My daughter's answer makes this momma want to cry..... She wants to be a model. Sigh..... (nothing against models...)

Don't know if this would work in your case, but when I was growing up my parents were in Jaycees (United States Junior Chamber). Personally if I had settled into a family life younger and was in the position I am now, I think I might join, but the age bracket is 18-40 and I'm two years away from that :eek: But at least when my parents were involved most of the men and women (at that point the women had Jaycettes - now it's combined) had family with kids across the board. My friends I recall the most fondy were Jacyee kids (I joke that we should have an AA for Recovering Jacyee Kids Anonymous). Lots of Jaycee family events and the group just gelled really well, So parents would be at one house for New Years, and a group of some of the kids would be at another. Jacyee Haunted Houses are a big memory, so were Jaycee weekends at Holiday Inns (when they had Holidomes!). Jaycees used to run the Babysitting Basics classes for local Girl Scout Troops. Parades, being elves when Santa visited. Just so many opportunities. Honestly from my perspective I have no clue what being involved in the organization, but as a kids that was the best group my parents could have gotten involved in regards to the benefits for the family.

Yeah another DDO'er! DDO is my usual MMO, when I don't have a solo game on my back (Dragon Age 2 right now). My DH usually has his hand in the betas, so I got to Rift a little, but couldn't get into it, interesting that the word is that it gets better in the long term, but I'm too casual a player to usually get that far.

I don't know how "unknown" these are but most people I know haven't read or hear of these. The Shoes books Lisa and Lottie (the book The Parent Trap is based on) The Neverending Story The Girl Who Owned a City The Secret Language The Girl With The Silver Eyes Silver Woven in My Hair Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder (obviously not lit, but loved reading it at that age) The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds

It would make a nice dent in our fledgling savings, but it wouldn't be an issue.

I have a different answer - kilts fall into the whole period garb category and I'm a suckers for any outfits before the 1950's.

While I do have a memory of my mom showering with me a few times when I was young (4-7), and my dad did do outdoor work in shorts and no shirt, for the most part my parents were very much cover-up. My family on the other hand is very laid back in the mornings. DD usually comes into our room in the morning to watch TV and we go from the master bath and out into the room to get dressed at various stages of undressed (I leave my towel in the bath room and come out full naked, DH will wear a towel until he's ready to put on underwear. DD dresses in her room or our room depending on connivence of where the clean clothes are at the moment. I have been known to run down to the main floor to the dryer in undies, but for the most part the nakedness is limited to the upstairs, we're just not really modest in the bedrooms. I figured modest would develop as DD got older, but at 7 she has not developed modesty yet. In fact last weekend we were at SIL's house and DD was getting ready to go in the pool and came out with her tankini top hanging down and needing to be tied and she didn't think twice about walking over to SIL's boyfriend to tie it. Of course I saw this (and the look on his face LOL) and called her over to have me tie it. Yikes!

It's a two hour program with a full tour, then the second hour the parents get an orientation and the girls do their own separate orientation with camp staff and a couple of activities. The only back plan she could offer me was orientation for the other GS camp inthe area - but unfortunately it's in the middle of our Bridging ceremony for GS so I am unable to take her offer. There is a dress rehearsal as well before the recital and they get two run throughs on the stage.

My DD has three dance classes left before recital. This is obviously something that she's been committed to all school year. We have signed Elisabeth up (and paid for) Girl Scout resident camp for later in the summer. Unfortunately camp orientation - at camp 1 1/2 hours away - is right at the same time as her dance class this Saturday. This is the first sleep away camp she's been to (but not her first extended trip away from me and home) and is at a camp we haven't been to yet. We knew that signing up for camp, and I figured that at that point the girls would have their dances learned (she's in a ballet/jazz combo class and has two dances) and it would just be reviewing it. I have told the teacher in passing that she would miss class that weekend, so she is aware (there is also another girl that has to miss the same class for a different reason). We went to the mandatory watch class this past weekend and come to find out that they have not finished learning their jazz dance! The teacher plans to finish the dance next week! Now all the other classes have finished their dances a while ago and have been reviewing for a while, so I'm not exactly happy with her teacher. I'm NOW very nervous about her missing Saturday's class in light of this. But I do feel she need to be a camp orientation, because she is a little nervous about camp and is the type of girl that needs to see things to feel comfortable with them (plus we get a $50 discount on camp if we go - but that this point this is not a factor in the dilemma - considering gas it will cost to get there and back for orientation). WWYD? I'm very much about following through on her commitments. But camp orientation is important too because we'll receive all the camp info and to help DD's comfort level. FYI - Please I don't want to debate that DD is too young for camp, because instilling independence is very important to me, so she will be going to camp no matter if she goes to orientation or not.

Unsinkable... Please take into account that different councils have different requirement when it comes to sales. In my council, we require parents to print out and turn into the leader the QSP sales report. This is only way we as leaders know if a girls made online sales. We take this report and enter into the other online report system (for nuts) we use. If we do not get the report from you there is no other way of us knowing, unfortunately. You would think there would be a better way, but with the nut sales and the magazine sales being to separate companies it's just a poor system. Did you leader request this form from you. We list it in our parent information booklet. I also send out a reminder to my parents. Though DD is the only one in the last two years to sell on online in my troop. I love the patches, but incentives are usually junk BTW - I belong to several online GS groups that are usually in the know about these things and I have not heard anything about bankruptcy.

12th grade - AP English The Grapes of Wrath Wuthering Heights 1984 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest King Lear Antigone Crime and Punishment Native Son Lord of the Flies 11th grade I took Journalism and Creative Writing - no major books 10th - English 10X The Diary of Anne Frank Night Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar 9th grade - English 9Y Mostly excerpts - don't remember any particular books

Bridgett and Evelyn are plenty on different sides of the family tree Evelyn Lucille Ronald Louis and Evelyn (My grandfather has a sister Evelyn and and wife Evelyn) Ettie (not a nickname) Bridgett and Bartholomew (married and both had mothers named Bridgett O'Flaherty) (My middle name is Bridgett, imagine that) Elizabeth Leatherhead Cutter Edna Alice and Benjamin Augustus Nora Edward (Eddie) and Marie Robert (Bob) and Eleanor Donald (Don) and Marie Geraline (Gerry) Noreen Elizabeth and Keith Edward I named my daughter Elisabeth Alice after Noreen Elizabeth and Edna Alice We're done, but I do like Lucille and would use it, and Benjamin and possibly Louis as a middle name. I hope that Bridgett, Eliz(s)abeth, and Evelyn are passed down, because they are so ingrained in the ancestry.

This has been on my mind, - the conversion would be basically me. Background: I was raised Catholic, DH Jewish. I really don't have any pull to the religion I was raised except the traditional holiday stuff. And neither is my husband. What is all boils down to is my DD. She has grown up around the Jewish side of the family, so considers herself Jewish (She even asked for the Rebecca AG doll because she is Jewish "like her"). But she does enjoy the fact that she celebrates the holidays of both religions. Obviously since her mother is not Jewish, she is not recognized as being truly Jewish unless I convert. I do think I would like DD to have some spiritual education which at the age she is should be started now, and I think Judaism may be lowest common denominator because most of the jewish history is part of the Christian history and I'm all good with that, but the Jesus element is not something my husband would feel comfortable with. And DD's self image already leans that way. Not that my DD or DH would be thrilled with the idea of starting to attend services and DD classes, but my heart keeps telling me that she needs something, even if she decides to be agnostic like her parents when she's older. So that's where I stand at this point. It hasn't been verbally said out loud to anyone. I don't know what kind of havoc it will cause on my side of the family. My MIL would be thrilled, (though she's been good not to force the issue on us over the years). DH will roll his eyes and just ask why DD can't just pray to the hockey gods (it's a joke in our family that DH's true religion is hockey).

DD just got her first AG doll (Rebecca) last week, so right now the rule is to place her on the bookcase in DD's room, but I am probably going to get this one ($24.99) for a long term solution: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4298603&CAWELAID=674644664 The reviews are not that great in terms of quality, but my daughter is not wild with her belongings, so it might be ok. It might bind us over until something better comes along.

Lizzie - this one hands down is my favorite: Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

She's reluctant in the fact that she prefers mommy to read to her, rather than reading to herself - and I have to set a timer and make her read - and every two minutes she's asking if her time's up. It's not about ability, it's about interest. It just seems odd that I have to bribe her to read, when my mom used to have to bribe me to do something other than read. LOL

The thing is that since I work and Boo is in public school/aftercare, we only get 20 minutes a night for read aloud, and we don't even manage every night. So these books take 1.5-2 months for us to read (Plum Creek took 3 months). She is usually so over the book, she doesn't have any interest in me reading another book in the series. We tried with the glass elevator immediately after CATCC and by the third night she was over it and asked for a different book. And honestly, I don't want to be tied into one series for 6 months to a year because then I lose a year of exposing her to a variety of books. Books she can return to when she has the ability to read the series on her own. In the course of the next year we'll revisit the Ingalls again, especially since she is doing a prairie diorama for school due next month. We did fairy tales and Aesop's Fables when she was in Kindergarten last year.

My daughter will be 7 on Monday. I am just finishing reading the Secret Garden to her and I have to admit is was a little rough (tongue twisting for me, storywise a little slow for her). On her own, she has been a reluctant reader at home, but had been reading Junie B, A to Z mysteries and the Magic Treehouse books. She did enjoy Now We are Six book of poems by A.A. Milne. She has been really wanting the Diary of the Wimpy Kid, which she got last night and hasn't really put down. Yeah! Finally a book that she is into. Previous read alouds in the last year: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Charlotte's Web Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Ramona the Brave On The Banks of Plum Creek The Secret Garden Books I'm considering: The Little Prince (never read it myself is it slow or interesting?) Pippi Longstocking The Neverending Story I'm looking for something that has a little more humor this time around or at least a faster pace than TSG. Preferably a classic. She's not really an animal person, she prefers people (but did like Charlotte's Web). Thanks in advance for other ideas or comments on the books I'm considering.

I'll tell you though I'm 3 chapters away from finishing this as a read aloud and oh my, is this a tongue twister of a book with all the Yorkshire accents!!! :tongue_smilie: I think our next book with be a little lighter on the language. Actually I think it will be Movie Shoes, because the character in that book gets the role of Mary Lennox in a movie.

Noel Streatfeild's Shoes books LL Montgomery books The Neverending Story by Michael Ende Little Women (might not be considered a 'children's chapter book, but I read in 4th grade) A Wrinkle in Times series Nancy Drew

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Ender's Game series I think both of these are under option, but I'm not holding my breath.

I may be bias because I wouldn't be here... but the great story in my family is that my maternal grandma dated my great uncle before she dated and married my grandfather. They were married for almost 60 years before my grandma passed away, and my grandfather a few years after her. No family drama from what I understand, but they in their early 20's. I would talk to the boys about being respectful of each other's feelings and leave it at that - sometimes fate has a way of working in weird ways.

Just wanted to give everyone an update. We still have some uncounted "pennies" at home, but the current "offical" count is 15,345 "pennies". Elisabeth has been featured on the national Girl Scout blog as well as our local newspaper, Sun Sentinel, parenting blog! http://blog.girlscouts.org/2011/03/journey-of-1000000-pennies-to-japan.html http://blogs.trb.com/features/family/parenting/blog/ Elisabeth's school is really helping her out. This morning Elisabeth made a little speech about her project at her school during morning announcements and asked all students and teachers to bring in pennies on Thursday and Friday, when Elisabeth and 3 other girls from her class (and troop) are going to go around to the classroom and collect them. I also got a call from the art teacher at Elisabeth's school and she's been inspired to have the children of the school try to create 1,000 paper cranes to send over to Japan, which we will help them to ship out! Very exciting things are happening! Thank you, everyone, for your support and stopping by the blog!

Update: 12,845 "pennies" collected!

Update! Elisabeth has collected 7,797 "pennies" for the Girl Scouts of Japan! Elisabeth tickled pink with the comments she is getting - she even got a comment from a Senior Girl Scout Troop in New Jersey! Thak you everyone here who commented. There is aa possiblility that she will be featured on the Mom's & Dad's parenting blog for the Ft. Lauderdale newspaper, next week, I will post the link when it appears. No response from the radio station I emailed. : (