I am plus size and they are my favorite jeans. I'd pay $55, probably not $100, though.

We are conservative introverts. We currently let our teen go out once during the week, and once or twice on weekends, home by 11. Not enough freedom for her taste. It seems plenty to conservative introverts. Said teen also is in a sport and goes to public school. *Edited, removed personal details and Added - hangs out after school w/ friends until practice starts, home by 5ish. She generally has one sports game during the week and one on Saturday, which means gone all day if it's an away game. So she's out and about quite a bit with just sports. Plus has homework. So, as a guage on what average teenage freedom looks like: What does your 16 year old's social schedule look like? How often does your child hang out during the week? What about weekends? How late at night? What does spring break freedom look like at your house? Rules for driving, being allowed to drive?

Thank you for the replies. I am trying to decide between a swing and a bouncy chair. The plug in cradle swings are newer or at least they weren't widely popular 6 years ago. Swing = off the floor. Bouncy chair = less floor space. Trying to decide which one would get more use. I wish we lived in a more populated area. The nearest Craigslist city is close to 2 hours away. :glare:

I just had baby #7 a couple days ago. My next youngest is almost 6. I'm wondering what absolutely fabulous baby gear I've missed in the past 5 years. I've never used a bouncy chair or a bumbo seat. I had a swing once upon a time, but I didn't use one after kid 3ish? I'm too fat for cloth carriers; backpacks hurt my arthritic neck. Really I just pack the baby around for about 3 years and do everything with one hand. HOWEVER, I'm old as the hills now and tired. Maybe I should revisit my need for baby gear? What I did use a lot, which other people might not: a bassinet which I keep in the living area for day time napping. With every baby I also used an exersaucer when they got a little older (bouncer? do I sound like a grandma?). One thing I want is a deluxe umbrella stroller to keep in the back of the van. Has to be umbrella because we are a sports family and perpetually have 100 other things in the back of the van. Does anyone have an awesome, tall, umbrella stroller that reclines and has a shade? I'm looking at the Inglesina Swift on Amazon.

2. What names do you absolutely love and would not name your child (either due to being too out there or too popular, etc.)? Atticus (sounds ridiculous with my last name) and Scout (Demi ruined it!) 3. Is there a certain era, theme, etc that you like best when choosing names? We generally use last name sounding names for first names.

The necklace, ha, my two oldest children were appalled. They saw the movie at separate times and both yelled at the screen, lol.

Last time we moved, apparently we overpaid our last phone bill because we received a check in the mail for our overage of ONE CENT.

We spend at least $1200 or more for a family of 8. Two of are low carb, with one more joining in part-time; meat and vegetables are much more expensive than pasta and potatoes. We are too busy in this season to cook everything from scratch.

Raised Pentecostal...then Baptist for a few years (which is bad enough, in the eyes of my original church)...now Presbyterian; definitely the Dark Side.

When it got really cold we put a heat lamp in the coop for our micro-flock. The chickens responded by tearing off the wire protector and then pecking the bulb away from its base.

We don't have a problem at meal times, but when my children are rude I get confused. If someone says, "You're stupid." I hear, "I want to wash the dishes." One child is fond of the word carp which I understand as, "I want to clean the toilet." It works for us.

I voted Jane. Do you do nickname? I don't usually but if I had a Charlotte JoAnne she would end up being Charlie Jo.

My friend's 6 year old boy just had eye surgery and is supposed to stay in bed, horizontal for 10 days. She also has 6 other children ranging from age 1 to age 9 so she's BUSY. Any ideas on what I could send his way to help him pass the time?

My theory is that shorter people grow earlier. I was done at 12. DD was done at 13. We are 5'3" and 5'4". My younger dd is 5th grae and she is taller than most of the girls her age. I was tallest in my class in 5th grade.

This is probably not helpful but looking to the future and the possibility of have a large family, here's an alternate view: By kid 4 my favorite diaper bag was none. I would slip a diaper and ziplock of wipes into the lining of the infant car seat when we got out of the van. I usually had a plastic grocery bag of extra clothes in the van but the more kids I had, the less I wanted to lug extra stuff around. When baby outgrew the car seat, I just made sure I had a regular purse large enough to hold a diaper and maybe a toy or two.

Both trampoline injuries we had involed a larger person jumping with a much smaller person. We had a 3 yr old jumping with an 7 year old. The 3 yr old fell as the 7 yr old descended and landed on 3 yr old's arm. Fortunately, the break was slightly above the growth plate, but it did have to be pinned. Then the 7 yr old was jumping with her dad and his bouncing made her bounce uncontrolled and she sprained her ankle pretty badly. My old chiropractor had an article about spinal compression and trampolines. Not a good thing.

You'd be eating mostly meat and vegetables for a short while. The food you listed sounds great for maintainance level eating.

Not that I do these thing, but according to my low carb reading, I say until you reach maintainance ditch the banana, apples and beans, possibly the yogurt, and watch your cheese intake. Also, try to up your fat and protein. I googled calories in one serving of black bean chili, it listed 25. One medium apple has 21 carbs. Half a banana has 12 carbs. That's 58 carbs right there. Depending on your body, you may have to reduce carbs to Atkins induction level - that's 20 or less per day. Some people say the carbs in yogurt are not a problem, but are they for you? A year or two ago I read that Fage changed their recipe and how it contains more carbs than the original recipe did. I don't know how many other brands contain. Half a cup might have 4ish carbs and nuts have some carbs. Vegetables might be low carb but they still have some carbs. Everything adds up. You might run all you meals through fitday to estimate the full carb content.

I went to the social security website and searched popularity. Zoey was the 31st most popular name in 2011; Zoe was the 28th. I'm not sure where that ranks the name when you combine its popularity. Mackenzie is #68. Stella is #73. "Ever is not in the top 1000 names for any year of birth in the last 12 years." Sounds like there will be lots of Zoe(y)s running around. I have a kid we call Ever or sometimes Everly or Evey. If I really liked the name Ever for a girl I would name her Everleigh and call her Ever for short.

I'm sure she wouldn't need foundation but I think powder has a great fuss factor. I think it they might enjoy using a pressed powder with the round terry applicator it comes with and then use a large fluffy brush to whisk away any extra cakey powder. I agree with the lip gloss, something moisturing, the Burts Bees ones that have tiny bit of color. I'm not big on a lot of makeup until high school, but if you do get into eye shadow, liner, and mascara, it would be an excellent idea for your younger girls to watch a lot of makeup tutorials on youtube. The users makeupgeek and gossmakeupartist are two popular ones. Does she already wear fingernail polish?

.

2nd grader, will be 8 soon, spent the summer reading Hank the Cow God (dog, lol, typed that wrong), and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

However, since it is a recession, more people are looking to buy used instead of new.

Generally for a two day yard sale we make as much I would working mininum wage for a month so it's worth it for me. On the second day, things are usually half price and then $1 a bag and/or free after noon. Then we donate the rest. BUT we have 6 kids and every year we have A LOT of stuff to get rid of.

My children will all be 18 when they graduate. Two are summer birthday boys whom have been given "the gift of a year."