Another vote for Kohls. I love shopping there. They seem to have a nice selection in a variety of sizes. When I was a size 16, I had no problems finding something, and I know that they stock larger sizes in their women's department as well as having a plus department. Their regular prices are ridiculous, IMO, but I never pay regular price there because (1) everything comes on sale, usually sooner rather than later, and (2) you can stack savings and get good deals. And they have great customer service.

I just wanted to bring this back up. I was just doing some research on dog food allergies, and it seems that chicken is one of the more common allergens. I expected it to be grains, but no, the most common are actually chicken, beef & egg (if I remember correctly...chicken and egg were definitely higher on the list than the grains). Food allergies can really mess anyone up (human or dog.) So unless you have done an elimination diet or some testing specifically for food allergies, *I* would certainly try that first. It would be a loss less traumatic for you and Luke, and a lot cheaper, too. UGA really does have a very good vet school, if you decide to go that route.

This. I was not calling anyone names or implying anyone was a bad mom. I just wanted to point out that many people use the word without referring to its original definition, and of course, kids pick up on that stuff, too. I was using my experience w/ my SIL & MIL as an example, that's all. :) sent from my iPod

I'm sorry this happened to your dd. I could see any of my kids doing this over something that was innocent curiosity. I need to double-check our safety settings, too.

What kind of mom tells her 6 yr dd that she (dd) is sexy? No, don't automatically assume a terrible mom. My SIL has done this. She is a sweet, involved mom, and this is reflected in her close relationship w/ her kids which are now teens. But either she just didn't think it through on this one or she viewed it differently. I tend to think she viewed it as being a cool or slangish way of saying stylish and pretty. So, without knowing any other details, I would not automatically assume that someone who calls a child sexy, really means sexually attractive. If I had not been around to see the exchanges between my SIL and her dds, I would have probably freaked out when my MIL picked up on it and called my dd4 that. When we were alone, I gently asked her not to do that and explained how I viewed it. Poor MIL was rather embarrassed. English is not her first language, so I'm sure she was just copying what she perceived as a compliment. She hasn't said that since then. Anyway, all that to say that just because one child calls another sexy doesn't mean there's anything sexual to it. It's one of those things that you would definitely have to take in context.

If I let him, he'd wear sweats & tees. All the time. To any place or any event. :glare: But for Sunday services, I insist he wear collared shirts and slacks, with belt and dress shoes, with appropriately colored socks. Jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes are okay for Wed. as long as they are (1) clean, (2) unstained, (3) no holes or rips. I also require certain standards if he goes out w/ the family...pretty much Wed. attire. But my ds requires a little....encouragement...when it comes to dressing for the occasion. He's the type to live the same outfit (sweats & his "favorite" tee) for days if I let him. I'm trying to teach him that there are different styles of dress for different occasions, and that it isn't going to kill him to wear something other than sweats. Honestly, though, at our church, I don't think anyone would care. There's a pretty big variety in what the teen boys wear. So the dress requirements are solely because of our family and ds's personality.

January 19, 2014 @ 10 p.m. ET for the US. As for anywhere else, I'm not sure. I don't normally pay attention to those dates. :) -Ani

Oh, I'm really bad with spoilers! ;) Oh yeah, Sherlock isn't really dead! 0_0 Can you believe it? -Ani (lol, not Aura actually, just her dd :P)

Thanks, all! I installed Chrome, and it seems to be running much better. I am working on them now, and hopefully I will get them finished in time to use the holiday code.

:drool5: Thanks for posting! I can't believe I may have actually seen a trailer before my dd!!!

I do not have any experience with the Ultra, but I don't buy the latest devices for my kids, so I refuse to purchase the LP2 for dd7 because she would outgrow it too quick. I'm planning on getting her a Kindle maybe got her bday. My ds5 and ds3 have LPs. It is a good match for both of them. And truthfully, even dd7 enjoys them. At that price, I would def get it for ds5. Another thing to consider is that you can install apps on up to three LPs at once, but not more. So you can't have the same apps on all four devices without having to purchase it again. Hope that makes sense. I'm posting from my iPod.

Moxie, Found this on Pinterest and thought of you. :grouphug:

Thanks everyone! Especially to momto8blessings for the coupon code! I don't know if it's the browser or not, but I've tried from two totally different computers, and that didn't resolve everything. My dh suggested installing chrome, so I may do that and keep trying. I didn't have this trouble last year!

I've been trying to make calendars for Christmas gifts. Shutterfly has been such a pain. It's not cropping pictures like it's supposed to. It's locked me out of one of the calendars altogether, so I had to start over on that one, and my dd has now lost a ton of work she was doing while making photo books for me. I've even tried using different computers! I've talked to customer service twice and they've been less than helpful both times. I'm really frustrated with them. The only thing keeping me with them was that I'd already put a lot of work in the projects, including uploading a ton of pictures, AND they had a really good sale with 50% off. But the sale ended yesterday and I'm still dealing w/ problems, so I'm thinking of bailing and starting with somewhere else. Anyone have someplace they'd recommend?

The other thread has been discussing how hard it is for employers to find good, reliable help. I've seen this, as I mentioned, but there's a flip side to this, too: when the employer takes advantage of its workers, when working hard has no benefits for the employee, and when working extra can actually endanger your job. There are many big corporation that claims to care for its employees, but they don't. They don't care about the people at all, and it doesn't matter how reliable or good you are at your job, you are nothing more than an object. When they feel they've sucked all they can from you, then they toss you aside. Case in point: today, somewhere, there are going to be professionals going to work only to be told that they are out of a job. They will not even be allowed to go to their office and box their things. Someone else will do that for them. They are hard workers and reliable, but they don't have enough work in their branch, at this time. But instead of this huge, international company trying to work with them to find new jobs in other offices or bring work to them, the company is just going to kick them to the curb, without warning The thing is, if these people put in time to try to find new work to bring it in, it hurts their utilization scores. If those scores drop, it doesn't matter how or why or how good their record is, they're out of a job. So it's d@mned if you do, and d@mned if you don't. My dh was so stressed about this he had a hard time sleeping. He's just an outsider and not involved, but he found out about it. It's just weeks from Christmas, and these people are going to be out of a job and the company has done nothing to even hint at this. But this is a company that touts how important people are to them. If you worked for a company like this, and the only thing important to them was the amount of billable time you put in, would you do anything more than what was absolutely necessary? It's salary, so no overtime. Putting in extra effort does not mean you have any additional job security and can even hurt you if it interferes with your utilization scores. This isn't the only company to do this. This kind of treatment is normal in big corporations. This is the flipside to businesses struggling to find good workers.

My BIL runs his own construction business. He complains about this a lot. He told me one time, he went to a site to check up on things and found one of his workers fishing. Yes, he'd brought his own tackle & everything so he could fish while on the clock. Obviously, BIL fired him on the spot.

When I'm reducing a recipe and need to halve an egg, I just use only the yolk or a smaller egg (like a medium egg instead of a large or xl.) That's always worked for me.

The oldest two plus dh and I have our own of these. It's very basic, but it does have the solar charger and the hand crank, and the adapters to charge different devices (like your phone). And it has a flashlight, so for us, it's a great over-all emergency tool. It has good reviews, but we haven't used it much ourselves. The hand-crank works fine. The flashlight is good. The radio gets good signal for us. But we haven't really tried the solar charger or the adapters, so I can't say much about those features.

Thanks for the advice, ladies. You've brought up several good points that I'm going to think about. I have been studying herbs on my own for the past 9-10 years. I already consider myself an herbalist, just more of a working class and not professional, though I'm beyond amateur or beginner. I would really like to take my knowledge and skill to another level. I want something that would really challenge me, so that excludes many herbalism courses that are just basic courses. I'm looking at East West for several reasons, but their course of study appeared rigorous and well-balanced with plenty of accountability and mentoring. They have a focus on western, Ayurvedic & Chinese herbs, not just one of those. I love the fact that they include the anatomy/physiology and pathology/disease courses. I love that they require mentoring. I love that there is a week-long seminar (in the Redwoods!) where I can go and spend time learning and associating with others of the same passion. :drool5: Yes, that's me. :lol: The Professional Herbalism is $2200, but then you have the anatomy/physiology and pathology/disease, both of which are $550, and then there's the seminars. The seminars are going to be about $1500 a piece, but there are options of saving money on those, so I could bring that cost down. I figure that the total cost for the required 3 seminars will be around another $4000 plus transportation to and from, three times. And then of course, there are always incidental costs that you don't plan on, so I'm thinking the total cost will be closer to $10,000, or about $200 per month for 4 years. No, I don't have $200 extra per month to put towards this. Is there a way to find/earn this money? Maybe some, but I'm not sure if I could do $200. You are right, though, I could create my own course of study based on their materials that is just as rigorous for much less cost. But it would lack the accountability of going through a school, and I have a tendency to get caught up on details and/or perfection instead of focusing on what's necessary. (I've run into this problem while designing my own curriculum for my kids.) But yeah, the cost saving would be huge. So it's definitely something I'm going to think more about. After having completed enough education, even self-taught, I could always apply to become an American Herbalist Guild (AHG) Professional, if I wanted. Their requirements would give me a definite plan to work with and the membership would be a tangible goal. Given all this, do y'all have any additional thoughts or suggestions?

I appreciate that, Crimson Wife. But I'm really not interested in becoming a naturopath. I'm not really looking to be someone who focuses on treating illnesses. Herbalism is different, but it's what I'm interested in. I'm just wondering if anyone pursued something like this and how they financed it....maybe some creative suggestions?

I REALLY want to become a certified herbalist. I really like the East West School of Planetary Herbology, but dang it, it's expensive! It's not that I wouldn't get what I pay for, so I'm not complaining about the cost. It's just that I don't have the money for this. In addition to the course cost, I also need to attend three seminars...on the other side of the country! Any thoughts or ideas how to accomplish this?

I agree w/ the others, I just wanted to say that if you need to get people's attention w/ out yelling...particularly loud kids...use an air horn. They even make small versions that are easy to stick in your pocket. :D

Nice wooden blocks would be my first choice. At 6 mos, he'll have fun taking them in/out of a container, and before you know it, he'll be big enough to start building with them. Better yet, start a tradition that will grow with him. Wooden train set (check for little pieces!), wooden blocks (again), DUPLOs, and Fisher-Price Little People are all sets that come to mind that you can add to each year.

I have never met a 13 yr old that doesn't know what to ask for Christmas! Maybe you could suggest that in lieu of gifts, your parents should donate to a charity. In case this isn't just spam and you're really stumped, spend some time on Pinterest. I'm sure you'll have a long list in no time.

Mom2scouts, the zippered case looked like just a carrying case to me, not a case that you leave the leappad in while you're playing. Does your dd leave it in the zipper case while she plays? My boys have something to carry it in, but they always take it out when they play on it. I was hoping for something like Nook or Kindle covers that has a front that flips back when you're using the device and then flips to cover the screen when you're not. Is this how your dd uses her? Cause I think I might get one if it is. ;)