Bahahaha! And to think that I was slightly offended when Moose announced, with all the authority his seven-year-old self could muster, that he didn't want to get married when he grew up. Why, you ask? Well because it seems so boring. :huh: :D

I really should send a card to be passed along to her husband and son. Kay was so helpful to me those three months my father was in ICU. Especially the three weeks he spent in a drug induced coma on life support. She had encouraging words for me, answered my medical questions, and helped me understand that while things could LOOK bad, the medical interventions were for my dad's good. It really meant so much to me. I'm feeling a loss that I never got to meet her face to face. May the Lord comfort her husband and son as they grieve her passing.

Aw, poor girl. I've got no wart experience, but as a mama, if it were my girl feeling self conscious about it, I'd take her to her primary doc and see what he recommends.

Oh wow. Your town sounds amazing. I can't even begin to imagine being in your position; four children, one an infant, and losing my dh. May the Lord grant you peace and comfort, and may He continue to send good support to your life through neighbors, friends, and family. :grouphug:

Um, I kinda do this. :blushing: For example, say my boys and dh and hanging out in the living room, and I'm headed to the kitchen. I might say out loud, "Does anyone need a drink?" If everyone's engrossed in what they're doing, I may not get a response from anyone. Then I'll say something kinda to myself like "Alas, no one appeared to hear her; or were they ignoring her? Either way, the damsel proceeded to the kitchen, no longer worrying about the beverage needs of others". I do it to amuse myself. :D And I can almost guarantee my older sister either does this too or would chuckle at me. We have very, VERY similar senses of humor/patterns of thought. We're only 16 months apart, and have always been alike in that sort of way.

Scarlett, my boys are younger than yours, but I'll share what we do. They get three 25 minute video game turns per day; one morning, one after school work is done, and one in the evening. If we're home during those times, they play them. If not, oh well, it's not the end of the world. They can choose to play on the computer or my smartphone for their time. They have recently discovered minecraft and both love it. They also share a nintendo ds, but no longer find it interesting. We're soon going to get rid of it and get them a tablet to share, and then they can choose to use that for their time too if they want. We don't have a console for the tv, and they don't have ipods or smart phones. Occasionally we will watch a documentary or something together, or they'll watch Diego in Spanish (which has surprised me with how much Spanish they're picking up from it), but we don't count that as their screen time since it's so infrequent and done as a family. We've changed our video game time guidelines before, and we try to reevaluate it frequently to make sure its working for our family. I have no trouble with it *in moderation*, and dh and I are very vigilant about what the watch or play.

I call him dad. :) My dh called his father "Pops".

Ok, can you explain to me what chicken fried steak *is*? I see it on the menu at Cracker Barrel when we travel, but I can't quite figure out what it is...

I'd do it without a thought. It wasn't even fully thawed 48 hours ago, and you kept it in the fridge.

I'll second the recommendation for zennioptical.com. Good glasses, way cheap.

Lucinda, thanks for updating us. I'll be happy to pray for you and your husband. My dh and I went through a similar-ish life change/learning/growth time about two years ago, and the Lord worked it to be such an incredible blessing for us. I pray the Lord's provision and will for you and your husband. Keep coming here for support and/or to share updates, ok?

I certainly hope that when the day comes in your life when you could use compassion, understanding, and forgiveness for an awfully regrettable decision you have made, you find more of such extended to you buy others than you have extended with this comment.

Dsd is vegetarian, and my 10yo son just mentioned he heard her say she really misses pepperoni. Can you recommend a good vegetarian pepperoni and where you buy it? Ds wants to buy her some. We have a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes near by. Thanks!

My boys are currently 7 1/2 and 10. Dh and I won't start leaving them home alone together for probably another two years, so 9 1/2 and 12. The ten year old would be more than fine home alone by himself NOW, but he wouldn't want to. And the 7 1/2 year old would for SURE hurt himself if we left him with big brother right now, LOL. He's kinda prone to clumsiness. Now to be honest, dh won't likely be happy about leaving them even for short times once they're 9 1/2 and 12; I tend to think he's overly cautious like that. I was babysitting my infant sister all day long in the summer I was 12. In our home in Flint. Where someone broke in in the middle of the day. So, I tend to think my well behaved boys will do fine at 9 1/2 and 12, starting with short 15 min trips and working up to long enough to dh and I to have a dinner date or something. We'll see. So for me and my dh, 8 1/2 and 10 would be too young for us to be comfortable leaving them for and hour and 20 minutes. But you know your kids and your situation best. Perhaps if your dh isn't comfortable with it at that age, he'd agree to start with very short trips and work slowly to longer and longer ones, so that after a year, when they're 9 1/2 and 11, you all can be comfortable with it and you could start classes then?

Ottakee, I just wanted to say I've been reading your posts about your foster son. My heart breaks for the poor boy, but I must say you (and your family) sound like a true blessing to him. Lord bless you for your tender care of this boy, including the cheeto chicken. :)

Meh. Weird things happen. That's what I'd think. But I'm boring like that.

Faith! Oh I'm so happy to hear this. Bless Jesus for your daughter's new diagnosis. And the corny dad jokes? *Love* that's how I can tell how dad's feeling when he's in the hospital. If he's cracking corny jokes, my world is good.

My graduating class didn't have one. At least that I knew about. And fwiw, if my boys attended public school and such a service were offered, they would not be attending. "Mandatory" or not.

NOOOO. No.

Oh Faith. Interceding for you right now. :grouphug:

Bill, I don't have adequate words. I will be praying for you and your dad.

Yep, like a lot of the ladies are saying, the tollhouse recipe is fantastic, but real butter and good chocolate really make the cookie. Also chill your dough, like another poster said, before baking, and don't overbake.

Oh Faith, first of all, I'm SO glad your dad is getting his surgery! What a answer to prayer! Next, the hand washing thing. Oh boy did we struggle with that with my dad. Dad ended up in contact isolation because he acquired several different infections. You know, the kinds of crazy, heavy duty *hospital acquired* infections that one only acquires from hospital stays. So anyway, contact isolation means that *on top of* the wash in/wash out procedure that is to be followed for EVERY patient, that every single staff member who entered dad's room should be wearing a clean gown and gloves. I cannot tell you, between my mother and I, just how many staff members we reported for not following that basic procedure. Good grief people! My father was ON A VENTILATOR, fighting off a hospital grade infection with big gun iv antibiotics, and you STILL can't be bothered to gown and glove before entering his room?! I had one interaction with a particularly snotty respiratory therapist. I was sitting at dad's bedside when she came into the room. It had been a particularly hard dad for dad, and I was feeling it. The gal didn't bother to gown or glove before entering his room. So I said, "You need a gown and gloves, my dad is in contact isolation". You know, in case she missed the big signs or the cart of gowns and gloves outside his room. :glare: She said, "Oh, I'm not going to *touch* anything, and then she proceeded to try and walk around by dad's bed and look at his respiratory machines. Uh, yeah. Bad move. So I believe I said something like, "Yeah, you STILL need to gown and glove, my DAD IS IN CONTACT ISOLATION." She gave me a snotty look and left the room. Dude. Do you NOT realize you're wearing a name tag? LOL. My mom comes back into the room (remember, my mother *works* at that same hospital). I told her what happened and the gal's name. I'm pretty sure the report was filed within the hour, LOL. All that to say, it's not *just* the surgeon you have to watch out for, unfortunately. And I'm so glad your dad has you there watching out for him. Keeping everyone following sanitation protocols will lessen your dad's chances of getting one of those nasty hospital infections in the first place. My mom had a particularly nasty encounter with dad's cardiologist one day. It was witnessed by a nurse. Mom didn't file the report on that one because, while the nurses all said that Dr. Nasty had an awful beside manner, he was the *best* doctor there to care for dad. So, pick your battles, of course. Remember, this guy is going to operate on you dad. You want him to like you until that's over at least, you know? Keep us updated. I'll keep you in my prayers.

Excluding her nephew from her family time certainly *does* solve something. It solves the 'How do I keep my children from accessing nephew's drugs?' problem that the OP has now that her nephew does drugs. Pretty cut and dried to me.

Um, yeah. Only here in the great mitten. Moose just got a visit to the pediatrician today. He's got croup. In mid April. Sigh.