Oh, one more thing as far as organizing. Here's how I do it: I make a folder for each year. Then within that folder I create a subfolder for each month. I put photos in those according to when they were taken. Also, within the yearly folder, I put a subfolder called Trips and Events. And within that I will make more subfolders for different trips or family events (basically anything that will have lots of photos) and put the corresponding photos in those. Here's an example of my folder progression if you click the folder on my computer called "My Photos." This is the inside and I'll give you a more in-depth of the year 2009: Year 2006 Year 2007 Year 2008 Year 2009: January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 Trips and Events 2009 Disney Vacation Oct. 2009 Christmas 2009 Tennessee Trip May 2009 Family Reunion 2009 Year 2010 (I tried to indent so that you could see which section were subfolders, but it wouldn't let me do that....it kept lining all the lines up on the right side of the screen. So instead I just skipped lines between sub folders. Hopefully it is still understandable.)

I'm a photographer and take lots of photos....of my family, of events, sometimes clients. There's no way I have time to back them all up on DVD's and stuff like that. I use an online back up service called Carbonite. You set it up and designate which folders on your computer that you want backed up. And then, you sit back and do absolutely nothing ever again. The program runs in the background whenever you are not busy on the computer and it backs up the designated folders. If your computer ever crashes, you can download your photos from the internet and back onto your computer.

The gadget side of me really wants the iPad. But the logical side of me keeps asking "why?" It's basically just a giant iPhone (without the phone), which I already have. It's difficult to type on....which I know would annoy me. And basically the only things it can be used for is surfing the net and movies....which I'd rather do on my laptop, where I can actually store things, and I never watch movies without DH, so we wouldn't watch them on the iPad. I'm having an internal fight with the gadget side of me LOL. I love new gadgets, but I haven't justified this one yet.

Wow, thanks for the reminder! I'm so glad your grandson (and his parents) are okay! Carseats are one thing I am NOT willing to bend on. Both of my kids are in 5 point harnesses and will stay that way until they outgrow them (DD is 6 right now and we have purchased the largest 5 point harness out there), which will be a while.

I think they are great. My two kids each have one. And my little sister has one. I didn't get one because I have the iPhone and they are nearly the same thing. You can put most all the apps that the iPhone uses, keep grocery lists, connect to wifi and surf the net, put your songs on there, TV shows, movies, audio books, you can read books, take notes, store phone numbers and addresses, keep your calendar, play games, and many many more things. I use my iPhone for everything.

I would think that learning to swim with a full face mask would cause the child to need to swim like that forever. I'd want them to learn to swim with the water getting into their face so they could learn how to properly react to it. My kids did not like getting their faces wet and then they took survival swim lessons with Infant Swim Resource (www.infantswim.com). Now they can both swim with their faces in the water and have been doing so since last summer when they were 5 and 2.

We just saw TS3 a few hours ago.....I agree, the ending was sad but happy. Very bittersweet. It was a very good movie. Makes me want to cherish every moment of my little girls childhood.

As far as TV, I don't watch very much. I watch it in the morning while I exercise....only to keep from being bored to death. And I watch probably an hour in the evenings with hubby to wind down. Sometimes we may not watch a show in the evening, it just depends. The computer is my problem. I've been trying to stay off of it more lately. However, I just use it for so many things. I do some of my shopping on there, I research things for the kids school work, I digital scrapbook, I edit photos, I look at photos, I check email, load iPods with stuff, and I post on message boards. So not all of my time is just idle, wasted time. I'm actually doing things on there. So computer time varies for me depending on what tasks I have to do that day. As for the kids, they each get to pick a 30 minute show at some point during the day. And occasionally they may get a little more screen time per day....if DD wants to use the computer, or they both want to use their iTouches to play, or they can agree on a video. But nothing excessive. Screen time is really limited at our house. The TV is not something that runs as background noise at our house.

We're going tomorrow and we will be seeing 2D, as we did with Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs as well. My 3 year old won't want to wear the glasses so she'd be watching a blurry movie. Plus, I wear glasses and it is really annoying to wear 3D glasses over regular glasses.

I agree with the above poster about just letting him into your room for a while. Sleep issues are HARD. It effects everyone, makes them grumpy, feel bad, etc. I am all about doing whatever works LOL. Our kiddos sleep in our room and I have never had a bad night's sleep due to a child's sleep issues. I need my sleep LOL.

I absolutely love my Jack Russell. He's amazingly smart, loyal (to me since I've had him since before we had kids), great companion, and has just the right amount of engery. Everyone says Jack Russells are terrors....they haven't met my boy! We just got a Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix. We'll see how she turns out! I would really love to get a golden retriever....or a golden doodle (but they are expensive). Maybe when our Jack passes on one day (he's nearly 11 years old) we will see about a golden.

Is he okay if you leave the light on? If so, I'd just do that. Yes, it is wasted energy....but I'd rather have wasted energy than sleep issues.

That is terrible if it was the step mom. Ugh. What the heck is wrong with people?

Me too! Why would it be weird for a little girl to dance with her father? Why is a father/daughter dance at a wedding acceptable, but this is not? I think it is sweet. Now the purity ball thing that someone referred to is strange....but not this.

I started working with children when I was 16. They were required to call me Miss Christy. I also worked with AWANA soon after I was married and they were required to call me Mrs Lastname. I really didn't like that....I would have much preferred them to call me Mrs. Christy. Now....I would rather just be known by my first name.

Usually only once a week we go to a restaurant. We try to only grab fast food if we will be traveling or something....we don't really care for fast food (and it is not healthy either). The places we go are usually Longhorn, Texas Roadhouse, or Cracker Barrel. Occasionally something may happen where we go out twice a week, such as last week when my aunt had a birthday and we all met at Longhorn, then we also went out on the weekend, just our family. But that doesn't happen often. I do enjoy our one night a week dinner though....I look forward to it.

We are making a library/school room! I'm buying a bunch of the $15 shelves from Wal Mart. They are about 4 foot high. I don't like the really tall ones....I prefer the half ones so that I can set decorative stuff on top of them, or ant farms, or favorite books on a small easel. Plus, I can hang stuff on the walls over them. I'll have a place for the kids artwork, a place for a large map, etc. I'll line the walls with these shelves and then put a table in the middle of the room. I'm so excited! We have a three bedroom house and this used to be the guest room. But I got so tired of having a room that was only used once or twice a year and then it just sat there the rest of the time. So we are buying a full bed to keep in the closet and we will pull it out when needed. Right now I have books in boxes in my closet, books in bins in the kids playroom, school books on a shelf in the office, and extra school books in a closet. They are everywhere, and most are not very accessible. I want to be able to access them more, hence, the library.

Are you going soon? When it is hot? If so, bring some of the spray bottles with fans attached. Seriously....it is HOT in the summer at Disney World. We have passes but do not go during that time due to the heat and crowds. The counter service restaurants will give large cups of ice water for free. We do not bother carrying around bottled water because of this. Definitely bring your own snacks. We rarely buy Disney ones because they are so expensive. You are allowed to bring in small soft sided coolers. We just stick ours in the stroller. You can find a place to sit and eat your lunch or snacks in one of the counter service restaurants where it is nice and cool. I'd get there when the park opens (get all the cooler hours you can) and go to the back of the park and start there and work your way forward. Most people will start at the front and stop at the first rides they see. Take advantage of fast passes. When we do not have hoppers, I try to coordinate our schedule so that we are going into parks that have evening extra magic hours. But you said you were staying in a house, right? So you wouldn't be able to do the extra magic hours. If you want, make your own autograph books before going to Disney. It will save lots of money, especially if you have more than one kid who will be wanting autographs. Make your own book, bring your own pen or marker. Plus, it's just neater to have your own book. Sometimes the characters will make over the books if it has their photo or something! I'm drawing a blank....that's all I can come up with LOL.

Yes! You just described my dad! My dad is 53 years old....trouble seems to follow him LOL. In fact, we just got back from the ER with him yesterday afternoon. At work, he cut his hand badly....cut through an artery and had to have the artery tied off and then his hand sewn up. He's fallen off of a ladder that was leaning against a large branch of a tree. He was using a chain saw to cut off the end of the branch. Well, when he cut it off, the branch lost its weight and went up....the ladder he was standing on went down. He shattered his foot/ankle area. It was not pretty. Some things he cannot be blamed for, yet trouble still seems to follow him....last year he had gall bladder trouble and had to have that taken out. His back goes out often. He broke his other foot playing tennis one time. He's always getting cuts, bruises, puncture wounds. He stepped on a rusty nail weeks ago, then he told me he stepped on another rusty nail the other day. He was putting something into the back of a truck and leaned forward and a pitch fork caught him about an inch above his eye and made a puncture wound. Thankfully it was not his eye! I always see new lacerations on him. I call him an accident waiting to happen LOL. We've made many hospital visits with him LOL. So yes, I think that some people are just accident prone.

I'm pretty much an introvert....or maybe I'm just shy. I am "wild and crazy" around my family and people whom I know very well. I'll get up and karaoke, act crazy, and fun to be around. But ONLY around people that I know EXTREMELY well....and honestly, that group is not too large. Maybe 15 or 20 people total (this is including hubby, parents, kids, etc). But around anyone else, I am a wallflower. I have no idea how to carry on a conversation with those I do not know. I can be friendly to cashiers, carry on a conversation if someone asks me direct questions, stuff like that....but not an actual back and forth conversation. If I'm in a group of people I do not know well, I'd rather be reading a book, surfing the net on my phone, tending to my kids, scrapbooking, etc. I was the kid in the lunchroom sitting alone and reading a book when I was in school. I wasn't a nerd or an outcast....I just preferred to be alone. But as for your original question....I don't worry about being lonely. I have two daughters whom I hope I will be close to when they are grown. I have my husband. I have two sisters. I have a cousin of my husband's who I consider a friend. Other than that, I don't have any friends....I only have aquaintances. Do I wish I had friends? Sometimes....especailly when I wish we could get all our kids together, let them play, and have adults sit around and chit chat. But then I realize that I probably wouldn't want to get together all that much....I'd probably rather just do my own thing with my own family. And also, I'm very different from other women that I've come across. I tend to be tomboyish, don't care about manicures, facials, ect. I homeschool, I don't drink....at all....and don't care to be around it.....I have very different desires in life for my kids than it seems a lot of mothers do. I just don't really find anyone that I click with.

For me, child #2 was difficult! When I had #1, I had all the time in the world to dedicate to the every need of this new little person. With #2, I had another child to tend to as well.....my kids just doubled! It's hard dividing the attention and tending to the needs of two. It was not easy until #2 could walk. Then, she didn't need me around all the time....she could just follow me if she wanted.

I'd think that Woody or Jessie would be the easiest and most comfortable for sitting down. If your daughter has long hair, she could braid it as Jessie does. Cowboy hats are pretty easy to come by....and a pair of jeans with it. If she could find a vest that looks "westernish" then she'd make a great Jessie!

LOOOVE the iTouches! Everyone thought we were nuts, but we got my 5 and 2 year old girls each their own iTouch for Christmas this past year. They are now 6 and 3...it is still the best gift we've ever gotten them. We limit them but that's not usually a problem. They use them in the car a lot. My kids prefer TV shows over movies, so I loaded them with lots of their favorite shows from iTunes (Jungle Junction, Tigger & Pooh, Scooby Doo, Diego, etc). And if I were going on a long trip, I'd definitely be renting the movies on iTunes. I thought you could watch them as many times as you wanted in 24 hours. It's too expensive to buy them, but renting them is pretty reasonable. I just checked my kids iTouches and they enjoy the following: My 3 year old has on hers: Let's Color (with Curious George) Five Little Monkeys Preschool Playground Martha's Dog Party (Martha Speaks) When I Grow Up My Labrador Cupcakes! Pet Playpen Preschool Adventure Elmo's Monster Maker Dress Chica Bounce On More Pizza! More Salad! Chuggington Roundhouse Ice Cream Pac Man Treat Street Ronald McDonald Up My Hair Diego's Music Most of those would probably be better suited for your 4 year old....but my 6 year old enjoys a lot of them as well. On my 6 year old's is most of the ones above, as well as: Adorable Puppy Jigsaw Puzzles Crash Bandicoot Nitro Cart Danger Cats Lite Doodle Jump Dots How to Train Your Dragon Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs game Jelly Car Jelly Car 2 Trace (this game is AWESOME....I play it all the time LOL) Kid Calc Little Cook Littlest Pet Shop Make a Martian Pocket Ants Rhino Ball Smack It Tap Tap Revenge Pooh Bear Kindergarten Teach Me Kindergarten Tic Tac Toe Touch Hockey Unblock Me Waterslide Extreme Zhu Zhu Pets Whew! That's a lot!! They get iTunes cards for Easter, birthdays, Valentines Day, etc.....they are always wanting more games/shows so we always make sure to get them cards (or have someone else get them).

LOL, sounds just like my husband! He's an accountant and works with numbers all day long. When he pumps gas he has to get it to an even amount. Me, I just stop whenever LOL! Shoot, half the time I don't even know how much the gas is that I just pumped into the car!

Wow, that is sad. We love AWANA....I think it is a great program. Our church doesn't say to skip the Bring A Friend section, but when I just wrote that she has no one to bring, it was not a big deal. She completed her book anyways.