Emerald 100 calorie pack of chocolate or cinnamon almonds. The cinnamon ones I have in my hand right now are 4g carbs, 2 are fiber, 1 sugar. They have just enough sweetness to satisfy me. Or a small spoon of peanut butter.

:party: Way to go!

I splurged, mostly because I've been a real slacker in the lit department, and paid for an on-line class with Captive Thought Tutorials for my ds this year. He LOVES the Intro to Lit class and he is not a reader. I love it too - she does a great job with the class, grading, testing, everything. All I have to do is make sure he has the books when needed and help with time management on the reading. They have occasional writing assignments too. I highly recommend her! http://www.captivethoughttutorials.com/

:iagree:Pretty much exactly what I was going to say.

As a buyer, I don't think I would care much about a pre-inspection. As a seller, it might be useful as you would be able to fix anything they found ahead of time making the whole thing go smoother when you get an offer.

Just voted. You're tied for 12th now!

We have the Cuisinart one and love it. We drink a lot of flavored coffees so it's nice to be able to make whatever kind I want without having to worry about what dh wants. It comes with the my k-cup to brew your own coffee so you don't have to buy it separately. Keurig does have a new brewer out called the Vue which has more brewing options but also uses a new type of cup which is recyclable. http://www.greenmountaincoffee.com/vue-learn-more

We just visited Iowa State, where dh and I graduated from, and the dining halls have changed so much. They are like food court buffets with all you can eat. There were different stations with pizza, pasta, salad, Chinese, Mexican, a Genghis Grill type place, sandwiches, American, etc, and dessert bar including softserve machines. They even had some large steamed shrimp that my dh loaded up on! While the food wasn't gourmet, it was all very good. I would have gained so much weight if it had been like that when I went there. :tongue_smilie:

I either do this also or I download for free from zedge.net

I have 8. All but Canada were on cruises so we didn't spend a lot of time in any one place although we did go to several cities in some of those countries like Italy.

Our ped dentist says a light lunch and no dairy. Of course we missed that memo once and ds had ice cream about a half hour before and threw it up all over the poor assistant. They have reminded us ever since on the dairy thing.

:iagree: I used to have that long of commute, but half of it was by train and it was before we had kids so it wasn't so bad. However, driving that long twice a day would have definitely worn me down. I have also found that when dh is happy with his job, we are all so much happier even if it means that we don't see him as much or even see him too much. I think if only one spouse is working, the other should do what they can to make it easier on the working one and it sounds like this is important to your dh. I would try to put myself in his shoes.

I prefer non-fiction to the point that I have been known to pick up an encyclopedia and just start reading it. I try to read fiction once in while and find that I do really enjoy some of them, but most of them I don't get very far into when I give up on them.

Where's the choice for other? I would probably buy one of each size - I can live with 2 pairs of jeans along with some yoga pants. Then if I gained or lost a little, I'd still have some that fit, and I'd choose which pair to wear depending on what I was doing that day. That's just me though.

I think you should go look at some of the other rentals. If you find one you really like for a fair price, then move. Otherwise, don't. I'm pretty sure I would move though just to have more space, garage, etc. Yard work can be very therapeutic too.

My dd was homeschooled all the way through 8th grade and then decided she wanted to go to public high school. She was a year ahead of her age mates and rather naive. For her it wasn't a big deal and she just slid right in, found her place, and has been very happy and successful there. I'm one to not buy into the whole age thing - sure it matters for some kids, but not all kids. Matter of fact, most of her friends are a grade ahead of her making them 2 years older than she is. As a junior, the biggest difference I see with the age thing is that she is taking the ACT/SAT now and I'm pretty sure that if she was a year older, she would probably do better on them but she has still done well and I'm confident that she would not be nearly happy at high school if she was a grade behind. As it is, she is taking all of her junior and senior classes this year (when technically she should be in 10th grade) so she can study abroad next year without it affecting her graduating next year. You know your dd best. As for your dd fitting in at the school, does she have friends that go there? Knowing that she has someone to eat lunch with or that she might see in the halls can be very comforting. Is it a school where kids in the same grade have the same classes? At my dd's school, many of the classes, especially electives, have kids from 9-12 in them with the exception of English and the higher level math and sciences. If your school is like that, it might not really matter what grade she is in. My dd had no problem switching classes or being in a classroom with 20 or more kids and she had never been to school before. The only real problem she seemed to have was figuring out the cafeteria so I made a call one day and spoke to one of the lunch ladies and all was well after that.

When I started reading the descriptions, I thought definitely #1. You had me at 3 car garage and huge storage shed! Then I read the description for #2 and voted for it. But, after seeing the pictures, the kitchen in #1 is not that small - definitely bigger than ours, and I love the wood beams and look of the house, beautiful! If you can get it for less money and the monthly cost would be less because of the HOA, I think I would opt for 1.

Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn have the separate bedrooms as long as you don't get a studio. We just stayed in a two bedroom one that my dh got a deal on for $85/night including tax. I'm a bit of a hotel snob and it wasn't too bad. My dh travels a lot and he would recommend Staybridge Suites, Residence Inn, or Homewood Suites. He said that Staybridge usually has the best bang for the buck.

It will be a year long high school exchange with Rotary club. They do switch families part way through though so we will have the student from August through New Years and then s/he will move to another family. My dd will be leaving at the beginning of Sept to go to Spain so it will be nice to have a distraction for at least part of the time she's gone. :001_smile: I love your advice - that's kind of what we were envisioning doing with our student. We love learning new things about other cultures and we really do want the student to become part of our family. I just hope s/he likes us.

What fun! Do you have any advice for future host families? We should be getting one from Spain in August. I'm both nervous and excited!

Right now I also read collegeconfidential and cultures-shocked.org (a student exchange site). I'll probably be spending more time on those and less on here in a few months.

My dd with an Oct. 31 bday was in 4th grade at that time. She has always been a bit ahead anyway. If my ds had that bday, he might very well be 3rd grade when almost 9 not because he isn't smart, but just because he is a different kid. Do whatever works for you and your ds.

Interesting, as my dd has dabbled with RS on and off for a few years. She goes to ps now and last semester when she took Spanish I, she learned very little and said she learned so much more with RS. In Spanish II at school, she is learning more with tenses, but still thinks RS is more useful. She plans on finishing level 1 and 2 of RS this summer before going to Spain for a year. ETA After 3 years of regular high school Spanish, I wasn't able to get out of Spanish in college either.

When my nephew was in Iraq, we would send specific things that he wanted and then we would load up the box with all kinds of extra things that he would share with the other soldiers. I would even ask random military people that I would see at the store (we live near a base) for suggestions to put in the box. He told us it was always appreciated. The kids made a bunch of homemade cards for Christmas and Valentines for him to share. Thanks for reminding me about it; we really enjoyed sending the packages but stopped after he came back. I think we need to start doing it again.

I wouldn't think it would matter that much, but maybe it's just hopeful thinking on my part. We bought the Latin America version several years ago and now my dd is heading off to Spain in the fall. I'm assuming the basic vocabulary is the same though.