Gosh, and I thought this thread was about recipes suggestions............................... :rolleyes:

I've got one coming home tomorrow and two boys coming home next week. Can't wait.... although I'm SO behind on Christmas preparations.

I've made her Barbeque Meatloaf several times. It's a family fav. Instead of brown sugar I sometimes use Splenda and a bit of molasses. I also don't always use that much bread crumbs. I think I might try substituting it for something GF next time.

okay - so who also watched Earth 2? I loved that show and was sorry to see it disappear after only 1 season.

SG1 isn't available on live streaming anymore. Very sad. I'd be willing to give it a go.

ahh, now things are coming together. Maybe that's it. Even though this has been a fun thread...perhaps it needs to be moved to the tech board with the discussions about the upgrade?

I thought the same thing. See if you can swap the times with each set of parents.

congratulations on the baby! I had several of my kids hate writing at that age. It was such a battle and I'm sorry to say Ididn't push it like I probably should have. However, with my oldest (who despised writing - and she was a terrible speller and I think that made it worse) I put her in a small English class with several other homeschooling friends - somewhere around 8th or 9th grade. Suddenly she came ot love writing. It helped that the teacher was excellent, there were only girls in this hsing class and several of the other girls loved writing. It was like the light came on and the heaven's opened up for her. AFter that she just took off. Loved her English classes at cc. And even wanted to major in English. Of course, that seemed like a stretch since she was obviously a sciency person and an English degree is not so helpful on the job front (she didn't want to be a teacher). But, long story short... your son can change once he gets older. Keep plugging along.

yes... I have no idea what that is... If I have any I don't think I know about it. I am surprised at how inactive the boards are,. even after 3 weeks or so.

so true.

The jobs are in this area so that's partly why moving isn't really an option.. but I totally agree about living with his parents. I thought it was a mistake but they were saving some money (paying less rent than they otherwise would) while still helping his parents. Her thesis was just accepted about 6months ago. It's in the BIO field and I seriouly doubt it can be done in less than 9months.

Thank you. I'm sure they make some frivilous choices too. I don't know as I don't stand over them checking they're every purchase. But, overall they are working hard - helping their family (his parents) as they can, and just barely making it. She is not planning to work on her post-doc. She is at a major medical school studying genetics. She really needs a Ph.D to get a decent job. We've always helped kids while they're in school...as long as they're working hard towards their degree. When she got this internship/scholarship working towards her Ph.D we kind of said "Yay! We don't have to pay for her schooling anymore!". Perhaps we need to rethink that attitude? Or at least look at it differently Yeah, we don't want to be the constant source of a bailout or enablers. I was asking more about temporary help. I need to know how all that looks from a healthy perspective. All those ideas have been great.

Oh my goodness!! I'm so sorry you are going through all this. Suicide attempt is beyond scary and I can see why you are vaciliating about helping her or not. Stat is HARD. so getting a "B" is good! Don't worry about the thread-jacking. I've done it too - it's okay. :grouphug:

It IS so hard being a mom to adult and almost-adult children. :grouphug: I am going to agree with the others that, with your circumstances, you shouldn't give her the money Seriously, she's quitting school because of the drive?? She's going to find out quickly how hard it is to get a decent job (ie one that pays living expenses) without a degree. I would say she wants to be an adult - let her. It will be hard. :grouphug:

I like the "like" button too... I also like getting a "like" :001_smile:

I had thought that might be possible but when I asked they said no. They need the money. And, he can't work from home on his one job (I asked about that too) because they just had a round of lay-offs last spring and he just squeaked through. It's not really the type of job that lends itself to working at home anyway.

Really? How do you like it when your parents or inlaw's "dole out advice freely"? I'm assuming that also means unasked for. I'm just curious. This is not something I'm comfortable with. Perhaps it's a family culture thing... but most of our extended family does not go around telling other members how to live (except one or two and it's not appreciated by the other members). Maybe your family dynamics work differently though.

FYI - I may delete post #17 or parts of it...since there's some personal info in there and some people here have had problems with stalkers. Just feeling a bit paranoid. Thanks again for helping me to think outloud on this. Really, it's very helpful.

:grouphug: I can't imagine how difficult this must be. Praying for you husband. Do have him contact his priest or military chaplain.

thanks everyone for you imput. As to Cat's (and other's question). He has 2 jobs. Neither pays well. She is a PhD candidate working in the lab. It doesn't pay well... it's okay, but not well - and certainly not enough when baby comes. I think overall she may make more than he does... but it's an expensive area. Moving to a cheaper part of the country isn't an option. They live with his parents partly to help his parents out as they've gotten into some financial scraps with health and refinancing when the housing prices were high (I don't ask too many questions). Anyway, I'm pretty sure they're paying rent to his parents. Before that they lived in an effiency in a not so great part of town. DD has told me that her mil has stated she would be unable to physically babysit once the baby comes. I'm sad for both of them for this. I'm sure her MIL would love the chance, but I guess it isn't possible - at least once the baby starts getting mobile. I didn't mind that dd offered to pay us back for the loan on the taxes. I wanted to see how responsible they'd be. We usually emotionally give the money to people never expecting it back. That's another reason why we were fine with releasing them from the loan after several months. I really like the attitude that family helps family, but know that having boundaries would be important. And, yes, I do have the younger kids to consider. Not so much that they would be jealous - but that they may have certain expectations and therefore perhaps not work as hard as they should to be independant. KWIM?

I don't have any experience with this - and what I've observed hasn't been positive. When my dh and I married he was in a stable and well-paying job. He already owned a TH. We never had to ask our parents for help. In fact, my sister came to us and asked for financial help once or twice (to help pay for school). On the other side, my aunt was extremely wealthy and she threw money at her kids whenver they got in trouble - bailed them out multiple times. Anytine they needed money she gave it to them. Both kids are in their mid-late 50's now and still unable to work- drug addicts, alcohol abuse, divorce etc. etc. Obviously, I don't want THAT for my kids. However... my oldest and her husband are struggling financially. They have asked for help in the past - but always paid back a little at a time. Which was fine. The last time was for a tax mistake and they paid us back. We forgave the debt after about 6months and she said "whew, we were wondering where next month's payment would come from." I liked that they were trying to be responsible. But, I wonder if we shouldn't be doing a bit more. They currently live with his parents in their basement - and apartment, but no kitchen down there. She's pregnant with #1. I just don't know if we should do anything... wait for them to ask again... or what. I'd love to hear about other's stories and experiences, whether you're parents of adult kids or whether you did (or didn't) have help from your family when you were struggling. Help me out in this uncharted territory. Thanks.

praying for this need.

:grouphug: :grouphug: I've been sick this past week (finally feeling better) - I also have a Christmas to-do list that is way behind. It doesn't help that I have a mother (and a sister) whose mindset is "if you aren't done Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving then you're behind" :glare: but, I feel your pain... and I haven't had the sick kids to go along with it either. :grouphug: I hope you find this coming week more productive.

:grouphug: :grouphug:

That was me too. If I moved too much I was sick and it just.wouldn't.stop. And sick every 20mins even on a good, quiet day. I started choosing foods by what was palatable coming back up again (eggs - no... cottage cheese...not so bad). Fortunately, it all ended around week 20 - except for my youngest which went on the full 9months. It did get much less severe but was barfing the day he was born. That's real fun too - barfing while 9mo. preggy - with my 6th. I should have invested in Depends then. I'm sorry that the Dutchess is going through this. It's so miserable. I hope it goes away soon for her. And, I agree about pranks. I don't find the humor in humiliating someone.