I, for one, liked the way that Maks was "touchy feely" with Kirstie. Why? Because when a woman is that age and overweight, especially when the woman is famous and used to be stunningly beautiful with a stunningly fabulous body, she would naturally have some issues with feeling a bit out of place or frumpy next to the professional female dancers and the young, thin, and cute celebrity dancers. Kirstie was doing better and better each and every week, and she was also losing weight and inches each and every week. To me, watching Maks be so "loving" towards her, it was like his confirmation to her that she should be proud of herself and her accomplishments and not feel inferior to anyone. It was an affirmation that she is still beautiful and sexy.

What goes on in another household will not affect what happens in yours. Of course, your boyfriend will have less for your household and children because he has other obligations---but this is not a secret. I've lived a long time, and this I know. No matter how much you have, there are people who have more. If you compare yourself to others, you will always come up short. She apparently lived well before you knew about her, why does the knowledge she lives well now make you dissatisfied. She's just another rich person, why does it bother you that she is rich more than it bothers you that her neighbors are rich? Because you think she doesn't deserve it? I'm not expressing myself well. It boils down to, her financial comfort just does not matter. And you have no idea what those $100 plates cost her (if anything). If you are feeling that she has all this because she 'stole' it from your boyfriend, please have a long talk with a divorce lawyer. Child support is set by Federal law in all states by formula. The same numbers going into the formula produce the same child support payment for everyone in the state. Your boyfriend is not more burdened by child support than any other NCP in CA with two children, his same income and her same income. She is not living a lavish lifestyle because of your boyfriend's child support, she is living a lavish lifestyle because she married a rich man. If you want to have a similar lifestyle, you need either to marry a rich man or earn it yourself. Whatever you may believe, child support is designed to equalize the income of both parents. It's not perfect, but more or less works. The new husband's income will not affect child support (until college that is), just as your income will not. She won't get more support because you marry and bring more money into your husband's life. However, if you have a baby, she will probably get less. Your stepdaughter's lifestyle is being subsidized by their stepfather. This is nice for them. Please don't feel intimidated or competitive. If you live in luxury and live very well, in a short time you don't really notice it. A Bentley after a while feels not much different than a Toyota. It just becomes 'the car'. Rich people are not more unhappy than poor people as a rule of thumb, but wealth does not buy individual happiness. She has the same struggles with life as anyone else; leave her to them and concentrate on building your own niche in the world. I lied a bit when I said what happens in her house won't affect what happens in yours. That doesn't hold true for the girls, they will be a conduit from her household to yours. But no more so than any other divorced family. There are well established ways to manage any problem she may cause. And it's possible she won't cause any. She's got what she wants. It doesn't seem like she's trying (or if she's trying, succeeding) in hampering the girls' relationship with either their father or you. She appeared willing to accept you in her girls' other life. It might be too much to ask that she's enthusiastic about your presence, but she seems okay with it, if a bit condescending. You can live with that. She's only going to be as big of a presence in her life as you let her be. You can't obliterate her, but even if she's awful, she can be containd and minimized. There will be no problem you have with her, that thousands of other people haven't had with the ex. You'll learn how to handle the problems if any, effectively. Your boyfriend OF COURSE gave you a prejudicial view of why he and his wife divorced. Every divorced person does. It no longer matters. Had he made her happy she wouldn't have left. He did contribute to their marital problems. And divorce is called crazy times for a reason--people behave badly and irrationally. It brings out peoples' worst. That was then, this now. That's over with. However, you do need to keep your eyes open to the reality of who he is and what his faults are and what his strengths and weaknesses as a partner. You'd have to do that if he hadn't been single. You are responsible for picking a good partner for you. She has nothing to do with that. It's nice the girls enjoyed you. Slip into their lives slowly. They seem receptive. You don't have to decide how you feel about anything right now. Let it work itself out. Let these relationships unfold. You have time. A lot of parenting is not right or wrong, it's just personal preference. Some families don't have everyone piled in bed in the morning, some do. Some make parental bedrooms offlimits. Some have strict rules about personal items (like touching your make up without asking first), some don't care. Be true to yourself and honest with your partner and patient with the girls and take it slowly, and it should work out. Good luck to you.

lol -meth... I do hope that you at least post reviews on yelp and angieslist. The sad thing is guys like that expect homeowners not to deal with the hassle of going after them. If they lost a couple of half days of work and had a few cases go against them, they may start doing a better job. Since they aren't held accountable, they keep doing stuff like this. Our gc will be finding out how he can't get away with it on our job as soon as we have our written estimates. I know your job is not huge, but then again, going after him would therefore be easier/less complicated too. Maybe you could spearhead going after him and leave dh out of the process. It upsets me to think of the people before me who had shoddy work done by the gc but did not get the word out or make there be consequences for the gc. If they had, then we might not have been duped by them. The sad part is one person I know who used him did not bother to enlighten me about them until after we were screwed by them. If we had been warned, even after our project started, we'd have been better protected. Please do your best to post reviews at the very minimum. You will be doing a real service to the community.

Floral - while I live in a fairly damp climate, my marshmallow is not located in a damp or marshy area at all. I grew it from seed more than 10 years ago and it self sows with reckless abandon in my full sun veggie garden, which it is on the edge of. Obviously it is quite happy and so is its offspring with the location. This year we are in the midst of a drought and excessive heat for my location and the deep-rooted marshmallows are fairing better than many of my other plants which have died.