I've been using my electrolux canister for 18 years now. I did have to bring it in for a tune up after dh vacuumed up the ashes and soot the firefighters dragged into our apartment after a small fire and I replaced the hose once. My mother had her elextrolux for over 30 years. I don't know if he newer models are as hard working as the older ones.

Both of mine have had the occasional sip of wine. Neither cares for the taste. We talk about alcoholism and the effects of over indulging frequently so I am hopeful that when the serious trying occurs they will be somewhat smart about it.

When we picked our dd's name we had not come across anyone using that name. A few months after she was born her name was everywhere. When she was in 1st grade she was one of 3 girls named Mikaela (and all 3 had different spellings). It is what it is. Although, we have not met any other homeschoolers with her name. My feeling is, if the name speaks to you then use it.

:iagree: This is what i do. I am now in the process of purchasing for next year.

Mine is fairly tidy. I have large bins on each shelf for sheets and pillowcases sorted by size. The towels are all neatly stacked. However, the top shelf is a bit of a hodgepodge. I know what is up there but it is not organized.

Paradise By The Dashboard Light by Meatloaf. Brings me right back to Winter Break in College. On the beach in Ft. Lauderdale with my best friend. Blasting that cassette on my little boom box and hanging with some Canadians we had met.

When it comes to the kids clothes - I price them at 75 cents each and 3 for $2.00. Snow boots I price at $2. a pair and will usually sell them for $1. Winter coats I price at $2. Books i price hard cover a $1.00 and paperbacks at 50 cents. Stuffed animals are 25 cents ea. I find that people really try to nickel and dime at a yard sale. As long as an offer is not insulting (i.e. a quarter for a $5 item) I sell it. My goal is to get rid of stuff not bring it back into the house.

You are not alone. I have always been one to try to be efficient with my outings but with the current price of gas I have been making more changes. I dropped the weekly gym class so that is one more day when i don't have to drive anywhere. I now wait at the Y for 3 hours while the kids have swim practice rather then driving dd home when she is done and going back for ds. It is a real pia in that it forces me to plan my days better but it is what needs to be done.

I do a mix of raw and wellness dry food. I am not an expert by any means but I don't think you can go wrong with a raw diet.

I think the whole thing is ridiculous. When my kids were in ps they banned cupcakes on birthdays. I thought that was insane. The 22 cupcakes received over 10 months in school to celebrate a birthday were not responsible for childhood obesity. The school lunches provided-chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, and other assorted kid friendly foods consumed daily probably contributed to the obesity issue. There was always one healthier option on the menu but one has to wonder how many kids really chose it. Proper education on nutrition and access to the healthy foods will cure childhood obesity. Processed garbage is cheaper and easier then soaking beans overnight and cooking the next day, then mashing them with seasonings, then grating your own raw milk cheddar cheese, and then making a weeks supply of bean and cheese burritos. Forcing kids to eat mass produced cafeteria is not even a bandaid on the problem it is just a political move to make it look like the schools are tackling the childhood obesity issue.

I can't think of the last time I purchased white flour. I don't really bake cakes and the whole wheat flour I grind myself works well in everything I do bake-muffins, coffee cakes, cookies, pancakes, waffles, and breads.

my dh takes Sam-e and St. Johns Wort for his mood swings. He has also used a product called Postive Thoughts http://www.vitacost.com/Source-Naturals-St-Johns-Positive-Thoughts They both have worked well. He prefers the Positive Thoughts. I prefer the Sam-e. When he takes the Positive Thoughts 3x a day like he is supposed to it works incredibly well. He often forgets. The Sam-e he takes in the morning.

As someone who happily lets her freak flag fly; I am raising my kids to do the same.

One of my favorites when I was in high school, too.

When my kids give me the disrespectful face I usually say "Don't look at me in that tone of voice." Makes them stop every time. Doing it with friends, that is a little tougher. I would talk to her about it and help her come up with the words she needs.

I was ready to post with an "as long as you let people know ahead of time that you are a shoes off house"

I used to be firmly in the "when they have a job and can pay for it themselves" camp. Then I had a babysitter who did not show up to pick my son up from school when he was in 4th grade. After that we got him a Migo (one of those program in 4 numbers only phones). A year later we got him a regular phone because my dh wanted the new blackberry and it was less expensive to add a line then buy the phone. DD then became the owner of the Migo. Basically, it boiled down to a need and has become a huge convenience for us. I could go back to the pre-cell-phone days but I don't want to. Long story longer - I now believe the right age is when there is a need and the child shows the maturity to handle it.

When they were toddlers they used them around the house and in the car because I did not want to deal with spillage. At the table they used a glass.

Same here. It is more for my own piece of mind. If someone was truly interested they could easily figure out the area we live in based on where we go and what we are doing, and of course the pictures of them are like a big arrow saying "Here I am".

I have a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country. Normally, I run far away from Chrysler as the van before this was a Plymouth Grand Voyager where the transmission went (fortunately 100 miles before my warranty expired) but it was never the same after that. I was constantly bringing it in for service. But, back to this van. It is older so it does not have to stow and go seating or any fancy bells and whistles but it gets me from point a to point b. The worst thing so far was last year the ac broke. The 2 most expensive parts, of course.

I think it has reached a stage where you need to politely tell your friends to back off. I am sure it started out harmless enough but the joke is no longer funny.

Not that I want to defend everyday math because I really dislike that program, but the lattice method is actually a fairly old method of doing multiplication. My oldest finds it easier to do the lattice then the traditional way I was taught. He explained it to me once and it did make sense. I still can't do it and my dd ditched that method years ago but he loves it and always gets the right answer.

I tend to follow Ann Landers advice in my life - No one can use you as a doormat unless you let them. I do my best to speak respectfully to everyone but sometimes you just have to plop it out there to get your point across. I am an imperfect being.

Honestly, they were both rude but the Aunt gets the award. At 11, your son should know better then to take a generous amount of food at a buffet when there are many mouths to feed. However, even if he does know better he is still a kid who was hungry and thoughtless as can be expected from an 11 year old. I have had numerous manners lessons with my kids about not taking all the food because there might not be anymore and it has to feed everyone. Sometimes, they forget and I find it quite humiliating. The Aunt, an adult and the hostess, should certainly know that proper etiquette tells us that when someone displays poor manners it is an even bigger offense to point it out. As hostess, one of her duties is to make sure all of her guests are comfortable and not humiliated. Most likely her response came from a place of concern for feeding everyone but she handled it very poorly.

Yes, we did. It is unfortunate that this kind of thing happens with some frequency in the event photography world.