Iggy

They aren't pierced now are they?

I don't thing it is *unusual*, I am alarmed that his belongings are gone! He is a Widower who did the bulk of the cooking even when his wife was alive. During the last 8 years of her life he took to using boxed cake mixes & cookie mix in packages (Marie Callandar's). His wife also bought a new towel set (4 bath, 8 hand towels & 8 wash cloths) every 3 months, along with matching fabric shower curtain, toothbrush cup, soap dish, bath rugs and toilet seat/tank covers. She had sets stored in 18 gal plastic totes stacked up in a corner of the master bedroom. She rotated them as often as they rotated food in the cupboard. Same for sheet sets w/matching quilts, shams, bed skirts. The ONLY thing she never changed out were her curtains. Every 5 years I made her take them down and launder them, I washed her windows and we put them back up. Like I said, I have known them since 1978. She also had servings for 4 in each of the Fiesta ware colors dinnerware w/serving pieces. Plus her wedding china from her first marriage - service for 24 w/all the serving pieces. With the flat ware to go with both. The flat ware to go with her wedding china was gold w/electroplated stainless core. He has never in his 79 years eaten frozen store bought anything, and he never will. That is what I am so upset about. His wife was house bound for 12 years, and the last 5 years she was chair bound. Because of her health problems she couldn't lay down in bed, thus she slept in a recliner. She could however get out of her chair, into her electric scooter to get past the kitchen and down the hall way into the bathroom. He had to help her bathe - that is why he renovated the master bathroom and took out the garden tub and installed a roll in shower.

Carborendum, You continue doing what you have always been doing. B E C A U S E what you were doing was M I N I S T E R I N G ! What is different now is you just don't call in your monthly visits. You do tell the Elders Quorum President when one of your families needs help that you can't provide alone. Okay, I am a woman. One of the men in our branch is near and dear to me. He and his wife were my HT/VT since 1979 - until I married a second time and moved out of the state. They are/were my Best Friends/ Adopted Parents/ Foster Parents/ Foster Brother & Sister. They SAVED MY life by sheltering me when I left hubby #1, until I could find a place to live that was safe. His wife passed away in 2013- 3 years after hubby #2 & I moved back to the area. Because he was single now, the Branch Presidency told me NOT to go visit him on my own. I followed that - until a few months ago - he has declined in health, I fear he has Alzheimer, his 8 blood brothers thing it is misuse of medications. Not taking them as prescribed. I wrote an email to the Branch Presidency, Elders Quorum President and the Stake Presidency (all of whom know this man, worked with him, etc.) that I was going to be seeing him - ALONE- I am his *Daughter* after all. The EQP wrote back, told me(quote) that I didn't need permission to *minister* to my Foster Father. Let us know how and when we can help you and him. [end quote]. Took me three visits to his house to snoop out the names & phone #'s of all of his brothers. Where the meds were and when they were last filled. Opened every closet door, dresser drawers, medicine cabinet (except the one in the master bathroom), all the cupboards, drawers, etc. in the kitchen. NO food, hardly any cook ware or dishes to eat off of, hardly any sheets or bath linens. He did however have close to 2 dozen bars of Dial soap! My last trip there I bought a new heavy duty clear shower liner, new fabric (butterfly's on white opaque) curtain, new double shower rings and a new clear suction bath mat. The others I stuffed into a garbage bag and tossed. His old shower curtain I put in the washing machine. I just may survive a washing - at least I hope so. I scrubbed his tub and the tub walls. I also cleaned his toilet and washed the floor by hand. They were icky! That was Mon afternoon. I finally quit hurting not an hour ago. SO- tomorrow I go and clean the roll in shower he had installed for his wife so she could safely bathe. He hasn't used it since she passed, and it is full of spiders. He is going to have to start using it if he back and hip doesn't get better. What breaks my heart is that from 2013 until now, the Branch Council has been telling me [through my husband- who is the SSPresident] that this man is being taken care of. Well that wasn't so. He was NOT taken care of. His HT has never visited. Our EQP called him and he doesn't even know who he is. So Dear Brother Carborundum please continue HTeaching the way you have always done. Oh, how I wish you had been my Foster Father's HT, and mine! God Bless You!

Have you been attending Teachers Council? https://www.lds.org/callings/teachers?cid=HP16TSW&lang=eng Read EVERYTHING, Watch ALL of the video's. Attend the class that your Ward is supposed to have. You need to be more than familiar with the Curriculum so that you can guide them along. Our Seminary Teacher texts each of the students whether they are actively in her class or not. She sends them scriptures, about 30 minutes worth of reading, then encourages them to write down their thoughts in a journal. Doesn't matter if the thought they got was "I am hungry for pizza", write it down. Granted she sees them 5 mornings a week - but she also interacts with them all week long, and she lays in wait to greet them every Sunday morning. We have just had a change up with Youth teachers. Assigning two per class. In the past we tried Husband & Wife teams, and that fell flat. So now the husbands are together, the wives are together. Seems to be working better. They all are following in Seminary Teachers footsteps. Remember, you are NOT a radio. Don't broadcast. As for the part member families, what is the problem there? As long as you encourage correct DOCTRINE and PRINCIPLES, and answer their questions by quoting from the Scriptures - and having them read along with their scriptures - you should have no problems. Oh, another thing the Seminary Teacher started and then the Sunday School President followed through with was: NO digital devices during any of the classes. Our little Meetinghouse Library has 14 quads - 8 Holy Bibles - 22 Books of Mormon- 10 Trips. Primary has their own Quads, Book of Mormon. So there is plenty to lend out for the Youth classes to read from. Oh, another thing the Seminary Teacher started was for their homework they bring to her each morning, she wants it handwritten in cursive. This year we had 8 graduate from Seminary. Those same 8 graduated from High School. Three of them are from inactive/part member families. All the parents attended Seminary Graduation (which was held 1.5 hours away in our Stake building) and the Sunday Sacrament after that, because all 8 talked at Sacrament. Attend your Teacher Council. My husband is Branch Sunday School President, he has classes on the third Sunday of the month during 2 & 3rd hours. Don't even think of yourself as a Teacher, consider yourself a Leader. You lead them in the correct direction. Facilitator - noun: facilitator; plural noun: facilitators a person or thing that makes an action or process easy or easier. "a true educator acts as a facilitator of learning" Because you know what the materials being presented will be, it will be a snap for you to guide it back into the correct direction. Also, one HUGE thing I learned teaching the 8-10 year olds, when things got out of hand, noisy, or where one was bullying the others - I gathered the bullied one to me, and asked this person to give a prayer for the Holy Ghost to come back to our class. To give comfort to ALL of us. To banish the adversary. I did this the first time out of total frustration. It worked. The bully behaved himself, those he had hurt were comforted and the Holy Ghost literally flooded the room. Oh, also, assign one of the students to be the Facilitator each Sunday, and give them the topic/lesson materials. Then follow up during the week with them. Help them, encourage them. If need be go to their home and pray with them.

Um, felicityswims last visited this forum 20 November 2017. Bet she still isn't wearing her garments.

If the elderly person will be out of the home long enough for you and some workers to move the items into separate rooms, and also mark them with largish colored stickers w/child's name on it. I was one of six helpers to do this when a Sister in my branch had to do this for a recently deceased Visiting Teachee of hers who had named her as Executrix of her small estate. Her home was small and at first glance it appeared she was a horder. Then when we got really close look at everything, they were antiques - and LOTS of them. She had 4 children - so we rearranged the furniture, linens, dishes, and jewelry into rooms designated for each child. She even had willed the drapes! What a job!!! Of course as RS Sisters, we also washed & dusted as we separated!!

I was a Committee Leader in charge of the food for RS Evening Meetings. My RS Counselor was fantastic. She rolled up her sleeves and worked right next to us. We geared the food to be in sync with the meeting theme. The two sisters that were on the committee with me were fantastic. They came up with some rather fantastical food/treat ideas. Our RS Presidency chose to NOT have the general RS sisters sign up to prepare the food. Too many of them disregarded what the menu was and brought *their family traditional* dish. I made sure that we didn't spend more than $25.00 for the food. Then myself and my two helpers prepared it. If we only spent $10.00, the remaining $15.00 went back into the Evening Meeting Food Budget. so that when the RS Birthday Meeting came around, all the left over money went into it. FYI, we are a small branch. Yet the evening meetings generally ended up with more sisters attending than our Sunday meeting. It was the ideal meeting for the less actives, neighbors, co-workers and investigators to attend, and they DID. So, sit down with your committee ladies and ask them what works for them. Worked with the previous counselor, didn't work. What they would like to do. Then LISTEN. Make notes, go over the notes BEFORE your meeting with them ends. I sat my ladies down around my dining room table. Had a pitcher of ice water and tuna fish salad, ham & cheese sandwiches and the three of us had a small *legal* note pad & pen to write on. For three hours we went over the Generalized Didn't work, Did work, & Would Like to see if it will work ideas. The 2nd morning after each Evening Meeting we met over lunch to compare notes and to make plans for the next months meeting. I met the following morning after the meeting with the RS Counselor. She gave me her insights on Didn't work, Did work, her suggestions for improvement and the next months meeting topic/theme. Keep an open mind, LISTEN to your Committee Leader and her crew. Also, before anything is finalized be sure it is run by you, so you can run it by the RS Pres. I always had a grocery list with the prices to give to my RS Counselor - and items such as spices, sugar, flour, cupcake liners, etc. where you don't use it all - was kept in a special section of my kitchen and was used ONLY for RS Meetings.

You can get a book via Kindle for free on Essential Oils - Essential Oils: Your Guide to What They Do and How to Use Them (Essential, Oils, Guide, Recipes, Weight, Loss, Aromatherapy, Health, Beginners, Remedies, Essential Oils, Weight Loss) Kindle Edition . Highlight the purple text, copy, then paste it in Amazon. I use them added to coconut oil and enough grapeseed oil to keep the coconut oil from solidifying at 65 degrees. This I use as body lotion. For when I hurt, I use oil of clove mixed in just the coconut & grapeseed oil. Just a little goes a long way. I also mix a wee bit of tea tree oil into coconut oil and use this on Hubby's legs. Helps to heal the blisters he gets and the coconut moisturizes like no other store brand around. Plus the scent is really mild. All of the oils I have are used strictly as topical applications, or mixed in with just grapeseed oil, in heated diffusers. I'll read the book, then decided if any will be injested. Oh, I put some lavender oil, on a HOT wet hand towel, then place the towel over my eyes and forehead. I drape the towel over my nose so I can smell it. This relaxes me, and if I have a slight headache, it helps to ease it.

You're electric bill should have gone down with the purchase of a new energy efficient one. When we replaced our ancient one, our electric bill dropped, then two years later we had to replace not only the in the wall oven, but also the drop in range and the over the range microwave. We saw nearly a $50.00 a month decrease. Then just this winter our fridge died. Yep, got a new one with a bit bigger freezer. Again our electric bill dropped by around 5%. We bought this manufactured home in 2010 - it is a 1993, and we are the 4th owners. All the appliances are original. Next thing to go will be the furnace. Not looking forward to that! Oh, we went with a 30 gal rather than 40. Just Hubs and me. It takes maybe 15 minutes to heat the water from nearly cold to scalding hot. Yep, ours is set to the highest setting. When we want hot water we want HOT, not pee-warm or tepid.

Vort, watch 60 minutes rather than read about it. https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/

Sunday21 - When I was called as T&FHC - the Branch President said: Because of your skill on the computer and hunting people down, is why he was calling me. Couldn't figure THAT one out, especially since the Lead T&FHC hasn't really put anything in front of me regarding family history. THEN during one of our Gospel Doctrine classes, the instructor made a comment that he personally had hit nothing but brick walls for the past 5 years regarding his mother's line. I chirped up with - Sis Lead T&FHC or I would LOVE to help you, give us a call - email - text. That was a month or so ago - well I got an email from him. He gave me access to his FamilySearch account, I gathered up the names/emails of those who had submitted data and names. Sent them to him and suggested that he write if he didn't already know how they were related to him. See if they had any Holes in Those Brick Walls. So, he did. They ALL responded, now they are passing information to each other. These are *cousins* he didn't know he had, and half of them are NOT LDS - Can you spell: Missionary Moment? What is amazing, is that not only did he get corrected data: Birth/death/marriage dates, etc., but he is also getting Family Lore. He does need to be very careful when corresponding and sharing information with the nonLDS - keep the proxy work from them. He and his wife have put a LARGE white board behind their computer monitor - with the names of the Cousins, their religious affiliation, then the common ancestors under their names. This helps them when they are emailing and even talking on the phone with them. One blessing is that none of his new cousins are anti-LDS.

That was a Sunday, not a Friday.

When I discovered that my great & great greats work had been done, I went to great lengths to discover who submitted their names. For those who included current email addresses, I wrote and asked: How are we related? What a joy to find living kin who are also LDS!!! They were more closely related that I was. I have 3-ring binders now with the Family Group Sheets of each of these living *Cousins* and their ancestry - had to do this to keep them all straight and connected to their kindred dead. My youngest sister lied like a rug in checking that box. If the living wife, children of those deceased relatives, who-by the way- are super ANTI-Mormon, ever find out she did the proxy work, they would hunt her down and hang her. Thankfully Not only banned from using FamilySearch, but also from submitting & doing your own printed names at the Temple. It took me years of work, and untold hours of research to print off the proof that certain names are NOT our blood line or even adopted into the family to get these people removed from my people. Men allegedly married to other women plus all the children they allegedly produced. Women having children that they really didn't have. Then I have submitted my proof to the church and waited - oh so patiently - for them to correct everything. All of this false information was entered by and submitted for proxy work by my little sister. She is now banned from submitting names and from FamilySearch. I have a rather distant cousin who is NOT LDS, he gathers information on his genealogy through his local FHC. One of the LDS workers there gave him her member number so that he could go online at home to look up his ancestors family history AND to see how many had LDS ordinances done. Well, there were a lot. He was incensed that his people were baptized into the LDS church. Knowing that I was LDS, he blamed me for doing all of that. I finally got the full story out of him, along with print outs (yeah I sent him a money order for $50.00 to cover the cost of the paper, ink and postage) of every thing. [to this day he doesn't know how to save to pdf and thus email it all] Three months of research later and I had proof of who did the submitting - in every case it was closer relatives than him who were LDS. Shocked his world! All this proof I sent to him via his email account. Plus I also got the name of the FHC LDS Lady who gave him her # - that he freely and proudly gave to me - - I turned her in to her Stake President. I personally know a man whose Grandparents are Jewish and had survived the Holocaust. He converted to LDS, and with his siblings permissions he submitted his kindred dead to the Temple. He went armed with letters from his & their living relatives giving him permission, along with True Copies of all necessary documentation of kinship. He learned more of the LDS church after the first publicized outcry of Holocaust victims having the proxy work done. This lead to his conversion, baptism, and about two years later receiving his endowment. Each time a member of his family gets baptized, he rejoices. Doesn't matter if it is a kindred dead, or living - he rejoices. When a living *cousin* receives their endowment, gets married/sealed in the temple, goes on a mission - he rejoices. It has been some time since I have submitted any names - still working on the ones that I did submit [have renewed those that I can do, and released those that I can't] so I don't know what the actual wording and how much explanation you can give. But for each person I will be submitting, I will have documentation/written permission in my fat little hand [on a flash drive actually] if they want to see it. I don't lie. Not to anyone. Because it will ALWAYS come back and BITE YA!!

FWIW in Oregon and Arizona Judges won't issue restraining orders within religious structures. Make an appointment with your Bishopric AND the RS Presidency together, come prepared with documentation regarding Sister Bothersome and drop it in THEIR laps to fix the problem. There is no Try, just Do. Documentation = writing in a calendar journal of every encounter with her. She said: XXXX . I said: YYYY Not only date it, but put the times too. Example: At 12:10 PM Sis So-&-So Said: XXX. If that doesn't work, then on any Sunday where the majority of the sisters are in attendance in RS, Stand up and put your situation to them. How can this be resolved? What are their suggestions in getting Sis In My Face to back off and leave me ALONE? Will this put her in the spot light? Yes. Will it embarrass her, probably. Will it stop her? Who knows? BUT what it will do is make the entire RS sisters aware of the problem. One woman should not be allowed to badger you, harass you AT CHURCH of all places and keep you from being *Spiritually* fed during all of the Sunday Blocks. In my previous life when I owned a Tavern, and had customers who disrupted my bar - I would make *dates* with them to meet up at the *Spit* (a stretch of land that jutted out into the bay where people would meet up to fight. Yes, have actual fist fights) an hour after the bar closed. Of course I would never show up. Never had any intention of showing up. The next time I saw these people, IF they were sober and brought it up that I was a no show, my response was: Of course I was a no show. Now, you could make an appointment with her to meet up at a restaurant to *discuss* her oils, then just don't show up. When she brings it up at church, your response need only be: Correct, I did not show up. Then walk away. If she continues to want to discuss it, face her, make the quiet sign as you slowly move your head side to side indicating NO. Then walk away.

Do you pray before you start working? If not, I would suggest that you do, and ask Father to banish the adversary. I have to pray frequently before, during, and during and after I start working on my family history. Now that I have been called as Temple & Family History Consultant - I have increased my prayers by a lot!! Before I received my endowment, satan blasted me at every turn. My car blew up, my best friends tires blew out, I got sick -very, very sick. Finally my RS President suggested that when I prayed, that I banished the adversary too. Every time I prayed! It had had me in it's grips for 30 years, and was really mad when I came back into activity. Also had quite the time getting my patriarchal blessing. Car problems on top of car problems as well as health issues. The Patriarch even had serious health problems. Took three months, but we finally pushed through and I got it. So - pray, banish the evil one. Pray some more. Listen to spiritual music, and if it helps, talk to your ancestors - - believe me, they are there encouraging you.

Whoa! Where are you coming from??? I sure as the dickens didn't mean to kick sand in your face when I walked by. 3rd Wave Feminists???? Please back off and dull those fangs and talons of yours. My Grandmother born in 1899, my Mother born in 1922 and myself born in 1952 - so we are 3rd Wave Feminists???? To teach sons to cook, clean, sew, iron as well as have them learn to change the oil in the car, change the tires, put on snow chains, change their children's diapers, give them baths, hold & cuddle & read to them. Gender differentials have no place in the home in this day and age. Well, ever really. This from my White, Just a Wee-bit Below Middle-Class mind set. Okay, I looked up what 3rd Wave Feminism is - you are so OFF the mark with that comment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism anatess2, when (if) your sons go on a mission, who is going to clean their living quarters? Cook their food - when they don't go to any members home? Mend their clothes? Why shouldn't they be able to cook foods, just like Mom/Grandma/GreatGMa for their missionary companions? Dad was born in 1912 - and he had no notions that what he knew how to do was only to be taught to his sons. There is only one thing he learned - inherited- from his father that he flat out refused to teach to his sons, or daughters for that matter, and that was how to use explosives. You see my Grandpa was an expert in blowing things up, as was my Dad. Dad didn't pursue that as a career - instead he worked as a Warehouse man for Pacific Fruit & Produce in Seattle, WA. He learned about ALL fruits and vegetables, and he taught ALL of his children too.

Why can't your sons inherit the "legacies from your mother & grandmother"? My Granmother's eldest son was as good of a cook as she & my mom were, and he was a *Manly Man*. He was also the main cook when he served in the Marines. He passed down the "Legacy" to three sons. With two wives he had 5 sons and 2 daughters. The three youngest are the ones who became the best cooks. In my family, there are/were 2 sons and 5 daughters. The eldest son taught himself how to cook "fancy, smancy" rich desserts. The youngest son cooks Grandma & Moms tried and true desserts. Out of the girls, I think only myself and my next oldest sister are following in Mom's Cooking Legacy. Now, of the nieces and nephews [4 girls & 4 boys] - NONE of them can cook worth a darn. Boiling water to add to instant potatoes or oatmeal is about the extent of their cooking ability. Such a shame! Ooops, one daughter can cook - her HUSBAND and his father taught her!!

https://wholegrainscouncil.org/recipes

Haven't been to the Phoenix one [5220 W Pinnacle Rd] which was opened/dedicated on 16 Nov 2014. It is one of the smaller ones [no clothing rental, no cafeteria, have to make appointments for Live Ordinances.] Be sure to check online for the days/hours opened. Have been to the Mesa one [101 S Le Sueur] Full *Service* Temple. I am 5'4" and weighed around 200 lbs the times I went, and I found the dressing stalls extremely confining. Also the seats in the chapels and endowment rooms were for peoples with rather small bodies and rather short legs. My husband is 6'2" and weighed over 350 lbs and he had to use the Grooms dressing room because he couldn't fit in any of the *normal* dressing stalls. I have been to the Seattle & Portland temples, and they were lovely. Plenty of room to move in the dressing stalls, as well as the seats. PLUS they had full cafeterias, clothing rentals. Word to the wise ~ always check online, or call ahead to make sure of their hours and if appointments need to be made. Also, I always call to get the address, directions to the Beehive Clothing//Deseret Book.

For me it is because Mom canned nearly everything - - with the exception of meats. With glass you can see if the food has gone bad. Keep it in a dark, cool room and your jars of food should be just fine. Also, the food that my Mom canned was meant to be consumed about a month past the next canning season. So- not for years and years. About the only foods that ended up being on the shelf for years and years was the jams. In 1981 when Mom and Dad moved from Seattle to South Dakota - we came upon 6 pint jars of Blackberry Jam (my favorite). Mom gave them to me, as I was staying in Washington state. Darn good jam!!! Mom topped all jams with melted paraffin, then when that was set she also put on a canning lid and ring. That insured that the mice and bugs couldn't get the jam. @JohnsonJones ~ I solved the weevils problem by vacuum sealing rice, whole grains, pasta, etc. Pretty much anything that comes in paper/cardboard.Repackage the bulk in smaller portions. For Rice A Roni, boxed mac & cheese (the powdery cheese) , pasta - vacuum seal them in the box, just don't let it go all the way. IOW stop the process before the box inplodes on itself. Also if you have any food/water (flour, sugar, rice, whole grains, etc. ) in pails - keep the pails from direct contact with the floor. IOW set those pails on pallets. Same for canned & packaged goods (TP, Paper towels, etc.) Set your bottom shelf to just one notch above floor lever.

I live on the Oregon coast, am an elderly woman and wear slacks to church from time to time. I am not the only one in my branch who does wear slacks. We have two sister siblings who wear dirty, torn jeans w/dirty campfire smoke smelling t-shirts and the dirtiest, stinkiest tennis shoes. They are always welcomed. The RS Pres. took up donations, bought them each a dress. They brought them back on fast and testimony, went up to the pulpit, thanked her, gave them back and said: Are we to wear our sneakers & wool socks with this? Thanks, but we will keep wearing our other clothes. One other sister has fibromyalgia so bad that she doesn't come very often. When she does, she wears slacks under a mid-length skirt, pull over sweater and suit jacket. She looks more put together than any of our RS Presidency. We are not a poor branch, we are quite diversified. BUT ALL of the Presidencies have learned to keep their traps shut when it comes to telling others what to and not to wear to church. To us, Sunday Best means CLEAN clothes on a CLEAN body. To the OPoster, Bathe that morning or the night before, wear CLEAN clothing, and know that Jesus has done the same. You could move to the Central Oregon Coast and come to my branch. I promise to deflect the RS Pres. from you.

In my Branch that calling is given to the newest baptized adult, so that he/she can more easily become acquainted with the members. We recently had two married couples join the church, so they all were called and they take turns being the greeters. I love it. Being hearing impaired, now I get to talk Face-To-Face and greet and be greeted by them, and actually hear their names. I also write their names down so I am certain of how to pronounce them. One couple has two children who are 7 [soon to be 8] and 6. Both stand at the door, and the 7[soon to be 8] girl tells all that after her birthday she is getting baptized and then she will be CALLED to guard the doors. One day I am going to ask her what she is guarding them from. This same little girl announced to everyone right after her parents got married [which they did in preparation to getting baptized] ~ Now we can have another baby. I want a baby brother again! The Branch President told her, well now your parents can get Baptized. She said: Oh Yeah, Baptized, not Baby.

My 1st worked for Stromberg-Carlson from about 1969 until 1978 and traveled the 8 states of the west coast installing telephone communication systems for companies. He stood 6'3", weighed in at around 210, didn't wear glasses till after he left S-C. Was a hard drinker. Ex-MIL's parents were sent to a camp and they lost all of their land & possessions. Grandma & Grandpa were always good to me, treated me with love, gentleness, compassion. More so than their grandson, my husband. He was mean, cruel, abusive, cheating, etc. [[They had 8 daughters and 1 son. The daughters said I was the only Caucasian (white) they liked, thus they were good & nice to me.) I loved them dearly. I wrote to them weekly while we were on the road.]] The first 6 years of our relationship was bliss and fun. I loved traveling. Living out of suitcases and the car. We had a very large military duffel bag with our dishes, cook ware, bath towels and two sets of queen sheets, cases, pillows.Had a small duffel bag with our personal hygiene items as well as laundry/dish cleaners, etc. When we were in town for over a week, everything got unpacked. My ExFIL's family hailed from Kentucky. THEY were the hard drinkers, abusers, etc. He was out of the picture long before I was in the picture. He abandoned his wife and three children around 1954-56. MIL never filed for divorce. He did - about 15 years after he left. She never re-married, he did about 3 times. I divorced my 1st in 2004. Separated from him in 1999 - then it took until the end of 2003 for me to save up enough money AND find a Para Legal to file for divorce. Then it took a couple of months to track the jerk down to serve him the papers. To celebrate the Dissolution of Marriage, I ate an entire Marie Callander's Razzelberry Pie!! I heard he went on a drunken binge. What binge??? He was always drunk!

Deep fried battered spam & battered twinkie???? BLEH - Twinkie has the shelf life of Eternity!! anatess2, I met hubby #1 in 1972 - we traveled together for 6 years, then got married. So, it was after May of 1972 - he did all the grocery shopping, brought the food home to the motel kitchenette for me to cook. Some of the stuff he bought - boggled my mind as to how to cook it! In July/Aug of 1973 when he picked me up at my Mom's in South Dakota - we took Mom grocery shopping. He was floored that she and I tagged team in the store. She had a cart, I had a cart and we made him sit with the carts as we filled even more. Mom shopped for 3-4 months at a time, and we paid for half of her groceries. Finally he learned that I knew how to shop AND I also cooked for Mom, the two younger sibs, Grams and hubby & myself. While I was still in high school, I helped Mom with the dinner. The two older sisters did the desserts. Even though I was working from noon till 9 pm - - I prepped the food for the next day after I got home from work. Well, Mom and myself did. This was our time to bond - we worked together in the kitchen.

Never had spam until I hooked up with husband #1. He is from Hawaii [he is Cherokee, Irish & Japanese] , and his Mom [ full blooded Japanese born & raised in Hawaii] cooked it every which way from Sunday. That and canned corned beef. So, when he brought home several cans of spam, I read the tin, very carefully opened it (hated that metal key), put some whole cloves in it and baked it like a canned ham. He never had it that way and told me in no uncertain terms to NEVER fix it that way again. So, I called his mom and asked her how to fix it. She hung up on me. About 8 days later I received a letter from her with her recipes for spam. She also included one for canned corned beef. I never fixed that one. Sounded horrible. Corned Beef and Cabbage. Shred corned beef, stir fry. When hot add shredded cabbage with sliced onions. Eat w/ steamed rice. BLEH! Now, from childhood, Mom took bologna that she bought at the local Deli in the round chunk. Put it through the manual meat grinder on fine, along with dill pickles, yellow onions, celery and a few saltines to clean out the grinder. Added miracle whip, a teaspoon of yellow mustard and made sandwich spread. Absolutely loved that. So ~ with that history, I mashed the spam, finely chopped onions, celery, dill pickles, added mayo [because hubby detested MW] and made sandwiches. He liked them! I also got where I could heat spam fried to a crisp and served with fried eggs and hot steamed rice. BUT I had to add lots of yellow mustard to the spam and lots of soy sauce to the rice. Husband #1 loved vienna sausages. Those I hated. We fed those to babies. Mom said by the time I was four, I was throwing them back at whomever fed them to me and screaming NOOOOOOO! So, Hubby ate those all by himself. I love canned ham. To me that is the best sandwich meat on the earth. So, when I can get it on a real good sale, I buy a lot. Since I am on a super low fat diet, no more spam at all. No more hot dogs, even the all beef ones.