All good points! I like the idea of frames being mailed to you to try on (online store mentioned upthread), but visiting in person just to try on and jot down the important numbers is an excellent idea, also.

I'm getting ready to order from zennioptical. My progressive lens bifocals have been running close to $600 out of pocket each year, and I can't swing that anymore. (FWIW, I checked pricing at all my local optometry places, including Walmart, and for mine the price was always that horrible.) I'm a little nervous about ordering online, but I used my daughter for a guinea pig first and we are extremely pleased with her glasses from zenni. Locally, we paid ~$200 for her last pair. zenni price was $34 delivered, and she likes the style more. My glasses from zenni will be $68 - including lighter titanium frames because I hate the weight - and with the potential savings from now on, I am willing to give them a try!

:grouphug: I'm sorry.

Va-va-va-voom! Good for you! :hurray: I desperately need to color my hair today, but it's full of product so it will have to wait. It's just as well: my "Dark Brown #4" seems a little boring now. LOL. I may have to rethink my color choice. I wouldn't mind a little glam in my life! :coolgleamA:

Hi, dear Julie! So glad you could stop in with an update.

0-201-86100-3 is the solutions manual we are using with Foerster's Alg 1 "Classics" edition from 2006.

I voted girl, which I see broke the boy/girl tie for the moment. BTW, congratulations on the new baby coming! Boo will have someone to share school books with.

Ouch! So sorry to hear about the concussion. I hope the healing is swift and uncomplicated. I have zero experience with concussions, but I couldn't help but wonder if the low-stimulation activity called for would resemble what a feverish, headachey, lethargic child naturally gravitates to: slow, quiet "activities" such as cuddling with a calm pet, laying and listening to familiar music, fiddling with very quiet toys like a squishy ball? Another thing that comes to mind is sitting by himself in a tub of water with just a few cups to pour water back and forth. (Maybe keep the lights down low in the bathroom and skip the motorized toy shark and action figures for now.) Good luck with your little guy.

Subaru gets my vote, also. We have two of them, and had both out in the heavy, wet snow on unplowed back roads today. (The local schools were closed because of the snow, which means we pack up the sleds and head out in the country to our friends' houses!) I don't hesitate to go where I need to in these cars. Last I checked, ours were getting 23mpg city/25mpg highway. They hold their value well, also. I just kelly blue booked the '99, and it's supposed to be worth nearly $4000 if I wanted to sell it in my front yard. Not bad for a car I bought used for $3000, and which now has 250k miles on it. It's running like a champ. Note: I shopped a long time before I could locate our Subarus. Used ones are hard to find in snow country: people don't get rid of them! Also, I notice you were mentioning long-legged people in your family...I'm short-legged, but long-waisted, so I SIT tall...and there's lots of head room. The seats are fully adjustable height-wise; perhaps one of their models would work for you? Happy car shopping!

:grouphug: I think of you often, Bethany.

Oh, I'm glad to hear of all the snoozing going on by so many dogs! I was about to post a similar question to the OP, because I've been thrown off by how much our newly adopted dog can sleep. Our only other dog has been gone for a couple of years, but even as a senior citizen, ol' Buddy was way more active than our new Sophie, aka Miss Lazy Bones. Maybe it's the difference in breeds?? Sophie's a 3 year old lab/corgi (?) mix. She spends some time fetching her tennis ball and sniffing rabbit trails in the morning, and again in the late afternoon. She takes a couple of short walks. She may or may not decide to follow the cats for a few minutes when they walk past her in the house. She comes looking for a rub or a pet or even a short wrestling session a couple times a day. Other than that, the girl is sleeping at our feet or in a sunny spot close by all day long. We laughed today when she was dreaming and doing the barking-in-her-sleep thing right underneath us at the desk. Our laughter never even woke her up. Another time she was wagging her tail in her sleep. Sophie's one content, sweet girl. Can't imagine why she was given up because she's pure joy as far as we're concerned. (But, yes, I had concerns she would be bored while we were doing school. Guess not!)

:grouphug:

Yes, me too. Keep holding on to each other, and please take care - all of you. May you feel empowered and at peace very, very soon. Until then, keep soaking up the love! We had some meaningful conversations at our house today. Your courage in sharing with this board led to those conversations, and we thank you for that. :grouphug:

www.eatingwell.com is my favorite go-to site for healthy recipes and inspiration. There are recipe reviews, articles, and IIRC you can look for recipe collections meeting specific health-needs (such as low-fat or low-carb).

I had to go read up on the echidna. Wow! What an odd little creature. One article I read said echidnas are great swimmers. I never would have guessed that looking at the pictures. Well, we've had lots of brief visits from our neighborhood redtailed hawk lately. He will circle the field outside our windows looking for a meal, and you can tell when he spots something because he will just sort of "brake" in mid-air, flopping down to stomp on a mouse or vole. As soon he's got it securely clenched, off he flies into the neighbor's field to settle down to eat. Every single time, three crows come flying out of nowhere at this point to harass the tar out of him and chase him off. If he dares to land again, the crows practically dance on his head until he gives up and leaves the area completely. Even with binoculars, I haven't been able to tell if the hawk gets to take his meal with him, or if it gets left behind. The crows aren't eating it, that's for sure. It's a mystery to me why the crows even care that a hawk is eating my field mice. The crows don't harass any of the other birds, just the hawk. And why are there always three crows: one zooming in from the south and two from the north, every single time?? It's like they have a personal vendetta, and they definitely work together to get rid of the hawk before returning to...wherever it is they are coming from.

Awesomeness. Well-deserved, at that. :hurray:

.

:grouphug: Praying.

:grouphug: I'm sorry, Bethany. You all have had a tough road. Please try not to second guess any of your choices. There's just no way to predict exactly what might happen, and so we do the best we can with the information we have at the time. You must be such a bright spot in your father's life! Try to enjoy the time you spend together, and then don't feel guilty when you take a break, too. Self-care must stay at the top of your list so you don't wear out. More :grouphug: .

Baby spinach: Definitely YES! Not sure about your dairy products. I freeze baby spinach all the time. I use it straight from the freezer to put in my smoothies, and also for cooking in a number of recipes. If I run into a great sale on bagged spinach I'll grab several, freeze them, then quickly smash the bag with my fist to cut down on the space they take up in the freezer. (It'll turn the leaves into very useful little flakes.) If I'm keeping the bags for long, I'll pop several of these smashed bags into a larger ziploc bag so they keep longer.

:grouphug: Oh, Dot. They have come a long way! My girl's first spinal fusion (anterior approach) was 9 hours with instrumentation from T-10 to L-3. No casting, and nothing more than tylenol after day 2. Home in one week. Breaking boards with her feet and on a rollercoaster at 4 weeks post-op. Second spinal fusion was 8 hours long, posterior approach, w/instrumentation from T-4 to L-2. Her biggest hurdle was needing a catheter for a few days post-op until her bladder started working again. Scary at the time, not so scary looking back. She was a trooper, had a great surgical team, and healed well. Even the braces are getting slimmer and sleeker all the time. Dirty Ethyl, I hope all goes smoothly for your daughter! She'll be happy when she's grown that she wore her brace. It will prevent problems down the road.

Two of my girls wore the braces, both a nighttime model for correction, and a daytime one for maintenance. Sounds like you all are on the right track with gradually upping the hours of wear, and staying on top of the exercise. We utilized the body pillows here, also. Undershirts: I think I know which ones you mean - the snug, thickish ones available through the orthotics dept. Our insurance paid for two, but my girls could've used dozens. Here's an alternative: look for a snug-fitting, seamless men's a-shirt (undershirt). They are long enough to go down below the end of the brace. The arm holes are probably too long, so you can remedy that by pulling up at the shoulders until there is material under your daughter's armpit to protect her skin from the brace, and sew some new shoulder seams. Skincare: Remind her to change out shirts as often as needed, and always put a fresh shirt on over clean, dry skin. If she starts to break out on her back, astringent or powder can help keep her cool, dry and clean. (You did say just the night brace, though? One fresh shirt each night, then. If she was in a day brace, also, she'd need a bigger undershirt wardrobe for sure because she would possibly be changing shirts a few times a day.) The undershirts wear out quickly, just keep her stocked with fresh, snug ones to avoid wrinkles that can irritate her skin. Assistance from your orthotics team: If they didn't already do so, have them use a pen to mark a line on the velcro straps to help your daughter know when she is tightening enough. The ortho can give her a mark to shoot for, and she'll be there in no time. Without a mark, it's easy for the kids to think they are tightening enough when they really aren't. (Or if you have an overachieving kid they could be cinching up way more than necessary!) Also, remember they can rework the brace, the straps, the padding, whatever it takes to make the brace do its job comfortably. My 14 year old just finished with her two years of bracing. She went from a 32 degree curve to an 11. She absolutely continued all her physical activities in and out of the brace. The only time she went without the night brace was during camp (so a week at a time), and once she graduated and could go without the braces, she actually couldn't sleep well for a few nights because she said she was used to being hugged all night. ;) She wanted me to add: "Tell her if she gets too hot to just ask the ortho guy to drill a bunch of air vent holes." There you go. And now for a brag: My older girl was braced starting when her upper curve was only ~20 degrees. Her case was unusual, advancing quickly, with her curve reaching >80 within a year in spite of her complete compliance and a rigorous exercise program in place. Her spine corkscrewed on her, and she ended up with two very complicated surgeries. However, the surgeries were a success, her recuperation time was short, and she was back to her beloved martial arts within weeks of each surgery. Today she is grown and has a wonderful little girl of her own (uncomplicated full-term pregnancy and natural birth.) And today (literally today!) she is moving downstate to go back to school. She has several credits already between dual enrollment during high school and at our local uni since graduation, but now she is enrolled in a prosthetics/orthotics program downstate. She alway had wonderful visits with her "orthotics guy". When it comes time for an internship, she says she knows who she will call first. :D

Same here. "Fake it 'til I make it" has been my mantra this year. Like a dork I scheduled numerous fall appointments that could have been covered this summer. Now I am adding more out of necessity, so we are on the road way too much. My science "plans" are just cranial flotsam and jetsom at best, with lab components sitting in a cyber cart. My foot hurts (plantar fasciitis). My head hurts (counseling). But between all the hobbling around I am doing, I am pulling out the books I do have ready and we are moving forward - and it feels good, because it is our Normal in a bit of Crazy right now. Doing school is our default setting, not all that other yuck. Jean, you've got a lot on your plate right now. :grouphug: Take care, and I hope things fall into place smoothly for you very soon.

:grouphug: I'm so sorry, Kalah.

This is me, also. I've decided I peaked at age 45, looks-wise. :tongue_smilie: Now at age 50 it's not the jowls and grey hair that bother me. It's stress that shows on my face and I don't care for the look. (I'm working on it, though, with the aid of a therapist and some major self-care. It's my new "beauty regimen" and I highly recommend it!)