Yes, I will be the first one to admit my husband and I both need a break. Usually I handle what comes with no problem, but I think the holiday stess is getting to me. I'm a wife, mother, grandmother and caregiver, but recently it's been hard to balance all that. Throw in Christmas shopping and planning and I think I've felt overwelmed. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, 2 of my grandkids (ages 5 and 12) and my son-in law came to visit. An overnight visit wound up lasting 3 days. I love my grandkids but the extra everything exhausted me. (and my husband) Not to mention it threw my MIL into a confused exhausted state for almost a week. I usually "do" Thanksgiving at my house, but I cancelled the big family thing and chose to have a quiet small dinner with just the 3 of us. I think I pissed the family off, but I don't regret doing it. I don't think they realize the amount of work it puts on us. Or how it stresses her to have her routine changed. So...now I'm planning Christmas--it's tradition to have it at "Grammy's" (me) house and I always look forward to it--but not so much this year. With my MIL's declining health things are much different for us. One daughter lives close and is wonderful to give me a break, she visits regularly enough to know the meds and the care MIL requires. The other daughter ( the one with 4 children) rarely calls and doesn't realize how things have changed for my MIL. She just shows up with the children ( who will be charged up on christmas) and thinks things are the same as always. So..having said all that I've deceided to simplify things around here. Insted of a lot of gifts, there will be gift cards and I'm going to play up the fact that the after chrismas sales will be great when they go to use them. The huge amount of food will be cut in half with just the favorites. I've enlisted both daughters with what they will cook and bring--pies and such. The youngest daughter has offered to come early and do a lot of the cooking for me. Her husband has offered to come and sit with my MIL and keep her intertained ( she loves that boy and so do I). There will be paper plates, not the good china,and what I can get already prepared will be bought, not made here ( the restuarant down the road makes a mean smoked turkey). I'm not gonna worry about how messy the house looks cause it's gonna look like a mad house once they all show up anyway. I think I just might survive this after all.

No Compton - I think most know that there are "backwoods people" in our society; we learned that from the Jerry Springer show. The Boo-bunch have escalated that Springer "backwoods" class of people to flat-out disgusting and repugnant. Until THEY pick themselves up from the gutter and care to dust themselves off in order to evolve into civilized, functional people, they won't change. What we have sadly learned is that some people accept this ill behavior and in fact, applaud it, reward it and encourage it. As if the Boo-bunch aren't repugnant enough, THAT, is what further promotes and encourages the downward spiral of our society.

Latex mattresses sold by the big "S" companies are rarely, if ever, composed of 100% latex. They contain layers of cheaper foam which tend to sag over time, and mattresses with pillowtops sag the worst. I once saw a chart showing specifications of big-name "latex" mattresses and you wouldn't believe the small amount of real latex. There might be five layers of different types of foam with one or two thin layers of latex. About four years ago I was looking for a latex mattress and did a lot of online research, including spending many months reading posts on a mattress forum. I learned about several online companies that sell real latex mattresses and provide great customer service. Specialty stores in some geographic areas (not mine) also sell latex mattress, some organic. But I was on a limited budget and knew I could never afford any of these (and I question the concept of organic latex but that's for another thread.) Based on suggestions on the mattress forum, I took a risk and made an online purchase from a web site called foambymail (the company is Foam Factory.) I purchased a 6" firm base, a separate 3" soft topper, and upgraded to a terry cover, which has a zipper around all four sides (a $20 upgrade.) The mattress comes shrink wrapped, shipped by UPS. Shipping is free. Latex is very heavy and a friend helped me lug it upstairs to the bedroom. We placed it on the platform bed before unwrapping it. As we cut through the shrink wrap carefully, it made a whooshing sound as it expanded. The 6" latex base had already been placed by the company inside the mattress cover, so we only had to shift it into place on the bed. We placed the 3" topper inside the cover and zipped it all around. Since I like cushy beds, I bought a separate mattress cover with its own pillowtop made by Cuddledown (from Costco). After four years, the bed is like new and it's the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. If I were doing this again, the only change I would make is to get a 2" soft topper rather than 3". I might also substitute the Cuddledown cover with a wool topper since the Cuddledown is filled with polyesther and sleeps a little warm. I paid less than $700 for a full size mattress and topper; it would be a little more today. Here is a link that might be useful: Foam Factory

Many years ago when I was in high school, it was the custom for boys to give their class ring to their girl friend to wear. My boyfriend’s ring was very large, but my hands are small. So I wore it on a chain like pictured at the very beginning of this thread. The ring’s band very quickly started deteriorating by abraiding and sliding around on the chain. I don’t know if his ring was exceptionally soft or not, but I learned my lesson about wearing a ring on a chain.