I clearly did not express myself well last post and I apologize. I was not attacking her or her family. I am leaving forum.

I

Don't want to argue

My dd got married last year. They didn't do favors. The majority of her peers also did not. Personally I am relieved, I have never received a wedding favor that I wanted. I have seen individually wrapped cookies done (bakery or home made) and always thought that was nice. Is your dd attached to giving favors?

FERPA is super important for the tuition side of things. I never once looked at my kids grades or anything academic, and I had one go to college full time living away on campus at age 15. My opinion is they should be independent academically once they are in college UNLESS they have special needs. But the privacy stuff also applies to finances. So if you are paying tuition and need to ask what x or y bill is for, they cannot tell you unless your student has signed the financial FERPA. Ask me how I know 😛 Meal plans at my kids colleges were extortionate, as were buying meals one at a time in the dining hall. There were many fast food options on-campus, as well as within walking distance off-campus. But being the tightwad that I am, I would have given my kids a monthly allowance for food and they could use it how they chose. If they chose to pack lunches from home and save it, or whatever. Because my students lived on campus they were required to have a meal plan. With our son we probably broke even, with our girls we definitely lost money on that. My kids colleges required a sexual assault prevention seminar and something about drinking/drugs. They had to complete these before they could register for classes. Pay attention to all the dates for everything.

Your county cooperative extension office may be a good resource to look up and perhaps even contact. Where I live the cooperative extension will come to your house and make recommendations

Twenty four years ago we sold everything that we owned and moved to a different continent. Three children, 10 suitcases and that was all we owned. Over those 24 years we have, of course, accumulated the stuff that goes with raising a family, though we are frugal and definitely under-consumers. I had no memorabilia from my own childhood because of my parents transcontinental moves. So I had a desire to preserve some memories for my children. I think I did it reasonably, and when they left home they looked through it all and chose what they wanted to keep for themselves (and take away with them to their own houses!) and I kept a few things that were important to me. This all worked fine in a 2000 sq ft house.. Four years ago we downsized to 1000 sq ft and it was HARD to let things go. We did downsize stuff a lot, I'm good at selling, donating, etc. But we still had way too much stuff for the new space. It has taken me 4 more years to finally reach the 'right' amount of stuff. And again, I'm definitely an under-consumer! But I do feel a lot free-er with this amount and housekeeping is MUCH easier. I feel I've still been able to give my children the memorabilia I wanted them to have a choice to have. We focus much more on experiences with our adult children now. My own mother has watched my process and done a good deal of purging of her own, so that's been good. I absolutely love to see things used and it gives me joy to pass things on in the chain of useful service. I have been able to see my grandson wear my son's first shoes, a favorite pair of pajamas from age 3, play with toys and books that were my kids'. I know that having less stuff means that I know where these treasures are and can pull them out at the right time. Each adult child has received a childhood quilt, my grandson sleeps under the quilt that my son slept under until he went to college. So sweet.

We've had one for several years. My husband and I share it. He rides 45 minutes each way to work. I use it for errands around town. Get a good lock, spend the money. In my state in the US, an electric bike requires supplemental insurance-it is not covered by our homeowners insurance or our car insurance. The insurance is for liability that might be ours while riding the bike. For example, if someone swerved to avoid me on my bike, and they hit a wall and it was found that I was at fault, the bike insurance pays those damages. We chose to buy from a shop that only sells electric bikes and they do all the servicing and maintenance in-house. Many shops that sell electric bikes are just a middle man, they cannot service the bike or do repairs, so it's really no better than ordering it online. After-purchase support is a big item to look for. Not that it has needed a lot at all, but it does need yearly tune up and we've put enough miles on it that there have been a few repairs. We bought some good baskets-handy for running errands. We've made some friends through chatting with other electric bike owners, which is fun.

I'm sorry. My heart is with you. I'm in the middle of a big health thing and answers are muddy. And I live with constant debilitating fatigue. I also feel so sad, so hearing yours made me want to reach out to you. Just sitting with you in spirit.

Just what I thought too. He became King so late. His mother became Queen so young.

Thank you so much! This is what I needed, all these little variations that are possible. I've never seen the liver specialist that I'll see on Wednesday, but I have a LOT of questions for him. My regular GI deals with my UC, but he's not a liver specialist so he asked this guy to come in. And the rheumatologist rounds out the group. I have most contact with my regular GI and I think this is outside of his experience. Hearing your experience enables me to ask better questions. I sure hope I'm less jittery after these first few days. This is my first go around with a major autoimmune disease. Before this I was playing in the minor leagues with UC.

Thanks for the food info. I had cut out sugar entirely before this. I'm really working to up my protein as I know it's a blood sugar stabilizer. It's a good thing it's spring. If I do nothing else I will walk and garden every day.

It's my first question for the liver specialist on Wednesday. When does my taper start.

Yep. Fever is a resp infection that just decided to pile in as well. It's good times here!

I'm scheduled to go in for labs once a week so I won't worry about it. That's not long enough to have any desperate problem, since I started out low and don't eat any sugar (some gluten free carbs-homemade) or any processed foods. Due to what feels like a thousand food allergies I make 100% of my food from scratch.

I'm 2 days in. I don't know what the plan is for length of time. The bottle is a 60 day supply so I don't think it'll be a short burst. I feel terrible. Quite low mood, definitely wondering if I made the right decision, thinking I do not have enough support to do this. I only slept 60 minutes all of last night. I spiked a fever so spent half of the night shivering but woke after my 60 minutes sleep with red cheeks and glassy eyes. If insomnia persists, that's the end of this med.

I am incredibly thirsty. I usually have low to very low blood sugar. I'm curious what mine is doing now. I eat almost the same thing every day, with exact portion control.

I'm just starting into an unknown length time on high dose prednisone for autoimmune hepatitis. I feel terribler than terrible between the overwhelming fatigue from the disease and the nausea, too hot, jittery, tearful, etc, etc from the prednisone. Probably with an upper resp infection thrown in. I can see I'm going to need some distracting TV. I cannot handle anything sad or dark even at my best, and this is NOT my best. I like Gilmore Girls, some HGTV (but can't watch too much or I start hating my house), Modern Family, Survivor, Amazing Race, just to give some ideas. I would dearly appreciate some recommendations. Thank you!

I have one and love it. It's 'my' chair, the family doesn't sit in it. I have a bad back from a couple of injuries. Sitting on couch or regular recliner is painful after a short time. I do not have any back pain at all in the stressless. Every person who sits in it loves it. I'm 6'0" tall and I got the large because it was the right seat depth. It is not a style I would have chosen, but the comfort cannot be beat. I've had it for 7 years or so and it still looks like new. It also reclines farther than a regular recliner so it's better to sleep in if that's needed (with footstool). Mine swivels but does not rock. Some swivel and rock.

That is so interesting and I'm glad it worked for you.

BTDT. I know a lot of people need to clean up their diet. I do find it distressing though that one person resolves her disease and she wholly attributes it to her diet. Not scientifically, just anecdotally. She's an MD but her specialty is psychiatry and it was apparently her partner who made up the diet. I'm not knocking anyone else's experience, just want to remind others that diet isn't always the answer. I watched my mother do that and it literally almost killed her. When she discovered western medicine at the age of 77, she has gained a new life. It's all about balance, I guess.

I've just been prescribed 40mg prednisone daily. Please don't tell me the horrors, my options are limited for treatment for a life shortening autoimmune disease. What I'm hoping for is how to survive this as best I can. Has anyone done it and learned any tips or tricks? It says take with a meal, so I'll do that. Any other helps? Any foods to avoid? Any lifestyle things that made it easier? I have heard some hard things so I'm nervous. Thank you

I have seen underwear advertised for bladder leaks, like period pants but for bladder leaks. Perhaps it would be less irritating on her skin. Not a whole solution but perhaps a tiny help? I know an elderly female with a catheter through her side. She had terrible bladder spasms and couldn't tolerate the other catheters.

We raised all of our children, boys and girls to be able to support themselves. One never ever knows what life will bring. My mother had a teaching credential and she kept renewing it until she was in her late 50's, even though she's been out of teaching for years and was married with a fully employed husband making good money. She and my dad always talked about it to us kids when she renewed her credential, that it was the prudent thing to do because one never knows. One of my girls didn't want to go to college and I said to her, you get a qualification of some kind so that you can earn a living. That's the bottom line. I did let my occupational therapy license lapse, but if I fulfill the continuing ed, I can get it back.

You've done exactly what I think should be done! Looked at what you can afford and gone with that choice. For some, an 'expensive' school is actually cheaper because of large scholarships. My bottom line is that kid goes where they/parents can afford. Which is how I hope my kids will make every large financial decision. Because it's easy to feel like we need more than we can afford, but good to live within our means. I will give my one disclaimer, there are a VERY few majors where what college you attended matters. But if we are very honest with ourselves, that's a tiny number of majors.