Yes, this is my objection. I exchange pleasantries and chit chat. I think my favorite odd grocery store employee conversation was when this kid (maybe 16) chased me out the door, called me ma'am (I was, perhaps 21) and asked if I needed help to my car. With my 4 rolls of tp. :001_huh: :lol:

Sure, lots of things: I remember my 4'10", late fifties, first grade teacher lifting a boy out of his chair, over his desk and putting him over her knee in response to him telling her she was not the boss of him. (I have many fond memories of her, actually, from giving me books to read to walking with her and her Siberian Husky, Cairn, after school. Her name was Miss McGinness and she lived with her brother and sister a few streets away from me.) I remember telling my mother in no uncertain terms that my nursery school teacher was crazy and I was NOT going back. (She wore overalls and pigtails, and referred to herself in the third person) (Two of my FB friends were in that same class!) I remember going to the "media center" (which was 70s-speak for the school library) and seeing my mom (who worked there because the principal found her sobbing on the steps my first day of K and gave her a job) I remember the enigma who was my second K teacher (the first left shortly after we started), who was a dear friend, someone I looked up to very much, and who I still try to emulate, 30-odd years later. (Though I think I fall short in many ways) I remember squirting a cherry tomato down the front of Bill Cohen's shirt at dinner, during his first Senate run. (I was 7, he was gracious, my parents were mortified) I remember the mundane stuff (though soiling a congressman was probably fairly mundane at 7) like watching my cat chase a marble all over the house like a maniac, until it went down the heating grate, sitting in the top of the apple tree in the side yard, playing in the woods for hours making little fairy houses out of moss and toadstools and whatnot... lots of stuff.

Here's what I would do: get a covered litter box and put it in the cabinet, under the shelf you've built for the drawer thingy. Then, attach a curtain at the front of the shelf. The vast majority of the dust and whatnot will be contained, no one can see it, and it's physically separated from the rest of the cabinet by the cover and the shelf. (I would still take it outside to change it, though, because pouring litter really does create a lot of dust.)

YES!! I am tempted to become one of the ill-socialized people who continues their phone call while checking out, simply to avoid such interactions. Something tells me "please stop telling me this" would not be well received. (But don't you just want to stick your fingers in your ears and go "lalalalalalalala" until they do stop?) I think what happened is that, back in the day, cashiers were union employees - professional, well paid, high expectations. (I know Giant employees would be fired or, at the very least, formally reprimanded, if they challenged a customer with an overflowing cart in the express lane) The professional, "career" employees have been replaced with teenagers, there is no training, and the atmosphere is more like camp or a frat house than a service job.

CNet has reliable reviews, and you can compare them.

OH MY! I'm glad it was a nice, confined fire that went out by itself and didn't spread!

I think you'd be "overly sensitive" if you were taking it personally. I, too, find it weirdly offensive that cashiers think it's ok to comment on the contents of my basket. Or b!tch about their boss to me, particularly when they're telling me how deathly ill they are but their boss wouldn't let them call in like everyone else did that day...while touching.my.food! :blink: I think I might need to move to France, where formality is still appreciated.

I think this is a really, really excellent point.

I have four children. I am 38, my husband will be 40 next month. We're done. *I* am done. I am not the happy pregnant woman and dealing with sleep deprivation only gets worse as I get older. We're finally free of diapers, after 7 1/2 years... There are times when I get that pang, though. Fortunately, I have a circle of young friends who are willing to supply me with a pretty steady stream of newborns to cuddle, with no diapers to wash and plenty of quality sleep. ;) I feel for you, though. The done-ness was sharper when the boys were younger. :grouphug:

I don't spend much time in bed (4 months of bed rest while pregnant with the boys cured me of any desire there), but I require solid sleep to function well, mentally and physically. Scratchy, wrinkled up sheets make for restless sleep in my world... (though, like Rebecca mentioned, I think my husband could sleep draped over a rock, and the children sleep in a pile, like gerbils.) Don't even get me started on the requirements for nightgowns. ;)

Having been on the receiving end of rude comments about my "overly large" family (4 kids, including one set of twins... I know, it's staggering!), I don't really get the impression people hate children so much as they are profoundly uncomfortable with the idea that people make choices different from their own. Maybe it's because, if they accept that someone else can see the same information and come to a different conclusion, it makes the observer's conclusion "wrong"? I don't know, but I suspect there is some significant cognitive dissonance driving their very strong conviction.

DD8 would just fall asleep on us, then we'd carry her up when we went to bed. DSs4 were still nurslings at 2, so they nursed to sleep, I rearranged them on the bed, then went about my evening. I believe "this will not last forever" came up a lot in those days. And it didn't. {bittersweet}

I think it's horrible you feel like you have to justify the size of your family, Dawn. There is a difference between taking offense a some general comment and having offensive comments lobbed at you. Anything that starts out "If you REALLY..." is just.plain.rude. Some things, you can't write off as being overly sensitive. Let me illustrate in a non-"values" context: Lady at Giant: Oh, what beautiful little girls you have! (annoying comment from stranger) Me: The twins are boys LaG: Well they *LOOK* like girls! (rude. Rude, rude, rude!) (If you mistake someone's gender, right out loud, don't you make SOME sort of attempt to atone for the gaffe - Gee, it must be those gorgeous eyelashes that made me think that! Oh, my, what was *I* thinking?! - rather than defend your "position"? I don't dress the boys ambiguously and I have corrected the misconception. Pound sand, lady.) You're not being overly sensitive. Those comments are offensive.

And to think I live in the same (disturbingly small) state as those panties! (Also, I see the "people" who spray-foamed my windows have moved to Canada... that may be a safe distance to avoid my wrath) Oh, the things we learn from the People of Walmart!

Yes, I think they're worth it. I don't know if I'd spend $100 on a set, but I'll spend $60 for high thread count, organic cotton and bamboo sheets at Target. And I buy high thread count cotton sheets on sale when I find them. In my fantasy life, I find actual linen sheets that don't cost me a fortune. My sleep is important to me and I don't sleep well on pilly, ill-woven, ill-fitting bed linens. I also iron the sheets before putting them on the bed - the crisp-soft feeling of pressed sheets is... mmmmmmmm. And that doesn't cost me anything but time that I happily devote to the task.;) I think there's a tipping point in the price/quality curve, where you have reached the maximum benefit of quality and start paying for something else, though.

We put click-lock cork in our kitchen and it's fabulous! Warmer than the wood floors, and quieter, too, nice give, easy to clean, no off-gassing. I ordered ours from the clearance section of Eco-Friendly Flooring. It's similar to the "textured burl" (I think it's "toffee burl").

I'm laughing so hard, I may need to hit the sample table!

Aside from ppd (not that I would remember, so profound was the sleep deprivation) that's the same age split and experience at my house. (Ironic, isn't it, the claim that children only play side-by-side until they're two? Mine were interactive from the time they could move and it hasn't been pretty much of the time) Amen, sister!

:lol:

He is adorable! (I have checked the garage thoroughly and the Goat Fairy has not visited us at all. :glare:)

Yes, that would be my impression, as well. The Amish families we see on a regular basis are generally clean, house and yards tidy, but they're farmers, so there is some mud/dookie around in the yard, the kids can get filthy by supper time, the dogs are barn dwelling, not 4-legged children like ours. Typical farm life. And my kids are usually covered in mud and horse/cow poo when we leave after picking up our milk, because they're playing in the barn and "helping" with barn chores. I just wash them when we get home, as I'm sure happens when her kids come in for the evening. ETA: I think our friends would probably be considered "liberal" Amish, though I've never asked.

Yes, that is what I would imagine. You're not really ON the car so much as IN it. There is a weird habit around here where "anymore" is used in the positive, i.e. "I'm working at the bank anymore." My step-dad used to say things like "Are you going with?" and then stand there, waiting for my reply. I was standing there, waiting for the rest of his sentence. :D

No, that's true. They're different skills; one is decoding, the other encoding.

I read fluently before I started school, and recall it being similar to what your daughter describes (and, yes, I have trouble describing processes that I find natural, like reading). I was fortunate in 1970s public school to have teachers that permitted me to read or gave me a book during the class time spent on phonics. My second daughter could read when we started kindergarten at home. She is now 8 and reads fluently, even aloud. Neither of us has had any struggle with decoding unfamiliar words. (I sometimes have trouble with words my brain identifies as French when they're not, as far as pronunciation.) In fact, I did try to pursue phonics with her, early on, and it was disastrous. I think people who are self-taught probably just "intuitively" understand letter sounds, if that makes sense. It's difficult to articulate something that is intuitive for you, but the process is probably the same. I wouldn't worry about it, just give her new books to read and help with odd words that pop up.

hulu.com normally runs presidential addresses after the fact, as well.