Yup, it's not going to be good here. Thanks to the cuts WA is making to social services programs and Medicaid, my dh may or may not have a job soon. He is a direct care support provider for developmentally disabled adults and between the MCP hour cuts, residential provider pay being cut and the strong possibility of all adult outpatient Medicaid pharmacy benefits being cut, many residential/nursing homes/rehabilitation centers are wondering just how they're going to survive.

I need some recommendations for a good, solid art instructional dvd. Specifically for drawing/sketching, but if it includes painting that's fine. Our 9yo loves to draw and sketch and is showing a lot of talent at it. We can't afford private lessons but as he's a visual learner we feel that an instructional dvd would be the next best thing. Thanks!:001_smile:

We have a large tub and have the same issue, my son just dumps it all out so he can sort through them. If I had the money, Walmart has Lego project boxes in two sizes, a semi-shallow one and deep one. They're about 9 bucks each. There's also a Lego sorter that you dump everything in and it sifts the legos through in different sizes. Walmart and ToysRUs both carry it, about 30 bucks. But, if you don't want the "official" Lego stuff, you could always get shoebox size (or whatever size you need according to how many you have) plastic storage boxes and sort everything according to color and/or size. I've seen many people do this and it may be what we'll be doing ourselves. Or sort according to individual sets and tape a plastic storage bag to the underside of the lid to put the project book in. Hope that helps. :) I'm not the best at coming up with ideas.

:lol::lol::lol:

I didn't say it was the same, I said they can do just as much work. Another poster had commented about the behind the scenes work that a waitress/waiter does that people don't see and I only wanted to point out the same holds true for many (not all) delivery drivers, that there is a lot of behind the scenes work that people don't realize the drivers have to do as well as just handing you a bag and having you sign a check. My dh got to know his regular customers very well and would add extra things into their bags like extra plates or extra cheese packets or extra dipping sauce or make sure they got a cold bottle of soda rather than a room temperature one. When he delivered he would always ask if they had everything they needed and it wasn't unusual for him to make another stop back by that house. Maybe he just wasn't your typical delivery guy but that was and is the kind of person he is and he passed that on to his fellow employees to make the customer feel number one regardless of whether they ate in or had carry out or had a delivery. The pizza places my dh worked earned a reputation for excellent delivery service.

We're one of those two states that everyone makes the same, the waiters/waitresses here make minimum wage with tips on top of that. Wish all states were that way, it's bull that tips should count as part of their hourly pay. The next state over dh dealt with that as a manager with his servers and he despised it. Our state wants you to report tips for tax purposes, but it doesn't cut the hourly wage at all. And delivery drivers there were subject to that tipping law, ANY tipped position fell under that law, like I said dh hated it. That's right to work laws for you. The one thing in that state's law was that the base pay was $3.35/hr and tips had to make up the difference between that and the state minimum wage or the employer had to pay the difference, so everyone still got at least full minimum wage, which wasn't always much consolation since that state has a low minimum wage. And yes, it was a crazy time. I was very glad that dh left that industry for good this year, he said he will never go back to working in pizza again, he'll work any other type of food service but never pizza.

I wanted to share that my husband was a pizza restaurant manager that worked his way up from the bottom, including delivery even as a manager. For both the national chains that dh worked for, the delivery drivers day started well before the restaurant opened and deliveries started. The had prep to do in the kitchens, everything from chopping veggies to putting the toppings in the right order on the make line to prepping boxes. Then, during the course of the day, they were making the pizzas, taking them out of the ovens, cutting them and putting them in boxes for carry out and delivery, taking orders on the phone, washing dishes for dine in service, bussing tables, sometimes taking pizzas out to customers that were dining in the restaurant, jumping in and doing whatever they had to do especially on a busy night when it's all hands on deck and helping close the restaurant and cleaning. Many times, your delivery driver is the person who took your order and made your pizza as well. Rarely is there a pizza place where the delivery driver is just sitting around waiting for the next delivery, there is always something somewhere that he/she needs to be helping with. On a super busy night where it's one delivery after another, yes that may be all they do. But on an average night, the delivery driver is doing just as much work as a waiter/waitress and taking the same abuse the food servers get from angry customers. In our area, it became very dangerous for a while for delivery drivers as they were being targeted by robbers and being held at gunpoint and in one case knife point during "fake" deliveries (person calls in an order and the point is to lure the delivery driver and rob him/her when the driver arrives). Many times dh had to go back over driver training with his drivers about how to follow your instincts if a delivery location doesn't "feel" right, that it's best to just return to base and call to confirm an address/order than take a chance. Dh would much rather have an irritated customer on his hands than a dead driver. One local pizza place did have a driver that was shot and nearly died, for a while after that dh couldn't get anyone willing to work as a delivery driver and he had to take the drives himself which was nerve wracking for us, we had a system where he would call me when arrived and call me when he'd leave so I would know he was okay.

My 9yo just got his braces off last month. He had a pretty bad crossbite. He had a pallate expander for the first few months, then they put on braces with brackets only on the first 4 front teeth. He had the braces for about a year, then had the pallet expander and braces completely taken out last month and a retainer put in. He'll wear the retainer for about a year and a half. The best part of all this is it finally put an end to his thumbsucking. He may have to have braces again when he's older and all his permanent teeth are in, we just have to wait and see. It's no suprise, both myself and my brother had to have extensive orthodontal work done to correct major problems. My main problem has been major overcrowding, I have small jaws. Between my son, me and my brother, none of it had any impact on the shape of our faces. If anything, I smiled much more after the braces than I did before. :) That would be the only change. And as for pain, it was painful at first to get all the appliances and braces put in and then when they were taken out but not too badly. Course, I had full braces done compared to my son who only had one appliance and a few brackets. He said the most painful was the day he had his braces taken off and the retainer was put in and he didn't do too well that day, but that's keeping in mind that he has high functioning autism and has sensory issues with his mouth.

We've got at least 8 inches total, it's 2 degrees and getting colder. Brrr!

That's the exact thing I'm worried for my brother and his wife. They are from Eastern WA as well, so same situation. :001_smile:

My brother and his wife live in Bothel, I'm really grateful for them that he was able to work from home today and they cancelled school for her (she's a teacher). I got to spend the evening helping dh dig our car out after it got stuck in the berm the snow plow left across the alley. He didn't see it until it was too late, it wasn't a big one but just deep enough to get the car stuck and it was getting dark. An hour later, the neighbor came down the alley and used a snowblower to clear the berm. :tongue_smilie: Ah the joys of living in snow country, lol!

Hey Meli, No haven't been outside yet, dh and our 9yo ds are putting the big dogs out to go potty and get fed and run around after being cooped up all night. It's wicked cold out there and we have probably 8 inches of snow in the backyard. Thankfully the plows came through so dh can get to the bank and make the car payment, lol! I'm not letting the kids go out right now, it's too cold. The weather forcast says it's supposed to be getting colder throughout the day. I think we'll wait till Thanksgiving to go out and play when it's supposed to be "warmer". :D I don't think we have to worry about the power going out, I have friends on the west side that lost power but that had to do more with the wind than snow. 2 years ago when we got several feet in just a couple days the power stayed on no problem. In the city the winds never got really bad. Thankfully we have wood heat and camping gear so if the power went out we'd be okay, hunkered down in the living room but okay. ;) We get these artic blasts every year. We've lived here 10 years and never seen the power go out due to extreme cold. It's usually a wind storm or ice storm (thankfully we didn't live here when the famous ice storm happened, people around here said that was a nightmare).

The Aluratek is the same price as the Nook unless I wait in line Black Friday at Best Buy, they are supposed to have the Nook for $99. I don't really know anything about these things and I'm not totally sure I'm even going to get one, especially factoring in the cost of buying the e-books on top of buying the reader. I was just curious if anyone knew anything about the Aluratek. Thanks to those that responded. :)

Tell them to be careful going over Snoqualamie Pass and expect backups and delays. Traction tires are the only requirement over the pass right now. I would check the pass conditions before they head over it and let them know what to expect. Praying for safe travel for them.

I'm in Spokane. It's horribly cold, we're at about 8 degrees right now and it's going to be below zero tonight and single digits again tomorrow. It's still snowing lightly. Between Spokane and Coeur d'Alene got the brunt of the winds. Take it easy on the passes between CdA and Montana, lot of snow and ice but no restrictions.

Nice to meet you! Yeah, it will be interesting to see what it looks like in the morning. It's not too bad where we live in the city right now but it looks like the worst part is just getting started. My parents live across the state line in N. Idaho and said the wind is blowing hard over there.

You guys on the west side stay safe, we're under a blizzard warning over here on the other side. We're expecting a low of 12 below and a high of about 8. Makes me so glad my kids are homeschooled now. We're staying inside, lol!

Did I read that right, they signed a DNR order? Please tell me this isn't correct, if it is then I'm going to feel sick.

I've been trying to decide just how badly I want to wait out in the bitter cold to possibly get my hands on a Nook on Black Friday when I came across the Aluratek Libre. It has excellent reviews. Anyone have any experience with these?

Since we have a blizzard warning issued for this evening and tomorrow morning, I let the boys go outside to play while it's calm after doing just a little bit of schoolwork. We'll do the rest of it this evening. The weather's going to be too nasty tomorrow for much playing.

I would have! That was one of my favorite songs to sing in high school choir. :)

My mom taught me until I started kindergarten. She and my dad really wanted to homeschool me and my brother, especially when I hit 6th grade and things spiraled downhill for me (teased relentlessly) but couldn't afford the curriculum, we lived in a very small community and they had no one to turn to that may have helped them be able to homeschool w/o puchased curriculum. My mom has said that looking back, if she'd known she didn't have to buy stuff, she would have done it. It's one of her biggest regrets that she didn't homeschool us. I really wish they could have, especially high school, worst 4 years of my life. Dh did public/private/homeschool throughout elementary school, then completely switched to homeschool halfway through freshman year of high school at his request. He says it's the best decision he ever made and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Cedar August immediately popped into my head. :)

My dh has the Timex T5G941F5, it's pretty basic but he's happy with it. It's specifically a heart rate monitor with a workout timer in it. It's about $50.

They all look just fine to me. Our oldest son's initials spell JAR and I had no idea until I went to sew his intials on his dedication outfit, I felt like a bad mom. :D