I have to agree. I wouldn't risk eating anything prepared in a non-gf kitchen. Bring groceries, or ask them if they have favourite restaurant you can get take-away from. Do you realkt want a new mom having to take care of a newborn and a very sick DH?

Sigh. I was cleaning out the van to install the new baby seat and found a bag filled with all of my Xmas cards. I would have sworn on my life I mailed them but preggo brain obviously was at work. Do I just ignore them, or do I mail them with a "mea culpa" explanation? Everyone was so looking forward to getting Aussie Xmas cards and I feel bad about it.

I wouldn't do this but I was reading in a budget book once that rather than adding cream and sugar to oatmeal, it is cheaper to buy vanilla ice cream and put a scoop of that on oatmeal. Guess it would work with any ice cream flavour.

They showed part of that on one of the morning shows here in Australia, and the male newscaster totally straight-faced said that for the real experience the men need the electrodes attached to their testicle$. I thought that was hilarious.

I did not grow up on a farm, but oce I started fermentig, canning, and making my own kefir/kombucha/yoghurt, they were always aroud. I usually use a straw when I drink out of them, but they are practical and are very hard to break.

I have known lots of guys who are great gift givers with absolutely no other meaning attached to it. I, also, never write anything in books so wouldn't think too much about that. Your DD should just consider herself lucky that she has a thoughtful friend (no gender attached).

I've been a reader and lover of the series since it started. They are difficult, complex books to get into and understand, but the journey of the characters is one I would never give up. My 8yo has picked up and started reading the books but when we found out, wr stopped him. The HBO series is not completely accurate but fun none the less. As a teen/adult they are definitely worth the read, but not for kids.

Sorry forgot to mention three of us have Coeliac's so GF ideas would be appreciated. I don't like to buy prepackaged snacks here in Australia because most of them have really highly refined carbs, soy and canola oils.

Well, my parents were both raised Catholic, to the point where my Dad was an altar boy but he never believed and is an atheist. My mom re-found religion after she and my dad divorced in 2003 but it OT "eye for an eye" kind of religion so I refuse to listen to her. We were raised atheist, as are my nieces. My DH was raised by a devout Catholic mom and a Presbyterian dad. They divided the kids - DH's mother "claimed" the first boy and first girl for Catholicism and DH's dad got the second boy and second girl for Protestantism. When DH came along 10 years later he was made to do both. He doesn't believe in organized religion but does have a faith component to his personality. When DS9 was born we decided to placate the Catholic (and extremely vocal) members of his family and do a "dedication" ceremony which was supposed to be secularish but assured them that he would be introduced to religions. My father and brother/famil refused to come. The ceremony itself got really weird and was not at all what we wanted so we have not done it again. The kids are being raised as atheists but with a love of learning all world religions as interesting historical and cultural phenomenons (this is how I treat it).

I am scheduled to have a c-section on Valentine's Day. I do not want a c-section, but I have an extremely large cyst on my ovary (which my dr here in Aus is stunned was not immediately removed by drs in the USA) which needs to be removed (along with the ovary) and is so large that it cannot be done with the little incisions. Dr. is also concerned that if it bursts during labour that it would mean an emergency c-section as my uterus and abdomen would flood with blood. If I go into labour before the 14th (which is likely as I have never made it to 38 weeks before) the dr says that I can labour naturally and deliver but has recommended that I have an epidural just in case it does burst they won't have to completely knock me out. If I do make it fully naturally, I will have to go back 6-weeks post-partum and be opened up to have the cyst removed - basically one way or the other I am in for surgery. They prefer if you stay in the hospital 6 days post c-section/surgery, but when I mentioned that was highly unlikely she asked me to at least consider staying 3 days. The kids will probably come and spend the day with me at the hospital while I am there, as we have decided to let them take the Thursday and Friday off from school if they want. DH says he is nervous about how to feed the kids breakfast before school and snacks. He has a few meals he can make for dinner without my help (kids will be eating a lot of tacos, pizza, and lasagna). I would like to make some things to have on hand for him to just feed the kids quickly so he doesn't get frustrated and I don't feel obliged to get up and make them something. We have small freezer but I planned on doing some muffins, egg muffins, waffles, pancakes. Any other ideas? It is more the snacks I need ideas for. They will probably end up buying lunch at school while I am recovering.

We are GF too. We do not like to eat a lot of meat; DH and I are perfectly happy being mostly vegetarian, but we have one DS whose protein needs are higher so we add some meat in. I have discovered that if I cook a kilo of chicken breasts and put them out as "breasts" they are all eaten and people still seem to be hungry. However, I can make chicken nuggets from 1/2 kg of chicken and everyone seems to be satisfied and we have some leftovers. Maybe it is just some weird visual trick my family falls for, but it is working for us.

When we got engaged, I told DH that I was not a big jewelery person and did not want a real diamond. I pointed out a fake diamond ring I thought would be okay and that was cheap. He accidentally bought one that looked exactly like the one I pointed out but was way bigger. It looks real and people were constantly pointing it out and asking us how we could afford it as grad students, was it an heirloom, etc. It really got embarassing for both of us (he was embarassed that it wasn't real, I was embarassed by all the attention) so I just stopped wearing it. Neither of us cares. I always wear my wedding band, as does he.

No, never took bdays off from school or work. Bdays are just another day except you get presents in the morning and a nice dinner.

Yes, because it is a "buy by" date and not a "use by" date, as long as it doesn't smell off. I wouldn't leave it past today, however.

Just tried to find it at my library but no where in the Western Australia library system. However, a sequel called Laughing without an accent : adventures of an Iranian American, at home and abroad, came up and looks funny too.

My aunt, who is only 3 years younger than my mum, often referred to my grandparents as "my parents" or "my mum/dad" when talking to my mother. It really bothered my mother because it seemed to her that my aunt was claiming more of a relationship with them than my mum could. She never said anything to her sister, but both my brother and I corrected my aunt several times to no avail.

We are about to have our 5th. I only wanted 1, but they are like Pringles - once I popped I couldn't stop (just joking). We are considering putting a permanent end to our reproductive years and I am very sad about it, but around here three is considered very large so we are an anomaly. I did see a woman in the shops yesterday who had 4 kids almost the same age as mine and she was pregnant so I know I am not alone.

Crafty 911 Kids, dh, and I want to do something fun, simple, and personal for new bubs. We need clothes still so I thought of getting white cotton bodysuits or tees and having everyone draw something. I also thought of doing natural dyes. If don't want to mess with fabric paint with the kids. If you have done this did you use permanent markers and did it work? Do natural dyes (like beets) work on cotton? Ideas?

It would almost depend on how much leg is showing. I voted sheer but that was with assumption that a bit of leg is showing. you want your boots to be "seen" especially if they are really nice, and wearing black tights would just blend in with the boots.

Turns out they were talking about two different things and my memory just mixed them up so totally mea culpa.

Will it make you feel better to know that I am 34 weeks and haven't done anything? We didn't move anything other than a double stroller and some slings so I have absolutely nothing. Need to order diapers, get some clothes, find a swing and somewhere for her to sleep if she is not in bed with us. The carseat is our major purchase and I still need to do that too. Wow, I usualky deliver between 36 and 37 weeks so now realizing how far behind I am. Carp!

Hmmm, I have a friend who does twin studies who always referred to look-alike fraternals as "mirror". Wonder hiw i go about telling him he has been misspeaking. Yikes.

Always have hated talking on the phone. My mum is the only one I talk to, otherwise it is usually an appointment reminder call or something and they can leave a message. BTW I hate Skype too. It feels so forced and awkward to me, but DH likes to see us if he us gone for an extended period.

(sorry couldn't figure out how to title that better) If you come from an ethnic heritage that is not the one you currently live in, how much time do you invest in teaching your kids about it? For example, I was born and raised in Quebec (so that is one heritage all its own), but my mum is British and my Dad is Hungarian. Although my Dad refused to teach us how to speak Hungarian when we were young, we did invest a lot in the heritage and traditions: we ate a lot of Hungarian food, kept many seasonal traditions, were surrounded by loads of other Hungarians by virtue of where we lived. My borther has been able to keep most of the culinary traditions alive with his girls because they live close to where we grew up and also have Hungarian delis in their area. For me it has been very difficult as I have not lived in a place with a Hungarian population since I left Montreal. If I wanted real Hungarian food I had to order it and the deli that I would get it from was across the country and ended up becoming very strict with its shipping policies. So, yesterday we were at the library and I saw a couple Hungarian cookbooks and I borrowed them. I almost cried looking at the recipes for all the foods that I used to consider "common" but cannot or have not introduced my kids to. My husband is a motley mix of ethnicities, so Hungarian is really their primary "ethnic" heritage. I can only speak a little Hungarian (mostly food and things my g-ma considered important like 'dont touch me" and "I only speak a little Hunagrian). There is supposedly a Hungarian deli somewhere near me now that I live in Perth, but I haven't been able to find it. So, basically, how invested are your kids in their cultural/ethnic heritage? Is it primarily culinary? They do understand French (although I am an Englsh Quebecer, I do speak French to them), and are familiar with some of those foods I grew up with (like they know what a steamie and poutine are, but not neccesarily tortierre). Maybe I am just hormonal (like a 34 week pregnant person usually is) or a little homesick, so maybe I am over thinking it.

even if they look identical they may not be genetically identical. Mirror twins look almost exactly like each other with slight variance. Think of the Olsen twins....everyone thinks they are identical but they are not. It is easier to tell "identical" twins early on before time and environment have had time to act upon their phenotype. For instance you can have genetically identical twins who look slightly different because one sustained an injury or extended illness that restricted growth, etc. If I had twins I would definitely have them tested but that is because DH and I are both geneticists and it would really bug me not to know. People always assume my boys (who are 16.5 mos apart) are twins and say they look identical but I don't think they even look that similar.