Totally true. My family can't eat anywhere around here for under 40 dollars. Normally, our bill at a restaurant comes in around 60 or 70 dollars...that's enough for a whole lot of all sorts of stuff!

We used to eat out all the time. Which, to me, is about once or twice a week. We were wasting sooooo much money! When we finally figured that out, and set ourselves a strict food budget, the eating out, went out the window! Even when we travel, we pack sack lunches...even when we drive over 12 hours to visit family. I can just think of so many other things I'd rather do with my money than eat it. (I love that commercial where the little lady eats the 5 dollar bill that was stuck on the wall.) Anyway, that said, dh and I try to go out on dates, including eating out, about once every month or two. We do take the kids out for dinner a couple times a year. Usually though, when it is just dh and I, we spring for the appetizers and desserts, and leave out the main dish...cutting calories and spending. That's the other issue I have with eating out...it is just soooo unhealthy most of the time. I like fresh, whole foods, and you don't get that at most restaurants...at least not around here. I'm sure if you live in a big city, you may have that available, but we never have, so I just see the dollars and calories mounting up, every time we sit down at a restaurant. Makes it more fun to eat at home, that's for sure!

We started our family immediately when we got married, and I was barely 20 when I got pregnant the first time. We had 5 children by the time I was 28...and I always promised myself I would have my babies, all that I wanted, and quickly, and then I would be done, so that I could enjoy other stages of my life in different ways. My second, and last 2 pregnancies were a mess, and after being blessed with 5 healthy, happy children, and my own survival, and not one miscarriage, which none of my doctors could believe, that was enough for me. I had to have surgery after baby #5, because of my problems, so I can't have any more children anyway, but that's great with me, as I wouldn't choose to, even if I could. Add to that a fairly bad case of scoliosis that cause me remarkable pain during my pregnancies, and total insomnia for those same months. I'm thrilled beyond words that my body held out as long as it did, and equally thrilled to see my kids grow up and enjoy that part of parenting. I never, never have baby fever. I look forward to enjoying grandchildren someday, but can wait a long, long time for that blessing! I love my big kids!

Wanna know something funny? When I was about 8 years old, my mom was working nights in the ER. She always cooked a fancy dinner for Christmas Eve. This particular year, life happened. She doesn't remember what anymore. She couldn't cook a big dinner, so she ordered Pizza Hut. I remember DANCING around the living room waiting for that pizza to arrive. It was a treat! I don't think pizza ever tasted so good. My mom has told me since that she remembed crying in her bedroom because she felt like she was failing by not making a special dinner. I have told her that I can't remember a single other Christmas Eve meal as a kid, but I remember that Pizza Hut as clear today as the many years ago it happened. Just a thought And what a lovely thought. Really, I love this. Children are so easy to please, that we sometimes forget to relax and enjoy and share their happiness as we should.

http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Sausage-and-Egg-Casserole-44645 I'm not the op for the crock pot recipe, but I did find this recipe, that looks pretty close to the over-night casserole that I make, only in the crock pot. I use sausage in mine...and add a can of green chilis, but that's just our taste. Anyway, just thought that may help anyone still looking for the recipe. There were several others that I Googled up, but this one looked like my favorite...so you may want to scout around if this one isn't appealing to you, as there are several that I found in just a couple minutes. HTH!:001_smile:

Another request for the crock-pot casserole recipe! That sounds awesome! We usually have the over-night egg casserole, and carmel rolls. My family prefers carmel rolls to cinnamon. Some years I make them from scratch the night before, and bake in the morning, and some years I get the Rhodes Dough version and pop those in the oven in the morning. We always have to have orange juice with it. The rest of our Christmas Day food is leftovers from the night before...a big finger-food fest! We are always home on Christmas, and usually without visitors, so this works well for us. Low stress, and makes it so that dh and I can play with the kids, rather than cook.

How small, is "small?" I live in the western US, and there are a lot of great towns that I could recommend.

I'm sending out about 30 this year...way down from previous years. We haven't gotten even one yet!!! Not a single one! (Usually we have about 15 by now.) However, we did just move across town a couple months ago, so maybe everyone is just waiting to get our new address from my card, in order to send our out? We've moved quite a bit though, and this has never been the case before. Anyway, this thread makes me feel better! I was thinking we were alone! I sent mine out on Saturday though, so I'm "late" this year too!

I am thinking that we will be done on the 19th...and spend the next four days going to parties and baking and delivering yummies to friends and such.

My 5 children are only 7 years apart, oldest to youngest. They have a wonderful relationship that tends to get better and better. I can only hope and pray that this will continue throughout their lives. I can truly say that they are eachother's best friends. They have been in public school, and homeschooled, and this fact remained the same. When they were in public school, they had many other friends, but those friends were mutual friends, and they were together all the time. They loved meeting up at recess. Maybe this has a lot to do with the fact that the oldest 4 are all girls...and that my little boy is only 11.5 months younger than his sister. My two youngest, are really like twins, and although the love to bug eachother...they are both fiercely protective of the other, and play together beautifully and love eachother endlessly. All of my children complete eachother's sentences, take care of and watch over eachother, and are best buddies. I've seen little to no "rivalry." They compete with other kids, most definatly, but not with eachother. I would never, never, never, in a million years, go back and space them out more. They have this awesome chance to grow up together. They "get" eachother, and share everything. Personally, I think it is best to have them close together, but, on the other side, I've always ached to have a sister. I've always missed that experience so much, and there is no way in the world I would have cared if she was a year different from my age, or 20 years. Seriously. I think having sibblings is the best blessing of all, no matter when they happen to come along!!

Meeee tooooo! Makes me nuts and Amen Sister!!

We have no real attachment to where we are living, don't mind living away from family, and have no real need to stay here. Dh's company has a job openning in Honolulu right now. We've always wanted to live someplace warm and by the ocean...grew up in a very cold, very land-locked place...at least for a few years. We are willing to leave behind a great deal of "stuff," if necessary...but his company does have relo assistance. I'm sure we'd have to downsize to a smaller home, and probably rent. Other than housing being very expensive there, what else would we need to consider? We've only been to Hawaii once, but that was Maui, and only for a week. We have plenty of adventure in our hearts, but not a lot of knowledge about this sort of thing! Thanks!

Ok...with tears in my eyes, because you are all speaking what's in my heart...I'm off to try to put together a smart way to lay this out for dh. He's even more "responsible and boring" than I am! But, he's worrying to death about his grandma right now...so I think it could be a rather easy sell.

We drive a big old, gas guzzling Suburban, and since we moved 800 miles from "home," 2.5 years ago, we've only been back home 2 times. Times have been tough for us, economically, for those last couple years. We have struggled hard to come up with the hundreds of dollars that we needed to drive the whole way. We have an exceptionally close family, on both mine and dh's sides. The grandparents, and great-grandparents, are all together in our home town. Some of the brothers, sisters, and nieces, and nephews are there too. We love our families, and miss them. My dh's grandmother just had major cancer surgery this week. This is the grandmother who shares a first name with one of my daughters. A pretty special lady. My grandmother has alzheimer's and is getting very old. My parents will be alone this year, with my grandmother, as my brother and his wife and kids are leaving town, and my mom's sister is leaving town too. I'm feeling rather home sick, and just did the math and realized that it would only cost us about 180 dollars in gas to get there and back this Thanksgiving! That's a third of what it cost us last time we were up there. We live in an area of the country where heavy winter weather is a big factor, but it is suppose to be pretty nice, for the most part, next week. But, that's always a gamble...and a worrisome one, with 5 kids in the car. I just keep thinking about the opportunity to have a weekend with the grandparents, and a few of my girls' cousins, whom they totally adore. We never, never do stuff like this. We are those "ultra responsible, ultra boring" type people. But, responsible and boring is good when it comes to the checkbook and staying safe! So, would you go, or would you stay?? We haven't had a holiday with family for years...it would be really "weird!"

I love him forever!!! My best friend and my knight in shining armour.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I've had photos of Disneyland, a once in a childhood thing for our family, that I've needed to do something special with for 3 years. This was a wonderful blessing! $7.41, with tax, for a beautiful memory book that my whole family will treasure! I would have never known about it without you guys!

I'm using Writing Aids (TOG), very loosely, with my own stuff thrown in.

Thanks so much for all the great advice! I love the game recommendations! I think I actually found a great deal at a local store...it outdoes the online deals! I'd love to have the Wii Fit for myself, but as dh just bought me a new treadmill for the winter, I think the game will have to go to the end of the list. There are so many that look great though...the list is getting long! Thank you!!

Thanks! :D

Dh and I decided that we will pool a good portion of our Christmas budget this year and buy a Wii. We live in an area with horrible winter weather and getting out to play is almost impossible for the kids. We think it would be a neat thing for them to have. Soo.... Neither of us are "gamers," by even the greatest stretch of the imagination. We have absolutely no idea what we need to buy with the actual game system itself. I assume we need some sort of controller or something. And a couple games. What else? Anything super important? Any place that is "best" to buy them? Are the Wii's about 250 dollars, no matter where you get them from? That's what it looks like to me. Is it better to buy a package deal from Walmart or something...or is that just a waste of money? Also, I saw the thread about the most loved games...and that was very helpful. I'm thinking we'll invest in 2 of the games to start with (cause, wow, they are expensive!). Any particular recommendations for these ages and genders: dd, 13 and very, very "bookish" dd, 10 dd, 8 dd, 7 ds, 6 The Star Wars Lego one sounds particularily interesting...they LOVE legos. Thanks much!!!

We sprang for the Proactiv. Both dh and I had mild/moderate acne when we were about 12 to 14 years old. When dd started showing signs that she was going to have a problem, we decided to try it because she had friends for whom it had worked. When she uses it, she has almost no problems...but her issue, is that when the acne leaves, she stops using it, and then it returns. I try to remind and encourage!

Just wanted to say thanks so much to everyone! We wound up doing the photo of my parents, in black and white, that I had taken earlier this fall. I took it to a frame shop and had in matted in a pretty creamy-colored matting. Very chic! Lol! Anyway, we put it in a gorgeous black frame. My little family signed the mat, and I put it all together and sent the whole thing off to my brother, who promised to trek all over the town that we grew up in, and where my parents have lived almost their whole entire lives, and have people sign it. It turned out lovely, and the addition of the promised signatures will make it perfect! He has this week to get it done, and will wrap it and give it to them next weekend, on their anniversary! We are also sending a card and flowers for the end of this week! Thanks so much to everyone who helped me with this! It is such a relief to know that we are all set with something that they will cherish...and neither my brother's or my family had to go into huge debt to get it done! Thank you, thank you!!!!

My dh wants to learn spanish, so that he can speak to customers for work. He doesn't really want to worry much about written language, as for now, the important thing is that he can communicate with non-English speakers, asap. He wants to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible. We are looking at Rosetta Stone, or Auralog, etc. Can anyone recommend a program? Because of his work schedule and our location, a college class is not possible. He has ample opportunity to use what he learns, in the real world, as he works with individuals that will be happy to help him practice. Thanks!

Yes, yes, yes!!! My mother kept a shelf of my brother's and my favorites from when we were little and my children adore having them, and knowing that they were mamma's when she was little! The favorite is the Little Golden Books Frosty the Snowman that I got when I was 2! There are books that are worth their weight in gold to me...and then some. Both the ones I remember my dear grandfather reading to me as a child (he died 15 years ago), and ones that I will forever treasure because they will always bring back the sweet memories of sitting by a little lamp and reading to one of my little ones. I slowly weed out the ones that are outgrown, and never were of any interest, but the ones that the kids love, will be around forever!:001_smile:

Thanks everyone! :001_smile: