Happy Belated Birthday! How cool that you got to go to an H Mart and your tabletop setup looks phenomenal. Those Perilla leaves are beautiful, I've grown them for a couple of years but they never get to that commercial size. We have three small Asian markets in Spokane but no H Marts. That must have been a fun shopping trip and a great way to celebrate your birthday!

QOTD: I was supposed to have my last follow-up with the plastic surgeon on NYE but the fam has shared their head colds with me so I'll have to reschedule. We never do much on the 1st. I'm hoping to get some sewing accomplished.

Food that happened today: My home-blended protein shake that covered B & L, free snacked on a blend of rice/corn Chex...bet it was around a cup altogether; 3 oz chicken breast and ho****er for dinner. Probably a protein shake or bar this evening with more ho****er.

Wow, so sorry about your power troubles! Hope you can get that motherboard replaced quickly. And I hope you don't have to wait too long to see your wlc provider. Better to do it this month than next when they'll probably be swamped with all the normal New Year's diet resolution people.

After Christmas I'm going to spend some time looking for another tracking site that feels more like Nutritionix (they're probably never coming back online). I'd bet I'm eating probably 100% more carbs than my doctor wants me to eat. The ulcer still hasn't let up so that is going to require a visit or a request to see a gastro doc.

QOTD: No, I'm in full panic mode. Only 1 gift wrapped but without a tag or bow. Still have one gift that requires a heavy amount of hand stitching and did manage to finish three others. Just started thawing the turkey and need to plan for all the sides for the 25th, all with no holiday spirit. And I'm feeling so guilty not visiting my friend every day, the decision was made to send her to Hospice House to die; she moves there tomorrow. Mom died in December, Dad's birthday was this month...it is already a really hard month but we all just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other you know?

B: ho****er

L: a Premiere One shake heated with a cup of Pero and sweetener.

D: Costco rotiss. chicken, 1/2 cup ff cottage cheese.

S: 10 grapes or a tangerine and sf chocolate in the evening. Bad intake but keepin' it real.

We're going to have another wet, brown Christmas. I feel sorry for the grands who long for snow to play in and to go skiing.

Break time is over, I've got to get back to my little Sweat Shop. lol

Hope your day was productive and not stressful, here comes Christmas or Yuletide if you celebrate. Or a meaningful Zose Hannuakah.

Hi, hope your day is going well and your physical is a good one.

Wishing the best for you Melanie. You do so much for your family, don't let them push you to doing too much during your recovery.

Today I see the plastic surgeon for the last time (I think) to see how my nose is healing. Wish I was seeing him to schedule lipo and skin removal, ha.

Haven't been eating clean but amazingly still losing. The days usually consist of just ho****er for breakfast, a protein drink or bar for lunch, two proteins and a veg for dinner. Then i go off the rails in the evening: dry cereal or a few crackers, a serving of a homemade protein pudding or 1-2 pieces of SF chocolate candy. I'm trying to figure out how to space the Wellbutrin and Naltrexone so that it works better at night.

Still chugging along on Christmas sewing. Batch sewing so most projects are at least 50% done.

QOTD: I did but can't honestly remember when I figured out the truth. Must not have been that big a deal.

Just got a message that the surgeon's office flooded so they had to reschedule. Sorry about their mess but glad to have all this afternoon to sew!

Have a great day everybody.

Hope your Tuesday went much better than your Monday. Does your mom like to thrift for the thrill of the hunt or just the fun of poking through all the possibilities of the treasures there? Merchandise is down at the ones here (and prices are UP) but in January it will swell again when everybody catches the national declutter bug.

Love the photos of your kitty babies. Thank you for sharing them.

Good afternoon! When we lived in Germany (in the Kaiserslautern area) we never noticed any celebration of Krampusnacht, it was always just St. Nicholas who did the visiting. Now St. Nicholas Day 12/6 (I'm guessing it has started already over there) was a big thing and of course, local shops trying to get parents to buy little gifts for the boots. Perhaps in our little region, Knecht Ruprecht got dropped along the way. Christmas in Germany ruined me for American over-commercialized Christmas and I always tried to keep it festive and kept the kids out of the malls in December. However you celebrate tonight, have fun!

QOTD: Growing up the only other things we celebrated in December were birthdays: my dad and one of my aunts. But in '19 my mom passed on the 8th/9th (presumably 8th but was found on the 9th) so it is a time when I privately celebrate her and just remember the happy times.

Nutritionix is still supposedly upgrading and it has tanked my strict tracking. Undoubtedly my carbs are waaaaay over what my doctor wants but at nearly 7 months in it is normal for the last 20# to be slower anyway. As long as I get them off by next May I'll be happy.

So sorry you have that huge band of really cold temps. Brrr! Your food today sounds warm and comforting. Somewhere on this message board is your chicken loaf recipe, isn't it? I'll have a look or try the web. That must make such a great meal prep protein. Keep warm and snuggly this weekend!

Hi, sorry to be MIA so long. Stupid Nutritionix is still down on the web, it has really thrown me off. Joined myfitnesspal .com it is as clunky as when it was new and overreaching now too with apparently no way to turn that feature off. I gave it two days and quit. The app version of Nutritionix is acting all buggy now, sigh. I may go back to paper and pen. Been doing batch cooking and portioning to help myself.

We aren't doing Thanksgiving this year, the MIL has claimed it. Hubby dislikes turkey anyway. We're having a tree trimming party on the weekend. It will be a very scaled-back meal. I think there is a turkey breast in the freezer plus many hams (why I bought so many I don't know...fun with food addiction!). Yesterday I found the frozen cranberries and a eye of round roast so hopefully we'll have two meat choices. (Hubby has vetoed the ham. Going to see if my church's food bank would take a few.)

What I used to cook when I got to host was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cornstarch gravy, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green salad, relish tray, homemade rolls, Russian Cream with fresh fruit, homemade cranberry sauce, corn casserole, mulled cranberry and cider, pumpkin pie, apple pie or cranberry cheesecake and a batch of cheater's fudge as a Christmas pre-show. Pretty much a heart attack in the making. And any dish containing gluten has to be made in a gluten free version too. Luckily we don't have super sensitive Celiacs so I can cook everything carefully in my kitchen. It was my joy to cook so much and send home generous containers of leftovers with everybody.

This week is all prep and putting up the tree with lights today. We have to clean massively before having my SIL over, he is allergic to cats, poor guy. Hope you all stay bundled up, I understand you are due some nasty cold weather. Brrr! Our high is 40 this week and chances of snow. Cold enough for me!

Melody, I'm sorry so much is dumped on your shoulders while you are handling health challenges too. Congrats on getting a surgery date finally! Hopefully you'll recuperate quickly and get a lot of relief from it.

Glad you are getting a new sump pump. Sewer backups are the worst! Disgusting cleanup and worries over drywall damage. One of our neighbors had a tree whose roots got into our ancient sewer pipes and at least once a year we had to deal with that in our basement too. We finally just got smart and paid extra for extended rootering that went out past our sidewalk where the roots were the worst. They got rid of the tree eventually and after a few years the roots finally died but we still get rootered every year just to be safe. We can't afford new pipe or even those liners because the break is technically in the street and when you get the city involved all prices triple.

Sorry you had to cry. Whoever said crying is therapeutic was mental. It just makes you feel horrible physically and does nothing to resolve the problems that caused the crying in the first place. Hope you are feeling better by the end of the day.

Is that a pic of your dad or granddad? Handsome dude! Also the dog sculpture is beautiful and so playful.

All this hell you are going through is going to make the victory of finally having your own apartment so much sweeter!

Prayers said, fingers crossed and good vibes sent for a good meeting tomorrow!

Hope your errands were all successful today and that your salt levels were decreased. Don't forget about the full moon...I personally believe in the power of it to make things more erratic and difficult.

Have you noticed a trend in no-sugar sodas in the last year? All the 'limited edition' ones seem to have a vanilla base. I tried the new 7-Up diet one for the holidays and vanilla is all I tasted. Hubby won't help drink them and I don't drink that much of sodas either.

Ms. Opal is so photogenic and you're a great photographer. The pendant looks like a snowflake to me, beautiful!

Have a great weekend.

Good evening! Hope your day ended up being nice. I snuck out under the guise of picking up drycleaning and a prescription (which I actually did) but also ended up visiting Hobby Lobby's fabric department and Goodwill. Got a pair of jeans in my fav brand in size 14. They look too small but the 16's I'm wearing now are too big. Maybe the lycra or elastane is going bad on them. I'll find out when the new ones are out of the wash.

Thank you for the tip on the protein shakes, does it only work for the almond milk type? I'm going to be bold and try it with the regular type this evening for my late snack.

QOTD: Once again the MIL has taken over the holiday. A normal holiday would be nice but due to in-law things and the fact that my son is a chef, those things just don't happen. We'll be alone and I'll cook the turkey and reheat it the next day. The grands have no cousins on this side of their family so we are completely boring, I get it. I'm sweetening the deal having them decorate the tree while we just have our leftovers buffet. Might even say they can all wear their Christmas jammies too. That's pretty big talk for it only being 3 weeks away and me being on a sewing bender. Before my SIL comes over we have to do a massive deep-clean to remove as much cat hair and dander as possible. He takes an antihistamine but it only holds him a couple of hours, poor guy.

See you all tomorrow!

Glad you called in that car and thankful there was no dead body. We have so much vehicle theft around here and most of it is for joyriding, trashing the car then hiding it in out of the way places--good thing it wasn't that either.

No huge statewide races and the local ones mostly all went toward judges, candidates who support higher taxes and the higher tax issues themselves. It feels like the wealthy here who have plenty of ways of dodging taxes are more than happy to have us regular folks footing their share of the bills. It's like they're trying to drive the lower middle class out of the city.

Last night's 'Adventures in Babysitting: Grandma Edition' was a wild ride. They were amped-up when I got there and held that right up until bedtime. The littlest one has gotten into the 'no' phase and would have made a great 60's Sit-In protester. Having to grab her from hiding positions for diaper changes or getting ready for bed caused me to aggravate my bicep repair and give me a lower back ache this morning. Still it was so much fun being with them to enjoy all that youthful energy. I got in plenty of sneaky hugs and kisses on their heads. It did my heart so much good!

Full moon fun: I dropped my Vitamix container and the blade assembly sheared right out of it. Got on line and used Uncle Amazon to get a replacement, the real thing. Got that dude when I was a postop sometime between '06 and '09 (?) and this will be my third container. Making protein shakes with loads of ice has put a lot of miles on the old girl and I want to keep her running fine. Shakes will supposedly resume on Friday.

More full moon fun: Someone in the house decided it would be a good idea to rename our home network. What a nightmare...everything that gets internet support went offline and we hope by now we've got all the connected devices going again. ::crossing fingers::

B: The fake herbal coffee and half a serving of Click espresso protein.

L: Adding in the other half of the protein.

D: Another 3 oz of the nice chicken breast. Might add some G. Hughes sf bbq sauce if it reheats to dry.

S: A Premiere Protein shake. I'd add in half a banana or a small apple but that shoots my carbs way beyond Dr.'s orders.

Cold, rainy and windy today. Good day to sew!

Hope your day is fine.

You have a great talent for getting good photos of your babies. They are so beautiful. Glad you are getting x-rays done and hoping that your upcoming appointment will finally get your doctor moving in the right direction to help you.