this is almost my list, too! i'd omit grimm and the blacklist, and haven't seen white collar. the murdoch mysteries was unexpectedly fabulous! i'd add: warehouse 13 and blue bloods little mosque on the prairie and a bit more violent as the seasons progress: covert affairs and person of interest and any of the star treks.... esp. next generation, but really any of them.

93551 Patricia Graham..... just about the best there is. https://www.facebook.com/patricia.graham.18

fwiw, i was revaccinated in my early 50s after an outbreak of one of them (measles? mumps? rubella?). at the time, it was because the vaccines way back when had a much lower rate of effectiveness. i feel better having done it. immigrants who can't prove immunity must vaccinate/revaccinate as part of immigrating. i am sure hoping this wouldn't be a requirement if it were likely to cause a problem. (it sounds as if it ought to be easy, but it isn't. when i was immigrating, i couldn't get a chickenpox titre in canada, and the vaccine wasn't legal. in the end, my dad tracked down the retired nurse of my long retired pediatrician and they spent days tracking down the records, getting access and making copies so that i could immigrate) fwiw, ann

came back to check how she is doing. fingers crossed!

the one thing is that if it is a wedding, particularly a family wedding, then there will be pictures from the last time, and pictures from this time. It wouldn't bother me, but if it bothered my husband, then i would get a new-to-me one. even for our daughter's wedding, i shopped on ebay. most mother-of-the-bride dresses are only worn once, and dd was marrying into a wealthy family and wanted me to have a designer dress.... so i managed a $1000- ++ dress for well under $100-. so if you know the brands that work for you, and you know the sizes in those brands, then ebay can be a great option. hth, ann

Very, very big smile! congrats! ann

i had mine. the science speaks for itself. ann

praying. its not something we ever imagine happening. many prayers and hugs. ann

this. the one redeemable thing out of all of this is that you have a chance to help your daughter learn/keep boundaries. SHE should read the book. She will need it with her grandma..... but also with her dad i think. "thanks dad for suggesting the thank you note. i've decided to write it/not write it, and here is why." her call. your support. and i'd encourage her to come up with a two sentence response to the next suggestion of a trip, like... "grandma, i don't want to go on a trip. i would love to have an English tea at the new tea room the next time you are here." rinse, repeat. (the idea is to be clear, but offer continued relationship.... unless she doesn't want to) for my girls, the sentence they had to practice was: "no grandma, we aren't allowed to get in a car without mom or dad. unless.... do you know the code word? its for emergencies." and off she would go offering ice cream and chocolate and movies and..... and one of them would have to say, "no grandma, we aren't allowed to get in a car without mom or dad. unless..... do you know the code word? its for emergencies." they needed this from the time the youngest was 2 years old. (i couldn't go to the bathroom without her trying to get them to go somewhere with her.) after several years, the younger one finally said, "grandma we aren't ever getting in a car with you driving. please stop asking." and there was wailing and gnashing of teeth..... but everyone is still alive, so that counts ;). (the reason we hadn't suggested the direct version is that we had tried that without success and didn't want little kids to deal with the aftermath.... but once they thought they were ready for it, they went for it. their call.) good luck! ann

i've written and rewritten this response. and i just deleted the fourth try. short version: i don't feel guilty when someone likes the way i look. i dress for me, and wear what makes me feel wonderful. and i'm sorry that you do feel guilty. it might help if you're able to figure out where that came from. :grouphug: ann

did he say why he was wondering? was he worried himself or more worried about what other people would think? sometimes education level influences lifestyle and interests, and that is likely to be more difficult than just a numerical IQ difference. in the end, he has to decide what he needs in his primary relationship and what he can find elsewhere..... no one can get alll their needs met by one other person, nor is it fair or reasonable to expect that to be possible. and there are different kinds of intelligence. its an interesting question. what makes it matter or not may well be why he is asking. fwiw, ann ps. i have unfortunately tried it both ways. for me, it turns out that i need to be in a primary relationship with someone who can at least delight in my "one, two, skip a few, ninety-nine, one hundred" way of thinking, its even better when he can skip along with me, even if it is sometimes only part of the way.

sailor girl might like this: http://debrabell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Physics-course-description_2014.pdf this is this year's course outline. Vicki is a great teacher. hth, ann

dd#4 is currently doing a grade 9 intro to physics one semester course thru AIM Academy on line. we are only two and a half weeks in, and it is already wonderful. they use this textbook. Prentice Hall Physical Science: Concepts in Action but i am looking for a "next" physics class option. :bigear: i think the thread is a great idea! ann

the research does seem to indicate that it is way more than just calories in/calories out, although calories are definitely in play. when and how often we eat does affect metabolism, which is one of the other players in this "game", so it makes sense that they tested that. i must confess i like the results of his experiment a lot; i sure hope someone else can duplicate it. timing when to eat is way easier for me than the lower calorie intake. fwiw, ann

grasping at straws here, but have they checked kidney stones or colitis/crohns? i had weeks of crazy severe pain before any other signs of colitis showed up. and it was the worst after meals, esp. dinner. and for my first kidney stone, my whole abdomen hurt - it took a while for me to be able to narrow down where it was. and it only hurt when it moved. crohns/colitis wouldn't necessarily show u on a ct scan, and for kidney stones, i have had them "hide" from everything except an ultrasound. one way for you to get more into to share with the doctors might be for her to have only soup or to fast for dinner and see if it is linked to food intake. poor thing! and poor you..... that's a lot all at once. :grouphug:

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: i have colitis, and have friends with crohns. its a journey. one of my friends was diagnosed with crohns as a pre-teen, and he is now in his 50s with a great job, a nice house, a wife and two children :). ie. you are right; there are worse things to have. it can still be pretty hair-raising at times. he will learn to know his body better than most people ever do, and how to help it manage itself as best it can. so will you. many hugs, ann eta: the folks i know who manage things pretty well are the ones who are really good at research, who can sort good info from the other kind, and who form a partnership with their doctors. we also have a good support/education network with others who share our journey.

i am feeling a little obtuse here. how is this any different than any child/teen sleeping over at my house? i would think the legal responsibility would be that of a homeowner with a guest in their home. i am wondering if it is because you don't know her? fwiw ann

please stop the world. i want to get off. sincerely, ann, who is on week 2 of a head cold, and who misses her mum who was here for all of december.... and who does NOT want to start school tomorrow.

this is what i was thinking, but its likely because when time with my MIL becomes less than fun, i focus on my kids. that is, after all, one of my primary jobs/goals/concerns/joys. we have had activities that are only for when we are visiting. eg. one time, i asked her to teach them to knit. it was less than successful, but it was an easy fix with a few whispered directions, and then they could knit happily with us. i knit, too, but mostly when i am with her. a puzzle is a good thing. maybe you could take one, ask for a card table and set it up. then people can come and go and sit down and put in a few pieces, etc, etc. i wonder if one of the things is that your dfil (and maybe your dh?) have no idea what they would do if they didn't "play computers". if its once a year, i'd just suffer thru. if its once a week, i'd be stark raving bonkers. many hugs, ann ps. if you do try to change how it happens, be prepared for others to try even harder to keep it the way it is. family systems theory is a pain that way....

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: now for what you asked. two years ago, just about now, i was diagnosed with two tumors, one ovarian, one kidney. kids were in grades 7 and 9. we kept them home. our reasons were: better to have no change, better to be together, better to be together, better to be together..... and there are many, many worse things than kids losing a year, including them feeling excluded. i would do it that way again in a heartbeat. we had family come to stay with them during the multiple surgeries, freeing dh to be with me. we had friends volunteer to do all the driving for all their activities, which was five nights a week, and three daytime lessons. oldest child was responsible for coordinating drives. i gave them my cell phone. friends cooked many, many meals. we ordered take out. kids improved their cooking skills. depending on pain, medication, etc, i was able to help with lessons from bed. older dd had three on line classes which she just did. in the end, they didn't lose any schooling time (but we did school during that summer). i didn't go thru chemo, as both were benign in the end. i was out of commission almost completely from january to june. and fwiw, i have had mammogram results follow the path you are on twice, and both times it came out all right in the end... many hugs, ann

dd #4 is doing english thru http://debrabell.com/online-classes/ it is working very well. it looks like there are still some openings in some of them. http://debrabell.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/AnIntroductiontoLiteratureandAcademicWriting.pdf or http://debrabell.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Pre-AP-English.pdf there is a creative writing one, too... http://debrabell.com/store/online-classes/creative-writing-full-year-183.html they list a cost of $299- hth, ann

Murdoch Mysteries Caecilius Foyle's War Miss Marple i would be hard pressed to choose a favourite! ann

this looks wonderful! i'm glad there are a few options, some maybe even good ;) blessings, ann

my dad's classic answer was.... "no, i'm baking a chocolate cake." rinse. repeat. hth, ann

chocolate. tea and chocolate. trader joes dark chocolate mint stars mozart cleaning oh, and i whine wine a bit, too.... :grouphug: :grouphug: ann ps. for one of ours, daily phone calls helped a ton...... for oh, say, five years of daily calls. just "hi, was thinking about you". she knew who she was; my job was just to remind her that she was loved. pps. some of us are late to mature. it makes a difference. financially, we helped a lot. all of us now agree that she would have been lost otherwise. (who knows how? drugs? alchocol? homelessness which leads to other things for young women sometimes? we helped with choosing a better location for her. she figured out that she needed a small school with a residence, and with the ability to work on campus. we helped her narrow down her choices. i was lucky (?) in that both my dad and my brother had crashed during first year, and eventually recovered. what worked for them worked for our dd, too. it simply was "we will support you financially until you figure out how to do it yourself..... but you must be working full time, in school full time, or working part time and in school part time. and it would be great if you figured it out sooner rather than later because i'm really not so fond of kraft dinner". what worked for me when i stopped going to classes after October was a timely intervention by a TA, and my dad saying, "well, dropping out isn't an option. you are there to grow up. grow." so i should be part of the "tanking in first year" group, too, except i did write my christmas exams, did pass (barely), did go back after Christmas, and did graduate. (which is different from my dad, brother, and one daughter).