SO = Significant Other (aka my better half, the one that puts up with me, partner in crime etc)
Posting an update here - we fixed our issue! It was a mod issue that took a while to narrow down since we have some loaded. The problem came with the enhanced Crafting Mod you can get from the workshop. We are not exactly sure what issue it had but concluded with
- My mod was outdated and not auto updating via the workshop (corrected it)
- There may have been an instance where the host crafted some unique items from the mod while the partner wasn't online creating a problem with syncing item information between the information my PC knew about the character I use and the information her PC had about that same character
Either way, rule number one in our house now... Don't craft on our game without the other person joined online. And #2, if a crashes happen - check mods first :)