You don't even need to know how to count to 10 - they work on that. However, it gets advanced enough quickly enough that my almost-6yo (who just finished his last RS A lesson today) was able to make good progress. I also went all the way through A and recently finished up B with my 8yo. Loved it!

BTW - the guarantee that they would pay you back money would be an in-writing promissory note (or something like that) and you would be a creditor to their estate, so the money would go to you... I think... which is why you need a lawyer to get it all written up right!! :D

Huh- sounds fishy... House closings don't go through all the time - what is it about this one that would mean you could never close again? The only things that jump to mind are "bad things" - like they haven't paid past-due property taxes and if the closing isn't done within a month & taxes brought up-to-date the state will repossess the house, or something strange like that. I think you definitely need to hire your own lawyer & have the two communicate - he sure ought to be able to explain it adequately enough to YOUR lawyer that yours can tell you whether to proceed or not. I would be absolutely sure to get everything in lawyery-writing at this point (yes, I know it's not a word! lol) and nailed down tight. I would want a specific contract written out about the storm cellar and what was involved in that. Better to spend the money to pay a lawyer to represent you now than to regret it later!! :)

I don't qualify, probably - I work pt year-round & ft only during tax season, and I HS my 2 boys year-round... but HI ANYWAY!!! :D

My kids say that looks like the most awesome arcade! :) .... I see a load of decorated boxes in our future... (something they are already prone to doing - they love DIY circuses, shows, stores, etc!)

With ds1 I worked FT up until a Friday, and took that Friday 1/2 day because I wasn't feeling well. I went into labor around midnight Friday and had him 26 hours later... I'm of the camp that it is whatever YOU are comfortable with, and @$%!$ the rest of them!! lol

Lol - I totally agree with this!! My first thought was "absolutely NOT!! For a DOG??" and then I thought a little more and realized... I would totally pay that for the right horse! I also won't pay out over $30 for a pair of nicer work shoes, but I have a pair of Ariats that cost well over $100 and were worth every penny... :) So, if this is what you want to spend your money on (and if you have the money available to spend, of course!), then I say go for it! :D

I think I was in 9th grade when I interned at a Veterinarian's office as part of a school program geared towards following your passions in a career field - it was awesome! Maybe you can set something similar up on your own (no necessarily a vet, but an animal-oriented place who is looking for free volunteers to develop in an enrichment scenario). Is her desire to work with animals in a veterinary sense? If so, lots of biology & animal dissections. Training animals? Hands-on work!

I don't remember the name, but at Disney in FL we went to the Teppan Grill restaurant there and I was pretty disappointed. The food was fine, but I has assumed that Disney would take Teppan Grills (and the show that inevitably comes with them) to the next level - and they instead brought it down to almost-boring. This was a huge surprise to me, so I wanted to point it out to others!! :)

This is absolutely true - MS isn't generally a sudden-death sort of disease, but rather a long, drawn-out, painful, mind-stealing one. My mom actually died of "heart complications due to MS", and it was astonishingly sudden (we fully expected her to live another 10-20 years) but she had lived with various stages of the disease for 28 years. For the last 2 years, though, her disease so debilitated her that she could not even go to the bathroom or take a shower on her own (she couldn't even stand up from her wheelchair, and had moved past being able to use an electric wheelchair easily to move around). In the last 6 months, her mind started slipping badly - she knew exactly who we were, but complained to people that I never visited because she forgot that I was coming with my new baby to visit 5 times a week. She had a visit from my brother one week in which she had a collapse & he sat by her bed for hours - I asked her about it a couple days later in passing, and she didn't remember the event at all. If this woman is already at the point it sounds like she is at, she just isn't physically able to care for young children. I fully understand her wanting to be the mom, still, but she ought to more fully establish the long-term care of her children for their best interests. There is no easy path for this family, and I sincerely hope that they find a path that works for them.

:grouphug: I'm an MS daughter as well. My mom was diagnosed when I was born and died when I was 28. We were very fortunate, in that my dad was retired military and able to support us well & that my mom didn't start REALLY slipping until I was 14 or so... but once it went downhill it REALLY went downhill fast. Even before that, though, it was always understood growing up that you did whatever you could to keep troubles away from mom, because she just couldn't handle it. Just wanted to share a :grouphug:! On topic for the OP - if someone is already there taking care of the kids every day & giving the mom time to bond with them in the time she can, then it would seem to me that is working out well. Do you know if that person is no longer willing/able to do so? If I were that mom, I would get a contract in place to pass parental rights to the care-taker upon her complete disability/impairment/death and make it official (if the care-taker is wanting to adopt). In passing I read someone talk about how no-one wants to step up and commit, but I think it is less that than the lack of knowledge of where things will go. What if stepping up and committing puts your own family in trouble by embroiling them in a highly emotional "game" that the cps might play with this woman? It would be a hard step to take.

11yo with this severe an issue - I would get rid of the computers all-together. That she can only learn using computers and in total silence is just a crutch, and one she is taking advantage of. It is also something that is not going to stand her in good stead in her future (unless she becomes a computer programmer or hacker, anyway). We just don't live in a vacuum. Frankly, if she can hack into your admin account and log on at will during the night on multiple computers throughout the house without you having a clue, she is way better at computers than you (or I!) likely am & nothing you put on there will stop her for long. That is, unless you get some major knowledge on your side - find out how she does what she does & stay a step ahead of her. Good luck.

So - you'd be a selling a house to move into something smaller that costs more money to rent? That seems like it wouldn't be a financially sound idea, but maybe I misunderstood. Do you have to move? I got the impression that you just wanted to move, but it is different if you have to sell & move anyway for a job or something... In general, in this market, I would buy only if confident that I loved the house & the area & planned to be there a minimum of 15 years. Nowadays, houses are likely to go down rather than up in value, and you don't want to be stuck with something that you've got to try and sell for less than you owe in 5 years or so. I don't like renting, though! I just don't like being told what I can and can't do (I also would never buy a place with a HOA for this reason). I love owning - I can look out and choose whether or not to do something based on my own long-term enjoyment of it! However - we need a new roof & it would be swell for someone else to have to deal with it.. :P If we had it to do over again, I would have been happier renting instead of buying when we moved to our new place, as long as the rent was significantly less than the current mortgage & I could save up that money to buy a long-term home. We have a house that we owe a lot on, but we can afford the mortgage & extras & overall I love it here. However, to know that I will be stuck here for the next 15 years at least (at this point) just to pay it off and be able to even consider moving, knowing that the market is liable to be very bad for selling at that point (hopefully not, but it is looking bad)... that sucks. I somehow always pictured this as a "for-now" home, maybe for 10 years until we bought a place with more land and fewer neighbors. I LIKE it here, and we have an adequate amount of land, I just always pictured being able to get a similar house on a bigger lot. That was when I thought house/land prices would increase & in 5-10 years we would be set to sell for a profit & buy that "perfect" place close by. Now, though, it looks like we won't be able to sell for a profit until we pay it all off - and even then, we won't get back what we have to put into it (roof, ACs, etc). Sorry for the rambling - this has been wearing on me this week, for some reason! I am just sad because I *SHOULD* be happy!! We have a great house with a nice yard that we can afford, our neighbors aren't really that bad, we are generally left alone & can do most of what we want, and yet somehow I feel... trapped?

Added because I forgot to vote & ended up voting other: I would do a brick & mortar BS (or super-high-quality) & a cheap & easy MS. I know when we do hiring for accountants for clients, my boss usually has be toss resumes into 3 categories - no college, "online" colleges, and "real" college (I totally know that some online colleges are great! I'm just saying it like it is, here!). Masters programs are pretty much "eh, wherever", once you get to that point, unless it is someplace really well-known. We have had some really bad experiences with applicants from certain online colleges, and I know that my boss, at least, will tend to shy away from that. Obviously, everybody's experiences are different! :) Personally, I have a BS from a state university and no Masters... :D

I'm a CPA & I've got to tell you - AWESOME!!! lol I work part-time for most of the year (20 hours a week throughout the year except Feb - April, when I work 30-40 hours a week). I work in a FANTASTIC office, where the 2 other CPAs are the partners, we have 1 other accountant, 2 bookkeepers, and a secretary (so a fairly small office, but not tiny). They are friendly & caring, they give a bonus and small raise every year, and they give paid holidays and personal time. Also, they don't mind if I decide to come in wearing jeans & a nice shirt (on the days I haven't gotten around to doing laundry). I usually wear somewhat nicer clothes (slacks or skirt & nice shirt), but I absolutely will NOT wear heels (bad ankles & I've always hated them!) and I never wear make-up. I make it a point to be always available for work, so periodically throughout the week they will call me with questions or issues - however, I can log in remotely from my home computer so I can generally get these things resolved without too much hassle. Our clients are high-class high-earners, and we charge top-dollar for our services, so my pay is pretty nice and will grow as the clients grow. I still consider homeschooling my primary "job", and I delight in spending most of my week with my almost-6yo & 8yo sons (going to co-op and the park and field trips, doing schoolwork at home, having friends over a couple times a week, etc). However, last year I made almost exactly the same amount as my dh (although he was having a lower-than-typical year). The comment about "sitting at a desk all day" is ABSOLUTELY true, though!! Fortunately, I love it - I do my best work when people just leave me alone to sit at my desk and work all day long. I prefer to only go in 2 days a week, so I spend generally 10 hours doing pretty much nothing but sitting at my desk getting work done for those 2 days (I only rarely need to get up, as we do most everything paperless and it is all in my computer). Amusingly enough, I often find those 10 hour days much more relaxing than my days at home teaching and running around! Of course, you could always choose to work shorter days more often. Also, if you are skilled enough at your work and are able to build up a good solid client base (or find a job where they hand you a good client base) you may be able to do a large amount of your work from home. I could totally do 75-85% of my work at home, but I choose to go in because it is too loud & action-packed at home for me to work efficiently in the way that I work (yes, I really *DO* want to be just *COMPLETELY* left alone for those hours until I get it all done!!). :) Let me know if I can offer you any other specific information! BTW - regarding work experience, I believe there are state-by-state requirements on "working under a CPA". For instance, in TX I am pretty sure that you need to accomplish 2 years under a CPA's guidance even after you pass the CPA exam in order to be a true CPA. In NM back when I got my cert, you just needed a BS and to pass the exam (I think not even a work period, although I was working with a CPA so I might just not remember). Nowadays, I think you need a Masters in NM (I still don't know about work period). So, look by state for requirements!

I actually deliberately searched again for this thread today to find out the name of the green & blue pencil sharpener maker - and was devastated to learn that they are backordered until next month!! SOB!!! Excited - I found it on Amazon for just $5 more!! I actually have an unused gift cert to Amazon, so I am totally going for it!!! LOL (under "Carl" pencil sharpener - looks like the exact same model).

I haven't read the books (but likely will, now that I know about them!) or watched the movie (maybe, maybe not), but my understanding is that the book is written to the "young adult" (over 14) crowd & the general consensus in the movie is that most of the tickets are being sold to the over 20 crowd right now. So, I guess I don't see that this is being touted as for 9-14yos?? Not that there aren't some very mature & ready-to-read-it kids in that range, I just didn't get the impression that this is who the book is pushed for...

If you don't plan on letting her have a say in it (which, frankly, is true for my kids) then just take it off the table. A flat "sorry, homeschooling is right for my family" and then giving her options on how to make closer friends is, to me, more useful than the wishy-washy "weeeeeellllll, I don't really want to, and you wouldn't like it anyway, and you may not make friends, and...and...etc" sort of speech. If she has no say, and you will be homeschooling, then don't even entertain the talk IMO. If you DO plan on giving her a decision, then you need to make it very clear to her what sort of expectations you will have, the school will have, other people will have, etc and how those might very well not coincide with what expectations she has. The only way to really make that clear is just to let her try it - she may love it, she may hate it... who knows?? . In my case, it doesn't matter one way or the other if they'd like it (although personally my dh & I didn't and imagine they wouldn't in the long-run as well). For our family, it is just not an option. It is not on the table, period. I have never heard either my 8yo or almost-6yo say they want to go to a public school - probably because I have made it extremely clear that they won't be going to one. Also, we have lots of good friends that we get to meet with throughout the week, most of whom homeschool, and we are involved in a co-op group. The few people we interact with on an on-going basis who DON'T homeschool are actually planning on pulling their kids from school after the end of the school-year.

:iagree::iagree: The above is beautifully stated, and what I was picturing in my mind - although I would personally probably say it so nicely in person in the few minutes I had while dd went running off to get a new book. My alternative possibility was that you cut her off firmly at the pass if she bring it up again - "excuse me, but our decision is not open to debate. Please choose another topic." In some ways, I would almost want to speak out in front of my child - to show them that I am fully committed to our HS adventure & that I am not afraid to stand up for what I believe in. I'm borderline about that, though, since she is so young... but somehow for it, as well, because she is so sensitive.

Huh - it makes me wonder if that is the way he can keep touting it as a full math program? To me, it's just a book... cute, somewhat interesting to my kids (although not interesting enough that we made it through B all the way), and not very informative in the "math learning" department. If you get it as anything other than a book to read for fun, you will need to put a LOT into it to get much out of it. Perhaps if you read the series once together and then once apart, your kids will get more out of it. For my kids, however, I know that my 5yo may really want to read it again but my 2nd grader will not.

I think everyone else has covered the other issues, but I wanted to touch on the Trane ACs. The AC happened to be one of the first things we ended up having to fix - unexpectedly - when we bought our house 4 years ago. It operated badly basically right after we moved in (was cool when we moved in & then we had to use the AC for a super-hot summer and BOOM - bad AC!!). We had gotten a 1 year HO warranty from the seller and used it FREQUENTLY for that one issue - but it was a huge hassle. We had to go through the warranty company every time, and they kept sending out different ppl who fixed different things, with the end result being STILL a wreck. Anyhow, it was off for the winter the following winter (and worked adequately for that as a heater, mostly) but when I turned it on the following summer and it was acting bad AGAIN I gave up. We didn't even bother to renew the HO warranty - decided to just fix the darn thing instead. We ended up going with a Trane, which is like the Cadillac of ACs (VERY pricey & worth every penny, IMHO & according to several AC ppl we spoke with). Our goal was to pay a bundle now and not have to deal with it for a very long time (except regular maintenance, of course). We were told when purchasing that the life expectancy of the Trane is generally 15 SOLID years, and often closer to 20 with appropriate annual maintenance. So... unless you have some particular reason to believe that the ACs are poorly maintained, or poorly installed, or some other issue - I wouldn't worry about them very much! :)

My 6yo has had similar symptoms for a year or more now, and I've taken him to the Dr. for checks & they say nothing is wrong with him. We did a blood allergy test that came back negative. What we have been doing over the last month or so is going gluten-free, and so far that seems to have held the sickies at bay (cross your fingers!!). I know that it hasn't been long enough to really consider it "the real deal", but we are currently hopeful! We tried doing lactose-free for a short while, but that didn't work out too well (Granny turns out to be very hard to work with on keeping to a strict diet - grr). It may be that if we had held out longer and if we had gone completely dairy-free instead of just no milk, we would have seen better results. Anyhow, I guess what I'm saying is - currently, my money is on food intolerance!! :D ETA - my ds6 had basically 1 night (always around dinner time) every 2-3 weeks that he would say he was tired & didn't feel well, then he'd usually go lie down in his room and throw up 1 time, fall asleep after we cleaned it all up, and then be COMPLETELY fine (bouncing off the walls fine, no problems at all) the next day. On month, after doing that a long time every 3 weeks or so, he did it every other day for awhile - that is when I took him to the Dr, who decided "probably allergy of some sort" and gave him Singulair & Loratadine. That seemed to bring us back to the once every 3 weeks thing again.

I dunno - I guess I keep picturing perverts lurking around the corners ogling little kids... too many cop shows!! lol I'm generally very loose in the "who sees a body" thing, including my own (I'm sure as shooting not going to be upset to jump out of bed bum-nekked & attack an intruder, for instance, or feel personally violated if some creep decides to plant cameras or something bizarre - not that I'd be "ok, whatever", I just wouldn't be "omg I can't take it!")... but I am uncomfortable with the thought of deliberately going out in the public, open-to-the-world front yard with a completely naked child. Only a diaper, sure. Backyard with walls, sure. Running around the house naked, sure. But walking outside with a totally naked child, with neighbors in their yards? Um... no. At the very least, I think it might potentially be very uncomfortable to THEM, which I would want to avoid.

It certainly isn't something I would do - but it doesn't surprise me at all that someone would. I'd be very unlikely to actually give money, though. I am more than willing to help people who genuinely need help, but in the case of weddings and funerals I find added expenses completely unnecessary. For funerals, there are other alternatives (such as the social services department of the local area) rather than a big to-do. The rant about family would also put me off, for sure. (For weddings, if you can't afford the wedding of your dreams you either shouldn't get married or should be happy with just running to the courthouse for a certificate!!)

I know "Saddle Seat" has had a few thumbs up - but it could be confusing to someone in the horse world, I would think, since there is actually a discipline of Saddle Seat... :)