Abby's family has given this young girl the love of sailing, the love of adventure, the willingness to take risks, and the ability to be independant while at the same time giving her both the physical and emotional skills that will help to to come through this attempt to sail around the world and to admit when she can no longer go on. Abby and her family knew the risks in an attempted solo around the world navigation and if it wasn't something that she really wanted to do, her parents could not have convinced her to do it. I don't know how or if the family will be charged for the rescue. Any time someone goes out on a boat there is a possibility of something going majorly wrong, that also applies to everytime we get behind the wheel of a car. I don't know that I would allow a 16 year old to do this from the viewpoint of a parent, but I respect the decisions that her family has made. I wish Abby the best, I know it is still many hours until she is safely ashore.

My husband and I just discussed this. Someone long ago told him to talk to the person who has set up the interview and ask them what would be appropriate. They have interest in you doing well since they are likely the person that has picked you to interview. I'd suggest making a quick phone call.

I know, I live in the US and you were looking for people outside of the US, but maybe I can ask you a question. Is America something that you consider special? I personally think the history of this country teaches a lot about being a free nation and how to get to that point. It is also important to me to understand how it is that we have been letting those freedoms slip away over the last 75 - 100 years.

There is no record that they are trying to break. They quit officially doing the youngest to sail around the world long before Abby, Jessica, Zac or Mike started their journeys. They do this because they guts to and believe they have the skills to make it. It is a challenge for them that very few others ever take on. I have spent some time cruising and sailing solo around the world is not what I would choose to do, but I deeply respect these young people for taking on these challenges. I hope and pray that Abby makes it home safely.

How about something like a 4-6 drawer portable tool chest. you can get them for lots of different prices and are usually either metal or wood. This is one from a quick search on Amazon. I hope the link works. http://www.amazon.com/6-Drawer-Protable-Tool-Chest-TB2050/dp/B000KG9Z3W

Chicken Pot Pie 2 Pilsbury Pie Crusts Can of mixed vegetables Can of cream of celery or cream of mushroom soup (condensed) 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts 1 can of mushrooms Cut up the chicken breasts and brown. Add the soup mushrooms and mixed vegetables including the liquid and heat. While that is heating, put one pie crust in a deep dish pie pan and back it for a several minutes to get it started. Than add the chicken mix and put the 2 pie crust on top. Bake until the pie crust is starting to brown and the mix is bubbling.

My parents divorced when I was 13. I had a lot of baggage that carried over into my marriage from it. After about 9 years we had a really good pastor that was able to help myself and my husband. Now our marriage has been really good for the last 5 or 6 years but it took a lot. My brother who is 6 years younger than me has many more problems than I did.

I have a recipe off of a box of swan's potato starch that makes a great angle food cake.

I had a friend that developed a rash and went to a dermitologist (sp?). After discussing that his sister has Celiac the Dr told him that was what he had as well. My husband has Celiac, but it mess up his intestines, it doesn't give him the skin rash. Celiacs can't eat gluten found in wheat, barley and a few other choice grains. It is a real pain in the neck. It is just 1 possibility.

I have not bought Office for Mac, but we have done research on line saying that it just isn't as good as office on a PC. Adding parallels to Mac and putting office and windows on the Mac is an option. My understanding is that you could not run both and that you would have to reboot each time you wanted to switch. Also it sounds like there are major issues with using documents in both. Quicken for mac is another piece of software that just isn't as good as that for a PC.

I am Christian and we intend to have memorization from the Bible. I am getting ideas that I didn't have on my list that I like, so please keep it coming.

I really like my Mac that we bought more than a year ago especially for lack of problems, ease of photo software, video software and music software. However, I have worked as an engineer for many years and do not like the word processing and spreadsheet applications as well as Microsoft Office. I have been a heavy user of excel and word and have learned many complex applications for both. I don't think pages and numbers (both are Mac applications) have the same robustness that I am used to.

What things do you consider important to memorize? I have a list started and just wanted to see what other people think.

Highlands, NC has tons of waterfalls some of which you can play in. Asheville is close to Highlands as well and has things like the Biltmore Estate. I believe that Myrtle Beach is probably within 6 or 7 hours of Atlanta.

Kenny G Nora Jones Aaron Neville

Natural Bridge is about 45 minutes away and it really neat. They normally have a laser light show in the evening but check their website for times. There are lots of commercial caverns in that area as well that are fun. A drive on a portion of the blue ridge parkway is also an enjoyable thing to do. There are places where you can pull off and walk some as well. It is pretty country there and lots of outdoorsy things to do. I lived in Newport News, VA on the other side of the state but I always enjoyed going to this area.

Is moving somewhere else in the same town a possibility? If you were not next door neighbors you and your family would have more freedom and it would make it much more difficult for your IL's to be in your business. You and your husband should not have to live in fear of loosing your children because you raise them differently than your IL's would. Of course your husband would have to be on the same page as you for this to work. We ended up living with my IL's for a few months and quickly determined that there were things that we could not discuss in front of my MIL because she would take it upon herself to get in the middle of business that just wasn't hers to be involved with. We both now know that we would have to live at least 1/2 an hour away in order to keep the peace.

I love taking pictures and end up with way too many most of the time. When I don't have my high end camera I usually keep a Nikon Coolpix with me either in the car or in my purse. I also bought one for my mom who is not nearly the photo bug that I am and she really likes it. (No, I don't work for Nikon and my mom has had problems with other brands of cameras and didn't use them because of it.) A couple of tricks for getting better pictures is to pay attention to some of the following things when you are actually snapping a picture. - When looking through the viewfinder make sure there aren't any items sticking out above somebody's head (i.e. trees, light posts etc.) -Make sure that you can see all of the heads of the people in the picture before you take it. -Take one or two close ups and one or two pictures from further back. -Don't take pictures of someone standing in front of a mirror or a window unless you do some reading on the tricks associated with lighting. -When you are taking pictures of people outside have them looking in a direction where they don't have to squint due to the sun. If you get into the habit of taking an extra few seconds to think about these things every time you take pictures it will become habit and you will get better pictures. A great way to display the pictures is using a digital picture frame. You can plug memory sticks into them with USB adaptors. I use iphoto on my macintosh for organizing pictures. I haven't found anything that I like as well for a windows pc. I hope this helps some, I really developed my skills while I was in college just by taking tons of pictures and doing just a little bit of reading.

One gift in particular that I really remember was a gift basket placed in our hotel room on our wedding night that included a bottle of champagne, wine glasses, snacks, etc. Of course this requires knowing what hotel the couple will be at and a little help from the hotel staff.

The Diary of Anne Frank is one that I had to read that hasn't been mentioned.

We bought a Zorjirushi while living in a small apartment and then for a while a hotel room while DH and I were both doing contract work. It was absolutley great. The one we had would keep rice good and hot for about 2 days. The 3rd day it was edible but dried out. It was much easier to clean than a cheaper one that we had for several years before that.

I am less than 2 weeks away from my due date for my first child. My husband and I have discussed homeschooling our children (if we were blessed with children) for many years. I have been spending a lot of time researching different methods while having a fairly good idea of the things that we wanted to teach. I like the Classical Education method and the Thomas Jefferson method from what I have seen of them so far and will likely do a combination of the 2 with some other things added in. I was reading through a post and thought I could really give a little insight into a question the poster had concerning college and figured I like the forum and decided to join.

I graduated from Clemson University in 1998. I transferred in after 3 semesters at community college. After talking to some friends who have children trying to get into Clemson directly out of high school, I have a fairly good understanding of how competitive it is to get in right after graduating high school. One of the things they must do is declare the right major (not engineering and not business). The day you start at the college you can change your major to either of these. Both of those majors are competitive to get into. Also 1 semester at a community college with decent grades makes it much easier to get into most colleges. There is not nearly as much competition to come in as a second semester freshman or as a sophomore. On thing to confirm with the college that you want to transfer into is to make sure that the classes you take at the community college will transfer into the major at the college you are wanting to go to. Don't look at this like it is a failure. It is a whole lot more of understanding how to play the game. I wish you and your son the best and don't give up on getting into Radford in the spring.