Update to post #11 DD has been invited to compete for a full tuition scholarship (plus study abroad and research stipends). They only invite 20 to compete and 8 will get the full tuition scholarship. She doesn't feel like interviews are her strength so she is super nervous about the interviews, etc. It is a two day event with a dinner the night before the interviews. :) If anyone has tips or thoughts, please share :001_smile:

I can't stand it either, I tend to just donate and take the tax deduction.

It is ridiculous. We don't even meet deductible most years. It seems silly to keep paying for it. We are paying out far more than our deductible which we don't even meet. Our prescription deductible is now $6,000. Is that normal?

So an 8 year old who isn't bothered by things should be fine? He has watched Avengers, Spiderman, etc. I don't even know what Unfortunate Events is about, I just know my older son was asking if we could watch as a family.

Man, ya'll have given me quite a list to look at. Yay! Thanks :hurray:

What is the youngest age you would recommend for this? Thanks

My girls and I are into this little show called The Flash. :blush: I need ideas for some me time. What should I watch?

I was thinking bursitis? Look it up, there are exercises you can do to help and you may need to use anti inflammatories for a spell to get the inflammation to calm down.

This makes me feel so much better. I was afraid of feeling like crud. Changes are always rough. Do you prefer Armour over nature-throid? DD actually seemed to be much better on Armour.

Since it was reformulated? We switched a few years ago to Nature throid. When Armour was purchased by a different company, the price went up like 3-4X and we needed a cheaper alternative since three of us are on it. Now, Nature-throid has temporarily lost their wholesale license in our state (agh). We need to switch back to Armour, at least for a little while. How is it going for those on it? I heard they reformulated it and many people aren't loving it anymore. Would love thoughts. Thanks :thumbup1:

It is so easy these days! My dd was allergic to wheat right off as a baby and that was 17 years ago...nothing. No replacements. There were rice cakes and corn tortillas and that was it. Now they make some fabulous pastas, cake mixes, etc. Even restaurants have options. Random thoughts, The best cake mix is King Arthur GF Best brownies are Aldi GF The best pastas, my opinion, are the mix of rice and corn. We use corn tortillas a lot for all sorts of things. Often spring roll wrappers are GF (check the package). We like Canyon Bakehouse and Three Bakers for bread. Watch asian food as the soy sauce has wheat. Anything thickened could have wheat Thai rice noodles are naturally GF

I have often wondered about this...my dd is not into social media. She doesn't even have FB. If I search her name on FB, I get several kids around her age with the same name. How do they even know they have the right person? One particular person is quite a character on social media. Could they mistake someone else for dd?

Bless, kids hit a max. A friend of DD's was determined to break into the 35-36 range and she made a 34 four times in a row. ugh.

We had this issue as well. College admissions supposedly begins to frown on more than 3, but I explained that DD used it as end of year testing. I still had to send those 9th and 10th grade scores to schools that require a full test record but she ended up with more than 3 times. She didn't prep or study or anything for those earlier tests.

This exactly what I needed to know, thanks so much. Was that on the website? I searched and didn't see that. I am inept :lol:

He has just been so focused on her neck and spine muscle tightness and I get it, it IS an issue. She has scoliosis. It has been ongoing issue. He lost sight of her headaches right away and became obsessed with her neck and back.

We saw a concussion specialist and they assigned us a PA and she just talked to DD and sent her to PT. That is it. It seems silly to go back if all they want her to do it PT.

Wow, I think all of DD's have had a May 1st date but now that makes me panic, I need to double check. Thanks!

DD14 is a little clumsy. She took quite a fall last spring and hit her head. It caused some ongoing headaches (nothing like she is facing now). Just as she was finally getting over that (4 months later) she took 2 consecutive hits from a volleyball that gave her headaches for a few days. Then, just after that she ran straight into a car door. She suffered a concussion. It has been 3.5 months and she is still struggling. She is still light and noise sensitive, her headaches are still terrible. She can't even take a decent walk without increased pain. She is beginning to get depressed over it. The neurologist sent us to a PT who was so obsessed with the tightness in her neck that he treated her neck and is convinced that her pain is coming from muscle tightness. We've tried chiropractor visits, PT, we've seen a neurologist, and I've seen her pediatrician several times. She's still struggling. Does anyone else think 3.5 months is too long? No one seems to think there is any reason to do a CT scan? No scans have been done.

I am hopeful DS will have a school like this! Where he can keep it open at first. I know with several schools around here, you can't go engineering unless you initially apply to the engineering school which is more difficult to get into unless you are in very high levels of math and DS is a little behind.

Thank you for sharing. This is encouraging. I was hopeful that the health insurance would come off of our expenses and not theirs, we'll see. This gives me hope. The price of the health insurance being deducted would help a lot.

Man, I know exactly what you are talking about with this. I went back to work last January. My younger DD (middle school) would stay home and work while I was at work (2 days a week). She is the last kid I thought would struggle - super smart, super motivated, likes to get things done, etc. but she totally floundered. I have no real answers, just :grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

How is this working for you? Do you tip? I am not even sure how this works or what I am asking .... I'm just curious how it has worked for others. Thanks

I think the backing off process happens over time. You can't go from all over protective, hands on, keeping an eye on everything to letting completely go. Let them take on more and more of it and with things they should have control over say "it is yours now, you own it and I am not looking over your shoulder".

Chapel Hill had it calculated in DD's cost so I was hopeful it would reduce our cost if we have insurance already. I am thinking not though, that's what they deem as our part is our part regardless of what DD takes away. DD may not go to CH but it is the only school she has full financial info from so I am using it to overthink it all :lol: