We took a week's vacation last week. Before that it had been at least a year. Come to think if it, pretty sure it had actually been two years. He owns the business, so he feels guilty whenever he leaves. No one else can really do his job. Next year we have a three week vacation to Disney planned... he's already stressing out about it. TBH I worry that he'll get so worked up about leaving work for that long that it'll ruin the trip. :/

Stress, both physical and psychological, can definitely effect blood sugar. It's especially noticeable (noticable? I never know if there's an e there or not) after physical trauma like an injury, at least for me. I assume the recovery from your surgery would have raised your number substantially for a while.

I believe it's called Kids & Pets. In my store, it's in with the regular cleaning supplies.

That we're all just making this up as we go along. You may look at what someone else is doing or how well their children are progressing and think "why doesn't my family have all that going on? What am I missing?" and that they're probably looking right back at you thinking the same thing. You do what works, and if it stops working you try something new. Those people that you look up to and admire may be fantastic at what they do, and that's probably because they've figured it out one step at a time and did what seemed right to them at the time, just like you're doing. In other words, there are no trade secrets or magic answers... just parents muddling their way through as best they can, one day at a time.

I would like to add, as a slight spin-off of this, a phenomena often witness in my home wherein the child assumes that if no one is laughing at his joke, he just must not have said it loudly enough. Child: *Joke that makes no sense and is half made up gibberish words.* Everyone else: ".... so, how was work today?" Child: *same joke,twice as loud* Everyone else: "Work was pretty busy, how about-" Child, interrupting: *same joke, twice as loud and right in your face* Oh, honey... we all heard you the first time. It's just no one thought it was funny. Disclaimer: We usually do the obligatroy half-hearted laugh after the first time, and we try not to crush his spirits by telling him how completely not amusing the nonsense is... but by "joke" #15, NO ONE CARES ANYMORE, SON. We've tried to explain the concepts of not bogging the conversation, not interrupting, tried to explain why complete gibberish and nonsense isn't appropriate conversation, but apparently he cares about what we're saying as much as we care about his jokes. We don't want to crush his spirit... but dangit, if you're interrupting actual conversation to spew gibberish in people's faces for no reason, maybe that particular part of his spirit could stand for a little crushing every once in a while because STOP THAT. Okay, I feel a bit better now.

Yes, but only because we had to go shopping for new shoes for ALL of them only 2 weeks ago. (Shoes are expensive, dangit!)

In my experience: -manager at an national insurance company (tw year college degree, worked his way up; not an older person, he's 35) -business owner, industrial manufacturing -insurance broker -PSW -housekeeper -hairdresser -cabinet maker -plumber -resort manager -quarry worker -firefighter -welder -mechanic -contractor Oddly enough, the family members and friends that I know who do have college degrees actually make the least money, now that I think of it. One works as a librarian in a university. The others are teachers. Compared to many of the above professions, they have significantly less income.

I opened this expecting another Ashlet Madison scandal. I wish it was just that. This is so disturbing on so many levels. Aside from all the other issues, what in the WORLD is the matter with that judge?!?!

If I were not on a diet I'd devour, then hope my hips belie it.

Could we try not to let ourselves get baited down the path of debating the legitimacy of gay marriage? That's about the most effective way for people to get this thread shut down when they're not actually interested in listening to any real discussion, and up until we got sucked into the vortex it was a very interesting discussion on the role and limitations of government. (Especially in my case, since I'm Canadian and never studied the various roles of the branches of US government. You guys sure like to make things complicated. ;) )

Divorce your previous likes. Get a new one. Rinse, repeat. By the time you've done it three times, you should be able to go back to some of your previous likes. Unless you liked things by people of the same gender, of course. That would just be wrong.

Probably because the Deathly Hallows are the scariest of the series, and the first 2 movies have the greatest emphasis on Christmas at Hogwarts. I love all of them, but I can see that some would be more closely associated with some holidays.

I'd be interested to hear how many of those were "Biblical" divorces and remarriages and how many weren't. Not because it makes a difference, but just because the hypocrisy is ridiculous enough to be a little entertaining.

If everyone makes these reporting mistakes in calories, I would assume that nutrition and weightloss programs would account for those reporting mistakes when coming up with programs for people. If everyone under reports and WW tells everyone to eat 1800 calories and they all eat 2000, the numbers should tell them that their program is ineffective and everyone is eating 200 calories too much, therefore they should tell people to eat 1600 instead. The program is, after all, supposed to be designed to work for the average person, not just the apparently 1% of people who accurately report calories. So what I'm saying is... what does it matter if, despite one's best efforts, they are accidentally under-reporting their calories? If they're doing the program as designed and seeing the opposite of the intended results, that's not the result of accidental under-reporting (the same accidental under-reporting that everyone else is also doing), there's obviously a much bigger issue at play.

Not to pick on this too much, because I know you mean well here, but most people on very low card diets will definitely not eat beans, and most fruits and many vegetables are out as well. Leafy greens and eggs are great, though... but that's only two simple/cheap things you can grow yourself and work in to your diet, and eating only those two things does not make for make a balanced diet.

My house is not clean because I grew up in a clean house with a clean mother, and it was extremely stressful/maddening for everyone. I'll take "acceptable and happy" over that any day.

Am I Christian enough to read a 25 dissertation to see my faith meets someone else's standards? Nope. This does seem like the sort of question I can imagine that Pharisees posing to the Jews, though, followed by many many yardsticks (maybe 25 pages worth) by which to measure themselves until they are deemed acceptable.

We don't generally go out to dinner with my parents, maybe once a year if that. I don't think we've EVER gone out to dinner with my in-laws... they just don't like eating out. When we go out with my parents, it's usually to celebrate a special occasion, so it depends on what we're celebrating. For example, this year we went out to celebrate my middle son's 10th birthday. We paid for that, since it's our family's celebration. Last year, we went out with teh whole family to celebrate my father's 70th birthday. Mom and Dad paid for that one since they wanted to celebrate in that way. So I suppose in our case, it's whoever does the inviting, as they're seen as the "hosts" of the celebration. Now I'm curious, do people really go out to eat with their extended families that often? For us, it's rare enough to even get a date night out with just DH and I, let alone adding more people to the mix.

I can't answer the poll, because for me it completely depends on my relationship with and/or impression of the person offering and how they will respond to a refusal. if it's a new acquaintance who I'm just meeting or a good friend who I know finds their value in serving others or giving gifts, I'll accept to be kind. If it's a casual or good friend who I'm slightly comfortable with, I'll politely decline. In either case, I don't really have a sense of indebtedness to them any more than I would to anyone else. That being said, I am in general quite inclined to feel obligated to help people out in general (unless they're asking me to spend money, lol), so that's probably why a small favour doesn't increase that feeling.... I'm already maxed out on that to begin with. ;)

I can parallel park a car any time, any where. With my minivan, I get picky. If the spot is small, it's a no go. I need that extra space to maneuvre. Visibility isn't so much of an issue, but space? Not gonna risk it.

Yep. When I was first getting my licence and buying my first car, all of the affordable options were stick shifts. For the sake of my budget, I HAD to learn. Both our vehicles are automatic now, but we're happy with either one; we'll get whatever vehicle is the best one in our price range, whether it be manual or automatic.

Also hoping it's not run by ATI. And hoping, in a weird way, that Anna will not be moving in with family while he's there. I think it would be a difficult but extremely valuable for her to experience life on her own and see that yes, she CAN actually do it by herself and that she is strong.

For some reason, now I want to get gas from Corner Gas and stop at the Ruby for a chili cheese dog.

I would love to hear the rationalization behind giving a women twice the time to refuse relations if the baby was a boy. Anyone know the story there?

I just found out baby #5 will be a boy. I wasn't sure how to feel about it, but you know what? IT'S ALL GOOD NOW.