-Poltergeist -Pet Cemetery -Last weekend I saw the "romantic comedy" P.S. I love You. I have never cried the whole movie until I saw this one. I could have done without that! -When I was a kid, I saw some movie about piranhas. I was scared to let my feet hang off the bed after that killer fish movie!:lol: -I Know What You Did Last Summer -Titanic.....loved it, but found it so depressing. -Cold Mountain......very disturbing and just not my kind of movie. -Derailed

:lol::lol:

Good for you being able to shrug it off! Yeah, the "jeans" thing is pretty darn funny!

:eek: Bless your heart!! My MIL has made her share of comments, but usually much more passive aggressive in nature. Goodness! What kind of relationship do y'all have now? I know for me, I hold my MIL at bay because of comments she has and continues to make. I've become almost controlling about it. Thankfully, dh sees it and has done everything to protect me emotionally from her. He has almost no relationship with her.....it's very surface level. I think if she was ugly all the time I could handle it better than her being Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I never know what I'm getting with her so now I just pretty much try to ignore her. I just can't let my guard down during her "nice" times. It drives me nuts now that my kids are getting older because she says it to them, behind my back.:angry: It's never anything really bad, just picky and ridiculous. I'm glad I don't have to see her all that often.

My thoughts were also leaning towards cleaning and lightly sanding the bad parts and putting on a coat of polyurethane. Be sure to sand with the grain and not against it.

I'm 34 about to be 35 and my mom is 54, about to be 55, so we're right near 20 years apart.

The lady that did my waxing told me to have at least 8 days of growth before coming in. I had just the areas that would show in my bikini waxed......I did NOT want the Brazilian!:001_huh: No thanks!:001_smile: But I only went to her once and learned how it was done. Now I do my own. I bought a kit from Sally's Beauty supply, but even Wal-mart has bikini waxing kits. I have to do mine about once every three weeks. If any strays pop up before that, I just tweeze them. Oh, and I also trim up everything before I wax.......you don't want any long strays (that you don't intend to remove) getting caught in the wax.:blink: Also, when you pay to have it done, they do give you a little pair of paper undies to wear. Modesty has to go out the window though!;) Your legs will be bent and spread for her to reach all the areas!:lol: Fun, fun! Good luck! I almost suggested a bikini wax to you the other day when you asked about sharing our girly secrets. That's one of mine!

Oh my word!!!!!!!! Some people need to get a life!!! Man, I wish that was my biggest concern! That is ridiculous! Even my fiery redhead daughter is laughing over how wacky that video is! People never cease to amaze me........

That's exactly what I thought too!

My daughter is the only red head our family of six as well. Heck, there's not even a red head alive in my whole family, but she's our flesh and blood! :001_smile: Anyway, she's been told that she looks like Elizabeth, the youngest sister in the old TV show "The Walton's" (Goodnight John Boy!).

:lol: This "chicken" just did! All went well. I felt fine and had no problems. I'll definitely do it again! By donating, I got a free entry into my next 5K, a free personal pan pizza coupon from Pizza hut, and a tee-shirt. Plus I know someone will benefit from my blood. Not bad for an hour of my time! Thanks for all the encouragement and advice!!:grouphug:

Yep, I had all day sickness with my pregnancies. I was completely miserable and could hardly function until I was about 13 weeks. I swore each time I would never put myself through it again! But, I did......those little babies are just so worth it! But you do have me wondering since you've never been this sick before if you could be having twins??!!!:001_huh::001_smile: Good luck to you! I have you feel better soon!

My earliest sign with one of my children came days after I conceived. I had a funky metallic taste in my mouth that lasted that first month. I later read in a baby book that that could be a sign. It was!:001_smile: But I've also felt exhausted before when we were trying to conceive (not because of, get your mind out of the gutter!:tongue_smilie:) and I just knew I must be, but I wasn't! I guess you never really know until you get that positive test. Speaking of that, I have gotten a positive with several of my pregnancies before I was even "late".......I can't help it, I'm a compulsive early tester!:lol:

The advice and support you've already received is wonderful, so I don't have a whole lot to add. But I did want to comment that I too have felt burn-out. If someone ever were to ask me if I'd ever choose to put my kids in ps, I'd say "NO WAY!", but honestly, between me and you:001_smile:, I have been so exhausted with it at times, that I have thought about it. I've told my dh once that I couldn't take it anymore and that I wanted to put my oldest in ps. I wasn't actually at the point of doing it, but it was more of a cry for help. This year, what has helped me more than anything is planning my year in a way that helps ME! I tend to get antsy and bored. I like to paint and be creative. I also need time to focus on the house or just to regroup. So, I planned a schedule where we school for 6 weeks and then take a week off. On my week off, I do report cards for the kids and update my lesson plans for the next 6 weeks. Then we do whatever we want that week. The important thing for me is to have the freedom from the monotonous routine. I need breaks like this and I can't live for spring break or summer break every year. It's really given me motivation knowing that week is coming. You might want to think of something similar that will work for you. I do have to start my year a bit earlier to make sure I fit 36 weeks of schooling in, but it's been a great thing for us. I wish you the best of luck. You are not alone!:001_smile:

Well, I think we've been conditioned to think that good birthday parties can only occur with 20 of their "best friends"! I know we've been to our share like that and at one time, I felt that was what I needed to throw together as well (and it was expensive and exhausting!!). As my kids get older, I am appreciating more the family party thing. Sometimes we do invite a few friends. My daughter turns 13 on Sunday so we are picking up two sisters that are my girls' ages. Plus, my 7 year old dd will be going as well. So, it will be my 13 year old dd and her friend, my 10 year old dd and her friend, and my youngest and myself. We are going out to eat and to see Prince Caspian. My dd couldn't be more excited and all my girls get to reap the benefit of the special day. For birthday parties, we usually invite our extended family and have dinner and cake.....no big theme things. It's always on a smaller scale and much more enjoyable as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, another thing I taught my dog is the "leave it" command. I started out with a dog treat in the palm of my hand held up towards his nose and I would tell him to leave it. If he started to bite at it, I told him again to leave it and moved it away from him. After he had left it for a minute, I then said, "take it" and gave him the treat. We did that over and over and that too has come in handy when he has been caught with something he shouldn't have. It's great to say "Cooper, leave it!" and he drops it immediately!! With kids shoes and toys lying around all the time, the "leave it" command has been much used! HTH

When we bought our boxer pup, I bought a training magazine on boxers to give me ideas and how-to's. I started immediately and worked with him in small increments throughout the day. The important thing is to reward, reward, reward! The small liver treats are a great treat that can be chewed quickly during training. Any negative discipline will make him leery and often they will start doing the opposite of what you want them to do. Also, when you want them to come, call your puppy and when he is running toward you, say "come". Then he is associating the right action with the word instead of him running off and you yelling to "come". NEVER discipline him for dong something wrong when he comes to you. He will learn to go the other direction! I also highly recommend the crate training! It gives your pup a safe place to be when you can't be with them or at night, and it helps with house breaking. We don't even have to use ours anymore, but it was a life saver the first year. No chewed shoes or furniture! I spent so much time training my pup because I can not stand to be around an undisciplined dog. I didn't want to regret getting him, so I worked hard with him. It's really paid off. He is now a year old and I swear, he seems to understand English!:lol:

Cool! :thumbup1: That's what I would have had to do as well!

I'm nearing 35 and my middle name is Michelle.

So how in the world did you choose a brand new name?? It seems like such a hard decision to make for oneself!! I would still be trying to decide if I had wanted to change mine!! :lol:

Me too!!! In fact, my dh calls me Genevieve sometimes and I love it!!!:lol:

Last year, I emailed a complaint to National Geographic Kids magazine for this very reason. They had a big spread on that Golden Compass movie and the animals in the movie. The magazine targets kids as young as 6 years old. Not only was the movie controversial, but it was PG-13. The crap that my kids see on commercials and such is bad enough. It would be nice if kids magazines didn't promote it too. Let them be kids for crying out loud!:rant: They apologized and said that they would consider this in the future.

So do you go by Jenny or Jennifer in real life? I was "Jenny" until about 3rd grade when I thought it sounded too babyish and chose the more "sophisticated" Jennifer.:lol: Now I wish I had stuck with Jenny. It's cute and not as common! My aunt is the only one that still calls me Jenny and it takes me back to my childhood every time!

"Jennifer"....meh. Nuff said! That's why my screen name is "Just a Jen in MS".......just "another" Jen.:D

I wondered the same thing. I just left the polls myself. Our state is in a run-off race for congress. Both candidates have campaigned so negatively that it was hard to vote for either. I hope things went well for you!:001_smile: