My 10yods and now I are sensitive to band-aids. (The box says the packaging contains latex, nothing about the band-aids. And we have no probs around balloons or a swim cap w/ latex.) What is it? I mean I take off the band-aid and my skin hurts more than the original sore. I switch the band-aid spot, wear it there for a couple hours and bam, there is is again. Anyone find band-aids that don't do this or have a rec?

Here we are end of July finishing up our IOWA testing. I wouldn't rec waiting this long. :) Anyhoo... BJU wants us to return the test materials insured. If they don't arrive we pay... yet no place does it tell me the cost or value of the materials. Anyone return materials able to tell me the insurance value? (Yup, I can call BJU tomorrow, but I like you guys! ) :) Thanks

My 10yo ds plays piano and has started to take casual guitar lessons. (man at church, get together when they can...) Was wondering what he could do on his own. Anyone have websites, library resources or youtube videos they'd rec?

Everyone is just giving adivce - none of it medical. No one is held liable! :) Sat/ Sun armpit hair follice got infected and now the infection has grown. I have history of good health and no previous infections. Redness size of dime. Knot underneath size of quarter. (So infection is not just superficial) ALMOST ready to go to Dr, but wanted to give it one more day. Suggestions? No streaking. Hurts! No fever. Open wound has healed. Started taking Ibuprofen & doing hot comporesses yesterday. Started VIT C today. Any other things I can try? Would cabbage compress possibly help?

We jumped in and stripped our floors this weekend and now are trying to decide what color to go w/. They are wide 2+" boards, probably red oak. We love the look of the stripped boards but think just applying a polyurethane on it won't keep it looking the same. So what color is your hardwood floor and what do you think of it? (A dark (black) color is not an option for us.)

Lisa, looks gorgeous! Ugh, this is not really something we want to do. We've done SO many projects, but this one is so much dust! B/c it's only a dining room and hall it's $$/ft sq. b/c there is a minimum charge. And so once you've done the floors how do you keep them looking nice????

We have a hard wood (oak) floor that I runined by cleaning it w/ soap & water :(. (My question isn't about cleaning hardwood floors, but if you want to chime in w/ that advice please do. Seems one place says use Murphy's Oil, another says don't one says X another says Y) Well, we're thinking about moving and even if we don't move we're curently still pretty hard on the floors w/ kids and pets. So, any low cost / low mess/ low time committment self-help I can provide to the floor? Some spots are showing bare wood. Can I go in there w/ a stained polyurethane or would I have to strip the whole floor? Any advice? Thanks!

Cindy, can you explain what this means, please? Thanks!

We have not purchased this way but have done a lot of research on it. We've been to auction a couple times, bidding once. The house that we're currently looking at was similar to yours - short sale (someone w/ a lower offer than ours got the contract). 4 months later house went to auction (contract wasn't honored). So we're waiting for it to come back on the MLS for another chance. As someone mentioned - attend the auction ahead of time. Does your state have a redemption period? Here they require 10% cash and rest of the pymt w/i a short period of time. Does it have any other liens on it? You had mentioned the bank coming back. I don't think this can happen. The redemption period applies to the owners, not the bank. We were told we'd have issues getting insurance on the house. You pay for it before the deed is avail. Insurance company won't cover it until you have the deed. So we couldn't figure out what happens during that window of time? So I'd say figure out the insurance question. For us the sheriff sets the minimum bid and the estimated value. It doesn't correlate to what is actually owed. Google your county recorders office - this will typically show what loans were taken out on it - you could roughly estimate the outstanding balance if you can't get this info elsewhere. You could also google your county clerk of courts - this will start you on a title search and may show if there are other liens. Also for some reason here 99.9% of the houses around here go back to the bank. Bids are being placed higher than the outstanding loan and value of the house. Not clear on why exactly this is. What I wonder is if the bank gets the property it becomes a write off or some program covers their losses or something. I also wonder if Fannie Mae holds the loan the bank may be required to purchase the house at auction and then the proerty gets assigned to Fannie Mae. I don't think that you can know this ahead of time but not sure. We did not bid on the house we were interested in b/c we decided no to take the risks of another lien, tie up the $, deal w/ the system, and know that we couldn't really seem to beat the system. I've been researching properties, short sales, and foreclosures for 9 months now. None of it makes sense. There is no formula "if this - then this." Hoping in the end we get the house we've been waiting for what seems like forever. Best of luck to you.

This isn't just a "it smells sorta smokey" This is like it's drawing air through the chimney, but why? Any HVAC or chimney sweep hubbies out there?

City Museum said if we come in Oct we'd, "Have the whole place to ourselves." :)

We're back! It was great! We found St Louis to be very family friendly, easy to get around, cheap (meaning lots of free things to do and see), and a place we'd like to go back too. Anyone that lives in St Lou want to trade houses w/ Cincinnati sometime? :) We: * Stayed at Best Western off I55, just South of the loop - maybe exit 193? About 15-20 minutes into town. $85. Clean. Breakfast. Indoor pool. We really like Drury, but felt it was too $$ * Wed evening went to Laumiere Sculpture garden (needed a place to stretch after 9 hours) had BBQ someplace/ * Thurs - parked at Turtle Park for FREE (YEAH, thanks for the great advice!) We spent quite a bit of time at Turtle Park. That was cool all by itself. Spent the rest of the day at the zoo. Got the all inclusive Safari Pass for $5 each (we are Cincy Zoo Members). 7yo ds LOVED petting the stingrays while 10yo ds loved riding the train (that cracked me up that he kept wanting to do that!). If we went again we'd do the Sea Lions. Dinner we walked across the bridge, ate great SUPER thin pizza at Imos while we waited for the rush hour traffic to disapper. * Fri - Arch (we purchased tickets on line ahead of time. For our family this only saved us $3. Parking would have been $6, but there is a $3 on-line service fee. So... if you're not totally sure when you want to go, this may not be worth it.) We took the free 10:30am ranger led walking tour. Was history of the area and St Louis. My VERY history buff hubby liked the tour. Rest of us tolerated it. I would not recommend it. Read somewhere something about a free ranger led bike tour. That sounds interesting. * We walked from the arch to Citypark. Beautiful walk. Passed some neat fountains. Neat park. * Continued our walk to City Museum. (Total one way is about 1.5 miles). City Museum was by far the absolute highlight of our entire trip!!!! Guy who designed City Museum is the same guy that designed Turtle Park. City Museum is $$$, but I think it's a must see. There is no other place in the world like it! We were there at 2pm. It was pretty packed and I was concered I was going to loose a child. Left for dinner at 6pm. Back by 7pm and it was almost deserted. Stayed until about 9pm. Kids and adults alike loved it. WEAR PANTS!!!! City Museum is an old shoe warehouse that has added lots of welded items, recycled materials and great artistry to make an amazing climbing adventure. HUGE! They have the roof which the kids liked, but not sure I'd do again. Also have a HUGE outdoor part included in the general admission. While there is plenty inside, I'd suggest doing this on a nice day to enjoy the great outdoor elements. * 10:29pm - Ted Drewes Frozen Custard (closes at 10:30pm.) After getting lost due to my poor navigating and taking us ALL the way across town in the POURING rain. While it was good, not as good as Kopps in WI. Even though you might be a chocolate fan, I would suggest against the chocolate custard. The vanilla is better. They just take the vanilla and add Hershey Syrup. while I love Hershey's Syrup, it just runied the tasted of the custard. * Sat - Brewery tour (have Clydsdale Photo ops first Sat of the month) and Soulard market where we picked up some fruit, vegs and cheese for lunch on the go. Soulard Market has a very interesting history. Look it up before you go.

We've had this prob for a few years, but now we're thinking of selling so need to REALLY figure this out.... Do YOU have any ideas? Your SPOUSE have any ideas? 1950s ranch house. Fireplace w/ woodburning insert. Chimmeny w/ cap. Hardly use A/C, but when we do there is a STRONG smoke/ chimmeny smell. No recent fires. Ashes removed. Fireplace & chimmeny professionally cleaned in past w/ issue continuing. No issue when it's the heat, just the A/C. Someone PLEASE solve this! Ugh! No way would it sell like this!!!!

Can you PM me, please. I have questions about what your offer looked like. How close were you to asking price? Who paid closing costs? What % did you put down? How soon did you commit to closing? Just trying to figure out how to position ourselves well for a possible home purchase. Thanks

Thanks. So much great info! If we do decide to do City Musem - how long would you plan on being there?

We opted for a buried fence. Our yard is not level and I'd read that a non-level yard will effect how well it works. Are you close enough to your neighbors that it'll go into their yard? Like ktgrok said, it depends on the dog/ breed. Certain dogs, say hounds, are prown to roaming and chasing. What kind of dog do you have?

We are looking to stop in St Louis end of May - Thurs late afternoon-Sat mid day. We were thinking: * Arch/ Zoo? * City Zoo * Botanical Garden * Something for Sat? * Other suggestions Rec on an affordable yet clean place to stay? 7 & 10yo ds How much time would you estimate at each place? Being spoiled homeschoolers we don't care for crowds. Any ideas of when/ how to avoid them at any of these spots?

Just as an FYI... my 10.5 yo son is doing BJU Science 5 w/ videos. While I can't tell you until next year how it will go w/o videos, he's not the biggest fan of the videos. I can hear him talking to the TV frequently saying, "I've already been told that like 5 times." If I can get myself motivated enough to do science w/ him I think he'll enjoy it more and get it done more quickly w/o the videos. Question is will i get around to it w/ him??????????? No advice, though.

We are looking to foster & adopt. We're looking at ages newborn to 5, so we need to be covered for all ranges. Our youngest is 7.5 so it's been a while since we had a stroller. I don't want to stock up on strollers, although I may change my mind later. Are there any strollers out there that can do all of this? * are affordable * lightweight yet rugged * can hold a newborn (hopefully their car seat too) * can hold a 4-5 year old (not their car seat :) ) Ok, if I'm asking for too much, what strollers do you recommend otherwise? thanks!

I'm sure it's different bank to bank and state to state, but when going through eviction related to foreclosure, how long does the bank give you before you have to be out of the house?

Google your county recorder's office. Sometimes you can get some info there on back taxes (I know at least on state taxes) and other interesting tid bits of personal info.....

Not magnetic. Covered w/ fingerprints. Can't get/ keep it clean. Wouldn't buy again.

Not good for the toilet either. (Doesn't make hubby happy...) We live near golf course and boys decided to sell golf balls. Needed to be washed first. Well, there was a ball left in the bucket when I dumbed the water in the toilet. Water pressure flushed it down before I could get too it.... but not all the way. UGH!

This is our co-ops current schedule: http://www.learningtreeonline.org/Schedule2012.pdf?Name=Value

I've heard bones are bad? I've heard scarping is bad b/c it leaves grooves where plaque/ tartar can more easily build up? I've heard rawhides are bad? Come to think of it, I've probably hear dogs are bad. :) Anyone care to comment, esp. those using these methods? OK, stupid question, where do I find the marrow bones. You said in the meat section. Like sitting out someplace or you ahve to ask for them or how do you do this?