sorry - double post

We just paid cash for a new car and there were no financial benefits to paying cash for the car. Years ago when we financed our cars, once we paid off the car, we kept the same amount going into a saving's account so we have been able to pay cash for every car since then.

We have given our dogs Flint River Ranch dog food for the past 2.5 years and haven't had any skin problems. We buy the original kibble and alternate it with either the duck/oatmeal or the trout/sweet potato for a little variety. I love that the food arrives just a few days after I place an order online and the price seems to compare well with other organic dog foods.

Our state doesn't require a 180-day school year, but since we are military living in our 5th state since we starting homeschooling, my goal is to keep us on a 180-day school year. I break every subject into a 36 week schedule, but let our children work ahead if they want.

I know you wrote that you didn't want flames for your situation, so I will write about what I hate about my neighbor's decision to let their cat(s) be outside cats. Our neighbor was at her wits end with one of their cats destroying their house (general destruction, using the house as a toilet, and retaliation for unknown wrongs), so they made the decision to not get rid of the cat, but to share their woes with the rest of the neighborhood by letting their cats (especially the trouble maker) roam outside. This cat using my yard as a toilet! This cat walks on my roof! This cat walks on my car! This cat torments my dogs! This stupid cat tries to get into my house and I have two dogs! What is it thinking! This cat races into our garage when the door is open, prowls around, and sometimes gets trapped in there. Even when it remembers to race out before the garage door closes, it still finds a place to use the toilet in MY GARAGE and/or find something to destroy! Sadly, we are only one of many houses blessed by our neighbor's decision to let their cat outside to torment their neighbors. :confused1:

I love Land's Ends suits. They last forever!

Field trips ... thanks for that idea! Both of my children will be finishing a few subjects early so I was wondering how to keep things interesting toward the end. If they double up on subjects 2-3 times, we can take the last week off and go on those field trips I have wanted to take all year long.

We do school for 180 days and we only have 35 days of school left. Yippeeee! I got a surge of energy when I realized how little time we have left before summer vacation starts. How many days do you have left?

When my oldest was 12-months-old, she weighed 24 pounds and the doctor told me that she was FAT! :lol: I remember him telling me that most babies weigh around 18 pounds at the one-year mark, so you baby is probably right on track according to that quack. Basically I agree with the others that as long as your baby is eating and has normal diapers, I wouldn't worry. My son was a preemie and wasn't close to 16 pounds at 9-months, but he ate well, etc. and he is now almost 13-years-old and is 5-foot, 8-inches tall.

We are renting a house right now and didn't want to spend a lot of money, but I am thrilled with the curtains I bought from Walmart (low price and nice thick curtains).

"To See You Again" - I was haunted by this book for a long time and hope to one day meet the husband of the lady who wrote this book. My children and I watched this documentary: "Six Million Paperclips".

I think it sounds like a nightmare too! I am scanning photos for my Mother after she ripped all of the photos out of her 17-18 photo albums. It is mind-numbing to scan photo after photo and when I stop for a day (or two or five - LOL), I have to try to remember if I scanned certain photos, so when in doubt, I scan them again. Based on that, I can't help but think about how many double page scans you will have and/or missed pages since you are probably a busy Mom like me.

morning bump

We had a Yukon XL for almost 9 year and just sold it when my husband bought a new car. We called the Yukon "Tank" because it drove like a tank. I hated that car so much (I didn't like to drive it or ride in it) and I danced when he got rid of it. I also wanted to add that going to the gas station was a painful experience because the gas tank held a lot of gallons which meant that when gas prices were high, it would take over $100 to fill the tank.

:lurk5:

After I said this to my 12-year-old son, I just shook my head and laughed to myself. "You need to thrust your hips like your sister!" Even though they were working out to Jillian Michaels's "30 Day Shred" it just sounded like something a Mom should never say to her children :laugh: :laugh:

It has been a while, but I remember that we got better as we went - blog post.

I'm going to send you a PM.

I love reading blogs, especially homeschool blogs, and I just added so many new blogs to my favorites list. I blog about our lives - homeschooling, sports, food, travel, our dogs, etc.,

I have AVG and Malwarebytes on all of our computers and both are free.

We have had our dogs for over 2 years and not a single day goes by that I don't wish we were a dog-free family because every single time we leave the house, we have to consider how long we will be gone because we only have a 6-8 hour window until the dogs will need a potty break. With that said, I will say that while I refer to our dogs as the "Stupid Dogs", I love them so much and I care deeply for their well being. The most important reason the dogs are still with us is because of what they have offered to our children. In addition to learning pet responsiblity, my son, aka the baby of the family, had a chance to learn how to nurture something and that alone is priceless. My blog is full of puppy training ideas - mainly what my daughter did while training our dogs in the first year especially.

We had a big Rainbow playset. It retained a good value because we sold it for $2,000 on Craig's List once our children grew to big for it.

I think that sage is a beautiful color. You should remind your children that you don't live in a house of horror or an amusement park, but they are welcomed to decorate their future homes any way they like.

In swimming, you have to qualify to go to the state meet, then qualify for zones (multiple states), qualify for sectionals, etc.

We had three different virus strands hit our family in an 8-week period this winter so I understand your misery. I called us the House of the Plagues. HUGS!