[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21755

Adele,
OMG! I am so glad Gary is all right. That must have scared the poop out of you. But now you are so worried and watching him so closely that the poor man has to hide in the bathroom for some peace and quiet. I thought maybe he was so amazed that Greg fixed the machine that he was speechless. Greg is kind of a Renaissance man and knows something about everything. He has probably saved us thousands of dollars over the years by fixing things around the house. He fixed up the whole basement-carpentery, electrical, plumbing everything. He really learned things working at his grandfather’s knee-he was a blacksmith and very inventive in making things to help around the house. The new part for the machine was only about $75-it was the labor that was $700 and that just got Greg’s goat up-it would have been different if the machine was old and needed replacement because it didn’t work well anymore. So he is happy because we saved money and I am happy to still have the machine that I like.
Congratulations to JJ for getting all A’s. That must have made everyone happy. I am glad to hear that Jhonny has the temporary job with the postal services. Those jobs are well known for their good benefits-i hope that he can get on permanently. When you were telling the story about introducing him as your grandson that reminded me of a story myself. When we were kids in order to differentiate our grannies and granddaddies we called one set white because of my grandmother’s white hair and the other set green because of that grandmother’s favorite green sweater. So we would be talking about going to white grannies house when we were kids and sometimes we would get the funniest looks from people who were probably wondering if they have to say one granny is specifically white I wonder what color the other one is. This of course was back in the 50’s when it was a different world. I guess they were really surprised when I told them the other granny was green! lol An alien maybe?
Adele, I guess i learned awhile back that no on else seemed to really care about the decorations but me-so that is why I finally learned to do them to please myself and if I don’t feel like doing them that’s all right too because no one else seems to care either way. So just do what you like for yourself-then you will never be disappointed. I have those battery operated candles on timers all over my house-I love them. Plus then I don’t have to worry about the fire hazard if I forget to blow one out. I do miss the smells from burning candles but now I use those fragrance warmers in an electric pot for a substitute.
I think if you go to members and type in Quacker Factory you can write a thank you to James there. you can write it as a public message or if you are friends you can write it privately. So glad that Gary was just sleeping soundly. He was probably tired from all the Thanksgiving festivities too.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21695

Hi All,
Adele, so glad that JJ got to call on Thanksgiving and that they were at least going out to be with Jhonny’s family for dinner. Is he Jamaican? If so I wonder if they combine traditional American with Jamaican specialties. That’s what I love about this country is each region or family puts it’s own special twist on a holiday. Up north we use white bread for stuffing in the south they use corn bread. I must admit Kim used to make the southern cornbread stuffing and there was always tons leftover as it just didn’t taste right to our “northern” palates. Greg’s family used to stuff the turkey with meatloaf. They are the only people that I know who ever did that. No one else has ever heard of it so I don’t know if it was just his family or if it was a Lithuanian thing. I’m so sorry that after all that work that you didn’t care for the mincemeat pie. It sure looked pretty! I saw the video. They did a great job on it and I wrote a note to James with a compliment about it. The whole time I kept thinking that Glen looked like he would much rather be home in his jeans and a sweatshirt watching a ball game-he looked kind of stiff and uncomfortable. lol
Colleen, it sounds like you had plenty of good help with dinner. I’m so glad that everyone was there to help. It’s nice knowing that if they really wanted to your girls could take right over from you and do everything seamlessly. I can so sympathize with you not wanting to wear the back brace. Do the back problem and the hip problem have a common thread-are they related? Putting on any kind of brace is a chore in itself. At least that’s what I find. Our snow is gone. It rained and rained on Thanksgiving so it washed all the snow away. I hope you got a lot of decorating done with Melissa being there. How are Ethan and Kaylee doing? Was it awhile since you saw them? I will be serving that same mac and cheese and maybe the sweet potato casserole at Christmas. I’m glad you liked them. We always thought they were pretty darn good.
Barbara, you will be busy celebrating your Thanksgiving today. I know that you will all have a good time just being together. It is odd that they didn’t want to let Jerry’s Mom come to the phone. Why children think they they are “owed” their parents money and possessions is beyond me. Their parents worked hard to get what they have and if anything the children owe the parents for raising them up in this world. I have seen so much greed where inheritances are concerned-ripping whole families apart. No material object is worth not having a relationship with my brother and sister-just not the same thing at all. I will never understand what people are thinking when they do that. In any case the main thing I hope that Jerry’s Mom is being treated well. He may have to go over there himself and check things out. Since there is nothing that you can really do about the situation just enjoy your special day with your family.
We had a nice Thanksgiving. Poor Greg was feeling sick to his stomach that day on the way to Jenny’s. But he must have gotten over it because he did seem to eat a good dinner and drink a couple of beers during the football game. He scared me though because he said he was having pains across his stomach too. He thinks it was part of his cold but I didn’t have anything like that so I think it was something he ate at work or while he was out of town. Anyway, it was a good day. Gabby and Enya were there and Adam’s Dad. And Adam’s brother Aaron and his wife Kelly and their four kids all were there so it was a full house. Lot’s of kids running around playing and laughing and screaming. I can understand about the being tired thing. When i get sick all I want to do is rest and I really wasn’t able to do that much last week as i had to babysit, shop for groceries, drive an hour to the doctors and prepare some food for Thanksgiving. So on Friday I slept in late and just kind of did nothing all day. I think my body needed that as I feel much better today. We usually go over to Jenny’s on Friday nights and I was really looking forward to going over and eating leftovers but Greg was tired from working on the wash machine all day so we stayed home. I was really tasting those leftovers too but he wanted Chinese food of all things so that’s what we ended up having although i would have much rather gone over for the leftovers. Jenny and the kids were at the movies to see The Good Dragon so they would have gotten home a little later than usual and Greg just wanted to rest. He worked all week with his cold too so he was tired. The difference is he never gets a fever and with me as soon as I catch something I get that darn fever right away. I wonder if it’s because i take an immunosuppresive so my body has to work harder fighting off the germs. If that makes any sense.
Guess, what he got the parts and fixed the washing machine and so far it seems to be working. Although I was concerned for awhile as he forgot to reconnect the wire that tells the machine how far to fill up so he had a half of tub of water that he had to get rid of. Adele, you know what I mean-in those energy efficient front loaders you never get more than a few inches of water in it and he had the drum half full before he realized what was wrong. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well while I try to whittle down the huge piles of laundry this weekend. One thing I know is that I will never leave the house with the machine still going again.
Well, I got a lot of online shopping done this past week and I have the majority done. Now I just have to wait for all the boxes to pour in. Especially with the little kids-it seems like all their stuff comes in big boxes. QVC has extremely uninteresting programming for the holidays. I think they are going to be losing a lot of their older costumers like me-their items have no variety anymore. How many years can you give a set of flashlights?
Today is two years since we got that awful call in the middle of the night that Kim had died. Brent did end up going home with his friend for Thanksgiving so we were happy about that. I hope this year is a bit less painful for him. I can’t imagine how her parents must feel also. Maybe some prayers for all of them would be in order.
On a brighter note we are going to see a musical called Plaid Tidings tonight. We have seen the companion show Forever Plaid which has music from the 50’s-so I think this show might have the older Christmas music. It should be fun. Especially since all the towns around here lit their Christmas trees on Friday so everything should be all decorated. Now, if the two of us can keep from coughing all show long-we’ll have to bring lots of cough drops with us.
Time to crack out the Christmas tops! Hooray!!!
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21573

Just a quick word to say how thankful I am that I have met all of you and that we have become long distance friends and pen pals. Sometimes hearing from you all is just what I need that day.
Barbara, now you will have a couple extra days to prepare the feast-so that’s a good thing.
Colleen, I hope that your shot went well and that you are enjoying visiting with Melissa, Stephan and the kids and Amanda and her family. I hope Melissa is being a big help with the dinner prep.
Adele, I’m sorry Stephanie is being a poop again. What is wrong with that girl. Doesn’t she want to spend the day with family-at least do it for the sake of the kids. Heck-I would do it for the desserts. lol You wouldn’t have to invite me twice.
Adele, don’t worry if someone doesn’t come on for a few days. Sometimes we just get busy. Or I know for myself sometimes I just get in the mood not to want to talk for a little bit. Now if it would go into a few weeks then I would worry but we all need to drop out for a little while from time to time.
Well gotta get busy making my dishes. I still don’t feel the best but i will pull it together enough to do a little cooking and help with the cleanup. Poor Jenny busted the glass in her refrigerator door the other day. Hope that she has it back together.
Happy Thanksgiving to all my Quacker friends.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21503

Hi All,
Still feeling under the weather. The glands in my neck are so swollen-it hurts to turn my head and swallow. Couldn’t babysit on Monday as i was running a fever so Jenny had to come home early as all her other sitters are not available either. I went over yesterday as the fever was down some-we put Lachalan on the computer as that would keep hm busy and put on a Scooby Doo movie for Piper to try to keep her interested. She still wanted to play Minnie Mouse dolls but i told her I was sick so we had to do it sitting on the couch-she also wanted to play a game where I chase her but I told her i couldn’t do that. All in all they were pretty good and I rested on the couch most of the time. When Kendall came home from school she had a snack and then put on her snow gear and went into the yard to play. It made me remember when our own kids were young and if I was feeling sick how happy I was to put them to bed at night and finally get some rest. Some times were tough back then with no family around to help out. I have an appointment with the ortho doctor today which I kind of wish that i would have cancelled as I still had a temp last night and don’t feel that great. I will have to hit the grocery store on my way home to get the ingredients for my green bean casserole, jello salad and seven layer salad to take to Jenny’s. It will probably be crowded by then. I just want to get in and get out and come home. Hope everyone else is feeling well. Colleen, hope the shot goes well. Adele, I love your new line about the save. Barbara, it does not matter what day you celebrate as long as you can be together. Greg has a cold now too-I’ll bet he brought the germs home from when he had a doctor’s appointment last week-sometimes I think the doctor’s offices are the germiest with all those families coughing all over everywhere.
Gail
Today I am grateful for a nice soothing cup of hot tea.

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21423

Mr. Bird is at it again but I think I have it figured out. Maybe it’s that red bird from Angry Birds playing the game. he sees one of those green pigs in our window.

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21413

Hi Colleen,
I think we ended up with about 15 inches of snow total. I think the roads are clear out here now but all it takes is a windy day and the snow will blow right back into the roads again. I’m sure it does the same thing out by you too.
Well Greg has decided that he wants to fix the machine himself so he has the parts ordered so we’ll find out how all this plays out. I like this machine and will be happy if he gets it working again-he just didn’t want to pay someone else $700 to fix it. And I think the problem with getting another machine was he hated paying the extra money for a new pedestal for another front loader as the one from the LG would not fit a different brand. If I had to I would get another top loader but there are three reasons that I like the front loader. The easier access, the hand wash cycle- with the hand wash cycle on my top loader sometimes you would pull the clothes out when they were done and parts of them wouldn’t even be wet-and I think clothes last longer and don’t seem to fade as much in the front loader-the top loader seems to beat the heck out of them with all that agitation. I wonder what Adele thinks on that subject as she has a front loader too. I did tell him not to go buy that used machine for 50 dollars or whatever. But I did say how are you going to get it upstairs yourself and he said I’m not so he must have remembered that we have a laundry hookup on the first floor too. I told him I would just go to the laundromat (like that’s gonna happen) Plus-there was no way that i was going to lug heavy baskets of wet clothes up the stairs to dry them. And then we’d have a machine that we used for a week or so and no where to get rid of it-it would just be buying someone else’s junk. That was a funny idea about only washing his clothes-I think that would probably just make him mad though and i know in his roundabout way he is trying to help and he did empty the dishwasher yesterday (which he never does-even if there is no silverware) and he did wash the floor which he usually does for me.
Well i got my questions answered as Angel was on the morning show today. She doesn’t leave on the cruise until Saturday and she has three shows on Wednesday. So that’s nice-they will be home for Thanksgiving and then go on vacation. Personally-I wouldn’t want to be traveling anywhere-and especially out of country right now.
Maybe if you feel good you could just go out for a little on Black Friday and then come home if you think you would really miss it. Last year I did just about everything online or with the Q and will probably do the same this year. I don’t miss the actual going out and shopping but i do miss walking through the stores and browsing and soaking in the holiday ambiance. Maybe if the weather is good i will just go somewhere and walk around someday. That’s another reason I like to either get things early or shop online-you never know once December hits if the weather will let you get out or not.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21410

Hi Adele,
Awwww-you have pet fish who love you. That is so cute. That reminds me of Greg’s koi. They come right up for their food-you could probably hand feed some of them. They used to come right up to Belle who would be down there trying to steal their food. Greg usually will go appliance shopping with me so he knows the costs of those-it’s the monthly bills that he has no idea about. He has no idea how much day to day life costs; electricity, heat, cable groceries all the necessities.
Our kids never went to preschool as i was a stay at home Mom and didn’t really see the need. However preschool is different now as they are already learning letters and numbers but we played learning games at home so they weren’t behind when they went to school. What grade is JJ in now-I want to say maybe 4th?
It is hard when the kids birthdays are so close to Christmas but we like you make sure Piper has her own separate celebration. My SIL’s birthday is Dec. 26th and Greg’s Mom always made sure she had a separate birthday when she was growing up. Speaking of that when she got back from Mexico she went to an orthopod here in the states for the wrist that she broke on vacation. He said it was set a little crooked but that even if they did surgery to fix that it might still be crooked so she may want to just leave it alone. She said he did put on a sturdier cast and gave her stronger pain meds.
Gosh Greg felt like he was getting a cold and now I feel like I may be coming down with something too. I hope not. But my throat is scratchy and I feel like I’m getting a chill and Jenny really needs me to sit this week as her MIL is still in Washington visiting her daughter, SIL and grandkids there.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: What Books Are You Reading and Recommending Now? #21372

I just finished The Charlemagne Pursuit by Steve Barry. This is about the 4th or 5th book that I’ve read by him. He writes action adventure books and they usually have some basis in an historical occurrence or with a historical figure. I enjoy how he ties together a story from the past with something happening in the present. After this i will probably start reading some holiday books and stories. Something light in between holiday preparations.

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: It's November! The Month of Thankfulness. Let's Count Our Blessings Daily. #21352

Hi Adele,
Read my post to Colleen about the latest in the great washing machine wars.
I’m with Aizen I only like to wear things that are comfy too. I would be pulling off the overalls or anything scratchy. Heck the last time i wore spanx i went in the bathroom and shed them halfway through the evening. lol
Piper will be three in December. Her birthday is easy to remember 12-21-12. That was the day the world was supposed to end according to the Aztec calendar but instead a future star was born that day. lol She doesn’t go to preschool. She will probably go next year which will be good as Lachlan will be in school full time then. Jenny kept him back this year as she didn’t think he was mature enough yet. In any case her aunt is the preschool teacher so she wouldn’t be surprised by any of her antics. Now that i think about it I wonder when Jenny is having her birthday party for Piper this year. It’s so hard to get it in with it being 4 days before Christmas-everyone is so busy doing other things.
Now here you have me scratching my head,Adele. On your last post to me I swear you said that you were off to clean the fishies before watching TV-are you giving baths to your goldfish? what does that mean? Are you cleaning fish to cook for dinner? What’s going on at your house? Have you been drinking that liqueur again? do I need to get my eyes checked? Do I have battle fatigue from the washing machine wars? None of the above-all of the above? Please enlighten me.
Hope that you have a good day and that none of the snow has been sent your way. Hey! I’m a poet too!
Gail

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