We've ordered from Zenni 3 or 4 times now - mostly for the kids - and have been pleased with the quality and price. Ds hasn't broken any of his glasses, and dd broke the nosepiece off of one of hers by trying to bend and adjust it herself. One of the reasons I was persuaded to try them out is because of the prices - I figured if the kids did break their glasses, I could afford to replace them a couple times for the price of buying them locally.

My dd wears boys' jeans and has for several years. None of the girls' jeans fit her well (too low rise) and I usually buy her boys' shorts, too, because I have a very difficult time finding girls' shorts that are long enough. I think she should have at least a couple inches of fabric covering her behind, and we find either very short shorts or capris that go below the knee, hardly ever anything in-between.

Dh's best friend is an appliance repairman and he agrees with this. He was called to replace an older Maytag in a house that was no longer wanted and gave it to us (I didn't have a dishwasher at that point). He said it was the same model as he had and it was a great dishwasher. It has something to do with a filter to filter out food particles from the rinse water that the newer ones don't have. He finally replaced his and the new one doesn't work nearly as well and he and his wife wish they would have kept the older one. I still have the older one and know how to open it up and clean out the filter and sprayers and do that regularly so I can keep it running!

Nutrimill here also (which I love) after using a KitchenAid mill for quite a few years and never really liking it.

You can cut the pieces smaller and make beef stroganoff or slice them as thinly as you can and make it into a fajita/taco type meat (although fajitas usually have onions). I have done both with stew meat before.

I haven't gotten mine cut outside the home for many years. If I want length taken off (it's long, below my shoulders) I have dh cut it. For slight layering, I flip my hair over my head (bending over), comb it out well, and cut straight across. The more you cut, the more layering. I just can't see spending money having someone do it for me.

I buy arrowroot powder from Ameriherb - it's $2.30 lb plus shipping. http://www.ameriherb.com/ I find it works well in pies and such but read it isn't as good in milk based sauces, so I use flour for those. Although I know that organic is supposed to be GMO free, there's a huge issue with cross-contamination in many crops (corn and soybeans being big ones) and so I've just been trying to stay away from cornstarch in general. I do use it occasionally when I'm not sure about the arrowroot/cornstarch conversion or how it will work in a recipe.

I use gallon zipper freezer bags. I let the bread cool completely, and then slice it before freezing. It makes it easier to get once slice out if needed instead of having to thaw a whole loaf.

If you don't want to scan them in, you *can* lay them out and take digital photos of the pictures. The quality will depend on the lighting and if you can take photos of the pictures parallel with the surface (so you're not taking the digital photos of the prints at any type of angle).

I'd probably go for a new one. My dh's best friend is an appliance repair guy and has told me in the past that if the compressor needs to be replaced on a frig, it's usually a better option to just buy new. And especially since you don't love the frig/freezer you have, why put that much money into fixing it?

You might look into lysine for her - it's used for respiratory infections in cats and I use it whenever my cat starts to get watery eyes or starts sneezing. They do have cat formulated lysine that's a flavored paste, but I suspect the powdered people version is less expensive (that's what I use - sprinkle it on her food). If you do a Google search on lysine and cats, you'll find a lot of info, and it might be worth a try before you spend hundreds of dollars at the vet.

I'm not sure what to advise - I ended up combining my 2 (they are 2 1/2 years apart) because my dd was sitting in and listening to all of our reading from the time she was little and I just couldn't see repeating the books all again in a year or two. My ds is a very difficult child, though, and we have had tons of struggles with school over the years, so that greatly influenced my decision. However, when we got done with Year 3, I knew my dd would not be ready for Year 4 the following year, so I added in Year 3.5 and stretched it over 2 years before moving into Year 4. We are now in Year 5. The pros to combining is that I didn't have so many read-alouds when they were younger and it was nice to be studying the same things. The cons, though, include dd not comprehending as much as ds because she's so much younger and they are quite competitive. There might not be as much of that if I had put them in their own years.

No, our dining room table is where we do school (and even before then, we never sat down to eat at it regularly). We eat at the kitchen counter - it has seating on the opposite side of the kitchen.

We don't have one, but were at someone's house a couple weeks ago who have one that parted in the middle and closed with magnets. She said she loved it and it was great for letting the dogs come and go as they pleased.

I'd definitely get some Pepto and see if that helps make things bearable for him. I can't stand the taste, but will take it when needed. . .

Well, I don't shop at VS - I refuse to go in there. I really hate the floor to ceiling posters of women in their undergarments in the windows of their store at the mall. I am able to find my size at Dillard's, or buy online (I mentioned in another thread - Decent Exposures).

I use coconut oil in a lot of things, but I also like palm shortening for frying and any where I need a higher smoke point. Coconut oil bubbles up horribly in deep frying, and palm shortening doesn't. I use Tropical Traditions: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/organic_palm_shortening.htm

I order mine from Decent Exposures: http://decentexposures.com/ They custom make the bras and even let you send it back for another alteration for free, and offer a money back guarantee (so if you don't like it at all, you can send it back). I've ordered from them for 13 years now and they are very comfortable. I did luck out a few years ago and found Dillard's clearancing out several 32G and 32DDD for under $5 each and I bought them all. I do wear them occasionally, but they're not nearly as comfortable as the other ones.

I'm not sure how old your dd is, but one of the options presented to us for my dd was to have 4 adult teeth pulled to make enough room in her mouth. The other option was to have 2 rounds of braces, the first one starting out when she was younger. So I don't have any long term consequence info, but we opted against pulling adult teeth and she finished up with her first round of braces and is now waiting for all her permanent teeth to come in for her second round (if needed).

No one day delivery here - in fact, there are a several things that have ended up taking 3 days, even though it says they're in stock and Prime eligible.

Well, my dd has a July birthday and turned 10 this summer and is in 5th grade (and this agrees with the cut-off dates here). So she would have been 8 all her 3rd grade year.

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. One thing I did for my kids was to buy them each a real clock with hands for their rooms so they could see the different times during the day (bedtime is at this time - big hand here, little hand here, etc.) They now both have digital clocks, too, and still my 5th grader seems confused sometimes with the old-style clock :glare: But in reality, almost every clock/watch she sees is digital and there's not a lot of practice with a clock or watch with hands.

I'm not Perry, obviously, but I make sure my chest freezers are down to at least 0F (they are usually below) and notice a vast difference between stuff stored there and in my freezer on my refrigerator. If you have a frost-free freezer, things will keep a lot longer (and better) than one that goes through a defrost cycle. I don't have any issues eating properly wrapped meat from my freezer that's a couple years old, but just for quality issues, I'd probably just feed 3 year old meat to my cat.

Well, I just looked at the cereal that dh had for breakfast and it says 10 servings per box - he eats it in 2. Which is why we don't eat cereal on a regular basis. I get it for him as a treat for breakfast occasionally and will buy it occasionally for the kids as a snack food and they get a cup per day when we do have it.

I worked in alterations while I was in college and although it is *possible* to alter jeans, it's not easy and not worth the cost. With the flat seams and how the waistband is attached (unlike men's slacks that are easy to alter the waist). You would have to take off the entire waistband on the jeans, redo the flat seam in the back, cut down the waistband and reattach it. . .When people would come in and ask for that alteration, we wouldn't do it.