Our rescue doggie turned out to be a lab / Australian shepherd / golden retriever mix according to DNA test. Sorry we got the absolute best dog lol. In all seriousness, he is the perfect dog for us - best personality and temperament. OP, my vote is get that sweet guy!

Thanks for sharing what’s worked for you. It’s helped me ponder what I envision for them to have and I think it’s hybrid - I have an archival envelope with each of their team pictures and special memorabilia for each grade already sorted. I think I want them to also each have their own copy / access to our digital family pictures growing up and they can decide what to print / store, etc. They can hash out splitting the physical scrapbooks I’ve created once I’m no longer walking the Earth. 🙂. Now I need to look into the different platforms, pick one or two and start The Big Sort by year, etc.

I am at least a couple of years behind in printing pictures, and as the kids have gotten older the sheer volume of pictures has decreased. But, one of my summer projects is to catch up on printing pictures, step two is organizing by year (ideally month / year), step three is scrapbooked photos (a girl can dream). Oldest is heading off to college, so I have time to get my act together, but I need a system so my kids can eventually have photos in a format that is accessible for them. What does that look like for you? I’m not an early tech adapter, and I am sure the CD’s I had burned with their early years are completely obsolete at this point. Help!

Thank you for posting this. My youngest spent most of yesterday crying. His dad’s video was heartbreaking. RIP, Technoblade.

You have all of my sympathies. My oldest broke off a relationship last year and I was a huge fan of the gf. I admired that he was willing to do the hard thing out of respect for himself and her. But, I silently miss her a lot. He has a new-ish relationship that isn’t bringing out the best in him, but I’m biting my tongue. My relationship with him is the long game.

So, it’s sounds like two issues: letting your niece know she should ask you before posting pictures that include you, your spouse and your children; two, reporting the picture to FB and asking the fair to remove the photo (which it sounds like you’ve done). Hope they take it down!

How does your mom feel about it? if she’s unhappy about it, she should reach out to the fair and let them know they didn’t have permission to use it and to take it down.

Was it reposted to a person’s account or a business account / used for marketing? If it was used by a business for marketing, I could comment and message them it needs to be taken down - posted without permission. I really don’t feel like anything posted to FB is private, tbh.

I dabbled in CF and then dabbled right out, lol. I liked that I did weights and moves I would never do on my own. I didn’t love the gym culture at my particular CF - pushing ourselves to the max so you were pretty much shredded after each workout, I want to be pushed, but not so extreme and to the edge. The gym owners would go home and nap during breaks in their morning and afternoon classes because they were worn out from pushing so much weight. Not realistic for me and homeschooling my kids.

Arrrrrgh. DH was laid off today. It is a small company and the owner handled it really poorly. It is the middle of the pay period, the owner couldn’t tell him how much severance (“you’ll get a letter from HR”, which DH just got and they are only giving him two weeks) plus almost a month delay from the time DH signs the agreement to when they would pay out the piddly severance. DH transformed his team from low performing to high performing and the owner is cutting his position now that they are tuned up and performing so well so he can put that budget into hiring for a sales person to bring in business. DH wants to push back and negotiate for more, including a bonus they owe him. The owner has a nasty side (involved in a big lawsuit with a former business partner). Has anyone successfully negotiated for more severance than originally offered? Not to be dismissive, but please no comments that this is a blessing based on the owner’s behavior. DH went through a prolonged unemployment stretch before and this is very triggering for me. Our kids have had some very heavy stuff this year and my tank is pretty empty going into this.

A friend of mine swears one of the ginger immunity shots restored her loss of taste / smell from Covid, I lost mine a few days after a positive RAT. It came back pretty quickly, but I’ve struggled with sense of smell lessened. My teens smell stuff that revolts them (probably a vegetable, lol) and I can’t smell it. But, I can smell my favorite candle, etc just fine so that helps. sorry you’re sick!

What a miracle! Such happy news!!! But now the question, how in the world did this person GET the puppy? Total yuck if they were IN Judith’s apartment and took him.

There are a lot of valid feelings in your posts - you feeling like the “shock absorber”, your DH feeling stretched and unappreciated, and your DD for feeling overwhelmed with lots of transitions. You can’t go back and do it another way, and I don’t think what you did is terrible. I would give a heartfelt apology “I’m sorry I didn’t give you a deadline for having your things packed” and try to mentally move on the best you can. DD may continue to be upset. If I’m remembering correctly, your new SIL has a lot of issues with his FOO and is sensitive to you crossing boundaries. His text to you crosses a boundary. He can support his wife but not come at you, too. It’s between you and your DD. I would try making your apology to DD and leaving it. So sorry, this sounds hard.

Thank you, all, for the advice and support. DS would never verbalize his own grief to his friend and unfortunately, through our own family’s losses, he’s honed an ability to be a mature support person. I.e. “I’m so sorry you’re going through this.” We talked a little more today. I’m keeping a close eye on DS because I can feel the weight he’s carrying in his energy. We will go to the funeral if DS would like to go. Please keep praying for this family. The details DS shared with me are horrifying.

One of DS’s closest friends moved away 2 years ago. They still talk all the time / on line game together. DS was excited because friend was going to be in town this summer for a few days. (Trigger warning) Sadly, the friend’s dad took his own life yesterday. So, two things: can you please pray for this family? And how would you best support your child through this? I don’t know if DS talked to friend 1:1 or if they had a group call (this happened after I went to bed last night), but DS has gotten some of the details and is not only struggling with the taking of one’s life but the details around it. He came in my room last night and laid on top of me and started pouring out what he’s heard. Then he said he was going to snuggle our dog. DS is 15. I want to be there for him, give a space to talk and process, not sure if talking to a counselor would also help, but would take a lot of effort in our area to get someone taking new clients.

When I had it months ago, I tested positive (instant dark line) the first morning of light symptoms. DH was completely exposed (and didn’t isolate until my positive) never got it. Welcome to Covid Roulette! Hope you don’t get it.

My order of operations would be: reread court order for what I was obligated to (cs + college, cs only - until what age), then contact my attorney to get their advice on state’s approach and their antidotal experience, then conversation with bio mom and child. The reminder it may affect FAFSA is a great call out and may shut down bio mom if that would change FAFSA and other arrangements they have made.

Thank you, each, for the insight, advice and support. I was feeling angry and wanted to try to regain a sense of calm / control and you are all right - engaging her and giving her supply is the last thing I need to do. I’m going to go team grey rock and focus on my oldest. And try to not eat all my feelings lol.

This is exactly it. I’m trying to stay centered and not let my anxiety over what she might pull take away joy on my child’s special day.

My mom has/is NPD and we are very low contact. Two of her specialties is to create drama / ruin special days and no sense of boundaries. My oldest will be graduating soon and she has been trying unsuccessfully to manipulate her way into any graduation celebration we might be planning. I saw her briefly this weekend and she said something off handed about how she will be at the ceremony. We did not invite her. I have not even shared a graduation date with her. I was not planning on inviting her. This means she researched the details on her own. It is open to the public as it is outside and there are no tickets. My oldest doesn’t care if she attends. However, if it rains, it will be moved inside with a ticket limit and we will only have enough for me, my husband+children. Attending this graduation is supply for her - two of her closest friends also have grandchildren graduating locally and it would be unbearable for her to not be there. Please help me word a text to confirm that she has, in fact, invited herself and draw a couple of boundaries - we do not post pictures of our kids on social without their permission and if it’s moved inside she’s out of luck. I also want to make it clear I won’t accept any drama but spelling that out is like a shiny nugget to her so I’m conflicted.

Wonderful, wonderful news! 🎉🎉🎉

I have two Ruggable rugs and have been able to easily get the dog hair vacuumed off. The same dog’s hair somehow attaches to our family room rug like Velcro…

How often will you wear it? Do you swim laps or do water aerobics? Are you looking for something that will last multiple seasons or something for just this season? Will you wear it in a chlorinated pool or salt water? I’m a big fan of Athleta’s swim because their bathing suits have lasted multiple seasons for me and held up beautifully. That said, I picked up a bathing suit from Target this season because my body is in more one piece shape than two piece shape right now. The price was right for this purpose. Boden, Jcrew and Sumersalt all have nice suits also - higher quality, higher price.

A wise person once told me people don’t value what they don’t pay for. What about charging a reduced “trial class” and price it so it’s worth it to you to connect with potential new students but no hard feelings if they don’t sign up for a class. I wouldn’t have a music class be top of mind for free things to fill my kids’ time without true interest but the world is filled with all types! Lol

Agreeing that though this interaction had a low point / bad feelings, it was communicated through and reconciled. Perhaps F-SIL is driving the to do train list right now because things feel a little out of control and he can control tasks, if that makes sense. This is an opportunity for your DD to communicate her needs (I understand these three tasks are important to you, I’m feeling x right now, what can you take on that is on the list, etc). Brene Brown recently talked on a podcast about how her communication with her DH really improved over the pandemic in situations like this - she would say “hey, my pie in the sky goal is to get x,y,z done because of a,b,c” and it opened a dialogue between the two of them.