This is not for our Christmas letter! DH and I have a little disagreement about the wording for this sentence. Input, please!

After a few minutes of Google research, I treated as got rid of a vehicle and bought a different one. That's sort of the way the DMV treated it with new plates and such. Turbo Tax made it all pretty painless. Thanks for the input!

We deducted mileage for my husband's truck that he uses to drive between his offices. Last March he wrecked the truck and the insurance company totaled it. He decided to buy back the truck from the insurance company and have it fixed. In July(?) it was finally fixed and re-registered with the DMV. It now sports a different license plate number than the pre-totaled truck did. Question: Can/should we continue saying that we're using the same vehicle that we always used, or should we say that we discarded '96 Chevy in 2012 and traded it in for another '96 Chevy? I don't think it's going to make a difference in tax total, but I'm not sure which way to go. I'm ready to flip a coin. We use Turbo Tax and this is the only thing that really has me stumped this year.

I'm right-handed. My husband is right-handed. My first four children are right-handed. I'm pretty sure my 4yo and 2yo are left-handed. I'm trying to remain calm, but I'm concerned I'm going to ruin them. We've just been going with the flow, but I have no clue how to "teach" handwriting. My 4yo seems to be doing ok making his general letter shapes, but I'm not sure if it is best to just let him figure it out on his own or try to teach him. He eats with both hands and is fairly ambidextrous with most tasks, however he typically draws and colors with his left hand. I gave my 2yo a pair of (right-handed) safety scissors and I was trying to guide her right hand to use them. She was cutting the paper, but when I turned around she switched to using them upside down with her left hand contorted around. Do I "need" to get left-handed implements, or just let them figure out life in a world made for right-handers? I'm completely open to doing whatever, but I'd like to start out right...er...correctly. :mellow:

If you don't necessarily need the extra space, could you keep the refrigerator? Find a way to prop the door a few inches (to keep it from getting musty inside), secure it (so it isn't a temptation/danger for little ones to play in) and then unplug it. The few times a year that you need it, it is available for you. Just a thought. I have no idea on the cleaning of the grooves.

Bumping for the day crowd :) I hope someone knows where it is. I've seen it all over, but now that I want it...

Where one says to the other that it doesn't believe in dog. TIA!

My aunt did my nails for my wedding 20+ years ago. I remember it was a clear gel (?) that was put on my nails and then buffed to a shine. There may have been more steps, but that's all I remember. I think she did it on Friday before my Sunday wedding and it looked great. Over the next month or so, whenever a nail got scratched or as my nails grew out, I just buffed them to return the shine. Eventually it wore off, but I thought it was fabulous. It wasn't as glossy as a clear polish would have been, but I loved the subtle clear shine. My aunt died over a decade ago, and I've tried looking for the product again, but I have no clue what I'm looking for. Any ideas?

I need to design some advertising. All I have at my disposal is the www, Open Office, and a paint program. I need a graphic of a laptop (or other simple, recognizable computer) that I can customize what appears on the screen. So, the screen would be directly facing the viewer, but the keyboard, etc would be slanted for perspective. I will also have text below the computer, but the computer screen area needs to be 6-8" wide without pixelation. "Cartoon" or drawing is find, but I would love to find a photo. Can anyone find something that I can use. This will be for a local non-profit. No one outside of a 25 mile radius of me will see it, but I have this idea and I want it to look nice! TIA! :001_smile:

Link?

We do have 2 televisions in the house, but they are only good for watching videos since we canceled DISH several years ago. We live in a lovely valley, but the mountain ranges we adore looking at are blocking any TV signals from the big city.

We had Medishare for a few years and the only thing we used it for was 2 normal pregnancies/deliveries. One thing that bothered me was that they called me during my pregnancy and started asking all sorts of question that I felt were none of their business. When I pressed them as to why they were asking the questions, they told me that they wanted to see if I qualified for govt. help. I didn't, and told them so, but it was unnerving to me that they were trying to pass expenses off to the government. If a person wants to sign up for govt. help, they will, but I was upset that I felt like I was being coerced into signing up. Another thing that bothered me was that we ended up paying more than we were supposed to for a normal pregnancy per their guidelines. I added it all up, and they didn't pay more than the maximum, and I wasn't able to get a straight answer from Medishare. It wasn't *that* much more, so we just paid it. We switched from Medishare to Samaritan ministries after the baby was born. We haven't had to use it yet, so I don't know anything else about it. My husband is a MD, so he handles a lot of stuff for us. The biggest thing we've had to deal with is a $200 x-ray bill for one of our sons, which was under the minimum required ($300?) to submit to Samaritan.

We don't have any TV service so I was hoping to be able to see them online. It looks like I could watch online from NBC.com if I already had access to NBC by DISH, etc. Is there any other website I could watch them from besides NBC? I am in the US, so I know certain sites could have a blocked feed. Any ideas? I don't care if it is live or not, we just enjoy seeing the competition.

Do a search on the county court website. Warning: you may or may not be able to make heads or tails out of what is written there, and it isn't always correct and/or up to date. My husband was a defendant in a malpractice case. It went to trial and he was found not negligent. From the time of the alleged incident to the time that the final verdict was posted it was 3 1/2 years. Even though I knew a lot about the case, I still had a hard time deciphering everything on the court website.

Thank you! That is exactly what I was looking for! Unfortunately (?) I already made my puppets this afternoon before I saw this. A lot of trial and a lot of error, but I have puppets that kids and husband all approve of for VBS. Thanks so much for finding this. It was so much fun making the puppets and this will help for next time!

Thanks! :001_smile: Those are cute, but I'm really looking for something with a mouth that opens and closes. I've come up with a prototype on my own, so now I need to pull it off with real fabric.

Our VBS starts on Monday. Two weeks ago I became the person "in charge" (long story) and I'm trying to work with the program that is available. I thought we had puppets available to borrow, but we don't. I found this out one hour ago. There is no budget to buy any. The good news: I have a sewing machine and I know how to use it. I also have tons of fabric, stuffing, felt, yarn, etc. We need 4 people-like hand puppets with mouths that open and close. They definitely don't need to look professional (i.e. wrinkles are ok, square heads are ok, they just have to be recognizable as a person) A six-inch diameter head would be plenty big for what we need. Can anyone give me some quick and dirty tips on pulling this off? A free pattern would be wonderful. Youtube videos, personal experiences, anything would help. :bigear: Thank you!

I might call and ask if we decide to take the train. We've had horrible problems booking on some airlines because they've shaved the "II" off the end, then it looked like we'd booked twice, so they canceled one.

I had a very hard time finding something for DD last year to play in our creek. I ended up getting a 2-toned blue rash guard and blue flowered trunks from the boys section in Walmart. They were a lot cheaper than comparable stuff in the girls section, but with better coverage.

I'm contemplating a train trip this summer. Our oldest adult son will be left at the destination. DH might possibly fly to the destination and ride the train home with us. Oldest son and DH share the same name. Can I just book round trip tickets and have DH and son share the same ticket? I could get them each a 1-way, but it would be less complicated if I could just do round trips. Any experience with this?

Sometimes God puts certain people in certain places to teach certain people much needed lessons. Thank you for allowing God to use you today. :)

We rescued a dog (approx. 2-3 years old) from the pound about a year ago. We have no idea what kind he is, but he's BIG (~90 lbs)! I've been reading up on different breeds and I think he might have Pyrenees in him, but he is a beautiful short-haired dog. He runs like a horse. He is VERY high energy, but a gentle giant. He has full access to our 50+acre ranch, but likes to hang out on our front porch with our other dog. If a ground squirrel chirps, they are both off chasing it, but for the most part they play in the yard with the kids. At night we crate both the dogs in the utility room or garage. Sunday night the dog had diarrhea in his crate. He was acting fine, so we just washed it out. Monday night was fine. Tuesday night was fine. Wednesday he was limping, and we pulled some foxtails out from between his toes [i don't think this has anything to do with other issues, but I'm throwing it in]. Wednesday night he had diarrhea again in his crate. Thursday he seemed fine. Today he just seemed to be dragging. He laid on his side on the porch. He wagged his tail a bit when I talked to him, but didn't bother getting up or raising his head. I went inside to grab my phone and when I came back out he had moved to the shade of the lilac bush in the yard. At that point I noticed his food dish was still about 1/2 full. I went over to pet him and noticed a huge tick on his chest. He wouldn't let me get it (I'm kind of squeamish about pulling those off, so I didn't try too hard), so I just waited for DH to come home for lunch. DH brought someone home with him to look at a project. Usually dog would be right there to meet and greet with a wagging tail. Instead he just laid down in the driveway. DH pulled the tick off. Within the next hour he chased 3 different squirrels. Then he finished off his breakfast. There's no reason to take him to the vet while he seems to be acting fine now, but I want to know what was/is wrong with him. Would the tick cause the lethargy and/or the diarrhea? Would he turn around so quickly? Am I dealing with two distinct issues? For the past 6 months, I've just been feeding the dogs the cheap dry food from Walmart. Don't hate me, but things got tight and I'd rather cut corners on the food for the dogs rather than the humans. I'm about ready to go buy him a bag of the good stuff to see if that curbs the intestinal issues. Any other thoughts?

I like Lydia. It was my first choice name for one of the pregnancies, but DH didn't want it. DH really wanted Rachel or Rebekah, but I knew people with those names, and didn't want them for my baby. Other names we considered/chose: Miriam, Abigail, Elisabeth (I like the KJV spelling, but most everyone else spells it wrong, lol), Susanna/h, Hannah, Esther, and Leah.

About 5 years ago some free-range neighborhood dogs made a meal out of 2 of our chickens (that were penned up), and animal control made the owners pay to get their dogs back and we got $10/ea for the chickens. I was more sad about the neglectful neighbors (they'd temporarily moved and left the dogs...they were starving) than the chickens. We've had hawks, raccoons, opossums, etc. eat our chickens. It's just the way it goes. Give her a $25 gift certificate to the feed store/farm supply.

I watched them sleep for a few minutes last night and it's the first page I brought up this morning. It's not light here yet, and I love hearing all the other birds twittering, singing, and honking in the background there!