Grand Rapids Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Tuesday Randoms
Hey all.
Sorry to add more sad news to the board, but my friend's daughter passed away late yesterday morning. She was 9 months and the average lifespan for babies with her disease is 8 months, so they knew it was coming. My friend seemed to be taking it very well, but she also said she thinks she's still just in some shock. She went very peacefully, so that was calming for everyone. They had noticed she was tired and then she just stopped breathing.
Stuff just sucks sometimes.
Oh my. So sad. I'm crying. :-(
I'm so sorry, Juli. Thinking of you and your friends.
Heartbreaking.
Thoughts and prayers for you and your friends.
I'm sorry. :-( Thoughts with you and your family.
Juli, I'm so sorry for your friend. Keeping her (and you) in my thoughts.
Losing your baby at Christmastime is double freaking unfair.
My heart goes out to your friend. I am so sorry this happened. How incredibly sad.
I agree. And thank you for the thoughts everyone.
Juli, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's lost. Heartbreaking for sure.
Molly, I'm sorry to hear that your uncle took a turn for the worse. I hope he turns back the other way very soon.
We pretty much always give kids books as gifts too. For a couple of kids this year, we decided that perhaps we had given them too many books in a row, so we switched it up for Christmas and bought them puzzles instead. I thought that was a brilliant idea of mine. (Probably not actually that brilliant, though.)
The puzzle idea gets a big thumbs up from me!
I don't think I've shared here the sadness about my youngest nephew. His mom and my brother had a falling out of epic proportions, after which she decided to move to Alabama where her mom and stepdad are currently living (all of her other family lives in MI). When she announced her plans to my brother, he immediately initiated a custody suit to get everything down on (legal) paper and hopefully prevent her from moving so far away with his son. She left anyway (in October) and has cut off all communication (no Skype, no texting, no phone calls) with my entire family including my brother, which is especially devastating to my parents (who in all honesty were E's primary caregivers during his life). The only possible silver lining is that her behavior is not going to look very good to the judge (she was not to leave MI without a court order) and my brother's attorney is now seeking full custody for my brother.
Anyhow, the point of my long story is that I'm really missing Elliot. I saw him last in late September and he was just starting to converse. I think Christmas will be extra hard without him around.
MrsJuli - that is SO sad about your friends' daughter. Can I ask what the disease was?
Diana - I really hope things work out for your brother and nephew. I can't imagine leaving my son...ever!
T&P's for DP, D&M and for Juli's Friend. Sadness around the holidays is no fun at all.
GRSP : Kudo's to Willa getting and wanting books for Christmas. My great uncle used to send me books for my bday every year and they were great. I always looked forward to his gift.
SS grades came yesterday and while he was able to bring a couple of his grades up he is still failing the core classes. We can't get it through to him that he needs to be doing more at home like reviewing and studying for test. **sigh**
Bright side, my BFF is on her way here for an early Christmas and I have French Balsamic Chicken in the crock pot which will smell wonderful in a few hours.
Brag it up post!
That's awesome.
Sorry about your frustrations with SS's academics. If it's any consolation, I was not at all a stellar student in high school. I didn't do my homework (and often copied from a classmate) and never studied for tests. Drove my mom crazy! College was much better and now my classmates don't believe me when I tell them my super slacker stories. There is hope!
Diana, I didn't know that about your youngest nephew. That must be so hard for your brother and entire family. I hope he sees progress soon in the custody/visitation procedings. Wow, how frustrating.
Yay!, for some stirrings of kitty fever in L!
That sounds wonderful! Balsamic is one of my favorite flavors at the moment.
Sorry to hear that your SS still isn't focusing on school. So frustrating. Hopefully next semester will be better. How is he liking the new school? Does he seem happy there, compared to the previous school?
How selfish.
She is pretty young, right? I feel so bad for E. Hopefully your brother gets full custody and she moves back to MI and gets her *** together. If your brother is willing and able to be a good dad, he should get every right to be one.
This makes me really angry and sad. I guess I'm sensitive to this since my dad was a crappy dad while growing up*. He didn't want to be around. And your brother does and his ex won't let him? Reall shitty move on her part, for real.
(*My dad has since come around and is pretty great now, but I am still a tiny bit bitter about my relationship with him when I was a child.)
He really likes it at Coopersville. He likes that the kids are not "trashy and ghetto" but they "respectable". We know he isn't the wrost but an "F" is still an "F" whether it's a a 67% or a 30%. There isn't an F+ for grading. It seems that most of the classes he is failing he is just on the edge. If he can't pass he will be in summer school and if he still can't pass he will be even further behind that he is already. Some days I wonder if it would be better for him to take the GED and be done with it. It doesn't help with other personal struggles he has to deal with either.
DP what a disaster for your family. I'm really sorry.
Deeder, I hope SS gets a wake up call. I have a school counselor friend who opens up the classifieds with students who need a kick in the pants to play "what job could you get w/out a hs diploma." The options aren't many, and it often motivates the students.
It makes me really angry at her, too. I think it shows her true character and for her to keep E from his family that loves him and wants to know him and spend time with him is just really inexcusable in my book.
She is young-ish (21 when he was born, I think so she is turning 24 in January), but not so young that this is okay. It's not like she is 18.
I haven't mentioned it before here mostly because I was trying to deal with my school stuff and had tried not to think about it much, but I've gone up to my parents a couple of times since E left (it's so sad to see how heartbroken my mom is without him around) and now with Xmas looming, it's just sinking in how long he's been gone and how much I wish I could hang out with him. Also, knowing the great relationship we're building with our two nephews on L's side and really wanting to do the same with E...it just sucks.
That stinks. I'm sorry DP. :-( I hope things get settled soon - especially for Elliott's sake. Custody battles are never fun.
It's SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy). She had type 1. A little info if you're curious here.
My friend is a Physical Therapist and recognized the signs and diagnosed it before the docs - so they caught it pretty early but that doesn't really change the outcome. If they decide to have more kids they have a 25% chance of having another baby with SMA. They are very much supporting awarness of the disease, since anyone can have the genetic test to see if they are a carrier before making decisions about having children. It's only a problem if both the mother and father are carriers.
I just read your link. I was surprised that 1 in 40 people carry this gene. I can't imagine what your friends (and anyone who has a child with this disease) goes through. So sad. Your friends sound like really strong people to handle this as well as they have, though.
How is this for a random thought?
I have decided to add T to my dental insurance this year, even though our dentist doesn't want to see him till he's 3.
I figure if I have it on him, then nothing with happen to him. That's got to be somebody's Law, right? Same as if I don't have it on him, he will fall on his face and knock out a couple teeth.
This way, I am protecting him from it even happening.
It's an extra $85 for the year. Worth it? I think so.