I'm confused. You are resuming SOME of the job, on a PART-TIME basis. If they're used to having someone full-time, and you're only going to be part-time, then why wouldn't you expect them to look for someone additional? If you're only doing part of the job, then who else is going to do the rest? Wouldn't they advertise for it? As far as the "in case it doesn't work out," it seemed to me that it didn't work out before, so that in itself could be an indication that they're concerned about it not working out again. And then you said, "she convinced me," which indicates that you still have misgivings about this and the other side knows this, too. So again, I'm confused at why you didn't expect them to be looking for additional help? As far as your friend goes, it just sounds like like miscommunication and too many assumptions. I would talk to her directly to work things out between you. *Edited: wasn't done and hit the submit button*

My sis has an amazing potato soup recipe. She uses red potatoes with skins on. The skin has most of the nutrition, and the skin on red potatoes are much thinner and not so tough. And I agree w/ a previous poster: the red skins make the soup look prettier.

It's nice to know I'm not the only one to feel this way.

This is about where I'm at. I did purchase a LEGO sorter from Amazon, but the kids don't ever use it. And I couldn't find it on Amazon just now. I also purchased stackable plastic drawers and bins of various sizes, but again, the kids don't use those either. Now, they just sort through the container to find what they need or dump them out on a sheet. However, my 16 ds keeps his personal collection of LEGOs sorted in the boxes they came in or whatever container he wants, but the majority of the LEGOs are just in one bin. Another issue I've run in to is that with multiple kids and varying ages (I have six, from 3 to 16) they can never agree on HOW to sort them or the younger ones get them mixed up, etc. If your girls really want to sort LEGOs, I'd get them some stackable drawers and bins and let them figure out the best way for them. Or if it's something you really want done, have them do it with you so they know what goes where.

This is exactly my thought. I can't really think of a better alternative. As much as I respect life and nature, kittens are not people, and I can't think it being a good thing to allow a litter of kits to be born when the odds are that they will end up dead or left to themselves. :( It's just not a simple thing to find homes for kittens. It's disturbing enough that someone would throw away a wonderful kitty like Jenny. I cannot imagine a sweeter cat. She is soooo patient and gentle with the kiddos. The first day she showed up, my dd brought her up to the house and the dogs thought it was their job to investigate the strange cat in dd's arm. Jenny tried to get away, but in spite of being obviously upset (hissing, growling, and trying to get away) she didn't even scratch my dd! And then a little while later, 5 yr ds was jumping with her on the trampoline! :eek: Of course I put a stop to that right away, but I was very surprised she didn't scratch him trying to get away either. One of our neighbors adopted a stray that looks very similar to Jenny (maybe her sibling?...I originally thought it was their cat) and was commenting on how sweet she turned out to be. If people just throw away cats like that, then there is no way I can guarantee a good, stable home for Jenny's kittens. And if I can't find good homes, what then? We can't keep them, and then the longer we have them the more attached the kiddos will get. It's just not a good thing all around. I guess I just needed a little reassurance that it's the right thing to do. Anyway, she has an appointment for next Tues. It's the earliest they could get her in.

Thank you all for your input. I'm calling the clinic today to talk to them about going ahead and spaying her. I don't like this option, but y'all have confirmed what I was thinking: this is probably the best thing. She appears healthy so hopefully this will not be a major issue for her.

??? I don't understand. What does this mean?

No. We voted on the name. I don't remember which kid came up w/ that one. But Jenny won the vote. I liked S'mores (She's white w/ some black.) or River. :001_smile: Anyway, I didn't think about the risk of bleeding or complications. (Should have!!) But I would feel terrible if something happened to her. I was going to take her to the spay/neuter clinic at the humane society. They do spay pregnant cats because there's an additional fee for this. I took my female puppy there, and they were great. I liked them MUCH better than the vet I took our other cat to. I was trying to avoid the cost of a vet visit. (I give my animals their shots.) But I may just have to take her in for a visit to see if it's a good idea or not. <_<

A cat adopted us about a week ago. She's a very sweet, gentle kitty. She's obviously recently weaned a litter a kittens, and we're pretty sure that one of my neighbors adopted one of her kittens. I have plans on getting her spayed very soon because I know that cats come back into heat pretty quick after having kittens. Except that I'm beginning to think that she's already pregnant. :glare: I don't relish the thought of raising a litter of kittens. My kids have already fallen in love with "Jenny." The first day when the kids thought we wouldn't be able to keep her, my ds (5 yrs) told me his heart was breaking. :001_wub: I know they're not going to like having to give up the kittens, but we are not keeping any of them. Dh is not an animal person AT ALL and we are already up to two dogs and now two cats, with rabbits and bees in the near future. (poor dh....he really didn't know what he was getting himself into when he married me :lol: ). And this means we will have to find homes for all of them. Anyway, she's not even far enough along for me to be certain, but I feel like she is pregnant. I trust my instincts on this, so I'm going to proceed as if she is. I COULD go ahead and have Jenny spayed, so there would be no kittens to worry about...but I'm a little squeamish about that. I need some perspective, so in this situation, what would you do?

I agree. Only going by what you've posted in this post, I'd say she's trying to set some boundaries of her own. She wants to visit, but she needs her parents to understand that it's a visit by an adult child and she expects to be treated as such, not like she's returning to the way things were when she lived there as a child. Of course, even as a guest, there will be certain expectations that you will have of her and it would be a good idea to hammer this out before she arrives. (i.e. She doesn't have to report to you for her every whereabouts, but she shouldn't be past x coming in because you don't want everyone else being woke up.) And, I agree w/ everyone else. Part of being treated as an adult means letting her deal with the consequences of her actions. IMO, her siblings should be free to express their disapproval, even if it means she gets her feelings hurt. Trying to intervene and not allow your younger kids to express their feelings will only make things worse between them. And it doesn't help your oldest to mature as an adult. Both my mom and my mil do this. It has only served to build frustration and resentment mostly toward my mom or mil. And it hasn't helped one bit toward improving relationships between siblings. In fact, it's something that we have to work around. We have decent relationships in spite of our mothers' inability to allow her children to work out their own differences. Having said that, though, I realize that the younger siblings are still kids and might need some coaching on how to express their negative feelings. But pretending they don't exist or glossing them over isn't going help, IMO.

I thought one would be cool, too, until I learned that to polish your rocks, you have to run the machine for about 2 weeks using a coarse grit. Follow that for another couple weeks with a finer grit, and then another round with an even finer grit. You're looking at a probably six weeks to 2 months of constant running to get one batch of nicely polished stones. They tend to be very loud as well. I love the idea of it, but couldn't stomach to idea of running that thing for so long (noise! electricity!). If you find a machine that is quiet and doesn't take as long and doesn't cost an arm and a leg, please let me know!!

Oh absolutely! Dd gets very emotional about her books, her characters, and her shows. From my dd's pinterest page: Caption: I think I'm ready now. And this girl I think may be dd's hero: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/311100286730313198/ Anyway, dd commiserates on Pinterest with all her followers. It's therapeutic....and hilarious.

WARNING: If you follow this thread, you are going to see spoilers, so if that bothers you, don't click it! . . . . . So my dd came in and saw the other thread about the House of Hades and Nico. Her reaction (once again): Rick Riordan RUINED him! She does tend to be a bit dramatic, but I think her reasoning makes sense. The problem is that this development completely changes the motivations for the character. She thinks this makes Nico look like a love-sick puppy dog instead of the strong moral character that she viewed him as. (NOTE: Moral character does not mean gay or not. It's referring to "Nico doing the right thing (helping Percy, etc.) because it's the right thing to do" versus "helping Percy because Nico has a crush on him.") So what do you think? Right now, I see what she's talking about and agree to a point, but I'm willing to withhold judgment until I see where Riordan is going with the character development. And truthfully, I think it's probably more in line with how a 12 year might see and do things. I mean, most 12 year olds, including my very mature (but dramatic) dd, do not have that strong of a character to move past hurts the way Nico did. Nico is considerably younger than most of the other characters but in a lot of ways has been portrayed as being more emotionally mature. It's a plot twist that I don't think anyone saw coming, and yes, it is controversial. Can you not like it without being against homosexuality? I would say you could. Would we, as adults, even be discussing it if it Nico had a crush on Annabeth instead? I don't think so. Was this just a very creative plot twist? Or is Riordan pushing some PC? Thoughts?

If your dc has made it all the way through Mark of Athena, then House of Hades isn't going to be a problem. My dd was VERY MAD about Nico. She was ready to throw R.R. into Tartarus. (And R.R. was already in hot water for leaving them "hanging" at the end of MOA.) Nico can NOT be gay, because dd has a major crush on him and that is just NOT going to work. :lol: 'Course she would never be able to decide between him and Percy and Leo...or the Doctor (10)....or Sherlock. :lol: If you're worried about the fact that Nico turns out to be gay, what about Leo and Calypso? I mean, HOW old is Calypso??? And NONE of the main characters have reached 18 yet. (BTW, my dd totally "ships" Leo and Calypso. ;) ) I think Riordan has done a fantastic job do far, especially considering the content that comes w/ Greek & Roman mythology. Seriously, dd loves being a fangirl and really gets into playing the part. BUT she explained to me that the biggest reason she doesn't like it because it doesn't fit with the persona that she had in mind for Nico. Nico did the things that he did, coming through for Percy and the others, because of his character. He was going to do what he thought was right. It was NOT because he had a crush on Percy. THAT'S the biggest issue that dd had. She read it like Nico only did what he did because he just couldn't say no to Percy, not because of his own standards. I think Nico's only 12 and she should cut him some slack. ;) But dd has very high standards for *her* characters and *her* writers.

IMO, if your doctor outlaws ALL teas, then I doubt he really knows much about herbal teas at all and is just trying to be safe. This has been my experience, anyway. Doing a little research over the net is pretty easy, if you feel comfortable taking the responsibility of researching yourself. In general, red raspberry, nettle, peppermint, lemon balm and chrysanthemum are all teas that should be good for you and taste good. Mix and match as you like. These are all caffeine-free, too. Red raspberry and nettle are two that are highly recommended for nursing moms.

I am soooo tired of my white trim being constantly dirty. I just can't keep up w/ keeping it nice and white. I'm thinking about painting the trim a darker color, like chocolate or something. But chocolate trim and builder beige walls (which is what I've got...mostly) looks really dated in the pics I've seen. BUT, if I painted the walls a different color, like a blue or green, and then had a chocolate or maybe a lighter shade, then I'm thinking it would look nice and not be so obviously dirty as quickly. Anyone ever seen this? Thoughts? It's mainly the living area that I'm looking at: living room, breakfast nook, & entryway.

I do this myself, too! Just the other day, I needed to replace some herbs so I thought I'd go through eBay. I hunted around until I could find someone (w/ good reviews) that could supply all the ones that I needed so I could save on combined shipping! That's one reason I changed how I shipped...I decided I should sell the way I like to buy.

I just started selling on eBay this year. I'm just cleaning out the house, mostly, so I'm not running a store or anything like that. I'm certainly not a top rated/power seller or anything (I don't sell that much), so just keep that in mind. I only accept Paypal and make sure to purchase/print all my postage through eBay. It's slightly cheaper than going to the PO--I think eBay gets you a business rate or something--it's easier, the postage comes directly out of the price of the item, and DC is included (except for media mail, which charges $.20 extra :glare: ). I used to offer free shipping, but I found that I didn't sell as well when I tried to price items to cover shipping. Now, I give a lower price on the item and just charge the actual shipping cost, giving people the option of choosing either the cheapest or fastest method. Nearly everyone that buys from me chooses the cheapest option available.

Yeah, I'm noticing this. I don't think I'd qualify since I'm over 35.

Gory details are great. :) I'm not squeamish.

I'm actually considering this and looking for information on it: the good, the bad, you name it. Would love to hear personal anecdotes, too. Thx!

Here's a question about hiking I've been wondering: what about water? Do you carry your all your own or plan to find a water source? Seems like it would be HEAVY to carry all your own water, but...not doing so opens up a lot more questions. :)

I ordered a book through B&N for my dd, who is VERY picky about her books. When I went to pick it up for her, it was dented, too, and some of the pages had been folded, like an accidental dog-ear (which my dd HATES). They offered to order a new one, but dd was very anxious to read it, so they gave me discount instead. If I pay for something to be new, I except it to be new. I have no problems asking for a refund, an exchange, or discount in those cases.

I love their milk!!! Used to drive to their dairy to pick it up myself, sometimes taking turns with friends/family. For a little while, we had an unofficial co-op. :) I can understand why people would or would not want raw milk. I don't understand why people are so against others making a different choice than them.