I don't find it rude in the least. I don't do anything like knit or crochet and wish like crazy I could. (I have tried valiantly! :lol: ) Anyway, one of my IRL bffs is a mad crochet'er and knitter. :D It has literally never phased me in the least that she crafts away while we blab. (Now when people text and FB constantly, I get a little annoyed. But an occasional text with their dc and/or dh also doesn't phase me. That's how we roll! ;) )

Maybe this is a s/o, but I would love to hear how you went about school with the "olders" vs how you go about it now, with the "youngers." I feel like I am ever evolving in how I approach all of this and I would be so very interested in your journey. :001_smile: (For instance, I didn't start teaching my current 7 y/o to read until this school year. Up until now, it has been all letters and numbers but no "let's learn to read." With my ones who are older, I started actively trying to teach them *reading* at 6, almost directly on the nose. Well, accept alphabet - which we start learning from the start with books and songs and so forth. ;) )

I was planning on keeping this totally to myself except for one board member. But she assured me that it was probably better to post and receive the support I really need than to stress out alone. Dh and I decided to try for one last wee one last year. We conceived right away and then m/c'd at 6 weeks. Undaunted, we tried again right away as everyone assured us that I would be most fertile right after a loss. So we did and conceived again, right away. We then m/c'd at 6 weeks again. Then we didn't conceive for one cycle and conceived again the next cycle. Another 6 week loss. At this point, we decided to TTA until we could get in to see my peri. (I have high risk pregnancies due to repeated pre-e and HELLP Syndrome.) Somehow, we ended up pg without meaning to be! :001_huh: Anyway, right from the start, I was so sick. My hCG numbers were through the roof. At 6 weeks we had an u/s and saw the fetal pole and sac. At 8 weeks we had another u/s and saw the heartbeat. At a 12 week u/s, we learned the baby had died. I was beyond devastated. (It was in June and I posted here and you guys were so supportive. Thank you!!!! :grouphug: ) Anyway, we saw the peri at the end of August after two normal cycles. He told us we could try again. Today I got two bfps - one on a $1 store test (FMU) and one on a FRER (late afternoon.) I am not excited. How long will I be pg this time? A couple of more weeks? How about a couple of more months, maybe? ::sigh:: I want a baby so I can't quit or give up yet. But I will have to soon for my sanity and my age. (I will be 40 in February.) We aren't telling *anyone* IRL, not even our older dc. I'm not posting anything about it FB or my other "mommy board." I just feel too raw and vulnerable and exposed. (I know anyone can find this post but I'm not too worried about it. I don't necessarily care if anyone finds out. I just don't want to announce anything or tell anyone. Does that make sense?) Ok, well, there it is. At least for the moment, I am pregnant.

Interesting... In addition to the "natural" readiness, part of what I read and discussed was that many of the children who were "pushed" to learn to read early (not the ones who chose to or taught themselves) were ahead in early elementary, on par by mid - elementary, and behind by Junior High. I thought that was rather startling. :001_huh:

I know this isn't the thread for it, but it does peripherally relate: Has anyone read or been told that 7 is a "natural" age for many typical children to learn to read? I read that several years ago and then had a discussion with a librarian at my church a couple of years ago about it and he agreed with that premise based on his own research. I know in my own home, homeschooling - wise, all of my dc have learned to read relatively easily after their 7th birthdays. (Well, the older 4 have, anyway.) With many kindy programs now expecting kids to come already able to write their own name, know their alphabet, and be able to sight read certain words, I wonder about what I read and discussed, kwim? How does that tie into parents wanting to wait, if others have read or been exposed to that same idea?

One pair of sandals One pair of athletic shoes One pair of "every day" shoes (not loafers, but not sure what to call them)

I love POAS threads. :D For $1 tests, I am not terribly picky, lol. I'll tinkle on those just to do it for practice... :lol:

:grouphug: If it makes you feel better, I doubt it is because he is an unsocialized homeschooler. My ds9 had a Cub Scout popcorn booth sale this evening. There were 3 9 y/o boys selling at our door. One was a tad obnoxious but his mother encourages that... The other was (IMO) a pretty typical 9 y/o. He said something totally inappropriate and you could *tell* his mother was so uber embarrassed. She said, "Isn't something, the things they learn from other kids? He comes home from school saying the worst things!" They are either horrid unsocialized homeschoolers or horrid imitating public schoolers. :lol: My point being, kids will be kids and boys will be boys - they will shock us with what they do and/or say, but it can arise in any environment. :grouphug: I think your ds may learn hard and fast how to treat his friends when they continue to exclude him when he acts inappropriately. :grouphug:

Ditto! :grouphug:

There are so many things wrong in that OP that it blows my mind! A teen aged child asking to go to something and then behaving like a twerp, a way pregnant mom taking not only that child but also a toddler when she has other things to do, not the least of which is getting off her feet and meditating for labor to start, another mom sticking her nose into a parenting situation that wasn't threatening or dangerous... Oy!!!! You did the right thing! Now, I think your dear son has some letters of apology to write - to the presenter for being rude during the presentation and then having to leave and to his mother for being completely inconsiderate of her when she did what *very extremely few* of us would ever even consider doing at 40 weeks pregnant!!!!! :grouphug:

Ds18 - June 1994, senior Dd16 - August 1996, junior (Running Start) Dd12 - August 2000, 6th grade Ds9 - May 2003, 4th grade Dd7 - April 2005, 2nd grade dd4 - April 2008, pre-k

I look younger than I am. I always have. I looked like a dork in high school; moderately better but not much in college. I looked HOT from about 24-30ish. Then after my 4th, I started a downhill skid... ::sigh:: I don't look horrible, I think, for my age, but I am certainly not attractive or anything. :)

Our OT recommended HWT today. I am looking into purchasing what ds9 needs from it. (I was using Dubay Getty Italics.) Ds9 has dysgraphia and has been in OT for a while. There is a minimum of improvement but he struggles mightily to write. :( Our OT also recommends 10 minutes a day of practice writing for the sake of writing practice, NOT writing for academic purposes. For that, she suggested we have him narrate and we write for him. She feels it takes too much energy and concentration for the writing that any academic aspect is lost. It takes ds9 a long while to write just 2 or 3 sentences. Our current approach is to get him to a point where he can jot down a short grocery list, take down a name & phone number, and sign his name. Beyond that, he will need to be able to keyboard/type. He will basically need special accommodation for as long as we can see. (We discussed SATs and standardized testing and so forth today, even through college.) Ds9 is pretty severe, honestly. It may be that your ds will need accommodations like mine for as long as is foreseeable and filling our forms will require assistance. :grouphug: My ds will need assistance filling out forms which can't be done online. (If your ds were in a brick and mortar school, would his dysgraphia require an IEP? Would he need a scribe? That is where my ds is. Our OT likes us to keep our expectations low and reasonable as ds isn't likely to ever write fluently and effortlessly.) :grouphug:

Yup. I mean, you want an attorney who specializes in disability and social security law, not one who does a hodge podge of everything and none of it overly well. So if s/he specializes in disability and social security, s/he needs to be paid somehow. And generally, the risk is on the attorney since many of them take a portion of the pay out if they win for you and get nothing if they don't. I would wager many (most?) people fighting to get disability payments aren't rolling in $$ to pay an attorney. :grouphug:

I keep a ledger (going back through every year of our marriage!!) and I write the bill, the pay period, the amount due, the date due, and the date paid in it. In the box where I write the bill (like - mortgage) I write the confirmation number - Mortgage/5551212 (1) $1234 10/5 10/3 Utilities/12345678 (2) $150 10/20 10/17 I use a specific column type of notebook. It is 5 columns and between the first and second column there is a tiny little box, and that is where I write 1 or 2 for the pay period. I love going back and seeing what our bills looked like 5 years ago, 10 years ago, etc. :D (Oh, I forgot, when the payment clears the account, I put a check mark next to the bill name. I love my process and feel very satisfied, if that makes sense. But based on your post, I think you get it! ;) )

One motion, pen/cil never leaves the paper - across, down, around. I make my 8s backwards from how others do, not sure why. My S is the other way and then back up through to the top.

I like digital. I like logging in and having the ability to quickly and easily locate and read any bill within the last 12 months without having to have huge folders of papers. (I detest and hate paper. Even with all of our bills digital, there is still a metric ton of paper. :glare: It's the bane of my very existence!) When/if I need to have a hard copy (like a utility bill for financial aid) I just go and print off the recent one and submit it. :D Plus, I pay all of our bills through our credit union's on line bill pay. It is free and saves me a load of time and nothing is ever late or lost in the mail. Wow, didn't know my own passion on the subject! :lol:

I don't get email notifications. I just get the notifications in the upper left hand corner of FB that you click on. :grouphug: No sense worrying about it now. It isn't a big deal, I promise. :grouphug:

Dh is Japanese. He was born there and moved with his mother to the US when he was 2. He and his brother haven't had any issues with alcohol. The ramen his family sends us is so awesome that I can't eat American ramen anymore. Ick! (Fwiw, the ones they send do NOT taste like fish. :D But then my dc eat sticky rice with "sprinkles," which are dried seafood and seaweed bits and pieces. :lol: )

Won't it show up in her notifications - crazy lady you don't know shared your pic... :tongue_smilie: :grouphug:

Ya coulda asked me! :lol: While I know what it means, I like your version better!!!

This must vary by carrier. I have Verizon and all the plans are the same for Android and iPhones. Ditto the "purchase" costs - there are older model iPhones you can get for free up to current models with a metric ton of memory for $$$$. I sent $200 on mine, iPhone4S while dh spent $100 on his iPhone4.

Former owner of 2 different Androids and current owner of an iPhone. There were things I really loved about my Droids but boy, that drove me freaking nuts with their glitches and crashes and I even lost an entire day's worth of pics from the fair. It (the Droid) ran an update and in the course of the update (over which I had no control) it lost all my pics. I was so LIVID. The battery on each was also horrible. My iPhone battery lasts a LOT longer and I haven't had any glitches or losses or crashes. (I've had it for 10 months.)

This was my dh! He was a *shrimpy* little geek whose birthday is in June. He isn't a tall man by any stretch and until his late twenties, he couldn't gain a pound. He was raised in the military. Every new installation was a new chance for him to be bullied. And a new chance for him to set the record straight... :lol: In elementary school, the bully attacked him on the playground after school and he broke the kid's nose with his shoe. He got in 10 kinds of trouble but no one bullied him after that at that school/on that base. I didn't quote the poster, but someone mentioned wanting their dc to get in young and not understanding people who redshirt for no real reason. I don't think anyone redshirts for no real reason. I think their reasons are real and valid to them. Just because they aren't valid to someone else doesn't mean they are inherently not valid. ;)

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: