There have been more than a handful of times that I call my mom's number and I get this sweet sounding elderly woman instead (not that my mom is neither sweet nor elderly). I did this just the other day. I called her number twice even after making sure I was slowly dialing my mom's number. It's happened with my cell phone and my home phone.

This method was a possibility my gyn gave me years and years ago. I thought it was too invasive at the time and now, I am glad I didn't go this direction!

I am also. It's been a crazy week and a crazy day. So, my vote is yes! Get those cream cheese won tons - well worth it.

For me, I had heard that slavery had ended without a war in England and wondered why it didn't happen here. I recently learned that it was illegal to free slaves in some states and with others, there was a real problem of how would these freed slaves take care of themselves. I also wondered why the rich plantation owners didn't just start paying their slaves (probably would have taken a law and law enforcement) and having that end the problem. Apparently, many plantations were in loads of debt due to just being farmers being at the mercy of markets for their products and weather. The soil was also worn out with the crops they were planting on them. So, quite a few plantation owners' wealth was tied up in their slaves. For some, their only source of cash was to sell a slave. And when the slaves were rightly freed, that is why the plantation lifestyle of the south ended.

Do the newer memory foam mattresses get hot? That's my other problem- I tend to really heat up a mattress. Even in winter I'm throwing off covers and we keep the vents closed with the window slightly cracked open at times. Right now, I'm sleeping well on a blow up mattress on the floor because the bed is too squishy and so very hot.

Any suggestions? We are wanting to stay away from pillow tops and foam. All we know about those is that your body makes a indentation in the mattress within a year or so and then it's not as comfortable. We would prefer something that is non-pillow top and then we can add our own foam top and just change those out instead of having to constantly buy a new mattress.

I think it’s worth it. My main shopping is the grocery store and Costco. I rarely get out to Walmart or Target type places so Amazon becomes my random stuff place. It helps that Ds is going to college and gets the college kid discount.

Is it worth filling this out? I tried an online estimator and it gave us no money in a grant. Dh and I have an adjusted gross income of $70K with an OK amount of assets (not the house) with a family size of 6. DS will have completed two years of college by the time he graduates high school. He has about $5k saved up for collegeThe estimate gave us an amount of the loan he can get through the federal government (which we will not do--we don't want him going into debt for an average paying job-he's not going to go into a specialty) and our cost that we would be expected to pay ($3500). Thanks!

Her strategy is to rant and rave about "why do they make little children do this", before I step in and help her. Usually, I can talk her through it and she does understand. When I pull out manipulatives, she gets even more irritated, but when she can see it, she understands even better. If I have to use manipulatives to have her understand, I will. I just need a worksheet/ book to go through. I'm more consistent that way.

My dd will be going to public school again next year and they will be doing Singapore math. I will be working with her over the summer to beef up the math skills she failed to learn during school, but I really want her to get some mental math strategies down. This is a child who cannot add 10 to a number without writing it down. She does have trouble with questions like this also - "4+____=12. She does know her math facts for the most part. I have looked at the Singapore mental math series, but what level? Also, are there other workbooks out there that could help?

We did this for the most part for many of the same reasons (also after reading the same book which made us realize ds13 was starting a true addiction). We have Mac computers and we’re able to sufficiently block the internet for ds13 while allowing him only email and his ability to write his book (it’s his thing). For ds17, we added a family monitoring service (Verizon) to his smart phone that basically only allows what I allow. Right now, he has no data and no internet access in the house. He can text and has some apps that I allow. I’m not sure if it could work with google hangouts. We also have the ability to monitor his computer through a Microsoft monitoring product. The way this works for him is that he wanted to not access porn so he’s agreed to the restrictions and for the most part-not always-has been ok with it. He gets 1-2 hours of internet per week sitting in the kitchen with me there. Dd 11 has no computer access. She did at school with games that “taught” math and spent more time playing the game than learning the math. We’ll figure out what to do about the social aspect of texting when she gets there.

I think the cost for dds braces was around $5k. Insurance paid a lifetime $1k toward them. She had a cleft lip so her teeth were a huge mess. The original thought was 18 months of braces. We’re going on two years now—same cost. She did have a mouth surgery in there, but that only delayed things a month or so. The sad thing is that with dd, we may have to go another round.

My dd and I keep getting bitten by some small bug. It's not a mosquito since we don't have those here, but itches horribly. Somewhere between a mosquito and a fire ant itch. My dd picks her skin until she's bloody and keeps doing it until the skin gives up and creates a massive scar. She has scars all over her arms and legs from previous summers. I can handle the itch - it's constantly there so I get how she keeps scratching, but this has got to stop. Is there anything I can give her to help her with this?

So, we just got back---apparently, 4 out of 6 of us had either altitude sickness (we hike at that altitude often so I'm not so sure this was it) or just have sensitive stomachs due to junky food that you tend to eat on vacation. We've decided to not purposely do a family vacation again. It's too much work. It's not just my oldest ds with the disability, it's also my daughter who is high energy/ high intensity. If most of us hadn't gotten sick, I think it would have worked out OK, but that didn't happen. We're going to take a kid at a time on a adventure for a long weekend - one kid a year at this point. We've also decided to make purposeful day trips to someplace cool and plan them out better. We have a lot of options within a two hour drive. My disabled son is pretty easy going - he just requires physical care mostly. He's easily entertained. A ride in an elevator is fun to him. But, with all of them - nope.

Have you stopped trying to do family vacations? My dd is very flexible but requires a lot of accommodations with beds and bathrooms. Right now, I’m at the laundromat cleaning his sleeping bag because he’s incontinent. He has the sleeping bag because he throws off covers. The toilet was not to his level of comfort so we had to use a different one outside of the room. Basically, DH was ready to give up yesterday and go home right after we arrived. It was a three hour drive here and we are done. We want to give up trying to do family vacations. It’s too exhausting.

Ditto on jcpenny online. I had to buy a bunch of pants for Ds. 28 waist and 34 length. Yes—we grow them tall and slim. My boys grow the legs first and then go to torso. It’s a strange body type for sure

I was pretty anxious about starting a anti-anxiety drug and made my dh stay up with me a while so that he could watch over me. I've also had a teenage homeschooled neighbor (her parents both worked) come over to my home when she started new medications. She was just scared and needed someone she trusted to watch her to make sure if she needed help she could get it. Just watch for allergic side effects that are listed on the drug sheet. If you don't see those right away, she should be fine. I think what your daughter is experiencing is quite normal.

Similar situation. The app that guaranteed safe web access was easily foiled by my son. His problem wasn't so much public wifi, but his ability to be secret late at night in his room. So, we changed the wifi password, contacted the next door neighbor to password protect their guest network, and with Verizon bought the ability to monitor his data and what he is able to access (he no longer is able to access data). Basically, at home, he has texting (which I know has issues also depending on who you know) and calls. We will not allow our last two children to have smart phones at this point until they are on their own. They will get flip phones only. We also do not allow computer usage in rooms anymore. Heart to heart talks are good, but addiction can come on pretty quickly and sometimes we as parents need to just step in and help. My son was struggling and wanted a way out but also didn't want us to know so while the restrictions annoy him, he hasn't put up a fight.

When we needed to move for dh’s job, we specifically chose to move to a vacation hub so that finally we could take vacations. We now traveled 2-3 hours from home and are in a location many people travel a day or more to get to. My fun vacations are when I have gone without the kids for a long weekend to visit my sisters. This past February, we all went to Disney without kids. So.much.more.fun!

My dd has been to the doctor three times back to back for strep throat. Two rounds of amoxicillin (dose increased on the second round), one shot of penicillin, and now it looks like it's back again. I have a feeling the doctor is thinking that taking her tonsils out is the next step since she told me that we would have to go to an ENT next. Is there anything I can do to try and avoid it? I had strep back to back as an adult and gargled with a small amount of colloidal silver when it looked like it was coming back. It stopped it. The doctor told me not to have her gargle with that (I would have her spit it out-- it would be like a teaspoon or less) since colloidal silver is so hard on the liver. We are going on a non-refundable vacation on Saturday and will be back next Wednesday. Dd is the one most looking forward to this and would be devastated if we had to cancel due to step. She's already had anger and crying about how it's kept her from some fun activities.

We did go to the paint mines. It is one of those spots that you could drive by and not even realize it’s there almost. It is neat, but really away from other things to do and see and smaller than I expected. Expect your children to get covered in chalk dust.

This is the official word on that. https://www.pikes-peak.com/pikes-peak-cog-railway-closed/ or further information about what the detailed plans are to open it again https://m.gazette.com/cog-railway-owner-manitou-springs-officials-considering-75-million-to-95-million-plan-to-reopen-the-tourist-attraction/article/1627547

Apparently, the cog railway was just starting to show its age and there are a lot of little issues that they want to make sure are resolved. The thing has been going for over 100 years, it’s hard to maintain (hello 14,000 feet!), and hard to find parts for because there are only two cog railways in the world like that one. Basically, they want to make sure it’s safe and not have a trainload of passengers slide down a 14,000 ft mountain.

My Ds wet the bed until he was 12. I just had him wear the pull ups made for older kids. I didn’t want to mess with alarms or waking him up. He had no trauma or anything medical. It did go away on its own by the time he turned 13.

Intermittent fasting https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent-Alternate-Day/dp/1628600012/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1529167578&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=intermittent+fasting&dpPl=1&dpID=51EcmzwjoUL&ref=plSrch i like it because it’s easy to use and I don’t have to count calories. I was at a point where I was slowly gaining weight even while excercising/ building muscle and eating less food (and no, it wasn’t just muscle—it was fat). I’m not good at having to constantly think about what I’m eating. I fast from 7pm to 10:30 am and one day a week. I just eat healthy the rest of the time and don’t beat myself up if I really want some chips and salsa. It’s worked for me.