He already got his. He's been wanting a gun safe for a while now so he can get his grandfather's guns. We found one on sale so he bought it. He wasn't thrilled about it being his Christmas present but for that kind of money he's lucky it wasn't his Christmas, birthday, Father's Day, anniversary, etc present. I'll find a couple of small presents for him for his stocking, but he's bought himself his present.

C-span http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Special-Offers.aspx If you don't like those, do a google image search and specify "large".

:iagree: DSs occasionally play with Legos, but we have Trios in every room. :tongue_smilie: We got rid of our wood blocks in a toy purge because they weren't used that much. We have two big boxes (Ikea's trofast) full of Trios.

:iagree: as long as they're dressed up, I give candy out. I'm usually pretty good about giving out a lot per kid because we don't get many kids coming by, but if they're not dressed up, they get 1 piece of the cheap stuff.

An iPad will only run apple apps. Most other tablets run android. (Is there anything else out there?) we have iPads and love them so I've never looked at what else there is. My understanding is the android store is now almost as good as thre apple store is.

Same here. I'd had a baby two weeks before so the house wasn't anywhere near clean. She took some pics and called it good. Didn't even look all around the house as I was in the master bedroom and never saw her. But we got our appraisal.

We have good coverage through DH's work and have always had BCBS, but we just found out that DH's doc isn't going to be covered by them anymore. So we need to look for another plan. There are lots of options, including some "consumer driven health plans" which are high deductible plans with health savings accounts built in. They kind of make our head spin trying to figure out what to do. Most everyone at work has BCBS so we can't ask them. A typical year involves 2-5 dr visits and 1 ER visit. Prescriptions and preventive care are going to be about equal between plans. Would you switch to a lower cost health plan (HDHP) versus a regular PPO? We can afford the PPO. It's what we're used to. But saving money is always a good thing. I guess it just comes down to how much of a gamble do we take? How well do the high deductible plans work for you? It just seems like a huge headache.

It looks very cute. Good job. You definitely will be able to add a border. Look for a crocheted-on border. I'm assuming that's the term. It's called knitted on in knitting.

We use our year round, so I don't know that I should post. Come "winter" we switch from heat to a/c from one day to the next. It is supposed to be in the 70s this weekend so it won't run, but we still won't turn it off.

I gave up on it. Basic things necessary to schedule aren't there. They are still a long way off on having a usable, competitive product.

Wait, are you using the latch and the seat belt? Because that's a no-no. One or the other. And I feel for you. Installing carseats is a bear.

:iagree: love it. It's really extended our viewing on the iPad. Anyone have one they especially recommend?

We have State Farm now. We had USAA and they were a disaster. They required us to insure our brand new house for $120,000 more than it had just cost to build. And by not having one person to talk to they cost us $2000 once because we kept getting the run around talking to different people.

Considering its my family I'm well aware that it is selfishness to not consider how you're affecting someone else. I had one family member who was in excellent health for being 93ish, but couldn't walk around without help. She needed someone with her 24/7 just to watch her. And she refused to move to her daughter's house 20 minutes away because she didn't want to leave her house. I had another family member who refused to take care of her diabetes and when she needed to have her legs amputated she refused for so long she ended up dying from an infection from the gangrene. I'm not going to drop everything and take care of you with no thought as to how it affects me and my family. So yes, in my experience, I see lots of selfishness in old people.

No because I've seen too many bad stories in my family. And most of it due to selfishness on the aging persons part: No, I'm not leaving my home. You come here and take care of me. No, I'm not going to get that operation even though it might save my life or even make things easier. No, I'm not doing x, y, or z. Cater to me. I have one set of grandparents who has moved to a smaller house because they couldn't take care of their old one. They are the only ones with realistic expectations about their health and future. The rest expect to be taken care of with no thought to how it affects anyone else. So put me in a facility if necessary. I don't expect my children's lives to revolved around me. I expect them to make sure I'm cared for, but I don't expect them to do it themselves. Due to ODS's brain damage, he never developed past 2 months of age so I've had 5 years of taking care of someone. Completely, extensively. He was hooked up to many machines at the end of his life. And I spent many nights bawling because he was about at the size of what I could care for. He was going to have to go in a facility because I was almost unable to care for him. Our life was centered around taking care of DS. It is a complete drain. Because I've done it and know what it's like, I will not do it for an adult. Nor do I expect my children to do it for me.

Generally, I brown the beef, mix in the veggies, top with mashed potatoes, and then cheese. I like to use better than bullion to get a nice flavor. Everything else can change based on what we have on hand.

I noticed it with both debates this time too. Show some diversity! Where's the green ties? Or yellow? Or be a real man and wear pink. :D

She doesn't want men teaching her children. Even in two deep to protect themselves and the children. She's not trusting her instincts in this. She's saying all men aren't able to be around her dc. How does that teach anyone to trust their instincts? I will also say, I missed the part where she had requested it for her small dc, instead of all of her dc. I still think to automatically rule out all men is wrong. There are windows in all the doors. Check up on your kids and the teachers if you need to. If you have problems about a teacher, say so. But to decide that all men can't watch her young dc is wrong.

I agree with a lot of the pp in this thread that you need to look at yourself, and maybe talk to the someone, about your distrust of men. Excluding all men from teaching your dc isn't right. And I can guarantee it isn't possible, I don't care how big your ward is. At some point, there will be male teachers. When will you be ok with it? 8, 12, 18, never? As a primary presidency, we want and need men in primary. We need men to be good role models. We need them to help corral those rambunctious sunbeams. We need them to get those 11 year olds ready for the priesthood. They are a necessary part of primary, as in life, and the gospel. Yes, there should be two men per class and I'm not sure why that wasn't in effect because it should've been. Although, even if it was, it sounds like you would've protested anyways. Quite honestly, though, staffing of the primary is always an ongoing headache of massive proportions. And if the parents don't come to us and express their concerns we just assume the teachers are working out. I'm also wondering if you had talked to this president and bishop about your request? Those type of things can get lost/forgotten about with releases/new callings. It's entirely possible the primary leaders were discussing the situation and not gossiping about it. Yes, they were probably frustrated, but why do you assume they were malicious? I have issues with my DS's behaviour at times and have kept him with me occasionally. No one ever looks twice. There's always a lot going on with primary. I can't imagine anyone thought twice about it.

I believe so. I downloaded it on my desktop and put it on my iPad. I can't imagine that it wouldn't work with an actual computer as well.

I bought the Elements and Carbon Chemistry last year. You get a link to a site to download the PDF files of the book. As far as I remember, it's just like downloading from any other site.

Not old fashioned. I've been appalled at what I've seen at funerals. I live in Texas so we get a lot of "Texas tuxes" at weddings and funerals, ie pressed jeans and button up shirts. That's fine because they've made an effort, but for 99% of people jeans are not making an effort and they don't look nice. I can't believe the number of people, usually teens/young adults, who show up to a funeral in shorts and tshirts. It's not appropriate. I dont think wearing black is necesary. I didn't to my son or my father's funerals. We wore nice Sunday clothes. Jeans and tshirts don't cut it as nice clothes. I'm still upset and offended that sil and her kids showed up to my son and father's funerals in jeans and tshirts. I know she has better clothes. She just chose not to wear them. One of her kids was wearing an super hero tshirt. No, just no. A plain tshirt would've been an improvement. At my Dad's funeral some of his biker pals were there wearing their biker outfits, but it was a deliberate choice made in honor of him. And that was fine. But they all looked nice and made an effort. FTR, I am extremely casual about what I wear. Jeans and tshirts everyday. But I remember even in college having one pair of khakis in the back of my closet, just in case I needed something dressy. I don't think you have to buy clothes for a funeral, but the idea that you don't have one nice outfit in your closet is mind boggling.

It's our first day as well. We've been homeschooling for 9 years, but it's the first time with two kids. I've got a 9th grader and a Ker this year.

A couple of years ago we were in Seattle vacationing and went to the Space Needle. We ran into one of ODS's doctors. He had moved up there in the past year and just happened to be visiting the Space Needle too. He's also from the same town my grandmother lives in.

Oldest DS had multiple health problems. We knew we weren't able to handle anymore for a long time. Every time he went into the hospital life would stop. It wasn't until his last year that DH and I started thinking we could handle having another child and then DS's health got worse. Also despite everything we did to not ignore DD, there were times where DD took a back seat. It wasn't fair, but there wasn't much we could do about it. So when DS died we spent some time just focusing on DD. We all needed it. The increased chance for a child with a birth defect as I got older is one of the factors in our decision to decide we're done having children.