I would love to. I have looked into it, but in order to get licensed, we would have to do a lot of improvements on our home. Our house is not in good shape at all. I had a friend go through the licensing process and her home is much nicer and newer and even she didn't pass without having to do quite a few improvements.

But it may be a possibility if we move.

Hi Ms. Writer,

Story interrupted because I visited Char yesterday - she is doing well and I am going to have her here this Wed. thru Thurs. and today was my a work day. We don't have a tree, but I fashioned hooks out of stainless steel pipe holders - those curved kind - to hang garland, lights, and ornaments from the drape overhang in the living room. Plus all the table and wall decorations. I honestly feel I could not decorate another tree after about 30 of them - but there are many other decorations you could put up. I think Char is going to be...and I hope because you never do know about a woman's reaction at any one point in time...that she will be excited. There are also candles - lots of them - I made sure that we could turn all the lights off in the living room and still see each other and the TV. And yes incense - still have a little log cabin incense burner we bought at Sear's way back and found some new pine incense. And yea, bubble bath with a red ribbon around the box on the bathroom vanity. And of course Marital, she wants another Chef boyardee pizza!

In an atempt to answer your question...well you just clean out well an empty spray bottle of cleaner, fill with water, and if your daughter attempts to rile the ornaments just give her a light spray. Works well with cats! Just honestly kidding Ms. Writer. What I did with my son when he was about two and was hyperactive was to sit beside him right in front of the tree..look at the ornaments with him, and I do not know what the explanation is, but he ceased to tackle them again.

In terms of writing, honestly sometimes I feel the idea, and unless I word it it goes away fast. Everything I wrote I have on Word now, but and although this Is a story I desire to complete, it doesn't seem to proceed every day. Will contineue tho.

Just please take care of yourself and your family as best you possibly can, okay. I do feel what you are facing - I do not have any wise advice. Just know that you are a helluva lot important!

Tom

I just caught this. Restitution for WHAT? Is DS guilty?

Long story. We had to take a plea bargain because the attorney we hired wanted an additional $5000 to take the case to trial and we couldn't come up with the money. And, our Public Defender was less than useless and where we live, you cannot request a new one unless the ineptitude is extreme.

When we took the plea bargain, we were told that any restitution we owed the skank (I mean victim) would be capped at $1000. When I met with my son's probation officer, he informed me that there was no cap, and the "victim" could continue asking for reimbursement for medical costs as long as my son remains on probation, provided she can show receipts. So, there's no limit to the amount of money she can try to get from us, and my son cannot get off probation until the amount is paid in full. And, the judgement is not dischargeable in bankruptcy court.

I am SO sorry, writer! Ugh. That's why I hate to suggest PDs. OH, how I wish you could get an (actual) attorney!

Ms. Writer,

May I suggest something. I think quite awhile ago I mentionsion in a post of mine, maybe way back in July, that my son had restitution to pay to juvenile court for knocking out a street lamp.

We had a good attorney at that time and he told me two things -First is that there is now way not paying a fine could interrupt the end of supervision - or in your case probation, as long as the person fulfills all the other conditions. Not paying a fine would simply go as a debt. Ms. Writer, the Judge, and not the pisshole probation officer determines the end of probation. I now you want to do the right thing, but please do not let a lower class spook threaten you, If you took your son before that judge and you could establish that neither you nor your son at this time could pay the restitution your son could be give more time to pay it. Of course he would have to get a job to do that, but oh well, that is his obligation. My son was given 1 year to pay and he had it paid in three months.

This open-ended crap regarding this supposed victim also has to stop. Have you seen the receipts regarding that $1,600 bill? Are you guys being kept informed. If some of those charges are finally declared and substantiated then clearly your son nees to get a job.....like NOW!

Ms. Writer, I am sincerely pulling for you, and I realize you do not have that much support. You just need to pull your skirt up, hike thru the mud, make phone calls, and get it done.

Love ya but you really really worry me...

Tom

Tom, we just got the bill on Friday, but I am going to ask to see the receipts for sure. His probation officer stated that generally they won't allow someone off probation until the restitution is paid off. My son already has a job lined up. He's moving in with my MIL after the holidays and busing tables at the restaurant where she is a manager.

This is good news. I am glad some of the load will be taken off and you are getting some support. Of course it will be good for your son too, getting a job and all.

Might not be possible depending on size and placement of your tree but this worked for us when my guy was two. We had a medium sized tree, 6 footer probably and not terribly wide. Put it in a corner so 2 sides are not accessible. Got some moving boxes and filled them with books from our bookcases so they were just heavy enough to stay in place with a toddler leaning on them. Wrapped them like gifts and made a little wall around the tree. We positioned them so he could lean on a box and reach the bottom branches to at least feel the tree , but not grab ornaments or get a good enough grip on the tree to pull it over. Luckily our guy wasn't climbing on things yet. This idea won't help if your 2 year old is a climber. It worked great for us. We didn't have REAL presents under the tree until a couple days before christmas.

What is sad MB, is she did have an actual one, just a poor one, in a poor justice system.


She took the lesser of two evils to protect her son. They didn't have the money to buy thier way out of the politics. It seems to me anyway. He was a decent kid who made a mistake, and paid heavily for it.

How is DS doing BTW Writer? Is he bouncing back?

DS 16 got into the military program that he applied to!!!

I am beyond excited right now!!!

Congratulations! You must be so proud of him and encouraged that this is the start of good things for your family!

Hi Ms. Writer,

Have not had time to look much on here, but did want to take some now. Congratulations to your son on being accepted to the program that he wanted!

Story is on the back burner now during holidays, but is something I want to get back to in January when things quiet down. Plus, when I get ideas I have to act on them right away or they disappear!

I hope you and your family are now finally having a peaceful time, especially now in this Christmas week, and hope your son is doing well now at home. I just happen to have a couple of meal ideas to suggest to maybe make your food budget stretch some. You very well may have done these already, but thought I would suggest. My son is home here again for awhile and between jobs, so I am trying to do the same at this time. One is on buying ground beef. Of the four grades or types ranging from leanest and most expensive -ground sirloin (90% lean), ground round, ground chuck, and regular ground (75% lean) it would be nice to have one of the leanest (ground round), but that is maybe not always possible. So, what I do is - let's say I need four lbs. - buy two or three of the ground round and one or two of the regular ground. Here, the difference in price between the two is about $1.80 per lb. Often the regular ground is on sale for about $1.99 or even less per lb. because they ground too much that morning. So, if I buy two of the round or sirloin and two of the regular (75% lean) on sale, come home and divide the round or sirloin into fourths, and same with the regular, walla - you have four lbs. of at least 80% lean on average. Get some freezer paper from the meat dept. when you buy the meat, wrap and freeze three of the lbs. and use the fourth to make a meal today. Obviously, you will probably need more than a lb. for a meal with your family, but same principle applies. Believe it or not, one of my favorite meals is: instant rice, covered by a layer of ground beef, coverd by a layer of condensed mushroom soup right out of the can, and topped by a layer of cut green beans. It's really good, filling and nutritional - about 26 grams of protein in total. My wife found and used this recipe when we were struggling newlyweds.

Anyway, the best of Holiday wishes to you and your family Ms. Writer.

Tom

I read your entire thread. I too have a house in the Inland Empire, 2600 sq feet, built 1962, no central air. During the summer I had two window A/Cs running to cool just my bedroom. I was trapped inside. I had a stroke at age 43 and, I didn't know before, but strokes are PAINFUL. If the pain tract in the brain stem is damaged, whole parts of the body feel like they are burining and freezing and stung by 1000 bees at the same time. I have to have my ambient temperature between 58 and 68 or I am to hot or too cold and in horrendous pain. The summer was miserable. AND I had the stroke one week after giving birth, so I have a 2 year old too.

Ugh ManResa, okay, I'm going to stop complaining now. Have you tried some of the free programs offered through the gas and electric company? If you qualify income wise, you can get a lot of free energy upgrades. We got a new front door and weather stripping and would have qualified for a free whole-house evaporative cooler, but most of my house is upstairs and the unit could only be installed on the ground floor, which would have made it pretty difficult to cool upstairs without turning our downstairs bedroom (the only room that's downstairs) into an arctic freeze zone.

Summers are miserable out here, that's for sure. I'm sorry for your situation.

When one upgrades a a/c, one has to bring the house up to current code. Those upgrades are not covered by the rebates as far as I can tell. Also, the rebate does not cover 100% and I am in the same boat financially as you...no money to put toward it. After my stroke my husband couldn't work much because he had to care for a new born and a wife who couldn't walk, urinate or eat (I had a feeding tube, catheter, etc,). The the economy collaped. I am ok with the window a/c's and now its winter. I will think about this again when the heat starts back up. I am able to walk, pee and eat now and though I am not completely recovered and in pain a lot, there are no programs for me until I actually lose my rental property or do short sales. I am working on that right now. Long story. Just know, I read your thread, and if I have learned any thing that could possibly help, I will share it with you. If I can earn money, recovering from a stroke and with a two year old, then you could probably do the same work. Just thinking. I am a customer service evaluator..sometimes known as a mystery shopper. I don't make much, sometimes it seems I work for $2 and hour, but it is something. And my kid comes with me for most of it. And I get free food sometimes and free restaurant meals. Of course, they arent' really "free". I pay for them by writing reports. But that seems up your alley too. I am an objective observer and "writer". I don't say...gee, your bathroom stunk and was a filty mess...I get to write "the restroom had a foul odor and I observed dried feces on the wall next to the toilet in stall 1." ;-)

Quick update:

DS 18 moved out to Orange County today to live with my MIL and FIL. DS 16 starts at the Sunburst Military Academy tomorrow.

My house is starting to feel so empty, sniff sniff.

yippee!!

So glad to hear things are looking up for you and your family. Congratulations for coming through such a dark time with such persistance. Kudos.

Enjoy it.

It sounds like you guys are doing MUCH better. I'm glad for you.