Oh wow! You are so welcome and I am totally flattered. I do hope you get to visit the Anne Frank house one day. It wasn't easy but I felt it opened my mind to something important, however horrific. Through it all, that young girl was so strong and so optimistic. What an inspiration. I feel so lucky that I got this new and deeper perspective.

What sorts of things did your dad bring back? My grandfather also served for the Italian army but he deserted and joined the Partisans. He was anti-Fascist. I'm really proud of him. He took some incredible photos all throughout his experience in WWII.

Hope, I'm really sorry to hear about your flu and fibro flare. I really really hope you feel better soon. I'm keeping you in my thoughts, Dear.

I'd love to hear more about your grandfather. There are so many incredible stories from that period of time. I'm currently reading a book entitled The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942. It is the diary of a 14 year old boy living in Prague in the early '40's, translated from Czech to English. (I know, boring reading to most.) He was eventually killed in a gas chamber in Auschwitz at 16.

My grandmother came to the US from the German/Polish border shortly before WWII broke out as well, so it's really fascinating to me. Add to that the fact that my mom was an American History major, and well, you get the idea. I kind of grew up with a lot of first hand accounts.

As far as what he brought back... well, many of the things were gifts to female family members (his mother, sister, etc.) as souvenirs. Things like crystal, jewelry, artwork, photos, war trinkets, etc. After my dad passed away and as these family members passed away through the years, the items were, one by one, returned to me. My personal favorite is a huge, beautiful water jug that he, somehow, carried with him all the way home from Greece in the '40's. He volunteered to bring horses, by ship, from the US to Greece- for what reason I don't know. I should find out. lol

Tuesday Report Card

Health and Fitness Goals:

1. Calories 1,400 or lower. 2,793, 1,303
2. Water 100 oz. Y,Y
3. Exercise 6 hours. 75 min, 0 min (total 1:15)
4. Protein 25% or higher. 18%, 26%
5. Calorie deficit 5,000. +122, -1,049 (total -927)

Other Stuff

1. Housework, 45 min daily + 1 load of laundry. NN, YY
2. Call Grans. N,N
3. Plant odds and ends in flower bed. N,N
4. Finish 1 Halloween costume. N,N
5. Work on GS plan for November. Some, N

I did so much better today than yesterday. Thank heavens! Anyway I gave myself this morning off exercise just to rest, but guess what? Once the alarm clocks start ringing in this house, there is no more sleeping. It's almost like a concert, I hadn't realized before since mine is the first one to go off. Well anyway some of the ache has left my body so tomorrow morning I'm back to it. Maybe I'll feel up to a round with Bob Harper - or not.

Tomorrow should be fun. Our youngest DD is having trouble adjusting to Kindergarten, I don't know why. Last year she went to pre-school in the same building and loved it. But this year her teacher isn't nearly as nice and somehow or another little DD is not thriving like she usually does. So my mom said that we should have a "Fun Day at the Farm". So we've invited a couple of friends from school to join along, hopefully that will go some ways towards making her more comfortable at school. We'll see. We're going to take them horseback riding and out to the woods for a picnic in the deer blind (which is really a glorified tree fort). We're also going to paint some Halloween masks and bake cookies. I don't remember my folks being this much fun when we were kids, but as grandparents they are the BOMB!

I don't know if the teacher is the problem or not, but I'm about to become a problem to her. I'm the one mom in the class who is on a mission to overhaul the school policy on snacks, and she sends a note home today mandating that I bring GLAZED DOUGHNUT HOLES for the Halloween party? Apparently I need to have a pleasant little heart to heart with her about my very firm policies on not feeding children harmful junk foods. Hopefully I can manage that conversation without losing my composure, but we'll see. Every last member of my household cracked up over the doughnut letter, they're bracing for a cat fight. I'm the odds on favorite, but I think the teacher has 60-70lbs on me and she's taller.

Stuck to my goals pretty much effortlessly today. Sure hope that I can keep up this motivation throughout the week! Was asked to go to Taco Bell for lunch and thought it would be a disaster, but it actually turned out pretty well. Ordered a Fresco Chicken Soft Taco (it was delicious) and later found out that it was only 150 calories. Who knew??

Had a call from my mechanic today and he said that the repair would be more like $300 instead of $700. (YES!!) How? Donuts! Yep, that's right... donuts! He had a really hard time with the brake job that he did for me a couple of weeks ago, I appreciated his extra effort and so I brought him a huge box of assorted, fresh, sweet rolls and donuts about a week ago. So today, he made some calls and got the parts for my car for half price. My husband thinks it's hysterical because that's the third time that I've used bakery to get what I need. I even got out of a speeding ticket once by offering the officer his choice out of a box of bakery that I had just picked up a few minutes before. He laughed and let me go. Ah, the magic of food! The way to a man's heart truly is his stomach.

And, to top it off, I ran into an old boss that was actually more like a mother to me. She set my husband and I up on our first blind date. Haven't seen her in 20 years. It was really a wonderful thing to see her.

Could it be that my luck is changing??

Goals for the week... with a little bit of punishment mixed in:

1. Calories between 1000-1200; LOG EVERYTHING, NO EXCUSES! Yes, Yes

2. 90 oz. of water a day, no excuses. Yes, Yes

3. NO BREAD FOR ONE WEEK, which will force me to eat the things that I should be eating instead. Yes, Yes

4. No butter, margarine, spreads... nothing. Yes, Yes

5. Take all vitamins and supplements; don't skip the big, nasty ones. Yes, Yes

6. Quit making excuses for falling off the wagon, even on weekends. There are no excuses... you've just been lazy and undisciplined. Yes, Yes

LOL Just read your post about donut holes. I agree. For children... bad. For grown men that you need a favor from... PRICELESS!

Rose your pics are fantastic, as usual. You're making me homesick for Europe, we lived there until I was 5. I'm so proud of you jumping back on the wagon, don't look at the scale this week, the real you is a spinning body pump dynamo. All the scale shows is just how much fun you had last week, bygones and all that.

dar n, I do not peel my tomatoes for spaghetti sauce or salsa, because we prefer chunky garden style in our house and the chunks hold together better with the skin on. If you prefer smooth you can either peel them or leave them in, so long as you run it through a blender it makes no difference. I have a friend that spends hours and hours peeling and seeding her tomatoes for sauce, but honestly it doesn't seem worth it to me. What makes sauce taste great is the herbs you put in it, not the absence of seeds. When I can plain tomatoes I peel them, mostly because that's how my mother does it and I have quite a few recipes from her that call for canned tomatoes.

April Drag racing is fun do you go with him? My Dad and Uncle raced modified’s and I spent many a summer in the 70’s being drug from one pit to another I do have some great memories from it. My hubby will go to the stock car races once a summer just to keep me happy but we do not have a drag track on the island.

Cassie I sure hope your day improves.

Terri Your salon experience sounds heavenly.

Lizzie Good job on your calories today.

Rose Your pictures are great I would of cried at the Anne Frank house also, how wonderful you got to see it and revisit a part of history that some have already forgotten. Way to go on getting to the gym twice, so basically you want to look like Madonna in the 80’s.

Quinn Your love of history is so important we live in a world that seems to forget that we need to remember the past to have a better future .My Grandpas were both in WWII one was on the front lines and the other a naval officer both are decorated hero’s. I am so grateful to my Aunt who like you has kept all their treasures since they have passed and talks about their stories so my kids can be educated on our family history. My Aunt has such a passion for the past she volunteered to take and log all of my other Grandpa’s stuff when she heard that his kid’s (my Dad& Uncle) were not really sure what to do with it other than box it up. So you have a gift treasure it and share with others whenever you can.

Well it's only 6:30 and I am still hungry so I will have to post actuals later hope everyone has a nice night.

Rose, I'm thinking that you aren't going to see the skirt or shaved legs on me, I do think I'll hit $1000 though. The crazy thing is still NOTHING from facebook and I've only emailed maybe a dozen people. The ones on my email list that haven't donated get multiple emails. I figure if I pester them enough they'll give in.

Oh ladies, remember the pedicure deal? Still no donation from my ex.

Really? Good to know. You know I've never used doughnut holes as currency with a man. I have however shamelessly used brownies, peanut butter bon-bons and chocolate chip cookies. True story I once paid to get my car fixed with a platter of Christmas cookies. I didn't actually mean to, but once the guy started in on the platter he wouldn't take any money for fixing my car.