My dh is military so unless they call a special holiday duty schedule he works. He's acutally out at sea right now so they may be having a light day, meaning no drills are being run etc, but they are working. We can never count on days off, even if he requests leave if "it hits the fan" they'll call him back and there's no way out of it. I've gotten used to it. We've been lucky and he's never been deployed over Christmas but we've only had 2 Thanksgivings as a family since we got married almost 11 years ago.

That's why I voted the way I did. I think "what ever you are blessed with" is more of a feeling we got. When we had our 3rd we were blessed with the feeling that our family was complete. Could I have had more? Sure I was physically more than capable. I never had any problems during pregnancy or delivery. 3 just feels right for us. For others what they are "blessed" with may be different.

Thanks for this idea. I have lots of those quilting rulers and rotory cutters and as you said I never have time to use them anymore for there intended purpose. ;)

Thanks to all that thanked members of our military for their service. My dh is currently on board the USS George Washington and I will pass this on to him. It means a lot to him when he hears others "thanks" and appreciation for what he does. To all the others out there with spouses, dads, brothers, sisters, siblings, etc in the same position as my dh Thanks to them for their sacrifice and to you for your sacrafices. I know how hard it can be when they are gone.

Well, we don't have to name our school but the kids wanted a name because we felt it may lead to a better way to answer the "why aren't you in school" questions if they had a name to say. Usually when we say "we homeschool" we get funny looks, or worse someone lectures me and my kids about the dangers of homeschool. You know things like the big Socialization problem my kids are going to have. We started out by naming is Evanlu Academy which was the 1st two letters of my kids names. They hated it. Then my dh came up with Voyager Learning Center because he felt like we were voyagers into the world of education. The kids lived with it but recently told me they didn't like it and my oldest who turned 9 yesterday said "learning center" sounded babyish. I asked for their input and they both agreed they loved Fawkes the Phoenix from the Harry Potter movies and wanted him as a mascot. After a bit of research we decided that it would work for us and our new name is Fawkes Academy. Our motto is "Soaring through home education" My dh and I liked the name because with a Phoenix as our mascot it made sense. In our journey we sometimes come to the end of one part and then begin anew, kind of like when the Phoenix would build a nest of cinnamon twigs and light it on fire, thus turning to ash and then rising again from them into a new life. That's our homeschool name story and for once our kids love the name of their school and proudly announce to anyone that asks that they go to Fawkes Academy.

:iagree: That's what I was trying to say earlier. If anyone of us were to question a persons morality because they are only following The Bible and therefore were unable to think for themselves, you bet we'd be called out on it. Seems that this isn't the case for many of us. If we don't believe as others do then we are said to have no moral code because we couldn't possibly be able to know right from wrong without The Bible laying it all out in front of us.

:iagree: I just rep'd you for this and hit enter before typing my name.

QUOTE=Mekanamom;236050]I determine right and wrong the same way you do, Phred. I've always wondered about the people who say I cannot be a moral person without a religious framework to base my decisions on. Have to say I was a bit shocked at some of the responses in the gay marriage thread. I left the church I was brought up in specifically due to bigoted doctrine. But then, I had not ever been a true believer in that religion anyway, though I was born into it and raised with it. Actually, I think it was a pretty moral thing to leave a group that was teaching intolerance and bigotry. :iagree:

I'm going to be 34 in July and my mom will be 54 on Dec. 31st.

I DO!! When dh and I got married almost 11 years ago that's what the price of gas was in Bremerton WA. I now own a Town and Country and it does ok on milage usually close to 20 in the city and costs me $50 bucks a couple weeks ago to fill it. It needs another fill and I'm worried about how much it will be because gas has gone up .25 a gallon since the last fill up. I really wish we would have fit in my old Subaru Forester but the 3 carseats just wouldn't fit. My dh owns a '05 civic hybrid and it does great cost's him about $30-35 to fill up and he drives a long way to and from work. I think when he goes on deployment or is out for the month long work ups we'll switch to using his car instead of the van. The only thing is the kids like the DVD player in the van, maybe I'll just have to work a little harder at driving less.

Where does the constitution guarantee the "right to marry" to anyone? Where does the constitution come right out and prohibit the "right to marry" of homosexuals. Where does the constitution say that marriage is strictly the right of heterosexual couples? Just because a certain religion states that marriage is between one man and one woman doesn't mean that people of other faiths believe that. This is where the constitution does come into play in that the 1st ammendment clearly gives all US citizens the right to practice the religion of their choosing or none at all. Thus making the rights it gives to US Citizens their rights regardless of their religion or lack thereof. No where does the constitution give one religious group the right to define what "Marriage" is and who can obtain that status. If you (meaning any person) are Christian and choose to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman is is a religious joining so be it. That doesn't mean everyone has to. That doesn't mean my marriage which was not in a church nor did it include any God in anyway isn't a marriage. I'm committed to my husband and that is what our marriage ceremony was about, our love and commitment to each other. As many others and I have asked, if "marriage" is a word only to be used when a religious ceremony is conducted, and must involve a God, then what is my union to be called? And who decides which religion and which God is the only one to be able to use the term "Marriage" for a joining of 2 people in a committed loving relationship?

Very well put. I always find it interesting that those who do not wish to have someone else's beliefs pushed upon them are usually the ones pushing theirs on others the hardest.

That too would be me, so a month from now on June 13th I guess dh and I will actually be celebrating our 11th anniversary of our Civil Union, not our marriage although the paperwork from the state of RI clearly says MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE across the top.

I voted that I don't care as long as it's between consenting Adults. The key word being Adults. The only thing I don't like is seeing things where children are forced to marry. I'm trying to find a way to phrase this without sounding snarky or mean, but I can't believe it was suggested that because someone thinks gay marriage or plural marriage is ok as long as it's between consenting adults is looked upon as immoral. I don't think it's fair for someone to say I have a lack of morals because I see nothing wrong with two men or two women being married if that's truly what they want to do. I think it's truly unfair to judge someone, which may not be the intent but that's sure what it feels like, simply because of one thing you know about them.

I'm just curious why the Daily Math practice in addition to the Saxon. I have used Saxon K-2 and 5/4 (haven't had a kid with 3 yet but will in another year) I'm not sure if you don't think Saxon would be enough or if there's other reasons. I use Saxon alone and it seems to be enough.

That was hilarious!!:lol: I never realized that WW had a cannibalistic side. I mean Caucasian Shalicks or what ever they were. I would never eat anything that clearly stated the meat was "caucasian"

As someone who rents alot because we move so much here's my .02 I think you do need to pay the late fee through the 9th because she is insisting on picking it up. Although for the future I would let her know that for your records you need to start mailing the check. If she only gets mail at her business that's her problem and she needs to make sure she picks up her mail. I don't like paying cash for our rent. I always insist on a check so that I can have a record of the payment. We had an issue when we lived in our last house, after the 1st year the rental agency suddenly decided we would have to use a different agent. We had always paid with a personal check made out to the owner of the home. The new agent wanted us to start paying cash and to deliver it to her in person. I refused because we had always paid this way and never had a check returned. It wasn't our choice to switch agents. I'm saying all this to say stand your ground as long as you are in compliance with your lease or rental agreement.

I usually put Homemaker or Home Educator. Some days I'm attempted to put something like Assylum Director or Monkey Wrangler because the kids are being exceptionally outgoing that day.

My grandmas were named Clara and Eleanor They had sisters named Mary, Cecelia(who legally changed her name to Cookie then changed it again to Jean), Marion and Geenya. My grandma Clara also had a half brother named John My grandpas were Edward (don't know if he had any siblings) and John, who had brothers named Felon and Casmier (who is called Kashu) and a sister named Laura. My grandpa John was the 1st generation in the US, his parents came here shortly before he was born. Thus his brothers names, we're told they are traditional Polish names. In fact their mother my Busia (Which is traditionally what people where I grew up in SE Wisconsin call their Polish Grandma's), never learned english, she didn't want to come to the US so that was her way of rebelling, thus all her kids spoke fluent Polish. Unfortunately they didn't pass that on to their kids.

My kids act the same. Dh and I made sure to let them know that when he's gone they must behave etc. just like they would when he's home. Like some others on here we're military and there is no way I could have them suddenly not behave when he goes on deployment. Even when he's not deployed there are a lot of long days and then there are duty days where he must stay over night on the ship. I think part of them being the same came from dh and I deciding that I would be the main disciplinarian and that he needed to back me up when he was around so that when he's not it's consistant for the kids. We had to set it up this way because saying "Just wait until your Dad gets home" doesn't have the same effect if Dad won't be "Home" for 3-6 months.:001_smile:

Chiming in as another one with no middle name. There isn't one on my birth certificate. I never wanted one, my dad thought it was Marie for years until my mom finally said "why do you call her Kelly Marie, that's not her name" LOL It did cause a bit of hassle when I married my dh. The navy wasn't to keen on the fact that I don't have one and the guy trying to get me in the system was having a heck of a time.

I also used it for my children. I've used 2 for my son and K for my dd when we started hsing. I then worried because of all the poor reviews and thought, boy I don't want to screw my kids up, so we switched to Horizons. It was ok but the kids didn't like it. I had thought of going back to saxon and pushed it out of my mind. I had my dd keep pushing through Horizons K (1 would have been too hard for her) and started my son in TT5 (where he placed on their tests) After a few months my dd was hating math and my son was doing ok but didn't seem challenged enough. I took them to the local homeschool curriculum store (yes we're lucky enough to have one) and we searched the math shelves. My son immeadiately grabbed a copy of Saxon 5/4 and as I watched him look through it he seemed so amazed, I know seems weird. I asked him what he thought and he said "Mom I want this, it's like I used to use and it makes sense" My dd then asked to see her grade and we pulled out Saxon 1 and she saw a few of the worksheets, asked what she'd have to do and said "I want this one, I think it will be fun" We bought them and the kids have been so happy since. We're on "summer break now" but they still ask to do a couple lessons a week so we do them. They really like it, I like the way it's set up and I like to teach it. It just makes sense to us. After all our switching I have to say it would take alot to get us to switch again. Our plan is to stick with Saxon through graduation.

My given name is Kelly, I have no middle name so I was stuck with it. I like it ok but there were a lot of Kelly's in my grade growing up. I wanted my kids to have uncommon names but not "out there" names I think I did well with that. The biggest problem I had with mine was that the older generation would always ask me why my parents gave me a "man's name" My mom never knew men were named Kelly so she didn't think to give it the more feminine spelling of Kelley or Kelli. I usually just go by Kel which is what my parents called me unless I was in deep doo doo:tongue_smilie: I like Kel alot. My dh is Matthew, he likes it fine. Many say our oldest has an old fashioned name, I named him Everett after a character in a short lived TV show and we call him Ev most of the time. My dd is named Annika Clare and prefers to go by her full first and middle name, mostly because her middle name is after her great grandma Clara who she adores. My little guy is Lucas John and prefers to go by Luka which my oldest started calling him. I think our youngest has the most common out of the 3 kids but it's still pretty far down on the top 100 names list.

Ours just hatched yesterday. We didn't do anything other than keeping them out of direct heat and drafts. I was amazed at how fast the grew. We will most likely let them go in a couple days. It was way to cold today to let them go. I've been feeding them sugar water that I just drip in the bottom of the habitat. It was very easy.

My dh and I were both bottlefed and I bottle fed all 3 of my kids. I don't think I've missed out on anything and I don't think my kids are any worse for it.