Sorry.. posted this in Conversations in error.. have reposted in the Discussions section.

here's one from my 82 year old Dad, king of forwards and jokes: I'm sending him the jokes above one at a time, I usually don't have anything for him, thanks . Ed and Dorothy met while on a singles cruise and Ed fell head over heels for her. When they discovered they lived in the same city only a few miles apart, Ed was ecstatic. He immediately started asking her out when they got home. Within a couple of weeks, Ed had taken Dorothy to dance clubs, restaurants, concerts, movies, and museums. Ed became convinced that Dorothy was indeed his soul mate and true love. Every date seemed better than the last. On the one-month anniversary of their first dinner on the cruise ship, Ed took Dorothy to a fine restaurant. While having cocktails and waiting for their salad, Ed said, "I guess you can tell I'm very much in love with you. I'd like a little serious talk before our relationship continues to the next stage. So, before I get a box out of my jacket and as k you a life changing question, it's only fair to warn you, I'm a total golf nut. I play golf, I read about golf, I watch golf on TV. In short, I eat, sleep, and breathe golf. If that's going to be a problem for us, you'd better say so now!" Dorothy took a deep breath and responded, "Ed, that certainly won't be a problem. I love you as you are and I love golf too; but, since we're being totally honest with each other, you need to know that about the last five years I've been a hooker." "I see," Ed replied thoughtfully. He looked down at the table, and was quiet for a moment, deep in serious thought then he added, "You know, it's probably because you're not keeping your wrists straight when you hit the ball."

Our home was originally an Indian allotment. If were to you dig around, you wouldn't find any arrowheads, but you might find a disc, or part of an old horse drawn rake or maybe even an old plow. (These Indians were farmers, not hunter/gatherers.) The better digging is in the old dumps; lots of swell bottles and old graniteware. Actually, the house had been built on another part of the 160 acres, but sometime in the late 20's, or at least by 1930 the porches were partially dismantled and the whole house was moved to it's present location closer to the road. There's a small building in one corner of the yard that became the Grandpa's tinkering shed. I learned that Indian homes "back in the day" almost always had a similar little structure built as a birthing house. I'm not sure if anyone was born in this one, because by the time the house was moved, the children were well past infancy, but then again, they moved the big house, why wouldn't they have moved the little house too? The surviving sister is over 75, and was too young to remember exactly when the house was moved. All but that one member of the original family is buried out back in the family cemetery, which sits in a clearing in the woods just east of what's left of the old stacked stone foundation. Most of the graves are marked, but there are three of those traditional grave houses that have fallen in that are not. My Grandson and I go (with permission) once a year to trim back limbs, cut down saplings and generally tidy it up a bit. I also know that S.J., the last original family member to have lived in the house, was a confirmed batchelor until he was 65, when he married a local widow. (Better late than never.) They lived together happily until he passed away in 2000, and she moved not far from here back to the house she shared with her first husband on his family's allotment. >At this point, the cheerful background music turns somber and the story develops a somber tone. As I've heard it, a local businessman had some kind of agreement/contract with S.J. to buy the place after he died. I'm guessing it was one of those pay now, take posession later deals that gives an elderly person who is "house poor" money to live on. In the end, it got ugly. The businessman and his wife took the widow to court because she'd been staying in town while her husband was ill. They argued that she had "abandoned" the place, and he was awarded posession. :^( Anyway, that man turned his hand to a little remuddling; removed the french doors, slapped vinyl siding on the house, gutted the bathroom and put in a plastic shower. Anything that was still in the house was hauled out and thrown in the dump; from the looks of it, what didn't break going in was burned. Everything in the yard was mowed down. The only bright side is that other than the bathroom and the french doors, he left the interior alone, and no one cut any of the mature trees in the yard. When he was finished, he "flipped" the place to a gentleman from California who only wanted it because at the time, it was still legal to fight gamecocks in this state, and he planned to raise chickens. Less than 3 years later, chicken fighting was voted out, and he put the place up for sale. That's when we bought it. >cue the happy theme song againWhen I found out that S.J.'s widow was still living, I went to visit, and invited her to come and see the house. She was in her 90's but she had her daughter bring her down and we had a wonderful visit. She was surprised to see two of the roses had survived so much mistreatment and neglect and got a little misty eyed when she talked about planting them all those years ago. That fall, we carefully dug them up transplanted them to her yard; she was just thrilled to have them back all these years later. Then she said "Oh, but now you don't have any roses". I laughed and told her I could plant all the roses I wanted, but that these belonged to her. I have to say that was the most fun I'd had in a long time. They're still blooming at her house, and here I am, 2 & 1/2 years later, blessed with roses everywhere you look...

My ex DH was married to someone who sounds a lot like that. She had two children of her own and she so obviously favored them and they were horrible, mean kids. It came to the point where DS and DD weren't going to go there anymore. Their stepmom was so mean to them and treated them horribly and so did her kids. There were times I just wanted to smack her and ask her what the h#ll her problem was. My DD would come home crying hysterically. Finally I told ex DH (we have a good relationship) that if this was how she was going to come home, she wasn't going to come over anymore. He finally stepped up the plate and took charge somewhat. He was always at work too so the kids were home stuck with her. They went to their grandparents house a lot or stayed with me just so they wouldn't have to be there with her. She, to put it simply, was extremely jealous of my kids and me for that matter because ex and I get a long for the kids sake and she just could not stand it. I am happily married and was no threat to her. If I wanted to be with him, I wouldn't have divorced him. We have remained friends for the sake of the kids. Thank god they are divorced now or in the process of divorce. She is dragging it out as long as possible. Now on the other hand, I have three step children and I couldn't imagine treating them like that. Two are older and have never lived with us but my DSD who is now 18 lived with us all through high school. There are times that I think I treated her more favorably than my own kids. We all get along so well and my kids and DH's kids love each other to death. We have been so fortunate in that department. I feel bad for your daughter. I can't remember how old she is now but it doesn't sound like your ex is doing her any favors by being the "nice" parent.