I would want him to be aware and encourage them strongly, if they get married, to get tested. But I wouldn't think that was a reason to not get married. Dh and I knew our fathers are both carriers for CF. His uncle died from it and my cousin has it. So we got tested. I carry, he does not. So our kids have a 50% chance of carrying CF, but will not have CF. We will definitely strongly encourage our children to get tested (especially if they marry Caucasians, since the risk of carrying is higher) and prayerfully make informed child-bearing decisions. One of our daughters was tested in the NICU and we know she is also a carrier. I hope she chooses to have her spouse tested if she marries and decides to have children.

Are you having a boy or a girl? I'm in DFW and have some girlie stuff I could pass on. :)

Do you have the new India board? It's good! My fave is Asia though!

I'm at work, so I'm having leftover spaghetti. Mmm. We aren't starting til the boys go back to school (ps for them this year). I can't wait. I am psyched about this year!

That sounds delicious. My kids adore Nutella. And I love that ecard that says, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels? B*&^%, please! Have you tasted Nutella?" Bwahahaha!

Our last name is Pfanstiel - silent "p." So "pfamilygal" should be pronounced "familygal." We always spell "f" words with a "pf" around here :)

"Glory Baby" by Watermark

Let her cut it! I just chopped mine into a sassy little curly pixie (a little longer than what you're talking about). I adore it. Dh hates it. Said I look like a lesbian. I told him that if by "lesbian" he meant "someone not sleeping with him that night" then he was absolutely correct. It is so easy and I don't wear it in a pony tail every day anymore!

My patients use it all the time to refer to the father of their baby. Usually like, "Oh, no, that's not his (pointing to one child) babydaddy, that's her (pointing to other child) babydaddy." Most often because they are unwed and have multiple kids by multiple "dads". I use "dads" because real fathers parent, "babydaddy" generally refers to the drive-by sperm donor sort.

Really? We have a very visual culture. Our pastor showed a clip from Les Mis in his sermon about forgiveness and going the extra mile that had us all in tears. Really brought home the "70x7" idea. Jesus used stories to teach, why shouldn't we? But, to the OP, yes that is out of bounds. Those monsters were scary and I wouldn't be too trusting of a pastor that showed my kids inappropriate movies.

Where in Texas where you? You can buy sweet tea all over DFW. I hate it. Yuck.

Yes! I was so frustrated as all these people raved about him and it was just crappy, IMO.

I find this "men need constant sex because God created them that way" thing especially bizarre in light of the Old Testament purity rules. In the OT, husbands and wives could only have sex for about half the month - and for 80 days after the birth of a daughter! So the husbands felt "unloved" the other half? By God's design? I hate Christian books that oversimplify things or catagorize all men as A all women as B. We are all individuals and should function to the fullest of our giftedness, regardless of gender. We did that "Love and Respect" class in our homegroup. Well, it was exactly wrong in identifying my needs. I don't want face-to-face intimate conversation. I'd much rather work on something together. And I am NOT a snuggler. At all. I am me. And for our marriage to work, my husband needs to meet my needs, not "female" needs. And vise versa.

I think the kerfuffle was not JUST about his remarks (though he did say more than "I'm not in favor of gay marriage" - he said we shake our fist at God and invite judgement when we think we can redefine marriage.) It is also about the fact that CFA donates money to groups that go way beyond strengthening traditional marriage. One of the groups teaches the homosexuality and pedophilia are nearly the same and that there is a big gay agenda out there to turn all our kids queer. So your CFA dollars are going to organizations that not only promote traditional man-woman marriage, but actively malign homosexuals as deviant human beings who are preying on your kids. I can believe homosexual activity is a sin. I can teach my kids that if they have those desires they must be celibate and draw on Christ for strength. But I shouldn't ever slander homosexuals by assigning some malicious agenda to them or creating some imaginary predatory pedophilic tendency for every gay person.

This had me in tears: http://oddmanout.net/post/28484026012/chick-fil-activism I have a huge problem with people saying gay marriage is a "threat" to their man-woman union. You know what the biggest threat to my marriage is? The fact that I am a desperate sinner, a broken person, and a terribly selfish narcissist. And so it my husband. We are a union of two depraved people trying to form one flesh and it often doesn't work.

Growing up, we had 1 bathroom and 4 teens in the house. It was fine. Each of us had a mirror in our room and could do makeup/hair in our room. We have 2.5 baths in our house now. We have six kids, ranging from 2-12. Honestly, the kids nearly always bathe in our our bathroom, as it has a huge tub. You'll be fine.

UPDATE: I tried it. It's nasty. Or, if not nasty, then just not anything special. It smells nice, but it kind of weighed my hair down. And the gel that came with it was crap. I tried the deep treatment that came with it, but it was way too heavy. Gave it to a friend and she liked it, but she has very thick, curly, mixed hair. I think it would be too much for most Anglo hair. All in all, my hair was still way frizzy without curl creme/gel. And it didn't seem to be much different than regular shampoo/conditioner. I've also tried DevaCurl's no-poo and felt about the same. Just not that impressed. I think I'll stick with my cheapie Suave. I dig the rosemary mint scent!

We do a set of tie dyed shirts every year so we can match for field trips/pfamily outings. We're going to try dip dying (ombre) this year. Like this: http://cottonandcurls.blogspot.com/2011/05/ombre-shirt-and-first-guess-post.html

I decided I needed to alternate with Ibuprofen and that's helping. I'd been avoiding NSAIDS for the last few months, as I'd had a back injury and been taking them like M&Ms. My stomach wasn't happy with me. But today seems to be better. Another question? How much did they shrink when the swelling went down? I'm overflowing a D right now and I really wanted to be a C. I am going to be pissed if I still have big bOOks. I told him to err on the side of smaller! And the incisions are gross. All gooey. Still closed and not red or anything, but damp and leaky. Weird thing? He said I had a ton of milk still. Leah weaned 14 months ago! Good grief!

Had a bOOK reduction on Tuesday. Went from 38G to a 38C/D (currently a D, but hoping it will be a C once the swelling subsides.) They hurt so bad. Worse than any other surgery I've had (appy, gall bladder, hand, c/s, hyst, ureteral stents, etc). How long will they hurt? I feel like I'm engorged and nursing a baby badger.

Yes, I boycott Nestle and its companies because of their vile, reprehensible infant feeding promotions. I saw the most disgusting billboards in the Philippines, basically implying "cool Americans use formula, only poor provincial people breastfeed." VOMIT!

Me too! And I couldn't figure it out. I mean, HOW was he hiding his ethnicity? And WHY? Also: Family of God (hymn) It says "joint-heirs with Jesus" - I always thought it was "join hairs with Jesus" and imagined some celestial braiding party. This Little Light of Mine "Hide it under a bush? Hell no! I'm gonna let it shine!" ("Hide it under a bushel, no!")

http://www.marthastewart.com/343344/crystal-egg-geodes They were AWESOME!

Frontier catalog is super cheap. I bought a lb of it for about $12 last year when we made egg "geodes." (It was a super cool activity too.)

Dallas! There are many educated folks here (lots of hicks too). Lots of art, culture, diversity, etc. Very conservative.