TerriDoodle

Oh, and if you think feeding them is expensive... let me advise that you probably should start saving NOW for auto insurance.:thumbup:

I had to switch Hannah to soy, too. She was inconsolable many evenings and spitting up a LOT. Switching to soy helped but didn't eliminate the problem. Maybe you can return the formula you have ordered...or at the very least you can donate it to a food bank and get a deduction.

Michelle - it's an older male so not as exciting as your guess. Put an extra coat of clear polish on your manicure...that'll help. And wear gloves when your hands are in water. I've even gone so far as to wear latex gloves when cooking to protect my mani from the constant hand-washing....then I got hooked on using latex gloves all the time! I ALWAYS use them when messing with raw chicken, pork and hamburger...or dipping things in batter.

Kat - that is so scary about your SIL!!! You said all along that she wasn't taking care of herself and now the chickens have come to roost, eh? What a shame. It didn't have to be that way.

Yeah, I have to be really careful with hamburger, too. I have to make a very conscious effort to chew chew chew and still I have to eat slowly. I have been where you were last night...but maybe not QUITE that bad! That one sounds like a doozey. Do you ever try the papaya enzymes? They actually work pretty good for me. Yes, Suzanne - Hannah has her permit now!! I'm too old for this sh*t. Evan called last night to let us know that he's fine and working the program. Also....that there's a famous movie/TV star there but, sorry, I can't tell you who it is. He also found out that Stevie Ray Vaughn (my all-time musical hero) did his stint there, too. He's impressed and I guess it gives the program some credibility, so that's good.

No Jane... I think they're going to charge the balance to my credit card on June 11 (2 weeks before check in). Congrats to the whole soccer team, Michelle!

Hi Girls - Thanks for all the good wishes. I feel like there's a vital part of my body missing, but I guess I'll get used to it. I can call him and leave messages, but he calls me back when he has time and/or feels like talking to me! I last heard from him Saturday night and he was heading for bed. I guess I'll call the unit and speak with the director to see how he's doing so far. I'm sure it's not easy although the people all seem wonderful. He said the food was really good -- so that's a relief. Had a nice visit with my girlfriend in San Antonio and wish I could have stayed much longer. She lives on 3 acres at the top of a hill...and it's so quiet and peaceful there. Her husband is an awesome cook, too. Dr. JazzyB - I'm so proud of you! I'll run over to FB and see your pics!! Jane, Happy Birthday!! .... sorry I missed it. I gotta run an errand so I'll catch you all later...k?

What a bummer, Dr. Pam!! Thank goodness for photoshop!! Send those pics to me... I'll doctor them up for ya!! Haydee -- Looking at the HEB ad right now... whole briskets are $0.87/lb!! Those make wonderful pot roasts! Corn is 6/$1 and Strawberries are 2 lb/$3!

I'm here! Judy and TracyK are on the road. Heather is VERY pregnant and probably sleeping! Jennifer is sad :thumbup: (((Hugs, Jenn)))) And I think we just lost TracyinKS again .... Pam, I suspect we won't hear much from you this weekend, either! You're going to have such a good time!! Can't WAIT to see your pics in your schmancy robe! I'll be on the road early tomorrow morning and will be back Sunday afternoon. I am looking forward to the drive out of town to my beloved Texas hill country and to stay with one of my best friends -- my college roommate. I might take some alone time to go climb Enchanted Rock -- one of my favorite places on the planet. It's actually where I want my ashes spread after I die. The pictures in no way do it justice at all. The views are incredible. Tonight we have to get Evan all packed up and prolly make a run to WalMart to get a few things he'll need. He's gonna be in a bad mood and I'm not looking forward to any of it. TTYL!

Michelle... Instead of "Zen", try "Zinfandel". I recommend it.

Fed's economic forecast worsens Central bank now expects unemployment to rise to a range of 9.2% to 9.6% this year. Fed also predicts a sharper decline in GDP than it had forecast in January. By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer Last Updated: May 20, 2009: 4:20 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve's latest forecasts for the U.S. economy are gloomier than the ones released three months earlier, with an expectation for higher unemployment and a steeper drop in economic activity. The Fed's forecasts, released as part of the minutes from its April meeting, show that its staff now expects the unemployment rate to rise to between 9.2% and 9.6% this year. The central bank had forecast in January that the jobless rate would be in a range of 8.5% to 8.8%, but the unemployment rate topped that in April, hitting 8.9%. The Fed also now expects the gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, to post a drop of between 1.3% and 2% this year. It had previously expected only a 0.5% to 1.3% decline. At the April meeting, the Fed decided to once again leave its key federal funds rate near 0%, a level it has been at since last December. The central bank also announced that it did not plan on increasing purchasing more long-term Treasury notes anytime soon. The Fed disclosed plans to begin buying $300 billion's worth of such Treasurys in March in order to try and keep long-term rates down and boost economic activity. But according to the minutes, some members of the central bank's policy committee indicated they were open to increasing its purchases of Treasury notes and mortgage securities as a way of spurring more lending. Treasury prices rallied after the minutes were released, pushing their yield, which moves in the opposite direction, down to 3.18%. Stocks, which have moved sharply higher during the past two months on hopes that the recession may soon be ending, fell Wednesday afternoon. According to the minutes, Fed members did indicate they expected GDP to increase slightly in the second half of this year. However, it would not be enough to overcome the anticipated declines in the first half. GDP shrunk more than 6% in the first quarter. Policymakers acknowledged that there were some better economic readings in the period leading up to the April meeting, but added that they were not convinced the economy was out of the woods yet. In the minutes, Fed members indicated that there are a number of factors that "would be likely to restrain the pace of economic recovery over the medium term" and added that the credit crunch would "recede only gradually" and that "households would likely remain cautious" in their spending. Fed members expressed concerns about rising problems in the commercial real estate market as well, indicating that this could cause further problems for financial institutions still struggling with the effects of the collapse of home prices and rising mortgage defaults. The Fed also reduced its GDP targets for 2010 and 2011, but the central banks still expects the economy to grow in both years. Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research, said that the Fed's new forecasts were "more of a reality check than a revision," given the deterioration in the labor market and overall economy since January. But he and other economists said it also appeared from the minutes that the Fed is pleased with how the economy has started to respond to the steps it has taken, including the purchases of mortgages and Treasurys. "I read [the minutes] as 'We think it's working, let's wait a few months to see how it plays out,'" said Gus Faucher - director of macroeconomics at Moody's Economy.com. He added that it did not seem like the Fed felt a "sense of urgency" to increase the scope of its Treasury purchase program. And Yamarone said it's important to remember that the forecasts and minutes are three weeks old, and that economic readings since the meeting, including home sales and the rate of job losses, have generally showed signs of improvement. "These minutes look like they have a bleaker assessment, but things were darker then," he said. "I can't say it's an accurate interpretation of their outlook today. I think that would be a little more favorable." First Published: May 20, 2009: 2:17 PM ET Find this article at: Fed's economic forecast worsens - May. 20, 2009

Jack - this was written by a CNN Money reporter!!

Hi all - Janie - don't knock crawfish until you've tried them! You oughta see the people swarming around any and all crawfish boils in town! Those people can't be ALL crazy! Well, maybe in Louisiana... Haydee - hope you make the most of your down time, girl! Do you make an effort to shop for your meat when it's on sale? I save 25-30% on my grocery bills if I scour the flyer and buy only what's on sale and work the menus around that. What store do you use? Kat - that was so nice of Rick! Now don't you feel horrible?? Yum! Fresh veggies! I'm jealous! I do NOT have any sort of green thumb whatsoever. YOu should just politely tell your MIL that you're tired of being blamed for the actions of another...and you just don't want to hear another word about it. Period. Besides, what did she think was gonna happen by being so freakin' tight for so long?? Not to mention filling herself??!?!? She's got nobody to blame but herself. My son is pretty much of a mess.... he's going in for treatment on Saturday and will be gone for 45 days. At least he'll be safe for that long. I hope it does some good. Thanks for the prayers and please keep 'em coming!!

[emphasis added by OP] The Income Tax System is Broken 43 Percent Of Americans Pay No Federal Income Tax, A Sign That Something's Wrong, Writes Declan McCullagh April 15, 2009 | by Declan McCullagh (CBS) On April 15, don't be surprised if the line at your local post office is a bit shorter than usual. That's because your neighbors may not be paying any income taxes this year. An astonishing 43.4 percent of Americans now pay zero or negative federal income taxes. The number of single or jointly-filing "taxpayers" - the word must be applied sparingly - who pay no taxes or receive government handouts has reached 65.6 million, out of a total of 151 million. Those numbers come from an analysis published yesterday by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. Neither is a low-tax or conservative advocacy group; the Urban Institute was created under the Johnson administration during the Great Society era, and it receives most of its funding from the federal government. "You've got a larger and larger share of people paying less and less for the services provided by the federal government," says Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center. "The concern is that the majority can say, 'Let's have more benefits, spend more,' if they're not paying for it. It's 'free.' That's not a good thing to have." By historic standards, today's situation is an aberration. Between 1950 and 1990, the number of owe-no-money federal tax returns averaged 21 percent, dipping to 18 percent in 1986, according to Tax Foundation data. In the 1990s, the owe-no-money percentage hovered around 25 percent of taxpayers. But then politicians began another round of tinkering with the tax code, adding reams of new pages to an already incomprehensible set of rules that even the guy overseeing the IRS can't seem to figure out. Democrats wanted to lower taxes on the least affluent, while Republicans wanted to lower taxes on everyone. The result was bipartisan enthusiasm for tax credits aimed at everything from children (1997) and college students (1997) to hybrid cars (2005) and homebuyers (2009). Many of these credits dole out cash to people even if they report no income, making them mere government handouts. "There's no difference at all in terms of the effects on the federal deficit," says Williams of the Tax Policy Center. "It's perfectly equivalent. It's just easier to say, 'I cut your taxes' as opposed to 'I created a new federal program to send money to people.'" I'm talking here about federal income taxes, not other taxes like Social Security, Medicare, state income taxes, sales taxes, or car registration taxes, some of which are extracted through payroll deductions. The owe-no-money crowd tends to get hit by at least some of those. The perils of today's situation should be obvious. The United States is close to a tipping point - where most people can skip the post office run on April 15 to mail a check because they're expecting one from the government instead. "It is somewhat odd that you have a decreasing number of folks paying into the federal income tax system, a decreasing number of folks who have a stake in what the government pays for," says Matt Moon of the non-partisan Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. It then becomes tempting to vote for politicians promising more and more handouts, paid for by money forcibly extracted from an ever-shrinking number of their neighbors. In addition to being immoral, it's poor public policy: people who pay no taxes but nevertheless get benefits are less likely to be careful overseers of their elected representatives. "At some point people become less and less invested in making sure their government is accountable and frugal," says Peter Sepp, vice president for policy and communications at the National Taxpayers Union, a lower-tax advocacy group. "If you pay very little for getting all kinds of government benefits, you might view those programs as a bargain, even though they may waste tens of billions of dollars a year." As a candidate, President Obama promised still more tax credits, including ones aimed at child care, "clean cars," and savings accounts. As the Wall Street Journal explained at the time: "You can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability. In other words, they are an income transfer - a federal check - from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this 'welfare,' or in George McGovern's 1972 campaign a 'Demogrant.'" A recession, the stimulus, and innumerable bailouts have placed Mr. Obama's plans on hold. But the expiration of the Bush tax cuts at midnight on December 31, 2010 will renew interest in a tax law rewrite. That will be an opportunity to gut the current system and replace it with something simpler and fairer. After all, if government is important enough to force most of us to work until April 13 to pay its bills, why shouldn't everyone share the pain? Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET and a CBS News EconWatch contributor. Previously, he was Wired's Washington bureau chief and a reporter for Time.com and Time magazine in Washington, D.C. He has taught journalism, public policy, and First Amendment law. He is an occasional programmer, avid analog and digital photographer, and lives with his wife in the San Francisco Bay area. By Delcan McCullagh © MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Anybody watching Glenn Beck and the ACORN drama?? Wow.

Thank you girls -- so much. I know I sound like a broken record but there is progress....just tiny baby steps. What I'd really like to do is drive into the middle of Wyoming somewhere and dump his ass on the road and speed off. LOL Thanks for putting up with me. Tracy -- I had to dig this up out of my dusty files...but this is a weight loss chart from the period when I was going to the gym. You'll see that my WL was not in a straight line at all. Fits and starts. And look at JULY!! I was going 4-5x a week and stayed the same weight for a whole month and then WHOOSH!!! Please, please, please...don't get discouraged...have faith that you are doing the right thing and will be rewarded accordingly. Besides, weight loss is surely not the ONLY benefit of regular exercise!!! You hang in there. Oh, and BTW, my mom got real sick in November and then came to live with me for 3 months....that's when I stopped exercising and haven't lost a freaking pound since then.

No, I couldn't get in the %*#!# healing waters because my devil child is a $%*#! #*%$@*!!!!! He's not even living here anymore and STILL is a pain in the $@#&*!!!! If I would have known THEN what I know NOW!!!!!! I WANT TO SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, man.......that sure sounds good right about now. I hope I remember to soak in the tub tonight....I'll forget all about it come 9:00. Somebody remind me!

...maybe a fancy schmancy enema???

Blah Blah Blah:boom:

JENN and TRACYINKS?? Did we lose you girls again???:purplebananna:

TRACY!! How can you live in Texas ...Houston no less....and NEVER have been to the rodeo????? That is really hard to believe! I get tickets every year but give them away! LOL I just don't care for it that much to fight the crowds, etc. Now, the BBQ Cook-Off is a whole different story! Talk about some excellent primo cowboy watchin'!!! Woo hoo!!! Yowza!! Just got back from Hannah's orchestra concert! My little angel is so good! I'm so proud of her! My other child is the spawn of the devil.

I just got a batch of scone recipes this morning from my girlfriend who says her family makes the best scones in the world! What is this, Scone Appreciation Day? My fave is orange/cranberry. Mmmmmmmmm.

Michelle - In your opinion, why do PTA's always have so much DRAMA in the organization? Seems like everyone I know who's involved in one has the same story!

Laura - he oughta go spend some time at a wound care clinic! 95% of those patients are diabetics who don't follow their diet or take their meds! There was a very sweet lady who was a roommate of my mother's at one point in the hospital....she was having her foot amputated the day after we left! It was so sad :laugh: Drama continues over here. Another long day ahead!