Hi all,

Lori your's is such an interesting perspective. The statement you made about action cities, NY or Tel Aviv; was striking to me. I would have said perhaps NY or Boston, or DC. I'm sure the others would have cities in the US they'd think of. You my friend are our globe trotter. Amongst the ladies anyway. Richard certainly hits all the international hot spots.

To answer your question Karen about my chronic pain. I do have osteoarthritis head to toe but it's not extreme in any one area and the rhumatologist says that it is not what's causing my pain. Fibromyalgia was his diagnosis. I've been doing a lot of reading on the subject. Fascinating and frustrating. I started taking Lyrica two nights ago. I have to say I've had an immediate and positive reaction the pain. There's a lot less of it. I'm not sure it's helping much with reaching REM sleep which is a problem with fibromyalgia patients. But I need to give it time. There's a lot for me to learn about living with this condition and changing my behaviors to manage it. Frankly, I think there may be a little too much change for me right now. Stress is a big factor in causing "flare-ups" in folks with Fibromyalgia.

Anyhoo, it was wonderful having Kevin and Colin home for several day at Christmas. We probably won't see them again until Feb. We're going down to Portland to a Toby Keith Concert Valentine's Day.

There's much to be done to prepare the house for sale, the hardest part aside from actually making that decision is the clean up. I am a hoarder it seems. I discovered two bags of bags in a closet. When I go into a store that gives a nice bag with handles I fold it neatly and keep it. I don't ever use them again but I certainly have them Just In Case. This is going to be like the sell this house show where everything is all fixed up and re-arranged to sell and suddenly the owners are standing in a beautiful home they didn't realize they already had. They just needed someone like Karen to come in and "stage" it. Feel like taking a drive Karen?

Your grandchildren are so cute, Kathi. I guess red hair is a dominant gene. We're kind of spoiled--our kids live close by, so I don't know what's it's like not to see them so often. I can't say I mind the empty nest, though. It's nice to have privacy, but still have them close by. Our privacy will be ending for a while next week cuz my sister's son will be coming to stay with us, probably for about 2 months. He's coming to get his American citizenship. Amy's older 2 kids were here a few years ago to take care of that, and now it's the third one's turn. He just finished the army in Israel. Her youngest got the citizenship in Israel. Some change in the law made it possible for her to get it there because she's under a certain age. Hopefully, Eli (her son) will be able to do some work for Avi while he's here. Otherwise, it will be pretty boring for him, in my opinion anyway. It's not an action city like N.Y. or Tel Aviv.

Happy New Year Everybody. I wrote something a couple days ago...went to put a picture on and somehow lost everything again. I guess I forgot to click on the publish button, very annoying....anyways, hope I am not boring you with my little one stories. Yesterday I was home all alone for the first time in 10 days...I was actually lonely! I moved all the "kid stuff" upstairs and sat and read a book for the day. Neil was and still is on the road again tonight so I didn't even have to make dinner. Karen, it was 8 below this morning when I left for school. I am so glad that the really cold stuff waited until after my son-in-law went home. He might never move closer if he felt that cold! I am so hoping that they move to CT...I would much rather drive 3 hours then 13 to see them. Then, my other daughter can come to CT from NYC and I can see her more often too...so...guess it doesn't take much to make me happy! My son who had been growing his hair out for a long time (big, bushy, wavy kind) got his hair cut for my Christmas present. I was very surprised and pleased!

That's good that you'll be able to get to Vermont faster to meet us, Patti. Another bonus to moving to Bangor! I hope you'll be happy with the change, though it must be hard to move after being in one place for so long.

Yes Lori I have. As much as I prefer life here in the county I feel I need to make the move. There is better medical care there and as time goes by I need that. Living alone is very difficult when chronic pain is part of the process. Married life is difficult at best and living apart for the majority of the week makes it all the more difficult. Nearly 30 years into a marriage is probably not a good time to start living apart. It works for some people; it's not working for us.

My cleaning lady is being taken to court for stealing from one of her families and so I don't feel comfortable continuing with her. That means I'm back to doing all my own housework. I don'tlike having Dave have to do the heavy work on the weekends. Strangely there aren't a lot of people looking for that type of work.

No way to know yet when we will make the move. As soon as we find the right house though I'd say. We aren't going to wait until the end of the school year unless it just works out that way or we get really close.

minus 20 to 30 below with the wind chill factor tonight. Jeez that's cold! Going out to school tomorrow the winds will still be high. Bundle up............................

It'll be easily and faster for me to get to VT when you are there next time Lori, so maybe we'll be able to do some get togethers Kathy and Karen, Janice and whomever else may be "listening" in.

Beautiful picture, Karen!

So it sounds like you HAVE decided to make the move to Bangor at some point, Patti, right? Are you okay with it now?

That's a lovely photo Karen. Very wintry and how nice for you that you got to leave it behind. I woke up to the alarm this a.m. at 5:30. Ready to head to head back to school to start the new year. Oops! another snow snow day. Crazy amounts of snow and blowing all over the place. Wicked cold and I'm glad to be tucked safely here in the house. but, it means we're going long on the spring end. Well we gotta deal sometime. All the skiing and snowmobiling folks are very happy.

Dave and I looked at 9 houses over Christmas and over 20 more on the internet when we finally got home Sunday night. We got stuck for over an hour in the driveway of the first house we went to. Should have had the truck I guess but this continuing snow fall is throwing everybody off. it's not supposed to keep happening. Impossible to see what the yards look like of course. For me that's a problem as I feel the yard and potential gardens are very important. Everything is very expensive too. Housing here in the county is far behind price wise. I think we'll sell easily and at a higher price when the gardens are growing. We'll see, I guess it depends on when we find what we want on the other end.

I'm glad to finally have seen the rhumatologist down in Bangor. It's great to have someone take all the information and tie it up in a big bow. No more competing Dr. info. I even get copies of all the reports generated from the appointment and tests run. That's a first.

Off to get some breakfast. Enjoy your day everyone.

Your grandchildren sound so cute, Kathi! I can almost see them and hear them the way you describe them.

Happy New Year everyone! May all your hopes and dreams comes true in 2008...or at least something really nice in your life!

Things have been hectic here with a housefull of little and big ones. We have gone on a sleigh ride....Camille (who is 3) had this petrified look on her face as we started the ride...when asked what was wrong...she wanted to know when we were going to fly! (The only sleigh she knew of was Santa's...and what does his do????) When she realized we were not going to fly, she relax and had fun. It was the perfect day....lots of snow and mild temperatures. We have been lucky so far with having the fluffy beautiful snow. Good enough to make snowforts and snowmen and snowballs. The little ones have had a great time outside. The big ones got into it yesterday after my girls found their "old" snowpants up in the attic. Pretty amusing seeing them in their pink snowpants! They couldn't believe that I actually had them.....
Christmas was fun, with Camille again...coming into the house saying "Nana, nana, we got you a new mixer"....they big kids had chipped together back in July and had kept it a secret until the last second! At least I didn't know what color......blue! lol....
Chloe is sitting up reaching for things and getting onto her belly getting ready to crawl....Papa is helping her learn much to her mothers chergrin! I am keeping my fingers crossed that they might be moving to CT for a job opportunity for my son-in-law...we'll see! I would be happy to have them much closer! At least I could drive there in a weekend!
Caleb was my shoveling helper....he took his job very seriously....for a few minutes!
All in all it has been a great visit that will end when everyone leaves sometime today......then I'll need the maid big time! Luckily, I don't have school until Wednesday!
Congratulations Lori! Karen, It was great seeing you and hope you arrived home safely!
Happy Thoughts to all............................

I forgot to mention that we have another wedding coming up! My son Rafi and his girlfriend, Kristine, are back to normal after their break-up and have decided to do what my daughter did--have a civil ceremony at the Town Hall! They set a date for Jan. 18. I'm not sure what the point is cuz they are planning to have a regular wedding, too, but they just "feel like doing this." Guess that's a good enough reason. I don't know when their other wedding will be, but my daughter's will be on July 13. They might end up doing theirs this summer, too. Who knows?

Happy New Year to all you bloggers! Hope you're having fun. We haven't decided yet what we're doing. We'll probably either stay home for a quiet, romantic evening or spend it with Avi's family. No noise and crowds for us this year! I wish you all the best of everything for the coming year.