I loved my mother of the groom dress from JJ House! Their sizing is amazingly weird as I recall and I ordered to the best of my ability with what they had listed. At that point, I was wearing a size 8 and I ordered the 4x. It fit correctly at the waist but the underarms were poofy so my daughter altered it for me, but once all that was said and done -- I LOVED IT! I added a satiny navy shrug, a silver rope belt, my wedding pearls and navy suede pumps. The quality of the dress was excellent, a really substantial material, not light and flimsy at all. I got so many complements on it and I can't wait to fit into it again (grin). This is the dress I ordered (out of stock now).

I decided to go with my daughter's bedroom color of choice, Dutch Boy's "At Peace." So weird, though, it's not coming up at Dutch Boy's website; it was a Designer Color available in July so not sure why it's gone already. I did find this though and it seems to be it. A slight tad less blue than my Frozen Pond, but still quite far from a true gray. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/ea/6f/87ea6f44500267897f73e0617c0dc49e.jpg

I read an article in Yankee magazine many years ago about this very thing. I don't remember all the details, but the gist was that when the time changes in the fall is the best opportunity to work with the day's light to accomplish this. For a few weeks ahead of time, it was something like go to bed a little bit earlier and earlier to ease into the habit and then when the time changes, it got darker sooner so the combination of that and your body getting used to going to bed earlier worked well. I'm probably not remembering it all correctly, but I remember think, "That should work!" I never did try it, LOL, but I do remember reading the article.

Thanks all! I will probably go with the Frozen Pond since I have that on hand (I did like the Shark Loop from Valspar). I will change out the denim bed covering for a fluffy white-ish duvet and put a different cover on the futon. As I said, it's what I have in my own bedroom and I love it. Thanks for the complements on the Airbnb unit itself! It's been a lot of fun -- we've been doing it for the last 2.5 years and have done pretty well with it. At first, when there were maybe five total units in town, it was the only self-contained apartment, so I got a lot of business that way (people tending to prefer a private space over sharing in someone's home); now there are several more private listings, but we still stay pretty busy. Having so many reviews compared to the new ones really helps, I think, so we got in on it at the right time.

This house is our rental in town. Half of it is full time rental, the other half is Airbnb. We opened up a bedroom from the main part of the house to be part of (what had just been) a studio Airbnb unit, and since I don't have any bookings the next five days, I'm thinking I might paint it because it's a boring, scuffed up white that's been there forever. I will post the link below that shows the entire apartment; the room in question is Picture 1, the first one on the left when you click the link (it currently has the denim bed covering). Most of the rest of the apartment is a hot chocolate brown that I love and which won't be changing any time soon. The colors I'm toying with are Frozen Pond (blue, by Behr), a light gray, and a soft yellow. I have the blue in my bedroom at home and love it (if I choose this, I will change the denim bed covering to something white/light). I'm drawn to the neutralness of the gray. I don't love yellow myself but would be willing to use in this room if other people tend to like it (do they?). Thoughts? I could consider painting the bathroom instead, but will maybe do that room later. Oh, and ideally the trim in the bedroom would be white, but that probably won't happen this go 'round, so wood trim. Link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/7998301

In our tradition, we do one family basket at 2:00 AM on Pascha (after the midnight service), and I'm trying to get closer and closer to doing a traditional Orthodox Pascha basket. But at that point in Lent, everyone is also ready for salami, cheese, chocolate and even McDonald's chicken sandwiches, so those have made their way in to the basket, too. We Orthodox love it when western Easter is before our Pascha (ours is April 8 this year) because then we score on the 50%+ off Easter table at the store. :D

May his memory be eternal and may he rest with the saints.

I do a kind of mash up of these two tofu scramble recipes and it's really good. I've made each individually as well and they turned out great. As I recall, one is more work than the other so I do the easy work of the easier one with some of the ingredients of the other one. https://namelymarly.com/scrambled-tofu/ http://ohsheglows.com/2012/02/23/high-protein-vegan-breakfast-burrito/ HTH!

I admit, Lent (and then Holy Week after that) feel daunting every year. Seven weeks. Ugh! Lord have mercy. But I try to both "press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" and remember "it is good for me to cleave unto God and to place in Him the hope of my salvation." I long to find the joy in the struggle against myself.

Good strength to all those pressing through the 40+ days leading up to the Resurrection of our Lord (Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant). Our Lenten journey begins Monday, the day after "Forgiveness Vespers," during which we traditionally ask for forgiveness from all those at our parish, and others we see that day and that week. We go through the difficult journey of Lent together, in peace. For anyone interested in more information on how the Eastern Orthodox practice Lent, Holy Week and (eventually!) Pascha, here's a great link (--> http://antiochian.org/lent ) and another one (--> https://www.goarch.org/en/lent ). May it be blessed!

Thanks for assuring me I wasn't so very off. A couple of examples of my surprised-laugh with Chicago Med, one teen girl was going into seizures, and you could actually watch the actress close her eyes, lay back and then start shaking. It was fast, but still unrealistic. There was another scene where an extra was supposed to be walking down the hall, but when the camera turned in his direction, you could see him standing there (apparently waiting for the camera to turn), and then start walking when it did turn. So instead of already walking -- as should have been the case -- you could see him waiting, and then start walking. I don't know, things like that bother me. The emergency situations happen so fast and the dialogue doesn't seem as detailed and precise. There's not much actual ER (excuse me, ED) drama. The related story lines carry on, but the actual emergency is quick. And the main characters just seem like caricatures than actual characters. Again, comparing to ER, which had such great, well-developed characters. Maybe after Lent, I'll go back and watch seasons 9-15 of ER. :D

I started with Season 3, haha.

[spoiler alert] Based on learning here that Hulu now has all 15 seasons of ER, I signed up for the month trial about a month ago and watched seasons 1-8, to the point where Dr. Greene died. It was a good point to stop ("Be generous -- with your life, with your time, with your love," Dr. Greene --> his daughter) because after watching eight seasons in two or three weeks, I needed to get on with my life, LOL. It was a great run, I remembered fondly how much I liked that show. Someone at church mentioned that they like Chicago Med so I just gave it a shot for an episode or two. Oh, my gosh. Am I nuts in thinking that it's terrible? Or was ER so good that anything that tries to recreate it would be horrible? The acting seems so forced to me, from all the cast, and the emergency situations seem almost fake compared to those on ER. Is this just me or does anyone else concur? Watching a couple of episodes of CM makes me want to go watch another season or two of ER to put happy emergency room thoughts back in my head. ;-)

That's where I watch it every week, online at nbc.com. You have to wait until late at night or the next morning, but that works for me.

Hey, the next episode is out. I thought the Super Bowl episode was the one for the week, but I'm seeing an additional one this morning. The SB one was a freebie.

It's in the news this very week.

I love you. ETA - I suppose that might need a few words more. I just appreciate your perspective a lot, that's all.

I'm going back to practical issues -- and not how fast he died from cardiac arrest at the hospital (that I can buy and I liked the way the scene was directed with the emergency going on in the background). I'm sorry, but as much as the stairwell and upstairs hallway were on fire from the moment Jack woke up, as much as the mattress was catching on fire and burning him while he rescued Kate from her room, as much as the fire then blew out their bedroom window (the room from which they'd all just escaped), I just can't buy Jack coming through the front door,fully dressed, upright, without third degree burns and with several items in his hands. That was a bit unrealistic to me. But maybe I've been watching too much ER on Hulu. :D That said, until the last few episodes, my assumption all this time was that Jack went on a bender and burned the house down in a drunken stupor. It was nice that this was not the case.

That is funny. I actually read after the episode that revealed the crock pot to be the cause of Jack's death that the company was like "Hey! Wait a minute! Now people are going think crockpots are faulty by nature! " (in a serious sense, not happy with that PR). Funny to see that TIU addresses that on their behalf. :D

I have a brown that I've loved long and it's been the color on the walls in the main living part of our house for many years. We moved six months ago and this time I went with white in the living room. I was ready to try something different. The jury is still out on whether I'm going to keep the white or add some color. I did paint the family room my much-loved brown, though. Living room/hallway - white Family room - hot-chocolate with whipped brown Our bedroom - frozen pond blue Boys' bedroom - two different grays, one medium and the other darker Daughter's bedroom - a peaceful blue Main bathroom - an aqua blue Small bathroom - light yellow Hubby's man cave - medium gray Dining room and kitchen - white I don't really consider the overall way colors go together throughout the house. I let the rooms (and the people in them) choose their colors. I've never been into yellow (I didn't choose the yellow in the small bathroom, it was here already) and am definitely not into any kind of green walls. I don't know why, but green has never been part of my decorating phronema.

I'd drive out to the coast even if just for one very long day. I would start with the beach at Gearhart and/or on the south end of Seaside OR, (off U Avenue). You could drive south from there and hit up Ecola State Park for a little while. For the last leg of the day, head south to Tillamook and hit the cheese factory for a lunch and ice cream, or just some (free!) cheese samples. Then a pretty drive back to Portland through the mountains. We like long days like this, but YMMV. :) ETA -- If you can spend a night or two at the beach, I'd recommend The Tides by the Sea in Seaside as a place to stay. We LOVED it there and they have fantastic rooms overlooking the ocean. Rates are still lower until May, I think. Maybe June. I don't love the central or north side of Seaside (it's pretty touristy) but the south side is quieter. If you do have extra time, we also liked the beach at Neskowin (further south).

I'm a cupper and I would totally do it. I would have no concern about it showing up on the scan OR it being difficult to work with while on the plane. None whatsoever. I use my cup everywhere and anywhere, and I have a heavy cycle.

Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you didn't know that was what they'd ask you to do. Should have mentioned it. I'm sorry it didn't work for you!

Yeah, I don't use the app at all. I haven't tried it, I just don't mind using the website even on my phone.

Same! Being out in public doesn't dissuade me from using my much-loved cup at all. I pull out while sitting down and empty immediately into the toilet. The worse that can happen is I'd drop it into the water, which would be gross, but that's never happened. The outside of the cup isn't usually slippery because it's not usually wet. I wipe, immediately reinsert, use toilet paper to wipe any blood off my fingers (if there is any) and then go on about my business.