I went to public school, however, between 1st and 8th grade, I attending 9 different schools in 4 different states (military step dad) and have no recollection whatsoever. :)

My dd is using Connections Academy this year . She is in 7th grade. I have found the curriculum to be fairly challenging, the teachers responsive and the assignments meaningful. I can't speak to the other students as he avoids LiveLessons like the plague and only participates in them when required. She is very motivated by grades and I rarely need to intervene. She is very independent. I love the Connections interface.

I don't follow football, but my bff is a reporter in Baltimore and is going to New Orleans to cover the Ravens for her local TV station. She is beyond excited, so I'm happy the Ravens won. :)

I've lived in a smallish town (6,600) for the past 15 years. I *did* get very involved in the county (small county approx 45k residents) and had an awful experience. I won't be accepted and I'm perfectly ok with that. Thankfully the kids have done pretty well even though we've homeschooled.

My youngest is enrolled in Connections Academy -- they use Pearson and Glencoe in 7th grade. All secular. I'm actually pretty pleased with Connections--their interface program is really well done. eta: In Oregon, it's a free, public charter.

This is mine. The kids broke it and I tried replacing it with different types/brands but ended up just buying another one of these. I also have the aeropress mentioned upthread. My dh likes Vietnamese coffee and we own two of those systems, but the french press is our daily go to coffee maker.

Fresh basil. I swear it smells like cat pee. Yuck.

Don't be. For all the complaining I do, I love my teens. They can be sooo much fun. Their problems are bigger, the consequences more heartbreaking and a kiss from Mom doesn't solve all problems--those are the things I struggle with. Oh, and, of course, my 18 yo knows everything about everything. It's quite amazing actually. ;)

My ds would've known at 6 that he missed a game and he would've been very, very upset.

In your situation, I would bring the 6 year old to his game. Sorry.

Correct--sorry-they have a large manufacturing/research presence here and, supposedly, have plans to build more large (or larger) facilities here as well. Word on the street is that the project in Arizona is not going well.

Intel headquarters are here and they just finished building a new fab. There are talks of this type of expansion here over the next decade or so.

My dh is an electrician/instrumentation technician and, although he has had to travel away from home some, we've seen his income increase steadily for the past 4 years. He may soon be traveling to North Dakota--I'm against it, but the money offered for Superintendents there is obscene. For him, the key has been having a skill set that is in high demand, yet somewhat scarce. In addition, he has had to be willing to travel to where the large jobs currently are (Eastern WA, here-Intel, and now, possibly North Dakota).

Oh TM, I have no advice. I'm sorry. I don't know what you say to get through to them. ((((hugs)))) If I manage to figure it out, I'll let you know. Teenagers can be so exhausting--I often long for my toddlers back.

Same. And then, like Ali in OR, I ended up sidelined with plantar fascitis. I've never had any issues with my feet. I'm so bummed--I am looking forward to healing and running again. Soon, I hope.

Nope, not here in my part of Oregon, however, I do see a lot of car vinyl clings for local sports.

Yup. My baby turns 13 in just a couple of short weeks and I will have three teenagers. How did that happen?

When we were on our cross country trip, we stopped at a restaurant in Lafayette, LA. There was a man that saw our little car with Oregon plates and stopped to have dinner with us. He had spent many years living in our (very small) county and was stationed at the same Navy base (during the same time!) as dh.

We always take a car. We trailered a Corolla on our cross country trip (what a pain!) and have since bought a Jeep Wrangler that we can tow with all four wheels down. Much easier. I agree that trying to maneuver a motorhome is a bear--we stuck to the major roads and used the car to explore/shop. And yes, they are expensive to maintain. New tires on our smallish (31 ft) ran almost 3k. I hate tent camping. I love having a bed and a toilet--and a microwave.

We have access and my ds just started playing soccer for the high school. He has to meet all the academic requirements that the ps school students do and adhere to the same code of conduct and follow the same rules. There has not been a problem in the past, at all, with homeschoolers participating -- in fact, the high school track coach homeschools his children. And they have all (so far) run track for the local high school.

We've only ever had a Class A RV. I lobbied for its purchase over a 5th wheel/travel trailer mostly due to the the time spent going from place to place. We did a cross country 8600 miles trip with 3 older dc and I couldn't imagine traveling that much with them squished together in the back of a truck, no matter how large the truck may be. If you are concerned about an accident (RV's are typically very safe, ours is a mere $27.00/month to insure) then I would go with a Winnebago. They are the only manufacturer (IIRC) that bolts the couches and benches to the frame of the RV. In addition, go used. RV's lose sooo much of their value within the first 5 years.

This happened to us. My dh made 2.5x more than the previous year and we paid 4x more in taxes (I'm including both federal and state) because of the AMT.

I like to write things down. I've used this Lesson plan book for years. You can draw lines for each subject--I kept is pretty simple--ex. under math, I would just indicate Lesson 1, etc.

Write Shop. I loved Write Shop. I tried everything (well, it felt like I tried everything). IEW- fail Writing Strands- fail SL writing - fail Moving Beyond the Page - fail Wordsmith- fail

Beyond creepy.