The Old Folks Home

[Peep_Show]

Funny how it is after you get married the next question is "When are you going to have children?" Nothing would've made my former MIL happier. Ex and I bought our first place and had our families over for an open house. My mother and then-MIL sat at the kitchen table waiting and waiting and waiting for an announcement that they were sure was going to accompany the gathering. Oops! Then I came home one day to find the MIL had filled my attic with baby furniture and accoutrements. Subtle, oui? Unfortunately -- or fortunately -- about the time I discovered I was not fertile I also discovered my ex was not father nor husband material. The furniture ultimately went back to the MIL. Ex and I parted ways and I remarried and now have a fantastic stepdaughter and two adorable stepgrands. Life is good, it just sometimes takes awhile to get there.

 

[Highcotton]

Yeah, those wide lenses are really great for portraits and such. I looked at a 600mm lens as a joke at one point, but you have to be pretty nuts about taking wildlife pictures to consider those, especially if you want something decent.

You also get a pretty short depth of field in those really powerful lenses or with the extenders.

 

[ozexpat]

You also get a pretty short depth of field in those really powerful lenses or with the extenders.

Back before we blew our life savings on the quest for children. Mrs Oz and I collected a few material posessions.

Some of them were a few good lenses for our cameras. When we went on our trip to Africa we decided to no fall for the 1000 dollar a day safari trip and spent the times in Kruger Park with a local guide we paid directly for the first three days then went off on our own. The savings alowed us to purchase used Canon 100-400 USM IS lens, a Canon 70-200 USM lens , a Sigma 150-500 lens and a 1.5x converter.

The Canon 100-400 is my wife's prime lense on her DSLR. It can be hand held in pretty low light. The super zoom Sigma gets a tripod with the 1.5 converter. For wildlife photography - they cant be beat.

I agree that you are way better off with an average camera and a fantastic lense rather than a fantastic camera and average glass.

 

[bamadude]

To whom it may concern: speaking from experience its not a good idea to poke the moderators. Cell"bock" 6 is a boring place to find yourself in. U can always pm a moderator if u have questions. They can be quite helpful.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Guess how old I am!

This is, after all, the old folks home.

It was unbearable at the time.

We had been unable to fall pregnant for many years of marriage and had started to adopt. We were having a home study for the process of adopting a little boy from Central America. The social worker told us to get a pregnancy test before she sumbits the paperwork. Mrs Oz was infact 8 weeks pregnant. AT 14 weeks we cancelled the adoption proceedings. 2 weeks later our baby died.

This caused an amazing rollercoaster of emotion

This started the "well if you can get pregnant once you can again" talks. 2 years and $120,000 dollars at infertility clinics later we got a call saying somebody wanted to relinquish their child. We were given a 2 month old baby boy. 22 hours later we had to return him because the wealthy estranged grandfather of the child wanted him to go to a Jewish family.

We decided that we needed to control our adoption and moved to the Philippines. Between lost income and all the expenses, our children have cost us 1.4 million dollars so far and its atleast 6 months before they can fly back to usa with us. I am broke but complete in my heart and would not change it for the world.

Tough story.

Even without all that, children can be quite expensive.

I once worked with someone that couldn't understand why there was a tax break for having children. He vehemently argued against it. I tried to explain how many expenses a parent had. As examples, I spoke of tuition, driving kids to ball games and even coloring books and crayons, not to mention food. He declared he didn't have any of those things growing up. I said, "it shows."

Funny how it is after you get married the next question is "When are you going to have children?" Nothing would've made my former MIL happier. Ex and I bought our first place and had our families over for an open house. My mother and then-MIL sat at the kitchen table waiting and waiting and waiting for an announcement that they were sure was going to accompany the gathering. Oops! Then I came home one day to find the MIL had filled my attic with baby furniture and accoutrements. Subtle, oui? Unfortunately -- or fortunately -- about the time I discovered I was not fertile I also discovered my ex was not father nor husband material. The furniture ultimately went back to the MIL. Ex and I parted ways and I remarried and now have a fantastic stepdaughter and two adorable stepgrands. Life is good, it just sometimes takes awhile to get there.

Can you say, "jumping the gun"?

6?

I can't find the lower symbol on my keyboard.
How about this.
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To whom it may concern: speaking from experience its not a good idea to poke the moderators. Cell"bock" 6 is a boring place to find yourself in. U can always pm a moderator if u have questions. They can be quite helpful.

A word to the wise. Lesson learned from them that's been there, done that.

 

[ozexpat]

To whom it may concern: speaking from experience its not a good idea to poke the moderators. Cell"bock" 6 is a boring place to find yourself in. U can always pm a moderator if u have questions. They can be quite helpful.

awe, our little bama is all "growed up"

 

[Bunnylady]

We all know one of these when we see one, don't we?

Moving on . . . .

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Moving on.

WOW that was a lot of rain. About 5 inches from the night before last into last night.

 

[chickadoodles]

Moving on.

WOW that was a lot of rain. About 5 inches from the night before last into last night.

Send some of that my way would you please? It keeps going around us!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I was kind of afraid to mention it. We were getting a bit dry and I know a lot of you are very dry.