Trader Joe's Cookie Joys (Joe-Joe's are not even close) Hair mousse from the late 80's that was gold colored and made my hair look like it was golden all over...it was really a beautiful color. Can't even remember who made it...

WTM people, you ROCK!! I feel like we can actually make an informed, wise decision now. Thank you soo much for your help :)

Wait..is Acadia on an island?? Clearly it is now time to pull out my atlas and start figuring it out with all this fabulous info.

Roger that. Will see where we end up... :). :thumbup1:

Ok, so Boston is only 2 hours from Portland...that is definitely doable. And I would be very content just driving through where the leaves are turning. It is like medicine for my soul :). Thanks for this info.. I do think, unless we decide to base camp at Burlington, Vermont (as suggested), Canada is probably out. But I am going to look into Burlington before we call it.

Oh, Burlington sounds great if we can get to Montreal or Quebec sort of easily! We visited all the New England states and Quebec during the fall when I was younger and I have wonderful memories of Quebec...and pretty sure that was where my LARGER THAN LIFE attachment to autumn began :). Thank you for the info on drive times...very helpful.

That's two comments on Camden...would you mind telling me more??

Thanks for the PEI tip, Parrothead...doesn't sound like we will be able to do that :(. Are you in Bangor??? I would LOVE to meet Parrothead :)

Ok, good to know. Going to look into Williston. I have heard many times that Vermont has best foliage. Why is that? Is Burlington a fun town? Thanks for the heads up on leaf times...spring rains affect that, right?? Camden?? Ok, will check that out! As for Boston, see previous post :). Although I would love to see it...may try and drive there depending on where we wind up.

Heh :). That was our first thought: NYC and a Broadway show, good food, boom, done. But then Boston. I gotta tell ya, I am not normally very fearful but I am now leery of flying into/out of The Big Cities....but that's another thread :).

Oh my gosh...you all are amazing! Thank you so much for the info. I am running out now so will check out links and comments more thoroughly this evening.

Sparrow, we are definitely outdoorsy people as well but since we have only two full days, and have to stay in a Marriott, decided to just stay in a city and then try to get around. Is Acadia National Park closer to Bar Harbor than Bangor? That sounds wonderful :) Datgh, thanks for all the info! Especially when are peak foliage times...definitely will plan around that. I would love to fly into Quebec but our tickets can be used only for US domestic. Portland and Bangor are as close as we can get since we also have to stay in a Marriott. The Manchester idea might be a good option as well. Do you know how long the boat tour of the lake takes? We are on such a limited time schedule. I also like the idea of Acadia National Park...maybe Bangor would be a better start point.

Dh and I were given airfare and hotel (has to be a Marriott) anywhere in US. I love autumn and we thought it would be fun to go to New England in the fall so we think we have settled on Portland, Maine. I would like to go further north in Maine so we could take a boat to Prince Edward Island or closer to Quebec (which is where I really want to go) but the most northern Marriott is in Bangor. Any thoughts? What's a must-do in Maine?Is there a better place to visit in the fall? Would it be doable to drive to Quebec from Portland? We will have only 2 full days.

Very cool :) ETA: We follow the Dirty Dozen list as well, then I compiled a list of the top 20 foods our family consumes most....those we do organic as well. That includes milk (which we get raw from a local homeschooling family) and meat but thankfully, we have a source here for reasonably price sides of beef, which we purchase every year or two; plus dh and ds have kept our freezer full of wild elk...

Thought I'd answer and also bump for you :) My dh and I both have MA Counseling degrees. We do not have our LPC licensure, although dh has all the hours and supervision..just has to take the test. If I am understanding your post, you really just want to ensure that you have a degree that will let you work with flexibility, will stay relevant during up and down economy and not require too much time away from family to complete? My thought is a Master's is definitely enough. We have never been at a loss for work with an MA, even without licensure. If you want to private practice, you will want to get that but a PhD is not really necessary, in my opinion. We have a friend with a phd in psychology and although he can charge more per hour, he does not necessarily have more job security during down times than we do. Plus, our degree is highly versatile...I worked as the director of an adoption agency with it and dh has had county mental health and school counseling jobs. ETA: Just to clarify..the school counseling that dh does is through county mental health; as the next poster stated, to be an actual school counselor, you have to have a specific degree (and maybe a teaching degree as well).

Heh ;)

Would you please do this and then in-service the rest of us? :). We are running into this exact same scenario and we can't seem to figure out how to communicate that ANY hint of pursuit (texting back, seeing if they want to hang out, etc) will engage most girls' hearts at this age. He doesn't see it (because he is not interested in them) and we clearly have not hit on the magic explanation for him to have an "aha" moment. We'll just wait for you to handle it brilliantly and report back :)!

We were just talking about this with some friends last night. :) At least once a week, i think about the fact that we live where people vacation and how even after 14 years, it never gets old. We live at the base of mountains that are simply stunning and surrounded by lakes. Two ski slopes within minutes. ( We are also just a couple hours' drive from the ocean.) We have tourists all year round because of this. It is very slow here but that's because we live in a very small town...no traffic lights, one grocery store...and because we have a purposefully laid back, old west town environment. All stores have to have an old west look to them, there are huge hanging flower baskets that line the main street, coffee shops and restaurants have outdoor seating, everything is rustic. I think that lends to a relaxed, back in time feeling, even for those of us who live here full time. The tourists in the summer are ridiculous but our economy here is completely supported by them so we tolerate it. But we never get tired of the view. As a matter of fact, we hosted 3 soccer players last summer , two from the UK and one from Austria. They would comment all summer about how they never got tired of the view ( our house sits across from a stunning mountain view).

I always add to our Worldview Academy DVDs library when I have a little extra...I think there are some in the $12 range.

So, if I click on the pic, I can unfollow them? I was afraid to click in the pic because I wasn't sure where it would take me. I usually do click on "everything" but I assumed that was still only the people I am following. See, here's where my newb shows up :). I am glad to know I can report pins...definitley doing that too. I will head over there now and see about unfollowing. Thanks so much for the info...really grateful :)

I have been on pinterest for months but a couple of days ago, a naked and very provocative picture of a woman was on my page. I was surprised but mostly just glad dd11 wasn't sitting there with me (when we have a few minutes, she and I will pin things we want to do together...nail painting, crafts, etc..) Last night while I was on, there was another woman pic and then a very graphic male picture. Now I am mad. I mean, really? I am afraid to open it now and I sure as heck won't let dd be with me until I figure it out. Granted, I am a social media baby and maybe I just missed some filter I was supposed to click on...does anyone know? Is anyone else having this issue?

Every towel and washcloth I own (bath or kitchen) is white so I wash all together with bleach.

No problem :)Link: tikatok.com

I, too, buy this book and give it away. Bawled through the last 3-4 chapters!

Completely. My dd has started 3 books, all of which she let's me read as she works through them. On the first one, I made the mistake of trying to edit as I read it. All the joy and excitement she had had while she was watching me read it vanished asi started making corrections. I decided at that point to let her do whatever she wanted, keep my mouth shut, and if it ever got to a place when she wanted to submit it (Barnes and nobles has a program where kids can submit their stories and they print them in a book), I would let the B&N editors be the heavy.