The first turkey I cooked I didn't even know about the innards bag and cooked the turkey with the bag still in it. Needless to say, that bird hit the trash.

I have the Bissell Steam Mop and LOVE it. My entire house is ceramic tile and it works wonders. I had my first one for just under a year when it broke. I called Bissell and they sent me a brand new one!!!! I have had the second one for about 18 months, use it twice a week and it is still going strong. My tile floors are hard on the microfiber clothes that it uses, but I found them at a local vacuum cleaner dealer and got a deal. I love that I can throw them in the washer and am never cleaning with dirty water.

We bought a Didj for our son (4) and he loves it. He had a Leapster for a year and the speaker started to get all wonky. So we decided to jump up to the Didj instead of replacing the Leapster. We have had NO problems with it. Check out the LeapFrog website. They have some great deals. We purchased our Didj with 2 games, three skins and a protective shell all for $40.:D They also put some of the games on sale for $9.99 instead of the regular price of $29.99.

I am homeschooling an only. He loves it. Our week is very full. Monday is homeschool, Tuesday are homeschool classes at a local church, Wednesday is homeschool with co-op in the afternoon, Thursday is homeschool and a couple hours at the library and Friday is homeschool. We usually have a very full weekend and he is often saying on Sunday evening that he is glad Monday is coming so he can slow down :glare:. Homeschool works for my husband's schedule, too. He is a university professor so we work on a university schedule. When DH has his breaks, we are usually traveling overseas. Our local PS wasn't too pleased when I talked to them about traveling on school days. The public school policy is to un-enroll him while we are gone (so that we don't come to the attention of DFCS) and then re-enroll him when we come home with no guarantee that he would go back to the same teacher. DS is very mature and can hold his own around adults. He has never seemed to miss lots of interaction with his peers and rarely asks about playdates/playtime.

You really need to lay out for her all the pros and cons of an older child adoption. Since you are already in the position of seeing what comes with an older child adoption, why don't you lay out a typical week in your life and then see if she would be able to do all the things that you are doing - therapies, bonding activites, etc. In our toddler adoption, things have gone exceedingly well and it has given a false sense of ease to others who are considering an older child adoption (greater than 24 months). I can tell you that out of 5 families in our travel group, we are the ONLY ones who have not had significant problems. Two families are dealing with RAD, another with developmental issues, and two with undisclosed medical problems. Perhaps you could point her to some good books to read about adoption and the issues that come with it. That way it is another source telling her things and not just you.

We get our haircut at the local beauty college. Three haircuts for $12. We have yet to get a bad cut. The supervisor has actually thanked me for bringing our 4 year old DS. The students need to learn how to cut hair on a wiggly little child :D and most people won't bring in their children.

We adopted from China in August 2007. Our son was 26 months old on Gotcha Day. From start to finish, it took us exactly 1 year. However, we were open to a child that had special needs/waiting child and we were open to a boy. Our DS has been a joy. No problems and his special need was very minor. China is very transparent in their process. Follow the rules and you will get a child. Special needs/waiting child is the only way to go now as the wait for a non-special needs child is unfeasible at the moment. I help run an adoption support group so if you want more information, let me know.

We have the GE front loader and dryer. Bought at Sears three years ago when we had to replace the range and dishwasher, too. ($$$ Ouch). We had ours installed as the stackable and I LOVE them. No problems, has some nice features that I actually use and very quiet. No vibration problems. That seems to be what several of my friends have had problems with theirs on that issue.

I've used this homemade laundry detergent in my HE front loader and have never had any problems. I always add a cup of vinegar in each load to get rid of any odors. The plus side to the vinegar is that it keeps the machine from getting that funky smelling odor. :)