ChiCricket

This is so true. You don't want a negative report, but then you're thinking what in the world *is* causing the symptoms? Then, if you're anything like me, you start to worry that it's all in your head. But dagnabbit......we know when something "just ain't right" with our bodies. Trying to convince the doctors you're not a hypochondriac is a whole 'nother can of worms.

Now I know how tense my poor husband is over tonight's Cub's game. He just excitedly came in and spoke to me IN SPANISH about something that happened in the game. LOL he NEVER does that..even when I try speaking to him in Spanish, he always answers me in English...He must be a nervous wreck, poor guy :) (I'm a diehard White Sox fan,but I do feel really bad for him) Edited to add: Aaaaaand they lost. :(

This turn of phrase really gave me a good idea of just how bad your mom's cooking was! It also made me think of the duggars, actually. Because WHY should the women in any family be stereotyped into doing all the cooking? Maybe they don't have an innate talent for it (or don't enjoy doing it), and maybe some of the MEN just might be better and more willing? But, no..that's women's work. Bleh

I get more than a down feeling. I used to get very bad clinical depression. I was hospitalized quite a few times for suicidal thoughts .That was a very dark time in my life, mostly caused by my husband being an abusive alcoholic. But he found religion and quit drinking (cold turkey) and now our marriage is good again (even though I'm agnostic.) The good news is that I haven't gotten depressed like that in over 15 years (and for a period of ten years, I was horribly depressed every fall.) Prozac everyday, and sitting under a sun-box starting in fall have been literal life savers for me. I'm reluctant to share (because mental illness has SUCH a stigma.) I'm just hoping trying a sun-box might help someone else who suffers from seasonal affective disorder.(SAD) I WISH the Chicago area had short winters!

The only must have thing my family demands for Thanksgiving (besides turkey) is our fruit salad that takes hours and hours to make. I remember my great grandma making it (and I'm 63 years old) so that's a long family tradition. We have to make VATS of it because everyone wants to take lots home to eat in the days afterward. My grown kids have been known to watch with an eagle eye while the leftovers get divided up to make sure they get a fair amount. And every year, someone tries to lobby for more "because I have more kids than you do!"That quickly gets shot down, because they say, "you know it's for YOU and not your kids!" Heh Out of my 3 daughters and two sons, only my youngest son has never liked it. My other kids say, "good! more for US!" It contains: Red grapefruit Oranges Bananas Crushed canned pineapple Maraschino cherries And LOTS of mini marshmallows (do NOT get the flavored ones..yuck! ) The labor intensive part is the grapefruit and oranges..which is why I only make it at Thanksgiving, which is probably what makes them really look forward to it. If you make this, save an extra bag of mini marshmallows, to add new handfuls to the leftovers in the coming days, because the ones already in it get translucent, and you need the chewiness. Probably good it's only once a year because of all that sugar! Edited for big run-on sentence.

Last year I won a costume contest by just knotting a big thick rope (with scraggly ends) loosely around my neck. I asked people to guess what my costume represented. Nobody got it, and I won when I told them I was "afraid not". Most comfy costume I ever wore. I won a highly scented Halloween candle that I promptly had to give away because strong scents trigger my asthma. I did have fun winning with such a last minute thrown together 'costume'!

but nothing! I DID swear when I read all of this. I exclaimed "holy *CARP*!!" (I have 3 of my grands sleeping over, and that is one of the only "swears" I use when they are around.) My 7-yo granddaughter asked me one time what 'holy carp' meant, and I told her it was a type of Angel Fish. (So,yeah, add lying to my 'sins'.) But again, HOLY CARP!

Thanks..because of this post I just found something new to watch with my grandkids :) I don't pollute their minds with the crap I watch when I'm by myself.

I tried to get into The Talk, but the PTV boards on it are so dead I gave up on it. Most of the fun of watching tv shows for me is to read the PTV forum snark and discussion for them. If nobody is commenting on shows, it goes off of my DVR. Guess I'm addicted to these forums more than tv. To keep it OT, love it or hate it, you can't say The View doesn't generate conversation.

My Marine son and his family just got transferred to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina..should I worry? How close it that to the ocean?

Well, I learned two new things today from this post. I had to Google Habsburg jaw and the definition of Machiavellian. Who says TV isn't educational? (Well, at least these PTV boards are.)

I've heard they're located in Oakbrook (here in Illinois.) If that's true, that is very pricey real estate. So either the rent is getting too be too high to handle now, or they own the property, and need to sell because they need the money.

My slightly older brother called me Cricket when we were young , and everyone else started doing it too. Nobody ever knew why he decided to call me that, as it's nowhere close to my given name. The Chi part is because I'm from the Chicago area.

Yes! The one sibling who didn't start going to this evangelical church is now a Jehovah's Witness.

It's not just on paper. I'm married to a Puerto Rican, and almost every single one of his eleven brothers and sisters got "saved" in recent years and are now all in an evangelical fundy type church in their Chicago Humbolt Park neighborhood (lots and lots of Puerto Ricans live there.) At first I was happy they got away from drugs and gangs (a few were into that, not all of them), but it seems they just traded that in for a cult type church..which seems to take a nice big cut of all their pay, and 'encourages' them to donate things like property and vehicles to them. My husband is the only diehard Catholic left in his family now, and they try SO hard to convert him! That's why what Jill and Derrick are doing pisses me off. They take advantage of people down and out, get THEM hooked, and then little by little suck in the rest of their families. Which is why, even though I'm agnostic now,I still encourage my husband to go to Mass. I know what the Catholic church is..And it's not a pyramid scheme like this place is. (sorry this was so long, but the whole thing really gets my goat)

I have a 25 year old nephew that isn't religious at all, but who my whole family has blocked on Facebook because of his right wing rants about gun owners rights, welfare cheats, illegal immigrants, etc. This is my sister's son, and I know for a fact he didn't grow up with this stuff being drilled into his head. Seems like once he joined the Marines he started all this..and the weird thing is, he seems to love us all and treats us so nicely when we see him in person, even though none of us agree with anything he posts (and have told him so.) It makes me wonder if being online, it's easier for people like Jessa (and my nephew) to rant and rave, but in real life they turn it way down? I wonder if Jessa acts differently to someone's face. And yes,my nephew and Jessa seem to me to be the "get off my lawn" type people.(at least online)

I found the following on two different places on the web..makes you wonder if Josh grew up in a different family how differently he might have turned out.(OT, As one of seven siblings, birth order studies have always interested me) "Adler went on to suggest that eldest children are most likely to suffer from neuroticism and feelings of excessive responsibility – and that the melancholy they feel from a very early age never really leaves them. Eldest children, Adler said, are more likely than later-borns to grow up to become alcoholics and substance abusers, and even criminals." But on the other hand: "Some studies have looked at U.S. presidents, Nobel Laureates or NASA astronauts to see whether they are mostly first-born children or later born children. U.S. presidents and science Nobel Laureates were found to be overwhelmingly first-borns, as were 21 of the first 23 NASA astronauts." Makes you wonder how much more these traits are exacerbated by having SO many siblings, as Josh did (and a checked out mother.)

I already posted something like this this in regard to Anna, but maybe it can work for Jinger too. Maybe all of us that care about Jinger can get our resources together and do a mass airdrop of informational letters for her....about ALL the people willing to help her......ALL over the Duggar compound! THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF THEM...She's bound to see ONE of them, right?" This was after I thought about how they finally got Harry's invite to Hogwarts to him via magical owls (anyone here own a magical owl?)

My first thought when I saw their commercials was that how much it must stink to actually be a real person named Ashley Madison. But I'd still take that over having the name Josh J Duggar nowadays.

I've been reading so much about this latest scandal, that I had insomnia last night (I tend to obsess when something like this happens.) As I was in bed trying to clear my head of all things Duggar, this popped into my head: " Hey! Maybe all of us that care about Anna can get our resources together and do a mass airdrop of information for Anna of choices she has besides staying with Josh......ALL over the Duggar compound! THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF THEM...She's bound to see ONE of them, right?" This was after I thought about how they finally got Harry's invite to Hogwarts to him via magical owls (anyone here own a magical owl?)

I was just watching The Soup and it made me laugh when the host said this: "After his account was found on Ashley Madison, Josh Duggar posted an apology online for all his recent behavior. However, it was revealed the apology was taken down and edited several times to take out specific references that were originally there. Unfortunately Josh, the Internet is like an under age sibling. Once you put something personal of yours on it, it doesn't forget." Hee

¡Felíz Cumpleaños,HFC! (I thought I'd be different and say it in Spanish, for no reason whatsoever) :)

Maybe they're blind and don't need to use lights? (I wonder weird thoughts about some of my neighbors too sometimes)

Those bangs on Ben remind me of Jim Carey in dumb and dumber. ick

The culture shock I remember from when I moved to Florida from Illinois..was everyone calling what I called 'pop' soda. I got teased at my job because I said pop. Then after nine HOT humid years we moved back to Illinois and I had to relearn calling it pop again. I still get it mixed up sometimes.