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AFwife Claire

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Everything posted by AFwife Claire

  1. That IS a great deal! I think I would have made the same decision! I think the Bosch is a very good mixer, and I am sure you will be happy and get lots of use out of it. I think you will be MUCH happier than with the Kitchenaid!
  2. Sounds GREAT to me!! A hotel friendly to families with more than 2 kids--it's like a dream! It would be too late for us, but my kids are all planning on having big families, so I'm sure they would be patrons, LOL!
  3. Wow, this is funny! I had never even heard of "wovels" until this past weekend, with the first D.C. storm. A Facebook friend of mine had a friend comment on her status about the wovel. I followed the link--what an interesting concept! I am glad to hear from someone who actually used one! How much did it cost? It wasn't immediately obvious on the website, and I got distracted before I could dig around for the answer (I probably had to go shovel more, LOL).
  4. I totally agree with this. I love how quiet ours is, and I feel like it does a good job. I like how it doesn't have a heating element for drying, so I can put anything on the bottom. But I don't like the way the top is laid out at. all. Things do not fit well, and mine has weirdly curved prongs that are supposed to hold bowls--except our bowls don't fit in them. And because they are curved, glasses don't fit on them either. So the top is definitely not my favorite. I like the bottom rack and the silverware holder, however! And we haven't had any mechanical problems. Ours is 2 years old.
  5. LOL, This is what we do too--call the hotel. My dh absolutely is not comfortable lying about how many kids we have (7), so we never make reservations online anymore. We always stay in suite hotel (usually Comfort Suites), so before a trip I figure out Comfort Suites on our route, and dh calls them directly and chats up the reservation clerk. We rarely have had anyone question all 9 of us fitting in a 6 person room. (I look at room pictures online to see if I think we would all fit, of course.) Our youngest 2 are in pack-n-plays, and the 3 y.o. has her little sleeping bag. We travel a lot to visit family, so we rarely are in a single hotel for more than one night. We are just passing through. I don't think I would want to go this route for a week or anything. Then I imagine we would get adjoining rooms (those are hard to find though, I've found), and then just the baby would be in a pack-n-play. NO WAY could we ever afford 3 rooms! Ah, for the ease of finding hotel rooms for just 5 people, LOL!!
  6. It's not either, really. There is science memory work, and that is just random science facts (parts of an animal cell, types of leaves and leaf parts, 3 kinds of rocks, etc.). There is no going deeper in any philosophical way. Then the science experiments are just basic "kitchen science" experiments, and they are mainly to demonsrate the scientific method. I really can't think of any instance where anything young earth/old earth would come up. We are very definitely young earth creationists, and I am also a tutor, and I just can't think of anything!
  7. I just wanted to say that you can get the DLX from Pleasant Hill Grain for $569 with no shipping costs. That makes it only a little over $100 more than their Bosch price. The trick is that that do not have a link to their DLX page anywhere on their site. Here is the link to the page: http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/electrolux_magic_mill_dlx_mixer.aspx I'm really not trying to sway you! This is just the absolute best price we found for the DLX, but it was not an obvious find, so I wanted to let you know about it!
  8. I just bought the Electrolux DLX, although I haven't used it yet! I did a lot of research, and it seemed like it was built a little more substantially than the Bosch. I have a close friend with a Bosch who said that if she was ordering today, she would also buy the DLX. But I'll have to let you know what I think after I actually use it, LOL. All this shoveling of snow has meant no time for playing around with mixers! I will say also that I currently have a 5 year old KitchenAid--one of the 6 qt. Professional ones. I find that it just can't handle what I need it to do--make bread, mash potatoes, whatever. I know I am burning out the motor because I can smell it as the motor labors away. It hasn't given up the ghost yet, but it is on its way. Of course, we have 7 kids, so we definitely a need a large-capacity mixer.
  9. I think some of it depends on your strengths and likes. I am definitely a science/math person, and writing is not my thing. I buoght CW (and really like the idea of the program), but it really didn't work for us. I did it with my 2 oldest boys a few years ago, so they were probably 4th and 2nd, and I found they mainly summarized the story as quickly as possible. And I was not motivated enough to be able to get them to add more interest or whatever. With IEW, however, there are certain things that must be included in each paragraph, as they learn these new techniques. I agree that is not necessarily the best thing for polished writing, and it can seem forced, but the key for us was that they forced my boys to do those things (start sentences in a variety of ways, add colorful adverbs, etc.), and I was not good at getting them to do those things in CW. So now, having had both older boys do IEW, their writing really has improved, and they are able to write more naturally (i.e., they don't have to add in all these forced things all the time, but they know to do them when it fits). So I really wanted CW to work for us because I liked the idea of it, but practically IEW was better for us. I think probably all my kids will end up engineers or scientists, anyway, LOL.
  10. Actually, I think they have changed that. Now you get timed tickets, and you have to be there like an hour before your time to get your ID all checked. When you write your congressman to ask for them, then they let you know if they have any tickets left to give for that particular day. And if you are even too late for your allotted slot, then you aren't able to go. You definitely can't just show up and hope to use your ticket at any random time on any random day! Unfortunately, it's not easy to tour the White House anymore!
  11. I love Lands End ones too, and I have worn mine through several pregnancies with no problems. They are so comfortable and stretchy.
  12. We're in Loudoun (eastern Loudoun, though), and we've got almost 20 inches so far. It's still snowing, although it's the small flakes. Still, it just doesn't stop! I need to get out and shovel the driveway again! At least our power is still on . . . although it's been flickering. I had thought I would put a roast in the crockpot, but I'm not going to risk that. We'll have a stir-fry if the power is still on at dinnertime!
  13. We sold an old Camry that had a terrible leprous paint problem (I mean, it looked like it had leprosy!). I was so ready to be done with it, and I felt like we got a very fair price for it (esp. when I felt like I would pay someone to take it away from us, LOL). It turned out it had been in an accident sometime before we bought it, and the frame was bent, so they were just going to sell it at auction. We still got maybe $2000 or slightly less. I was thrilled! They were so easy to deal with too.
  14. Well, this is good to know! We were contemplating a trip down to Duke University this weekend because the son of really good friends, who is a senior at USAFA, is fencing for USAFA at a tournament there. But it sounds like this is not the best weekend for traveling, LOL. We were traveling the weekend before Christmas, when we got all that snow, and it was a real hassle to get back home! I think we'll stay put. Nothing like clear signs from God that something is a bad idea!
  15. We get them out of the library, where all the packs of cards are removed, so the commercialism has not been an issue at all for us. My boys know cards are available, but they have never asked for them or really been interested at all in getting them, or being on the website, or anything. However, they are incredibly excited whenever a new one comes out, and we immediately put our name on the waiting list at the library! We are conservative Christians, and there hasn't been any content that bothers us. I've read I think the first 5, and I have actually enjoyed them and learned something! Ah, I just remembered that I do not enjoy some of the sibling bickering, and how they occasionally call each other names. But the brother and sister really do hang on together and stick up for each other, so there is some positive role modeling there. I've made sure to emphasize that they do not always honor each other with how they talk to each other, or think about each other, and that I absolutely do not want any name-calling here! So far it hasn't been a problem.
  16. Well, yes it would change my opinion. We joined a brand new group for this past year, which was also our first year doing CC. I am tutoring the 3/4 grade, and all of us tutors were brand spanking new. After seeing the tutor for our 4/5 years olds, I would never, never, never pay money to put my littles in there. She just repeated stuff over and over again, the kids could not have cared less, and she never really engaged their attention with it. Yes, the tutors are supposed to be the drill sergeants, but still--they are 4 and 5 year old kids. She just kept erasing words off the white board, yet none of her kids could read, so . . . not a real effective way of keeping interest! Anyhow, she has had a lot of discipline problems in her class, and I think it is because they are all bored silly. Maybe if she were not a brand new tutor, she would have had more experience and done a little better. I don't have anyone in her class, although I do have kids in all the other levels, and they have certainly gotten a lot of benefit out of it. But for the money you spend, I would just wait until 3rd grade to start, to be honest. I don't think it all that worth it for the younger ones.
  17. Yes, this is why I have told my dh I never want to live in an area that doesn't have a military base close by! People who move around a lot generally tend to be more open to the world around them, and more accepting of newcomers, than people who have always and forever been a part of their small community. That said, I do think people in the South have more issues with this, even with military bases nearby. We have very good friends who were stationed in Florida on the Gulf Coast, and they were never able to break into the ranks of their church either. Fortunately, they were able to move away after 3 years, and they certainly never looked back!
  18. *bump* I haven't used this, but I am looking at it. I am also interested in what people think!
  19. You are so right about the church! That was a huge factor. We've never been in a church we have enjoyed and grown in as much as this one. We go to Bethesda for care, and I LOVE it there. The doctors are so wonderful. I guess we'll see what kind of health insurance the new job has, and evaluate from there. I hadn't even started thinking about that angle, LOL!
  20. Yes, that's where the assignment was! I'm sure it's a lovely area, and I know there's tons to do so close by. We have even looked at houses for rent in the area, and they looked so nice! But in the end it just seemed silly to move away from a wonderful church and homeschool group, and not even be in a different state! Guam would have been something really different, LOL.
  21. He'll be retiring on Aug. 1. He has 22 years in, so it's not like this was a big surprise, but still . . . I'm sad. We were going to take one more assignment to take advantage of the miltary homeowners' assistance program, so we could sell our house here in D.C. We were supposed to go to Guam, but then that assignment suddenly got canceled last month. AFPC decided to send us down to Suffolk, VA, just a few hours down the road. I was not as enthused about simply moving within the same state, and dh said he was tired of all the running for the PFTs (cue lazy AF jokes, LOL--actually, he has bad knees from forced rugby at USAFA), so he's retiring. I guess I was just hoping for one more big AF adventure. Because of dh's career field, we were protected from all the deploying, so I don't have that as a big positive for retiring. My dad was career AF too, so I'm not really sure what to do out in civilian life. Definitely out of my comfort zone! I think I feel like I'm losing part of my identity, you know? And of course, now dh has to find a job . . . I never in my wildest dreams thought we would retire in the Northern VA area! I guess there are jobs around, so that's a good thing. So, here we go on a new adventure. I'm trying to have a good attitude, but I'm just a little sad.
  22. My first 4 are all boys and all circ'd, as is my dh. He watched the procedure for several of them (I know he didn't for the first one, but I think for the rest). Topical anesthesia was used on the last few, but I don't think on the first (my memory is fuzzy). My dh said that as soon as the boys were restrained they cried, and as soon as they were released, they stopped, so I don't think it had anything to do with the procedure. They all healed with no problems and no trauma whatsoever. I will do it for any boys we have in the future. I am thankful that SO FAR in this country it is still considered an area of parental choice, and I fervently hope that it will continue to be so.
  23. Except that in this case, the radical Muslims have made no secret about thier wish to have the world be under Sharia law. Even if many mainstream Muslims do not wish for that, they are not making a loud enough noise to overpower the hatred that is coming from the madrassa schools and other places, like the one in Yemen where the Christmas Day bomber was from. I have no problem, for example, with the fact that soon Hispanics will be a majority in this country. They are not trying to change my way of life and do not consider me an infidel. Neither were blacks and Jews. Many Muslims do, and those who do seem to be the ones in power and speaking the loudest in the Muslim world.
  24. Oh, my goodness! My grandparents owned a hardware shop for years in Montague! My dad was actually born and raised in Yreka, and they moved to Montague when he went off to the Air Force Academy, but I only remember visiting them in Montague!
  25. This sounds great! My brother and his wife gave this book to my DH for Christmas, and they had both been very challenged by it in what sounds like the ways you were talking about. I'm looking forward to reading it as well. Thanks for the review!
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