Even more gross is the ladies who put their purse on that disgusting floor....and then carry that same purse home and put it on their kitchen counter. Saw a report once where they put a sterlized purse onto a mall bathroom floor for 1 minute, then set it on a table for 1 minute, then tested the table for germs. They found ecoli and I don't remember what all, but it was some serious germs. So if setting a purse on the floor for a minute created that much, imagine what previous posters foot did......and of course SHE is now putting those germs on the sink....and whereever else her foot lands trying to get it up there!! I use papertowels to hold it down for my kids and then they do the same for me. I then dry my hands with paper towels and keep it to open the door, cause you know those folks that didn't wash up used that handle. Which means the lady who used her foot to avoid the faucet, got a handful when she opened the door! I just wish that public facilities were cleaned more often. You can usually tell by the overflowing trash that it's been a long time! I avoid them as much as possible....unfortunately as I grow older my bladder is making it more difficult to do a day of errands without having to go, lol.

I have used several of these. There are 5 stories in each volume....each story has probably 8-10 pages...but they are double spaced and lots of white, so it's not nearly as deep of a study as 8 pages might imply. They have vocabulary, questions and some ideas for activities. There are no answers to the questions because they are pretty open ended questions....I'd call them more discussion questions than comprehension. Why did the character do this, was it right or wrong, how do you feel about it.......that type of thing. It definitely helped guide a discussion about the book, but you have to come up with the answers or should I say, you need to have read the book as well to be able to discuss the answers intelligently with your children. For 2nd and 4th that shouldn't be a problem, but the older grades you may not always be reading along with your child and then if you don't know the story well it's difficult to really gauge if they "got" it or not. Check with your library for these, but check by Janice Montgomery, the author as they had another title when they were originally published Novel Ties or something like that. My library has the whole set, so you may also want to try an Interlibrary Loan, as I know our library participates. I have also used many many of the Teacher Created titles.....my library also has a great deal of these. They are definitely geared for a school setting, but it wasn't too difficult to take their ideas and adapt them for use with just a few students. Each of these books are about 40-50 pages, and have much more information inside them. Of course, some of that information is "about the author" and "about the story" which you can usually find on the back of the book itself. That probably takes up 4 or 5 pages. They also have a lot more in the way of activities for each book than Inside Stories does. They are also a bit more worksheet oriented. These should definitely be available at almost any teacher supply store, so you may want to go look them over before buying. Each volume that I've used is set up pretty much the same, so even if you are only able to preview a story that you don't intend to use, you'll be able to get a good feel for what they are like. Sign up for their online newsletter as they often have discounts and specials. We liked the Logos books quite a bit more than Inside Stories. They have what I consider true comprehension questions, but also the open ended discussion questions. They seem "meatier" (of course many of the books chosen are too). Other publishers like Evan Moore and Carson Dellosa have a few titles, but they also have a lot more activity type books if not for the book itself for the subject matter. Scholastic has quite a few titles but seem rather superficial the few that I tried.

Perhaps you could talk to your DH about making Saturday YOUR Mother's Day (or the next weekend if two big dinners in one weekend is too many calories, lol). I totally respect my DH's desire to honor his Mom....but I also made it clear that "I" was a mother as well and needed to be honored in a similiar fashion. So now the 2nd Sunday of May is "OUR MOM" day to my children. We do stuff with Grandma on the traditional Mother's Day and I get my own. MIL knows about it and thinks it's wonderful because she knows that our ideas of what makes a good Mother's Day are different.....she wants family and friends and big celebrations....I want cuddle hour + in bed, movie day and whatever the kids are capable of cooking for dinner (I enjoy this more as they've grown older and more capable.....PB&J when they were in Kinder was sentimentally delicious, but lacking in the "good food" category, last year was homemade spaghetti and "from scratch" bread...a vast improvement!). My kids know that to me this is not about buying a gift, and so they don't....I do want handmade cards (store bought to me always say "I was in a hurry and just grabbed something", lol). Other than that I want what money can't buy.....love and time spent together. Of course, I feel that way about my birthday and Christmas as well. I don't tend to make a super big deal out of their birthdays either.....yes, they're the "person of the day" and things like activities and meals are centered around them, but we don't tend to do "non immediate family" parties. To us it's about honoring them, the fact that they're here and we're glad, not about shopping for a present. Oh....and if your husband is like mine, though he may be sweet and kind hearted....he's also clueless. I dropped hints for 4 years that I wanted my own Mother's Day celebration and then the next year when he told me what time Grandma's party was scheduled for, I decided no more hints....I came right out and said, that's great, but can we please choose a day for our then toddler to celebrate ME not grandma. I still remember the surprised look on his face and his quick "sure, we could do that". So....if subtle doesn't work, try saying "on Sunday, May 17 we're going to Olive Garden to celebrate ME as a mother". And then call and make reservations. Edited to add: Oh yeah...and another good reason to celebrate on a different date....less crowds! I can't imagine going to a restaurant on Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. The wait to be seated, the wait to order, the wait for food....not to mention the noise level would negate any celebration for me. We do Valentine's Day on the weekend AFTER President's Day weekend...less crowds, cheaper prices on hotels and travel, and a bonus since my DH insists on buying a silly Valentine stuffed something for me (a crazy tradition I can't get him to stop, but love) they are 50% off.

Just an FYI...Mosaic so far only covers Ancient and Middle Ages and there is actually a thread happening right now on their yahoogroup that the creator of Mosaic is not planning to prepare the Early Modern set in the foreseeable future (health reasons). THere is discussion among the current users to brainstorm together to get reading lists and such together, but as of now there won't be a complete unit for Early Modern (or Modern) in the next year or two. OP said they were going to be doing what amounts to Early Modern. Given the young ages of your children, my personal preference would be to use something in the Category 2. We did SOTW when my kids were that age and it was plenty of coverage for that age.....for older kids I think delving deeper (i.e. something in your Category 3) would be good. But at this young age you want to give them enough to make it rigorous and not fluff, but not so much that you drain the fun out of it at such a young age. Give them enough to stay excited about it and then the second go-round make it a bit more deep. Just my penny worth (recession value of course).

Ask your local police department for a referral. Private investigators often work closely with the police departments so they'll know which ones are good at what they do and which ones generate billing statements.

Or if you didn't get to it yesterday and today is going to be another full day....sometimes 2am is the only time not filled in on my calendar. And besides, what else could I be doing at that time. Sleep? Nah, I'm a mom. Seriously....probably the very best part time job I ever had was delivering newspapers.....went to get the papers at 2am, finished delivering by 5am....pay was decent but the fact was that this was the only time I had available....while hubby slept and therefore was home with the little ones, so he could work full time and I wasn't missing family time by working all day on weekends. Of course, sleep deprivation and I have always been best friends.

:grouphug: for your loss:grouphug: I agree with the others.....you should CELEBRATE her life. You can't be there for the actual burial, but there is nothing that says you can't have a memorial service for all those who knew and loved her. I think I would wait and go to visit her AFTER the party. Go with joy in your heart over the life that she lived and the joy that she was....rather than visiting her with anger and hurt and sadness. Doesn't sound like she'd like the sadness brought to her. There probably isn't much you can ever do to right the wrong, but you don't have to allow her son to sully the memory of this loving, warm and generous woman. We live on in those who love us....we are dead and buried to those who didn't.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Many states have their prison list available online. Some are easier to search than others, but at least it's free. You might start with the state where you last knew he was located and then branch out to states around that one. I know this because my brother disappeared from view for quite a long time and that's how I found him. :crying: Before you begin such a search though, you need to consider whether knowing the truth will give you closure or if you're going to open yourself up for even more heartache. I know the heartache of not knowing if he's dead or alive, hurting or ok, is excruciating, but are you prepared for what may be the truth? I wasn't with my brother....or should I say with the creature I found in prison. He's not the person I grew up with and never will be (according to the pysch folks). Drugs aren't always reversible. I know the pain my sister and I went through (both my parents are gone)....and the pain we still have after much counseling about the truth.......I can't imagine the extra pain if it was one of my children. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

Walmart is open 24 hours, so is one of the Fry's and several of the Safeway's around here. I've been to the Walmart in the middle of the night a couple of times and am always shocked with how many kids are there! Nothing like during the day of course, but wide awake running around kids every time. And yeah...the obstacle course that is normally an aisle is always fun to navigate, but hey, the music is better (and louder) and the employees actually seem happy.

I've always read that overuse of those products is causing a lot of the diseases to mutate and become immune to antibiodics and our own natural immunities. I have to say that since I stopped using them umpteen times a day (after being told all this by our doctor after pulling it out to gel the kids up in his waiting room, lol...and researching his statements online)and instead make the kids wash their hands with warm water and soap at every opportunity (to the tune of 3 choruses of Old MacDonald to get your 20 seconds in), we haven't spread the ick among household members nearly as often. I truly thought that Economy Size gel was a godsend, but please, talk to your doctor about whether it is giving you a false sense of safety and perhaps doing more harm than good. It sounds like you guys catch everything pretty easy like we used to.....and now that I've become a bit more germophobic and less chemical dependent :lol: we are actually catching much less. The truly amazing is that now if one member of the house gets sick, it's not automatic for all of us to eventually get it. So...how many of you make your kids wash their hands while out and about? It amazes me how many parents don't do this after their kid uses the toilet, let alone how 99% seem to come in to a restaurant and not wash up! We wash up after ordering (ick on menus or counters). I also remind my kids a zillion times a day to keep their hands away from their face/mouth/eyes/nose. Sigh...that's probably the hardest, lol. Sheesh...proof read this and I sound like a total weirdo. I guess I never realized how germophobic I truly am, lol. I typed that above more as a joke, but maybe it's true. :tongue_smilie::chillpill:

Hmmm...I'm still trying to wrap my head around this logic, lol. Ok...so next time your DH has a fever, vomiting, etc, this guy would rather he show up at work than go to the doctor. Gosh, I'm glad "I" don't work there!! This world situation is not going to get better fast because so many people have the same "me" attitude as described here, or worse, have a boss like your DH. The only real way to stop the spread is to not have infected folks in contact with non-infected folks. Let the bug die a natural death instead of giving it more to feed on. But that's not likely to happen in our society today. Our news today showed a story about a couple who are getting married in Mexico this weekend and they are angry because so many of their guests are cancelling on them!! The anger is because they've already paid for the reception and now all this food will go to waste and the caterer won't give them a refund because he's already bought the food. I can so sympathize with outside influences messing up your "big day".....our outdoor wedding was brought indoors by a hurricane (which thankfully didn't hit us, but the rain was heavy) and most of the guests didn't show up because it was too dangerous to travel. I thought it was an omen from God, lol. But my upset wasn't on the wasted food....it was the "perfect" day that wasn't so perfect anymore. Tonight's news also announced that a high school about 2 miles away was closed for a week because of two cases and all the parents interviewed are complaining about what to do with their kids since they have to work. I can almost guarantee that all those kids, who should be quarentined are gonna be hanging out at the park and the mall (places I plan to avoid now). I seriously doubt that many of the parents will require their child to stay home and "away from groups of other students" like the Superintendent has advised. It's a holiday for them! So...we'll be quarantined now.

I hear you! I stopped being a Sunday School teacher because I was tired of dealing with kids so sick that all they wanted to do was lay on the floor and sleep. But mom/dad felt they "needed" to be at church (and Sunday school) because it was Sunday. Pastor's gentle requests went unheeded. Me...I wanted to shout...Yo...people....God will still love and bless your child if they stay home on Sunday with a cold! Yep, he will. And it means that the rest of us can continue our good works throughout the week instead of being sick all winter long. I'll tell you....I used to spend most winters with more sick days than feeling good days....then I quite Sunday School and we eventually also stopped going to church (not due to the sick folks, but because of the politics and other worship-interferring junk). Now that we "church at home".....the last two winters I've had a single cold the first year....and this past winter....not a single day of being in bed due to illness. Not one day. Consider home church with like minded folks......ones who feel the same about worship and want to bring the blessings not the illness and politics to the event. It's truly as close to heaven as I can get right now.

Ok, I totally understand feeling obligated to my kids......but come on, lol....a preschooler is going to have no concept about whether library storytime day is today or yesterday or next month. Skip a week and the kid woudn't have a clue. I had three kids under the age of 3 when my DH was shipped off for a 4 month assignment.....that was rough enough.....coming down with the flu (and having no family in the same state, and we'd only been there about 2 months so no true friends yet).....THAT was really rough. All I wanted to do was sleep (and gack)......but those kids needed watching. So....I baby proofed my room by moving everything remotely dangerous into the laundry room.....shut and locked my bedroom door with the babes and me inside......and turned on the television. My kids watched more Pooh bear and other cartoons for about 3 days than they've seen in the decade since then! But...they were safe and nearby....they were occupied and happy.....and I slept off the worst of it. When I woke I fed them easy finger foods. I felt guilty. When my DH made his weekly call and realized what I'd gone through he thought I was a hero for figuring out how to do....he says he'd have called neighbors he didn't even know and farm the kids out, lol. And of course that was when the flu was just the flu....you gacked, you slept, you coughed, you got better eventually. NOT like right now when you could be infecting every toddler in your community and their moms. Heavens.....maybe you need to print out the advice from the CDC's website saying "IF YOU ARE SICK STAY HOME" and tape it to her door for her. The ONLY way that this thing is going to get better is if enough people stay away from everyone else and the germs die a lonely death. As long as we keep passing it around it will only get worse.....and even scarier than that is that the longer it goes around the more chance it will mutate....and they rarely mutate into something better. As for me and mine.....we're concentrating on schoolwork right now....and staying home....and dropping off the library books tomorrow in the drive up slot and not bothering to get more this week. We certainly have enough at home and available free online to keep us going for a long long time. I think I'm going to do the grocery shopping at midnight, lol.

Congrats to the winners! And THANK YOU to OP for your generosity....but also for getting me off my buns to look and see if the library has these, lol. And they do....a 6 DVD set (which I found is also available at Amazon for around $45). So...I'm 2nd in line at the library for this set and now we can watch the entire series. I'm not sure who is more excited, me or the kids, lol. Our local PBS station took this series off for yet another preschool show....got nothing against preschoolers, but PBS seems to cater only to them.....there are only 2 shows (and 1 of those is on at 3am) that are for upper elementary. Guess them preschooler parents are contributing more than us older kids parents, lol. Thanks again!

My dear, you have taken the first step towards understanding. Let it sink in, and then prepare to spout it out a million times over the next 10 years of your child's homeschool adventure!

With all due respect, I have to completely disagree with this idea. Yep, I'd be flaming mad to have someone else's mistake potentially costing me such a pretty penny, but if the club doesn't have the money to send the coaches than insisting that they pony up the cost for your family to go simply isn't going to happen.....and if by some chance the coaches were intimidated enough to try to make the club pay it, well, that wouldn't bode well for the child as word gets out that the club is now without funds because they paid for one person's trip. And much as I wish that people wouldn't make mistakes that affect me personally, well, it happens....and I've been on both the receiving end of that short stick, but I've also made mistakes (because I'm human) that have ended up costing other people time, money, convenience, whatever. When I know that I've messed up I do try to make amends, but honestly, if this had been my error, well, I'd have apologized up one side and down the other, but there is no way my family could cough up $700 to make it right. And since it wasn't likely that it was done intentionally I wouldn't expect someone to do so. However, if it meant my child couldn't compete I'd also want to be sure that the other families understood that my daughter was not completely to blame....not that I like to spread blame, but I also wouldn't want my daughter's future comfort with these families (in or out of the pool) to be sullied over someone else's error. And while OP was admittedly a newbie to all this process, she should bear a small part of the responsiblity for not getting more details and/or making the right connections/arrangements in advance. It sounds like she assumed that her daughter would be able to simply go along and the coaches would watch her, or that another family would welcome the child into their midst. I wouldn't be comfortable with a family I barely know having responsiblity for my child in the first place, but I certainly wouldn't expect that another family or coach would take on this responsiblity without my having talked to them first and gotten their approval (and gotten to know them better to boot). Perhaps if OP had made tenative arrangements early on, even though the date would have changed, she'd have had a better idea of the costs and if there was another family willing to take on the responsiblity of her child. It sounds like all these families knew ahead of time that they were making it a family vacation, and would have been able to tell OP that she was on her own. Then OP could have either dropped out before it would have mattered to the team or have started saving money. The changed date wouldn't have changed the finances, simply would have changed the ability for mom to still attend the other daughter's dance recital. This is an inconveniene, but doesn't appear it would have added cost to the original swim team trip. Had the swim trip gone on the date originally calendared it still would have cost more than the OP wanted to pay. I'm not always known for my grace....lol...but in this case I certainly would hope that I would cut others some slack for an error even when it made my calendar a serious problem. And I certainly wouldn't want them to pay for it. Or maybe in reality, I wouldn't want to be held to that same standard the next time I make a mistake that affects someone else! As I said, no disrespect for Rosy's opinion.....just something that I vehemently disagree with.

How wonderfully generous of you....we'd love to have one. They don't offer this series on TV any longer.

We are about 1/3 of the way through studying all 50 states. We take about 2 weeks (give or take) to study each state and do a lapbook type report. I say "give or take" because some of the states have proven more interesting to us than others so I don't stop us from continuing on....we just keep researching and reading about it until we're done and then move on to another state. Before we started doing these we wrote (or requested via Internet) each State (each state is somewhat different, but google the name of the state and "information" to find the correct department) and requested a packet. Some of them were pretty sparse and others were a box full of information. We tell them that we want to learn the history, culture, tourism and landmarks for their state and happily accept what they send. Our lapbook/scrapbooks contain the typical flag and other symbols, the shape of the state, information on captials and such, but we also have many pages on what makes that state special. And a lot of things we'd like to visit in that state someday. It's always been a dream of mine to travel to each state.....I haven't given up the dream and figure even if we never make all of the states, we'll at least know something about the states if we ever get the chance to go. Some of the lapbooks are pretty thin, a dozen pages at most, and some are big enough to fill a large binder all by themselves. Some of them we have been able to find other homeschoolers to send us postcards or other information. The library of course has lots of great books to read about the history of each state......and AAA has cool maps and tourist stuff, which often include history and customs. It's fun, it's pretty easy though sometimes time consuming when we're really into the state. I figure with our society the way it is the chances are my kids are going to live in several states over the course of their life.....knowing a bit about each one can only be a plus.

I reread the original post and don't see where it says that the dance show is a duet? It sounds like it's only the swimming that a partner is involved?\ And while a group dance might involve a slight change in choreography, it's probably the easier one to change up than a duet in swimming; provided of course the dance instructor is told ASAP. I find it rather odd also that the coaches aren't going. I'd definitely have a lot of questions before I put my child into this particular club again next year. Everyone makes mistakes, so if the competition dates was an error, well, it's frustrating but happens. But coaches not going to support the kids is just sad to me. I'd definitely be talking with the parents of the kids who have been in the club for more than just this year to see if the problem is ongoing....or if it's poor coaches this year. Perhaps these coaches are new and not quite up to the challenge themselves?

You said in your original post that your mom was willing to come and help your DH ......any chance you could pay for Mom to take DD to the swim meet instead? Given what you said above about the coach's poor judgment.....ok, and my own personal over protective nature, lol.....I don't know that I'd ever feel comfortable sending my daughter off on an overnight trip with someone I wasn't quite close to....and even less so if they'd shown poor judgment in the past!

According to the CDC's website (http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/key_facts.htm): What are the symptoms of swine flu in humans? The symptoms of swine flu in people are expected to be similar to the symptoms of regular human seasonal influenza and include fever, lethargy, lack of appetite and coughing. Some people with swine flu also have reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Do you have a pillow or cushion or something in the room that is the shade you'd like on the walls? If so, take it to Home Depot and they will match it nearly exactly. I've done this several times and been happy with the results. THe biggest problem I've run into is that this pillow looks good in the room but the paint of the same color can sometimes be too overpowering in color. So I end up repainting and going with the coordinating pillow instead, lol.

Definitely contact either a hospital or his physician first thing in the morning. From the reports that I have been reading there is a drug, Tamiflu or something like that and another one that starts with an R......both of these have been successful in treating the other people in the US. They were also reporting that they had 50 million doses available, but that some areas may need to order them because they don't keep on hand. And that the earlier people receive the drug the less severe the case. Praying.

Sounds like it's time for a family meeting to discuss these issues. While I totally understand your concerns about "going back on your word" the fact is that this sometimes happens in life. Not because you want it to, or that you aren't willing to go along with your promise, but, as in this situation, it's not always cut and dried. And sadly that is a lesson that everyone has to deal with at some point. Dealing with it as a family to arrive at the best solution for everyone involved shows both your daughters that you care about their opinion and also that you want them both to realize that they are each important to you, but that sometimes choices have to be made. This isn't likely to be the last time that you have to choose between two events. Personally, I see one of the bigger issues not in letting down either of your daughters, but in letting down the swim partner. She too has worked very hard all year with your daughter and if your daughter doesn't go to the swim meet then this other child will suffer. All the hard work will go for naught and she will have to scramble to come up with a solo routine....assuming that she would be able to even do a solo routine.....I have only been involved in one meet before but the competitors had to register for a specific event...i.e. solo, partner, group, etc....long before the actual event. If this other child is not able to change her registration than your daughter pulling out might disqualify the other child. Yes, a part of me says well family comes first....but in this case should it? If your daughter pulling out of the swim meet would ruin the other child's chances of competing, then it may be one of those obligations that you must face even when it's not your first choice. If the other child won't be adversely affected then at least that eliminates that pull....and then I'd talk with daughter about the financial obligation that you didn't realize before. Yes, she has education money that could be used, but is that the wisest use of the money? What about the dancer's feelings in being left behind? If you can take the other swim child out of the discussion, then you are truly left with a dilemma that needs to be weighed by the entire family so that they all at the very least have a chance to let their feelings be known and dealt with. Sadly, it doesn't sound like there is a way to truly make it good for each daughter, but hopefully they will be able to come to terms with the decision made by the whole family. :grouphug:

Challenging Word Problems