I still have my Kindle DX. It's been four years! I love my Fire, but the regular Kindles are so nice for reading. I hope the FreeTime reading incentive program they're advertising will be available on the Fires.

Dumb question, but would the risk only be with older homes that have metal pipes? All of the pipes running into our house are PVC, so I'm assuming I can continue my stormy night baths?

If I had my kids in school and things were really going wrong, I wouldn't hesitate to pull them out and then figure out what I was going to do. When someone is drowning, you don't stand at the edge of the pool and review your CPR training before pulling them out of the water.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I think there is a difference. I also thought she could have chosen some different pictures. I know that our society deems it fine for boys to be topless, but I was chuckling over the juxtaposition of muscle-posing shirtless boys next to exhortations of modesty. Would she be okay with her boys sending those pictures to girls?

No, but I just use the recipe calculator from SparkPeople when I want to know that stuff.

Well, is there something specific that you are worried about?

That makes more sense.

Diarrhea for that long, plus a high fever, plus not eating well would mean a trip to the doctor for me, especially with a 1 year old. The risk of dehydration is high.

Looking at my slow cooker classic plan for this week, the only processed things are: Canned pinto beans Taco sauce and seasoning (but I can easily make my own) Frozen shredded hash browns (my store has organic/simple ingredient options) Cream of chicken soup (my store has organic/simple ingredient options) Refrigerated pie crust (can make my own) Frozen meatballs (can make my own or get the organic/simple ingredient kind) Barbecue sauce (same) Everything else is fresh produce, cheeses, fresh meats, spices, and dairy. That's really not bad at all, especially considering this is the "classic" Crockpot menu. I was initially hesitant to choose this one because classic Crockpot usually means cream of something soup in every meal.

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what a "non-religious Biblical name" is. I mean, wouldn't a Biblical name be a religious name by definition? But, hey, I'm Catholic. Our Peter is named for St. Peter. We got a thumbs-up from our priest at his baptism. :)

We're in our second week of emeals. The biggest pro for me is that my regular grocery store is on their list, so I get a weekly menu and grocery list that matches up to the sales. It's easy enough for me to switch out the odd side or sub an ingredient as necessary. I opted to try out the classic Crockpot menu and it's nice so far. I also subscribed to the lunch menu because lunches are the bane of my existence. My husband is definitely appreciating the variety there, though I have to cut down the amounts since I'm not making lunch for four. You can change your menu once a month and I plan to try out each of the ones available. Last week's grocery shopping was an eye opener for me. I'd been stuck in a rut for some time, but with their list I was able to get a huge variety of produce and meats for about the same amount I'd been budgeting all along. It was a little higher because I needed some different staples than I had on hand, but not too much. I also like that you have the option of family-sized meals or meals for two. We're a family of six, but the kids are all 6 and under and they don't eat a lot. The amounts listed for the meals-for-two really work. We're awful about eating leftovers, so I'd rather cook a small amount each day instead of having a big pot of something staring at me every time I open the fridge.

The first time our oldest saw commercials, he was completely frustrated and couldn't understand why the "shows" were so short. :D

We don't have it either and I'm reminded of how awesome that is every time I have to take the kids somewhere and the waiting room has a cable-connected television. Every commercial they see is fodder for complete amazement and a bunch of can-I-have-thats. Throw in the constant ED ads, political tripe, inappropriate primetime TV promos, and general inanity, and I'm so thankful we got rid of it before our oldest was aware.

Our 15 month-old is named Peter. :)

Out of our five, my water broke with two and I was induced for one. For the other two, I went in with one with consistent contractions that were five minutes apart and not letting up. However, I was barely dilated. They still kept me because we were 45 minutes away from the hospital and they didn't want to send me home. For our last baby, I really wanted to stay out of the hospital until it was closer to time. The night before, I was very restless and wound up sleeping on the couch because I just couldn't get comfortable. All the next morning, my stomach muscles felt disorganized and twitchy. I had a friend coming to visit, so I ignored it all. She showed up at 11 and everything coalesced and became true contractions, but I kept ignoring them. When she left at 1230, we called the sitter for the other kids. She showed up at 1 and I had a Hollywood-style labor scene in the car on the way to the hospital, breathing through contractions, gripping the door handle as we went over railroad tracks, having to stop and breathe in the hallways of the hospital, etc. I was already 7 cm when I was admitted, had my water break during the epidural insertion, and delivered about two hours after. :)

I get the feeling that nobody really knows what happened and all of the current proposals are being made blindly. It's a tragedy and I'm sure it will get more tragic in the near future.

The cup really blew me away. I'd never heard of it before. How could I have never heard of a 1600 year-old color-changing cup? :laugh:

That is so awesome. At this very moment, my son is doing something similar. My husband saved a folder of his own childhood drawings. Our six-year old has spent all day making copies of them, then adding his own artwork to the copies and coloring them in. :)

According to that food chart, we fall right between low and moderate for our family-size and ages. It makes sense. It was getting so hard to do at our previously budgeted amount and I finally succumbed and upped the budget. We had to cut in other spots, but it's worth it to have good, fairly healthy food.

We did! Hooray for Netflix and Amazon Video. :)

You may just need to accept that you're going to have high food bill. I've come to the point where I would rather cut back on other things than be overly stressed about the grocery tab. We like food. We enjoy eating it. I (mostly) enjoy cooking it. Food takes up a lot of our days, so I'd rather celebrate it than try to keep cutting and cutting in order to get our food bill down under some "acceptable" amount.

I found this fascinating. http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/08/25/these-two-ancient-roman-techs-could-disrupt-modern-industry/

For a $200-300 payment on a loan, could you remodel your existing house to better fit your needs?

There are some really good ideas here: http://www.diynetwork.com/home-improvement/fireplace-makeovers-before-and-afters-from-house-crashers/pictures/index.html (And some hideous ones, too. Gah, paint!) Here's another link also: http://www.hgtv.com/decorating-basics/before-and-after-fireplace-makeovers/pictures/index.html