BetyBee

Sounds like in any case, her work here is done! 🙄

My 74 yo SIL RECENTLY told my husband he ruined a happy family by being born. Newsflash - their parents were never happy. His sister is always asking why we don't get together more. Gee, I wonder! @Heathen- I'm sorry your father said such a terrible thing to his innocent child. That's just wrong. I think Alyssa has a lot of issues and marrying John didn't help. Poor Allie!

Jill always starts out a lie-a-tribe with a line like "Words can't describe" and then goes on to use too many self serving words. She is right though, that SHE is incapable of composing a tribute to anyone but herself and the God she "serves" as long as He continues to bless her special self! It's really amazing how He agrees with everything she does as the super best Christian ever!

Even in my small rural community, we get a card for the laundromat and put money on it (with a credit card). We mostly go there to wash large blankets. I hope you get your laundry done soon, @oliviabenson! I'm sure you will.

She'll probably mention us "haterz" and point out that she can too keep a secret!

I'm happy for Tim & Heidi and I'm glad for them that they got to share THEIR News before Jill blabbed.

Thank you all for the good wishes for our anniversary! It was lovely! ❤️

Today is my 47th wedding anniversary and a good day to reflect on all of the changes the world has faced over all of these years. I do feel that overall, my husband and I have been very blessed in our lives together. Wonderful kids and grandkids, some good friends to spend time with, an abundance of dogs and cats over the years. We are fortunate to live in a decent home with bills paid and a nice set of wheels to get around. We are in good health and that is a truly great gift. We've decided on an early dinner at Portillo's . Life is good!

Jimmy Carter was my candidate in the first presidential election I was able to vote in too. He was a very good man who lived an admirable life. That is what good people strive to do with their lives. I'm glad that he lived such a long life, filled with love and caring for others.

I found myself looking at my phone or fast forwarding through endless sappy conversations. They could have done some editing and probably cut down to 7 or 8 episodes. I'm sorry, but I cannot stand Hope's character. Who would put up with such a childish person as mayor? Or even as a friend!

She is way out of line, saying that!

It's so nice to see Jill included. As far as we know, only Jinger is pregnant here. That's some kind of Duggar miracle!

I see that too.

Yes, Primetimer was a mess yesterday. It's all good today!

True! Also Jill is not comfortable spending money on her kids. Spending it on herself, the true love of her life, feels right to her.

We decided to put away our tall, artificial tree and to put our smaller tabletop fiber optic tree in the living room. I put away all the breakable ornaments and dressed the tree with only soft ornaments. The cat has not gone near it! In fact, he likes to lay under the table it's on, because there is a heating vent there. He seems less stressed because the rest of the living room now has the furniture in the usual places and he has better access to look out the window. Weirdly, I am also less stressed. We had a nice time watching White Christmas while we redecorated! It's all good! 🎄

Update on my book club experience with my neighbor who doesn't like me - I attended and made a point of not even looking in her direction and just enjoying the other women in the group and honestly, the woman seemed happier that I wasn't paying any attention to her. 🤷‍♀️ I don't know why, but I was happier too, so I guess that's my go to going forward. It was our Christmas Book Swap. I bought a new best seller paperback and wrapped it carefully. It was the first one chosen and the only book that was stolen by another member! I've given duds before, so I was really happy. Also the one who stole it is one of my favorite people from BC, who raved about the author, Jesmyn Ward.

I hope your sister can find a more committed book club. The wine drinking and not bothering to read the book is common from what I hear. Ours is sponsored by a wonderful small book store. They order the books for us (we try to stick to paperbacks), which keeps our bookstore afloat in these Amazon times! We are all serious readers, especially the member who doesn't care for me! Mostly retired ladies, though we have a couple of guys who come sometimes.

We will try the fishing line method. Thank you, @Absolom and @Notabug! He is a 16 lb chonk, so hopefully he won't decide to climb the tree! We had a much smaller cat who used to do that!

That's a very interesting take. I joined book club before she joined the board, but she may have become more disturbed by my presence when our worlds further collided - when we were no longer just neighbors and bc members. That actually makes sense. I never talk about our HOA with her, but she may be fearful that that could happen. I think not interacting much with her besides politeness, may help. At least it may help my peace of mind!

I've been in a local book club for about 5 years. I really love most of the group and in fact, two of my good friends have joined. I'm sometimes slow to pick up on things, but I've come to realize that a long term member, who has been in the club since its inception is contemptuous of me. Looking back, I realize that she took an instant dislike to me. She is also on the board of my HOA and is a neighbor. There are no problems there. We've never missed a payment or asked for anything special. The neighbor ladies used to meet for lunch once a month until Covid when that stopped. When we moved here 5 years ago and I had been to lunch a few times, I attended my first BC meeting and told her she looked familiar - did I know her from somewhere? She reacted as if I was crazy and said no. The next time we ladies did lunch, I said "Oh! This is where I know you from!" She responded with a terse, "Yes, I know!" I've always been polite and friendly to her, but in return, she's cold and seems angry. I wonder if I remind her of someone she disliked in the past? Anyway, if anyone has advice, I'm open to it. I've decided to mostly ignore her going forward. I don't want to quit to make her happy! I will continue to be polite, but indifferent to her feelings about me. She's an odd duck, but a true book lover. Well, so am I and I have a right to be there!

We woke up to find our tree lying on the floor this morning. So now we know that our new to us kitty is not to be trusted around the tree. Only one ornament broke and it can be glued. Interesting that we didn't hear the crash! If it happens again, I'm going to insist that we take it down and put it away.....for the next 15 years!

My MIL used to call thrown together leftovers a "pick up dinner". Since she was putting together a meal from previous tasteful meals, it made for a pretty good dinner. Jill's recipe, on the other hand, looks absolutely disgusting!

This. If Jana Duggar really had her eye on Chad back in the day, she's probably thanking Jeebus that she dodged that bullet. She has a husband with a JOB, had a nice wedding without a visit from and cake for Bill G and likely won't have 6 children!

I've been feeling that way too.