Two days before Newtown, we had a shooter at one of our local malls. Everyone I talk to is nervous to go out to the malls right now. I work for the State, and I worry about nuts coming into our building and firing off shots. There is a young man who claims to have a CCW and he allegedly drew a bead on the mall shooter, claims to have made eye contact but he didn't shoot because there were other people near by. Then the story goes on to say that after that the shooter killed himself. I say this is 'allegedly' because law enforcement has given some conflicting reports. Regardless, if he did or didn't, the mall is posted as a Gun Free Zone...so that didn't stop a CCW carrier. I don't think these assassins chose gun free zones for that reason, they go where they KNOW they're going to be able to cause mass casualties. Another thing I try to point out is that very, very few people posess the absolute control that a tactically trained person has. All these shooters wear body armor, therefore it'd require a sniper kill shot to the head to take them out. Good luck getting some weekend paper target shooter to make a shot like that, much less someone who rarely, if ever draws a weapon. We all like to think we will be in command if an emergency crisis occurs, but it's just not in our nature! Having to kill someone is not something the majority of citizens has ever had to comprehend in real time. And to have the ability to identify a danger and act? Yeah right. My very first instinct would be to take cover and run, get to a safe place and then, and only then, take offensive measures. I think everyone who thinks they should walk around with a gun on their person try this experiment. Go into a public place with a friend, one that is well populated. Instead of your gun, have a rubber band shooter or some other non-lethal 'gun'. Have your friend shout out KITTY CAT! and turn to point to a 3rd person who is wearing a clown wig and has a similar 'gun'. That person is a shooter. Now, whip out your 'gun' and 'shoot' the shooter. Of course, it's going to be at a random point in time, you're in on this...but you don't know when or where it'll happen. Now, lets time your reaction and see if you actually hit the target and/or were YOU or someone else hit. A non-lethal exercise to gauge just what a Dirty Harry you are. I hate that people need to have a gun in the home for protection, but in some cases it is needed, if you live in a rural area where law enforcement is far away. In that case, I'd certainly hope you have a couple of big, loud dogs as an early warning system. But if you have a gun in the home, why does it have to be a weapon capable of shooting more than 6 bullets at a time? Really, if you're in a situation where an intruder has a semi-auto-chances are you're already going to kiss your hind end goodbye.

I would never hurt someone else's cat that roams in my yard -- but I can understand the frustration of dealing with other people's pets wandering through my yard: - pooping in my garden - digging up my plants - killing birds in my yard - trying to attack my cat through the windows, which gets him all stirred up, and makes him pee all over the place to "mark" his territory (this is what really irks me) I've seriously considered trying to trap some of the cats that wander through my yard and taking them to the shelter. I can't bear the thought of doing that, though, because I fear the idea that they might get euthanized. So I put up with the effects of other irresponsible pet owners, while getting more and more angry every day. Do I condone what the woman did? No. But I can understand it.

Wow, I'm really sorry that you had to deal with that. It sounds like you definitely need to move on to the "tough love" part of parenting with her. And I totally agree with Dana about what to say to her comment about the jewelry. If she had asked and not stolen it, it would be a completely different story (not that you would have said yes, but it would have shown respect for you.) I also agree with how to handle the younger ones....they do need to understand that this is unacceptable....and that it is about what she did, not what they did! This reinforces why I have taken a hard line with my 20 y/o SD -- who stole from me last summer (over and over!). I will not allow her in my house alone because she has shown that she cannot be trusted. Yours has too and you need to show her that these are the consequences for her behavior (don't know about yours, but my SD never had any consequences for her behavior.....her mother either accepted the obvious lies from her daughter, lied to us about it, or made it excuses for her. Like you, we have another younger child watching all of this and this is an important lesson for them too -- we cannot and will not tolerate disrespect, lying, stealing, etc.....and there will be consequences for breaking the rules (not just house rules, but the rules you need to live by in our society in order to be successful and have some integrity!). Good luck.....! (does she have a key....you may want to change the locks.....)

I don't mind the cooking part, it's the decding what to cook that I am tired of. I admit that I can't cook like I used to because of increasing physical limitations. I reluctently am using more and more convience foods, which makes it much harder to adhere to the special diet, (diabetes/heart disease/high blood pressure) that we have been eating for 35 years now. It does become more difficult to find the right things to eat when these problems are suddenly dumped on you. Our diet adjustments came one at a time, thank goodness. I still sometimes get tired of reading labels and deciphering how much the carbs in this plus the fats in that are going to affect DH's blood sugar. We do eat a huge amount of vegetables. It would be rare to have a meal without at least 2 low or no carb side vegetables along with a garden salad and the main course. I find it hard to fill my very active DH up at times.