Find a manly mousse or gel he can use to give the front hair some body and oompf at its base, and have him push it back and up away from his face as he blow dries it. Should help some as he waits for it to grow long enough to do in a pony. My Brony has long hair, it lives loose and free until he goes to work, then a black ponytail holder low on his head is deemed acceptable.

I'd mention that while I did grad high school, rather than attend college I learned on the job, and go more into skills/accomplishments from the last couple jobs pertinent to the job you want now.

    First she has to be accepted - lack of any extra curriculars may hurt her chances of being accepted over others with equally high scores who do have volunteer work or clubs etc to report. Oh, now I see she wants to attend a State U. Well, then, acceptance is probably assured, right? She can report she did ballet until deciding to concentrate on her studies, since she wants to study XYZ and become ABC, etc. And she took time to work p/t in order to start saving up for college - smart girl!

Nothing fatty - she is probably advised to be low-fat now her gall bladder is out. Find a basic casserole of baked pasta with lean white chicken meat mixed in, nice red sauce and minimal grated cheese on the side to be added (or not) by family members. Add a simple green salad (dressing on the side) and perhaps steam up some peas and carrots and you are good. Or a simple chicken soup with plenty of potatoes, carrots, throw in a few green peas for color, and a loaf of decent bread or rolls from the local bakery or bakery section of the grocery store.

More embarrassing having the technician position your chest chunk into position than painful, although the few seconds you have to maintain the position with your bits squished is uncomfortable. Turns out I have a small lump of dead tissue (seat belt trauma from the car crash almost FOUR years ago now) so I had EXTRA scans and then an ultrasound - my 15 minutes in and out visit ended up three hours. No one was letting me leave until they felt confident that was all it was. So worth getting the scan - if all is well, then they have a baseline scan of what your chest bits are supposed to be like, for comparison with later scans as you age. Hint - always use the same place to get your scans, or keep the info so you can get copies if you change providers later. The hospital knew from previous scans that the lump was new. When I mentioned my B* had been dark purple like an eggplant after the crash a light bulb went off over the medical person's head.

My first thought as well - and I have had pneumonia three times. Once my kid sister had "walking" type - her only symptom was a bad cough that would not stop - and her co-workers insisted she see a doctor. Was she surprised to learn she had it!

Misophonia? I have it, so does one dd.

Rocky the Raccoon lives on my bed, and at night helps wedge me into a side-sleeping position. He vanished when I was in rehab after the car crash when my bed was stripped for laundry, so my adult kids bought me Rocky 2. I love sloths. So the "kids" have decided Mom's go-to Christmas gift is a stuffed sloth. I have three now hanging upsidedown from the curtain rods in the living room. I bought myself Joy, Sorrow and Anger from the Inside Out film since they were so dang cute (and they talk!)They sit on a shelf in my bedroom. My long-suffering,now bald gray teddy from toddlerhood, Gray Whiskers, is wrapped in a small quilt I made as a teen and napping in a lower dresser drawer. He has a handmade pillow, too. Apparently I hated naps and bit by bit pulled all his fur off. But other than that....nope, no childish stuffed animals here, nope, not at all. :-)

Er, at my house? It is on my DVR...you just reminded me I have not watched it yet! So I will watch it for you, and you will enjoy it :-)

well, it was a girlie party, so I think no boys were invited is all. Doubt any slight was intended. Just point out to ds that sometimes girls do girl things and boys do boy things and sometimes girls and boys enjoy stuff together. Would have been nice if he and some other boys had been invited ("princes!") but there you go. Thinking about this - I would go ahead and mention you have had a rough day, smile and note your little guy would have been happy to attend as a Prince, so maybe next time...then change the subject. Don't make a big deal out of it. But can't hurt to raise awareness that single-gender parties don't have to be the thing nowadays.

My son with autism referred to some adults as "chocolate" back when he was very young. Nipped that in the bud. Happily the dark-skinned folks laughed (they worked with special needs preschoolers and it probably wasn't the first time....)

Give the kid his summer w/o Scouts. Do the minimal for the BBQ. See if he wants to rejoin in the fall, this or another troop.

My son quit Scouts months before our big fundraiser, and yet I was called to be given my time to be int he back frying donut holes for the pancake breakfast. When I told the other mom that, er, we were not IN Scouts any longer she got mad that I was not going to help. Hey, she did not even know our son had left - our family had made THAT much of an impression on them (part of the reason he quit - and he had finished the step before Eagle, so was a Life Scout but had NO desire to continue). Do the fundraiser, but let them know your family is good for TEN hours. If they do not like it, stop cold if kid doesn't care. Does this one even WANT to continue with Scouts in any troop? Does he care about making Eagle? Just because his brothers did it does nto mean he has to also. Is there anything else he is interested in as a hobby/volunteer work?

Netflix has Stardust, Beauty and the Beast (live action), Jungle Book (also the recent live action), Finding Dory, Moana, Hercules (we love that one!). Would you guys enjoy the Series of Unfortunate Events Netflix series with Neil Patrick Harris? it is fun. Ella Enchanted is fun, too. There is a foreign animated film The Breadwinner, that is highly rated and intrigues me - think I will watch it tonight. You might try that one. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3901826/ Amazon Prime has Sabu in 1942 Jungle Book. Also Adventures of Young Indiana Jones - that was a fun series!

I use cornmeal in my chili all the time. Just go with that.

Our city took down a tree in front of my neighbor's house - but on the parkway so not his responsibility - when I sent them a letter and a copy to my attorney (well, hubby at his work addie :-) ) noting they had been informed it was a diseased tree (huge fungus growing out of the base) and we would not let them claim "Act of God" when it fell since they now had prior warning about it. They had it taken down the following week. Next week we had a huge storm. Many other trees came down or lost major branches. So glad Evil Tree was already gone. I was proactive about this since years ago another parkway tree in front of our house did fall - half on a van parked across the street, and half onto our house. City claimed Act of God. Our insurance covered our house - we did have a $3,000 deductible, but got an entire new 50-year roof out of it. Neighbor's car insurance took care of the squished van.

Bear in mind, we are all "other people" to the folks we meet while traveling, too. :-) I think using a bed in a hostel or Air B&B would be ok - a room rented off Craigslist or a flyer tacked up in a public space - no.

My folks got a new four-bed, two bath ranch in Orange, CA in 1962 for about $26,000. They moved into a larger new two-story four bed, three bath with room for a pool in 1974 that cost $54,000. Both houses hit the million mark in the last decade - location. Note folks separated and "only" made $200,000 profit on that 1974 house. If only they had stayed in it longer.... Point is, none of us could afford to buy or even rent where I grew up, should we want to return to S. Ca. My kid sister is hoping to not lose $ selling their house in Moreno Valley - she is excited to be able to get more house for less, with a lower COL, outside Raleigh NC (where her job moves this spring).

Yeah, this car has not even seen snow, much less wallowed in salty slush so it is pristine!

Born 1959 and think I did 90% of those things. My mom had wee six pound babies - gee, maybe her smoking had something to do with that? And we did chase after the DDT truck as it puffed out clouds on the street. Drinking out of garden hoses, playing outside all day unsupervised (or so we assumed - every house on our street had either a stay-at-home mom or retired folks so no one got away with much! Each house had eyes!) My breakfast cereal of choice was Cocoa Krispies ... with added sugar since it made the chocolate cereal look sparkly! Mom gave us orange Hi C to drink - I never had actual o.j. until a Brownie sleepover. I was assigned to bring the o.j. and Mom sent me with two cans of Hi C. The parents were aghast and went out and bought o.j. Oh, remember Tang?

    Age 16 would be a good year for kids to either begin an apprenticeship program, join military, or start community college if they are not aiming for a four-year college from the get-go. Depends on the kid. But making everyone sit through high school to graduation may not be most appropriate use of their time. Allowing "kids" to remain on parental insurance longer is a good option - if the young person is still in college and/or not working a job with benefits yet, they need insurance. I think it looks like adulthood has been pushed back since many young adults have not been financially able to move out yet. Or move out, then have to move back home. I have one who is now just making enough money that his student loan payments will kick in - he does not make enough to move out, even with a roommate, and with loan payments now he may never move out (this is the one who could not finish his degree when mental illness broke him senior year).

Buy something. BUT - also get something for hubby - tie clip if he wears a tie, etc. And with humor make sure he notices your new jewelry (you are a lucky man, not only do I do the grocery shopping but I buy the anniversary gifts, too. See what you let me pick out? I love this ring/necklace/glittery thingy). Oh, now I see you did get him some candy and baked his fav cake - so no tie clip for him! If he mutters about how your "gift' cost far more than candy/cake, smile sweetly "Then YOU buy me something next year sweetie. I would have been happy with a box of candy of dinner out myself, but since you didn't bother...." Bet he remembers next year.

Mom's 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe is being delivered this afternoon, to a parking lot nearby. Only $850 to ship from S. Calif to Illinois - far cheaper and easier than flying out there and driving it back! Now, aside from replacing the original tires (!!!) and checking the brakes, what else, besides original belts/hoses, should I have my trusty mechanic replace or check out? Thoughts? Only 47,000 miles on this thing.

Just means none of your relatives who would otherwise show up have done the test yet. I haven't bothered since via Ancestry.com I have dug up almost two thousand folks already. I have had even more luck finding leads in the few branches where others have already done the work (heck, one branch I am hooked into via a great-grandma has thousands of members having yearly conventions! Oh them Ogles! They even publish a quarterly magazine, too!) My Felt relations have already done a lot of research, too. I do have a cousin on a different branch who is the last in the male line of Hoods that were in Roane Co, TN 150 (or more) years ago. There are so many Hoods in the records then, though, that I NEED him to do the test to figure out which "stem" of Hoods we branched from, if that makes sense. Maybe if I offer to pay for it.... My current project is trying to find info to fill a gap between my great-great grandpa in Sussex Co, Delaware (his farm even shows up on a map from 1868!) and the first Fishers who came over with Wm Penn. A thorough history was done, complete with visits to Eng., by an academic but she ended her work about 100 years BEFORE my gggpa shows up. She shows Penn giving the land gggpa was on to Fisher ... but which if the first Fisher's many sons or grandsons (etc) is my branch of the tree? Doesn't help that everyone used the same few first names for their sons, either! I do get a kick out of all the Hercules in the Ogle tree, though! Why don't we use that name any longer? ;-)

Pastry cutter. I use mine to mix shortening into flour to make biscuits. meat thermometer. Basic spices - shop the local ethnic store for better deals than anything you buy t the supermarket. I use small canning jars to hold my various spices that come in cellophane bags.