I never thought of an electric razor!! That's a great idea! I don't like all the chemicals in Veet either, but I think she is just waayyy too young to tackle a razor, I'm even afraid to do it for her with a real razor! DH has one, even. Its the same thing, right? (I don't shave my legs, LOL, so my hair removal experience is limited to bikini line and I've onyl ever shaved with a razor, non electric!)

Now here's a topic I never thought I'd be bringing up! My oldest is totally not interested in shaving/hair removal. But she is also blonde, and her hair is blonde. My youngest is a rhythmic gymnast, and now training here in Korea. The other girls that are in ehr group routine have been commenting on her hairy legs. She *is* quite hairy, dark hair, and add to that Koreans have very little body hair. I have gotten comments on my body hair before, too. They aren't *mean*, they just notice it, touch it, and it bothers DD. She wants to shave her legs. At 8! I don't want her to feel self concious about it, after all the poor kid already sticks out like an absolute sore thumb EVERYWHERE, and especially in the gymnastics world, where she is apparently the only non-Korean doing RG on the whole peninsula. I mean, people stare at her, all the time, so why not help the one thing I can control? But- how?? I thought about using that Veet stuff, a cream that you scrape off with a non-blade razor shaped thing. But I worry about hte chemicals maybe burning her skin- she is a little kid, after all. Waxing will hurt waayyyy too much- she is pretty hairy. Shaving is too dangerous, even if I do it for her. Any advice? She's been bugging me for weeks and I told her we would do it before her meet next week.

I have no helpful advice, but I wouldn't mind kicking your DH's butt around the block a few times.:glare: I am so sorry this is happening. You and your children are in my prayers.:grouphug:

See now, I here I am, responding all late again!:lol: Glad to hear other people think about this stuff, too! I think I will just respond, a day late and a dollar short, anyway. I'm not really a wealth of knowledge on much though, so ultimately I doubt the board will benefit a whole lot from my (belatd) input!:D I'm mostly here to learn from all of YOU!

I considered it for my youngest, but the truth is it will just really, really mess up our "flow". I am not sure gaining fluency in another language will be worth it. She would have to move gymnastics training to the evenings, and then getting up early after being out late is hard, and we couldn't go to Japan in September, and Seattle in October, and... ...so basically the added carrot of gaining a foreign language doesn't negate the reasons we homeschool, anyway, here. A short day I could do, but school here ain't short by any stretch, and I don't think it would be worth it.

Mmmm...probably the 2nd week of September. We are still finishing some stuff from last year, as we lost a whole 3 months really to moving overseas, a family death, a bunch of stuff. We are s-l-o-w-l-y working through the rest of the read alouds, etc for history, but have started new years math already (made no sense to keep doing school in summer and not have math, but that we actually finished despite the shortened year!) I am even considering stretching the WWII years out even more and not starting "new" stuff until after Christmas- we'll see. But we'll have a "not back to school" field trip on the first day of everyone elses school year, regardless!

Like, TOTAL newbie. I don't know where to put the thread or anything. Thankfully the bargain machine I bought at the thrift store the other day has a wonderfully detailed manual!! I don't understand a lot of terms, though. Like sizing and serge and a lot more. I am wanting to make leotards for my daughter- I know those are not a real simple way to start out, but hey, I thought I'd try. Fabric is really cheap here so I can make a few disasters to practice on. ANy website recommendations to learn this stuff? Books are probably out- library stinks and I don't want to buy books anyway. Any tutorial type websites?

We do. We're the people who send your kids home crabby- my girls (especially the youngest) could stay up until 5 am by 5 years old! We host far more than they go to, I wonder why that is...? :D

I'm in Asia. Half the time when I answer a thread, it is in the "wrong" time of day. Then I don't check back for 12-16 hours (sleeping, doing school, etc) and by then the thread is old news. And people may have responded to *my* post, but I feel dumb resurrecting a thread (particularly a "hot" one) just to respond to something that happened (now) pages back. So I just waver and think which makes me look more pathetic: answering a (at this point) long forgotten, old thread, or completely ignoring whatever was said! I think we wrong-siders need to all meet up and discuss contentious subjects in the wee small hours of the (North American) night!:D

Gosh, I can't remember the last time we were home all day. Seriously- years!! I grew up that way, sort of over-scheduled, go-go-go, and I get antsy stuck at home. The kids do, too. They want to go, go, go. People ask me how in the world they can handle so many activities (or few activities with massive time requirements) but its just their "normal".

Without going into any of the other stuff going on in this thread... ...that was hilarious!! I am now seized by the overwhelming urge to go find a city council meeting and share with them all my infinite wisdom, in valley-girl speech. Or maybe the local shop owner, who makes lots of really great stuff, you know. :lol:

I was so ticked off and annoyed from an incident at the pool earlier, I got myself dressed up, took myself out to dinner, and bought a new (knock off) purse! (DH took the kids to taekwondo and heartily approved of this activity)

I know I shouldn't be proud, but whatever. I don't really feel a bit bad for my poor behavior.:tongue_smilie: I went to the pool with another mom, and we met some of her friends there. They talked about diets for about 2 hours straight. I don't wear a bathing suit, I am terribly self concious of my ribs sticking out and I just don't like to swim anyway, I get too cold. Anyway, they moved on to talking about people who are too skinny, and how gross it is, and on and on. And I am sitting right there! And then they offered advice to me about how much better I would look with "curves"!! Which I don't doubt, but for 37 years I have looked exactly like this, and it ain't changing, no matter what I do. I was seriously pissed off- I just met these women, today! I didn't say anything to them about diets or eating or body shape- I sewed my DD's leotard quietly while they were talking- and they just launch into how gross it is to be skinny! So I got up and bought myself 2 Klondike bars and a Coke from the snack stand, sat back down, and enjoyed my junk food. Thinking, "Enjoy your lettuce, and kiss my bony butt, you rude women!" I know I should feel badly for being so passive aggressive, but I don't. We just got home, I opened this board and saw the other thread and just had to post my bad behavior. I'm going to go eat Doritos on my front porch now. So there. :D

Nice to "see" you! I know you are busy and all, but I am sure I speak for a whole lot of us who still want you around! Glad to hear you are doing well, college as an adult is so much harder, IMO. BTDT. Drop in whenever you can, and let us know how its going.

Well, I'm in Korea, so my time zone is all wonky. Usually I check around 11-12 when I am winding down for the evening, and also in the afternoon after school.

Cool! CamiBami has a blog, and also 2 girls! But it isn't my blog, or my girls, LOL. Same with FB- there is a Camibami there, but she has blue eyes and is licking a lollypop.Brown eyes here, and my FB name is MY name, not camibami! A woman with twins on an expecting board nicknamed one of them camibami. Someone on Flickr that speaks Spanish has a photo titled camibami, most of his/her stuff is cars, so go figure that out. Is camibami a car type? There are camibami's that play Star Wars computer games and camibami's in the UK with photos and blogs. They are everywhere!! (And some of them ARE me, but they lead either here, or to Youtube, where you can watch videos of DD's rhythmic gymnastics!) :DThat was fun. I'm glad no camibamis are involved in p0rn, though!

We're in this boat too! I joke that we can get the kids through college (because I'll be working then) but they'll have to support us in retirement. Its not a joke really, we *are* putting off retirement savings to allow me to be home and homeschool. Its a trade off. We can't do both, and IMO, I can work and save when the kids are grown. And if I can't, well, I guess we'll just be really poor. I can live with that, because of the wonderful years I got with my girls.

don't want truly needy people to fall through the cracks either. But can something be done without forcing people using the power of the government to pay for or participate in a system they disagree with? I would be more than happy to contribute to merit-based "health scholarships". Are there such things? If there are, let me know! Hmmm...I have a feeling defining the "worthy", those who have the "merit" to receive good health care or help with costs, is going to be pretty tough. Are you really saying some are NOT worthy to receive health care? What is the difference in saying "He is not worthy because he drank for 20 years as an alcoholic" or "He is not worthy, he's 83 and will die soon anyway"? A friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer right after learning she was pregnant. Consequently, her care required far more specialists than "normal" cancer care, and therefore far more specialist-sized co-pays that were becoming very hard to swallow. Friends got together and raised money to help her. (BTW, she and her baby boy are doing well.) Thats wonderful. I suspect there a lot of people with no friends out there, though. The Least of These do not normally have big support systems, in my experience. I think this is the best way to do things--voluntarily as a community (free market with private assistance). I think this kind of support would increase a sense of generosity and gratitude versus resentment and entitlement. Maybe my head's in the clouds that such a thing could work...:001_smile: Sure, that would be great. Only, the health insurance companies don't seem so inclined to get on the "lets help one another" bandwagon. Hence, the current bill. I have seen many on this thread express shock that people are not up in arms about this. I hate to break it you, but did you ever consider its because many people are FOR it? Not ignorant, not being tricked by The Big Bad Govt, but honestly feel like the country needs to go in this direction.

They exist! We have a wonderful Korean lady who comes every Friday. SHe cleans, cooks, watches kids- the works. FOr us, she just cleans mostly, but I do use the time she is here to go somewhere alone, or run errands. SO far, only errands, but I am hopeful one Friday to get to do somehting "fun". SHe cooks full meals and takes care of babies for some neighbors, for others just cleaning like for us. More like Alice than Merry Maids. Do they exist in the US? I don't know. But I would hang a sign up at church, the grocery store, etc. The economy is tough, and people need jobs. Heck, if my kids were in school, I'd do that- I'm an awesome cleaner and organizer, as long as I didn't cook, LOL.

I asked DD, who loves these books. She says they don't have to be read in order completely, but should be by series. Like, read the 2nd series of 5-6 in order, but you can read it before the 1st and it will still make sense. (Disclaimer- this is a kid who listens to one audio book whilst reading another totally different book and can follow both, so...I am pretty sure her brain wiring is all messed up and anyone with a type A, logical type brain should not take advice on reading from her!)

I am not sure early physical development ultimately "means" anything, at least it hasn't here. My oldest walked at 7 months, and by 10 months was running through the mall and jumping off things and whatnot. Yet, her sister, who walked at the much more normal age of 10 months, is far more physically talented now. My oldest has more physical ability than say, ME, but it never translated into being coordinated or strong or fast in anything but a pretty average way. I too think training wheels mess them up, balance wise.

Naneeenanee boo-boo. We saw it a few hours ago here in Seoul!!! Ahhhh, I love me some Harry. The experience was a bit marred by snacking on dried squid as opposed to popcorn, but still altogether satisfying. I am so, so, so glad we got to see it on premier day, even over here. I had prepared DDs for waiting a few weeks until the military theatre got it in, but we didn't have to wait at all and in fact saw it earlier than we would have in the states!!

I live in Korea, but there are many Japanese anime/toy store type places here, and I might happen upon some. If you have a link or description, post it and I'll keep an eye out!

I think banning her from the phone or him for a week is a good way to drive the message home to the boy! If he wants to talk to her, he has to play by *your* rules.:D I don't know that I'd get the other mom involved, though, myself. I'd take it straight to him, he's old enough to deal with about something like this. They may have different phone rules, which is fine for *them*, but you have rules for your daughter *he* must follow, and that's fine, too.

Down to one cat, and she's a cranky old broad whom we know better than to try and train in any way, shape or form. Or touch, should she not be in the mood. Or look at funny. She often sits on top of the refrigerator. She doesn't use a box, though we have one. It is reserved for the most dire of monsoon-season emergencies only. SInce I usually spray the counters and sink and stove down with Clorox several times a day, I fail to see that her germs are any more yuck than raw chicken or the neighbor girl's grubby hands, LOL. I guess thats just one of the things I can live with. Ditto dog hair- we have a Lab, and its everywhere. It even IN THE FRIDGE, whenever I clean it out, behind the food way in the back. I assure you, there is never a dog IN the fridge, yet the hair somehow gets in there!! Seriously, her shedding is a nightmare. I swiffer the floors (we have white tile) every day, and it always looks like she's lost enough to make another dog. Every day. Cleo sleeps on the couch, and beds, but only if another person is there, I've never seen her get up there on her own. I don't know why, really. SHe just needs company I guess. Other than the hair though, the kids are way harder on furniture than the dog, and we let them sit there, so, I don't see the harm. We got her as an adult dog (the way to go, IMO)and she has never chewed or torn up anything. I guess I never understood having companion animals that were relegated to the outside. Especially dogs, who need a "pack" to be part of. Just get a cat already.