Okay, I'm going to give another perspective. My brother is a quadripeligic...I have to say we don't notice that many stares.. some from young children who have not been exposed... but "don't stare" statements I think can make it worse.. it's like you are not supposed to notice someone has a disability. We do need people to move for us at restaurants, we do take up more space walking by.. and frankly, it's been a great opportunity for those who aren't familiar with disabilities to see that it can be normal. My young son, who is obviously very familiar with disabilities, walked up to a man who had a mechanical leg and asked him "what happened".. I was mortified.. like, my son should know better.. you know what.. the guy smiled and said.. "thank you for asking and not just staring and walking by.. I lost it in the war..." Now, it goes both ways.. I tried to help a man at a buffet carry his plate and he took it as a personal affront.. whatever.. some people are sensitive, some people aren't (my brother stopped being sensitive ALOOOOOONG time ago..). Since I can't figure out who is who, I just try to do the best I can. My brother doesn't mind the stares since he's always on the prowl for some hot girl to help him (yep, he SOOOO takes advantage of his wheelchair).. he smiles and winks at everyone and people start realizing, its just not a big deal..Now we have had true discrimination, like BOA not letting him take money out of his account because he couldn't sign his name.. but that is a different topic. Regarding the chinese comment, my son is raised with the understanding that Americans come from all walks of life, the same way I was.. I have no idea if a person is from a different country based on their skin tone, face shape, or accent (unless you are American Indian, we are all from different countries)... I would never assume your child was Chinese and not American...Everyone of my American friends look different and we never assume anything different...maybe your friends didn't mean to exclude conversations because you wanted them to think she was Chinese and not American.. just another angle to think about.

We had slate in our house. Absolutely loved it! It does have to be sealed or it will absorb everything, but the sealing is done just like tile. The indian slate we chose had a varying pattern and never showed anything (two cats, dog, and 1 very messy kid).. downside: hard on bare feet, so i just wore slippers all the time. Bonus in Houston was it was always cool...loved it, loved it, loved it.. clean it with a steamer and just sweep in between.. I don't like my wood floors now (moved to MA) because in the kitchen it shows everything (my son and I do alot of messy cooking).. I have to sweep it twice a day... and I have to wipe up the dogs water bowl everyday because the water will ruin the wood (we can tell where the previous owners fed their dog, as the wood is splitting)...and it shows the dogs/cats claw marks if they start running..If you want wood, I would look at Pergo or the other "fake" woods...they are more resilient, and I think sometimes a bit less expensive. I'll never have wood floors again..one day,.. the wood floors will go, and the slate will come back..

My neighbor started out being fine, but then the TMI came too fast...then one night of drunkenness called me to accuse me of having an affair with her husband.. then she apologized. then she did it again.. (okay and I can't even explain how ridiculous the accusation was, on sooooooooo many different levels). then called us demanding my husband and I tell her husband to answer his phone because they were fighting and he wouldn't answer. no really.. it went on and on.. the house finally sold, and in moved the most awesome, nicest neighbors...and then we moved.. AAAARRRGGGHHH!!! anyway, I hope you the best in getting nice neighbors. What a difference that makes. And I don't think its wrong to be happy that they are moving... bad neighbors end up adding stress to your life (very obvious in your situation) and burden it unnecessarily. I feel bad for those who have lost their life situation through no fault of their own, somehow it just doesn't sound like that is the situation here...sometimes its just called karma.

Funny, in our house it's the reverse. We both used to work together and loved our jobs. Staying home is harder than going to the office, in both of our opinions. If he doesn't do something right, it isn't going to scar anyone for life and send them into therapy :lol: I hate errands and taking care of the yard and shopping and he knows it kills me not to be involved in the projects at work...so he comes home and cooks often and we clean the house as a family on the weekends. The office is much easier.

I agree and swear by the schedules and timers. We did up a large visual schedule at first (now it is done and printed weekly on a computer), and set a timer when he got to each new subject. We did start out taking 5 min. mental breaks between each subject, to help him transition. We also had scheduled "playtime" or "outside time".. BTW, after he got used to the schedule, we dropped the "times" part of the schedule (i.e. 9-9:30 Math, 10-10:30 Grammar). Now he has a list by subject and tries to check off everything as quickly as possible, he also gets input on the order of things...sometimes he prefers doing math first, sometimes he wants to do his reading first. We had a terrible time until this happened..he forced me to be more organized:tongue_smilie:

I'll admit to being quite odd on this subject. I don't think men only should ask, I think its a mutual decision that needs to be discussed. I'm not into "popping the question" at all. But I'm really really really unromantic (I don't like engagement rings either, just to be outright honest so you should throw away my opinion).

..And he sings..really sings..He showed up on David Letterman one night and Letterman asked him to prove it.. he just sat there and belted out a little opera...omg, legs melting. Speaking of singing, Gerard Butler lost me in Phantom..the man should never have opened his mouth - it was awful and I can't look at him the same. Daniel Craig can be my Bond anyday... preferably without the shirt, and dripping wet.. And sorry girls, but I'm lost on Patrick Dempsey and R.Pattinson (sp?)...still have not figured out how either is hot (too many 80's memories of Dempsey I guess, and Robert, well I like my men not too anorexic.. would like to feel like they would win out in hand to hand combat (again, while wet..)...okay, I'll stop. To get back to Nic Cage - I like his movies, despite knowing he is an awful actor..maybe it's the flaws I like.. but hot? idk...will have to see the new movie. He had long hair in Con Air and no, not hot....

The real thing then. I don't like color or preservatives...2 or 3 natural ingredients seems a better but than items from the unknown..btw, didn't see lemons mentioned :lol:

How wonderful. Congratulations to all of you!

Wow.. I'm recently pregnant with my 2nd child. My other child is 8, and I investigated doing cloth then, but ended up doing disposable. I had no idea there were so many options now.. and it looks so much easier, my husband may not fight me! Thank you for all this information.. My biggest concern will be portability and out-and-about-ness of some of these styles, but it looks like so many of you have already experienced this.. Thank you for such great insight!!!!

As a parent who HOMESCHOOLS, but is about to send her child to private school and will continue to AFTERSCHOOL, I doth think the woman protests too much. Now, her two friends who say they afterschool are not homeschoolers because they may only do homework may be an improper use of the term afterschooling...I don't know. I use of a lot of words with the perceived meaning instead of the actual meaning. But honestly, who am I to judge? Although I won't be a technical homeschooler next year, all I learned - through WTM and spending such an amazing time with my son, I will continue to use to keep up his studies - go into depth on subjects he's studying, introduce new ideas, and basically continue to stay on top of what he is learning (I don't agree that if you send your kids to school that it is entirely up to the school to teach them). Most important, I will continue to advocate for homeschooling. In the end, don't we need to have more supporters and less distractors? Moving to MA from TX I realize more how important standing together is - it would be a shame to push supporters away because we don't think they are "living the lifestyle". And please,.. do you know how many types of homeschooling lifestyles there are? We all know of cases where they say they are homeschooling, but they aren't... All in all, I'm getting too old to judge people.

I've never found DR brash at all, just to the point honest. His Total Money Makeover saved our finances and our marriage. It was easy to follow and clearly laid out - I like that I don't have to spend to much time figuring out a way to make the plan work in my life. That being said, we haven't cut up all our credit cards, but live (now) debt free. With all these people, they aren't our parents, they just give advice. We found his the easiest for us and modified it to meet our needs (i.e. we still have an AMEX and use it - its just built into our budget). He doesn't look at my budget and I don't need his approval. I listen to his show regularly and have attended his entreleadership course. He is incredibly compassionate to those who need help not excuses - his people help the military and widows free of charge. But if someone is looking for justification of living outside their means, yeah, well they shouldn't call his show (it does amaze me that these people call in). Me and my family needed a kick in the butt. I also love his mantra, if you want to have money, do things that people who have money do. He has talked alot about his house - he negotiated on everything and got great deals on everything - because the economy was down and he was paying with cash.

Our son was initially tested as part of ADHD testing at the public school he went to. The results are what solidified our decision to homeschool him (we actually did this in cooperation with the school as they felt they could not meet his needs). He has done both WJ and WISC-IV. The WJ gave me better details on his aptitudes as well as helped guide us to his learning style. Again, we didn't know anything about parenting / educating a gifted child until we received the results and began doing research. The tests were great guidance in beginning this search. The research helped us not feel alone and really taught us how to communicate better with him and become better leaders in his life...it explained that many kids like him are asynchronous and have difficult times with their peers (as he does). I don't think it is required, but for us in our situation we would be going down the wrong path if we didn't have it done.

My son hated writing! Hated, Hated, Hated.. We started WWE1 in 2nd grade and did it twice a week (we only do the workbook). Although it wasn't SOTW (which he loves), he got used to it and started to do it well and concentrate because he didn't have to gather his thoughts AND write - just write... and just write 1 or 2 sentences. Again, we started at 7 and slowly, but consistently. I swear it is what has turned his writing around. He has now written stories and can do narration and dictation work as part of SOTW...just in one year. In addition, some of the stories peaked his interest and were added to his reading list. We only did part of WW1 and skipped to WW2 when it started getting too easy. We are very glad we stayed with it and just did it in bits. One of his tutors hated it, and talked to me about dropping it..but we stuck with it. I really bought into the idea of separating analyzing and learning to write accurately into two learning paths. At the end of the year, she admitted that she thought it did work, helping him grow as a writer and gain more confidence and hand strength. My mother is a pediatric OT and swears by Handwriting without Tears for learning to write letters.

All of our thoughts for a full recovery. My brother is a c4/c5 quad (diving) and we lived through those initial days in disbelief, hope, fear, faith, despair - you name it. No one should have to go through that - all of our positive energy your way....Lots of protein and PT/OT!!