What a story! I'm glad she got everything back!

Pricing a new deck Good thing you didn't say "Ball park on a new deck" :sneaky2:

Ball park on a new roof? No way. All the players and fans would cause way too much wear and tear. Never mind the noise level! Not to mention that you might think your roof is large enough for this, but it's likely not.

SO heartbreaking! I'm sorry for you guys. I'm glad you have such great memories and that she didn't linger in pain. :grouphug:

We just finished off some Papa John's and Pizza Hut carryout! Now I'm going to lookup when National Cheesecake Day is... Eta: It's Sunday, July 30, which is WAAAYY too long to wait for cheesecake! I think I'll move it up a few months!

That sounds really discouraging, Jann, but I'm glad they've got a name for it and a treatment to try. :grouphug:

:eek:

"Like" times 1,000! :)

I LOVED that, too! Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack! All dressed in black, black, black! With silver buttons, buttons, buttons! All down her back, back, back! :D

:lol:

First I was :crying: , then I was :lol:

:scared:

I miss big, non-chewy Sweettarts! :drool5:

<Quoting myself> I was just telling dh about this thread and he said, "I'm not a yell sneezer." Then he proceeded to ask if I'd told you guys about the time he sneezed in Culver's and a worker (who couldn't see him) said, "Was that a DOG???" So instead of a yell sneezer, I guess he's a bark sneezer! :laugh:

This thread is making me LOL! :lol: My dh is a very loud, very sudden, fairly frequent sneezer. And I am easily startled. What a pair. :glare: haha

I really enjoy Kareni's sense of humor! :D

I'm so sorry for the loss of your dear father. It's wonderful that you two were close and that you had a great appreciation for him--that was surely a great blessing to him! :grouphug:

Dinners your kids make? :smilielol5:

I'm so sorry to hear about your son's diagnosis, but very glad to know that you see God's graces in the situation. It's great that you could have a fun friend day! Many hugs as you walk this road.

The single most defining thing in my life was fostering our nephew. I was at the end of myself with frustration over my lack of control of circumstances and was drawn so much closer to God by accepting that He was in control. Once I knew that peace, it changed everything. Not that the situation suddenly became perfect, but it became something I didn't need to fight against. I could rest in the knowledge that all I needed to do was trust God, not myself, to work things out. I have been growing in that trust ever since, and it's made all the difference in my life.

Such a sweet compliment of your husband!! Mine is the same way--very appreciative of my meal efforts! And like you, that definitely motivates me to cook more! My dh would love it if I were a more adventurous cook, but it's not in my nature. :laugh: What I do cook I cook pretty well, but I know he would like a wider variety. Part of my problem is that I can't often justify making something that only *he* will eat. I have a friend like that, too! She owns a catering business. Anytime I go by there, I drool over what she's making. She makes it seem so easy.

My mom's a Missourian, so we don't call it that, either! We call it "Mom's Chocolate Sheet Cake." haha I just used that name so I could be reasonably sure you'd know what I was talking about! :D "Adequate" is the perfect word for how I feel about my cooking. But I think part of that, for me, is a self-confidence thing. I think I *might* be a little better cook than I give myself credit for. At least as far as my limited repertoire goes! That's a sweet daughter you have! She's going to be telling people that she wishes her food would turn out as good as yours! I don't like that it works that way! :tongue_smilie:

My mom is the same way. I always wanted to skip the decades of practice and go straight to the "experienced cook" stage. I now have the decades, but don't feel experienced! The above sounds like chocolate frosting for Texas sheet cake! Mmmmmm... :drool5: Just think how much you've learned from those experiences! They've made you a GREAT cook, I'm sure!

I thought of another...(I should probably quit before you think I'm totally incompetent!) I had several bowls of pizza dough (covered w/flour sack towels) rising in the oven. Took a couple of the bowls out. Kneaded that dough, then turned on the oven to preheat. I smelled something burning, so I opened the oven and saw a flour sack towel IN FLAMES. Shut the oven door and called hubby who was in the garage right outside the kitchen door. He grabbed a spray bottle of water and doused the flames. No dough was harmed in the making of this blunder! :D

Ewww! That would definitely be worse than beef broth! At first I was laughing when I read, "How hard could cooking actually be?" But I was so sad reading at the end! I would've cried, too! I tried to cook my first turkey for our first Thanksgiving. Little did I know the oven in our new house had a malfunctioning thermometer. The turkey looked raw on one side and done on the other!