Actually, I'm the one who usually leaves things in my pockets -- mostly money. :lol: When we were on the truck, Sweetie usually did the laundry because I slept during the day. He said he didn't mind a bit because he always collected so much cash! I don't check The Kid's pockets. I'm not sticking MY hand in there! And he mostly does his own laundry -- I throw a pair of his jeans in my load if it happens to be in the hamper. If I hear jingling, I'll look for it. Otherwise -- they just go in. Sweetie, on the other hand, is very good about emptying his pockets when he changes his clothes and putting them in the hamper. He also picks up his socks! If blame *must* be assigned, then I agree -- if he put his pants in the hamper to be washed, it's his fault. If you picked 'em off off the chair or the hook, it's your fault. :D

Thanks for the reminder. I get frustrated because I send out cards, and don't get any. So the next year I don't send them out, and the people I sent them to the year before may send some. So the next year I send them, but don't get any. I'm sure it wasn't that many, but it seemed like we got hundreds of cards when I was a kid. My mother decorated the house with them. They were so pretty. I get so depressed this time of year, it's hard to get them done. I guess the thing to do is get them ready to go in October, before the Holiday Blues settle in. I'll put that into the calendar for next year! I'm sorry you're hurting! Thank you for the help getting this figured out. :001_smile:

I forgot to add that it was at the link posted by Kalanamak -- that's why you didn't see a recipe in the thread. :001_smile:

OH! Doh! Sorry! :lol: Here it is: I forgot to mention in my previous post that I also didn't have the grated orange peel to put in them, either. So the ones I made really aren't much like the Drop Cookies in this recipe, I guess! :lol:

I'm dealing with this, too, and I've started using "now" instead of "but." I really think *he* thinks he's done a good job -- he doesn't seem to actually *see* the crumbs on the counter or the pan in the corner. And there *always* is one. I just tell him thank you for the help! "Now" let me catch this one little thing. I don't make a big deal out of it -- I just wipe off the counter and give him a hug. Next time, the counter's wiped off! But now there are *two* pans in the corner. :lol:

Actually, in some pagan groups it is quite common to have a ritual to celebrate a girl's transition to womanhood. *However* in those cases, the girls have been raised in that environment, they are familiar with the participants, etc.

This is so difficult, but we've had to re-home many dogs who couldn't get along with our feathered friends.

I am assuming that JOC = "Joy of Cooking" and, unfortunately, I don't have that book. I *did* Google :D but I didn't find one that said it was specifically from that book. So I did try! :001_smile:

What an awful thing to come home to! I feel so bad for all of you -- and especially your son. It must be so hard to see him disappointed like that. :grouphug:

Oooo! That sounds yummy! I'll have to try that -- but first I'm going to see how these mutant muffins turn out. :lol:

Oops! :D It's a beautiful pic! Definitely worth waiting for. :001_smile:

Well, I made my cookies last night. This is just too funny -- I didn't have shortening, so I substituted butter. I didn't have the candied cherries to put on top, but I did have the "fruit cake mix" -- and I love that stuff! Don't know why -- it really feels like sweet plastic -- but fruit cakes sent to *this* house don't get re-gifted, and they don't last long enough to use them for doorstops. :D Anyway, I knew they'd be a little different, but they were *very* different! Going back over the recipe, I found that I had used baking SODA instead of baking POWDER. I could have *sworn* it said baking SODA! I checked it two or three times, but it didn't read "powder" until the fourth time. :lol: And I made them too big. It's supposed to make 48 cookies -- I didn't even get two dozen out of them. Anyway, they were different, but they were still great! And they're gone! I'd like to say I used my vast culinary knowledge and mad skills to create a great new -- "secret" ?? :D -- family recipe! In reality? As they say, eventually, even the blind rat finds the cheese. :lol: Thanks so much for the help, Ladies. These cookies are awesome, despite my best efforts to totally mess them up. :smilielol5:

Thank you, Kari, for figuring out what I was trying to say, for taking my question as it was intended, and for taking the time to try to explain it. That must have been pretty hard to do! I understood why you were upset before, and even more now, now that you've mentioned that you "covered all the bases" and *that* didn't work, either! How frustrating! You are absolutely right -- once you arrived, their job was finished and it's too bad it got to that point in the first place, considering you had specifically asked them to call you if there was a problem! I'm really sorry you and your family are having to go through this -- especially now. :grouphug:

Yes -- several years late, but the day I have dreaded all this time has finally arrived. My son is acting like a TEENAGER! He has been a *total turd* for the past week or two. I knew it was coming. I knew I would not be spared. I've been walking on eggshells for the past three or four years, knowing one day, yes, one day it would happen! He went to bed one night my funny, cool, neet, agreeable kid and woke up a stomping, eye-rolling, sighing, abused, put-upon, hormonal Drama -- King? Overnight, nothing I say is right. Nothing I do is good enough. Nothing I want done is reasonable. Every question I ask is an interrogation. I am, basically, in the way, since I was stupid enough to teach him how to cook. :banghead:

I haven't had an American Express card in a long, long time. All I can tell you is what they used to do -- yes, you have to pay the balance off each month. *But* since I had one, they've come up with other plans, too, I think. Have you looked at their website? I think they have cards now that carry a balance like "normal" credit cards. I can't tell you if they close the account if you don't pay the balance every month -- we always managed to pay it. I'm sorry I'm not much help! But at least "someone" answered you. :lol:

I couldn't figure out why this whole thing sounded so familiar. Your BIL sounds just like my brother -- exactly. He would -- and has -- done the same kinds of things to his *own* kids, and wouldn't hesitate to try to take control of the parenting of someone else's child. Yes, I'd be upset, and it sounds like you handled it pretty well, actually! I'm really curious, though, and I've been editing and messing with this question for a long time, trying to figure out how to frame it. Because in *no* way am I second-guessing your decision to take your son over there while you ran an errand -- and no matter how I write it, it's probably going to come across that way. But you live next door to each other -- has he not had much contact with your son? His reaction -- saying you can't take him home right now, and then he can't go over there anymore -- just seems so strange if you guys live next door and would have, I'm thinking, a better relationship than that. I'm just curious and it just seems so odd that your BIL would do something like that. I'd find it very confusing!

Settle down? Hum -- let me ask -- "Hey, Guys! When are you going to settle down?" They're laughing at me. They range in age from nine months to about fourteen years and show no signs as of yet. :willy_nilly: Sorry 'bout that. I rarely get a chance to use that smiley. :D The German Shepherd has been a real challenge "attention-wise." She always seems to want to play just as we're settling down to something. It's almost like she thinks it's too quiet. Of course, being an equal opportunity instigator, she gets everyone else worked up, too. I'm thinking her name should be "Chaos!" After ten or fifteen minutes of good, hard playtime, all the dogs sleep like rocks and we get our work done. Probably not what you wanted to hear. :lol: Good luck!

Yes, I think it's dangerous and my guys, knowing that, would sneak out of the house to do it without involving me in the decision making process. :D

Well, if you're a terrible person, can I grab the seat next to you? I didn't send out anything, either. On the other hand, I didn't *receive* any cards this year, either -- so there must be a lot of "terrible persons" out there. ;)

I know I wasn't bored on the weekends -- Way Back When. I always had homework on the weekends! :lol: And I don't know if my son is bored -- if he is, he's not mentioning it. I have a habit of "helping" him find things to do. :D

I am too! I can't wait to make them -- and forgot about the nuts! :hurray:

That is really sweet. Thanks for cutting me some slack. :001_smile:

Well, for us, we don't travel much. We make one trip each summer where we need to stay in a motel, but they don't require a credit card to hold the reservation if we get there before 6:00 p.m. "Nicer" places would require a CC, but we can't afford to stay there anyway. :lol: We don't have loans -- we pay cash for everything, including our land, house ands cars. If we don't have the cash we do without. And we do without a lot. But if we don't *have* the cash, we couldn't afford the payments anyway. So the upside is we get to keep our stuff, and when hard times hit, we still worry, but not about tow trucks or foreclosure -- and boy, have the hard times hit. Our income for the past two months is *one-third* of what it "should" be -- Ho Ho Ho! :lol: It is an inconvenience. There are a lot of things you can't do without a credit card anymore. I think registering with eBay is one of them. But, just like with everything else, we just do without. I'm not going to get a credit card just so I can register with them and buy more stuff. :D We don't use a debit card, either. Cash only really helps with the "Oh! That's so CUTE! I must have that NOW!" impulse buys. Go home, think about it, and the next week? Still gotta have it? Okie dokie. :001_smile: Yes, it is inconvenient. But so is sleeping in the car. :D

I just say "foreign language" but that isn't working, either. I was having a conversation with a couple of people last week -- not homeschoolers, though -- and I mentioned conjugating verbs. I thought everyone took at least a year of Spanish or French in high school and would know what that was. Um, no. We were discussing memorization and I was trying to describe a table and, of course, picked an example that no one could relate to. It was embarrassing, but they were nice about it -- no ridicule. :001_smile:

Perfect! :iagree: