My babies being born, foremost. That first breath - amazing. Hearing Bette Midler sing on stage has brought me to tears. So has hearing certain classical pieces performed live. So has hearing my daughters sing. Whenever I get on a plane and it takes off I am amazed that the entire mass makes it off the ground and flies. The human brain is amazing. I learned a lot about it when my father had a massive stroke. The California Redwood forests. The Grand Canyon. The power of the ocean. Many other things will come to mind, I'm sure.

It is truly one of my favorite movies - a shining star. I like to think that Jeff Daniels redeems himself for all the bonehead movies he has made. Glad you enjoyed it.

Sophie's Choice I watched it when I was in college and it got me terribly upset, even now I get a sick feeling thinking about it.

Hold On to Your Kids РGordon Neufeld, Gabor Mat̩ and Protecting the Gift РGavin deBecker

to see things as they actually were, maybe even be able to step through, invisibly, for an hour or so. But to live in those days, no. We take for granted so many things - medical and dental care, and hygiene as previous generations could not have imagined. So as to the times I would love to "see": New York and Chicago in their early days Rome in its glory days in the studios of Mozart and Beethoven World Fairs in major cities Victorian England witnessing the work of Da Vinci and Michaelangelo I could go on and on.

Every time I watch an episode these days I think it's going to be the last one and then there is more - and now it looks like a 2 hour finale in 2 weeks. Ok, here are my crazy theories. The only thing I can figure is that the island moves in time, not location. Depending on how much time is shifted, it could change the outcome of a whole lot of things. I also think that the ship is going to blow. I think it's wired to that psycho Kimee's arm and he's going to blow up the whole bunch of them. Maybe the Oceanic 6 get off the boat in the rescue inflatable motorboat and far enough away (it holds 6, right?) so that when the big explosion happens they don't get hurt. That also gives them time to work on their story. Also I bet that some stay on the island, maybe not voluntarily, but maybe they are just stuck there. I can't imagine that the writers would do away with Locke and Sawyer. The future of the series depends on still involving the island in some way so there needs to be someone still living on it. Multiple story lines, some on the island and some off, survivors maybe trying to get back to the island for whatever reasons. I also think they are going to keep Daniel Faraday character on the island. Sort of like Gilligan's Island "Professor" character. I don't know about Charlotte, they have not made her likeable -yet. Ok, that's all for now. I have to think about this some more.

If you belong to AAA you can get a free guidebook that rates the places to stay by stars. Or maybe a friend who belongs to AAA can pick one up for you. We have had great luck bidding on hotel rooms with priceline. We regularly stay at a Doubletree hotel or Red Lion hotel in Boise, ID when we bid $75. They are wonderful hotels, way above the budget variety. If you are not comfortable bidding, I think you can just choose to pay a discount price on certain hotels in Priceline. A safe bet for us has always been Fairfield Inn. It is the budget hotel run by Marriott and has always been very clean and nice. They will also let us bring our dogs for an extra fee. I'm with you, I hate staying in yukky places - it ruins my whole vacation.

say prayers for those involved. Then I can mercifully go on with my day, knowing about the incidents but not stressing about them.

Our last piles of snow are melting and will soon be gone. It got up to 80 today and our dogs (golden retrievers) acted as if they were going to have heat stroke. By the way it was still snowing last week. I knew that our prolonged winter would just turn into summer overnight. Not much time to acclimate! Although I am enjoying seeing the grass grow (finally!) I know that it will be a short time before it is turnng cold again. I am a total wimp when it comes to hot weather and we don't have a/c.

although they don't appeal to me even if they were in the house. We don't do dessert here regularly. If we do it is an apple pie or something like that, something really great. For lunch, there is no dessert, ever.

For those of us old enough to have lived their teen years through the 70s let me tell you it was not pretty. The sad fact was that we knew the fashions were awful - having lived through the weird 60's we knew the 70's were much worse. But the look of the 70's was so pervasive that it was hard to avoid if you shopped for clothing at all. :ack2:

or I guess they are called "contra dances" or maybe "square dances". They are so much fun and the whole family can go, including teens and toddlers. They are so much fun that the kids talk about them for days afterward. It is a very nice way for the teen girls and boys to interact in a safe family environment and they have a blast. Other things we do as a family - road trips (a trip to the airport here is a major deal, 5 hours each way) where we listen to "each other's" music. Sometimes we sing along to Disney Karaoke CDs. Shopping trips are a big deal for us because we hardly ever get to a city to do it. The schools out here in the country have a lot of benefit dinners and carnivals to supplement their meager budgets, and we try to go to all of them. We camp several times in the summer, with our major camping trip at the beach. Our teenager has a lot of sleepovers - at our house and at her friend's houses. You see there is really nothing to do here at night - everything closes up by 5:30 and even the grocery store closes by 8:00. So being at someone's house, even helping with each other's chores, is entertainment. When the kids are at our house (often), I let them make cookies and brownies, they slept in a tent on our deck last night. I guess we are really enjoying living in the country. The lack of normal things to do (shopping, movies) has made it more fun, not less. By the way we love Betsy-Tacy here too!

:iagree:

With each child the pregnancy hormones kicked in faster - I could just tell. By my third child my clothes felt tight from the very start.

when we lived in Virginia, including me. It's also called "slap-face disease" due to the appearance of the red cheeks. In adults different symptoms will be exhibited (I got a weird rash on my feet and ankles and developed joint pain). I remember going to our son's high school graduation with a bright red baby girl (it was outdoors). If it is Fifth's, it won't be too bad. :grouphug: Dana

You are blessed with a very cute brother! I do see the resemblance to R.C. My uncle looks like an older Russell Crowe, LOL. I'll add American Gangster to my Netflix queue, thanks for the heads up. I have not kept up with movies at all since moving out to the middle of nowhere-ville. I'll stop here before I embarrass myself with further comments about Russell Crowe and what he seems to do to me! :D

Just wanted to share a wonderful book I found when browsing at B&N. The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists, fifth edition. ISBN 0-7879-8257-1 It lists the rules (with examples) for just about anything you can think of - phonics, spelling, parts of speech, literary terms, book report forms, checklists, proofreading marks, book lists -- it is a huge book, over 500 pages, for grades K-12. I can imagine building an entire language arts curriculum based on this book, it is so complete. Here are the sections: 1. Phonics 2. Useful Words 3. Vocabulary Builders 4. Content words 5. Books 6. Writing 7. Teaching Ideas 8. Comprehension 9. Fluency 10. Study Skills 11. Assessment 12. Spelling 13. The Internet 14. English Language Learners (ESL or ELL) 15. Language 16. Alphabet and Symbols 17. Word Play 18. Reference

I have been wondering how to fit in these stories and have not been doing it. The CDs look wonderful.

Whew. My face just got hot, better turn the fan on. :lol:

Pretend how you would feel if each of the candidates actually won. In terms of national security, taxes, judges appointed, etc, and how that would affect your family and future generations. You may not want to waste your vote after all, even though the choices are not at all good this time <bleh>.

I recently got rid of my nonstick Caphalon because it was all scratched up. I replaced it (cheaply) with Lodge cast iron skillets - a huge one and a tiny one. In addition to building great upper body strength ;) they work very well for cooking.

all the usual choices were not available. So I made do with "Self-employed - human resources" and had to laugh about it.

but since he is I seriously try to keep up with it. A clean house is his "love language" so to speak. At least I don't have to keep up with his stuff - he is the neatest person I know. But chaos seems to follow me around like a cyclone and I really need to work at it to overcome it. One thing that helps is to rally the kids to help. Another is to wear my ipod and listen to books on tape or fun music while I clean - I don't know how I managed before getting the Ipod. If there's one area that I can't get a handle on it's the laundry. No matter what I do the second I turn my head there is another mountain. :confused: Once in a while I invite people over, and besides having a great time we do get the house extra clean as a bonus. Good luck. I know what you're going through. Oh, and one thing my family has learned - to not criticize my cleaning when I have PMS. Don't even look at me wrong when I have PMS.

and I can still play, although I rarely do. It is very time-consuming and I just don't have the time these days.

by making a couple of meat loafs, and a big pot of chili. They can be easily frozen and reheated. The chili I like to make nachos with, just put the chili over a bag of tortilla chips, add cheese and bake. Then when it's all bubbly, take it out of the oven and add chopped lettuce, olives, tomatoes, and sour cream. Very easy dinner. Of course you can do the same thing if you have some cans of chili on hand. Meat loaf, well I don't make it very often but dh loves it and it makes good sandwiches for leftovers. I also buy roasted chickens and make several meals from them but it is fairly time-intensive (I use as much of the meat as possible then make broth with the bones, good base for other soups). Honestly if I were in your shoes with the baby about to come I would get a bunch of pre-frozen things like mac'n'chese and lasagne, jars of spaghetti sauce and boxes of pasta. Then I'd put my feet up. Can any of your friends help you out? (((Hugs))) Hang in there!