I really thought I was going to deal with this tonight. I was actually cooking chicken shawarma for dinner as I read this post and thought, "Yep, DS10 is going to walk up the stairs, smell the spices, and say something rude before he can stop himself." Of course, he-who-hates-anything-with-flavor came upstairs, tried a piece of the shawarma, LIKED IT, and now I have a plain, boring, unseasoned chicken breast (literally the only chicken this child has ever willingly eaten) that I get to figure out what to do with tomorrow. And no leftover shawarma. I give up.

Most of the drama, I mean, communication had already switched over to Facebook. They were really only keeping the Yahoo groups going for those of us who don’t have FB. I am not, nor plan to ever be, involved in any kind of decision making capacity (for various reasons...), so I’m just going to have to roll with it.

Both of our homeschool groups still use Yahoo. Now I have to decide whether to get back on Facebook or put the kids in public school. Kidding... maybe. 😕

Just a very frustrated Cards fan here (so... many... strikeouts...). Congrats Nats fans! I’m rooting for our homeboy Scherzer to get his ring now.

For the basement (Lifeproof brand), hired it out. We ordered it from HD, then our contractor from the remodel installed it. I did the cheapo upstairs floors myself while DH was recovering from back surgery. I distinctly remember working on the living room while I had a feverish toddler sleeping on my lap. Never again, lol.

We put Lifeproof floors in our basement when we remodeled it last year. So far the only scratches are in a room where we have some old wooden dining chairs, and the kids scooted them across the floor after the felt pads fell off. I haven’t tried any kind of repair fix on them, as it’s a storage/creative junk room that’s not really visible to anyone who visits. Nowhere else in the basement do we have a problem with scratches, including the open room that ends up being a free-for-all sport court and horseplay room (the walls on the other hand... sigh). The LEGO room is fine too, even though I know those have been scraped across the floor almost daily. It’s just a problem with those wood chairs. Now upstairs we have much cheaper vinyl plank that’s all scraped and dinged up and needs replacing eventually, but it’s still 100x better than cleaning any internally produced liquid substance out of carpet. I’ve never used a steam mop, just a regular spray-and-scrub Libman thing, so I don’t know how that would work on LVP.

I hope it goes away for you soon too! I totally get the being unable to cook. It sucks and I LOVE food and cooking and grocery shopping... but sometimes I just can't. A couple nights ago I held it together until I got food on the table... then went straight to bed with a heating pad, a bag of cough drops (menthol helps the queasiness for me), and The Office for the rest of the evening. DH is really good at this point at picking up where I leave off and making sure the post-dinner stuff is reasonably done. I was looking forward to having those leftovers for lunch, but guess what's the only thing not turning my stomach today? A bowl of rice. Have you had a gallbladder ultrasound, if you still have it? Mine came back "non-functioning" on the HIDA scan and I had it taken out, but it didn't really change much nausea-wise, just the occasional pain increases. I suspect whatever is going on above the gallbladder caused it to quit working, not the other way around, but I have heard of it being the root of nausea issues too. ETA: How's your blood sugar levels? Toast, rice, Gatorade, and bland nothingness would all affect that, especially if it's all you can keep down. Again, probably not the cause, but certainly could be exasperating symptoms.

I’m sorry, I live with chronic nausea as well. Keep making adjustments with reflux meds and timing. The only thing that’s really helped with me so far is Dexilant, taken about halfway through the day instead of morning or night (I have primarily evening symptoms), plus Zantac as necessary. At one point I was on high doses of three meds which led to cramping. A possibility mentioned to me in my GI appointment is basically IBS of the upper digestive tract. The treatment for that is a low-dose antidepressant, enough to quell the overactive system but not affect mood. I’ve tried this for lower-end IBS, but the side effects were rough and I had to stop taking it. She also offered me samples of an OTC “digestion aid” which is basically a couple oils. I haven’t totally ruled out trying it, but my general line in the sand is “oils”. Oddly enough, many of my issues started after pregnancies where I had flu/bronchitis with severe and prolonged coughing. I suspect I have some sort of structural/nerve damage, but they claim the “very small hiatal hernia, duodenal ulcer, and gastritis” couldn’t possibly be factors in this level of discomfort. I’m not so sure.

I’ve heard you can cash out the rebate at the service desk, then pay normally at the register. I want to try that this year, because the rebate comes off like a coupon and you don’t get the 2%+any credit card rewards (mine’s 2.5%) for that amount. Our rebate will be abnormally large this year due to a vacation booked through Costco, so I feel a bit weird about getting a pile of cash at the service desk. I do spending tracking rather than an actual budget, so the rebate would go under the “cash” column, although I’m considering adding a “rebates” column next year. I want to know how much groceries and household items cost for the month/year, and leaving things like rebates and gift cards off completely messes with those totals.

I pinched a nerve in my leg playing World of Warcraft. Last week.

Endoscopy. Treatment is usually antibiotics for the H. pylori if it’s the cause, and OTC heartburn/reflux meds to help it heal. I didn’t read the first post well, the pain from this is all above the navel for me, about halfway from diaphragm to belly button (and I have a pretty short torso). If the pain is lower, ulcer’s probably less likely the problem. Hope she feels better soon!

I have/had a duodenal ulcer and that’s pretty close to the location that hurts when it’s bothering me.

Oh boy, guess what was on our menu tonight... I’m guessing that’s not vegetarian anymore.

I only have one adult sibling, who is 8 years younger than me, but we have both flaked out and failed each other at times. I'm just realizing at age 36 (and I think he's realizing, too) that the root cause of this is that we don't want to be as close as our parent wants us to be, or tries to make us be. We like each other and get along well, but we are not friend-siblings and are okay with that. We are not going to call or text each other out of the blue and chat. We aren't going to ask each other for favors except in real emergencies. He's my mechanic, but I take the cars in through the front desk at the shop and use a different tech if necessary. We aren't inviting each other to non-holiday barbecues, and we certainly don't vacation together. We just have very separate lives, and have evolved into this in a way that I would never have been able to see or articulate at age 22, because at that point we could have grown closer. That didn't happen though. This summer, DH sprained his ankle and couldn't mow the yard. My mom asked my brother if he would come over and mow it for us and he said, "Sure!" He never showed up. I knew that would happen (and actually had already mowed the yard myself), because a) *I* didn't ask, and b) we've been through this before where he agrees to something after being caught off guard by the request and feels like he can't say no. It hurts my mom's feelings that we don't help each other and bail each other out and plan to see each other often the way she does with her sibling. But that's not the where we are right now, and I refuse to let that stuff cause problems. I'm sure someday we'll come up clutch for the other when needed, but I don't want the pressure to be "close" to damage the cordial-with-distance sibling relationship we do have. Maybe we can meet up weekly at McDonald's for coffee and biscuits in our 80's. It doesn't excuse his behavior and flipping out on you, but it's possible this is the start of the process of him and his sisters growing apart for now, and he's having a hard time seeing it and putting words to it. I don't know how I'll feel about this watching my own sons grow up and hash out their relationships as adults, but I know it's really, really hard on my mom to see our lives not intersect the way she always hoped and expected they would. I think she worries that someday she'll be gone and my brother and I will text each other on Christmas and that will be it. Maybe? Who knows? Even now, I'm not sure I'd ever say to her what I just typed out above.

I literally had two Zantac in my mouth when I read the post title. If the GERD doesn’t kill me, I guess it’ll be the assortment of medications I take for it.

Our entire house is vinyl floors except the stairs (carpeted - DH has nerve damage and hard stairs are a hard no). I will never go back to carpet in bedrooms or living areas again. Too much art, science, bodily fluids, and apple juice in our house for carpet. I have a childhood friend whose mother will not part with their carpeted kitchen. I can’t even imagine.

This is mine. I was SO attached to every character and did not want this series to end. I am a very private person when it comes to my favorite books, but I will loan this one out and prattle on and on about it to anyone who appears willing to read/listen.

I have severe reflux and IBS with chronic nausea as my primary symptom, and all of that would trigger symptoms for me, not just the specific foods (specifically the sugar and chocolate) but the quantity. If I had one of those Carnation breakfast drinks (they were kind of a life saver when pregnant, lol), a bottle would take the place of 1-2 meals for the day, not be a snack or just a beverage. Ice cream is one of those flat-out never ever ever foods for me. I can eat a couple chocolate chips in something like a cookie or oatmeal, but any more chocolate than that and I'm dry heaving. I can generally only drink one sweetened beverage a day, although I feel better with none, and it has to be separate from a meal. Water only with food and after 2-3pm. Burger OR fries, but not both. I know small, frequent meals is the mantra for GERD, but even that is too much for my stomach to handle. I have to eat only when I'm sure I can eat, not just because the clock says meal/snack/dessert time or my taste buds want something, or I end up like your DD, with a heating pad and a bucket.

I’m not a chicken sandwich fan, but one time, before food allergies kept me out of fast food restaurants, I bought and enjoyed a spicy chicken sandwich from CFA. However... they should have had a warning that if you have a, shall we say, “sensitive intestinal tract”, eating that sandwich is equivalent to swallowing a small angry dragon, who will then breathe fire as he is later released from his colonic prison, sending searing, burning pain throughout one’s digestive exit paths. It was mildly amusing, to experience the sandwich from Hell, purchased at the (un)official fast food restaurant of our local First Baptist Church. Even though it was delicious and made a funny story, I never ate one of those sandwiches again.

I usually blend leftover smoothie with some ice or frozen fruit the next day to freshen it up a bit. I have no idea how it tastes, because I don't usually drink/eat them, but the kids are fine with it.

I think this is the kind of childhood that sounds idyllic to the men who were the boys beating up other kids once upon a time. There are a lot of parents who just want their kids to be cool and fit in and not be dorks, and they stay out of the way unless their kids start having a problem "maintaining their social status". They never fell off their own social ladders, so they certainly aren't going to climb down and deal with kid problems, especially when their kid's not the target. Bullying, to them, is a feature not a bug.

These are on sale at Costco this month, if anyone is looking for them. I grabbed a bag this afternoon while I was there. Oh my... they are tasty with slices of havarti.

It's not the prettiest dish when plated, but Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie is one of my all-time favorite meals (adjusting the "sauce" to make it reflux-friendly). It's straight up comfort food and easy to adapt based on whatever veggies you have on hand. I actually need to acquire a deeper dish so I can make a bigger layer of mashed potatoes on top. I'd like to try it with sweet potatoes sometime, too. Not vegetarian, but last night I made a version of BBQ Beef and Beans. You could sub lentils for the beef or just use less beef and more beans. I used my own homemade BBQ sauce instead of the recipe's, added veggies to the dish (peppers and onions and roasted broccoli piled on top), and served it over rice. I think it'd be good over a bed of cheesy grits or polenta too.

“If you already knew all the answers, we be wasting my time and yours.” Said in response to complaints about learning anything new. Or reviewing anything.

DH and I both have Harry’s razors so we can use the same blade subscription - his is green and mine is orange. Not pink, but not the same color either.