This is the item. I think for the price it should be worthwhile despite no many reviews. https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/3758022/Lenovo-IdeaPad-S145-Laptop-156-Screen/fromLocalBrowse=false

The one I picked above is in store only and not available at any stores around me. So, I looked up a similar machine (that was in stock at Office Depot when I went. There was no display but the employee talked to me). The price dropped since yesterday. And I can get 5% back from buying Office Depot gift cards on ibotta. Ibotta wouldn’t let me buy more than $250 in gift cards on one day. I’ll buy the remainder after midnight I guess. Then order and drive to the store for pick up within 5 business days. The item is discontinued but I got a Lenova rep (hadn’t thought to do that til Lanny mentioned reps) to find me the original listing and reviews because on office depot’s site they only had 7 comments. There were several reviews and an overall good rating on the original Lenova site listing. The processor is more than enough but within my budget and I hope to use it for years. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-100-series/Lenovo-IdeaPad-S145-15AST/p/88IPS101207 Bulky is all I’ve had so really any of these are gonna be less heavy. The current dell and the dinosaur hand-me- down Mac here are massive. The Mac has no trade in value and you can’t even upgrade the browser so it’s only good for a few web searches. The laptop I’m getting has a “Radeon Vega 10 Graphics” component which I think some didn’t have. It was $480 last night and $450 today. After tax roughly $481. Gift cards save me $24. Probably won’t qualify for Rakuten savings since I’m using gift cards but it might. Total out of pocket will be roughly $457. I’m willing to do that because of the specs and reviews. I might one day buy a monitor and use the laptop as the brain at home but for now I’m going with this. They do sell a nice wave ergonomic keyboard at Sam’s club I could use if I need to use something more comfortable. I just don’t know how to sit close to the laptop with an extra keyboard. The original would be in my way and I’m not interested in the snap off tablet/keyboard devices. Something to ponder another day. oh great. As I’m typing this I see that discontinued Lenova link they sent isn’t the same model. It has different specs for SSD. Good grief! Are there any other places find this model and reviews 🤦🏽‍♀️ I couldn’t find any.

I contacted Lenova and the closest match they gave me only had 128 SSD. A friend found this on slick deals. I’m leaning toward this. I’m realizing to get all I want without so many mixed reviews I’ll probably have to spend over $400. A few bad reviews but overall good. https://www.officedepot.com/mb/skupage/reviewList.do?skuid=3910514

I am looking for a laptop because I travel with it sometimes. I have been working remotely for the most part, but there are occasions I need it at my dad’s etc. Just based on personal experience, it would not be good for me to rely on borrowing his machine. Since I paid for only one copy of Affinity Designer and it enables you to install on 2 devices, I’d like my second copy to be mobile. The first copy is on a defunct machine. Could I maybe just boot that one up long enough to uninstall it? Would I then be able to freely have the 2 copies? I also was leaning toward laptop in case I want to move it around the home and (couch, bed etc). and to save space. the machines I looked at were to give me an idea of what exists and see it in person. I mainly just looked at their displays (as opposed to all the boxes in cages). I did visit the Dell site and Asus site as well and did not find what I wanted. The price points were no better it seemed. I’m hesitant about Dell I suppose because of the junky one I’m using now. The same goes for refurbished. To be fair it’s sometimes hard to filter results. You can do price but then will have to sometimes click to see oh this model is only 4G.

*update down thread* I’m looking for a laptop. Budget under $500. Ideally closer to $400. I need it to run Affinity Designer and similar (basically poor man’s photoshop) and handle word processing and web use. I do prefer a 10 key on keyboard (seems to only apply to 15” and larger). I’m trying to determine if I need an intel core 5 or Ryzen 5 as opposed to intel 3 or Ryzen 3. There’s another one I’ve seen but I don’t know anything about the other (AMD athlon gold). I need a good SSD for speed (something like 256) and 8-16 GB rather than 4. If a 3 is strong enough, I heard rayzen 3 > intel 3. I thought I had landed on a winner but the reviews are so mixed. I need the computer for work. I’ve been surviving on ds’ $60 refurbished Dell laptop that crashes multiple times a day on me. Ds uses a chromebook from his school when he needs to do school work. I looked at soooo many computers today. Online and offline. New Egg, Tiger Direct, Target.com, Walmart on and offline, Office Depot, Best Buy, Costco and Sam’s Club. We don’t have Staples here. The ones I was sorta interested in at Best Buy were all sold out with no restock in sight. Their cheapest open box item for my needs was over $800. I looked at 2 possibilities at Office Depot, a Lenovo and an Asus. One is just online but specs were good. I looked at hp at Walmart but the price point wasn’t much better than similar items. Some of the asus items had this extra graphics sticker but that’s not always listed on the specs. The employee said it would be on the box (it wasn’t on the placard). They aren’t always listed on the web description though. Or I’m blind. The sticker on the display says AMD Radeon graphics. Those stickers aren’t visible in website images. In short, if you or someone you knows uses a laptop for a similar type of program(s), do you have any insight on min requirements? Happy with a certain brand? I know the brand may not matter. example of items I’ve looked at: http://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-VivoBook-17-3-FHD-Display-Ryzen-3250U-Processor-8GB-DDR4-RAM-256GB-PCIe-SSD-Windows-10-Home-Transparent-Silver-M712DA-WH34/808830361 https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/3758022/Lenovo-IdeaPad-S145-Laptop-156-Screen/ https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/8487843/ASUS-VivoBook-15-Laptop-156-Screen/fromLocalBrowse=false other factors that could be relevant - I have a $45 gift card for Walmart/Sam’s. Office Depot has a store card that offers 6 mo no interest payments (Best buy has one for 12 months). I have a target card so that’s 5% off but I didn’t see anything I wanted on their site. Amazon offers payments sometimes but I didn’t see anything great. I want to get one soon. Not sure if deals will be better Presidents Day. thanks

I don’t know, either. But we both work in summer even though Dh is at a school. At this point I have more questions than answers and no one can really answer them.

I think around here they only have after school care. We ran into this obstacle when I interviewed for a teacher assistant job once. They wanted me on campus at 6:45 am and I couldn’t take dd to a daycare by my home and then drive 40 min to the job with those hours. And I wasn’t familiar with any daycares near that school in the boonies. We only had one car at that time. At the private school where kids currently are they take a van both ways. Private school is expensive, though. Part of the reason we have debt from the past. The court hearing is in our county so the judge is more than aware of the school and job obstacles here I think at least.

I can’t explain the whole story here, but just know it’s complicated and there is literally no housing in dh’s town. Like maybe a sketchy apartment that Dh wouldn’t even let us move near because of gun activity. I have spoken to several real estate agents, called landlords. If I stay near him there is no work close to me that will support me. I don’t get how anyone can do drop off pick up with normal work hours. Most schools won’t let you drop off before a certain time and then you’d be late to your job. Or won’t keep the kids long after school and you rush after work. But maybe there’s a way.

It’s very complicated/lots of factors. I originally looked for housing closer to Dh but there are other obstacles.

My biggest concern is how do you share kids if you live in different cities and they are in school? It’s just not logical to me. I know Dh would want me to just get 2 weekends a month and keep kids in private school/live with him. But I’m not on board with that. Nothing makes sense. I’ve read about splits (3 days here/4 days there) but again not logical during a school week.

The good part about my mom is she is no longer suffering. Her ability to speak went in and out with Parkinson’s but she was able to tell me she loved me during one of my trips to see her. I was with her in the hospital when she passed. She was very religious and died on All Saint’s Day. I went to the funeral as did one sister. We got the church to use their live streaming equipment to stream the service for the sister in England. The service is hosted on YouTube, actually so others were able to view it as well. I know I won’t be homeless. I found some possible places but I want to do more than make ends meet. I need enough to save, pay debt, etc. If necessary I’ll apply for SNAP but my kids outaged WIC. I don’t think I’ll need to apply, though. I think I’ll be ok. I was a little discouraged that one interview I had was a complete waste of everyone’s time (different librarian job... they had a lot of applicants and many had library degrees. Totally fine but why interview me at all then only to point that out?). Their library is open weird hours, anyway and didn’t pay a whole lot.

Hey. well I’m ok but life is very messy right now. I got served nasty divorce papers in late Oct. My mom died Nov. 1. They messed up her headstone and my dad is trying to correct it (“she was loved by all” ended up “she was always loved”). Dh and kids went to his mom’s for Thanksgiving. I hosted one at our place and my sister, aunt, and father came. Kids and Dh ate leftovers with us on Black Friday. Hearing was scheduled Dec 8 but my lawyer couldn’t make it that day and I preferred to not have it around the holidays. It got rescheduled for March. I’m just in limbo regarding everything. Custody, where to live, what phone plan to get, you name it. I’m working my 2 part time jobs and planning to secure something FT because my current income isn’t enough to live on. I’m keeping the cat. That’s about all I know lol Saving my money to pay lawyer fees and plan for move + furniture or whatever. I probably shouldn’t post much but none of that info is news to dh. I haven’t looked at the board in a while so I’m out of the loop on what’s new with everyone. Thank you for thinking of me.

I just lost my mom, too (Nov. 1). Sorry to hear of your loss. We kept visitation short and put up signs at the church saying “masks required (ask if you need one)” and had disposable ones available plus the church’s hand sanitizer. Our visitation was in the actual church so just one building. That particular church does not enforce masks but we were in agreement to require it and made our own signs. Choir did not have to wear them while in the choir area. Not a lot of people attended. It went smoothly. in your case, you could try putting up a sign. But, I wouldn’t fret about requiring the kids to miss school. I stayed longer and dh brought the kids to town for just one day. We are a 3.5 hr drive. He drove down Tuesday night for the Wed funeral and they returned to class Thursday. Dd didn’t attend but Ds did. They sat in the family reserved pew near my sister but all wore masks. Obviously it will be harder to enforce if family is not going to but the signs may help.

I would probably lean into my child's ear and say that they need to get in the pool now. Remind them they are holding up the class. If they couldn't comply then I guess that's when we'd leave. As a witness, seeing what was described (child's reaction, etc.), I wouldn't worry.

I would seek out the (or a) psychiatrist. I have seen a few therapists, but the ones that do talk therapy (at least the ones I've dealt with) are not the ones that write scripts and vice versa. I now see a psychiatrist and he gave me lexapro for my anxiety and depression. I have been taking it a few months now and I have a lot less anxiety. It really helped with the depression as well. So, if you are looking for a medication I would seek out a psychiatrist. If not the one she recommended, then another one. I am not saying stop talk therapy, but if you are seeking something for your anxiety I would pursue a psychiatrist. I'm under the impression you have not seen the psychiatrist yet? And depending on the expertise of your therapist, I don't know if they are as good at diagnosing. Personally, I think I would let my therapist go and also inform her that there was something wrong with my child. But I'm not sure if I would ever have a chance to follow up or if I would just stop going.

After all that I guess I'd be saying, "good riddance" on some level. But also thinking she may have been brainwashed by her new man/family and that she will regret her choices later.

My toddler is still like this to an extent. We co-sleep and sometimes she'll get out of bed looking for me. This morning she came to the kitchen and said, "Mama, you go back night night with me!" Ha. I took her up on that before, but if it's not the middle of the night then she's pretty much bluffing lol. Luckily she didn't get up looking for me when I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but that's happened before, too! This is why I usually do not try to shower unless dh is home.

Between now and then maybe you could find something useful on YouTube? I wouldn't know what I was doing, either

Oh man, one time I got stuck watching a crime scene (tv show, not the news at least) while I was trying to eat. GROSS!!! I think some other patrons got a waitor's attention and he changed the channel. You know, after I had seen some body parts or whatever. I complained to dh about tvs in restaurants and he said he liked it. Ds and I ate in a Burger King recently and the employee was zoned out. Later I realized he was looking at a TV across the room.

I think you can look at it different ways. I also thought it sounded kinda relaxing and less stressful. Although funds are part of the reason we limit what activities the kids are involved in, I do not envy those that have something planned several days of the week, week after week. Makes me exhausted just thinking about it. Nowadays when we go out dd informs me she wants to go home. Ds doesn't get particularly excited about going anywhere (well, maybe the movies). When I was a kid I played basketball some years, but not all. In high school I was not in any extracurricular activities after 9th grade (they made it a requirement to put basketball as a class period when I entered 10th and I had other electives that I needed to take like keyboarding. By the time my schedule cleared up I felt like I was too out of shape/practice to try out). I put off driver's ed til my senior year. I didn't have a particularly exciting social life as a kid/teen. But I also didn't get into situations that some of my peers did (not judging, just saying I think I dodged a bullet).

I didn't see my state (BCBS) listed on American Well :(

I was under the impression he only asked via texts, which can simply be ignored.

Ouch. I think it's kind of weird the brother thing excuses it. Don't call it a paid job if it's not a paid job. Simple. I would be so irked. But I don't think I always handle things well. I would ask my dh to mention it in person. Texting is not the same. My dh is waiting for a response from someone to look at our non functional car. It's been months. I asked dh to ask about it in person. He says he's too busy. This kind of crap irks me. A spouse not following up on stuff and the other spouse left feeling helpless because it's not their place.

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Thanks for posting. I asked once but didn't get a reply. It might be easier for us than getting a sitter to go to counseling. I'm going to investigate.