SebastianCat
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Posts posted by SebastianCat
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Definitely get the hotel room. If it turns out that spending more time at your mom's house is good for everyone involved, you can always check out early, but if not, you'll have a safe retreat.
I am also one who was glad I had taken my kids to the funerals of someone they didn't know well BEFORE they had to deal with a close family funeral. But you are the parent, and if you feel that your kids wouldn't handle this particular funeral well, then I'd send them home early with your DH. If possible, I'd make arrangements for them to go home early, but leave the option open to change your mind once you get there and assess the situation.
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Florida - $2.01 today, and this was the lowest I've seen it in a long time.
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My kids have basic Kindles and we love them. We don't take internet-connected devices into bedrooms either. They are touch screen, but I think everything is these days.
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4 hours ago, dirty ethel rackham said:
Thank you all for your prayers, support, encouragement, and kind words. You really helped me through it. The procedure is over and done and I passed with flying colors. I didn't pass out. No blood sugar crashes. The prep was perfect. And NO polyps. Which means I don't have to do this for 5 years (it would be 10 if my dad hadn't had colon cancer.)
And you guys weren't kidding about it being the best sleep of my life. I feel so light and relaxed. I get to chill and order my family around today.
Glad it's over! No joke, but next time will be MUCH better because you know exactly what to expect. I recently had my 2nd colonoscopy and the prep seemed like a cakewalk compared to the first time, and I have no idea why, other than I knew what to expect. I get to do it all over again in 2 years, though, because I had a large polyp removed, and because 2 of my grandparents had colon cancer.
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3 hours ago, hornblower said:
my advice would be to sip fluids almost constantly, rather than having a glass here and there, kwim? I think that might stave off the dizziness and fainting a bit better.
This would be my advice as well. I found that sipping constantly, and alternating a sweet drink (like Sprite or gatorade) with bone broth (for the protein) helped tremendously. When I drank something with sugar too quickly, or went too long without drinking anything, I felt horrible. But when I just sipped slowly, I felt fine.
I hope all goes well tomorrow, and know you'll be relieved to have this behind you (no pun intended 😉 ).
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What about exotic jerky sticks? My DS always gets a kick out of whatever kind of jerky I can find - things like aligator, wild boar, buffalo, etc. I think one year I actually found a roadkill jerky, and he actually ate it.
This might be a little too big to fit in a stocking, but there are "cake in a cup" boxed mixes that contain single servings of cake that can be mixed and microwaved.
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I'm dairy free, so here are some things I have made or given this year:
If you are looking for a nice, pre-packaged food gift idea that is dairy free, I discovered that at least 2 varieties of Whole Foods chocolate truffles have no dairy. They are SO good.
One of my teenagers' favorite sweet treats to bring to parties is peppermint brownies, and they are EXTREMELY easy. I look for a boxed brownie mix with no dairy (just read the ingredients, because some have milk ingredients, but others do not), and make per the instructions on the box. Then mix crushed candy canes into a tub of cream cheese frosting to top the brownies. Believe it or not, the cream cheese frosting (either Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines, I don't remember which) has no cheese or dairy. Small mini candy canes are the easiest to crush in a small food processor until they are almost completely powder. I will sprinkle the larger candy chunks on top.
For other baking, I substitute Butter flavor Crisco or Earth Balance (both of which come in sticks for easy measuring) for butter.
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A couple of authors you may not have heard of...
Joel Ohman's Meritropolis series is a dystopian, Hunger Games-like trilogy.
Diane and David Munson write crime thrillers - The Camelot Conspiracy is one of their books. The authors are ex-FBI agents and write fiction based on real cases. Some of their books do have some romance, but it's not the central plot.
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I have no idea about merit aid, but the Ram Corps from the University of Mobile has visited my (very conservative Baptist) church several times. The Ram Corps is just instrumental, but I believe they have other choir groups. It might be worth checking out.
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My son's scores were available pretty early this morning, and he got an email saying they were ready a few hours after we checked online.
When he took the ACT in July, his scores were available about a week after the earliest reporting date.
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Check out Mr. D. Math at www.mrdmath.com. We have used Mr. D. from pre-Algebra through Algebra 2, and the only reason my older child switched after Algebra 2 was so he could start going through math faster at the community college. My kids have done in-person co-ops and online classes.
My son is currently using Derek Owens for physics, and while we haven't used his courses for math, DS really enjoys the physics class.
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Has anyone used Freedom Project Academy? There are some older posts on this but nothing recent. I'm looking for opinions (good or bad) on recent experience with this school.
Thanks!
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5 hours ago, Hoggirl said:
It’s always hard for me to process such feelings. It’s sort of a combo of relief that we aren’t at risk of a direct hit but that is coupled with guilt for feeling that way?? Sounds strange, I know.
I know exactly how you feel. With Irma last year, we had minimal damage (limbs down and yard cleanup, a handful of large trees down on our street) but never lost power. Many of our friends here locally lost power for weeks. We felt thankful and guilty at the same time.
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I think a lot of people in the area got burned last year by evacuating for Hurricane Irma, which turned out to be a non-event for much of the forecast path. I live in Tampa and Irma was supposed to come directly over my house as a Cat 3, but shifted east toward Orlando and we only had Cat 1 winds and minimal damage. Now, some in the panhandle have chosen to ride out Matthew based on last year's experience. Unfortunately, Michael appears to be a much larger, much stronger storm, and will likely be catastrophic. I'm praying for those who stayed behind.
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I will echo the recommendation to call an estate sale company. They will either be able to handle everything (even the short timeline) or they will be able to refer you to a clean-out company who can. They usually hold an estate sale and their fee is a percentage of the sales.
The company that did the estate sale for my IL's made sure everything was clean, in working order, and legal (like throwing away 15-year-old baby supplies stored in the attic from long-since-grown grandbabies). They also arranged for a dumpster and threw away everything that wasn't sell-able, and hauled a load of stuff that didn't sell to Goodwill after the sale.
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I would just try to have him take the PSAT this year in 10th grade to see how he fares. The public schools in my area charge only $16 for homeschoolers to take it, and private schools also offer it. A baseline would let you know whether he would be in the running for National Merit the following year, and I think it's worth the hassle for very little money to simulate the testing environment and get an idea of how he will do on the SAT.
FWIW, my DS has taken the PSAT, SAT, and ACT (he just started his junior year). According to the concordance, his ACT from July was much higher comparatively than last December's SAT or last October's PSAT. I think the ACT will probably be our preferred test going forward, but he could definitely qualify for National Merit semi-finalist.
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On 9/5/2018 at 10:09 AM, marbel said:
A living trust might be another way to do that, though I am not giving legal or financial advice here. :-) My mother had a living trust; I was trustee; when she died I notified her bank, gave them the documents they wanted, and started signing checks within a few days. Credit cards weren't an issue; she didn't have any. (And I know credit cards are the main topic.) It also made closing out investment accounts very easy and straightforward.
On 9/5/2018 at 10:23 AM, madteaparty said:I went and added a “transfer on death” to all our accounts. It’s just one form per account. In the case of one account where the bulk of the $ would be I know it was done because JTOD or some such initials (joint, transfer on death) are added to the account numbers every time I get a statement.
I just need to remember to let the transferee know this exists before DH and I go rappelling down caves next year ?
On 9/5/2018 at 10:37 AM, happysmileylady said:Actually, it's better to have "Payable on Death" on bank accounts. That way, when someone passes away, that money is paid out immediately and is not part of the estate. I was so thankful that FIL had DH and his sister listed as Payable on Death and NOT as joint account holders because they were able to access the funds immediately instead of needing it to settle the estate.
On 9/5/2018 at 11:09 AM, Murphy101 said:Right. Payable on death is the only reason I had a few bucks to pay towards my dad’s funeral. Otherwise everything would have been tied up until the estate was settled in another state. And they won’t keep a body in ice that long here without exhorbant daily freezer fees.
Payable on death meant the day he died whatever was in that account was already mine to use however I wanted/needed.
On 9/5/2018 at 11:16 AM, Garga said:My parents had us on their savings account and we researched and found that this could be a problem when college rolled around. It would look like we had bunches more money to pay toward college than we did. We had our names removed from their account so we’d have a shot at financial aid for college. We didn’t want to remove ourselves from their account at the last minute before college, because FAFSA looks at your financial picture from 2 years ago. Perhaps there are ways around this that I don’t know about, but I didn’t want to run into any roadblocks, so we just got off the account.
These are all excellent points - thanks for the information. We are still a couple years away from college and FAFSA, so I had no idea that financial aid could be affected.
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We had a similar issue with DH and his parents. He had acting Power of Attorney for them and was added to their accounts as POA, but when MIL passed away, so did his access because he wasn't on the account as a joint owner, just as POA. FIL had advanced dementia and his name wasn't on the accounts (for that reason), so it was not fun to get that straightened out so DH could pay their bills and settle estates.
So I would add to the PSA: If you are ever in a situation to act as POA for an elderly parent, get your name added on their accounts as a joint owner early in that process, so you can continue to manage their expenses after their passing.
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I know many here have dealt with this type of issue, so I need the collective wisdom of the Hive.
My BIL is dealing with symptoms of extreme fatigue and swollen lymph nodes that has lasted for several months now. It's gotten so bad that he's been unable to work for the past couple of weeks. He's had bloodwork and a CT scan which were mostly inconclusive, and he's currently waiting to see a specialist (either an oncologist or a hematologist, I'm not exactly sure which one). The initial impression of the doctor was that it was most likely a viral infection (akin to mono, but they don't think this is mono) or it could be a lymphoma, and they will need to do more tests to further diagnose anything more specific. From the bloodwork, some of his WBCs were low, but not severely low, his HGB was low, several blood protein levels were high, and the CT scan showed nothing outside of the swollen lymph nodes.
While they are waiting to get in to see the specialist (which is more complicated than typical because of insurance issues), my sister has asked me to research what they can and should be doing in the meantime with diet, supplements, etc. My sister and BIL have decided that they need to stay away from the internet right now, because everything they read just freaks them out.
So, has anyone dealt with these types of symptoms or diagnoses? Can you recommend something - diet, supplements, books, anything that they can do to proactively boost his immune system while they wait for clarification? Thanks!
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I got a laptop for $50 less than the original price and the specs I was looking for. With the $10 Whole Foods credit, it was $60 less. I was pleased with this purchase, but haven't found anything else that I want or need.
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Chromebooks, from what I understand, cannot use Microsoft Office products, so keep that in mind if your kids will need to use Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.) for their online classes. (Someone more educated on Chromebooks is welcome to correct me if I am wrong.)
I was in the market for a new laptop and bought this one yesterday when the Prime Day deals began. I don't need it to do much other than general computing, exporting my display to a TV via HDMI for the co-op class I teach, but I definitely needed Microsoft Office. My initial budget was $300 but when I started researching, I figured out that by going up to the $370-380 price range, I'd get a faster processor, more memory, a bigger hard drive, and in general, a laptop that won't be obsolete or run out of storage with the first Windows upgrade. The laptop I bought was one of the models I was considering, with an initial price of $379, on sale for $329 for Prime Day.
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I don't have specific brand recommendations, but I will say that our experience has been that those devices are only good if the person will actually wear them. My grandfather had a pendant that he hated to sleep in, so he took it off every night when he went to bed. Unfortunately, it didn't do him any good when he got out of bed in the middle of the night, slipped in the bathroom, and broke his hip. The staff at the assisted living facility found him on the floor of the bathroom the next morning.
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My DS got his results for his first AP exam - Environmental Science at PAH with Molly Olsson. He got a 5.
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JCPenney's Arizona brand carries jeans for skinny, tall boys. My DS had a 26" waist for a long time, even when his inseam was 30-32". They also have khaki shorts with a 26" waist. It gets much easier when their waist grows a bit. DS is a runner, so he burns so many calories that he's just now, at 16, filled out to a 28 or 29" waist.
I second the suggestion to look for "slim" jeans with a 28" waist, as many of those will fit, but he will need to try several pairs on to find the right fit. (And 28" jeans or pants are also very hard to find in stores.)
As for belts, we found some belts online (Amazon?) in a boy's size, rather than men's, that worked. ETA: This was the belt that we found to fit DS.
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UPDATE - 8 Seater mid-size SUV?
in The Chat Board
Posted
I have one of the newer model Pilots and love it, but would have a hard time fitting 6 people, 2 dogs, and stuff in it. My Pilot replaced a Honda Odyssey (which I loved....but got totaled in an accident), and if I needed more room, I'd get another Odyssey in a heartbeat. When you test drive the new Pilots, definitely check out the Odyssey, even if you aren't thinking "minivan."