[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104975

Hi Adele,
I can’t believe that you got the video of Gary falling down. Poor guy. I’m glad that he is not hurt.
Did you get the chance to do any baking this year or is the shoulder still too bad. Plus you guys have a revolving door of physical therapists too.
So are you going the paper plate route for Christmas dinner? I’m still not sure what i am making. I will have to decide soon as Greg will probably shop for me on Sunday.
Will you do the latkes for Hanukkah? I must be hungry as I keep talking about food. lol
tonight we are going over for Pip’s family birthday party and tomorrow we are going into the city to have our holiday get together with another couple. We will go out to dinner with them too. sometimes they cook and sometimes we go out.
I will tell Piper Happy birthday from you and Colleen. She is quite excited. I got her a hair blinger. I hope she will put a jewel in my hair. lol
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104973

Hi Colleen,
I never heard of a freezer with two icemakers. That’s a lot of ice. What does Ron do with it all? lol
Yes, our grands all like the slime and have had various slime making kits. I tried it with them and you have to get the proportions just right. Years ago when the kids were about 8 or 9 Greg’s company packaged the slime for the Ghostbusters toys and we were the most popular house in the neighborhood with all the kids because we got free slime and that’s when it just came out.
I wish you had some people to go to concerts with too. if we lived closer we would take you with us. It would be sad if Greg didn’t like going. I can take him to just about everything-the only place he probably wouldn’t go would be to see the Chippendale dancers. lol I doubt that I would be going to that anyway. lol
Maybe Brook’s boyfriend is shy about meeting her family-after all we have to remember that they are just teenagers-and he may feel embarrassed. At least he is sticking around-many times the boy will not want anything to do with the baby-although legally he is still responsible sometimes guys will shirk their duty in that respect. I know my friend was married to the father of her daughter and when they got divorced he never paid child support-never sent her a birthday Card or christmas presents or anything. It was awful. And to add insult to injury he remarried and adopted the children of the woman he married. Then he got older and ill and tried to reestablish a connection but they really didn’t want to have anything to do with him at that point.
I hope you get to meet him and his family at the shower.
That is so cute that Ron bought that little outfit. I remember Greg’s Dad bought a wicker rocking horse for Jenny because she was the only girl out of 6 grandsons at that time and he was so thrilled. it’s too bad both of the kids grandfathers died before they could get to know them. My Dad loved to fish and so does Brent and they never got the chance to do that together.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104971

Hi DD,
How was your party. Fun I hope. Don’t feel bad about being late-Greg and I are finally getting our trees up today.
I love the way Snowball is laying on the decorations like she is the one exhausted from decorating. If those are pictures of your decor you put up a lot of stuff so no wonder that you are tired. It all looks very pretty.
You are getting rain and we are getting a green Christmas which I don’t mind at all. It makes for safer travels for everyone.
it’s funny the time between Christmas and new years has always been one of my favorite times. Everyone still has their decorations up and feels festive but everything is much less hectic and more peaceful. We have a low key New Years Eve usually eating appetizers and watching old movies.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104969

Hi Sue,
That is a good question if Quacker would sell on their website if they were asked to leave the Q. Maybe Tim would just want to wrap everything up and retire. He probably has made enough money to live in comfort for the rest of his life so there wouldn’t be much incentive there. Or maybe that’s why they are testing selling more things on the website right now.
Yes, I think the old days of the Q are long gone. Didn’t it seem it was much more relaxed and fun in the early days. I remember being excited to watch certain shows and now for the most part I could care less.
Another clothing line that I think Denim and co. was going to take over was Sports Savvy. I loved that line for my easy stay at home lifestyle.
Greg and I often think how awful that must be to live next to one of those brightly lit houses. Unless it was Clark Griswold’s. lol I do like the people that asked for donations for an animal shelter and for Saint Jude’s from the people who come to see the lights. I do like that trophy that the winners get though.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104867

Hi Sue,
I am glad that you are okay. I hope that your weather improves. I knew Quacker had the towels and glasses and pictures and cell cases but I didn’t know about the baby stuff and the socks. Very cute. Maybe Adele and Colleen would like something for the new great grands. Thank you for mentioning it.
I know many people feel the way you do about Christmas. I think one of the things I like the best is the lights brightening the cold winter landscape. Thus I have things that light up all over my house. I also have always loved giving gifts and especially to the children-you only get to see Christmas through a child’s eyes for a short time and then they grow older and stop believing. But I also like to see if I can think of something that the other members of my family would really like and never get for themselves. I kind of consider it a treasure hunt. I like the music as it seems so happy and joyous and we could all use some happiness in our lives-and the old movies I could watch over and over-White Christmas, Elf, Christmas Vacation etc. etc. But not everyone feels that way and that’s understandable. We used to go to a beautiful children’s service on Christmas Eve and that always filled me with hope for the coming year. Now whether we go is kind of dependent on the weather. That’s what happens when you get older.
You are totally right. I did mean to mention that I don’t think QVC is buying Quacker like they did in the old days-and they are to blame for that but I wonder if Quacker sells like it used to. All the clothing prices are getting steep on the Q. I remember when you could get a Denim and Co. outfit top and bottom for under 40 dollars. Does anyone remember Fashion Formulas? That goes way back. And their Christmas programming has been very stale with the same products showing over and over.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104854

Hi Everyone,
I hope we will hear from Barbara again soon as to how things are going with her MIL.
Colleen, I hope Brook gets a lot of nice things for her shower. Where are you having it? How is the new fridge? When are Stephen and Melissa arriving?
DD-did you get the decorating done? I am struggling getting mine done. We still have not put up the trees. I have been working on the table top stuff and wreaths nativity and Christmas village. I can’t believe I used to be able to get this all done in a couple of days. But when it’s done I love just sitting and watching the lights in the peacefulness of a quiet night. I don’t think i will take the decorations down until the end of January as it’s taking so long to get them up.
Sue, how are you doing? How’s the weather. I saw that last night there was a tornado in the town that my parents used to live in in Louisiana. My Dad’s grave is in that town in the National cemetery.
Adele, I’m glad they are addressing the tachycardia-hopefully it will help with the being out of breath. You guys are sure having a lot of trouble with your outdoor decor. The blow ups are so cute but are really affected by the weather conditions. I think we are going to have a green Christmas this year as they are saying probably no snow which is just fine with me. Quacker had very few new things for both Christmas and Halloween this year. The majority of their shows are now on Q2-I just see them as a declining commodity. I think the market for the type of embellishment that they do is disappearing. They had a big deal on Q2 last week and the pants I wanted in the colors I wanted were already sold out in my size before the sale even started so i was disappointed in that. I like their ankle pants the best as even the short in other styles are too long for me. The Q in general has had very poor items this Christmas season and they stopped selling Christmas decorations in October it seemed.
Colleen, I bought two sets of the bags but then I went and looked under Kringle express and also bought extras of the larger bags from them. I will still wrap some gifts-things that are in nice rectangular shaped boxes. I have to get crackin with that too. i can’t believe how far behind that Thanksgiving being late has put me.
Last Thursday we went to a Christmas concert by a group called 1224. they usually play only out east and this was their first foray into the midwest. They do a lot of stuff like TransSiberian orchestra. We went out to dinner before hand to an Italian restaurant that we hadn’t been to in ages called Cafe Calimari. It was really good! We didn’t go to Jenny’s last Friday as she was having a wine and sock party-I could have gone if I would have wanted to but i would have been the only old lady there since she doesn’t invite her ex-MIL to these things anymore-and even though I know most of the women-I’m sure conversations are more free without me there. Friday we will celebrate Pip’s birthday-and when she is having her party on her actual birthday on Saturday we will be visiting our friends in the city. Then Monday will be Christmas guitar night. A very low key acoustic concert. busy busy busy-in between all that I need to finish decorating and wrapping.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104583

Hi Adele,
I hope Heather is getting some movement back and doesn’t get too frustrated about it.
I’m sure she wants to be moving and doing-especially at this time of year.
Gary should get that xray as he could have pneumonia and that would need a different antibiotic. Although it does take us longer to shake things at this age too.
Yes, Kendall is almost 12 so she will be starting the moody stages soon. It’s kind of hard to watch-your sweet kid turning into someone you barely know. Unfortunately it’s been so long since I was that age that I can’t remember what it was like and what I was thinking but I don’t remember retiring to my room as much as the kids do now. For some reason Kendall has taken to going into Lachlan’s room-maybe because he’s rarely in there and she shares a room with Piper. Speaking of the Pipster she wants to enter the Milk Day princess contest next year so now Jenny and I are searching for someone to make the required crepe paper dress. Jenny never sewed at all and it’s been years since I sewed and i just sewed simple dresses back in the day-nothing as complicated as a crepe paper ball gown.
I am still waiting for some orders too. Mostly for the kids. i have one Item for Lachlan that I am just not sure if I will get in time or not. We’ll see. I heard that there is a shortage of package deliverers this season so the deliveries are slower. I have had an actual Amazon van come to the house. I sent Brent some stuff from Omaha steaks and he got an email that it had been delivered and he never got the stuff and he was home at the time he got the email so they must have delivered it to the wrong address and of course the people kept it-in the spirit of the season. (sarcasm) But he called Omaha steaks and they are resending. I got an email saying a package was delivered and I was looking all around the house for it and it ends up it got delivered to our across the street neighbor.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104581

Hi DD,
I did watch the Light Fight show. I’m always amazed at how time consuming doing that must be. So you have seen the million lights place in person. That’s cool. Is there a lot of traffic past there constantly. I wonder how the other people in the neighborhood feel about it. I do enjoy watching that show though.
Good thinking to get the unbreakable ornaments. I’ll bet Snowball is really scratching her head over this turn of events. lol
I think it would be nice to make a little memorial shelf for Jewell. I have a picture of our dogs on top of a bookcase and next to it is a sign about losing dogs and next to that is a sculpture of a woman in a chair reading with a dog at her feet and hanging on the sculpture is the last collars that the dogs wore. It’s in a corner that no one even ever notices but me-so even though it’s in plain site it’s kind of private.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-December 2019 #104579

Barbara,
I hope Jerry feels better soon. Do you have to cross the Smokey Mountains to get to Neal’s. That is never my favorite part of any trip either. I am just not a mountain person. I am a Flatlander and proud of it. That’s what the Wisconsin people call us here in Illinois. lol
Well Sarah knows she needs you guys to watch Colin and you know it too. Since she didn’t invite you over Christmas I would make a big deal about being there to usher in the New Year with Colin just to get her goat. lol Sometimes sweet Gail can be naughty Gail.
Our previous fridge was a side by side and when it went kaput I got one with a freezer on the bottom which I love. it’s so massive though that I actually need a step stool to get to the back of the top shelves. I never really liked the side by side after I got it as the refrigerator side was so narrow. I was glad to replace it with the bottom freezer model.
Yes our wood burner won’t be the pot bellied stove like you have so there will be no cooking on top of it. They put the insert right into the fireplace hole so it doesn’t take up extra space and you don’t have to extend the hearth-so basically it looks like a fireplace but it has the heating capacity of the wood burning stove. You have to buy it according to if you have a masonry chimney or a prefab chimney with the siding surround. We have a prefab chimney as the masonry chimneys were so expensive when we built our home.
I used to send those Valerie wreathes to my brother when he lived in NM. He always enjoyed a little slice of the pines from home in the arid southwest.
Gail

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