Gosh, I have been thinking along these SAME lines. I would hope I would have been the type of person to work to get Jews out of Germany or to help Slaves cross into the North. And yet...here we are with a huge evil lurking in the world and I have NO idea what to do.

When I drove for the first time at 16 I decided I was not ready for the responsibility. I didn't get my license until I was 25 (and only then because I had to rent a car with a friend...she did all the driving.) I didn't really start driving until I was 30. I still don't like it and don't do it. I could NEVER driver here in India...OMG - crazy!

I am one of those parents who have and will take kids out of school for family trips. Let me first say they are both in private schools so no one is losing funding. However, I certainly elevate the abiltiy to take a trip to Vietnam (most recent example) over my son's attending the last day of school or my daughter missing two days on either end of the Easter break. I just believe family time is limited (they grow up so fast) and funds are limited (tickets are SO much cheaper on certain dates) that a few days missed are ok. After this discussion, however, I will certainly try to be more aware of what problems I have caused for the teachers and try to alleviate those as much as possible.

Oh, I don't have any idea! I was just trying to think through why they would tie it to attendance rather than enrollments. Like Bill said, increased attendance numbers are good for the kids too. Perhaps it is also a bit of a carrot and stick thing. By linking money to attendance it also forces the schools to focus on getting the butts in the seats.

My guess would be to weed out fraud in the system. Schools could "enroll" ghost kids, or fail to list when a child has moved out of the district. By monitoring actual attendance it makes it a little harder.

Ok, that is not a spider bite...that is a SPIDER BITE!! Wow, I didn't know they could do that. Hope you feel better soon!

I would hate to force him to do something. What about gymnastics? Indoor, good activity level, no contact. Would he be interested in that?

I've read interesting articles on how the Indian diaspora focused in on the Spelling Bees and organized themselves into community spelling support systems. They have many competitions within the community and it certainly is not looked down upon to spend the time preparing for these academic competitions.

Yup. It was a very nice picture of everyone sitting with their trophies I think. The PTI is how all the local papers get international coverage for their international page.

I'll try and take a picture and send it to you...PM me with your email if you want! It had a picture and everything! It did focus also on the numerous Indian-American kids in the spelling bees (of course that would be the focus!)

WOW - SMALL WORLD!! I woke up here in Bangalore this morning, got my morning paper, read the cute story about the American family with all the Spelling Bee wins and put it away. Only to find out you are one of the HIVE?? Well - you have made it to the international news as well (check out the webiste for the Bangalore Mirror - that is the paper I read it in!) Congrats and best of luck to your family!!

My brother had to have an emergency circ when he was about 4 years old. While I was only 8 that experience stayed with me, and when I had a son I chose to have it done as a newborn to avoid that trauma. In this case, the wise thing would have been to have a timeframe built into the initial agreement. IE - mom agrees to circ if performed before the first birthday...otherwise no circ. As a former family law attorney, my professional opinion is that mom is a wackado and father is a control freak. When those two personalities meet - you can sit back and wait for the fireworks. If I was the judge, I would have appointed a guardian ad litem for the child and would have followed the recommendation of that party. I guarantee that these people will continue to battle over this child for the rest of their lives....you can see the writing on the wall now.

:hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: :hurray:

The more I think about this part of the story the angrier I get. Mrs. Duggar apparently had robo-calls made around certain political districts in which she argues that allowing transgendered persons to use restrooms would endanger children and make them targets for molestation. AND ALL THIS TIME she knew that she had a molester in her family. It is like this HUGE misdirection that the family tried to do. Put it in people's minds that molesters are those people over there....not these nice "Christian" people over here. YUCK.

We told my son that the huge bannana farm in front of my daughter's school was where the school sent the kids in detention. They had to cut bannanas as their punishment. We told him we had ordered a "nose guard" that wrapped around your head and prevented you from picking your nose. We told him that we had ordered a "fart bag" that caught farts so they wouldn't stink up the car. He believed it all! Still gets mad when he remembers we tricked him!

My take away from this... The more a person/group of people/religion sets themselves up as morally superior to everyone else...run. The more a person/ group of people/ religion starts taking extreme views about the immorality of the way other people live...run.

Kind of surprised that hasn't come down yet.

I have done this twice with books. One was a book by Roald Dahl that was definately NOT a kid's book and the other was a book by Iva Ibbotson that had very older teenager themes (sexual assault) and had been given to my fourth grader. The librarians were clueless as to the content of the books, they were grateful I had come in and informed them. End of discussion. I didn't take it up with the principal.

The police report states that the Oprah Show was informed via email regarding the allegations prior to the Duggars having an appearance on the show. Does anyone remember - did the Duggars actually appear on the show? I'm glad to hear that the show contacted authorities and passed along the email. It sounds like a total fluke that the information became public. "Someone" wrote down everying in a letter and placed it in a book. Then it was forgotten. How do you forget about a letter like that? Then the book was lent to someone who found the letter and started alerting authorities. Amazing. My heart breaks for those young girls. Imagine knowing what you know about your family...but having to put on a "perfect family" face as part of the family business. The hypocrasy must have been sickening.

You win the MOM prize today....AWESOME!!!

The 50 Shades of Grey (the first one only...so terrible I didn't finish the series.) Anything by Jodi Picoult (my mom buys them and leaves them with me when she is done. I don't know why I continue to read them.) The Little Friend - Donna Tartt - so disappointing. The Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling - HUGE disappointment. I wasn't expecting Harry Potter but I was expecting something interesting. And they made a TV show about it now!!!!

I have loved other Donna Tartt books and I was so excited to get a copy of The Little Friend at the used book store....nope, nope, nope. Terrible.

After so many bad bridal shower stories...I thought I would share mine - a great shower idea!! My best friend threw me a "Christmas in the Summer" bridal shower. She put up her artificial tree and made Christmas cookies. Everyone was informed that it was a Christmas themed party. I had been living independently a long time...but didn't have any nice Christmas tree decorations. So people brought ornaments as gifts. I LOVED it and every year when I put my tree up I get to remember each person who gave me an ornament or decoration.

Yes, six months validity on a passport when entering a country...even if Spain doesn't require it you don't know if the family might take a quick hop to another country in the area. Always a good idea so send the passport off asap!

I studied abroad through a consortium. My university (GWU) had teamed up with a number of other universities for the South India Term Abroad (SITA). They rotated who would send the supervising professor each year. Each school could send 2 students. It was a great program and no problems with credits back at my school. I would think if the Study Abroad Office of the school has approved the program - there shouldn't be a problem with credits.