I am horrible at this. I am hosting a spa party. An LMT will be giving head and neck massages as well as offering reflexology for a super discounted price. And my sister is giving herbal foot soaks and facials also at steep discounts. Think a facial and a massage for around $15. What do I serve??? I am a horrible cook and I don't entertain often. I have two people coming who are gluten free but there are no other food restrictions. Thoughts?? This is totally not my area of expertise.

I would offer to help him sell the other two systems and then make up any difference or buy some cool games for Christmas. That will make him decide whether he really wants it.

I would take this seriously and get a full work up at my doctor's. Our bodies often know something is wrong before our mind puts it together. It may just be panic attacks, but truthfully, I've seen too much weird stuff over the years to simply write anything off anymore.

We aren't members or even regular attendees of church due to our work schedule, so that rules out most of the healthcare ministries. We used medishare when we first married and that was pretty good. The company I want to go back to does not offer health insurance for part timers. I'm not even sure they offer family health insurance for full timers; it may just be individual. I think I am mostly just disappointed to discover how unaffordable the ACA plans are for us.

It is what it is. I just really want to go back to my old job, but I can't because of health insurance. We will be paying for the NICU stay for a long time anyway, but I had figured out where to cut back so we could afford us both taking pay cuts. Except health insurance. I will look for an agent. That's a good idea.

I want to leave my job in the worst way. My husband is leaving in January but he is going to work for a small company who does not offer health insurance(less than ten employees and are exempt). The job I want to take is part time at 36 hours a week. I ran the numbers on the healthcare exchange and there is no possible way we can afford it, even with the projected income drop. We ran the numbers to see if it just made more sense to pay the fine, but we'd be at the 2% of income level and it's far more than I can manage. I really, really hate my job. But i have no alternatives because of health insurance. It's very frustrating.

q This doctor sounds fairly incompetent, but there are some medications that are prescribed both for anxiety and insomnia. Trazadone, for instance.

I only have 3 but they are all young. I get a lot of, "did you plan that" and "if that's what you want" comments. I'm still reeling from Caden's pregnancy and birth. Sometimes I have to bite my tongue hard not to snap back that I fought hard to have three young children, planned or not. And yes, I do have my hands full. And yes, it probably is better me than you.

Yeah...I've gone two weeks without doing laundry...before I was married it could be like four or six weeks. I would wash my work uniforms at work and just buy new socks and underwear. It horrified my husband when we got married. I vote she either hasn't done the laundry or the outfit has wound up somewhere in her daughter's dresser.

My best friend was Mennonite growing up, from a long tradition of pacifism to which she wholly subscribed. The premise for her is that all life is created in the image of God and is valuable. Her church had a whole theology built around the premise of pacifism. She and I both believed it. And then we had children. And I took a job in a violent city where I am threatened at least once a week. I will do whatever it takes to protect my children. I will do what I need to do to go home to my family. I never start or provoke a fight, I will do my best to de-escalate a situation without violence, but I will protect my children however way I need to.

I made a typo; it was the -Lon ending. I fixed it :)

COH-lon, like the bodily organ. Most people initially pronounced it Cow-lan which is how the name Colin is generally pronounced here, but he always corrected them.

I had a boss once with the spelling Colin but pronounced Colon. I couldn't figure out why he didn't change the pronounciation as an adult. In general I doubted his judgement anyway.

Yes, but my suggestions on handling it would be different based on NT or not. It also sounds like mom has dealt with this issue in the past. I definitely think the school and parents should be alerted that he has possibly been thinking about violence. But I could also see a non-NT child think it was truly just a funny joke or a misguided attempt to have a conversation, and have no idea the ramifications. In that case, hopefully the school would be able to handle it as an education(working on social context and awareness) vs criminal issue.

Are you sure this kid is neurotypical?

They pronounce it Ar-ree-ann, but it tends to come out like Aryan. Like the white supremacy Nazi thing. I'm sure that was far from their intent and never crossed their minds, but it's what's happened. I would spell it differently simply because of that.

I know an Aryann. The family has also chosen a distinctive and very hard to spell and pronounce German name for their new baby. They are not German. Aryann just leaves me very unsettled.

My grandmother did the same thing. Exactly. It actually caused some distance between families, though it was never discussed. We believed she just liked the other cousins better. Years after she died, I was talking to my cousin. We aren't close but the topic turned to Grandma. Turns out Grandma was spending all of her time talking about us to my cousins. They thought we were favored and they were ignored. I think, looking back, that it was her misguided attempt at trying to keep her kids and grandkids interested in each other's lives. Unfortunately it greatly backfired.

My grandmother did the same thing. Exactly. It actually caused some distance between families, though it was never discussed. We believed she just liked the other cousins better. Years after she died, I was talking to my cousin. We aren't close but the topic turned to Grandma. Turns out Grandma was spending all of her time talking about us to my cousins. They thought we were favored and they were ignored. I think, looking back, that it was her misguided attempt at trying to keep her kids and grandkids interested in each other's lives. Unfortunately it greatly backfiredz

And here I didn't go with the name I really wanted to(Zachariah) for my last baby because I thought it was too weird. I still had to be sold on Caden and even now it feels strange to me. I guess strange is in the eye of the beholder. I would've gone for Elliot Spurgeon, but I suspect they are trying to make a statement.

It's not likely insurance would pay for her to go to a different rehab place simply for personal preference. Her case manager at the rehab would be the one who could tell you. I guarantee its not the first time it's come up. In NY(I can't speak for other states but I suspect it's everywhere) insurance pays for whoever has a bed first and the hospital discharge planner must call 3-5 places. So if Rehab/nursing home A accepts someone first, then just because the patient wants to go to nursing home B, insurance will only pay for A. We run into this a lot on ambulance transports from hospital to nursing homes or rehabs, because the patient doesn't want to go to rehab A but is basically forced by their insurance company, and then they refuse to go with us when we show up.

I mostly avoid making anything that is not take out.

Mom is nearby, he's had desensitization, he can have 3 peanuts a day so he should be safe from trace amounts. I would just let the teacher know he has an allergy and to avoid using peanuts or peanut butter in the recipe. Especially since mom says he's fine. I have anaphylactic reactions to seafood which have resulted in week long hospital stays. It is a severe allergy, but it really annoys me when people want to tell me what is safe and what isn't. I expect the mom feels the same way. Trust her that she knows best how to manage his allergy, and don't bar him from the class.

My parents initially had the same rule. Eventually they had to give up, or we weren't able to work anywhere. Even places that had said M-F eventually did a bait and switch after being hired and starting requiring Sundays. I think it's pretty common.

This. Hospitals are very different these days. Nurses are critically short staffed. I have seen elderly patients left by themselves for hours on end in an ER. The ER I am most familiar with lets patients know that they will likely be checked on only once an hour. There are too many patients and not enough staff. Around here a patient with advanced dementia and no one with her would have been an ambulance ride home and likely triggered a call to adult protective. I would call the hospital and ask to speak to the discharge coordinator for the ER to discuss your concerns.