You brought back some nice thoughts, Julu. I was a mere child of late-late twenties when I moved back 'home' to this area because that is where my parents decided to retire. I have never regretted it, nor did I think I'd ever end up back here. I know now, it was where I was drawn like a siren's call. That meant that after traipsing all over, I was so very blessed to see my parents numerous times a week and talk to them nearly daily through their 'golden' years. When I married last, I always went past the street to their house on my way back from work, and the car just instinctively pulled off and to their house. (even if I only stayed long enough to rip off a few corny jokes with Daddy and ask his advise about something.......God I miss that, he knew how to do everything. And, have a cuppa tea with my Mama. As I pulled away from their house to continue home, I always said a prayer of thanks that I could enjoy this and I appreciated how long that lasted. For many years and never took it for granted. My father died eighteen years ago this summer. I can empathise with what you are saying. I was a middle ager and there were our whole immediate family alive and doing well. It was very, very precious. My folks, who lost siblings or parents/grandparents to tragic accidents and wars weren't so fortunate. I never took it for granted. My dear Mama lived to the age of 91 and I just lost her two years ago. You can't imagine what we were able to talk about in those widow years she had. Elderly people can open up and they have such eyes to the world.

" I bleached everything - walls, ceilings, floors - cleaned all the furniture and covered every vent in the house. Had the carpets and ducts professionally cleaned, and there it is - faint, but still it's there." One recently divorced woman never did find the cause. On the first day, he sadly packed his belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases. On the second day, he had the movers come and collect his things. On the third day, he sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining-room table, by candle-light; he put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of wine. When he'd finished, he went into each and every room and deposited a few half-eaten shrimps dipped in caviar into the hollow center of the curtain rods. He then cleaned up the kitchen and left. On the fourth day, the wife came back with her new boyfriend, and at first all was bliss. Then, slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything; cleaning, mopping, and airing-out the place. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned. Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which time the two had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting.. Nothing worked! People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen refused to work in the house. The maid quit. Finally, they couldn't take the stench any longer, and decided they had to move, but a month later - even though they'd cut their price in half - they couldn't find a buyer for such a stinky house. Word got out, and eventually even the local realtors refused to return their calls. Finally, unable to wait any longer for a purchaser, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place. Then the ex called the woman and asked how things were going. She told him the saga of the rotting house. He listened politely and said that he missed his old home terribly and would be willing to reduce his divorce settlement in exchange for having the house. Knowing he could have no idea how bad the smell really was, she agreed on a price that was only 1/10 th of what the house had been worth ... but only if he would sign the papers that very day. He agreed, and within two hours her lawyers delivered the completed paperwork. A week later the woman and her boyfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home . . . . . . and to spite the ex-husband, they even took the curtain rods!

I have three half-siblings; two have one father, I'm from husband #2, my younger brother was #3. (We range from 27 to 46-I-think.) The three eldest were raised primarily by our fathers, with stepmothers. Pretty normal where I come from, to be frank - that IS the "traditional family", none of this Norman Rockwell-esque permanent-mommie-and-daddie, 2.5 kids and a dog named Spot stuff. DH and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on Thursday (15.5 years together) and we're the freaks of the family. A relative of mine has recently and unexpectedly fathered his second child with a different woman than who had his first; that child is now something like three years old. (I'm undoubtedly a terrible auntie for not knowing right off the top of my head, but we are not a wuvvie-duvvie Cosby-show family. We're more... Christopher Titus. *chuckle*) He is not married to the mother of the impending child - they've been together something like four or five months - and I doubt they have any plans to do so, and it turns out that due to some legal errors he was never married to the mother of his first (also unplanned). He cannot afford to pay child support for #1, either - he's constantly asking for loans from various family members. When I got the announcement of the conception of #2, I briefly considered sending him a case of condoms and a reminder that his health plan will pay for a vasectomy. (My verbal comments were definitely unfit for a family forum.) Ah, rednecks...

I wrote this to try to get help with my family or what is left of it. This is the first time I ever posted anything on this forum. So instead of getting help I am getting feed back based on the notion I am a teenager or the same person that wrote something on a wedding. The real issue is that a young girl of 17 has manipulated her entire family to the point that she is now posting blogs on how the ruin your parents life and get anything you want while you do it. Again she doesn't want to spend time with her father her real mother or anyone she justs wants to do what she wants to do.. She is entering her senior year and has no job doesn't want to go to college her father lost his job and he is going into over twenty thousand dollars of credit card debt to continue to keep her in clothes and jewelry he can't nor never could afford he never made more than fifty or sixty thousand dollars a year. He has no health benefits he depends on me and now that she is living with her grandmother I don't even know if she is eligible to stay under my health benefits. She is dating a drug dealer and there is nothing I can do or say about it. Her father says he believes her when she says he never carries drugs or deals drugs when he is with her. Tell me does this seem odd to anyone? I now don't want her in my home anymore in fear that she will bring this home. So since I last wrote these new developments have changed things If my husband doesn't disciple her and I cant how can I let her be around my children or in my home. I love my husband but I have an obligation to keep my children safe and under the new circumstances having her in my home isn't an option.. MY children informed me she was bring drugs in the house and when my son found out he told her he was not only going to tell us but call the police. I am sure she brings things into my mother-in-laws house she is 65 and doesn't speak much English. So although I love my husband my life may have to be on hold until she is 18 in June. She wants to go out and be discovered she is considering working at Disney a character for experience for acting. That is today tomorrow who knows. If I sound bitter I am. I gave this child love, a home, clothes and anything she could want.Including consistence and rules. I was her only parent five to six days a week. Now she has total freedom because know one knows what she does she can lie and they believe it. The fact that she is writing this on her new facebook which her father does think she has since the time she put up naked pictures of her self.Tells you she is really something If she put this to good I swear she could rival Donald Trump