Ignore this thread!

[Jean in Newcastle]

This is the second local restaurant that has had a strict celiac protocol. Different serving dishes, glove changes, some special foods. 

[ikslo]

The sun has come out, and I have been reborn!  We went bike riding, I weeded the garden, pulled all the patio furniture out of the garage, and got us pizza for dinner. 

Bye bye winter. I shan’t miss you.  

[Slache]

To family from John:

[Jean in Newcastle]

We know the truth, Angi

[Jean in Newcastle]

Day 89 step goal smashed. 

[Tsuga]

Jean, are you feeling better with your steps? I know you lost some weight, but are there fewer aches and pains?

[lanalouwho]

I was awoken by a severe thunderstorm. I feel like a butt because there was no rain predicted when I went to bed, so I opted to leave the big dogs outside. They are in and safe and warm now. 

I'm a little upset about being awake, but at least this storm is also cancelling the morning soccer game I was supposed to get up for. So I will most likely be able to sleep in a bit.

DH and the kids are all sleeping through it. I don't know how. The wind is crazy loud.

 

[lots of little ducklings]

COFFEE!!!

 

Dd5 is Dd6!  <sniff> . Well, actually not until right before midnight tonight.  But today's the big day.  She's through-the-roof excited.  I have wrapping to do and pie to bake.  :-D

Hugs to everyone and prayers and well-wishes!  I've been missing you!  Between birthday prep and a few fevers and every blessed group we are in having end-of-year events, it's been a whirlwind around here.  Hoping to ketchup soon.

 

xo,

Duck

[AMJ]

16 hours ago, Critterfixer said:

Tornado season checklist: chickens are up before the storms start, dogs are walked and fed before the storms start, cats are fed and litter boxes tended before the storms start, dishes and laundry are done before the storms start, stinky water turtles and stinky mama turtle bathed before the storms start. Working on the last. Then let the winds blow and may the tornadoes stay far away.

 

We have been getting less of the severe down here than people were expecting.  I hope you don't get hammered too hard up there.

[JoJosMom]

I'd like to propose a new ITT rule:  NO TORNADOES.

 

Y'all are giving me a heart attack.

[KrissiK]

Good Moning!!!

COFFEE!!!☕️☕️☕️☕️

Saturday!!

Busy!! I gotta run up to Costco (on Saturday, oi vey) in the Big City with a recalcitrant teenager to get his new glasses (his prescription changed quite dramatically in 7 months, so we get to pay for these glasses, as opposed to insurance), then home, then to the Afsa, then clean up the house and prepare for the Grandparents Birthday party for three of the kids - all spring birthdays.

[KrissiK]

I hope all you people in the path of storms are all right.

[Jean in Newcastle]

7 hours ago, Tsuga said:

Jean, are you feeling better with your steps? I know you lost some weight, but are there fewer aches and pains?

Not really. I mean, my fibromyalgia hasn’t changed. The last couple of days I have made my step goal barely because in part, it has been hard to move. But I made it. 

[ikslo]

Happy Nirthday, duckling6! :party:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Good morning. I have to get up and get dressed so that I can take Miss Squirminess outside. My life revolves around animals. Which isn’t that bad, actually. 

[Junie]

Hydrating...

:)

[Junie]

I am planning to do standardized testing next week.

Last night I opened the box of materials and found that I am missing the OLSAT for dd10.

Lesson learned:  Do not wait until the last minute to open testing materials.

 

[KrissiK]

Just now, myblessings4 said:

Sooo.  Cooollllld.

Come visit me!! It’s supposed to be 80 degrees here today?

[Jean in Newcastle]

I am Not Happy with Miss Tinkle who pee'd ON my bed.  Fortunately, I have a mattress topper and that protected the actual mattress.  But grrr. 

[lanalouwho]

The baby puppies are now big enough to escape their swimming pool. When I got up this morning, four of them were free. Things are about to get interesting.

 

[AMJ]

19 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Your list is different than mine was.  

Mine:

secure the trashcans and lawn furniture and small potted plants

pull the vehicles into the garage or barn (hail)

find bicycle helmets, flashlights, boots, battery powered radio

charge external battery, make sure water bottles are still frozen in the freezer and haven't been looted by kids, have easy food on hand

in one house with a walkout basement--clean out closet under the stairs.

 

Yesterday I had the girls tip my canopy swing over onto its front to keep it from blowing if wind gusts hit while we were gone.  After we were all home DH helped me actually remove the canopy and seat cushions, which we stowed in the garage.

The instructions the kids have gotten in the past should we get a tornado or other severe weather warning: IF they are in or near their rooms or the sofa they are to grab a pillow and a blanket, but if they aren't near those they are to skip them.  Everyone crowds into the half-bath under the stairs.  I usually won't have any pillow or blanket because I will have grabbed the cat.  Stuffed critters can stand in for a pillow if desired and immediately grabbable.  Whatever they grab shouldn't slow them down -- the important thing is to get into that half bath quickly.  Cushy things (pillows or stuffed critters) are for sitting on or otherwise cushioning oneself in the cramped corner each person gets, and blankets are for covering heads just in case the mirror breaks.

Getting us all in the half bath gets interesting.  Everyone gives up any idea of personal space or getting to stretch out.  I also remind them that a CLEAN toilet is a lot more pleasant than a dirty one when one is tucked into the corner alongside the toilet.

[AMJ]

4 hours ago, lots of little ducklings said:

COFFEE!!!

 

Dd5 is Dd6!  <sniff> . Well, actually not until right before midnight tonight.  But today's the big day.  She's through-the-roof excited.  I have wrapping to do and pie to bake.  :-D

Hugs to everyone and prayers and well-wishes!  I've been missing you!  Between birthday prep and a few fevers and every blessed group we are in having end-of-year events, it's been a whirlwind around here.  Hoping to ketchup soon.

 

xo,

Duck

 

Happy birthday DD6!!!!  :party:

[Junie]

5 minutes ago, AMJ said:

 

Yesterday I had the girls tip my canopy swing over onto its front to keep it from blowing if wind gusts hit while we were gone.  After we were all home DH helped me actually remove the canopy and seat cushions, which we stowed in the garage.

The instructions the kids have gotten in the past should we get a tornado or other severe weather warning: IF they are in or near their rooms or the sofa they are to grab a pillow and a blanket, but if they aren't near those they are to skip them.  Everyone crowds into the half-bath under the stairs.  I usually won't have any pillow or blanket because I will have grabbed the cat.  Stuffed critters can stand in for a pillow if desired and immediately grabbable.  Whatever they grab shouldn't slow them down -- the important thing is to get into that half bath quickly.  Cushy things (pillows or stuffed critters) are for sitting on or otherwise cushioning oneself in the cramped corner each person gets, and blankets are for covering heads just in case the mirror breaks.

Getting us all in the half bath gets interesting.  Everyone gives up any idea of personal space or getting to stretch out.  I also remind them that a CLEAN toilet is a lot more pleasant than a dirty one when one is tucked into the corner alongside the toilet.

Yes, this is how we do it too.

They don't need to grab blankets though because we have plenty of them stored in the basement.

We have a half-bath that is in the center of the house which probably is the safest, but I can't imagine stuffing all 8 of us in there.

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have never lived anywhere where there was a tornado.  Earthquakes, yes.  Typoons (called hurricanes here), yes.  Thunderstorms as well.  And I remember how the ash from Mt. St. Helens covered everything like snow.  But no tornadoes. 

[AMJ]

2 minutes ago, Junie said:

Yes, this is how we do it too.

They don't need to grab blankets though because we have plenty of them stored in the basement.

We have a half-bath that is in the center of the house which probably is the safest, but I can't imagine stuffing all 8 of us in there.

 

You have a basement -- below ground is better, though if time is too short to get to the basement that half bath is better than the other rooms upstairs.  We have a slab foundation due to a high water table here.  No basements.  Our half bath is the ONLY room in this house that doesn't have exterior walls.  If you can't get below ground you put as many walls between you and the outside as possible.  Debris can come from ALL directions if a tornado hits.

I would REALLY like to build a tornado-resistant house.  Think a box of reinforced concrete, with strategically-placed openings for doors and windows.

[Junie]

When I was a little girl we had a tornado go through our back yard.

It tore out a tree -- completely twisted the trunk off and carried it to the other side of the yard.  I cried because "the tree landed on Mommy's pretty flowers."

 

ETA:  Tornado Booyah.

 

[Junie]

3 minutes ago, AMJ said:

 

You have a basement -- below ground is better, though if time is too short to get to the basement that half bath is better than the other rooms upstairs.  We have a slab foundation due to a high water table here.  No basements.  Our half bath is the ONLY room in this house that doesn't have exterior walls.  If you can't get below ground you put as many walls between you and the outside as possible.  Debris can come from ALL directions if a tornado hits.

I would REALLY like to build a tornado-resistant house.  Think a box of reinforced concrete, with strategically-placed openings for doors and windows.

Yes, we have a basement, but there is a sliding glass door and a window on the back wall, and a window on one of the side walls.  There's also a lot of stuff stored down there that could fly around...

We lay a couple of blankets/comforters on the concrete floor and wait it out with a pile of books.

[AMJ]

4 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I have never lived anywhere where there was a tornado.  Earthquakes, yes.  Typoons (called hurricanes here), yes.  Thunderstorms as well.  And I remember how the ash from Mt. St. Helens covered everything like snow.  But no tornadoes. 

 

I was at archaeology field school in NW Nebraska when our site received a tornado warning.  My roommate and I (sharing my pop-up trailer) had the radio on and heard the warning.  Our side had a couple of trenches dug into the side of a hill, so the entire camp of us piled into the trenches and waited for the storm to pass.  It was night already and hard to see, but in the lightning flashes we did see a couple of funnels poking down from the clouds.  None touched down near us, thankfully.

 

[Tsuga]

1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Not really. I mean, my fibromyalgia hasn’t changed. The last couple of days I have made my step goal barely because in part, it has been hard to move. But I made it. 

I'm sorry to hear that. :(  I know you were taking steps to lose weight  and tighten up your diet wrt to contaminants and sometimes that can help with arthritis/immune stuff but I missed the fibromyalgia part. :hugs:

[73349]

3 hours ago, JoJosMom said:

I'd like to propose a new ITT rule:  NO TORNADOES.

Y'all are giving me a heart attack.

 

NO HEART ATTACKS. [taps flamethrower pointedly and raises eyebrows] Got it?

When we get a tornado warning--none so far this year--we have to squish into the coat closet. Very much a problem if DH is home.

[KrissiK]

I’ve never lived in a place where there are tornadoes, either. I’ve been in earthquakes. But around here, we get very little of what could be called severe weather. Hail is fairly larger than pea sized.

[Jean in Newcastle]

31 minutes ago, Tsuga said:

I'm sorry to hear that. :(  I know you were taking steps to lose weight  and tighten up your diet wrt to contaminants and sometimes that can help with arthritis/immune stuff but I missed the fibromyalgia part. :hugs:

I do hope that some aches and pains go away.  But. . . I have had fibro for going on 30 years now - a third of that when I was quite thin.  It's particularly sucky right now because the season is changing and we've been having barometric pressure changes etc. but oh well, what can you do?  Other than move to Arizona. . .    

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dd:  "Here is an offering of bacon.   Now that I've given you bacon, you have to give me the next thing I ask.  (thinks a little).  Give me a million dollars!"

Me:  "Ha.  You didn't give me that much bacon!" 

[73349]

I'm trying to learn more about a small school district in another state (long story). A lot of what I'm finding is really sad (100% poverty rate, schools closing, discipline issues, low test scores, handbook riddled with typos).

But one interesting point is that this lengthy student/parent handbook, in spelling out all kinds of legal matters, specifies exactly what that state has forbidden schools to teach about human reproduction--i.e., any student who can read the handbook is going to find out. I'm suspicious that it's intentional, and it's kind of cracking me up.

ETA: I'm thinking that any law people can subvert just by summarizing is not a smart law to have. Legislators, take note!

[Susan in TN]

So. Much. Ketchup!

We are back from backpacking.  If I sit down for a few minutes, my body complains loudly when I try to move again.  I will need a hot epsom salts bath.  The wet gear is hanging in the garage and I've washed all thing things that needed washing except one spoon that I haven't found yet.  I also haven't found my driver's license, which was in my bag of clothes but is not there now.  I am thinking it came home with us somewhere because we cleaned/checked the campsite very thoroughly.

At any rate, it was a good trip and the kids did super well and were troopers even with the storms last night and rain this morning.

[ikslo]

3 hours ago, KrissiK said:

Come visit me!! It’s supposed to be 80 degrees here today?

Here, too.

I’m so happy today!

[Paige]

Tornadoes are so scary! We have a basement now but we used to have to all huddle in a small closet under the stairs in our old house. I had a laundry basket in there for all the closet stuff so it was easy to empty it out so we could get in. Even with a basement it's scary, though. I've heard of people sucked out of basements. There's fewer tornadoes where we live now, thank goodness! 

When I was about 6-8 there was a tornado while my brother and I were being watched by a teenage babysitter. She pretty much flipped out and dragged us outside in the middle of it because she decided she wanted to go home. It wasn't far, but it wasn't fun! Our street ended up being safe but there were roofs torn off on streets all around us. We had a basement in our house and were probably safe enough there- I think she just wanted to be near her parents. 

[ikslo]

AMJ, good point about clean toilets.  I have said that to DS about being sick.  If you are sick, the last thing you want is to have to stick your face in a dirty bowl.  Blech.

[AMJ]

16 minutes ago, Susan in TN said:

So. Much. Ketchup!

We are back from backpacking.  If I sit down for a few minutes, my body complains loudly when I try to move again.  I will need a hot epsom salts bath.  The wet gear is hanging in the garage and I've washed all thing things that needed washing except one spoon that I haven't found yet.  I also haven't found my driver's license, which was in my bag of clothes but is not there now.  I am thinking it came home with us somewhere because we cleaned/checked the campsite very thoroughly.

At any rate, it was a good trip and the kids did super well and were troopers even with the storms last night and rain this morning.

 

Both missing items might be hiding in a pocket of something.  Or under the mat inside your car.

[Susan in TN]

Is it bedtime yet?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Just now, Susan in TN said:

Is it bedtime yet?

For you, yes. 

[ikslo]

We had a tornado warning here exactly once.  We chose the bathroom over the laundry/utility room.  Both are interior rooms, but being scalded by a burst water heater did not sound better than dirty toilet.

[lanalouwho]

There isn't a single room in my house without an exterior wall. The boys' small bathroom is the only room without a window. It is probably the safest place in the event of a tornado. Tornadoes are not our biggest concern, although they are not unheard of. 

[AMJ]

Yesterday evening Dad's tax papers were in our mail, so I ran them off to Dad, got his signatures, Secure File Transferred the signed forms back to the accountant, and mailed the checks to Colorado (for taxes owed) and the accountant (for services rendered).

Taxes done (except for some file management).  Check.

I also rented a climate-controlled storage unit yesterday, and today we moved the stuff from the non-climate controlled unit to the climate-controlled one.  It was raining so we didn't take over any more boxes, but I did bring a few back to be dealt with here.

Storage unit switched over and non-climate-controlled one relinquished.  Check.

I groceried.  Check.

I helped DH cut down a tree, and helped get the tools put away when it started raining on us again.  Check.

I have the last load of master bedding in the dryer and a jacket load in the washer.  Progress being made on laundry.  Woohoo!

I have already passed the 5,000 step goal I set on the pedometer app on my phone.  MUCH better than the almost-there days I have been having recently.  I wonder how many more steps I'll get today?

Tomorrow we move tree pieces to ILs' burn pile (might save some wood if FIL wants it), and I can make stuffed peppers for them for supper (sale on yellow and orange bell peppers at the store today).  I also picked up 4 kinds of berries and an angel food cake.  I forgot whipping cream, but we can pick some up on the way over.

Pork chops on the grill tonight (the grill is in our covered breezeway so we can grill in the rain) for supper.

It's a productive day!

[Slache]

After being in Tennessee for that tornado storm I'm not afraid of tornadoes anymore. I might have another opinion if I saw one out my window. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

I was in St. Louis during a tornado warning.  The sky turned green.  I had never seen that before.  But the hotel desk people said that we didn't have to hide in the bathroom or anything.  So we didn't.  No tornadoes actually came near us. 

[Tsuga]

1 hour ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I do hope that some aches and pains go away.  But. . . I have had fibro for going on 30 years now - a third of that when I was quite thin.  It's particularly sucky right now because the season is changing and we've been having barometric pressure changes etc. but oh well, what can you do?  Other than move to Arizona. . .    

I think I thought it was more arthritis related for some reason which can be eased by weight loss and diet to some extent but I know fibromyalgia is different. Don't move to Arizona. They don't have water!

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm having a dark chocolate pudding cup.  Mmmmmm! 

[Slache]

Whiteboard update:

The shower board was $13 and far too big. After we cut it down there was still one large piece (3X4?) so we got two sets of mirror clips at $3 each so we have a 3X5 whiteboard for school, 3X4 whiteboard for fun and 3 handheld ones from the scraps for just under $20.

[Critterfixer]

I survived. We had wind, but the tornadoes stayed away from us. It's now sunny, very windy and cold. I'm tired of winter, and I usually like winter. But our frost-free date is April 15th, and I'm in a bad mood about a possible freeze Sunday..