It seems like whatever you do, she is going to cause you trouble. I think cutting all ties, including between the kids, is your best option. Avoiding her isn't going to keep her away - she may need to be told. And she will probably try to ruin your reputation with mutual friends, spread lies, and who knows what else. Do other people see her craziness, or is it just you? I've had dealings with someone similar, and she was very good at appearing completely normal to most people, including therapists, but my family (specifically my husband) was the one she latched on to, so we saw the real her. We moved, not because of her, but that got rid of the problem for the most part. I stupidly started using facebook, and she managed to friend family members to keep track of us. :001_huh: Facebook is now gone. FWIW, this girl has Borderline Personality Disorder, and reading up on that helped deal with her a bit. Anyway, my point is this - if you have a big blowup with her and let her know that she is out of your life, you may have to suffer afterwards, but she will probably find someone else to gift with her special brand of crazy. ETA: You mentioned how she had to buy what you bought - the girl we had trouble with actually replicated our apartment - same sofa, same entertainment center, similar artwork, etc. It was very creepy.

My problem is my mil and her baby powder. Last night I went to use the upstairs bathroom and slid the length of the bathroom, landing on my butt! I got up covered in white powder. It's always everywhere - on the shelves, in the tub, the top of the medicine cabinet... She shouldn't even use it with her severe asthma, but does anyway. I guess I need to do at least the floor after she gets dressed, but I can't clean everywhere every day! I'd rather deal with the bad aim than this.:001_smile: Perhaps dh will be more successful talking with her.

I just finished The Latin Centered Curriculum by Drew Campbell. I need to go through this again see what I can incorporate into our homeschool. I have a problem with wanting to cover everything, so I'm looking for some help in paring things down. Definitely inspiring. I'm in the middle of two books at the moment. I purchased The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for my kindle. It was a bargain at 99 cents. No active table of contents, but I don't mind reading it cover to cover. I've never been into detective stories or mysteries, much to the dismay of my mother, so I was surprised by how much I'm enjoying these stories. I just started Confessions of a Prairie B***ch by Alison Arngrim. I really love her sense of humor. She handles the abuse by her brother in a very matter of fact way which I'm not sure how to interpret, but it is early in the book. So far it is an interesting read. I have 120 books on my kindle waiting to be read, so it's hard to say what is next. I'm leaning towards A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. I've wanted to re-read this (and the rest of the series) for a while now and it will help pass the time waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for A Dance with Dragons to come out. If it's not out by the time I've re-read all of them I will never again buy a book in a series unless the series is complete. Really.

I'm in NJ, in Bergen County, and I've had some people make negative comments. We have blue ribbon schools in town, and other schools in the area have good reputations, so maybe that is why. It's also kind of snobby around here, which I could see contributing to the negativity. Pretty much anything out of the norm around here will get negative comments. People in Morris County were much more open to homeschooling, and were friendlier in general. I'm kind of missing it there.:sad:

I have this one in red also. Very easy to use but runs a little hotter than my older model, which took some getting used to. I love the insulated carry bag. I've brought a few dishes to parties, and it arrives nice and hot, with no mess.

This one is dh's favorite to make: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/impossible-coconut-pie-i/Detail.aspx

At Whole Foods they sell Gatorade Natural. I think it's only available there and I haven't actually looked at the label. I also remember seeing a home made version of gatorade on a website, but I don't know where - I'll look around.

We have a few upcoming business trips in the area, so this is my partial list so far: http://www.visitbushkillfalls.com/ We plan on doing this on our next visit. Waiting for some cooler weather... http://www.hawkmountain.org/ This is also on our cooler weather list. http://www.crayola.com/factory/ My son loved going here when he was younger. It can be annoying when it is crowded with campers or school groups. The canal museum part was his favorite. http://www.crystalcavepa.com/ Another on our to do list. http://www.dorneypark.com/ Ds wants to go here next time. http://premisemaid.com/ We always have to stop here when we are driving through. Great ice cream, chocolate, and baked goods. It's not too far to take a drive to the Lancaster area too. Sometimes we will drive out there just to go here: http://www.shady-maple.com/smorgasbord It's crazy, huge, and overwhelming, but good. Someone on this board recommended it, and we all love it. If I find the rest of my list I will post more.

I used this program with my son 3yrs ago, so it's been awhile. He suddenly developed an issue with r, and it did the job. I remember it being easy to use and ds liking it, but don't remember the actual program. His speech pathologist liked the program when I showed it to her. He had never had previous speech issues, and the r issue was relatively minor, so I was confident we could handle it. More serious speech issues I probably would have wanted the input of a speech therapist. My nephew had almost a year of speech therapy from the age of 2. He was impossible to understand. It was free through the state or county until the age of three, and they came to the house. He is still difficult to understand, but his therapy ended at age 3, and there seems to be a missing link here between early intervention programs and kindergarten. Most ped's around here are pretty aggressive with speech issues and recommend therapy early. I heard a few people talking about the Speechercise cd's at a local educational store and how much they liked them, but we have never used them.

Credit scores can be repaired over time. Family safety is much more important. I'd leave in a heartbeat. :grouphug:

I just finished it. Speechless.... I need to watch something light now, because that was just intense.

Thanks for the rec. It's available on Netflix instant, so off to watch!

My son enjoyed this: http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?cPath=866_1201&products_id=21168&it=1 I think there is also a flower based book which may appeal more to a girl. There are quite a few books from this company, but after the above one, we just started using Startwrite to make our own handwriting and penmanship pages.

Ours start Sept. 7th in NJ. I can't wait for the library, nature center, and our other haunts to empty out. :001_smile:

As much as we'd like to think we are giving our children all they need with our food choices, sometimes a vitamin is necessary. I had anemia a few times throughout highschool, and I ate iron rich foods. (liverwurst all the time!!) A few nieces and nephews also had it. I remember being tired all the time. My sister was told that her daughter was having restless leg type symptoms and severe sleep disturbances partly because of anemia. Her other dr. was trying to put her on adhd meds, but my sis kept investigating. After having her tonsils/adenoids removed and a year on iron she was a different kid.

A business associate recommended to dh a night or two at Brighton Suites in Reheboth Beach on our way home from Maryland. He mentioned schools start the end of August in DE, so it wouldn't be as crowded around the 27th. Is this true? Can anyone tell me if it's a decent area? We've never been to any DE beaches before. He also recommended taking the ferry to Cape May for the trip home to NJ, which I think ds would enjoy. Any restaurant recs or fun places to see would be appreciated.

We are spending about $1100/mo for 5 people. If I add in what my inlaws spend it would probably be around $1800. Both the inlaws and the 3 of us have things we buy for everyone, and things we buy for ourselves. Sometimes I feel like a food hoarder, because I put certain things in the basement fridge. When the other grandkids come over, they can go through a whole 10 pack of juice, a 6 pack of yogurt, every cheese stick in the house, etc. in one visit. They are here 4-5 times a week, so I can't afford to supply all that. I would say the biggest issue we have is what ds will eat. He has sensory issues and will only eat certain things. I try to find the healthiest/organic/natural versions of what he eats, and that can be expensive. Meats are next and most of the family are big meat eaters. Less expensive cuts are not often eaten around here. Milk is another biggie. Also, it seems every month there is a big dinner/party for some occasion or other. It's a lot different than the way I grew up. My mom would faint if she went shopping with us! I'm not including coffee in this - I think dh spends about $100/mo on coffee. :001_huh:

I've been looking at this: http://www.nccsstore.com/A-More-Perfect-Union-Education-Package/productinfo/AMPUED/ I would like some fun ideas, too. I was planning of kicking off a few months of "American Studies" that week, since we won't be doing American History for a while. I ordered States and Capitals from Memoria press, since ds needs a refresher. I also bought these from currclick: http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=36272&it=1 That's all I have so far...

Thanks for the replies everyone. Some good ideas here. He loves smoothies, but usually the unhealthy types - I will have to try out some recipes. He is limited in the types of protien he eats - I'm wondering if maybe adding protien powder to a smoothie would help? I think he is a bit of a carb addict, which is something I struggle with myself.

Wow, you are amazing! And I love the name Momma McMuffin. Thanks for the ideas!

Risperdal was his previous med. We didn't see any results with it, but he did gain about 25 lbs. At the time, the extreme hunger was a benefit because he had stopped eating anything but vanilla pudding, and was just hitting 7% weight loss. If it had continued, hospital admission would have been next. We are seeing benefits with the Abilify, but I don't want to go through the weight gain again! We are going to give it a month or two with trying to manage his diet and increase exercise. I wish he didn't need anything at all! We don't see a psychiatrist for his meds. Every one I have found in the area will only schedule a 15 minute appointment. The only one I found who took longer worked with sex offenders in the same office. That just creeped me out! I do keep a lookout though. His neuro is excellent, and actually listens to me about the meds. His previous neuro didn't believe me that the Risperdal was making his tics worse (told me I was imagining things!), or that too much Prozac makes ds talk nonstop all day. This dr. believes me right away and values my observations. Definitely a keeper!

We've decided we are going to try smaller meals every 2 hours and see if that makes a difference. I've made an appt. with his pediatrician, so hopefully she will have some insight. :grouphug: to you also!

At that age my son really enjoyed making sticker pictures. I had to peel them off for him and stick it on the end of his finger, but he would put it on the paper by himself. Sometimes he would color the paper first with scribbles of all different colors and then put stickers everywhere. He also enjoyed sidewalk chalk at about 3yrs. Bathtub crayons were a big hit for quite a few years, but make sure you clean your tub right after! We used to be able to buy chunky ones, but I haven't seen them in a while. Ds also really loved BIG paper. We would get some butcher paper from the educational store and he would sit in the middle of it and scribble all over. We also used rubbing plates. I used to hold the paper for him and he would rub the crayon with a little help. That's all I can remember at the moment. Boy I miss those days!

I don't think you're lame. I think it's ridiculous to have practice 5 days a week! It's the same in our town, plus the games on Saturday or Sunday. The practices were long, and scheduled to run right over dinner time for most people. I would have said no way if ds was interested.

Here!:001_smile: