Ok, you have to tell more about the tacos. LOL. We've brought back a few strange things for others -- a whole wheel of cheese (which my dh thought the sniffer dog would get), wine from Spain (which busted in my luggage & was dripping out everywhere -- I thought someone nearby had overindulged on the plane until I realized it was my own bag that was reeking), a sword for my sister (which my friend put in her hanging bag, only to have her bag sliced open top to bottom by the sword). Ah, the good old days of travel! ;) Crissy -- how did the Costco trip go? Hope you made it out of there w/ your wallet & sanity in tact!

I was 26, dh was 29. Man, we were young then -- and we definitely looked younger back then too. ;) Celebrated our 14th anniversary this year. :D

Looks good. The only other things I can think of are art/music and P.E.

Ohhhhh, be sure to update us! And I agree with everyone else -- we need pictures! :D

Ohhh, I love this idea. Thanks for posting it! I'm in! :001_smile:

Me too. I really, really don't like cooking. And my ds will eat barely anything unless it's a hot meal. :glare: (The best thing I can say about that trait is that it makes me think of my grandma -- she was definitely a 'must have a hot meal for lunch' kind of gal. LOL.) Fortunately, dh (the main cook) is training ds pretty well in the cooking dept. I'll be turning over any & all meal-fixing duties as soon as I can. :D Reading the OP, my thought was that the cashier is probably someone who hates cooking/fixing food. It's interesting to see all the different ways to interpret one sentence.

It sounds ok... IF you're SuperWoman. But, I'm not SuperWoman myself. I would have long since keeled over from your schedule. :grouphug: I can see why you're tired, stressed, and wanting to cry. I think Kathleen had lots of great suggestions. I cannot imagine adding more to your current schedule and would, in fact, pare down my existing schedule & simplify in a big way. Anything that can be delayed, outsourced, or ignored for awhile should be. Simplify or streamline what you can. (Maybe serve dinner on paper plates a couple of times a week to ease clean-up. Have the kids reuse their towels & sheets a bit longer than usual to reduce the frequency of laundry loads. Etc....) You mentioned that your dh would have his long schedule going for a few months, but will it be better after that? If so, I'd definitely simplify now, then reassess when your family is back on a more 'normal' schedule. Take care of yourself!

Audio file. There is a link to the full story under the audio file. "Scientists were fascinated by the ghostly find: a human skeleton buried in an Aztec temple with a clay, skull-shaped whistle in each bony hand. But no one blew into the noisemakers for nearly 15 years. When someone finally did, the shrill, windy screech made the spine tingle. If death had a sound, this was it."

We did something like this when we did our Leonardo da Vinci camp last summer. The dc collected different things to try as pigments. Anything that you could grind into a powder would be worth trying. Some of of the things we tried included: various colors of dirt, various spices from the pantry (cinnamon, saffron, ...), and some ashes. Another thing we did was use some fresh parsley & pressed & ground the leaves to get a green liquid, which we then mixed w/ the egg yolk. Some things worked better than others, and it definitely helps if you are able to grind your items into a fine powder or liquid (otherwise you'll end up w/ little bits in your paint). Wonder if you could strain your paint? (We didn't try that.) Because we were going to end up w/ mostly earthy colors (browns, greens, yellows), I bought a bunch of sunflowers & used that as our 'model' for painting. The paint sure smelled lovely -- all those ground spices! LOL. I think it's fun to have kids experiment w/ lots of different things, different textures, etc... so they can see that making paint is no easy task. "Marguerite Makes a Book" has a neat section in it where it talks about her mixing pigments & making paints.

I agree w/ painting furniture to unify it. And, I definitely agree w/ using washable paint, lol! There are lots of great ideas here. I know this is not exactly what you mentioned, but if you went w/ tan walls or any solid color, you can always get removable wall stickers for decoration. My kids had these when they were younger (ds had Buzz Lightyear ones & dd had Barbie ones) -- they loved having them because I let them decide how & where where they put them up. My dd's room has been updated & she now has her same paint in there as previously, but we changed the wall stickers to ones of horses (found at Target). Anyway, that's another way to get some personalization or fun looks, but it's not permanent. If you decide to pull them off, your paint will still be fine as is. Did a quick google search on removable wall stickers & this will show you some ideas of ones that are out there. Personally, I love the space invaders design and the robots. Another idea is to paint some kind of graphic design on the wall -- maybe some circles, or a stripe running horizontally, or overlapping boxes on one wall. Hey, maybe painting boxes on one wall could be how you delineate the area for where they hang/display their awards, papers, etc.... Have fun. It's fun to redo a room. Bet your boys are excited! :001_smile:

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

There's a mystery dinner theater here in town & I think they may have done an Indiana Jones spoof at some point. Maybe you could call them & beg for a copy of the script (if there was one in the first place)??? http://www.agathas.com/index.html If they won't do that, maybe they could point you in the right direction? (For example, their current show is Harry Plotter and the Half-Wit Princess. LOL.)

:lol: ROFL!!!! So, did you do it again per the kids' request??? ;) BTW, I think it's highly admirable that you were willing to try it on yourself since you were planning on using it your dog. That, to me, is the mark of a true animal lover. :001_smile:

My mom sometimes does this, lol. Many years, she'll do Christmas dinner in July (or August) -- where she makes the turkey, all the trimmings, etc... That way, we can really enjoy the meal as a treat (vs. when it is just one of many big meals & treats during the busy holiday season). Hmmm. Wonder if she'll do it sometime this summer?

:grouphug: Wishing for clear skies & rain soon!

Well, I was going to say: Bridget Jones's Diary or The Pained Veil but neither of those may be quite right in this case. Chicago, maybe? So, I was sitting here racking my brain... and this is what I thought of: I remember seeing a movie w/ a gal pal (friend since high school). This was a long time ago. The movie? Total Recall (Ah-nold & Sharon Stone). There's a scene with a fight between 2 women. My friend is thinking the fight is totally cool & she said that; at the same time, I was saying what a cool suit one of them was wearing in that scene. ROFL! So, maybe Total Recall could be considered a chick flick. ;)

:iagree: We've had a bat house up for ages, but I don't think we've ever had any takers. :confused: I wish some bats would show up. We have so many mosquitoes that we could feed a huge # of bats. We're like the all-you-can-eat-Las-Vegas-buffet! Please, spread the word to your bat friends (and enemies). LOL.

I checked that out of the library a few months ago. I read it late one night (by myself) and was crying. I ended up returning it & not reading it to the kids (or even having them read it themselves -- it would have been too much for them, imo).

I think everyone else answered your practical questions, but I had to chime in to remind you to eat lots of chocolate in Belgium. And then more chocolate! (Antwerp is a great place to buy diamonds too. You may want to tell your dh that! ;)) Boxes of chocolates are great souvenirs too, lol. They travel great in your luggage & in the cargo area of the plane (where it's cold). Have fun! Belgium is a beautiful & often overlooked place. (I'm biased, though, because my dh is Belgian. :D) Ohhh, I'm feeling jealous now. I'd love to hop on a plane & take a trip to Europe right now! What cities/towns will you be visiting?

That was my mom's curse on me (and my sister). You know, as a kid, there's never a better time to fight your sibling, have a major emergency, have a meltdown, get stuck in something, or do anything really loud than when your parent is on the phone! :D Uh, and my mom has informed me that I deserve it. (Who? Me???) Yes, I'm adept at tuning out my kids (though I read them the riot act before I make a phone call). I'm even pretty adept at tuning out *myself*, sadly. Now... what was I saying???

Mopping. Cleaning tubs. Cleaning toilets is no barrel of laughs. and Cooking. (The smoke alarm going off when I'm cooking gives me a raging headache. LOL.) Dh does much of the cooking & I clean the kitchen. I have no problem cleaning any kitchen mess, as long as he does the cooking. Fortunately, he's not one of the super-messy cook types, lol. (Though we did have a glass pot and a glass bowl explode/break all over the kitchen 2 different times. Now that was some work to clean up!) I actually don't mind cleaning up the kitchen after dinner because dh & the kids usually have their together time then & I get 'meditation' time while cleaning the kitchen. It's oddly soothing.

The first time, it was the creaking of the bed when dh got up (he's an early riser). I fell back asleep. And then the guy across the street started up his pickup & it is *loud*. He needs a muffler, methinks. Something about the way our houses are, the sound just reverberates through our room. It drives me absolutely nuts. And, it's what wakes me up almost every.single.morning. Sigh. Then, the phone rang (another sound I dislike). My hearing is over-sensitive. And though the world is filled with many lovely sounds, I would love to have my own, personal, padded, completely remote quiet room where there is *no* noise & I could retreat there for at least 30 minutes a day.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (I can't understand why people can even read that book, regardless of the happy ending!) Charlotte's Web The Giving Tree Old Yeller The Call of the Wild The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (makes me tear up in a good way, but I can't do it as a read-aloud or I start bawling) In general, many books w/ animals as central characters make me cry.

Mulan, of course! She's awesome. (And, I think she'd be the princess most likely to learn how to fly a helicopter, don't you think? That's my pipe dream. LOL.) My dd has always said she's like Belle (loves books).

My ds (7yo) has seen both. Dh took him to see Kung Fu Panda -- ds thought it was pretty bad & he didn't like it. Grandpa took him to see Wall*E yesterday & ds liked it so much better & really enjoyed it. So, from here: Thumbs-down on Kung Fu Panda Thumbs-up on Wall*E