So far I know I want a blender (my last one's engine died but it was more than 20 years old). I also want diabetic socks (I don't have diabetes but do have nerve problems in my feet). I have been asking the kids and they have only come up with the usual: DVds, cds, jewelry and clothes. My son's list is solely clothes.

I am a Republican and Rio was my first choice for the Olympics but not because of anything against the President or the US or Chicago. If any other place other than Rio was going to get it, I would want that to be Chicago. I wanted Rio because South America has never had the Olympics there and I thought it was time for them to have it.

I think he will get a new camera. Ours is 6 almost 7 years old and is fading quickly.

I am absolutely not proud that he won the award. I am embarrassed and disturbed. But not really shocked. Even though I didn't vote for either Clinton or Obama, I would have not been disturbed if he won since he has done things. I also would not be embarassed or disturbed if Obama won in four or five years if he actually accomplished something. But he didn't do anything to bring about peace in the first 10 or 12 days of his presidency. We are a sad world if now we are reqrding potential rather than accomplishments.

I talked with my dh about it this morning. We don't get it at all. I mean there were lots of other people who we weren't fans of that have gotten the prize before but I think I always understood the reason. I don't get this at all. It seems extremely premature in his career.

Mine is 44. My youngest's is 7.

That's because you are in VA. Here they have decided to mostly supply certain middle schools and they will have hours for everyone to come in. We have to wait for the shot so it will be a few weeks longer, I believe.

The Nobel prizes are only noteworthy for the sciences: Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics. Those almost always go to significant achievements or discoveries. Sadly, that is not always the case with the literature or the peace prizes.

If my kid is doing sports without grumbling and doing enough hours, he/she gets an A. I also included CPR and First Aid so that they have to pass too. When I recently went into the high school to sign my daughter up for the PSAT, there were two girls in the guidance office hanging around since they had a class there called office aide. If people are getting a credit for that, doing actual sports and fitness certainly counts as PE. I know my kids did more athletics than I ever did in my two years of formal PE in high school. We mainly stood around waiting.

Both of my kids that have done high school got grades in PE. Why not? COlleges recalculate or don't according to their own preferences. Some may count it, many won't. But what else you don't know is that they may not count everything you thought should be counted either. I make my transcripts in a regular, common sense fashion and they can manipulate GPAs as they please.

I explained to dd this summer that she was about to enter into the most hectic phase of her life for the next 1.5 years. She is coping okay but there are cries of anguish and wales of despair sometimes. I am dreading the same thing but worse in 4 years. That one is a perfectionist to an unbelievable degree. Even if she would be in school it would be a lot of work. Well at least then I will only have her and not what I have now- a surly 20 yo college jr/sr, a panicking 11th grader, and a very hormonal, perfectionist almost 13 yo and a dh who isn't home ever and is miserable about that.

My dd did the practice test on Monday. She is still watching some of the CHalkdust SAT prep. I will go over her wrong answers tomorrow and have her do more watching of the DVD next week. I am stressing to her that this is not an important test and won't be reported to colleges. She is not a great test taker although she does do better than average and in somethings, much better. However her math is average and she won't be in the running. It is fine since she has a 100% paid scholarship to most colleges anyway so this is just another prep for her for the time she really takes the SAT or ACT. I feel for you all who need the great test score for the scholarships. We had that with my first and we will need it again with third. Since this one has the anxiety issues and since we don't know this program won't run out of money, we are planning on her to get the money.

15 and I was surprised it was that high. Most were not for classes or at least they were for elective classes (Yeats). But they were all some time ago.

Over here they said the middle schools will get them and everybody who is first tier can go there to get it. THe problem is all or almost all of the first vaccine will be the flu mist and we have to wait for flu shot.Only my dh has gotten the regular flu shot since they ran out of that around here too.

I am a triple risk person (Sjogrens which makes mucus hard to cough up, asthma, and immune suppressant drugs) so I am getting both the regular flu and the H1N1 flu vaccines. My youngest is asthmatic so she is on the level 1 risk level too. My three other families are consider higher risk just because they live with us. We will or have already get both kinds of flu shots, not mists. No one can use flu mists in my household because of me. I would recommend that you all get the flu shots since the flu mist is not recommended for either young children or people with other conditions like asthma or RSV problems.

If we go with the multiple gifted-ness theory (what are there, 8 types?), Actually, that theory has been tested and found to be not true. It was a nice theory and lots of educators believed it but it hadn't been tested. The tests of the theory came out this year and is was discredited. I had read about these types years ago and just thought that my family was strange since we didn't have types but sort of overlapping. Turns out that while people have areas they are better at, the intelligence level is universal. To some other posters, plenty of adults who people judged as highly intelligent did not start reading at a very early age or doing other great things at 1 or 2. I think it is easier to see when you see your child with other children. The difference is clear. And no, it does not have to do with acceleration since the clearest difference is when they encounter a brand new idea.

Yes, but I don't know about VA. I know that when we lived in NM, there was a western state consortium that NM was part of and that did that.

There is a bit of cultural dissonance going on with the Muslims women on my son's campus. My son says he doesn't get it. They were hrad gear but then they also wear skin tight revealing tops with the hard scarfs or what not. He says they dress much more provocatively then other female students but they do have their hijabs.

Is this a recent change- this down mood? Where do you live? Two of my kids are strongly SAD kids (Seasonal Affective Depression) and it has been getting darker faster now. FOr my youngest, we use St Johns Wort in the winter months with very good success. It completely goes away in spring and summer.

I saw a report from the WHO that in 39,000 doses of the vaccine in CHina, they had 4 reports of side effects. These side effects were a headache and I think body ache. IN the vaccine scientists views both at the WHO and here in the USA, this vaccine has less side effects than any other flu vaccine they have seen. I thought it was quite common to have an achy feeling or a mild headache after a flu shot. I would never report that to anyone.

Get your vit D levels checked asap. That can effect depression AND bone pain. I do have low Vit. d and am already on a megadose of this. VIt. d is often low in people with autoimmune arthritis. I take 50,000 iu once a month.

FIrst of all, I do get some SADD but it has been managable most years without medication or anything much. But this year, I am having the worse return of my arthritis problems in 12 years, a husband who is travelling a lot, and complete uncertainty if we will be moving next summer and where to if we are. On top of that, I am 46 so I bet I am getting more problems with my hormones too. I also have been having some early waking insomnia issues. Now I should be happy. Fall is my favorite season. But I am tired and unhappy. I think the thing that broke the camel's back was the very strong return of bad arthritis. I had it mostly under control for 12 years with some downturns that would go away quickly with steroids or another medicine. This time the steroid only helped a little bit and I am supposed to reduce it already tomorrow. I guess I am afraid that it won't get manageable again.

I have two with ADHD plus myself. Currently my oldest child isn't taking anything and declares he isn't ADHD and never was. His entire family disagrees but he is on the moderate side and is able to function somewhat okay without any medication. I am not taking anything now either and the only medication I have ever taken for it has been Paxil, which did help a lot. But I haven't been on it for at least ten years. I self -medicate with large amounts of coffee. My dd has been on medications since she was almost 4. Her first medication was dexedrine, I believe, but she also has been on Adderal, COncerta, and Vyvanse. I am not sure we ever did ritalin with her. I know my oldest had that. Basically the doctors try one thing and see if it works and how well and then they try another or a dose change as necessary. I know my dd was on Adderall for a number of years but we were having too many problems with it. We switched doctos and he decided to try a patch (complete failure- it didn't deliver anything for hours and then she got a superdose and we had to rip it off), Concerta which didn't work that well, and then Vyvavnse. That has worked the best. All the stimulant medications work the same basically though they have shorter or longer times they last, or take effect, or better or worse side effects or better control by one or another. Byvanse is metabolized differently and seems to work better for our dd since it has stabalized the peaks and valleys much better than her previous medications. Strattera is a different type of drug and I am less familiar with how well it works. I believe it is more helpful for the solely inattentive type of ADHD rather than the combo type or impulsive/active type. Hope this answers some of your questions.

I am 46, mildely to moderately ADHD, and going to a church with a very long sermon. My moderately to severe 16 yo dd who is medicated goes to the service too. Here is what we do- I try to take notes on the sermon but since my pastor has a tendency to talk too slowly and go over points more than one time, it is hard to pay attention. So I do things that are not too distracting for others: lists of things to do, menus, read the Bible, read the hymn book, etc. My 16 yo tends to draw and doodle. When I was little, I was allowed religious books like Bible story books and stories of saints. I would read those. My ADHD children would be allowed to read the Bible, do fun pages the church provided (word search Scripture or connect the dots of an Ark or that kind of thing), take stuffed toys that didn't make noise, color pages quietly, etc. We did not do drug holidays or medication free weekends so they were medicated. I can't even imagine what my probably severly ADHD dd would have been like without medication in church at age 7. It would not have been a good thing for anyone.

My dd was on Adderall for a long time but she is now on Vyvanse and doing much better. YOu might want to ask about that since it has a different way of delivering the medicine.