Too funny, Slinkey. I'm so glad that I get to enjoy everyone's pretty decorations on this forum. All of you have such great taste and display things so nicely. I'm looking forward to all the pics that will be coming soon. ;o) Mo, you have a budget for junk stuff! You lucky girl, I just squeeze out the finances for mine by not buying other things like some much needed new clothes! LOL I often leave things in the car to avoid the Dish Police. He just seems to accept that pretty things are available to decorate the house with! LOL Yesterday, I just brought my packages in and told him I didn't want to hear any big sighs or see any eye rolling because I'm cautious about how much I spend, but it gives me allot of pleasure to look for pretties and bargains. He didn't say a word! Whew! ;o) Luvs

Oh yes Alexa and going even earlier than that, I remember when there was no TV so we listed to radio programs such as Ozzie & Harriet, Mr. & Mrs. North, Lux Theater, The Edgar Bergen show with Charlie McCarthy, Amos and Andy. We read books and comic such as Archie, Little Lulu, Donald Duck and played cards, jacks, pick-up sticks, Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, hopscotch, skipped rope, and roller skated on heavy metal skates that you clamped onto your heaviest shoes using a tightening key on a cord that you hung around your neck, until you needed to tighten them again. Balloons had just been invented or reinvented after the war. Records were 78 rpm until the Long plays LPs and the 45s came out. We could play outside all day until we heard our moms standing on the back porch calling our name for us to come in. Girls all wore dresses to school and wearing trousers or slacks (as they were called) to school was forbidden except when there was deep snow. We wore gumboots over our shoes when it rained. When we picked up the phone, an operator said...'Number please', and the phone cord was black and not spring coiled. People who came to the door: the milkman, the egg man, the newspaper boy, the grocer bringing the groceries, the boy from the meat market, the laundry service with dad's white work shirts, the Watkins man, the bread man. There were no supermarkets. We fought over who could read the Sunday comics first when the weekend newspapers arrived on the front porch. And we walked miles to high school carried a load of books and an umbrella, usually open. I guess I'm going farther back in time to when most here were not yet born lol! SharonCb

I understand your frustrations. I'm in the same boat with my overweight husband. He always has to eat bad food - fatty foods - bacon cheeseburgers, tons of condiments, french fries, etc. whenever we go out to eat. There are plenty of healthy options, but he can never compromise and it's frustrating. The worst part is, he'll eat bad, and then I get the blame, "why did you let me eat that?" and yet I feel like a nagging wife if we are out somewhere and I'm trying to get him to eat a healthy alternative instead. I bought a huge tub of peanut butter to make suet for birds in the winter. He eats it like it's a meal. He eats honey out of the jar like it's a meal. It frustrates me that he doesn't care. All he wants to do is sit around, eat, watch movies, or go out to eat. I did not grow up in a family who spends their lives in front of the television, so it's really frustrating to me to live such a sedentary lifestyle. I can't even get him to walk the dogs with me at times because he's always "too tired" and if he does, within a half an hour he's complaining for one reason or another and just wants to head home to lay in bed and watch t.v. The thing is, eating disorders run in his family. The grandmother has already shoved food in my mouth when I was sleeping one day, "Here, try this" as she shoves food in my mouth. And if you don't stuff yourself, they nag you, "You didn't eat enough" or "you are too skinny" and this constant pressure to eat food that you aren't hungry for. Then if you give in to their pressure and eat a slice of pie, well a slice is actually one quarter of the entire pie. It's ridiculous. And they are always pushing bad sugar filled foods. My family rarely ate dessert after dinner - his family does consistently. I've tried a dietician, and that works for only so long and then he falls off the wagon. He goes on all these "fad" diets, but then he pressures me to eat like him though I don't have to. Not that I eat bad food choices, but I don't have his metabolism so why should I have to modify my diet too? He also projects his insecurities onto me. No matter how fit I am, he'd make comments to me that I need to work out. I couldn't figure it out at first, until I began to realize he was just projecting. I've tried getting him to do various activities with me - if I ask him to rollerblade, he says I'm too slow and I can't keep up. If I ask him to take martial arts classes with me right up the block, that place isn't good enough and he'd rather go to a place across town (that I know we will be less likely to go because of the distance). If I ask him to walk the dogs with me, he's too tired. In fact, weekend or weekday, once 5:00 rolls around, he's down for the count. He sits on his ass for the rest of the evening and shuts down. Yeah, I totally understand your frustration. My next course of action is to try to get him to see a doctor for an actual eating disorder. Bad foods mean less energy and that all ties in with how we feel about ourselves. When you are married, it affects the entire marriage for obvious reasons and the limitations it creates. Start feeding him vitamins. In terms of allergies, they CAN make you very tired. I've been afflicted my entire life -- there are weekends that my allergies are so bad that I just want to sleep. Many people don't realize that effect of having allergies. The bad thing is, there are side effects with all medications, and sometimes the decongestant and antihistamine combination create insomnia. The antihistamine alone makes me jittery. So, it's a horse a piece. Good luck. I feel for you.

"I think I am determined to prove everyone wrong - I must be mad (or stupidly in love)" Yes, you are stupidly in love. You are accepting incredible stories, you are involved in stalking & harrassment, you are relating the horrible way he treats his children, & it has no effect on you. It doesn't touch your euphoria at all. You're on a high, just as though you were on drugs. Reality doesn't seem real. But euphoria wears off, & then you'll feel humiliated & ashamed of yourself. Men who do this kind of thing know very well what they're doing; they're taking advantage of the vulnerability of women to certain "triggers" or signals. Men who "sweep you off your feet", "bombard" you with flowers & love notes, say that you're their soulmate, etc *know very well* that these behaviors trigger the release of endorphins, the feel-good/euphoria-producing hormones. They know that, as long as they keep that stuff going on, they can do anything they want, they can tell unbelievable lies, they can engage in flagrant misbehavior, & their target will believe them, will stay with them, will remain "stupidly in love" with them. They have absolute power over their targets. They don't want a "soulmate". They want a victim to abase & to con. One of the most potent things that they use is physical proximity. Females who remain in close physical proximity with a male *always* eventually bond with him. How many times have you heard a dazed, bewildered wife going through a divorce say something like, "I didn't like him when I first met him, but he kept pursuing me, & I finally thought I loved him. Now I think I must have been out of my mind"? That's exactly what happens. Once the euphoria wears off (& it will, just like any other drug), the woman crashes. & the man doesn't care. The game's over, he's "won", he's made a fool of her, & he's off to the next one. You lost. Your problem. Just like it's his ex-wife's problem right now. Try an experiment: Sever all connections for 14 days, that's 2 weeks. Don't see him, speak to him, email him. Don't accept presents, don't read letters or emails from him. Pretend he never came into your life. Then re-read the things you've written on this thread. I wish you the best.