After our afghan irish setter cross died 24 years ago,we gave up on dogs for awhile.My DH would suggest one every now and again but I didnt ever ever want another dog, so he stopped bringing it up. Fast forward to a day I was walking my DD in K and son to school. Passed by a friends house and she had her old golden and another dog as well. She was trying to find a home for it, it was saved from an neglectful person and they had hoped to keep her but they didnt have a fenced yard. I petted the wet 15month old just bathed dog and said sit and the dog- Goldie sat. didnt know what kind of dog it was. I told her I would take her, and picked her up on my way home.I called my DH and told him and he didnt believe that I was alright in the head. I convinced him that I was indeed ok and there really was a dog here. He feel in love too and we later changed her name to Cody so she could start fresh. We called my friend to ask what kind of dog she was! LOL It took poor Cody months to ask to go outside. she never went inside, but I watched her and worked so she would finally ask.( she had her own room and was taken out by the maid and hooked up all day.)It took 6 months for her to not sit in one spot all day to learn that it was ok for her to walk around anywhere she wanted. It was hard to bring her in at night- she wanted to stay- she had never been outside after dark before. Cody was not a frisby , adventuring kind of dog,but she was the dog of our hearts and we gave her a great home and she came to be a part of our pack. we knew nothing about training dogs and it was horrible to be pulled down the street by her. She lived to be 11 and that was a sad sad day. 6 months later we all started talking about how we missed having a dog. and that our hearts were ready. so I secretly started a search for a golden retriever puppy. We had never had a puppy but have rescued many dogs and felt we werent ready for dealing with someone elses problems, and our kids have never had a puppy. In April I found a purebred litter at a farm waaaaaay waaaay out and my DH and I went to pick one out. Not a kennel I could't pay over $1400 for a golden so I was lucky to find this farm. There we were looking at a boy when the dad ran up and as he was the biggest Golden we had ever seen, we looked at each other and thought uh uh. So we just had to have the girl with the most red in her ears(Cody was a reddish golden) MY teen son melted when he saw the pup and my teen DD burst out into tears! We named her Bailey's Chance of Osborne, as Cody died too young of an aggressive cancer and had no chance of survival. We started training and learned how to make her a well trained socialised dog( we learned a lot) My DH started agitating for another dog and I thought he was nuts. One year later: After her club field hockey practice one Saturday in April,My DD and I stopped off at a garden center and a woman walked by with a fuzz ball on a lead. We immediately got on the floor with the puppy and asked how old. she said 10 weeks and he is for sale and they had one more at home.($200) I wish you had seen my DDs face when I asked for her phone number!! Later that day, we packed up Bailey and went to see about a puppy. The one that she had with her in the store followed Bailey everywhere but the other was too busy digging holes. We took a look at the parents- both regular size so we brought him home. And named him Cooper.And he grew into the biggest golden a slim 104lbs! LOL And of course Pics are not in order. Cooper on graduation day from advanced training, Bailey and Cooper sleeping soon after we brought him home. And Cooper on the second day at home,before he was named.

Adella, "The kids don't respond to mom's method of discipline (which appears to be screaming) because there is no consequence." You're exactly right. And by saying that she wanted the kids while dad was less than enthusiastic does not let dad off the hook for care, it's just saying when a person wants something so bad, and keeps having children although she is overwhelmed and completely stressed does not make sense to me. In essence, she did this to herself. It makes it hard for me to have sympathy. The dad has an gold-fashionedh approach to the whole thing, which is, eI go to work, you take care of the kidsf. When I was a SAHM my daughter was fed and bathed by the time my husband got home from work. He did not come home to a dirty house, a frazzled wife and hungry, whiny children. IMO, this is disrespectful behavior on the part of the mother. Mom2emall, gI have to say that being a SAHM can be more frustrating than juggling a full-time job and kids.h While I agree a SAHMfs job can be frustrating, and in your case perhaps it was emoref frustrating, I donft think that generalization works. I go to work at 6:00 every morning, get off at 2:00, pick up my daughter, go home, do homework, get a snack, get her dressed for her sport, drive her to her sport, bring her home, make dinner, do an activity with her, eat dinner, clean up, bathe her, get her into PJs, read a story, attempt to do laundry and clean, spend an hour or so with my DH and go to sleep. When I was a SAHM, I could go to the park, call another SAHM on the phone, have playdates, etcK to get adult interaction. Popi, Amazingly, the three kids are slender. But the mom is pretty overweight. The mom once saw some pictures I took on the way to her house. She said, where did you take these? And I said, on the side of the road. It was beautiful, and we¡¦d been in the car for a while, so I stopped and we took some pics and looked around. And she said, I wish I could do something like that, I wish I was like that. I think a lot of her issue is not being relaxed enough to have a good time. She is not coping. She thinks she has a really hard life. She complains about everything. I personally don¡¦t see where the issue is, except that she¡¦s a spoiled brat too. Daisy, You¡¦re right, it¡¦s a great teaching experience. I talk with my DD about how their relationship is and how I don¡¦t want to do that with her, the cycle of whine/yell. It¡¦s good, but it¡¦s hard to get through it when it¡¦s happening. ¡§There are a few people who won't be offended if you point out their children's misbehavior, but those people are very, very rare. I think you're right, there's no way your husband can tell his friend without offending him and damaging the friendship.¡¨ Thank you Daisy. This is exactly why I wrote the post. I don¡¦t think there is a way to say it, but I thought I might be wrong º My point with this, ladies, was not to dissect their parenting, blame the mother, or condone any behavior by the father. I know that they have marriage issues too, and I don¡¦t think I can even go there! I don¡¦t want to sever the relationship, I am willing to endure hanging out with a woman I don¡¦t particularly like because I know my DH and his friend are very tight and I respect their friendship. I don¡¦t have to be her BFF, I just have to be civil for a weekend every three months or so. I¡¦m sure you all have family or acquaintances that you must endure for defined periods of time throughout the year. I just wanted to know, (and maybe I shouldn¡¦t have included any other information, but I was so frustrated!) do you think there is any way to tell him his kids are brats? I don¡¦t think so. My DH wanted to know, because they¡¦re driving him crazy too, and he loves his friend.

I hope you have a wonderful time baking tomorrow rhome! Double ovens.. swooonn.. lol. Boy am I a slacker compared to ya'll. For the New Orleans boxes I made regular chocolate chip, peanut butter with colored sugar [as per tradition] and fudge. The kids only like certain stuff and the fudge is Christys family tradition so she has to send her sister and mother some. I sent them a pecan pie too. I've also made meltaways, world peace, milk choc choc chip, shortbread, more fudge and caramels for Christys fellow employees. The caramels sure did turn out great this year. I forgot to put in the vanilla. lol. I think I like them better. You can really taste the butter. The execs got pecan pies. I have dough in the fridge for the rest of the milk choc chips and I took some of that dough and instead of chips I added bunch of old fashioned oats to it for me. I am weird in that I don't like cookies to sit around very long. I'd rather have them fresh, so I tend to make doughs and just bake off a pan or two at a time. So, as it gets closer to Christmas I'll be still making our ricotta cookies, some rugeleah, sand tarts, and for the Christmas dessert I'll make a pecan pie and chocolate pie. For Christy's stocking I'm making Ann's crisp truffles and some chocolate covered raisins. So, let me make a list.. hmm.. Standard chocolate chip Peanut butter World Peace Meltaways Rugeleah Milk chocolate chocolate chip Oatmeal Shortbread Sand tarts Ricotta cookies Sugar Cookie cutouts [maybe, I like to make the shortbread into cutouts, so that might do for this year] Fudge Caramels Crisp truffles Chocolate covered raisins [she doesn't like nuts] Pecan Pie Chocolate Pie Yup, I'm a slacker ;(

Very hard to pick just one favorite feature! If I have to pick just one working feature, it would be the lowered work space on the end of our island. It is exactly the right height for me for prepping, baking, etc. and it is also a great height for many of our kids. I'm five feet tall, and it is so nice to have a work space that works for me! The layout works well, too, as my dh chooses a different part of the island, so if both of us are in the kitchen, we are not bumping into each other. The end of the island that is lowered is across from the sink and dishwasher, and I love having drawers in that section for all the dishes-even my three year old can empty most of the dishwasher, and no one is hauling chairs into the kitchen to get or put away dishes. The big windows are probably my other favorite-adding big windows makes that whole end of the house so much brighter and enjoyable to be in. Having big windows rated higher than most everything when coming up with a layout for our new kitchen.