We bought a Saatva. The first was defective. They sent us a replacement. It was great the first few months. Now it has ridges that are so obvious, that you can stand away from the bed and see it. When I put a yard stick across it, it is a sudden 1.5 inch drop. Now we are desparate to find a new mattress, specifically, plush, before we run out of our 365 day trial period. I do not even know what to do. This is beyond frustrating. We would love to get e Purple mattress, but it costs a lot more and there are a certain amount of complaints online about those not being so great after a couple years. Does anyone have good advice for me?

I do not think it will be denomination specific. I grew up Lutheran and Catholic and neither churches had music worth writing home about. However, the Lutheran one was nice as they always had the congregates involved so you had everything from the little children's choir to the confirmands lighting the candles. However, in recent years, I found a small PCA church to have amazing music. This is because in the PCA churches, the congregates are involved and do everything and the music leader had his degree in music from Yale and was using his skill at the church. One Lutheran church here, that used to be fine and I used to go to has gone way way down hill. The service is bizarre complete with people dancing like genie style dancing with waving scarves and all, in the aisles. Then the Methodist church that we now attend, they have a nice orchestra, a bell choir, music choirs, etc. The Methodist church we attended, in the same town, did not have all that going on. (both were United Methodist too).

If he is young enough, I would tell him that Santa does not bring penguins. But, if he is past that, I would just tell him no. I would never rely on distracting him. He will likely remember that one thing he really really wanted and was thinkng he would get.

Yes

I want to do a retro theme on one of my Christmas trees this year. I’ve already bought shiny Brite ornaments, as well as bubble lights. I have the loose tinsel on order. My older sister has warned me that loose tinsel can kill dogs or otherwise harm dogs, because they might try to eat it. My dogs do eat grass so maybe this could be an issue. I have also considered old timey string silver garland, but I am concerned that that would be more of a 1970’s and beyond theme. I am aiming to make the tree look more like one my mom would have had when she was a child. I have no pictures of the trees she had. So I am aiming for 40’s and 50’s. Maybe early 60’s. I have seen thin string garland. Also, I have beads already, just plain red shiny. I am thinking getting Shiny Brite beaded garland would maybe run the costs up too much. Any opinions or knowledge on this time period?

I had so many problems with HP. And my brother was working for HP and kept offering us free printers. The printers were so bad that I turned them down even when they were free. Now I have a brother printer and I love it. It’s the cheapest basic one and it’s great. People here recommended in a few years ago and I really like it. It is still going all these years later.

I want to second what Moonhawk is saying. Do this next time she contacts you. Seriously, please do this. Because I am fuming over how that woman is treating your son and talking about him.

I, too, am tired of the “girls are sweet innocent victims and boys are all predators” attitude that some parents of girls take. I actually had to deal with a situation at a dentist office where my sweet little boy read a book to a little girl and the mom kept hovering. Then she actually had the nerve to inform me that she had to watch closely because “you never know what a boy will do to a girl, boys are bullies and can be cruel.” I was floored and so taken off guard that I regret that I did not lay in to her. After they left, my little boy came over to me and asked me if I saw him reading to the little girl and asked if I was proud of him. I am still angry about that nasty gross creeper mom.

I am glad I wasn’t in this situation at 15 yrs old. It was not that long ago that people married at this age. They seem to really like each other. You don’t need to pull him out. That mom needs to deal with the fact that her daughter is growing up. Unless something questionable has happened, then I don’t think the kids have done much wrong. Does the mom allow the girl contact with anyone outside the home?

What shoes were good in the end? I usually wear Hokas, and have no pain. But I want to look nicer-less casual.

I do not think he should have asked that no spouses be allowed in the first place. This is going to be tough to cancel if people have already paid. He could either cancel completely and then come up with something different, or get his siblings to just take FIL. IF he really wanted to do a trip that excluded spouses, he should have put feelers out there. But, on my side of the family, when someone marries, we do not say "this one is really family and that one is just an inlaw." Everyone is family. Not inviting the spouses is much like inviting the kids from the first marriage but not the step kids because they are "not really family." I am assuming that was not his intent, but that is how it comes off. He might just need to suck it up and go with the spouses, that is a third option.

I recently bought some Skecher boots. They feel comfortable when first putting them on. But then after shopping several hours, my feet hurt. The hurt is not a specific hurt, just a general throbbing. I am wondering if it would just be too much to expect any kind of non-athletic shoe to be comfortable to walk around in for very long or if maybe I could do better?

I haven’t read through all the the replies, but I wanted to say that I completely get it. It is life destroying, for me anyway. I have had to Develop a lot of coping techniques. Ironically, my child is not coping with anything. But I’m the one who’s developed even more coping techniques during all this.

Oh yes, about the people who say it will look darker, this is true. Always, after you find the colors you like, go down in darkness by a level or two.

Are you planning on selling the house soon? Because painting because you might sell ask number of years down the line is silly. But if you know you’re gonna be selling the house the next year or two, then go ahead and paint your entire house in assessable, beige, or Swiss coffee.

OK this one I can really help with. I have actually been watching home decorating videos for a year and a half now. And I’ll tell you the thing I’ve learned at the end is nothing else to coordinate with anything. If you want your room to coordinate with the other like the whole house is in warms her the whole house is in cools than fine go for it. I don’t think you have to worry about undertones. The most you would have to worry about on matching is may be matching style from one room to the next. But I don’t even go in for that. I do whatever I want. My house is mostly transitional, but I probably have a few mid modern pieces in a few traditional pieces but mostly it’s transitional. This is kind of sit by the architecture of the house and just really I pick everything I like and I no longer try to coordinate. So if I were you, I would just pick color do you like. My dining room is a very cool color. Then I have warm colors the very next room over. I have gotten comments from one person and I’m ignoring it. I don’t think most people like the color of my dining room but I love the color so I used to think I need to repaint it, but after watching videos for so long, I realize everybody has a different opinion, and I should just do it I like because this is what I live with, and it should be a reflection of me a reflection of anyone else.

I just love that name! Congratulations!!!! Do you have a Grandma name? My sister is a grandma now and it was kind of fun picking this. She is Grams. Someday, I will be just plain ole Grandma. There are just so many grandma names!

I have this garland I just bought from Costco that I LOVE. It is green with colored and white lights. So I wanted to add decor to it. I bought the ribbon first. But, in an attempt to put it all on nice, I started watching videos. Can I say that may have been my first mistake? I already bought this ribbon that I love. And I tried it out and thought it looked great. But then the videos I watched all used two sets of ribbon. Well, I have a second round of ribbon that I used years ago on the main tree and can re-purpose it to the garland. However, as I try, it just is not looking so great. I am wondering if anyone has any good tutorials or maybe advice on maybe just using one type of ribbon? I am going to try to attach pictures of the ribbons so you can see what I am working with.

Stop trying to please DIL. It is one of those things with me where one person has to control the entire family, without regard to others. It sounds like your DIL expects to run everything. Do what you need to accomodate the Navy people and your dad. You will regret it if you do not. If DIL "cannot make it," then fine. Act unbothered, BE unbothered, and move on.

Watertown? Are you in SD? I am from that area! We really miss it and sometimes, dream of moving back.

I think they are fine! We have some AG, some other brand stuff. The AG stuff has gone so down hill that there is literally no difference in the quality between OG and AG. Also, I am not saying they are bad quality, I am just saying AG used to use real metal and real wood. Now everything with AG is plastic, yet, they still charge as much as they charged back when they were a high quality product. I have refused to buy AG products in a while now and have only bought OG. Also, I do still like the dolls from GOTZ. Pottery Barn sells them also and they have a sale at some point in the fall in the past where they go way down in price. We have the OG school room and a bunch of other OG stuff. Get her the OG dolls and stuff while she still wants it. This is such a magical time when our little girl's are still playing with dolls.

I am a b!tch. This stuff might have been stored in some place my husband needs/wants to go regularly. Like the bathroom sink he uses. I would also not cook another thing. I would say no more cooked meals, not even eating out, until the dishes are done. Ok, I do not think I am a b!tch. Because it is being a way bigger b!tch to refuse to get it clean...yes, b!tch can refer to something a man is doing. If your deal is that you cook and he cleans, then he will either need to clean this up or you do not cook. What would he say if he simply had no food for a few days? Do NOT let him eat out while waiting for you to cook again.

I totally did not even think about the laying it out flat issue! I will completely and definitely go with the soft side now. We had hard side suitcases when I was little (the 70's) and it was hard to guage how much to pack or where to lay things on the hard side suit cases.

I want to buy my children a 20 inch carry-on style suitcase to add to their Christmas presents. But I see there’s hard sided and soft sided. I actually prefer the soft sided but hurts I didn’t seems to be with popular, so I’m kind of torn on what to get because now I realize it seems to be about 50-50 of what people have. Any advice? Also, we are not actually planning on flying anywhere, but we have taken to taking little one in tonight, vacations places, and they like to pack their own suitcases or pack their suitcases to go to friends houses. Maybe they will find somewhere, but I doubt it. It would be nice if their suitcases lasted into their adult years.

Well, I seem to have more trouble than care of shoes that I’ve loved or at least liked other people have just like literally I can’t find anyone who thinks my choices are actually nice shoes. I have bought Cobb Hill, Clarks, and Dansko. Historically, I have always bought from Walking Company. But they have shut down all their in person stores. I ordered from them twice online and had something wrong with the shoes and both times I had to pay to ship them back so I don’t want to order from them again.