No doubt one of my favorite books ever. I first read this for school in eighth grade. I still reread it every couple of years. This book was one of the first things that really brought history "alive" to me.

My son has been in speech therapy for a year and a half now. His speech therapist says that they don't expect kids to have the "R" sound until 3rd grade. I would wait another year and see if it comes.

My dh is almost 29 and loves his video games. He used to play a lot more computer games when the kids were younger and in bed, but now he plays a lot of games with them. I've almost always worked nights, so this is his way of bonding with the kids (in addition to coaching teams, reading books, participating in scouts, etc.). Also, he plays in the evenings before I get home, so he can stay awake until I get there :) I enjoy some of our Wii games as well, so sometimes we'll play Mario and Sonic and the Olympics or Trauma Center together as a way to "hang out". I equate it to playing board games or card games. We team up and play Mario Party as a family. Its a lot easier to play a board game on tv when you have a pesky 2yo who loves to mess with game pieces! Lots of "grown men" are obsessed with sports- basketball, baseball, football- that is considered culturally acceptable. My dh doesn't follow any sport or sport team, so this is a hobby of his. Most of the families I know have a Wii or Xbox and play games together as a family often.

This is our house to a tee. I always get told how great my kids are when I bring them up to my work (I work in a restaurant) and nobody believes me when I say how awful they can be at home. And I have five, from 11-2.

Tammy- Sorry for the late reply on this, but yes there have been times. Fortunately, they are not often. But, I don't go into a night thinking, "Boy, I hope I make minimum wage." Like I said, I think its all about perspective- what your feelings are about tipping influence what you will tip- moreso than your actual service.

I only have a second to share my thoughts... I currently work at a moderately priced chain restaurant as a waitress. We make $2.13/hr. We tip out 3% of our sales not our tips. So, if you come in and sit at my table and don't leave a tip, it actually cost me money for you to sit at my table. I believe that I give excellent service most nights- my tips run anywhere from 10%-30%. I find a lot of times it depends on the people, more than the service. I've had people tell my manager that I was the best server they've ever had, then proceed to leave less than 10%. I've also had tables where I've felt I've been less than attentive, and recieved 25% tips. As far as upping the wages for servers, I know that our restaurant would not be able to support that type of labor cost. There is no way we would still be open if they were paying their servers 6.55/hr (min. wage in KS). I work in this industry because it allows me to be home with my kids during the day. I could work retail (and have), but I've found that working a mostly-cash job has helped our budgeting skills. We dont' go out to eat unless we can afford to leave a good tip. I love eating a lesser priced restaurants, and surprising our server with an extraordinary tip (assuming the service was good). :D Some people are ignorant, some people are mean, some people are cheap. Thankfully, there are a lot of good people out there as well. I enjoying connecting with my customers, sometimes it pays off financially, sometimes it doesn't, but I almost never regret making that connection.

Since I've worked before and am working again as a server. We've always been big tippers, we figure if we can't afford a 20% (min) tip on what we're eating, then we really can't afford to eat out. I will say that there have only been maybe two times where I've ever left a small amount and that was the server was obviously rude to us. And there have been a couple of time where we've left way more than what's expected. I've been on the other side of that (I once received a $50 tip on a bill of $75) and you have no idea how great it feels :) It makes up for all the people who are less than stellar tippers. There will always be people who don't believe in tipping as a rule and don't really care that you're not making minimum wage. I always take into account how many other tables my server has. If we seem to be his/her only table on a slow night, we always add in more. I've had to change my mom's perspective on this issue- she had no idea servers relied on tips and was quick to blame the speed of the food on her server. Now, when we go out, she always double checks with me on if she's giving a good enough tip :D I've also seen the financial side of restaurant operating and most restaurants are barely staying afloat as it is, if you were to expect a restaurant owner to pay his wait staff minimum wage, the cost of your meal would go up dramatically, and also in my opinion the quality of service would go down.

My top 25 most played on Itunes: "What is This Feeling?" Wicked (the karaoke version- leftover from my 2 older dds doing this for our spring talent show) "If You're Gonna Leave" Emerson Hart "Superhero" Ani Difranco "Catching Twilight" Jim Brickman "Flying Horses" Dispatch I'm on my third ipod for the year after getting my nano stolen :angry: and my dad's old original ipod dying out on me :glare:, I finally bought a little, purple shuffle. :D

He is an American History teacher- http://www.electoralcollegetie.com Enjoy!

Yesterday, here in suburban Kansas City, we were right under $3.00. It did feel weird getting so excited to see a 2 in the first spot!! Of course, we still can't afford to fill up our 30+ gallon big ole van, but that's another story.

Maybe I'm just dense here, but how on earth could a 4-6 year old ride rear facing? I couldn't even imagine my 21mo old riding backwards without her legs getting all smooshed. I'm just curious how that works. I'm not against child safety seats by any means- we were in a horrible crash when dd1 was only six weeks old, and the police officer couldn't believe we all walked away from it with only scratches because of our seatbelts/carseat. I always felt good about that accident because we got a 30 second sound bite on the news where the officer showed our car and praised the use of restraints- thought maybe that changed someone's mind about seatlbelts and saved someone's life :D My youngest two are still in five point harnesses, my 6 yo is in a booster, my 8 yo passes the height and weight requirements and sits without anything, and my 10yo is over 5 feet tall and will sit in the front seat a lot of the time. We also drive a conversion van, so I feel like we have a little extra protection just by sheer size of vehicle.

And this is where grandma comes in handy :D I hate sorting through clothes at the season change. With five kids, it is just overwhelming. My older two dds are in too close of sizes to really pass anything down- different body styles. My boys and our youngest dd get lots of hand me downs, which is great on our budget, but can be a pain to sort through. Especially when sizes don't seem to be consistent across company lines. :glare: That means trying on lots of clothes. My kids actually enjoy it, but I don't. Last spring, my mom came over and helped me sort through and do it in an organized fashion. She is coming over tomorrow to help again :hurray:

If her friends like them, and she is showing an interest, I would. Its not so much an age issue, as it is an interest issue. My dd1, who is almost eleven, and her friends who are all older still play with their dolls all the time. They like making clothes for them, or just acting things out with them. She has a close-knit group of three other girls and they all have a couple dolls and enjoy still playing with them. My dd2, who is eight and a half, has two dolls, and she will play with her sister every once in awhile, but does not have the same interest level. She doesn't have any good friends that have dolls, so she only plays with her sister.

I chose option two because while we do all of our core subjects at home, we do have Spanish and Latin classes through our home school group that we participate in. Also, this is the first year we've done Art and that is being taught by my friend. We also do sports and dance outside of our home school, but I don't consider that part of "school".