So utterly heartbreaking. To have to deal with such a tragedy in view of the public...I don't really know the answer to your question, but his obituary states that they are heartbroken and hope to someday understand the "hopelessness and silent evils that inflict a child's spirit." I do think that once the family has had some time to heal they will start speaking about depression & her supporters will follow. I think right now everyone is just following Heidi's lead, which seems appropriate.

We have 4 very distinct seasons here in Eastern Washington. Just when you start to get sick of it--the weather changes. I actually really enjoy the weather here :) but I've never lived any where else.

We recently got vinyl plank in our kitchen , office and down a hallway. Installation was easy and it looks nice but it scratches quite easily. As in, if you drag a dining room chair across it, it's going to leave a mark.

They named him Leopard Spots. Which, IMHO, is a terrible name for a snake. The species choices are: Rattlesnake, gardner/garden snake, or bull snake. Here he is near a penny, sorry it's blurry. I didn't feel like messing with my manual settings :D ETA: If you click through to that pic on Flikr & zoom in, you can see his pupils are definitely round. I sure hope no one gets any bright ideas to keep him.

I think the photos are misleading :) He's only 1/4" thick at his thickest. I tried to get a picture with a penny in the frame but the little bugger was so fast & I was just trying not to pee my pants out of fear. Getting a close up of his pupil would mean getting closer to him. Maybe DH will hold him so I can do that. He works at a tire store! In the middle of town! Surrounded by pavement. Apparently his coworker found another baby snake the day before and disposed of it. I'm not sure what kind of mama would decide that this was a good place to have babies. He really is kind of cute until he starts slithering around. The kids have named him. And have declared that I will be ousted from the family if I do not call him by name. So that's where I rank, in case I ever had any doubt. :lol:

DH, despite knowing how much I "adore" snakes :scared: brought home a little baby snake from work to show the kids. He & FIL are totally sure it's not a rattler, and I trust them...but I thought I'd get some second opinions. His markings look exactly like the picture posted here of a garden snake, but his head is a little darker. His head is a bit thicker than his neck, but it's not triangular shaped and I can't get a good look at his eyes, but they don't look elliptical. I'd just hate to be the idiots who welcomed a baby rattler into their home. *WARNING: SNAKE PICTURES* If you're so inclined, you can view bigger pictures in my flikr album (I think I have it set to Public). In the midst of taking pictures, the, uh, little fella decided to get all amped up or something. He's coiled and his tail is up. There are no signs of a rattle, but from what I've read they don't form a rattle until after they're first skin shed.

I use the Podcast Addict app.

I LOVED Serial! I also love Stuff You Should Know. Sometimes I listen to A Slob Comes Clean and I also enjoy the Read Aloud Revival. Elise Gets Crafty is good but I don't listen to every episode. Just discovered Mystery Show and it's fantastic.

It's called Mystery Show by Starlee Kine. She solves mysteries (so far, the ones I've listened to are light hearted)...the kind you can't solve by searching Google. The narration is great, the stories are interesting and even the sponsored ads are entertaining. Just thought I'd share :)

If it were me...I'd get my hands on some cash. NOW. I'm not saying clean out the accounts but....as of right now that money is yours and his. All it takes is for him to go to the bank, close the account, take the cash, and start an individual account. I'd beat him to the punch. Second, get a lawyer. Even if it was a 'moment of insanity', sweetie, you're not going to just bounce back from this. Going forward you need to get your name on the assets, too.

My DH's grandmother has been suffering from Alzheimers for the last 6 years or so. In that time, she's lost both a son and her husband of 60-something years. When she was told that her son had died, she thought he was still a young man and was, understandably, beyond devastated. Grandad died a few weeks ago, but the family has decided not to tell her. She wouldn't remember the next day and even just those few minutes of sorrow just isn't worth it. She just recently stopped recognizing my FIL. It is truly heartbreaking. I'm so sorry to all who are going through this with loved ones.

I just started using Gel Gloss and I want to marry it. After I applied it, finger prints and water marks just wipe off. It's awesome!

Awesome! Lots of things to try!! Thanks for all the recommendations! To be completely honest, I was a little worried that I would get a lot of "Vinegar works wonders!!!" I'm all for "natural" cleaners if we're just talking about upkeep, but I'm thinking this job calls for chemicals.

Let's say...hypothetically... that I have a friend ;) who doesn't stay on top of keeping her shower clean. She lets it go for too long & then when she does (finally!) get around to it she spends a long very time scrubbing only to have the shower still fall short of *sparkling*. And then she procrastinates cleaning it the NEXT time because well, the results just aren't worth it. :001_unsure: What would you recommend to said friend to 1) Get the shower nice & clean and 2) Use on a daily? weekly? basis to *keep* it clean? She's used Kaboom foam shower cleaner, Vinegar & Dawn dishsoap, baking soda, etc. It's a fiberglass shower stall with a textured bottom & it's proven especially difficult to get the grime out between the little texture granular knobbie things.

This was an article in Awake magazine a few years ago; it's archived online now. At the end, there's a "note to the surviving parent". It also makes scriptural references and touches on how some bible characters reacted to the death's of their loved ones. How Can I Cope With the Death of a Parent? I'm very sorry for the loss of your friend, and I think it's so kind of you to reach out to his son.

I find myself searching for threads I've read here at least once a week. I've gotten pretty good at using google search to find what I need & I'm usually able to find what I'm looking for, but I'd really like to be able to save entire threads to Evernote or something sometimes. How do you save the gems so you can find them again? I usually "follow" threads, but even that list is getting hard to navigate and I can't always remember if I participated in the thread (that would be under 'My Content') or if I just followed.

I decluttered my bathroom drawers yesterday so now my counter is almost completely empty! It looks so much better when I walk in the room! I haven't read "The Art of Tidying Up"...I think more in "zones" than individual categories & I'm not very sentimental about my stuff (no need to say "thanks" to stuff) so I don't know if I'd find it motivating or annoying LOL.

It seems to be working for me.

It is so interesting that on one hand they claim that the girls weren't "aware" (and therefore were not negatively affected) of what had happened and yet, one of those very girls is saying that she has every intention of "safeguarding" her daughters from her sons...who haven't even been born yet.

Instead of assigning meals to certain days, I just make a list of 7-10 meals before I go to the grocery store. That way if I don't feel like spaghetti when Monday rolls around, it's no big deal. I just choose from my list.

Maybe check out Mystie's Simplified Pantry, then! She sells a plan but I think she wrote a series on creating your own. http://www.simplifiedpantry.com/

Can you make a list of, say, 21 meals and just rotate them?

We use "down" and "off" differently. "Down" means lay down & stay there until I release you (we're still working on the stay there). "Off" means get your feet off. Off of me, off of the couch, off of the table.

I, too, prefer secular curriculum; I'm usually not the "right kind" of Christian for religious curriculum. I just got the 200 LA series & I had a couple of eye roll moments looking through it, but so far there isn't anything that's overtly offensive? Offensive isn't the right term but... Some things I observed: "The material in this book is the product of the Lord's blessing and many individuals working together at Christian Light Publications." "Language is a gift from God. Every Christian teacher wants her students to become good communicators for the glory of God...The ultimate goal in teaching language arts is to enable the child to receive God's truth & communicate it to others, whether through the spoken or written word" (this is just in the teacher's manual) It looks like at one point "Jesus" is a spelling word. Penmenship practice: "I love Jesus. He loves me." "Joseph lived with some unkind people. But he still loved God." "Children, obey your parents. Ephesians 6:1" The word "kill" is also a spelling word at one point :) There's the story of Jesus & the lepers where you find the beginning sentence of a story. Some of the given sentences for spelling words are religious. For example for "truthful" the sentence is "God smiles on the truthful child." But the teacher could easily change that. All in all, I'd say religion is sprinkled throughout it, rather than drenching it. I see no mention of heathens or hellfire or any other "triggers" (for me).

I ALWAYS show up 15 minutes early for appointments (it's a compulsion) and I ALWAYS regret it when I end up waiting over a half hour to be seen.