Giant-legged jeans topped by sweaters or sweatshirts at least three sizes too big, finished up with the biggest tennis shoes they can find (Air Force 1 Shadows or something similar, lol). I just shake my head, lol. A lot of girls are wearing the pleated/flared skorts from Lululemon or Aerie with a huge sweatshirt or a tiny cropped tank.

Ah, that really could be an issue. Christmas is literally our only time (three in college + one full-time employed, scattered all across the country, plus internships/fellowships/etc - it's a rare thing to all be together these days). When we've gone in the past, it's been in late January/early February - because we homeschooled and could be flexible with our schedules! lol Ah, the good old days! 😄 Since I didn't plan those trips, I never made the connection for timing. Might have to change plans... I'd hate to risk it and plan to be there to ski and just sit around sightseeing in a place we would rather be skiing...

Will absolutely check out Heavenly Valley and the Tahoe Beach and Ski Club! We aren't really casino people, but would be up for a show!

Probably US. Although, skiing in Banff would sure be a dream!! Might be more hardcore skiing than we're up for, considering it's been a while, though? So, probably US and probably mid-range on the difficulty scale. lol Everyone (ie. not me, lol) who would be skiing/boarding is very athletic - just haven't had much skiing experience.

probably Christmas break sometime - it's the only time I can get all the kids together these days 🙂

Some words from an older mom with now-adult kids. RUN, don't walk, away from this relationship. Your children have already expressed feeling muzzled by this relationship, restraining their words, avoiding certain topics of conversation, etc with these kids and, now, the parents are starting to enforce restrictive beliefs that your family does not share. Run. I say this because, in our area, the homeschoolers are WAY more conservative than we are. However, in order for my kids to have any hs'ed friends/participate in any activities/join in any co-ops - we had to find ways to get melt in with everyone else. Therefore, my kids carefully watched their words, they avoided controversial topics, learned to "pass the bean dip," didn't talk politics, and bit their tongues their entire young lives. It's one of my biggest regrets with our homeschool & a huge reason my own kids aren't sure they want to homeschool their own children when that day comes. I really regret putting them in that "restrain your words" situation so frequently, and, if I had it to do all over again, there are several relationships I would have pulled them away from and confronted other relationships much more abrasively than I did. And, you're absolutely right in thinking the dads/grandpas are far more troublesome than the boys. Also sadly speaking from experience. 😕

We’ve been skiing as a family only a couple of times, but we’ve always gone with others & I haven't done the planning. I’d love anyone’s suggestions or favorite locations? Because I am overwhelmed starting from scratch. Lodges or condos? The whole family are adults now. One hasn’t ever been skiing or snowboarding before but the others have been, albeit years ago.

First, your hair is absolutely gorgeous. The style - the cut - the color - it's all lovely on you and you shouldn't change a hair on your head. If it were *me,* and I had this thought in my head that the hair might prohibit me from re-entering the work force, *I* would probably use a temporary color and tint my hair for the interview. Only so I wouldn't have any "what ifs" in my head if I didn't get the job. With that said, it's obviously discriminatory for ppl to NOT hire you based on a) your age or b) their assumption of your age. However, we all know the world doesn't work in an ideal bubble. (My hair is red with white *streaks* running like stripes throughout my hair, lol (think Bonnie Raitt, but multiple streaks). I get a ton of compliments on it, but don't get as many "you look way too young to have kids this old" comments as I did before the white streaks showed up - even though my face looks exactly the same! 🤣)

Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Central Park Courtyard New York Manhattan/Central Park 1717 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 Certain floors are the Residence Inn, the other floors are the Courtyard. IIRC, the Courtyard are the lower floors. We stay at the R.I. - the room is small, but the view is spectacular and the location is fantastic!

I say paint it whatever color that strikes your fancy and puts a smile on your face. I'd choose a flat/eggshell finish vs a semigloss/glossy finish, though (but I just don't love shiny finishes in general). Our front door has been cardinal red, sunshine yellow, rose pink, cobalt blue, peacock, and, as of a week ago, is now crayon green! It "matches" nothing - but our shutters are black, so I count that as a neutral and don't feel any need to match it. Sort of like we used to think our belts and shoes "had to match each other," but that's no longer the rule. 🙂 Our back door is the same color. (The inside of the doors are white to match all the other interior doors we have, but I have fun with the outside!) I repaint every so often when I get tired of the color - I've found it's such a cheap/fun way to spruce things up around here.

One nice thing about purchasing a suit/tuxedo at a department store is that they will usually do alterations for you for free. All of my boys' suits have been properly tailored at no additional charge. When we've gone in, there have always been a couple suits in their size that were on sale - we always started with those and have always found something that worked! Seconding the need for a navy blazer to go with khakis. Then a blue or gray suit first and possibly a black suit (which can be used as a stand-in for a tuxedo in *some* circumstances with an appropriate shirt and bow tie!). Don't forget nice dress shoes - although mine wear their "nicer" tennis shoes as much as they can get away with! lol edited to say that both my boys work out a lot and are very athletic. Nothing fits them properly off the rack due to their physique. So, free/QUALITY alterations are an enormous plus in my brain!! lol

Oh, lord. I would swear your DD has my MIL. She needs to stand firm ASAP. Even through the inevitable MIL tears. DSIL needs to back her up. You CAN be kind, but firm. You CAN be kind, but say no. You CAN be kind, but still stand up for yourself. Have your DD repeat those words over and over again. It took until my oldest was around 12 before MIL did something SO horrible and publicly embarrassing for me that things came to a boiling point. After that, dh and I called 100% of the shots (time spent visiting, etc) and cut her off whenever she started whining/complaining/crying about it. It was FREEING. I hope your DD can reach that point well before her girls are that old.

Oh, he’s just gorgeous. Congratulations!!!

Barbaric.

It is never too late to start to live the kind of life you wish you led. 💕

Or, I can be fashion forward, get layers, and start blowdrying today?!!!!!! I'm excited that big hair might be coming back. Especially bc one of my daughters has THE perfect hair for it. Would love to see her hair all done up in late 70s/early 80s glam. lol Not only is my wardrobe pretty monochromatic - it's also a lot of the same pieces. 😄 Find a shirt I like? Yay! Buy it in white, cream, and black! Ooooh, nice cardigan? It comes in grey, beige, and black - all of which come home with me! I have three pair of the same black shoes. My husband jokes that I can pretty much walk into my closet, close my eyes, and pick something and it'll work together (and pretty much look the same as the day before). I told him that it's taken me years to cultivate and, if it weren't for perimenopause bloating and weight fluctuation, I would love to blindly pick my outfits for each day. 🤣 Where I really struggle is summertime. I hate shorts and skirts (actually, I hate my legs sticking out of said skirts and shorts) and my pants are either black or dark-washed jeans (all the same style, slightly different washes, hahahaha!!). So I tend to look a bit Wednesday Addams-ish.

oh, sure. I'm not giving him a free pass for it. Just observing. (although, obviously, if he IS mentally incompetent then that has to be taken into account and is a doubly/triply/quadruply tragic set of circumstances and I wish it had been discovered sooner so that his guns would have been removed from his premises before any of this ever happened - but, as often happens with gun laws, it is really, really difficult to take someone's guns away legally.) Although I'd disagree that someone who is mentally incompetent couldn't walk out with no charges after 24 hours. Depends on the competency of those investigating the situation - and this particular team has some cracks in their armor already, for sure, for not knowing what to charge him with in the first place! The police should've charged him. They can always change/drop charges later. They sure charge plenty of people quickly without *waiting* without nearly as much evidence.

A while back, I was driving in a suburban area about 20 minutes away from my home. I received a serious, stressful phone call, so I pulled into a regular neighborhood. I pulled up to a small empty lot between two houses in a cul-de-sac, pulled to the side of the road, and continued my phone call. Next thing I knew, one of the homeowners was at my driver's side window knocking a handgun against my window, shouting at me to roll down my window. He just kept shouting. My windows are tinted very dark, was sobbing on the phone (again, stressful, serious phone call I'm in the middle of) and he would not stop (and the person on the other end of the phone couldn't hear him and just continued spouting very important information to me). I didn't know what to do. Started to put my car into drive to get out of there and he aimed the gun at, what I expect was, my tires. I finally had the wherewithall to tell the person on the phone to please hold on for a moment as I had a situation happening. Rolled down the window and shouted at the man that I was on a phone call and just had to pull over for a minute, was on a public street in front of an empty lot. He shouted back that I had 5 minutes and I needed to get out of there or he would call the cops or shoot my car or maybe both. He walked behind my vehicle and I drove away. I have thought so many times since then - what if I had been a POC, or in a less-nice vehicle, or had continued driving forward, or, or, or, or?!?? I never found my way back or I prob would have called the police to press charges. But with the phone call news I was receiving, I was so disoriented and couldn't find the neighborhood again. It was just a regular, non-gated, normal house type of place!! But, it was in an area where the white population is probably 98%. I live in a much more diverse area. And feel a helluva lot safer.

Right - like if the boy had died, would they never charge the man who shot him because the boy couldn't ever speak? If you see the mug shot of the 85-year-old man, he appears to be a little mentally unstable. I wonder if there isn't a dementia issue at hand here. Tragic, tragic, tragic. Oh, gosh. Really? 😕

ok, I am assuming that the boy texted his friend from an unknown number or created a new account on a group me/other type of chat app? Like, he didn't use HER phone/texting app, right? What I would do (I have two daughters, and man, we have BTDT with this sort of silliness): 1) Have your DD get the boy-who-has-the-crush's phone number if she doesn't have it already. Ask anyone for it. 2) Text this boy-with-crush and say something along this: Hey! This is *daughter's name.* So, someone gave me a head's up today that you have been getting text message from someone saying they are me. I don't know what they are saying in those messages, but I just wanted to let you know that I have not texted you at all. I don't know who is, but they need to stop impersonating me bc it isn't funny, Anyway, just wanted to let you know that whoever is texting you isn't me. This gives that boy a heads up so he can stop flirt/texting someone who isn't her. Plus, when she says she doesn't know what is being said on those messages, it helps him save face a bit (meaning she's not telling him she knows he has a crush on her....). 3) She already let the perpetrator know and they said it would stop. I would trust that for the time being and move on. It's weird but a LOT of people would see this as awww, shucks, kids/puppy love is cute and funny and shrug it off. Hopefully the boy-with-crush feels this way when all is said and done. And, honestly, it won't cause longterm harm to him - it's prob a weird/awkward way for the established boys to welcome him into their group (I am NOT condoning it, just trying to see it from other peoples' perspectives).

lol There is plenty of traditional museum-y stuff there at the V&A, but yes, there's fashion, odd art, odd collections. Lots of Napoleonic stuff when we were there, iirc. Every room was wildly different, which I think appealed to my crew. The sculptures collections there, though!!!! It was the only full-sized David we've ever seen and I'm still not over it. There were so many sculptures packed into two or three rooms of that museum - just amazing. (oh, tons of these are casts, not originals - but that means you can get up and close with the statues... it's a neat way of displaying it all. Now that I've seen this David, I don't feel a huge urge to need to see the "real" one - this was real enough for me, lol!) But, by them being casts, it's an enormous collection. But, as being homeschooled their whole lives, I've dragged them to so many of the "Sameish" museums. This one stood out for being decidedly different.

Oh, how I miss the big hair. Not the 80's poof bangs and gobs of sticky hairspray - but the Farrah Fawcett blowdry look. 😍 My color person wants me in lots of color. It just ain't happenin'.

Our favorite things were: visiting the Victoria and Albert museum. In fact, we left it til the LAST museum and almost didn't go bc everyone *else* (lol) was museumed-out by then. Once we walked in, however, everyone said that if/when we go back V&A's needs to be our first stop and that it was one of the most interesting museums they'd ever been to. and, the opera. We try to go to the opera anytime we are out of the country (or near one of the US operas). It's always memorable and this was no exception. We also visit the symphony/orchestras for at least one performance. LSO is - obviously - amazing and always worth the time to go! If you like Harry Potter, there's the Harry Potter place with some of the movie sets and things set up. We didn't make it to that, but I've heard good things. Next time I go, I am definitely going to do an author's tour BY MYSELF. No one else in my fam will enjoy it like I will, so I am taking that time to myself. 😄 Oh, and definitely the Tower of London. Was more interesting than I expected. We stayed in an area (Air BnB) that had so many shops and restaurants in a walkable area - so we also wandered quite a bit without a plan in mind.

lol. I've had my colors done and know what colors technically look best on me and, still, I insist on wearing creams, browns, whites, and black. Pretty much 99% of my wardrobe is interchangeable and all in that neutral color palette. My friend who "did my colors" just sighs every time we get together. 😁😇 Considering I'm the color of a sheet of paper with a smattering of freckles everywhere, I probably have no business wearing white - but it's my husband's favorite color on me, so ... ☺️

I'd go in (ped or urgent care, whichever is easiest) and have another strep test. My kids always have a negative test when they first go into the dr with symptoms and always have go to back in a couple days for another, which is usually positive. As the years went on, the doctor realized this and would usually prescribe an abx and steroid, even if the test was negative - but now that they're adults/college they often have to repeat this routine with new doctors. Urgent cares are usually more apt to prescribe an antibiotic if you insist vs a family doctor or ped.