Thanks, we do use a comb as well, at least my husband does. I guess it is like when I was growing up and had long hair. My daddy would sit and brush and comb my hair gently every night. My Mom would pull and tug on it in the morning. I tend to use the brush, DH has the patience to sit and do both. I think the reason he had started getting more mats was that his hair was so long and his sister gets it "wet" when she nips and mouths him. Last night when they were playing it was like she was saying, "Hey, there is nothing to hold onto!"

I was mother of the groom three years ago (you can search this board and find a picture of my dress, but truthfully that won't be any help -- ) and now am mother of the bride. And I am built very similarly to you - an inch shorter, even. I can give you this advice: SHOP IN A STORE, not on line. Unless you are very easy to fit -- i.e., tall and thin, which let's face it we aren't! -- it's very hard to find a flattering dress, especially a long gown. Even when they look good on us, they don't look at all like they do on the pictures of the 5'10" size 4 models; it's like a different dress. Even my future son-in-law's young, gorgeous sisters didn't like the first set of dresses they ordered on line that looked so perfect in the pictures once they actually got them, so they are starting over. If you really don't live in or aren't visiting a city where you can try on, then I guess you have no choice but to order a bunch of returnable dresses on line and hope that one looks good and send back the rest. But I would still start by visiting local stores just to see which cuts look good on you. I had zero luck at bridal shops. The clerks told me that it wasn't my imagination: the mother-of-the dresses are mostly designed for tall women. Of course they will make yours in your size, but all the details are out of proportion. I also think that the styles are usually kinda unoriginal and matronly compared to the dresses you can find in shops or department stores. (For both weddings, all the grandmothers, all in their 80s, found their dresses in bridal shops.) They just don't look like anything you'd buy another time, let alone that you'd see on the red carpet. Plus, they take forever to come in, they aren't cheap, and they aren't returnable if they don't look like you had hoped. So unless the bride insists on a matching fabric or something (which she shouldn't, but if she does, humor her!), I'd skip the bridal shops. You can look at lots of pictures of other moms, but it's not really going to help. You need to find what looks good on YOU. If you live near a store with a free personal shopper service, USE IT. You don't even have to buy anything. I found my dresses out of town but used the Nordstrom free personal shopper for help finding accessories and undergarments. What a huge help that was, and believe it or not it ended up SAVING me some money and definitely a lot of time. And it was fun! So, tell us: what kind of dress do you need? Day, night, long, short, dressy, not so dressy? What time of day and time of year is the wedding? What is the venue? Do you think you will have future occasions to wear this dress again? Do you have any particular jewelry or accessories that make you feel wonderful and/or have sentimental meaning that you'd like to wear for the wedding that could give you a starting point? What is your all-time favorite dress you've ever had? Do you know what the bride's mother is wearing? Try to match that in terms of formality and probably length. Does the bride want you in a specific color scheme? If not, great -- choose what looks best on you when you try on, although I suppose avoid things that will clash like mad in the photos (it's NOT the time for black, green, and orange day-glo polka dots!). Keep an open mind when you shop. I was glad I tried on styles and colors I didn't think would look good on me; I got some surprises in both directions. Happy hunting, and congratulations on your son's marriage.

My local self-service dog wash place has the exact same grooming tubs as the one in dekoboe's picture, except that theirs have a long 3 piece pull out ramp for big dogs that tucks away into a slot below the door. I would assume it's a standard option. Unfortunately my 70lb guy won't use the ramp to get in, so I have to pick him up, but I do pull it out for getting out since he's not supposed to jump off things any more. He's 13 and it was getting too hard on him to bathe him in the bathtub so we've started going to the dogwash.

Thank you for this post! I have an ancient (about 26 yrs old) planting - sort of a low hedge - of carpet roses out by the street. I had just been shearing the top of it for years - it was really neglected. Last week (we are in a situation weather wise where the soil is still nice and soft to pull weeds, but it has been over 90 degrees for 3 days, so that will not last long, so we are weeding madly) my DH attacked the bed, and dug out the weeds. Some of the weeds were tree seedlings, iris foetida (which I love, but it spreads everywhere), "corn lillies", which evidently floated into that bed from the street storm gutter, etc. So, now I have a bed with only scraggly carpet roses - have been trying to decide what to do next. Now I know! Cut them back! There are some bare spots from where some of the oldest bushes died (they tip root, so they have been making new babies occasionally, and renewing the hedge - very cool). However, a neat thing happened while my DH was weeding. He was raking the street tree leaf litter off the sidewalk right next to their bed, and discovered that there were three little new carpet roses which had rooted in the leaf litter (this could only happen because we had continuous rain for several months). All I had to do was cut the small canes which still connected them to their parent plants, and pot them up. They all had root massed about 4 inches by 7-8 inches! So, now I have baby plants to fill in the bare spots. I agree - these roses are truly amazing, and do not get enough credit! (probably because they were originally marketed in those silly pink plastic pots!) Jackie