Thanks! They worked perfectly! I like the smaller size because I'm canning diced tomatoes and for most recipes I would only use 8 oz. The pints would be too large unless I was making a double portion of something.

Can I can tomatoes in jelly jars? I bought a pack of Ball jelly jars thinking they were the same as the pint or quart canning jars and now I'm wondering whether or not I can use them. I've never done jelly so I have no idea what that involves, but will these hold up if I use them for something other than jelly?

:grouphug: I've had bleeding with my last 2 pregnancies. With my most recent one (dd is now 7 weeks old) I had a lot of very heavy bleeding. I bled for about 7-8 weeks and for about a week of that it was heavier than any period I've ever had. I had multiple u/s and there was never a cause found. Both pregnancies ended up being fine. I have a "frayable uterus". I'm sure it won't calm your mind at all because I was a nervous wreck even though I knew I had a history of it, but hopefully yours is nothing to be worried about either.

I've never heard of those, but I love wal-mart's candles. For $10 you get 2 large ja r candles and 2 small candles. They burn cleanly and smell great--my current favorite is apple.

Thanks, everyone!! Sometimes it's just nice to hear that you're not crazy from someone other than dh!

Or at least, that's what dh's aunt thinks. She's a very nice person and we usually enjoy spending time with her. We spend a few days each summer at her house at the beach and always look forward to seeing her. She is a retired elementary teacher. We had dinner with dh's family this weekend and she asked me if we would consider sending dd7 back to school. I said not right now, but who knows what the future brings. Then she says that we shouldn't wait too long or else "she won't know what school is about". Ds4 could start K next year but he's not ready. We have full-day K here and he could never sit through it. He's fine academically but just not ready for 8 hours in school. (dd went to K and we were planning on sending him, too). She told me that we should send him because "you can tell he's testing his boundaries" and "he needs to be away from you". He's 5! None of her "concerns" were academic. dd is further ahead that where her ps classmates are and I said she'd be bored to tears. That's apparently ok because "we were all bored in school". How is that ok? I'm 5 months pregnant and overly hormonal so I'm sure that had something to do with why it upset me so much. Normally I can listen to people politely and then let it go, but this is still bothering me. Sorry for the vent--I knew you all would understand!

Definitely do the park preview. It gives you a few hours to get acquainted with the park and find your way around. You can buy tickets at a local Giant grocery store-I think they're around $8 cheaper, depending on the time of year that you go. If you don't mind driving a little, there are cheaper hotels that are only 10-15 minutes away, and are easy drives. There are only 2 tram stops in the parking lots, so even if there's nobody parked in that area of the lot drive a little and park right next to a tram. The tram lets you off right at Chocolate World, so it's easy to hit up on the way out. (leave yourself time to enjoy everything there, though.) I'm drawing a blank on hotel names right now but we'll be in Hershey this weekend and I can look around, if you'd like to pm me next week I can let you know of some. There is an air-conditioned restaurant right next to the Great Bear roller coaster, with bathrooms nearby, that is never full and a nice break from the heat, even if you just get something to drink. We usually devote a day just to the water park. You could do the water park and the zoo in a day, if you wanted, and then rides the next day. If you go in May, there are huge homeschool discounts!

I would go through with vinegar (helps loosen the nits) and the nit comb and get them off, just to be sure. If they're further than an inch away from the scalp they should be dead, but better safe than sorry. We work in a residential education facility and have 12 middle school girls, 4 of whom had lice this year at once. We would pour vinegar over their heads and then go through and comb the nits off. We did this for a week, if I remember correctly. Good luck!

DH is a ps teacher and we have the "should I stay or should I go" discussion at least once a week. Recently we've been leaning towards leaving. It's sad-he loves what he does and is a very good teacher. Half of all teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years.

I've never had to have one done during an annual exam, but with this pregnancy (my youngest son is almost 5) they required a clymidia and gonorrhea (those are both spelled horrible wrong) test. Absolutely required it, even though I told them that both dh and I had never been with anyone else. I was a little upset with them, but went ahead with the test anyway. I think your dr was way out of line.

the beer bread (I forget the real name of it) and the almond pound cake.

I would call. My mom has had them for 30 years and once she almost lost a kidney because she waited too long. By the time she got to the hospital she had a horrible kidney infection. Better safe than sorry.

The place next to the Hands on House is the Landis Valley Museum. It's not a museum at all, but a replica of a colonial village. We go every year. I'd check the website, though. I'm not sure what they have going on this time of year. I hear the Amish Experience is pretty good, though I've never been there. The Rockvale Outlets are always fun :)

I'm on our local school board and I see the way the cuts affect the kids. No, I don't think merely throwing more money at the problem will fix the public schools. However, cutting our budgets to the extreme that they've been cut obviously won't help either. What would help? Less unfunded mandates from the state. A governor who sees the importance of education (in PA he has cut funding for both the public schools and the public universities--I believe he wants to cut 30% from the universities this year). There was one district in our state who is bankrupt. The teachers are now teaching for free as long as they are individually financially able to. All they want is an advance on their June subsidy payment from the state and the state said no because they had been fiscally irresponsible in the past. What they don't say is that the state had been in control of the district for the past 16 years. Yes, it is one of the poorest districts in the state, and one of the most under-performing. However, leaving 3000 students with nowhere to go isn't the answer either. Yes, there are things we can cut. I don't disagree with that. However, we can't cut programs and raise class sizes and still be expected to meet the NCLB guidelines pushed on us. There is no simple answer, but cutting our budgets to this extreme certainly isn't one of them. It's all to make the governor look good. He can claim that he hasn't raised taxes since he's been in office. Meanwhile, local districts are forced to raise taxes just to fund things like math.

I know there have been threads on this before, but February is dragging and I need some new magazines to keep me motivated! What are some of your favorite magazines/catalogs??? I love Mindware and Home Science Tools.