My dh swears we must play to 500 points and you count the points left in each player's hand at the end of each game. OMG - it takes HOURS. He takes all of the fun out of UNO.

My dh was an engineer for a wood flooring company and he tends to agree with the poster above on either switching to tile or at least using engineered flooring. It has a layer of wood at the bottom, particle board type stuff in the middle, and a layer of real wood at the top. It does not expand and contract nearly as much. We have a "knotty hickory" engineered floor in his man cave and it looks so pretty - and even with the kids playing in there, you can't see any scratches. We also have engineered natural cherry in the laundry room and have had no problems, but we live in the mountains and not in the desert and we have tons of grass (many, many acres of it).

Nearly wordless...our creek is now a LAKE:

Rainbow Resource has a blurb about this on their website now too. SCARY! They are now saying it could even affect garage sales! And they may as well shut down the children's section on e-bay. Gosh this sucks!!

Yep...that is us! We have not done anything permanent, nor do we really ever plan to.

Institute...LOVE IT!

We have been without cable now for over 7 months and we would NEVER go back now. My kids actually read more, using their imaginations, watching movies with us as a family. It is glorious!

My 9 year old ran his own water and bathed himself when he was 4! My 5 year old still doesn't do this! I think it just depends on the child and whether or not you feel he is capable of doing it himself.

At 10 mos old, my kids were 20 and 25 pounds, respectively. They also both crawled around 7 months. However, my niece was about 15 pounds at 10 mos and she didn't ever crawl...went straight from scooting to walking. If the doctor is not concerned, then you shouldn't be either. There could be lots of reasons for your grandson being so small. Did he have reflux or anything when he was very little? I have a friend whose baby did and it took them forever to get him to eat without spitting up. He is gaining weight now, but is still very small in comparison to other babies his age.

It could be either...maybe both. Both are very normal.

For my dh, TEA is stress relief. For me, when I am stressed or having and OCD fit, TEA is the LAST THING on my mind!

I am actually taking medication (Lexapro) and I see a therapist for the first time tomorrow to start CBT. :)

Adding this factoid: My dh is also older than me...10 years, and that defintiely makes our decision to have no more a lot easier.

I think it had something to do with my TMJ - my jaw has been sore and I have been clinching a lot lately. Today I ate some hard chocolate candy (thick stuff, hard to bite into) and that may have hurt too. Anyway, I was cooking dinner and had this odd headache attack me. It first was a dull ache around the back of my head where my neck connects to my head. Then it went into the top of my head like where a headband would sit and finally it was down near my ears and behind my ears and in my temples. It kept moving around and was never a crushing pain or anything...just weird and more of an ache or pressure type thing. I, of course, being the hypochondriac that I am, freaked out and thought I was having an aneurysm (:glare:) but I seem to have recovered now. Obviously if it had been an aneurysm, it would have just gotten worse and worse (from the slow leakage of blood into the brain) so I am no longer concerned about that. I just don't know what to make of the weirdness of the headache. It was like it traveled around my head. :confused: Anyone experience anything like this....especially if you suffer from TMJ?

My best friend's daughter just flew home from a visit with her dad in CA and she is 9. Everything went just fine. :)

I have huge lists of books I love, but two of my favorites are The Giving Tree and A Tree Named Steve. :)

I have one of those! It is my youngest ds. He told me yesterday that he didn't care if I had to go to jail (asked me how long I'd be gone) if he didn't do school...he just didn't want to do school anywhere...ever. However, with much coersion, he does do it. He is the total opposite of my older who loves school and loves to learn!

I don't know that I will ever be completely certain. I get pangs of baby fever and this last bout with thinking I really could be pg brought it back for me for a brief moment. However, as soon as AF started, I totally thought - WHAT WAS I THINKING? LOL For the most part, I know I am done because I can see other people - best friends even - have babies and I am not, for one second, envious of any part of the process. I don't want to gain weight, get up in the middle of the night, have morning sickness, etc... Also, due to my mental health (OCD, severe hypochondria), it is not a great idea for me to start all over. My last pregnancy sent my symptoms into overdrive and the next one could make it worse. :(

Oh yea! That is totally worse! :( I'm sorry! One of those hit me just after I had my last ds. Try doing all of the above with stitches in your who ha! :(

I don't mean pretend report writing or just getting the feel or report writing, but an actual comprehensive report? I think I was in 7th grade in ps when I wrote my first report and it was definitely NOT good, but I did do it. My oldest ds is doing 4th grade level work and not really doing a good amount of writing. He thinks a paragraph is good enough for about anything. We are getting ready to start the preparation for research unit in LLATL orange and I am looking at it wondering if there is any way in hades he can pull it off and not just be totally flustered by the whole thing. I think they have three weeks to gather info and write the report. So...just curious - how old were your dc when they wrote their first real report and what did you expect of them at that point? I am thinking that it will need to be typed, double spaced, and have some type of citation. I wouldn't expect over 1-2 pages. Am I being harsh or too soft?

We are using WT II this year and will be using CW Homer next year. This year, we add in supplemental grammar (GWG 4) as well as two spelling programs. WT II and LLATL are both very weak in spelling, so I would not use those as stand alones for my struggling speller anyway. When we use CD Homer, we will switch to Harvey's grammar, but keep our own spelling programs and also throw in some LLATL purpla for the "extras" like book studies and so on. :) I was an English major and I have not been satisfied with one program or another, so I pick and pull from all different ones.

I actually was totally shocked too at the number of people that said it was tacky. I thought they were cute and a good idea to encourage younger kids to send Thank You cards before they could even write all that well. My kids will send a thank you ONLY if we can not say thank you in person or over the phone. For instance, if some relative of my son's dad's sends something to my youngest son, I have him send a thank you card. I mostly see a lack of respect when it comes to older kids (highschoolers) - especially graduation gifts and such. They almost never send out Thank you cards and most of the time you are sending them to kids you are NOT all that close to. It seems everyone and their brother gets an invite to graduation in order to ask for money. :( The least they could do is send a note thanking those people. I know I did when I was in highschool!

We stopped as soon as he started doing long division and he was missing basically none. That told me he had his facts down. :)

My 9 year old has quiet time before bed, but he does his reading then as well as prayers. My 5 year old has quiet time, but I am not sure that he spends it praying. This is a good idea and something I would like to implement in our home. Thanks!

Very nice!!! It is so wonderful to have your own space for schooling. :)