:lol: I love it!

DO NOT GET ATTACHED. You will anyway. But I warned you. Buying a house is an enormous financial transaction. Probably the largest transaction you will ever be a part of. It should be scary. You should be nervous. You should not allow emotion to cloud your judgment. In this market, if it isn't exactly what you want, keep looking. If you haven't found the perfect house within a year, only then should you consider relaxing your standards. If your family income isn't rock solid for the foreseeable future, consider waiting. Are jobs plentiful? How would a period of unemployment or slow business affect your family? Do not let anyone use ratios or percentages to tell you what you can afford as a monthly payment. If they have a vested interest in this transaction, they don't have your best interests at heart. Figure out what you're comfortable paying, and from there figure out how much house you can buy. If you can't afford 20% down, my advice is don't buy, because you'll probably be underwater on your loan for quite some time. And for goodness sake, don't let anyone talk you into an adjustable-rate mortgage. There. Have fun kids! :D

Yeah, I used to think 34 wouldn't have been old enough for perimenopause, but it is. I'm 38, and my pattern of flow has been changing for a few years. For a while I was having really long menses (>10 days). Some cycles my flow has a stop-and-start pattern that drives me bonkers: three days flow, then nothing for 24 hours, then flow restarts. More recently, my cycles have been about 24 days instead of my usual 28 days. (I was surprised to note that for me, the shortening is caused by earlier ovulation rather than shorter luteal phase.)

How old are you? And apologies, I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but are you on any hormonal birth control, or other hormones?

I'm looking for poems or quotations for DH's valentine. I'm not sure what I want to say, so that makes it a wee bit harder. I figure I'll know it when I see it. :) Does anyone have favorites or sources to recommend?

:lol: I confessed to DH. He was super-annoyed with me, and said since I did it, he's going to have to also. :tongue_smilie:

Painful, yes! :lol: I thought my church was the only one. At ours the director bites off way more than the choir can chew, and it makes me feel so bad for them! It also makes me much less likely to join the choir myself. :tongue_smilie:

It should be either "5 years' experience" or "5 years of experience." The apostrophe is not optional! :)

We stay home until we've had 48 hours of no vomiting, no fever (with no NSAID administration), and no diarrhea. I do this even though one of my kids has a super-sensitive stomach, and most of her vomiting is a one-off that probably was (non-infectious) food poisoning. But even that wasn't enough one time. My older daughter once vomited one final time after 72 hours of feeling fine. Ugh. I was so embarrassed, because it was clear that other parents didn't believe me when I said she'd been fine for over 2 whole days. Edited to add: we're stomach flu phobic too, as stomach bugs hit DH hard. He sometimes needs IV rehydration.

My first thought would be constipation and/or gas. In your shoes I might offer my child some prune juice (no more than 1/4-1/2 cup) and see if that helps get things moving. I hope he feels better soon!

That sucks. Hopefully you've already got chocolate and wine or something even more appealing planned for your evening. :grouphug:

:grouphug: So how are you feeling now?

If you do high fat without cutting carbs significantly, you're not really doing high fat. You're doing high calorie. :D

I can't think of anything nice to say about an organization which tries to convince people that marriage equality threatens homeschooling. In case anyone needs the link - here ya go.

Low carbers who hit a weight loss plateau often find that they need to decrease consumption of dairy and/or nuts to break that plateau. Can't tell you why, I just know that it is a very common story.

:iagree:

Yeah, it is conservative Christian...but there are a small handful of speakers that interest me anyway: SWB MCT Zaccaro Pudewa Jim Weiss (as a speaker or as a performer, either would be fine with me!) Sonya Shafer (maybe, depends on topic)

Do you recall approximately how far before the conference they published the speaker schedule last year? There are only a handful of speakers I want to see, so I'm not sure yet whether I'll go.

Yep, cat hair is painful, and whiskers are excruciating. Fortunately, though we have 3 cats and rarely vacuum, it's a fairly rare occurrence around here.

:grouphug: My heart hurts for you! It sounds like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'm re-evaluating my church involvement right now too. I think I'll always consider myself a UU, but I'm not sure that I will continue to attend Sunday services, because they haven't been meeting my needs lately. (RE may have something to do with it for me too.) I could see myself limiting future involvement to small group ministry.... Whatever you decide, I wish you peace and clarity. :grouphug:

Your description of her holding her hand funny makes me wonder if she has nursemaid's elbow. Kids with nursemaid's elbow hold the affected arm in an unusual, characteristic way. Google for images. If that's the problem, you could attempt to reduce it yourself. It is a simple procedure, and relief would be immediate. Check this thread and search YouTube for instructional videos. I'd personally be comfy attempting a reduction myself, since in your daughter's case it is known that the injury didn't involve a fall. If you or she weren't comfy, a ped could do it for you. If she didn't get immediate relief, off to the doctor we'd go, and I wouldn't stop until we'd seen an orthopedist.

No worries, I'm fine with disagreement. :) Still, I can't imagine delaying formal treatment of r-controlled vowels until Grade 3. If I was in charge, r-controlled vowels would follow ETC3, because r-controlled vowels are abundant even in books for emerging readers.

I can't say I agree with the grade level suggestions. Though some children may need that long to complete the series, most won't.

Take it, take it, take it! That's a fantastic offer. Grab it and run.

Yep, go see a pediatric ophthalmologist. If s/he says the prescription is fine and no other treatment is needed, then go talk to your ped and/or start looking around for a developmental optometrist.