We've had our X-acto electric pencil sharpener for about 7 years now. It sure makes things easier. Occasionally (maybe 2x a year) a pencil lead will get stuck in the grinder, but I just take it apart, clean it out, wipe it down and reassemble it. It takes me just a couple of minutes now; I have it down to a science.

And, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog with Neal Patrick-Harris

I sent her a message late last night, so I'll give her some time. If I don't hear from her soon I'll let you know. Thank you.

Thank you for the link, I was looking everywhere for this. I thought I was crazy and had made it up in my mind since I couldn't find it. Thank you!

Ask her what she wants from you. Does she want you to help her physically, with making dinner, cleaning house, running errands, shopping, or watching her kids? Would she rather have you be there for emotional support, for sitting with her, reading to her, holding her hand, crying with her, laughing with her? Is she a woman of faith? Do you share her faith? Can you pray for and with her? Over the last 4 years I've had 4 very close friends diagnosed with breast cancer, 2 of whom are my cousins. My cousins live (in one case, lived. My cousin Moni passed away after her cancer metastasized) in another state, so I talked to them via Facebook. I sent them care packages with things that would make them comfortable during treatments and recovery from surgery. My two other friends are ladies I know from church, not best friends but ladies I care about. I helped provide dinners, took them care packages, and prayed with them. That's all I can think of right now. Just be her friend, tell her you love her and ask her what she needs from you.

Just wanted to say that my daughter used to get car sick all the time. She's pretty much grown out of it unless we're in the mountains, but when she was younger we used these in the car and even on a whale watching trip and she never got sick. Just in case you find you need some help with that. http://www.scuba.com/US/scuba-gear-151/032054/Trident-Motion-Sickness-Wrist-Bands.html?gclid=CPGSqcXG2b8CFQNsfgod2EkAnQ

My daughter would love it if I could send her some burgers from In-n-Out, but they don't ship well to North Carolina from so.California.

I just pulled out a few pieces from the USA puzzle. It look like some of the states (smaller ones) are combined with other ones. The two I noticed were: New York w/Connecticut Virginia w/West Virginia That leads me to believe that Rhode Island is probably with Massachusetts. That's all I noticed with a quick look.

My mom used to freeze a container of Payton's BBQ (actual bbq pork, beef, chicken ) that's made locally where she lives in Indiana and bring it in her carry on bag on the plane for me when she would come for a visit. It is so delicious and brings back special memories of eating at my grandma's house when I was a kid. The last time I visited I bought a couple of containers of local Indiana maple syrup, packed them very carefully and put them in my suitcase. They made it home safely.

We loved the Geo Toys Geo Puzzles. They aren't wood, but they are very good quality. http://www.amazon.com/GeoPuzzle-U-S-A-Canada-Educational-Geography/dp/B000LFUKV8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405901210&sr=8-5&keywords=geography+puzzles

huh. I thought it was punkin' "chuckin'" as in to toss a pumpkin. Pumpkin chunkin' sounds more like chopping it up into chunks for cooking it. I've always found regional word usage interesting.

My husband is incredibly busy with his FT job and his band, which affords me being able to stay home to homeschool. When he is home I don't want him bothered with school stuff and he isn't really interested in the day-to-day operation of it any way. When he's home I want us to spend time together doing fun stuff and hanging out and talking to each other. If I need advice or am having trouble then he's wonderful to talk to.

Sad. He was one of my dad's favorites. I remember watching repeats of Maverick, and of course The Rockford Files. He seemed like a genuinely nice person.

My 28 year old daughter always knew, from the time she was about the age of your girls, she wanted to work with animals. We always had lots of small animal pets around, hamsters, fish (lots of fish), lizards, birds, a turtle, cats. When she was in high school she took all the science classes she could. Our local high school offered a pre-veterinary science course and she took that. There were lots of opportunities for volunteering and interning. She went to the local community college which is highly regarded for its science courses, then transferred to the four year college which was right next door. It also is a highly regarded science college, especially in animal health sciences which is what she has her BS in. She has been a vet tech for 6 years now. She also has 3 dogs that have come through the vet's office that she rescued and brought home. Hazards of the job, i guess? ;-) When she and her husband moved to AL she started volunteering at the zoo in Birmingham so that she could get some experience with the large and exotic animals. She loved it there and ended up assisting with the giraffes and rhinos. So, I guess I would say that if they have a passion for something try to encourage it and at the very least don't discourage it. It may be a fleeting interest, but it may also be their life's calling.

This looks great. I've been so intimidated by chemistry that I put it off until next year. I am seriously considering this now. Thank you for the information!

For poetry, we LOVE Caroline Kennedy's book A Family of Poems. It is still a family favorite even though my daughter is going into 10th grade this year, and it has beautiful illustrations. To get great suggestions for read-alouds, I always recommend getting The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. Your library probably has a copy if you just want a quick look, but you'll probably end up wanting your own copy.

"I would imagine a dog smelling like vinegar on top of skunk would be pretty awful." Yeah, "skunk salad" would smell pretty awful. We're going to try bathing her again and re-apply the Nature's Remedy.

Do you think using vinegar with the baking soda will help? Rosie still really stinks even with the Nature's remedy.

I will keep this in mind for next time. The only reason I didn't use this recipe yesterday on my friend's dog is because someone here on another board said it could possibly strip the natural color from the dog's hair. I didn't want my friends to come home and find their golden retriever is now a platinum blond! I bought the Nature's Remedy skunk solution at PetSmart yesterday and it works pretty well, although she still has a faint skunk odor this morning.

My mom lives in the country and see this happen all the time. It's such a shame. One time when I was visiting with my older daughter we stopped by the creek so I could show her where we used to play in the creek when I was a kid visiting my grandparents' farm. We saw a young man holding a kitten starting to walk down the path to the creek and I stopped him and asked if he was going to abandon the kitten there. Of course he said no, but I didn't believe him. I said if he didn't want the kitten I'd take it to my mom, so he gave it to me. I knew my mom wouldn't be able to resist him. He is 18 years old now. My mom sees kitties all the time. Sadly, she can't afford to take them in, nor does she want to become the crazy country cat lady with hundreds of cats.

Guess How Much I Love You It took my husband weeks of reading it to our baby daughter before he could get through it without crying.

Adding, I didn't want to post my problem on FB today because I don't want to cause my friend feel bad or to be concerned on her vacation if she should happen to see what I posted. Don't you ladies feel lucky? ;-}

There is too much poop. Although, it does stay outside so that is a point in favor. We are dog sitting a friend's Golden Retriever this week. We have our own dog, who is a dream I must say. We also have two cats. So far this week, the Golden has had diarrhea on my cream colored SHAG rug, my cat who has a thyroid problem has barfed in every room, one cat has diarrhea but at least it's contained to the litter box, and last night the Golden tangled with a skunk in the back yard. Guess who lost that battle? (Actually, I think I lost that battle because I spent an hour making the smell go away as best I can before I head up to the pet store to buy something that will help.) And because of the skunk my daughter's bedroom smells skunky. Calgon, take me away!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry for my animal poop rant, I am losing my mind.)

I've had quite a few things spiral bound at Staples. I've had them take books apart and bind them, and they've taken a pile of notebooking/lapbook pages and bound them together with a cover several times. I find them to be very reasonable in price.

The Holiday is a wonderful romantic comedy. My favorite story line involves Kate Winslet's character and Jack Black and the elderly gentleman who lives next door. Jude Law is adorable and even though there is sex-outside-of-marriage with Cameron Diaz, the story has the best, happiest resolution. My 14 year old daughter and I love it.