I probably got something like that but I was too busy being happy about the word ACCEPTED, none of it registered.

Oh my, that seems like trouble.

I would assume HR would be the ones with access to the special paper and usually HR and accounting have their own printers because they print a lot and they have to print stuff that can't be seen by everyone.

2021 when my eldest could start school and basically everyone who works with children and knew DS said DS is going to need alternative schooling (not the typical public school).

Really? Is letterhead paper even still a thing? What stops people from just having a 'letterhead' graphic that they add to documents before they print them -- if that's what they need. Letterhead seems extremely inconvenient... unless a company just has hundreds of bundles of it that they've already pre-bought. Definitely some places have templates you can just grab that prints out like "company letterhead". I never knew of the special stash of letterhead at any company, but occasionally I'd have to make a document using some special templates. Not that I ever wrote a letter in my career, but I still had to write some official documents.

Reading labels is hard. It's deliberately made to be hard. Personally I wouldn't push the label reading, I might read the labels myself figure out which snacks (including brand) are OK then just tell them buy these only. You can work with her to build some specific menu options. So she can have input as to what is easy for her to make and what she likes the taste of. If money isn't too tight she can try one of those meal kit subscriptions, some of them do have healthy options. Blue Apron has the nutrition information labeled for their meals, I'm sure other ones do too. It makes expanding what she can cook more painless for her (everything is purchased and portioned out). I don't know if it would be more restrictive because of her dietary needs but perhaps she could still chose from several options each week.

Oh ... I don't really love repetition. So aside from the Touch and Feel books I stayed away from the repetitive books.

An Egg Is Quiet, A Seed Is Sleepy, A Butterfly is Patient, etc. by Dianna Aston. They aren't silly like Eric Carle but I thought they were beautiful. It's lyrical writing although I don't think it all rhymed. Up In the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner. Maple Hill Farm books weren't around when I was a child but they are 20 years old, but it's younger than Eric Carle. Maybe the books tend toward lyrical vs. rhyming. There's a bunch of really good wordless books and I liked to talk to my kids about them (Indestructible books were my favorites because they could be mouthed but were paper-like). I am currently reading "Odder" to my kids right now and I think they would have enjoyed it as toddlers, even though it doesn't have a ton of pictures and is more like a chapter book than a picture book. It's just a bunch of poems that weave into a story so you could break it up for a toddler's attention span. (You get the point of view of the Otter so it's fantasy in that way but it's telling a story based on real events that happened around Monterey and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.) The touch and feel books for the tots I loved the Usborne series "That's Not My ___" is better than the "Don't Touch the ___" in the Brick and Mortar stores. I don't find the really good books at Target and the like. They might be at the smaller bookstores, Books Inc. or I find them in booklists and on Amazon. I think little kids are being read to but where people buy books is different.

What I know for sure is that I won’t be living long term where we are moving (California). I would return to NYC area the moment my youngest child goes to college. But it would not necessarily make sense to retire in this house (people live here mostly for the schools). You can check the home prices of the area in CA vs. the housing prices in NYC. Since in this very specific case it could be that the housing prices are such that a house swap could work... Those two can be unique (logic defying) housing markets.

Honestly, I don't hear a lot of cold calls working at all. I know it's a thing and some one out there has gotten a job that way, but I also know companies who don't look at cold calls at all (emails/letters direct to trash). Especially companies who weren't even going to post a listing because they can't handle the number of applicants. If you don't know anyone it's look for openings apply, if there's some contact information on there follow up on it. The best method though would be to ask the cousin to keep their ears and eyes opened for opportunities, maybe not at their firm but anything else. Of course all the while look for openings to apply. Keep in touch with her favorite classmates, in case they get a job. If she is close with any professors ask them if they know anyone. 100% to what @bolt.said above, too. I would leave her to presenting herself in the best manner she can. It's better for you to help with the connections than for you to help her be someone she isn't. (Although I worked in an industry that was very accepting of neuro-divergent folks. My companies would offer communication classes that discussed how far away you should stand from a person while talking.)

I don't stop at the railroad crossings unless lights and/or gates are coming down. Where the railroads are near me are considered urban areas so the trains typically are making a lot of noise honking and stuff not just the train rumbling. If I stopped I'd likely be rear-ended.

🤷‍♀️I have experience with a lot of scenarios. If a house's outside is immaculately remodeled really quickly, I suspect the house will be used for criminal activities... Short term rentals/flippers are also remodeled quickly but slower than criminal activities because they have to make the inside look "nice" as well as the outside. Homes remodeled for the owners usually take longer because they are doing better construction and the exterior is the last to be remodeled if they live there. I also have a house down the street from me seems like people have run out of money. And another one that's been condemned and now abandoned because the person who was living there hadn't been able to maintain it for a long time. The mid-construction house is in better condition.

I guess to me that's not such a concern because mid-construction is still better than ill-maintained and/or abandoned.

I have not used CLE, but here's what I think. If CLE seems complete to you right now just use it as your only. You'll figure out it's not enough if at some point your child seems unable to read and spell like you think they should. If that point arises it wouldn't be too late to supplement with Explode the Code to shore up the phonics that they need to get them to where you think they should be. If you grab any Explode the Code book the back tells you what each Explode the Code level covers so when that day comes you can grab the level you need.

I would think "Good for SKL and her friends. And when are we going to have a shindig there." As to multiple homes causing affordability crisis, I'm not sold on the fact that people owning second or third homes is the reason for the crisis. Some financial conglomerate holding on to hundreds of properties because they don't want the price of those properties to drop type thing, yes. In my very unaffordable area there is more at play that just people owning more than one home to cause homes to be ridiculously priced. In my neck of the woods it's immensely obvious that certain policies are holding prices up.

How many cars are on my street. There are a few (single family) homes with multiple families living in them. I live in a HCOL area so these families are not all blood relations. I use the term single family as the official designation of homes in my neighborhood; I don't actually have an issue with the families living in those homes currently. I've met them, they all seem like good people.

Dragons in A Bag Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist Chet Gecko (this series is pretty hilarious to my 7 year old, there is more elementary school slang in this one.) If he is just starting to read and needs some materials to build confidence but exciting than the Bob Books. Look at Scholastic Branches books. There are books written about all sorts of topics Zombies, Dragons, unicorns, whatever else little kids are into. They have a little bit bigger font and are chapter books with pictures. For the girl maybe Katherine Applegate books (I've really enjoyed her stuff, reading it to my children).

You have more going on than I do. When my dad passed away suddenly and my mom decided to move far away within a year I saw a therapist. I wasn't feeling chipper, for good reason. Seeing a therapist helped me 1) get permission to feel my feelings (not just overall sadness/depression but the feelings associated with each of the situations and events, that included anger, frustration, fear, etc.), 2) help me address some of the things with the people involved with making me feel the bad feelings, 3) find that boundary of what is normal and healthy given my situation and what is unhealthy, and 4) in my situation the therapist helped me find other real resources to cope with what happened/was happening as well. I didn't continue the therapy forever, I stopped after we addressed a bunch of stuff. None of the situations changed but my big take away was how to handle and feel the feelings associated with the situation without drowning in it.

Just because I'm a "good girl" too (and am prone to doing this), whatever your stepmother is dealing with you don't have to help her with it or be the bigger person. She is an adult and can find her own resources to handle her own mental/emotional baggage. It doesn't make you a bad person to not want to take that on.

I don't think about the divorce or my stepmother from one month to the next, particularly now that my mum is dead. So I don't feel the need to work through any lingering issues - that would be handing my time, money and energy to something that I no longer dwell on. Yes, being with her brings everything back, but I'm happier just reducing those opportunities. FWIW I didn't read your post/question as someone who is still holding a grudge against your step mother. More of she was involved in a part of your life that you grieve. Therefore she is a trigger for those sad feelings to come up. I've seen with different friends that divorce and relationships with stepparents differ depending on circumstance and also the age of the child. A dynamic that I see with older teens or young adults is societal pressures that your step parent should be this close relative of yours, but you had this whole life with your parents and your step parent may never have done any of the parent things so to you they aren't this close relative and more akin to an acquaintance. That's what I see happening.

The Chrysler Pacifica has an option with that.

47 seconds is short, but I also think in the past we've over estimated how long human attention span is suppose to be. Especially with regard to learning and school. I no longer think it's appropriate to think people should be fully engaged and focused for hours on end. Our brains and attention need breaks.

Maybe you could still take the making it about you and what you are comfortable and uncomfortable with. I don't think it should or can be a heartfelt conversation bringing up all the stuff, but I think any reasonable adult can understand someone "still" having a hard time with spending a weekend with a stepparent who (perhaps without ill intent) is somewhat a part of messing up their teenage years. Maybe something like "I just can't host you for a weekend. It was a lot for me emotionally last time." Something like I want to have a relationship with you, but staying over for an entire weekend is too much for me. If more information is asked it should be OK to say I'm not ready to discuss that. Definitely not been there done that, just perhaps I've thought about how I would address my own hasn't happened yet situation with my mom and her partner.

People can see the front of their cars?! Hmm... maybe that does explain some of the parking issues. I'm totally guessing where my car begins and ends without my car cameras. I'm always flabbergasted that DH can get into a car he's never driven before and just drive it like a car he has always driven.

I'm an only child and DH is one of two. We have two children. We did try for three but the third pregnancy was rough and I don't think I want to do that again. DH and his family definitely didn't want us to be an only child family. I feel like they believe all the misconceptions about only children and think I'm just a miracle. To me the reality is only children get a lot of expectations thrust on them and is often the only one to blame should problems arise (seriously I've been blamed for things the other parent did because "well you are the only kid here who else could it be..."). I also didn't have "built-in" children companions so I had to learn to make friends everywhere.