What calendar does your church follow? I just looked on a local Ukrainian church which follows both the Gregorian and the Julian calendars and neither were ecclesiastical new year.

Oh yes. Well, an actual ban would be better. :D It doesn't matter the size of dog, either. I just about stepped on a little attack doggie on my run last week. I avoided the scrunch to save my ankle, but next time I think I'll wrap the retractable leash around the owner's neck or something. Those leashes are stupid, and are for lazy dog walkers who can't move over a few feet to let their dog sniff stuff. The owner of those two dogs is an idiot, too. She'll pull out her own shoulder one day, if not worse. Sorry you got hurt by her incompetance. If I was in a nasty mood I'd mention it to the park staff, but don't expect anything at all to change, unfortunately.

I really believe that a university education is a very valuable thing, and just like so many other things in life, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Also, it pays to choose a program wisely, and switch programs if the original one isn't a good fit. My undergrad program was good, but I REALLY learned how to dig deeper and actually write clearly in graduate school. I completed a Master's degree with thesis, and it was an excellent learning opportunity on so many levels. I have no interest or need to go on to a Ph.D. at this point in my life. It would be way more fun to do an open concept type of university program where I could hand-pick courses from any faculty, and not worry about a piece of paper at the end. Specifically to the OP question, that piece of paper is just a starting point in one's career (certainly for young adults, perhaps less so for people later on in their working careers). It's like an entrance fee to getting in the door to a vast number of employment opportunities. Without it, you've just closed the door on all those jobs. There are lots of other opportunities out there, and you can get those with that little "piece of paper" as well. It can never be taken away from you, either.

Happy Birthday! :party:

I think with 9 children you have earned the right to hate any toy you wish! :D I suck up with a vaccuum lots of LEGO and it still keeps multipying! I loved LEGO as a child and my dc love it now. As much as I dislike stepping on the nasty bits, I know that they are probably one of the best toys out there. I also have those cool wooden planks and different varieties of wooden blocks, as well as wooden marble runs. As tempting as these are, the dc simply prefer making smaller things they can carry around and play with. So I'm stuck with LEGO for a few more years.

Sorry, I didn't read through the entire thread and just jumped in with my thoughts from the original post. Do what you feel sits best with you and your family right now. Sounds like you have been doing through some rollercoaster stuff and just need some rest from it all. Take the instruments "off the market" of lending and see how you feel later.

That's wonderful that your son enjoys swimming and has natural talent. I like to keep activities fun and non-competitive for my dc, at least until age 8 or even more. There is a risk of over-training children by doing too much repetitive activity too early and either causing physical development issues or wrecking the child's enjoyment of the sport. It's totally understandable that he has trouble training for more than 20 minutes at his young age. Emotional and physical development are not always at the same levels. A 30 minute swim class once a week will be great for him. There are so many skills to learn in the water that will be fun and helpful for his overall development, such as water entries (jumping, diving), swimming on front and back, practicing proper breathing technique for front crawl, and many more. You can always supplement physical activity in other areas, as well.

Stop!! I can't take it anymore. You've got cheap gas, I believe it. I can go anywhere in your stinking country and get cheap gas. Don't rub it in anymore. :nopity: Me on my pity party.

I don't know about crock pot or shoe threads, but the gas price thread got me good. :willy_nilly: I HATE the price of our gas in Canada!!! Stop rubbing in your prices, over and over and over..... Need chocolate now, lots and lots of chocolate.

See what I mean, folks! That's $1/litre more than in Canada, which is about $9 a gallon. Stop yer whining. :D

I just found a neat children's TV show called "Pederson og Findus" though I can only find it in Swedish and Danish at the moment (also Dutch and German). There should be a version in Norwegian, just can't find it. Pederson is called slightly different things depending on the language. It's Pettson in Swedish. Maybe your relatives know the exact name used in Norwegian, assuming it's shown in Norway.

So, you have 4 dogs, but no backyard? You have to do a lot of walking? I used to wash my dogs in the bath tub. I didn't mind the washing, but drying the long hair wasn't very fun.

Do you have to groom them often? Even with 4 dogs, if it was only once or twice a year, I would probably pay to have them all done for me by someone else rather than paying $60 to do all the hard work myself.

That would be too much for me, unless you have the money and don't want to or can't do the grooming yourself. It's a great price, just tough to have to do it so often. And x 2. Ouch. It's a good thing that dogs are so loveable. :001_smile:

So, um... I guess she "ruined" you first, so that you're now "ruining" her grandchildren? :D The logic just doesn't add up, does it?

Don't even ask. My only consellation is that prices in Europe are higher and they drive faster (at least in Germany) so they blow through more gas. It's also fun living next to Quebec and NOT have to pay their stinking high prices!! Don't you Americans complain about high gas prices until you REALLY have to start paying the kind of sick taxes we do in Canada. We sell you gas nice and cheap, then pay more for our own gas here. And don't you dare laugh, either! (And if you want to know how to steam up a relaxed Canadian, ask about the price of gas)

Sounds like a pretty good deal, if you want to do the work yourself. Do your dogs have dark nails? I don't mind clipping the nails, though dark ones are harder. What kind of dogs do you have? Short or long hair? Do you need to dry the hair at the groomer's, too? Do they have driers? I think I've paid as little as $40 to have a Wheaton Terrier properly groomed by a Wheaton shower/breeder, but I had to wash the dog first. Now I pay more, but the washing is included (yipee!), and I have the dogs shaved down so I only have to have them groomed twice a year.

Never, the groomer does! :D I have my Wheaton Terriers washed and shaved down twice a year. I used to do the washing and grooming of the "proper" Wheaton look, but with 4 dc and homeschooling, I need a life that doesn't include full-time grooming of my dogs.

Have your child watch Leap Frog "Talking letter factory" a few hundred times, and you don't have to do either! :D

Me too! What about air-dry clay and ditch the kilt/kiln?

Oh cr*p! This made me almost pee, too! :tongue_smilie:

That is very funny! I almost peed on the floor, just like the girl in the song! :lol:

I thought my dc would have bad dreams about the giant spiders attacking Bilbo and the dwarves. They loved it. I was the one going "oooooo, yucky" with the spider part. The trolls are awesome and are portrayed very well in the book (at least correctly, according to what I learned about them living in Norway for 4 years). I would go ahead and do the book. One person not agreeing with a book isn't enough to switch books.

Really? Have you checked, or are you assuming that there isn't? My sister was an exchange student in Norway over 20 years ago and took a Norwegian language course for immigrants. I still have the materials and a 12 year old could use this material. There were young au-pair teens and girls in their early 20s taking the same course. Surely there are similar materials for immigrants in Denmark? Even if your son was unable to take such a course, you could buy the books to use.

Bring dd to the library or bookstore and look through cake books and/or magazines and let her choose a cake decoration style she likes. I'd probably go with a known cake-type, so that she will like the actual cake part.