We went with people from our homeschooling group. I liked the movie and was pleasantly surprised because too many times I don't like children's movies.

We have a pool but we have a pool service so I am not sure what to do. However, I do have a suggestion- go to a pool store if there is such a thing in your area. I know from going into one near me that they have lots of different kinds of bottles of chemicals for many kinds of problems. They would be able to help you. I just go into mine to get pool accessories.

My husband is 21 years in the military. We were waiting until the new promotion list to see if he is retiring next Spring. Now I am not sure about retiring next Spring even if he doesn't get a promotion. I don't think we will have a depression this year. The depression was as a result of monumentally bad fiscal and monetary policy that most economists have seen as in error now. I can see a depression happening if Obama is elected and putsin some of his tax policies (but since he has proposed many policies, some in opposition to others in completely depends what he proposes and passes). The thing not to do in a recession is raise taxes.

I was 22 and he was 21. We are coming up on 23 years married in September.

We currently have 5 in 2200 SQ. Ft. We were having 4 in that space and I thought it was a bit tight. Now with 5 here, I find it quite uncomfortable. I like space. Especially with homeschooling, I can't imagine living permanently in such small places as some of you have. I came from living three years in a much bigger house where I would have to search for my kids. I could not easily hear them if I didn't want to. That was a true blessing. I like quiet a lot of the time. Two out of three play music, hum or whistle. It drives me nuts. We had four bedrooms where we used one as an office for school, home records, and also as a guest room. Now since my son is disabled, he has come back from college, taken over second child's room and second child is in my office. I also don't have much room here for entertaining which I should be doing more of.

Since we don't know yet if she had the severe allergic reaction to the insect sting or to some food, do I need to put what she is allergiv to or just that she is severely allergic?

I have an eleven and a half year old daughter who is most probably either severely allergic to wasps, ants, hornets or to some types of seafood. She got a wasp sting on Friday evening, had it taken care of by use of soap and water, Bactine, and later Bacitracin. It looked okay until Saturday night after we had been to a Japanese restaurant where she ate one scallop along with her dinner of shrimp. The shrimp she eats regularly but not the scallops. We then went to a movie and after the movie, her ankle had swollen a lot and the insect bite area looked awful and was very hot. I then took her to the ER but before she got there, she got bad breathing problems with lots of coughing and wheezing. We were seen quickly and she was given nebulizer treatment, epinephrine shot and later IV antibiotics.We then got a scrip for more antibiotics. Today we saw her regular pediatrician who didn't like the way the insect area still looked and didn't like that she looked like she had other areas of allergic problems. He prescribed a different antibiotic, a high dose of prednisone (40 mg) and an epi-pen. She won't see the allergist until September. Does anyone have experience with epi-pens? She does things on her own like volunteer at the library. Can she carry this by herself or do I need to train all adults in any place she is at? She does many things without me like karate, Sunday School. library volunteer, Youth Center at the base, archery camp, etc, etc.

Lack of consistent watering will make a cucumber bitter.

Where are you? I could give you better advice if I know what are of the country you are in. I know you are not here in Coastal Florida since peonies don't live here. I love to garden but currently only garden in containers as I live in a rented home with a landscaping service.

I concur with everyone else. Food poisoning always involves getting the stuff out someway. Hope you feel better soon.

Elaine, There are many others out here with all kinds of problems and we all want to pray for you. This is a good commumity of supporters in your troubles.:grouphug:

I picked the right one too. I am amazed since my spacial ability is very limited (I can't think of the correct term but basically I am worse than 80% of people in spacial ability like putting together patterns in my head).

I don't necessarily send my children out to Sunday School for religious instructions (though occasionally they do learn something). Everyone in my family attends Sunday School for different reasons. Both my husband and I attend for discussion with believers and getting new viewpoints and concentrating on some subject. My older daughter gets to develop her debating points and also learns how others think about issues. My younger daughter helps younger children learn how to find verses in the Bible, helps younger children with crafts, makes crafts and has some social time. Since my children are homeschooled, they like seeing their friends in Sunday School. Both girls attend church services with us with one being an acolyte and the other being a member of the adult choir.

Well I should write about what we do. We are not the regular homeschoolers- we are old earth creationists, infant baptism, don't believe in sheltering our kids (but not going for the things that occur in PS these days either) but we join groups with all kinds of people. I am in one group that has a statement of faith that I can say I agree with but that others might want to argue with me since I am an old earth creationist. How does this affect us? Not much since it seems that by the time the kids are middle school or older, most parents who join homeschool groups have decided that sheltering too much is not the way to go. If they go for that much sheltering, they don't send them to co-op classes. So the one group that I belong to that has a statement of faith has all types of Christians in the group including Catholics, Episcopalians, Orthodox, and all types of Protestants. Another group that has no statement of faith has Jews, Christians, pagans, atheists, and probably some others too.

Praying for yo and all the people who are being evacuated both in the Midwest and in California due to the fires.

Pryaers here for you and ll the others.

I used the Amazon seller feature. I had no problems except that I priced one book to low and lost 20 cents on the deal. I did rid our house of some books and hope to do it again soon.

It is very sad. I'm saying prayers for his family and friends. He may have died because he just got back from Italy. Air travel puts you at risk for blood clots in the leg than can travel and cause heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms, or strokes. Read up about this before you travel on long air trips.

It doesn't make much of a difference if you are travelling 10 miles. It makes a lot of difference when you travel hundreds of miles. I live not too far from I95. It was built decades ago and in many places it is still two lanes. Slowing down increases congestions on an already overcongested highway. My time is worth the extra cost in gas.

Thanks a lot. I know her brother took the SAT at age 9 or 10 and got good scores but he was living in an area with a CTY program. Then we moved overseas and we didn't go through that same program with her.

Praying for you and all you fellow midwesterners with your bad weather and flooding.

I am looking into a class or two in dual enrollment for my soon to be tenth grader this upcoming year. She needs to be able to get a 16 on an ACT. I never took the ACT and my first child only took it in late 11th or early 12th grade and he got something like a 28 or 29. She normally gets high 80s or low to mid 90s on standardized tests like the Stanford or Iowa. She has anxiety issues but does want to do dual enrollment. I am okay with that but am trying to get a feel if the ACT is doable in this range at this point.

I live in Coastal Florida and there are Cubans here and they don't have these on there cars. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing them when I did live in Southern California but the last time I lived there was 16 years ago so maybe it is a new trend. I am not even sure what you mean but i haven't seen anything like it. I do remember seeing somekind of sticker about Dale Earhardt on somebodies car but I remember that there whole back of the car was some kind of NASCAR memorial/ advertisement so I figured it was some kind of strange NASCAR thing or hero worship thing akin to the Elvis fascination cult.

I have no problems with my kids seeing their test scores but they never have thought that test scores means they don't have to do work or that they are special somehow. What did bring my two younger children's self-esteem up is being prepared for their homeschool co-op or academy classes. The fact that they prepare and some others don't totally impresses them. They can't believe that people wouldn't get their assignments done.

My truly stupid story comes from when I was living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Yes, that is in the USA. I was having reception problems with my cell phone and called the Sprint rep from Albuquerque using my cell phone. I am explaining to her that I am having dropped calls from very clase to downtown Albuquerque. SHe asked me where that was, and I replied New Mexico. She replied that I can't use my phone there since it can only be used in the US. I told her I was using my phone right then and I was calling from New Mexico which is one of the fifty states. She just kept repeating that I need to get a phone from another company that works in Mexico. ( I ended up getting another phone when I moved to Europe and now have Verizon since I am back in the US)