DH works nights and I get excited when he gets up early so we can spend time together before he goes to work. We message on FB all night while he's at work. We talk about cars, politics, work, school, furniture, crafts, Ted talks we both watched, everything you can think of we are likely to discuss it (his job is unusual in that he's waiting around for something to break in a specific way). He goes shopping with me but I do draw the line at playing FPS games with him. I have sisters, my mom, my kids (turning out to be excellent future friends) and him. I don't really know anyone else (any longer) well enough to call friend but I don't really need anyone else.

Gray IMO is best option. It is still light and airy, hides scuffs better than white, goes well with everything. My walls are a soft gray and I have tans, chocolates, denim blues, and pale greens.

That sounds like a great choice for a difficult situation but I understand, new places always stress me out at first. Eventually I get used to it and grow to love it, wondering the whole time why I made such a fuss. Now as to the temp, I like it cool (around 68-69 F) 59 is what I would consider cold, brrrr.

Yeah, not going to happen. I finally bought my very first grown up couch (very MCM) and I'm still worried the kids will ruin it.... my "baby" is 14.

I was like that with my 1st DD. After about 4 months of throwing up every single day without fail, after having spent hours on the verge of throwing up I started making myself throw up first thing. I would get up wait about 20 minutes (to make sure that it was inevitable) then I just went in the bathroom and did it. Then I was able to start the recovery. Water sips, baking soda water, eventually crackers. It saved me at least a couple hours of misery each day. I would still have horrible days where I would be sick ALL day but they weren't every day like before.

Things I won't budge on.... temp being at least 69-70 in the winter and nothing above 73 in the Summer. Fresh fruit and veggies. Quality food ingredients (like good whole wheat flour) Charmin extra strong TP and either Brawny or better paper towels. Tetley Tea (IMO, everything else is gross). For the OP, instead of sandwiches how about soup?Some of them can be made ahead for a reasonable cost.

Me too. About 4 hours sometimes 5 then I'm up. I've always had insomnia, the couldn't go to sleep kind, so this while still an issue is much better than being awake 24-36 hours straight several times a week. I have found that I can take a nap a little later in the morning. If I wait until afternoon then there's no way.

We must have the same mother. There wasn't/isn't a vegetable she can't turn into a mushy, gray mess. I thought I hated vegetables growing up, come to find out I LOVE them. The only vegetable we eat from a can is tomatoes that go in soups or stews.... and I will occasionally do canned corn.

Not only would I not try to convince DS to go I would step in and tel XH to lay off my kid. It's not Ds's fault I chose to procreate will a bullheaded jerk.

We have a meat thermometer that gets used on whole birds or big pork roasts otherwise I do the cut open and see if it looks done.

Tell her you don't want to resize it and possibly ruin it for your own future daughter in law

I wish my kids only spent 8-10 hours per week on D&D.... not really, they LOVE it and it has changed their lives and outlook. Made them more social and creative. I am the dissenting voice here because I would and do give credit for D&D as an elective. One year it might be creative writing another it's preforming arts, my kids truly improv and preform their characters. Since I'm in a state that doesn't tell me what counts for credit I can count it however i want.

So I posted about this on the 14th but I stopped feeding him commercial food on the 12th and have been doing turkey and rice. His hot spots are already getting better. So we're definitely going to be going to a home cooked diet. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

LOL, My issue isn't the raw food going down, it's when it comes back up. He's getting old and not the best health so even on the best dies he will still throw up occasionally... I have a very weak stomach when it comes to that kind of thing. Plus for such a little guy he eats a lot, about 1/2 a pound of food per day.

I'm really lazy with gardening but I always end up with a great harvest, one friend even got a little mean in her comments because of how well my plants grew compared to how much effort I put in. What I did is make a raised bed, at least 1 foot tall (I used cedar pickets from lowes) filled the box with a mix of mushroom compost (about 50%), black kow (this is expensive but worth it IMO), and organic topsoil. Then I over plant. I always put WAY too much in the beds especially tomatoes. I use a little fertilizer (like tomtone) and occasionally dust with food grade diatomaceous earth. i'd pull weeds at first (about 1X per week) but eventually my plants got so big you couldn't really get at the weeds. I'd water a lot at first but then only if we were getting a lot of dry days. DH got me one of those bow sprinklers and it does the watering for me now. Really it was all about spacing. I did it again, on purpose the last few years with similar results. The only time I work hard at it is in the fall, lots of natural mulching and the Spring when I literally hand sieve all the weeds out. My mom and i spent 4-5 hours doing my 2 3x6 beds last year before planting and it helped tremendously.

We got a lot of "silly goose" and "goofy grapes" from my mom.

Today DD asked what age restrictions are on learner's permits in our state. I told her "15 or 15.5 I can't remember... why?" her response "because mom, I'm going to be 15 in a few months".... CRAP :svengo: . DS is soon to be 17 and has no real interest in getting his permit or license. In fact DD will probably be driving before he does the way he's going.

This, absolutely without a doubt in my mind I agree.

I think my issue and why I would prefer a pre-mix type thing is because of the need to include bone and organ meat. I just can not do it. Is there an additive that I can add to a mostly meat/ veggie homemade diet? Something that has the nutrients that meat and veggies alone are missing?

I'd ditch the rug, camp stove etc... (unless really valuable) sort the papers and stuff them in the trunk or anywhere possible in the car. Barring that I'd UPS them. No way I'd drive an extra 1600 miles.

I really like this idea. Super easy and seems affordable. I wish I could get a sample size to see if he'd even eat it. As for the chicken, I'm not sure where I heard it but yeah, he does have issues with it. He can have a little bit as a treat but any more than that has him digging at himself and is probably why we're having to switch. His current commercial food is mostly lamb but does have some chicken in it and I think it's the reason for the hot spots.

That would be great.

Wow, that stuff is expensive. I definitely can not afford to feed him that.

My dog is having issues with his current food, he refuses to eat it. It was the only kind he'd eat for the last 6 months but he's recently started having "hot spots" and throwing up more. He's almost 10 years old, is a chihuahua, has bad teeth so soft food only. I think I'd like to go to feeding him real food, it'd make him ecstatic. Other than avoiding chicken, since small dogs often have allergies to it, what else can I feed him? Ground Beef? What about grains, yes/no? which kind? I was thinking I saw some of the better dry brands have peas instead of grain, better for him? I will be cooking it in batches and freezing meal sized portions. I've tried this before but always went back top the can because it's easier. I think I'm just going to have to do it for real this time but I want to make sure I'm doing it right. Websites with specific info would be helpful. Everything I find is raw diet and I can not do that. The clean up alone from his throwing up would cause me to be sick (I can usually manage his dog food ick... sometimes). I did try raw ground beef with him once, he didn't like it.

I was married before and have 2 daughters, their dad named them, He refused to consider anything I liked and barely let me have a choice when it came to middle name with our 2nd daughter (she has 2 middle names, the first one is HIS name, the second I got to pick). I was young and didn't realize he was an over-bearing narcissist until we'd been together for 4 years. My DH (now) was absolutely cool with the boy's name I had picked out when I was 12 and he vetoed one option for girls name (had an ex-girlfriend with the same name) and so I ended up naming DD a variation of my great grandmother's name.