Thank you for the kind words from several of you. I don't know if every widow/widower wants to talk about their spouse as I do. I guess it is best to ask permission before you start. And maybe that is good advice for me when I talk with my two friends who are also widowed.

I mostly lurk but wanted respond to this thread. My husband died of ALS last October. It has been almost 9 months since he died. Family and friends were attentive in the early months of grief but so many expect a person to move through the steps and be emerging from grief as you get closer to the year anniversary. I always appreciate when people will mention his name or ask me about him or bring up memories of him. I just want to hear his name mentioned but often it is as if they are afraid to say his name because it might be awkward or make me cry. Being able to talk about him or hearing someone else talk about him helps me to feel that he hasn't be erased from this world. So, I guess I am saying give her an opportunity to talk about him in 3, 5, 7, 9 months etc....ask questions and listen.

My dd graduated from a private university in 2013 with a pre-physical therapy degree. During her 4 years in university she went back and forth with whether she really wanted to be a physical therapist. I think originally she chose this degree because she had some wonderful PT's working with her while she was in a 3 week in patient program for RSD, right after she graduated from High school. While in college she had over 200 hours in shadowing various PTs. She was dissatisfied with watching what happened in a general clinic, but LOVED when she shadowed at a wound care clinic. Late in her Junior year one of her professors suggested that she look into Physician's Assistant programs and she quickly found that this was really want she wanted to do. She shadowed some during the summer and during Christmas break. She loves biology and physiology and the mystery of the body. She applied to 3 PA schools that did not require 2000-4000 hours in the medical field and was accepted at 2. She chose the one closer to home and is now ready to graduate this week. One thing that one of her advisors said was that Physical therapy grad school is harder to get into than medical school. The association keeps the number of grad students down to control the number of therapists in the field. It seems to protect their wages. My dd had looked at a couple of schools for PT and estimated that she would have over $150,000 in debt, just for grad school. There is a ceiling for wages in PT and she realized that it would take a long time to pay that back. I am not suggesting that your dd will change her mind or major, but just to say that a pre-physical therapy major can give her other options. The only class my dd had to pick up for requirements to PA school was organic chem and she had room in her schedule to fit it in her senior year.

Our town has a community church service at the High school football stadium every Labor day Sunday and several different churches participate...they use these for communion....much easier to hand out as people enter the stadium than to pass trays or have people come forward to take communion

My favorite knitting project right now is the Ravelry felted slippers. I made them for my 3 dds last Christmas and then a pair for their cousin. The cousin opened her present and found huge knitted slippers that hadn't been felted yet. Then we spent 15 minutes in the laundry room felting them to size. It was a blast! You just have to watch them closely or they will shrink too small for your feet.

Hi, I grew up in Woodinville, in fact, my parents still live on 224th st SE. I know the subdivision that you are looking at. Woodinville is a great place to live but the traffic is problematic. My brother lives just a couple of miles up from this area at Echo Lake. He was a school teacher for many years working in Kirkland. By the time he retired 5 years ago his commute in the a.m. from Echo Lake down 522 to I-405 and on to Kirkland was 55 minutes....in the middle of the day you could do this in about 15 to 20 minutes. My sister lives really close to Crossroads in Bellevue and when I am visiting my parents I go down to Woodinville, take the Woodinville -Redmond hwy, then cross the valley and eventually passing Marymore Park until I get to her house above Lake Sammamish. This usually takes about 25-30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon. I would rather take the back roads to her house in Bellevue than the freeway. One thing that my parents were unhappy with was a press release in the Woodinville Weekly of someone trying to open a marijuana distribution facility on 224th. I am not sure if this is going through or not but this residence is very close to the neighborhood you are looking at. If it does go through it is sure to increase traffic on this road. Also a sports complex is going in at Wellington Hills Golf Course which is just a mile down the road and that will increase traffic on 75th st. There are signs at the beginning of 75th st. that state that the road is not intended for through traffic but I don't think that stops people from using it as a connector. Woodinville has changed a lot in the last 30 years! When I graduated from high school there wasn't even a high school in town...I graduated from Bothell high. Anyway, when I saw your post and the address I had to come out of lurking and replied.

When my oldest dd was a chemistry major and applied to grad schools all 4 that she was accepted to offered to pay for her visit and meet professors. I think she visited 2 universities before she made her decision. The schools paid for everything. My youngest dd is graduating from college in the spring and is planning on going a to physician's assist program later this year. She is looking at 2 schools and we have had to pay for her vistits for interviews. She applied to a program in Tennessee in the fall, made the interview stage, and after Christmas she flew out for an interview and it was her first look at this campus. She was accepted! It becomes kind of spendy if you have several schools to which your child has applied and have to go on several trips. It just seems that if you are looking into a phd program you become their employee and they are willing to pay for the up front cost to get the student to chose their school....a professional program such as law school, PA school or med school your child has to pay to interview and visit. Is that what most of you have found?

I also live within a hour of Eugene and wanted to chime in about summers....we do not have the horrible humidity that you find in the south....summers are just so wonderful here. Yes, it rains quite a bit in the winter but it seems that there are breaks in the weather most days.

How sweet! makes me remember fondly the days of American girl doll days for my 3, 20 something girls.

I had one this past year and it wasn't much different than a pap. I was a little freaked out because my period hadn't stopped before my appointment as I had tried to calculate before setting the date. However, my dr. said that it was better to have flow since my cervix was more open and easier to insert instruments. I did not have any pain after the proceedure. I hope it goes easy for you.

I also had gal bladder attacks that caused vomiting and severe pain...funny thing, my husband also insisted that I go to the ER too over Thanksgiving weekend about 5 years ago. 5 days later I had my gal bladder removed. I know that my attacks were brought on by eating the wrong foods, and know that they say to avoid fatty foods, but what really triggered my attacks were foods with gas in them, oninons, peppers, garlic, and acid, such as tomoato products. So, it doesn't surprise me to hear that orange juice upset you all day.

I voted under...but just barely, .but I do have one newer pair that hits at my waist line and not as comfortable. I remember watching What not to Wear with Stacy and Clinton and they told one of their clients that their jeans need to be 2-3 inches or so below their belly button....I measured this for me and it was ridiculously low on me....I would never be able to bend over without fear. But from reading these comments, I guess a lot depends on if you are long or short wasited and the length of your rise.

Other...our state is a mail in vote state. I dropped my ballot off at a drop off box at the police station about 2 weeks ago.

My dh hums all the time. If he doesn't hum I know that something is wrong...stress in his job. I have 3 dds and only one hums....it makes me laugh!

It sounds like you may need an antiboitic and a perscription for pain pills. I have had several root canals and most of the time my dentist put me on an anitbiotic before he did the work....it allows the infection to calm down before he goes into stir it all up.

My dh and I love cruising too. We have gone on 3 in the past 6 years, a 4 day out of Miami, a 7 day to Mexico out of San Deigo and a 7 day out of LA to Mexico. Each time we went was in October. We didn't have any problem with weather out of Miami though there was one day when the ship was a bit rocky. If you are worried about storms you might look into going out of a west coast port. The weather was cooler the first day out of LA and but by the second day it was very balmy. We love ship days where you can sit on deck and read a good book or join in on one of the fun activiites planned by the ship. The best part of the cruise for me is that I don't have to cook or think about where to go for dinner as there are so many good choices in restaurants. We have also gone on excursions through the cruise line and then done our own thing such as going to a beach and chilling out all day. There are always last minute deals.

I can't remember all the titles that I read in highschool english but do remember that the theme of my sr. honors english was tragedy theme. 1984 Death of a Salesman Brave New World MacBeth Oedipus Rex In my jr and soph year I remember reading Canarey row Hamlet The Scarlet Letter Of Mice and Men Our Town Lord of the flies The Separate Peace Merchant of Venice The Great Gatsby Edgar Allan Poe The importance of Being Earnest

Here are my thoughts on disappointment with weight loss: In February I topped out my weight at 178 and I am 5'5". I joined Sparkpeople and entered all the info about my weight, height, age etc.... It set me up to need to eat between 1400-1800 calories, which of course I thought was incredibly high for trying to lose weight. I also started walking on my treadmill with a goal of 15 miles a week. Anyway, I struggeled to eat more than 1200 calories thinking that I would never lose weight on that amount and found that I didn't lose weight the first month. I upped my calories to about 1500 and after a week or so finally started to lose weight. I have lost 20 pounds since February. I am not where I want to be but I am still working out and watching what I eat. Sparkpeople has many message boards with advice....every day someone new asks why they haven't lost any weight or stating that they have actually gained weight...so I think this is very common for early changes in health with excercise and food consumption. Oh and Sparkpeople is free! I love the tracking for excercises and for calories and have gotten so much info from their daily email articles. One other thought, most women gain 2-5 pounds just prior to their period...just water weight which resolves normally. Congrats on your new goals! Don't give up!

My dd is a sr in a private LAC in the Northwest. She lives in a campus apartment with 3 other girls, so two sharing a room with small living room and kitchen and one bath. She is on 6 meals a week, the lowest choice, since board is required for living on campus. Her package costs $5090 for this year. She plans to cook most of her meals. I am not sure what it would be if she was on a full meal plan.

I just got one of these calls today! So freaky! The guy called my cell phone which I do not give out the number to hardly anyone and have never connected it to my computer. Anyway, this guy with an Indian accent told me he was calling me in reguards to the error messages that my computer was sending to Microsoft. I said, "what error messages?" Any way he wanted me to go into my computer and refigure something, which immediately made me stop and think, What? So I told him that my dh usually worked with our computer and could he call back in an hour when my dh would be home. Then I hung up. Dh came home for lunch and called our computer repair guy and confirmed that it was a scam. The guy called back and my dh husband immediatly said, "You're a scammer. Don't call back!" Of course I got another call from the guy later but didn't answer it.

I bought a maytag used from some people in my church in 1984. The washer was already 10 years old. It lasted until 2005 when the motor wore out....That is about 30 years! I checked on getting a new motor but the repair guy said that the drum was getting rusty and it wouldn't be worth fixing. I am on my second, second hand washer in 7 years time. Wish I could find another Maytag.

Also if you know what the in room dresser and closet situation is for your child at the dorm you can determine if you will need any of those plastic pull out drawer systems that you can get at any Walmart or Target store. In my dd's freshman year her dorm had a huge dresser and a stand up wardrobe and she didn't need extra drawer space. In her soph. year she was in an older dorm with individual built in closet that had 3 small drawers for her clothing and we had to pick up a set of the pull out drawer to place in her closet. Her university also has summer storage and she uses those to store items that she doesn't want to take home. You can pick those storage drawers up when you get to her university and move in. But my dd also has the rubbermaid boxes that she stores under her bed.

I know I am coming late to this discussion but I agree with the other pps who suggested keeping quiet and to model as best as you can healthy habits. My youngest dd also gained 20 pounds during her freshman and sophomore years...but part of it was due to her thyroid. She was diagnosed with Hashimoto's when she was 16 but kept off the normal weight gain that comes due to this problem while at home during high school. Being away at college she lived in the dorm and ate cafeteria food which apparently led to over eating, plus she didn't get enough excercise and perhaps poorer choices. Last year as a junior, she lived in an apartment and did her own cooking and found that she steadily dropped the 20 pounds during the year. She also took control of her own excercising and started to run and work out. It was hard not to say anything and believe me, I thought the same things as you concerning boyfriends, dates and possible marriage for the future. But now, that she has dropped the weight she is so confident and knows that she can conquer anything. I remember shopping with her during a spring break when she was a freshman. She was frustrated that she couldn't get into a size 10 pants and I said, "don't worry about the size....instead pick something that fits you and looks great right now". She found a really cute pair of pants in size 12 and later received lots of comments from her friends on how cute they looked on her. I noticed at spring break this year that she left those pants here at home in her closet! She told me that they were too big! I also was careful about what sort of care packages I sent to her....instead of high calorie snacks I sent healthy things like nuts, and dried fruit. So, encourage her the best you can and keep the communication open.

I like Shasta pop....northwest company.

I have 3 dds. My youngest dd is very sentimental and loves old and pretty things as I do. We were at our church garage sale and I found a beautiful crystal vase with etched fish, but decided not to purchase it due to the price. We left the garage sale but later she went back and purchased it without telling me. 6 months later I opened it from her on Christmas. I was so pleased! 6 months later while we were out of town for a 3 week inpatient hospital treatment for youngest dd for RSD my middle daughter knocked it off the table and broke the vase. When we got home my middle dd told me "sorry, I broke the vase". I felt so disappointed because it was given as one of those special gifts that really showed thought on behalf of my youngest dd. Well, the next Christmas I opened a present from youngest dd and she had actually found the same vase on Ebay and purchased it for me! So, it is a twice given surprise gift. I keep it in the box unless I am using it! I think when your children move from giving a gift simply to fulfill the requirement to actually selecting something because they know you will love it and the added surprise of the gift, it is a very special moment.