I have a friend who did that with her daughter. It was more hassle because of distance, but they did save a lot of money... It's been several years but I don't remember hearing any complaints. My only advise would be to get several opinions about surgery. We were told my oldest would need it and got a second opinion.. the second orthodontist was able to avoid it completely.

That's precious

My baby is 14... I'm no longer homeschooling. I definitely feel lost sometimes.

Loved it

We noticed yesterday that our HVAC system didn't seem to be working for the main part of the house (this house has dual units). The verdict from HVAC is that it's not work piecemeal fixing on a 22yr old system. We just had the upstairs system replaced last year. When we moved out of our own house the system broke the day we were moving out (Good times). The irony is that I had a guy here earlier today giving us an estimate for a fence. Looks like the fence money is going to the HVAC instead. Renting looks better and better all the time.

Another possibility might be the Charismatic Episcopal Church if you have to change.

you have to vote for each section... just pick "My choice is on the other list"... the error message is no help...

I love Strawberry shortcake but I need to avoid gluten.... my go-to strawberry dessert is strawberries with creme. Yum.

I've penciled in the 10th. I should be able to make it.

sounds like we're sisters! It was much less attended to when my kids were little. Then we got a lovely woman to come clean for me 2x per week. She did the main living areas plus my bedroom and bath. It was wonderful. And yes, it was nice to have a clean and tidy room... but since I've stopped using her I've fallen back into my old ways. Now, I do tidy my room every month or so, but my room does tend to be a bit of a dumping ground too. It rarely gets vacuumed because it's a pain to lug the thing up there...but we're getting another vacuum soon and I plan to keep the old one upstairs until it completely dies.

not horrible.... I'd avoid if at all possible.

oh that just makes me so mad!!! Why do people think that's a good way to parent a child?? How awful for you and the boys. :grouphug:

thank you for updating

no it's not hard at all ..esp. right now when college kids are getting ready to go back to college. Most colleges only use x-long beds. Target will most definitely have them right now. But you can also find them online at places like Amazon and Overstock.

We've only had twins for our kids... but my one regret was to not buy them X-long twin beds from the get-go.

I love reading these kinds of stories!! Can't wait to go back and read each one... but for now, I'll jump in with myself... I was raised in a very religious family. I grew up Methodist but when I was 14 my parents got involved with the Charismatic movement. We moved to a church with the whole contemporary Christian music stuff. It was great for a 14yr old. It was a big shift for our family because we lost some friends when my parents did that. I was married at the Charismatic church (although dh and I were actually already going to a different church - we met at that church). For 13yrs we went to a Non-denom./Charismatic/Reformed church. Many of the people at that church had moved from our previous church together (long story). I really appreciated the Reformed theology because our previous non-denom. had become a little weird and it was a little too much "anything goes" theologically. Lots of weird stuff. I appreciated that Calvinism looked to historical interpretations of the Bible (although in retrospect not quite far enough back in history :laugh: ). Our pastor was very careful about following any new movement. He was careful about picking music for the church. Our previous church would just do anything that sounded nice and got people "in the mood." etc. I really appreciated that there was some thoughtfulness behind these things. FF 13ys... it was time to move on. Church had found a building that was not convenient...most of our friends were not going either... it was time. We found ourselves at a Baptist church that was very "seeker friendly". Theological issues were starting to bug me. The day we joined the church our Worship pastor resigned. My gut just told me it was going to be a problem. I was right. I would go home crying...worship was more like a pep rally...not worship. At the same time I was doing a local Community Bible Study on Revelations (with Daniel and Ezekiel thrown in). I would read about the visions of heaven and heavenly worship and then go to church as see a disconnect from that. I kept asking myself... "Where did that NT church go? Jesus didn't just leave them high and dry. Where did it go?" I had heard about Orthodoxy but had never really considered it something for me... it was more in the context of historical worship - which I love learning about. I went on a quest. Read about some historical worship stuff from an Ana-baptist teacher (cannot remember who - I think he was Mennonite). Then one summer in the Sonlight Catalog I found for Year 10 (??) they had the book "Becoming Orthodox" about a group of Campus Crusade for Christ leaders trying to figure out what happened to the early church so that they could re-create it. Well, that was exactly what I was trying to figure out. I was mostly interested in ancient worship...but it quickly moved to asking, "What did the early church believe and when did they believe it?" My brother-in-law is a liturgist (Lutheran) and I had loads of questions for him too. He pointed me towards reading the letters of the Apostolic Fathers. From there I also read a lot of other apologetic works by Orthodox theologians and converts. But, my move to Orthodoxy was not a straight line. My dh and kids were not at all interested. I went to several services... my family went to a few... they always disliked it. I became pregnant with my 6th... and decided to give up the quest. We compromised by being Lutheran for 4-5 yrs... after that I just couldn't do that anymore (it was Lent 2005). There were too many things happening in the church that I was having problems with. It took about a year and at Easter 2006 I was Chrismated Orthodox. Five of our kids came along with me (not all at once...staggered over a few months)... my husband joined us just last year. Never in a million years would I have believed I would be in a liturgical church. I was very committed to contemporary worship... I was in the worship band, my husband played bass. I associated the liturgy with my childhood church of old ladies and stale worship. I disliked most church hymns. But, here I am. It's a miracle. I love it. I could never go back... ever. I am home.

:grouphug:

interesting. My experience is more like Cafelatte's... although I know there were a few non-denom. churches in my area that were much more discipline oriented (Shepherding movement et al and/or heavily influenced by Gothard), most were pretty laid back. This especially became true when the whole "Seeker Friendly" movement hit it's stride in my area. One of my previous church's self-described itself as non-denom. Our pastor was a Calvinist and it seems that the church covenant had some language to that effect....but we didn't have to sign on the dotted line or anything. It was very laid back about theology. My husband taught small groups even though he was very up front with the pastor that he didn't agree with Calvinism.

thanks! how did you find it? I did a search and came up with nada.. I did mean to say I was surprised that how few have responded *overall* to this particular poll. I realize coming back after being gone all day, that my post made it sound like I was just speaking about my faith tradition.

I'm actually surprised at how few people have responded. Perhaps I'm just remembering the day when we had 700 people online at any one time...and I know a lot of people avoid the Chat board nowadays. It would be interesting to go back to previous posts on this topic (this question has been asked a couple of times before) and compare overall voting counts.

fabulous!! That is hard work... you go girl!

I completely agree. I used to love thunderstorms... but now that I often get these awful headache preceding, I'm starting to not like them so much. Sadness.

okay.. thanks! I guess from your avatar that you are Lutheran (former LCMS myself). I believe there is a Lutheran Social Group here too. I don'tk now how active it is, however.

I for one have found this thread to be fascinating. I'd heard of Hutterites, but that is the extent of my knowledge about them. I know this thread didn't turn out the way you may have planned, Luanne, but I'm glad you asked.

I agree with 06 and I understand your intent, so I'll vote Eastern Orthodox.. however I don't believe that EO or Roman Catholics are denominational... that is a Protestant construct. I'm also wondering the reason behind the poll? Curiosity?' edited to add: I cannot vote... even after posting something on another thread.