That's the other thing ...how did this woman obtain the botox if it's illegal for anyone but a medical professional to possess it? Or maybe it's not illegal to possess it, just illegal to administer it without a license. Does anyone know what she does for a living? Is she licensed in her profession? As with any illegal substance will they try to go after the person who provided her with the botox? I don't agree that pageants should be abolished. There are different types of pageants from what I've learned watching the show...natural and glitz. It's the glitz pageants where you see these extreme measures. Pageants are held across the states, you'd have to pass laws in every state if you're going to be sucessful in stopping these actions. Parents would simply cross state lines. Do you think Congress is going to pass laws prohibiting a parent from spray tanning their child, gluing on nail tips, applying false eye lashes and hair spray? I doubt it. You'd first have to prove they cause harm before successfully passing laws making pageants illegal. IMO the root of the problem stems from the judges. Alter their way of thinking and you'll see a lot of this nonsense stop. Judges are to blame because they're the ones giving higher scores to the children with the spray tans, false eye lashes, and cupcake dresses that put the parents into the poor house. Convince the judges to change their way of thinking and parents will happily follow suit.

Thanks Sweeby! I don't think I shared anything she didn't already know... well, not sure if she knew her mom doesn't pay dad but she knows her mom always says she has no money. She didn't even buy her a birthday gift this year. Apparently, the ONLY gift she got this year was what I bought her & my dad gave her $50 & took her out to dinner. But, she knows grandma is the one buying anything at BM's house. BM has taken her to the thrift store a couple of times to get clothes or gives her sister's hand me downs... which is another reason the clothing issue just irks me... the prized clothes aren't nice, expensive, new, etc. and here I take her to the Gap, Old Navy, etc. and buy nice quality stuff. (and I know it's not about that... she wants mom's stuff because mom got it for her & she wants mom's approval) SD has reached the conclusion with BM. When she left her PE clothes at BM's over a month ago, she kept it secret & BM kept promising her to call the school & get her new ones. Finally, she told DH she didn't have PE clothes, that she was using a loaner pair of shorts & had brought one of BM's BF's t-shirts (which I thought is odd) and had been using those. When he told me, I went to the school & paid for new PE clothes. After school, SD said thank you & told me she knew her mom was never going to buy them because she never does what she says. So, SD is aware of BM and can admit it, however she still wants to protect her most of the time, which makes it very hard to wonder if SD is "coming around" or just being manipulative. The hardest thing to deal with in regard to SD is the damaged trust. She has done so many things, told so many lies & manipulations, continues to be caught in lies on a daily basis... though most are small things average kids do, but it's the constant barrage of lies that makes us ask "does she EVER tell the truth?" As far as telling her the "truth" about things, right away she wants to call BM. Now, I don't know if she's calling to tell BM what we told her or if she's analyzing what we say versus what BM tells her so she can make her own conclusion about who's telling her the REAL truth. But, I do think it's a better way to handle it than to sit idle & let her think that everything her mom tells her is true. and to PO1~ earlier, you asked about favoritism with older sister? Yes, BM favors sister. So does grandma. When BM lived with DH & had SD, they split when SD was a year old. BM moved back to grandma but grandma let her bring older sister but not SD. DH kept SD for a few months until grandma relented & let her live there too. But it was only every other week because DH kept her one week, BM the next. When I met SD, she was 5 & would tell me how grandma is mean to her, doesn't like her, etc. Now, she may have been playing victim to get sympathy in the way she started telling everyone that will listen, how I am so mean to her, etc. Grandma may not have wanted to have BM put another baby in her lap so she could go out. I really don't understand the full dynamics of what occurred but I do know that as long as I've been involved, it seems SD has been shuffled to the side but sister is the golden child. Way back when SD started going to tae kwon do, it was only because she begged & DH agreed to pay half. BM & sister had been going for a while together & SD felt left out. So, yes I see lots of favoritism & SD seems to be unwanted. It sickens me to think this could be true, but I've wondered if it's because sister's father pays $1200 a month in support and BM knew she couldn't get that kind of money from DH. She often threatened him to get full custody & ask for huge support, but never tried. I don't think she wanted to take care of SD 100% of the time. Besides, he wanted 50/50 from the beginning so the most she got was $286 when they finally went to court and it wasn't worth it to her or she just didn't want to take SD with her when she moved away.

Ashleys X can dethrown my ex who certainly earned father of the year in 2007. I don't want to hijack your post, just share with you my similar experience... When I was 8 months pregnant with my son, his dad quit his job because they wouldn't give him e/o weekend off for his visitation with his then 3 yr old daughter. He didn't work for the next three years. He was a SAHD to our son..Really he had a 3yr vacation to smoke pot and play video games--After 3 years I'd had enough and left. He claimed he couldn't afford to stay and would have to move cross country to live with his parents and of course... I was the worst person in the world for taking his son away from him. So, figuring I'd been supporting us all for 3 years anyway I didn't need him to pay child support. I took the state minimum $25 mo told him to get a job, get on his feet here, and we could reevaluate in 2 years. For 3 years all I heard was how poor he was, how he couldn't afford anything when I took him back to court I found in 2006 he made $47,000 And paid $300 in support-for the whole year! All the while sending my son home in rags that were too small and keeping the clothes he arrived in to refresh his wardrobe there. Sorry, I'm a little off track here..when it came time for modification he gave the first judge a sob story about how he didn't have time to fill out any of the paperwork he'd gotten. He had the same 20 days I did but whatever the judge gave him an extension-but my ex wasn't available to come to court one month later- because he would be on vacation with the kids out of state so the judge gave him two months :) I was hot, but to pacify me the judge ordered he pay $100 for each of those months. DCS distributed it to his daughter-whatever. So 2 months later we show up in court again the judge orders him to pay around $500 and he starts running his mouth about his other children he pays support for....His 18 year old son who he no longers owes support to, and the daughter that he pays $56 month for!!!The judge didn't find that any reason to discount his support to this child so he started complaining about childcare telling the judge that he wants receipts for my daycare expenses because I leave our son with my then 12 yo daughter totally implying that I'm a bad mom. WHAT AN IDIOT!!! Child support and Daycare are two seperate issues here. In the three years we were separated I never asked him for a dime for our son for anything, not daycare, a pair of shoes, not a cough drop and for him to try to smear me infront of a judge got me so angry when the judge ordered $465 for support the state's attorney recommended an incremental increase so I'd get 1/2 for 3 months before I got a full month and I said NO and asked the judge to say NO-she did, then she ordered he pay that full amount back to the day he didn't have his paperwork ready. Then I went home and gathered all my daycare receipts and mailed them in for my 58% reimbursement, and recently DS had an ear infection requiring drops that were not covered by insurance- the cost $73. You bet I sent that receipt to DCS too. Sometimes I feel a little guilty about what I get from him now -- then I remember how hard it was for me all that time on my own, that our son wasn't worth 1% of his 2006 income and I think of him rambling on in court and I feel just fine. And my X has not once since then whined about being poor. I know it sucks to do with less for now, especially in these hard times and I'm sorry. Hopefully in a couple years he'll have a better job and you can modify and he will pay more-in my state it costs more to raise a 12yr. and support is greater.

Linelle, that sounds like TNS. It does have an odd smell, but I don't find it terribly unpleasant and it doesn't linger. Sorry you didn't like it, and you're right -- it's expensive. I won't keep using it if I don't see results, but I'm going to give it a go. Allison, thank you for your kind words! Thanks too for the link. I read Begoun's review the evening I got home from the procedure. I have mixed emotions about her opinions, to be honest. I don't think she's entirely unbiased, so I kind of take what she and/or her research team has to say with a grain of salt. Wow, mitch - what a way to get you hooked, starting you out as a model getting the product for half price! LOL! I can see how it could become addictive and I must admit that I'm already starting to sort of "worry" about when I begin to notice the effects diminishing. I've got an appointment for the first week in June to have the Botox retouched. I'll likely go back in November (when the doctor has "customer appreciation month" and runs some awesome specials) to have a top off done on the Voluma. As it was, he was having a special on Voluma syringes - buy two at regular price and receive the third for $100, so I was able to save a pretty good chunk of change for my first procedure. I had wondered how the lip plumping worked. I've seen it done well, but I've also seen so many duck lips that I think I'd rather just stick with what nature gave me in that area. My lower lip is also a lot fuller than my upper, but it doesn't really bother me.