Well, so it took me a couple of days! :D Our house has sold. We're slated to close in a couple of weeks, and all the inspections are done, including an FHA appraisal. There's one bit of work we still have to have done, but it's not a biggie. We also FOUND a house in Indiana, which is thrilling to me. Just finishing up inspections now, but b/c NY is SO SLOW to close, if all goes well we'll take possession of the new house a week after we close on our old one. I didn't want to post until I knew all the contingencies were out of the way. Like I said, I've been feeling very superstitious about it! We've been separated from dh for almost five months...we miss him! I can't wait to have this transition done. How's everybody else?

I prefer the second one. I tend to like warm colors, and the peony and chrysanthemum are just so beautifully rendered! Post pics if/when you do it!

Bumping this thread to say that we're (finally) moving to Lafayette in two weeks. Everything I see about the community pleases me. We're very excited to get there and get settled. Hopefully I'll see some WTM'ers around! It seems like there are at least three in the area.

Ditto. It's driving me crazy. I'm waiting for BA, and planning to start Athenaze instead of waiting for Galore Park Greek or GfC 2. We would also really, really like to finish Ellen McHenry's Botany curriculum.

OH MY GOSH. We were at WalMart getting bubble wrap today and I saw a toy clearance aisle in a weird place, but didn't stop to look. Maybe I should go back.

Still paging through, but my issue wouldn't be the pink hair. My issue would be the fact that there's doubtless a dress code printed somewhere--quite probably in the front of a school-made student planner handed out in the fall. Why would you deliberately flout the dress code ON exam day? How is she taking the exam Monday if her hair is still pink? Either there's no policy in place, in which case the school was wrong, or this was a pretty stoopid time to do a makeover. So, I guess the real question is: Do you think mom will back you up next year if you make stepdd do work she doesn't want to do?

We're in the midst of a move and it's messing up all my homeschool ordering...plus some of this we've already started. We've always been offset by about half a year with Language Arts, and we're headed that way with math, too. Language Arts: Michael Clay Thompson, Voyage and Level 4, Time Trilogy, Jefferson's Truths, further assigned reading (I'll post a list when it's finished) Math: AoPS Pre-Algebra Latin: BBoLL2 (cont.) Greek: Review Greek for Children, begin Athenaze Spelling Workout Copybook History: Oxford World in Medieval Times (...and lots of civics, since it's an election year. Last time we went door to door and worked at the local headquarters for our candidate. Whatever your political leanings, I highly recommend it. My kids were fascinated by stuff they'd have found stultifying if it had been part of a formal curriculum.) Science: Earth Science, though I'm still torn on curriculum. Classiquest if it comes out? We'll also continue with Lego Robotics. We've not done much of The Snake and Fox, so we'll continue that. Religion: Comparative world religions. This year, we've done a fair amount of Bible study and some Torah. Next, we'll do some Qur'an, more on Buddhism. And the Middle Ages year is when we really get going with UU History. Part of me would LOVE to get back to Living Math, but I'm just not sure we can fit it in. If the library system in our new town is up to snuff, maybe.

LOVE The Ordinary Princess. Books my dd has loved lately include Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu, and Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis. She'll probably read Neversink next.

WOW! I love that! I have been nervous about ours to the point of superstition, but hopefully I will be back tomorrow...

Yup. It's the scene at the beginning, the school performance of Peter Pan.

My dh is a journalist, so the one story I never have is when he's coming home/if he's really done working...which, most days, is the piece of news I'm most interested in!

Do you have a Burger King? They have Morningstar Farms veggie burgers.

She is, in a word, adorbz. That's the first thing I've read that made me wish I was going this year. (Although, I confess, I am more about the Chipotle than the Chik Fil A.)

Sent a letter:

kokotg, I have got my fingers so crossed over here...I can't tell you how hard I'm hoping. PrincessMommy, my parents sold their home recently to the same sort of buyer. My mom said it was sort of a headache (they wanted mold inspections, though the house is in Irvine, which is basically desert), but they *did* buy it, and the reduction in stress once it's SOLD is worth it, she says. House selling wishes for everyone here!

Thanks, Barbara. You're absolutely right. Trig, no Calc.

My whole house is packed...that's part of my problem. I have a dearth of craft materials. I looked at cardstock today, but think it's not sturdy enough. The Michael's offered to cut down matting material for me, though. Or, I found these: http://www.mybinding.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/60437/GBC-ECO-Friendly-Brown-Recycled-Paper-Covers-20pk-25824

So sorry! I just saw this. Somebody posted the link to the Story of Science workbook already. OUP is Oxford University Press. I use their World in Ancient Times series with my logic-stage student. The Story of Life...wow, did I type that? I meant The Way Life Works. It is a science book by Mahlon Hoagland.

We have a showing on Tuesday, and another Open House next Saturday. I emailed the realtor last night to discuss price drops, and enumerated in my email how many and which houses were for sale in our school district, in our price range (there are four, including ours, listed between 100-120K). She just emailed me a link to search results for the local realtor's association listing *in the village*, which is not the sum total of the school district. She included all listings, which meant several were 30-40K above our price range. Sigh. Why are we having two conversations? Why is she sending me things I told her I already know? How many of these emails do I have to be gracious about before I can elicit the information I actually need? ETA that the site she sent me the information from is the same one I used. It's publicly accessible, see...sigh. Never mind. I'm just really tired of people who only moderately know how to use the internets assuming I do not know how to use them when I'm telling them that I'm using them...

The ACT has Calculus and Trig on it. The SAT only goes through Geometry. Although there are only four passages on the reading section, I find them excruciating. I think the SAT's passage-based reading questions are often more straightforward. I joke that the ACT is Windows, and the SAT is Mac. If you were going to do the SAT early, I'd do prep. The questions, as well as the skills tested, are very formulaic. You know what you're getting, whether the questions are in order of difficulty on that particular section, etc.. You could get Kaplan books and go through them yourself, or you might have a program in your area. (I really do love our test prep program. I work for a national tutoring franchise. Am happy to drop the name to anyone who wants to pm me.) Homeschooled students who've had grammar all along and have practice writing five-paragraph argumentative essays should be fine on the Grammar once they're familiar with the question types, and once they learn to identify the error BEFORE looking at the answer choices. There may be a gap on the vocabulary (words like abstemious, garrulous, phlegmatic, etc.) and on some of the math skills. That's important to keep in mind when you look at the scores. I'm rambling, but there's an impatient kid behind me waiting to read Aristotle Leads the Way together. :D Will be back.

I tutor for the SAT, and there's an uptick in families sending 7th/8th graders for tutoring. The advantages appear to be: 1. Some summer-type gifted programs accept SAT scores as a measure of eligibility. 2. It gives a student plenty of time to get comfortable with the test before it's time to think about things like National Merit Scholarships. 3. It gives parents a chance to identify and fill in gaps, and to set expectations AFA what their student should be learning in HS in order to do well on the SAT.

I have lucked into a Circa punch, and picked up some Arc rings at Staples tonight. The only thing I don't love is the poly covers. We buy recycled paper, and for my own writing, I usually buy those brown, sugarcane-based notebooks Staples sells. I would love to find an equivalent that would work for disc-based notebook system covers. Barring that, I'd at least like a good hack so I don't have to order pricey covers. Any ideas? Websites I should check out?

So, yesterday morning at ten, I sent the following email to the realtor: She called me an hour or so later *freaking out*. I mean, interrupting me to the point that I had to say, "Listen. LISTEN! I am not comfortable with the way you are interrupting me. I need you to listen until I'm finished speaking." :eek: I think her default WRT criticism is defensiveness. And I am thoroughly irritated, b/c she asked me again if I was sure I was on the right website. And started to tell me that she put it in, and if it wasn't showing, there was nothing she could do. Um, no. I told her she needed to log out of the system and go look at it as a customer. I cleared my cookies and cache (my idea). Still not showing. "So, I said, "It is clearly (the other web host's) problem. They need to fix it. One of us needs to call them." I think that may be what finally settled it down, b/c I'm sure there was very little doubt in her mind that I'd do it. So, she called them, and they fixed it, but at this point I'll be sitting down with the broker if there's any further problem. I've had enough. Act like a professional if you want to keep my business. And quit killing kittens.

Well, w00t! I'm glad that's going well! And the kitchen looks amazing.

PrincessMommy, thank you! hkchik, it's so good to hear about someone getting a house under contract. I am going to hold on to the hope your success makes me feel! kokotg, *I* want the kitchen you're describing! I'm drooling! Realized yesterday that our local realtors' association listing had a blank field for "garage". I'm SO annoyed. The realtor's website is correct...but a lot of transfers would go to the association first. The realtor emailed and said, "If this is stress b/c you haven't had much activity this week, it's a holiday" and "I guarantee you haven't lost a sale over this", both of which felt condescending and struck me as a lot of horse hocky. I told her flat out that I'd never have called on a house with no garage listed (there's no photo of one in the listing). It hasn't been 24 hours yet, but the listing isn't fixed. She's got until tomorrow morning for the changes to post, then I'm most likely going to phone the broker.