Interesting new way to go about it! Exciting, but I always worry about what side effects show up years later. However, it is a new option for those who have run out of options!

OH NO! I don't want to ruin that! That's the good stuff. Just think of it as CRUNCHY peanut butter!

I can't stand it when someone describes another person's body type as "chunky." Not only is it rude, it sounds like Chunky Soup. To me chunky = vomit. I don't want to eat chunky food and I certainly don't think people are "chunky."

I have tried to like the skinny jeans. I'm 5'4" and thin, but they just don't look right. To me they look good on tall, super thin young women only. In fact, they probably look good in anything fashionable! I think boot cut is a good traditional choice, and I stick with that, too.

Everyone here is cranky!!! It's more the humidity that's a killer. All winter I want to move to where it's warm, but then July comes and I remember why we don't. We have a window AC for our bedroom though. Otherwise I don't think I'd sleep for days.

Deciding between doing school and getting stuff done around the house. I can't seem to be able to do both :( School suffered last year, but I can't work in a mess. The mess never seemed to go away, despite spending a lot of time organizing it. I have young kids and a toddler though... I want to dream that it'll stop as they get older but it's probably just wishful thinking. Plus, I feel such pull between my school kids and the littles, I always feel like someone is ignored. When the littles are actually occupied, it means they are destroying something *sigh* It takes me longer to fix what they destroyed than the time gained from them being occupied.

My children don't use the computer. We have a laptop with no mouse, and the touch pad is too difficult to figure out for them. I see no reason why they should use it, even for 'games.' There are better games in real life to play. When they learn to read and write better, I'll teach computer basics and typing.

I don't mind the word "veggie" - but I have a hard time with Veggie-Tales (or however that's spelled.) My kids love them :glare:

lol! I cringe when I hear someone say soda instead of pop! Guess it depends where you live. The ones I can think of right now are SWEET and 'My bad" - seems so grammatically incorrect or they are too incompetent to say "That's my fault."

:grouphug: Thinking of you. Sorry this has been hard! I can't imagine. He'll likely realize that the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence. You sound like a loving mother, try not have any regrets. Sounds like they both needed this reunion and it was courageous of you to allow it.

Do what you feel you need to do! I wear skirts a lot because I like the comfort as well, plus I think it is more feminine and pretty. Prevents the blue-jean muffin-top syndrome, too. I don't think you need to make an announcement either, and if anyone asks, just tell them why with confidence. I find most of my skirts at thrift stores.

Mine in my favorite's folder doesn't work now either. It's been a few months since I've been there. Hopefully someone knows what happened!

:grouphug: Sorry your sick :( I had 4 kids sick with pneumonia this past March. Very scary, but very treatable. Within a few days you'll likely feel a whole lot better. I don't want to scare you about the contagious factor, but you probably contracted a community acquired type like my kids did. My guess is though, your family will be ok because you know enough not to cough directly on them (as my young children did! ugh.) Take time to get plenty of rest, too!

I remembered another one..... I gave my breastpump to my mother-in-law :huh: (she had a late-life surprise!)

"God made my boobies to feed my baby real milk! Don't like it? Take it up with Him!"

Aww congrats! He's big, but not huge! I've heard meters can be off, and I think they can be calibrated at a lab. Maybe something worth checking out :) Either way, he's healthy and here!! Congrats!

I keep some plastic containers for storage of some refrigerated foods/leftovers, and quart size yogurt containers for the bathtub. I keeps some wide-mouth salsa and peanutbutter jars for making freezer jam - saves the canning jars for real canning. I have a set shelf for it and once it's full, they get tossed again.

:lol: I warned dh he better not yell "It's a heifer!" if we had a girl. However, he still refers to women giving birth as calving... We always wondered if the DHI testers would know the difference if we sent a human milk sample. I was always curious what I would test as far as butterfat, protein, and scc.

Ok, I didn't think of much until I read the cow one! We milk cows, and dh says I'm a good cow because I have a high fat content. My babies gain about 1 lb. a week for the first 12 weeks! But, he says he'd have to cull me (get rid of me) if I was really a cow because I don't 'breed back right away' (most cows get bred again within 60 days of calving.) I am, however, thankful not getting pg right away! Or I'd have to keep the bull away.

There is a difference between "loud" patients who are just making noise... ok, contractions hurt, but if you are only 3 cm, nobody wants to hear you scream for the next 8 hours!!! But when it comes to the end, how can you stop yourself from it? I only got loud at the very end. Mine was more of a grunting, too. I wonder if they charge for grunting as well? Maybe the are just charging for the commotion-causers!

Thank you so much for your responses. I just haven't known what to do, I try to be the same person I always have been to her. I only say things when she brings up the topic, but my responses are short in length. I'm scared to go in depth because I don't want her to stop talking to me if she knows what I really feel sometimes. I do feel angry at her sometimes, most times I just feel so sorry for her I don't know what to say. We've been friends since she was a teen and gotten along well and we still do. I just got caught in the crosshairs at a family get-together where she wanted to 'say something to everyone' and began yelling how her family forced her to leave her husband and it's all their fault that he doesn't want her back and he was never that bad. Her family has never pushed her into anything! She asked for counseling, which they found, drove her to and paid for many times. She got to live with them and other friends for nothing for months until she could find a new job and place to live (she was scared to go back to her previous job because she was afraid he'd show up there.) They paid for lawyer fees and listened to her cry for many, many months. I am angry and sad. It was just hard to watch. I just wanted to know if this is normal and if she can overcome it. I just needed some perspective, as I have never known a situation such as this. I want to do something but I do get so upset and don't want to say or do anything to hurt her. I feel like saying nothing and avoiding her is a bad choice, too. I have been trying to avoid it all. She has always been the sweetest, most easy going girl I know, and it hurts everyone to see her hurting and starting to make some bad (aka 'stupid') choices. In all honesty, I would probably be acting the same way she is at her age. I am a Christian as well, however I believe divorce is permissible under certain circumstances. I feel as though no one should ever encourage a person to go back into an abusive relationship. It takes years for people to change if they are willing. He hasn't shown any remorse, he just ran and hid. That's not to say he won't apologize and change in the future, but I don't think she should wait around for it. Odds are, it'll never happen. I hope he changes, even if just for his sake. He had a bad childhood, and I feel sorry for him. I feel he had good intentions at first, but when control and abuse is all he knew - how can he even know any different. She asked us to forgive him, and I said we need to forgive him, but that doesn't mean that what he did is right or that you should go back to him. I'll check out some abuse ministries, at least so I know what I can do. I sent her a card a few months ago talking about how this is not her fault, she is a victim of circumstances and I would be here if she ever needed to talk. I need to stop writing because now I'm bawling!!! Thanks again.

*victims* I can't even spell today - I'll try to change it!

The story is long but I'm not going to share too many details. I am just not sure what to do, if anything, so I don't do much. My SIL ended up in an abusive marriage, he obviously was deceptive during their dating although it is known that he come from abusive controlling parents. He did seem genuine, until after their wedding. He became controlling and jealous, not allowing her to visit her family or talk on the phone, and trying to move several hours away. She finally confided in her sister about his emotional and physical abuse and they planned her way out. She moved out and filed a restraining order and he ended up being arrested and sat a couple nights in jail. After a month, she had regrets, dropped the restraining order and tried to contact him, to which he filed a restraining order against her and he filed for divorce. I am thrilled he wants nothing to do with her, so many go back, again and again. Now, she blames her family for making her leave her husband and saying that he could change and she'll wait for him and pick him over her family if we don't accept him back. She comes from a very loving Christian home. She stopped going to counseling because she didn't like what he had to say. She only talks to people who feed into her warped thinking that abusers will change. Now she thinks they just had a troubled marriage and all marriages can be reconciled. She use to be terrified for her life, even the cops said at the rate he was escalating that her life could be in danger. It's been 7 months. Not that terribly long, but it seems like she is getting worse and alienating herself from the people that truly care about her. She is trying to do things to win him back: lose lots of weight, earn more money and buy expensive clothes - those were all things he insulted her about. She believes that she must stay with him (she is Christian) as it is her duty. She doesn't understand that he has broken the marriage covenant and being a good wife doesn't mean you are allowed to be walked all over! Everyone else in her family says she should just get the divorce and move on, so it's not like they are condemning her. She carries a lot of characteristics of abused women: desired to be loved, even if it means being abused; low self-esteem; making excuses for the abuser; feeling like it was her fault and she needs to try harder to be better; and depression. What should I do? Part of me wants to yell at her for being so stupid!!!! Is this just a phase of grief she is going through? How long until she moves on? I'm afraid she is so vulnerable that the next guy she meets will do the same thing to her. Can anything be said? Can a person be helped who can't help themselves? I was thinking about sending her a card just saying that we love her and care about her, nothing about what she should do. Should we just be grateful that he will probably never come back? I know being abused was no fault of her own, but do any of these women who repeatedly go back to abusers and always end up in those types of relationships ever learn to be confident in themselves? Or is it hopeless? Right now, she seems so hopeless.

I did ask a doctor about it and we have the larger bats (brown bats?!) not the silver-hair ones and he said I'd have to be quite intoxicated to not know if I was bitten by one of those. The smaller bats are the ones you can't feel. The county health department didn't seem too concerned either. Creepy. I did grow up with bats frequently in the house and we thought nothing of it then, but it really bothers me now!

ugh ((( shivers ))) I woke up a couple years ago with squeaking above me - it was hanging on my headboard. I had nightmares about getting rabies. I guess I'm still alive!