Arcy I feel your pain, and totally agree with juliek's DH'S. Big huge whoop, you actually made it through HS!! There was no way I was going to send out announcements, as I think it's a given , for crying out loud. Ditto college graduation. Not because it's a given but , as Arcy expressed so well, I also view them as a hand out. When our kids got graduate degrees there were, again , no announcements. Did I brag in e-mails and and Xmas cards? Yep, I sure did. The friends and family that would care were informed with no feeling of obligation. As for parties, though I am a bit of a fuddy-stickler re etiquette, one "rule" I thumb my nose at is the " no gifts, please" taboo. I try to word it as sweetly and strongly as I can, and most respect my request....especially since I verbally repeat the request in person, phone, etc. This whole gift giving with huge parties, be they wedding, baby showers, birthday, anniversary has gotten way out of control. Greedy and obnoxious, IMO. End of rant!

You mentioned the MRI's Does your Dr or medical center use Pet Scan? They do here as it is not as hard on some of the organs,like liver etc. and it shows more cancer. DH is getting ready to do his third one. But he also gets checked for bladder cancer. His other cancer seems to be in remission at this time. He just had a Ritouxin treatment, again not as hard as some of the other drugs he has had. I do wish you the best and the water therapy is great. They use it here also, I think. Marie

Glenda, Congratulations to you and your family. You have been a such a great support for Parker. How could he have grown up so fast. See this with my own grands, and time does go by fast. I looked around on the site and could not find your recipe for lemon pepper tuna salad. Granddaughter, who is now 6 now, loves to cook and also loves tuna salad. Please share. Thank you for all the beautiful family stories you have shared with us through the years.

geez, you get an apology, even saying your son "deserved better" than he himself had done, which is certainly placing all the blame for the incident squarely to the his own shoulders--exactly what an apology should do. But somehow that's wrong too? (you wrote: "It really seemed to be insulting towards himself." -- what did you want him to do, make excuses?) I have to say that I think it's churlish in the EXTREME to criticise someone for their APOLOGY. He even went to lengths to make sure the letter would be the sort of thing your son could keep in his files and show to someone as a letter of recommendation, etc. I'd call that a pretty graciously written letter. And yet you can still criticize it? He wrote the letter without prompting from you, right? You bet your bippy you should give him credit for doing that. Some people wouldn't bother with the letter. He made a MISTAKE. I for one do not believe that he'd deliberately leave your kid off for mention because of something that happened between you and the principal *9* years ago. Or even 2 years ago. Teachers and principals are capable of separating parents from children, and they see the children so much more clearly than they see us. Plus in the intervening 9 years, I'm sure he's had more parents than you say worse things to him--why would he remember with any strength? It's obvious you're determined to hate this guy, since even the appropriate gestures he makes are met with such scorn. I wasn't there 9 years ago (which is a long time to hold a grudge on EITHER side), and I don't know all the other incidents--maybe he is a crumb, or maybe he's just sort of easily confused. But I'm sorta feeling sorry for this guy--even when he DOES do it right, he's in the doghouse. I'm w/ Arkansasgardenboy: I hope you will find closure to this and not hold a grudge any longer. I suppose my comments won't do anything to further that, and I'm sorry if I've chosen wording that's harsher than I intend.