Ok. I have one kid who (like his mom) battles insomnia. The fast way to reset is to stay up, but it’s super hard to do by yourself. I would recommend that YOU spend a few days getting some extra sleep and just let her go along. Then, the two of you stay up together all night - watch movies, talk, go for a ride or a walk - play games. Whatever it takes. Then keep each other awake until at least 6pm the next day. 7pm is even better. Often the reset will last my kid 3-4 weeks before he slides back to his natural schedule (2am bed time). But it’s not easy.

The ones we love - easily played by a logical 9-year old: Betrayal at the House on the Hill (Our Very Most Favorite Ever - we also love Betrayal at Baldurs gate). If you buy Just One Game, I recommend this one. Flux (batman flux is our fav) Munchkin (highly contentious here sometimes) King of Tokyo Dominion - we have the Big Box expansion with Intrigue that supports up to 6 players Pandemic with the In The Lab expansion - I've only played this one once, but it was fun

I've successfully navigated this territory, so here is what experience taught me: We told our kids early that they could start "dating" when they were 16. The reason for that age was that they would be in high school, have friend groups and be old enough (hopefully) to make good choices. When they started dating - a date was going somewhere/someplace for a specific activity and then coming back home. If they just wanted to "hang out", that could happen most any time here at the house when an adult was home. This is the same set up they had with their other friends and since I was nearly always home, it really didn't put much of a kink in their social lives. And we stuck with those two general rules through four kids. Simple, easy to remember and since our house was a teenage-hangout anyways, they found things to do here all the time.

I have picked up thin towels from Bed Bath and Beyond. These seem to last a long time.

If these are for kids leaving home for college, I would go with thinner towels because they take less time to dry. For kids heading to an apartment situation, I think one medium and one thick towel might be nice since drying time is less of an issue. And I think towels are a fine gift. A family friend gave oldest DD bed linens when she went off to college - they went to the store together and picked them out to be shipped to her school. It was a lovely gift and lasted all four years of college and are still in good shape.

My GP not only does Pap smears but she also did the insert and removal of my Mirena IUD. You can always ask what they can handle.

Mine says 4DLORD which is either some sort of religious statement or aaa hint that I’m a Dr Who fan......

We had to get the battery replaced on DHs. IPhone 6 Plus after the 11.4 upgrade. Cost $30 at the Apple Store but solved his battery consumption problems completely. DH is back to going a couple of days between needing to charge again.

If I was running a fever and my ear really hurt, I would head into the urgent care clinic or my family doc. If my ear really hurt and I was not running a fever, I would probably guess it was sinus pressure rather than an ear infection and treat it accordingly at home (hot shower, hot compress, mucinex, lots of fluids)

Is Uber or Lyft an option for them?

4, 3 and 2 years oldest DS and DD both did 4 years, DS22 did 3 years and DD17 has completed 2 years and plans on going no further. She and DS22 don’t have the knack for languages that the older two have - their strengths are in other areas.

Oldest DD threw herself a Sweet Sixteen party - she did all the planning, decorating and cleaning up afterwards. We just provided the cash for the grocery store. Youngest DD opted to not do much on her 16th (I think we went out for ice cream?), but this year for her 17th, I suggested she do an Escape Room with her friends. I bought the tickets and DS22 and I were the chaparones. The girls had a BLAST figuring out all the puzzles. We all had frozen yogurt after while they rehashed how they escaped. That was lots of fun.

I did with kid -#1 a million years ago. My doctor told me about it when she came to see me the next morning before I left he hospital. She gave me the after care instructions and checked the stitches visually before she released me.

These are the Orbis I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072ZN4PSB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Put them in last night and doubled the throughput over my old Netgear Nighthawk. Hopefully this will resolve some of the congestion issues we were having when the kids are gaming together.

My Orbis came today!!!!!!!! if you aren’t familiar, the Orbi is Netgear’s mesh WiFi router. My set of three means no more dead spots in the house. Wall-to-wall WiFi coverage! Woohoo!

I personally swear by Digestive Advantage by Kirkland. I’ve been recovering from a rather ghastly round of C-Diff and this product has helped build back up my digestive system quickly. I could tell the difference right away if I missed a dose. These are gummy chewables that don’t upset my stomach.

There are some things you can do to make the short layover less of a problem. Print your boarding passes (at home or at airport) so you don’t have to panic if your phone runs out of battery and you can’t get at your pass. Organize your carryon so that you can find things easily without having to unpack the whole thing. The less spread out you are on the plane, the easier it is to deplane when the time comes. If your carryon will fit under the seat in front of you, that’s a real plus in deplaning and not having to mess with overhead bins Print the airport map (sounds like you already did this!) so you can quickly find your gate in case of changes. If the worst happens, whip out your cell phone and CALL customer service for the airline. It’s much faster than standing in line and they can get you rerouted more quickly. Have a great trip!!!

I will do an hour layover in Seattle or Portland providing I’m on Alaska Air or one of its affiliates, but I won’t do short stops on other carriers or other airports. I’m just not familiar enough with other locations to feel comfortable doing that even though I travel a lot for business.

My food allergies seemed to come and go. Or at least that’s what I thought until my allergist explained about how pollen counts can really impact what other things you are reacting too. I carey an epi pen in my purse. I don’t eat when I’m out skiing so it stays at home, but the rest of the time it is within arms reach and my family all knows how to use it. I’ve only had one “bad” reaction (coconut) but it was something I NEVER want to experience again.

15 years ago, I had surgery for a rectocele repair that was quite severe - like interfering with bowel movements severe. After I had healed up, I had PT to strengthen those muscles up again. PT was amazing in terms of getting everything working properly again, including having a comfortable cup of tEa again. 15 years later and still no problems. Good surgical repair plus good PT afterwards is what I credit for my successful outcome.

We do the Light thing too. We leave a light on downstairs and DS22 turns it off when he comes in. If the light is on and I am up wandering around, I can check my phone messages to see if he plans to stay out all night.

In my dream world, this remodel would be finished, we would have a functioning kitchen with counter tops and a sink and I would get to eat meals using real plates again. In reality, the remodel will be close-but-not-quite finished and we will go out to eat somewhere on mother's day. There are worse places to be in.

I recently bought this one from Bestek on amazon for us to use when we travel. I haven’t used all of the international plugs yet, but as a travel hub it works great. https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/pop/ref=oh_aui_i_d_old_o8?_encoding=UTF8&gen=canonical&lineItemId=jomjnwqskpnsuny&orderId=111-2434127-6309858&packageId=1&returnSummaryId=&returnUnitIndices=&shipmentId=Dqnqtspcb

I print archive emails to a PDF file (so the formatting is saved) and store these on an external drive. I was using CutePDFWriter for this, but now I see Microsoft has an option now for Print To PDF.

I graduated from Baylor (back in the dark ages) with my undergrad degree. I went in as a math major but transferred to their (relatively) new computer science program. I had the four-year everything covered NMF scholarship back in the day and graduated without debt. Beautiful campus. Good sports teams. Excellent academics. Huge cultural shift since I was coming from Alaska, but it was easy to get comfortable there. If one of my kids wanted to go there (and could afford it), I would definitely recommend the school.