Carlene

With me, it varies day-to-day. Sometimes, if I didn't eat Protein shakes and soup, I couldn't eat at all. My favorite lunch is tuna from one of those little foil packets. Most other meat - except for crisp bacon - is iffy, although I can eat two barbecue ribs if they are really tender. Some junk food is a no-go: cake, more than one cookie, sometimes chocolate (like a Hershey bar). Ice cream works if I don't eat too much "good" food first, but I have PBed on ice cream. Just eat the solid protein first, and then see how much room you have left for the other stuff.

Have you considered changing jobs? Some employers still cover WLS.

He doesn't try to explain himself. He knows that some people are appalled, or as he puts it, they "don't understand". He just shrugs his shoulders and says he can't help that. When my DH told him how I felt, he said, "I'm sorry to hear that." My DH is between a rock and a hard place. I asked him if he would think all of this was okay if it were he and I, with me being the one with the new boyfriend. Or what if it were his dad, and his mom. Would it be okay then? He said, "Of course not, but it's not me, or my mom. It's my best friend and he hasn't done anything to me, so I'm not going to hold this against him." I have buried a spouse following a long illness, and three weeks later, I was an open wound. I was barely able to return to work, let alone get married. I keep wondering, what happened to that grieving process? Did he just not have one? And how is that possible, after 40 years of marriage?

I'm betting he won't do it.

Fish heads, fish heads, Rolly-polly fish heads, Fish heads, fish heads, Eat them up, yum!

Dodge... I'm glad I hung onto my biniki body until I was older, so I can at least say I got to wear one. Now, I don't think so. I'm old and have too much extra skin. But you go for it, girl!!!!!!!!!!!! My kids love that C&W song: That was mama, 'fore she was mama In a string bikini, down in Tijuana Won't admit she smoked marijuana That was mama, 'fore she was mama

Prenatal Vitamins have an aroma that is unique to them. I cannot, to this day, and it's been over 30 years since I was pregnant, catch a whiff of that smell and not gag. If I bit into one, I'm sure I would DIE. Or at least wish that I could. I second the Centrum advice. They taste GOOD. And you don't need a script (or a pharmacist) for them. Go to Wal Mart - it's the cheapest.

They are getting married Tuesday, he just told DH today. That's 3 weeks after his wife's death.

You know, I would probably think that too, but for the fact that he and my DH have been friends for over 40 years and DH swears Mr P NEVER cheated. The years that I knew them as a couple, he was the perfect example of what a good husband should be. During most of her illness (right up until the GF had been coming to the house every day for a while) he was the kindest, most wonderful spouse you could imagine. I wouldn't have been more surprised to find out Santa Claus was a junkie.

I grew up with a girl whose parents were from PA. Their couch was a "davenport", which I thought was pretty funny. But I almost swallowed my bubble gum the morning Sandy's mom told her, "Don't forget your rubbers." Edited to add... We call them "galoshes" or "over-shoes".

"Don't get above your raisin' " means don't be acting better than your peers/family. My mom said something similar, but I can't remember the exact quote. She also said someone was "a credit to his raisin' " if he/she was a good person. I love this one, also from my mom..... I'd like to buy him for what he's worth, and sell him for what he THINKS he's worth.

You think maybe he cheated out of grief for his sick wife????? Sorry, I'm not buying it.

Montana Meth is available on HBO on Demand, if you have that feature. Also, the entire Addiction series. One of the most powerful, most brutal, yet absolutely TRUE documentaries is TV Junkie. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, this documentary follows TV journalist Rick Kirkham's downfall into addiction. The film was assembled from more than 3,000 hours of footage shot by Kirkham of nearly every facet of his life from age 14 on--including the birth of his sons, his frequent cocaine binges, painful family arguments, and even visits from the police. Directed by Michael Cain and Matt Radecki. I think TV Junkie will soon be available on DVD, if it isn't already. Maybe you can Google it and find it for sale on the Net...I don't know. But it sure would be worth the price.

I agree. We used to leave our church sanctuary open all day and until 6 or 8 in the evening, so people could come inside and pray, until a woman came in and shot herself on the altar. But I don't know anyone, period, who would not have come to your rescue. A true Christian certainly would not have left you stranded like that. The good Samaritan is not dead.....I hope.

My mother used to say that, too. When I asked "What for?", she'd say, "Cat fur to make kitten britches." I thought she was making fun of the way I talked - implying that I had said "what fur" instead of "what for". And I would get sooooooooooooo MAD!

No, the caretaker is about his same age, but Mrs P was 14 years older than him. Mrs P, BTW, was very reluctant to marry him in the first place, due to the age difference. HE pursued HER. It was actually one of the most romantic stories I've ever heard. Boy from NY joins the AF and gets sent to Phoenix for four years. He meets a divorced mom with two sons and falls in love. Begs her to marry him. She says "no", she's too old, etc. His parents (boy is an only child) are LIVID that he would consider such a thing (no chance of grandchildren, thinks she's a gold-digger, etc). So after he gets out of the service, he goes home. He's miserable. He flies back to Phoenix, doesn't tell anyone, shows up at her house, and finds her preparing for a date. He picks up the phone, hands it to her, and says, "Call him and tell him you're not going out with him - ever." She says, "Why should I?" And he answers, "Because I came back to marry you, and I won't leave Phoenix without you." They were married over 40 years. His parents never accepted her. They forgave him, more or less, but they hated Mrs P until the day they died.

Mr. P hired the caregiver. She isn't a nurse. She did private "companion" work for individuals who could not stay alone - usually elderly. Mrs. P had advanced Parkinson's and the dementia that sometimes goes with it. While she was in the first nursing home, Mr P hired a "sitter" who reportedly told Mrs P that her husband had a girlfriend. If she understood at all, she never knew who it was. She continued to be glad to see the GF every time Mr P brought her with him to visit his wife. I have wondered the same thing....did the affair start BEFORE Mrs P was sent away? Were they having sex in the guest room while Mrs P napped? Mr P told my husband that it did not, but since when can you believe an adulterer? I do know this.....Mrs P's condition worsened dramatically about six months before she was moved to the home. She fell several times - always while she was being "helped" from one place to another by the caregiver and always while Mr P was away from the house. She broke one hip, then the other. The caregiver also told Mr P that money was missing from her purse ($400) and she suspected that Mrs P had taken it. Mr P replaced it, of course. Mr P bought the caregiver a brand new car a few months before they went public with their relationship. His story was that he was only "financing" it for her and she was paying him back out of what he paid her. He loaned her money for a computer and a digital camera. Within six months, she claimed her apartment was burglarized and they were stolen. Mr P replaced the items. I hope she takes him for every dime he's got and he ends up homeless, under a bridge.

We use the "sugar kisses" thing in Texas, too. My DH has two nieces, raised in the DC area, who thought he was STRANGE when they were growing up because he would greet them with, "Come here and gimme some sugar." The oldest one is in her 40's and a partner in a KC law firm and she STILL talks about that. In my family, and it may not be a Texas thing, because my family came from Ireland by way of Tennessee and Kentucky, I can remember: Pretty is as pretty does Little pictures (or could be "pitchers") have big ears Loblolly (that's an area where Water stands and makes a squishy mess) Happy as a pig in slop Hug my neck (goes with "gimme some sugar", kind of) Pretty as a spotted pup (somehow that never made me feel attractive....wonder why?) Two wrongs don't make a right Don't you sass me, young lady Can't seem to get my plow in the ground (means you are sluggish in the morning) Hell fire and damnation (this was as close as my mother ever came to swearing) Bless your heart (with sarcasm, it might be "Well....bless your little heart.") Way far yonder (this cracks my Yankee friends up) Ya'll (of course) (Ya'll come back now, ya hear?") Pretty please, with sugar on top Football mums (a Texas homecoming tradition that goes back at least 50 years and consists of a huge, tacky, and very expensive corsage) In Texas, if we are talking about a soft drink - any brand of soft drink - we say "Coke". And we have a ro-DEE-o, as opposed to a ro-DAY-o. (Likewise, our creeks rhyme with "meek", not "chick".) In Texas, we are always "fixin' to"...."I'm fixin' to go to the store." And we put things up, rather than putting them "away". "I'm fixin' to put the car up." "Up? Up where?" "In the garage." "ON the garage?" "No, silly....IN the garage. How many beers did you say you had?" I'm sure there are dozens more, some of which I'm sure will come to mind as soon as I hit the "Submit" button.

If that was the pastor, I sure wouldn't be joining his church. What a jerk. I understand the safety issue and all, but he could at least have offered to make a phone call for you.

I was just thinking about how much times have changed in the last 50 years. Kids didn't have any rights when I was a child. If you went to school with stripes on your legs from a peach tree switch, no one called the police. They just figured you sassed your mom and she switched you, and good for her. A switch, which is what my mother spanked me with, is a brutal form of punishment, once very popular in the South. A thin, limber switch will leave whelps and may even draw blood. Since I was a quick learner and did not enjoy pain, I only got switched once or twice. I once asked my mother if she ever got switched when SHE was a little girl. She said the same thing....."once or twice". I think I must come from a long line of very intelligent people. Or at least people who have enough sense not to bring the wrath of a peach tree switch down on themselves more than once or twice in a lifetime. I can't honestly advocate cutting the blood out of children's legs as punishment, but I can say that the more distasteful the consequences, the more likely you are to think before you misbehave. My DH says we need caning in America. I'm not sure he's right, but I'm not sure he's wrong, either.

Don't beat yourself up. My kids' pediatrician once told me that if they haven't made a trip to the ER by the time they're 10, they are being over-protected.

LOL.....me, too, BJ. But can you imagine having your autopsy report posted on the Internet????

Oh, BJ....where have you been? Mrs P passed away March 19th. There was no funeral - just a private closed-casket "viewing" - by invitation only. No obit and no one accompanied the body to the cemetery. Mrs P's brother was not even notified of her death until several days after the fact. Four days after the "funeral", Mr P proposed to the live-in GF/"caregiver".

An autopsy report is very graphic and very detailed. It will tell the world if you colored your hair, your real height and weight, every scar and imperfection on your body, and will describe all your internal organs (including your vagina and your anus). Pretty invasive, huh?

I loved The Notebook. But then my DH's friend (the infamous Mr P) ruined it for me. When I saw the movie, I thought Mr P WAS the James Garner character. How very wrong I was.