~Michael's Wifey~

Does anyone know where you can purchase Chicago Cubs ribbon perferably online? By the yard or by the roll. I would like ribbon to make hair bows, not the curly ribbon used on making gift bows. Thank you!

I was told that next tax year 2013 if your child receives government insurance (medical card, medicaid) they will not be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit on their 2013 tax refund. Therefore, the parents only being eligible for a refund in the amount of the taxes they paid in, instead of receiving $6000-$9000 back in taxes.. Does anyone know it this is correct? Or know of anywhere I can read about it?

This does not affect me as my family has insurance through my husband's employer, however it does affect a few of my friends and we were curious if what we heard was correct. Thank you in advance! Oh and we live in Illinois if that makes a difference.

I am getting my daughter a Nintendo DS for her 6th birthday. The only game idea I have is Cooking Mama, I already know she loves that game. Is there any other games that are fun and simple for a 6 year old? What about like Math/Reading type games. Any suggestions would be great thank you.

My best friend of the last 8yrs is getting married. I am a bridesmaid. (She actually asked me to be her maid of honor but I declined because she has a sister and I thought it would be awkward.) My friend and I have had some problems in the last few months....Long story short she is upset that I befriended her sister. While yes we are in our 30's my friend sometimes acts as though she is still in high school. I have been invited to every event this family has ever had, birthdays, holidays, births...everything. My children call them Aunt/Uncle and her parents Grandma and Grandpa. She is having a family bridal shower thrown by her future Aunt in law. She was asked for a guest list and I just found out that I am not on this list. I deeply hurt because I sincerely felt I was a part of this family. I feel due to our current bumps in the road that she is kindly reminding me of my place. Am I over reacting? I refuse to discuss this with her as she NEVER takes responsibility for her actions. She will say that she didn't want me to have to buy 2 gifts. Oh I forgot to mention that her sister and I are also throwing her a 2nd shower.....Not by our choice though she actually asked us to throw her a friend shower. I understand that I'm just a friend but honestly I never thought I was just a friend until now. They always made me feel like family!!! What would you do in this situation?

I am making icing for cookies and the recipe calls for corn syrup. I don't have any and don't want to drive the 20miles into town to get it. I found on the internet that you can substitute boiled water and sugar for corn syrup. My question is when doing this does the icing still harden? Will it still be shiny? Thank you in advance.

I moved to a new area 1 year ago and have NO family or friends nearby. I have 2 small children ages 1 and 4. The 4 year old is enrolled in her 2nd year of preschool. The 1st year was wonderful. I'm in a situation where I have no one to care for my younger child so that I can attend field trips and class parties. The 1st year was not a problem the school allowed my younger child to attend all functions with us. I paid 100% attention to her at all times and never recieved any complaints by anyone. This year there was a note home from the teacher about a field trip and that siblings would not be allowed to attend. I emailed the director and she stated that yes they would not be allowed as this is per the teachers request. So I approach the teacher to explain my circumstances and asked if there was anything she could do to help me. She told me I had to talk to the director. I informed her that I already had and stated that it was how the teacher wanted it. ( they very much tried to shift the blame off themselves and on someone else) The teacher told me that I could attend this field trip but let her think about class parties. The next day a note goes out to all of the parents explaining that they run the risk of loosing their DCFS license if they allow siblings in the classroom. And that on field trips the parents can't help if they are busy with a sibling. And then asked that parents respect the requests of the teachers and staff. This bothered me because they should of talked to me personally about this and not sent a random note home to all of the parents. Well I called DCFS today and asked them if that was their policy they would suspend a preschool's license if a sibling attened a classroom party with the parent. Now the lady at DCFS acted as if she couldn't believe the school was acting this way. They are in the process of getting back to me. My question is what do I do if DCFS states that this is not the case and the sibling would be allowed in the classroom under the supervison of the parent. I do plan on getting it in writing if that is the case.

My daughter loves her school and has friends there and I feel that right now it's not really an option to switch schools. But I don't want them to get away with this. If this was your situation what would you do? I'm just a parent who wants to be involved in my childs education. I did forget to mention that this is a private preschool so I do pay a monthy tution for my daughter to attend there.

My best friend got her boyfriend of just a year a Father's day present. He is NOT a father, he has no biological children. She has 2 children from a previous marriage. I asked her why she got him a Father's day present and she said because he is like a Father to her children. The part of this that confuses me is 2 weeks ago we were at a family gathering and her Mom told her that her oldest daughter had asked the boyfriend if she could call him dad and the boyfriend said no that it would be too weird. Well I pointed that out to her when she told me she got him a Father's day present, she immediately got mad and told me her daughter was lying. (I don't believe that for a minute) Not to mention she is ALWAYS getting sitters so they can have alone time. That to me is not a Father figure.

Why would a man like this deserve a Father's day present? I'm irritated cause now she is mad at me and won't return any of my attempts to contact her. Was I in the wrong to challenge her on this, to point out what I heard come out of her Mother's mouth. I don't want her to be mad at me cause she is my best friend and I love her to pieces. However I am sorry that I was so blunt about it but I am NOT sorry for the way I feel about it.

My best friend is with a guy who is really a nice guy. He is stable has a good job and is good to her. My question is is he really serious about her or just glad to have a steady sex life?

She has 2 children from a previous marriage both girls ages 7 & 4 and they started dating a year ago in April. Around last September she told her family and I that they were moving in together. That he was buying a house for all of them to move into with him, she was allowed to have judgement in the house. They spent only a month looking for a house and had some disagreements. He lives in another town about 20mins away from the town she lives in. His parents own and operate a very small grocery store that he is 1 of 4 managers of. She stated that she wanted to buy the house in the town in which she lives which is about 15x the size of his town. The town that she works in and her children go to school in. He went without her and looked at a house in the small town. He actually made a bid to buy the house before she had even seen it they had a big fight because she stated there was no way the two of them and her two children where going to fit in this house. He bought it anyway. I think the main reason he bought it is because everything in it was brand new. It is a 3br. ranch style house with no basement and she needs storage space. She lives in an apartment that is bigger than this house. The original plan was for him to move into the house immediatly and she had a lease on her apt. that didn't expire until Feb 2009. So she was going to move in in Feb. Well out of the blue he decides that they have been arguing too much over the house so he figures lets wait a year and she can move in in Feb 2010. She was upset over this however still plans to move in with him in Feb. Now she is a person of limited income and lives in income based apartments and gets some assistance from the government. If she moves in with him she is going to have to give up her big, very nice, cheap apt and stop getting the assistance. So she is taking a big gamble here. Because getting those apartments are a shot in the dark! She is selling ALL of her furnature and over half of her kids toys in a yard sale this summer to be able to fit into this house. They are going to have to switch schools. Not to mention where she lives now her children can have seperate bedrooms if they'd like (they currently don't due to their choice) And her extra room is a toy room. These girls have tons of toys and they only get to take about 4 buckets worth to the new house. Because "they never play with them" Not to mention that at his house there is 3 bedroom but he has all of the bedrooms filled. There is his bedroom, a "guest" bedroom and then an exercise/computer room. When she talked about what he was going to do with all of his stuff he said they didn't need to get rid of all of their extra stuff that maybe they should put it in storage "just in case".

I'm also very concerned about the children. Their real father is a piece of crap and comes in and out of their lives constantly and really their only stability comes from the home that they have made in this apt. The 7yr old is crying constantly over everything, she is currently in theropy for it and her mother refuses to see that her relationship with her boyfriend contributes to the problem. My friend has been single for the last 4yrs and her children have had her to themselves and are not dealing well with sharing her with a man. My friend refuses to see that she has any part in what is going on with her oldest daughter she blames it all on her Dad. Well her Dad has be inconsistant her whole life and this behavior has just came about in the last year. My friends sister and I are really concerned for her.

They do argue quite a bit. They have one big fight about once every two weeks where he storms out and leaves. He says that he is always stressed out because of work. He does work 40hrs a week at a grocery store as a manager. His parents own the store and there are 3 other managers. His father being one of them. She also told us that if something happened to where they broke up he would let her keep the house and that it is their house not just his. We were at a get together and her sister's husband is Mr. Funny man and decided to put her statment to the test. He asked him if they broke up what would happen with the house. He stated he would go to his parents house until she found somewhere to go. Then Mr. Funny man asked him whose house it was and he wouldn't answer the question. He absolutly refused to answer it. Kinda wierd huh?

But my question to the guys is. Does is sound like this man has any intentions of commiting to my friend?

My question to the Mom's is. If you were in this situation what would you do? I know it is so much easier to judge looking in. My friend is a wonderful mother but doesn't always make the best decisions. I just want so ba

I'm interested in making some of my finished cross stitchings into decorative pillows. They would be small pillows, for hanging on door knobs and such. Any ideas on how I do this I do not own a sewing maching. Any tips or ideas would be great. Thank you.