I agree with EVERYTHING Jennifer said, especially taking all offers of help. I was on complete bed rest from 17 to 37 weeks with my twins, due to cervical funneling. I will also say that you should investigate whatever kind of activity/PT your doctor feels would be appropriate for you. I floated in a therapy pool and did PT exercises lying down, and my body still atrophied to the point that my daily life was physically difficult for a couple of years after my (6 1/2 lbs each, full term) boys were born. The education part is fairly easily modified, but the physical/emotional part of it needs to be addressed and supported.

That's my plan, too! Well, except for the mani, but a pedi would be nice. I used to be a software engineer. My skills are already woefully out of date. I'm in a three year program right now to be a community herbalist. I plan to do that part time while my kids are still young, though.

Call your local firehouse. (On their business line.)

At 5'0", Old Navy pants, even the "short" are at least 6" too long for me. (And, also, Dear Old Navy - Women are NOT shaped like egg cups or Jimmy Neutron characters. The end.) Bass is my favorite for jeans, or the LL Bean outlet near me.

:iagree: Sending a picture of yourself (assuming it's an appropriate picture) to someone you know in real life is no big deal. Sneaking around is.

Baked potatoes, chili... potato latkes and a caesar salad (alas, I usually end up less "comfort"able because I over-serve myself)... chowdahs. ok, now I'm hungry!

I have a BlackBerry Storm and love it. Since we switched ISPs earlier this year, I decided to just go with Gmail and there's a gmail app. My BB calendar syncs with my Google calendar, yadda, yadda. It's awesome. I can't comment on the Sprint plan. We have Verizon and share 1200 minutes, unlimited data, unlimited calling to other Verizon cells phones and no charge for calls to people on our "favorites" list, so we essentially use minutes for random business calls. Another feature: TetherBerry. It's an app from Crackberry and lets you use your phone as a wireless modem for your laptop (for instance, if you are vacationing in the Maine woods and realize your buying club food order is due) without using the tethering plan from your provider (which is $15/month at Verizon). I would also recommend the QuickPull app from Crackberry if you go with a BB. It simulates a battery pull and can be scheduled to do it every day in the middle of the night, or whenever it's convenient for you. It keeps the phone from developing memory lag. Oh, and ETA: you can connect just about any email to your phone, or just forward to your BlackBerry wireless email account, if Sprint provides one (VZ does). Ok and one more thing (lest people start thinking I have a little "problem", lol): I don't know how the graphics for web are on the Pearl, but I know that my husband's colleagues that have it can't see the EKG and cardiac cath images they get on their Curves as well as he can on his Storm. So if web surfing is important to you, you may want to look at that.

I guess my mother (and her siblings) were way ahead of their time; they LOVED the stories/songs my grandmother would tell/sing: The Baggage Coach Ahead, The Little Match Girl... :001_huh: Thank goodness AM wasn't making dolls in the 40s. Frankly, my kids aren't really into dolls, but there is something about creative play and "harsh reality" that I'm having trouble reconciling. (And, yes, the price irony)

I feel your pain. I can talk my husband up and keep his resume/CV up to date, but I can't write my own. I feel like a big windbag. I think what you should put together is a functional resume. It will focus on your education and training in your chosen field, and lump together all of the skills gleaned from previous employment. In this case, it would be much better than a chronological resume. There are a few companies I've worked for that are now long out of business, that I would list anyway because I developed some major/unique skills there. It's not your problem that they're out of business.

*gasp* :svengo: (and no matter what anyone says, I will never believe that Salisbury Steak is food, no matter where it comes from) - I checked with my husband and he thought "minute steak" was cube steak. It has to be a regional thing, because I assure you, if there were individually packaged meat patties with butter pats in them in this area, they would have been a staple food at my in-laws' house.

While we were on vacation, I read a couple Agatha Christies, The Hummingbird's Daughter, B!tch Creek (a mystery set in the Maine woods), another novel whose name escapes me, and Angels and Demons. Now that I'm home in my real life: Medical Herbalism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnosis Study Guide. Gripping.:bored: BUT! Audrey Niffenegger's new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, came out yesterday, so I might start stalking that.

I would guess - though I am neither a food scientist or Alton Brown - that it's not so much the freezing as the thawing that makes already-baked cookies weird when you freeze / thaw them. The moisture in the air would condense on them (being all cold and whatnot) and then the sugar/flour would get all excited and suck it up... Thanks for the idea, I think I'll whack together some cookie dough and freeze it! I already have bread dough rising and a tray of cut biscuits freezing. Seems like a good idea while the whole places is all floury! :D

Actually, assuming vaccination is 100% effective in preventing disease or minimizing severity (which it's not, but for the sake of argument...) your vaccinated children are far more likely to pick something up and infect their unvaccinated friends than vice versa. Just because you're immune from developing disease doesn't mean you can't pass the bug along (a dear friend gave me chicken pox as an adult this way). We have friends in both camps and I have had experience with both vaxing and non-vaxing parents who were quite cavalier about exposing others. It solely depends on the parents. I would be vigilant about exposing your kids to anyone who was ill, just because of their health status.

Yes, that's what I would think of if somebody said "minute steak". What you describe sounds like Salisbury steak. Neither of which live in my world.

We do, too. However, I live in Perdue/Tyson/Allen's country and have recently read from completely different sources, published years apart, about the amazing spread of resistant bacteria from industrial chickens being fed sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics (to stimulate growth). The bacteria is airborne in areas where there is chicken farming/processing. I don't buy chicken from local farmers. (As an aside, it has been known since around 1940 that these sub-therapeutic levels of antibiotics in feed breed resistant pathogens. A JHU research team just released a study on the airborne factor in our area.) When I was a teen, I worked for a crab house and handling the oysters (and the safety precautions involved just to shuck them) totally put me off those. Otherwise, I feel pretty safe. There is not a single "At the Grocery Store" in that that pertains to the way I purchase food. (because we purchase from farmers we know.) Even during the great spinach scare a couple of years ago, we kept right on eating spinach; we knew where it came from.

Yes. It will make a large looking stitch on the edge of the work - one stitch spanning two rows - because you're working it every other row. It makes it easier to pick up the stitches and return to working in the round when you're making a sock heel, for instance. Are you making the world's smallest heel flap? ETA: Oh, duh. You're making a thumb hole. Ok, that's strange to me - I usually just bind off however many, then cast them back on in the next row - but yes, the point there is to give you something to pick up for the thumb.

Oh, I remember going through that when DD8 was wee. It was rough. (Especially timing medication while nursing on demand - and our ped prescribed something that tasted like floor stripper and wasn't one of the "regulars" so that upped the ante a bit in the difficulty department) Almond Breeze makes excellent chai, and I live the vanilla kind on cereal. Earth Balance is vegan and cooks/tastes pretty much like actual butter (I hate margarine). I hope she outgrows it soon!

I have purchased hand painted Christmas ornaments, bird feeders/houses, hair stuff, jewelry... I don't go to craft fairs all that often, though. We have mosaics! :D

Well, yes, but extracting human projectiles from wherever they land - through the windshield, impaled on various parts of the frame, in the trees - is not exactly risk-free for the emergency crews. The state has the burden of protecting them. 8 y.o. & 4'10" is and has been the law here for a while. And while it seems sort of silly on the face of it, at 5'0" I have trouble getting the seatbelts to adjust properly on me, even with the seat all the way up (vertically, not toward the steering wheel, I'm afraid of the airbag) and the seatbelt in the lowest position. (But if I had a booster, I would have to sit closer to the scary airbag to reach the pedals. Oh, the great irony of being short)

It's 6:50 a.m... I'm up because, well, I'm up at 5 usually. G'night Bill!

Cell phone, ipod, camera, laptop... pretty standard things, I guess. Some things we used to have (TiVO, all-in-one) and replaced them (antenna, laser). I don't "game" or get lost (geocaching would be fun, though), and I can't imagine reading an electronic facsimile of a book. (A BOOK! Heresy!:svengo:) I can build you a pretty slick network and hack your database, though. :D ETA: Satellite radio: LOVE it! Our regular stomping ground is DC-Dover, so we'd have to be changing the stations all the time. Nothing like getting all wrapped up in Talk of the Nation to have it go all fuzzy on you. Ugh!

I see a lot of sniffling, sneezing, generally snorky people walking around here, too, but it's not hard to shift your gaze to the gigantic stands of ragweed and have a Eureka! moment. Hopefully, that's what most of the plagued-looking people in your area have!

oops! double.

Wow! Those are cool! Um, why are there dogs in some of them, though? :001_huh:

You're right. It's our fault when a perfect stranger is expounding on one's "feminine issues" or PMS. They clearly just have a crappy job. Or, you know, not.