I didn't cook the dinner I was going to, but we had ham, baked sweet potatoes, green beans and pineapple casserole. Harry had bought an 11 pound ham just before the kids came (sometimes I wonder where that boy's mind is) and there was tons of it leftover, even after a meal and sandwiches a few times for lunch. Talk about growing, I swear that ham is magic! It's a spiral cut, so I cut most of the meat off the bone and sealed the bone for soup. Then I sealed a nice piece for ham and scalloped potatoes. Had some pieces left that will be good in an omelet or quiche. Plus lots left over from dinner. We have to start eating our frozen leftovers. There are more of those in the freezer than food to cook.

ree: I have been OT for a week :) Southern Living came to do a story on the Waverly AL, Old 280 Boogie , last weekend. This is a festival that celebrates the re-routing of the hwy. 280 that runs through Waverly on the way to B'ham AL. We were pleasantly surprised when the folks from the mag, wanted to further investigate the restaurant in Waverly where DS1 and DIL are chef/manager. They came back Thurs. night for dinner and more pics. Now they will send the writer sometime in the next couple months and then place an article in the S.L.mag. The other article on the Boogie will run next year and this article will run sooner and be a separate feature. Pesky: thank you, one only needs to look at menus throughout the country and we are right in the mid range. Given what is happening to prices EVERYWHERE it is a huge challenge for DS to plan and execute such amazing meals. We have the added challenge of being very far from any cosmopolitan area so he has to pay more to have specialty items brought in. No GreenMarket on Union St in NYC for this chef :). deee: we are on Hwy 280 so we are 10 miles from downtown Auburn. Please e-mail me via "my page" and I can get info to you and DH , if you like. We would love to meet him.Caroline Here is a link that might be useful: History of Waverly and 280 Boogie

Mattie, my comment was in response to OP's latest attempt to expand his story and his blurp about "Uncle Dan" and little girls sleeping between blah blah. He said he learned recently of horrid conditions. There was no mention of early fears (at time of divorce or young childhood)... why would he agree to unlimited visitations? He also states he never tried to push BM away himself, but that SM did. If your BM is exposing your child to horrid things, would you not try and do something about it right then? Of course you would and even if it was hard to prove and/or took time, you'd scream from the rooftops trying to get somebody to take you seriously. Considering OP set his own agreements and vistation allowences, don't you suppose if he'd have had concerns or seen signs of a daughter in distress he would have went to court and persued a proper court hearing and done all he could to cease unlimited vistations and/or attempted to get supervision visits? Don't you think we here would have heard early on that BM was being pushed away because of these horrid things? We got quite the lengthy run down ...we know the kids medical history, her sexual life...why did it take 60 post to come to 'oh and poor kid visited BM often and went through horrid things'. We first got BM never came around, only made things hard for SM who was trying to play mother, allowed BF to sack up with daughter at her house ( after BM decided she wanted daughter back in her life when daughter was older)...not one word about daughter's safety or being traumatized during the 13 years inbetween custody and 15th birthday fallout. If this woman allowed daughter to have a horrid unsafe childhood in her home, why is OP telling us how he has been trying to get daughter to give BM another chance? --"BM was never pushed away. She has always been able to see her daughter whenever she wants. The way that has worked out is that she didn't for long periods of time, then would come back into the picture for a brief period all gushing and loving, then would disappear etc. All this time I never once said anything bad about her. At this point BM is out of the picture because daughter refuses to see her. I have on many occasions tried to talk my daughter into giving her BM another chance but she refuses."--- I realize you have a very different situation with your SS and his BM and therefore do live in fear while SS is on his visitations and have a true need to worry while he is gone and how the visit may have affected him with the before and aftermath. But you also don't give promises of unlimited vistations and you do all you can to assure your SS's safety and use lawyers and courts to assist you. My comment was more in line with the fact that no one here was suggesting the child should have been sent unlimited if there were a problem. Why would he agree to such a thing? This 'problem' did not appear until way into this thread, and frankly, I'm not buying there was real concern or reason for such a concern during the girl's early years.

Haven't we all experiences some version of something in this story?! One of the main reasons I don't like Thanksgiving as a holiday, in general. Too many minefields. Most of our own making, but so it goes. Best to laugh about it.