Also, I only stayed on the pill for a year and it made a lasting difference. I don't know why, but it did.

For the love of God, GO ON THE PILL! Please, tell her it could literally change her life. I missed a ton of school and had unbelievable cramps. I'd throw up, the whole nine yards. It was miserable. I finally went on the pill when I was 18 and felt like I finally got my life back! There really is no other solution but misery. I was told I could go to the ER for shots for pain and an IV, but the thing is, once they get bad, they are so bad you can't move, plus you are constantly throwing up. Honestly, I would tell her mom to have her at least try it for three months and see how it goes. My heart breaks for this girl. I don't wish it on anyone!

Yuck! Well, as someone who deals with mice IN the house on a regular basis, I hope you find a way to kill them! I have zero sympathy for them! Maybe call an exterminator? Or an animal guy? You know, with big traps???

Yep! And I send a letter! I make a very concerted effort not to be obnoxious though and it isn't about "look how cool we are" but more about, "here's what we've been up to and we hope you are well." This year our letter was pretty personal and we didn't send too many out. I only sent 40 this year, mostly to family. I figure people I'm only FB friends with don't really need another picture of us and those people who don't see frequent updates from us could use more than a picture. :)

Oh, wow! I didn't even notice Mrs. Mungo was Mike's Hard Lemonade now! I'm so used to seeing your picture and the names don't stand out anymore. (I met you briefly at SWB's in Feb-so weird!)

So it goes back and changes it everywhere, right? I also took our blog off my signature. Will it be gone off all the old posts, too?

I didn't know you could do that in a rice cooker! But mine doesn't have a timer. Don't your apples get all nasty from sitting out all night??

I needed to change it because my old one was incredibly obvious, but I'm not very creative and all the simple names were taken. ;)

Hahaha! It always seems like a good idea to us late at night. Then we wake up!

Gag! I can't stand Sonic! Our friend owns a whole bunch of Sonics, so I've been a few times, trying to be supportive, and it's awful each time! I must be ordering the wrong things!

A lot now that my kids do so much independently and we live in a super tiny house.

Thanks for more replies. I think we've decided to stay put for now. As far as what we believe...I feel like it's always evolving and open to change. We are former Mormons. :) so, we would never go to a church without being open, just to be clear. It's just feeling like a pretty big leap at this point. I understand the comments about it being offensive to attend a church you don't agree with but I guess if we felt like we could NEVER get there, we wouldn't even be considering it. We are still going through our own growth and transformation over here. As far as PCA goes...we've never had any interactions that would lead us to peg them as fundermentalists, etc. everyone we have met has been absolutely open and accepting. What can a church provide that other groups can't? Well, I grew up without a church, then passionately clung to the first thing that was introduced to me in high school, without giving it much thought. It was not the way to go. I want my kids to have a home church through their teenage years. I really don't care what religion they choose as adults, as long as they are good people who don't seek to isolate and elevate themselves from others. The UU church is fine for that, but it just isn't the community we were hoping for and I don't see it being an especially positive (just nothing special, but not negative) experience for my kids as teenagers. I really appreciate all of your thoughtful insights!

Thanks. I think this is where we are now! Thank everyone for your responses! I've been relaying them to my husband!

Yeah....so even though the congregation seems (and I've asked) moderate about this issue, I do have a problem with it. And when I consider raising my kids in a faith, this is a big issues for us. Hmm...

Thank you for this. It sort of all boils down to this and I think it's a deal breaker.

I've actually never attended Unity before. My mom was into it a bit when I was younger. It's a little too on the spiritual side for me- that sounds bad, but I don't know how to explain it. I like straightforward, logical, intellectual services and Unity strikes me as being more like our current UU church- a lot of spirituality, but not a lot of "meat." Aaaaaand I just realized how offensive that sounds! I just mean "meat" in the sense of what WE are looking for. It could be plenty meaty enough for someone who derives satisfaction from the aspects that I don't.

No, but I think of we weren't feeling pulled toward this other church for community reasons, we wouldn't switch from the UU church, we'd just ride the wave and hope it got better. There is a Unity church, which isn't for us, and a UCC church, which we have never tried because its very small. The other UU church is a 40 minute drive and I would rather just stay at this church where at least *I* have made a few friends through the mothers group.

See, this is exactly what we keep coming back to. My husband says he'd just rather not go to church at all. He hates the UU church. But, he has expressed interest in the new church because he likes the people and knows that church is important to me. If he's going to sit through church, he'd rather be with people he likes. :) I worry long term for my kids though. Maybe it would just be too hard attending church in place where we are always saying to our kids, "yeah, but..." And adding in our own beliefs. I think that's asking too much from them. Then what if we move again and the new UU church is awesome? What then? ... We do know these families from our summer playgroup, so that is where they've formed friendships. We are also toying with going to the Christian co-op since it's one of the only ways for my kids to see the same kids on a regular basis.

Exactly. I think this is why we are struggling so much. We've been talking about this for months, but haven't attended yet. My girls already have several friends at the new church, so I don't want to take them unless we are really going to give it a go. After a year and a half at the UU church, they haven't connected with anyone.

All I know is that the PCA is the more conservative branch and more liturgical. If I was just researching churches, it's not one I would choose because it seems super conservative, but it's the families and people we've met that are the draw. We've been to a few events.

As far as I can tell, they stay pretty moderate about things. In fact, I listened to the sermon given the week after the election and was surprised to hear him talk about the congregation having people on both sides. There were no assumptions made.

We currently attend a Unitarian Universalist church. It's fine. As far as teachings go, it's spot on for us. We are liberal when it comes to social issues and we love the RE (Sunday school) program because our kids learn awesome lessons without it being tied to a religion we don't agree with. However, after a year and a half, we are just not connecting with the congregation (except for a mother's group I adore). We also don't enjoy the minister or the service. We pretty much spend the service looking at each other like, "this is weird." We get nothing out of it. We loved our old UU church in other state. We had an awesome minister, uplifting and challenging sermons, and a great RE program. We believe in God and we believe that all religions have good and truth. We believe religion is man made and serves people- for faith, hope, community, whatever they seek. We don't believe people need religion. We don't believe there is one true path to whatever you want to call it- heaven, enlightenment, etc. one of my dds would be open to learning about the Bible and would probably latch on to whatever makes her feel accepted and happy. My other dd has said we don't believe in Jesus because "it's not true," although she thinks it makes for a great Chritmas story. Now, we have friends who are planting a church closer to where we live. It's a branch of a larger, very popular Presbyterian Church (PCA) in town. I've listened to some sermons online and I really like them. We know several homeschool families from this church and they are amazing people. When we found out they all went to the same church, we laughed about how that must be where we belong! Then we found out they'll all be moving to the new church. So great families, great sermons, people we have things on common with, families we connect with, etc. BUT, we aren't Christian. ;) We would also likely be the most liberal family, which I'm ok with as long as my girls aren't being told that gay people are going to hell. What would you do? Keep going somewhere that feels lifeless, but safe? Or try something outside of your comfort zone because it will possibly give your family a better network and more room for spiritual growth, and give your kids an amazing youth group? (It's important to me that my kids grow up in a church. It just is.) Thanks for reading if you made it this far! We are really wrestling with this decision. I also worry about giving my kids religious identity issues. ;) Excuse any errors as I am on the iPad.

Honestly, I would look at this as a fantastic opportunity for your 12 year old! We just made a similar move and it's been such a good thing for our family. Have you read Simplicity Parenting? I highly recommend it.

Thank you all. I'm glad to hear other stories. Yes, she's totally hormonal, so that could be it for sure! We do very little screen time, but we did just get back from visiting grandma and that always makes things worse. We just started Girl Scouts this year and I am the leader. I've been really surprised at the way most of the girls speak, especially to me. In fact, it's been a little hard to stay committed because if I wasn't a leader, I probably would have pulled my girls from it- similar reasons I don't want them in a classroom at this age. Thank you! When things like this start, they immediately snowball in my head and I envision drug using pregnant teenagers! I know, I'm crazy, I'm just really not looking forward to the next few years! I need to take things one day at a time.

We have an X-box but it is dh's, period. We use it for movies and the girls have played Rock Band. They've enjoyed the Wii at friends' houses. We have opted not to encourage it with our girls because they don't show a huge interest and they are avid readers. We are very careful with electronics. I just feel like it will come in its own time. I don't need to roll out the red carpet. ;)