Marriage should ideally stay strong through thick and through thin, with emphasis on the thick, according to a study released by the Obesity Society. During a five-year period, newlyweds in their early 20s gain six to nine pounds more than their peers who are single and dating. Well, shucks. Comfort…cooking together…I’m not seeing the problem here. For better or for girth, my fanny.
Salon–with help from Deborah Merrill, author of Mothers-in-Law and Daughters-in-Law: Understanding the Relationship and What Makes Them Friends or Foe–puts the monster-in-law myth to bed once and for all in this Broadsheet piece. It’s cool to dig your MIL!
Saying it with flowers is easiest when you can do it from home, in your jammies. If you like knowing where your cut flowers come from (and why…and to a certain extent how), have a gander at 1-800-FLOWERS‘ Fields of the World bouquets. Whether or not you send someone you love a bouquet, you’ll learn some interesting flower-related factoids. For example, orange ‘Mok OJ’ and yellow ‘Mok Jitty’ orchids come from Thailand. And you can have a hand in choosing the company’s next worldly field destination by voting in the Fields of the World contest. Choose the photo you like best–each was taken and submitted by someone who reeaaally likes flowers. The winning photo will adorn a billboard in Times Square. Me, I like lotus blossoms.
And finally, Diana comes this sorry tale about a minister who stands accused of helping herself to wedding gifts in the form of Home Depot cards. There’s no surveillance camera in this story…in fact, the couple in question married at home. Kitty and Shawn Sonnenschein hoped that the Rev. Shey-Rima Silveira wasn’t the culprit, but there could be no other explanation once the gift cards were traced. Silveira later claimed the wedding party gave her the stolen cards. Sure, honey, sure.
My husband and I have both gained weight since moving in together (two years today, in fact!) It’s all that damn happiness. We are both still exercising a lot, we just need to cut out the treats, but it’s difficult, I love baking for my husband and stepson.
Unfortunately, my MiL passed away a year ago, after we were engaged but before the wedding. I liked her a lot–she was a pistol–but I didn’t have time to really get to know her.
That minister should be ashamed. Is there a way to remove her license to marry people?
I think most people gain weight as they get older–so what if married folks gain six pounds more? Me, I’d rather enjoy the pleasures of baking for my honey than worry about six measly pounds. If they’re found a twenty pound difference, then we could all worry.
If it’s cool to like your MIL, then I unfortunately am uncool. To say that we have a uh, history would be an understatement.
My MIL is okay as MILs go. She’s actually quite lovely. But I’ve had some other in-law run ins that haven’t been so spectacular. I think craptactular would be the best word for it.
My MIL was one-of-a-kind. I’ll never forget the day we met. As Mr. Twistie (the Boyfriend of about one month, at the time) neared his home, he told me sheepishly that his mother had decided to cook for us. As I got out of the car, there stood an elderly Japanese lady on the porch. In one hand, she held a huge kitchen knife. In the other, a dead fish as long as her arm. As I approached, she announced: Tonight, salmon tempura! while brandishing the knife like a samurai sword.
When she cooked traditional Japanese food, she was incredibly good. When she tried to go Western…I cried into my shoe-leather meat and soggy, overboiled vegetables. She was generous to a fault, utterly tireless, and stubborn as a pack of mules. She smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, but never would believe that had more to do with her lung cancer than the fact that she was a Nagasaki survivor.
She could be amazingly frustrating to deal with, but she was awesome, too. She took a liking to me that first day when she realized I knew how to use chopsticks and thought her son was the best thing since sliced bread. From that point on, I could do no wrong in her eyes. And as much as she sometimes made me long to beat my head against a wall, I loved her dearly, too.
Kyoko, wherever you are, I miss you.