Get a carpet professional who will clean the carpet, pull it up, and cut out the pad underneath. Replace the underneath pad, and reclean the carpet above. If the subfloor is wood, or porous, or even smells, paint it with KILZ before the new pad goes in. Make sure the carpet cleaning person uses enzymes to get the odor out of the carpet. The other option is to use any extra carpet scraps you have (or the carpet from a closet) to patch in a new piece of carpet in that area, and replace the pad at the same time. Ugh.. been there, still have the cat. Next time you get carpet, get a moisture barrier pad, it's terrific! And, nothing soaks in. Nothing.

No. It's embarrassing, because my 13 year old son has. He started it when he was 8, right in Genesis, and finished it on his 12th birthday. He loves a challenge. :)

A neighbor of mine is a speech therapist for the local school. My 10yo was struggling with "th" when she was 6. 6 is about the age they want it worked on, as it's late by then. She suggested this exercise: Have your child do the "thumbs up" sign, and bring the thumb close to their lips. They say the word "thumb" except their tongue has to touch their thumbnail. That gets the tongue between the teeth rather than on the space behind the front teeth. I would have my daughter do "thumb" about 5 times, and then give her another "th" word like "thank you". After they master the "th" at the beginning of the word, then work on "th" at the end, like "tenth". When they miss it while speaking, just give them the "thumbs up" sign and demonstrate "thumb" with your tongue on your thumbnail. It's a good reminder. It only took my daughter a couple weeks to be consistent. And, in truth, I missed the little girl talk when it was over. She sounded more grown up. ;)

I was rebellious in spirit, but rarely got in trouble; as I was excellent at not being caught. Now, I consider myself to have well informed opinions, and not usually swayed by other people without a strong argument. Maybe I'm just argumentative... LOL I have 5 of 6 children just like me. It's fun times around here.

Love that!!

No way... they're way too expensive to replace, and they sell for about 75% of retail if they're in good shape. My son writes in a spiral bound notebook. He uses only the front of each page to make it neater to read (he presses too hard sometimes). They're 15 cents each... bargain. He also delights in filling them up. :lol: It takes 3 to do a year of TT.

Fizzy Candy - Pop rocks, or mentos?

Tall glass bottles with thin necks. Do you think a Frappuccino is in order maybe? LOL... I have to do the same thing next week. And, my degree was in Science... :D Still not looking forward to the organization part.

I used to, when I was a teacher. Now that I'm the homeschool teacher, I don't. I can tell their writing apart. It feels too "schooly" to me. Is that a word? I guess it's because I've pretty much divorced myself from all my public school teaching habits. I'm not a teacher anymore; I'm a private tutor.

OH, I have used megawords. It's been helpful. I'm still finding my son makes dumb mistakes though... so we're doing PZ.

Hey Boom!!! <waves> I PM'd you. We're trying Phonetic Zoo... but can't review it yet.

For years we went to one that was $25, with a T-shirt, worship CD, themed snacks, huge VBS (600 kids). This year, due to budget constraints in the family we went to one that was free. They liked it better overall. Know why? They memorized Bible verses, and had water gun fights for fun. Go figure. Good old fashioned VBS.

See, this was my growing up and I feel the total opposite. I think if my Dad had worked an outside job, maybe he would have done better at balancing his ministry life. I never cared about the lack of money (course now all these mega churches pay mega salaries). I grew up very frustrated at the fact that my Dad was constantly gone doing church work. Perhaps he would have been the same way with another job but I can't help but think if everyone was volunteering at the church, more people would see the need for participating. You have captured the heart of many preacher's kids. My mother is one. She was grateful I married a man of faith, but not a pastor. I don't think it's God's heart for the church to come before the family. My DH is the director of a ministry. It's his policy that the staff's families come first; to the extent that they are welcomed to leave work to take care of them if need be. No questions....

Do you have a police report?

We love Tintin as well!