I use Kareni's form. It has worked really well for us!

I ended up letting my oldest DS lance it with a needle under the nail. He squeezed a bunch of pus out. It is definitely less swollen now, although still some, and still painful, although less. I'll keep soaking it regularly and see how it's doing Sunday night. If I want an appointment on Monday, I have to call Monday morning at 6:30, or there won't be any left for the day!

Several days ago something must have poked me under my thumbnail, and it has gotten infected. I noticed swelling, redness, etc. starting Tuesday night. It has really been hurting and throbbing, so I have been taking motrin around the clock, as well as soaking it in warm water with epsom salts a few times a day. It is still pretty swollen (I can't really bend my thumb) and very tender to the touch. Is there anything else I should do? Should I try lancing it? If so, how do I do that--lance where I see the dark spreading blotch under my nail, where I assume the infection started, or just somewhere in the general vicinity? Unfortunately, going to the doctor isn't a possibility until Monday. I can't go to an urgent care--I would have to go to the military hospital ER, and that is a good distance away, plus I would almost certainly have to wait for forever. I tried to get an appointment yesterday, but the hospital was closed because it was a federal holiday.

Ds says ours have 4 g ram, he thinks, and he streams Netflix on it all the time. He says, "You just press 'play'. You don't have to know anything to do it--they make it easy." So there you have it, LOL. I've never streamed anything because I just don't have time, so no personal experience.

We have 2, and like everyone else has said, they are great for surfing the web. They're small, and they start up quickly, since you can't download any programs onto them. I like them a lot better than the ipad because you are actually using the websites, not the apps, for like facebook and here. We bought one for my parents for Christmas. My oldest son uses google docs for a lot of his stuff, and he can work on all his papers from the chromebooks because of it. But we have to have actual laptops as well, because they can't do Potter School classes on one, for example, since you can't download the Studyplace program. You can use it with a portable hard drive, to look at pictures or other documents, or whatever. I never do, because I just use a regular computer. I think most hospitals probably have wi-fi at this point. The military hospital at Bethesda does not on the maternity ward, though! I think they are saving all the bandwidth for the wounded warriors, and it's hard to begrudge them that!

We thought we might have had a situation like that earlier this week. My ds wants to go to a military academy, and so he has applied for all the nomination sources he could. He got a Presidential nomination because of Dh's service, but he also applied to our representative, plus the 2 senators, even though we didn't really expect him to get a nom. from them, knowing that we are in a really competitive area (Northern VA), and they all knew he had the Presidential nominations already. But he did get a nomination in early Dec. from our representative. We were so thrilled! No expectation of any nomination from a senator at all, since we have heard from everyone under the sun that VA congressmen talk and do not duplicate nominations. So no surprise when the rejection letter came from one senator. But then on Monday, we got an email from the other senator's office, telling ds congratulations, he was being offered a nomination, and he should have a received a letter dated Dec. 16 telling him this. They needed his response, since they hadn't heard from him. We were so surprised! I immediately thought of this situation and assumed the office had mixed up their email lists, especially since we had never received any such letter. It wasn't devastating to my son, since he had other noms, but for someone who hadn't gotten another nom and was still holding out hope, that would be so devastating to get a mistake email! Ds called his ALO, who told him to email back saying thanks, but making sure they knew he had been offered a nomination from our representative as well. So ds did that, but the office wrote back saying the nomination was still his. And then the next day the original letter arrived in our mailbox, dated Dec. 16, so the email was definitely not a mistake. It took almost 2 weeks for the letter to get from Richmond up to Northern VA! So now ds has 3 nominations, and a mildly guilty feeling that he is stealing opportunity from some other worthy VA person. I told him that the congressmen are big boys, and they can pick who they want--it isn't up to ds to "correct" them or anything. He didn't do anything wrong and so shouldn't feel guilty! It is just weird that something so rare that everyone pretty much accepts it as gospel truth--"VA congressmen do not duplicate nominations"--would have an exception for my son, you know?!

We have friends whose daughter is named Jemima. They call her Jems for short. I've never thought anything weird about it at all! I like that name a lot more than Ottilie, honestly.

This is a mommy brag, but DS1 was awarded a type 1 Air Force ROTC scholarship! Here's what that means, from the AFROTC website: Type 1—Pays full college tuition, most fees and a book allowance. Approximately five percent of our four-year scholarships are Type 1—mostly in technical fields as deemed needed by the Air Force (careers with a scientific basis such as engineering, chemistry and meteorology). We're pretty excited! He is still waiting to hear if he'll get an appointment to a service academy. He has Presidential nominations to all 3 because of dh's service, but he also was awarded a nomination to USAFA from our representative. That was a huge surprise because we live in competitive Northern Virginia, and we didn't think any congressman would give a nomination to someone who already had Presidential ones. If he does get an appointment, then he'll have a difficult choice to make. He's wanted to go to USAFA since he was a little boy, and we were stationed there, plus his dad and his grandfather were both grads. But he really, really liked Virginia Tech and their Corps of Cadets, and that would be a lot closer to home . . . No matter what, the really nice thing is that it looks like his college education will pretty much be free. I really have tried not to make his whole college process a validation of our homeschool, but I have to admit--this has been a much-needed boost for me to keep on for the long haul.

Boy, I am right there with you. I just told my kids, "I don't feel like doing anything Christmas-y with you when you are all like this!!" as they bicker and make tons of noise while accomplishing nothing useful. We're trying to get ready to go to Great Wolf Lodge for a night this week, and all I want them to do is clean up the house. Sigh. That being said, each year when I put the tree away, I put ornaments for each kid in separate tupperware containers. That way, when it is time to decorate the tree the next year, I can just get out the tupperware tubs and hand them out to each child, and those are the ornaments they get to hang up. The really fragile/meaningful ones don't go in the tupperware tubs. That system has worked really well the past few years--much less bickering over who gets to hang up what!

Another excellent place to get questions answered is service academy forums. They have a board specifically for ROTC questions, and there are lots of knowledgeable posters there.

What???? Not in this part of VA! Guess we'll wait until Monday . . . we're in NoVA.

Yes, that's pretty much the conclusion I've come to as well--and I even thought of the murder example too!

This article here sheds some light on the constraints universities have in dealing with these situations. I had no idea about any of this--I thought they could just expel the whole lot of troublemakers and be done, but evidently it is not so simple. The article was written back in 2013, and I am most certainly not a lawyer, just as a caveat. Here is one small quote:

Blaise, as in Blaise Pascal? I knew a family of math professors who had a son named that. I thought it was neat! ETA: Okay, I see that it is neither multi-syllabic, nor starting with a vowel! I got fixated on the scientist/mathematician part, lol.

Oh, wow--I do really feel for you! One reason we decided to go ahead and have dh retire was because it was getting harder to move as the kids got into high school. Praying for a smooth transition for you all. Our friends in Hawaii finally got their son enrolled in the local community college for dual-enrollment. It was a hassle, but eventually they did it. And they are dealing with the college visit stuff right now as well, as their oldest is a junior. Not fun!

We keep ice cream in our outside freezer, and it freezes too cold for us to ever use just a spoon to scoop, unless we waited for awhile for it to soften (and who has time for that?!? :drool5: ) So for us, an ice cream scoop is essential . . . of course, we are a family who pretty much always has 5 tubs of various flavors of ice cream in the freezer, so we are pretty hard-core ice cream eaters.

Your oldest son sounds so much like my 15 year old. He also is highly involved in the lives of his younger siblings, especially his 23 month old brother. He takes him outside and plays basketball or bounces on the trampoline with him, and he also builds towers with duplos or whatever inside with him. It is so sweet--he's going to be a fantastic dad, as will your son! I have also thought about the effects of moving away on the dynamics of relationships here. This ds of mine is only a sophomore this year, so I haven't thought too deeply, though it is unlikely he'll go to college right around here in Northern VA. I'll be interested to see how it works out for you all!

I never watch TV. I just don't have time, and it doesn't appeal to me at all. Like others said, if I do happen to have extra time, I'd rather read something on the computer or a book. My family didn't have a TV when I was growing up, though, so I never became used to watching. Now, when the kids are down (or at least the younger ones, the ones who make noise and messes!), then the last thing I want to do is listen to more noise. I won't even watch videos on the computer! I do enjoy watching the Olympics, though. A few years ago, dh and I used to watch House Hunters several times a month as a little date time, but we haven't done that in forever. Dh and the older kids watch some sports on TV, but if not for that, we really don't watch anything. No, that's not true--my oldest got hooked on Dr. Who, and he does DVR that for himself to watch later. But I do feel like I stay fairly up-to-date on people in the news--when I am sitting in the orthodontist's waiting room, I read People magazine, LOL. Then I can at least carry on a conversation with someone who watches tons of stuff!

That is what I do for our co-op yearbook (about 5-6 families each year). I have a co-op shutterfly account that we can all log in to, we all upload pictures onto it, and then people can create the pages, add captions, etc. It has worked really well for the past 4 years!

We're planning on getting one in January to replace our Ford 12 passenger van, so no experience with it yet. But the few people I know who have one love it! We'll definitely park it on our street, though. I'm so glad our HOA doesn't have that as a rule! What do they do for big families with teenagers, where they have to have more cars than average?? We have 3 cars (2 minivans and the big van), and will probably get a 4th small car in the next few years, since we will have so many drivers!

LOL, I had a similar experience when I was a little girl. We were stationed overseas on Okinawa, but my dad flew, and he was always TDY for missions, exercises, etc. We would go where he was, flying space-available, if we were out of school or whatever. One place we loved to go was Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Off base, there were tons of shops with all sorts of really cool things to buy. Many shops sold custom made plaques, wall-hangings, etc. Samples were hung all over the stores, and I, who was very proud of my excellent reading ability (this is like 2nd grade for me), would wander around, reading every sign out loud. Oh my. My mother would shush me all the time, really embarrassed, and looking back (and understanding much more the fighter culture, LOL), I am mortified for myself! Those plaques were totally not kid-friendly in the slightest! But hey--nothing wrong with my phonics, even on unfamiliar words! :lol:

Finally heard back. The powers-that-be said that his cross-country could go under "sanctioned varsity sports" because they competed against private schools, whereas rugby goes under "extra-curricular activities" because they competed against other clubs. A bit weird, but whatever. They should provide a little bit of guidance on the forms though! I also posted the question over on the service academy forums in the ROTC section. The 2 people that answered over there basically said it didn't matter and most people don't get 4 year scholarships anyway. Also, it would hurt him more if he was wanting a non-technical major or if his academic record/standardized test scores were low than if he played varsity sports. So we shall see! We're hoping to complete the app this weekend, now that we can move past this hurdle, LOL.

My 10th grader will take the old SAT this spring. I'd like to at least get one score from the old test. He's already taken the ACT and done well, so he will also take that again, although maybe not until his 11th grade year. I imagine he will also take the new SAT, just to see. He's a good test-taker in general. My oldest (a senior this year) actually preferred the SAT because he would rather have shorter sections than say one long math section or whatever. So I want to give ds2 that option as well, if he likes that format better (although I'm not sure how the format of the new SAT compares, which is one more reason to get a score from the old version under his belt).

That's what Loudoun County, VA does. It was a pleasant and unexpected surprise to not have to pay for the PSAT!

My 10th baby is 3 weeks old. My first baby was not a good nurser. He didn't latch on well, it took my milk forever to come in, and by the time it did, he was jaundiced and sleepy, so it was really hard to get him to eat enough. It was a real struggle. I was so relieved when my second baby (and subsequent ones) didn't have any troubles with nursing. Ha--I figured it all out! And so by this point I've nursed for over 10 years of my life, definitely an experienced nurser. Well, the last laugh was on me. This last baby has had a terrible time nursing! Starting with when we were in the hospital, I would try to get her to latch on, but she would suck for a few sucks, then cough and gag and spit up mucous. I really worked with her, but eventually she just decided it wasn't worth it, and she barely sucked at all, even once my milk came in. She would just cry around my nipple, this sad, pathetic cry like "Why are you torturing me with this?!". So she lost a ton of weight (she was born at 9 pounds, 6 ounces and went down to 7 pounds, 11 ounces at 1 1/2 weeks old). I saw the lactation consultant, who confirmed what I thought, which was that she didn't have any tongue/lip tie issues, and she actually *had* a good latch, but she just didn't want to suck. The LC said she probably had an over-sensitive gag reflex at birth (she didn't have vigorous suction or any other birth trauma), and that contributed to her not wanting to suck. So we used a supplemental nursing system for a few days (where you tape the little tube to the nipple so that pumped milk drips into her mouth from a syringe over your shoulder while she nurses), and that worked really well. After 3 days of using that, she was definitely sucking better and longer. It still took her a little while to really start gaining weight, so for another several days I syringe-fed her an extra ounce of pumped milk after she nursed on both sides. Yesterday she was up to 8 pounds 6 ounces, so we are on the right track. I was so thankful for the lactation consultant! Before this birth, if you had asked me what could possibly go wrong, I would never ever have said a nursing problem. I honestly thought I had that all down! But it just goes to show, each baby is so different. I was very committed to breast-feeding, since I've had so many good experiences, but I really was at a loss when things didn't happen as I expected, and having the lactation consultant be able to suggest different things to try was so helpful. Now I have even more experience, and I'm sure I will be much more sympathetic to the next person who has nursing problems that asks me advice! (Not that I was some arrogant know-it-all before, but you definitely can offer more compassion when you have personally experienced something, LOL.)