I have a bunch of dogs, I am a big dog person and besides my husband and kids, my dogs are my life. Most of my dogs are rescues, most from puppy mills. However, I will say I have had good and bad issues with rescues. I have one dog right now (a peke) that WILL bite anyone who comes into the house (strangers). I am still working with her but have to keep her in my room if anyone comes over. I have thought of giving her away but she would likely bite whoever came to get her. Since she is attached to me so I will just keep her and work on the biting. She had a really bad life. She was at a puppy mill and was in a tiny cage and had been there so long walking on that wire cage until her toes splayed out. She deserves a good life now. One of them I had to give back to the shelter. One dog would get into fights and took a chunk out of my dh when he was trying to break it up. I hated to give him back but he was just too agressive and would eventually hurt someone badly, or another dog. The good news is I have had really good luck with most other dogs I have adopted over the years. Some of them have trust/fear issues but most have been really good dogs. I think giving a dog another chance is really a good thing.

I just got two Cocker Spaniel puppies for free using Craigslist. They are part of my boys Christmas this year. They came from a breeder and are full blooded pups. I think they were just too old to sell, they are 7 months old. Our craigslist has a huge amount of pets, cats, dogs, hampsters, snakes and even birds. Its a good place to look if your looking for a pet.

I would say no too if you think it will do any good. I will tell you what happened to me. I had just given birth to my YS and 8 days later my appendix ruptured and I had to go in for emergancy surgery. Well my grandmother in law decided to come down to help me. It was SOOO stressful. The house was a wreck from me getting out of the hospital the first time (from having the baby). Dh and kids did not clean while I was in the hospital. I tried to clean it up but was so sick from both having the baby and then having my appendix going bad. For days before I wound up in the hospital the second time (appendix) I was really sick and throwing up all day long. I had a high fever and was really really ill. The house work just did not get done. So she shows up to the disaster site and I could not deal with it all. I just wanted to rest and enjoy my new baby but I could not even do that. If I had to do it over again I would have said no or told my dh to say no. Really I did not have a choice, dh and grandmother in law planned all of this while I was in the hospital and when I got home, there she was. Say no now while you have got the chance!

I am glad you posted this. I have always had a hard time with spelling, and have always been emberrised especially in a place like this where everything is in text. Its funny, I cant spell for beans but in other ways I am way above the average person. I am good with mechanical things and art but really stink with all things spelling and grammar. Its good to know that there is a reason why I have so much trouble.

We did this a couple years ago and I have been happy with it. Our old phone line was awful, when it would rain you could not hear anything but horrible static. I could not see the point of wasting any more money on a bad phone line so we went to all cell phones. There is only one drawback that I have found. The dropped calls get kind of annoying sometimes but its still better than that awful phone line we had.

I had fun on black friday. We hit 3 sales and did most of our Christmas shopping. I got an MP3 player for one of my sons, a new nintendo ds for another son to replace his broken one. We also got some track suits, pjs, a back massager for me and dh, a razor for dh, and a bunch of tools for one of my sons at Sears. I guess I dont see whats wrong with going to black friday sales. I planned on buying the stuff anyway so why not get it for less? We go every year, its a tradition around our house. I am not ashamed to admit I go to sales, I guess I dont see the problem with it.

Yes you should have reported it. When I got the MRSA I only got it in a small blemish on my face. I guess I had touched the chair (or something) and then touched my face. It swelled up HUGE and was extremely painful, my lips were so swelled that they pressed on my teeth and felt like they were being cut into by my teeth from all the swelling. I went to urgent care and they had to do a test to see if it was MRSA. It was and I had to take some strong antibiotics to get rid of it. As bad as it was having it infect a blemish on my face I cant even imagine how bad it would be if you had got it down into a surgical incision. That would be beyond bad, it would be life threatening.

Thanks so much. You explained it much better than I did, it is like the ground is comming up to meet me lol. Yesterday I came out of the eye appointment and waited outside for my husband (the were closing). Well, he took so long I decided to walk up to the Walgreens to get inside where it was warm. On the way there I think I tripped over every curb and sidewalk, lol. I am glad its only going to take a week or so to get used to these. I was not sure how long it would take because I have never worn glasses before so this is an all new experience for me.

Yesterday I finally got my new glasses. All I can say is WOW, they are wonderful. Lastnight I think I saw the stars for the first time the way I am supposed to see them. I can see better than I think I ever have. Its really great. However there is a few problems. I dont know how to explain this any better but for some reason I am not seeing the ground right. I have been tripping over curbs and falling off sidewalks lol. I am not sure why this is happening but I really am a clutz now. Has anyone else gone through something like this? How long did it take for you to get used to the way the ground looks? I tried to ask my husband about this but he has worn glasses since the age of five and dont remember that long ago. Also another thing thats kind of annoying. I see the line (bottom of the frame and sides) and it is kind of annoying. They said it would go away eventually and I would not notice it. How long did it take to where you did not notice the frames in your line of vision? Thanks

Its OK, just OK, I can take it or leave it. I really would much rather have a pecan pie or fruit pie than a pumpkin pie. Its just not that great and the only reason I have it at all is because of the holidays. I do like sweet potato pie slightly better than pumpkin but its not something I must have or want very often. I guess its OK to have one with Thanksgiving but other than that we never really have it during the rest of the year.

I try to be very careful now when I go in to see the doctor. I wash my hands very well after leaving because once I picked up an MRSA from a sitting in a waiting room and touching the chair arms.

I had mine go bad and it hurt for several months off and on. I was pregnant at the time so the doctors thought it was something to do with the pregnancy and blew me off. 8 days after delivering my baby I was so sick I could not keep down water. High fever, TONS of pain and throwing up to the point I could not call the doctor on the phone without having a trash can next to me to throw up in. I would bring your kid to the dr. They can do a blood test to see if their white blood cell count is up and an ultrasound to check to see if their appendix is bad. Its much too serious to fool around with, if you even slightly suspect it might be a bad appendix take them in. Mine had ruptured and if I had waited a few more days I would not be here right now. Its best to have it checked out to be sure.

hornblower, Thats one of the reasons I went and got a check up. Night driving is completely out of the question for me and has been for a while. For some reason, meds, or whatever, the glare of the lights, something, makes it to where I cant hardly ride in the car (it makes me dizzy) and I sure cant drive. I wont even try it. I rarely ever drive anyway because dh has the car all day and when he is here he drives. Its probably a good thing too! Now that I know how bad my eyes really are I probably should not be driving until I get my glasses and get used to them.

If you have not had your eyes checked, please do yourself a favor and have it done. I have really neglected my eyes and THOUGHT I was fine until recently. I had only had an eye check by the Army years ago and I should have had a real eye check up more recently. Reading the eye chart is not enough, as I have learned. My vision has gotten worse over the last couple years and really bad over the last 6 months. I thought it was my medicine doing it because it really does accumulate in the eyes. I was partly right, it can make your vision worse on somedays and better on others. That was only part of the problem though. I really never realized how bad my eyes were. When they gave me the eye exam, I could only read the top line, or I think I did, if that really was a letter D. I almost had to ask them if those really were all letters because that one on the second line looked like the sign for pi and another one looked like a sideways letter 8. When we went though the examine where they flip though all of those lenses and finally got to where I could see everything clearly, I was amazed! I just wanted to take that machine home with me so I could see that well all of the time. I had no clue my eyes were this bad. I thought I was seeing pretty well until recently. I was wrong. Apparently I have an astigmatism and must have been this way all along. I am also near sighted so I guess I really wasnt seeing well and for quite a while. I am really excited to be getting glasses. I never thought I would be saying something like this, but I am. I cant wait to see that clearly all of the time. I also love the frames I picked out and am thinking of going back to get some sunglasses. So do yourself a favor, go get a good eye check up if you have not done so. I wish I had done this sooner but really had no clue my eyes were this bad. A side note LOL! My husband said he is glad I married him before I got my eyes checked LOL! He is funny sometimes.

We have a bunch of dogs but I would only recommend a few for people with little kids. Dont get a Pekingeese, they are NOT little kid dogs and would probably bite a kid if they got too rough. They dont put up with much nonsense and would probably be miserable around little kids. We have a black lab that a breeder was giving away (shes too old to breed anymore). She is a wonderful dog with kids. She is calm, good natured, an all around good dog. I would recommend a dog like her with little kids. We also have a Weimaraner that was given to us by some people who could not take care of her anymore. She is another wonderful dog and would be great around kids except for maybe the jumping. When she is excited she jumps around and might knock a little kid over. She does love kids though even if she does jump around sometimes. I did have a basset hound when I was a kid and he was one of the best dogs I have ever had. I would recommend a dog like him although hounds are IMO hard to train so house breaking might take a while. I hope you find the perfect dog for your family.

I do mine a bit differntly. Like yesterday, I found pork loin on sale for 1.79 per pound so I bought 2 whole loins and had them cut up for pork chops. It made about 60 or so pork chops so I wont need to buy them for a while. They also had chicken thighs on sale so I bought 10 packages of them. I do have a normal list I go by but it usually revolves around what I already have or whats on sale. If I buy a few turkeys that are on sale I will then buy the stuff to make stuffing and so on, and so forth. I have found that shopping this way and using aldi whenever I can, really cuts down our food bill. People do look at you strange though when you go buy 10 packages of chicken or 60 pork chops. I have been asked if I have a resturant at times LOL.

I recommend you try these people before you consider divorce. http://www.marriagetoday.org/site/PageServer Several years ago we did their marriage on the rock dvd series. It helped a great deal. Its really worth trying everything possible before considering a divorce unless there is abuse involved. Just my 2 cents.

I just thought about it and I am sorry if I offended anyone in my other post. I dont mean to sound like I am bragging. Actually we need good insurance because my health isnt good. I would hate to see the bill for this year, I am grateful our insurance covered it all or else we would be sunk. Two hospital stays for me this year, I would hate to see the bill for that. I dont think we could even afford all of my meds if not for the insurance. Just one of my meds is over 400 dollars a month and I dont know how much the others are. Now one of my meds is messing up my eyes and I have to see if there is anything they can do about it. I may just have to learn to live with it because the pharmacist said he was not sure if they could treat it because its the meds causing it. I dont know if glasses would help but I somehow doubt it. Anyway I hope I did not offend anyone, I did not mean to come across as bragging.

Wow our insurance must be really good. I dont know what it costs per month, I would have to ask my husband. We pay 25 dollars if you go to the doctor and 75 if you go to the ER. There is a copay on meds, I think the highest one is 55 dollars because one of my meds is very expensive so they charge me the max copay. Generics are 8 dollars. I think we have the same plan as congress does. I think its the plan they give to all federal workers although my husband now works for the state. We do get a choice of health care plans every year but we stick with this one because we like it.

We use Gain or Arm and Hammer. I like both of them but I like the smell of Gain the best. The only one I really hate and refuse to use is Surf. It dont desolve in the water right (even in hot water) and leaves streaks of laundry soap on my dark clothes. It also has a smell that I dont really care for.

If we dont eat it, it usually winds up in the compost bin. The meat sauce usually winds up in the trash. I am not a fan of leftover pasta, it just seems so gummy or something.

I dont think there is a such thing as too rough and rocky. I live in an area that is very hard clay and tons of rocks, and I garden. To give you an idea of how bad it is, you have to use a pick to dig deeper than a foot around here. Shovels are pretty much worthless except to use after you use the pick. What I do is till up the soil (several times), rake up all of the rocks, and add lots of amendments to the heavy clay to loosen it up a bit. Usually you can buy humus or manure at Walmart or Lowes for like a couple dollars for a 40lb bag. If your soil is like mine you may have to add several bags of admendments so plan on having it delivered unless you have a huge truck. You can get a soil test though your county extension office, that should tell you what you need to add to your soil besides humus (lime or whatever). It is a bit more expensive to garden in clay soil because of the added cost of buying a truck load of admendments but I think the results are pretty much the same as gardening in good soil.

Thanks so much. I guess I need to find out when they are giving the ACT or PSAT and have him take the test then maybe I will have an idea where to start. Like I said before he may just change his mind about this. He did want to leave his old school and he has now switched to a new one. Maybe he will like the new one better and wont want to homeschool? I guess I could have him take the tests and wait a bit to see if he is really serious about this.

I homeschool 2 of my boys, both are in lower grades but now my son who is a Jr in high school has shown an intrest in homeschooling. I have never researched curriculum for him because he has never wanted to homeschool. Now I really need help because if he is really serious about this, I need to come up with something fast. He may change his mind so this is incase he was really serious about wanting to homeschool. I really dont know whats out there for high school aged kids. I was thinking Saxon for math and Apologia for science (unless there is something better). He says he is advanced in History so I will need something more advanced for that subject, but I dont have a clue what. What do your schedules look like for your teens? I am thinking he will need logic, math, science, writing, some sort of language arts (although I dont know what). Do you teach spelling to high school kids? How about grammar? Whats a good grammar program? I am not sure what I am missing, I am a bit overwhelmed. Then theres Latin. I dont know if he is going to want to take Latin, but just incase, I need something for someone who has never had Latin. He has taken Spanish in ps, I dont know if that will help any. This has really thrown me for a loop. I know whats out there for younger kids but I have no clue whats out there for older kids. Any replies appreciated.

You can sweep a carpet with a broom. Just turn it side ways and sweep HARD and you can get most stuff off a carpet. I used to do it all the time when I was young (and very poor) and still had carpet. I have since ripped all the carpet out of my house. I really hate carpet, it never seems to really get clean, vaccume or no. It will kick up a lot of dust and will wear you out but it does work. I would wait to dust the furniture until you have finished sweeping the carpet because of the dust that will be kicked up.