Thank you for replying telling me how thing's are for yourself's. When my grandfather past away in 1978 we all knew it was coming, seen his health decline from heart problems. Grandfather was my first lost from illness and I was specially close to him. My granny, grandfather's wife lived 19 years past his passing away and I would go over and sit with her for a few hours, she'd talk of how much she missed him and was so alone without him. I was very young at the time plus busy raising my two young kids, didn't realize just how bad it was for her being without her spouse. Not only having to deal with her loss she also had to put up with my uncle her first born son, he wanted to put her into a nursing home right away just to get her out of her own home so he could do as he pleased. My dad and her would not hear of it and she wasn't ill nor was she having any health problems at that time. Later on in the late 80's she started going down but it was slow she started forgetting the great grand kid's names till it came down to not even knowing her own kid's names. My dad would go over to see her and she'd ask who are you...well, where do you live. It is sad and so hard to see and watch a loved one go down. My dad has his up's and down's. When he is feeling good he loves to tell jokes and friends of his beg's him to tell them. Here lies one problem: being that he does live so far 23 miles from me it is not easy going over everyday like I do. My own home is suffering some cause I cannot get around that good myself. Like the other day I left dad's house around noon time so I could come home and do some house work but I had a bad bout with my leg and foot, the pain was so bad that it kept me up at night, I could not get comfortable no matter what I did. I'm going to the doctor today to see if something can be done for my foot, It might be a spur in my heal. Plus my husband keeps me up sometimes with his snoring .... he's going for a sleep study tonight. My DH also has a bad gall bladder and will need surgery and we've been checking out trying to find a good surgeon for him. First one we went to had the personality and a wet noodle LOL, Really that surgeon left us feeling very unsure about letting him do surgery on my DH. It is wonderful to have an outlet an outreach like this where as long ago it was much harder to find someone to reach out to. Thank's again for listening to me ramble LOL

Hi, Kay. Yes, she is going through all of the paperwork, and she is getting a bit overwhelmed. My dad left everything to her, and my sister-in-law, who is an accountant, is the executor of the will. She is doing most of the work, but they are waiting on the official death certificate before the house can be put in my mom's name. She can't sell until that is done. She also has to get rid of the car, since she doesn't drive, but one of my brothers needs a trade-in, and he is going to buy the car from her ( at a fair market price, of course). My dad did have his affairs in order, and all of the investments were in my mom's name anyhow, so she doesn't have too much to do. Right now she is slowly going through the house getting rid of things she won't need in an apartment. They lived in the same place for 44 years, so it's quite a big job, although in recent years they did begin to clear out a lot of junk. The biggest job is already done. My dad was into model trains, and had a huge set-up in two rooms in the basement. He had literally hundreds of cars, plus little villages, etc. He kept all of the boxes, but it still took us the better part of a week to dismantle the whole thing. The trains are going to be divided up between my brothers, and my mom didn't have to do a thing. We have been very fortunate that there have been absolutely NO arguements over money or disposing of posessions. I have heard so many stories about how a death in the family can bring out the absolute worst in people, but this is not the case for us. All of my brothers and I just want our mom to have as smooth a move as possible, and to end up with as much money as she can get. She is anxious to sell, she finds there are just too many memories in the house, and she wants a fresh start. Hopefully, she can be settled in her new place before the winter weather begins.

It's interesting how various BSA camps differ; my 2 DS's are going to Ten Mile River in NY. The advancement section of their leaders guide says that Requirement#4 for the Nature badge can be completed at camp if the scout selects Mammals, Reptiles, Fish, Plants, and Soil. Any others would need to be done outside of camp. But snookums, try not to sweat it! Your son is young and has plenty of time to complete the badge requirements. He can get a "partial" now and finish the rest later. I don't expect my youngest to come home from camp with all of his badges completed. (And besides, Nature is not Eagle-required, so it's truly not a big deal to complete it soon.) Perhaps get one or two of the easy ones done before camp. Are there other scouts also working on the Nature badge? Perhaps you can get them to work together. Good luck! Let us know how he does.

Thanks for all your opinions! A while back there was a thread on the conversations side about how hard it is to get rid of family furniture that has been passed down. I took it to heart and am going to lose most of it. My last house was full of family "antiques". My Grandmother's old school desk, chests of drawers....sooooo much stuff. My Mom's corner hutch is the one thing I want to keep. It's in perfect condition and the wood is beautiful. While I adore painted furniture, I just can't see painting it like cooper suggested. Maybe I just have a blind spot where this piece is concerned. DH is giving me all of Saturday. He will be my chauffeur in Chicago. We'll first go to the Toms-Price (nice furniture retailer)outlet store and then to a regular Toms-Price. I love shopping but I hate buying. Once I've made a decision on a large purchase, I always second guess myself. What should be pleasurable just ends up being stressful.