Update on post #169 :) This is a very serious question. Dh and I have differing opinions. This is for a 4th of July event. There will be people here from 6PM until after 10PM. Lots of food and drinks involved (non-alcoholic). We expect at least 100 people, likely more. We have a half bath downstairs, a full bath that is in our bedroom, but we plan on locking that room. There is another full bath upstairs, but again, we will likely close off the upstairs. There will be people here that we do not know personally. So, basically one bathroom unless it was an emergency. Also, we are on a septic tank system, not a sewer.

I've gotten that one too. Standing right there and some old guy was talking about someone he knew..."She was a big gal" he looks over at me "Like you" and kept right on going without realizing how close he was to getting kicked...lol.

Well, dh and I don't fight. We went 15 years with hardly a blip on the fight radar, then we had one that ended in us living in separate houses! I don't know what the answer is to that one. We just aren't fighters. I'm one to stuff everything away, and it isn't healthy.

Up until recently, I looked much younger than my age. I'm catching up. I hit puberty pretty early and looked grown by 12 or 13. Everyone thought I was 16 or 17. But then I continued to look 16 or 17 well into my late 20s/early 30s. I had people give me a hard time constantly because they thought I was a teen mom with three kids. (I was 20 when I had my oldest). I still don't really look like I'll be 40 next year in my face. My gray hair is a giveaway though. I'm also starting to wrinkle around my eyes quite a bit, but my glasses hide that.

Try going back to college. I DO have gray hair. It was really weird to me because in most of my social circles, I'm the youngest of the group. Then suddenly I'm in an environment where even the professors refer to me as Ms. Apryl because they are unsure if I'm older than them or not..lol.

Regardless of what he might say, mine definitely would remarry. He likes women (not in a womanizer kind of way), he doesn't do well alone, and he knows he'd have my blessing to remarry. If I go before him, I hope he does, and I hope he doesn't wait a terribly long time.

As for how you were raised.. My own parents divorced when I was 3. My mom married my step-dad before I was 5, and they were married for 15 years before she passed away. I watched him stick with her through nightmare trials. He was a good man. Dh's parents have been married for nearly 50 years. I think we've had good examples of how to stick it out through tough times. I don't think we've had very good examples at how to be happy in a marriage. Dh and I have been together since I was 15 and he was 18. I was only 16 when we got married, and we have been together for 23 years. The people we are now are not the people we thought we'd be 23 years ago. We were even separated and just a court date away from divorce about 8 years ago, but we ended up back together. The past 8 years haven't been bad. I'm in a weird place personally right now though. Peri-Menopause, a dh with chronic pain, pending empty nest...lots of things that make you evaluate your life.

My dh searched around and ended up buying a 2002 Impala for our dd. I'm not sure why he landed on that, but he felt it would be a safe car for her. It has been a decent car. He's a former mechanic though, and was able to check out the engine stuff pretty thoroughly.

I don't think any of my kids would have churned out anything worth reading given those parameters. One of them would have just frozen up and cried.

Also, be aware that the really big canners may not do as well if you have a smaller electric range. The one I have took forever to reach the correct pressure when we lived in our rental with a smaller electric stove. It does beautifully now on our gas range. I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/All-American-2-Quart-Pressure-Cooker-Canner/dp/B00004S893/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1430663229&sr=8-3&keywords=all+american+pressure+canner I wish I'd gotten the taller one, but other than that, I've been pleased with it.

I do not love it. I do not love having to make every single decision based on how it impacts his life. I do not love feeling guilty if I'd rather not spend time with him. I do not love having his input on things that don't need his input. At this point in my life, I'm not a fan of physical intimacy, so I don't love that he needs that. What do I love? My husband. I love that he is a good man that is committed to our marriage and will be here through good times and bad. (and we've had a lot of both) I love that he puts up with me. This is why I'd probably never remarry. I'm fully aware of how much I dislike sharing my life, even with the person I love most in the world. I don't know that I'd put another man through that..lol.

My dh knows my feelings on this. I've told him repeatedly that if he dies before me, I'm replacing him with a giant, scary looking dog. He's good with that. However, I am 99% sure he would remarry, and probably fairly soon after I died. He doesn't do well by himself. I've even talked to my girls about not being bitter and hateful towards a new wife because their dad would need her. (This comes from the hell my mom's family put my step-dad through after she died. He was a man that didn't do well alone, and her sisters thought it was a complete travesty that he even looked at another woman.)

I voted depends, leaning towards no. I love my husband. I don't particularly like being married. I can't imagine wanting to give that much of my life to another person again. I'm bull headed with quite an independent streak.

I would rather mow any day. Not a fan of that frozen white plague. I'd rather do just about anything than have to work out in the freezing cold. ETA: we've lived in MN (brr!) and in the south...and currently have 3 acres to mow/weed/maintain. Still would rather deal with the green stuff.

If YOU aren't dreaming of chickens and canning, then stay far, far away from that idea. I was mostly on board with my dh on moving out to the country and having a little farm. Now that I'm here, I miss the city. A lot. If I had moved here to appease my MIL, I'd probably go over the deep end. Bigger houses=more to clean. I've lived in both small and large houses, and it is easier to keep a smaller house clean if you don't have a lot of clutter.

I hear ya. My dd has ONE week of school left. She's been turning in garbage for her English Comp. class at CC (DE). It is ticking me off because this is my WRITER!!! Even her professor is getting frustrated. She'd better not get a D in that class. :smash: Also, she's trying to find a job. Kind of. It is a frustrating process to say the least. Plus senior presentations at church, graduation dinners, my OWN finals at school, AND throwing in the birthday for my younger two in two weeks. :willy_nilly:

For our family, I have always taught that people are just people, no matter their skin color or culture. They are humans just like you and me. No better, no worse. And that you cannot judge someone by the actions of another, even if they are from the same culture, ethnic group, etc. I've taught them to appreciate the beauty of a person from their actions, and that physical beauty comes in all shapes and colors. I've also taught them that there are some horribly ugly people (in actions) out there from all backgrounds and cultures. I think I've done pretty well with my girls. They absolutely see people as equals without regards to their skin or ethnicity, and they get righteously angry when someone tries to act or say otherwise. I live in a pretty racist area. It is disgusting, and usually comes from years of distrust and ignorance. The people going on and on about one race obviously have never bothered to glance at their own lives. I will be honest. All of this PC stuff like a kid not even being able to refer to another kid as black, brown, or whatever (but the opposite of referring to someone as white is ok?!) is just making things worse. So many things are being labeled as racist or bigoted that I feel like I have to walk around and treat everyone like some androgynous, colorless clone of everyone else. I feel like I can't even complement someone about anything if they aren't a middle aged white southern woman without someone thinking I have some racist agenda behind it. It makes me so sad, and so frustrated.

Poor kid! All of my suggestions you've already covered, except taking Advil a day or so BEFORE symptoms start. But that won't do her any good right now :(

I have to say, I'd have gone all scary redneck momma if that had been my son. I don't hit my kids, but all three of mine agreed that they wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if I wholloped them upside the head if they were caught in a similar situation. She was a mama bear, terrified for her son, who is bigger than her, and got him out of that situation in the most effective way she knew how. I would totally smack my kid around if it meant saving his life. And yes, we need many more parents out there willing to to the same. So many of these rioters were young people that should have had parents and grandparents dragging their behinds home.

I am in my last week of College Math at our CC. Although I placed higher, I didn't need much for math for my degree, so I picked the easiest class I could and still get the credit. I was floored at how basic it is, and the kids in that class are STILL struggling. You can see the teacher's frustration every class. These kids can do nothing but plug things into a graphing calculator. They don't know there are 90 degrees in a right angle, or that there are 12 inches in a foot. They cannot multiply, or find basic square roots. It takes them all twice as long to program problems into their fancy calculators than it does for me to do it with a pencil. It is sad. One girl I talked to said she'd NEVER been taught some of these things in high school. She felt dumb. She's not dumb...how can she know what has never been taught? I'm so glad that I made my kids do math without the programmable calculators. It is crippling people, mathematically.

Sometimes toddlers make ME want to snap at them, so understanding that dogs are often uncomfortable around them isn't a stretch for me..lol. But in all seriousness, there are way too many people that expect a dog to not act like a dog around small screechy, flailing balls of energy. I wish there were more people like you that took the time to learn about it, and more people that were proactive about preventing a dog from snapping. Our JRT does not like small children. We take care to kennel her when there are small kids here.

I don't really know what the appropriate answer is. My 18 year old will not usually prepare anything for herself, and often dinner is the only meal she eats. The food is available, she just doesn't care or get hungry enough to make it and eat it. I don't cook for her, and our schedules definitely don't work for a family meal other than dinner. I don't fight her over it. My almost 20 year old niece is similar. She has always eaten like a bird. When left to her own devices will eat very little, and won't bother to cook for herself.

((Oh Tap)) What a nightmare! I hope you've heard from her already.

The Giant Chewy Sweet Tarts. However, I was a weird kid and my absolute favorite (even over candy) was beef jerky and a V8..lol.

I voted yes, but only if there was no one home. Including the dog. I cannot sleep in if other people are up moving around. Going to bed early isn't as hard for some reason. My dh is up by 5:30 or 6 no matter what the day, and once he is up I find it hard to sleep.