I feel your pain. I had a similar experience with my 13 and and almost 11 year old yesterday. Ds started to complain of all he had to do and I looked at him and asked "Do you really want me to make a list of all I do and all you do?" He went and cleaned his room.

Why am I not surprised it was Bank of America. They bought our mortgage a few years ago and they are awful.

It irritates you because it is your mom and there is history. I know due to similar experiences with my mother. It took me many years to recognize that my mother's negative support was her attempt at being appropriate. As pp quoted..."Just smile and wave, boys....."

The 3 standards for both my kids were: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Ba Ba Black Sheep Rock a by baby followed by Hush Little Baby Then followed by songs made up using their names. Ds had a song to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and dd has one to the tune of Hush Little Baby. Sometimes they still let me sing to them. Ds is 13 and dd will be 11 in a few days.

Mother/daugter mani/pedis. My dd go every year on her birthday. We started doing this when she was 5 and she is turning 11 this year. It is our special girl time. After the pampering we go our for ice cream.

Maybe we should get her this t-shirt.http://www.redbubble.com/people/apalooza/t-shirts/7171372-greetings-from-the-verse

Where is that like button.

I can see how a finger could look like a snickers. I did have a friend in college who had a pet rat. He was a friendly rodent.

Neither. I have a very strict no rodents in the house rule. I will leave you with this story. When my dc were little dh wanted ds to have a hamster or a gerbil. I said "No." One day I am at the pet store picking up some cat food. Ahead of me in line is a mom and her 2 children purchasing a hamster. The children looked so happy with the little guy and their habitrail and accessories. I started thinking "Maybe." They exit the store and I make my purchase. The family happened to be parked next to me. As I approached my mini-van I heard screams and crying. I get closer. Little boy is in tears and has blood running down his hand. The cute, little rodent had bitten him. No rodents in the house.

:seeya: Me, me, me. When we started this journey 3 years ago it was always with the idea that they would go back for high school. After the 2nd year homeschooling I realized I did not want them to return to school ever. This year dh has gotten on board with keeping them home for high school (thank goodness. I was not looking forward to that battle next year). My oldest will be in 8th grade next year but I have started planning high school.

Good job. I did a major purge in 2009 (2009 things in 2009) I made it to about 1200 things. Now, it is 3 years later and I need to do it again. It does feel so good to get rid of things that are just clutter.

This is always a big hit in our house:http://vegetarian.about.com/od/vegetarianandvegansalads/r/greekquinoa.htm Of course, I doctor it up with whatever extra veggies I have on hand. And I add more garlic. There is never enough garlic. For cookbooks, my two like many of the recipes in The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest.

Brazillian Potato Salad is always a hit. http://www.food.com/recipe/brazilian-potato-salad-aka-107780 For incredibly easy and in no way remotely healthy: Brownie S'mores: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/smores-brownies/81b22908-4183-4a65-80e5-72fe2c6af02e only I don't break up the graham crackers. I do the marshmallow step and then press the whole graham cracker on top.

I have yet to challenge a book in my library. However, my children's librarian totally rocks. The banned books display is in the Young Adult section which is on a different level then the younger sets books. Although, I don't imagine I would object to it being in the children's section either. Then again, I lived through book banning in the schools where I grew up. I must go dig up my "I read a banned book" pin.

Distilled white vinegar. You will smell like a salad but it takes the sting out.

We have the Usborne What's Happening to me? My ds found it very helpful. That and It's Perfectly Normal.

We have bought many things besides books from amazon. Groceries and a lawn mower to name a couple.

I have watched the show once. It was fascinating to me (although the amount of hoarding is a bit disturbing). However, where I live, none of the grocery stores double coupons anymore, none of them accept coupons printed off the internet, and none of them allow multiple coupons for the same item in the same purchase. I watch the sales for the items I actually use and buy them when they are at their lowest.

My dd has very greasy hair. I asked my stylist about it and she told me it is the age. Hormones are wreaking havoc. She recommended Aussie Cleanse and Mend and the Nutregena shampoo. She said to do one week with each. The other thing she told me to do (and it works amazing) is to wash her hair with Dawn once a week. Yes, the dish detergent. I also use a little corn starch when I brush her hair since it helps to absorb the oil. If she can wash her hair in the morning that is better. too. I have also been working with my dd about using enough shampoo. A lot of time she is not using enough.

In situations like that I try to remember Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. I have a friend who is from Guatemala and her dh is an blond haired and blue eyed German. One son looks just like her and the other looks just like her dh. When he was a baby she used to get comments along the line of how great it was she could bring her child to her Nanny job. Then when he was in school and she came in for a conference the principal commented that they like to meet with the parents not the nanny. She has learned to laugh at it. On the flip side, my kids are friend with 2 girls who were adopted from China. They are obviously Chinese and the parents are obviously not. Recently I said something about not being able to get together because they were away at an adoption reunion and my dd looked at me and in the most surprised voice said "They are adopted?" It just never occurred to her to question why they looked so different from their parents.

When my kids were little we simple stated that we do not use those words and then ignored it when the offender would use foul language. Now that they are older, we talk about how language can affect people's perceptions of us and why in certain situations that matters. My 13 year old knows that I don't care if he talks trash with his friends but you don't speak that way with me.

Yes, I did. I wouldn't stop my kids if they wanted to but they think drinking from the hose is gross.

I love my big ole mush. I still think of him as new but we adopted him a year ago.

I have a garment rack and a couple of drying racks in my laundry room. Most items I put on a hanger and hang to dry. I hang things all year indoors. Before selling the swing set I used to hang the laundry on the monkey bars. I tend to have a laundry day for clothes so I go through all my loads (darks, brights, whites) and let the items that I want to use the dryer for pile up. Once all the loads are done then I run the dryer once. I do not line dry sheets and towels because I do not like the stiffness factor. I find that our clothes last longer and don't shrink when line drying.

Go with the Mac. Even my pc loving husband prefers my mac. A classic story in our house: When I upgraded to Snow Leopard and he upgraded to Windows something it went like this. DH: here is the disk for Snow Leopard. Me: Great. Insert disk. Pop up window: Install now? I click on yes. One hour later I am done and surfiing the net. 7 hours later dh completes his upgrade.