What WhiteHawk said. I'm not sure what an ABA school, no special needs in this house, so I can't help you there. But I live in Cary, so let me know the name of the school and I can tell you what I know. General reputation of the school. I have a friend who is an aide for special needs kids so I can ask her as well. --- I looked up ABA. Is what you are looking at a public school or a private school? I can't tell from the website I found - The Mariposa School. I know where it is based on address, but I know nothing about the school. You might want to also look at New Hill and Moncure. If you don't mind up to an hour drive, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina are also options. The further out you go, the bigger the land. Where would the job be? I can tell you where to look based on that as well. OH, and hospitals. Do you need to be close to Duke or UNC hospitals? A friend lives in Durham to be close to Duke hospital. My kids have dual enrolled through the community college - live in Wake Co, but they dual enroll in Durham county. Because we live equidistant from both and the classes are easier to get to Durham Tech. Just ask if you have other questions. I love Cary!

I don't know where else to ask this. I'm looking for a something to hold up to 4 passports. When I search on "passport holder", I get things that hold one. "Family passport holder" brings up the same stuff. "holder for multiple passports" brings up backpacks. Or something that will be small and easy to find in my purse. I hope to carry something smaller than my normal one which has a pocket that will hold my ipad 2. (Read old and big!)

I also ordered my Bosch from them, but not grain or buckets. Here you can get 6 gallon pickle buckets from a place called Firehouse Subs, for free. They are obviously food grade. If you don't have a Firehouse Subs, look for places that serve the large kosher dill pickles and ask them what they do with their empty buckets. They are red buckets. And I think they did come with lids. For grain, I'm part of a co-op that does a group order from someone out west. Watch the shipping prices for an individual order. grain is heavy and shipping can go high.

I think the book's name is Yell and Tell. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=yell+and+tell There are several non-related books on that search, but a few others that may be good substitutes. My kids are too old for this kind of book so I have no idea if any that are showing up are good.

I've never gotten anything like that from my dd's college. She will be a junior in the fall.

I won't comment on cases. But insurance. We did buy it once. I think the first time the kids had phones. And then we got it for all of us. DH is the one who dropped the phone and had to be replaced. :-P But in the money we had paid for the insurance all ready and the deductible we had to pay, it ended up not being worth it at all. I think we saved less than $50, probably more like $20. I'd say find out how much the insurance would be and set that amount aside each month. That way when/ if you need to use "insurance" you have some or all of the money set aside.

Yeah. That was our experience as well. So glad they came in!

I spent my teen years in a sea scout unit. (LOVE telling my son I was a boy scout!) And I never got sea sick. I was the one sent below in rough seas to make lunch. My stomach was that good. But get me on a cruise ship and I am toast. I knew it the moment they pushed away from the dock. Ginger helped a bit. I was much better once dh got to the ship's store and got some dramamine. And then a week after being on land I was still rocking. Next time I'm trying a patch.

Yes yes! Do tell where you bought it! A link would be wonderful! I'd heard of them but didn't know they had dual zones.

I saw 7 (!) deer cross the path in front of me on my run last week. That may not sound like much but I live in the middle of town. The park I was running in doesn't seem big enough to support the 4 I saw several years ago but now 7? There are houses completely around this park, middle of town.

We went in a few weeks ago to get the kids' renewed. I was checking weekly to see where the kids' were. One day I checked and it said "final processing". That afternoon they were in my house. So, yeah, give it a week or at least a couple days.

OK, I feel like a beginner compared to Stephanie. But we've done the same number of marathons. :-) I like to say I'm old and slow. I like gels. Chewing is hard to me while running. But some gels feel like frosting in my mouth, some don't. I tend to find out what kind they will be giving me on race day and try those. If they don't work, then I supply my own for the whole race. I usually take 1 or 2 of my own just in case the free ones aren't enough. Now I'm trying to remember what brands I've had. Hammer. Clif. Gu. I like Clif best. Silly reason but they have a thing on the top so you don't drop the top when you rip it off. (This will make sense when you see the packaging.) I think I also like their flavors best. Oh, I do not like peanut butter gel! I like real peanut butter so it surprised me. If you want to make your own - I found this recipe on-line years ago. Like maybe my first marathon in Jan 07. 6 tablespoons honey 5/8 teaspoon molasses 6 3/8 teaspoons soy protein isolate 1/16 teaspoon salt 1-3 tablespoons water The protein I think was optional. The protein I used was one of those muscle drinks. Something that sticks in my mind from my first marathon. I remember the race director tell everyone that if you are still on the course at 4 hours, to switch from water to all gatorade (or whatever it was they had). That just stuck with me and I follow it. I tend to eat (?) a gel every 45 min to hour. I've read both. Oh and if you get ones with caffeine, I definitely feel the caffeine kick in. So if I get those, I save them for the "end". I've only done plans with one 20 miler. And then I get injured somehow and only make it to 18 miles. A good friend of mine told me when I was training for the second one to never do a plan with something over 20. Only go farther than 20 if you will get a medal for it. :-) (I don't know anyone who has done an ultra so I can't speak for them.) Enjoy your race!

My ds (now 14) wanted chess stuff for his 13th birthday. Prob not what yours is into though. His friends still like rubix type cubes. Rhett and Link on video. Brotherband Chronicles as books. Ultimate frisbee. Do you live in an area where you could ski? New stuff for that. OH, ds would like a bow tie. He loves to wear his suit. That may be the birthday we got him an ENO (hammock). Are you hunters? Is it time for an upgrade on whatever he shoots? Or just boys and shooting -> nerf guns to airsoft guns to bb guns to 22 rifle?

DD is taking a dual enrolled sociology class. She has learned that for every 10% increase in the number of choices we have, there is a 2% decrease in the number of people who decide. So yes, some people just don't make a decision at all. Because, she learned, that the more choices we have, the harder it is to make a choice. People don't actually like having a billion things to choose from. All to say, I hear ya!

I've seen a new (to me anyway) color combination of royal blue and orange. At first I didn't like it, now it's growing on me.

I don't like vests either. They don't keep me warm enough. I can't say I've seen many in real life, but they are certainly all over the shopping sites I frequent. Maybe she though fruit wasn't "enough"?

I was just going to ask about a preorder list. Off to Amazon now... ETA: does anyone see it not in large print?

It worked out for us by accident. We had the tv on, the game hadn't actually started yet when the pizza came out of the oven. Since the Super Bowl ads are so good, we hit pause instead of mute. Serving food took long enough that we were able to hit the jump forward button on the dvr remote all through the game. We skipped the Victoria's Secret, 50 Shades of Grey, at least 2 others. I wish we had jumped through the glue commercial. Lock Tight. There was another one too. We didn't get the Cral's Jr ad here at all. The Hardee's one we did get had a buxon blonde, but no where near as questionable. Anyway, the pause on the dvr helped get through bad ads.

These are the ones inside PetSmart. Do I remember reading that they aren't very good? Or was it related to grooming services. I don't remember where I read it, but it was a few years ago. I think the original post was unsafe grooming practices but then in a reply was something about not good vet services as well. I used to do really well with getting my pets vet care. But then the house call vet stopped serving and I haven't been good about getting the critters loaded up and out the door. All three needs their rabies vax. I'm searching house call vets as well but if I need to load up, I don't want to go somewhere that's not good.

My one caution on the cruise is to check the ages of the kid rooms. When we went on a Disney cruise, ds loved the kid room for his age. I was perfect for him. It was the 8-12 room. Middle dd however hated it. She was 12. The activities in the 8-12 room were too young for her. But she wasn't old enough for the teen room. Oldest was old enough for the teen room at 14. But we didn't want her to be the only one she knew in the room of kids up to 18. We toured the teen room before it was open - it was available for just that purpose. We felt at the time that there were too many walls, too many places kids could be unseen. (Remember this was our oldest, we were still extremely protective. We have calmed down a lot since.) If the two girls could have gone together, we would have allowed it. Now that all being said, we enjoyed our Disney cruise. I can agree with what Jennifer said about service and all.

This list is funny when you have high schoolers. My kids still do some of these. They don't answer the phone unless it's my number of dh's. (we have caller id.) They don't go outside, much. In fact I had to laugh, ds wouldn't come near the house once when I was home so that one of those door-to-door people wouldn't come to our door. "They would know you were home if I came near our house!" "DS," says I,"you are 6 ft tall and in high school, you are allowed to be outside when no one is home." Yes, this was just last fall.

According to college dd, this finding thing is a unique mom talent. She had lost her acceptance to the German university paper. She HAD to have it to check in. I mean like required to have in hand. She looked in her room, through all her stuff for a day or two. I found in under 5 minutes. Middle dd, high school senior, is really close to saying the same thing.

We are conservative Christian, in a denomination not known for that. Our oldest is at NCSU. The summer after her freshman year she questioned if she was a Christian or not. She took Christian off her label on Twitter. Personally, I was there. I saw her grow up. I saw the decisions she made and how she made them. I saw her heart on her sleeve for a friend. Once she and I talked about it, I pointed all these things out to her. Fall of sophomore year she started attending church with friends. She didn't go to the big campus ministry anymore, she found a smaller one that fit better with what she believes. She is in Germany for a semester and she is on the look-out for a church there. She doesn't like the church we as a family go to. But she doesn't have to. I don't want to be denomination locked. I want to be Christ locked. She is making her faith her own. And isn't that what we as parents want for our kids? I'm saying all this to try and reassure you. Just because they go to a non-conservative uni and they walk away, that doesn't mean they stay away from their faith. They may come back stronger in their faith anyway. (Not saying she did. But her faith is her own now. She tested it, she tried it, she passed in her own mind.) ETA: spelling mistake

DH bought us all iPhones in December. We wouldn't allow the kids to even touch theirs until we had LifeProof or OtterBox cases for them. I ordered a cheap case until I could decide which Kate Spade case I wanted. They are about 1/2 price of a LifeProof. Well now I decided I don't want a Kate Spade case. I got to thinking... I had a KS case on my 4 and dropped it. The case did it's job, the phone was fine! But the case split into 5 pieces. So then I needed to buy a new case. If I'm going to drop it once and have to buy a new case, just spend the money and buy a sturdier case the first time. Since I had a cheap case, I was waiting for someone to have a red case. LifeProof was taking so long, I'd just decided to get the Otterbox blue polka dot case. LifeProof finally has a red case which I've been waiting for. So now what? Red squarish LifeProof or blue polka dot rounded OtterBox? see - silly, frivolous.

For my oldest's 18th I gave her 18 x, 17 y, 16 z.... And I was planning on doing the same with middle. Counting down to the *1* big gift. But I think I like this idea better! But since I did an 18 count down, I may need 18 symbols...