LegalAid.com

Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama’s inaugural address to the nation, and he’s referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet.

But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing  summer sojourns – or forgoing them altogether – the Obamas don’t seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her “closest friends.” According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times. MORE.

Busted on Facebook!

When a married mom of two logged onto the social networking site, she stumbled upon the pictures of her husband’s storybook Disney World wedding – to another woman, according to the Daily Mail.

Lynn France had married John France on the Amalfi coast in Italy in 2005, and the couple were raising their two sons in Cleveland. But France, an occupational therapist, became worried that he was seeing another woman. MORE

It’s been almost two years, but it feels like yesterday. My Aunt Randi was taking me to buy wedding shoes – her gift to me. So there we are having a wonderful time chatting away in the car when my cell phone rang. It was my dad. He wanted to know (sort of kidding) whether, if I got two sets of dishes from my bridal registry, he could have one. He was in the midst of his second divorce and his ex took everything. I’m thinking – my dad? A successful periodontist and he has no plates? How sad is that? I remembered the pain I’d felt as a child of divorce all over again, but this time it was different. MORE

Dear Maddisen: I am at a cross-road in my life. I am divorced after a 21 year marriage and have no children or pets and very few responsibilities. I honestly feel paralyzed by my bounty and rather than focusing my energies on what I really want to do — writing — I find myself coming up with any excuse not to, and waste an inordinate amount of time on the phone and social networking sites. I end up feeling terribly guilty and … MORE

Laura Derbigney tries to bring a little of her Hispanic upbringing into her family life.

“I like to shop at Hispanic-owned stores,” she said. “I make tacos, I make enchiladas, I make flautas.”

But not on the weekends, according to a court order.

She can’t prepare pork or other traditional foods … MORE