If I have any doubt that I will be able to make the trip safely -- there *and* back -- we stay home. It's just not worth it. With the snow and ice this past week, I had to make that decision several times and I was glad I did. I was told by my neighbors that our road was "good" and took off Saturday afternoon to find that there was nothing "good" about it. I hit the first big hill and slid all the way down -- it was nothing but a sheet of ice at 1:30 in the afternoon. There was nothing to be done but keep going, but I was really worried about getting up the hill on the way home. Thankfully, it got warm enough that most of it had melted off by the time I had to do that. The other thing my son tried on me is if I don't want to bring him home, can someone else do it? What he didn't realize was that if I didn't feel safe driving on that road, I sure wouldn't want him in a car with someone else trying to do it. I know he wants to do his "out" things and we do our best to keep our commitments. But I'm the "pilot" of my car and the final decisions are mine, as well as the responsibility. If I'm out there when I shouldn't be and something happens -- heaven forbid I hurt someone else! -- I would never be able to forgive myself.

Ditto. I love them cooked any way, but for my guys (who generally are not picky eaters and will eat the patterns off the plates) roasted is *greatly* preferred. They've got to be fresh, though. The frozen ones, no matter what you do to them, well -- we don't buy frozen ones. ;-)

Happy birthday!

Living in the middle of nowhere, my son finds stuff like that all the time -- usually deer. I think it's creepy -- he thinks it's kewl. :-) I vote for letting her have and enjoy her "treasure." Kris (A cat person, too.)

I don't know how hard your water is, but I almost fell over many, many years ago (when I indulged in such things) when the lady who did my hair commented that we must be on a well -- she could see the *rocks* in my hair! Musta been very *small* rocks as I never saw them -- but they did damage my very fine hair. Now, once again, we are on a well and this one is even worse than the first one was. Someone suggested "Aloe Rid Gentle Clarifying Shampoo" from Nexxus and it definitely works. It is a bit pricey, but you don't use it often because it works really really well. You will strip your hair dry if you use it all the time. It's recommended for not only hard water problems, but for chlorine and other water-borne goodies. Depending on how often I wash my hair, I use it maybe two or three times a month. It really does work miracles, and I've had this bottle for ages. Good luck!

LOL! I thought you were talking about the neighbors! Kris -- Wondering what's in *my* coffee.

Now you've got me wondering if he was asking for brothers and sisters as part of some nefarious plan! Hummmmm :D Not too long ago, that wouldn't have seemed possible. Now that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't always a train, I'm starting to have hope! Will probably still be crazy -- and bald -- and grey -- but I'm sure *he'll* be okay. :D

I try to buy used, but it rarely works out. By the time I figure out what I'm wanting to use, I need to quit messing around and get it here. I'm further hampered by the fact that I refuse to use credit cards. I cut all of them up ten years ago and I wouldn't have it any other way, but most of the time when I find used books -- at abebooks for instance -- the sellers won't accept anything but MC or Visa. If we don't have the cash, we don't make the purchase. In some cases, it costs more money because I have to buy new books, but it's saved us big dollars in the long run. And our income isn't steady -- January, in particular, is *very* tight here because the freight isn't reliable. It seems like no matter what I do to try to save up for the "dry" periods, something always happens that makes the money tight. So I really like not having to worry about having bills I can't pay when cash flow is slow. I do check the sale boards here, but for some reason the things I'm looking for never seem to get posted. That goes both ways, though -- no one wants the stuff I'm wanting to part with, either. ;-)

The state of Missouri requires 1,000 hours a year. That works out to four hours a day for 50 weeks. That's the minimum and we could *legally* get by with that, but I really don't think we could meet our goals doing just the minimum.

Thank goodness.

Just once -- but I did it big. What I did was awful, and no one at the school could believe it was me (good grades, never in trouble). As a matter of fact, they brought all the "bad kids" in first to try to find out who the culprit was. I was suspended for a few days. They told me it was mostly because all the "bad kids" were so mad at me, they were afraid I might get hurt! I wanted out of my science class. I didn't like the teacher and he didn't like me. For half the school year I tried to get out, but I just kept getting the "all your life you're going meet people . . . blah blah blah." So I took matters into my own hands. It was a humiliating, embarrassing and mortifying experience. I had to go to counseling and was suspended for I don't know how long. But I got out of the science class.

This is my problem. My son doesn't want to use his free time in noble pursuits. Actually, I think he considers being the local expert on PS3 games to *be* a noble pursuit! :D He gets started around 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. and finishes around 4:00 p.m. He takes breaks when he needs them, and usually takes an hour or so in the middle of the day to have some lunch and workout. Sometimes he works on the weekends, but not much, unless it's on his art, which he loves to do. His friends don't get home from school until 4:00, but that's when the phone starts ringing. So even if we wanted to (which we don't), working much past that just wouldn't be possible. So he's probably doing 30-35 hours a week of "real" work.

As far as I know, foster kids aren't allowed to be homeschooled here, either. I would imagine that would be because the placements are intended to be temporary and they wouldn't want to have gaps in public school attendance.

I could do it for you. When it was over, you'd probably be refunded every penny you ever spent there -- but you wouldn't be welcome anywhere in town. :D

I think the note sounds snobby, but that's just me. Even with smilies and other emoticons, written communication can be misunderstood, though. But I would be very uncomfortable going back after that. I patronize places that appreciate my hard-earned dollars. If they don't want me, or my money, there, I don't go. I'd go ahead and call, since it's so far away, and the place is so important to you. It's not ideal, but you would get a sense by tone of voice, etc., of where you really stand. You know what they say -- what you can come up with in your mind is usually worse than the situation really is. I don't quite "buy" the "this is the first time" pronouncement, either. It seems to me that such a high standard of service should include the realization that people make mistakes, and the ability to handle it more gracefully.

Thanks! It definitely was a "warm-fuzzy" moment and one I was still enjoying this morning. What a fine young man he's growing up to be! See the wisdom! See the maturity! Then he makes fart noises with his armpits and I know all is well with the world. :D

Hi, Jean -- We're just up north of you and they're sending the kids home from school. This didn't hit us until after everyone was already there. I'm snowed in! It's only a few inches, but the snow isn't the problem. It's the gravel roads. There is a very small percentage of kids who do not take the bus, and the buses can't navigate these roads once the snow gets compacted and slick. The main highways will be fine, but these little side roads get no maintenance -- we're on our own. So if you can get out to the main road, you're fine. Then all you have to worry about it getting back home. ;-) We don't use snow tires or chains around here -- not much point in investing in something like that if you'll only need them maybe once a year. Back in the winter of '69, we lived in Portland OR and had a huge storm with drifts up to eight feet high. The kids were in heaven -- the parents were pulling their hair out! The oil trucks couldn't get in to deliver heating oil, and I remember my Mom telling me that my Dad was out at night stealing firewood! I *do* remember the cold and all of us hovering in front of the fire place. I'm not sure why Dad couldn't just ask for wood -- maybe he did? I do know he wasn't a thief, so things must have been pretty serious for him to resort to that. He got a transfer to California in the middle of that mess. I guess there were concerns that the moving truck could even get to the house! I was young and blissfully ignorant of the circumstances. We didn't usually get a lot of snow, but when we did, they didn't close the schools. We just put on our boots and walked through it -- and it was a ton of fun!

When we were using Calvert, we worked through the lesson manual and when we were tired, we quit. Sometimes we got a half way through the daily lesson plan -- some days we seemed to breeze through two or more lessons. I'm trying to "give him his head" the past few months and that seems to be working for him. I give him a list of what has to be done for the week and pretty much let him decide when he wants to do things (he's 15). As I predicted, he does all of his science on the first day. He'd be a happy guy if I could figure out how to let him do nothing but science. About the only thing I really insist that he do every day is math -- because if I didn't, he probably put it all off until Friday. :-)

I've never seen the like -- and hope I never do. Ditto on the "find a new vet." You shouldn't beat yourself up over not reacting immediately and being unsure of yourself. While you are supposed to be on top of things, you're also supposed to be able to trust the professionals you have to deal with in your life.

We pretty much work all year, but we take time off when the opportunity presents itself. Most specifically, my husband is a truck driver and we never know when he'll be able to spend a few days at home. Originally, I tried to stick to a schedule even on those days, but now I've given up. And that's fine with me -- I think it's much more important that he spend time with his Dad.

Once we narrowed down an area, we would talk to the neighbors when we were looking at houses. Unfortunately, with one that we did choose, that strategy didn't work. We had a wonderful chat with the lady next door, and I will never forget the fact that, when I asked her, "How are the schools?" she responded that the local school, about a block from the house, was wonderful. *After* we moved in, we learned she didn't send her own kids to that school. :-)

I agree with the way you handled it, too. "Walk away" and "don't fight" only go so far. Sometimes, a bloody nose is the only thing a bully will understand. When my son was in elementary school, he was constantly being hassled by some high school kids on the bus. One day, apparently, one of the boys was in the process of bashing my son's head against the metal rail on the seat and my son whipped around and crunched him in the nose. When he came home, he was a bloody mess -- but it was the other kid's blood. He never had a problem with that boy after that. He didn't start the fight, but he finished it. And after the word got out, he rarely had to defend himself again. Words will only get you so far with some people, unfortunately.

I admit I'm patting myself on the back a bit tonight. I found that our success isn't all in my mind. :) Now that my son's friends are all in high school, for some reason, they have been asking him repeatedly to come back to school. This doesn't really surprise me. He was the class clown and always had great ideas for getting himself, and his buddies, into trouble. It was never anything serious -- harmless "boy" stuff -- and that was part of the reason the school wrote him off. I was specifically told that if he had been involved in drugs or violence at school, I would have had more help with him. But anyway -- The subject came up again tonight -- about him going back to public school -- and he flat out told me he just wasn't interested. So I wanted to know why. He said that he was able to spend more time with his friends now because he isn't in trouble all the time. He also told me that, now that we've finally got our system worked out, and things are going so smoothly, why mess with it? He said we had worked so hard to get to this point, and he was happy with the work and with his freedoms, he didn't want to change a thing. He's excited about going to college. He was afraid he'd never be able to do that before because he saw so many kids from his school go to CC and not make it past the first semester. He also told me that he thinks he works harder at home than he did at school (*that's* the truth! :)), but the work is interesting, challenging, and he likes the fact that I'm strict but fair -- knock me over with a feather! I wanted to ask him, "Who are you, and what have you done with my son?"

I can't even fathom how you are dealing with all of this. I'm sending my best wishes to you and your family.

Yup -- that is what I was asking. I had already assumed that most of the kids of the families represented here helped around the house in a general way -- but that is not even the case with most of the families where I live. Most of the kids around here don't seem to be responsible for much of anything. We have things that my son is responsible for, and then we have the normal "stuff" that he just does because it's come to (my) mind. I, too, wish that he would see some things and just do them on his own. It *does* happen, but not often. It still amazes me how he can just step over something multiple times and not notice it's there. :-) Although, I have to say, I haven't heard, "that's not my job" in awhile. *That* one puts my teeth on edge. I really appreciate all the responses -- now I don't feel like such a "mean mom." :D