We have multiplied 2x2=4 So we're done. Dh took one for the team 9 months back.:D

Harsh? Absolutely not. TV/video games are mind numbing, life sucking machines! We own 360/TV. In our home they are off limits Monday thru noon on Friday. There are exceptions for sickness,rewards, maybe something special on TV or a random family movie night. When the TV/360 are in use my children seem to fight more. They have terrible attitudes and have difficulty focusing. They are a means of escape and prevent you from having to deal with issues of daily family life. I took my son to a birthday party once where the TV was on through the whole party.... it was quite bizarre IMO. I have a friend and in her home growing up the TV was NEVER turned off. It was on all night and even when they went out.... crazy! It is an important skill to be able to just be quiet and still. My dh is a product of day care/public school/2nd born he cannot be without some form of stimulation. He has to force himself to not have some form of entertainment at all times and he often just goes to sleep at all hours of the day if there isn't something going on. IT.drives.me.NUTS!!!! It is in the quiet where we are faced with ourselves and entertainment via TV/video games prevents and interrupts that. Okay, I'll get of my soap box... lol :rant:

:iagree:

SLEEP!!! Got to bed by 10:00 PM!!! No later!! Do I sound like your mom?? :D This is SO IMPORTANT! Vitamin B12 Energy Booster Dr. Mercola just added this and he says it is so good you can replace coffee with it! I haven't tried it yet but I trust Dr. Mercola and plan on getting this when I buy my fall supply of vitamins/supplements. Carlson Cod Liver Oil I buy LEMON flavor and my WHOLE family (even my infants 9 months and older) take this daily, fall thru spring. Living in the Pacific NW we need the vitamin D. The kids ask for it. I call it our "Liquid Sunshine" ALIVE Ultra-Shake I buy the vanilla flavor and choke it down with milk. I gag easy but can tolerate this pretty well. I have throughly researched this company, Nature's Way and this product. When I decided to add a vitamin supplement I knew that for the most part vitamins go through you and wanted to get the best that I could. I called them and questioned their certifications and testing procedures. I am very satisfied with this choice. The label says, "Alive! ® Ultra-Shake™ is the ultimate nutritional energy source. It’s also a comprehensive, whole food multi-vitamin with the added benefit of rice and pea protein. Each serving contains more invigorating nutrients from more natural sources than any other supplement." I don't especially love the taste of the shakes and so I rotate the shakes with this: Alive Whole Food Energizer (no iron added) This is a great multi that doesn't cause me any stomach discomfort. Some I have tried in the past made me feel nauseous. I like it for all the reasons stated above. This doesn't have the protien that the shake does but I just can't do the shake every morning for breakfast. Flax Seed Oil I try to get all of the healthy fats in. I add this to smoothies. I don't take this nearly as often as I would like to because it is difficult to take by spoon for me. I don't buy it through the mail because it needs to be kept cold. PB8 Pro-Biotic Acidophlus. For your body to assimilate the vitamins it needs it is important to have a healthy balance of intestinal flora. This is also great if you deal with yeast infections or have just done a round of antibiotics. My doctor specifically recommends this.

Cathmom, Thank you for updating us!! Glad to hear that your sweet baby is doing good and that his case of "aplasia cutis congenita" looks to be mild!!! Praise God! You'll have to update us when he has the ultrasound. Blessings!

Thanks for the links. I have been needing to find this too. It would be really nice to find a free one.....:glare:

Hey Carli, Been thinking of you on and off today... Sending up popcorn prayers. Give us all an update when you feel like you're up to it. :grouphug:

The test is easy.. just a ph paper strip. In the mean time make sure you are drinking extra water!! Just in case.

:grouphug: Carli, praying for you and yours.

:iagree: I really like the Christmas card prayer idea too!!!!

About 4 years ago I had come to a point where I had just had it. It was the middle of January and I was still recovering from Christmas let down. The leader of my women's group had this *mysterious* way of celebrating Christmas and I grilled her to explain it all to me. Out of that a group of 7 women started meeting together to learn more about the church calendar. It has been a process of baby steps since then of experimenting with and slowly implementing different parts of the seasons of the church year. Following the seasons of the church year was a Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist thing and I was totally unfamiliar with it coming from my Baptist background. Here is a link to The Seasons of the Church Year and here is a link to that website's mission statement. I was able to practice some of the seasons before Christmas came and that primed the kids for what was to come the following Christmas. I posted more detail on my thoughts regarding this here. So on to how we celebrate Christmas. I need to preface this by saying that it is important that your spouse is willing and able to jump on board. My dh and I discussed what we each needed Christmas to be. He wasn't very excited about it but was willing to try it. He came out on the other end singing it's praises. We celebrate the WHOLE DARN SEASON. So we don't end up with just one day of puking presents everywhere for 30 minutes on Christmas morning. This totally resolved the let down feeling that I had experienced as a kid and as an adult. We have an Advent log weekend sometime before Thanksgiving. We cut a log and then decorate it with artificial holly and poinsettias, gluing them on with a hot glue gun. My husband drills four holes in the top for the candles and screws a 1x6 board on the bottom before we decorate. (This year I may try an Advent Jesse tree.) I've used several advent resources through the years; Before and After Christmas, Family Countdown to Christmas, Seeking the Christmas Lamb (one of my fav's), The ADVENTure of Christmas. I use our nativity for the younger children who aren't able to get into all the Advent stuff because of their age. They get to move Mary and Joseph closer to the nativity as they make their journey through the house to get to the manger scene. The books I mention have stuff for younger children too. We do not put up our tree until Christmas eve, possibly a couple days before. Then we only put lights on it. I do stockings on Christmas eve. We have a $15 -$20 limit per stocking. Last year I did a stocking swap with another mom because mom's stocking can get left out. THAT was fun!! Mary and Joseph make it to the manger. Christmas morning we have a big breakfast and read from scripture. Baby Jesus is in the manger when the children get out of bed. I also have one of these under the tree on Christmas morning too. Then we spend the morning decorating the tree with Christmas hymns and cooking and getting ready for whatever extended family event we are doing. Most of my family has gotten used to our way of celebrating and don't bring gifts until Epiphany. There are still some who bring gifts and that is fine. Because we focus on Jesus for the whole season Christmas day is really for family, our nuclear family has had their needs met and so we can minister to our extended family in whatever way they need and for some that is gifts on Christmas. Warning: This part only works if you have kept Advent pretty solemn. I work to kind of shelter us from the whole Christmas shopping season freak out so that we aren't sick of Christmas by the time it actually arrives. I found that I couldn't do the world's thing right next to my thing I had to totally distance our family from Christmas as much as we could during Advent. Then starts Christmastide!! We party hardy for 12 days!! We have a Christmas party, this is so fun because there isn't much competition because everyone else has usually had theirs. I FINALLY put on the Christmas music (This is the hardest part for me... the restraint of waiting but it's worth it!). We watch Christmas movies. We bake goodies. The wise men are making their journey through the house. If presents have come in the mail from distant relatives the kids open one or two a day. Now it's Epiphany! On January 6th the wise men arrive at the manger and we open gifts. My parents have embraced this tradition with my family and so we have dinner with them and open gifts afterward. Sometimes we do lunch. We have always done only 3 gifts per child. We spend a lot of time figuring out what each child would really like, what would be a well loved and valuable toy to them and STURDY. One book each for their collection (we are building a collection for each child so the books are often $30 books). One toy toward their bent... something they really like or want but quality, not a frivolous & junky toy. And a nice outfit or sweater or some article of clothing. THEN we get one big family gift. In years past this has been a gamecube, a trampoline, a computer, a swing set, and Xbox 360. Last year money was tight so the family gift was the whole star wars collection of movies. My kids get fun stuff in their stockings and their grandparents get them gifts also so it never feels like not enough especially with all of our celebrating and family time. PLUS we can sometimes take advantage of the after Christmas sales. Mostly we are done shopping but my parents really like that part... lol For 100's of years Christmas was a whole season in the Church. It was observed for an actual SEASON but now days it is crammed into ONE day... that is, I think why so many are left dissatisfied and just plain angry. Christmas doesn't FIT into one day. Now that I observe it as a whole season, not just the 25th when most of the world is celebrating it I am totally cushioned. I can go with the flow and I feel FULL because I have been and will be feasting on Jesus for several days and several more to come. All 7 of us who were in the study of the church seasons have adjusted the way each of our families celebrate Christmas (and other seasons of the church year). We each have our own version and that has helped I think... We aren't an island unto ourselves with our celebration of Christmas. That was long winded but I HTH. ;)

I loved this article. Especially this part: "However, the nature of the experience couldn’t be more different. Palin spent her entire political career crusading against the political machine that rules Alaska — which exists in her own Republican party. She blew the whistle on the state GOP chair, who had abused his power on the same commission to conduct party business. Obama, in contrast, talked a great deal about reform in Chicago but never challenged the party machine, preferring to take an easy ride as a protegé of Richard Daley instead."

29. I was thinking about doing a poll like this... or one asking age at time of marriage.

My library's monthly publication featured 2 books this month on this very topic. So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It

Carli I don't think she is talking about WAVA... Colleen are you talking about WAVA?

:iagree: I live in WA too and every time I think about this I get totally stressed. WA State has such GREAT HS laws and this puts them in jeopardy.

Yeah she did. I guess to me it was like how many millions of boys grow to manhood w/o their fathers or grandparents present. The focus and emphasis on his single-mom childhood cheapened any praise she gave for his grandparents IMO. :iagree: I'm sure I will be right there with you rolling my eyes. I really just hate the emotional manipulation feeling all around.... some history for you.... my mom did that to me ALL.the.time. so I just have a hard time tolerating it.

:iagree: The "single-mom" spin was very hard for me to swallow to. And I felt like it certainly didn't honor his grandparents and all they did for her to dismiss it by describing his childhood the way she did.

Yeah McCain definitely isn't as good at scripted speeches. He's been working hard to not come across as grumpy too:tongue_smilie:.

You guys are funny... I never said I was surprised that they were scripted or that it was unusual or not the norm. Sometimes though, a speaker can engage you enough that you forget about the scripting and that didn't happen for me.

We just sent ours in and got it back this last month. We live really close to Redmond, WA so it took all of a week and a half to get the 360 back. We were also told NOT to send the hard drive in. It just comes right off with the push of a button. No big deal. Here is a youtube that shows you how to do it. They sent us a shipping label and we had to find our own box and packing material. We LUCKED OUT and got a BRAND NEW one back... nice... had to pay $100 but the 1 year warranty starts over again and they give you the option to extend the warranty for a fee. You can also request all new cords (whatever each one is named... there are 4 I think) for FREE once you pay for the repair because the system goes back under warranty and the cords are covered under that... So they told me to call back in a couple days to ask for cords... I did and had 'em in less than a week. HTH

I think I'm just way to cynical... all I heard was a speech intended to get me all emotional. I barely made it through Michelle's speech because of the emotional angle. It came across as scripted. I am not an emotionally motivated person for the most part and so I just can't get into that stuff no matter what political party it is. Give me logic any day!.....Some may call me emotionally constipated...:D

THis is my new FAVORITE QUOTE!!!!!!! you GO GIRL!!!

My husband and ds8 got Memoir '44 by Days of Wonder at our annual HS convention this year. They have been LOVING it. It is a war game that teaches the history of WWII. It has won several awards. I thought it was going to be too hard for my ds but he has been doing just fine and wins often enough. I would say it is kind of like Risk with it's different military pieces. The board set up is kind of like Settlers. My son also likes Stratego, Pete the Pirate by Maba, Battleship.

With my friend's dd the biggest clue that it was a neurological abnormality was that the hair around the sores grew noticeably darker and thicker. When the baby was born the docs just said that it was like a birth mark and should heal up. The sores on her baby's head were not open they were like blisters but instead of being raised like a bump they were deep like a crater. When her dd turned 2 and she still had them she went to a diff pediatrician. Her dd had been sick and puking and the blisters filled with fluid and were then raised. They sent her on to Children's... And again the clue was the hair growth being different. They called it a "fertilized patch". It ended up being brains cells just growing and abnormal in the wrong spot. They didn't know why and hadn't ever seen it. They removed them and all is well. They weren't cancerous, just an abnormality. There was concern because they didn't know if the craters were connected to the lining of her brain or if there was a hole in her skull. The skull looked thinner on the xrays/MRI they took. So when she had surgery it was exploratory. If they found nothing then they would take out the spots and that would be it and if they did find something the plan was to get it all closed up right. We all prayed like crazy and when they went in to do the surgery the skull looked normal and they couldn't explain why. Praise The Lord!!! After all that my friend went through she would advise,"If your doctor doesn't know that isn't an acceptable answer and you need to seek a second opinion." Through all of this her daughter was seen by the delivering OB, a dermatologist and the family doctor in her first month. The consensus was that they were birth marks and should heal but no one was very sure. Now we know that they couldn't have healed because they were not skin cells and so were not programed to do anything like what a skin cell does. This was a "clue" also. If your baby's wound isn't healing then that would be a clue. At 2yo she still had blisters and they were acting up, filling with fluid. So then she was seen by a pediatrician, neurologist, a diff dermatologist, and a plastic surgeon. When she had surgery the neurologist and plastic surgeon did it together.