Have you tried to do things that make your home less drafty? I live in a home built in 1949 with terrible insulation. I have done quite a few things that have reduced our electric and gas bills. DH and I pulled up the quarter round and caulked all around the baseboards and then put hte quarter round back down. Even if you just caulk around hte quarter round, you would be surprised how many drafts this stops. Insulating every electric plug and light switch....go feel your light switches, especially on outside walls when it is cold, if you feel a draft, then insulate them. Insulate any windows, this can be done cheaply with caulk and even taping thin plastic to keep out winter drafts. Turn off the lights, put all computers on power switches so they don't drain power when turned off. I too would love some of your recipes!

I think power suits are great in a different type of lawsuit, not one dealing with parental rights. No red, no black suit. She needs to exude competance as well as confidence, but in a more subtle way than a man. I think KidsHappen suggestion of the friendlier navy blue suit is very on target. A nice suit in a dark conservative color, with low heels, well manicured hair, no jangly jewelry is a must. I think the sweater set is to informal for this type of court trial, but that is just my opinion. However, given the location of the event a thinner sweater worn with the suit would be nice. No floral prints or large prints of any kind, way to distracting. No bright colors. She is there to present the image of a competent caring mom... You are a good sis to help her. :001_smile:

I have had my LG front loaders for almost 6 years. They were at the time about $850 each and although they do not have steam, they do have the sanitizer cycle (so love that cycle). I truly love this set, I mean really truly love it!!! I just recently got pedestals for mine and they are okay, maybe because I've gone so many years without them that the pedestals feel a bit odd to me. I'm 5'7" and I feel like I need to be taller to use them...LOL Front loaders can have problems with mold. The basics are to not leave loads overnight (I do this ... I know bad...but I have never had a mold issue). Also use less detergent than the front loader detergents suggest (use like 2 or 3 tablespoons) and use WAY less fabric softener. The one time I had mine worked on, they repair guy told me that he felt fabric softener and too much detergent were the major reasons people have problems with theirs. I have found the laundry forum at garden web dot com to be the most wonderful site for evaluating certain sets. I would at least check it out, lots of experts there. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/laundry/ I think you will truly enjoy yours! What a sweet dh you have!

Thank you for the review. I having been holding off on buying until I heard a review, but I love LOF books and have 4 of them so I figured I probably would buy this one too! Off to go push the button :D

oh how I love Amazon Prime. I did the free trial about 3 years ago and was hooked. We have had it ever since, and I love love love love it! I needed vacuum bags the other day, so I bought them on Amazon for my Sears Kenmore and had them shipped for free via 2 day Prime shipping. They were here in one day. No mall traffic, and a cheaper price than Sears. How cool is that?

Travel approval are the two most wonderful words when you are adopting! Congratulations on your new addition!

:iagree: I am probably much older than you, but I'm mid 40's and I was only allowed very limited TV. My father hated television, he called it "the evil box". My mother loved tv, she could veg for hours, but him, he read books, studied multiple languages and kept his brain active. My mom got alzheimers by age 65 .. I agree with you that tv, well, it just ruins alot of brains. I think my dad would have liked you :001_smile:

Very pretty! DD's curls look almost like yours and she follows Curly Girl religiously. How did you find a stylist trained by Massey? My poor daughter is stuck with mom (me) cutting her hair curl by curl. It takes me forever but comes out pretty good. I'm sure it would look fantastic if I could find a professional. Everytime I go to the Salon someone wants to cut her hair, and I ask how they do it, and of course, they want to wet it, pull it straight and cut. I smile and say "no thanks". I am thankful to have found out about Curly Girl on this website a couple of years ago.

My sister went through a horrendous divorce in Arkansas. She was so depressed, etc and had a crummy lawyer and still she got alimony for 7 years (back in mid 80's). Her ex made 3 payments and quit. She went 10 years never telling any family about this. I found out and hired a good law firm in Little Rock. After hours on phone with lawyers and paralegals the one thing I learned from them is that Arkansas favors the woman. As the lawyer put it, when a man cheats on a woman in Arkansas we can "clean his clock." They went back to court and the judge gave her every blasted thing she asked for, back payments with ridiciulously high interest for back owed money, attorneys fees and another extra 7 years of alimony on top of hte 7 he didn't pay. Again, another lawyer in the firm told me that Arkansas judges don't look very favorable on cheating husbands and almost always side with the woman. Anyway, just posting her story since your stbxh probably will face the same fate. I wish you all the best. :001_smile:

I have used the KAL progesterone cream for about 3 years now. I can not speak on the pregnancy aspect, but I suspect that is one reason I had trouble conceiving. It took me 12 years to get pregnant with dd#1. I can tell you that my doctor has also had my progesterone levels done while on the KAL and although they improved, they were still low. I was using 1/4 teaspoon once a day. I went up to 1/4 teaspoon twice a day and that worked better for me. My doctor gave me a prescription for the progesterone pills which do help, but I prefer the KAL cream twice a day. Has it made a difference? Oh my YES. The mood swings are nearly gone, the cramps are gone, the extra heavy periods are gone, and I'm right on a 28 cycle now. I love progesterone cream. Also if I get a migraine related to hormones, I have found that if I apply an extra dose of the cream that day my migraine lightens up dramatically.

Oh what handsome husbands you all have! Great photos! My husband would kill me if I posted a picture of him...lol Maybe if I posted one when he still had hair...LOL

Welcome aboard!

Congratulations, what a long hard road! As far as the seats, politely ask the Flight Attendant. I have not been a Flight Attendant in over 20 years, but I can tell you that if you ask nicely and explain your situation they will certainly try and help you if they can. If the first FA can't help, ask for the Lead Flight Attendant. Also, when you do check in, ask the ticket counter if there is any chance of a seat change. On a large plane like that, it might take several tries till you find the right FA to help you, but just smile, explain the whole situation and I believe you will be assisted if it is humanely possible. I would go for telling the honest situation as lots of people try the "I need the bathroom" saga to get an aisle seat. I think your story will pull heart strings. Of course the seats might be so crowded they can't help you, but in that case, you could kindly ask adjacent passengers if they would consider switching. congratulations again.

:iagree: My dd just started 6th grade last week and her schedule is about the same as above. She has 9 periods, starting at 8:00 and ending at 3:15. Lunch is considered a period. She has three AP classes and 2 GT classes.

I just wanted to send you hugs. I enrolled my oldest last Tuesday, something I had said I would not do. Well she went into Middle School (6th grade) and both her father and I are still grieving. I don't know if grieving is really the right word, but I do feel as someone has ripped her away from me. The thing is, she is really enjoying it! She was very scared about the whole thing so dh and I went in and talked with the counselor before enrolling her. Having the counselor understand her fears and having the counselor walk her around without us also seemed to help. I'm only two days ahead of you for putting a kid in school, but I can say that my daughter is happy about it. Please don't beat yourself up, everyone has circumstances that change. I know so many here on the boards think all school is evil, but I have not seen that so far. This middle school has a gang problem so all students wear uniforms, so obviously this is not the best school in the world but the teachers are nice (I have emailed them) and the school is clean. I plan to see if I can volunteer a few hours a month there. I hope you can find peace with your decision. I have been supplementing my daughter at night with Life of Fred and Lial's Basic College MAth to cover any math concepts she was not up to speed on. She is doing pretty well, they moved her up to the pre-AP classes and Gifted classes after assessing her. However, dd feels the classes are to challenging, but she is not used to studying 8 hours a day either. It is a huge change emotionally and physically for her and it is a huge change emotionally for me. I hope you feel better soon. Hugs

Just curious, but what about caffeine tablets? would those be safe? I'm just wondering.... I do know that before dd Focalin kicks in that a small square of dark chocolate helps calm her down. For my older, I have found a cup of hot green tea helps.

:iagree: I agree with this. Of course each person must make their own decisions, but if you really feel the need to help out financially, then this is something you and dh should agree upon together. Take care :)

Oh, I also wanted to add that once we got the treatment going for her seizures we had her tested for ADD by the neuropsychologist. She was off the charts in the hyperactivity dept. I was so against ADD medicine. I was so wrong!! ADD medicine (Focalin XR 15mg day) is only thing that helps her keep focused. She tells me every morning, "Mommy, I need my medicine so I can think". Don't beat yourself up over your son needing medicine, we have all felt guilty as parents, but the meds really help our kids.:001_smile:

I know that my daughters neurologist, the first time I saw him, I was taken aback how young he was. I mentioned it to the pediatrician and she laughed and said he was like a young Douggie Houser, MD. However, I have grown to love and trust my daughters Neurologist and he is now Chief of the Seizure center at the Children's Hospital. Given that seizures and migraines are in the same family, he might be right. I am very surprised about no EEG though. Perhaps he is wanting to do the MRI first? My daughters neuro wanted the sedated MRI before he did the EEG. After you have the MRI maybe you hsould insist on the EEG. If he is right, and it is Aura Migraines, then it may take the Imitrex to stop them. I had migraines at an early age, and that none of the medicines would stop them. Imotrex was a blessing for me when it came on the market, by that time I had migraines over twenty years so I was glad to have it. However, there are other medications that can be taken daily (usually anti seizure medications given at a lower dosage) that can prevent the migraines from coming on in the first place. My daughter has both seizures and migraines, so it can be frustrating I know. She is 9 1/2, just about to turn 10. The seizures are getting better, but the migraines still are plaguing her occasionally. I can tell you that what your Neuro told you is similar to what my daughters neuro told me 7 years ago. I mean it has been a long time since we had that first appt, but pretty much I heard similar. At one time they were not sure if it was migraines with auros or seizures but it actually ended up being she was having both. If you really don't feel comfortable with your neuro, perhaps you can find another one. I'm certainly no expert, but your neuro doesn't sound that different than mine in the beginning. Once the MRI was done, then things really got rolling on ordering more tests, etc. I wish you well.

Both my dds got the H1N1 shot last Friday, only because of both of them having asthma and other underlying health issues. We suspect they both had H1N1 8 weeks ago. Today dd#1 started feeling bad again, similar to first bout, stuffy nose, sore throat, exhaustion, cough but so far no fever which is definitely different. I'm watching her closely as she got very ill the first bout and her lungs are always at diminished capacity even when well. I made sure not to give them Advil or Tylenol before/after the vaccination as I did not want to mess with the immunity factor. Tomorrow will be one week from H1N1 shot, and only the older dd is feeling bad, but she is the one who had it most severe last time. As usual my youngest seems to feel bad for a couple of hours and bounce back. I quess I will wait and see how/what progresses.

No, but I think your attorneys advice is quite good. I would tend to err on the high side of expenses too, as the price of everything is going up. Perhaps you could find a website devoted to expenses, etc where you could glean some ideas. Keep hanging in there.:001_smile:

I did when I had a question about my user name. It took a week or so before I got a response, but they did answer. :001_smile:

I remember that she posted one time that one of her kids was using Chalkdust and Life of Fred.

My husband moved to Texas (DFW) area about 25 years ago. He moved here from South Georgia and the only thing that got him was the cold winter winds compared to the milder winters in Georgia. The heat was bad, but we don't have the humidity of Georgia (or those gnats). Irving is a nice area, and there are many very close neighborhoods to choose from. I'm a native Texan, so I'm pretty partial to Texas. I can say that the Texas I grew up in and the Texas I live in now are very different. Texas is so full of people from every State and every country imaginable that it is a major melting pot. It is certainly varied which is good. I think you will like Texas, it is a nice place and home prices are reasonable. Let us know if you come!

She has a nice site! Anything about chickens makes me happy. I gave her a vote.