NM

NM

There just aren't any guarantees. Really. I know people who have had children from frozen eggs and some who never had a pregnancy take. I put off career for babies and ended up homeschooling which had entirely tanked my music career. Concert pianist is not something one just "picks up on" at forty nine when homeschool retirement looms. I am living with my decision, and do not regret what I did for the sake of the kids. On the other hand, it is VERY hard on me. Some careers simply do not have a pause button. You either do it when you are young or not at all because you can't break back in at middle age. Given the sheer cost of grad school today as well as undergraduate loans, I think it is pretty important that young people put off their baby having for quite a while, get those scholarships and assistantships to grad school, and pay those student loans because the reality for our kid's generation is that they will be four to an apartment eating ramen noodles for a time or worse, didn't do enough post high school to get a decent job, and are practically homeless living on friend's couches or at mom and dad's. While we all most likely had the choice of when to start a family, when to build a career, if we could afford to be a single income family, etc. these are luxury decisions for them. The economy and staggering cost of post high school education and training, stagnating wages in the face of rising housing costs, and medical insurance premiums and deductibles will dictate life choices to this generation of young adults. That said, raising the legal adult age is not the answer. I do agree that in the age of scientific warfare, there is not need for eighteen year old foot troops. So I would be for no buying alcohol, cigarettes, recreational marijuana, or guns until twenty one. Call it a version of attaining full adult status like driver's licensing programs in some states. Yes, you get your license at a certain age, but you have to drive clean for so long, to get the full benefits. A test drive of adulthood if you will. I am also all for reforming middle school and high school so students can leave at fourteen or fifteen and go to tech school full time, drop out if determined to be school disruptors and behavior problems, with night school options available for those that want to finish after dropping out, dual enrollment full time for the last two years of high school if the student is ready, and opportunities for tracks so students can specialize in high school which would make it more exciting and personal, allowing a passion to develop instead of a one size fits all situation. I think we would see frontal lobes develop more quickly if middle schoolers are challenged and have more options, and if high schoolers have a lot more choice. Mostly they are spinning their wheels while also nearing adulthood and being treated very child like by the system. Then bam...you turned eighteen be an adult. None of that is good for the maturing brain.

If my car accident injuries are any indication, then yes I do think many of these victims will suffer lifelong chronic pain.

I think that is too old. I went to college at sixteen and had my degree at twenty. I do think that more opportunities to learn life skills through the community might help. We have a plethora of parents here that are so busy working multiple job, extra hours, double shifts that they don't have the time to teach some of the basics. These young adults do not how to navigate the complexities of life adult life and often feel lost and then flounder.

Absolutely agreed! Do politicians have even the slightest clue that regular people can complete their job, raise their families, make their way if every time a flaw in a plan showed up, they chucked the entire plan instead of simply fixing the single issue? I sometimes feel like the most profoundly inept humans are the ones elected to public office!

Thank you so much. I haven't another 2 lbs since I posted which was five days ago. It seems too fast. But I feel good, really good, in better spirits than I have in a long time. Mom is very chipper, and she seems to be coming around from her own depression. We watched some of the Olympics together and that was nice because our relationship has been on the ropes. I think maybe the biggest contributing factor is Dh and I had a heart to heart and I finally admitted how much I have internally floundered since largely giving up my music career. With ds graduating and going off to college so I will be retiring from homeschooling, I told him how badly I wanted to go back to performing/professional accompanying but feared that this many years of sporadic, un-dedicated practice, mostly not keeping anything in my repertoire fresh nor adding anything new to it means I am not audition ready and in turmoil over it. He started taking over some things here at home, and I am back to practicing two hours per day! I have not felt so good in years and this says a lot because I am still anemic! My mother always said I was born with a piano and playing Beethoven. Sometimes I think she may not have exaggerated! It feels like I had been holding my breath for years and now get to exhale. I have to wonder if returning to my first love is producing enough serotonin to make it easier to lose weight. If nothing else, since I am playing rigorously the whole two hours, probably additional calories burned. My jeans are loose, a little saggy. Dh asked if I wanted to buy new ones. Not yet. I first want to see if this continues because I don't want to buy a new wardrobe if I am going to go down more than one size. I will just wear them too big until it gets to be too much, and then break down and buy just enough to get by until I see where I plateau. Plus, just between us, I kind of want to savor that feeling of "My pants are too big for me!" 3500 meters on the rowing machine plus 15 minutes of weights today. I do not want to miss tomorrow, but I have to figure out the scheduling difficulty because I have to take the rocket team to an event in the afternoon and also need to get the practice in.

Dh is my best friend with benefits! :D We are super close, and love spending time together. But yes, like Arctic, sometimes a girl needs another girl, so I have a female gal pal for that.

My Dd is a paramedic. She says it has to do with how many gunshot traumas that any one hospital can handle at a single time. This depends on the staff, number of trauma surgeons, and such. In a busy area you have to remember that they will have heart attack victims, strokes, car accidents, you name it all of which they are dealing with at the same time. Sometimes they get on the radio and tell EMS they are refusing any more patients.

This. We had to do this for in laws who would have stayed forever and did expect a lot of extra special attention. That first couple of years of their retirement they would just hit the road and show up at our house. No warning. Then they would complain because Dh didn't have time off from work. And they expected the homeschooling to come to an end while there. Ai yi yi yi yi! So we started telling them. when they arrived that they were welcome to stay, but life wasn't coming to an end and that there would be some meals that would be fend for themselves because I had performance events, or the kids had extracurriculars, etc. The worst was when they got it in their heads that I should cancel piano lessons last second because they showed up. Hum. No. But that one solved itself easily because I started leaving the studio door open. They love classical music and kids, so it tickled their hearts to listen in. They then became rather enthusiastic doormen every time the next student arrived or parent walked through the door. But ya...you have to get firm on boundaries and don't relent.

Ten percent. That’s it. If the person runs, supposedly they have to cough up the balance from available resources, but I have a hard time believing that the courts ever manage that.

And again folks, LEO's often do not have the resources much less warrants to confiscate weapons from known violent, convicted offenders. So some boy who had thirty nine run ins with police but no convictions for sure as heck will not only continue to be eligible for gun ownership, but also would not have guns confiscated after the commission of the crime. The only way this happens is IF LEO's can get a warrant for the premises search and often there are limits on what they can take. It is not uncommon for judges to issue these warrant as "what is in plain sight" only so if the gun is not laying on the table or whatever, they can't go looking for it. We must have changes to these kinds of laws. We simply cannot have it be the honor system in which we hope criminals and convicts will surrender their guns. Insane. We also need to change the laws so that police can report concerns even if a crime was not committed - as in the case of the Parkland shooter - and if x number of reports get entered into the system, an immediate warrant for weapons in the home - and not line of sight only - is issued. Otherwise, troubled and violent people will still be able to have their guns. We need for certain diagnoses to be reported to police making that an automatic, go get the guns, things like RAD in teens, sociopaths and psychopathy in adults, suicidal indentations, etc. I personally believe that no adult should be able to buy a gun without the written consent of other adults living in the home, and also if they have a restraining order against them. We have see how many ex spouses, girlfriends, etc. have been murdered after leaving, many of whom did have restraining orders and still ended up dead. So confiscating weapons because you made "if I can't have you know one can" threats should be a thing. Not this sit around and wait until everyone is dead and then go, "darn it all if only he hadn't been able to buy that pistol or if only police could have taken his guns away" business. This is nuts! We can't prevent future mass killings or lower our murder and suicide rates IF we refuse to have laws that can be enforced to prevent such things when red flags occur. Bad enough when we don't have advance warning, but insane that so often we do but LEO's hands are tied. And remember in Michigan, it was the honor system that forced my husband and brother to be in the position of committing felony firearms theft in order to keep my FF who was homicidal, suicidal, a resident of the psyche ward for three weeks, and had already attempted murder once from having his weapons. And upon conviction and being sent home on hospice STILL NO ONE CAME FOR THE GUNS! So don't talk about "enforcing existing laws". Existing laws are crap, total kaka, and mean nothing. The laws you think exist do not or are unenforceable as is and that is by NRA design because preventing killers and would be killers from getting guns and buying ammo hurts their profit margins.

We are going to London, Ont first to the Archaeology Museum. Then to Toronto, from there to Montreal, then dropping down into Vermont and going to the Ethan Allen Homestead - related on my side - then to Albany, NY to see our daughter and son in law and awesome grandson. Then home through Niagara which the kids have seen, but we will run down to the park anyway because it is so pleasant in the summer. We love history, science, ruins, museums, and wildlife and don't mind a little hiking, kayaking too. Recommendations and best part of the city to stay in for ease of access please!

My dad has a degree in chemistry from U of MI. All I can say is that it was a very challenging degree to compete. On the other hand she loved every moment of it. Since your dad is in 11th grade, I would suggest AP Chem for next year to see how she likes the work load and math intensity as it is more challenging than standard high school chemistry. She can declare the major for college applications but since she is not likely to be offered departmental scholarships until after she completes her freshman year of prerequisites, she could change her mind and choose a related major like biology, Another good option would be a BSRN. Psychology would also be useful with a biology minor.

Chicken Alfredo, steamed broccoli, salad, and oranges.