Sue, Your response reminded me more of myself! I was constantly at odds with my parents - they thought I spent way too much time in front of the mirror working on my hair and only wanted to be with my friends. (Hey this was 1979, remember Farrah hair). I'll never forget the day they took me to college. My younger brother had a peewee football game and we couldn't leave until it was over. I was so pissed because I wasn't going to get there till very late afternoon - well after everyone else had moved into the dorm and I was furious that my parents just couldn't see how important this was to me - who cares about DB's football game? Geez! By the time we got there and they unpacked me, we weren't even speaking. It didn't help that all my roommates were sitting around smoking cigarettes and I hadn't told my parents I had signed up for the smoking dorm. I thought I would be insured of rooming with some cool girls if they smoked!! (remember this was 1979, and yes, they were right in my mind it was all about me, but my roomies were very cool and we had lots of fun :-) Long story short, our relationship improved dramatically with a little distance and me having a little more control over my life. So, look upon your kids' attitudes as their excitement of getting out on their own, not that they don't love or appreciate you. My senior is really looking forward to going off to college, and quite honestly, while I'll miss him, I'm looking forward to it too! My laundry, mess, crap laying around etc. went down dramatically with the exit of DS1, I'm almost giddy at only having to cleanup after one remaining DS once DS2 goes off to school. Of course, I have to admit, my kids don't go far to school - they live on campus but it's at Ohio State which is in Columbus - 5 miles from where we live. So while they're out of my hair, they still stop by or come home frequently. So I guess that's why I'm not too sad to have one gone and one out the door - they're just across town! :-)

I tend to be long winded both in written and in speech. I figure if someone wants straight to the point, they can skip my post if they desire. So please feel free, because I feel a long winded moment coming on here. I do tend to write matter-of-factly, so I'm sure there are times when people take offense to it. I would imagine some if it would depend on the person's mood. I can be sensitive myself at times. Usually I let a lot of things roll off my back, but if I am pms'ing it's often not so easy. Thanks ovaries! I have tolerance for other people's differences and would consider myself a very accepting person. I consider myself to be very empathic and can often see where another person is coming from, but I'm also not afraid to speak my mind. This is probably where trouble finds me. LOL I find what bothers me the most is the gang mentality that happens all too often on anonymous forums. It's not what's being said, it's that people all start jumping on the band wagon against someone and it's not even necessarily to do with what a person was asking. I've felt this with myself and I've seen this happen on other posts and quite a bit on Houzz. I have jumped in more than once to "stand up" for someone. Usually it's because I hope people realize that maybe they are being harsh against the poster. Again, it's not usually about people disagreeing with the poster but how they go about it. In most cases jumping in doesn't help. LOL My husband always asks me why I even bother. I think for me personally, it comes down to certain trigger words in posts that set me off. Sometimes those trigger words don't effect me, but if there are hormones involved, I can get testy. It's not that I'm so upset that I could drop kick someone through the screen, but I do get annoyed. Ok, full disclosure, I couldn't drop kick someone even if I wanted to. Usually, the majority of the time when I'm "debating" an issue, it's simply that, debating. I'm very, very rarely heated. I don't know why so many people just automatically assume that if someone disagrees with you they are heated. I can't even count the number of times I have laughed in exasperation because of something being said over and over again. It's like beating a dead horse. If you have something new to add to the conversation, please do, but stop repeating the exact same thing over and over again, especially when someone has already answered the question. It really does usually make me shake my head and laugh. There could be an entire post about someone complaining that I do not agree with, it rarely bothers me. This is usually true, even if it's something that I feel is an attack against something I do or believe in. I am definitely not one to shy away from standing up for myself. I come from a long line of people who are not afraid to speak their mind and are stubborn to boot, but life is too short to jump in to try and change someone's mind on every post you disagree with. So please note: 1) If I seem "angry" in my posts, I'm likely not 2) I will likely sound more upset 1 week out of every month 3) People on message boards are still real people and have real feelings. You might disagree with someone completely on one post and then totally agree with them on the very next one.

This made me crave buttercream so I had my grandsons age 8&9 frost a Hersheys chocolate cake today..no deco, just covered with buttercream...LOL. I had the 9 yo get out and measure the vanilla he of course grabbed the dark vanilla instead of the clear...I'm sure it will taste great though.

Love this room and that the prints are positioned so each bird is facing the middle rather than "leaving" the wall by facing a corner. No creep factor for me but the comments reminded me that when my best friend eloped many years ago, we discovered that the JP was also a taxidermist. The walls were covered top to bottom with animal heads, animal bodies, fish, and framed collections of insects. The worst was the one with a tarantula in the center surrounded by dozens of smaller spiders. The JP stood in front of it, so avoidance was impossible. The effect was overwhelming and we had to stop looking at each other or we would have been thrown out of the room for laughing hysterically. Ah, good times.