Yes, we celebrate.......our puppy was one yr old on March 27. We sent out invites to the kids' homeschooled friends, baked dog friendly cupcakes for our two dogs, had typical party fare for kids and moms ( who were invited to stay)......party lasted an hour. Our pup is a party animal and loved having a ton of kids here to play with him. The theme was fire hydrants.....found all the stuff at Party Depot. We asked for a food donation that could be brought to our animal shelter in lieu of gifts.....we ask for that for all the kids birthdays too. We had about 20 kids here. It was a nice one hour break and it gave the moms a chance to catch up. Oh, and the kids wore fireman hats!

This was my thought as well.

Congrats! I am here infrequently, but could not resist chiming in. I turned 59 in August.......my children are: dd34, dd33, dd14.5, b/g twins who will be 13 on 10/24. I am calmer more reasonable this time around......,,much less neurotic.....I think. I was explaining the law of inertia to my son this morning........object in motion tends to remain in motion; object at rest tends to remain at rest. I think that kind of explains parenting when one is older......I can't stop, so I don't. Enjoy and don't worry.

I cruise through once a day, and I had to add my .02 to this. Our twins just went back to school........7th grade.....private school. They had been home since second grade. Their school day starts at 7:45a.m. and ends at 3:15p.m. I would prefer the shorter days you mentioned. As far as I can determine, their 'work' is shown to them ( not taught), homework assigned......HOURS OF HOMEWORK, and the day is broken up with P.E., RECESS, LUNCH, MUSIC, ART, LIBRARY, STUDY HALL. When they arrive home and decompress, THEN we basically begin after schooling. We go through every subject in which they have homework, and I teach (at least our schoolroom is being used) that material. Then they do the homework. No, this isn't how we thought it would be, but five weeks into the school year, it is clear, this is the way it is going to be. No, we are not taking them out of the school. We have our reasons. But, to stay on topic, I would prefer that their work was thrown at them, homework assigned and they were home hours earlier. As a former classroom teacher, I can attest to the fact that there is much time wasted during the day.

I paid $125. at Staples.

Bumping this........you can vote every 24 hours! Let's do this!

Voted

Never saw the tick in all our experiences with Lyme and positive testing. Seasider.......I messaged you! ETA: yes, that was what happened to me (what Catwoman said about a scab). I honestly thought I had a blackhead on my upper arm. I don't have acne, never get blackheads, so don't ask me why I assumed this teensy black thing on my upper arm was a blackhead. First, the spot, then symptoms (fatigue like early pregnancy fatigue, pains in my legs as if I didn't have blood flowing but roofing nails flowing, chills, sweats), no bullseye. THEN, after three days of symptoms, I realized what I had........jumped up in the middle of the night and said out loud 'I have Lyme disease.' Scrubbed with a buff puff the black spot, and sure enough, it was a tick. Was at the MD's office 7:30 the next morning.....it was the day before Easter. She shined a light on my arm where I had scrubbed off the tick, and there were rings of tiny red dots......sort of like a bullseye.......on my arm. 90 days of doxy (I am a freak about Lyme disease) but I felt improved in about 30 days.

Hi, Scarlett.......I agree. I am mystified as to the dynamic that compels an individual or individuals to keep things secret 'across the board' so to speak. I am for discernment.......'secrecy' as a policy mystifies me. Ex-MIL and her family kept everything a secret........everything. They harbor end heinous secrets. Maybe when people decide to keep secrets, they lose sight of the possibility that some stuff can be shared! I don't know.

Thank you for providing the links. I am amazed they can still be found. The funniest photo, IMO, is the commode with the cactus in it. THAT image was what cracked me up when I saw the hydrangea bush in a commode on someone's property recently.

Ds and I went by our former house yesterday on our way home from his doc's appt. DS took this photo of the shrubs.......they look fabulous and totally look the way they did seconds before Mrs. Scissorhands took the hedge clippers to them. I will try to attach the photo.....well, I am getting a message that the photo cannot load. Fwiw, it took three years for the shrubs to get back o where they were.....I dare say the fact that our winter was wet but snow was not piled on the shrubs probably helped.

Slow morning here at home. I am going to toss out a different arena where this phenomena of family secrecy knocked me and dh off our feet. Last summer, we learned via email that dh's father had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's 18 months prior to our receipt of the email. MIL kept it secret and would have continued to keep it secret. It is bizarre! She had tomato-staked herself to him, and in her opinion, THAT was her way of dealing with the diagnosis.......she eschewed every reasonable suggestion made by FIL's doctors. Just my .02 because marital strife secrets are just one kind of situation where these issues and opinion of telling or not telling come into play.

OMH!!! How funny! I stop by when I am having my a.m. Coffee to see who needs prayer and to get a sense of 'normal' that only other homeschool moms probably understand. I haven't been past that house in a few months, but will be going by today as ds has a well visit in that direction. And, yes, the forsythia bushes did grow back like weeds.....it's been two years, no wait, THREE years since that incident........last year they were pretty much back to where they had been been before the 'pruning.' The red AGA and the sub-zero were left behind.....in fact, I was told that when the husband saw the red AGA (two minutes after he walked in the house) he was ready to sign a contract right then and there....and when he turned and saw the sub zero, well, the rest as they say is history. I did not go to the settlement, but dh told me the wife (they are very young) told him they couldn't wait to meet the next door neighbors (mrs. Scissor hands) because the neighbors have a pool and the wife did 't want to join the golf club pool. (Where are those smilies?) We have been in our new location for one year and three weeks.......very thankful that we are here. Bill: do I miss the AGA. I miss the oven capacity....really miss that. The ability to bake 14 trays of cookies at a time while cooking a huge turkey in another oven chamber is just a huge thing. I don't miss the black glass stove surface......it was a huge pain to keep it from getting scratched as I am sure most of those are. Sometimes I stare at the current configuration and wonder about putting in an AGA, but with high school tuition, etc looming, it's not something I think about for long. Now.....a second dishwasher? That is very likely going to become a reality........simply inviting two other families for anything and we have 25 people.......another dishwasher would be great. It makes me laugh that the Mrs. scissor hands story is still floating around. A few weeks ago, I was driving one of the kids someplace and we were stopped at a red light and at the curb was an old toilet with a hydrangea bush in the bowl. I didn't have my camera/phone or I would have taken a photo...I was laughing out loud when I saw it. Kids thought I had lost it.

I have a very very close family member who had this done 8 years ago. ETA: a friend had this done years ago, like 30 years ago.....both her grandmother and grandfather on her mom's side had died of breast cancer, and her mom did have breast cancer. My friend was one of the first women in the US to undergo a bilateral mast. and reconstructive surgery at the same time. I do remember that the individual who underwent this procedure 8 years ago endured torturous pain for a couple of years afterward. Her muscles (she is/was a strong woman) were moved/rearranged/manipulated (for lack of a better way to put it) in a way that muscles probably aren't meant to be. I would guess that AJ's recovery must have included and may still include much pain and discomfort.

You are a saint! When I had the twins, MIL and FIL came to stay for a couple of days.....they lived all of 15 minutes from us. My second night home from the hospital, dh and I are getting the babies down for the night (cribs in our room), and dd19months is asleep in her room which is next to the guest room. We had made it clear that we needed help with dd 19 mos as dh and I could handle the twins. wait for it....................... MIL walks into our room without knocking, carrying blankets and pillows. Dh asks her nicely what she is doing. She replies that she is going to sleep on the floor at the foot of our bed in case the babies get up during the night. (I don't know how to use smilies on this new format). I didn't say a word......truthfully, I didn't know what to say. Dh somehow convinced her it wasn't necessary for her to do that especially with a bad back and bad knees. He was incredibly nice about it. Mil and FIL went home the next morning. They didn't come see us again till after the first of the year (this happened in October). We later learned that a friend of hers from her church had slept on the floor at the foot of her dil's bed for many nights, and mil apparently felt a need to do the same but with twins.

I am so sorry for your friend's loss.....it is heartbreaking. My oldest dd suffered two losses late in the 2nd trimester a few years ago. The women here offered wonderful advice and everything suggested so far is excellent. With my dd's second loss, she and her husband did have the photographer come to the hospital, and the photographer was an amazing person and such a blessing to my dd and her husband......the photog will bring a baby hat and blanketfor the photos, but we were fortunate to have a preemie hat that someone here on the board had knit and sent to me, and a barely finished baby blanket that I had been knitting that (sadly) was perfect in its teeny tiny size. One thing not mentioned here is that your friend is going to still appear pregnant even after delivery.....as many women do. Because of this, my daughter did not wish to leave the house for any reason for a couple of weeks. She was still in maternity tops and people (strangers) do tend to ask, 'when are you due?' And similar questions. If you are able to run errands for her so that she is able to grieve and gather her strength for the time that she is ready to begin her normal routine, that would probably be helpful. Also, be there if she wants to talk about her baby....my daughter really needed to verbalize (particularly after her second IUFD) her shock, pain and feelings of 'what happened?' For my dd's first loss, she and her husband did have a funeral, at a cemetery, with a priest, a ceremony, and a burial. It was one of the saddest things I have ever attended, but necessary for my dd, her husband and their two little girls. My dh and I hosted a luncheon afterwards. Dd's friends also were quite solicitous of what she and her husband wanted for the funeral.....balloons, music, etc. Someone has to ask these questions. My daughter found great solace in on line loss support boards, and three years later, she and one of the woman on the board have welcomed a baby into their families, and have visited IRL. Hugs and prayers to you and your friend........this is such a sad time. There is no fast way through it.....it is one painful step at a time.

Anguilla

I PM'd you.

Two feet of snow is not normal in Virginia.....don't be ridiculous. good grief. Northern Virginia had two feet of snow three and a half years ago and it wasn't normal then and wouldn't be normal now. New England is looking at totals of two feet and possibly more with blizzard condition winds....THAT would certainly get my attention if I were in the path of the storm. There is a concern regarding downed power lines and trees. The positive in this particular situation in NE is that there is no snow from previous storms already accumulated on the ground. It really annoys me when people complain that too much is made of the weather, and then everyone starts whining that they weren't given enough warning. ETA: I have lived in fairfax county for almost 12 years. two feet of snow on the ground even as the result of numerous snow storms is not normal. we would be more likely to have closings, etc due to ice than snow.

We did that kind of move, minus the lower COL, when we moved here to Va. We have been here 11years, and THIS is home.

Praying. (((hugs)))

We are having Chevy's do the catering and we are having their Taco Bar. Guests are bringing appetizers: layered bean dip; deviled eggs; salsa; cheese and crackers; crab dip; fresh veggies and dip; Spanish olives baked in pieces of crescent roll dough; Brie wrapped in candied pecans; hummus and pita. Someone else is bringing his world famous ribs. desserts are brownies, fruit tarts, cookies. I have come to the conclusion that it IS all about the food and the commercials.

I will keep you and friend in my prayers.

are you eating enough? when I was carrying my twins...they just turned twelve, I read something called " what to eat when you are expecting two, three or more". my perinat's office recommended it. growing o e baby is an amazing thing......you are growing two.

it can be bi-lateral.....my dd has had them bi-laterally and more than once. The Shock-like sensation/pin-pricking sensation is a symptom.