MY sienna is 13 1/2 years old with over 200,000 miles on it, so I'm a fan, too. Of course, all the door handles are falling off. But the engine and transmission are going strong!

I'd do whatever it took to be done with it as soon as possible. As terrible as it is to lose that much equity, you're in a really fortunate position compared to most people who are trying to get rid of houses that have lost a lot of value in that you own it outright and CAN get out. If there IS a price at which it will sell quickly, I'd find it, whatever it is, and do it. From the way you describe the situation, I imagine being finished with the whole thing will be a huge relief.

Aww, I'm sorry Blessedx3! We were getting to the point where we were thinking about renting our house out, and I was really hating the idea of it. Are you getting many showings? We're past the inspection (all we heard this time was "inspection went fine") and the due diligence period. There's no finance contingency since it's a cash sale, so everything's looking good. Closing is scheduled for Monday. So close!

They are AMAZING! Seriously, I've made them quite a few times, and I think it's my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, with or without gluten. I just used the recipe to make cookie cake for DS' birthday party yesterday, in fact. The leftovers are about all I've had to eat today. Sigh. It's a dangerous recipe. I haven't had any problem with them burning as long as you refrigerate the dough for at least an hour before you cook them.

I don't really lose weight unless I cut carbs way down AND count calories. If I keep carbs under 40-50 and calories around 1300, I'll lose 1/2-1 pound a week. Just keeping carbs low to moderate, though, keeps me from gaining the weight back. Or maybe it was cutting out gluten entirely, which I did around the same time I stopped counting calories. Now I'm pregnant, and I found out my thyroid was out of whack and started synthroid right around when I found out I was pregnant....so it will be interesting to see if I lose weight more easily post pregnancy and on the thyroid meds. So far I'm nearly 15 weeks and I'm 2 pounds down from my pre-pregnancy weight (that's without actively trying to lose weight, of course). Anyway....back when I was doing hard core low carb, I lost about 15 pounds over the course of 4 months, and then I kept it off without any particular effort or difficulty for a year. But I wanted to lose another 30-40. Oh, like a PP mentioned, though, my cholesterol numbers are GREAT. My BP is the lowest it's ever been, too, and my blood sugar is good. So at this point the 30-40 pounds I want to lose are more about vanity than health, it seems.

I guess I'll start taking Christians who argue against homosexuality more seriously when those same Christians start trying really, really hard to sell all their possessions and give the money to the poor. When none of them have more than one coat, because the Bible says if you have more than one you should give it away. (I take that as a metaphor that means not just coats but anything in excess of what you need to survive in relative health and comfort). I don't know about other Christians, but to me the Bible is very, very clear that I should be doing these things, and yet I don't. Because it's hard for me. I like having a computer and going out to eat sometimes, and going to Disney World. I do give some money and things away to people who need them, too, of course, but certainly not as much as I COULD. I would like to say that I'm trying my very hardest to get to the point where I do this, but....I'm not. I have no intention of giving up air conditioning so I can give that money to the poor. The vast majority of my kids' clothes are from the thrift store, but they certainly have more than they need. Not only the Bible, but my conscience tells me that, when there are children in the world dying because they don't have enough to eat, it's a sin for me to spend money in a restaurant when I could eat more cheaply at home. But it's HARD. And if it's so hard for me to give up my computer, or air conditioning, or buying a new shirt before my old ones are threadbare, how much harder would it be to give up on the idea of ever being in love or having a fulfilling relationship? Or children? I guess I'd think about what I'm asking MYSELF to give up in order to do what God wants me to do before I start asking other people to give things up. Or, frankly, even thinking privately to myself that they really ought to. There's also the whole thing wherein I'm with the OP in that I don't think being gay is a sin. I could be wrong, of course; I'm not God, and it's not my place to make those decisions for other people, only for myself.

Team of Rivals. It's.....long. But I'm trying to read more history.

Lately we do....a lot. DS11: math club (actually, this is run by DH), archery club, Spanish, filmmaking class, and he wants to take one other one that he hasn't decided on yet. The filmmaking class tuition was a birthday gift from grandparents, and he's been mowing the lawn in exchange for the last class DS9: trying math club this year, guitar, probably Spanish, lego robotics (informally, with some friends), archery club, one other class that HE hasn't picked yet DS6: probably Spanish, tap dancing, local theater productions, probably gymnastics this year

This is really frustrating for me because Chick-fil-A is pretty much the only fast food place where my kids can eat a full meal, because they can't eat gluten (chick-fil-A has dedicated fryers for french fries and grilled (non-breaded) chicken). I read one suggestion on facebook to donate $10 to a gay rights organization every time you go to chick-fil-A....but since our big problem is that it already costs us way more to eat out than other families most of the time....sigh.

35-45% fat and 10-20% protein leaves between 35 and 55% of your calories from carbs, which is much higher than most low carb advocates would suggest for weight loss. Say you're an overweight man limiting calories to 1800 day for weight loss. I wouldn't consider anything over 60 grams a day or so to be truly low carb. 60 grams of carbs is 240 calories, or around 13% of that 1800 calories. This is actually a problem I see frequently with studies that are supposed to analyze low carb diets. They actually focus on moderate carb diets. Which I think are healthier than high carb diets, but not enough to help significantly with weight loss for most people.

paleo is not necessarily low carb at all...particularly if you love sweet potatoes :). But the study you cited doesn't mention carbs at all, either.

The study didn't include a paleo style diet, or even a low carb diet, so I'm not sure how it could tell anything about whether paleo or low carb helps people. It was solely concerned with comparing moderate vs. low fat intake, it looks like to me.

This blog entry from Gary Taubes address the thermodynamics thing. Taubes tends to be long winded, so my attempts to find something to put in a block quote were a little frustrating. But here's a teaser:

Ah yes. It's hard. Thank goodness for my less combative kids, though (I have one who's very negative and argues about EVERYTHING; one who's totally easygoing 99% of the time and does whatever he can to avoid conflict; one who is generally positive and very sweet but who can be challenging when he feels....passionately about something)....they remind me that at least it must not be my parenting that made my oldest the way he is. I remind myself constantly of his many good qualities (he's hilarious, and super smart, and creative, and he keeps his room neat as a pin without me ever having to remind him) and I try to keep in mind that he acts like this because HE'S struggling to figure life out; it's about him and not about me. I don't expect him to grow out of it exactly, but I do have hope that he'll learn to temper the negativity as he gets older. But yeah, I remember thinking when he was much younger, "is it a problem that my six year old is the most cynical person I know?"

Under contract again! fingers crossed that it sticks this time. It's not a great offer, dollar wise, but it's a cash sale and they can close at the end of the month, so it's good enough at this point. I'm so ready to be finished with this and finally be able to put some money into our NEW house for a change!

My 6 year old's audition song is actually from Oliver! (consider yourself). We just bought a book/ cd of kid appropriate audition songs and let him pick one.

Don't know a lot about it, but my SIL got her degree in environmental studies from UNC Asheville and had a good experience there. She works at a nature center now, working mostly with the education programs.

One thing to think about w/ pop is that the free dining that comes with values is the quick service plan. If you don't want fast food for every meal, you have to pay to upgrade, which really cuts into the price difference between a value and a moderate

We usually go just to the service for a few weeks first....no reason to have kids get used to a brand new Sunday School if we're not going to be coming back.

Linda Hirshman....us educated women who stay home are doing it wrong. We owe it to the marketplace to get our butts out there. Caring for children is for women who are too stupid or poor to do anything else. ETA: uhh, just so it's clear, I'm paraphrasing Linda Hirshman there, not speaking for myself!

I want another baby and another older kid (teenagers I haven't done yet, so I'll have to let you know). I don't so much want another toddler, really, although they ARE cute, but that's really the only way to bridge the gap between baby and older kid that I know of....:D I think people do the same thing with child spacing....they think all about how it will be to have a 2 or 3 or 4 year old and a baby and not nearly so much about the long term. To be fair, when you're in the thick of life with babies/toddlers/preschoolers, it's really hard to remember that there's life on the other side....

:iagree: Had I enjoyed grad school a bit more, my life could have looked a lot more like the author's (although I'm pretty sure neither Princeton nor Hillary Clinton would ever have come calling) ;). I remember hearing these kinds of discussions back then. It was an open secret that one (middle aged, childless) female professor in our department had been very against hiring another female professor precisely because she was young and in the middle of having kids. I read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about how common it is for women in academia to try to time their pregnancies to give birth over the summer, so that they wouldn't need to take maternity leave. Some women interviewed in the article actually gave up on having children if the timing didn't work out by the time they were in their late 30's. Having a baby in the fall or winter simply wasn't an option. A friend, who also had a baby while still in school, told me that it was generally accepted that women could either have babies before finishing their dissertations (and then dealing with the repercussions of being a woman with a young family while job hunting) or they'd need to wait until they got tenure somewhere. In short, academia is a fairly good environment to work in while raising a family....IF you manage to get tenure and manage to actually HAVE kids. These kind of discussions always feel so foreign to me. Especially the parts about men. But I guess DH and I know we're kinda weird.

Big on well visits here. My son's hearing loss was caught at his 5 year check up (unilateral loss, no speech delays; I had NO IDEA). Also, I just like to show off my babies :)

I have great cholesterol despite a very strong family history of cholesterol issues (my mom's been on cholesterol medication for years; my brother's was high starting in his late 20's....he's a vegetarian and exercises constantly). I'm also about 40 pounds overweight....I credit watching carbs and sugar. I was really low carb for awhile, but I've been more moderate about it lately, and my numbers are still really good--slightly better, in fact, than a year ago when I'd just started a very low carb thing. I don't limit fats, eggs, or meat at all. I think the most recent research on cholesterol suggests that conventional wisdom on limiting fat gets it wrong. Also, I'd look not just at total cholesterol but at all the numbers and ratios. Total cholesterol isn't the best indicator of future heart problems.

Let's see....my normal blood pressure, at home: 110/65 or so. At the doctor's office? 150/90. So no, it's not just you!