-Camping

-We too may hit the beach (Charleston area) in October.

-Getting some things done in the yard once it cools off. The biggest being a flagstone area coming out from our arbor - encircling our firepit.

-The holidays with family and friends

tina

Today? I'm looking forward to Monday, when my air conditioner gets repaired. I am way too old for 82 degrees inside my house.

True, it broke only yesterday and I could have it repaired over the week end but I am too cheap to pay the week end rates. (Double the service call and 30% higher for parts.)

Think I'll go for a drive in my car to cool down.

Unfortunately, I feel like I'm in limbo right now and don't have anything planned to look forward to. My husband is job hunting, so we don't know if we are going to have to move or not. So I can't really plan "house" things, don't know if we can afford any kind of a vacation. I am kind of looking forward to a change - I just don't know what it is yet!

1. For the 2009 hurricane season to be over
2. For the 2009 hurricane season to be over
3. Did I mention for the 2009 hurricane season to be over??? =) Can you tell I live on the coast?

Tina, I'm looking forward to it WARMING up so I can work outside. Right now it is 56 degrees and damp. I turned the furnace on just a few minutes ago!

I'm looking forward to finishing my landscaping projects. This year my wildflower gardens were looking nice and lush, FINALLY. THEN my DH decides we need to have our house repainted because of hair-line cracks in the stucco.

Soooooo, my beds against the house were dug up to reveal the stucco that was below garden level (I had built raised beds around three sides of the house/garage).

He's never been in favor of the raised beds against the building, but I thought he was being persnickity so I went ahead and built them. This involved hauling basalt rocks from behind our house to border them with, doing lasagna gardening with yard trimmings and kitchen waste, and sprinkling clay that I scratched out from the basalt cliff behind our house over that. (I live on the north shore of Lake Superior, and since we haven't had glaciers for only 10,000 years, our soil depth is a measly couple of inches.) AND I'm cheap, er frugal!!! LOL

Anyway, I get to build a new bed. I'm enthusiastic about it. It involves putting in a border of excess landscaping block and basalt rock, putting down layers of newspaper or cardboard, putting down layers of vegetation waste and then removing the soil from the beds which were against the house. I may be 15% done and I'm anxious to see how it turns out next growing season. Plus I'm adding a garden junk vignette of a caboose stove, a small horse-drawn tiller, iron wheel rims, old hay loft door, etc. I'll add an old water pump if I can convince DH that $125 for the one I saw is a good buy.

HOWEVER, I'm pretty much a fair weather gardener so I need it to be in the high 60s or low 70s.

In a lighter vein, we have an Alaska cruise coming up in a week and a half. My DH's siblings and spouses are going together. . .no ailing parents, no children, no grandchildren, no grandpets. What are we going to do??!!! LOL

Two days after that we fly to Albuquerque for an awards banquet for my husband. Our DD will join us and then we'll tour the north central part of New Mexico for a few days. We've never spent time in New Mexico and are looking forward to exploring!!

1. Fall and hopefully some rain and cooler weather
2. Trip with DH in October
3. Doing some painting upstairs and turning my boys' old rooms into guest rooms
4. College football

What a great post to get us looking forward and to something positive, Shee!

1. I am looking forward to new challenges after some BIG changes at work.

2. I am looking forward to a vacation in 2010 (chances of getting away in 2009 are pretty much shot)

3. I am looking forward to a good night's sleep-- soon.

4. I am looking forward to soup weather.

I'm sending DH west to UT and CO to visit our boys as a belated 50th b'day present. He leaves 9/3 for 5 days and I have the house to myself - what ever will I do??!!

Losing weight and getting healthy
Painting my bedroom
Finishing my geneology research on my mother's side
A trip in our rv
Getting the junk in the garage sold
Rain

...getting rid of the moles in my yard

...end of the 2009 hurricane season

...lower humidity

...finishing the outdoor "to do" list

SPARTAN FOOTBALL!!!!

I'm making a total life change.

All summer I've been looking forward to taking my little girls (3 1/2 and 5 1/2) to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway. We went today, and I must say we had just the best day. I don't know what I enjoyed more, the show or my little girls' faces while watching it.

My youngest graduating HS. My kids have been going to the public schools in the same town for 30 years, I'm Done.
Fall, I hate the heat
Holidays
Landscaping
Being able to sleep through the night

I'm making a total life change.

What a tease! Tell us more. ;)

1. Finishing the Couch to 5K program
2. Redoing my daughters bedroom when she goes back to college
3. Cool weather and sitting in the hot tub with my hubby

1. Going home tomorrow after 5 weeks at our summer cottage. I'm ready to get back into normal routine, including sending the kids back to school!
2. Beginning construction on an addition to the aforementioned cottage. Best part is that I don't have to live in the house while the work is being done!
3. Getting back into a diet and exercise routine, as I have been a lazy pig all summer.
4. Getting college applications done with DS #1, so I can stop hounding him.

Yes, newdawn! Spit it out...

yeah NewDawn!!! fess up
Looking forward to:( not all in order tho)
Tomorrow when I see if the CL RH slipcovered sofa looks good IRL.
More warm summer days- not ready for it to be over
Ravens football
Fall leaves and fires in the fireplace
perhaps a fall staycation
fixing up all the stuff I put out in the garage;chairs, tables etc.
sewing curtains for my kitchen
when DD comes home from college LOL she just went back today!
Taking the dogs for a boat ride and swim.
when the mosquitos die.

This is a fun thread!

Not the future, but every night I've been trying to focus on what is so good about right now . . .it helps cut down on my worries. I fall asleep thinking how lucky I am in this moment to have everyone healthy, everyone safe in their beds, my husband having a job. I wish you could just bottle those kinds of things!

Things I look forward to:
(1) Participating in fall activities (though we have not had much of a summer-- it is August and I was COLD today), like apple picking, fall festivals, Hallowe'en, and all of that.
(2) Learning how to sew again.
(3) Having another baby (though I admit, I am also very overwhelmed by this thought).
(4) Getting my hair cut!

I'm looking forward to the fall as well - my favorite season.

Also going to Aruba with my parents and hubby and son for vacation, yay!

I'm also looking forward to my son starting to talk - he's got a few words now and it's so exciting to think that soon he'll be able to tell us what is on his mind. In the meantime he has me wrapped around his finger with one "MAMA!"

Getting this air cast/boot off my leg and having my tendinitis GONE. Is waaaay too hot here for this thing.

The end of 100+ degree temperatures. I hate hot weather.

Things calming down enough on the family front so that Hubby and I just might be able to take a weekend getaway.

Seeing more progress on our neverending kitchen remodel.

A seminar on meditation practices in early October.

Oh, and meeting new friends this Tuesday.

-making moss balls
-making picture wall
-making poem scroll
-making chair sashes
-making my wrap
-decorating the ball room
-watching my DD walk down the aisle first on the arm of her Daddy, then on the arm of her new husband
-dancing the night away

October 24, 2009!!

*Getting the porch painted. It is finally completely stripped down to bare wood - all hail the Silent Paint Remover - and about 2/3 sanded. This week we expect to finish the sanding and start the "surface" repairs (columns etc.), although we lost another day Saturday to pouring rain and cold. (Electric sander plus rain... uh, no.)

*Having my occipital neuromodulation surgery. I did well with the trial - so well I kept it seven weeks instead of the normal four - so we're waiting for the insurance company to OK the permanent implant (but who knows when that will happen). It'll lay me out for a couple of months, which is why I'm hoping to get it done during the colder months when I'm usually pretty useless anyway, but we're really hoping it'll be worth it.

*watching New England Patriots games curled up on the couch under a big blanket with my DH

*seeing people move into two of the abandoned houses on my streetcorner (and desperately begging any deity, spirit, or whatever that will listen that the people who bought the nearly-pristine Eastlake Victorian don't botch it up! LOL)

*bustin' out the crockpot for all those yummy soups and stews

1) Sending DD to kindergarten
2) Sending DS to middle school
3) Mid-Autumn Moon festival at our beach cottage w/adoption travel group (DD is from China)
4) Feeling better after emergency hysterectomy

My parents' 65th anniversary.
Two grandbabies due this winter.
Cooler fall weather.
Saving for an Alaskan cruise.
Getting the roof replaced on our house.

I agree, fun topic!

I'm looking forward to:

-The holidays. Looks like I'll be doing T'giving and Xmas at my house for the extended family, which is fine with me and VERY fine for the extended family :)

-My book club which starts up again in a couple of weeks after summer break. I got invited to join in January this year, fortuitously achieving one of my New Year's resolutions (to do something social for *me*). I love the group, the conversation/discussion each month and that it makes me stretch my reading scope.

-Fall and winter weather. In Miami that is subtle for outsiders and I do love summer too but there is another form of beauty during the cooler months.

Ann

Making a life change or Wish List...

Selling or renting this big Victorian House circa 1895
Losing 15 pounds and keeping it off
Stop worrying
Trying to understand and like football (eck!)
Being more spontaneous rather than planning everything.
Make one new girl friend
Eating heathy and exercising more
Quit obsessing about my looks (after one shot of botox) lol
Learn to speak another language (spanish)
Learn to do the tango
Join the book club here in town
Keep these plans

....Jane

I'm looking forward to: this coming week! I actually thought the kids were going back to school after labor day, so I have an entire week off with just ME home. I hope to accomplish painting the stairs and staining the rail a deeper color, cleaning out the basement and garage, and doing a massive weeding of my gardens. We had a cool, rainy summer up here, then 8 above 90 degree days recently...all which make me "avoid" weeding. I know it sounds selfish, but to have a week off by myself will end up crossing alot off on my to-do list.

Painting this armoire I have been talking about FOREVER in French Gray..

{{gwi:1518902}}

I'm looking forward to putting my new Christmas tree up!

When the new room was built, I ordered a tree online because they were on sale after Christmas. It's solid white and rather large. The room is big enough where I don't have to move ONE piece of furniture for the tree.

I also bought a lot of vintage glass ornaments on sale after Christmas.

Only thing, we found a new kitten last month who is into EVERYTHING. So I must lay a large quilt under the tree. lol

- Sending my daughter back to college

- My son's junior year in high school

- Cooler weather

- Finding a volunteer activity in my community (that I can fit around my full-time job)

Newdawn, I have a hutch that has been waiting to be painted french gray ( I have the paint) for over a year now. Let's see who gets it painted first and we'll post it!
Anele- best wishes with that 4th baby :) (although I must admit I am overwhelmed with just adding a 3rd)
Pesky- have fun at the wedding!!

I forgot to mention I'm looking forward to starting my Shar Qui class again- for those of you who don't know it's the belly dance work out. And after my 3rd baby my deflated tummy sure could use a work out!

Great thread :)

Your on Polly, but remember you already have the paint. (lol)

*The upcoming long weekend (Labor Day holiday)

*Dinner at the inlaws' house tonight

*Finding out if DH does indeed need surgery, and if so, getting that behind us

*Continuing my fitness quest

*Cool Fall temps

*Being back in Cabo in a little over 4 months

Polly, LMK how that class goes! My I lose my baby weight (well, after a year!) but my stomach has never looked the same!

I really like this thread -- thanks for starting it! johnmari, I'll be holding you in my thoughts for that surgery. I can't wait to hear your progress and results. Is it only in NH at this point? I wonder to whom I'd have to speak to get this going. And then I'd detox from the tramadol, but what an amazing, emotional thing it would be. Have you really had a release from chronic pain? Do you feel your 'old' self again?

Things I'm looking forward to:
--BIG thing: returning to my old (pre-baby, pre-staying home) field, adult literacy/ABE/ESOL. I'm taking volunteer training in September--little do they know I've published an article on tutor training (unless they google me) and have facilitated professional continuing ed inquiry projects as a doctoral candidate in the field...I wonder how I'll let them know and how they'll react. I really am not wanting to come in and have a big footprint, don't want to take anyone's job away or anything, but I don't want to be coy either. I just want to learn the culture of the field out here (very different from NYC) and take it from there with no preconceived notions. But I can't tell you all how amazingly good it feels to be even *thinking* about returning to my career passion after 12 years of rather intense full-time parenting/hsing. I hope hope hope they don't freak out and dismiss me as unserious or overqualified or whatever else. Keep a good thought for me, please!

Also looking forward to DD's XC season -- after her season-ending injury last spring, she's worked so hard and has battled compensatory injury (she was favoring the injured knee so her other knee got messed up) and is rather excited about the prospects this coming fall.

Also, around the house: finally doing the laundry room backsplash, the top of the kitchen backsplash, putting the walnut plywood paneling up around the freestanding part of the walk-in closet in our MBR, remodeling DD's bathroom.

OH, and in the very near term: looking forward to celebrating the 1-year anniversary of surviving my heart attack last September 1... (and DD's 12th birthday the day after it)

flyleft, there are only a couple of doctors in the US doing this particular procedure, but you could contact Dr. Greenspan's office (via that site I linked; ask for Lois, his assistant - if you want my full mundane name to use as a reference, email me if you don't know it already) to see if there is someone closer to you. Dr. G and the neurosurgeon he works with to do the permanent implants are the most experienced with it, have done the most studies and procedures over the longest period of time, so people do come in from all over the country to see Dr. Greenspan. It's a relatively new use of an older technology, IIRC a couple of thousand have been done worldwide - I'm more or less one of the guinea pigs to get this more widespread. It was just sheer luck that I live nearby and that a rheumatologist dumped me in Dr. Greenspan's lap as a "hopeless case".

I did not get total relief from pain, although some lucky folks do. The vast majority of patients (close to 90%) get at least 50%. It works best on nerve-based pain so "mechanical" pain like plain ol' osteoarthritis and such isn't likely to get as much effect (and it doesn't do a damn thing for cramps! *wry chuckle*) and I got a "meh" response on migraines. Nor does it have the slightest effect on acute pain at all. My overall average pain levels dropped by about 2/3 which is considered an excellent result. On the standard 0-10 pain scale "my normal" ranges from 5 (a good day, WITH meds) to an 8 (again, WITH meds); with the trial neuromodulator after about 2 weeks of healing and adaptation a 5 was a "bad day" and I was averaging a 3. My best day was a 2, which I then promptly went and made into a 5 by having WAY too much fun LOL! I went from 4 strong pain pills a day (and still not being able to function past about 20% of normal) to 2 (but with increased activity levels) and a couple of amazing days with just 1 pill broken into two doses supplemented with a few Advils.

I had the trial unit put in June 15th and taken out July 30, and lemmetellya, it has sucked big time since. Major, major flare. I think I've just plunked down on the nearest piece of furniture or even just the floor and bawled more in the last month than I did in the preceding decade. I had hysterics last week when I finally broke down and took my cane back out of the closet. I'd honestly come close to forgetting just how bad it was - I mean I knew it was bad, but... THIS bad? Really? I didn't "feel like my old [healthy] self" because it didn't take away all the OTHER crap like the neurological and cognitive issues, the GI/urinary stuff, the extraordinary fatigue and weakness... basically the way I put it to the doctor was that I felt like I did about 13-14 years ago when I "just" had CFS, before the fibro and the various neuropathies reared their ugly heads and my back gave me its final "f-you, I quit", but dropping the pain so much lightened the total load on me.

Congrats on your first "rebirthday"!

A big reminder of what I always look forward to this time of year... The end of fire season. My lawn is filled with smoke. Another fire has broken out between here and Auburn, a town about 25 minutes away. In just an hour and 10 minutes, it's spread to 50 acres. Evacuations in progress and "some structures" have been lost.

We're not in any danger but we're getting all the smoke as the winds are blowing this way. More DC- 10 drops and 50 fire crews have been ordered. The main Hwy to our town is closed. (It's between me and Costco.)

Keep the fire fighters in your thoughts. CA is burning up!

...getting a half dozen projects off my list. There are two big ones (not decorating related) that I am just unsure how exactly to proceed. I'm not sure if that is fear talking or just that prickly-hairy feeling of trying something new.

And I might as well say it aloud, I'm not sure either of these projects will actually accomplish any goals. :o/

So I am looking forward to the moment where my spinning wheels finally make contact with the ground. Gravity must take over some time, right?

This is a fun thread! I am looking forward to....

1. The upcoming long weekend - work is so crazy that I need a nice 3 day weekend
2. Getting all the school stuff out of the way. I just bought school supplies but my daughter has outgrown everything over the summer so next week I have to buy her a whole new wardrobe
3. Apple picking with my family
4. Upcoming trip to Maine with my family, parents, DB and SIL.

My AC just got fixed and there is a contractor banging and sawing away in my attic as I type. We're having a whole house fan installed upstairs for my comfort. Did I mention how sweet my DH is?

Our bathroom project has been put back on the 'to do' list, after being put on hold for a few months. (Having 10 families/employees dependent on us is a lot of pressure in tough times. In tight times, the owner often takes the financial hit.)

Looking forward to sleeping in a bed where the temp isn't 96 degrees in the summer and 42 degrees in the winter. It will pull up the heat/ac from downstairs in just a couple minutes. We must reinforce the joists so the power of the large fan won't cave in the ceiling.

* DS to graduate from Army Basic Training, so that I can see him again. It'll be 10 weeks and I just flat out miss my (25 y/o) "kid"
* to FINALLY finish my front portal makeover
* Labor Day Weekend with my DH & DD
* O.U. Sooner football season to start
* looking forward to getting my latest new plants in the ground . . . which I'm heading outside to do right now!
Lynn

* Finishing my garden project
* Mom is coming down this weekend with her 2 dogs and staying for the week. We're celebrating her retirement and having a party for everyone who helped us move last year.
* My friends' wedding in Myrtle Beach in October
* HALLOWEEN
* Hurricanes season (the hockey team, not the weather).

1. getting my kitchen back
2. ski season

o.k., *this* is the right thread.
Wow, johnmari...I guess the upside is that you know you have a lot to look forward to with the reimplantation. I'll be sending insurance covering energies, fwthat'sw. Sounds like it could be a real savings for them in terms of more doc appointments, meds, etc., given how well you respond to it. Thanks for the contact information. Hang in there ((((mari))))
And thanks for the good wishes on my rebirthday :) Of course I'm *rather* sick for the first time in months, with a weird throat infection (strep? How did I get it??) that I'm giving up and getting antibiotics for today. I really wanted to be 100% for the anniversary, but of course that's not to be. But it is amazing to remember the course of events on that last 9/1...