Felicitations, Ginger, on the anniversary of your natal day! May this year be fabulous and wonderful in the extreme, because you deserve it.

(((Laura))) No advice, love, just lots of empathy.

Lillian is a true second-gen Buffista--her friends are as far-flung as the internetz reach.

I sympathize with Chez Zmayhem. Poor guys. I was also unable to fall asleep till after 6AM. Due to packing and sorting for the final move, my bed wound up under the window, directly above which runs a gutter. We had a gully-washer all night long (send arks! glug!), and the water rushing in the metal trough just above my head kept me awake and anxious all night. Thank goodness for the extra hour this morning.

Ryan is a gorgeous little man, with oodles of charm and cool.

You know what I miss? A new post count on the lurker thread when I log on. Miss it a lot.

Conjuring consequences now, but there is so little that can be done. Time outs just don't do it at this point. At this point I have decided I am not his taxi for 2 weeks except for official school business and computer access ends at 6pm daily. He has so few things he cares about to take away.

That's kind of where it is here. Without spanking her it's getting hard to punish her. Emmett was upset by the idea of being punished so timeouts worked fine. It's hard to find something that has a negative reinforcement for her within the available toolbox of our parenting philosophy. Though she was put out to discover that she doesn't get any of her Halloween candy today.

Lillian has stated a desire to go to SF to make Matilda feel better.

Awww. That would be a balm. Though, frankly, Matilda is not good company this morning. She's tired too and fractious.

I sympathize with Chez Zmayhem.

::snuggles Bev::

Two of the big reasons why there's a ten year gap between Emmett and Matilda is because I get so stressed out by tantrums and the sleep dep grinds so hard. Tantrums just cause me to have a high adrenaline spike and I get Really Angry and it's tough to master and get to a calm place to deal with her.

You haven't seen him since Friday morning, Laura?? Good lord, my parents would have shot me! Btw, have I told you I'll be in Miami for thanksgiving, Tuesday through tuesday?

Happy birthday, Ginger!!!!

You haven't seen him since Friday morning, Laura?? Good lord, my parents would have shot me!

Good heavens, me too! Honestly, I would have totally been grounded for 2 months. Gone nowhere except school. No phone. No tv.

{{Laura}} All kinds of dealing-with-teenager~ma to you.

have I told you I'll be in Miami for thanksgiving, Tuesday through tuesday?

For a brief moment I was all "Wait! Wait! I can get down to Miami! I want some meara time!"

Then I stopped and thought about where I'm moving in two months.

DUH.

Carry on.

It's weird, but I think I'm making progress. My mom and I had a pretty calm conversation about my marriage without any yelling or crying. (First, though, she asked me to print something for her to give to my grandmother, and I told her I didn't have a printer, and I wasn't going to go somewhere to print it, so why didn't she just have my cousin do it for her, and she seemed to go along with that plan.)

She once again brought up the mantra, and I said I didn't think it would do any good if I didn't believe in it, but she said it would, since I was saying it. And when the priest told her to fast for 21 Tuesdays, she did, and on the "21th" Tuesday, she was engaged. I could fast for my body; it's good to fast one day a week. I did not assent to any of it, though, nor did I outright decline it. She just said her piece.

If I haven't found someone by next July or August, they are going to India in December, and they are taking me, and I will be married there. They were supposed to do it last year, but I got an extension because of my mom's surgery. I gave my usual "Whatever." She said the other option was to go to some Indian functions and meet a girl there. I said, yeah, I could try that.

"We are not your enemies," she said.

"Okay," I said.

"Do you think we're your enemies?"

"No, I know you're doing what you think is best, but it's not working for me, so."

A pause.

"With the amount of brains you have, you could have been anything," she said, about to get into the "Why'd You Drop Out of Grad School?" conversation.

"Oh, come on," I said, lightly, not snidely. "Why does every conversation have to go from one thing to another, when it doesn't have to do with anything? Don't do that. Focus on one thing!"

A pause.

"Okay," she said, and she kindly ended the conversation without any bitter remarks at all, to my surprise, as if she actually saw and understood my point.

I really don't want to get my hopes up, but she, at least, seems to be responding. I guess the more I speak up, the more they'll get used to it?

I guess the more I speak up, the more they'll get used to it?

Sunil, you are *awesome.* I mean that. The conversation was calm, you let your mom know that *you* know that they want the best for you, you asserted your boundaries, and it ended well.

Right ON.

If I haven't found someone by next July or August, they are going to India in December, and they are taking me, and I will be married there.

What? Are they going to kidnap you?

Possibly. They could hire ninjas. Perhaps they already have. I should do a sweep of the attic.

Happy birthday, Ginger!

Laura, God, I'm sorry you have to go through this. {{}}

And hugz, relax and sleep~ma to the Zmayhems as well.

omnis, I'm OK. I'm not stressing out about every little thing, and certainly don't handle every little problem as if it's a crisis. I was just blowing off some steam. But I still love you and appreciate the worry.

Nothing about my sis, but whatever that was, seems like will hear about it in the news. She was very distress. I'm wondering what the story was.

I learned today from my Great Aunt that my family has a lot of female doctors and nurses in it (including the first female physicians in England! ... who weren't allowed to see any male "naughty parts" during their training). What fascinated me about it is that said first doctors finished their studies in 1914 - just in time to WW1. That, with knowing that my mom did her first year in nursing school in 1973 (Yom Kippur war), and that my sister wants to study medicine, made me worry for a minute, thinking into what she'll have to dive in.

Now, off to finish reading a paper and see Ryan pics!