Sometimes I feel like my friends think I am judging or shaming them but I am not. For example, on Wednesdays my boys take homeschool classes near us. We are there all day (literally 9 am to 4 pm) so I choose to spend part of the time that they are in class walking. Some of my friends can be quite snarky about it. "But you're not fat" they say. Or, "You make me feel lazy". So I am wrong because I want to get some exercise at the only time I really have free? I am not overweight and I am working hard to keep it that way. I broke my ankle two years ago and I all ready have signs of arthritis because of it. The doctor says any extra weight will make it be much worse. So I walk and do other exercises to help keep in shape. One friend had a bag of cookies that she repeatedly offered to me. I declined politely. She continued waving them in my face and insisting that I eat one. It actually got very uncomfortable. I was not trying to be rude, but I don't like packaged food because my body does not react well to chemicals. I finally agreed to take half a cookie just so she would stop. So who is judging? Most of my friends are slightly overweight and a few are quite overweight. Whatever makes them happy makes me happy, so why are they so bothered by my working hard to stay at a comfortable weight for me?

After a certain period of time we will be given her cremated remains. I'm not sure how long that will be or if they will go to my Dad or my Uncle.

Thanks you all for the nice suggestions. My Mimi was a huge animal lover (in particular dogs). She was also the person who made me into a huge reader because she gave me my first chapter books and then through the years continued to buy me books every time she would visit. We were very close and we spoke on the phone almost very day until the dementia took her from us. I think I will give some books to the library in her name. I am also going to make her favorite pie and share some time with my boys where I can tell them all about her. My heart is heavy.

My grandmother died this morning and as per her wishes there will be no funeral. She donated her body to a medical school so there isn't even a burial. She was 95 and all of her friends and almost all of her siblings have all ready passed away. I have no immediate family near me and so I have no one to cry with. Any suggestions on how to handle my sadness?

I do a lot of freezer cooking. I learned that the best thing to do was to try each recipe first with my family to see if they would like it. Now I have at least 30 recipes I know that my family really likes and will eat. I have also found that I don't need to make super complicated things to make my life easier. Just precooking taco meat for tacos or taco salad saves me a lot of time. It can be a pain if you forget to defrost. I got into the habit of each night checking what the menu is for the next day and looking to see if I need to move something to the refrigerator to thaw. Many of my recipes don't require any thawing or I can do it quickly in the microwave if I need to. I like this book.. http://www.amazon.com/Your-Mothers-Make-Ahead-Freeze-Cookbook/dp/1558327568/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442231684&sr=1-2&keywords=freezer+cooking And I like this site: sixsistersstuff.com We love this simple casserole. http://thrivinghomeblog.com/2013/07/chicken-parmesan-casserole-recipe-an-easy-freezer-meal/ Two weeks ago I prepped and froze 40 meals. That will last me ten weeks. We eat 4 freezer meals a week, I cook two nights, and one night is either out to dinner or grab what you can.

In Mexico the civil ceremony is completely separate from the religious, and the only one that counts (as far the state is concerned) is the civil. Often times couples will marry in the civil sense and save money for a religious ceremony. They are not bothered by this at all.

Apparently the only way she can be removed from office is if she is impeached. She has been married four times. She had twins five months after divorcing the first husband but they were fathered by the third husband. She got the second husband to adopt them. We aren't supposed to talk about all of that because she found God and now she has been wiped clean. What she didn't seem to find was love, or acceptance, or humility. She also needs to read the "judge not lest ye be judged" part! http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/01/kentucky-clerk-fighting-gay-marriage-has-wed-four-times?src=usn_tw

You can never tell what is going on inside someone's marriage. I thought my brother and his wife had the perfect family. Her parents are pastors at their church and they spent a lot of time doing church activities with their kids. They took their kids bowling, my brother coached little league, and they did scouts. My sil even worked at the boys school. They really seemed to have it all. Then came the day my brother went home and found my sil in bed with her second cousin. Turns out he wasn't the only other man she was sleeping with. You could have knocked me over with a feather! She was the most "Christian" woman I knew. Twenty years of marriage down the toilet. It was humiliating for my brother and his boys. They live in a small town and everyone knew. She moved out and my brother is now raising his kids on his own. I really wonder if the cheating happened because she felt pressured to be so perfect. As for Josh and Anna...well I wonder if her own family would take her in if she left him. Do they allow that sort of thing?

You are right, Lanny. I did indeed spell it wrong! It is a little town south of Brenham and I have only been there a few times. My grandmother lived in Columbus before she was put in the home and I had never even heard of Bellville. I will try to find a willing pastor this morning. I hate having no information.

I am new here on the forum and I hate to have my first post be so bad, but I really could use some help. My grandmother is in a nursing home in Belleville Texas. She is 95 and has alzheimer's. My mom told me this morning that my grandmother broke her leg and had been in the hospital. My mom also said that my grandmother would hardly wake up and wouldn't eat so they don't expect her to last much longer. This is the only information I can get. My father has not seen his mother since she went into the home seven years ago. He gave his cousin power of attorney and has had almost nothing to do with it since then. Although they had a pretty good relationship for most of his life, he had never forgiven his mother for leaving his dad and getting remarried. He has basically abandoned her in her old age. I had been getting most of my information from my uncle (my dad's half brother), but my uncle has disappeared again and I can't find him. My parents refuse to give me the phone number of my dad's cousin to find out what is happening. Their attitude is..why bother, she doesn't know who you are anyway. I haven't seen my "Mimi" for two years. I live near DC and it is hard for me to get to Texas while I am raising my family. My Mimi was my biggest supporter growing up. We lived with her for a short while when I was little and she was the one who instilled in me a love of books. She gave me my first book set (Little House), and every year she would come to visit and bring me more books. When I got older she was my daily morning phone call. We would talk every day after my older boys left for school while I was taking care of little ones. We talked on the phone every day for years until the dementia became too debilitating. She was the one person I always knew loved me. My parents are rather cold people (can you tell?), but she was the one who encouraged me to dream big and be true to myself. The thought of her dying alone is crushing me. Because of privacy laws the nursing home will not even tell me if she is there. They won't tell me if she is alive or dead! I am her only granddaughter and I am entitled to no information. So even though they will tell you nothing over the phone, anyone can walk in off the street and visit. Is there anyone close by who could help me out?

I am new here, so be gentle. :) My husband actually sent this article to me the other day because it could be written about the parents in our town. Parenting here is like an olympic sport. We definitely see young people driving luxury cars, but I really doubt that it has anything to do with the parents wanting them to have a safe vehicle. Everything is a competition, from the clothes the kids wear, to the sports team they are on, their grades in school, the instruments they play, the groups they are in...it goes on and on. The teachers at the schools have to deal with the constant phone calls from parents when little Johnny or little Suzy didn't get the grade the parent wanted. (I know, because I used to be a teacher!) Imagine a school project where parents are calling and complaining because the neighbor kid got a better grade than their child and they demand to know why. The really funny thing is that both projects were done by the parents and the child had nothing to do with it. They can't stand to see their child have to deal with disappointments. What really makes me nuts about it is that none of it seems to be for the benefit of the children. It is all about the parents and how they can show how wonderful they are at parenting. They must be doing a wonderful job, right? Because little Sam is on honor roll every time and he has his black belt all ready (or plays on travel baseball or soccer or swim or whatever) and he is wearing the newest clothes and has the newest computer and look how nicely he is sitting. (as Mom hands him a $20) Next thing you know these kids are in high school mouthing off to the teacher because they know they can get away with it, stealing prescription drugs out of mom and dads bathroom, and not worrying about it when they do poorly on something at school because they know they can count on a parent to call and fix it if something goes wrong. I get what the author was saying. There is nothing wrong with wanting the best for our kids, the problem comes in when our children expect to be given these things. It is bad when they feel it is owed to them. If you get a luxury car for your child to drive and they appreciate it and understand the value behind it that is one thing. When you get a luxury car for your drive because the Smith's down the street got one for their kid and your kid expects an even better one, than that is definitely a problem! These are parents who are afraid to tell their children "no" because what if the child doesn't like them anymore? I am often shocked how some of the kids around here speak to their parents..and the parents let them! The parent-child relationship is off balance. A perfect example was the student I had when I was teaching middle school. He didn't like the cafeteria food and he didn't want to pack a lunch, so his mom showed up every day at lunch time with a lunch for him that she would buy at subway or Panera or whatever else he felt like eating that day. How can it be good for a young person to believe that they deserve to have every desire met for them?