Thano you. Sadly, winter is in full force and I will be forced by mother nature to find a replacement soon. I guess I can always head south and spend the rest of the winter on a beach in south Florida to give myself time to grieve. I like: Dragons Astronomy The colors blue, emerald green, and violet Sunsets and long walks on the beach.

But is it comfy for short people?

My favorite hoodie is threadbare, has a bunch of holes and is on it's last leg. I need a new one and am incredibly sad.

Love Sac Sactionals

I had something similar happen to a friend in 5th grade. We were not best friends, but we were not close as close as you were. We played together at recess and were on the same basketball team but never hung out outside of either. I asked and she said she couldn't and I shrugged it off since there were several other kids who came from families that did not allow their kids to hang out with anyone not active in their church (unless a friend was going with their family to church). Looking back that is odd of some families, but as kids we shrugged and hung out as much as we could. Rumor mill was mom ran away with a boyfriend and abandoned her and her brother at their grandma's in TN. It did not make sense then or now. I still think about her sometimes.

They are still crazy and the neighbors just as much so. There are lots of facebook pages, an anti-blog, lawsuits... The kids still work under the table, have no identification and the oldest has a cbild and a restraining order against him from the baby mom. They are not being educated. The parents did get a larger shed and live in what is basically a tinderbox ready to go up in flames. No running water and they were forced to get a port-a-potty instead of dumping buckets if human feces on the ground.

I did not grow up low income. I saw the waste of buying just because and now I choose to make do as much as possible. I am mindful of my purchases and would make do with what I have until I absolutely cannot.

Yep, I have known them since my son was a toddle. I had no clue. Well, I know one of DH's siblings is a creepy jerk, but other than I have been blindsided.

My inlaws are among the worst people on the planet. I cannot believe anyone would do that to anyone, let alone their own child. In other news cleaning is theraputic and my baseboards are shiney.

I do not like giving an average. Some days I have none. Some days I have 8 or more. It depends.

Maybe. Sadly the warming drawer is only available on the 24in, we were looking at the 30in.

A coffee cup warming drawer under the Wolf Coffee Machine.

For BIL is it not about what he ate as a kid. DH and the rest of the siblings ate the same (or worse) and manage to control their weight and stay fit and FIL is a health and fitness enthusiest and set a good example. For that BIL, Choosing to eat double entrees at restruants 5+ times a week, drinking heavily and drug use for 30+ years are the main cause of his health issues. The body does not do well on 30+ years of the frat boy party lifestyle. For all my MIL's faults I can say with confidence she did not put booze in the baby bottles or serve pot laced brownies for desert.

OP I just want to say that I am confident you parented the best you could with what you had at the time. Our society is messed up in that mom is to blame for everything, even if you do exactly what the experts say. It is so hard. I would say do not beat yourself up but we have all been conditioned in this mindset and changing it over night is impossible. HUGS My advice: Guard your mental health. My stepkids, the youngest is 23, are hot messes. I entered their lives as stepmom when they were adults (I have known then since they were preteens) and you know what? I still do everything 'wrong'. My husband was yelled at and the inlaws reemed him a new one because I made an, at the time 23 year old, put their own dishes in the dishwasher everytime and clean their bathroom once a week. I kid you not. But had I let them trash the house I would have been viewed as a lazy slob for letting the house to crap. Had I told DH to clean up after his adult kid, I would have have been lazy and abusive for making my husband who works full time clean after he gets off work. Had I made the adult kid pay for a house cleaner I would have been a horrible person because they have no money (that whole lack of a job thing). Had I thrown them to the curb I would have been called abusive because how dare I throw them out because they are too special for behavior expectations. The no win situation was bad enough to impact my mental health. I still get sick to my stomach when I think about the no-win situation. Even with my husband saying not to worry about the mess and trying his hardest to make it work and to learn how to navigate and put boundaries in place to protect us from his abusive toxic family, I still suffered.

Yes to this, one BIL blames his mother for his lifestyle choices and weight issues because as a kid she did not feed him the healthiest. Never mind that he has 2/3 of his life to eat right and exercise and he chose not to. The same person also cried and carried on because I bought food to a pot luck that he did not want to eat (he claimed it gave him gas). It is part of the mental illness. As it turning on me and then my kid (yes, really) when I do not bow to his demands and refuse to even give him a platform and instead shut him down.

The 23 year old step child here blames DH for all their life choices that have resulted in their not being courted by European countries soley because they are the Awesomest Person Ever and of course they would make those countries so much better with their lack of education and nonexistent work experience. Yep, all DH's fault. Also how dare I pay for my DS to attend college in middle school/write essays to earn scholarships to camps/start and run his own business/exist. Other bad things with DS involves us paying for his medical bills while insisting the 23 year old pays for their own meds and copays.

I have done kickboxing and know where you are coming from. I pushed through and it did get much easier when I found that perfect spot. I cannot explained it beyond that it is different than on carpet or other flooring. Maybe is was related to my strength and I got strong enough to hold the plank on the mats. No special footware needed.

My DH gave up trying to share a blanket that kept flying off the bed and has his own.

Link?

I *might* have splurged and bought a set of these https://www.bedgear.com/shop/dri-tec-moisture-wicking-performance-sheets.html but I was out of town the other night, which was by far the worst episode I have ever had and the reason for posting. That night I woke up in a pool of sweat and decided I had to have different sleepwear for traveling or if these sheets cannot handle a night like that.

Yip.ee. Are there any none restrive sleepwear to help survive this? I know workout and baselayers have come a long way and I was wondering if anyone knew of wick-a-way sleepwear.

We want to do a bike trip but will have to see about DH's vacation time to see how long we can be gone. DS is planning on camps. Nothing else.

I do not want them joining family activities because they want to sit and stare at phones. They have done it at high interest locations. If they are willing to join, and I mean really join, then I might give it a go, but probably not. We have plans to go on a 300+ mile biking vacation in 2018. They cannot ride a bike because they do not want to learn. I am not going to buy or rent them a specialty trike or walk my bike or just not go because they do not want to learn to ride a bike. No, they will not pay their own way. Plus, after snarky, rude, and incredibly disrecpeful behavior I no longer try to actively include them.

I have adult step children. They are not functional adults. They cannot turn off their computer or phone and walk a mile. We are active and do things on vacations that they are incapable of like riding bikes, kayaking, hiking, walking miles and miles and miles. They do not lift a finger to help out on vacations (or at home).

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/27/health/video-game-disorder-who/index.html I am so glad to see this, it explains one of my step adultkid and is something I have suspected for years. The other adultkid would fit if it was social media addiction. I look at it like alcohol, some people can knock back a few and then walk away, while others simply cannot. My son can. The step adultkids cannot. For my step adultkids it interferes with jobs, education, personal hygene, relationships, safety (almost burning the house down because they cannot stop staring at a screen to safely prepare food), and eating (cannot look away after placing food order and missing the dog barking like mad and the delivery oerson banging on the door, they frequently have to call to get their attention, they are not far from the door.)