We have a homeschool room.... I used it for a week about 5 years ago when we first started, and haven't used it since. I found out quickly that it's far more practicaly for us to do school in the dining room where I can make use of those 2-3 minutes spurts of time when the kids are all working and no one has questions. This way I get laundry and dishes done WHILE they're doing school, and am still available at all times to help if needed. The school room was simply too isolated from the rest of the house. Nowadays that room still stores our finished school books (or books for the upcoming year), games, and is a nice reading/art spot for the kids, but we don't really think of it as school room anymore.

I would also fly a relative out to come stay with the kids. It's pricey, but having spent all that money on a trip to India and not using it would be a much bigger loss, imo.

They expect the kids to come to this ridiculous caricature of a middle-aged frat party?! Yeah, I change my vote from "save your get out of jail free card" to "use it and then burn the jail down." That's just disturbing.

For me, it would depend on what's on the family's schedule for the next few months. I can only back out so many times, gotta save it for the big ones. ;) Are the kids supposed to go with you to this party? If so, I'd back out. I mean, this is a birthday party for an adult and it's clearly going to be inappropriate, so stay home with them. If you guys have a sitter for the kids so that you can go, I'd go this time and save my "get out of jail free" pass for another time.

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. How horrible.

9, give or take.

I hear in my head an old Dutch lullabye that my parents used to sing (and still sing to the grandkids), because that's my immigrant history. I'm a (very minor) Zeppelin fan, but the concept of immigrating is so huge to me that other things relating to it simply come up first for me.

My aunt is fairly flaky as well. She's supposed to come by every 4 weeks but sometimes she's like "HEY, I know I just saw you two weeks ago but I thought I'd pop in for a quick visit!" and sometimes she's like "Sorry I didn't come by last month or the month before that, but to make up for it I've decided to stay and hang out with you for a REALLY LONG TIME, since I missed you so much!" Any time I skep more than 1 month I check to make sure that I don't have any other unexpected little visitors about every two weeks. Once I hit the three month mark I check every week because I get freaked out, unexpected company has been known to come by before. My aunt's never waited more than 4 months to drop in, but if she did I think that's the point at which I'd file a missing person's report.

I'd say that's an understatement! I think we can all see exactly why you need to get the heck out of Dodge.

nm

Can I also just add that I loved this book as fiction for actual young adults? I wasn't exactly heavy reading, lol, and some of the plot was contrived, but I loved the real life feel of it. Guys obssesses over girl, guy thinks girl is leaving him a trail of breadcrumbs so they can be together because her world MUST revolve around him.... guys discovers girl did nothing of the sort and kind of just wants him to leave her alone, and that other people do not exist as props for his hero fantasy. :lol: It's not the greatest love story of all time, but goodness knows that a lot of teens (and adults!) could use that particular burst of enlightenment.

Our pool has very stringent guidelines as well. -All children under 6 must be within arm's reach of a supervising parent or guardian at all times, and must stay in the shallow end. -Children from age 6 through 11 must also be within arm's reach of a supervising parent and in the shallow end, unless they show the lifeguards that they can pass a swim test. (They only have to pass it once per year, then they're given a green card to show each time they go to any city pool.) The swim test is the exact qualifications listed in the OP. -Each parent can have no more than 2 children under their supervision at a time.

Given his obsession with her and how he tries to track her down once she disappears, maybe this?

My three older kids can do all those things. (The youngest of my boys is 7 and took a swim test with exactly these standards just last night, passed with lfying colours. I was pleasantly surprised.) I can do all those things as well, but I would probably bear a strong resemblance to a beached whale while getting out of the pool without a ladder. ;)

Yes and no. My son's best friend is black, but he's not MY best friend, lol. I have a black friend that I chat with frequently online, but probably only see once every few years in person. So for the purposes of the poll, I voted no. Our community is largely European, Portguese, and Scottish, so the people I chat with on a more regular basis tend to be a reflection of that.

:huh: I don't even know what to say/ Wow. That is so out of line. Please tell me you told her off? And that she can reschedule with them?

She WHAT?! She seems to misunderstand what's going on here. She's showing the house to all and sundry when you said you wanted to be picky, she's lying to try to get people to give you offers that day, she's giving you horrible offers (insulting ones, really) of questionable legality just to get it sold... does she somehow have the idea that you guys are desperate to sell asap or something? It sounds like you guys need to have a serious discussion with her.

I agree with the others. Just flat out say no to the offer. You have it very reasonably prices, they're offering 10K less AND it's leaving you on dangerous ground legally. Don't do it. And talk to your realtor about the sort of offers she's putting through when you've been clear about what you want.

Creekland, can you sell the stuff they left behind on Craigslist? That's what we did when we had a similar tenant. Of course, our tenant didn't actuall leave NICE stuff, but between couches and kitchen sets, etc, we got a few hundred dollars out of the deal.

Not yet, but we got the notification that ours shipped! We haven't told the kids about it yet, but when it shows up we'll have a game night with them and I'm pretty sure they'll be cry-laughing the whole time.

Is it possible to sit in on classes at the other gym that's 40 minutes away? I think switching is a wise idea, but I'd want to see what the classes at the other place are like first, in case they suffer from similar issues (or just plain old bad coaching).

Absolutely! Just get a very secure lock for the gate. The families I know that have pools absolutely love them, and we live in Canada so they don't even get as much use out of them as most people do, lol. We have drownings happen in our area too, but in general those happen in homes where the pools are right off the back deck/patio and not fenced off. There's a reason most home insurance policies specify that they'll only insure a pool if it's completely fenced off, and once it's fenced they don't have a problem with it. As long as the fence is in good shape, I say go it! :)

I'm awake at 3:20am reading this post because I woke up and the house was quiet and everyone was in bed and I NEEDED to experience the peace for a little while. So yes.

For me, it would depend on how tight money is and what's available. If there's something out there that looks great and money isn't an problem, go for it. If you're trying to be responsible with money and have other, more important things you need to save for, then maybe consider getting it altered instead (assuming your sister doesn't need it back). HOWEVER, if this isn't necessarily your last pregnancy, a good dress might be a good investment even if money's a little tight. If you probably won't have more children after this one, then.... I know everyone above disagrees, but I'd have problems convincing myself to spend money on a dress for a fancy event that I would only wear once.

Yes, absolutely. As the kids get older it's more difficult to get time away from school work for appointments, so when we have appointments I tend to set aside a subject or two for each of them to do with we're in the waiting room, etc, so that the time isn't wasted. It also doubles as a way to occupy them in the waiting room, which is always a good thing.