Never heard it. "Rose to his feet" is the phrase I hear. Oregon, Utah, Rhode Island, and Vermont. I'd correct it in most written contexts, although now that I know it's a regionalism, I'd let it stand in dialog or casual writing intended for a regional audience.

We're spending several weeks in Denmark this summer. You never know what's going to kill you. I'd hate to miss out on travel, only to die in a car crash on my way home from grocery shopping. I don't consider myself a risk taker, but statically speaking, the risk of travel is still small.

I would get a credit card. There's more risk with a debit card. We only use our debit card for ATM withdrawals. Everything else goes on the credit card. As for the itinerary, my first thought is that you are spending a lot of time moving from one place to the next, and skipping over really cool stuff to do it. I'd pick one island or the other for the entire 10 days. There is plenty to do in either place. I also think it's a shame to go to Dingle and not stay the night so you can hear the music. The whole point of Dingle is the pub music! (We picked our Dingle rental house based on it being walking distance from the pubs. I might be a tad bit obsessed.) The good news is, you'll have a great trip! I just think you'll have a better one if you reduce the geographic area you are trying to cover.

I hear it in business situations in which the person who needs to give approval for something can't be reached, and the lack of a decision is creating a bottleneck or other undesirable situation. So you make the best decision you can, the decision you think the person would have made if they were in possession of the facts you have, and proceed, realizing that if you are wrong, you'll need to ask for forgiveness.

My sister does this. I don't think it would work if the puppy will be alone for long stretches. The whole point is socialization. Once they have the requisite shots, my sister takes her puppies everywhere--church, stores, restaurants.

As someone who moved across the country to a state I hadn't seen before, I recommend renting for a bit if you can. When we moved from Utah to Rhode Island, it took a few months to realize what our new state had to offer that hadn't been on our minds when I made my list of what I wanted in our house. I'm not sure we got anything on my list other than number of bedrooms, but it ended up being the perfect place for us during that time in our lives. I am so glad we had to wait a couple of months for our other house to sell, because if I'd been in a position to buy before we moved, I would have ended up somewhere else.

I don't know the ages of your kids (I'm on a tablet and can't see sig lines), but if they are all school age, I'd consider putting them in school and finding a job during that time. Hopefully that would make it easier for your DH to find a job with saner hours, since he could afford to take a (hopefully temporary) pay cut. Homeschooling is wonderful, but time with Dad is super important too. I have a hard time remembering everyone's details, so I apologize if there are reasons this won't work.

Will this baby be your last child? If not, I would find a new theme and start using it.

We have an egg hunt that includes real and candy-filled plastic eggs, as well as a couple of larger candy things (Peeps, a bunny, some Cadbury eggs). It's easy and low-stress for me.

I'm not sure the last part is true if you are the mistress of Henry VIII. All that is established is that you are not willing to defy the king in order to avoid sex outside of marriage.

In my experience as a former Mormon who has spent probably thousands of hours discussing staying versus leaving, there are a several things (at least!) at play. 1. Yes, LDS membership is high demand, and people who have given a lot to the church (for example, those who served a mission, or those who ended a serious romantic relationship because the other person couldn't go to the temple) are likely to resist admitting even to themselves if they have doubts. 2. It's almost impossible to fly under the radar as a doubting Mormon if you can't tolerate a fair bit of social lying or at least a lack of transparency. You have temple recommend interviews where you are asked point blank if you believe certain things. Even seemingly benign (for the doubter) callings can have unexpected pressure to bear your testimony of Joseph Smith if you get a gung-ho partner. 3. The doctrine that families can be together forever (as long as everyone stays Mormon) means that often families view leaving the church as a rejection of the family and/or marriage. 4. The Mormon church teaches it is the only church with authority from God and the only church with the fullness of the gospel. If you hear this often enough growing up, it sets up a choice in your mind between Mormonism and atheism. So, if you don't want atheism, you stay with Mormonism because "it's better than anything else." 5. Doubts are much more likely to be equated with sin in Mormonism than in the mainline Protestant churches I've attended. Doubt in Mormonism means something is wrong. In my UCC and Episcopalian churches, doubt is taken as a normal part of the human experience. There's a line I love in our Episcopalian service, "No matter where you are on your journey, you are welcome here." I know my experience is not universal, but that was never something that was convincingly expressed in Mormonism. All of these reasons lead to people first denying to themselves that they have doubts, then hiding those doubts from others, and finally leaving when they can't pretend any more.

I'm pretty sure it was Mike's Hard Lemonade.

I always, always pack a second pair of shoes for everyone. Usually we do one pair of walking shoes and one pair of waterproof sandals (preferably with closed toes). We've had shoes break on trips, or get soaking wet and take forever to dry, or suddenly cause hot spots even if they never had before. A second pair of shoes has saved many a trip.

Are there native speakers in your area who offer private lessons/tutoring? You might be able to work with them to craft an intensive program.

I suggest a Pilates reformer class. It has helped my body-brain connection.

I'm a mom with a full-time paid job, but I think I would be just as happy as a SAHM. I enjoyed the couple of years I had at home, as much as I remember them. (All but a few months were spent pregnant with twins or parenting newborn or toddler twins. A cloud of sleep deprivation hangs over those years.) However, for our family, there is a lot less stress when I am employed, because I provide the financial safety net and insurance that lets DH pursue his less-traditional career, which has been his dream since he was 17. It helps immensely that DH and I both work from home, and home is 7 minutes from both schools our kids attend. We split household duties pretty evenly, and we choose to keep our evenings simple. It has also helped that I worked part-time (from home) for years. That reduced stress but left me open to ramping up when the time was right. And it also helps that I love my job. I basically wake up every day--weekday or weekend--happy with how I'll be spending my time. I can see advantages to both ways of living. I've probably even said, "I wish I could do that." It isn't that I don't realize I made a choice and I could make a different one. It's just my recognition that two paths diverged in a yellow wood, and I am still sorry I couldn't travel both.

The family we exchanged houses with two summers ago had this on their shelves. DH and I read it and laughed so hard we cried. One slight quibble--her last name is Garner. I knew all those hours I spent watching Alias would pay off sometime! [emoji6]

Another trip to the UK is always in order.

I read The King's Name by Jo Walton, the sequel to a book I read last month. We went to visit my husband, and he passed along Into the Wild by Krakauer, which became my reading on a very long travel day back home. (Bus, then taxi, then plane, plane, plane.) I didn't love Into the Wild. It felt like the author had to pad the book with the stories of every other young American male who had disappeared into the wilderness because there wasn't enough narrative material about the main character. It was still an interesting read. I think my husband related more to the main character than I did. I think he was crazy not to take more supplies--like a map! I also read my first ever graphic novel, Nimona, which I picked up because I was bored with all the other books I'm reading, and it was lying around from my kids, and I saw it had won an award, and I've been thinking I should probably try at least one book in that genre. I liked it, but I can't see me reaching for many graphic novels over other genres. That was book #20 for the year. Now for all the books I am bogged down in: Snow, Bird, Boy--I started this on my trip, put it down to read Into the Wild, and I find myself somewhat reluctant to return The Gap of Time--I started this weeks ago, but I wasn't expecting the sex, and it threw me off a bit. I'm not necessarily opposed to sex scenes, but I like to know they are coming, and I definitely prefer them romantic rather than gritty. I'm uncomfortably pondering the possibility that I inherently dislike homosexual sex scenes. As the parent of an LGTBQ kid, that possibility bothers me. The Big Truck That Went By--this is about the post-earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. It's depressing. However, I have to finish it by Friday for book group, so I will wrap it up this week. The second mystery in Julia Spencer-Fleming's series. This book is suffering from not having been taken on my trip and not being required reading. I anticipate polishing it off next weekend. I'm also reading Watership Down with my youngest son. I haven't read it since I was his age (my other kids were voracious readers at this age and no longer liked being read to), and I am happy it holds up well.

Well, I eat cake for the frosting, so I might not be the best person to listen to, but . . . I have a chocolate bundt cake that we dust with powdered sugar. Would that work? Do you already have something holding the layers together? If so, can you use a variation on that?

I ordered $70 in cloth baskets with lids for my closet shelves. I've been meaning to do this for the last 4 years (since we bought the house), so it was definitely a mindful purchase! We learned that our summer home exchange can also be an exchange of vehicles, so that will save us a lot, although it means DH and I will both need to drive, since the available cars only seat 5 each and we have 6 people. I'm not thrilled at having to drive (especially stick shift). I like our usual pattern of DH driving while I navigate.

I can't disagree more. This advice is good for people with annual passes or those who go to Disney frequently, but for the rest of us, meandering leads to tired, cranky, exhausted kids and to spending all your time in line trying to see the stuff you want to see. The people I know who ended up hating Disney are those who weren't there at rope drop and tried to wing it.

You may, and I do, and my library has it!

We are planning to spend a year abroad in 2.5 years. One primary motivation is to give our youngest son more Spanish exposure. We're debating which country and town we want to move too. Too many choices! In our case, we'd be keeping our current jobs, but we do need to consider which countries will let us stay for a year.

Uh oh. Guess what year I was born?