The dress is finished!

No, nope, nooooooo. Like someone else said, I'd get a dog. Well, another dog 🙂 Kelly

We have had similar experiences with dentists. I really like my dentist now. His office definitely gives me 70/80s vibes. He doesn't have a fancy office to pay off. Kelly

I ended up having my daughter call the provider since they would know why they were billing her. They said we were correct and she shouldn't have to pay the $200. Kelly

We have both the bill and EOB. The amount charged for the exam was $200. The EOB says the network savings is $200 and that we don't owe anything for the exam. The bill from the provider says we owe $200 for the exam. The EOB says that we owe nothing for the deductible, this should be a no deductible exam. I'll call the insurance and update. Kelly

No, but I don't think we need to for this visit. Not all things need to have the deductible met, but...maybe this service does. I'll look into that. Good thought, thank you. Kelly

I will call the insurance company, but thought I'd ask here to figure out what I'm missing. My DD went to a doctor in a different state. On our EOB it says that because we were in network there was a $200 savings on the exam. It also stated that no payment was made to the provider for the exam. The exam was $200. The provider has billed for the $200. So, what is up? I can see that the provider wasn't paid, but our insurance says we shouldn't owe the $200 since it was in-network. What am I missing? Kelly

Before anyone thinks we are hoarding animals, we are not. We have 2 dogs and 3 cats. One cat is moving so we will still have 3 cats when the new 10 yr old comes, 4 if the orange boys comes too. We've had 4 cats before, never more 🙂 Kelly

We are getting one new cat, maybe 2. We have 3 already, but one is going to love with my daughter who is moving into an apartment. One new cat is 10 and very fat. His owner is moving to a new apartment and can only take one cat. The one we are getting didn't make the cut 😞 I didn't think a 10 yr old overweight cat would get adopted very quickly. The 2nd cat is a cute underweight orange boy who was found in town and is with the police at the moment. My dh has been wanting an orange kitty. He tells me that I am hopeless, but he brought home the last dog 🙂 Kelly

Our tux cats are so sweet and loveable and are jerks, especially our male. I think he is mad because I added 3 dogs to the house. He is a huge baby with the kids, but attacks me. He is also the ringleader in the morning when he wants to be fed. He organizes the other cats to be annoying until I have to get up to feed them. The orange guy we had was the BEST cat! Kelly

Don't forget to look in IL. Cahokia Mounds is a fun nature/history thing to do. Fairview Heights, O'Fallon, Belleville are all a quick drive to St Louis.

That would be great! I am shipping a car to my mom. I was going to drive it, but I figured out the cost of both is very similar. If I ship I don't need to make the drive. Kelly

Has anyone used a car transport company to ship a car across the country? Good experiences/bad experiences? Kelly

She has medicare, but for some reason doesn't think they will pay. I'm bringing her the car (that she already owns) so she can use the money she wants to use for a car on hearing aids. I can only do so much and let her decide the rest. I think the lady she lives with and her friends can probably do more than I can. Kelly

Thank you, I so appreciate that.

My mom drives me nuts. Mostly, since I left the house when I was 18. It has been worse at certain times than others. This is one of those worse times. My father passed away last July and due to Covid we just had the funeral last week. My mom lives in AZ, I am in IA and the funeral was in CA. My youngest and I flew out to AZ to visit some before driving to CA for the funeral. I knew my mom had difficulty hearing, but it has become so bad. Unfortunately, she won't make a hearing appointment. She wants to buy a car, not hearing aids. I had finally convinced her to let us bring her my dad's car which we've had since last year. It was very helpful after the Derecho because it was the only one of the 4 vehicles that wasn't damaged. It is still in her name, and she can then get new hearing aids and dentures. My sister who lives in CA said my mom refused to make a hearing appointment because she doesn't want to spend money on them. It is to the point that she will either just agree rather than ask what was said or tune out. Her friends think she is going senile because of it. But, if you force her to listen and understand you know it is hearing. She is living with a friend who has just about had it with her because of this. I just don't know what to do? If she is kicked out she has no other plan. If you try to get her to understand her options, of which there are few, she gets upset. And, no, she is not still grieving my dad. They did not have a good marriage. She might be grieving the fact that she now has to make decisions and live with in her means... I can distance myself which I have had to do in the past to keep my own marriage intact, but at some point her lack of planning really does become MY emergency. I just need to vent, but has anyone successfully get through to a parent like this? She is 78 and for sure does NOT want to move back to IA. She won't even come here to visit. My sister in CA tried having her live there, but my mom blew up at her because she felt like my sister was treating her like a child. So, we have mostly now just left her to make or not make decisions. Unfortunately, that does sometimes come back to bite us. ETA: The things she said to me about my sister after the blow up were awful. She is now nervous that my sister and I have gotten closer. She is my half sister who I didn't grow up with. That's all for now 🙂 Kelly

We had our kids at 26, 28, and 30. That was older than a lot of people we knew at the time. I'm pretty excited to be 48 when my youngest leaves the nest. If we had waited longer we probably would have been better off financially, although we never really struggled. But, we probably wouldn't have had all 3 kids either. I feel like early or later really depends on the people involved. Neither is right or wrong. Kelly

My youngest dd16 is making herself a new Renaissance Faire dress. She learned how to sew clothing last year when in person school was cancelled. She made a short Ren Faire dress in May 20. Now she is making a full length dress. She just has to make the over skirt. It will be reddish brown and hit about 6 inches above the bottom of the underskirt.

My HS was very controlling about what we wore. It was stressful. I was pleased to see kids wearing sandals, crocs, tennis shoes, as well as dress shoes. The story about the kid whose teacher gave him shoes so he could graduate, is touching and infuriating at the same time. Re: The Mexican flag incident. I think a flag on the mortarboard would have been good, but it sounds like flags were not allowed even there. I suppose some of these rules are in place so seriously inappropriate flags are not represented (Confederate Flag). I say give him his diploma and move on. Re: The off topic Valedictorian speech. Honestly, those speeches are usually so boring and idealistic, I think I might enjoy someone going rogue 🙂 Kelly

I did also. I was engaged, in fact, before I met my dh.

His dad said, "Go ahead and tell your uncle what you told us". Her boyfriend was not happy.

Thanks everyone! I'm not overly concerned when they get engaged or married. I'll admit that I don't want grandchildren for awhile. I'd like to see her settled in a career first so she can continue when kids come. But, again it will be her decision some day. I won't be losing sleep over it. I just felt bad for her since their reaction came as a shock. Kelly

She's going for Athletic Training. Unfortunately, that recently changed to a Masters Degree required. Kelly

She won't be getting married until at least 22-23. My dh and I were 24 and had kids at 26. Now our youngest will be out of the house before we're 50. Kelly

From some conversations with my DD, I think he's making 30-40k two years out. They've had many discussions which is good, because my dh and I did not have a lot of discussions. Sounds like he might like to work for himself someday and be a sahd. His parents were quite upset by that idea too. I'm glad they are discussing things now, and finding out how the different parents think. It is always good to start somewhere even if ideas change as they go along. Kelly