[-]

I guess I would first ask WHY is the child so far behind? If it's because the family didn't really think it mattered for whatever reason, then what will have changed to make rapid progress possible?

[Okay, my fellow crazy Amazon peeps....]

Mine works the same way yours does.  It doesn't bother me.  Initially I would check very carefully, but they were always accurate, so I stopped scrutinizing each line item.

 

Ditto. I meticulously checked every single line item on every account for a couple of decades. In all that time, I found one, lonely error for 10 cents, when some poor bank clerk apparently couldn't read my bad handwriting on a check. I finally decided it really wasn't worth my time to compare receipts to credit card statements because it's all computerized and has always matched in my experience. I do scan my Amazon orders page regularly to check that no one has gained access to it and ordered things that I don't recognize.

[Oh, Pinterest, aren't you cute!!]

Yeah, if I were buying Tieks (and I'm not), they'd be for me. I can't wrap my mind around $200 ballet shoes.

 

I'm getting DS's awesome teacher an Amazon card. I've also done Starbucks before, but this teacher has food allergies. I figure everyone can use something from Amazon, and most teachers don't need another #1 Teacher mug!

[Healhiest food storage containers......what label exactly?]

I use a lot of canning jars too, but I've been slowly building a collection of rectangular glass containers. I don't mind plastic lids on glass containers because I leave space, so the food doesn't touch (and remember canning lids are either the plastic ones or coated with BPA or its probably-toxic replacement). I've found that the rectangular containers are substantially shorter than the jars, so they fit better in my fridge on some of my shorter shelves. The rectangular shapes make them more space efficient. I use them in the freezer as well, being careful to leave headroom.

 

I collect ones like this or this, though I usually buy them individually at the store.

[WWYD? Difficult situation]

So this guy bought a used car with just under 200,000 miles on it, didn't have a mechanic look at it, and wants a refund or for you to pay for a brand-new transmission that's almost certainly worth more than the car???? :lol: 

[How do you like your clothes to fit?]

My mom was telling me I needed to wear more form fitting clothing because I had a good figure. I don't feel like I do. I have an apple figure and the rest of me is smaller so I swear I look pregnant. I wear loose fitting clothing to hide my figure. I did once try to find jeans that fit better since my current ones are too big but I had no luck. I tried on every brand that Kohls carried. So I wear loose jeans. I wear men's shirts because they don't hug my body. I wear large ones so they hang down to my bottom. I think I look fine! Slouchy, but fine.

 

Well, I'm saying this very gently, but if you're wearing men's shirts and jeans that are too big, you probably would look a bit better if you found clothes that fit you better. That doesn't mean skin tight, but there's a lot of middle ground that is quite a bit more flattering. My neighbor is an apple, but she finds skinny jeans that make her legs look AMAZING. As a pear myself, I'm always jealous because my legs will never, ever look as good as that. But the only reason she looks that good is that she wears jeans that fit. If she were to wear too-big jeans and her husband's shirt, she'd look much heavier and less feminine. We all have areas that we dislike, but it's often more flattering to dress to accentuate a bit what we do have.

 

Would you be open to getting suggestions for jeans that are friendly to apple shapes? As a pear myself, I'm absolutely no help, but I know they're out there! Of course, if you're really fine with how you dress, then keep going, but you did mention trying to find better-fitting jeans!

 

[AP Exams 2016 Check-in]

The links will be tweeted by Trevor something as soon as they're up. I'll try to post the links. Last year we had a separate thread for all of the FRQs.

 

Great! Thank you!

[AP Exams 2016 Check-in]

FRQs from the Monday tests should be released today. Where do we find them and when?

 

[Background Checks and High School Education]

A company my DH applied for wanted his high school transcript (he graduated 20 years ago and he has a college degree). Since we still live in the same town, I went up to the high school to seeing they had them. The woman laughed and said they only carry records 5 years back. She said he should put down a wonderful gpa on the application since there was no way to check it.

It's absurd to want a high school transcript that far back!

 

I have a vague memory of my own high school sending out a notice ten years after we graduated that they purge records at that point.  I wonder what a company that insists on high school transcripts does in that kind of situation. It can't be uncommon!

 

I also wonder what it means for our children who are homeschooled through high school.

[What constitutes a bedroom?]

I didn't even think of heat! All of them have heat/central AC.

 

So if she were to go to Ikea and get 2 wardrobes and stop by Home Depot and get a door, she would have a 4 bedroom house?

 

I don't think so, at least not where I live, and probably not there either if a closet is required. If a closet is necessary for it to be a bedroom, it might be worth hiring someone to add closets to those two rooms because that could make a big difference when selling. If it only has two legal bedrooms, then someone who is looking for four would probably never see it when house hunting because the MLS information would generally have to be entered as two bedrooms, not four. You really need to talk to a realtor there.

 

[Three things you adore about your house....]

1. It's paid off

 

2. My kitchen

 

3. The gas fireplace in our basement family room. Without it, the room would feel a bit too cool to be comfortable, but instead it's warm and cozy.

[Dave Ramsay - Have you heard of him other than online?]

It's interesting to read the responses. It sounds like I may never hear about him from people in real life because I live in an area that is about as far removed culturally from the Bible Belt as you can get.

[Dave Ramsay - Have you heard of him other than online?]

I've never once heard anyone I know in real life talk about Dave Ramsay. I've only heard about him through here and another forum online. How unusual is that? I'm in the US.

["sensing" cars--should I get one for my next car?]

I would also get all the accident-avoidance tech possible. I have a back-up camera, parking sensors, and blind-spot indicators. I love every single one of them, and I would never again buy a car without them unless I were in a desperate situation financially. I really believe that the back-up camera and the blind-spot-warning indicators should be mandatory. I looked at a car with the auto-stop and lane-departure warnings, and I think I'd definitely want those in my next one as well.

[Ugh. I just don't like my house. Vent.]

We had a house that I LOVED! It was my favorite style with plenty of room in a good neighborhood with a pool and a tiny mortgage payment. I never wanted to leave. I never felt like my kids had to be super careful in that house, in fact I often had tons of neighbor kids over as well.

 

Every time that house flooded, I fixed it more and more closely to my idea of perfection. Then it flooded one time too many and we would no longer be able to buy flood insurance if we didn't sell it to the county so they could tear it down.

 

When we moved, we bought for the location and the acerage. The house has enough room, but it is nothing special. I intended to do some work to make it more enjoyable, but never got around to it until we found out we were moving.

 

We redid the kitchen and flooring and painted inside and out, planted flowers as well as sending a bunch of extra stuff to storage. Wow! What a difference. I wish I had made these changes a decade ago. I agree with the advice to pick one room and make it super nice.

 

We are moving to an area with a much higher cost of living. I resigned myself to having much less house.

 

The stars seem to have aligned though and we have a contract on a house that is the stuff my house dreams are made of. If everything goes as planned, we get the keys in 2 weeks.

 

Inventory there is super low, so if we hit a snag on this deal, I will need to get a house that is functional, but that I don't like. I tell myself that I will be happy in a house that is filled with my stuff and my people. I would just have to start with inexpensive items like paint and curtains and start setting up some areas in a way that bring me joy.

 

This. Absolutely this. In our last house, we did a bunch of things to get it ready to sell, and once we did, we wondered why on earth we hadn't done them while we lived there. It looked so much better after we'd effectively "staged" it. We'd painted, removed the hideous wallpaper borders, painted the baby-poop-colored cupboards (seriously--who would have chosen that paint color???), rearranged the furniture, and decluttered. I think we hung one piece of "art" (a mirror from TJ Maxx). It completely changed the character of the house.

 

That taught me a lesson. When I'm dissatisfied with our current house, I look at it as if I were going to stage it for sale. I declutter, organize, and contemplate the changes I could make that wouldn't be too expensive. I had to live with a tiny 1980s kitchen and a bathroom with cracked 1950s tile for years here, but I had the rest of the house looking as nice as it could for the long years until we could remodel. It helped a lot.

 

Like everyone else, I get it. But I hope that even though you've done the cheap fixes that maybe there are some things that would help you like your house more (short of a gut remodel!). For example, one of my favorite organizing blogs lives in a small, cookie-cutter home, but she's done so many things to that house that it would spark joy for me to visit, even though it's not my preferred style of architecture at all. Come on, ask us for help! The hive always loves to weigh in on those things!

[Table Top Gamers - Huge Amazon Sale]

Thank you! I order a new game for the family every Christmas, and we play on New Year's Day. Dixit has been on my list for awhile, so I just grabbed it. Now the challenge will be to remember where I stashed it when December rolls around!

 

After a few times of finding lost gifts months later, I've started setting reminders in my phone calendar that pop up in mid-December!

[What have you bought that ultimately saved you $$ long-term?]

I agree with many of the things said here. College education, hair clipper, dehydrator, laser printer. 

 

But, I'm not going to agree with the sewing machine. Yes, it could save you money. But, material is quite expensive anymore. $10-$12/yard. So, 2 or 3 yards to make a dress = $20-$36 + thread and zipper. You can go to the thrift or consignment store and get one for $8-$16.

 

And, unfortunately, I have this tendency to purchase material to make something... and forget it. So a closet stash of material isn't saving any money.

 

But, yes, we still sew some. It's fun and a useful skill. My oldest can easily alter clothes that she purchases used to make them fit better. 

 

I think my sewing machine has been worth it for alterations, and I got it as a hand me down. I've easily saved $100 in the last year by hemming DS's and my jeans rather than sending them out (jeans are something I don't have the hand strength to hem by hand). It's also a lifesaver for taking in clothing, and I can make many thrift store finds work for us precisely because I can take them in on the sewing machine!

[Where to go on vacation this summer?]

I would stay away from the upper midwest and northeast if you want to avoid lyme. Here's a map. If you want to avoid it and still go hiking, I'd look at the west--Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, or the mountains of California.

[Teaching Hair Combing]

Well, you may not like my answer but as someone with curly hair, I feel I have to say it. Don't comb curly hair when it's dry! I comb through with my fingers while conditioner is on in the shower, and I will occasionally use a wide-toothed comb on my wet hair when I get out. Then I put my styling goop on and don't touch it for the rest of the day. For second- or third-day hair, I wet my hands and kind of comb through a tiny bit with my fingers until my hair is about half wet. Yes, that leaves it still quite tangled. You can't tell because it's tangled within the curls. It doesn't look like straight tangled hair. Do you think you could try something like that? It's much, much easier to comb through first with the fingers with lots and lots of conditioner on it. He could almost certainly learn how to do that, and then follow up with a wide-toothed comb (not a small comb!) while it's still wet or while he's still in the shower.

[Sofa bed that's actually comfortable for sleeping?]

If you want to use a sleeper sofa, you have to try them out. Some of them just have those awful bars that stick up through the way-too-thin mattress and hit in very uncomfortable spots. Avoid those! Other than that, I agree that a mattress topper helps a lot. We have a thick (6"?) feather bed that we pull out for the guest bed. It's pretty comfortable with that on there.

[How Do We Handle the Check In This Situation?]

I guess I don't really understand why this would be awkward. Why not just put down your credit card when the gf's parents put theirs down and split the check down the middle? That is by far the most common way I see checks split.

[I'm picking out bathroom cabinetry tomorrow a.m!]

If you like wood cabinets, get them. My only cautions would be that if you're concerned about the room being too dark, make sure that you have more light than you'll think you'll need (install on multiple switches so you can use what you need) and make sure your counters are light. Dark counters + dark wood = dark hole of despair.

[iPhone and iPad people -- question about iMessage]

Yes, you can as long as both devices are signed into the same icloud account and you have them both set to receive messages sent to the same addresses (you can check if you want to receive messages at the icloud email address and your mobile number).

[s/o What age to address adults like adults do?]

I'm not sure answers on this forum will be useful as it varies so much according to one's region.

[Amortization question]

If I read correctly, you are comparing a 26-year loan to a 30-year loan.  A 30-year loan has more interest because you are paying the principal more slowly.

 

This. Also, remember that as you pay a mortgage off, you gradually pay less and less interest and more and more principal. The first few years, the majority of your payments are interest.

 

Try running some numbers on one of the mortgage calculators online. Put in your new mortgage balance and compare 26 years to 30 years. Maybe that would help clarify?