Eloise - boy did I sleep well. I was late getting to work!! But I needed it even without the raking. If you'll look, you'll see the time I did that post last night. It was entirely too late to be up. But, having problems going to bed - STRESS!!! My boss told me today that I should be looking for Plan B - she is. Our new VP is really making life difficult. We don't think she wants any of us there - so she can bring in her own people and also confirm herself to everyone. So, we'll see on that one. Let's just say though - not good at all. I'm too old to be considered a real candidate anywhere other that someplace 50 miles from home. That's the kicker, I'm 8 miles from home now - never had that before. Plus, I like the company. We just have a micro micro-managaing, self-absorbed, control-freak for a boss that is begining to remind me of a wicked witch! She is so much so that I don't trust her as a person. It's one thing to not trust your boss, but I don't trust her as a person - too high on herself and what she can do. No telling what she will do to prevent someone from seeing her faults. The bad thing - I think that's why she was hired!!! The other stressor - my folks. Found out today that they are OK -somewhat. They are being moved to the other facility to have more intense care - thank Goodness! But that's not saying things will be OK but I do feel better that they can be watched. My step-mom is becoming very manipulative and they are worried about my dad's safety. So, THAT saga continues. At least they are dead and my step-mom didn't kill someone!! Hey, I'm 139, I think. BTW, What's going on with TNMN2???? Check in Michael when you can. Miss you, big guy!!!

Pennylane-- I don't want to be guilty of encouraging you to flout the advice of your counselor (who is a professional, and I of course am not), but I would encourage you to discuss with him the idea of you dealing with SD directly when it comes to the more vague issues of "attitude" and "respect". With appropriate assertiveness (not passiveness or aggressiveness) and without meting out "punishments" per se, but more of a *discussion* with her. Run it by him and see if he might reconsider his advice somewhat. I say this, again, not because I am in a position to have an "expert" opinion on blended families, but because I am a stepdaughter, and one common thread among other stepchildren I know is that the SP/SK relationship is made so much worse when it is perceived that one or more parties is being "manipulative" or is untrustworthy, and this perception results from an INDIRECT approach. Whether it's the SK or the SP doing it, it spells the beginning of the end for a decent relationship. You don't want to risk creating an impression to your SD that you are two-faced, passive-aggressive or are "hiding behind" your DH and expecting him to fix all of your interpersonal problems (including the one with SD) for you. Aside from eroding trust and encouraging similarly indirect behavior on SD's part, I dare say it also undermines the very thing you seek to improve in the situation: her respect for you. I can honestly say that the number one factor that has made me fully give up on having any sense of respect for my SM or any desire to "work with her" is exactly this sort of thing. If she had had the guts to actually TELL ME if/when something I did/said/was upset her, instead of resorting to the little digs (with a big grin) she felt were her only permitted recourse to express her displeasure with me, I would have seen her as not only a person worth respecting but also as an honest human being who I'd WANT to be close to. It was very hard for me to see her as a fully-formed ADULT WOMAN when she was constantly "tattling" to my Dad about whatever her grievances were. Moreover, in her case she drastically distorted the things she relayed to him which painted me in the worst possible light, and since these things were never discussed with ME directly, I had no chance to explain (or in certain cases just plain CORRECT) some of the misperceptions, so it was pretty much impossible to see her as trustworthy or as an agent of anything other than discord in my relationship with my father. Therefore, she never earned my genuine respect, nor my desire to "work with her" even though her tantrums to MY DAD made it so I was terrified for years to do or say anything to upset the apple cart. So she got her surface compliance out of my stuffing myself for years, but it certainly didn't improve ---and in fact severely worsened--- anything deeper between us than the shallowest "hi, how's it going"/"oh, fine..." And I dare say I don't think it helped her relationship with my Dad. For several reasons, but one of them being that expecting him to "fix" something that is so inherently vague and emotional and open to perception as "attitude" and "respect" is pretty much impossible, and no one knows this more than the bio-parent in the middle. It's one thing to have clear rules/consequences for clear actions or infractions. For example, an eye-roll is clear enough to be called out ***IF HE SEES IT HAPPEN***... But the problem comes in when/if it happens when he is not around, due to the underlying distrust and disrespect which will be made no better by the "hiding behind DH" approach. Please at least run this by your counselor. I'm not a professional, but I did experience this from the other side, and I think if you ask other adult SK's on here they'll agree with me.

The little girl next door discovered "Let It Go" a few weeks ago and has been singing it outside. All. The. Time. Unlike many of you, I actually like (or at least liked) the song, but heavens to pete is it overexposed. My daughter has been receiving musical instruction in school including reading music. She had vocal music in K-3 and strings (she plays violin) in 4 and 5. She's signed up for orchestra as an elective in middle school. I think the music program was primarily funded (possibly entirely funded) by PTA fundraising and by grants but it's been great. I sing in a church choir and until last year was also part of a small women's ensemble that sang monthly at retirement homes (we went on hiatus when my director fell and suffered a head injury--I'm afraid now that we're never going to resume. I learned to read music with piano lessons as a kid, but it was also taught in elementary school music class. And then I was in choir all through junior high and high school (and a bit in college). I went on a road trip with my daughter earlier this summer, and when we first got on the road I thought she was going to want to listen to nothing but top 40 the whole trip. I made a case for listening to country in the areas where that was 90% of what was on the airwaves (there aren't many country stations where we are from). We also listened to some classical, some religious choral music, some 80s power ballads, and a bit of metal. One of the things that drives me crazy about many young people is their rigid conviction in the superiority of whatever narrow set of music happens to be on trend at the moment (this bugged me even when I was a teen). I'm happy to have a kid with eclectic tastes (for now, anyway; she's not a teen yet).

@carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b I cannot see the second video you posted underneath the one by Les Paul and Mary Ford. If you could give the name please so I could look it up thank you.