I do the ITBS myself. I have a BS, which is the requirement. I registered as a tester with BJU. Really, administering the CAT isn't much different than administering the ITBS. I'm not sure what's up with the requirement for a BS or above.

I take them off immediately and put them in a pile in the basement. I think they look tatty if they're left on the books. I worked in a university library for years and years, and developed an aversion to jackets. Once I read a really cool thing someone did with old book jackets ... something like making a framed montage of the jackets that her child had loved when he/she was growing up, books they shared together. I think this was a gift when the child left home.

At 48, I walk on a treadmill or outside -- usually the treadmill, since the weather here is either too hot or too cold about 10 months out of the year (bonus: I listen to audio books from The Teaching Company, so I get a double dose of virtue out of this). I walk 3X per week. I do some sort of weight lifting 3X per week. Right now I'm using a routine out of an old issue of Shape magazine. I like to change things up every so often. Sometime I do T-Tapp instead of lifting weights. I do QiGong several mornings per week. I used to do yoga, but seem to be taking an extended break. Pilates is sort of erratic. Dds do it for core strength in dance, and I try to work along with them, but sometimes I busy when they decide to do it. I love reading what y'all are doing. Like I said, I like to change things around. FitPrimes sounds really interesting, for example.

My older dd has taken the Iowa and the CAT. She thought the CAT was much, much easier (as did I), and has asked that we not use it again.

Yeah, but the person who made the original comment probably wasn't thinking in those terms. People tend to get sort of a whacky view on what food groups things are in, depending on their sense of diet. A couple of weeks ago the Brownie troop I help with was doing food pyramids, and several of the girls kept putting potatoes in with the grains/breads, I guess since potatoes are starchy. At least the girls had an excuse, though, since they were in 2nd and 3rd grade.

I was laughing with you, too. I mean, don't you sort of want to say something like that to his face, sort of like, "yoohoo, you don't even like women, so what is your problem? Am I so drop dead gorgeous, or what? Just call me Helen of Troy and start launching the ships, guys." (which, coming from me, someone who is abundantly plain, would be funny). Except you probably don't want to say anything like this to his face because you'd probably just about forgotten he existed, and why dredge up old issues. :grouphug: I sure didn't want you to feel self conscious.

Wow, you must be quite the heart breaker, that a gay guy is still upset about it all these years later.

I thought a Vitamix doesn't actually juice/extract juice from the fiber. It just pulverizes the whole thing, fiber and all, into a liquid. A Champion separates the juice from the fiber, for example. You end up with a pile of plant glop and a container of juice. Does it matter to you which end product you end up with?

I agree with the OP. Sometimes I get in such a panic about having to have everything perfect before I even start. :willy_nilly: aaaaaah! Some good advice I got early on (during my "oh, I'm going to set up a real cool Montessori environment in our home" phase) was to just do something, even if it isn't quite my perfect vision. You can't just wait and wait until it's all perfect. Hmm, you know, I've heard this advice applied to other things -- like, "oh, I'll be happy once I drop 10 more pounds". Yow, I never knew I was one of those people who thought that way, putting off life until everything's perfect! :blushing:

:party: Hurray for a good experience!

I use Spectrum, but I've tried Tropical Traditions before. Tropical Traditions is really excellent, but too pricey for me. To fry things sometimes I mix equal parts of coconut oil and olive oil, or coconut oil, olive oil and sesame oil. That way the flavors aren't so dominant.

When we moved a couple of years ago our grocery bill made an instant 40% jump. So I'm very wary of claiming I'm a good or bad shopper based simply on what I spend each week or month. It depends so very much on the area. I'm just grateful we have access to well stocked groceries with plenty of fresh produce. So many people don't.

Dh is a ChemE, and immediately said, "Why would you memorize that? You can always just go look at one. There's always one around." :tongue_smilie: He then launched into a list of conversion factors he'd memorize. So, sorry, no help here.

At least you have a motive, ulterior or not. Others of us post all sorts of drivel and silliness without having any compelling reason at all except a deep desire to avoid the laundry. (I'm talking about myself here. Maybe I'm the only one to do this?)

Just wanted to let y'all know that Diann and Sandy are my 2 new BFFs, since we all went "where the Wabash spreads its valley", Purdue.

The History of the Ancient World by SWB (I feel like such a goody-two-shoes for posting that here on "her" board, :tongue_smilie:) The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche And listening to an audio course from Teaching Company, A History of Freedom by J. Rufus Fears My hold on Thomas Jefferson Education just came into the library, and I need to go pick it up. Oh, and I'm supposed to be reading Velvet Elvis for Sunday School, but, well, oops. Somehow I keep forgetting to read it.

The Plan: Landscape Architecture The Reality: BS Horticulture BTW, dh has a BS in ChemE, and it's a brutal degree, at least at Purdue. I'm amazed 2 people so far have gotten it without specific plans to continue in that field somehow, since that would provide motivation to survive. My hat is off to you!

Oh, that's a good point. The ballet-first-one-type-of-class-at-a-time place we went to also emphasized actually learning to dance rather than just learning a recital piece. Other places we tried before that were all about the recital. So, yes, you might learn a pas de bourre in the context of the recital dance, but you weren't specifically taught that step as a sequence of learning. Ugh.

We started A right about when dd turned 5. We got to about lesson 30 that fall, and put it away for a long, long time, and never finished it. Honestly, she was too young to sit through the lessons every day. Plus, I thought a lot of it was dorky (don't tell anyone I said that, though, okay?), so I had a bit of an attitude problem myself. So, the next fall we played some math games every once in a while -- I have a lot of Montessori and Waldorf resources. Then, when she was about 6.5 years old, I bought B (I obviously start things at random times through the year :001_smile:). We sailed right through it -- we started at about lesson 11. We've never looked back. Now we're zipping through C. I love RightStart overall, but we really did. not. like. level A. And I am soooo glad we skipped it. I think we would've ended up ditching the program if it had been our first RightStart experience and we had been forced to continue. ETA: My older dd had been through Transitions, Levels D, E and Geometry, so I knew I liked the program. That's why A wasn't our first RightStart experience.

Do look into good technique. It really stinks to have to relearn dance when you've been taught improper technique. If she wants ballet only, respect that. We have had teachers who insisted on a year of ballet before pursuing any other classes, since ballet is the basis of jazz and tap. Also, one instructor bluntly said she couldn't properly warm up the student for ballet, teach it, then switch gears to a tap (or whatever) warmup, then teach it, all within the space of 45 minutes to an hour. I can't say anything about competitions, since we're now in Irish Dance, which can be highly competitive (as in, "oh, are you flying to Ireland to compete in Worlds this year?"). In the end, some teachers and studios can suck the life right out of your desire to ever dance again in your life. So even if they have wonderful technique and the most fabulous floor in the world, you sort of have to go with your gut.

When I take cod liver oil I notice an immediate improvement in my skin. Within 2 days of taking even a low dose (like, a capsule a day of a cheapy brand) my skin tone improves. In general, making sure I get plenty of Essential Fatty Acids helps me. Another source would be flaxseed oil.

We don't have a pedestal. When dd was 3 or 4 she could take things out of the washer and toss them in the dryer for me, since it was all down at her level.:thumbup: She felt important because she was helping with the household, and bending over became a moot point.

My dds have been attending a dance workshop led by John Carey (took over from Michael Flatley in Lord of the Dance). At the end of class tonight he signed the back of their t-shirts. These are the t-shirts they wear every week for class. Frankly, they need to be washed right now, what with all the sweating in class. BUT, heaven forbid that we accidentally wash the signature out! I think he used a Sharpie to sign the shirts. I'm good at getting ink stains OUT. Is there some sort of fixative to keep them IN?

So, stupid question of the week: Dd is doing the Key to ... books on fractions, percents, and decimals because she felt she needed to brush up on those before starting a pre-algebra program. Is she actually doing the equivalent of a pre-algebra program, then, since the LoF books for pre-algebra cover the same skills? How long does it take to get through the LoF fractions, decimals and percents? I mean, if we would decide to go through the LoF version of these, are we putting off algebra for another year or 2? I'm thinking she's ready to plunge into the algebra book. I'm also pretty sure she'll balk, claiming she isn't ready --she has issues about trying new things, so where I'd dive right in and figure out later if I needed to "catch up" on some other skills, she wants to be totally, exhaustively prepared.

I'm reading this thread for the LoF info (we're probably buying it, but haven't yet, so it's always good to see more info on it) but wanted to comment on the "do a search". You can put a phrase (in this case life of fred -- no need to use caps) in when you use the big red search button. That will give you all of the threads that mention Life of Fred, which is 4 pages worth. All of these will have your search phrase highlighted in red. But, gees, who wants to slog through 4 pages of posts, many of which may only mention Life of Fred once in passing? What if there are 40 posts in a thread, and only 1 of those mentions Life of Fred? Wouldn't it be handy to zero in on the exact post that popped that thread into your search? If you click on one of those threads you will see various thread tools at the beginning of the posts, including, yes, a new search box. You can use it to search long threads for posts that specifically mention a phrase. That way you can see if it was a longer discussion, or just someone saying, "Oh, we're using Life of Fred."(You can even use a new search phrase if you want when you do the thread search.) Insofar as I know, the search functions don't search things you type in the thread titles, so if someone has typed Life of Fred into the title of their reply but not in the body, it won't pop up this way. Okay, back to LoF discussion.