My 8yo DD hums all the time and it drives.me.crazy!!!! I absolutely hate it! I make her stop. I don't know how to explain it but it really grates on my brain.

Well, I didn't throw them all away but I did just thin DD-3's toys significantly. I put ALL of the stuffed animals in the top of the closet. 5 of them have special meaning and the rest are Care Bears (about 7 of them). I didn't want to get rid of them, just put them up. She never plays with them but throws them on the floor. I did get rid of her Little People Doll house she got for her 2nd birthday and this huge tool bench/engine building station (daddy builds race car engines) but she played with it for about a week and now all the bolts, nuts, tools etc are all over all.of.the.time! I sent both of those to my son's house for his kids. I also picked up all of the little plastic dinosaurs and the magnetic "paper" doll set that again...she doesn't play with. I kept her baby dolls and their clothes, her horses---which she loves! and her few Barbies that belong to a nude$t colony (their clothes are all in the toy doll changing table) and her play kitchen with the big basket of food/dishes/etc. She doesn't play with the kitchen much but my granddaughter does when she comes over. The play room is much cleaner now with not as many little pieces.

I made a TON of clothes for DD's American girl doll last Christmas by taking baby clothes and sewing them down to size. PM me and I can send you pictures of how I did it.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor :001_smile: Is your cough worse at night or when you are more reclined? If it is I would think more of a reflux. I have had heartburn once in my life when I ate raw onions while pregnant. That being said, I had a cough for 5 months that was all.day.long! At night I coughed worse (now I know they were broncospasms) but I thought I was going to die from coughing. I was called Typhoid-Melissa at work. I had no fever but did have a wheezing. I went to 3 different docs/physician assistants and they diagnosed 3 different things, bronchitis, asthma, reactive airway, but none of their meds made it better. I had 2 nurses I work with ask if I had reflux and I said no because I associated reflux with heartburn. I finally saw a nurse practioner and told her what the 2 nurses said and she sent me in for a scope of my airway. Low and behold it was reflux! My esphogus looked like hamburger from all of the acid. I had surgery and it was instantly fixed. No more coughing. At my worse point my lungs were so damaged from all of the acid washing into them, that I was at work and couldn't string together 3 words without being totally winded like I had climbed K2! It may not be that but now when I hear about a resistant cough, I can't help thinking about reflux. Good luck.

I am sorry that you are traumatized by this event. It must have been horrible. Prayers for you and your family as well as that mama and hers.

I have never had a chair but I like the massage chairs at the nail salon. I have had one of the shiatsu pads that you sit in your chair. It felt soooo good that I kept turning it on when it timed out. After about 4 sessions I couldn't move my muscles the next day. There really is such a thing as "too much of a good thing!"

Yes, my husband's nieces and nephews are my nieces and nephews...even the ones that are as old as me and went to high school with me! :lol:

If your daughter is going to play with it, probably. If not, then no! I bought DD one last year, made a ton of clothes and she has played with it about 5 times.

When we were looking at our house to buy it, the previous owner had a heavy Scentsy type burner smelling up the house. It wasn't an unpleasant odor but it was STRONG!!! Now a year and a half later I have dug the cupboards apart, moved the fridge, moved the stove, poured multiple things down the garbage disposal in the sick, sniffed my kitchen from one end to the other on my hands and knees with my nose to the floor and I CAN.NOT.FIND.THE.STINK!!!!! The laminate flooring was placed over carpet and I am highly thinking there is something under that! Now I know why she had a strong scent in the house...to cover up the stink. It isn't a very strong scent and I don't always smell it but when I do I want to burn my kitchen down! I mostly smell it when I have been out of the house all day and come home and bam...there it is! It is very frustrating. I have a clean house (minus the 3yo toys that keep getting drug out) and I can't fix that one thing! So, word of advice...find any smells and fix them...don't cover them up. I also get a bad multiday headache with bleach. I would not like that smell.

Have a cuppa hot, steamy teA...hint hint! There is lots of oxytocin in that kind of teA!

I have watched Count of Monte Cristo over 100 times...no kidding! I love it!

Well, we keep our birds alive by keeping them in the cage. The cage is on a hanging stand. The cat really wanted to eat the birds. (unfortunately, our cat is no longer alive by the way of some kind of gopher poisoning that he got into). Here was his favorite "bird viewing" pose.

We do not use paper towels. I bought a ton of cheap wash cloths and we wash them. I also quit using dryer sheets. My clothes still smell nice, they aren't too static-y (that is totally not spelled right!). I use only 1/2 the amount of laundry soap for everyone's clothes except DH's whose are usually very dirty. We rarely buy anything new as far as clothes go. (OK, socks and unders are always new!) I like thrift shops. Those are the 3 things off the top of my head.

In my state you just go to the clerk and recorder (I think that is the name) at the court house and get it. My niece just had an unassisted homebirth and that is what they were planning.

Oh dear lord!!!! I looked at the box of bombs. It isn't Hart brand, it is Zodiac. Does anyone know about them? One of the drops is called "Sentry". How about them? Thanks for the warning. I did treat both cats with the Hartz (not Hart like I thought). I hope they will be OK. Now I am scared.

So we are dealing with fleas! ICK! I have sprayed the whole house with lavender/tea tree oil, bathed the inside cat with tea tree oil twice and rinsed with blue dawn. I haven't had any new bites since doing all of this but the gross factor is still there so I went to the pet store. Three treatments for 1 cat was $26.00!!! Holy buckets! I put it in the cart and was looking for flea bombs. I saw a huge clearance bin and in it was TONS and TONS of flea spray in the Hart brand they are discontinuing. I bought enough flea drops for 20 cats, (we only have 2) and a pack of bombs, a bottle of spray for the cat, a huge bottle of furniture/rug spray all for $2 a piece! I spent $26 total. The lady said "Your savings is $282!" Whoo hooooo! We bombed the house today before church, ran home and opened windows and left again. I feel much better now that that is done. I even bombed the shed where the cats and chickens are. Now to figure out what to do with the stray cat that I can't catch to treat........

Well, I personally think it is a Madame Tussaud wax statue of a Autumn because everytime I click the link it has a still picture of a giraffe.

This made me spit out my coffee in laughter!

I am ready to scream! We have a girl cat outside and we rescued one of her babies that was dying at 2 weeks of age and he is inside. Well Stevie (baby) is now 5 months old and has been going outside. The other day I saw a black bug on his fur and it quickly disappeared inward on him. I checked the mama cat and saw a few bugs on her as well. I quickly coated them both with food grade diatomaceous earth that I have for my chicken coop and gave them a good rub down with it. I didn't see any more than that one on Stevie. I coated the inside of the chicken coop/shed where the mama cat with DE. Well, Stevie sleeps with me. Yesterday I got about 10 flea bites! They itch like heck! Last night I gave Stevie a bath in water/tea tree oil (I know it isn't good for cats but I rinsed him off). Today I made a mixture of lavendar oil/tea tree oil and water and sprayed every surface of carpet/couches/beds and even the cat! I rebathed the cat again (he is THRILLED!!!) I washed our bedding in HOT water and HOT dryer. I want to bug bomb as well but have to wait until a day we can be gone. I also have to go to the store tomorrow and get some Advantix or something. We have a stray cat in our back yard that hangs around and is in our shed a lot. I don't know what to do with him. He is not tame so I couldn't catch him. We live out of town so I can't call the animal control. Thanks for letting me vent!

Wow, what an ordeal. My thoughts are with you for fast healing and no more bad news.

Snow here this morning when I got up in Great Falls, Montana.

3 IV pokes is the same price as having a PICC line placed. A PICC (peripheral inserted central catheter) line is a longer lasting IV that you can keep in for months. Talk to your doctor about that option. Then you can get hooked up and not repoked! Good luck.

COngrats!!!!

I have TONS (did I say tons...I meant megatons) of past and future ABeka stuff (that may or may not get used) and I store it all according to grade in paper ream boxes from Staples. I get the boxes from work. They are uniform and stack nicely.

Last Christmas I did a very easy Christmas. I did the Something you want, Something you need, Something you wear, Something you read. Last year I spent around $600 (DH's was the biggest purchase) DS only wanted a crocheted blanket made from this really thick soft yarn. He had one and lost it. I made him and DGD each one. $60 DD-8 got an American Girl doll-want $40 Ebay A ton of American girl doll clothes that I used baby clothes from the thrift store to redo into doll clothes-need (doll needed clothes!) $7.00 A craft book with A.G. to make doll t-shirts-read $10 A really pretty red dress with a matching doll dress-wear $30 DD-3 got made by mommy stuff for her dollies and a sticker book -under $20 DH got some shirts to wear and a big $$ purchase was his door opener for his shop. I joked that he needed it, he wanted it and he can read the directions. &20 + $350 I get my stepdaughters each clothes from the mall that I had another young girl help me pick out. $100 total For me I only wanted a dryer!!! Ours took 3 times to dry a load of jeans. I told hubby that I wanted it, I needed it, I would read directions and wear the clothes that came out of it!!! I got my dryer! :lol: This year I am planning on doing the same thing. I hate Christmas anyway (no flaming!) and wouldn't celebrate it at all if DH would allow it. I DO NOT want my children to be greedy about it so I plan on doing this for every year. THe more homemade the better IMO.