Sorry ashley missed your post.... Mom called DSS back in July when I refused to let SD talk to her mom after she had already been on the phone with her for 4 hours. When DSS came to our home they didn't find anything to really charge any of us with .... but they felt SD actions required some immediate intervention... so they came once in july once in aug and once in sept. to our home but they go weekly to mom's on either a wed or fri... to "meet with the children" because every monday and thurs mom would call and report us to DSS for something else .... she even took SD9 and SS10 to the police station to file a report against hubby because he let them go to their mothers instead of arguing with them ... she said he was just looking to get rid of them ... then she had them speak to the judge how "they were afraid to come home" So DSS thinks SD is in danger. The boys are in counseling mom met with their counselors last week ... I spoke with the counselor on tues (14th) and said ... well DSS had til friday (10th) to have services in place so I am guessing they are closing the case ... DSS called me an hour later to tell me they are keeping the case open and that the counselors filed against mom for emotional abuse of my SC. DSS told us in Sept they had big plans ... for us ... including family therapy, daily visits from a parenting aide, a whole list of "things" and none of it had been put in place by the 10th that was the end date of the 45 day assessment. Mom calls DSS one month before they have to go back to court this is the third time she has called but its the first time anything came of it .... When I spoke with DSS they said the parenting aide wasn't going to work because that was only an 8-week assessment and our case is going to take longer than 8 weeks .... If I hear one more person say for the sake of the children I am just going to explode!!!

Hi Robo, funny you should resurrect this thread. We were pretty set on getting a Volvo crossover (DS didn't like the Subaru and we were fine with that since it didn't have any real advantage over the Volvo to us), and planning to look in earnest when they got back from their travels. We were out to lunch the day before they left, and DH mentioned a dealer friend he golfs with. I told him that I had checked his sites regularly and the only used SUVs they had were always late model and way more than what we wanted to spend. But I looked again anyway, and there it was. A 2004 BMW X3, over 100k miles. Not what we were planning on, but this dealer is a friend and we already have bought used BMWs from him and trust him. We called from the lunch table, then hurried over, and bought it. There were two other teenage boys in the waiting room with their Dads wanting to look at the same car. All of the other used SUVs they had were only 2-3 yrs old and multiples of the price. Anyway, yes, service is a killer on luxury cars, esp ones far past their prime. The cars we drive are usually still under warranty, but I had an old Benz once and we gave it to my stepson, who drove it 225k miles before selling it. You have to have the cash for the repairs, but actually it was a good deal all in. Hopefully the BMW will be the same. I am actually glad the car is so old and it even has a few dings; I don't want to spoil him. DS, OTOH, is tickled pink to have an X3. Safety wise, it has side airbags as well as front, and a low center of gravity, eg crossover SUV. Having now spent half of what we planned on, I told DS the first 7k of repairs are on us, LOL. In actuality I don't expect him to fully cover the costs of owning and insuring a vehicle; as long as he is a good student and is working at a job too, he is doing what we need him to do. The purpose of the job is to make sure they don't lose sight of the value of a dollar, but with all of the academic, extracurricular and volunteer demands on his time, (not to mention all the travel we do), he can't realistically earn terribly much. Good news is the dealer will give him a job (washing cars). ETA: Good luck to all the new drivers out there!

(Elmer and Raee, that's an area of interest for me too, and yay! my library has a copy of "Food of a Younger Land"! I look forward to reading it, thank you!) I like everyone's stories and I try to participate, but my parents were pretty ordinary. Born in late 1920s/early 1930s to families that had immigrated in the early 1900s. Raised in the Depression years, but with love and enough food so they were never in peril. Dad graduated high school and joined the Army in spring of 1945, so never saw combat. Mom graduated from college but in the early 50's, job opportunities for women were such that our family was better off with her staying home and keeping house. Tenuous claims to fame: Mom once met Trigger (Roy Roger's horse), and Dad was in the Army Air Corps as it stood up to become its own service, the Air Force.

Nicole - thanks for your confirmation. Yep - it was a $10,000 increase - it's nuts. I honestly thought the insurance company made a mistake. My previous car was a MB SUV and I had no intention of trading it in until I took it in for a warranty service in August 2020 - during Covid. A salesman in the showroom approached me and said he had a customer who was looking for a model like mine - it was a 550 ML diesel with 45,000 miles. Diesel's are hard to find and he offered me a great price - cash - and if i picked another car from one of their 6 dealerships he would add another incentive. The only catch was that the buyer wanted the car ASAP since he wanted to tow his boat to Florida. The owner of the dealerships was there and when I told him that our family had bought or leased 7 cars from their dealerships in the last 10 years he upped the offer. You never really know if you've gotten the best possible deal when talking with a car salesmen but I think I did all right. So my new car is 14 months old and only has 5000 miles on it. I hope nothing ever happens to it because I wouldn't want to be car shopping right now