week which just wrapped up this afternoon so I'm wiped out and wondering how there is still so much left of this day when I need bed time?!  At least it can be an early night tonight, well, by my standards at least.  I made pumpkin muffins, gingerbread cut-out pumpkins with pumpkin spice meringue, and pumpkin spice caramel corn...as well as some real pumpkins dusted with "fairy dust" or in other words gold glitter spray paint.  Our theme was "all things pumpkin" so I've pretty much had my fill now for the season. 

Lunches this week consists of a Squash Enchilada casserole I have a recipe for, made entirely in a crockpot.  It is unfortunately not W30 for various reasons including:  black beans, corn, non-compliant enchilada sauce, cheese, and corn muffin mix.  Whew!  I think I could make something similar but by the time I strip out all of those things, I'm kind of down to squash and onions.  I do want to try a variation at some point though, I'm sure I've seen compliant enchilada sauce recipes and if I added chicken... 

@misslindy I love the idea of a Christmas party.  We need to figure out how to make that work.  For sure we should do something to celebrate sticking out an entire year of sharing this journey, stops, starts, start-overs, and stalls. 

I think, with the way things are scheduled for the rest of this year, that I'm not going to be doing another official by-the-books Whole30 until January.  That was the original plan anyway.  I had considered trying November, but that first weekend is my 24-hour video game marathon for charity and couldn't be a worse weekend to try and prep food! 

Speaking of, when we get closer to the day, I will see if I can post a link to the Facebook group I use to stay in touch while I'm playing.  Last year I committed to posting something every hour, on the hour, just to check-in with the people who had sponsored me for the full 24 hours to prove I was still awake.  LOL!  I'm getting really excited for this year's event.  We have put a lot of work into recruiting so that we can get our local group listed as a guild which will allow us to participate more in national events next year. 

I was trying to put something together to present to our work group and found a video they had done about the way it all started and the girl who sparked the idea...total tear jerker.  It doesn't help at all that she is a lot like my niece.  Same build, coloring, and interest in gymnastics.  It's like seeing my niece in 10 years and totally breaks my heart.  I'm not even overly sentimental as a rule but was nearly in floods.  I admit, I would do this just for the sheer fun of it, but knowing it's for a good cause is totally the frosting.    

 

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Hello everyone

I am finally coming out of the pain cycle with knees/back etc and can't believe how different I feel - and act. So this weekend is a trip to MIL with a birthday cake for her friend and out to lunch, but they are serving a roast pork which should be no problem. I have almost given up obsessing about food and am taking it much more as it comes. I have my extras to take if I can't eat what is served, but on the whole am not overly worried if there is something hidden in what is offered. It is only one meal and won't ruin my life. (See how far I have come!!!!).

Now that the pain cycle has been interrupted, I feel so much thinner. Stupid I know, but honestly, I do. That gives me more hope to carry on. I actually put a pair of pants on that I have not been able to do up and wore them yesterday. Something is happening--and I like it.

Must go vaccum and shower, then lunch, then more work, soon the ocean will be ready for swimming.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Will think up some suggestions for our Christmas party. :)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is it January yet?!    Sigh....

Somehow everything I thought was next week, is actually tomorrow!  How did this happen?  Argh!  Trying not to complain too much since I had a rather fun weekend getting ready for what will be a fun if totally exhausting weekend coming up.  There was no time for food prep though so it's going to be another week of struggling to figure out how to balance running errands with eating halfway decent.  Unfortunately for me, Whole Foods doesn't actually carry everything under the sun.  It really would be a great time for them to branch out into things like a new game controller and flannel bedding if you ask me.  And if they could make room in the far back corner for a branch of our local credit union?  Perfect.  Whew, what a relief. 

My character for game day has been created, but doesn't yet have a name so I can't really introduce her.  My sponsors did the designing and I wound up pretty pink, and covered in bark, but with no helmet.  Well, they didn't want to mess up my hair I guess.  So my first goal is going to be to unlock a completely inappropriate from an armor standpoint but adorable fuzzy plush hat which will be hiding actual armor.  I'm hoping to get my donations up to $250 or more by Saturday, which is doable with the people who had said they will donate but haven't yet...I just need to keep with the gentle reminders.  I have to remind myself it's for a good cause because I'm not a champion nagger.  Sometimes I think next year I will just sponsor myself anonymously for the full amount of my goal and be done with it.  I love doing it, I just hate the fundraising part.  I'm always surprised though at the people in my life who go along with this, it seems like every year it's the one person I wouldn't have thought would give it the time of day and that's a pretty good feeling.

I'm also straining my brain today to come up with some food options that aren't completely lethal.  I didn't do really well with eating regularly during the event last year and I know I will have a better day if I can get in some real food.  I wish I hadn't just done my three favorite "in a crock pot" things.  I don't really want to try something completely new since that comes with the risk of potentially not liking it at all.  Could use some inspiration though, anyone know of any good paleo blogs that do a lot with crock pots?  I know I've got one good cookbook I can dig out and just try to find the nearest best thing to adapt.  I'm not even against doing something that isn't entirely compliant given that I'm not on Whole30 right now, but I figure the cleaner it is the better in this case.  I need ALL the energy. 

 

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Hello, 

I just realized I haven't been in here for a while. Doing reasonably well, am on the last push to Christmas Day then will feel such a saint! Not really but am just taking one day at a time. I decided to count backwards as counting from Day 1 wasn't doing it. Just mind tricks.

We are still battling rain and cold, I am truly over it all. Have some seedlings poking their heads up and wanting to be replanted but can't let the poor little things out in the cold.

Hope you are all doing well, over Hallowe'en and soon the election then your Thanksgiving. Sounds like a lot in one sentence. :)

 

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Ha!  I love the idea of counting backwards...problem is it's pretty much one day either way until game day and I'm still struggling with the menu.  It's been so busy I haven't felt like I had time to concentrate, but I will need to make some final decisions tonight so I have time to shop.  I think I'm going to end up doing the butternut beef stew again, even though I made it last weekend they pretty much wiped the pot clean so I didn't end up eating it all week after all. 

My character ended up with the name Hemlock Pepperglow, what a hoot!  Here is a screenshot of her if you are curious.  Anyone who would like to drop by and wish us luck or just make sure we are still awake...we will be posting on the same event page I used last year which is at:  https://www.facebook.com/Zuzanie-132243147136031/

I did manage to get enough donations to unlock the leopard hat so I get to start cute, always a bonus!  And I just found out that one of the kids who is treated at our local hospital is going to get to stream this year.  I've met him and his mom and really loved them both so I'm so excited for this.

 

I probably won't be back on until next week now, but you should be warned...in the back of my brain, in the corner not reserved for getting through this marathon, I'm already planning a January Whole30 and I'm going to want to know who is also thinking the same!  :P 

hemlock2.jpg

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Counting backwards is an awesome idea, misslindy! I hope you're rocking your Whole30.  : )

I'm still here... my "bad bug" treatment is going well, one more week and I'll be done with the medicine. One weird side effect is that my skin has become photosensitive... it turns red VERY quickly in the sun, then returns to normal when sun exposure ceases. SO strange! Kind of a cool party trick though, LOL. After this it's a 45-day antimicrobial adventure. I'm already feeling better though, lots of tiger blood over the weekend and Halloween (my FAVE holiday!!!!). Grateful.

Hope you guys had a fun one. Here's what I did (I'm the one in the purple wig): https://www.facebook.com/ksbw8/videos/vb.53474889545/10155506432344546/?type=2&theater

Crimsann, good luck with your marathon event! January Whole30 sounds good.

Ciao for now.  V

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Found a minute before work to check in from my phone, been a monstrosity busy couple of weeks.  Did get to squeeze in a weekend at the Renaissance Festival with my daughter, grand daughter, and oldest son. It is incredibly exhausting to keep up with a two year old pirate on the run, lol. But, very easy to eat the right foods there. :-) 

MissLindy, thought of you while we were on the beach. Turns out little Aria takes after grandma and is a water baby.  She was so mad when it got dark and I had to put her back in the car. And I am totally in for a Christmas party, however we make it work, I  love the holidays. So glad to hear your pain cycle has broken and things are looking up. :-) 

Vozelle, your Halloween looked like a blast. :-) I will post the best of the recipes for the grain free muffins/breads when I get home. This week I'm having a really yummy pumpkin spice (of course, lol) for breakfast. 

Crimsann, I love the name of your character, lol. I will jave to checl your link when I get home. I will throw my hat in for a January W30, we should be back to working a normal 48 hour schedule by then. :-) 

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4 hours ago, C_Cezeaux said:

Crimsann, I love the name of your character, lol.

Had to sneak back on for a second to say...ME TOO...but I didn't pick it.  I let my sponsors design the character right down to the name, but the girl who did the name this year had this brilliant idea to look up a random fairy name generator.  Granted, I'm not exactly a fairy in this game, but that was close and it came up with so many clever options.  Since I know you like games too, and having multiple characters, I had to share that tip. 

Also, I need to beg right now that anyone who does check in on our page this weekend turns a blind eye to any conversation around an alleged Midnight Ice Cream Toast.  Pictures prove nothing.  You never saw, you never heard.  Let's talk about January instead.  :D

I can't wait to see Vozelle in purple hair but am stuck where I can't view that yet.  Argh!!!

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Hi Everyone

The counting backwards works wonderfully well, I am not sure what will happen when I get to the number 1. Doesn't matter at the moment things are going well and I am feeling better.

Sounds like everyone is motoring along--why talk of a January 30 when we haven't planned the Christmas party yet. Maybe we should call it something else, since backward works for me, what about a Spring Break?

Will try to show up more often, have had a huge number of things happening, nothing major but it all takes time and energy and I am so over high winds, rain and cold. (Wouldn't believe I live in the South Pacific would you?)

 

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Vozelle, it IS after work, just a couple days later than I meant for it to be, lol. Time flies when you're running in circles... :D

Anyway, here's my two favorite coconut flour muffin recipes:

Blueberry Paleo Muffins: 6 eggs, 1/2 cup melted coconut oil, 1/2 cup grade b maple syrup or honey, 1 TBSP vanilla extract, 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1 tsp aluminum free baking powder, 1 cup wild blueberries (I used frozen, of course, lol).  Preheat oven 350 degrees. Whisk eggs, oil, syrup, & vanilla. Whisk in flour, let stand 10 minutes to thicken. Stir in blueberries and baking powder. Bake 20-25 minutes in greased baking tin. If I want a crumble on top, I've started sprinkling grain free granola or pecan chips on the tops before baking.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins: 5 eggs, 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1/4 cup coconut flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tsp true cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp allspice, pinch salt, 1/4 cup grade b maple syrup or honey.  2/3 cup chopped nuts *optional*, 1/2 cup sugar free dried cranberries *optional* - preheat oven 400 degrees. Mix wet ingredients in bowl, add coconut flour and spices. Bake 13-18 minutes in oiled tin.

The protein powder muffins are a little different.  Maybe the texture would be different with a different type of protein powder, but I stuck with the egg white protein because I know I can handle it.  It makes the muffins really pretty to look at, but a bit chewy on the outside and fairly fluffy on the inside. 

Pumpkin Protein Muffins: 1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup protein powder (vanilla or plain plus vanilla extract), 1/4 cup arrowroot starch, 2 tsp aluminum free baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1 egg. 2/3 cup *optional* nuts or sugar free dried cranberries.  Preheat oven 350 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients, add in pumpkin and beaten egg, fold in optional ingredients.  Bake at 20-25 minutes in greased tin.  Cool in tin.

I'm trying a banana bread tonight, smells lovely.  Have my mini-quiches done for lunch. I love having a full sized oven again. :D 

MissLindy, maybe when you hit Day 1, it will be day 1 of your new food freedom and good attitude? Worth a try, it sounded good on paper, lol.

Crimsann, I am SO going to go find that random fairy name generator!  It takes me longer to name a character than it does to create it.  It is not unheard of for my daughter and I to be texting back and forth suggestions and websites for 20 minutes trying to get a new one named, lol.  Apparently, there are a lot of us who read the same books and look up the same mythology sites to try for name ideas. :D  HA! The first one I tried gave me Briar Hailglimmer! Ought to be great for a druid.

 

 

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Survived the game marathon, and round one of inventory...but I'm definitely limping a little. 

I haven't forgotten about a Christmas party, but I haven't come up with anything stellar either...we may have to make this a New Years Eve thing just to have more time to think!   The one thought I had was doing a sort of 12-days of Christmas with each of us taking a day running up to the holiday to just share a "year in review" and some hopes for next year, maybe their favorite new compliant recipe from this year, resolutions, funny moment, holiday photo...really whatever you wanted to share with the group. 

Problem is, there aren't 12 of us...so it's still doable, but we would need to figure out how many days and then each pick one to post on.  I think the idea has potential, but it surely needs some polish and maybe someone else has an even better one. 

As usual, my calendar for the next 6 weeks makes me want to cry...and this year a good friend decided to move up her wedding from next summer to next MONTH which has us all sort of scrambling to fit that in.  Will make do, we always do, but every year I swear this is going to be my "no-stress" holiday.  Ha-ha-haliday. 

I am hoping to sit down this weekend and make up some meal plans for the rest of the year.  Not Whole30 precisely because that's just not going to happen and would only add stress at this point, but I don't want to be limping into January a whole lot further behind either.  I've got some thoughts on how to implement a holiday emergency plan, but I need it in writing and more defined. 

Right now, I'm waaaay on the naughty list.  And it's not even because I'm tempted, just a completely bare pantry and no time for preparation.  I've got a window before the holiday madness to rectify that as much as possible, but it's a narrow one. 

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Hi

We are having major upheaval here as I am sure you have heard. Earthquake and over 1500 after shocks. While the quake was on South Island, Wellington on North Island has been badly affected and right after high winds and never ending rain. I am wondering what we can do to help those affected. Other countries are stepping up and offering services, major ships coming from around the globe. It is brilliant how caring and kind people are.

Backwards counting continues to be a major breakthrough - who knew? Love it.

Hope you are all doing well. L

 

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We will have a blessed 4 day weekend if we survive to get to it. Big push for production right before the holiday gave us our last day off two weeks ago. I am tired, for real. We're not travelling this year but will have my oldest son down for the weekend while we all try to rest up. Really hate that my family is scattered all across the country at the holidays. 

MissLindy has the ground settled down over there? 

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On 11/21/2016 at 3:01 PM, C_Cezeaux said:

We will have a blessed 4 day weekend if we survive to get to it. Big push for production right before the holiday gave us our last day off two weeks ago. I am tired, for real. We're not travelling this year but will have my oldest son down for the weekend while we all try to rest up. Really hate that my family is scattered all across the country at the holidays. 

MissLindy has the ground settled down over there? 

You would think things would be settling but there are still massive aftershocks and being felt through the entire country. We seem to sleep through it all so don't know what is happening until we check the news.

You sound so tired, hope you have some good down time. I hope that you will let someone else do the cooking and you just do the eating and relaxing. :)

 

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19 hours ago, misslindy said:

You would think things would be settling but there are still massive aftershocks and being felt through the entire country. We seem to sleep through it all so don't know what is happening until we check the news.

You sound so tired, hope you have some good down time. I hope that you will let someone else do the cooking and you just do the eating and relaxing. :)

 

Hopefully it stabilizes soon, has to be traumatic for those in the damage area.  Glad you are out of the damage zone.

We made it through to the holiday, and have now feasted ourselves royally with approximately enough food left for the next two weeks, lol.  We did a smoked bird and a fried bird along with all the obligatory side dishes.  Tried my hand at a grain free blackberry cobbler and my son made a grain free pumpkin pie.  We haven't tried either yet, but they smell good.  The next three days of doing nothing much but resting and perhaps a trip out to walk on the beach are going to be heavenly.

In a humorous side note, as my son was driving through Houston on his way here his new dog elected to have puppies on the back seat of his truck. SURPRISE!! :D  5 of the 6 survived and are doing well.  Hopefully he finds someone who would like some Christmas puppies.  6 dogs in an apartment aren't going to work very well.

 

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5 hours ago, C_Cezeaux said:

Hopefully it stabilizes soon, has to be traumatic for those in the damage area.  Glad you are out of the damage zone.

We made it through to the holiday, and have now feasted ourselves royally with approximately enough food left for the next two weeks, lol.  We did a smoked bird and a fried bird along with all the obligatory side dishes.  Tried my hand at a grain free blackberry cobbler and my son made a grain free pumpkin pie.  We haven't tried either yet, but they smell good.  The next three days of doing nothing much but resting and perhaps a trip out to walk on the beach are going to be heavenly.

In a humorous side note, as my son was driving through Houston on his way here his new dog elected to have puppies on the back seat of his truck. SURPRISE!! :D  5 of the 6 survived and are doing well.  Hopefully he finds someone who would like some Christmas puppies.  6 dogs in an apartment aren't going to work very well.

 

My goodness, what a lot to be thankful for--puppies! I would love one but wouldn't be good for the dog, don't do well on regular maintenance. We have had a cat adopt us and my husband is over the moon. He is a lovely cat, I started calling it Polly but now we think it is a Paul. He has been testing us for a few weeks, sort of trial run for people and now seems to be settling down to a routine. Comes in at night and stays put until at least 0600 so that is good. He has several choices of beds as well and has picked his favourite spots. Amazing to be jumping to the demands of a cat again. He has even started defending the yard and won't let other cats or dogs on the property. Funny, but good.

Hope everyone has had a lovely day and ready to sleep well. L

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