:grouphug: From personal experience - try giving her a month. When my 11 year old ds started school at 6, he screamed, cried, held on to me and acted like he wasn't ever going to see me again on his first day of school. They asked me not to come visit him at school for a week or so to allow him to acclimate. Emotionally, it was one of the hardest weeks of my life. 2 weeks later, he loved school and from then on was upset whenever he had a vacation. I'd give her a few more weeks, and then if she still feels the same, say 'it was a mistake' and bring her back home.

My daughter has very sensitive ears, so we can't use most places like Claires etc. to buy earrings. If you have access to a Silpada representative, they have some very nice sterling silver earrings for less than $20 dollars (these do very well in my daughter's ears). And if you have access to a Premier Jewelry rep, the Mimi 4 pack of earrings is only $20 and also does very well in her ears.

PAGES!!! It's included in Apple iWork. I love love love Pages. You might not have it already, by try a Google search for pages templates to see the kind of things you can make with it. I use Pages for flyers, designing our HS newsletter and have used it to make a few digital scrapbooking type things as well.

I am a total Pinterest addict! You can find my Homeschooling pins under the 'Educational Resources' board (although my pride and joy is my sewing/fabric arts board!). http://pinterest.com/mommylikesit/

I'm white, my husband is black. We were asked when they were born which race we would like on their birth certificates, and we chose Black. We could have chosen White if we wanted to. While the 'one-drop' rule has been ruled unconstitutional, for the purpose of studies and demographics, generally researchers DO still use the 'one-drop' rule. As far as I have found, there is NOT much, if any, additional scholarships for Black/AA students. The advantage they DO have is that they will have a better chance for acceptance at very competitive universities. From what I have found when I researched, Ivy leagues etc. will accept a black student before a white student if they have the exact same test scores, UNLESS the white student has a very very good hook as opposed to the black student. Don't quote me as I may be wrong, but Native Americans who are member of a Federally Recognized tribe are really the only group that receives race-based scholarships.

Like most of the other posters, our first move was cutting off the cable. Netflix is available on the Wii if we want to let them watch a movie on there, and we occasionally rent a DVD. Hubby and I use our computers if we want to watch something. Works great for us!

I'm not sure how it works, but we'd love to participate. We are in Hawai'i (Big Island). I just signed up for the yahoo group as well.

Something I discovered over the years that is applicable to ALL skilled businesses (not only in my photography but also my hubby's web design and programming) is that there is ALWAYS someone that will work for cheaper or even free in some cases. You have to maintain your professional integrity and offer what you feel comfortable with, even if that means you will occasionally lose business. You also need to feel confident enough in your work to believe that your work is WORTH the money you charge. ETA: And for those establishments who offer more for less, the clients are almost always getting EXACTLY what they paid for. I would not change my policies because you lose 1 or 2 clients. In my experience, these are the same people that will sell your code to other people, or complain that they didn't like the photos and ask for their money back (AFTER you deliver the CD of couse). I'd find a friend or two who are comfortable offering CDs to clients. When a client asks for a CD say 'I'm sorry, I do not offer CDs. I am able to recommend 1 or 2 people who do, here are their names'. This works even better if you can manage to negotiate a kickback of $10-$20 from business you send their way ;-)

We land on the Big Island on Sunday afternoon, and I'm very eager to meet some other families from the area and participate in any group activities that are available. I know there are quite a few HS families on Oahu because of all the military families, but is there anyone on the Big Island? Thanks!

It seems like a lot of people share my favorites list :-) Can't pick just one! All of the books in the Outlander series Harry Potter Chronicles of Narnia Lord of the Rings series Audrey Niffenegger is also looking like she'll be contributing to my alltime favorites list quite a bit, I loved both time traveler's wife and her fearful symmetry

:iagree: We use Homewood Suites wherever possible, all of their rooms offer a bedroom, living room with sofabed, and a fully equipped kitchen with a full size fridge and pots and pans. On a long term stay we were able to negotiate a rate on a 2br (1 king bed, 2 queen beds, 1 sofa bed) down to around 90 a night (From around 190 a night). that included breakfast every day and dinner 4 days a week so we could factor that into our budget. Now admittedly, that was a LONG term stay at >1 month but that's a good example of what negotiating can get you). I'm surprised that everyone is saying they've had problems with occupancy we have NEVER had a problem with that as long as we tell the front desk that all our kids are under 10. If you don't want to reserve far in advance, try calling a hotel near where you think you'll land around noon before all the road travelers start checking in - that way you guarantee they have something for you when you get there, but can be a little more spontaneous about it. Have fun!!! :auto:

I get the curry powder for my yellow curry from Target, it's their store brand. Comes in the glass jars. I'm sure it's not the best or most authentic, but it's fairly easy to find and not too expensive.

Vinegar in a bath works for me, but I also tan rather easily so it most likely isn't as bad as what you are looking at. My mom and younger sister are very very fair skinned. They burn very easily every year, and they use Noxema - and I've seen my little sister put it in the fridge to cool it down even more before applying.

We always loved the Disk Doctor, which is a little handheld resurfacer. Easy to use and fixes disks that are really badly scratched up.

We actually just finished purchasing our tickets and securing our rental etc. for our trip to the Big Island which will be quite a bit longer than yours (we plan on being there several months). I've been doing a TON of research for our time there. The absolute cheapest plane tickets we found (through considerable research) was directly through Hawaiian Airlines. But we are taking off from SFO. Something I learned is that the day you leave can make a huge difference - for example a monday might cost you $600 a ticket and then tuesday will cost you $280. Hawaiian's website has a nice feature that allows you to see every single day on a month calendar so you can see what the cost is per day. Our 6 ticks at the end of August cost us around $1400 (thats cash, no airline miles). I think it was Orbitz that had turned up the best fares through the major carriers on their price comparison wizard, better than the rest of the comparison sites i checked (priceline, cheaptickets, etc.) so give them a shot. Most of the 'must sees' I have compiled so far are on the Hilo side of the island, because we will be staying in Puna. Were you planning on going that far or did you want to stay on the Kona side? The KonaWeb site http://www.konaweb.com/ is one I put in my bookmarks that had a lot of information in it and is geared towards Kona. Also try: The big island section of http://www.discoveringhawaii.com there is some decent info on http://www.bigisland-bigisland.com/index.html and Hawaii Lisa has a lot of info on http://www.hawaii-lisa.com/ as well. Hope that helps! I can't wait till we get there!