I say creek, with a long E. I live in PA, but grew up in northern VA, where most of our creeks are called runs (like the famous Bull Run of Civil War fame.) Just to confuse the issue a bit.

I'd give it a shot and keep whatever works best for your family. We are currently involved in cub scouts, two boy scout troops, Pony Club (has a schedule similar to 4H/Scouts), and church youth group. We pick and choose when we have a conflict, but I think most groups understand you can't do every.single.activity. Each group serves a different purpose for the kids and we love them all. It's busy but doable.

$58,904 (in 2015)

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: Praying for better news soon.

I am an hourly employee at a hospital and I work nightshift. I've worked every time change night for the past 9 years (and I'm off this weekend - woot! woot!) Our hospital pays for hours worked; so for spring time change, I work and get paid for 11 hours, and for fall, I work and get paid 13 hours.

My DH had his out when he was about 35. His experience was surprisingly easy - we were prepared for a difficult recovery, but he was back to work in a week. Having them out has made a very noticeable difference in his health.

We dyed my son's hair (light brown, dyed red) for Halloween with a mousse-type color that rinsed out easily with one wash. I believe it's called Fanci-Full, we found it at Sally's. Warning, it smells like old lady powder. However, it did the job inexpensively and didn't leave any trace of color when we washed it out.

We recently upsized to an Expedition EL and the best thing about it is that all eight seats are comfortable (even the middle of the third row! I tried it!) Third row visibility is excellent as well, which is important as every.single.kid in our family gets car sick. For reference, we have 4 kids: one adult-sized, one medium sized, one in a car seat, and one in a full back booster. We frequently haul a bunch of kids around and fill all 8 seats, no one minds sitting next to the monster car seat. Downside, it's too large for our garage so it's a driveway-only vehicle (too tall.)

:grouphug: I am so sorry.

We have owned 2 Sedonas in the past (with some overlap between them.) One was a 2007, purchased one year used, one was a 2012, purchased new. We loved them both. They were both very reliable and had no major repair issues except for an A/C problem in the 2007 that occurred while still under warranty. They were both unfortunately totaled in accidents (not at the same time, and they both did well in a crash, no injuries in either accident) and had we not needed to move up in vehicle size we would have happily purchased another Sedona.

Unseasonably warm. 50s during the day, 40s at night. Too much rain, so everything is muddy. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will get some snow this winter. No hope of that in the next 10 days, according to the forecast, but maybe February?

That sounds like madness. Our pack was the same size last year and our derby started at noon and racing wasn't over until 4. I can't imagine having to make the cars before hand as well. Our district does host a workshop early in January to help kids build cars, a great idea for families that don't have access to fancy equipment and tools.

I'm so sorry. Sending love and prayers to you and your family. :grouphug:

I wouldn't hesitate to visit several barns/instructors before making a decision. I like to know that an instructor's expectations are in line with my own (things like time commitment, shows, etc.) Ditto the safety comment. I wanted my kids to appreciate the entire experience and the off-the-horse work has been just as important as the riding. Let your kids see what opportunities are available with each type of riding (English vs. Western.) I think that generally speaking it's easier to start English and transition to Western if desired rather than the other way around. Definitely buy your own helmets. We started with just boots and helmets before adding other gear (kids rode in jeans to start.) Prices are going to vary tremendously depending on where you live and what kind of facility you find. Ask around for recommendations.

Ditto finding shoes online. When DS was in weird sizes, that seemed to be the easiest for us, as our brick-and-mortar shopping here leaves a lot to be desired. Boy clothing sizes are just as wonky as boy shoe sizes. They change so quickly and dramatically at this age. DS went from a 12 husky in pants to a 14 slim to a 16 regular in the space of 6 months. He is now an 18 for pants and a men's small for shirts. It will honestly be a relief to have in fully in men's sizes because they are easier to find around here than boys clothing in larger sizes.

Mine also sleeps about 11-12 hours a night (wakes up on his own, no alarm.) Obviously, some days he needs to get up early and gets a lot less. He's pretty tired those days and ends up taking naps (and he'll nap just about anywhere.)

Nope. I had a bad tamale-related experience that involved food poisoning and throwing up on an airplane on the way to meet my future in-laws.

Our past 3 cars were all bought out of state. Most recently we bought a car in NY, about 6 hours away. The price was about $3000 less than we could find locally (big SUV, and our specifications were pretty specific, so not a lot available in general.) Even with the overnight in a hotel, it was worth the trip. The experience was overwhelmingly positive. The salesman at the dealership was interested in getting us as much information as he could prior to us making the trip. The day before we drove up, we facetimed and took an extensive "tour" of the vehicle. When we arrived, we took a long (over an hour) test drive, put car seats in and out, etc. The paperwork was ready to complete before we arrived, so the paperwork portion of our trip was only about 30 minutes. Went out to lunch and drove home. Easy. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

My personal, unscientific opinion: I always felt that having more control over the vehicle helped my motion sickness - I could anticipate turns/dips/stopping/etc. more easily (also minimize some of those things.) Also, keeping my eyes focused on the road ahead always helped me, even when sitting in the passengers seat. This is easier for me to do (and kind of essential!) when driving.

I love Alton Brown's shepherd's pie recipe....it's in the oven right now, in fact. We use ground beef, officially making it a cottage pie. Either way, it's a winner.

What a lousy week. :grouphug: Hope you have a speedy recovery.

We've used the baby bjorn potty for all 4 kids (not the tiny one, the larger size with a seat back.) It worked well for my younger/smaller kids, is super easy to clean, and very durable (anything that lasts 12+ years in our house has to be well made.) The worst potty we used was a bells-and-whistles singing potty that had a bazillion parts and ate batteries like candy - it was a gift.

It's been a hit at our house. I'm using it with my first grader and my fourth grader. The format (videos, hands-on, minimal writing) is perfect for my fourth grader, who is dyslexic/dysgraphic. We do the extra activities/books to beef it up for him. The material is engaging. It's the first science that gets done at our house on a regular basis. We completed two full mysteries in the first 3 weeks of school - that's practically a miracle.

York County is a great place to live. York City is not. The downtown area (which is fairly small) has a lot of crime. Fortunately, the vast majority of the crime is isolated to specific areas. (When we first moved here, I worked in the local ER. Great way to learn all the negative stuff about your community in a very short amount of time. That said, I've worked in York City for almost a decade and haven't had any issues.) Parts of downtown are great and have fun stuff - a minor league baseball team, a really nice theatre with an excellent local symphony, some nice restaurants, York College, etc. I wouldn't classify this area as economically depressed, most just average. York County has lots of great areas. If you're looking at specific areas, feel free to ask specific questions; the only school district in the county I would never buy a house in is York City (there are 15 or so districts.) We live in the NW part of the county and do most of our homeschool stuff in the Harrisburg area. Our coop is in Camp Hill, we've done things with HAHA. The YHSA group is a religious coop and we have been excluded from that one, so I don't know much about them. If we had to do things over again, we wouldn't worry as much about our commutes as we did. That was a big factor in leaving our previous home (No.VA) and we were adamantly opposed to driving long distances for work. That said, traffic here, compared to any major metro area, is practically nonexistent. We could live anywhere in the area and still have a reasonable commute to work. If I had to choose again, I'd live further out in the sticks and have a little farm, but that wasn't on my radar when we moved here. Or I'd go over the river to Lancaster County and live in Lititz, because it's just that adorable.

I spent several years working in the Emergency Room. The first year, I was sick all.the.time. Constantly. (Keep in mind I'd already worked in hospitals for several years prior to this. The ER is a germ fest like no other.) After the first year, I rarely caught anything. Between having little kids who go to preschool and hanging out with the sick people in our community, I think I've built up an immunity to most of the common viruses and, to this day, rarely catch what's going around.