ROTFL!!! I did that exact same thing a long time ago for a work treat day. The co-workers LOVED it! Made it the 'right' way the next time and they kept asked for the first recipe....floored me! Guess they really liked cream cheese.

My disaster- my own interpretation of a coconut cake. Coconut shavings sunk to bottom of the pans and the cake layers came out with a sludge like consistency on the bottom and tasted awful! The frosting was ghastly because I put too much coconut flavoring in it-apparently a little of that goes a looooong way. It was a gigantic disaster. But on the bright side, the dog got a little plate of it and LOVED it! It was slightly encouraging until I remembered that the dog is no gourmet. She also eats out of the cat litter box when she can. I no longer experiment with coconut...ever.

:grouphug::grouphug: That is just way too much yucky stuff to happen in one week to one family. It has to get better! :grouphug::grouphug:

No way. Wouldn't take a chance with that.

Pro-choice here but I feel the burden of not disclosing something this important could erode the relationship over time. I think she should be honest with her dh and BOTH of them need to come to some agreement on how to proceed. Terminations are not without health risk as well and her dh needs to know what is going on for safety sake too. I appreciate that a baby isn't happening at the best time for them but honesty is best for now and for the long term.

I agree with the others, sounds like the middle is cooking slower. I used to have this problem until I started placing a flower nail upside down in the middle of the pan before I poured the batter. Be sure to grease up the flower nail first though so it doesn't stick to your cake. It is just like a cake core and conducts heat to the middle of the cake but cheaper and doesn't leave big hole. Worked wonders! If your sides are getting done and cooking longer would make them overdone, you might try using the insulated cooking strips to slow that up.

I'm the kind of person who isn't big into things like birthdays or mother's day etc for adults. I do celebrate birthdays for the children and we do understated, family observances once they are older. We did celebrate Mother's day with an outing but we don't make a big deal about it being specifically for 'Mother's day'. My MIL used to make us feel horrible if we weren't sufficiently fawning over some holiday or special date. We were very good about keeping up with them but a few times the mail was slow etc. It became more about trying to keep in her good graces (avoiding her wrath) and dotting the i's than truly feeling that appreciation. :) My feeling is that everyday should be Mother's day or Dad's day etc. We should show appreciation for each other in some small way everyday and for me, that is what counts. :D

How exciting!!! Congratulations!! :party:

This ASAP! You don't have a lot of time so you need to make verifiable movement toward making a claim.

A little off topic but just gotta say we just finished the free Constitution 101 class offered by Hillsdale and it was fantastic! :thumbup: Maybe 'distance learning' is the way to go? :lol: As far as the op's issues go, I probably would have omitted the bit about the Palin lookalike and the townie thing though because it detracts from some of the more important issues. :)

It sounds just like what I get when I have bad allergies. It starts out as an allergy headache and then I tense up and start having neck muscle issues. Then it becomes a combo of a sinus headache with the added bonus of a sore neck which involves an old injury with pinched nerve. Now I really try to resist rolling my head around or pulling/stretching my neck when I have any kind of headache. I also take Alavert D for the allergies (have to get from the pharmacist counter) and one a day keeps the allergies under control. Hope this helps!

I won't comment on what I think about dh's plan to not help. Zipping my mouth. But I have some cleaning suggestions- I have embraced a zone cleaning kind of thing. I have a separate part of the house I focus on each day for about 20 min (I'm a speedy cleaner)and that is in addition to an overall tidy pickup in the am and once in the afternoon. I'm also a tyrant and make others pick up their own messes. I think getting on a schedule could really help you out as long as you stick to it. Flylady is a great site to get ideas from. For example, on Monday you can concentrate on the living room for 20 min. Do what you can for that amount of time then STOP. Clean as you go too. Make a habit of not walking through a room without picking up something or tidying something. Another hint-got this from a friend-do some wiping up with a nice smelling cleaning (Fabuloso is the best!). Dh will come in and get a whiff and think you super cleaned. Not sure why it works so well but it does! I can use that stuff and even I feel like the house is a lot cleaner. That stuff is magic!

:iagree::iagree::iagree: You're not alone!

There is no talking to or reasoning with a narcissist. The only thing to do is stay in public situations or find things to do that limit interaction-like movies, museum or an arcade places. Those would be good options for a rain prediction.

I actually believe that given the right amount of motivation and organization she could bring him up to an acceptable level in a summer. HOWEVER, that is probably an unlikely outcome. I have known a few unschoolers and their children are not having these drastic math deficiencies. In this case, IMO it is more a parental lack of attention than a condition brought on by unschooling. So it would probably be a lot to ask of that parent to be able to tackle an intense and regimented math plan in a summer. I'm not a huge proponent of unschooling but it irks me that it is so easy to blame a parental lack of attention on 'unschooling'. I think the best advice that might be given to the mom is to take responsibility for that math deficiency and work like crazy to make up for it. It isn't the unschooling-it was the way the mom applied the unschooling.

I agree with you! If the girl doesn't have probs now, she may after reading those books and having all that focus put on 'potential' probs. It seems they are running the risk of 'suggesting' the girl into something that isn't there.

:iagree:

I'm so sorry. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

When we had a flood the insurance company covered the clean-up. You might check to see if the owners of the property have insurance to cover the cost of clean up or if you have rental insurance, that might help too. Equipment rental places sometimes have the special heater fans especially designed to dry out carpet.

Oh that makes me so angry for you! She has no right to go anywhere near the topic of homeschooling. Doing this in front of your child...who is ONLY 5...was wrong too. I would approach her now that you have formulated your feelings and tell her that the topic of how you educate him is off limits and that you plan to attend class for the purpose of monitoring the situation and that includes evaluating the value of HER TEACHING AND MANAGEMENT ABILITIES. Give it right back to her, not because you are angry but because it sounds like she is not managing well. If she cannot maintain a challenging and engaging learning environment then nobody will learn well. If she allows 5 yr old children in her class then she must be ready to expect normal curious 5 yr old behavior.

Was there Friday. Turned around and headed for home. It was PACKED and there were hour plus waits at the rides. We have annual pass so we could just leave. I feel bad for people who planned vac at this time of year. Not good at all.

I'm dealing with a narcissist sibling and many of the same issues you have described. After devoting years to trying to make her happy and not 'rock the boat' I was done. Finally reached my limit and went no contact and haven't looked back. I never respond to her efforts to get a reaction. Reactions are fuel to emotional vampires. Best to remove them from your life. She is well aware of the reasons I am no contact. If people like op's sis and aunt (possibly) weren't emotional vampires then it would be nice to think we can change them with our understanding and all but IMO that is not realistic. When you are dealing with chronic antisocial behavior it is a whole other situation. Sometimes the greater good involves walking away to focus on those that don't make our lives miserable and complicated. ;) I question the aunts stability if she can turn on the op like this without a word. I was dealing with that too. I had to face tough realities that made me re-evaluate what I thought my relationship with that person really was if they could be influenced without talking to me.

Our cats didn't want anything to do with our dog when we got her as a pup. She was very interested in being friends with the cats which was out of their comfort zone. We had to encourage the dog to keep her distance and learn to interpret the clues the cats were giving her about getting too close or playful. Now they all get along just fine. Just keep an eye out for the dog chasing the cat if it runs. Dogs will chase and possibly bite out of instinct - prey response. We had to use a shock collar a few times to nip that behavior in the bud. The dog would get in the 'zone' and start to chase and wouldn't listen to commands. The collar was helpful to correct this quickly.

The others before me have said it so much better-be a good listener and keep letting her know you are there for her and support her decisions. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

This! Calling gets results. :)