sent the email to the pastor.

Did school with DS. Got half the planning/organizing done for my school stuff, while at fencing. No one else was at fencing, so DS had a private lesson again. Had an email "checking on us" from our pastor, about our poor attendance since our son got a (small) scholarship from a church related foundation. :sigh: Our attendance hasn't changed from before he got the scholarship, we've been equally flaky and off/on the whole 5 yrs we've attended there.......DS even included comments about that in his essay for the scholarship. Our pastor's never "checked in" on us about our off/on attendance in the past, either, so....feels very much like a scolding. Working on a reply email, with DH's help (since it is from both of us). Fun. Decided on dinner -- a kind of chili type dish. Butternut squash (leftovers, roasted), black beans, ground beef. Going to put on ER, fold laundry, do the other half of my organizing, and send the email to the pastor.

(((hugs))) and prayers, Jen, for your son's eye. That sounds scary; praying his eye/vision surprise his doctors in a good way. (((gentle hugs)) to you too, Jean, for your pain levels and such today.

Yes, Target. And I love Nordstrom Rack. Locally, price vs. quality varies between Target & WM depending on whether we're talking clothing or other stuff. And my local Nordstrom Rack doesn't even begin to come close to WM or Target pricing, or even JCPenney's or Kohl's pricing. (well, I did score some 1 cent shoes there once......) But I appreciate the info on who else is LGBTQ friendly; that's nice to know.

That's really cool to know; thanks for sharing that!

I cannot believe your unpacking is still such an ongoing mess. Rather, I can't believe the packing itself was such a ridiculous mess, that it's led to this lengthy of an unpacking process. Are you making progress on being able to file the claim(s) against them for the stuff that was broken, lost, etc.? I hope it all gets sorted soon.

I stopped in a favorite store yesterday for a quick check of their discount area/"dollar spot" while I had a few minutes to kill while waiting to pick up my son. Once I grabbed the packs of tiny erasers and seasonal pencils, I passed by the clothing area where I got distracted by an employee (who I found out later was a floor manager/team leader) putting out new fall sweaters. The sweaters looked scrumptiously soft, so I stopped to look at them. The employee turned to talk to me and I noticed he was wearing a gorgeous shade of pink eye shadow, long lashes, and a red ladies' blouse & pants. With a full beard. So we chatted about the softness of the sweaters, I asked him if the turtlenecks were very snug (I cannot stand anything remotely turtleneck-ish), he suggested I try one on, we discussed color, etc. A very nice, normal, pleasant conversation. I debated color a bit, found a few in my size to try on (debating between sizes), and he passed back by. I stopped him and asked could I ask him questions; he readily agreed. So then we had a really good conversation about diversity, how nice it was to see this store embracing and allowing self-expression w/o discrimination or gender bias limitations, he shared he had the full support of his bosses all the way up the chain to district and regional managers. He kindly answered my questions about his pronoun preferences, and my apologies at being awkward about how to ask; he assured me that it's basically always ok to ask "May I ask you a question? What pronoun do you prefer?" and let the conversation go from there; he assured me I didn't say anything wrong (I hope he wasn't lying to me out of a sense of obligation as "the customer is always right" but he seemed pleasant throughout). In our area, I've quite a lot of friends who stopped shopping at this chain because of their (not so recent anymore) bathroom policy, and it's encouraging to me to see that this store isn't letting that stop them from being a front-runner in diversity, gender equality, etc. Not sure why I'm posting..just wanted to share. It struck me how far we've come as a society, that this is allowed and encouraged. By a really large national retailer. And yet how far we still have to go....I know there are probably just as many people (at least in my area) who would have turned away and sought help from someone else. Or not looked him in the eye. Or any number of negative responses. I am staunchly an ally, but without much real life opportunity to demonstrate that, and so I feel at times rather clueless about proper etiquette about asking after pronouns, is it okay to say "hey, I love seeing you dressed like this, I love that your store allows it", stuff like that. We hear/read all the time articles/posts by people ranting about the "Rude/Insensitive" things people say, mostly things said by accident or from a place of simply not realizing that might be an offensive thing to say -- I don't want to be that person, saying the wrong thing because I just don't know better....but that makes it tricky to ask in real life and learn, because what if in even asking, that in & of itself is offensive....? Also, I realized something: We have the use of various additional pronouns (he, she, they, xe, ze.....), but are there other terms to use in place of Mr. or Mrs./Miss ? Sir or Ma'am? It seems like that would come up much more often in addressing someone......is there a term that goes along with the pronouns they/them or xe/ze? I feel like I saw an article recently about a teacher who got fired over this issue, sending out a graphic to their students requesting an alternative but I can't remember what it was or find the article.....anyone know? Mostly I just wanted to share this post so others could be aware this retail chain is truly embracing equality. I hope we see more stores follow suit (and more people/employees brave enough to be themselves at work). (I hope I've given enough clues w/o naming it, I didn't know if we'd get spams or internet trolls if I spelled out the name of the store)(but the employee's blouse was red, if that helps clarify....)

Hi....back after a break. Well, ha, not a break, just a failure to check in here for days. I feel like I'm drowning a little bit with my classes. I keep letting little things fall through the cracks; I have GOT to get better organized. I have a plan to do that (get organized), moving all my notes into ONE planner vs. one per class -- most of what I let slip is Kid A needs LA from Class B; Kid B needs her own math; two kids need different reading..... I also keep sending home folders wrong, so I have a plan for that, too, but....egads. Not a great first impression for these parents. Oof. Hopefully I can turn it around quickly enough, well enough, that the final impression ill be a good one and they'll be willing to come back next year. :sigh: (well, "keep sending home folders wrong" -- twice so far) So, today.... ...school with DS ...put up laundry (2 loads) ...fencing with DS ...get my stuff organized ....dinner....? chicken and.....something.

Thanks; this is helpful. DH is going to talk with his boss in person in a week or two (boss lives/works in Italy, but will be back here shortly); he's hopeful that when his boss sits down and sees the actual calendar it will become a non-issue and we can keep our current dates. DH & I are also going to discuss the ideas with the kids and see what they say. And DH says he'd still like to maybe split the trip out into 2 trips, if possible, rather than both sets of parks all at once, so.....who knows. We shall see.

You will need to look at the laws of the country you're traveling to; the airline guidelines on pet travel (depending on size of dog, he may have to fly as baggage, not in the cabin with you); and consider the length of the trip (how long you'll be in the other country) vs. the hardships on the dog of travel. Depending on the country, there may or may not be quarantine rules for the dog. Almost all will require a vet exam before the flights (both directions; if you are in the US there are rules for the dog coming back, too) as well as assorted paperwork that has to be done. There are also limits on which dog breeds can travel, and temperatures at which they can travel (i.e, not high temps in the arriving country or layover countries). Some of that might vary with whether or not they are small enough to be in the cabin -- but a straight pet can only be in the cabin if in a dog carrier under the seat, at all times. (this is why so many circumvent the rules by falsely claiming their dog is a service dog or emotional support animal, which the airlines are getting stricter about). So, unless it's a very small dog....it very likely will be in baggage under the plain. The process to drop off/pick up the dog is a little complex, also, though perhaps that varies with airline, country, etc. When we brought our dog home from Brazil, though, he had to be at the airport several hours before we had to be there (and to a different section, it's not like just walking in and dropping him off with the luggage), and then likewise for pick up we had to go to a different area (whole other building, off site) to pick him up, after we'd gotten our luggage, through customs, etc. So.....yes, it can be difficult. I have a friend who routinely (a few times a year) travels between Mexico & the US -- she will bring her dog back/forth if she'll be in the visiting country for longer than 6 to 8 weeks; anything less than that, not worth the hassle and the strain on the dog. I hope that helps!

Thank you!! Yes, me too. My only hope at this point of keeping the exact plans is if DH agrees to work in the space between Christmas & NY, so he still only takes 2 wks off at a time, per his boss's current rant. Or the boss admitting that DH does more work "on vacation" than some people do while "at work" at the office, and this is entirely a non issue. Then I did find this, which is good news (except, holy crap, now DH says "ooh, how bout Spring Break..?"): The amount paid for an unused, expired ticket may be applied towards the purchase of a new ticket at the current price so long as the new ticket purchase price is equal to or greater than the amount paid for the original ticket. I need to see if that applies at Universal, too.

oh, and I've done gobs of research b/c this is literally the *third* time we've tried to go but DH keeps having reasons not to. At this point, I think the only reason we are still going is he's already bought the park tickets. If we sell the park tickets, to get a better expiration date/better time to go, I doubt we'll end up ever going. The kids want to, I want to, DH....not so much. But he's never been, so he has no frame of reference other than "crazy expensive theme park" and "we're not theme park people, the kids don't even like to ride rides!" (they don't, this is true) As he's never been, he has no concept of "yea, but it's Disney...." DH did sort out the parking vs. better ticket/passholder I think (it's like $25/day) but I'll have him double check that just in case. That's a good tip.

@PeterPan -- well, even w/o DH we can't go now anyway, b/c college kids. So we are currently slated for something like Dec 13 to 21, and doing both park complexes (Uni & Dis). I have my Be Our Guest reservations for dinner one night, we have our Candlelight Processional reservations for the restaurant/time I want.....I have the Fast Pass rides figured out, assuming we can get them. We have a great off-site, inexpensive hotel with I'm pretty sure breakfast included, 2-bedroom suite b/c adult children, shuttle if we want to use it or I convinced DH paying for parking is fine. Etc. Medium crowds on those days, but using Undercover Tourist's crowd calendar I was able to get "green check mark" days for each park planned out (I think most of the days we'd be there were in the 5-7 range out of 10). DH's new plan would be ALL 9/10 and 10/10 crowds, so even though you can find which park will be least insane per day......that's still gonna be nuts. Now, come to find out, Disney's running a special *with dates through arriving something like Dec 22* that include the Dining Plan, if you book by Sep. 28 or 29, so DH is running the numbers on that. Triple on the hotel, and we'd have to sell the current tix and buy the package tix, BUT vs. driving out, *twice* (and TX to FL isn't super easy/cheap), or flying out *twice*, and adding travel nights on each end meaning anywhere from 2 to 4 extra nights in a hotel, and then food......well, he's crunching numbers to see if that might be a semi-equivalent trade off. I don't know. Or close enough. Or who knows. Or we just flat sell the tix, and wait till later, b/c come to find out the boys get done with school something like the very first week of May which means we could go in super early May before the summer crowds start. But I *did* manage to suggest also that maybe we just go the once (DH found cheap hotels for Thanksgiving, but hasn't checked the Christmas section yet) (and actually I need to check the tix b/c early January is really low and the kids don't go back to school till late Jan, so perhaps we could finagle that, if our tix don't expire until after that.....) So maybe there are some other options, perhaps. Side Note: what do they do w/expired tix anyway? Don't they just charge us the difference in the face value of what we paid for that tix vs what that park tix would sell for that day? Or we would have to flat out buy whole new tix??? So....we'll see.

So, we have been planning (and cancelling/postponing) a Disney trip for.......ages.....now. Due to a zillion reasons to long to go into here w/o boring y'all, we very likely need to rearrange once again. It's now looking like we very possibly may need to split our trip into 2 trips, and do one park over Thanksgiving and the other park over Christmas. Obviously neither of these are great dates and are, in fact, "busiest of the year" and such. As first-timers, is this just an absolute "Noooooo!!!! Don't do it!!!!" ???? (I mean, our only other option at this point is sell our theme park tickets, if we can; we bought the park tickets last year and they'll expire Dec/Jan, so it's a "use it or lose it" thing at this point.....) If we do get stuck going at that time......survival tips??? I'm trying to talk DH into just not taking his normal "I always take the last 2 weeks of the year off, period" and keeping our vacation as currently scheduled, but.....in case I can't....help. Tips, suggestions, advice.....? I'm thinking for sure maybe I need to convince him we need to stay on site if we do this (we weren't planning to, b/c $$$) so that 1 - we save on travel time to/from the parks, and 2 - we get the early entrance hours and stuff, which wouldn't be as urgent in the lighter crowd days, but which we might really want/need in this case. Plus for the earlier FastPass reservation, the ExpressPass (isn't that included at Universal if you stay on site??), etc. With the crowds that high, we probably will really want those perks, won't we....?? Anything else?? Will we even be able to still find hotel at this point for those dates??

As for the original question -- things we've done to deter scratching, that have worked even with our super stubborn wild child kitty: -spare piece of scrap carpet placed on whatever spot the cat likes to scratch; ours will kind of scratch/drag themselves along the bottom step. We placed a carpet remnant along this, that way they are scratching the remnant and not the real carpet. It matches our carpet so it doesn't look too weird. -place the scratching posts in the places they like to scratch. So, at the corner of the couch(es). Next to the door jam where they're scratching. Etc. -use scratch deterrents. We've had good success with the anti-scratch/chew sprays that are sold in pet stores. -use deterrents such as aluminum foil, sticky tape, balloons, etc.; we have a corner of one couch wrapped in foil at the moment (though reading this, I think we'll swap out to cardboard...genius!) -make sure and craft some busy-boxes type things, not just scratching posts. DH made a "cat hotel" out of layers of stacked cardboard boxes with holes cut in them. It was ugly, but kept the cat entertained/occupied/busy for long stretches. She'd take toys in there and hide out, and then pounce on any of the other pets (or people) that came near. Ha! (hmm, maybe if we return the cat hotel, this will give her an outlet other than hunting.....) -teach the kids to never play with the kitty with just their hand directly but always with a toy, and redirect scratching/biting to a toy vs person every time, similar to how you do with a dog -use water bottles/squirt bottles to deter/stop/interrupt bad behavior from the cat. You can also use a can with coins in it and shake the can (one quick shake, not a maraca style shake). Especially with a kitten, this should work for most things. It worked on our wild one for everything but the allure of the outdoors. If you struggle trimming the claws, use a towel to wrap/swaddle the kitty and hold him in a football hold and only let out the one paw to trim at a time. I wouldn't do "just outdoors" since you say winter, he'd have to be in anyway, and training him now on scratching/not scratching will be easier than waiting any longer and retraining him from outdoors only to indoors for safety, but forget your outdoor only behavior.

Thank you for posting this; one of the options we've been considering for our "won't stop bringing LIVE mice into our house from the field outside, to play with/possibly get away" cat is that we might declaw her in hopes it would stop her getting over the fence/out of the yard and thus reduce her hunting. Sounds like from this, nope, not at all. :sigh: ^^^and all of that explains our cat. :sigh: We got her at 8 or 9 weeks or something from the shelter, Maine Coone Mix, and oh.my.word. she won't be deterred from going outside. We tried. Massively. I asked her for advice on it, even, because we do have threats to outdoor kitties in our area. But she won't be stopped, and actually fusses at us on the nights we close the dog door early (DH is convinced she is vindictive and will scratch the corner of the couch out of anger.....cracks me up). I do wonder her background, because while we have had her from a super young age (she's about 18 months or so now), she is just.....wild. What's that quote about Aslan, good, but not tame? That's her. She would routinely stay out from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. if we let her (she's stayed out past midnight a few times....). Lately with the insane uptick in her hunting, we shut the dog door at dusk, regardless what side she's on, but.....oye. (we let her in via the regular door once she shows up on the back porch, but this way we can screen her and be sure she's not carrying in a mouse to get loose; we spent 2 hrs over the weekend trying to retrieve a live mouse hiding in the, to us inaccessible, unfinished corner between where 2 cabinets meet....).

My niece got home, as did DH, and his employees/coworkers (or at least, they've not turned around and come back to our house yet...) The College Moms FB group for my son's college is full of stressed out moms of commuter students -- Metro is still shut down, so any who use Park & Ride to/from campus have no way back to their cars. Those who drive in, depending on where home is, may or may not be able to get home due to still flooded roads, still crowded (parking lot) roads, etc. Dining services on campus are mostly closed or closing, 1 is staying open until midnight (but only 1....the next latest place is staying open only until 7 pm). But then with extra people on campus needing to eat there....I hope they have a plan for that. Egads. I'm so grateful my son lives on campus at least. ETA: The commuter kids on the college campus have been cared for/a plan announced, so that is very good. Yay!

My niece who was stranded/waiting it out at a gas station is attempting to get home now. DH's uncle who had water in his home in I think all of the last Houston floods has water again now, and lost his back fence to the weather earlier. We told him let us know when things calm down if he needs help. DH has 2 employees/co-workers who currently can't get home from work; I've instructed him to invite them here (thus far the route from work to us is clear/safe, and should hopefully remain so.....). We'll see if he does/if they accept the offer. Haven't heard anything from other family members in hard hit areas......hopefully that's good news.

Zoo Keeper, go to bed! You need to get well. I turned off the news.....not good to just sit and watch and stress out. Beach Bargain Hunting (or something like that) on HGTV is much more fun to watch.

Well, I am getting mostly nothing done and watching news instead. This Imelda is behaving like Harvey did with the whole "make landfall, sit around, go back out, etc." and has just hit #7 on the list of most rainfall producing *tropical* systems in the US in history (3 of those were in Houston). Harvey had 60", Imelda is currently at 41". We personally are in a not badly hit area, at all, and are totally fine (watching rain/lightning right now) but the freeways are more or less shut down, the lightning I can see from my house is scary/cool, Metro is shut down (all bus, train, etc.), a building roof collapsed from the weight of the rain (not near us).....people who were on the road in lots of places have been stuck on the road for 3+ hours....my niece is hunkered down at a gas station, because her boss sent her home "before it gets bad" only she ran into high water, so.....hopefully my sister updates when my niece makes it home. -------------------- paused to turn off the electronics for a bit during the lightning parts, and back now... ...got school done with DS14 ....talked to DS18, his college cancelled classes, food services will be open, he's in good spirits and hoping he can get on campus tutoring for a Calc quiz; I may have him skype my stepmom if he can't find something (likely the tutoring is closed) ....DH is planning to come home early; he's further south of the rain, so his route should be fine. Some of his employees, I'm not sure; I should clean up in case anyone comes here to hang with us. Watching the news is....well, crazy. ....the kitten keeps going in & out, crazy thing. ...working on scheduling my math stuff for my class and watching the news.....

So glad!

I'm so sorry; it's really overwhelming. Going to be the story for so many this time.....it's really awful.

Oh, ugh. I hope your DH stays put until it is actually safe to do so. Metro just suspended ALL services. I mean....Metro. People, stay.put. We've got family in all kinds of areas and.....just, wow. Watching and praying....it's looking bad in lots of areas. And yes, poor Beaumont. I read where some of them out there hadn't finished rebuilding yet from Harvey....it's just so devastating.

This loveliness is setting up to be Harvey deja vu for many. How is everyone??? Personally, we're okay. Looks like we're going to miss the worst of it where I am, but watching "Flash Flood Emergency" alerts flying......prayers going out for all of you in the path of the worst of this. They are saying "If you don't have water wherever you are right now, just stay put, because if you get in your car, you very likely will get stuck."

Morning! My today is being rearranged, as apparently Imelda is still looping back and bringing more rain back our direction. Much worse over to the east of us (they are having a "about as bad as Harvey" incident....really pray for them), but this band looping back seems to be bad enough to impact the places I need to drive to this afternoon. No way I'm going out in that, so, fencing will be Saturday instead (assuming it's actually over/gone by then). Thankful our side is okay, but.....wow. Praying for those off in the east. So, my list.... ...put away clean clothes ....see what needs washing, wash it ...do school with DS14 ...finish working on my school stuff ...sew ...watch the weather, keep checking in with DS18 who is at college in an area slightly more impacted than us -- he's still dealing with a leak in his ceiling, and I sent him ideas on keeping his shoes, backpack, etc. dry while walking to/from class; just need to touch base to be sure he's okay emotionally through all this. Wow, they just shared on the news that some areas are actually experiencing more than they had during Harvey. They just announced "Flash Flood Emergency" for the county over from us. It's north of us at the moment, rain rates of 3-5" per hour persisting over the next 2+ hours. I can't tell from the radar if we personally will get it, or not; looks like maybe DS will at his college. I do not love having my kids in different places from me. 😞 It looks like the worst of it is still going to stay east of us/him, but I hate having to rely on the news to tell what's happening where he is. 😞 Okay, they just did the "future track" -- looks like it should pass us by tonight; DS should be out of it by about 3 today. ugh. Going to get food and get to work on school stuff.....