I don't have a laptop, but I don't even go to the grocery store without my iPad! :D NO WAY would I go on vacation without it! :lol:

Right this very minute.

We have Safeco coverage on our autos and home, but have never had to file a claim. We have used the same independent insurance agent since 2000 and he's the one who recommended that we switch from Hartford to Safeco.

I am completely :lol: because everyone who has ever done any sort of work on our house or property would be shocked to talk to and/or see my husband. We built our house in 2000 and I would bet money that the same people we employed then, our landscaper, a/c guy, kitchen appliance guy, washer/dryer guy, etc. wouldn't even try to talk to my dh; they all already know that he doesn't have any sort of household knowledge. He did have a new tree planted last month; one of ours died and we are required to have two, so before we received a fine from the city he had it taken care of. It's dying. ETA: Dh also has a HUGE life insurance policy; if you asked him about it he wouldn't even know it existed, let alone the company that provides it or what the premium is. Or when it expires. Or who our insurance (home, auto, life, etc.) is covered by. Or how many bank accounts we have, how many college loans our kids have, how much those loans are, how many credit cards we have or what we owe. Must be nice. ETA2: And again...the man doesn't know how much money he makes.

:grouphug: :iagree: And I don't like it. But he does NOT want to take on any of that stuff, so it's left to me. If he isn't at work he is playing with the kids. Period. I don't really *want* to play with the kids, I have enough to do with them all day long, but it sure would be nice to not have to deal with all of the household stuff as well!. :glare:

Same here. My husband doesn't even know how much money he makes. Seriously. Or how much our mortgage is. I could go on (and on) but you get the idea!

I voted 8:00, but that's not really accurate. My alarm goes off every day at 7:30. I try to get out of bed and start the day at that time; sometimes I fall asleep, sometimes I am kept in bed with a cup of tEa. I probably spelled that wrong. :D The kids don't wake up until dh wakes them up when he leaves the house, usually around 9-9:30. I hate it. But not enough, YET, to change it. I'm going to try to switch a lot of stuff around so that the kids and I are up by 8:30 at least, I can't see how we could possibly wake any earlier. I'm all :bigear: to learn from other people with late-rising kids!

When we were doing school at the kitchen table, it was GREAT for schlepping from place to place...there was room for every sort of tool, files, notebooks, binders, etc. Now that we have a dedicated school area it isn't necessary at all. I do have to admit, I love all of the little pockets and spaces to hang files, but I'm a bit of a filing geek. I know NOBODY else here is. :auto:

Does he have ADHD? I do and am the same way as your ds unless I have taken Adderall. Obviously, as an adult, I have a *little* more self-control (not a lot sometimes!), but it often feels like I physically CANNOT stop myself from speaking. When I am able to control it, it is physically painful to me. I hate how it feels, how I know it makes the people around me react, but it is so incredibly difficult to just...ZIP IT! I don't have any advice, just wanted to offer a perspective of someone who has the same issues. Often I end up on various boards and forums so that I can "talk" without interrupting whatever is going on in my house!

Well, we actually went the first week it was held, in early June, so it couldn't have been you even if you had gone! :D

Very cool! I met someone at Freshman Orientation who fits that description, I wonder if it was you!

:iagree: except for the socially conservative part. :D I was going to suggest Frisco, Texas, about four hours north of Austin. It fits all of your criteria.

oops, double post.

:bigear::lurk5:

I started playing with it then unexpectedly had to leave town/my computer and my time ran out for the free trial. :sad: I've heard SO MANY good things about OLLY; I'm hoping my email to the developer lands on a kind ear so that I can try it again. It looks really, really great!

:iagree: BRILLIANT! :lol:

:iagree: My kids are in a lot of activities so I spend a LOT of time driving and then waiting, I make almost all meals from scratch, which is a chunk of time every day (everything needs to be vegetarian, dairy-free, and gluten-free, so not much available off the shelves that is both cheap + easy), and just the general upkeep of our house takes a couple hours a day in itself. I wish I knew the secret! :confused:

I disabled it on my iPad the day I bought it.

I wish that my mom had let me take pills, I had SEVERE periods. My first was at age 11 and until I graduated high school I missed almost a week of school every month because I literally could not walk without doubling over and/or vomiting. I must have passed a gallon of blood each cycle, not even joking. I would never want my daughter to go through that, it still baffles me that my mom thought that was preferable to a once-a-day-pill that could solve most, if not all, of those issues.

I just saw this response...did you figure out how to make a torch? If not, I will ask, I know they will have an answer for you! :)

Although, FWIW, one of my daughters does wear corsets and thigh-high stockings on the regular. The stocking are always black, usually fishnet and/or striped, and the corsets are usually under some sort of structured denim jacket or shirt. But I don't think that sort of outfit is what the OP was asking about. :tongue_smilie:

:D :iagree: :lol:

:bigear::bigear::bigear: I will also have 2nd & 5th graders and am undecided about history; we did finish SOTW 1-3 and have listened to the CDs for SOTW 4 but haven't actually gone deeper than that. I loved HO for my older kids, and would really like to use Modern Times Level 1 for the younger ones, but am thinking the 7yo will not really "get" a lot of it and the 10yo (11 in August) is an average reader but HATES to read, so most of it would be time-intensive on my part. So, anyway, no help here, but lots of commiseration while you (we) decide! :D

I read that part of her "contract" as being the Duchess is that she is REQUIRED to wear stockings/pantyhose to all formal appearances. Personally, that might be deal-breaker for me. :tongue_smilie: The only people I have seen wear stocking in the last...decade? Two? Are my MIL, my mom, and my grandma.

Dh and kids say that it's not possible on the pocket edition.