I wonder if this would be worth the 45 minute drive to my closest Aldi. I checked the ad and was surprised at the prices for the gluten free food. My grandmother keeps telling my that Aldi will stretch my food budget. Unfortunately, I have to weigh that decision with the gas I will have to spend to actually make it to Aldi. Decisions, decisions.

Odd Thomas on Netflix I hear if you read the book, you might be a bit disappointed. I enjoyed it very much, and it kept my SO entertained (which is hard to do). I hope they make another movie in this book series.

I do not think you can be too supportive. I have no guidelines for my son. I have preferences for what clothes he wears out of the house, but he is more than welcome to wear whatever he feels comfortable. (He has been like this for almost 2 years and I'm still adapting to clothing choices.) I do not pressure him to be gender non-conforming. "Hey, you need a new pair of pants. Let's go to the store." And when he wanders into the girls section I stay completely neutral. Everyone has preferences, in terms of clothes, toys, people...I'm here to make sure if he needs guidance, I can guide him without telling him what to do. I feel it is much better for him to explore at a young age, than to bottle it up, turn 18 and totally go wild, potentially hurting himself or getting himself hurt. If he wants to wear sparkly shoes to his great-grandmothers 83th birthday, then he is more than welcome to wear them.

For my sister, her brother has a hard time giving up the gender she was born with. I doubt he will ever say the right words about her. Her other sister sometimes slips up, even though my sister officially transitioned like 15 years ago.

My sister wanted to join in as well. She always wants to help people understand transgender people. At this point in time, because her transition was so successful, she is kind of back in the closet. She lives in a smaller city, surrounded by even smaller towns, and life has become more difficult for her. (Obviously this is my opinion, but I feel she would agree to some extent.) I only grabbed some of the more common questions. She is working a double today, so her time was limited to lunch. I think answering these questions was the highlight of her day though. I did have to reassure her that this was a polite thread. You tend to get used to the hatred and don't see that people are genuinely curious (and not in a freak show kind of way). How and when did you know you wanted to become transgendered? I never actually thought I wanted to become a girl. It was more when did I find out that I wasn't a girl. Second grade is when kids started asking if I was a boy or girl, and I wasn't sure as well. I was in the closet until 8th grade. People knew it before I did because I was denying it. I was expelled for the 4th time in the 8th grade and decided to just be myself. Then I emerged from my closet, became who I was, and now I am back in the closet because people don't know my situation. It isn't a t-shirt I can wear saying, "I'm transgender, ask me how". How did you come to the decision to make the physical transformation? When I started puberty and got body hair, I started laser hair removal to get rid of it. Girls don't have body hair likes boys do. I started hormones when I was 17 or 18. I already had the voice and figure, I only wanted the hormones to stop the body hair. How receptive and supportive has your family been? My family is not close with me. It is many issues that caused my family to be broken. Only my sister (aka me) is supportive of who I am. If a person is talking about your past would you prefer they refer to you as the sex you were at the time, or the sex you are now? All the people in my life use the she pronoun and have used it all my life. Are you at all concerned about the hormone treatments and what effect it could potentially have on your overall health? Yes, I am, but the positives override the negatives. I think about what kind of life I would be living if I wasn't taking them. It is worth the risk for me. Will hormones need to be taken the rest of your life? Yes, I will need them for the rest of my life. Even I have the surgery, I will need hormones. How many surgeries does this transition involve? I will not be doing the surgery to change what is incorrect on my body. The risks and costs aren't worth it to me. Breast implants are optional for me, due to the hormones working properly. I want it, but don't need it. How do you (and other transgender people) feel about drag queens and similar "out there" behaviors? I feel that it is not for me. I feel everybody has their own personality, and they should have the right to express that. Some of it though is over the top. It's been contained so long in them that when they have a chance to express themselves it's like a tiger out of a cage. They go for the biggest, showiest personality. (This is all my opinion.) What advice can you give to parents of children who might ask curious questions when they meet a person whose gender is fluid? Be respectful. Let's say a man is gay. He then transitions to a woman. Would he still be considered gay, or straight, or what? Or is there another term for this that I'm not aware of? He would have to determine his sexuality.

At this point, he is just a boy who has long hair, wears girls clothes and doesn't care whether an activity is geared towards girls or boys. Is he transgender? At this point, I'm not sure. My sister knew she was in the wrong body from birth and made it widely known. My son hasn't said anything to this effect, so we continue to let him to be who he is and wait patiently.

I peeked at her blog. It will be definitely something to read tomorrow in my free time. I also seen the networking for families but I am so rural up here, I doubt there would be anyone close to us. My sister is transgender, so she helps me through some of the tougher aspects of life right now for him. I'm sure he would love if I could find him a friend that was like him, though. It is something to think about.

I have a son who is gender-nonconforming (I never heard of that term before today), so thank you for the book recommendation. I've added it to my wish list on Amazon.

One is my voice. I sound very young, especially on the phone. "Are your parents home?" or some other rude comment all pertaining to the fact I sound like I'm still in my early teens. I've given up on this one and started commenting I'm older than I sound. Thankfully I'm fat now, and it helps me look a little bit older. Otherwise, I start getting the babysitter comments. *sigh* "You shouldn't have more children. I bet she loves being the only girl. If you have another, then she won't be the only princess." ( I have six boys and one girl.) Whatever. When we decide to have another, we will be happy with either a boy or girl. I'm realistic that I will probably have a boy again though. LOL The last I can think of is my husband is a tower climber. He is on the road occasionally. "How do you do it? I would (insert some type of self injury, like jump off a bridge)." (Because I have 5 children at home.) "You can't have a successful relationship with someone that does that work." etc. etc. etc. Oh the best one is "What if he dies?". "Do you have enough life insurance if he falls?". First, none of your business. Second, I trust my husband's ability to check his equipment, check the tower and make an informed decision on whether or not to climb. I'm not sitting here drowning in worry that he will die. I look forward to the next time he makes it home.

The packaging makes the difference though. For these candies, they are in a solid white, child proof medicine bottle. At a glance, no child would know what was inside. If put up and out of the way, the child would never know what was in the bottle. And, from other people's experiences, these things are disgusting. It isn't cooked into the candy, the THC is sprayed directly on the candy. Ewwwww....another reason people prefer baked goods.

I do agree with this...But who would really buy 1/6th of a cookie? As it stands, that cookie costs like $10-$20. I would totally be splitting it up to eat for 6 days (or even longer).

They are all individually wrapped and labeled.

The man that died (I am going to assume you are in Colorado) ate ONE cookie. He was informed to not eat more than 1/6th of the cookie. He was looking for that instantaneous buzz you get with smoking. Ingesting marijuana is like a time released pill. It has to go through your blood stream. It can take up to 3 hours for the effect to be felt. For people with chronic conditions, this is a good thing. The high lasts longer when you ingest it rather than smoke it. There are labels on these foods. On one of the bottles I have it states "There may be health risks associated with the consumption of this product. This product is intended for use by adults 21 years or older. Keep out of the reach of children. This product is unlawful outside the state of Colorado. There may be additional health risks associated with the consumption of this product for women who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or are planning on becoming pregnant. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while using marijuana." Even on the cupcakes, they have a label. It states how much THC is in the product, how much is the recommended dosage, and gives the above statement as well. I believe there is even a nutritional label on them as well (the bottle that was brought home as a souvenir has one). These are not just cupcakes and cookies laid out and freely given. The clerks advise how much to eat and explain the risks. You are well aware upon exiting the store that this is a drug, this is dangerous and you should keep what you have bought out of the reach of children.

Actually, they dropped the proposed edible ban in Oregon. "In a new set of rules released Monday, the Oregon Health Authority seeks only to ban marijuana-laced products that are made or packaged in ways that might appeal to children. They prohibit marijuana-infused goods that are brightly colored or formed in the shape of animals, toys or candies." http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/30428/oregon-officials-drop-proposed-ban-on-medical-marijuana-edibles/ The picture they show on that page, I think, would be appropriate to prevent children from being too curious.

If I remember correctly, the first person that died ate the entire cookie. At 19, he should have listened to the clerk and only ate 1/6th of the cookie. People expect these things to be an instantaneous high, but it isn't that way. It takes a few hours for the effects to be felt. The other case I recall, a man who shot his wife, took his prescription pain pills, then ate a laced candy, and started hallucinating. I'm not sure how this can be preventable. He mixed drugs. You never mix drugs, legal or illegal. What is "adult-appropriate form"? I have seen the bottles for the candy. My children would have never guessed that a laced piece of candy was in these bottles. Now the edibles, from what I understand, they are looking for a way to make them instantly detectable that they have THC in them. There is a bill that passed the House and is on its way to the Senate that will make it a requirement. Most of the people getting sick from laced candy are toddlers. I know children are difficult little monsters at times, but it isn't hard to find a nice high place, in a locked box if necessary, to hide these "treats". It comes down to parent responsibility. My liquor is locked up and if I had drugs, they would be locked up as well.

I read that right after I woke up. I hate reading stories like this so early in the morning. They stick with me all day. I hope that all the students and the adult that were injured survive. It factors into my decision now. Last night I was talking with my mother about my older sons and their school. She was praising the school's security system. I politely told her that you shouldn't need a security system at school. If I had a chance, I would pull them out of school and homeschool them as well.

I lasted less than a month at an adult chat site. It was insane. I could not even begin to describe how stupid this job was, or how naïve the men must have been. The job was simple, find a picture of a woman in their files and you became that woman. Some men had been chatting with these imaginary women for over year, never meeting them, but paying out to continue talking to them. Trying to keep the story straight (we had a few minutes to read the past chats), continuing multiple chats at the same time, telling the long timers "I'm still not ready to meet"...It was horrible and one day I decided to never sign on again. I lasted less than a few months at a greenhouse. I was the only female on the team. The owner was rude, a bully, etc...My friend who was hired on at the same I was quit for both of us when we got the runaround about actually getting paid. I actually lasted three months as a telemarketer. I ended up quitting because one of the assignments I had every now and again was selling adult movies or something. The script was horrible, I have not a sexy bone in my body to talk like they wanted me to talk. I'd do it again, as long as it wasn't selling adult stuffs. Some of the people that called in had some issues. As long as they could keep a conversation, I wasn't allowed to hang up. Yea, um, it's hard to read a script and be very aware of something going on that should not be going on on the other line. Hang up and do that people.

My daughter's third birthday is on April 1st. She is so unaware that her day is associated with mischievous tricks. She is the greatest April Fool's "joke" ever though. I can never top it. See, no one knew I was pregnant. And my SO and I were certain we were having another boy, so it was a non-issue for us (between us we have 7 boys and her). When I had her, it was great shock. He called his mother who, through tears, told us we were playing the worst April Fool's joke ever. We had to reassure her that it was no joke, she really did have a granddaughter (only granddaughter for my SO's mother and father). And Facebook, wow. Next was Facebook. LOL Yep, my daughter was the greatest April Fool's "joke" ever.

Suicide sucks. I am so sorry for your loss, their loss, other people that he was unaware that would be affected loss...To support them, just be there. There are no right words to say, but listening is such a huge help. *hugs* It is such a difficult thing to get through. On Feb. 16th, a very dear friend of mine committed suicide. I miss him every day. The first few weeks were hard for me, I could not imagine how his widow felt, his children felt...I visited with his widow 3 weeks after his death. It was so hard. But every time I have a chance I call her, I talk to her on Facebook...It's now been 6 weeks. She only wishes people would still call and talk to her. Life has moved on for most of their friends. I really think communication is the biggest support you can give to someone grieving from a loss. Some days I think that I should have visited, maybe talked to him more. I try to not think like that, but it pops up at the oddest times. I know there was probably nothing I could have done, but the doubt lingers with me.

I do this all the time. :leaving: Thankfully since it is only family that calls me, they understand and ignore the fact that I cannot stay on topic for more than a few minutes. I would never get phone calls if I had to listen for 10 minutes straight. I barely hang onto a conversation with the bill peoples for a few minutes.

My parents are not active in my children's lives at all. I'm sure my mother would love to be now, but due to other issues, it will only occur if my SO and I agree and are present to observe. My father is too ill to do anything but watch a movie with the his grandchildren. On the other side, my SO's mom lives in California. We are in Iowa, so way too far away for a relationship. When she did live close, she invited my oldest over for a sleep over. We found out it was a literal sleep over. Bring him over at bedtime and pick him up when he woke up. My SO's dad, on the other hand, is the most involved. He bought them a swing set, a pool for the summer, outdoor trucks to play with in the sand...He doesn't actually play with them though. They do not do bonding activities together. He has never been alone with them and has no interest in overnight visits. When we go over, we watch television, play in the yard, walk to the park, or go to the bar to eat. I had high hopes for grandparents involvement with my children. Reality isn't the same as my dreams, and I'm okay with it. I would love a grandparent that did crafts, baked, played games with them...It'll never happen.

Thank you!!!! My daughter's birthday is in a few weeks, and last night I was considering the bitty baby set but the price was way too scary. With this I was able to not only get my daughter a bitty baby, but my niece is getting one as well. Saving money makes me super happy.

I was in fear when I read winter storm (living so close to Minnesota, snow has become a very common enemy), so I rushed to check the weather. While it will be colder, thankfully there will not be snow falling here tomorrow. Yea!!! (Sorry to those about to be slammed with up to 2 feet of snow...)

I want to change my first name badly. It was a source of teasing when I was young. As I've gotten older, people shorten it, which makes it seem so childish. My mother should have just named me Butterfly like she wanted to do. I actually had a Christmas card mailed to me with the name I have considered using, and I loved that my SO's 2nd (or is she the 3rd?) mom did it. Of course, people would roll their eyes at the name, but I really do hate my current name.

Yes, we have seven people in a horribly laid out 1200 sq ft house. The only benefit is the kid's bedroom is huge in this home. We have 3 twin beds (one with a trundle) and a crib, along with toys, and still have playing room as well in their bedroom (all five share a room). We need more room, a better layout, storage space...Our ideal is 2000 sq ft. If the layout is right, I could see 2000 sq ft being a perfect size for our family, possibly with a basement area for a bit extra space if needed as the children grow.