Jean, now you know my dirty secrets. FTR, I think your kids are okay. They're polite, which makes me like them.

I don't make fried chicken, but both of my grandmothers used to cook it in a cast iron skillet and it was delicious. My mom does too. She dips it in egg, drops it in a paper bag that holds flour, salt, pepper and a few other spices, shakes it, then fries it in the cast iron skillet. She does some with and some without skin. Every time I think of fried chicken now, I think of the movie the Help (the method they use for frying chicken is the same as I described above), and the line "Minnie don't burn chicken."

James Bond and I lived in different states for almost 2 years. We were originally 3 hours apart, but then he got transferred to AZ, and we were 14 hours apart. I quit my job about 4 months after he transferred and moved to be with him. Indy was 4/5, so he went to PreK and then K while I worked. It was hard, but we made it work (while we were 3 hours apart). If we were that close, I'd probably do it again.

You people are horrible, horrible parents! :smilielol5: :smilielol5: :smilielol5: Okay, here are a few of mine: -I let Han Solo have his iPad almost all day, so I can school Indy and be left in peace. To be fair though, he's damn good at Angry Birds, and plots his moves out, so I call it physics. -I don't mind leaving my kids with a sitter to go out with James Bond, or letting them stay with my mom while we go away for a few days -I never put clothes on Han Solo unless we leave the house or someone is coming over. He wears his pjs all day. I figure, why make more laundry? -There are days when I don't teach at all, but leave a list for Indy to do, then go surf the web (he CAN come to me with problems) -We have the TV on ALL.THE.TIME. I love TV. Plus, other than the movie The Ring, no one every dies watching TV in a horror movie, so I figure it's really just keeping us all safe. -Sometimes I stay up WAY too late, and want to sleep in, so I have Indy watch Han Solo while I sleep. Yesterday I slept until 11:30am! -I hate folding clothes so much, that frequently, I just pull them out of the dryer and lay them flat on top of the dryer or in the laundry basket, and we get out clothes from there. -I'm a picky, picky, picky eater (I have texture issues), but I don't let my kids be picky. -I am a crazy bitch when I'm really hungry. -Despite the fact that I and a SAHM, I have a cleaning lady come in once week to clean the bathrooms (3.5! Who has time to clean that many bathroom?), kitchen, dust, sweep and mop. I vacuum though, because I find it oddly satisfying. -I secretly hate women who are always perfectly coifed, because I fight my hair all the time. -While I do make sure they eat veggies, fruits and proteins every day, I let my kids pig out on carbs all day if they want. -I make the boys eat relatively well, but I eat like crap until dinner time. I usually eat a boring breakfast (because my stomach can't handle much), then wait until around 3pm and eat 2-3 bowls of cereal and drink a soda. -I judge other people. I may not say anything, except perhaps to James Bond, but I think it. -While I hate to clean, clutter makes me crazy, and I can't stand walking into someone else's house when there's stuff freaking everywhere. -As a general rule, I don't like kids. I like MY kids (most of the time), but not so much other kids. -I spend WAY too much time on my computer. -I'm a hypocrite when it comes to food. I don't let my kids eat a lot of junk, but after they go to bed, I go crazy with my secret stash of junk. Whew! I feel better.

I just wanna know who dunnit and why so I can move on!

I'm still in! I watched ep 9 today. The priest is so creepy. And that woman! She is bat shit crazy. I have no idea who really did it. I felt more sympathy for what's his name today when he talked about the detective who lost the evidence being his wife.

Count me in! I had to run to Target Wed night, and they were setting up barricades. There were already people lining up! ON WED NIGHT! What? We went to our friends' house for dinner yesterday, and at 3pm, there were at least 50 people outside Target, and no fewer than 150 lined up at Best Buy. Sheesh.

Does they charge for it?

I FOUND IT!!!!!! It was in James Bond's car! I used his car a while back, and my purse fell over. I guess it fell out and made it under the seat. I'm so happy!

There are several Percy Jackson graph novels, and the first book of the Kan Chronicles as well. Indy loves those.

I'm thinking about this for Han Solo (3) as well. He's such a busy boy and is constantly getting into stuff, not to be bad, but to because he's curious. He's so proud of himself when he does stuff, that it's hard to be mad, because I don't think he realizes it's bad. We have gates to keep him out of the school room and from going upstairs, but there have been a few times where they haven't been latched properly, and he's slipped away while I was busy doing something. Oy! Today, Indy forgot to latch the gate upstairs, and I suddenly realized I hadn't heard Han Solo in a while (believe me, he's a child you hear), and I called his name. He was upstairs. I ran up to find him in my bathroom with James Bond's shaving cream. It was all over the floor in some weird swirls, in a huge pile. When I saw it, he looked at me and said "Look what I built! It's a play set for my cars!" A week or so ago, he got a package of powder, and made it "snow" all over his cars and basically the entire upstairs. He thought it was "beautiful." Sigh. We have discussed him not being allowed to touch stuff that isn't his, but it hasn't stuck. I try to understand that he's only 3, but when I'm cleaning power out of the FAN (which apparently made it snow "all over" his room. He has loads of toys, and does spend time playing with them, but he's always wanting to build a play set or decorate them or whatever. I've tried giving him stuff to do, like crafting, building, etc. but he's not all that interested in him. I think going 2-3 days a week for a few hours a days might be good for all of us.

I know! I write silly little things the boys do and say, so I'm really upset that I can't find it.

MINE IS MISSING!!!!! I took it out of my purse one day and it just disappeared! I feel so lost!!!! :mad:

We all do. I think this is an excellent point. No matter how well we may write, there is always more to learn.

Write, write, write and read, read, read! The only way you'll get better is to keep trying. I've been writing fan fiction for a while, and there is a big difference between what I wrote early on, compared to what I write now. I want to work on original stuff now that my writing is better. Just keep going. Even if you think it's crap, just keep going. Don't revise while you're writing, just keep going, and revise later. When I'm writing, even if I know it's bad, I keep going. Before I post a chapter of my ff, I go back and revise before posting. Keep writing!

That stuff is VILE James Bond loves it though, and he will only drink it if it's really cold.

This is my favorite book ever. I read it about once every other year or so. It's so well written and the characters are beautifully fleshed out. Olan is just the best character ever. I would absolutely read it with a book club.

After living in Germany almost his entire life, now that we're back in the US, he wants to learn German. Sigh. He also found out that German universities are allowing Americans to attend for free, as long as they are fluent in German and can pass the entrance exam. He's determined he should go. Oy. Anyway, I need a good German program that's not a 'speak in a week' program or something like Rosetta Stone computer program. Recommendations?

Oh Jean, I'm so sorry to hear this. Change is hard for anyone, and I suspect it's even harder for older people to leave their familiar surroundings for an entirely new and unfamiliar place. Hopefully they'll adjust soon.

On our post, we have recycling for plastic, paper, cans, aluminum, etc. Everyone here does it. They only pick up recycling every 2 weeks though, so our bins get packed. Garbage is picked up weekly, but we almost never have garbage. We don't have glass or compost though, and I wish we did. In Germany, it was mandatory in Heidelberg. Each stairwell had it's own, locked, garbage cage, and the bins (4-paper, plastic, rubbish and compost) got inspected every week the day before everything was picked up. They were SERIOUS about it. If there was cross contamination 2 weeks in a row (we had stickers on the cage that told us if there was contamination), the stairwell coordinator and building coordinator were told to find out who it was. You'd think it would be difficult, but since there were 6 apartments per stairwell, it wasn't too difficult. The soldier from that appt was warned. If there was contamination 3 weeks in a row, the bldg coordinator and stairwell coordinator had to go before the garrison CO. They did NOT want that. The reason it was such a big deal was that the German gov't charged by weight for rubbish, but they didn't charge for recycling. Once we moved to mandatory recycling, it saved a ton of money for the US gov't. We're talking in the millions, per year. We had massive glass recycling bins that were shared by several buildings, and were divided into clear, green and brown glass. In Wiesbaden, recycling wasn't mandatory on post (though they are apparently planning to move to it), but there were still bins for everything. What made me mad was the fact that all the bins, save the glass, were right next to each other, yet people still threw stuff in the wrong bin! The paper was RIGHT NEXT to the rubbish, yet people threw paper and cardboard boxes in the the rubbish bin. OMG, it made me so mad. I was constantly pulling paper/cardboard out of the rubbish, and tossing them into the paper bin. I may have had a few choice words coming out of my mouth when I did so. They weren't loud, but if anyone was walking by, they would have heard me muttering. One time I was outside with my dogs, and I saw a neighbor about to toss boxes in the rubbish bin, but when he saw me, he quickly moved to the paper bin and tossed it in. ;) As far as promoting it in local community, I think it's all about education. If people don't realize it's important, and I believe it is, they won't care.

James Bond got a 6 Plus last night, and it's freaking HUGE. I'd never want to carry that thing around. My hands are stretched out to much to feel comfortable holding it. I like my 6.

I don't like the plus at all. It's freaking huge! It's not much smaller than the iPad mini. Ridiculous! Remember when they worked on making phones smaller? Yeah. I didn't plan on getting the 6, but I did, as we added Indy to our phone plan. I was going to just get him a 5c like James Bond and I had, but it was only $2 more/mo for the 6, so I got the 6 and gave him my 5c. That was a no brainer. I like the 6 more than I thought I would. It's bigger than the 5, but not so big that I feel like I'm holding a tablet to my face. I could not believe how light it was. The 6 plus is heavier, and not as easy to hold, IMO, unless you have big man hands (which I do not). It really felt awkward to hold because I had to stretch my fingers so hard to hold it. James Bond likes to watch movies on his phone, so he's thinking of getting the plus, but it's too big to fit into his pockets, except for his lower uniform pocket. That's just silly. What makes you think you want the plus?

Maybe a year and a half. I had it cut short about 3 years ago (10" cut off), but have changed the style maybe twice. The most drastic cut I've ever done was 22" of hair. Talk about stress. When it's long, it's pretty much the same, though sometimes I had bangs, sometimes not, sometimes layers, sometimes not, etc, but I could always do stuff with it. I have a million ways to style my hair when it's long, but it's soooooo thick, it's easier to take care of short. For some reason, every year around my b-day, I get antsy and want to do something with my hair. I'll either get it cut (if it's long), colored (I have had so many colors!), highlighted or something. This year, I had it straightened, and I love it.

THIS! Since my surgery, I can't lift my arms over my head, which means I can't put stuff in the upper cabinets. James Bond or Indy have to unload most of the dishwasher, and the put them in the most random places, even though they all have a specific place! WHY?

Lyra. We say lyric, lyrical, and lyricist that way, so why not Lyra? I think it's a beautiful name! No matter how you spell it though, someone is going to pronounce it wrong.