Ok.. writing is not my oldest's strongest area.. He agrees that he wants to avoid taking English at either TCU or Baylor depending on what he decides. Ok, so for Baylor, if he does the degree he is looking at he will need 1st semester composition class and then literature class. It looks like he would place out of US history ( still unsure about whether it would be 1 or 2 semesters), up to 8 hours for AP Chem, 3 hours for Am gov, and 4 semesters of Spanish. So if he took those 2 classes, he would mainly have a couple of religion clases, lots of calculus and physics, his computer programming classes, PE, speech and that is it. So most of the writing courses would be out of the way. For TCU, it looks like he would need both first semester and second semester writing at our local cc. They also have a literature core they would have to take. That said, it sounds like they have fun with their core requirements: the math kids can take a much easier lit class on Harry Potter and the literature kids can take easy Physics or Astronomy or something.. He would have more core to take at TCU. The Baylor degree seems much heavier in the computer classes and upper level mat classes. TCU has Calc I and then discrete math 1 and II. Baylor has Calc I and II and III as well as discrete stuctures, data structures and tons of classes that I don't have a clue what they mean but sound technical. Both have senior design projects. So what English should he take at the cc? 1st semester writing is a given, but what about 2nd semester... intermediate writing or literature? I'm leaning toward writing just to give him more experience...

Because I don't want them... I have 3. I used bc at first because dh was finishing school and we were not in the financial place to have them. Plus dh was in residency and would never have seen them! I wanted at least a little bit of health. Now it is because 3 is all I can handle. God gave me a brain to decide that!!! That said, God can do what he wants because we thought we stoped at 2 and 3 was our surprise blessing despite being on bc.

I'm wondering if we should have had him add the writing..oh well. Does it look horrible to have a 34 composite but a 7 on the writing part???? He will be taking the SAT in March. I wasn't good about making him do the writing for the ACT, I will be for the SAT. I'll have him do two a week, though he will HATE it. Wondering if I should sign up for the Bravewrite SAT writing class?? That said, I think he will do better on the SAT writing since that comes from literature, but part of it is his writing style. It is SO plain and subject/verb, subject/verb and very formulaic. It takes me sitting with him for him to change it. I was hoping he would be able to do it on his own... Anyway, if he does much better on the SAT then will it be ok? He did better on his composite score than I hoped for ( shooting for a 31 or 32) but did worse on the essay. Just looked and I guess his combined writing score is a 31 which is still in the 98 percentile, so I guess that is ok.. So will the 7 part matter?

Ok, a lot of movies make me tear up just a bit. But I was sobbing during half of this movie!!!! My dh has a dog that loves him so much and just the thought my dh dying and then our dog... I can't even look at the cover of that movie anymore. It was horribly sad.... The Ultimate Gift is one movie we own that makes me cry every time I see it. That said, it isn't a depressing movie. It is one of our favorites! Did anyone mention Toy Story 3? My oldest is about to go off to college in a little over a year, so I was crying like a baby at the end and my children were shaking their heads in disgust!

I was the skinniest I ever was and a size 2 at the end of my freshman year.. Why?? I walked EVERYWHERE. I had no car and you didn't need it, but I walked AND I had a physical fitness pe class. I've never been in better shape.

That is why I make my own tests from what they had. I make a matching for vocabulary. The rest is short answer and essay. Sometimes on the open book ones, I had them type it up. I think that one was about target heart rate and such. They had to find their own and explain a work out plan or something. I'm not stressing. I really don't care about it at all.. I'm putting about as much effort into it as my coaches did that taught my history classes. :tongue_smilie:

I am doing Total Health. I'm not that thrilled with it, but it is good enough. They work on it sporadically. I give them a test on each chapter, sometimes open book. Oldest is through ch 9 and youngest through 6. They must also complete 6 projects. ( They will be doing a red cross class, purity weekend is in February, oldest already followed around dh, so it shouldn't be too bad.) Health Projects To successfully receive Health credit, you must do 6 of the following projects: 1. Take a Red Cross class in 1st aid 2. Keep a food diary for a week and write a ½ to ¾ of a page analyzing what you found. 3. Write a 2-3 page report on one of the following: (These are just suggestions. You may choose another topic with approval.) a. A disease of the body b. Health career c. Drunk driving d. M.A.D.D. e. Compare and contrast dating, courting etc. Which do you think is best? 4. Write an editorial about smoking 5. Create a fitness plan. Write it out and FOLLOW it. Keep track of hours. Turn in a notebook ( This could also help with PE credit.) 6. Make a health history family tree 7. Interview Dr. Joey about dental health and write a report with your findings. Or spend a day with him and write a report. 8. Follow a doctor and write a report about it. 9. Create a first aid kit. Type up the contents and then actually make one to have on hand. 10. Create a fire escape plan. Have 2 fire drills with the family. Create a map of the house with escape routes and a short paper with plans of escape. 11. Attend a purity weekend and complete all activities required. 12. Create a quiet time plan: set up a devotional schedule, prayer notebook or journal, etc. * Parents do not have to read this. Just show that you have done this on a consistent basis. We will not read prayer/journal!!!

Yes, everyone has said they are coming to our house: cows, ponds with fish, generators, wood stoves for heat, land for growing food. I think we would be ok, but I wonder about people in the cities.

Beaver's Bend state Park is great.

I've often wondered about this: with all of this technology and SO much information and everything turning digital, what happens if we have some huge solar flare or some kind of weapon that disables all of the technology? I'm not sure the majority of our nation would know how to function..... How would they find information in the age of google and disappearing books? What about medical care? All of those digital records and so much medical care is using technology now... Just something I wondered about....

We went for our family of 5: 4 were considered adult and 1 a child in September of 2008 with free dining. We chose 2 rooms at All Star Music. Here was our budget that we stuck to: FYI.. we left at midnight and drove 18 straight hours to get there. (Yuck. Wouldn't do that again. On the way back home we stopped and paid for one night in a hotel.) Budget: 1 nights hotel $90 Meals on the way there and back $100 didn't spend that much see post below 8 nights, tickets and dining plan 2605.52 Tips $175 Souvenirs $200 dollars Gas $350 Total $3520.52 Free dining is fabulous and more food than we could eat. We got 1 table service with drink and dessert, one counter service with drink and dessert and 1 snack per person per day. We often split food and ended up going to that sandwhich place in Downtown disney and using a lot of our counter service that was left and that bakery place on Boardwalk and bought tons of snack/breakfast items. We ate them all the way home. I had a Disney credit card at the time and we paid for the tips and souveneirs with my disney dollars on it.

How should I vote? I was a college junior when I met my dh who was in med school on a blind date on April Fool's day. So he wasn't someone I knew at my college ( though we did go to the same one and ended up having mutual friends, but we never met while he was there.)

I had my son take it in 7th as part of the Duke Tip. I figured he would do better with the black or white answers of the ACt than the murky ones of the SAT. He made a composite 21. This year ( his junior year) I got the red Real ACT book and Barrons ACT 36. Basically once the PSAT was done ( he is a junior) in October, I pulled out those books. He took a practice test over a week. Then each week he concentrated on one section like Math and did the review/tip section in both books and then took another practice test in that section. He was also supposed to do a practice essay, but somehow didn't find time for that.. GRR After he completed a month of doing that, there were 2 weeks left until the test. He did 2 more complete tests. ( Not under timed conditions. He did a couple of sections each day. It was crunch time for his cc Spanish class with a test, final, oral questioning and oral report) It worked. He got a composite 34. . His lowest score was his science with a 31. On the college confidential there was universal agreement that the December science section was really hard and most of those who posted their scores had a lower science score than everything else. So that worked for me. I did have him take the PSAT for practice as a 10th grader, but no other testing...oh yeah, he did have to take the THEA so he could take cc classes this year. Hope that helps. So you are wanting their score reports with the names x out?? I can probably do that later today. I'll just make a copy and black out personal information and THEN scan it. We don't have his writing score, however. He didn't do the writing in 7th grade. To be honest, I'm praying for a 10, but guessing he will get an 8 since it is his weakest subject.

I read in the bathroom...generally will sit there for 10 to 15 minutes each time. I read while I eat at lunch and dinner. If I am really into a book, then I will reward myself after doing a hated chore by getting to read a chapter or two. I normally get to a point in a book where it is the point of no return and I just disappear until I finish it. Like the others mentioned the only tv I really watch is the local news.

MMM.. but how do I convince dh of all of this??? I punish him because cooking for him is theraputic and good grief, all I get at church is, "Don't you feed him?" He is so incredibly skinny. He works SO incredibly hard. He is such a good guy.. So I guess I don't know how to say, "I'm sorry but you can't bring it into the house or cook because I can't handle it..." I just don't know how in the world to do this. To me, he deserves his indulgences... I mean, he never stops. HE makes me with my list of 20 to do things every day seem lazy. He will do clinic or surgery all day and come home and paint or fix something in the house or go out on the tractor. I never have to give him a to do list...ever. Sometimes on Sundays, I hid from him in the afternoon because I really don't want to do a project. I want to take a nap!!!

Here is a post I made a little while ago in the high school forum I got my new Southern Living magazine. I love the Southern Journal article at the back every month. This month has one by Rick Bragg about his love of " Words on Paper." He likes and doesn't have anything against e-books, Kindles,etc However, he loves his paper books. Here is a paragraph that I was jumping up and down saying, "I agree!" "But I hope I will never have a life that is not surrounded by books, by books that are bound by paper and cloth and glue, such perishable things for ideas that have lasted thousands of years, or just since the most recent Harry Potter. I hope I am always walled in by the very weight and breadth and clumsy, inefficient, antiquated bulk of them, hope that I spend my last days on this Earth arranging and rearranging them on thrones of good, honest pine, oak and mahogany, because they just feel good in my hands, because I just like to look at their covers and dream of the promise of great stories inside." Just one paragraph out of the whole page. I thought some of you gals might appreciate these thoughts as well.

UMM.. my uncle who is dean of a business school gave me Freakanomics ( I think that is what it was) and I was appalled at all of the profanity in it. Just FYI.

It is so hard to pass up my 3 favorite food groups: Blue Bell Ice Cream, chocolate and chocolate cake.... I wish I had willpower. In college, when my dad sent me double stuff oreos for exams, I polished them off in a couple of days... That is why I can't buy any..... How do you develop willpower?? I've never had any? I'm still picking/biting my nails at 44 because I can't stop. I don't drink partially because I'm afraid I'd be addicted. Seriously.

First of all, they are GREAT people. I LOVE them. However, I tend to gain several pounds every time we visit. We will be there for 5 days. She has bought every person their favorite Blue Bell Ice cream flavor. She will have tons of Christmas candy out and about. It is my daughter's birthday so she has requested chicken fried steak. ( This is what I make for my dh/boys' birthdays as well. Only time I make it since it is so bad. So we get it twice a year.) Of course they will get her a birthday cake... Sigh... I guess I should just realize that instead of 142 being the heaviest I have ever been, it will be 145 after next week... But then I can just eat what is healthy here... But seriously, how do you eat healthy in that kind of environment?

It really will be better after the holidays. First of all, dh doesn't normally cook like that. He had some time off and loves to cook. PLUS, we normally have a giant holiday baking weekend. Everybody makes their favorite treat: turtles, bon bons, apple dapple cake, cowboy cookies, surprise cupcakes, etc. Then we make them into about 15 containers and take them to piano teachers, friends, ministers, etc. So dh gets to cook. We sample, but most of it is gone. This year all of our weekends were full with various activities, surgeries, etc and we didn't get to do that. So dh made his absolute favorites. Also, to be honest, a lot of what I put up there in that list is in the freezer: 1/2 a cheesecake, 1/2 the turtles, most of the pretzals, etc. We haven't eaten them. But they are there as temptation for me..... Plus all of the starchy Thanksgiving/Christmas sides. Normally this is what I eat for breakfast: Oatmeal. I guess I may try a one egg veggie omlet. I HATE cereal. I like something hot for breakfast. Snack- handfull of nuts Lunch- There are these high fiber wraps I found and I'll put meat and cheese in them. I'll try to add some lettuce. We buy Sams club lettuce in those giant containers...actually the spinach as my dh likes it better. (I prefer the spring mix.) Maybe I can buy both and try to have a giant salad with mushrooms and cutup carrots and a little cheese with a meat slice in it??? Dinner- Taco salad- garbanzo and pinto beans with lean ground meat or ground turkey with fat free catalina dressing on it. Eat it with salad. Steamed chicken with our corn, peas or green beans in addition to a salad Put chicken in the crockpot with homemade Taco Seasoning ( doesn't have the salt the pkg ones do) and chicken broth. Serve with black beans and homemade spanish ( brown rice with water and salsa. YUM) Dh eats chips with my homemade hot sauce. That is the kind of stuff I usually eat. Of course there is usually a dessert but I've made some fat free ones with the millions of pears we have on the place. ( I have a TON of canned jars of them.) Any other suggestions for healthier things to eat.

But how do you make yourself eat them?? Seriously, my mom made me quit eating them when I threw them up all over the table. Seriously, they make me gag!!! I can stomach strawberries, but that is about it. Now veggies are fine...well except for slimy okra. We have a huge garden and I eat tons in the summer. We have a few frozen corn and green beens . Would just veggies be ok. Seriously, with fruit I would have to do like when I was a kid and chew a little and drown it down with water. ( well it was milk when I was a kid)

Actually I am doing that!!! A couple of months ago I started running and watching 24. I use weights for my arms as I run around the room for the first few minutes. I am running for 30 minutes. Then I pause the episode, put the oatmeal in the microwave and go take a shower since I am sweaty and then eat my oatmeal and watch the rest of the episode. I'm thinking of adding Wii Just Dance for something in the afternoon. I got Just Dance Abba for Christmas!!! I like some of the other ones as well and my daughter loves doing it with me. I guess that is what is depressing. I never exercised before and I have put on weight since I am doing it and my jeans don't fit anymore either... I thought exercise was supposed to help.

My junior boy is doing Chalkdust Pre-calculus right now. Yes, Dana Mosely lectures. For my mathy boy, it is enough. It wasn't enough for my middle one (Geometry). He grades his own work as I don't understand what he is doing AT ALL. I grade the tests and often ask him to explain something if he got a different kind of answer. He has done fine with everything except verifying identies. Other than that he has made an A. He has finished up chapter 6, so he is halfway through. He normally finishes his Chalkdust texts early, but this one is a little harder than the previous ones plus sometimes I have him do test prep work instead of Precalc. ( I'm sorry, but I'm not going to have him do ACT or SAT math sections AND his precalc work!) He generally watches a lesson and does the entire lesson (odd problems) in one day. I don't think most kids do that. Most kids would watch a lesson and do part of the problems. They would then take another day or two to finish. To be honest, if you have a kid who is self-motivated and loves math like my oldest, then I recommend Chalkdust But not if you have just a "regular" kid, I wouldn't!!!

Ok.. for my oatmeal, it was 150 calories for it but 130 calories for my dried blueberries that I put in it. But without any sugar or salt, I need SOMETHING in it to give it some kind of sweetness....

I thought eggs were a no, no for high cholesterol.