Sudokuaholics Anonymous 11

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. ~ possibly a quote from Henry Ford

Brenda, I'm so glad you had an opportunity to meet and spend time with June and Ken. Actually, I'm a bit jealous.

Heidi, I enjoyed your mattress stories. The best part of them is that no one was hurt and damage was relatively mild. I can't even begin to invent an explanation. In our travels around the Chicago area we have seen cars with a mattress on the roof (sometimes tied, sometimes being 'held' by passengers in the car) and pick-up trucks with a mattress (and often other furniture) in the bed of the truck. I don't recall seeing a mattress on the pavement. On the other hand, I was once following a truck with 4 rear tires (possibly called a 'dually' on a divided highway going about 55 miles per hour when one of the tires came off headed directly for me and the children in the car. Luckily, there was a wide shoulder along that stretch of road.

I'm continuing to read comments. Heidi, you have encountered a mattress on the road almost 2 dozen times!?!?! That is amazing - and frightening! I guess you could say you have had your share of experience with them, and are certainly better prepared when encountering one than any of the rest of us!

Heidi, may your friend Helene R.I.P. Condolences to you and Maxine. Do you think she might now consider relocating? Hopefully her 'boyfriend' is no longer a bad influence in her life.

Heidi, here's hoping your epidural is/was a 'doozy!'

I hope you have an amazing day, Theresa! Happy Birthday!

Tami, it's good to see you! Your busy days and nights are hopefully pleasant and mostly enjoyable!

Thinking of LIz! <3

Rolanda, we're glad to see you, as always. Hopefully you will soon be feeling better!

Cyn, I 'read' what you 'meant' - so no problem. Of course, I meant to write 'Greetings' in my post at the bottom of page 32.

It's just after 1 a.m., so I need to head to bed. Sending {{{{{HUGS}}}}}, positive thoughts, prayers, healing vibes and for everyone!

We were the first plane to land in Sydney this morning. Touch down exactly at 5am. (It is a 7 hour flight from Singapore). Home just before 7am. (thirty hours after leaving Brenda!)I did have an hour or so sleep this afternoon and about ready to go to bed now.
I have been looking at some of the photos but will be a few days before I start any sorting.
Gee it is nice to be back on my computer. The small notebook was very slow and sometimes I could not even get onto these pages.
I thought the washing machine had been fixed while we were away but now doing very strange things so I will have to wash by changing it manually to the different settings until I can get it sorted properly. At least I can slowly get some of the dirty clothes washed.

home June, have enjoyed following your adventures and look forward to seeing pics in the coming days/weeks.

Great to see you arrived home on time, no delays and
after having a wonderful time June & Ken.

Hi Lizzy...how is work going?

It is quite warm here with an early start to summer. VERY DRY!
Flooded house was meant to be finished tomorrow but maybe another week yet.
All good here. Take care everyone.

Ok.... the epidural was a real lulu. I've been in bed since I got home 4 hours ago. I got up for a few, now back to bed again.

WELCOME HOME, June!!!!

Heidi...I hope you are soon pain free (well, as much as possible) after plenty of rest.
Thinking of you

Hi all. Two days in a row for me. I must not be busy this week.

Julie, thanks for the info on cello's. It was interesting to learn.

Heidi, glad it was a lulu. Hope it offers lots of relief for you.

L I Z Z Y

Hi All...Hope the birthday was all one could hope for Theresa and you were spoiled rotten...
Welcome home June and Ken...happy that all went well...rest and gather strength so that you are ready to go again with some other project...they seem to keep you on your toes.
Julie, glad you took time to teach us more about the cello..who woulda thunk huh? It just goes to show that it takes a lot to bring forth beauty.
Heidi, hope your back will show that it was really treated to a lulu of an epidural this time and stays bearable for a good while.
Tami...hope you are able to grab some fun time with both jobs going strong right now...good to see you but want you to be able to enjoy life a bit too. Nola, it sounds as if things are really going well with the repairs to the house almost finished just a week or so behind schedule...happy for you.
Lots of reading and game playing going on here...health is pretty good most of the time, but I'll feel better once the temps are steady, not the hot, cool up and down temps like we're experiencing now...nothing new...just more time is needed to get accustomed to Mother Nature's rhythms...and she wins all of the time... Have a great night /day where you hang your hats...Peace.

L I Z Z Y

Morning all,
I have had more trouble finding the energy to post since school holidays started than I did when I was working! I think my body and mind are trying to recuperate... I have decided I won't go back and try to catch up or I'd never post again!

Happy Birthday Theresa!

Welcome home June!

Remembering Dizzy Lizzy <3

Nola, hope the house is finished soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11DWk6lFckM&feature=youtu.be

That's where I was last night... she got through to the finals, but they will be tough. There are at least 2 people in the heats next week who can beat Alie unless she has a perfect night. And that's not counting the ones who got through with her this week.

Hello to everyone who visited today and/or made a comment.

Welcome home, June and Ken!

Hi, LIzzy! Hope all is well!

Nola, what great news that the repairs to the flooded house are almost finished!

Heidi, I'm glad the epidural was a lulu and hope you can spend the next few days relaxing and resting!

Tami, I hope your students are motivated and well behaved this year!

Mama and MizT, hopefully the weather will soon quit fluctuating wildly and make it easier for you to maintain good health!

Suzy, it's good to see you! Hopefully, you're getting caught up on sleep! Congrats to Alie! Keep up the good work!

Time for me to head to bed. It's almost 1, and the alarm is set for 6. Take care, Everyone! {{{{{HIUGS}}}}}, positive thoughts, healing vibes, prayers and !

My back feels great today! But I'm coming down with a head cold, I think. Given a choice, I'd rather have the cold.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be taking the RV up to Bardstown, KY, to act as hospitality center for the annual LMGI. That's Gil's family's golf tournament. This year it's being held at the ''My Old Kentucky Home'' Golf Course and State Park. We've arranged a spot for the RV right next to the first tee. The park is supplying picnic tables and a grill,and some of the non-golfing wives will be fixing a nice lunch there, and a snack for the awards ceremony afterwards. We'll also have cold drinks, and of course rest room facilities. IH will be sleeping there tomorrow night to get an early start on the Saturday morning golfing.

Julie, I have two different groups of students this year. I have one real math class and the kids in that class are great. The rest of the day I am involved in a drop-out prevention program and those kids are the biggest pain in the butts I have ever seen. There are 42 students in the program and 10 of them will be 16 this school year. That means they will be eligible to drive themselves to middle school. 1 of them is in 7th grade, the rest in 8th grade.

Tami, I wish kids were held back like that here. I had 15 year olds who just kept going along to the next year and get to year 9 (9th grade) unable to do even primary school (elementary school) math. Some can't even read. 42 kids are way too many to have in a classroom if you have all good kids, let alone troubled kids - do you have all of them at the same time?

We're off early tomorrow morning. I'll take my little notebook, but I may not have much internet for a week.

16 years old in 7th and 8th grade!!??!!???? Those kids are morons!

Not morons Heidi, that's the sad part. From my experience, most fall through the cracks early on (not read to at home etc etc which isn't their fault) and then they are so far behind it is really , really hard to keep up and many of them decide it is better for their image to fail because they didn't try/didn't care than because they are dumb - which they mostly aren't. It's self preservation. Here they just keep going and being promoted until they are legally old enough to leave school.

Hi, Fellow Sudokuaholics! No reading or comments tonight. I'm falling asleep. Stay well, Everyone!

I agree Suzy in what you say about the kids not being morons. We have a problem here with kids not doing well and still progressing up the school. I have heard of some kids being held back.Our friend two sons, both had been read to and helped at home, but both were a little slow. Their parents took them out of the state school system and sent them to private school. One is at university now and the other has a job (he is dyslexic).Another friend had a son who was very slow reading, his younger brother, who is 4yrs younger, soon overtook him in reading. they then found out that he had a problem with tracking in his eyes. Once that was diagnosed he soon progressed, he is now a qualified chef working in the prestigious hotel, Claridges, in London. So there can be many reasons why kids do not make progress in school.

Suzy have a great time away, I know part of the trip is for a sad reason, but still enjoy the rest of the time.
Richard and I are off for a couple of days next week too.

Enjoy your trip Suzy, and try to relax!
I have put about 20 photos from Turkey on my page.

Greetings All,
Brenda and Suzy...many thanks for explaining why some of the kids don't seem to learn while in school. In my experience, I've seen kids of school age faced with some mighty tough choices that had to be made and their education became dispensable...such a loss for all concerned. Heidi's reaction was typical of many, and not unkindly meant, but too often is done w/o full background. Many blame the system, teachers or any handy thing in which to place blame...but in my opinion, I think all of society has to share some of the blame. People talk a good game about the value of children, but all too often, they are the first to all victim to monetary gain of others. They don't vote, and are seen as something to be gotten around to later, but it doesn't happen to be convenient right now... We'll fight to make sure they are born, but then its hands off, or left for others to see that they make it until they are old enough to fit a need. They suffer unnecessarily for too long and lose hope. ...Oh let me get off of my soap box for now...I guess you can tell this is a touchy subject with me... Sorry..I didn't mean to turn this into a rant. Have a good day/night. Peace.

My reaction was partly due to a sore throat and head cold. Sorry. I'm usually more understanding than that, except when I'm feeling grumpy. Sorry. In my defense, though, I have seen kids in Kentucky who don't do well in school and drop out just because they're used to a family that doesn't work, and lives on welfare, so they feel that it's easier for them to do the same thing. No learning disability or other problem involved. Just laziness. I know the full stories on some of these kids.

The cold is progressing slowly but steadily worse. Very congested head, messed up throat and a slight fever. I hope I can make it through the next 2 days. I have to leave here with the RV in 3 hours. IH will be following in my truck. Once we set up, we'll meet everyone for dinner in a nice restaurant. I will be back here for the night. The park and golf course where the tournament is being held is in Bardstown, just under an hour away. I will have to return early in the morning with all the food fixings for lunch for 15-20 people. Around 4 pm, everybody will be returning to the RV for the awards ceremony, then back down to Magnolia where cousin Don will be hosting dinner at his place.

Heidi, I do hope you feel better and I apologize for seemingly jumping on you. That was not my intent and I do agree that kids do learn how to scam the system and take the seemingly easy way out, many times because they are lazy...but I have seen kids being blamed for so many situations that they have no control over that it makes my blood just boil when they are viewed as being at fault in some way.
I think children are special gifts and we are asked as adults to care for them, and we do such a poor job on far too many of them that we need to hang our heads in shame. As a so called compassionate society, we have much to improve.
Again, sorry to have raised such a fuss and hope you can have a good day in spite of not feeling up to par.

Brenda, I am dyslexic and so is one of my grandsons. We have found out that words printed on BLUE paper makes it easier for most dyslexics to read. There have been studies now, even studies of colored glasses to make it easier for them.

My finding it was by sheer chance and a teacher who paid attention. I was so far behind on reading skills by the time I got to second grade in a new school, they wanted to put me back a year. My dad did not like that idea, I was already one of the biggest students in second grade, 'big for my age', and would have been towering over the first graders. So one teacher volunteered to work with me, if family would work with me at home. For six months I read every hour I was not in school, to parents, to grandmother, anyone who would listen. My teacher gave up her 30 minute planning period so she could work one on one with me. She gave me a little rectangle of construction paper to put under the line I was reading. My favorite was the blue one, and I cried if I did not have a blue one to choose. She noticed I read much better with that blue paper to mark the line I was reading, and made sure I always had a blue one.

At the time I hated my family and school for making me read read read, I wanted to go play! But I soon was reading on a second grade level and read with a reading group, not alone to the teacher. I was in the the lowest group, but still. Fore you knew it I went from the bluebird group, to the red bird group, to the cardinals, all the way to the top readers in my second grade. I LOVE reading, and did after that year, once I learned how. Do not need the blue paper now, but it made a very big difference for me.

So if you know someone with a dyslexic child having difficulty reading, or are a teacher with dyslexic students, give them a piece of blue paper to mark the line they are on, and see if it works for them. Can't hurt, might help.

Mama, Suzy, I would have been one of those students that fell through the cracks if not for the effort made on my part by that teacher, my father and others. No one knew a thing about dyslexia then. They knew from other subjects that I was intelligent, only thing could have been wrong was I was not trying, I was lazy. I was an adult before I recognized I was dyslexic.

Heidi, ,sounds like a big fun get together with family. What do the initials stand for. Trying to find something to fit, I came up with Lower Michigan Golf Invitational. :) Anyone else want to take a guess fore Heidi tells us?? I do hope the cold gets better. Have you ever tried zycam cold preventative? The stuff you once sprayed into nostrils, now they want you to swipe inside nostrils with a coated swab. When I had colds (been a long while since I did, back when I stopped smoking) If I used the Zycam the first couple of days when I felt a cold coming on, just once a day for me, cold would be gone in 3 days. I still have some on hand, just in case. EARLY is the key, first or second day of the cold to start it.

JUNE, I hope to get to see your photos this afternoon. thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Yesterday we had a birthday party. This church did the least in preparing for the party, cake was amall, therefore slices were tiny. It was late arriving, the gifts for the celebrants were skimpy in comparison to August gifts. But we had a very good time. They brought a pianist and the music director. they played for us to sing, if you keep the hungry mob singing, they will not attack hehehe The music director had a beautiful voice and he sang a song for us, without accompaniment (how do you spell that word) Boy the group quieted down once he started singing, and we can be a noisy group.

Today we had a 'meet and greet' for new residents. I had thought I had not seen anyone move in lately, and I was right, these 3 ladies had been here for more than a month. Means no one has checked out this last month, for whatever reason.

Watered flowers, and collected 2 more I am now responsible for. Nancy asked me to water 2 urns that are in the shade garden, she had been doing it but is no longer able to do it. Not a huge deal, they are close by where I water others, I just need 3 gallons of water now instead of 2. I can fit 2 in my 'caboose' and one can sit either on my leg or on the foot rest.

Tomorrow morning I am going on the bus to Pepper Place for the farmers market once again. I missed the veggie man today. No more coupons for produce, but hopefully I can find some peaches for less than 50 cents each, and some tomatoes. Heck, if they are GOOD juicy peaches I will pay 50 cents for them I have had a peach a day since early June! I am going to miss them, they will soon be gone for this year.

I feel a nap coming on. Just took meds, they are not working yet, and a bit of rest might help. I do not have to cook tonight, I bought lunch today but since I ate break

I almost made it fit hehehe, Here is the last couple of sentences.


I bought lunch today but since I ate breakfast at 11 am, I saved it for dinner. So since there is nothing I must do, I will nap a while, Catch you all later.

Hugs to each of you, with extras.

Oh wow, June, just looked at you Turkey pics - stunning. Looking forward to the Greece ones as well!

Good Morning my friends.
Well my cousin has finally left after working on my house for 3 weeks. Bella and I are enjoying the peace and quiet. It was lovely to have Kev here but a very social time with lots of visitors most evenings for the last 3 weeks, I am exhausted but well and safe in my home.
Sending love and healing hugs to you all.

Hi all. Thanks for explaining about my kids but here is a little more info. We have 42 kids in the program split between 6, 7 and 8 grade. There are 4 teachers. One for math, one for science/social studies and one for language arts/reading. I float between the rooms and do small group pull-outs or time out as needed. The kids I deal with are inner-city kids, AKA ghetto. Most of them are really good kids. We have a few we suspect of being involved in gangs, or bordering on gang mentallity. About half have some kind of learning disability. The 'ghetto' attitude is that school is not always cool. They would rather fight than behave and will cuss out a person at the drop of a hat, student or teacher. If they start feeling threatened, the rest of the family/friends will show up after school to 'take care of it.' For these kids being suspended is not a problem, they see it as a vacation. We have had many fights but so far have only suspended 1 kid. In the rest of the school a fight is an automatic suspension. We are doing our best to break the cycle and keep them in school. Legally they can drop out at 16. The oldest of our kids turns 16 on Oct. 5 and I am hoping he sticks it out. He is a good kid, but slow. I am going to start working with him more one-on-one.

Everybody has now shown up, the big dinner is over, and IH is put to bed in the RV at the golf course. I am back home. Tomorrow morning I head back there with the hamburgers and fresh tomatoes from the garden. IH can't get in too much trouble tonight. I took the RV keys home with me.

The initials stand for the ''Locy Myers Golf Invitational''. It's sponsored by the Kentucky Bourbon Research Council (founded by Gil and his cousins) and Myers Parasitology Services.

Well, I got the golf invitational part right hehehe. Was not thinking about Heidi's name being Meyers for the M part.

I just put an old flower arrangement out in the hall. something is playing havoc with my eyes, nose. I was getting an odor from the flowers, so out they go. Did not make it to the trash because I am in my gown. flowers are tied in a plastic bag and hanging on my door knob. I will take to trash tomorrow.

We are given flower arrangements here on occasion, usually on Monday morning. There is a group that takes flowers from weddings, banquets and such and makes them into small bouquets. Usually they are white, occasionally a pastel, brights if for some corporate function. If you happen downstairs Monday when they arrive, or fore they are all gone, you are welcome to take one back to your apartment.

What with removing flowers and using allergy eye drops, eyes have stopped watering.

I am off to bed, chat again tomorrow. Hugs to each of you, with extras.

Hmmmmm..... Quiet night here. I'm off to go back to the RV within the half hour. I hope IH hasn't broken too many things! When last I saw him, he was about to lay down in bed, with too much bourbon in him, and a DVD starting to play. I instructed him on the basics of using the remote..... I showed him the ''power off'' button to be used when the movie was done. He'll probably fall asleep before it's over.

HEIDI, I ope you find the RV intact and Gil on his best behavior today. Safe trip.

I am about to go see what can be found at the farmers market. It is a lovely day today for being outdoors. Temps are rising from a low of 63, not yet 70. I have opened my bedroom window for some fresh cool air.

Nuttin else going on around here. Hugs to each of you with extras, till later.

I have put photos of Greece and UK on my page. Just a few select ones as I have taken over 1,000.
Thanks for the comments on the ones of Turkey. We will pick up Laura in the morning, then we will go to Belinda's in the afternoon. Laura and I will stay there till Wednesday.

enjoyed seeing the photos you have put up. Thanks so much for sharing with us.