Maybe he really wanted to attend an Ivy and figured by applying to all of them, he might be lucky and be accepted at one or two. I'm sure he never dreamed he'd be accepted to all 8.

My teens favorite game is Telestrations...it is soooo hilarious and fun. We have laughed until we cried. We splurged on the 12 player party pack.

Thank you for the replies. I am taking notes. This is my husband's family and so I am treading even more carefully. My husband has been out to see them and has been pretty well received by the kids.

I am changing a couple details of this story to protect my privacy as this story was well publicized in some states. My sister in law was killed and my brother in law was permantly disabled. I have 3 neices that are in the care of other family members. Prior to the accident, we had little to no contact with my neices. There was no bad blood exactly but my bil, sil and neices lived their lives in a way that just led us to not see them very often (nothing huge, just different values, interests and they live far away). I retrospect, I wish I had made more of an effort to be a better aunt to the girls. Sometimes I sent cards, more often I didn't. I have seen or spoken to them 3 times in their entire lives. Of course I am sorry now but there is nothing to be done about the past. My question is the future. I want to be more involved but now I don't know how without seeming fake. Like where have I been all these years? The girls are all teens and very smart. They will have needs, financial and emotional, in the years ahead and I would like to be there for them. How would you handle it?

I went to work and when I came back, my thread had exploded and is now closed so I am updating here. I definately don't want to resurrect the old topic. I just wanted to say that between the links, references to scripture and everyone's opinions, I will be doing a lot of reading and praying over the next few days. Even the argumentative post really helped me out. I promise you, I never intended for things to get so heated. This is the only online MB I frequent and all of my "real" friends are very mild about religion. I don't want the fate of my soul to rest on what someone online told me but contrary to another poster's statement, I AM taking everyone's advice to heart. I would have never gotten the wealth of information from both sides in real life that I just received from everyone here. I will confess to being the most mild mannered person on earth in so many respects. I never thought (please, please don't respond to this statement) that there way one way to heaven, one way to God. I have never doubted the salvation of other Christian religions vs the salvation of being Catholic. The one idea that really resonated with me was the fact that "I" am not really important in the scheme of things. The "what can I do for God, not what God can do for me" idea. Also that feelings are just feelings, not the end all and be all. Thank you all. I don't know what is right for me yet, but you all have shown me how I can begin to find out.

Masterdrive?

Medical condition/cancer. Maybe, maybe if she has tatoos, wears leather and is pierced all over, I would think it was a fashion statement.

Thanks everyone. While my post may have seemed more lighthearted than it really is, I do want to stress that I don't expect church to entertain me. I am not looking at a singing, dancing TV style Protestant church( not that this is wrong either, just nt my style). The church I'm looking at is simple and straight forward, but the preacher touches on things that interest me and the community is strong. I was hesitant to speak to the reasons that my current Church is leaving me cold but I will briefly. There are few families and while my kds attend CCD, it is once a month and the kids do not interact with each much.I sit in and most of the kids do not want to be there (these are teens in Confirmation). After Mass, everyone dashes off. There is no mingling, no neighborliness, nothing. It as been many years and we know almst no one at our church, despite volunteering, attending fish frys during Lent, etc. And most important, Mass just doesn't speak to me right now. Trust me when I say that this is a ME problem, I know that I get out of it what I put into it. I'm Catholic enough to not criticize a priest, let me just say that between his homily and my heart, we aren't connecting. I have prayed, I have watched DVDs, have read books and searched my soul as to why Mass hasn't fulfilled my needs. I have debated whether it was the devil, whether I was in dry spell, being tested. This is deeper than it appears but for right now, I feel a change might help me figure out what is going on with me.

The title says it all. I am Catholic and lately I haven't been getting much from Mass. I have been Catholic my entire life and I doubt I would ever convert. That said, there are things that have bothered me about my local church. I have some good friends who go to a non dem. Protestant church that has a wonderful youth group, lots of families and a very intense and motivational preacher. My current church lacks all of the above. I guess I'd like to see how it is to go this church and experience something different. Is this terrible? Is this okay? I am feeling like I'm betraying my current religion? Thoughts?

I run to Pandora and my stations are Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Rihanna. Oddly enough, I don't listen to their music any other time.

Meh, that is only true in some areas. Go to Manitou, lol.

Yes! I don't care about celebs at all and hate reality TV. But I see this as a historical event (birth of a future monarch) and I admit that I find Willam and Catherine very interesting. That said, I'm not overly excited or counting down the days. But I will smile when they announce the birth.

I love browsing Ikea catalogs. Edited because my ipad hates me

Spaghetti, enchiladas ( pioneer woman's are great), fajitas ( i grill flank steak, slice against the grain...so tender), roasts (either roast chicken or a beef roast) with baby potatoes, mushrooms and pearl onions and stuffed manicotti.

I love Lauren Brooks, she has DVDs out but offers tons of free youtube videos on her blog. Just google her. I love kettlebells, i use a 25 and 35 pound bell.

I agree just short and sweet. If it is a family rule, and applies to all, I don't think this is offensive at all. I would understand.

I retract the word "never" but unless you download on a site like Torrent, such porn malware is very rare on an Apple product like a Mac computer. On an ipad? Rarer still. But I guess it is in the realm of possibility.

Someone has been looking at porn on your ipad. With porn, you clear history, erase everything and it will still pop back up. And porn never just pops up on a virgin computer. Never.

Very nice!

Roast chicken with mashed potatoes and steamed veg. Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and steamed veg. Pork chops with sweet potatoes and baked apples. Salmon, asparagus and white rice. Chicken spaghetti (if he can do cheese, not sure). Simple quiches.

Perhaps "teen" stores such as Aero, American Eagle , Hollister or Delias?

Ask for a forward of the email and start celebrating! Woo hoo.

Yes, I think that is unreasonable and a bit unfair to the kids. That is 4-6 hours a day to entertain themselves. What will they do, watch Tv :( My kids would not read or play quietly for that many hours a day. Maybe you could hire a local teen to be a Mommy's helper on those days.

I have some baseball pants and cleats that no longer my fit my son. I was going to bring them to baseball practice and see if anyone wanted them (free, of course). Then I wondered if that was weird or may be looked at oddly. Thoughts?

2nd Jay Robb egg pp. you can order a sampler of individual packets to test the flavors. My only complaint is the price, Jay Robb is spendy, but most non whey PPs are expensive. Personally, i cannot stomach any pea protein but ymmv.