Carlene

Behave yourself, Sue. Most mainstream fundamentalists (is that an oxy moron?) don't believe ANY of that stuff. They don't put a date on the Rapture and generally distrust anyone who does. The Bible says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

Or this really old person....LOL Very sound thinking. If you can manage this, you will have, at month's end, a whole new sense of respect for yourself AND more control over your life than you've had in a long time.

This may be more self-esteem related than sex addiction - a not uncommon thing in fat (or formerly fat) women. Going out with men who use you is very bad for your self-esteem. What you need is a brand new boyfriend - one who doesn't have so much baggage, and who isn't such a little boy at heart. Tell the ex to find himself a new counselor (aka shoulder to cry on). If the guys from the casual makeout sessions pop back up, be busy and don't return their calls. It's time to start over, with a clean slate and a new, I-deserve-to-be-treated-like-a-princess attitude. After all, who would try and grope a princess on the first date?

I think THAT'S a little weird. Sorry, but I don't get the point.

That wasn't Missy....that was mysherrijo.

When you look at a member's profile, there is a line that says "Referrals", with a number after it. What is a referral?

Is this band related? Protein related? I have bruises on my upper thighs and no injury, no explanation. I get at least 60 grams of protein a day, but not much meat. Any idea what might be behind these mystery bruises?

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Here's my two-semesters-of-psych diagnosis...I think this guy has a sex addiction. At the very least, he has rotten relationship skills. Anyone past the 8th grade knows that you don't mourn your ex to your present girlfriend/boyfriend. "Athletic", by the way, does not necessarily mean skinny - unless you are a 14 year old gymnast.

Sunta, I'm older than you and I promise, even back in the Dark Ages when I was a schoolgirl, we were told that Jesus was most likely born in the spring. It would be pretty hard to convince even really old people - older than me - that shepherds were camping out with their flocks, in Israel, in December.

James Dobson must be a Republican. I wonder exactly who might consider sexual misconduct with a child "sort of a joke"? On the October 6, 2006 broadcast of Focus on the Family, Dobson commenting on the congressional page scandal stated, We condemn the Foley affair categorically, and we also believe that what Mr. Clinton did was one of the most embarrassing and wicked things ever done by a president in power. Let me remind you, sir, that it was not just James Dobson who found the Lewinsky affair reprehensible. More than 140 newspapers called for Clinton's resignation. But the president didn't do what Mr. Foley has done in leaving. He stayed in office, and he lied to the grand jury to obscure the facts. As it turns out, Mr. Foley has had illicit sex with no one that we know of, and the whole thing turned out to be what some people are now saying was a -- sort of a joke by the boy and some of the other pages

Sounds like the Protestant version of Purgatory!

This (the breakup) may be a blessing in disguise. If this man enables or encourages you to do "bad things" - things you probably would not do if he weren't around - then there is a really good reason you broke it off. But you already knew that, didn't you? Stay strong. Give the new guy a chance.

Someone sent this to my DH, though he couldn't possibly appreciate it to the fullest. I laughed til I cried.... WAX is "Not your Friend" All hair removal methods have tricked women with their promises of easy, painless removal - The Epilady, scissors, razors, Nair and now...the wax. My night began as any other normal weeknight. Come home, fix dinner, play with the kids. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next few hours: "Maybe I should pull the waxing kit out of the medicine cabinet." So I headed to the site of my demise: the bathroom. It was one of those "cold wax" kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the strips together in your hand, they get warm and you peel them apart and press them to your leg (or wherever else) and you pull the hair right off. No muss, no fuss. How hard can it be? I mean,I'm not a genius, but I am mechanically inclined enough to figure this out. (YA THINK!?!) So I pull one of the thin strips out. Its two strips facing each other stuck together. Instead of rubbing them together, my genius kicks in so I get out the hair dryer and heat it to 1000 degrees. ("Cold wax," yeah...right!) I lay the strip across my thigh. Hold the skin around it tight and pull. It works! OK, so it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't too bad. I can do this! Hair removal no longer eludes me! I am She-rah, fighter of all wayward body hair and maker of smooth skin extraordinaire. With my next wax strip I move north. After checking on the kids, I sneak back into the bathroom, for the ultimate hair fighting championship. I drop my panties and place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I apply the one strip across the right side of my bikini line, covering the right half of my *hoo-hoo* and stretching down to the inside of my butt cheek (Yes, it was a long strip) I inhale deeply and brace myself....RRRRIIIPPP!!!! I'm blind!!! Blinded from pain!!!!....OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!! Vision returning, I notice that I've only managed to pull off half the strip. OH NO! What have I done???!!! Another deep breath and RRRIIIPPP!! Everything is swirly and spotted. I think I may pass out...must stay conscious...Do I hear crashing drums??? Breathe, breathe...OK, back to normal. I want to see my trophy - a wax covered strip, the one that has caused me so much pain, with my hairy pelt sticking to it. I want to revel in the glory that is my triumph over body hair. I hold up the strip! There's no hair on it. Where is the hair??? WHERE IS THE WAX??? Slowly I ease my head down, foot still perched on the toilet. I see the hair. The hair that should be on the strip. I touch. I am touching wax. WHAT?! I run my fingers over the most sensitive part of my body, which is now covered in cold wax and matted hair. Then I make the next BIG mistake...remember my foot is still propped up on the toilet? I know I need to do something. So I put my foot down. My LIFE FLASHES BEFORE ME!!!!!! I hear the slamming of a cell door. *hoo-hoo*? Sealed shut! Butt?? Sealed shut! I penguin-walk around the bathroom trying to figure out what to do and think to myself "Please don't let me get the urge to poop. My head may pop off!" What can I do to melt the wax? Hot water!! Hot Water melts wax!!! I'll run the hottest water I can stand into the bathtub, get in, immerse the wax-covered bits and the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it off, right??? WRONG!!!!!!! I get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than that used to torture prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment - I sit. Now, the only thing worse than having your nether, regions glued together is having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of the tub...in scalding hot water. Which, by the way, doesn't melt cold wax. So, now I'm stuck to the bottom of the tub as though I had cement-epoxied myself to the porcelain!! God bless the man who had convinced me a few months ago to have a phone put in the bathroom!!!!! I call my friend, thinking surely she has waxed before and has some secret of how to get me undone. It's a very good conversation starter - "So, my butt and *hoo-hoo* are glued together to the bottom of the tub!" There is a slight pause. She doesn't know any secret tricks for removal but she does try to hide her laughter from me. She wants to know exactly where the wax is located, "Are we talking cheeks or *hoo-hoo*?" She's laughing out loud by now...I can hear her. I give her the rundown and she suggests I call the number on the side of the box. YEAH!!!!! Right!! Like I should be the joke of someone else's night. While we go through various solutions. I resort to scraping the wax off with a razor. Nothing feels better than to have your girlie goodies covered in hot wax, glued shut, stuck to the tub in super hot water and then dry-shaving the sticky wax off!! By now the brain is not working, dignity has taken a major dive and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need Post-Traumatic Stress counseling for this event. My friend is still talking with me when I finally see my saving grace....the lotion they give you to remove the excess wax. What do I really have to lose at this point? I rub some on and OH MY GOD!!!!!!! The scream probably woke the kids and scared the dickens out of my friend. It's sooo painful, but I really don't care. "IT WORKS!! It works!!" I get a hearty congratulation from my friend and she hangs up. I successfully remove the remainder of the wax and then notice to my grief and despair.... THE HAIR IS STILL THERE.......ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!!! So I recklessly shave it off. Heck, I'm numb by now. Nothing hurts. I could have amputated my own leg at this point. Next week I'm going to try hair color......Not!

Unfortunately, the second coming will also reduce the rest of us "to rubble", as well. The second coming is more than just the second earthly appearance of Christ; it is also the end of the world.

Susan... You are a good mom. My mother did the same thing. She wouldn't even wrap my BD gifts in Christmas paper, although it would have been much easier. And my BD cake/BD party NEVER had a Christmas theme unless I wanted it to. But I always thought my mom should have named me something seasonal, like "Holly" or "Noel". My daughter was born June 21 (first day of summer) and I wanted to name her "Summer" but I got out voted...LOL

I bought a Magic Bullet right after I was banded. It worked great, but wore out in about 6 months. Almost everyone I know had the same luck with theirs - 6 or 8 months seems to be the average lifespan. At Wal Mart I found a Hamilton Beach personal blender. It cost less than $10 and works just as well as the MB. I wore that one out, too (in about 6 months), and just purchased another one. I figue it's a better deal - $10 twice a year as opposed to $60, twice a year.

Very interesting, Green.....and SCARY. I never realized that Methodists and Presbyterians and Episcopalians were "the spirit of the Antichrist". I'll bet that's news to them, too.

Thanks, Mary. The DFW Bandsters met last Thursday, as usual, and as always we had a good time. They also had a holiday dinner,which we had planned to attend but then something came up and we didn't make it. Once the holiday crazies are over I hope to get back on track, too. I have made enough cookies and fudge and peanut butter fudge in the last couple of weeks to put the entire state of Texas into sugar shock. See you soon.....

Thank you, BOH. Everyone asks me if it isn't the pits to have a Christmas birthday, but since I know nothing else, it really doesn't bother me. People are singing and the whole world is lit up like no other time of the year. I'll admit, a July birthday might be nice, though. You could go swimming or have a birthday picnic. I always felt a little guilty, though I don't know why, since I had nothing to do with my own conception and/or gestation, but because my mom was in the hospital, my brother had to spend Christmas with the neighbors the year I was born.

Christmas is not "based on" a Pagan festival. The early Church, in a PR move designed to lure the masses away from Pagan festivals taking place around the same time, simply said, "We are going to celebrate Christ's Mass (Christmas) on Dec 25th to commemorate the birth of Jesus. Come join us instead of going to that Pagan winter solstice festival." Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21st. The weather in Great Britain is notoriously nasty in April, so the queen's "official" birthday is celebrated on the third Saturday of June. It's pretty much the same thing.

The "night coughs" are a sign of reflux. Make sure you aren't over-filled. And don't eat after 8 PM. Also, try some Nexium or OTC product for heartburn just before you go to bed.

Good luck, Becka. And let me know if your folks back out. You can fly me to Hawaii and I will babysit for you while you're in Mexico.

I get reflux from hell if I am too tight. Even the best case scenario for me means taking Nexium daily and nothing except Water after about 8 PM. If this came on suddenly and is not associated with a new fill you may need to get it checked out via a swallow test under fluoro. You could have a mild slip.

Today I finally got around to doing one of those things I've always meant to do....I scanned all the credit cards in my wallet, DH's wallet, and the lock box (where we store cards we don't carry and seldom use). The reason for my sudden burst of common sense? We either lost a credit card, or it was stolen. Both, I think, actually. It probably fell out of my purse while I was removed another card. Anyway, we've had the card 18 months and never used it. It was one of those deals where you're pre-approved - just sign here and save 10% on everything you purchased today. Right after Thanksgiving we got a call from Visa...just checking on the recent activity on your Target Visa card. Huh????? In three weeks the thieves charged over $750.00, which was pretty minor, considering the card had a $12,000 limit and zero balance when they started. Of course, I went to check on all the other cards. Any others missing? Well....who knows? I have a whole handful of credit cards, most of which I almost never use! So now I'm taking that piece of good advice someone e-mailed me about 10 years ago. I suggest you do the same. It's such a bummer to have this happen to you.

I am just seething as I write this. Tonight there was a knock at my front door. It was a friend of Cheyenne's, from the neighborhood, and her dad (stepdad). Now this is a very nice girl. She has been here many times and never been anything but respectful and polite and NICE. I've met the mom and thought the home life was a little rigid - the girl is 14 and not allowed to have a boyfriend, no matter how innocent, not even allowed to stay home alone while her parents go out to dinner - but that's their call, not mine. The dad was mad as hell because he came home early from work and caught the daughter on "his" computer, setting up a My Space page. She told him that Cheyenne had taught her how to do it. He was just furious at everyone....his daughter, my granddaughter - everyone. He demanded to know if I knew what My Space is. Well...duh, yes I know what it is. But I never got a chance to answer. "It's all CUSS WORDS," he said. I told him I was very sorry that it happened. I knew that his daughter and Cheyenne made the My Space page. I didn't know it was against HIS rules for her to have one. Cheyenne admitted that she helped her make it, but said that she deleted it after she found out Kayla wasn't supposed to have one (which explains why she was making a new one when she got busted). The poor girl was mortified. Cheyenne had another girl from school here during this whole thing, and the dad didn't even care. He said, "We have had enough of her lying and disrespectful behavior are about to pull her out of school." Then he said, "And she's a thief, too. Did you know that?" I was appalled! I said to him, please don't do this. Girls this age are vicious and that kind of thing will get all over school and Kayla will be humiliated. He said, "I'm not doing anything. She did it to herself." The man was just a complete ASS! These people pride themselves on their Christian principles. But it was very, very evident to me that this man does not like his stepdaughter and God help me, but I think he actually ENJOYED her misery, and putting her down in front of myself and the other kids. It seemed to me like some kind of twisted power trip. What is wrong with these fruitcakes? I'm a Christian too, but people like this give the rest of us a bad name. Jesus never said you were supposed to humiliate anyone - let alone your own child - in His name.