This is why we have purposefully stopped flying - insane - even the 'pat down' in public is too much.

Honestly, having less clothes really helps with the laundry issue - my kids don't even have 7 pants & 7 shorts, they might have 10 shirts if you count short and long sleeve and sweaters, maybe.

I'm curious as to why so many as well? I have not even heard off some of them, and only have looked at the ones that I have in the house, so I don't feel like I am really in a position to comment. However, I do wonder about Rightstart B - as the 'main' for the daughter. And I only even comment this simply because I am doing Rightstart B with my 6 year oldand my 4 year old is starting to figure out how to play some of the games as well even though he is technically in 'A'.

I think it depends - are we talking about live-in girlfriends that want to be more then girlfriends? Or, are we talking about people who essentially are common law married and if you meet them now you would 'assume' due to things like having kids together, years living as partners, etc. that they actually are married? IMHO - the first is a girlfriend, does not get to be in family pictures, the second gets to be in the family pictures.

I don't know, but I would have done the same thing. Honestly I'm impressed you found it, Lake Chelan is crawling with tourists - if you had not taken it, someone else would of. And frankly, I don't personally think late 18th century is really an 'artifact'.

I'm sorry - I will NEVER live some place with a HOA again. Ever. Right now we are renting a house in a place with a HOA, and it is just compounding my dislike of them. Bleh.

I think it is a great idea

I have a business idea that I think would require setting up a database that users can interface on the internet. I have a background of maintaining/using databases. And also a background in web page design/management. However, how do I combine the two? Where would I go to start learning how to do this. Any ideas?

Good luck - I don't really have any advice. We have moved recently and I am finding it difficult this time around to connect and make friends with people.

I worry about this quite a lot as my IL's are very very pro church school - in as much as we think they might consider offering to pay for it for us (which we don't really want). I really, really worry about this. When I looked around (and remember there was only a few minutes between the service and Sunday school) it seemed this way to me. There was no obvious presence of a youth group that I could see, no older kids/teens to be seen (we were at the traditional service however). And a few offhand comments just made me think that the only kids in sight that were not enrolled were mine. There is a festival tonight, and I don't really even want to go because it seems like it is actually being put on by the school (by a notice on the K room door that I saw). And yet this festival was the ONLY thing on the calendar of events for this week and next other then bible study and adult choir practice. I have a feeling this church probably falls into the second camp. There was less then 20 kids in the Sunday school, all ages. (and 140 in the school which covers the same ages that SS did) On the day we went there were 5 in the 3-5 age group, and the leader did not have enough material prepared for even that many kids (she had pre-cut out shapes and such, so I just did more on the fly, but still . . . ) In my daughter SS class of 5 kids (1st and 2nd) 2 girls were certainly in the school and by how friendly they were with the 2 boys I would have expected them to be in the same class at school for a while. I wish I could say that. BUt the thing is, for the 'right' school I would put my kids in. And my oldest has been in pre and K . . . oh how I wish sometimes that I could truthfully say this, and my DH as well. We have gone to churches with pre-school's in the past and I have not sent my kids and that didn't seem strange and no one ever mentioned anything either. I just wonder if the dynamics change as the kids get older. Ugggg, I am not a rebel. I think I know in my heart that this is not where I want our family to be, but I just want so much for something to be exactly as my DH wants it be, I feel like I am being so pushy about everything.

As a homeschooling parent do you go to a church that has a school and not send your kids? What has been your experience? Please feel free to PM me if you would be willing to share but not on the boards. We just moved and are looking for a new home church. About 14 years ago my DH (before married) lived in this area and attended church X. Church X has a small school age 3 years - 6th grade with 140 kids and I am not sure of numbers but MOST of those are in the preschool/kindergarten, honestly I would say 70 kids grade 1-6 would be a generous amount. I think they might combine grades 1/2, 3/4, and 5/6 but it was not totally obvious just by a quick look around the building. Now that we live in this area DH wants to go to this church. We attended one service. The sermon was actually very good, but by looking at the calendar and a few notices I just get the feeling that everything is centered around this school to what seems like exclusion of other ministries to me. But, my initial impression of the school is that it is used by parents desperate to get their kids out of the local public schools. Of the 18 kids in the full day kinder class (I counted desks, it was where we were for Sunday school) exactly 1 kid from that class was in the Sunday School. :confused: And what makes this stranger to me, is that at the service just before Sunday school time had special music by the K-2nd grade students. (We were a few minutes late and missed this portion) On the school internet page is says that 25% are the domination of the church. Oh, and we could probably swing the tuition, without too much belt tightening if that makes a difference in your reply. However, this is not a school that I feel is really special/different from an ordinary 'good' school. There is no middle/high school. My understanding is that the kids go to several different places (about half of which we would not consider for our kids). Also, just as additional background, 30 years ago FIL was the principle at this school for a year or two even though it was a 90 minute commute from where they were living.

We use a pre-paid phone from T-Mobile that I can get at Target. It calls, texts, takes photos, and probably more but that is all I care about. If I break the phone I can get another from Target for 20 bucks and take out the sim card. If I lose the phone, I can go to Target get another one, and then call T-Mobil and have my number switched to the new sim card (can you tell this happens a lot). I get the cheap phone, but you can get much nicer ones with the whole touch screen and data plans if you really wanted to. We spend under 20 dollars a month between my DH and I, and you can recharge them several different ways. I prefer to put on 100 dollars at a time and have it last for months . . . no contract. I can't stand contracts.

My DH did include letters of recommendation along with his resume when he was changing professions, 180 degree difference, type of thing. He would not include them if doing an application or the electronic resume fill in the blank on some websites. I don't know if it 'helped' him, but for the jobs he was applying for I don't think it hurt either. I think it kind of depends on the company and the position. The smaller the business and the higher the position the more I think it is 'ok'.

today it is WAY up - lol - but it says .28 on my statistics

Most of the time I have been a SAHM - however, I he done several different part time jobs from home and am planning on starting my own business this year (and continuing to home school).

when I saw the results I wondered how many were 'real' - lol

too funny!

which roomba and Electrolux? - I have the same issue

We move around a bit as well. We still go with local banks and credit unions. Even if it means that we need to open a new account. I think the hassle of opening a new account (and you would need to get new checks anyways right with the new address??) is worth going to a local bank that supports local communities and has local underwriting of loans. Both of you don't have to be at the bank at the same time. Part of the benefit is that will hold the paperwork for you can can do it separately. Also, some credit unions have reciprocal systems where for instance, my credit union only has 15 or so branches, but I can withdraw and deposit money easily and without a fee throughout the multi state region.

Flexibility yes. I would love to grow into something like this. Maybe offer parties and/or classes as well. And in a storefront, not my house. However, I have to start out small as I have not much money. And as I was going through the regulations, even though I have a master's degree, it seems like I am going to need to do a minimum of two college classes to get a license.

I was thinking about that. My thought was that they would have to 'register' something like at least 24 hours in advance.

I am interested in all feedback - if you think it wouldn't work - why? Would you use something like this? What would you want to see (and not see)? What about pricing? My idea - a drop-in daycare essentially but one geared to homeschooling families. Ages 4 - 12 targeted with possibility of younger or older siblings also being able to be cared for at the same time. Hours something like 9 AM - 5 PM Monday through Thursday to start with and if I heard of enough demand I might be willing to consider evening or earlier hours. I was thinking of charging something like 5 dollars per hour per kid with the ability to purchase a punch card for multiple hours at a discount. I would not be doing any formal schooling of any kids at any time. However, we are a screen free family during the day so there would not be any video's and we also do not have and character items. My plan is to not provide food, but offer a place for kids to be able to eat their own snacks/lunch and water of course. We also do not do juice. I could see possibly providing an afternoon snack or something especially if we did some baking or something during the day. I would like to have different 'waldorf inspired/nature orientated' projects going on that kids could join as they wished. I have not looked into all the local regulations yet, but I am guessing that it would be best to be a licensed in-home daycare. So for the sake of discussion you can assume that. My plan for getting my own kids school work done (ages 6 and 4) is that we would do from 8-9 in the morning for language and math, field trips on Friday. And that art/science/history and 'fun stuff' could be incorporated into the time we would be open for business for the drop-in home school daycare. Any ideas on a name? What does the hive think????

In addition to the Red Cross - I would also let the FRG/Family person know what is going on as well. Even though it is not an 'official' channel, depending on the relationship between the FRG and the command it could be an even faster (((Hugs))) for whatever is going going on

The local media, newspaper, radio? Sounds strange, here not only are people in the parking lot, but regularly use the track (some are even the rubber kind). We were at the middle school a night or so ago and had to insist that our kids go in the normal direction only because there were so many people using it.

We have a good laser printer, but I am seeing that I really need to have a copier at home. Space is a big issue, right now I really don't have a place to put one, but at the same time I need one. And I also want to get one that is going to work well and be somewhat efficient. And my husband would like it to scan as well. Most of the time I am copying two pages of items so that each kid can have one. Any recommendations, good sales, best places to buy?