20 hours ago, MargieB said:

Living in almost any livable city is not going to be inexpensive.

One of my sons lives in a small college town in the south. He is vision impaired and cannot drive. 
 

He loves living there because the price of living is reasonable and the available services are excellent. He has enough vision to ride his bike and he commutes to work 90% of the time on two wheels! When weather is inclement he uses the Public Transport System which will pick him up at his door and drop him at work. He is a special education teacher and he just bought his own house last year. He got a cute two bedroom brick bungalow with hardwood floors and a tree covered lot for $120,000

Before he bought the house,  he lived in a studio apartment a couple of blocks from the University for $700, including utilities. 
 

Within a one mile radius of either place there are restaurants, shops, pharmacy, dentist, coffee shops, and several grocery stores including a Natural Grocers. 
 

There are places where the cost of living is lower and the disability services are excellent, but in won’t be in a large city, but rather a medium sized town. 

23 hours ago, OldFadedStar said:

My son came out with a full head of dark brown hair. Both of my girls are a dark blonde so I was hopeful that I would have one kid with my hair coloring... Nope. At 8 months it's now the exact same color as the other two. And my husband. Though I had lighter brown hair as a child so maybe their hair will darken. 

Same with eye coloring tbh... all three of my kids have ice blue eyes from my husband. They all look like my mini me except for hair and eye color. And the dimple on their chins from their daddy

My family has a really big range in eye/hair/skin colorings - and most of the kids who start out blond haired then end up dark brown as adults. My black haired, brown eyed, dark complexion dad was actually a blond baby-I remember being so confused as a kid when I saw his toddler portrait lol. 

I like making side by side match ups of different people in the family throughout the generations, but putting them in a sepia or black and white filter. It’s amazing the similarities that stand out when you take out the color. 
 

On 5/18/2024 at 3:44 PM, HumbleJillyMuffin said:

Just looked at the GoFundMe. Now they are trying to spin the story that they need to move to be closer to better medical care for long term needs. BS. And they've got a few donations but they are trickling in, nowhere near last year's rate. 

 

Seattle has world class medical facilities.  There is no way Ryann can't get adequate care for his diagnosis in Seattle.  So that excuse doesn't sit with me.  Moving because it is expensive is a legitimate reason to move but you can't expect others to fund that for you. 

Do we know where Anna and the M’s are living?

1 hour ago, postscript said:

Same here. There’s a long and bitter history involving my father’s wife. I would never refer to her as my stepmother. While I get along better with her now, she has never acted in that role. And while I would refer to her by name with other family, the most logical choice when I’m talking about her with people who don’t know her is to describe her as my father’s wife. 

I think there probably is something like that going on with Karissa. That’s why I thought it was interesting. We know she’s very much against divorce. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was against anyone who married her parents. Even if she hates him she’s letting 4 kids go stay with them for a week. But Karissa has never actually cared about their well being.