My dh prefers a bike, so we bought him a FitDesk. I like everything about it except the seat. Buy a new seat, get a new cover for the existing one, or make your own because the one it comes with will hurt your tushy!

I'm sorry anyone called you, "stupid". :crying: I could get over not eating my favorite treat, but to be called that? I'd be crushed. I'm so very sorry. :grouphug:

Actually, this is a lesson I learned today. :o So many times I want to do something for someone, but then I fear I'll mess it up somehow, so I end up doing nothing. That is probably a big reason why I came on here to ask what others thought, because surely I was about to mess it up and someone would stop me if I was! Well, I'm glad to know I wasn't going to mess things up and you all assured me of that. Meanwhile, the story of today's simple act of kindness has already shown more fruit since I last updated and I think this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship with our neighbors! :blush: **So here's the update** Shortly after I posted my last update, my neighbor came to my door and knocked. I couldn't answer the door, because I was nursing a newborn. She had something in her hand, but I didn't know what it was or what it could possibly be. A few hours later, my dh came home and I asked him to go over there to let her know we weren't ignoring her. He did. She was overwhelmed by the gesture, to say the least, and kept telling him how she wanted to meet me. She was sorry we hadn't met sooner and apologized for this. She expressed her gratitude over and over, while holding back tears and telling him little tid bits about her daughter. She handed him what she had initially brought over, which was her daughter's funeral pamphlet. She said she normally wouldn't give this to just anyone, but was so touched by what we did that she wanted us to have it. I must say, this was the most beautiful funeral pamphlet I had ever seen, and really touched my heart as to how well it was done. I cried my eyes out reading about her life, seeing all her pictures, and completely lost it reading the letter her mother and father wrote to her. So beautiful and so sad. :crying: For her to have given me this pamphlet with such intimate details really touched me in a very deep way, because ladies, she has refused to even look at me since her daughter died. Now she wants to meet me beyond a hand wave from ages ago? I'm in shock, but I'm also in awe that such a small act of kindness broke down this very obvious brick wall between us that seems to have been demolished instantly. I'm not sure what kind of beginning this is, but it is clearly going to be something good. I'm so blessed! :001_wub: Truly, it is more blessed to give than to receive. For all of you who said this blessed you today, I encourage you to go out and do something like this, too. Pass it on. You won't regret it! :thumbup: ***On a side note, this was not her only daughter, but the only child of her husband. She has two other young adult "children". Still, I'm glad I chose to leave out anything about our loss in our message to her. My dh briefly mentioned our loss to her, but still tried to make sure he kept the focus on her daughter. This is her day, not ours. We both prefer it that way, but now she knows we have loved and lost, too. Hopefully that only helped create a further breakdown of the wall that was between us.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: My father committed suicide when I was young, too, and so did my brother. I wasn't as private when I was young, so I can only imagine how painful that was for you to keep it all in. :crying: I'm really sorry about your Grandmother, too! I think we all know someone like that and it can really grate on the nerves of even the most patient person. Being social definitely requires a large degree of vulnerablity for some people. Someone recently asked what others Myers-Briggs Personality Test results are and mine is an INFJ. For all the INFJs out there, they'll understand what that vulnerablity looks like for us. It's pretty humilitating to be so open about our personal lives, but yet, we long to listen for hours to the lives of others. Such a catch .22!

I have a Kenmore Elite from about nine years ago. It has the front buttons, as we have the matching front loading washing machine. It has only needed one repair in nine years. That was due to a thunderstorm that caused the electrical to fry in the front panel (where you push all the buttons). It was under the standard warranty, thankfully. Replaced the front panel and has worked great ever since. I'm sorry to hear your dryer has died. It's never fun to look for a new/used appliance when your current one is out-of-order.

*Update* That was fast delivery! It was delivered in just one hour. I happened to see them pull up to deliver the flowers, so I decided to watch to see if my neighbors would answer the door (as they both work crazy hours and may have been sleeping). The mother's car is gone, but surprisingly, she is the one who answered the door! I think I was more blessed than she was, because while I couldn't completely see her face in the dark shadows of her doorway, there was no doubt I saw bright white teeth smiling from ear-to-ear. I have not seen her smile since her daughter passed away, so that made my heart sing with gladness! I saw the florist person point over at our house to tell her it was us and my neighbor pointed back in a surprised manner, but with an even bigger smile. Based on the physical communication, I can safely say they were very well received and I am truly blessed by that. :o I hope it warmed her heart as much as it did mine. Thank you all for taking part in making someone's day a little bit better today!!! :thumbup: :001_wub:

Alright, I made the order and it should be there sometime this afternoon. :001_smile: I opted to keep the message simple. I believe this is for the better and they'll be touched by the brief message instead. Thank you so much, ladies, for chiming in with your thoughts! It was very helpful and put my heart to rest. :o

Yes, I am purposely having them delivered. It's not painful to mention my grief, as I'm just private about it. I prefer to cry alone, but I'll readily cry in front of close friends and family. Plus, I don't want to draw attention to my own loss. I wonder if our loss among many children wouldn't make her feel better in the midst of her losing her one and only child. Of course, we don't feel that way about our own loss, but I'm not sure how the message would come across to her. Know what I mean? I just want her and her husband to know we care about them and are thinking about their daughter.

Interesting you'd say this, because I mentally want to tell her that, but I am very private myself. It's very easy for me to tell all of you that I've lost children, because this is a relatively anonymous outlet. However, I'm not likely to tell you this in person, because I'm private about my personal life to others. I would never tell anyone I know in real life that I'm doing this, but none of you know me, so it doesn't bother me as much to mention this here. That's just how I handle things. You have me debating whether or not to include this now or not. :o *Sigh*

She had a cold appearance before her daughter died, but I think her cold heart possibly made her even more cold hearted in this past year as she has grieved. It has made me heart-sick for her. :crying: When my husband said she waved at him recently, I was truly in a state of shock, but relieved to see that perhaps she is beginning to let her wall down. We all heal in our own ways and in our own time.

Thank you, ladies! It's nice to have reassurance that it's not a crazy idea that would completely offend someone. :o I guess the reason I worry it'd offend is because the mother is somewhat stone cold in all outward appearances. I certainly don't want to offend her. I think the father would be touched as much as a man can be for the nice gesture, because he's always been pleasant with us. I'm doing this more for the mother, because her cold stone outward appearance makes me want to give her a hug, but she'd probably hit me if I tried. (Not kidding.) She has never been outright rude with us, but just cold towards everyone. We saw the father cry when their daughter died, but in public, she didn't cry at all. Yet, I know she loved her daughter deeply, so I'm not questioning her love for her daughter as much as I realize how private she is in general. I am private like that, too, so I understand. I don't want to embarrass her with the gesture or make her feel uncomfortable around us now. I don't know if that makes sense or not. In any case, it sounds like it's a good idea and unless someone gives me a reason to doubt within the next 30 minutes, I'll go ahead and have the flowers sent today. :001_smile:

There is something I want to do for my neighbors, but I wasn't sure if it'd be appropriate and thought I'd ask here before I proceed. Last year, my neighbors lost their only daughter at this time. We know very little of the story, but the father briefly choked out through his tears that she had an asthma attack she did not recover from. Despite having buried my own children, I wasn't sure how to let them know we care last year, so I purposefully put in my calandar to do something this year at the one year anniversary. People often forget this date, so I know how much it meant to me the few who remembered my children one year later. The problem is that we don't know them very well, so I don't want to offend them either. We barely learned the father's name the day he told us his daughter died, but still don't know the mother's name. Other than a few very short conversations with them and some hand waves, we simply do not know them. In fact, after their daughter's death, the mother wouldn't look in our direction and every time I waved, she would not wave back. (The father did continue to look at us and wave, though.) It was only a few weeks ago that she finally waved at my husband when he was coming home and passed by her. (We have more than a handful of children and they don't know we've buried our own, so I'm sure our family, especially our daughter of the same age as theirs, hurts them a bit.) Furthermore, as much as people don't want to bring up race issues, there is that, too. There are cultural differences in how people grieve and to ignore that fact is to ignore the elephant in the room. In the days after their daughter died, those cultural differences were evident, because that wasn't how we grieved outwardly. So I want to keep in mind the way a message can be portrayed to different people, depending on their background. What I'd like to do is simply send a bouquet of pink tulips with a small note about remembering their daughter and that we're thinking about them. When they buried their daughter last year, they all wore pink (including the men) and lots of it, so I tried to find tulips that resembled the same bright pink they had on. Personally, if someone I didn't know did this for me, I would be greatly touched. Mind you, I'm not a cut flowers kind-of-gal, but the mere thought of someone having taken the time to do that for me a year later would touch my heart far deeper than when people send flowers shortly after my loved ones death. Know what I mean? At the same time, I don't want it to send the wrong message. What is that wrong message? I have no idea, but that's why I'm here. I want to make sure I'm not doing something short-sightedly and end up hurting them, instead of lifting them up. What do you all think? How would you feel? :o ***The mother's reaction is updated on post #29.*** ***Another update on post #44***

Wanted to tell the OP thank you for posting about the Bullet Journals! I think I'll pass on buying another planner and do this instead. I appreciate all the other ideas others have contributed, too! :thumbup: This is why I store my log-in/passwords in my own hieroglyphs. Good luck to anyone who tries to decode that. :laugh:

Oh my, yes! It seems the weather warmed up and their bodies naturally said it was time to RUN...EVERYWHERE! I can hardly get them to sit still. :blink: Wish I had their kind of energy. :laugh:

I won't look at a house that look tacky from the photos, because it screams to me that the home was not properly cared for and I'll have my hands full for several years to come making repairs. Whether or not that statement is true or not, the tacky pictures are enough for me to assume it is true and I'll pass on wasting my time to view it. With that being said, the home I currently live in had beautiful pictures and the previous homeowners kept it clean. However, it has been an utter nightmare all the repairs we have encountered since moving in. These repairs are not minor, but most couldn't be seen on your average home inspection. If I ever buy a house again (as opposed to building my own), I will not only hire a home inspector, but various engineers to inspect the home much more thoroughly. The cost for those inspections far outweigh the pain of all the repairs we've had to make since moving here. This matters much more to me than tacky pictures. As long as the outlet is on its own circuit breaker (as it should be) and has a GFCI outlet, it's perfectly fine. I prefer this over hard wiring a garbage disposal, because the GCFI outlet provides more protection.

:grouphug:

:grouphug:

:smilielol5: Why yes, I do believe an 8 year old would think a dishwasher is really fun after experiencing being the dishwasher!

Lol! :laugh: I currently have a top freezer oldie. I don't know how old it is, but it has to be getting close to legal drinking age, too! The one you listed is under 22 cu. ft. and I was looking at 24 cu. ft. and above, so if you say yours is huge, then I'm feeling better about buying a new one. We have a big family, so a bigger fridge is becoming necessary. It is hard to compare space in the store, because they don't put realistic items in there to really guage the size differences. Pictures are helpful, but I wish they'd put realistic items in there for show instead of pictures. I actually like the smooth outer exterior, because I always felt the textured ones were hard to keep clean. Pulling hard on the freezer door is a huge plus, if you ask me! I don't want the kids to be able to open it so easily. A major reason I want a bottom freezer is to keep the small children out of the main fridge, so this sounds like a win-win with both the freezer and fridge! :hurray: The wire baskets do seem cheap. The more expensive ones have plastic, which looks nice but still feels flimsy. Still, it has to be better than having things fall out of the top freezer ones. Thank you for reviewing your fridge for me, because it made it more helpful in deciding what I want to do about our fridge situation! (And thanks to the OP for letting me hijack your thread a bit. :o )

May I ask which refrigerator you got? Our fridge needs a few repairs, but is working for now. I think we want to put it in the garage and get a new fridge anyways, because we buy a lot in bulk and could use extra refrigerator space. I'm looking at a fridge with a freezer on the bottom, so I was curious if you don't mind sharing what you purchased? How do you like it so far? I'm curious. :o

A dishwasher is "fun"? No, Ma'am, that thing is not fun. Convenient and helpful when it is working right, yes, but fun, no. :laugh: That is pretty amazing a 100 year old roof didn't leak! Then again, things were built so much better in the old days. (Sigh.)

Your comment doesn't make sense. :confused1: Can't you say the exact same thing about Christianity? Men adding to God's words and making a belief system that isn't His? I could say the same thing in reverse, "Stuff like this makes me glad I'm no longer a Muslim. Christianity, once you get past all the cultural junk that isn't really Christianity, is much more fair and respectful of women." I can very easily make that argument, except the part about being a Muslim.

I completely disagree with this. My not-so-sexy roof was apparently leaking behind the wall long before we moved into our home and it caused some major cosmetic problems on the interior. Did I mention the mold lurking beyond that nearly suffocated me when we exposed it? When we fixed the interior, we had to completely tear out the structural wall and reframe everything to fix the problem. The wall looked awful before, but today, it looks fantastic! The new roof looks great, too! Your roof keeps the water out of the rest of your home. It is totally worth spending the money on a good roof! I'd value a good roof over a dishwasher any day after that experience. Plus, a roof usually lasts a lot longer than your average dishwasher these days. ;)

Can't say I "hate" it, but I strongly dislike buying new if the current could just be fixed. That irritates me to no end. I only buy new if it is absolutely necessary. In that way, I can identify with what you said. :001_smile:

INFJ married to an ISTJ. My "STP" is strongly developed, though. With the exception of E/I, I am borderline on all the others. Without fail, I always come up as an INFJ, which does describe my core thought process very well. The thought of being an extrovert makes me want to faint, so I don't even want to try and develop that personality trait. :svengo: :laugh: