We have separate units for upstairs and down. When the upstairs one was going out two years ago, we got a window unit because we just thought it was normal. It easily is in the low to high 90's every day here from June to September, so pretty hot. Our electric bill for the months we used the window unit were double! of what they normally were. I don't know if it was a combination of a unit and our actual air working so hard, or it was just the unit, but once we replaced the actual air conditioner (heat pump? I don't know what it's called, the gigantic box in the attic), our electric bill went from over $300 month back to $130-$150.

LOL, Dawn, I see you are in NC, any chance the Triad? If so, I bet we are on one of the same FSOT groups that is a Coach handbag market ;).

Maybe she doesn't know what eating low carb means? Before I started doing HFLC, I had no clue what the diet actually looked like, and I have a degree in nutrition. I mean, I knew what foods contained a lot of carbs, but I had no real concept of putting together meals based on that. I didn't know how many carbs per day were considered LC, I mean, what kind of healthy diet limits your fruit (would have been my thinking pre-LC)? When we go to my parents, I know I have to go shopping to stay on track, even though she buys tons of "healthy" foods for us.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: Hopefully you will get good news on your biopsy.

No, I don't like the feeling of being intoxicated in any way. I always felt like I had wasted half a day. I don't care one way or another if it's legalized,

It would irritate me, but I'm not sure why. I keep my kids off other people's lawns, it seems like an invasion of privacy.

We had friends in KY that had a walk out basement. They finished their downstairs and the whole back wall was windows. It was nice, just the like the rest of the house, not damp or dank. It was a little darker on the side opposite the windows, but they had recessed lighting (can lighting, maybe?) in the ceiling. It gave them a lot more space when it was finished.

I can check 6 out of 10 :blushing: . This is why I have banned myself from Target (and Walmart), I have no self control.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: It makes me sad to think about that, too. We don't live in the same city with my parents and my brother live in CO, all the way across the country. I think it makes my mom sad to only see my brother and his family twice a year :(.

This is an excellent question. We have been going through the speaking/not speaking cycle for the 13 years we have been married. And yes, thank you, he healed nicely :).

At our wedding she wore sunglasses to the ceremony because she was just so upset that her baby was "leaving her". :coolgleamA: She has her shades on in our professional pictures.

It's hard to explain without getting into the whole long history. She would have thrown a fit on the driveway had he not let her in. She says awful things about us in emails, but not to our face. She makes everything we do be an attack on her person, that she is always a victim in our complicated "schemes." For instance, she wanted to come on this particular date because she was coming to Asheville to go to the dermatologist. She told my dh that she would love to see us before or after. So dh says he'll get back to her with the details. He tells her in late January that he is going on this retreat with my dad. She throws a huge email tantrum spanning four emails about how he doesn't care about her, that he never takes her needs into account when making plans, that I am some how complicit in ruining her trip because I have "manipulated dh into doing whatever my family wants, we are subject to their whims". This is because he told her that it would be best to visit before since he had the retreat at the end of the week. After she had told him before or after was okay. She was mad because he didn't keep the whole week open for her. She is retired. She could have come whenever. She doesn't have pets or a husband. She could have left PA on Thursday and spent the entire week here. She told my dh that he was selfish and inconsiderate. DH asked for three days off work to spend with her. This was in addition to Sunday, when he was already off. She thinks we neglect her in comparison to my family. My family lives an hour and 45 minutes from us, she lives 11. She chose to move to this city from Asheville, which is only 3.5 hours from us. So when she found out he was doing something with my family at the end of the week, it sent her into orbit. She said that dh "was rushing her out the door so that we could spend time with my family". I don't know if that better explains it. She also said in one of those emails that I "left the milk compartment in the refrigerator door dirty just to bother her the last time she was here." :huh: That I was "a slob" and "white trash" because "Legos were scattered all over the floor" and "there was a pile of dust just standing in the doorway" when she arrived last time. "That we had plenty of advance notice that she was coming and that is not the way to prepare for guests." I don't know if anyone remembers this story, but this was the day that my son had to be rushed to the ER because he had sliced his scrotum open. She arrived while we were at the ER, so I hadn't had a chance to finish cleaning. These are just a few examples from the last few months, this has gone on for years, 18 to be exact. So this is my dh's MO, she starts off with small criticism, he gets annoyed, but doesn't say anything, she goes on to bigger and bigger criticism, until finally he's had enough, and he calls her out. Then she starts with the emails attacking his/my character and how we just want to hurt her, just like everyone else in her life. His last email was "I don't think it's best you come this time, you seem to not enjoy the time you spend with us and spend the next six months criticizing everything you see." It is a ridiculous way to deal with things, I know, but it's his mom, I'm not stepping in. Everything is about her, if things are going well, she creates some sort of drama, she has done it in every marriage, professional relationship and nearly every friendship she has ever had. His brother has a restraining order against her. DH doesn't want to cut her off, but she can't seem to stop criticizing and boundary stomping. She will never admit guilt, ever. It is always about how she was just trying to be "helpful" and it's her responsibility as a grandmother to interfere. With dh's brother, she went to his first wife's brothers and told him she suspected he (her son) was having an affair. They came after him to physically assault him because he was cheating on their sister. Not true. But she felt "they had a right to know her suspicions since they had (wife's) best interest at heart." So there's my MIL.

No, not even my crazy MIL who is anti-homeschooling. When A began reading really well, we asked him to read a book to my parents, but that is the only time he's read a book for them to my knowledge.

She was a single mother (in large part because she is a total douche-b, IMHO), so he grew up with basically him and her. This leads to a weird relationship, she considers him a confidante, because she has pushed everyone else IN HER WHOLE LIFE away. He thinks she's bitchy, not mentally ill, he feels like we are all she has. This, to me, is a ridiculous presumption. We are all she has, but she can't play nice. Literally, can't. We have been through the cycle of talking, she says something critical (like you need to clean your house better, or don't spank/timeout/redirect/whatever vendetta she is against at the moment your kids, you should wear a yellow bowtie rather than lavender, etc), he ignores the comment because he is annoyed, she ramps it up because he stops responding to emails, he tells her to go away, they don't speak for six months to a year. I am usually not involved because we only see her once a year, we have no other outside contact, no email or phone calls, so it just happened that this particular cycle fell during a "visit time". I told him years ago that she is what she is, if he was going to have a relationship with her, he had to accept her as she is and not expect her to change...only he still expects her to act a normal functioning adult. I don't mind seeing her while she's here because she's nice to everyone's face for the most part. I know that she's crazy, so when she emails that our house is not clean because my kids didn't pick up the Legos in the Lego room, I can just take it with a grain of salt. He doesn't set clear enough boundaries for her until an "episode" happens, then he gets bent out of shape over that one thing, tells her not to address it anymore. She can't/won't understand that she is not allowed to criticize things that are none of her business, in her mind, we are her family, we are her business :glare: . A large part of the problem is my dh doesn't care enough to actually correct her. So when she writes, "I subbed in a class of first graders today, a wonderful little boy brought a WWII souvenir to show his class. He told all about his grandfather and how he fought in the war and answered questions from his classmates. Your kids are missing so many experiences like this!" He just ignores her because she doesn't know what she's talking about. Our kids go to CC every week and give a presentation on the given topic or whatever they want to do. They work on a specific speech skill each week. This is so much more than the wonderful show and tell once a month that she is seeing. Only DH doesn't tell her that. He lets her continue to have whatever assumptions a 65 YO woman has about homeschooling :confused1: . He stops the info train alright, he gives her no info and then lets her imagination run wild. Whatever, it's his mom, if he wants her to go on living in ignorance about our lives, that is his choice. She will continue to be crazy and make assumptions and be miserable. The best thing about this visit was it was supposed to from Sunday afternoon until Thursday afternoon, only because of her shenanigans about something else (getting her panties in a bunch because he's going on a men's retreat this weekend with my dad), it was less than 24 hours :hurray: . She gets to go home for the next year (she won't be back until April 2015) and try to respect boundaries...again. Then maybe she will get to stay more than 12 hours...but probably not.

What a freaking nightmare!!! My dh came home early to meet her, they had it out until 1:00 in the morning (not loudly, and downstairs). He let her stay the night. She left this morning. He told her (again) the boundaries...she will "remember" for three months and then "forget". I'm so tired, she emotionally drains me even when she's not being a total douche.

So, new info, according to dh, she's going to drop the kids' stuff, pick up her clothes she left from the last time she was here (that he plans to leave hanging on the door), and she has a hotel booked nearby. He will be here in the morning to deal with her should she happen to come back by (which is pretty much a given if she's staying nearby overnight). He's totally unfazed, in his mind he's dealt with her and washed his hands. Whatever crazy comes next, he will just ignore. I hope it will be that painless. She's mostly just dramatic "woe is me, the world is all against me, I'm so persecuted, here are 13 emails about my sad life", but I she did walk out on the front porch in only a towel the last time she was here to dispose of a stinkbug that my son didn't want to come and get out of the bathroom :confused1: . I'm hoping my neighbors missed that little scene.

Holy cow, if she ever showed up without calling, she knows DH would send her packing until it was convenient. I have a gift certificate to The Proximity, not how I was planning on using it, but it would be a classy night out for my kids ;).

I just don't know, I mean he clearly said "Don't come here when you are in NC." To which she replied with nasty email, followed by sorrowful emails, followed by pleading email. He only responded once with, "Don't come here when you are in NC." So she (should) know that she's not welcome, but she's...not able to see reality sometimes. He will go to work tomorrow, but she doesn't know if I'm more forgiving or not, I don't communicate with her at all. So if he sends her away, I don't think she'll come back. She lives 11 hours away, so we don't see her often. She visits when she's back in Asheville for doctors appts.

We could spend the night at a friend's house in our neighborhood, hmm, that might be a thought. That way we could wait it out for as long as it took. Yes, she absolutely would throw a temper tantrum for our whole cul de sac to see :(. She lives in her own reality, DH told her a week ago not to come, outlined specific boundary stomping. She still wrote him yesterday saying, "I don't know how I'm going to make it to your city, I will just be so exhausted when I leave Asheville." ??? How about stay in Asheville because what in the world is she going to do once she gets here? Is she going to stay in a hotel? fHas she made reservations? I mean, surely she has some plan, because she knows DH doesn't play when he's made up his mind. I look at her as mentally ill, he looks at her as a person who fails to act like a grown up.

Okay, that is what I'll do. I can take them to Toys N Co until 8:30, Barnes and Nobel until 9;30, then to McDonald's for ice cream and the playplace. It will be quite an adventure. He should be home by then to deal with her if she is sitting in our driveway. She is loony, not in a dangerous way, but in an annoying way.

She is supposed to arrive sometime between 8 and 10, so I might miss her by taking them somewhere, but I might not, I guess I could keep them in the McDonald's playplace until 10:30 :).

I don't have time to get into all the backstory, but I will say my MIL does not have a good track record with us. She is hypercritical and more than a little crazy (NPD, I suspect), but we have been on speaking terms for about a year (after a five year hiatus). Since Christmas she has sent a series of scathing emails about our eldest son, our parenting, our school choice, and our housekeeping. DH is done, he told her not to stop by on her visit this time (she only comes twice a year and this is the week). She is planning on coming, anyway, to drop off a bunch of stuff for our kids that she had already made/purchased before DH told her not to bother. He is unfazed, he refuses to email her again, he told her not to come, he wasn't going to answer the door, it's over in his mind. Only now he has a late appointment in Raleigh, and I will be the one who will be here when she gets here :glare: . He said, "Just don't answer the door when she rings the bell, she can't get in the house, you will not have to actually deal with her. Or stay over at Toys N' Co after Awanas, you probably will completely miss her." Only I might not, and that's an hour past the kids' bedtime. So what would you do? Would you ignore her knocking (I'm afraid she might create a scene that my neighbors will witness)? Do you answer the door and accept the gifts, but not invite her in? Do you invite her in and accept the gifts, but not ask her if she'd like a glass of water? Do you invite her in and let DH deal with her when he gets home, which could be as late as 10:30 or 11:00? Ack, I am not confrontational! Even though she has said horrible things about me since Christmas, I feel bad about not answering the door and taking the gifts. I am a wuss :leaving: .

Love it!

I am a haggler :). I am on multiple FSOT boards for my area. I always pm the buyer (never on the thread) and say, "I know you just listed it at this price, but I'm only able to pay this price. If you want to think about it for a few days and see if you get your asking price, I'm happy to wait, no pressure." That way they know what I'm willing to pay and they can come back to me if they feel it's reasonable. If someone asks me to come down on my prices, I usually do if they are willing to come and get the item from me, rather than meeting, which it sounds like you are doing a pick up anyway.

This is my son at six months, look at those thighs! And his wrists! Oh, my, I miss those days :).