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Post by auntkelly on Feb 11, 2023 13:46:29 GMT
Thanks everyone. Typing it out made what we need to do clear and you all reinforced it. I’m going to leave the OP up for a little bit longer so it doesn’t seem like I posted and ran but then I will delete it because, like I said, I don’t usually post such personal things, esp. about my kids now that they are older. I appreciate all of your responses! Go ahead and delete it now if you want. Your son’s safety and privacy is more important than any Pea etiquette. We’ll all understand if you don’t follow up.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 10, 2023 2:21:22 GMT
Hoka Runners Dyson Hair Dryer DryBar dry shampoo Nest Candles Breville Waffle Iron Juli Voss Jewelry Soundcore over the ear noise cancelling headphones Ebooks from the public library
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 9, 2023 16:47:39 GMT
I waste money on all kinds of things, but I won't pay those expensive food delivery fees.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 9, 2023 16:03:05 GMT
I'm glad that things are going well for you. I'm sure your medical team appreciates your positive spirit. I will continue to say prayers for you.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 6, 2023 13:46:11 GMT
Such a sad story.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 6, 2023 13:43:50 GMT
I think I was in 6th grade when I accidentally stumbled on the book at our public library. It’s the type of book that stays with you forever.
I have a six degrees of separation relationship with the movie. Gray Frederickson, a native Oklahoman, produced the movie, as well as the Godfather movies. He moved back to Oklahoma in the nineties and became good friends with our good friends. We all shared a love of boating and kept our boats at the same lake. We had a lot of fun boating together. Gray recently passed away. What a wonderful legacy he left for his children. His name will ever be linked with a great coming of age movie.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 6, 2023 4:52:37 GMT
I hope you have a fun trip. I would have stayed at the Marriott. I love travelling with my friends, but we‘re all pretty chill. It wouldn’t be an issue if someone wanted to stay at a hotel a short walk away from the hotel everyone else was staying at.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 4, 2023 16:24:32 GMT
My daughter, who worked in a memory care facility during college, thinks he would get better care living with me. She says, Isn't that what you would want me for do you? Other family members ask if he is living with me or will be living with me. Our current arrangement gives me a lot of anxiety and sadness, and I can't imagine doing it 24/7, even if there is a part time caregiver and occasional limited help from family. I know your daughter means well, but if my daughter asked me that same question I would look her straight in the eye and say “if I develop dementia I absolutely do not want you to care for me in your home. Put me in a nice place and come see me often.” If my daughter argued with me, i would remind her of when my aunt, who was suffering from dementia, stayed with us during Covid. I would spend thirty minutes taking my aunt on a slow walk around the block. Then five minutes after we returned home from our walk she would say “I’d like to go on a walk.” She had no memory of just returning from a walk. I didn’t sleep well during that time because I would hear her wandering around the house at night and I was petrified she would fall down the stairs, or turn on the gas or walk outside the house. My aunt is very sweet, but even though she was in the very early stages of dementia, caring for her was a 24/7 job. I was miserable and I don’t wish that on my kids ever. My aunt is in a very nice memory care facility now and I try to go see her every other day. I hope my kids do the same for me.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 4, 2023 14:21:12 GMT
Congrats on your son’s upcoming wedding!
I may be wrong, but I sense you don’t really want to wear a hat or fascinator. Is it the bride and groom who has requested you to wear a fascinator? If so, and they are not too stressed about the wedding, I suggest you explain to them why you are not comfortable wearing hats. If someone else said you needed to wear a hat or fascinator and you don’t want to, I’d ignore the advice, or talk to the bride and groom about it.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 4, 2023 13:53:59 GMT
You can go to the top of Pike’s Peak on the cog railway which operates year round. link
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 2, 2023 21:21:16 GMT
I had a terrible time convincing my 96 year old aunt that due to her memory issues, it was no longer safe for her to live on a farm by herself. I was driving over to see her at least once a week and it was an hour and a half drive each way. I knew in my heart she needed to be in a care facility, but some distant relatives who lived a mile away from her kept saying "don't put her in a home. She can live at our house if it gets too bad. We check on her all the time and she is fine." (I always suspected their idea of "checking on her all the time" was really just driving her back and forth to church on Sundays).
Those same relatives who always said they would take my aunt in if things got too bad finally called me one morning and said "Come get your aunt. One of the neighbors found her walking down a country road at 6:00 am and she couldn't even tell the neighbor her name."
My aunt lived w/ my husband and I for a few weeks before we found her a place. She didn't want to go and it was heartbreaking, but I told her she didn't really have a choice. The first place we found wasn't the right fit for her (her dementia was so much more advanced than any of us realized). We finally found a great place for her and my husband was able to negotiate the price down to a level she could afford.
She is really happy at the place she is at, but her dementia has gotten worse. She asks me pretty frequently to take her home to see her mom and dad. (Her mom and dad would both be 123 if they were still alive).
If I had it to do all over again, I would have told my aunt gently but firmly that she had to go to a facility as soon as I knew in my heart it was not safe for her to live alone. It's a terribly sad situation, but it's just the way things are. It's one of those hard decisions you have to make for your loved ones.
I really feel for you and your family. It sounds like you are all in agreement about what needs to be done. Maybe you can call a family meeting and explain to your parents that given the situation there is no other choice but for them to move to a facility that can provide the support they need. If they see that you and all your siblings are in agreement, they will hopefully realize it really is time to move.
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 2, 2023 15:44:43 GMT
Do you prefer a cover band or a DJ at a wedding reception? My daughter is getting married this spring and she and her fiancee opted for a DJ over a band. I always thought people choose a DJ over a band because it is cheaper, but my daughter and her fiancé opted for a DJ because they said cover bands generally just play classics from the eighties and nineties, while a DJ can play rock, pop, hip hop, rap, etc.
It's their party, so I'm fine w/ their decision to hire a DJ but I was surprised that they actually preferred a DJ over live music.
I personally love dancing to a fun band at a wedding reception. What is your preference?
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 2, 2023 15:28:02 GMT
It's an amazing find! I wonder why it was in that field. Was it accidentally lost? Purposefully discarded? And by whom? So many possibilities!
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 2, 2023 13:14:31 GMT
He is adorable! Congrats!
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Post by auntkelly on Feb 1, 2023 14:40:09 GMT
You are very talented!
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 31, 2023 17:31:27 GMT
One of my favorite jewelry designers is JulieVos. Her pieces are pricey, but they are really unique and well made. My sister in law gave me a reversible pendent necklace several years' ago which I wear 2 or 3 times a week because it goes w/ everything. I always get compliments on it. I also have two pairs of Juli Vos earrings and I get compliments on them all the time. I also find nice earrings and other jewelry at Talbots. I often wait to the end of the season when everything is deeply discounted.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 31, 2023 15:10:49 GMT
If folks took the time to respond, it’s nice to let them know how things worked out. . There are a few peas I no longer respond to on these type of posts because they never ever return to the thread with an outcome, a thank you or a kiss my butt. I understand OP is saying rule in jest, but still. People try to at least respond and say thanks! I think it’s nice when the OP comes back and tells you how things turned out, but I don’t think it’s always necessary. However, it is a pet peeve of mine when I take the time to try and answer someone’s question and the OP can’t be bothered to at least “like” my post so I’ll know it’s been seen. For example, I’m an avid reader and enjoy responding to threads in which the OP is asking for a book recommendation. Usually before responding on those threads, I google the name of the book I’m recommending to make sure I spell the name of the book and its author correctly. Then I write out my response, proofread it and often revise it before posting. It sometimes takes me twenty minutes or so to reply to a post. I know there is a good chance the OP won’t take my advice and may not even like my advice. However, I do appreciate when the OP “likes” my post to acknowledge she has seen it. I wouldn’t expect an OP to “like” a mean spirited post, but if someone is taking the time to respond to a post, it does seem like the least the OP can do is hit the “like” button to acknowledge the response has been seen.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 30, 2023 19:45:11 GMT
The article doesn't really say much except that she has given up trying to have a perfect house and that she has written a new book.
The new book is probably going to have some earth shattering news like you shouldn't expect your house to be perfect all the time when your kids are little, and you should buy some colored bins and teach your kids to pick up after themselves.
I like Marie Kondo and feel like I did learn some really helpful tips from her, but I never followed her to the letter.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 30, 2023 16:31:53 GMT
I listened to Spare by Prince Harry. I was something like number 80 on the waiting list at my library, so I was shocked when it became available so soon. I'm not a big Prince Harry, but I actually thought the book was pretty interesting, especially when he talked about his military service. He obviously had a ghost writer, because the book was well written w/ a lot of metaphors and other literary devices, but you very much felt it was Prince Harry's story and not a Hollywood writer's version. Prince Harry did a good job of reading the audio version of the book. I wish he would have spent more time talking about the mundane details of growing up royal, such as what it was like spending Christmas with the royals at Sandringham or what it was like spending summers in Scotland with his grandmother, but that obviously wasn't the purpose of the book.
I've just started a Tik Tok challenge of reading the book Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. It's the longest novel in the English language, which sounds like a daunting task, but we are going to read it over the course of a year. It's written all in the form of letters by various characters, which are all dated. The first letter begins on January 10th. We'll read the letters over the course of a year on the day they were supposedly written. The professor is making Tik Tok videos about the letters and we are invited to join in the discussion by commenting on the videos. I think it will be interesting, but it remains to be seen if I can keep up w/ the challenge!
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 29, 2023 14:59:35 GMT
I read The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1995. It followed the life of Daisy Goodwill Fleet from her birth in 1906 until her death at an unspecified time, (probably in the eighties or nineties). Both of my grandmothers were born in 1900, so it was interesting to imagine how their lives might have been similar to Daisy’s life. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to friends.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 29, 2023 14:38:41 GMT
It just depends on the circumstances.
I have an uncle who was married three times and I am quite judgy of him. I don’t know anything about his first marriage except that it was brief and she was gorgeous. He had a child by the second wife and after divorce proceedings were begun, he found out his wife was pregnant. He didn’t support the child and made no effort to have any relationship w/ the child, despite the fact that he was in good shape financially. He was married to the third wife, whom we all adored, for ten years’ or so. He wouldn’t say why they divorced, but a short time after they divorced we heard she had a serious neurological condition. I can’t help but think that had something to do w/ their divorce. My uncle was in many relationships after his third divorce. I don’t know whether he married any of them. I have good reason to suspect one of those relationships was with a young girl who may not have even been of consenting age.
I have a friend who just married for the third time and I am not at all judgy of her. She was young when she married the first time and her husband turned out to be a loser. She married a much older man the second time. They had a wonderful marriage for about twenty years, and then he became very ill. She nursed him for two years or so and then he died. She just got married for the third time and seems really happy, although the marriage is not conventional. They live and work in two different cities and only see each other on the weekends. It works for them and I am happy for her.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 29, 2023 14:00:49 GMT
I generally don’t like time travel books, although 11.22.63 by Stephen King is one of my favorite books.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 26, 2023 14:35:38 GMT
I have no interest in buying the water, but that was our favorite family ride. I just happened to be strolling through Tik Toc when I stumbled on a live video of the last few minutes before the ride closed. A huge crowd gathered and they cheered every time a log holding riders came down the mountain. The last few logs were filled with cast members, which was nice.
I totally understand why it was time for the ride to go. It will be fun to see what the new ride looks like.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 25, 2023 19:29:15 GMT
I'm on the waiting list at my library to read it, and I might or might not get around to it when my turn comes. I enjoy memoirs if they are well written. I've read dozens of them over the years. I assume she probably had a good ghost writer and the book is therefore well written. I like to read stories about people who were raised in different circumstances than my own.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 25, 2023 19:06:44 GMT
The weirdest videos I watch are the people who go to cemeteries and clean and restore very old grave markers. The grave cleaners find a marker to clean and then through sources such as Ancestory.com research the person whose name is on the marker. As you watch years of grime being scraped and sprayed away from the marker, you listen to an audio about the person whose marker is being cleaned-when they were born, who they were married to, what they died of, what became of their descendants, etc.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 25, 2023 18:51:04 GMT
I think it's a great idea! You probably have bigger plans than me, but a few years' ago, I partnered w/ my state's historical society and wrote a book about a massive tornado which hit my hometown in 1955. I interviewed many survivors of the tornado and found a treasure trove of old newspaper articles and other documents at my hometown museum. I didn't personally profit from the book, but we sold all 2000 copies which were printed and the profits were split between the historical society and the local museum. I heard from people all over the country who had ties to my hometown and had somehow stumbled on a copy of the book. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. My book never made it to the New York Times bestseller list, nor is there ever going to be a movie, but it was very rewarding for me to work on the project and hear from all the people who thought their great tragedy had been forgotten.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 25, 2023 18:39:33 GMT
I've gone to the same OB/GYN since 1987. She delivered both my kids and she is just a few years older than me. If she ever retires, I would probably prefer another female, but it wouldn't be a requirement.
I can remember back in the day when I told other women my OB/GYN was female, about half the women would say "I would never go to a female OB/GYN. I just think it's weird that a woman would want to do that." I never understood what was weird about a woman wanting to help bring babies into the world or treat health problems that have to do with women's reproductive organs.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 23, 2023 15:21:39 GMT
A great insight into the first half of the 1960s can be found in Robert Caro’s The Passage of Power which covers Lyndon Johnson’s life from 1958 through 1964. (Caro hasn’t completed the final volume of his multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson which will cover the period from 1964 until Johnson’s death).
I can’t even begin to say how much I love Caro’s biography of LBJ. Caro is such a great writer. He says his books about LBJ are more a study of power and how one grabs it and uses it than they are about LBJ. What I love about his books is that they are so descriptive and paint such a vivid picture of what was going on in society during the time period Caro is writing about. His books are thick but very readable and engaging.
In The Passage of Power, Caro writes extensively about such topics as the 1960 Presidential election, the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK’s assassination, the early days of LBJ’s Presidency and the Passage of the Civil Rights Act. Caro’s books read more like a novel at times than a work of nonfiction, although he is famous for his meticulous research.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 23, 2023 14:15:01 GMT
I think tall boots w/ dresses and skirts are a classic look which never goes out of style. The Princess of Wales wore tall boots with an orange dress for an engagement last week.
Booties are very popular right now, which I think is great, because they are so comfortable. I love the Blondo brand because they are durable, comfortable, stylish and affordable.
Also, penny loafers are very popular now and easy to wear. I’m always happy when a comfortable shoe is in style.
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Post by auntkelly on Jan 20, 2023 15:59:46 GMT
My husband and I buy one or two boxes from every GS selling at the grocery store. We put the boxes in the freezer at the lake house and pull them out when we have company during the summer (which is almost every weekend). GS cookies are always welcome on a hot day in the summer!
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