Hm. I'm not sure if dad even carries a copy of their credit card. Mom might not let him. And if I used his card to order him clothes on line, I'd be worried about maxing out their card. My parent's financial situation is bleak. They have nothing. NO savings or retirement. My mom works, and her pay goes to keep them barely afloat. They are BAD with managing their money on top of it all. Dad obviously has no income until his social security disability payments start, which is soon.

I do have dad's social worker's number, that's a good idea.

Thank you ladies. I was thinking a men's large was good, but just wanted to double check.

Another question about my dad. :D He's 50 pounds lighter now than before the heart attack. All of his clothes are WAY too big on him. He needs a whole new wardrobe. Nothing fancy; some athletic/elastic waist pants, a few button up shirts, a couple zip up hoodies, and new boxers. My mother is not providing these things. She either can't or won't. More like won't. But whatever, she's not. Now I'm a thrifty lady, and can get Dad some things at the thrift store. But when you add up all he needs, it's a nice little chunk of money, even getting what I can at thrift prices. And he kinda REALLY needs it now. As in, his clothes are falling off of him they're so big. Any ideas where to go in their community to get assistance for dad to pay for his clothes? I'd love to just go get them all myself, but like everyone else, we have a budget, and I just can't squeeze all of dad's needs into it. ************* Update: I had to come back here and tell you all a few things. First of all, I hit the thrift store today and got my dad several very useful things for very cheap. So yay me. :D I emailed my older sister (the only other one of us four daughters that has stayed involved in dad's care) and told her the situation. She's going to help out. So we've got it covered. And lastly, a hiver I don't even know offered to send me money to get things for my dad. Seriously. But because of my sister stepping up, that's really not necessary. God is Good. All the time.

So dad was kinda a big guy before the heart attack. But not anymore. He's 5'8", and weighs 174 now. That's 50 pounds less than before his heart attack. So all of his clothes are WAY too big for him. He needs some new boxers and athletic type pants for sure, and probably some shirts and a hoodie. I'm guessing a men's large would work. I did get him one pair of athletic pants (you know, those lined running pants with an elastic waist) in a men's large, and he said they fit. If you have a teen boy or dh who is 5'8" and weighs around 175, what size clothes do they wear?

No, but I'm 'bout to Google it...

Just reading the phrase "broken toe" makes me cringe. It's the only thing I've ever broken, and I realize it's "only" a toe. But it HURT. And it was all crookedy and stuff, LOL.

I broke my middle toe once. Just walking through my bedroom. Apparently I'm so clumsy that I can walk right into the corner of my BED. Whacked my toe *just right*, heard it snap, looked down, and my toe is pointing in the wrong direction. MAN did it hurt. Well, I'd never broken a toe before, and it was KILLING me, so I drove to the ER. The ER doc had to PULL MY TOE BACK INTO PLACE before taping it to the next toe. Can you say ouch? I had to brace myself, and warned the doc that I may scream. He said it was fine so long as I didn't kick him. :D My toe still doesn't bend right, but I'm pretty glad I went in, 'cause there's no way I'd have been able to re-align my toe myself before taping it. Oh, and they give you a script for pain, which was helpful for the first few days. So if I were you, I'd go in.

My neighbor lady. She's so sweet. She knocked on my door yesterday and asked if I would help her carry in her groceries. She's an older lady, had just done a BIG shopping trip, and it was *cold* out. So of course I helped her. Then a little bit later, she came knocking again with half a bag of "mini sweet peppers". She wanted to give them to me because she wouldn't be able to use them all before they went bad; she bought the bag because it was on sale and cost her less than buying a smaller amount. She's such a sweet neighbor. Anyway, I'm not a real adventurous eater. I didn't even start liking onions until a year or two ago, at the age of 33. So bell peppers are still in my "I *guess* they're okay" category, lol. And from what I can tell, these peppers she gave me are mini bell peppers. My dh, on the other hand, loves peppers of all kinds. I'm headed to the grocery store tomorrow, and I'd love to get some things to make a nice dish with these peppers. I've got about a dozen of them. So, any ideas? 'Cause I've got no clue. :p But my dh will be SOOO impressed if I come up with something yummy to do with them.

Yes OP, I have complicated sisters. They all dislike me for different reasons. Hunh. I suppose if you asked them, *I'm* the problem. But really, I'm a pretty nice person! Lol. Our upbringing was dysfunctional to say the least, so I'm not really surprised that us 4 girls aren't close as adults. But I miss and love my sisters. I hope they know that. I try to communicate that to them the best I can. Sigh.

I disagree. If her 6 year old boy is neuro-typical, I don't think she should have to keep her phone where he can't get to it and password protect it. Moose is 7, He's not got the best impulse control. But he doesn't use my phone without asking. Why? Because that's the rule. And I keep my phone accessible to him and me. I don't think that at 6 years old she shouldn't be able to expect her son to follow the 'no using phones unless you ask and get permission' rule. Might he break the rule? Yes. But that doesn't mean her expectations are out of line. It means her son needs to develop his self control more. YMMV.

Your daughter is precious. Thank you for sharing. Also, it spurred me to read about cystic fibrosis. I really knew nothing about the condition before today.

Welcome back, crazy lady! :p Um, my dad had a massive heart attack last August. Three weeks on life support, then a gazillion complications. Right now he's in a nursing home. So now you're caught up on what's going on with me. Your turtle story is *way* funnier. :D

Oh my. Praying for sure. :grouphug:

It's on the opposite side of town from Swartz Creek. It's on Dort Highway. (I *told you* it was a bad area, lol.) If you still want to know what restaurant it is, pm me. But if your bil lives near Swartz Creek, he probably doesn't want to go over to Dort Highway, lol.

Now *that* is a fantastic idea. I'll have to see.

Have you tried ice water? For some reason, water is MUCH more appealing when it has ice in it. :)

So dad's at the nursing home. He told me (and warned me not to repeat it) that he's happier there than at home, because he doesn't feel like a burden to anyone at the nursing home. Which makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad that my dad would rather be away from mom because of how she treats him, but glad that he's where he'd rather be. Don't know how long he'll be there. Depends on how rapidly he improves with his physical therapy. Right now he's so weak, he's back to a wheelchair instead of a walker. His goal is to be able to eventually just need a cane. Anyway. So I told dad he gets to pick whatever restaurant he wants. And he picks a Chinese place. Not an American/Chinese place. A "we only serve Chinese food" Chinese place. Apparently it's his favorite restaurant ever. So we go. My boys were SOOOOO good. They're not adventurous eaters by any stretch (we're dealing with SPD). They just sipped their sodas, picked at the food I ordered them, chatted with Grandpa, and behaved so nicely. I'm pretty sure my dad has no clue they didn't like the food. They didn't fuss or whine or say 'yuck' or anything. I was just so blessed to see them bless their grandpa like that. I mean, dad ATE. I haven't seen him eat that much since all this started back in August. And he enjoyed it so much. (And I must say; who knew there was such a good authentic Chinese restaurant in that not-so-good area of Flint, lol). Anyway, after hanging out with dad for a while back at the nursing home, we had to leave. I couldn't tell my boys enough on the way home just how proud I was of them. I made them cupcakes when we got home. :D Just a little glimpse into our day yesterday. :)

Aww. Many hugs. :grouphug:

Apparently, it is much less frustrating if big brother corrects your math then when Mommy does. Why it took me this long to discover that, I don't know. But apparently, correction from Zee is *wonderful*, while correction from Mommy is sigh/slump/pencil throw inducing. Who knew.

I'm sayin', that would *totally* annoy me, too. I mean, he only needs to lose 25 pounds, and he lost 13 the first WEEK? SOOOO not fair.

I'm sure nurses hear all SORTS of things when people come out of anesthesia. Last time I did, I was crying. I didn't know why, but I was very, very sad. SO weird. Remudamom, why was your son in surgery? Is everything ok?

:D Dad is no friend of eggs anymore. I gather that when his vomiting started, that's what he had last eaten. He was eating two eggs every morning. He has recently informed me he cannot even look at another egg. I went to the grocery store, and spent WAAAY too much time reading protein bar labels. I found a thinkThin protein bar for him to try that has 20g protein and 0g sugar; it does have 11g of sugar alcohol. All the other bars that were sold individually had too much sugar or not enough protein. And the Atkins bars would work, but they're like 6 bucks for a box of five or whatever, and I don't even know if he likes them. So we'll see how the thinkThin bar goes. I also got him some low sugar/low salt peanut butter and some organic rice cakes to put it on. And I got some roasted unsalted sunflower seeds and put 1/4 cup of them into snack size baggies for him. Hopefully he'll like at least some of it.

Thank you for mentioning that. I was looking into protein bars, and lots of them have sugar alcohols in them.

I'm taking the boys to visit dad at the nursing home tomorrow. Hoping to take him out to lunch if the doctor okays it! Dad has asked that I bring him snacks he can keep in his room. The snacks that the nursing home offers don't really meet his dietary needs. He needs high protein, low sugar, low sodium. The only specific ideas he was able to give me were pecans, almonds, and protein bars; specifically protein bars with 12 or more grams of protein and less than 7 grams of sugar. He doesn't like peanuts or walnuts. Any suggestions? I can go to the grocery store today and get whatever. I will see him next week as well, so suggestions for things I can make at home would be good for next week. ETA: I'm pretty sure it needs to be shelf stable. I know he doesn't have a fridge in his room, and he wants to keep his snacks in his room.