Yes, 8 hours. Trust me, I would have left much, much earlier, but I think my dd would have murdered me on the way to the car, so there wouldn't have been much point in that. ;) The signing was supposed to be from 11-2 at the PX at Ft. Lewis, WA. The actor, Peter Facinelli, showed up at 9:30 to an already LONG line, started early, and then declaired that he wouldn't leave until everyone in line got a signature. He was very, very nice to everyone. I think it surprised everyone though how long the line was. Also, the post's movie theater had a special showing of Twilight Fri night in honor of the movie coming out on DVD, and Peter Facinelli showed up unanounced for that as well. He didn't stay for the actual movie, but he sat down in the front row and allowed all the teen girls to scream over him and things like that. It's just nice when you see an actor being that friendly. He's cute too. :D

It seems like you know what you want design wise, which is good. We've purchased 3 houses now, and the biggest peice of advice I can give is not to skimp on the home inspection. The second house we purchased we weren't there for the home inspection and the inspector missed tons of stuff, which we had to fix before we could sell it a few years later. Just make sure the house doesn't "look" shinny but is falling apart underneath. Good luck!

First, are you using freshly ground whole wheat flour, or store bought? I don't know if there would be a difference in rising ability, but there is in taste. When I first started using (freshly ground) wwf, my kids thought they tasted great, but they were, as you said, flat as a tortilla. One thing I do now is let the pancake batter sit a few minutes before pouring the batter into the pan. Giving the baking soda a chance to activate makes the batter thicken in the bowl. (I discovered this by accident when I forgot to preheat the skillet and had to wait for the skillet to heat up.) I've started experimenting with substituting about a third of the wwf with brown rice flour. It still tastes the same, but brown rice flour isn't as heavy as whole wheat flour and it rises better. One last trick I use, which is not satisfactory but I'm stuck with it until I find a better method...I use an SMALL skillet and make one pancake at a time. Using a small skillet lets the batter cling to the sides easier and keeps the batter up, so to speak. Luckily we're a family of 4, but it still takes longer this way. While my pancakes are rising higher, they will never be as high as Bisquik. As I've been cooking with wwf, I've forgotten how high Bisquik pancakes are, so not having to always compare them in my head makes it a lot easier to be happier with my pancakes. As far as recipe goes, I just use the one in my 20 year Better Homes and Garden cookbook.

I don't know how old your kids are so this may not be appropriate, but I just LOVE this poem. The Highwayman PART ONE I THE wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding— Riding—riding— The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door. II He'd a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin, A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin; They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh! And he rode with a jewelled twinkle, His pistol butts a-twinkle, His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky. III Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard, And he tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred; He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair. IV And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked; His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, But he loved the landlord's daughter, The landlord's red-lipped daughter, Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say— V "One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night, But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light; Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, Then look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight, I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way." VI He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand, But she loosened her hair i' the casement! His face burnt like a brand As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast; And he kissed its waves in the moonlight, (Oh, sweet, black waves in the moonlight!) Then he tugged at his rein in the moonliglt, and galloped away to the West. PART TWO I He did not come in the dawning; he did not come at noon; And out o' the tawny sunset, before the rise o' the moon, When the road was a gypsy's ribbon, looping the purple moor, A red-coat troop came marching— Marching—marching— King George's men came matching, up to the old inn-door. II They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead, But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed; Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side! There was death at every window; And hell at one dark window; For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride. III They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest; They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast! "Now, keep good watch!" and they kissed her. She heard the dead man say— Look for me by moonlight; Watch for me by moonlight; I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way! IV She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good! She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood! They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years, Till, now, on the stroke of midnight, Cold, on the stroke of midnight, The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers! V The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest! Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast, She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again; For the road lay bare in the moonlight; Blank and bare in the moonlight; And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain . VI Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear; Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear? Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill, The highwayman came riding, Riding, riding! The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still! VII Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night! Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light! Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath, Then her finger moved in the moonlight, Her musket shattered the moonlight, Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death. VIII He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood! Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear How Bess, the landlord's daughter, The landlord's black-eyed daughter, Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there. IX Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky, With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high! Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat, When they shot him down on the highway, Down like a dog on the highway, And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat. * * * * * * X And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes riding— Riding—riding— A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door. XI Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard; He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred; He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord's black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord's daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

When I lived in NC I got a ticket, and got tons of letters from lawyers. I hired one and they took care of it. The lawyer even went to court for me so I didn't need to. Sigh...A year later I got another speeding ticket (again in NC). I decided to go to court myself and see what the difference was. Neither of my speeding tickets were enough to do much damage. However, I had to go to court for the second ticket, and I didn't get the charges lowered. I'd recommend getting a lawyer even if it just saved you the trip to court.

I think my kids were either 5 and 7 or 6 and 8 when they requested to stop bathing together. Before then it wasn't a big deal, but then they suddenly got a case of modesty and that was the end. When my kids did become aware of their "nakedness" it wasn't an interest in each other's, but more they didn't want people to see their own. Same with washing themselves, and with taking a shower. When each kid felt ready to do it alone they just let me know.

Oh, and I forgot that both my dh and I feel like we're on Star Trek when we're using the Kindle. :lol:

I don't think the humor is supposed actually supposed to be directed at kids in PS, but more at the reasons why people say homeschooling is bad. For example, people have said things like "How are homeschoolers supposed to get tough if they don't have to fight bullies at school." "Homeschool kids aren't socialized," etc. It's just saying that PS isn't the utopia that some make it out to be.

We just got the Kindle 2, and I'm liking it much more than I thought I would. So far the biggest con is that it's hard sharing. We each downloaded a book we like, but we can't read together at night, so we might end up getting two of them. (Like we can afford that.)

Nope, not when I try to wake up too early, I never feel completely rested. I need 9 hours of sleep as well. When I was 3 months old, my mom complained to the doc that I wouldn't sleep at night. So the doc said to do things during the day to keep me awake so I'd sleep at night. (apparently I was a pretty sound sleeper during the day) When that didn't work, I was finally put on sleeping medication at 6 months old so I'd sleep at night. I never got over being a night owl though. I used to work at a movie theater till all hours of night and sleep till 12-1 pm the next day and be ready to work again. I think one summer I didn't see the sun once, and really didn't care. (That's awful isn't it?) Okay...I take that back. Sometimes we'd go out after work and I'd see the sunrise as I was driving back home to go to bed. While having kids has changed that particular habit, I'm still not miss personality plus during the mornings, and my family knows it. I'm in the process of trying to simplify my mornings as much as possible. I'm starting to take my showers at night so I can get up and get dressed. I'm trying to remember to set my coffee maker at night to automatically go off in the morning. I need to start working out, and I'm going to try to start doing that in the evening as well. 8:00-3:00 belongs to homeschooling, and if I try to add too much before 8am, it just isn't going to get done.

I stopped reading the replies a while back because I'm supposed to be homeschooling...(it's lovely that my kids are old enough to work somewhat independently) but I just wanted to say that in my house, we never use iceburg lettuce, we have salad 3-4 times a week, and I use beans quite a bit in my cooking. You know what...my ds, who should be used to those types of foods, probably would have had the same problems as the boy who ate at your house. (except for the roll.) Sometimes kids eat well and sometimes they don't. My son has an adversion to anything green. He's 11, by the way. He's now to the point that he'll eat salads, but he needs a whole glass of milk to choke it down, and I'm talking about 3-4 bites. If it's not refried beans then forget about it. (I've tried explaining to him that refried beans are pinto beans and they taste the same, but I don't think he quite believes me. White beans? Run for the hills.) Now, my son wouldn't have made a public display but he wouldn't have eaten anything you served him, which is too bad because it all sounded good to me. (Keep in mind my son also doesn't like mashed potatoes or spaghetti. I think he's possessed.) I know you've already made your decision about talking to the mother, but anyway, for what it's worth, if she had asked about his son being polite in a joking voice, then I would have answered in the same..."Well, he did have some problems eating..." while laughing about it. It would have taken the edge off while opening the door for the mother to talk to her son about it in private if she cared to.

It's been a few years, but I really loved this book also. :lurk5:

Well, as far as secondary education goes, I'll quote what my grandfather told my sisters and I: "Yea, you might think you'll get married and your husband will take care of you, but there's always the two Ds, death and divorce. You need to be prepared to take care of yourself and go to college." Now, as far as cost goes, I think it's resonable to sit down with your daughter and go into the pros and cons of a higher priced school with possibly larger student loans if she really isn't planning on pursuing a career. I do think it's rather risky though assuming that she'll get married. What if she doesn't, or doesn't meet her potential mate until well later in life? I think I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I'd be in...I'm trying to get my budget to $400 a month. How hard can that be???

Thank you! One thing that irked me about the article was that it seemed to assume that if you stayed at home you were being the submissive wife. I'm a feminist, my dh is a feminist, and I don't submit, and he doesn't want me to submit. Just because I've chosen a different career path than my dh doesn't mean I only "help" him. Yes, I do take care of things around the home and the kids so he is able to focus more on his career, work overtime and all that stuff, but he makes the money so I can focus on raising the kids without trying to manage daycare schedules, etc. (and yes, for the first couple of years of our marriage we both did work, so I speak from experience.) Like my dh says, if there's a job that needs to be done, it doesn't matter who does it as long as it gets done. I do think however we women need to realize the decisions we make do impact all women to some degree. It is hard for women who choose to have a full time career to be taken seriously when so many of us drop out of the work force. AND...sometimes it's lonely for us SAHMs when at times the most stimulating conversation we've had for three days is aplauding our 3yo for making tinkle and poopoo in the potty. Let alone how hard it can be when we have little work experience and want/need to reenter the work force at a later date in our lives. As women we need to learn how to stand as a united front and support each other in all our decisions. (okay, that's my rant. Getting off my soap box now.)

I really like my Nutrimill. I can't really comment on how it compares to other mills since I haven't used them. I say go for it!

My dh got his yesterday too! I've been playing with it, and so far I like it. I'm a little upset though...he's going to be taking it with him to Iraq soon. Now I want my own. (Like we have sooo much money that we can afford two Kindles.) :001_huh:

It may be too expensive for her, but Arbonne is great.

Wow...this has been an intersting thread to read. I'd have to say I'd pick a country where some of my ancestors came from. I know that's not very logical or well thought out, but I've always been more interested in countries that I knew I came from. So, if the US weren't habitable anymore (which would be my first choice, only because I am part Native American,) then I'd pick Norway or Denmark. Or at least research those two countries first. Cause, you know, if an alien attach happened tomorrow, I'd have loads of time researching while we were running for our lives. If either of those two countries ended up not working out, we'd have to chose France since my dh is 3/4 French, via Louisanna. I could handle purchasing a some land by some small villa and having a vinard. (No, we are not discussing the legalities of illegal immigrants since this is a hypothetical situation, because then hypothetically all these countries would welcome my family with open arms and be happy that we chose them.) :lol:

You know, I don't know when it starts. I do think it starts at a young age though. I think the attitude that women are second class citizens is so ingrained into this society that it's hard at times to see it for what it is. How many times do kids need to hear phrases like "You throw like a girl" (said as an insult) before kids equate girls are less than boys? Or "That's women's work," meaning anything that women do is less or not equal to what men do?

And you know...that's what scares me. We may have an nice liberal understanding of co-submission and whatnot, but do most men who believe in wifely submission believe in it the same way most of the women who believe in submission do? At least the ones on this forum?? (did that even make sense???)

Well, truthfully, I think family members are different from guests. My dh knows I'd prefer him to take his shoes off before he comes in the house. Normally it's not an issue. However, it always seems to be when he's doing yard work or it's raining outside and he's just going to "run in" real quick to grab something that he tracks in muddy, wet gunk. And, he knows it's his fault and he gets the steam cleaner out himself. I've never had to ask him, he just does it to be nice. (I married a good man.) But, for the OP, if it's a church type of thing and people got a little dressed up to come, and wore dressy shoes, I wouldn't even think twice about people leaving their shoes on. I'll say one more thing...if my kids or myself tracked in muddy footprints into another persons home, I'd be just as embarrased as if my kids pulled out crayons and started to draw on the person's walls. But I totally admit I've been brainwashed by my grandmother, so take it for what it's worth. :lol:

I would agree with you 100% if the submissive attitude stayed within the marriage, but it doesn't. It spills over into the workplace, marketplace, and politics all the time, and I'm getting tired if it. I get tired of my dh and I going to purchase a new car for ME and the salesmen at the dealership not even looking at me because obviously it's my dh who will make the decision. (ha, they were sure wrong.) OR right now, having huge headachs with our septic tank and even though my dh is working 10-12 hours a day getting ready to deploy to Iraq, the septic tank guy keeps wanting to talk to my dh and not me, because heaven forbid I have the authority to make decisions. What was really funny, before I quit work to be a sahm, was watching some guys having to deal with a female boss. Some guys just really can't handle a woman being in charge, and I do think it stems from the "men are in charge" attitudes they see at home.

Imagine being a shoe off at the door type of person (me) being married to a shoes on in the house type of person (dh). Let's just say after 14 years of marriage, dh has learned to use the steam cleaner quite well. :lol: I can understand if people don't care if people wear shoes in their own houses or not, but I think to get so upset to be asked to remove their shoes at someone elses house seems like a lot of wasted emotion to me. (Just coming from someone who really doesn't care one way or the other.)

When I ordered from them a few years back shipping was pretty fast. I don't remember having any problems with them.