Symptoms of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) are very similar to the pain of a gall bladder attack. I experienced a similar situation -- gall bladder removed, then two or three years later, a sudden development of symptoms like a gall bladder attack. Some ideas, in addition to the one Bee mentioned (regarding the duct): 1. Until you get into your doctor, try taking Prilosec (available OTC) daily. 2. It's possible you've developed a lactose intolerance -- try avoiding an excess of dairy products for a couple weeks, and see if it makes a change. (Symptoms for this are similar to IBS and the heartburn pain you're experiencing.) 3. Ask to have your thyroid checked -- these pains as you've described them can be one of the symptoms of hypothyroidism. (But you'd have other symptoms, as well -- fatigue, weight gain or inability to lose weight, hair loss ... actually, the list of symptoms is quite long and extensive.) 4. IBS (if that's what it is) can only be controlled through diet (the one drug that had been touted as a treatment, Zelnorm, has been removed from the market by the FDA): Avoid caffeine and alcohol; add fiber; limit dairy, fruit, and artifical sweeteners; avoid gas-inducing foods like beans, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower; limit intake of fatty foods. HTH. (And you have my sympathy AND empathy, because I know exactly how you feel!)

Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for this information!

Ouch. I don't sell at Amazon, but I have through half.com and eBay, and I have to say -- $6.99 isn't enough to mail a heavy textbook via Priority Mail, which is what most customers assume you'll use if they've paid for expedited shipping. You'd still lose money on the deal (and, so, may need to price your textbooks accordingly), but I suggest you use a flat-rate box next time, available for free from the post office, which would be plenty large enough for a textbook. No matter the weight or destination zip code, the mailing fee is the same (around $8.20, I believe). So, losing $1.20 on shipping would sure beat losing $8 on shipping. HTH.

Because your son cannot participate in this organization for another 2 years, why not just tell him the conversation about joining CAP is tabled until that time? You can be honest and tell him you are not warm to the idea, but that discussion about it a moot point at this stage, since he's too young to join, anyway. In the meantime, do as others have suggested, and find other groups or clubs or classes that fulfill your son's aerospace engineering desires, which seem to be the driving motivator for your son. (I doubt the humanitarian missions aspect of CAP is what is fueling his interest at his age; but if it is, then, again, find ways for him to engage in this noble endeavor outside of CAP.) Even if you aren't able to find comparable activities, his interest in it might wane by the time he's 12, and he might very well be eager to pursue some other new adventure, one that doesn't leave you feeling ... cold. BTW, my dad, who was a private pilot and owned his own plane, was in the CAP for two decades, until cancer and then a heart attack kept him from being able to renew his pilot's license. Not one of the young men who participated in CAP during my dad's time with the organization went on the join the military, but all of them stayed in CAP as young adults, as they were drawn to the search-and-rescue aspect of the group. Of course, as someone else has pointed out, every chapter is different.

I need help thinking through next year's curriculum, and would love to hear from those who have used TOG (Y2) and WinterPromise's Quest for the Middle Ages. I did a search of TWTM on this, and see lots of replies, but most are comparing ToG to SL or MFW, or to a different WP package. Here's the skinny: I am only homeschooling one child, but have been spending enormous amounts of time coming up with evaluations and comprehension questions and the like for this year's homeschooling. We are using Learning Adventures, and combining it with WP's Quest for the Ancient World. I'm even throwing in a little of the Illuminations curriculum. But I'm slowly going insane. I have browsed through TOG's sample unit, and love what I'm seeing. But is it worth the cost for one child? DS will be in 6th grade next year. We have a great library system, so I am confident I could borrow many of the books we need. Still... I would love some reassurance from those who have BTDT that it is worth every penny. Thanks in advance for your input.

This thread has been a hoot! It reminded me of the time I made a chocolate cake for a get-together. People just *loved* that chocolate cake, said it was the moistest, spongiest cake they'd ever had, and would I please share the recipe? Well, after all the gushing over my "fabulous" cake, I told them it was a "secret recipe" because I was too embarrassed to admit it was just a plain old box cake! :blushing: The only thing I'd done differently was to over beat it, because I had it in my mixer, then got distracted, and so it beat for five minutes or more. Because of that, I think it rose more that it would have normally. My sister's favorite "secret recipe" story comes from a church potluck, too. Someone had brought a chicken pot pie casserole, and my sister asked for the recipe. The woman gave my sister the recipe, but made it a big to-do over it and swore her to secrecy because it was a "family recipe" and she wasn't supposed to share it. Well, my sister went to buy the ingredients, and found the exact same recipe on the back of a can of Veg-All! We women are a strange lot, aren't we? :laugh:

:iagree: Beautifully put.

If you can wait for a couple months, wait. The prices tend to fluctuate. Just three weeks ago, I purchased one (the 1993 white cover edition) at Amazon.com marketplace for $10. It was in EXCELLENT condition. Now, the prices are high. In a few months, I'll bet they'll be back down again.

I really enjoy the Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons. Then again, it dovetails perfectly with our studies this year. But, I had already purchased TWSS and SWI-A, and we have moved back and forth between the two. It's been working for us.

We are just finishing up GSA: Tools and Technology. I used it with my 5th grader and another 6th grade boy I homeschool. I won't do one of those again. Here's the thing that is not made clear with these books: You have to copy, cut, and staple together 24 mini booklets. This is the "text" for the kids. I'm sure they are all formatted the same, but in the T&T book, there were 24 books to put together. And I had to put together TWO COPIES of each one, because the boys have difficulty sharing, at times. Ultimately, I was glad they each had their own copy. More importantly, and maybe it was just the Tools book, but this was WAY too simple for even my 5th & 6th graders, and to make it challenging enough for junior-high age kids, you'll have to supplement quite a bit. They give suggestions, but it creates a lot more work for you to come up with the resources to flush the program out for older students. Lastly, the whole learning concept is based on having the students put together what they call "graphic organizers" for each lesson -- a variety of mini-books, similar to examples you'd find in Dinah Zikes Big Book of Books. They do provide all the graphics, but in the T&T study guide, my 5th & 6th grade boys thought the graphics were really baby-ish. (They featured an elephant and a mouse.) We stuck it out, although I skipped a lot of the mini-books. We are, literally, finishing up the last two lessons today and tomorrow. I'll be glad to be finished with this.

I only have three kids, but I'm sure those of you with larger families have come up with all sorts of snappy comebacks to those folks who make comments. Just in case you haven't thought of this one, I'll throw it out there: An old college friend and his DW have 11 children (born within about an 16-year time frame). To comments about his family's size, my friend replies with a wink and a nudge, "Well, my mother always told me to find something I'm good at and stick with it." :lol: Back to the OP... {{ hugs }} This thread has probably been cathartic for you, and you're probably past it, by now. Hopefully, you've seen just how appalling we all find it that someone would anonymously post such a hateful comment on your blog, all because of a thread over here. I mean, seriously... someone needs to get.a.life.

Same here. We actually got nice crisp sheets at Ikea, which I love. The sheets, that is. Well, I like Ikea, too, but I'm not sure I love it... oh, good grief, I should just go back and fix that misplaced modifier, rather than type all this. Oh well, 'tis done now, so I'll leave it. :001_smile:

The same thing happens to my DS11. It's not just girls, it's not just middle school (although we are getting to that middle school age). But, having gotten one girl through middle school, and an older son, as well -- I have to say that middle school GIRLS do tend to be worse than boys. My two oldest were in public school; I've only been homeschooling our youngest, DS11. I plan on homeschooling him through his middle school years for this very reason.

That is really nifty! We will be studying Ancient Rome this spring -- what a great, fun resource to have access to! Thanks for sharing! (Why am I using all these exclamation points?! I don't know!)

No, you're not in the minority. Not exchanging gifts with extended family members last year was a LOT harder on me than it was on my siblings. We were -- wait, scratch that -- I was usually the one spending loads of money on people. I had been giving my brother a huge food basket ($60+) every year, and hadn't gotten a gift from him in well over five years. It didn't really matter to me, because I loved being able to select special gifts to give my family. A few years ago, my dad told me (in as gentle a way as possible), that, while my generosity was lovely, it made my brother feel awkward because he could not reciprocate. (He was in a very tough spot for several years following a painful divorce.) I had never thought of it that way. But, I'll be honest and say that my dad's words hurt my feelings, even though he wasn't trying to. I felt attacked, just because I wanted to give gifts! :glare: It took a couple more years for me to realize the gift giving on my part wasn't entirely altruistic. In fact, it was really kind of prideful. I wanted to hear the "oohs" and "aahs" from my family members when they opened that "perfect" gift from me. :blush: It's all really quite embarrassing to reflect on, now. If I hadn't gotten more and more elaborate with the gift giving, if I had stuck to simpler gifts, handmade gifts, homemade food gifts -- well, we might all still be exchanging gifts this Christmas, and not feeling so strained by it. I think I'm the one who ruined it for my family, because I let myself get completely out of control. :sad: Wow. True confessions, eh? Last year -- and this coming year -- there won't be gifts for extended families. But, truth be told, it's because now MY family is facing a bit of a financial crisis. Otherwise, I'd probably STILL be going overboard on the gift giving. It wasn't until last year, though, that I really saw how relieved my brother and sister were that I hadn't gotten them (or their kids) gifts. It was an eye-opener, for sure.

We did this for the first time last year. It was an amazing relief. In conjunction with not buying for nieces and nephews and adult siblings, I also let my own children know that we were only buying three gifts for them last year. Well, we did end up giving each child about five gifts to open, plus stockings... but this was a HUGE downsize from previous years. We have three children, and make them open gifts one at a time, and -- literally -- it would take three hours to open gifts in Christmases past. :blush: Yeah, I know. It was obscene, the amount of money we spent every year. And, each subsequent year was worse and worse. Reality finally caught up to us. Now, we are trying to focus more on the reason for the season, and less on the gifts. Most important, we aren't using CREDIT to buy ANYTHING this Christmas. It's all being purchased with cash, or not purchased at all.

I'm all in! :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Just wanted to be sure you knew I really meant it!

Truly. My DS's principal couldn't have cared less. I was removing my son because the school was completely dysfunctional, and she just didn't give a rip.

You know, I'm probably just hyper-sensitive right now because so many hot-topic threads (RE: politics & religion) over the past few weeks have led to uncivil discourse. But, by all means, discourse away.

With all respect, it does matter a great deal to some people. Jesus being the son of God, not just some great man, is the bedrock, the foundation of the Christian faith. I really think this is one of those topics where we, as a community, should simply agree to disagree and move on. Those who believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and that Jesus was the son of God are not likely to persuade to their way of thinking those who hold the opposite viewpoint, and vice versa. For the sake of harmony, could we please let this one go?

You never know which churches will "buck" tradition and hire a female for a leadership position. Our Southern Baptist church in Virginia hired a female for a pastor position (not senior pastor). To avoid freaking out the "old timers" they gave her the title of "minister" (whereas the man in the position before her arrival was called pastor), but she has all the same responsibilities (and pay and benefits) that come with the title "pastor." So, you just never know. BTW... she was the best thing to happen to that church in a long, long time. Even the hard-core traditionalists were won over once they saw the spectacular changes she made and the growth of the ministry under her leadership.

That was funny!!

That's exactly me! I love public speaking, I speak at women's events, I love teaching large group Bible studies... But I'm not so great at the one-on-one. I'd rather speak to a crowd of thousands than to a crowd of five or six.

I'm a weird mix of extrovert and introvert... like a split personality. I love being with groups of friends, and definitely get "energized" when I'm around people (depending on the people and situation, of course)... but, at the same time, I really like and need alone time. Well, anyway, I have been living in this neighborhood for 2.5 years, and I'm pretty sure they all think I'm a snob or worse, because I don't socialize. I'm not out talking walks with other moms in the neighborhood (like some are), I'm rarely out in our front yard (which is small, compared to the 1/2 acres of our pretty & woodsy back yard), and I don't really like other people's kids -- my own, yes. Others, not so much. So, I used to get invites to all the neighborhood parties -- the Tupperware, the Pampered Chef, the Premiere Design, etc. -- but never went to any. Last night, I realized... I'm no longer getting the invites! My neighbor had one of those home sales parties, and I wasn't invited! :001_huh: Now, I'm thinking -- I should have been friendlier! I don't want to be the neighborhood pariah! At the same time, I'm relieved to not have to turn down the invites anymore! Anyone else like me -- you'd just rather stay cocooned in your own house and yard, not really socialize with the neighborhood moms? Or, do I have a defunct social gene? (And the weird thing is, I really do like hosting parties! Not selling parties, but parties. Get-togethers. For friends and people I know.)

I didn't even know you could do that. I have a whole bag of bulgur to use up... I should try this!