I'll try to keep this short because after I've read this thread, I realize how easy my family has had it. DH and I never talked about religion before marriage and our early years. The only reason I can think of is because we were apathetic agnostics. We didn't get married in his childhood church because he didn't care to (I didn't know at the time that I would have had to convert). When dd was born, MIL became obsessed with her christening. I didn't have an opinion either way, and dh's only stipulations were that he wanted both his childhood pastors there. DH loves his pastors. One is much older, retired, but dh has fond memories of him. The other showed up right before his confirmation and dh had really great conversations with him. Anyway, he wanted both there. It was a nice little gathering of family. Except for dd. She screamed through the whole thing. I'm guessing that was a little bit of foreshadowing. :tongue_smilie: For her first few years of life, I thought of nothing but religion and spirituality. I knew that there was something missing in my brain that prevented me from suspending disbelief. I dabbled in Paganism and Buddhism. On very good days, especially when I'm near the ocean, I fancy myself a bit of a pantheist. Anyway, I searched out HSing groups when dd was 4, looking specifically for secular or inclusive groups. I think this is very important when you're newly on a path and want to find some like-minded folks. This makes it easier when your family finds out. We never officially came out. DH's sister lived with us briefly when dd was a baby and we'd have discussions about religion. I don't think it ever came out that I was an atheist at that point, but she knew that I wasn't Christian. It didn't seem to bother her. She was a Christian, but we were both liberals, so we talked about quite a few other things as well. As we sort of grew older and had conversations with different family members, but not so much saying we were atheist, but just 'non-religious', folks started coming out of the woodwork. Two of my sisters, three of my cousins, and my grandfather all sort of came out to me. Except for my grandfather, the rest are about still hiding, mostly from IL's. When are youngest was born, we discussed baptism for her. We wanted to get on the same page before MIL started up. We agreed that we'd allow it with the same conditions as before, except the older pastor wasn't able, which was fine. He's in his 90's and doesn't get out much anymore. Shortly after dd was born, the other pastor was voted out of the church. From what DH tells me (from gossip from his parents and cousins) is that the pastor refused to disallow a lesbian couple to attend service. DH found out from his dad that he and his mother voted for him to leave. DH said no to the baptism. DH's mom said that she voted against him because he hadn't been very attentive with the elderly members lately(going to their homes when they couldn't come to church), but since we got the church bulletin every month, we knew that his daughter had given birth two months early 100 miles away. This man was the pastor who married one of her children and he laid her to rest when she was killed in a car accident 7 years ago. DH was hurt on his behalf to be run off from the church he'd worked for two decades. I think when we were firm with our 'no', MIL kind of figured it out. Last year MIL confronted DH about it. He was truthful. She was upset that he didn't believe that he'd see his sister again. He tried unsuccessfully to convince her that he was happy with the time he got with her. He told her because he didn't believe in an afterlife, it made him appreciate the time he gets now. It gets easier.

Having someone else's unpotty-trained 3.5 yo for the weekend cooled me for the foreseeable future.

A couple years ago, I would have said Macbook Pro, but now I'd say if she's even the least bit interested in techy stuff or a little bit knowledgeable, get a 12"-14" Windows notebook and dual-boot it with Ubuntu. And either a new Nexus 7 tablet, or one of the new Galaxy 2 10.1 tablets coming out (might have already). My 4.5 yo netbook is still going strong with Ubuntu.

Oh. I totally get why people spew wine/coffee/moonshine all over their keyboards. Thanks for that. This is the funniest thing I've ever read on the internet.

I gave birth to my oldest 14 years ago in a birthing center in Austin, TX. Breastfeeding was assumed. My only real complaint, is the assumption that it's easy. Because it was so *easy*, I had a pretty horrible time with my first because while everything worked with a lactation consultant, it never went smoothly at home. I spent months crying at the breast pump because I felt like a failure. I wanted to nurse, not because I'd been brainwashed with the evils of formula (well, formula companies), but because I felt a great instinct to do it. And it was rough to have a screaming starving baby and just having to give up because I didn't know what to do. I can't remember when I started with the formula, but I wished I'd had the internet back then, because it was the single deciding factor in me being able to nurse my youngest successfully. She was only marginally better at nursing than her big sister, but the day my milk came in was a pretty emotional day for me, but we persevered and became old pros. I helped my sister and my cousin get through the first hurdles, so it makes me think that it isn't an uncommon problem. I would hope that the nursing staff would be appropriately trained and have plenty of lactation consultants doing the rounds. It's one thing to say you have to nurse because that's the best thing, but another if you aren't taught. I'm betting many women think they had to use formula because they weren't coached through the nursing process and thought that something must be wrong. I remember several people saying that they had to give their baby a bottle because they weren't producing milk the day of the birth.

Carpal Tunnel. Don't know about the ankle, though. Cheapy wrist braces help me along with trying to prevent what was aggravating it. Heavy cooking/baking and using desktop computers with a mouse are the main culprits for me as well as breastfeeding. I just suffered through that and have DH help me with heavy stuff if I need it. Haven't had a desktop for years. Oh, and ibuprofen helped very temporarily. If I was suffering I *had* to sleep with the brace, because sleeping only exacerbated it for me.

It doesn't have to be diamonds at all. It could be meaningful gemstones. DH and I got matching rings a couple years ago. Comfort fit made all the difference in him wearing it consistently. I don't think he's ever taken it off except to rub lotion on my feet. Also, our rings are stainless steel as he developed some strange thing to gold and I liked them, so I got them. I think we were out $75 for the both of them, engravings and all.

If it's on the underside, I wouldn't even worry about it, especially if the rule came out after she did it.

Reminds me of when Tim Minchin was in Dallas last year and the company who he rented a piano from canceled because they watched some of his videos on youtube. They sent him an interesting e-mail.

No. Are these the brownies with the frosting? I love those things. I would use very soft butter if I didn't have a suitable oil. IIRC water is also required.

I use light olive oil when baking sweets, not EVOO.

Maybe one day we can think of a word that would be fitting. The fact that it's coming down to a word is troubling to me. It can be called anything on the planet, but I guarantee, that instead of making up a new verb, married is what people will call themselves. People can say all day long that homosexuals aren't indeed married even though they have a civil union. That it's not the same. What would be the real point of that?

I voted 'Maybe'. In this instance I might have assumed that he had some boundary issues. I have an uncle like that. But no, I wouldn't have let the man hold my baby. I do sometimes have problems restraining myself from touching babies in public, though. Luckily, I'm satisfied with with just a look. :tongue_smilie: One day at Target, we walked past a woman with her little teeny baby, and my 4yo was sitting in the cart and she said, 'Awwwww' and I said, 'I know, right. That baby looks tasty' and she said, all scandalized and very loudly, 'Mama, we don't eat babies!' :lol: But, the maybe bit is that I have asked to hold two babies before. They were women that I had just met, but were friends of friends that I'd likely never see again. One looked frazzled and was trying to get her olders in line (it was a BBQ), and the other was on Halloween, where the girlfriend of a friend of my cousin who was new to the area. She came over and we all got ready to trick or treat and neither my husband nor myself could resist holding her. I guess though since we were going to be spending the evening with both these people it wasn't really that strange.

I use Anobii.

Children are allowed in our room and bed at any time except if the door is locked with us behind it. Oldest was in our room until she was 9 and baby moved in with her at 3, I think. It's weird, but I don't remember my parent's room growing up and don't remember any rules. I'd have to ask my dad. They split when I was 11. I do remember cosleeping with my grandparents (dad's parents) when I was younger and when I got a little bigger, I would sleep on the floor next to my Memaw and hold her hand. I was about 10 when I slept in the guestroom. DH's dad was a truck driver, so he slept with his mom quite a lot. He was the baby.

The sofa was all I could think of at first. But, then I remembered. Drive-thru car wash. Not that crazy, right? BUT. This was in Williamson County, Texas. We are so wild.

Walmart varies greatly. The main reason I don't go to Wal-mart much anymore is because it brings out the worst in me. I don't spank. I am anti-spanking. When I'm in Walmart, particularly around the holidays (and I go late to avoid the crowds), that stance changes. And I'm not talking about my own kids. I hate feeling like that.

Same here, except for CFA. I haven't been there in over a year, though, and won't be going back. On mornings when I'd want the car, and I'd take dh to work, I'd always go pick up a bunch of little chicken minis. They are served on these little yeasty roll biscuit things that are so so so good. I must find a copy cat recipe.

Would you be able to buy one from Amazon? Maybe if you Googled 'personal massagers that ship to whatever state you're in' Trying to help a girl out, here.

750sf is about as low as I can go for now with books and 2 kids. We have just under 1,000sf now and it is perfect. I like smaller spaces, but I also like to live in urban areas, so land would probably tack on quite a bit to the cost. We have a tiny house place just east of San Antonio. I looked at a couple of their houses. One was $65,000, and the other wasn't too much lower than that. They were around 250sf. I imagine the price had to do with custom amenities and green materials, but i didn't look too much into it. When dh and I were dating, he had a studio apt. in Austin. It was about 400sf. The electricity bill was $20 a month.

It totally matches. Why wouldn't it? The handles on the fridge are very nice.

I was thinking about this some today. How I survive Texas (being a liberal) is to stay near the heart of larger cities. Houston has generally been conservative, but last election was about 50/50 because of the increase of minority turn-out. We also elected a democratic gay female mayor. The suburbs are pretty conservative, though. I don't know enough about the suburbs of San Antonio, yet. I just know the voting record for the city. Austin is liberal, but some short miles north in Williamson Co. is not. I think a suburb would probably be her best bet.

We've never had any issues with AT&T until the last two weeks. DH tried to order a phone for him 2 weeks ago online. There was a web special. He tried 3 times. Each time it charged our card $1. I'll have to ask him later if it dropped off. He ended up calling, but since it was a web special, they wouldn't let him have it. Since there was 2 phones that he was choosing between he went with the other one. Phone was $10. They said they'd add it to the bill. No problem. Received phone. The camera didn't work. Called AT&T. Ordered new phone, sent broken one back. Then received working phone. Today we received a phone bill for $650 (it's usually around $225 for 4 lines (3 with internet and unlimited texting). They charged him $150 each for both phones and activation for both. My calm collected husband is no more. He was on the phone with them all morning. No resolution, yet.

Houston. Only because Austin and San Antonio are a bit more liberal.

We don't have hard and fast rules for the 14 yo. She mostly drinks water or green tea. Sometimes she'll make a cold coffee milk from whatever's leftover from the pot. Her favorite soda is ginger ale. I don't go to Whole Foods very often, but when I do I will pick up a couple of 6-packs of their ginger ale. If we go eat and they don't have ginger ale, she'll get a DP or RB. Occasionally she'll get tea. We keep cane sugar soda for DH. He has a corn intolerance. This is his only vice. DD will sometimes steal one of his cokes, but it takes her 3 days to get through it. The 4yo thankfully doesn't like carbonated drinks. She drinks water and milk. Sometimes green tea. She only gets juice if we eat out. You can't leave coffee unattended, which is a pain, though. I even switched to espresso for awhile to deter her. It didn't work.