:grouphug: to you Reb - It'll 10 years since I lost my mom on 9/10/01....the next day was 9/11 and I was pregnant with #1. I seriously thought it was the end of the world. I wanted my mom sooo bad. I still miss her tons and I find myself talking to her in my head at times :tongue_smilie: No one cares about those little things in your day like mom does. Take some time and spend it on you. Mom would want it that way. Eat too much, take a nap, cry, go see a movie. Hang in there! Michele

Dh and I boycotted/didn't attend a friend of ours...he was cheating on his wife (my bf). He expected us to "get over that". :confused: Oh, and she was living with us at the time since he kicked her out! Jerk.

Forklift operator at 17 in an amusement park warehouse. It was hot, stinky, and I was harrassed all day long by men. It was heavy work. I also was a catering supervisor there on the weekends - I prepped picnics for corporations/churches/families/firefighters/etc. I had surly 12 and 13 yo's as my employees and the customers were pigs for the most part. I made millions of hamburgers and hot dogs over a open pit and made tons of fried chicken. We found mice in the fryer all the time after already making chicken - serve it anyhow! we were told (yuk!) I went home coated in grease and insults from surly customers. Nasty teens were always found having s** near the picnic grove. Sick. We had to shovel the hot ashes out of the pits and fix the broken fryers by ourselves - as teens! I burned all my eybrows and lashes off more than once. I was a CNA. I am a RN. Working as a CNA in a nursing home was terrible in ways I can't descibe. So glad those days are over!

I like your list - the pdf would be great if you have time. Thanks, Michele

:tongue_smilie: You know, learning SCUBA can lead to all kinds of crazy things....like owning a dive shop and things like that...ask me how I know :tongue_smilie: Anyhow, congratualtions to you! Here's to many wonderful, magical ,mind blowing visits in the blue.... "Scubamama" Michele

And welcome! This is a great place! Get ready to be sucked in....:tongue_smilie: Michele in SoCal

It has nothing to do with your ability to qualify/disqualify as a renter. However, it will make you stand out! As in, "That's the weird family that HS's" or "I want to learn more about HSing - I'll ask these guys..." We rented a house upon first moving to SoCal. The landlord mentioned the quality schools and asked what grades our kids would be in...I said that we did school at home. She began HSing. Crazy! Michele

So so so GOOD!!! I went to college near the brewery - America's oldest brewery. Naturally, we had to do the tour. It would have been un-American to not bone up on our history and er, support the fine Yuengling establishment. :tongue_smilie: Now that I'm on the West coast I can't get any Yuengling....I'm so sad and blue. It doesn't cross the Mississippi. So, everyone on the East side of the US - drink one for me!!! Cheers, Michele

We planted a very similar garden in our front yard here in LA. We're in one of the beach cities and it's very "green" here. I live in an older neighborhood (read: not trendy) and the home had a jungle of moldy rose bushes and weeds our front. Feral cats were using it as a ltterbox. I got "Edible Landscaping" by Rosalind Creasy and wroked hard to convince my dh to help me...I think it's beautiful and I love to see the neighbors and kids go by and stop to look. Only one neighbor complained - she's lived here for 30+ years and she wanted the old rosebushes to stay. Later, someone told me that she's just grumpy.:tongue_smilie: I love to give away veggies and now even my dh who thought a front garden would be an eyesore/so untraditional is proud too. One guy told us he made our yard his screensaver! Plant on, I say! Michele

Love the name BTW! Michele in So Cal

Same deal. Old owners hoarder-esque - 78 plastic containers of kitty litter in the back patio area alone. Floor to ceiling piles of "stuff"! Dust so thick on the blinds you couldn't roll them up properly. windows that hadn't ever been washed - they were installed with a sunroom in '90 and the name, address and date was STILL ON THEM IN GREASE PENCIL. :eek: The carpet exhaled cat dander with every step. I am seriuosly allegic to cats so my poor dh had to beg the owners to let us remove one room of carpet in the limbo time when they were moving out and we still weren't the legal owners... We moved our stuff into there. and I started takeing claritin and cleaning from the top down. I was horrified, but determined to not rent anymore....the rent was more than our mortgage and our landlord was picky. And we needed more space. I still have rooms that need painting but we're getting there. It's been a year and we've put in hardwood floors and painted 4 rooms. We still have a ways to go, but we'll get there... YOu can do it too! Michele

my dad's cousin and his wife HSed their 10 kids. They are an amazing example of what HSing can do for a family and a great example to the community. There is just so much love and peace in that family! They all live on a big property with the grandparents and have a great natural lifestyle. I went to the elementary school right across from their land. I used to look thru the chain link fence longingly at Aunt Laura's and wish she would come and get me too! :tongue_smilie: My mom probaly would've considered it but she was very ill. My dad thought they were kooks and never missed a chance to voice that. Of course, never to them. :glare: All the kids have grown up to be mature and either off to college, started successful businesses (custom carpentry, landscaping) or on the mission field. I just have the greatest memories of being a kid there and wanting to join the group! I didn't think I would HS but I never discounted it either. Michele in So Cal ds 9 dd 6.5 dd 4

I'm a first born, mega responsible chick. Dh is an only....then when he was 5 his mom married a man who had 8 kids by several different women. Yikes! Every crazy, dysfunctional thing you can imagine happened on a regular basis in that family. Any time I want to spice up my life I can just stop in. Dh is pretty much self raised, sometimes I think he might be feral when it comes to keeping things somewhat orderly :tongue_smilie: Michele

Michele

If dd can get a CNA post in a hospital it might be better. I practically kissed the CNA's feet whenever we could get her on our unit. I was charge in MICU/SICU and we rarely got a CNA. I worked to make her want to come back to us! Coffee, snacks, you want to go have a extra smoke break? Sure! See you in 10. I was ever so grateful for extra hands - I knew how hard it was and I didn't want anyone to be treated like I was. Patient care isn't glamorous, it can be done with true caring though. Caring for the caregiver is the first step. Inquire at the hospital.

I am an RN. I worked at a nursing home (the most "upscale" one in my area) my last 2 years of college. It was awful. I am not talking about the hard work part - I had a completely disabled mother that I bathed, dressed, fed, and toileted since I was a child. I was used to working hard. It was the insanely hectic pace, lack of staff, abusive CNA's, nasty LPN/RN's. And the violent residents - throwing feces, hitting, spitting, etc. Worst of all was being groped by elderly men. I reported EVERYTHING. I was a thorn in their side. I understood the pathology of aging. I was depressed when LPN/RN's would laugh it off. Where was the dignity these residents deserved? What about their safety - one older man deliberatly s*xually abused confused female residents. His family was actually proud of him! I was injured on the job - inguinal hernia - a direct result of lifting/transferring people without enough staff to help. The day I resigned (I graduated top of my RN program and got an RN job) the Director of Nursing yelled at me for leabing them "short". I told her I had just graduated and was taking an RN position. Her attitude changed instantly...she offered me a job on the spot. I said I would never work there. The CNA's that were on internal prbation for abusing the residents, the LPN who failed her RN exam 4x and was constantly on the phone to her bf, the violent residents, it was all too much. I also worked as a waitress and unloaded trucks in a warehouse - also hard jobs. There were no bodily fluids thrown at me, no injuries were taken lightly, and no daily dose of being treated as a lesser person b/c you change diapers for minimum wage. I'd encourage her mow lawns instead. Michele

We rescued a 2 yo Bassett Hound named Jazzy - there was NOTHING jazzy about this dog. She was a lazy, droopy, drooly Bassett. She became Flounder since she was tripping over her ears and generally uncordinated and goofy. Flounder hounder was a super dog, I miss her still!

This will be our 3rd year, and I'll be a tutor in the fall. It has been like most things in life - good and bad. I think the good outweighs the bad. The good: amazing things the kids are learning, the sense of community, friends made, field trips our director puts together, the rhythm it gave our week, seeing my kids in a group setting holding their own, the sense of responsibility they felt in learning the material, the healthy competitive spirit in my son's all boy class ( 8 & 9yo's), learnign to give a short presentation each week. The bad: hectic Mondays, fried after CC is over for the day, $$, the first year there wasn't a nursery/toddler room and it was a ZOO in the youngest class. I wouldn't repeat that experience for love or money. I don't know how the tutor did it without coming unglued. Kids that couldn't handle not always talking when they felt like it or not being first. However, that may just be kids in general. I know mine do that too! I am returning as a tutor so I can afford the cost as my 3rd kid must join as per CC rules - once a kid is 4 they have to enroll. I know my 4yo won't be able to write or read as begin the year but she's really wanting to go...she gave a presentation in the nursery every week. Granted it was like this: " Hi my name is S. This is my penguin, Penguino. He has flippers. Any questions?" :tongue_smilie: I wouldn't drive 55 miles though...too far with the ages you have or just too far IMHO Good luck in your decision, Michele ds9, dd6.5, dd 4

Getting it all packed up to head off for a camping trip this weekend! We're all sooooo excited. Except dh, he's not much of a camper, but he will be just fine. He spent hours researching just the right tent to get...and we wound up getting a used tent for $100 on Amazon. Never was a used tent more thouroughly vetted. I sincerely hope it meets his high tent standards! :tongue_smilie:As long as it doesn't leak or fall over it's ok. Off to Costco to get the supplies....:auto: Michele ds9, dd 6.5, dd 4

I have a George too. Actually, I have a few Georges! My ds is George VI, dh is V, and FIL is IV. We call them George 1, 2, and 3 or Big George, Medium George, and Little George. Guess which one WANTS to be called Big George?:tongue_smilie: Not my FIL! It's a great name that gets lots of compliments - especially from older folks. I love older folks, so it's cool to hear their comments. Blessings to you and your family! Michele, surrounded by Georges

The hopper is the toilet. I don't know where they get thet one from, but it was always called that. PA Dutch people are a mix of German, Swiss, and French Huegenot ancestry, don'tcha know now! Michele

I can't stop laughing!!! I can hear them in my mind, "I knw you're not supposed to drag no tree..." :lol::lol::lol: We lived in a small town and the town maintanence guys totally did wacky stuff like that. Once they brought in a backhoe to use the bucket to lift the one guy up high so he could trim some trees - with a chainsaw! As his buddy was backing up so he could keep on trimming! we just stared in disbelief! I can't believe no one was hurt. michele

We used to go to Wegmans for dates :tongue_smilie: What dorks we are! Michele PS My MIL calls it Wag-mans and it drives us crazy!!! It's WEGmans, woman!

Maybe we are long lost PA Dutch cousins! Do you like your shoo fly pie wet or dry bottom? I almost forgot my college scholarship program story. In small towns it seems like most folks have a "role" - town drunk, gossip, whatever. My mom was severly handicapped from MS and she was the town cripple. So, my sister and I were "Poor Janet's girls". It bothered me to no end, but it did help in odd ways. We both won the (what we called) "most pathetic person scholarship" upon graduating HS. It was $3,000 a year for 4 years! That's big money! This was back when state school was about $8,000 a year. I had worked and saved the rest so being "poor Janet's girl" paid off in a bizarre way. The year I won the other recipients were a kid whose trailer burned down and a girl whose father had passed away. I still don't know where the town got all that money! In Dutch we'd say, "It wondered me where the money came from." Michele

I grew up in a small PA town and moved to another small PA town before we moved here to LA. I hate it here. I miss Rural PA. I miss the farm traffic jams of a tractor and 4 cars, shopping and everyone knowing what i bought, mowing my lawn out front and then stopping to chat with folks going by..one man saw me at 8months pregnant and promptly drove to our scuba shop and told my dh off! :tongue_smilie: I don't miss being afraid my kids will walk into the corn fields that surrounded our house and get lost in the corn. Our dog was once lost that way for hours...and then brought back by the farmer down the road. I belonged to his corn club - buy 12 dozen dozen ears of sweet white corn and get the 13th dozen free! Nothing is better than sweet corn you preserved in July on a cold February night. I miss explaing "which people" I'm from..you know, the "are you from the town x Smiths or the town y Smiths?" I miss the PA Dutch ways and cooking. I am PA Dutch and no one here in So CAl gets me and my fabulous Dutchy ways! :tongue_smilie: If you ain't Dutch you ain't much doesn't seem to make an impact here :lol: Oh well! I'll always be a country girl. Michele