Make sure to eat at Dienner's Country Restaurant. We go there every time we are in Lancaster.

My daughter had anger and self-control issues starting at age three or four. We found out it was from food intolerances. Once we stopped giving her the offending foods, she became a happy kid again. Not sure if you've tried taking out different food groups to see if it helps, but its worth a thought.

I've never lived there myself, only visited, but my husband and lots of friends have lived there. It is a beautiful, tropical island. There are a huge number of American military, so it is lot more "Americanized" than the rest of Japan. There are a lot of American restaurants and stores, and a lot more shopping than on the mainland. Most of the people I know that have lived there love it.

One huge resource that I utilized while living overseas was iherb. They had extremely cheap international shipping, and I'm sure you can order kefir grains and yogurt starters from them.

I didn't read the other responses, so hopefully this won't be a repeat. I am similar to your daughter. I bought a tankini at Lands End in my cup size, on clearance - I think the bottom and top were like $15 each. The top came down like a V and showed way too much for my comfort. I bought an extra skirt, took it to the seamstress, and had her cut a piece out to sew inside the top between the V. I think I paid $10 tops. Voila - the perfect bathing suit!

"Our kids are not allowed to be alone with an unrelated male adult with no other adults present. So if your husband comes home at all, my daughter will have to come home. It has nothing to do with your husband, it's just a rule of ours. Do you think the babysitting job will still work out, because she's really looking forward to it."

If you haven't found a penpal for your daughter yet, I have a 12 yo dd who would LOVE a penpal. We live overseas, though, so you would have to send the letters international mail. My dd loves baseball, dogs, knitting, and also plays guitar. She likes to read mystery books. If you think your dd would be interested, please send me a pm. My dd would definitely last more than a few months. She writes one friend right now, and always responds the day she gets the letter. She has been asking me for a few months to find her a penpal she doesn't know, though!

I would cook it much longer. Is this for lunch? I would probably start it on low the night before, and let it cook all night and morning.

I would use Beverly as the first name, and just call the child by her middle name. I think Beverly Claire sounds the nicest out of all the options, and also flows better than Claire Beverly.

He is a miniature poodle. Kids are mid-elementary to junior high age. Consulting a trainer is not an option because of the language barrier (we don't live in the U.S.) He came to us intact, and I didn't know how important it was for male dogs, or else I would have had him neutered right away. When we are all just sitting quietly, he a lot of times is desperately trying to get our attention. He barks, whines, begs, drops toys at our feet, etc. when we are doing school. I sometimes have to put him with my husband in his office for us to get anything done, he is so distracting. It's not like he doesn't get any attention, because my daughter dotes on him. He can't come into the room where we do school, because it has special flooring that he would ruin if he peed on it. I don't even let my kids take drinks in there. Although he tries to come in all the time when I am not paying attention. He does settle sometimes, but doesn't ever seem to be relaxed. When we are watching TV, he is right there staring and barking at it. He goes for a walk about 3-4 times a week, for about a half an hour. The kids play fetch with him. I have not noticed a difference in him on the days where he gets a lot of physical activity vs. the days when he does not.

I know I don't post that often (well, almost never), but I do read and glean a lot of wisdom from this board! I would like some advice on our dog, because I imagine there are people out there that know a lot more than I do. We were given a two year old poodle last summer. We had just moved overseas, and my children were missing their dog terribly. The owners of this one said he was perfect with kids, loved playing with kids, never had accidents in the house, just an all-around great dog. Well, he has been a big headache since the first day we brought him home. And no, we can't return him, because the people we got him from have moved away. He at first was nipping constantly at my youngest, and after working with him on that for a few months, we have finally ended that. He does still try to nip at us occasionally. He also tries to nip at guests in our house, which is a problem, because we have guests over a LOT, many with small children. We end up having to put him in his kennel or another room, but he barks constantly in there, which doesn't make for a relaxing evening with company, and will sometimes even go to the bathroom if he's in another room (I think out of spite). He also gets extremely stressed whenever the kids are horsing around, or if the volume in our house gets above normal voice level. This happens often, so there is a lot of barking going on. He barks constantly at people outside, and we live on a busy road with a lot of pedestrians, so that means a lot of barking. I have tried spraying him with water, shaking a can of coins, putting him in his kennel. He just starts barking at me when I do that. He also is constantly peeing in the house. I think at first it was just nervous peeing, but now he has started lifting his leg anytime he gets excited in the house. He has peed on two of our houseguests recently who were just sitting there, and yesterday deliberately peed on my daughter when she was combing him. We do the sit before you're pet, sit before you eat, sit before you get your leash on, and it has helped, but he has the same basic strong willed personality no matter what we do. It's like starting from the basics over and over again, and I am running out of mental and emotional energy for him. I am NOT a dog person. Our last dog we had (my first dog) was wonderful, and I just assumed all dogs were like that. This dog is seriously stressing me out. We have spent sooo much time already working with him, and I am getting tired of dealing with him. I'd hate to spend hundreds to get him fixed, and it not solve anything. The problem is that my daughter LOVES this dog. She calls him her best friend. He follows her around everywhere, and they really are best buds. She has had to give up so much to move here, and I feel so bad about getting rid of this dog. I have heard if we get him fixed it will help with the peeing (maybe), but is there hope for all the other stuff? Any advice?

I suspected the same of my daughter around age 11. She had many of the characteristics of yours - except for the messiness. She is super neat and organized. But she would take from the time she woke up to the time she went to bed to finish school. She would doodle on her paper, write lists of things, write different schedules for her day, write what she is going to wear for the next month, etc. She gets hyperfocused on something, and that's all she wants to think or talk about. She also made a LOT of careless mistakes. We are overseas, so there was no evaluation available. I did some research, and started having her take two fish oil pills a day. What a huge difference!! She even noticed a difference in the first few days. It's definitely not perfect, she still makes a lot of careless errors, but she can actually concentrate on what she is doing. I bought from a good, reputable vitamin company, rather than the generic from the drugstore.

I put it into Google translate, which is usually pretty accurate, and it said: Thanks, A detailed review.

I haven't read the other responses, but I don't agree with you. And this is coming from a Pastor's wife and former AWANA leader. Awana does not equal God. Many times churches cancel different services during the week because it conflicts with something that most people would like to attend. And I think your children's reactions are mirroring your own. The reason they are frustrated and sad is because you are frustrated and sad.

We live in Japan, and my daughter has quite a few food allergies. Interestingly enough, though, one of the most common allergies here is to buckwheat (which she does not have). They even have buckwheat free restaurants, because the flour will get in the air and cause breathing problems for people with a buckwheat allergy. I have heard that celiac disease is becoming more common here, but I have never met anybody with it. Wheat products are not consumed as much here, though. There is only one restaurant in the town we live in that has an allergen free option on the menu, and it still contains corn (I guess that is not a common allergy here). We have been to some restaurants where there is not ONE item on the menu that we can order for our daughter!

This sounds like my daughter at age 4. It was horrible. She would have these violent tantrums that would last hours. Nothing helped. It was like she couldn't control herself. We finally did an elimination diet with her, and found that food triggered them. If she has certain foods, they make her rage. She's not allergic at all, just intolerant. She's sooo much better now, but she still reacts that way when she's eaten one of the foods by accident. An elimination diet may be worth a try.

I would definitely contact a travel agency. We fly overseas frequently, and we've never found a quote online that can match what our travel agent can get us. I can give you the agency we use if you'd like.

This is the best recipe that I have found. I usually use Garbanzo bean flour and whatever else I have on hand. http://gfrealfood.com/2010/01/15/kims-whole-grain-gf-df-bread-simplified-version/

If you want to be able to borrow books from her, start with Year 1. If you don't care about borrowing books, do it along with her! I would love to do TOG with another family!

We use both. WWE takes only a few minutes a day, and seems to involve very little writing. With TOG, my youngest usually narrates, and I write (she is 8). She also does ETC. My 10 yo doesn't seemed bogged down by doing both. She does Wordly Wise also. The only copywork and dictation they do is WWE. TOG actually recommends you do dictation and copywork, so I think WWE compliments it nicely.

We just had this problem. I had to look up how to solve it also. This is from the singaporemaths.com forum. Each time a kg of peanuts is included in the blend, its value is ($8.40 - $6) = $2.40 below the average price. When the blend has 12 kg of peanuts, the total value of the peanuts is $2.40 x 12 = $28.80 below the value of 12 kg of this blend. The question we must ask is, "How many kg of cashews must we include in the mix to make up this $28.80?" Each kg of cashews has a value ($12 - $8.40) = $3.60 more than the average value of the mix. Each kg of cashews will earn back $3.60 of the $28.80 in lost value from the peanuts. How many $3.60's are in $28.80 is a division problem. $28.80 divided by $3.60 per kg = 8 kg. We need 8 kg of cashews. Another approach is to add $3.60's until we reach $28.80: $3.60 $7.20 $10.80 $14.40 $18.00 $21.60 $25.20 $28.80******* Same answer; different approach.

Not all the bases are being evacuated. MCAS Iwakuni is not, Sasebo is not, and neither are any or the bases on Okinawa. As for the other bases, it seems like it is only affecting bases near Tokyo and farther north. We live here in Japan near Iwakuni.

One thing she can do that's free is an elimination diet. A lot of times if a child is allergic or intolerant of a food, it can cause behavioral problems and ADD symptoms. My youngest probably could have been labeled with ODD, but if we keep her off of wheat, dairy, and corn syrup, she is a happy girl. I followed this website to do an elimination diet for my daughter. (Please note that I don't endorse this clinic at all, I just thought their elimination diet that they posted was detailed and easy to understand and implement). We were at the point where it was either find out if a food was causing her behavioral problems, or take her to a psychiatrist. Thankfully the diet pretty much pinpointed that specific foods caused her to rage.

Thanks! That makes me feel a little better.

Yes, that is the joint. The break was through the knuckle. It actually was broken for a while, and healed improperly, hence the surgery with pins. It does not look infected. It only hurts if she tries to bend it farther than it wants to. It just looks REALLY big. And if I feel on both sides of the knuckle, it feels hard, like bone, not soft, like tissue, which makes me nervous. Could it still just be swollen tissue, even though it feels quite hard?