NOTE: Passports are required only if you're 16 or over. Kids under the age of 16 do NOT need a passport if driving or taking the train into Canada. Flying in, yes, everyone of all ages needs a passport. This is just an FYI; I know this is not applicable to the OP, just making a clarification for anyone else reading.I've taken kids both over and under 16 into (and out of!) the country in the last 2-3 years.

re: Craigdarroch Castle We went there a couple of years ago (kids ages 7 up to 19 or so, and myself) and all loved it. It's walkable from the waterfront, although it's a longer walk (and sort of uphill getting there). The 19 year old could have a drink if she wanted! I had my freshly 19 year old daughter with me and I bought her a mojito so I could buy her her first legal drink. :) Have you checked out Airbnb for accommodations? That's the route I'd start with first, personally (but that could be because I'm a host and love Airbnb). If you don't already have an account there, use this link to sign up and get $40 off a qualifying stay --> https://www.airbnb.com/c/dsautter6. Victoria is wonderful! We love Vancouver, too. But Victoria is definitely more British feeling than Vancouver.

Whether you shop through Azure Standard or not, whether you eat organic or not, this is such a highly questionable and erroneous action (well, in my opinion). Sherman County officials in Oregon are considering changing the wording of their noxious weed ordinance from "controlling" (which can be done organically and which Azure does) to "eradicating" (which cannot be done organically and which Azure cannot do). Azure Standard's farm has been an established organic farm for 18 years and the county says if this goes through, they will spray the 2000 acre farm with Round Up type chemicals, thereby destroying the organic farm -- and then put a lien on the farm to pay for the labor and chemicals. :( If you feel so inclined, if you think organic farms should not be so threated, please see the following link for contact information for Sherman County officials. You do NOT have to live in Sherman County to voice your opinion. Azure delivers to numerous states outside of Oregon and this would affect a great many people beyond Oregon's borders. https://hl.azurestandard.com/healthy-living/info/azure-farm-moro/

August is usually a beautiful time to be in Seattle.

My splurge suggestion would be the iconic Space Needle. If you need less expensive than that (although they upped the price a few years ago so now it's not THAT less expensive), check out Columbia Tower right downtown (the highest tallest black building). They have a visitor area way up high, too -- it's all enclosed, not indoor/outdoor like the Space Needle. The aquarium on the waterfront is great; you can probably get a year's pass cheaper than paying individually. The ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island is very doable especially as walk-ons. If you have a day, head 1.5 to two hours east on I-90 to hit up some great small towns with fabulous views and weather. Or look up Leavenworth and head to the Bavarian village in the mountains. That's probably a 2.5 or so hour drive from Seattle (head north and then go over Hwy 2, I believe). Make sure to check out Airbnb.com for accommodations if you need them (I'm an Airbnb host in central Washington). We found a great place in West Seattle when we visited a couple of months ago, right on the waterfront. West Seattle is across the water looking back east toward downtown; there's a $5 ferry hop from there. So you could leave your "burb parked there and take the ferry into downtown each day as desired. If new to Airbnb, use this link and you'll get $40 off a $75+ stay (https://www.airbnb.com/c/dsautter6).

Our priest sent out pictures of the section on Russian Orthodoxy that stated "defective form of Christianity" too. Saw them. :) A recent Orthodox seminary graduate and subdeacon that we know is currently writing a rebuttal. :) It just sounds so ... ignorant. Not that people can't believe that if they want to, but if you're writing a history curriculum, you'd think you'd write it in an objective voice.

a "defective form of Christianity?" I don't have the book but read that in an email tonight. It's apparently in Volume II, the Russian Orthodox section. Between this and numerous Christians going after Hank Hanegraaff, the "Bible Answer Man," for converting to the Eastern Orthodox Church, I'm weary of the vitriol. Not sure if that's the word I want for what I'm seeing/feeling. Still, weary is the right word. May God extend His love and mercy to all, I know I need it daily.

Well, it looks like I might just have her do the GED. Far less expensive than NARHS and other similar options, plus far less busywork on both our parts. We'll see. Thanks to everyone for your replies!

Thank you. I wondered about something like this. I checked it out and it's spendy for this one purpose ($445-$545), but might be the type of route we end up going if nothing else works. I will also Google to see if our state has a similar program. Thank you, again.

Yes, I was checking out HSLDA again today. We used to be members but let it lapse. Do you know if I can join again for this purpose, or do you have to be with them for awhile before they'll do anything? There's NO official problem yet -- just word of mouth that this national board hasn't accepted unaccredited homeschool diplomas through the program's department chair.

No, but along those lines in that the national board has to approve her admittance into the program. It is a science-based program and she's taken several college science classes and gotten A's in all of it, and she did well on the ACT (she had a mediocre math score, but took some college math to bring her up to speed and aced that, too). She's also taken all the math and writing required by the program, in addition to the extra science, and done well in all of it. I personally just don't get how meeting all state requirements isn't enough (I "get" that seeing mom's name on the diploma makes it seem unofficial, but it's not and she's proven herself).

Hello there! I don't think I've posted on this board before but I have a homeschool graduate ('15) starting a two year program at a community college. For this program, she needs to be accepted by a national board in that field as well. That national board is requiring her to have a diploma /transcript from an accredited agency -- when that was not or is not required by our state's homeschool laws. She was dually enrolled at a state university and has been an A student for 2+ years, but they want that accredited diploma/transcript. The director of the CC program, a doctor, said she may have to get her GED but I do admittedly question that. I talked to the homeschool dept. at our state educational agency today and they agreed, she has done everything required and that should be enough (they told me to print the transcript, attach something showing how she's me the state subject requirements, and give their contact information for questions, which I'll do), but I wondered if you have any experience or additional advice?

Lord have mercy, Debbi. It's definitely Holy Week.

We too fly almost exclusively on SW. Never had any problems and they're fun to boot. You don't get assigned seating ahead of time -- you are assigned a place in line when you check in (which can be done online up to 24 hours in advance) and then you board in that order, choosing your seats when you are on the plane. I didn't follow all the details of the thread, but we visited San Francisco a little more than a year ago and flew into Oakland because it was less expensive. Then we uber'd into the city, which was cheaper than the transit train for four of us. Oh, and I was going to mention that SW just had two back-to-back sales ending April 6 (I booked RT flights from Seattle to Phoenix for $108 each!), so it might be a little bit before they do one again, but at the same time, they do seem to do them a lot.

I, too, am an avid milk lover and drink lots and lots and I, too, want to cut down on carbs. You know what's lower in carbs than milk? Half 'n half! Cream! After the Lenten fast is over, I'm going to start drinking a mix of half 'n half and whole milk. I'll be in heaven. The fat from the milk and cream is GOOD for you from the perspective of HFLC (high fat, low carb) food intake. I've been making my hot chocolate with milk and half 'n half for some time, so now I'm just going to do it for a regular drink, too. I know you say you don't drink whole milk, but you should give it a go. And if you can, get RAW whole milk from a health food store. Milk as it was meant to taste.

I'm actually in the middle of planning dh's and my 25th anniversary trip this September and this is where we're going. We're on the west coast and have never been to New England. We fly into Boston, go south to Plymouth and the Cape for one day and then north to south of Portland and near Scarborough ME for several days. Finally, back to Boston for one day of historical stuff, Harvard square, and then Fenway park at night, before flying home. I'm really looking forward to it! We want to just relax for the several days we have in an Airbnb a block from the ocean near Scarborough, with some short little day trips perhaps. If you have any suggestions, and if the OP doesn't mind a veering in the thread, I'd love to hear some.

I saw it mentioned, and I think this is just as relevant for grammar geeks, that having all the other actions in the sentence end in -ing except for "distribution" also added to the ambiguity. As someone who strives for parallelilty (I made that word up; it's fun to say if you put the emphasis on LEL), I agree.

I didn't used to like the Oxford comma because the context in which it arose most for me was in the newsroom. My major was print journalism and we got rid of commas whenever we feasibly could because doing so could give us an entire additional line for our news story. Out went the Oxford comma. I've stuck with this for all these years until recently. I transcribed a basic English class recently and the professor gave an example similar to the "the inheritance will be split between Tom, Sue, Bill and John" example in which it mattered. Just like the news story referenced in the OP. So I'm converting -- albeit slowly. I'm currently redoing the service books at church and I'm back to wanting to save space and getting more in the lines on a page. So it goes, so it goes.

I go to my oft-used websites by typing the first couple letters in the address bar -- do you do that? I've trained myself to type smile instead of Amazon to solve that problem.

I have had a Deva cut and have tried the Deva products (as well as other products). Honestly? The best things that work for me are Suave Coconut conditioner for co-washing (that "flavor" specifically) and LA Looks yellow gel for after washing. Both found in the cheap section of the hair care aisle. Just last week I did it again -- purchased an expensive gel because of course it must work better, right?! It doesn't. Sigh.

My husband and I are looking at a trip to New England this fall for a milestone anniversary. We'd have a couple more days than you, but if you haven't been there, maybe consider that. We'll fly into Boston and then drive north to Maine, staying in an Airbnb on the beach somewhere. We can day-trip around if we want to see some things but don't have a bunch of plans in that regard. Maybe into Portland for a day, maybe a pretty drive into New Hampshire or something. We'll see. I would like to go to Fenway Park on the way back if possible, but the days may not match up with home games.

My daughter Clare just had hers done yesterday at Claire's by a gal named Claira. :) I asked how many ears she'd pierced. "Hundreds?" [Pause.] "Dozens?" [Pause.] She replied, "Probably thousands." It was $35 and everything looked very sterile to me. It was a one-time use needle/gun and she wore one-time use gloves. She kept cleaning things as we went. When the gun "fired," my daughter didn't even flinch. We're only one day out, but all seems to be going well so far. [That said, my older daughter had her ears pierced at Claire's when she was 10 and they never healed. This has more to do with my daughter than with Claire's. She finally let them close after a year of trying to go without earrings for a few days to see if they would stay open. They wouldn't. To this day -- and she's 19 now -- she had bumps where the holes were and they will fester up and get oozy again once in awhile. So weird.]

Found my answer.

Orthodox Mom put this one out (Orthodox Lent started yesterday, but it'd be easy to catch up). It's for all 40 days and Holy Week, too. It presents a Bible verse a day and has you write about it in the context of Lent. There'll be some Orthodox helps in there, I think. You don't have to use those if they don't apply.

Is the assumption that we like having said dog? Because if so, I shouldn't be replying, LOL. She's okay, but not my animal of choice. How many dogs do you have currently? One. She's enough. Edited to explain: This is a sanguine, pretty hyper dog. So. excited. about. everything. People told us when we got her as a pup that she'd calm down after a year or two. Ha! That was eight or so years ago and she still bubbles over and dashes around for everything. There's no moving slow or calmly with her. Her name means "Pause, and calmly think about that" haha. We were passing through a town with that name while we were deciding what to call her on the drive home from the rescue shelter, and then realized the ironic meaning later. What breed? Rescue dog, we were told German Shepherd / chihuahua mix. :D What brand of food do you feed them? Nutra Nuggets. We look for something not too expensive but where the first ingredient is a protein and not a grain. How much do you think you spend on your dog every year? Um, dog food times x. If something minor comes up vet-wise, plus that (less than $100 usually). How often do you leave them to travel? Or do you travel with your dog? Once a year. She makes it a pain to go on vacation. The places we stay don't allow animals and having to find someone to care for her is the hardest part of planning. What do you love about having a dog? Pretty much nothing. Okay, maybe that the kids like having a dog. She's a funny, sweet dog, I'm just not a dog person. What do you hate about having a dog? I wouldn't say "hate" but I don't like the constant care throughout the day that she needs, and see above about vacations and day trips. Will you always have a dog? I hope not. How many dogs have you had in your life? Hmmmm, I think this is my third; one as a kid and two as a married adult. Why do you have a dog? Because our daughter wanted one and was ready/mature enough for one and we wanted to bless her. She moved out two years ago. Sigh. The next daughter down cares for her now. Not sure what will happen when she moves out. Maybe oldest daughter will be ready for a dog wherever she's living at the time. :) Signed, A Cat Person ...which is kind of humorous, actually, because our cat is not always very nice; we still fear a swipe from her and she's 12 -- but I much prefer her over the dog