I voted "no". I'm pregnant with #10, and I've never had morning sickness. With my 3 girls, I did have some twinges of nausea, but I never thought I would throw up, and it didn't affect my eating or anything else in my life. With my boys, I never felt anything. If I didn't have to pee desperately in the middle of the night by the time I was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant, I would never know to test, esp. when I'm still nursing and not regular!

I had my 2 oldest kids (a junior and a freshman this past year) take the chemistry and the US history SAT IIs. I was very curious about how the chemistry would go, in particular, because we did not do an AP chemistry course. We just used the BJU chemistry book (I taught the course for our small co-op, and both boys took the class, both of them doing really well at understanding the concepts). Before deciding on using that book last summer, I had searched the forums to see if anyone else had used the BJU book and had their child take the SAT II, but I didn't really find anything. DS #1 got a 710, and DS #2 got a 650. I had thought both of them would get about 30 points higher, based on practice tests, but I guess during the actual test, they weren't as accurate or relaxed or something. I think the BJU book covered the material thoroughly--the disadvantage to not taking an AP course is that they just haven't had as much practice with the calculations as they would have if this was their second chemistry class, so they are slower. If they had more time, I think they for sure would have scored a lot higher, LOL. For my second son, this was literally the first SAT test he has taken, so I'm sure he'll be more comfortable next time. Oh, US history was okay. It was a last-minute decision to have them take that, so they didn't really prepare as thoroughly as they could have. They both took the regular US history class from Potter's. DS #1 got a 730, and DS #2 got a 640. I will confess, I was pretty surprised by the lower score for DS#2, because he is quite smart and generally does well on tests like this, especially in "soft" subjects, like history. But I think he was just tired from the chemistry test, which he took first. Oh well, plenty of time left in high school for other scores!

My oldest one is going to be taking one when he gets back. I just googled "practice college math placement test" or something like that, and I found a bunch. There are even practice online ones (sorry--I can't look right now to find them again--we're off to swim practice!). The one here for our community college is an online one that is adaptive--it gets progressively harder as you answer questions correctly. If you don't answer correctly (it's multiple choice), then it goes back to an easier question. At the end, it spits out a list of classes you are qualified to take, based on your score. I printed off some paper practice tests for my son to take while he is traveling this week, but when he comes back, I do want him to try at least one online one before taking the real deal.

I was also 18 and my dh was 26 when we met. I had just graduated from high school, so he never technically knew me in high school, and we met in a singles Bible study, so he just assumed I was in college. He was getting his master's degree in astronautical engineering then, and he had just pinned on captain in the Air Force, so it wasn't like he was just coasting through life. We also got married right after I turned 20, and it has been almost 21 years for us! I was pretty mature even back in college, and I knew what I was looking for in a man. I will say, it was nice to marry someone who already had a good start--we didn't have to live off of beans and ramen ever, and he had saved a nice financial cushion during those bachelor years. So those of you who say you would be really uncomfortable if your daughter dated someone that much older--I would encourage you to not immediately discount it. It could be a really great relationship, like it has been for us!

Apparently it is illegal in Loudoun County, VA. I only know this because my good friend (who has 5 kids, 4 of them boys) has a really obnoxious neighbor. They live on a cul-de-sac, and obnoxious neighbor backs really, really fast out of her driveway and comes really, really close to any kid who is out in the cul-de-sac (playing kickball, riding bikes, or whatever). My friend talked to the neighbor, and the neighbor told her it was illegal for kids to play in the streets. And since then, their HOA has sent out a reminder in their summer newsletter that it is illegal--although it is a big subdivision, with lots of cul-de-sacs, and I always see kids riding bikes and playing in the streets. So probably only those cul-de-sacs with obnoxious neighbors have to worry about it. My kids play football and street hockey in our street all the time, and they all ride bikes there, even the younger ones. We also live on a cul-de-sac (same county), and no one has ever said a word to us about it. We get very little traffic, so that is certainly not an issue. Geesh--people complain about obesity in kids, but then they buy houses in family neighborhoods (on tiny lots, so not much yard space), and then they complain about kids being out in the streets getting exercise! You can't win!

My oldest two sons took the chemistry and US history subject tests. My oldest has already taken both the SAT and the ACT, plus the biology subject test, while my second son has only taken the ACT before. He was more nervous about today, LOL, but both boys felt like they did okay. They felt prepared for both tests, and they each left maybe 5 questions blank on each test that they didn't feel confidant answering. They both worked through the Barrons book for both subjects (although I felt like they could probably have spent a little more time on both, esp. my oldest *cough*). I was their chemistry teacher, and they took US history from Potters School. I guess we'll see in a few weeks if reality matches up with their feelings!

We have a 2008 Ford 12 passenger van that we bought used in 2009. It's been okay--we haven't had any major problems with it, just some minor annoyances. I can't say I would buy another one, though. For one thing, it is INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. We didn't really ever test drive one before we bought it. We knew we needed a 12 passenger van, there were only 2 options (Ford and Chevy), and we weren't happy with the Chevy reliability record or the gov't bailout. So we just bought a Ford. But the engine block sticks way into the passenger side, such that I can't put my legs out straight without cocking them off to the side. Sitting in the passenger seat on long trips gives me terrible hip/back problems. The Chevy does not have this issue. We rented a Chevy 15 passenger van when we were in Hawaii this February, and it was a lot more comfortable--although it had some electrical problems with the blinker, so maybe the reliability reports aren't that off. It is nice to have more room, although with this next baby, we will completely fill up every seat, so it won't any longer be any extra room! With a 12 passenger van, we can still fit pretty much all the luggage we need to take behind the back seat and under the other seats, but it is a tight fit. When we go camping or home for Christmas, we have a "Stow-Away" big black box thing that fits into our hitch and allows us to carry more stuff. It is a pain to drive, in that the steering is really sloppy. I feel like I have to move around the steering wheel just to keep it going straight on a highway! I used to be able to drive 8 hours or more by myself (with kids but no other driver) in our Sienna, but the big van is much more fatiguing to drive, esp. for long periods. Right now we need some sort of new ball joint thing or something, because when we turn, it makes a horrible groaning noise, like it's complaining about having to work, LOL. The thing about the van is that it really hasn't changed in what, 30 years? No more options, no more thought to passenger comfort, nothing. It's just a big, clunky, American-made vehicle that you drive if you have to, but they aren't going out of their way to make it at all nice for you. That line of thinking irritates me! After our last long trip (we just got back Friday night from visiting family in Ohio, which isn't really all that far, but really was hard on my hips, especially since I'm pregnant), we are seriously considering buying a Nissan NV. It's a lot more expensive, but at least the company put some thought into the vehicle and tried to make it safe and nice!

Yes, that I what I did as well.

My Down's Syndrome uncle was killed when he was in his 30s by a severely autistic man. They were both working at a Goodwill-type place, and my uncle was in the bathroom when this man came in and proceeded to beat him into a coma, and he died a few days later. It was later determined that doctors had been lessening the dosages of several of his medications, and his parents were so terribly distraught and upset by what he did. My grandparents obviously were too, but I think they were madder at the doctors always thinking less medicine=better. It was just a tragic situation all around. But still, I know several autistic children now, and I would never just assume they would be violent. This other man apparently had signs of violence and aggression for years and years, and he was living in a group home at the point he killed my uncle because his parents couldn't handle him. But I think the right medicines were making a difference. So sad. My uncle and I shared a birthday, so I always felt close to him. He was killed when I was in high school, so about 25 years ago. I am sure there have been many advances in medicines and in dosage protocol since then!

I have 6 boys. We have sort of done the "groups of 2" method when it comes to planning, so most are about 20 months apart from a brother. Oldest 2 are almost 17 and 15 (20 months apart) Next 2 are 12 and almost 11 (19 months apart) Last set of boys are 3 and 18 months (18 months apart) Feel free to PM me, although I certainly don't have all the answers (but I've probably had all the questions, LOL). I'm more than willing to commiserate and empathize!

Well, I'm back. I did indeed wear the navy dress, along with dressier sandals (I have limited footwear too, because my feet have grown a size and a half over all these pregnancies, and I just haven't replaced my nicer shoes either, LOL). I definitely felt comfortable, but actually, I think it would have been fine to wear my khaki skirt. I was amazed at how varied the outfits were, as far as dressiness was concerned! There were women in suits, and there were women in capris, and no one really seemed to care either way! The funny thing was, we were in a ballroom on the 3rd floor of the club, so we saw a lot of other patrons on the other floors walking around. People were dressed in nice shorts, etc., even to go into what seemed to me like a nice restaurant on the second floor! It was a really fun evening, and the food was DELICIOUS! So fun! I'm glad I went, even with all the wardrobe angst!

My university is having an alumni dinner tonight at the Army Navy Club in DC. The email says "Kindly be reminded that the minimum dress standard at the club is sharp business casual – no denim, please". I'm 21 weeks pregnant with my 10th child, so I look like I am at least 30 weeks along, if not ready to deliver right now, LOL. Sadly, the "sharp business casual" part of my maternity wardrobe is woefully lacking. Actually, I'm not even sure what it means. For a man, he would most likely just wear khaki pants and a nice polo shirt. Does that sound right? So I do have a khaki maternity skirt. Would that be acceptable? But I always just wear it with (nicer) flip flops, and that doesn't scream "sharp" to me, LOL. But anything else I have seems way too dressy--nothing casual at all. I have a fairly plain navy blue dress with white piping that I wore to a wedding the last time I was pregnant, almost 2 years ago. I have a few other dresses, but they are all from much earlier pregnancies, and they definitely seem frumpy to me now. One problem is that I usually am pregnant over the winter, so I really just don't have a big selection of warm-weather maternity clothes. Gah. I hate figuring out what to wear, esp. when nothing fits well, and I look like a hippo!

My oldest son took it this morning, too. He felt pretty good about it, although he is naturally a pretty optimistic kid, so we'll see what he actually ends up getting! He didn't spend tons of time on the class throughout the year, but he did review pretty diligently the past week or 2. He did say he thought 100 minutes for the FRQs was WAYYYYY too long, and that for the last 40 minutes, no one wrote anything, but just looked around or whatever. He personally drew some lovely tattoos on his arm with his black ball point pen, LOL.

I made one up a few years ago where people matched lines from famous children's books to the book they came from (books like Madeline, The Little Engine that Could, etc.). It went over well in my circles, although it's not just boy-themed. Also, I like to do a Mad-Libs type story where people go around and give me a noun, adjective, whatever, and in the end I read "the birth story". It's so funny! If either of those interest you, PM me your email address, and I'll send you the file!

I taught it last year (AP bio, I mean), and one boy was a 9th grader. He is very bright, and I had also taught him his junior high science classes, so I knew what his preparation was. He did fine on the exam, getting a 4 (only 5% got a 5 last year). It was very challenging, and it took an inordinate amount of time (not just for him, but for everyone), but it certainly wasn't undoable. His preparation was BJU life science and physical science, and those did provide enough preparation for the class.

My oldest 2 sons are taking AP microeconomics, and my oldest is taking US Gov. They are really well-prepared for the micro exam, but my oldest is not that prepared for the government one. He self-studied for it this year, and it just consistently wasn't his top priority. Sigh. I am reviewing with him each day, but I worry about the essays. His handwriting has never been the best, and writing just isn't his strength! He is much more comfortable with the FRQ format of microeconomics, which is a lot about interpreting graphs and whatnot, and not just pouring out tons of information by pen. We'll see. I'll be glad when its all over! Both boys have to take SAT IIs on June 3--chemistry and US history--but no one is anywhere near as stressed about those!

We had them yesterday (we are in Northern VA), but only because my friend brought them! Her mother-in-law is Hispanic (from Texas), and she sent my friend some, and my friend made some more as well. They are a big mess, but fun! My girls did not love having all that confetti in their hair though, LOL.

My oldest 2 are taking it for the first time today. Neither of them prepared all that diligently, so we will see what happens. Ds1 has already gotten good scores on the SAT, and ds2 is only a freshman, so I guess neither of them were that concerned! The timing wasn't great, because we just got back last night from a college visit to VA Tech, and a day at Monticello, but oh well. I was SO thrilled that my oldest could drive the 2 of them over to the school so that neither dh nor I had to get up early to take them!

Well, it can be done--I taught AP bio last year to 4 boys, none of whom had taken chemistry previously (although I had taught them BJU physical science the previous year, and that actually was a good introduction, since it only focused on physics and chemistry). They scored 4's (and one 3), so they did well, considering, as Jen said, hardly anyone got 5's last year. BUT the redesigned course is extremely difficult and time-consuming! It is VASTLY different than what it was when I was majoring in biology back in the 90's, and much different even than it was before the redesign. The emphasis on concepts such as cellular communication and signaling is huge, and conceptual understanding (not just memorizing) is stressed. There is almost no anatomy/physiology in the course. There are 3 systems covered (endocrine, nervous, and immune), but again, those are covered mainly because understanding them on a biochemical level involves cellular communication and signaling. There is almost no emphasis on plants, except as examples of biochemical processes, either. I wouldn't recommend doing AP bio and chem concurrently either. Bio takes up so much time, and if she is self-studying, she will most certainly need to be watching Bozeman videos or some other form of videos to help her be able to understand the concepts (the book is well-written, but there's just so. much. there, and it can be easy to get bogged down and miss the overall main points), and she will for sure have to dig around for online labs to watch to supplement. Understanding lab procedures and being able to design your own experiments to test certain points is also a big new emphasis, and the procedures involve lots of fruit flies in chambers, for example, or that really aren't practical to do in house. I really had to scramble around with labs. Joining the AP bio teachers forum on the college board website was a huge lifesaver for me, because there I found out that lots of AP teachers deal with low, strict budgets and lack of time, not just homeschooling ones, and so they had lots of helpful suggestions for lab work-arounds. Honestly, I think that since the redesign, AP bio has become one of the hardest AP courses to self-study because the student has to connect so many dots, and they are not neccessarily very intuitive. I had my boys doing the study guide questions (you can buy used copies of the study guide associated with the Campbell version you use), as well as the Biological Inquiry: A Workbook of Investigative Cases book. I also found terrific study questions written by Fred and Theresa Holtzclaw (link here) that were helpful so the boys could see what they should be getting out of the chapters. If your daughter does self-study, you for sure will want to check for how the Campbell book (we used the 8th ed.) matches up with the AP curricular requirements, because many chapters are not covered, so she would not want to waste time reading them. (Here's one example from the College Board, although it is not the clearest, by any means. Somewhere on another computer I have a better one saved, but I couldn't find it by searching just now.) I hope something in here is helpful! Best of luck to your daughter!

I read this article on facebook, and it was very timely for me because of an interaction I had this week. We have a small co-op that meets at our house on Tuesdays. In the morning, it is only junior high and high schoolers (elementary kids are at a bigger co-op until 12:30). Then in the afternoons, everyone is at my house, and the younger kids do memory work and literature/writing classes. Well, this week our internet and phone were out (we had a snowstorm knock out power Sunday night for several hours, which apparently fried our main Verizon box, and they couldn't fix it until today). We skype one family in from Hawaii, so we definitely need internet, and so the high schoolers met over at another family's house (3 minutes away), but the younger kids still met at our house. At 2:30, I had to run over to the other house to pick up my oldest to take him to his 3:00 rugby practice. Another mom was was my house in the basement (because that is just where she usually teaches her class), teaching the 5/6th grade literature class to 6 boys, and another mom and her 6th grade daughter were also there, visiting our co-op. So, 2 moms were in the basement. My baby was napping, and my other 4 kids (aged almost 8 down to almost 3) were playing on our main floor, in our playroom and family room. I was gone about a total of 1 hour (traffic is crazy around here!), and while I was gone, another mom came over, about 30 minutes after I left. (This situation would not normally happen, since normally we all would be at my house, so there would be an adult on the main floor, along with the 4 high school aged boys.) Well, the visiting mom told my good friend (whose house the older boys had been at) 3 different times how concerned she was for my kids, because I left them there "alone"! My friend said the kids weren't really alone--there were 2 adults in the basement--and plus, this situation was only because of the power outage, but the other mom is very concerned and thinks I am neglectful. Wow! I was stunned! Honestly, I know people with only a few kids (she has 3, but 2 are in school, so she only is homeschooling 1) can tend to be more cautious maybe, but still, I don't think I was "neglectful". I wouldn't leave that set of kids at a store or in McDonalds by themselves, but I am very confidant that they know how to play appropriately while I am not watching them IN THEIR OWN HOUSE with 2 adults down the stairs! So the article really spoke to me because I really don't think this lady has ever left her kids alone (oldest is 15) or not been directly supervising them when they weren't in school. And it made me so sad that just because HER kids aren't ready for that (and I will trust her discernment about her own kids!), that she then judges my kids to automatically not be ready, so I must be neglectful! Maybe I'll print the article out for her . . .

I also made a chocolate cream pie, but we just had whipped cream, since I also don't like meringues. BUT I am definitely making a note of the Andes mint idea for next year, because that sounds AMAZING! I love chocolate mint!

This is what my friend and I did too--started our own chapter. It was easy and not very expensive. The kids are tutoring weekly at a local elementary school for a service project, but mainly--it is nice to have another (easy) thing to add to the transcript. It seems like public school students have so many little things like that to list!

We have that exact chromebook. It's okay, I guess. It's smaller than you would think (we also have an HP chromebook, which is just a little bit bigger, and I find it easier to use). It's great for traveling and for surfing the web. But I'm not sure what exactly it would do that an iPad wouldn't do? (That could just be my ignorance, because I am well aware that I do not use any of my devices to their fullest potential, LOL.) What I don't like is that you can't download any programs and run them, so for example, my older boys can't listen to their Potters School classes on it. I do like that it doesn't just run apps, so I prefer it greatly to the ipad. I don't use google docs, so I don't know how easy it is to use that. I do know we have been reallly frustrated trying to register our chromebooks to the cloud or something so we can print from them. All I know is we've never been able to do it, so we can't print from either chromebook, but again, that is probably our limited technical capacity, and others wouldn't have the same issue. Sorry I'm not more helpful!

We went a few years ago in early June (we had been in Utah for a wedding over Memorial Day). It was definitely NOT in the 50s! We had our heavy jackets, and there was snow on the ground. We had a good time (and did see a lot of animals). I'm sure it was not crowded at all compared to July standards, but it wasn't empty by any stretch of the imagination! There were still lots of cars and people! Several times it was really foggy/cloudy, and we couldn't see too much from the car. Weather was definitely iffy!

A few weeks ago someone started a thread on what to do with kids in Oahu, and I posted that we were thinking of trying to get a military flight out there ourselves. Well--we did it! It was crazy, but it was so much fun! Military people, both active duty and retired, can fly for free on military aircraft on a space-available basis (retirees, like we are, are a lower priority than active-duty people who are on leave--I'm not talking about active-duty people who are actually on a mission and need to fly somewhere!). You have to sign up at terminals where you think you might be able to get out of, and then watch the facebook pages of those terminals, where they post their flight schedules only 72 hours in advance, to see if there is a flight you would like to be on. They will let you know how many seats the aircraft will tentatively have, and what time the "roll call" is. You have to be at the terminal about an hour earlier than the roll call time to sign in and mark yourself present. Then, at roll call time, they call your name if you make it on. We live in Northern VA, so we signed up at Andrews (MD), McGuire (NJ), and Dover (DE), and we ended up catching a flight to Travis AFB, CA, from Dover on a C-17. C-17s are huge, and the seats are jump seats that pull down from the walls on either side of the cargo area. After you reach cruising altitude, you are allowed to walk around, and people blow up mattresses and lay down and nap! My kids LOVED it. From Travis, we caught a C-5 on to Hickam AB in Oahu. Both those aircraft have a lot of possible seats (53 for the C-17, and 73 for the C-5), and we were traveling at a time when we were mainly competing with other retirees, not hordes of active-duty families trying to get back and forth to the mainland for a school break or whatever. That's a good thing, since we needed 11 total seats! In Hawaii, we rented a 15 passenger van, and we stayed with wonderful friends of ours. We were there for 8 days, and we had such a ball! We went to a ton of different beaches, we hiked the Makapu'u lighthouse trail, we kayacked in Kaneohe Bay, we went to the luau at Hale Koa (the military resort), we visited Iolani Palace and Pearl Harbor, and we generally stayed busy the whole time. It was wonderful! Most of all we enjoyed wearing shorts and flip-flops while our fellow East Coasters were freezing and getting snow dumped on them, LOL. We weren't able to get an Admiral's Barge tour of Pearl Harbor because I couldn't sign up early enough, and we didn't get to drive to the North Shore because it was really cloudy the one day we could have done it, but other than that, I don't have any regrets! For our way home, we were able to get on a contract flight back to Travis. This was a regular 757 that the military has contracted with, so we did have to pay for that flight--$8.70 a person. That was all we paid to get to Hawaii and back for a family of 11! Pretty good deal, no?! But we got nice airline seats (with more legroom!) and a really nice breakfast--scrambled eggs, chicken sausage links, cooked potato wedges, a bowl of fresh fruit, and a croissant with butter and jam! The kids also loved this flight! We really can't fly commercially, since it is just so cost-prohibitive for us, and so I thought it was so special that our kids still were able to sort of see what a commercial flight is like (although I told them not to expect such delicious food on one, LOL). In Travis, however, we did get stuck. We were completely at the mercies of the Air Force flight schedules, and for some reason (snow, for one), there just weren't any flights flying back anywhere on the east coast. So we cooled our heels at Travis (which is between San Francisco and Sacramento) for 4 days before we were able to compete for a flight back to Dover. We went sightseeing both in San Francisco and Sacramento, so we just called it part II of the vacation! We were able to make it on to the flight to Dover, but that was a pretty stressful time, I will say! We had actually reserved tickets on Southwest to fly back yesterday if we didn't make that flight (which was on Sunday), because my husband needed to get back to leave today for a business trip. Fortunately, he was able to take a work laptop with him so he could stay somewhat caught up during the 2 weeks we were gone. So we got back to Dover at 1:30 AM, and we drove back home, getting here at 4:00 AM. We were so glad to fall into our own beds! It was a trip of a lifetime though. SUCH great family memories! We really wanted to make this trip while our friends were still over there, and before our oldest goes to college (he's a junior). I'm so glad we actually did it!