when electronics that are off still glow/have a light on. Our TV has a red light that means off.

Mine were purchased in 2005 and I'm not particularly concerned about them, but I do think it's something to be aware of when comparing the boots of today to ones people have in their closet. I have never once thought about resoling them. I didn't even know you could do that with them. Like I wouldn't even know who to take them to. I'd have to do a lot of research probably. There may be models with a zipper, but just not the particular ones I fell in love with. If she wants like a 14 eyelet or smaller, it may be less of a pain to lace. Nowadays lots of girls wear skinny jeans under their boots. I do not think they would fit under the boot very well. It would be very challenging for me to lace them closed with denim underneath. I can do it with leggings (I've done this with leggings + dress). I usually wear my boots under bootcut jeans or with some cargo capris. When I was in college I used to wear them with skirts a lot. They are unisex so it really isn't so much a man vs woman sizing thing as making sure you know which whole size to get. They don't usually offer half sizes. I remember it was hard for me to figure out my size. You can try them on at zappos and mail back but I'm not a huge fan of trying on shoes via mail. It was kind of a last resort thing as my retailers were limited. I fell in love with their wing-tipped shoes, but tried them on in the past in a store and they never fit my foot right (the hard tongue on the shoe stabbed me). We had a store called Craftsman's but I don't know if it's nationwide and it's hard for me to even find a website. You could maybe try Journey's.

I wouldn't count on Doc Martens being of the same quality now. Most are not made in England anymore and Nike owns them IIRC. I own two pairs. My beloved ones I got on ebay were ruined in Hurricane Katrina and I could never find that model again. They were so comfortable. They were a reddish color with a softer inside. The black ones I own are not like that inside. No arch support, either. I have two pairs. One pair has steel toes (pictured in my avatar) and a straight shaft. The other pair has a curved shaft that hugs the shape of your calf and no steel toe. The second pair looks a bit more feminine. I don't know enough about different boot brands to tell you what is best to get. I have narrow ankles and I have to wear thick boot socks and even go as far as to wear band-aids sometimes to prevent blisters. When I say boot socks, I don't mean just any socks that have a label "boot socks." I mean thicker at the bottom including above my ankles. They were a gift so I don't know what to link. Probably military grade. They might be too hot for your dd's feet, though. And definitely less toe room in the ones that don't have steel toe so the fit would maybe be too tight. I wear them once in a while, but they are a pain because they do not have a zipper. I lace mine over/under/over all the way up and really wish my laces were longer. Both pairs of mine are 20 eyelet. How tall you want them will be a significant factor in price. One of my pairs I think was $150. The other I think was around $130. I got them once in a shoe store and once from zappos. I actually feel kind of badly about my boots because they're real leather. But several vegan styles can be quite expensive. If you get leather I'd recommend shoe polish. I polish mine periodically.

I remember many years ago not knowing what camel toe meant and was too embarrassed to admit it. This girl was looking at a magazine with me and said something about the model. I remember looking at the model's feet and having no idea what I was supposed to be noticing haha

So glad she is okay.

Yes, in some ways Amazon has ruined me... I don't like to pay for shipping and I don't like to pay so much for items I know are less on Amazon. I got a flyer this week that my nearest B&N is having some teacher appreciation days in August. That's 25% off retail price. But that isn't a bargain on several of the items. I do think you should expect fast shipping when you pay for it. And complain if you don't get it. Maybe they can refund you some of it.

I have never lived in a home with a basement and I wish I had a slab foundation. Most of the homes here (or at least ones I look up online on the market) do not have slab foundation. I hate these dumb pier foundations. Ugh.

I don't see why the elevator has four pictures. Just one for open and one for close should be enough, right? I get tripped up inside the elevator sometimes... "wait, am I coming from ground, lobby, first floor..." so I know which button to hit to return. One of our remotes would confuse me and I drew the symbols and/or words back on with sharpie, but they rubbed off again :/

My dh is 100 lbs or so overweight and it does affect things. He was overweight when we met and I overlooked it, but he's gained more since then. I'm still attracted to him, but there was a time when I really struggled with the weight. Ds has asthma and it does affect things. I always pack his nebulizer when we leave town, except recently the ped. gave us a prescription for an inhaler. I worry more about him when we go certain places (around smokers). The coughing doesn't happen a lot, though. I don't know if that is strictly her asthma causing the cough?? I guess it depends on her environment. His is paired with allergies. I don't know if I'd call it shallow or not. You want people to be able to do things with you. If their weight or asthma prevents you from doing things together or getting their help with something it can be a damper. Dh complains about aches and pains which I think are definitely partly weight-related. He's tall and overweight and has issues with discs in his back and can't really bend over well and was told not to lift anything heavier than X pounds which means he's not even supposed to lift dd! He still does, but he shouldn't. I am having to do almost all the diaper changes because we don't use a changing table anymore and it's hard for him to help her. He goes on weight loss/exercise kicks but sometimes yo-yos. If I was seeking a relationship with someone I would be less concerned about the actual weight and more concerned about what are they doing about it/how do they feel about it? Are they wanting to change? Are they trying to eat better and/or exercise? Or are they content as they are? No concerns about it/no desire to change/no motivation to change = shorter time on earth and other obstacles. That is a bleak way to look at it, but yes that would cross my mind. Same goes for questions around asthma. Like are they a person with asthma that refuses to quit smoking? Is it going to progress to COPD or sleep apnea? Will they require a sleep mask at night? (I don't know how to sleep next to that and I know that's a shallow thing to bring up! When we visit family someone uses one and it's so noisy).

You made a new group for yourself, "from scratch" ;) I eat a variety of things, but cannot handle spicy and have issues with some dairy. I think I'm lactose sensitive. I'm thinking about attending a potluck on Friday. I read one of the recipes and it calls for two sticks of cream cheese. I thought best for me to avoid that dish.

I am not sure if the babysitting is happening while OP and her dh are in counseling of if they are unrelated visits. I would think that some of the visits are "unnecessary" as they are 4x a week and often with a sleepover somewhere in there. As someone with no local support system who is seeking marriage counseling herself I can say that I get the burden of the childcare thing. That is why I'm seeking out a sitter. I don't think Catwoman and I are trying to beat up the OP. Just pointing out that 4x a week + a sleepover seem excessive for a situation where there's a weird dynamic. Yeah, I had to rely on my MIL a few times to get me to a job because I had no one else. I get that sometimes you have to lean on people in ways you don't want to, but I doubt that 4 times a week is how many times the OP has appointments. So what is the OP getting out of this? Are they providing dinner or she just needs the break or what? OP, if you don't want to answer, that's okay. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around this. Maybe you grew up staying at your own grandparents' home often so it's the norm for you. I did not. I didn't do sleepover with grandparents, either. I think I just stayed over night when I was with one of my parents and we were visiting from out of state at that point in time. edit: ok I just saw the explanation about illness in the family. I guess I will have to go back and read some things I missed.

Yep, I found that funny. Maybe because of the weight of the item or something it's a bigger pain. :confused1:

This sounds so much like Gilmore Girls to me. They pay for the school so they expect to see Rory and her mom every Friday night for dinner. Well, don't let them pay for TKD and maybe you don't feel obligated to be there every week. I'm not really sure why you're there every week (4 times?!) if the visits aren't pleasant.

Bummer. We got two items from Targetdotcom around Christmas and they said I could keep it. I knew if I had to I could take it back to the store. I ended up gifting it to a boy in ds' class for the Christmas exchange. Sounds like he really liked it. A few people on the Instant Pot facebook page said two IPs arrived at their door when they ordered one!

As a family? Someone is usually hungry/has to use the restroom for us to stop. And it's usually just a drive-thru. But we're talking road trips, right? Well sometimes we've made mult. stops but usually short ones. There's this place that sells fried pies and ever since dh stopped there once I always ask if he'll stop LOL. Traffic was so bad we couldn't get over last time, but I wanted to get something for ourselves and my mom who we were on our way to see. I'll probably ask him about it next trip. We also often had a cat in the car and I felt bad keeping her cooped up longer than necessary. If we didn't send the cat litter via Amazon to our family's home we'd stop at the pet shop but that was about it. A couple times we did stop at this clothing/shoe store in the middle of no where. We browsed a bit and used it as a bathroom break. If I am not with dh I am known to pull over at a walmart as a restroom (and maybe snack) destination. I might even browse briefly. But in general pit stops like that aren't real fun with kids in tow! lol

Pick up lines feel recent to me, too. It's all foggy now, but I think my mom drove us sometimes. I do remember walking and not having a school bus to our home at my first elem. school. I don't recall a "pick up line" scenario, though. Like an organized thing with parents pulling up and teachers assisting. I think buses parked right out front (in jr. high) so not sure where parents were to go. But like I said it's all kind of a blur now. I don't remember really thinking about pick up lines til a few years ago when my mother-in-law told us about picking up the grandkids and sitting outside the school for 30 min. Then I experienced it for the first time when ds went to school and the school van solution fell through for us. Some of the adults involved could be quite rude (pull up!!) and a bit ignorant (trying to get my then 8 yr old in the front seat. Um no he sits in the back).

they don't say "verified purchase" on the review, do they? The only way that I could see that happening though is if they used a gift card and were logged into your computer.

Is this public or private school? Either way I'm thinking this is a clever way for the school to make money.

I'm too cheap. I'll wait :lol: Actually, our line wasn't too bad... I deliberately came early or late sometimes. Early because dd would nap in the car and I'd get some peace and quiet waiting for school to let out or late because ds wouldn't be organized or quick to get in the car at the speed the line demanded sometimes.

One time we started to compile a pantry order for Amazon, but dh decided against it. I guess it wasn't cheaper for us? I will take a look at Jet. My nearest Walmart doesn't offer grocery pick up, but another one we go to sometimes does and is near the Sam's we go to so technically we could probably pick up food from both quickly if we utilized it. I don't know what are better prices... in store or online on groceries. Never really looked that closely.

I don't know what mold I fit in here. I am a "highly sensitive person" (HSP) according to the book, but I don't cry or get emotional over everything, either. Like I don't think I cried when I saw The Notebook? I didn't particularly like it, either. I have cried at work a couple of times. Ugh. I cried one time a guy yelled at me in the drive-thru and refused to pay before getting the food (only one window was open at that hour so he was supposed to pay and get food at same window). Then the jerk drove off without paying. I don't think he was armed or anything, but I don't like conflict like that. In the examples of a nasty note or someone yelling at me in traffic, I guess it would depend on if it was really jarring or something easily to dismiss as to how worked up I got about it. And how emotional I was when it happened. I can get tense in driving situations. My grandma couldn't physically cry I think in her older age. She said something one time like, "I would cry right now if I could" when something happened, but I think she meant that literally she could not cry. Maybe has to do with tear ducts. Dh showed me some dog commercial... probably Hachi. It was sad, but I didn't cry. Maybe because I don't own a dog. When I was pregnant with ds I tried to watch Finding Nemo and I started crying within the first few minutes so had to turn it off.

The discount only works on certain items. I think it worked once for me since the program started? I end up at WM a few times a month so I usually don't mind doing pick up to avoid shipping costs.

I don't know if it counts as saving yet because I keep buying! But I've been buying stuff on sale for later. Toys R Us had the Calico Critters cozy cottage on sale and they gave me $5 store credit despite canceling part of my order. So that brought the price of the cottage down some more and I decided to buy it and store it away for either dd's birthday or Christmas. Meanwhile I got an exclusive Groupon offer which I found while searching my mailbox with the word groupon or toys r us. It said $20 Toys R Us gift card for the cost of $10. So I bought one and it won't expire for some time so that is being set aside most likely for Christmas shopping in late Nov/Dec (check your email if you think you got one. Offer expires today I believe). Periodically Best Buy puts the dynex portable chargers on sale for like $2-$3. Right now they have a bunch (car, wall and portable) on sale so I'm trying to figure out who would use one and buy a few as Christmas gifts. Even possible office gifts for dh's coworkers this year. I kinda want to figure out who has an iphone so I know if I should get the matching cord. I'll go inside the store with my Shopkick app and get some points for visiting the store/scanning items plus points for the purchases by having them scan the app barcode at checkout. That is if I make it over that way before the sale ends. I have a $10 Walmart giftcard pending from ebates. I bought some school supplies there recently so I told dh the gift card will go toward groceries. I'm getting closer to a gift card on Swagbucks. I'm not sure if I'll redeem the Amazon one or the Barnes & Noble one. There's a book I want at B&N for ds and with the gift card + educator discount it's quite a good price. It's a leather bound Greek mythology book, but I think it only has four stories. B&N is next to the Apple camp where ds is attending this week so I'll be there already. dh earned two Amazon gift cards recently with ibotta. We found out our router is failing so he used them toward the cost of a new one. I'm researching more apps to see what else I can do. I've been very good with scanning our receipts for Savings Catcher the last several weeks. We have a tiny bit of cash back there. And I'm looking into something called Fetch Rewards. Sometimes I will deliberately order things online for store pick up to get cash back credit for online shopping. I think we really need to consider doing this for groceries. We have not tried it yet and I don't remember if there's a fee at Sam's Club.

While I find that very noble, I don't think your high school kids are latchkey kids. They are teenagers, not young children coming home to an empty house. Not sure if that makes it better to you but given the situation and their ages they probably understand. I don't know if you're going to get a second job but unless you're working nights I don't think it's that odd for you to not see them for a couple of hours after school.

You know this has a lot to do with layout, too. I've been inside drastically different one bedroom layouts. One had a dining room and hallway. The other had a bar rather than a dining room. No true hallway and the layout didn't offer much room if you wanted to put bar stools there as they would kinda clutter up walkway. When someone suggested a roommate earlier they probably mean for a larger place rather than having a roommate in the 2 bedroom? I don't know if a roommate would offset the cost enough to warrant a third bedroom and if I didn't know anyone I wouldn't be super eager to have a stranger move in.