We don't watch too much tv here. I usually watch part of Dancing with the Stars on Monday and CSI Miami and we usually try to catch Numbers. My kids will watch Scooby Doo while they're eating lunch but that's about it. If I'm having "one of those days" that you're exhausted, I'll watch Reba. melissa

Vegetable beef soup! Barbeque? melissa

I use both! Their spices can't be beat! I like the Korintje one (sp?)....I don't think you could go wrong with either! melissa

We just moved into a new house that' 4200 sq ft. We didn't really want a house this size but at the time, my mom was living with us and we needed the room. We also got a great deal since this was a foreclosure. It's much better insulated than our older ( 2000 sq ft) house. So far, our electric bills have been cheaper. Is this too much house.....yep! It's arranged well and our 3 kids have their own rooms. So, for the money, it was fine. I would have preferred about 3000 sq ft. In our family, my mother-in-law could move in with us at some point so they'll be plenty of room for her to have her own space. melissa

Just musing:::::: If government stopped wasteful spending, would we even be discussing this? How much of the issue is senators and representatives spending our hard earned tax dollars ( both rich and poor) on useless spending. What kind of tax cuts could we all get if this issue was solved. Would our country be in the financial woes that it is today? Why does no one do anything about the overcharging of government. Why should a government facility have to pay 50.00 for a hammer or 100.00 for a toliet seat when we can go to the local hardware store and get both for less then 20? Why do our ELECTED officials choose to not do anything about this? For us moms ( and dads) that have to live on a budget, why should we not expect our government to do the same? I think everyone would benefit from a close look at this. I honestly believe that if we could cut some of this waste, some of the most necessary government programs could be saved. The ones that truly need the help could be helped. It seems we are treating the symptons, not the disease. In answer to your question-----I don't think the rich should be taxed at a higher rate than the middle class or the poor. Life isn't fair and some people, either through hard work or luck have been blessed. We do not live in a socialist country! Do we really want our government have a say in every aspect of our lives? Do we really want government run health care? Look what they've done with the economy! Sorry for rambling!!!!! I think I got seriously off topic!:tongue_smilie: melissa

How about Clive Cussler? We enjoy Brad Thor ( but I can't remember about the sex/violence part) and David Balducci. Not great literature, but entertaining! melissa

It is a year or however long you need to take. We did German 1 last year and it took my dd until a couple of weeks ago to finish. Email Sabine directly. She usually responds pretty quickly! melissa

It seems that where we live ( about 30 minutes North of Dallas) things are going on as usual. We just bought a home ( a foreclosure) in a neighborhood that was full of them. These homes are being snatched up left and right. When our house was on the market ( it took 6 months to sell), we'd look at a home and then the next day, it would be sold. These are moderately priced homes as well. It did seem that 300+ homes were going quickly as well. I don't know of anyone who has lost a job or a home. I have noticed a tremendous increase in the cost of groceries. We probably pay about 200 more per month than we did a year ago. For example, I like to use peanut oil and it has jumped from 5.69 to 8.39. I can spend several hundred dollars at Walmart and not have nearly as many groceries. This hurts. Overall, things are just rolling along here. People are still spending.....movies, restaurants, extras. I still feel that something big is coming and it really scares me. melissa

We just bought a cook top stove and I asked the guy at Lowes about canning. He said that the cook top was "supposed" to hold 200 pounds. He also scraped the one in the store with a razor blade to show us it didn't scratch. You might want to find the stove you want and then check it out. My mother in law cans on her cook top, no problem! hth, melissa

During the summer we keep the air on 78 during the day and I turn the downstairs unit to 72 at night and upstairs to 74. We live in Texas so we have to have air during these hot days. In the winter, the heat goes down to 60-62 at night and maybe 70 in the morning to heat up the house and then it goes back dwon to about 68 or so. melissa

Oops..sorry! I forgot the problems! 29. 3/sqrt3 - 18/sqrt 27. Their answer is 3 sqrt 3 39. sq rt 6 ( sq rt 3 - 1/sq rt 3). Their answer is 2 sq rt 2. 45. a. sq rt x^6 /sq rt x^3. Answer is x sq rt x b. sq rt x^5/sq rt x^8. Answer is sq rt x /x^2 c. sq rt x^2 y^5/sq rt x^3y Thanks for any help you can give! Melissa

You're not the only one worried. I've worried for months about the state of our economy. It seems to me that the government has no problem spending our tax dollars. The wasteful spending makes me physically ill. What I want to know is what we can do to stop it! Do our representatives/senators have no oversight? We need to get the "crap" out of Washington and get people in office that care more for their constituents (sp?) than they do themselves! We don't have much debt...one car payment ( for 2 more years) and our home. We've been trying to sock away some money for savings. I think like a lot of you, I worry more about food shortages than anything else. Our farmers have been driver out of business and taken over by large corporations who don't care for the land like they should. Our farm lands are now highways and shopping malls.....shopping malls that we don't need. It's a continual cycle of spending and getting people to spend more. This whole situation infuriates me and I do tend to go on ( apologizing here!). Melissa

Can someone help us? I can't figure these out with the solutions manual! We're in Foerster's Algebra I, lesson 12-3, numbers 29, 39, and 45 b, c, d, e For 39, I keep getting 2 as the answer. For 29, I keep getting 3 For 45, I'm completely lost! Thanks, Melisssa:lol::lol::lol::confused::confused:

I'm thinking that aliens abducted my 15 yr old daughter and left a monster in her place. She's always been my easy one, always happy, never grumpy or gripey. Since we've started school this fall, she's turned into demon child! I know part of it will be a hormonal issue every month ( is there anything we give give vitamin-wise for this?), but I don't know how to account for the rest of the time! She in a ballet company this year and is dancing over 20 hours a week, 6 days a week. She loves that! She student teaching some of the little ones and is really enjoying this as well. As for school and home.......she does have a heavy load this year and I did this before knowing what kind of hours she would have to dance this year. She's taking APUSH, geometry, biology, german 2, grammar, writing. Several of these are online classes so we can't adjust the schedule but I don't think we need to. If she would act her age, get up on time in the mornings and get busy ( without dawdling!), she would have plenty of time. She doesn't even leave for dance until 2:30 most days. We've dropped literature and latin and will pick those up during the summer. Her room is a pit, her laundry is getting done and she does nothing to help around the house. We are still doing Algebra 1 - we'll be finished in a couple of weeks but I don't know if she really understands any of it. Do we start over completely? I don't know how she's going to get into college. There's no possible way she'll pass either the SAT or ACT math portions. I don't even know if she could pass the community college entrance exam. I teach the same thing to my 8th grader and he's doing fine. She spaces out when I'm explaining the lesson and then the next morning tells me she didn't understand. How on earth do you find consequences for a child like this? I can't take dance because we've already paid thousands of dollars for her to do this. Help! Melissa

OH>>>>>>I loved the Upsie Downsie books! My absolute favorites! I also played for hours with the Fisher Price house, the castle, the garage and the barn. My favorite game was called Bigfoot and the Uncle Wiggly game. What a fun thread! Why don't we start one on favorite childhood books! Melissa

My doc had me try Evening Primrose Oil. It helped tremendously! I also take Fish Oil and Calcium daily. That has also helped! melissa

We spend way toooooo much on our kids. My daughter is in a ballet company and dances 20 hours or more ( with performances) per week. On average, it's about 375/month. This doesn't include pointe shoes ( at 90 a pair) or tights or costumes. She also takes tap, jazz, lyrical and modern classes - but that's included. I have one son playing club soccer which is year round and its 1800/year. My youngest is playing Academy soccer ( it's a developmental league for younger players) and it's about 1000/year. This doesn't include 2 seasons of indoor soccer at 100 each. This one also does baseball fall and spring at 100 each season.

We live in Texas ( a very easy homeschool state) and our school will not accept homeschool credit for high school either. We have a friend whose daughter entered 8th grade at the end of the year( 2 weeks left) on advice from teachers. Had to pass all of the classes through testing. Passed with flying colors. Entered the high school last week and was told she would have to stay home and take classes from Texas Tech for 9 weeks before she could even go to school! Is that stupid or what? What are these people thinking? What will she be missing by being out of class for 9 weeks? School systems suck ( or at least ours does!) It's just another way for them to make sure homeschoolers jump through hoops. Sorry for venting. I just have a real problem with the "system". It's like the government. It's broken but no one wants to do anything to fix it! Melissa

We live in Texas so air if a must! I keep it at 78 during the day and I used to turn it down to 69 at night. Since we've moved and dramatically increased our house size, I turn the upstairs to 74 and the downstairs to 72. In the winter, I turn the heat to 61 at night. Boy.....do we sleep good them! melissa

Has anyone successfully stopped shopping at the grocery store except for a few things here and there? We like to eat organically as much as possible and I'd like to get to a point where we either grow our own food and make our own things. I do buy wheat and grind and order bulk items from our food co-op once a year. I realize there are a few items that need to come from stores but have you gotten your shopping trips down to monthly or less? I guess I'd like to become more self-sufficient and less reliant on Walmart, etc. If you make most of your food items from scratch, what do you keep on hand? Thanks, Melissa

I'm with Suzy. I order all of our meat from Alan at Paidom. He could probably deliver it to you ( Fedex rate is about 36.oo for a 50-60 lb box). YOu could try it first. I also buy our chicken and pork from him. He's the nicest person you'll ever meet and I can't say enough good things about him. HIs meat is one of the best grass fed products we've had. Some do taste wild and I can't stand the smell when they do that! Melissa

I believe that O'Bama is the one in favor of infanticide --not McCain. m

Thanks for the responses. I guess I should have stated more of the facts. This year has been the year of changes and sorrows. We started school last fall fine. My mom moved in with us in January and we had hospice nurses in and out nearly every day for 4 months. We then had to put her in a nursing and a week after we did that, I got a call to come back - that her time was short. I went down, my husband and 2 boys followed and my daughter went to her other grandmother's. We were there almost 2 weeks ( school didn't happen too much) and she passed away. Then followed the funeral and trying to get back to life. All this time, our house was on the market so we had to have crazy neat expectations at all times. By May, we were back to normal but soccer tournament season started so we were gone most weekends. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, our house sold but we had to be out in 10 days. That included packing, finding a new house, working out the logistics, etc. Finally, we made it. We bought a foreclosure that needs a ton of work and my husband nearly killed us all trying to do a complete redo in less than a week! We are all exhausted. I guess my question is: how much time can I allow for us to recover? I'm fine but if I see a scrub brush, box or POD again, I may puke! We don't normally allow excessive video game/computer time and I usually insist that bedtime be at 10 or 10:30 every night. I think, in this exhausted state, I've just let things slide too much. It felt good, as a parent, to see him digging in and doing hard, physical labor for days without complaint. I've never seen him so tired! Sorry to go on and on but I didn't want ya'll to think that we just let our kids do whatever. We are usually pretty strict. melissa

My ds is almost 14 and all of a sudden he's moody, wanting to sleep until 10:30 or 11:00, staying up to all hours of the night and being generally disagreeable. Is this normal? He's always been the most helpful of the three and now it is a chore to get him to do anything! We just moved and he has yet to unpack more than a couple of boxes. My neat freak has turned into a slob! He just wants to lay around and play video games and pretty much do nothing but veg! Does this stage go away? I have given him a little slack since we moved ourselves last week and he put in a full day of work all week long.....heavy lifting, etc. We just moved a mile from our old house and his friends can ride their bikes over. Will someone tell me this is normal and he will turn into a human again? melissa

We have a Great Dane and she's great! If you're a large dog person, you can't go wrong with these wonderful dogs! They're low maintenance, definitely attention hogs, and they hardly shed. You would have to be open to sharing your bed and possibly your lap. She was housetrained in about a week. I've never seen a dog so sweet. She's great with kids and big enough for me to feel safe. We also had a St. Bernard that recently passed away and she was great but.......shedding is a definite problem. Good luck with your search. YOu might could spend some time at the shelter with different breeds. Sometimes "mutts" are best. melissa