These kids fall out of bed too and then just spend the night on the wood floor. Or the tile floor at relatives' houses. Sigh. They sleep like the dead, which is nice because we never have to worry about being quiet or even not turning on their bedroom light. Nothing wakes these two kids. We tried going without pull-ups for a bit but they both cried because they would wake up in the morning sopping wet and smelling. :(

Absolutely none. We are dairy and gluten free, along with a few other foods. I thought it might be allergy/sensitivity related too but I have seen no difference and it has been well over a year since we have taken dairy and all that out of their diet.

We did this for months and it never helped. Then I read somewhere that it wasn't a good idea. They would pee, I would change their pull-up, and they would be wet again in the morning, so then I was using two pull-ups per night. It didn't seem right to put them back into a wet pull up. We tried taking them earlier and sometimes then they would be dry, but again ,not by morning. Gosh it's expensive. I tried cloth diaper pull-up type pants and they didn't hold enough liquid to keep the sheets dry and the kids didn't like them- too bulky or something. I didn't force them to wear them as I don't want them to have any shame associated with this.

I have two bed wetters and a two year old who is not potty trained. Let's just say costs are getting out of hand. The older two (7 & 5) wear pull-ups at night. I also use plastic bed liners under their sheets. My 7yo has finally, in the last couple months, stopped wetting so much that the pull-up leaks and I have to do laundry. The 5yo leaks on average once to twice per week. Both wet the pull-up every single night. We limit drinks at bed time and the hours leading up to it and they are required to use the bathroom immediately before bed. Neither of these have helped. They simply sleep too deep. In fact, both will wet themselves during an afternoon nap, even if they go to the bathroom before going down and they only sleep for an hour. So, on days they nap, we go through 4 pull-ups and a bunch of diapers, for the toddler. The costs for this are crazy. They usually also wet themselves if they fall asleep in the car. We are probably one of the few parents on earth who dread having their young kids fall asleep while on drives because for us it means cleaning out car seats. Yes, we use piddle pads. No, they don't work enough to not have to do the whole car seat. I am working on getting my 2yo potty trained but it is slow going and so far I can only get pee into the potty. It's a start. :) If I let the older two wet the bed they are miserable. They will pee whether in pull-ups or underwear. Dh and I used to take them potty in their sleep but if they weren't already wet by 11pm, they would pee in the toilet and yet still wet the pull-up by morning. It didn't seem to do good either way and sometimes only resulted in waking them up and ruining their sleep. They see a chiropractor regularly and it's not a chiropractic issue. Their medical doctor isn't concerned or wanting to do anything at this point. I'm not really concerned either but I'm wondering if there is a better, less expensive way to deal with this? Neither seem especially bothered that they wear pull-ups at night, but they do get pretty sad if they wake up to wet sheets so I would need a reliable/effective alternative. Is there anything I can do, short of getting a part time job to pay for all this?? I've considered putting the toddler in cloth diapers, but I have a front loader and while I have used cloth extensively in the past, I have never had much success getting them clean enough once we switched from a top loading machine.

I'm not upset she didn't come to me right away. Honest. :) I'm upset that she didn't mention it at all and it happened 10 days ago. But yes, I am going to re-examine how things are around here and see if I don't let her do enough. She does have many freedoms and liberties- many that her friends don't. But yes, in other areas perhaps things are too tight. I will give this some thought. Thank you.

I haven't read Life of Pi either, to be honest. I dont' even know if she could/should read it. As for baking- I would have appreciated if she had asked first or at least informed me that she would. My biggest worry is because of her lack of thought lately, that she would panic should a fire start and have no clue what to do. I don't want that burden to be placed on her. She has been taught how to use the oven, but again, she has been very air-headed lately. Last week she made her own muffins... she turned off the "oven" when the timer went off but in reality all she did was turn off the timer. The oven ran for hours. Not dangerous, but not what she has been taught. The time after that, she took the muffins out and didn't turn them into rocks, but placed the muffin tin, fresh out of the oven, right on my wood kitchen table. Sigh. Again, not what she has been taught and she admitted she knew better but didn't think of it at the moment. Hence, my concern with the oven. I understand your statement about some aspects of my life being too controlled. That could well be the case... but with 5 kids, most things are not nearly as controlled as I'd like. ;) LOL

No, there is not a high value placed on self reliance. In fact, quite the opposite- I have asked her and asked her to ASK me what to do rather than just do what she thinks she should. There have been at least 3 things in the last few weeks where she did what she thought she should and didn't ask me and she did the wrong thing. I tell her we are here to rely on each other and help each other and please just ask. I don't know why she is like this all of a sudden. It wasn't always this way. I take it as her way of testing the waters outside of the nest and testing out her wings, but she is taking independence to a whole new level. The only thing I can think of is either she feels I am already burdened with the health issues of a sibling and doesn't want to be a burden/stress me out with more things (she is very considerate that way and often, meaning a couple times an hour, asks how she can help me out around the house) or she is afraid I will get totally angry.

Sigh. Need some advice on this one. My 11yo dd broke my neighbor's make-shift "gate". It is just a bunch of boards and chicken wire held up loosely. It wasn't well built in the first place (neighbor admitted it) but that is not the issue. What happened was the cat got out, she went to chase it and went into the neighbor's yard. The neighbors were gone on holidays or she would have gone and knocked on door and asked first, as she always does. She is typically very considerate of others and polite. Well, at some point, she tripped and knocked down the whole "gate" (it is where there should be a gate, but neighbor just put up a few loose boards and chicken wire). It is the only way into the backyard. Thing is, she never told me or dh about it. Instead, she wrote the neighbor a note apologizing profusely and offering to pay for the damages and posted it on their door. And left it at that. Both dh and myself had noticed the damage to the fence and wondered about it but didn't think much as I wasn't sure if the neighbors were on holidays or not or were working on it. Neighbors got back today (as did we from a weekend away) and he tells me to tell dd not to worry about the fence. Huh? Of course I had a deer in the headlight look. So he tells me about the note on his door and how the fence was very makeshift and there's no actual damage, she just knocked down the boards etc. I'm still confused, thinking maybe this just happened (I left the moment we got home to get some groceries) and told him I would talk to her. Go in to talk to dd, expecting her to say oh yah, it just happened. Nope. It happened before we left. Apparently (according to dd and her excuses) we were in a hurry to leave and she forgot to mention it. But had to the time to write lengthy note to the neighbor aplogizing and offering to pay for damages. With what money??? Dd has no money and she knows this. Well, then dh recalls he has seen this fence broken last week. Oh yeah, dd says.... It was just before we left to go away LAST weekend. So 10 full days ago. Oh. my. #*(@#!)(* I'm quite mad about this- that dd wouldn't tell us at all. It has been an on-going issue around here. She seems to think she is 11 going on 19 and that she can handle stuff herself. She has taken many liberties without thinking- starting to bake (in the oven) when I ran out to do a 1/2 hour of errands, and a few other less hazardous things. I have talked to her before about this issue- her not talking to us and not telling us when things happen breaks our trust in her. We've discussed how we need to be able to trust her and it is up to her to be open with communication. She hasn't always been this way but has been very much so in the last year or so. I've posted about her difficulties in math and her "air-head" tendencies (for lack of better term right now, I'm typing fast). It's like everything she does she does first then *maybe* thinks about it later. Most things she just does with no thought at all. Anyways, she has broken things or done things (I really don't keep track as I'm more forgive, forget sort of person) in the last several months and then not told us about it after. I know we've had talks about this but it keeps happening. I'm realizing that it's no longer isolated incidents but that it's going to keep happening if I don't step in and do something about it. For one, she is never to be out of my sight for the foreseeable future. I used to leave her home to run errands if I'm gone for 1/2 hour or so. She is (well at least used to be) quite mature and had a good head on her shoulders. I do not know what has happened to her sense of judgement. She has a cell phone to text me for issues and the neighbors live close. I've also taken away all cell phone and iPad privileges. She has been downloading books and runs those past me but has been reading stuff off my shelves without asking me- Life of Pi, etc. I don't have anything "bad" on my shelves but these are adult books (like Life of Pi, not "adult" books ;)) and she knows she is not to read them without asking first. They are on a high shelf that can only be reached by standing on the back of a couch and reaching. She claims she found the book down one day on another shelf and thought it would be ok to read. Sigh. I think she was lying about this as books do not simply jump off shelves, but that's another issue. I feel like we are some sort of slippery slope with her. She's a good kid and I know it's normal to test limits but I can't have her trying to solve problems like the fence thing by herself all the time. I wish I could come up with examples- there have been other things she has broken and tried to fix that didn't end well either. BUT SHE NEVER TELLS US ABOUT IT. She is supposed to go away to camp later this summer but I'm thinking of maybe not sending her. Perhaps she needs more supervision and I'm really not trusting her at the moment. She is more sneaky than I thought she was and it makes me sad. I'm guessing most of this is fairly normal kid stuff and that most kids test the limits but between her total and complete ADHD-ness and her not telling me things, parenting her is very difficult lately. It really is like she doesn't think about anything. She simply can't think anything through. What sort of punishment should she get for this fence thing? We are having her meet with a psychologist about the lack of thinking and for other assessments as things are really getting out of control with her and escalating. Since she is my oldest I don't know how much of it is puberty and how much of it is a real medical issue (dh has really bad ADHD but didn't know it until very recently- and it's been a real struggle for him all his life). I'm not happy but I don't want to either over react or under react. It's hard to get advice from a message board as I'm sure people will fixate on certain parts of this and maybe things will seem worse than they are, if that makes sense. She's not an especially deceitful child. I do think most of the issues are she doesn't think things through- consequences etc. Thinking and problem solving have been real issues for her lately. She can't seem to solve simple problems, like how to close a bag of chips if the chip clip is missing (use a rubber band, or a twist tie). She's just lost over simple things if the most obvious solution is not possible. It's quite baffling as usually I can ask my 9yo and 7yo what to do and they can answer. Sigh. However, obviously, she is purposely not telling me things for some reason or other. Usually she tells me she thought she had solved it on her own. aaaaaaah. Tell me I'm not the only one who has gone through something like this.

Just wanted to agree with this. Really like CLE reading here. Been using it for 4 years now.

Sometimes I joke with dh that a little known fringe benefit of traveling with our large-ish family (5kids) is how relaxing being back at home can feel once it is all over. ;) Makes you appreciate what you have. Lol On a more serious note-I have a large age span and I do think vacations are worth the hassle- but you do have to rearrange your thinking and not expect them to be the same kind of relaxation for mom and dad as holidays were before kids.

Thanks everyone! We bought this set in February of 2011, so almost 2.5 years ago. I didn't expect much from it, but I did hope to get at the very least 5 years.

It's 6 chairs and a table that would fit 3 of the chairs per side and two on the ends, so fairly large. It has never been moved and again, the kids never (ever!!) lean/rock their chairs back or knock them over or anything rowdy. Catwoman, I'm uneasy about returning it too, that's why I'm asking. If we had paid less I wouldn't be as concerned but I don't think it was a super "cheap" set either. The only reason we got a new table is because our old one was too small for our family size. Our dining table is older than I am and I have been using it since I was out of a high chair. ;)

We tighten about once a month. I don't mind that part. The part of the chairs that is ripping right off can't be tightened. It was glued in and isn't a part that is meant to be apart, if that makes sense.

Dh and I purchased a wood kitchen table and chairs set from Costco and I'm not sure if I should be returning it for poor crafstmanship or if it has simply run it's life. I don't want to say how old it is as I'd like to hear from others what one would expect a set to last. I don't know what kind of wood it is but it was slightly above Ikea quality, if that makes sense. If you've ever been to Costco when they have their furniture, you have an idea of what I am talking about. The chairs have fake leather seats and wooden backs (not leather). The table has held up (and still looks quite new) but the chairs are falling apart. Specifically, the top cross bar on the chairs is coming of on several of them. It just rips right out and comes off with very little effort. They also get loose and require frequent tightening. We do have 5 kids and it is our only set (we don't use the dining table set ATM) so it is used quite extensively, but only for meals (we have a separate school room). The kids are kids, iykwim, but they are not unnecessarily hard on the the furniture- they don't jump off it or stand on the chairs or anything weird- they use them to sit at the table and eat. We paid somewhere between $600 and $700 so I didn't expect this set to last super long but I feel that we should have got a few more years out of it. I knew it definitely wasn't heirloom quality or anything like that. ;) I talked to the customer service (returns) lady at Costco and she told me to simply bring the set back (their return policy is amazing) but part of me isn't 100% comfortable doing so. I mean, we have been using it regularly and all that and I'm not sure if perhaps this is the down side of buying a $650ish set of furniture? I know they'll take it back and that their return policy is awesome, but I don't want to take advantage of things. She said they stand behind their products and if it's falling apart and I want to return it, then to just bring it back. I'm torn. So what says the Hive? If you spent between $600-$700 (before taxes) on a dining set how long would you expect it to last before you felt a bit ripped off by the quality of it?

My question refers to a middle school program but I figure a lot of people who have used them are probably now on this board so I am posting this here as well. Do I want the Investigations DVDs to go along with my program BJU Life (grade7) ? I've settled on using BJU Life for grade 7 this year. I intend to purchase the 4th edition (newest) of the texts and do without the online/DVD component (it's not available for this edition). However, I have never used a BJU program before and I am uncertain what the Investigation DVDs add. It sounds like they would be good to have but adding them in also puts the entire science program at over $400 when I include lab materials. :wacko: :w00t: I want dd to have a solid year of science instruction so if this is what I have to spend, then it's what we will spend, but I don't want to spend money unnecessarily. My understanding is that the DVDs are videos of the labs from the book? What else? The DVDs for the Life science course are for the 3rd edition and because I am buying the 4th edition, they won't line up perfectly. I spoke with the people at BJU and they say that it wasn't a major overhaul of the program so most of the material will match up/make sense, it will just take some spending time with the DVDs to coordinate what to play and when. (I'm not looking forward to this aspect, but if the DVDs really enhance the program then I guess I'll run with it). So, I'm looking for some honest opinions. Are these Investigation DVDs worth their cost? Can you do the program effectively without them or would you consider them to be integral to the success of the program? FWIW, I'm not a science major and science is a high interest topic for my 7th grade child. TIA!

Do I want the Investigations DVDs to go along with my program? After going around and around with this I think I've settled back on using BJU Life for grade 7 this year. I intend to purchase the 4th edition (newest) of the texts and do without the online/DVD component (it's not available for this edition). However, I have never used a BJU program before and I am uncertain what the Investigation DVDs add. It sounds like they would be good to have but adding them in also puts the entire science program at over $400 when I include lab materials. :wacko: :w00t: I want dd to have a solid year of science instruction so if this is what I have to spend, then it's what we will spend, but I don't want to spend money unnecessarily. My understanding is that the DVDs are videos of the labs from the book? What else? The DVDs for the Life science course are for the 3rd edition and because I am buying the 4th edition, they won't line up perfectly. I spoke with the people at BJU and they say that it wasn't a major overhaul of the program so most of the material will match up, it will just take some spending time with the DVDs to coordinate what to play and when. (I'm not looking forward to this aspect, but if the DVDs really enhance the program then I guess I'll run with it). So, I'm looking for some honest opinions. Are these Investigation DVDs worth their cost? Can you do the program effectively without them or would you consider them to be integral to the success of the program? TIA!

She said he was too young for that but anything was possible. It was the tech I spoke with, not the vet. We bring him in today so hopefully we will have some answers soon.

Ah. Ok. I'm thick. :blushing: He didn't show any weird signs before or after like that site suggested but it does make sense now. I'll read more into this and talk to the vet about it when we go in. Thanks for explaining it.

I read the description but none of it sounds like what is happening, other than the urination. He has no period before or after that includes any kind of different behavior. It's only when he was peeing that one time that he was seemingly out of it. I don't know what he was like the other times he has peed as I wasn't around. it was very out of character for him to come into a room, look me in the eye, then pee on my floor in front of me and not flinch or anything. LIke it was a perfectly normal thing to do. Sigh.

No. The vet tech said they may do a check for that but she said typically UTI manifest as frequent, small urination, not production of small lakes.

My 5 year old dog has been having "issues" the last few weeks and I'm not sure what is going on. He has peed on the floor 4x now and I'm not talking a piddle- I'm talking full out lake. The other evening I was folding laundry on my bed when he walked in. He looked at me, then peed all over the floor. While he was peeing it was like he was in this weird stupor. His eyes were glazed and he had a blank look on his face. I kept calling his name over and over and asking him WTH?? but he didn't budge or move. It was so weird. And he peed for like a full minute. After, he went on with his night without the slightest remorse (very odd for him, his demeanour is often very revealing of what he's been up to when we are out). This morning my ds5 came into my room complaining that his bed smelled funny but he hadn't wet it (he often does wet through his pull-up). I ran over and sure enough, his bed is SOAKED with urine. Ugh. Thank heavens he sleeps with a full plastic sheet covering it and all I had to do was wash the bedsheet. There have been several other instances of finding pee in the house. This dog has been house trained for the last 4 years. Makes no notion of needing to go out before peeing and this is so out of character for him. It's like he's just "out of it" lately. I talked to the vet and she said 5 is very young for mental issues but it's possible he's losing his mind, so to speak (but very unlikely). The only thing the vet can offer is to do bloodwork to the tune of $200. Bleh. What is bloodwork going to tell me? Do I want to go ahead with this? And how the heck do I make this stop? I do let him out often, and more often than not, he is barking and whining to come back in (he's a bit of a princess and hates being "banished" to his dog run area. I'm not impressed with finding urine everywhere. :glare:

It's typically covered in a grammar program. Both Shurley and Rod and Staff cover it and I'm sure there are others but I have not used them.

Oh- top right, under where you log in, on the blue header in white letters is the "view new content" button. HTH.

Hi Tina!! Long time no see! :seeya: Glad to see you back!

Which MCT are you ladies referring to? Island? Town? I could give one of those a try, I suppose. :) Thank you!