Ann

Little birds ...Swifts...are my sign. I love it when I see a few of them in my yard. I rarely see them but when I do, I have a very special feeling.

The actual pain does seem to numb but the emptiness never seems to go away, regardless of how hard we work to keep our bodies and minds busy. Some days, I feel so empty and hollow and all I can think of is how much I miss him.

Hello, everyone. All this talk of home grown tomatoes is making me really hungry for a tomato sandwich on fresh bread with lots of mayo. This was my favorite sandwich when I was growing up and I still love them. The only thing quite as good is a cucumber sandwich with cream cheese. As dry as it's been here, we can't even get grass to grow let alone tomatoes. It's so good to have time to read everyone's news and catch up. My life has been very busy and is about to get even busier. I am going to be a grandmother for the third time in late October and I can't wait. Son & DIL never want to know the gender until the baby is born, so we have a surprise in store. My son always says that the sex of a baby is one of God's best surprises. They do have names picked out already....Harper Grace for a girl and Reed Christopher for a boy. In addition, I was elected as District President for our American Legion Auxiliary. This is going to be a very exciting year for me. I'll be installed at our State Convention on June 26th. I am also excited about attending the National Legion Convention in Minneapolis in August. Do we have any members from Minneapolis??? So...hope to chat more tomorrow. Ann

Sorry, Judy. You and I must have been typing at the same time. So... we have two Wednesday "airs" going. How are you doing? Ann

Good morning, friends. I can't believe it's this late and no one has opened the virtual window and lt's the "Air" flow in. So, I'm proud to have the honors of beginning this morning. Monday was a very wet and soggy day here in central Florida but yesterday was nice. Forecasters are saying the rest of the work week may be gloomy and wet and we may be in for some pretty rough storms. But, as usual, I can't complain about rain. We have been really dry and fires have once again been an issue this year. I am thrilled that today is Wednesday, since that means my work week is half over. It's not as good as being Friday but it's far better than Monday. I found out last night that a friend's husband was diagnosed with lung cancer in January. I gave her the address for our forum and encouraged her to join us. So...if anyone sees Dee, please offer a big hug! My life has been really nuts lately. My job is demanding, as always but now, I have taken on a new challenge. I have been asked to run for District President for our American Legion Auxiliary and have accepted. We have a large district and it will be a challenge but the rewards when I can do more to help veterans will be more than worth it!!! I love and miss you all and hope everyone is doing well. Ann

Well...how's this for a late night air??? I have been so busy at work that I have been totally exhausted when I get home. I'm looking forward to the time change on Sunday. At least it won't be dark when I get home after working 10 ours a day. I have really missed reading all your posts and adding in my own two cents. So glad to read that everyone is doing well. Florida weather is pretty chilly tonight. I'm all covered up in a blanket while posting. The temps have been like a roller coaster here and we never know how to dress from one day to the next. But, soon the hot and humid weather will hit us and the misery will begin. I'm saying prayers for all of the earthquake victims and their families. What terrible news this was to wake up to this morning. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!! Ann

Hello everyone. I guess you were thinking that I had packed up and moved on but I could never leave you guys!!! It has been an absolute mad house here at work and home life has been just as crazy. One son has a Feb. 7th birthday and another has a March 1st birthday, so things get a little crazy with family dinners. In addition, I have been fighting with BOA about my mortgage. I absolutely qualify for a modification but they won't give an inch and after three tries at a modification, it looks as if I've been denied again. I am so upside down on my house that it's insane. Our property values keep going down, so I could never sell the house for even close to what's owed on it. There are newer, bigger houses for sale all over the place here for less than half what I owe on this house. I hate to say it, but I'm thinking of just walking away and buying a house that I can have paid for in 10 years!!!! Now...to the good stuff. Our weather is great...neither cold or hot and the sun has been shining beautifully all day!!! I'm sure the Chamber of Commerce here would love to bottle this kind of weather!!! Annette...thinking of you and saying a prayer for great test results. Hi to Bud, Katie and Libby. Hope everyone had a good, productive Monday. Ann

Good afternoon all!!! After hearing all about Becky Snowflake's deer dressing on FB, I had to hop over and investigate further...lol As I told Becky, Muriel and KW Judy on FB, I think it's time for a Spring Fling Big Blue Bus Reunion Tour!!! Whatcha think???

Oops...guess we were opening the window for the air to flow in at the same time, so we have two Friday discussions going!!! Oh well...the more the better....especially on FRIDAY!!!!

Can everyone join in with a big " glory, glory, hallelujah it's FRIDAY?" YES!!! I heard that loud and clear and you all sounded great!!! Although I've been frantically busy, this week has really moved along at a snail's pace. I had to double check the calendar this morning to make sure it's really FRIDAY!!! I know that all my hard working, clock punching friends are celebrating along with me!!! The air's a little nippy here today. Our high is supposed to be in the 60's. So funny...it seems that Floridians have a habit of rushing out to the garden centers on the first warm, sunny day that we have and buying plants. My neighbor was planting annuals last weekend and then worrying about how they would handle the cold last night. I have seen some very cold temps here in the last week of February, so I don't do any planting until mid-March. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some organizing accomplished at home this weekend. I really don't have much to do except some lite shopping for valentine cuties for the grand babies. Our little local ice cream store always has $5.00 coupon books for ice cream. Every year, Ella looks forward to 5 trips to the ice cream store. I see Lillian hasn't made it in yet??? Makes me wonder how much birthday celebrating she did yesterday...lol!!! Have a good weekend!!!

Things are really getting exciting on this board!!! Personally, I think everyone is all excited about KW Judy's new hat!!! I think it's having a really strange effect on us all and putting us in that Key West state of mind!!! It's raining here this morning and the temperature has dropped since I came to work this morning. I stepped outside for a couple of minutes and it was pretty chilly. I'm always thankful when we get rain here. When we have a dry spell, it seems we always have a lot of fires. Hope everyone is having a great day!!!

The object of this message board game is to post one word, and the next player posts a word that is somehow connected to the first word. For instance, the first person might post the word “cat.” The next person might choose the word “fish.” The third person could post the word “scale.” So...I'll begin.... Rain

Good morning everyone. Since it's my favorite day of the week, I thought I needed to make an extra effort to drop in and say good morning to everyone. What a week it has been!!! Last week, my work computer crashed and I finally got a well needed new computer. Sad to say that I lost a ton of information that I've been trying to get on the new computer. We're on an internal server here at work for my accounting (thank God) but other things were completely wiped out, as my hard drive was fried. I've never had a virus before but this one was fast and furious. All I did was go online to look up an insurance agency and a flashing message came up about a worn infection. Our IT person was in the office and at my computer within a minute but there was nothing he could do...and he's a real whiz at this!!! I finally got all of the 1099's in the mail on Monday afternoon and what a relief that was. Judy...if Stan wants to shop, go with him. Shopping with hubbies can be fun at times. But...it's a real pain when they want to analyze all of your purchases and try to tell you what you need and don't need. My worst is when hubby and I go grocery shopping together. We usually end up not speaking to each other by the time we're to the checkout lane. He always fusses that I have too much "stuff" in the pantry and when I pick something up at the store, he insists that I already have it in the pantry. Occasionally he's right but more often than not, I don't buy the item and then get home to prepare a meal and don't have what I needed. Then, he always volunteers to make a trip back to Publix for me. Hope everyone has some great plans for the upcoming weekend . I'm sure those plans include football and lots of good food. The game isn't quite as interesting for me since my COLTS aren't playing in the big game. But....I am rooting for the Packers in this game. BTW...we always talk weather here and I'm saving this one till last because I'm trying to be sensitive of all my cold weather friends that are freezing. So...here goes....we're supposed to hit 80 today!!! Ann

Hey guys!!! Just jumping in at the end of the day to say hello!!! I posted this morning and thought the post was here but obviously someone else must have been posting at the same time. I have to learn how to save these posts....lol. Hope everyone has a great weekend. It's after 5:00 and I'm just now getting ready to wrap up here at the office. My Friday usually ends at 3:00 but it's been a very crazy day here!!! I hate Tax Time!!!!

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm just now popping in because my computer at work crashed this morning. I was working on some scheduling issues and a pop-up said the system was infected with a worm and then nothing. We're on a network here at work and everyone was hit. Thank goodness we have an IT guru on staff and he was bale to get things back in motion after a few hours. I absolutely held my breath until we knew that my Quickbooks had been saved. But, for now, all looks well. Feel better, Annette and glad you got "unlocked" KW Judy. Hi Bud, Jopette, Linda and Donna. Glad to hear that some of you are much warmer today. It's quite cool here today but not freezing.

some sunshine tomorrow. What is the

Elephants

WOW...what a active group we are this morning. I'm glad I popped in early to say hello. Our weather was so scary last night, with the front moving in and tornadoes and high winds all over the place. Hubby had gone to an early meeting and didn't realize the weather warnings when he left, so I came home to an empty house and the first thing I heard when I entered the door was the weather radio alert blasting!!! I am terrified of tornadoes, so I immediately began thinking about which closet to jump into. To make matters worse, my animals were completely freaking out, as I have seen them do before a hurricane. My gray tuxedo kitty, Jake, was sitting on my coffee table, looking at the ceiling and howling. The only other time I have heard those sounds from him were on the morning that Dennis died. I was so terrified while watching the weather and actually seeing them name streets close me where high winds had been seen on radar. But, the front was a very fast moving one and it passed us a quickly as it came. There was a lot of damage in some areas of the state but we were spared..thank goodness!! Well...more than enough for today. I am so envious of KW Judy being all done with her corporate taxes. I am still trying to finish ours here at work....tough as my boss has 8 different corporations...lol!!! In addition, I have to work on two separate payrolls that are done on the 1st and 15th. So...please send some magic my way!!! Love ya all!!!

Post part of a sentence, about three or four words, and the next person posting on the message board finishes the sentence and starts a new sentence. For example, the first person could post a sentence beginning with the words “What did you,” and the next person might say “have for breakfast?” Then the 2nd person might start the next one by saying “I had fried.” You can imagine how funny this game can become. So...here goes... Where were you

Intelligence I love intelligence....something that often seems lacking here at work!!!

Time for a new game to help pass these cold, dreary days. Use the last letter of the word in the post above you as the first letter in a new word. The words should be something you like or love. I'll start: sunshinE

THE FINAL EXAM.... At Penn State University, there were four sophomores taking chemistry and all of them had an 'A' so far. These four friends were so confident that, the weekend before finals, they decided to visit some friends and have a big party. They had a great time but, after all the hearty partying; they slept all day Sunday and didn't make it back to Penn State until early Monday morning. Rather than taking the final then, they decided that after the final, they would explain to their professor why they missed it. They said that they visited friends but on the way back they had a flat tire. As a result, they missed the final. The professor agreed they could make up the final the next day. The guys were excited and relieved. They studied that night for the exam. The next day the professor placed them in separate rooms and gave them a test booklet. They quickly answered the first problem worth 5 points. Cool, they thought! Each one in separate rooms, thinking this was going to be easy. ... Then they turned the page. On the second page was written.... For 95 points: Which tire? _________

Good morning, everyone. I am so glad that Monday has finally passed. Yesterday was just a terrible day all the way around and I'm was glad to wake up to Tuesday. I think I'm entering one of those cycles at my house where everything breaks and usually has to be replaced. First, it was my dryer....replaced...check!!! Now, it's my oven. We thought it would be as simple as replacing the element but...of course not...that would be way too easy. So, I'm just waiting to see what's next to break, as these things seem to happen in 3's. Lillian, I know how hard today and the upcoming days will be for you. Take a deep breath and try to remember this is today....not 8 years ago. I will be keeping you and your family in my thoughts and prayers. Bud...we're supposed to get those showers later today, after they leave you. The worst of it is supposed to hit here between 6-8 this evening and continue throughout the night. We awoke this morning to the weather stations talking about tornado warnings and asking us all to check the batteries in our weather radios. We are supposed to get winds up to 50 mph from this. It's supposed to be very warm here today (near 80) and the cold air coming in doesn't mix well with those warm temps. Annette...there's nothing quite like a good dose of Nyquil and a warm blankie when you're fighting with a bad cold. Just rest up and don't push yourself too hard. I know how it is to miss work and I'm always thinking more of work that I do of my health. But...neither bills or inpatient bosses wait for us to feel better, so we drag on!!! Hope everyone has a nice, peaceful day!!!

First of all, I want to send lots of big, warm blankets to all out friends in the northern US and Canada. I was shivering this morning, just listening to details of the weather you guys are having. It made me feel like our 48 degrees is a heat wave!!! Judy...I don't think you got my cold either since it hasn't completely packed up and taken off. I'm still struggling with sniffles and an occasional cough but I feel a lot better. Hey...I love ya KW Judy...wouldn't think of sharing such a thing with a friend!!! Bud...glad you had a good day fishing. You make relaxing sound like such a great thing!!! Annette...hope you feel better as today goes on. Stay warm and drink lots of hot tea. Katie....I will send you a PM about this one. Figure that will be better than talking everyone's ears off on this forum...lol Now....although it's monday (lower case for my least favorite day of the week) I have some pictures that I want to share with you from my grandson's 3rd birthday party on Saturday. The theme for the party was "Woody's Roundup" since he's such a big Toy Story fan!!!

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. - Marie Curie