Maybe you just live with your head in the clouds. If you lived under a rock, you would have felt the quake. :D

Having suffered from the same problem (dh leaving too early), could you set aside his lunch the night before in a microwave dish so all he has to do is nuke it and pour it into his Therrmos? From another that never got up to see dh off. ZZZZZZZZZ......

Can you get him a Thermos for food rather than beverages? If you can, there's a lot you can do, though you may want to save most of the ideas for fall - spring. Here's a few ideas. Mac and cheese, stew, beef-vegetable soup, chili, pea or lentle soup, a meat-rice-tomato skillet meal of my own concoction, goulash, cassarole leftovers, etc. You can even make a few Hamburger Helper meals. :D

If she's ADD, try listing all the parts of a chore. For instance, don't just list clean the bathroom. Instead create a checklist of clean bathtub, toilet, sink, vanity, mirror, sweep floor, etc. It'll help her keep track of what she needs to do and has done.

I'm not familiar with Holiday World. And it's been years since I've been to the Dunes, so I'm not really up on that either. My main memories are of a dune blowout (neat), sand, water, proximity to Chicago, and the first prickly pear cactus I ever saw outside of a desert. I didn't know they could grow in IN.

Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore (nps.gov) and Indiana Dunes State Park should give you what you're looking for..

I haven't read the other responses, but I think that "imminent" recovery is for the people (and lawmakers) that want things resolved NOW!. It took us years to get into this mess, and it will take years to get out. Just like it takes time for individuals to get their financial act together. Unfortunately too many can't accept this. Now if people just remember that there was a reason for all the banking regulations that went into effect during the depression, and reestablish good regulations plus a few other items, we might avoid another similar mess.

As I repond to my dh's puns, "Uhg!" :lol::lol::lol: He'll love them

When I was in college, it was routine to wait on removing wisdom teeth until the late teens, early 20's. It was also routine to hear personal nightmare stories about the problems and pain associated with pulling wisdom teeth. Personally I had minimal pain, thank goodness because my dad would't stop to get my painkiller on the way home. :glare: However for my ds it will be a different story. His wisdom teeth are already starting to give him occasional pain. It's been very rare so far, bu he will be getting them removed years before I did.

If this system is so good and so flush, why is it that we have so may on this board alone that don't have health insurance and care?

So far the only backing for the original post mentioned is that the schools may be used as vacination sites. No one has given any sources for making it mandatory, or jail time or banning possible exceptions. I don't see the original post as being likely. For starters, many are allergic to eggs and recieving the flu vaccine could be fatal. There are also other health reasons for not recieving the flu vaccine. It sounds to me that a gov't official made a statement and the rumor mill went to work.

You can combine the children's discount with a AAA discount for even bigger savings. There are also military discounts and student discounts. But I've never heard of a homeschool discount. My other suggestion is to keep your eyes open for specials.

But if our per capita income is the same, what does it matter that our total costs are higher? We'd be spending the same amount per person.

I think there are several factors, but I can't back them with statistics. 1) As far as the cost of health insurance. Insurance works by pooling everyone's money together to cover those who have loses. For health insurance that meas including the healthy with the less healthy. But for a long time, a large portion of the population has not been paying into the large insurance pool. That includes those who can't afford individual coverage if it's not available from their employer or group insurance even if it's offered. It also includes those who are young and healthy and don't see any personal need for health insurance. As a result, generally those who struggle the most to keep their insurance are those who are less healthy and older, which further drives up insurance costs. Plus there is fradulant "coverage". People have stolen insurance cards to get coverage. Another poster mentioned that insurance cards are apparently knowingly shared. 2) Medical establishments and practices need to at least cover their expenses and salaries. But many people they treat can't pay the entire bill, or they can't pay promptly or they can't pay at all. Those unpaid expenses need to be paid by someone, so the basic price goes up for those who can. 3) The insurance companies can be real bears about negotiating prices. I've seen large portions of my bills cut by 25-50%. Now it may be that those original prices are set to give negotiation room, or to cover slow paying insurance companies (mine is very fast) or that my insurance company has fantastic negotiators. But sometimes I wonder if the hard negotiators push prices so low that the medical providers have to raise them else where to cover costs and even make a bit of money. 4) Medical providers have to wade through a maze of insurance coverages, payment plans, insurance forms and payment delays. My oncologist's office has a billing/insurance clerk for every doctor I believe. That's a big expense. 4) From the recent fight to keep Americans from buying medicines from Canada, I wonder if the pharmacetical companies are artificially raising prices here.

Honestly Lazy? If someone loses a job, the entire family loses coverage. If someone's employer decides he can't continue offering health coverage, the entire family loses coverage. And if someone has a preexisting condition, he can forget about ever getting health insurance, at least for a pre-existing condition. An individual can have paid into the US health insurance system his entire working life, yet lose everything if he gets sick at the wrong moment. And current gov't programs are not designed for the average working person and especially not the high earner you think is protected against such things. The current health insurance system in the US stinks for a large % of the population. The current proposal on the table may not be the right one, but for too many years too many people have been sticking their heads in the sand on this issue. The end result has been that fewer and fewer people have insurance or the ability to pay cash for their major medical bills. That means those with major medical problems that can pay, start paying for everyone who can't.

I don't see it happening here either. For starters, requiring hospitalization would be considered an infrigement on our personal liberties. (I'm surprised someone here hasn't already objected to this treatment in Germany :001_smile:) And of course, who's going to hold down the job, or house or ????????. And as you say, it costs money. I am starting to see that the gov't is funding non-convetional treatments, but corporations don't typically fund them (Where's the profit for them?) and a lot of gov't research is funded by corporations. Also in Europe there is a history of "taking the waters" or going to spas for their health. We don't have that history to build on.

I think that it's the KNOWLEDGE that you could leave your dh at any time that's important. Now hold on, and follow my train of thought. If I have a serious spat with my dh, I can't truthfully say, to him or myself, that if I could afford to, I'd leave. To say such, reduces the dh to a meal ticket and makes me feel trapped and without options. But in our early years, I knew however mad I was, I was in that marrage because I wanted to be there. As a result, dh never feels reduced to a meal ticket and I don't feel trapped and hopeless. I think it makes for a much healthier marriage. There is only one other phrase that I feel could be as devestating to a marriage as "I'd leave if I could afford to!". And that's "If you hadn't gotten pregnant, I wouldn't have married you". It takes some very big people to recover from these phrases and they're rare. Even if the couple stays together, I can't help but think that the relationship has been severely if not permanently damaged. No, I think that it's important for a woman to know she can leave. Therefore she knows that she's staying for other reasons, like she really loves the guy, and the dh does't feel like he's nothing except a meal ticket to his wife.

No, it's just the reverse. It's mandatory (federal law) until they are of school age. The it's up to the state or school district. I can't quote the law, but I'm sure someone o the special needs board can.

And to add more confusion to the mix, a former senator may be addressed as Senator X and use the title wha siging papers, but a former president is not supposed to be addressed President X or use the title.

Williamsburg has a good introductory film that describes the transformation one Virginia plantation owner went through to change from being a loyal British subject to supporting revolution. It's a half hour long or so and shows discussions between many of the major Virginia upper class -- the Randolfs, Paytons, Washington, Henry, Jefferson, etc. Yet it's not boring, talking heads. My ds enjoyed it from the age of 7 or so, and he hates talking heads. It's a good lead up to VA approving the Declaration. You can buy it from Colonial Williamsburg. I don't know the exact name for Amazon or Netflix, but it stars a young Jack Lord.

And when the kids are over 18, their social security ends. How will she be able to help them through college? Plus the dc's social security helped pay for the house and it's upkeep. Now what? Or if her dh doesn't die, instead he's laid off. Or he can't get work because he has to be at the union hall hoping for a contractor to call. Or he's disabled and keeps hoping to recover enough to work again. Or can never work steadily again. Unless an individual accepts permanent disability, he doesn't get disablity pay. Or she gets a divorce or is seperated. And xdh won't pay child support or pays barely enough for the children's expenses but nothing for her. It's nice to say that God will provide, but I think that it doesn't hurt to put yourself in a position where God has an easier time.

Since your old tile has a raised pattern, I'd do the leveler. In a few years I think you'd be unhappy with the results if you didn't.

I lived in Germany for 2 years. Their medicine in many ways is different than ours. Not worse, just different. Instead of always just prescribing pills, often times a spa is prescribed with a set regime of treatment. And the spas often specialize in certain diseases. Even though the spas offer a lot of R&R possibilities(they're vacations spots as well), the patients must still follow the doctor's instructions or they are sent home. My only personal experience in Germany was with a knee injury. Good, high tech equipment, but I'd never heard of treating knee problems with electrical(????) impulses. It worked. I only heard of one complaint while I was there, and that sounded a bit like a comedy of errors, if you could apply that term to the Germans and a health care problem. The patient was misdiagnosed with a very dangerous, highly communicable disease. Then the paper work telling the patient that he needed to report to a special spa/hospital was lost. The the police showed up. :tongue_smilie: The misdiagosis was discovered shortly afterwards. But it shows that the Germans will not accept individuals wandering around giving others dangerous and fatal diseases or not taking the medicines to kill off the diseases and thereby developing resistant strains. That is one way to both cut medical expenses AND save lives. I was also in Costa Rica for a short time. I had a couple of very brief interactions, which were positive. But while there I learned that many Americans went there for elective surgeries that were not covered by insurance. These were primarily cosmetic. But the medical standards were high. Now for US medicine. Though I have very good private insurance, I too have experienced delays. For some specialists, I've had to wait 4-5 months. To see my GP for an annual physical, I've sometimes had to wait 2 months -- and the only insurance he takes is Medicaid. But I've also had diagnosis and surgery squeezed in within a few weeks. Everyone was moving fast on that one! For emergency room care, the waits are bad. Because of the lack of health insurance for so many, ER's are often used as primary care facilities. I've discovered the best way to get fairly prompt care is to have the doctor call ahead and be meeting you or have an ambulance take you in. If the ambulance takes you in, at least you're comfortable while you're waiting. People with insurance often find that they're fighting with the insurance company as much as they're dealing with health problems. Nothing like more stress to aid in the healing process. Because of all the different coverages of insurance plans, doctors have to check on what each individual policy will cover. Patients can have the same disease but *insurance* policies dictate how it's treated or even how and where the blood is drawn. I recently had a specialist retire and plan on volunteering at a free clinic. He was thrilled to not have the insurance companies dictating treatment to him anymore. For cost, yes we have insurance -- good insurance subsidized by dh's former employer that doesn't argue too much with the doctors about treatment. Our annual out of pocket expenses are normally over $9000 per year. That includes the max out of pocket - if I use preferred providers, insurance premimums (and it's subsidized), dental and vision. If I need an out-of system specialist, add upto $2000 to that figure. It doesn't include OTC drugs, prescribed supplements, transportation costs, and misc. BTW, transportation costs can mount up, as even in this area some have to fly elsewhere for specialized treatment. Aother poster mentioned that she didn't want to pay for other peoples health care. If she has health insurance, she's paying for other's people's health care. Just as her car insurance pays for other people's accidents and house insurance pays for other people's house fires. It's what insurance is. Moreover, if she's gone to a hospital, part of her payments have gone to cover individuals who can't pay their medical bills.

No, I may have to check it out now.:D

Even though the weather has been relatively cool and comfortable around here, dehydration is a real possbility. And it's not something to mess around with. I'd go to ER now.