My dd9 is this way too. I know that I need to do exactly what you said, spend some positive time focused on her, but I will admit it is easier said than done. This is something I am working on. It's good to hear others' have my kind of child, lol.

:001_smile: I like your idea of opening them in bed before going downstairs. What a nice way to wake up and avoid having children in your room at 5am. Actually we have one early riser and we typically have to wake the other two. Neat idea though.

I can't think of anything to do with exercise but some other ideas could be: Cologne, candy, toothbrush, scratch off lottery ticket, car air freshner, mag light to keep in car, watch, multi-functional tool (Leatherman), or a magazine subscription certificate. Okay, I thought of a couple exercise/healthy things. Not sure if they are along the right lines, but here we go: resistance bands, pain meds (lol), gym membership certificate, shoe strings (?), and that's all I'm coming up with. HTH!

Me and dh both put them up for us. We both enjoy holiday shopping and do it together along with filling the stockings. Half the fun is staying up late and giggling as we wrap gifts and set everything out just perfect.:001_smile: You should hang that stocking up and buy yourself something nice to go in it. Even if it's just something inexpensive and simple. You are entitled to enjoy discovering the stocking too!

There are some very good points made in that article Ellie!

Tri-Cities is the one we were wanting to go to! How exciting to hear of someone close to us. It seems most NW families are from the western side of the state. I've been reading all the articles in the local newspapers about how well you all did. Congrats again! And congrats Natalieclare for gaining top spot! As a first time coach that is spectacular!:001_smile:

We have 10% of our income go to retirement, 5% go to emergency, and 5% for savings. Typing it out is a sad realization that I wish it were more. We do not have a college fund for our children. We believe they will need to work for that and apply for scholarships to make that a reality for them. Both myself and my husband had our college paid for in full and we both agree that it would have been much wiser to have had to work for it. It would have been more appreciated and better used. :glare: I hope we don't kick ourselves for this later in life. I'll be interested to see how others divide out their savings.

WTM Cassandra, are you by chance in Eastern Washington? They had a robot lego event for that same age range today and we wanted to go so badly, but one of our little ones got sick so we didn't make it. I was wondering if this was the same event. Either way congratulations and best of luck to you next week!

..in that we allow our children (ages 9,5,3, and 9mos.) to do the "busy work". Our church provides a different busy bag each Sunday for the children. They pick out their bag and in it contains a pencil, crayons, and worksheets at different age ranges. The worksheets are directly related to the sermon being preached. They do the crosswords, color sheets, fill in the blanks, etc. during service. We do require them to stand when the rest of the congregation stands to show respect. I feel that even though they are doing busy work they are still absorbing what they are hearing. I am pleased that they remain quiet, show respect by standing when appropriate, and don't fuss over attending church.

We use this with dd9 and dd5 and they both do good with it. Our five year old works at a very slow pace through it and our 9yr. old does great and loves it. She isn't a natural speller but tends to like the process of doing them until until she misses a set amount or the time is up. The process of working on them (10 steps) is very effective and quick and to the point. It's a no nonsense approach that has worked great for our family.

I had my surgery yesterday and it went without incidence. They were able to reconsruct the bones and they expect full a recovery. They didn't have me sign any paperwork that would endanger my patient rights, but did sign papers showing their full intent to pay for all out of pocket expenses for us from this surgery and future appointments. I feel pretty good about our decision. Thank you all for your advice and opinions!

I'm so sorry to hear of your mom and the struggle with this disease that lead up to this morning. And you sound very strong with your upcoming surgery. You are an inspiration to others to be that brave. I will be praying for you.:grouphug:

Lizzie, this is humbling. I don't know what your situation was but this post made me stop to think about how lucky I was that the doctor called me. It was after 9pm at night and he called to have me and my husband put him on speaker phone. He then proceeded to tell us what had happened and what he would do to fix the situation. He said he was sorry for calling so late and that he couldn't sleep knowing what happened. Your comment makes me realize how lucky I was that he stepped up to do this. It hadn't dawned on me that he could have just as easily tried to hide it.:001_huh:

:lol:rofl:lol::lol::lol:

Dianne, Due to the type of surgery and amount of work to be done we received two second opinions prior to having the surgery and both agreed with what should be done and recommended the doctor who performed the surgery highly. Also, the doctor is having another surgeon join him for the corrective surgery to ensure it is done right this time. And Frankie, yes, all costs incurred for this surgery will be paid in full including hospital, anesthesia, etc. They have went as far as offering to pay our mileage, fuel, and a portion of my husband's wages. I think it is the way they have handled it that firms up my belief that he doesn't need to be sued to learn a lesson. Reading the reply posts makes it easy to be proud of my decision not to sue but when I tried to explain it to family/friends it was hard to get my point across. I thought by hearing others' opinions on here I could see their side. Thanks everyone!

Kris, thank you for your post. You basically stated how I felt. This is such a tough subject, for me anyway. People sue for the smallest thing. How do you decide what is worth it? And can you edit a poll? I didn't realize it would show what everyone voted with results. Can you change that?

If you underwent a surgery and one week later were informed an error had been made admittedly by the doctor and you needed another surgery to correct the first one, would you sue? Reason for post: This has happened to me and I do not want to sue. I feel that since the doctor was honest in telling me and promised to correct the error free of charge that it would be wrong to sue. It has cost me time, added pain (two surgeries instead of one plus the error is painful), and some financial strain (husband taking off work to care for me) but he said I should make a full recovery with no permanent effects. Members of my family and friends feel I am wrong and that I am not "teaching" him a lesson, or that I am "risking this happening to someone else" by not suing. I am struggling with the moral and ethical sides to this. Please give me your vote and if you want a reason to back it up.

Times Tales. They come pretty highly recommended in my area and are one of Cathy Duffy's top picks. Might be worth looking into. HTH!

CLE Math here

We have some panoramic views of our area this time. Happy Wordless Wednesday!

We went to Home Depot and got a large piece of plexi glass. My husband put some inexpensive trim around it and hung it on the wall. It is clear so you can see the color of our walls behind it which makes it easy to see what you have written. Also, a friend of mine uses a large piece of the white fiberglass (shower stall wall) that she got at home depot and it looks identical to a white board only larger. HTH!

You did a spectacular job on creating his wound- very gross! And your daughter looks lovely as a gypsy.

I couldn't help but to laugh at this and Nicole's post. At least I wasn't the only one that the words "dodge ball" stirred something up in. lol.:lol:

...are an egg drop. Have them design an egg container or holder of some kind and then have dad take it and drop it off the house or some other high place. Some variations are to fill the box with water, popcorn, bubble wrap, or have a parachute on it. Our hs group does this yearly and the local fire dpt. drops them from the extended ladders. It's exciting to see what the kids can come up with. Another project might be to get involved in a postcard exchange. We are currently doing one and it has been exciting for the kids to send and receive postcards weekly (3 a week) and explore the areas they come from. This has been the most excited the kids have ever been about geography. HTH!