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Apiphobic

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Posts posted by Apiphobic

    Suggestions for spa treatment?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I'm heading into Dallas again in about a week to meet up with some friends for a few days. (This time I'm looking forward to going to Dallas. :)) One of the things we were thinking about doing was having a spa day. I started looking into the prices, and it looks like it's at least a minimum of $300. Some of the packages are as much as $700. This just seems like too much. Is it just because it's Dallas, or is that the norm?

     

    Now, I'm really not used to having massages and facials, etc., so I'm not sure what the average price is. I've had pedicures and manicures, and I've had a facial once. I recently had my very first spa treatment (I'd received a gift certificate) which included a body treatment, pedicure and manicure, but I think it was $185.

     

    Also, there are so many different services available. I'm clueless about which is what and don't know where to start. Which are your favorites or must-haves? I think I'd love a massage and I know I love pedicures, so I'd probably look for a package deal that had both. But I could do without the manicure, so I'd probably want to try something like a facial or a body wrap instead. But then, there are so many different kinds of massage and different styles of treatment that I don't know which one to try. The one I recently had was a Caribbean hot stone retreat type of package. I'm curious about the Swedish massage. Has anybody had one of those?

     

    Any tips or suggestions? TIA,

     

    Stacey

    Does your Dairy Queen serve chocolate soft-serve ice cream?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    Not the dipped ice cream, chocolate ice cream from the dispenser. I've actually been disappointed to find out that Texas doesn't seem to have chocolate soft-serve ice cream at their Dairy Queens.

     

    I'd always preferred Baskin Robbins, but dh likes Dairy Queens and I warmed up to it when I tried their chocolate soft-serve ice cream cones in Montana. Now that we've moved to Texas, I've recently found out that they only serve vanilla soft-serve ice cream cones or the dipped cones.

     

    I'm so bummed. :001_unsure:

    Geography poll

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Midwest here.. IA

     

    Oh, crud, another typo. Sorry.

     

    Can I plead, in my defense, that I was rushing to get those choices in the poll? When you first enter your question and hit post, it's already up on the board before you type in your choices. Some people respond before you can get the choices listed. So I'm usually frantically trying to type in the choices just after entering the original post.

     

    Sounds confusing. :001_smile:

    would your family be shocked if they knew you online?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    My family? No, they wouldn't be shocked at all by anything I've posted online, whether here, my blog, fb, or anywhere else. Doesn't mean they agree with it all, but they know me well enough to know the good and the bad. I can be myself, warts and all, with my close friends and family because they see the whole picture and not just a slice of my life.

     

    But I think everyone wears a mask or "performs" in different social settings. You moderate your conversation and behavior based upon the situation. That's part of learning our "social skills." And, yes, online interactions are another social setting.

     

    This short piece talks about social vs. private masks and whether or not it's deceitful.

     

    Social vs. Private Masks: Is It Wrong to Act Differently in Public?

    Geography poll

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by Apiphobic

    Aha... I was wondering if there was something behind this! ;)

     

    To answer your question, no. I do think the margin is narrowing since homeschooling is becoming more widely accepted. The greater the number of people who participate in hs'ing, the more diversified a group we have.

     

    When I originally posted this thread, I really was curious about the geographic breakdown of this board. I thought the majority would be in the States but, other than that, I didn't have any other expectations. I was surprised that one region did have a lot of numbers. Although, as some have pointed out, the source I used (USA Study Guide) for the geographical regions seemed to have a lot of states in the South when maybe they could've been placed elsewhere.

     

    When I googled for maps to figure out the regions, some of the maps only had five regions and some had too many regions to fit into this poll. I'd also wanted to include those that were not located in the States, so I chose what I thought would be a detailed enough regional map for the States and then tried to include the rest of the regions without resorting to continents.

     

    I actually printed out the election map Blue Hen (thanks, Blue Hen!) posted on the board and we were coloring as we watched the results. That's when I connected that map with this poll and ... just went "Hmmm ... I wonder."

     

    So, there you have it. My rabbit trail. :tongue_smilie:

     

    Stacey

    skin on feet peeling? What is it?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Dd (12) has this problem with her feet. It's called dyshidrosis eczema.

     

    She's supposed to go without socks or shoes as much as possible. Her shoes are supposed to be as aerated as possible. And if she's in sports and wears running or tennis shoes, she has to wear really thick absorbent cotton socks and take them off as soon as she can.

     

    The doctor also gave her a prescription for Drysol and she's supposed to put it on at night before bed. Dd usually has this problem (peeling skin on the soles of her feet) in the summer. Her feet sweat and start to burn, and the Drysol cools them down and helps with the sweating.

     

    If it's not difficult to arrange, you might want to take her in to the doctor just to be sure.

     

    Stacey

    Favorite scary movies?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    The Sixth Sense

    Pan's Labrinth (which I watched once and I'm not sure if I'll ever be brave enough to watch again).

    The Ring

    Butterfly Effect (not sure if this qualifies as a scary movie, but it did creep me out)

     

    Oh, I forgot about the Butterfly Effect. I liked that one, too. I know some people didn't, but I did.

     

    And another question similarly related.

     

    Dd, who'll be 13 next month, has been begging me to watch scary movies. I'm trying to find some scary movies that aren't too terrifying for her. She watched The Eye recently and now wants to watch all the scary movies she can. I usually check out the ratings on commonsensemedia.org but her scary movie choices are very limited.

     

    The Exorcist is my all-time favorite scary movie, but there's no way I'll let her watch that yet. I don't remember when I first saw it though. I plan to watch the movies with her but am struggling between which ones to let her watch yet. I'm thinking about letting her watch Cloverfield.

     

    I recently watched The Happening and didn't think it was that scary. There were some gory parts, but I didn't think it was terribly suspenseful. I did think that old lady did a good job of being scary. Wasn't she Abby on Eight is Enough? I also had to laugh about the scene with the cookie because it reminded me of the thread here about the girl who didn't get a cookie. NO COOKIE FOR YOU!!! :D

     

    She loves The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Any other suggestions?

     

    Thanks,

     

    Stacey

    Excessive Compliments of the Erudite Kind

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by Apiphobic

    My ds11 is smart - some have said "scary smart". But I recognize and have taught him that his intelligence is only part of him - and it really isn't the most important part of him (his soul character is more important). But he is barraged (and that really isn't too strong a word here) with people telling him:

     

    "You're a genius, you know that?"

     

    "How old are you? How'd you know all that?"

     

    and last night, "So, in a few months you're going to be way to smart for me to talk to. How are you going to be able to make things simple enough for me to understand you?" (The thing is this comment hits home because he can get technical beyond the ordinary person's understanding on something which he is passionate about. We are working on teaching him to talk in more general terms in general conversation.)

     

    How do you coach him to respond to stuff like that? There is no gracious way to respond really - and we really do want him to respond graciously. Or I want to step in and respond with a gracious form of "pass the bean dip." Some people are family members or close friends whom we could pull aside and talk to. But we can't do that with every cashier at the grocery store, the visiting pastor that my dh (a pastor also) is talking to, all the people with varying degrees of social competency that we meet in ministry contexts. . . .

     

    And believe me this is uncomfortable. I see it as he flounders for a way to answer in a way that doesn't put himself down (and I don't want him to be reduced to that) but at the same time be somewhat humble. I've been on the receiving end of it when I was his age. And I hated it. So can I have the wisdom of the Hive?!

     

    He needs true peers. He needs a group of kids where he is middle of the pack. This will help him see that while he is different from typical kids his age, there ARE kids out there like him and he fits in somewhere.

     

    When people say things like this to dd, she and I try to use it as an opportunity to educate them. People are born with varying abilities. There are things she is really good at and things she is not so good at.

     

    "You're a genius" - No, but we know several kids who are.

     

    "How did you know all that?" - I like to read and learn about this stuff.

     

    "You're 7 and in the 4th grade?" - Yes, my school allows me to work at the right level for me. I am not bound by age constraints like many kids are.

     

    If she had another type of special need, she would get questions about it, I'm sure. But having other kids like her in her life makes it easier to not feel like a freak, and has enhanced her relationship with typical kids as well.

     

    Same problem here with our now 9 year old. Just curious; are all of these children in the above examples the oldest? Sometimes I feel like we have "caused' it in a way...

     

    We have made it to a different level though, which is something I struggle with. I see that her intelligence is her default in uncomfortable situations and this leads to her unintentionally sounding arrogant and "know it allish". Does this make any sense at all to anyone?

     

    In a social situaion where she finds herself feeling uneasy she will correct someones grammar usage, throw out an obscure fact, or something. I have observed and know that she does this to "proove" herself when she feels less than, per se. It has become the primary source of her self esteem with the consequence of other people feeling stupid in her prescence. I have tried to talk to her about how this makes people feel and I know in her heart she grieves and does not want to make others feel yucky, however, it seems to be more an automatic self preservation mode she goes into sometimes.

     

    However, I have seen with age she is maturing some. And as I mentioned before, I know that we have upheld her intelligence, especially when she was younger, probably more than we should have. She was our first and we did everything that we thought was right to make her as smart as she could possibly be....we emphasized it a lot, too much, I now know.

     

    I have rambled here...but do appreciate this topic.

     

    emerald

     

    Interesting question, emerald. Ds is not the oldest child in our family, but I'll be curious to hear other responses to this question. Ds is the firstborn son; I have no idea whether or not that pertains to anything. He is also a fraternal twin.

     

    No, I don't think you can "cause" it, in a way, so please erase those feelings of doubt or guilt. I always wondered if I pushed my dc to read too much too soon, because oldest dd and ds needed glasses. Dd (the fraternal twin) doesn't need glasses though, so I'm not sure how valid that theory is. She's not as much of a reader as the other two though. *shrug*

     

    And I've noticed that as well with my ds -- falling back on it as a defense mechanism in a situation that's uncomfortable for him. I thought it was his competitiveness, but the way you've explained it makes good sense. Ds is so competitive, not just in academics but also sports, and I wondered if it was something about boys. Now I'm wondering if it's something else.

     

    I do think Jedi has a good point about finding peers for dc dealing with this. Now the trick is finding them. I don't think they walk around wearing signs announcing they're brainiacs. And sometimes they try to hide it, because they don't want to stick out like a sore thumb.

     

    I'm glad this subject was brought up, because I kept dismissing ds' academic strengths as just a result of homeschooling or just being similar to my brother. But now I think I'm going to have to look at it differently and realize that I need to approach his education differently than we have been. I think I may have been holding him back a little because I didn't want him to rush or feel like he missed out on anything growing up. But in the process, I think he's gotten bored. I just want him to relax a little, because he seems so tightly wound up and wired. I'm worried if he pushes too hard and goes too fast now, someday down the road he'll snap. So I'm struggling between the two -- challenging him but not pushing him.

     

    Anyway, back to the OP. I really don't know the best way to handle it. Ds usually tries to joke his way out of it. He likes to be known as the funny guy instead of the really smart guy. So he'll usually joke as he's throwing out facts or discussing the merits of whatever the subject happens to be. It's not as jarring, I guess.

     

    He has been called the absent-minded professor, and he knows that's not meant as a total compliment. So I think he knows there's an undercurrent of doubt about the benefits of being so smart. Like, what good is that going to do you if you can't "act" normal? Isn't this a little bit like the old stereotype of women who have to play dumb in order not to threaten someone else's self-esteem?

     

    Hmmm, off to clean and fret over yet another possible method of ruining dc's lives and driving them into therapy.

     

    Stacey

    A week of public school repeated at home -

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Does anyone have the link to this thread from the old boards or remember what the original poster did? My oldest, who has never experienced public school needs this.

     

    Has anyone else done similar to give their kids a taste of the "other side" and realize how much flexibility they have at home?

     

    Help! Who gave their dc a taste of ps at home? I seem to remember someone doing this last year....

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