In almost every other case, absolutely yes, assuming the travel expenses weren't extremely prohibitive. I would think of it as a valuable life experience, both for myself and for the kids, even if I disagreed with the candidate on her/his platform. This year, HELL TO THE NO.

I usually add more garlic, onions, mushrooms, vanilla, cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice, cheese, tomato sauce, red peppers, soy sauce... I guess I kind of just make things up as I go, lol. I also usually only do 1/2 of the sugar in any given recipe, but not the first time I try the recipe. I'll make it as written the first time, and then usually think it's too sweet and cut it by a good margin the next time.

I have to "like" this, not because I think it is fake, but because it shows integrity all around. The story can't be independently confirmed because the Santa is trying to respect the privacy of the family and give up their name/info. The hospital won't discuss it with the news. The news is therefore saying "we can't publish news we can't verify from independent sources." It doesn't sound so much like anyone is making accusations as it sounds like everyone respecting the integrity of their various professions, which is less common than I'd like to admit.

On the one hand, I think the story is meaningful (and tragic). On the other hand... I wonder how his family feels about this going viral. I hope they feel it's a tribute to his life rather than feeling resentful of it, but I can see it going either way. I just hope this isn't adding to their pain. :/

I feel like there needs to be a higher minimum wage, but that while the STANDARDS for minimum wage should be nationalized, the AMOUNT should not. As in "here's a calculation to determine the basic amount people need to live in your area, divide that by X hours we are willing to demand that people work in order to survive, here's the minimum wage for your area." The problem is that the amount dictated by that would vary so greatly. In order for it to be effective the minimum wage wouldn't end up being national, or even state-wide... it would probably have to vary by county, which leads to a whole lot of bureaucratic red tape. It *would* encourage businesses to move out of high COL areas in to other areas, which could have huge and unpredictable ripple effects.

I have no words of wisdom, but just wanted to give you some virtual hugs and express my support. You're doing hard things, and doing them with as much grace as possible.

Can I ask what days in particular you're going? If it's later in January, there's a Harry Potter festival that may affect your plans. (I'm not sure if it costs extra above and beyond the tickets or not, just saw something briefly posted about it.) Looks like it's from Jan 27-29. Here's a link with some more info if that affects you.

No, I don't consider them the same.

I would contact the police to see what constitutes harassment in your area, and to get a paper trail going on the threats. I might also *consider* baiting a trap for reply, just to get actual confirmation in writing that they're making it up, because frankly they seem dim enough to fall for it. "Oh no, please don't report anything like that, I've never done ANYTHING to hurt your daughter! If I take her back in to my care, you wouldn't say that about me, right?" Then when they reply in the affirmative, she has an actual record of them saying "I will totally trust you with my daughter every day.... but I'll claim abuse if you don't give me what I want." I'm sure there are a million holes in that idea, but it's a thought.

That brings up an interesting thought; if these were federal charges and thus dealt with in federal court, is there still a state trial for state-based charges? Or are the only charges federal because it was on federal land? If the latter, does that mean people do not have to follow state laws on federal land? That seems like it would open the door to all sorts of trouble. I'm not too familiar with the American legal system, so I'm not quite sure what the options were as far as charges go in this case.

It sounds like the issue is his anxiety more than the sleep. If he could manage staying quietly awake on his own, it would be a lot healthier for both of you. Does he have a nightlight in his room to help with the fear of the dark? Is it possible to give him and his brother separate rooms is that he can fall asleep with a dimmed light on and his brother can be in the dark? Is he less scared if he's allowed to red in bed with a flashlight? I think your best bet is to deal with the fear of the dark/being alone so that he can cope with those things, rather than trying to change his natural sleep rhythm.

I genuinely cannot wrap my head around this. How could a jury possibly find them not guilty of charges that they are clearly guilty of and even admitted to on the stand? There had to be some kind of sympathizers on the jury.

Just as an FYI, the saying "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" is kind of a motto/support phrase in the pro-eating disorder/anorexia community. Hopefully it's not an issue here, but I know a number of young women who heard this refrain often in their minds while they were starving themselves (in two cases, sadly, literally to death). I'm not saying it's not an okay motto for yourself to help you lose weight... but please be VERY careful if you mention it real life, especially around young women. In the current culture, it comes with a lot of psychological baggage that you may not realize you're bringing back up. Just want everyone to be aware of some of the implications of this phrase that they may not otherwise have known. :) Hope no one takes this as criticism, the motto is fine; it's just been abused.

Sounds to me like Mommy Wars run amok. My best guess is that she's trying to make herself feel good about herself by telling herself all the other kids love her sooooo much more than even their own parents, she must be SUCH a good mom and person! When she runs out of fodder from the kids she sneaks random comments in to conversations to get a reaction and feed that need for the rush she gets when she feels superior. Don't let her bait you. She's going to look for that rush wherever she can get it. You have a few options. You can ignore her and privately roll your eyes at the passive "Queen Bee" mommy war. You can call her out on it and point it out when she starts with this crap. Or you can let the friendship die. If that feeling of superiority is what she's after, she'll try to get it from you until you refuse to let her anymore. YMMV of course!

I would be encouraging the couple and teaching them how to politely assert themselves. Repeat that other people do not get to make demands of their money, and that they should not start out their future by spending money they do not have. Encourage them to dream about what they would do for themselves if no one else got to make any demands of them. Help them by giving ideas of polite phrases they can use to tactfully rebuff their parents demands. The best possible outcome here is that they learn early how to stick up for their own needs.

Weird, I thought I replied to this! Sorry if this shows up twice. Here's what we did for our party. More on the science experiment end of things, but no explosions or foaming. (Although it was part of a greater focus of study for the whole day on the magical Narcissus flower, there's more info about how we worked it all together in the other linked posts there if you want it. There are a lot of "potions" punch recipes that you could use that look pretty impressive, if you're okay with making a potion that the kids will drink later. Here's a neat-looking one that you could present as almost any potion in the books if you wants. The Forgetfulness Potion at the bottom of this post might work well for you as well. It's foaming/bubbling, but the results are very contained.

My kids all eat (and love) apples. How much I personally eat them depends on where I'm at health-wise. If my blood sugar has been well-controlled and is saying in comfortable range consistently for a few months, apples are often the first sweet/carb I'll reintroduce to my diet. Generally, though, I have to steer away from them for health reasons. :(

Not a big fan of Katy Perry, but this cover of Rise gives me chills.

In the case, it seems the fears that the author would die before the series was completed were justified. Thankfully Sanderson seems to have done a great job of finishing it up and keeping the same tone as Jordan.

I know a bunch of us have been posting about Disney trips around Halloween-Christmas this year. I thought I'd start up a quick thread and see where everyone's at with planning and how things are going! Basically I just want to talk about it, I can't at home because it's a surprise for the kids, and everyone else is sick of it, so I'm just going to unload on you guys instead. So? When are you going to be there, what are your plans? Did you get the FastPasses you wanted? Is anyone going to the Christmas or Halloween parties? Or the new Jingle Bam dessert party? Where are you staying? I'm interested to see what everyone is up to!

I would like to answer but I hear conflicting things about the current vetting system. Some say refugees are brought over almost immediately after a cursory check in to their background, but refugees who've actually gone through the process say it take approximately 2 years and they go through checking in to the connections of all their relatives, personal and business contacts, etc, to make sure there are no ties to terror groups at all. My thoughts on the current vetting process obviously depend greatly on what that current process IS; does anyone have (preferably bipartisan) info on that?

I'm excited! We're going over a two week period that involves BOTH shows. The first Friday we're there, we get to see one of the last Star Wars show. Then we get to see the new show as well on one of our last days there. Can't wait! (I wish I could afford tickets to the dessert party, though. It looks amazing but YIKES at the prices!)

I don't see it so much as a scheduling decision as it is a schedule commitment.

I'll definitely go with the guy who's never gonna tell a lie or hurt us.

My parents are paying for our entire extended family to go on vacation to Disney next month, as huge celebration of their 50th anniversary. They wanted to see their grandkids get to experience Disney before Dad dies (he has cancer), and they knew there was no way most of could afford it... so they're paying for 16 people's flights, tickets, and a rental house. If they had just said "hey we're going to Disney for our 50th and would love for you to come" it would have been a whole lot more reasonable for them financially.... but only my brother and his wife with no kids would have been able to afford to go. So with that in mind... if you want them to come on the vacation, it would be wise to offer to pay. It's not really fair to say "We're going on vacation and you should too, so spend your money this way," especially to a person obviously try to save money to pay down debt. If you want the memories of everyone together and you can afford to... yes, pay for them. Or at the very least, chip in a substantial amount.