My sister-in-law does fundraising for her pre-K class (they're run by a non-profit) and has said that Sally Foster wrapping paper and Tupperware are the best she's found for a) interest and b) percentage of funds going to the organization. Restaurant chains also do fundraising nights for local organizations, with a percentage of the check totals (excluding tax, tips and alcoholic beverages, usually) going to the organization when their flyer is presented. I haven't heard of the print cartridge one, though. And broken links would raise an eyebrow for me, too.

I tend to make "modular" meals, where I can add the meat for the other 4 and leave it out for me. I made "chicken" pot pie last week, sauteed onion, garlic, celery, carrots, cubed potatoes, sprinkled the whole thing with flour, added "no chicken" broth (which I prefer to vegetable stock) and cream, and simmered until the whole thing had thickened up. I added chicken to their ramekins (ok, actually French onion soup crocks), then put the veggie mix into all of them, topped them with biscuit and popped them into the oven. Yummy. Last night, we had pasta with garlic and fresh peas: sautee garlic in olive oil while the pasta is cooking (about 2 minutes less than instructions call for), shell the peas into the pan, then add the pasta, some milk, and let the whole thing thicken up while the pasta absorbs the extra moisture in the pan. We had a Caesar salad with cubed, roasted potatoes (out of croutons and bread) on the side. In the summer, we like cheese tortellini tossed with olive oil, grape tomatoes and basil. Sometimes I add fresh mozzarella and the kids/husband add grilled chicken. Bean burritos are a staple food - I make a big crock pot of beans about once a week (I alternate between pintos and black beans) and a double or triple batch of flour tortillas, and we eat them in various forms all week. Spanikopita is vegetarian and one of my <carnivorous> husband's favorites. Indian samosas are high on the list of favorite things, as well. I'm not a fan of fake meat products in general, but Smart Ground taco and burrito flavor makes a great taco salad (we usually throw in a can of beans and some salsa)... so good, in fact, that my husband used to make it for dinner at work (firehouse) on request. :) Bon appetit!

Yes, that's my take on it, too. Perhaps she didn't say anything to you because she wanted you to be able to say, with complete honesty, that you had no knowledge of the report, if asked by your neighbors. And, perhaps, your other neighbors were speculating to your mother that YOU were the only one who could have called, so she came clean to them so you wouldn't be assumed "guilty". I am of the impression that citizens have a moral and civic obligation to report illegal activity. Running a stop light has to be witnessed by the police in order for them to address it. I have reported people driving recklessly with an unrestrained child on the lap of the front seat passenger, while following them at 80+ mph around the DC beltway. Nobody was getting hurt at the time, though, so, I shouldn't have reported it? Should I have not called about the neighbors who were keeping several wild ducks in a 2x4 rabbit hutch? Does that mean I care more about ducks than people? Or can we agree that is inhumane and the ducks cannot speak for themselves? The point of fines is to make ignoring the rules unattractive. Cutting the trees without a permit was not an act of civil disobedience, they just didn't want to be bothered to go through the proper channels. Sometimes when you make a gamble, you lose. Only you can decide how you want to proceed with your mother's project, but I can't imagine that calling the appropriate authority broke the "don't make trouble with the neighbors" commandment in her mind. I suspect she made the choice to do the right thing and leave you out of it specifically to not make trouble with the neighbors.

Oh, yes. "Something smells... come here and let me look in your pants" was never part of my conversation before having children. And, "we do NOT poop in the yard!" I seem to have an inordinate number of conversations about poop. :001_huh:

Uh, yes, but we refer to it as "letter" (as opposed to "legal") sized. :D I used to use a regular teacher's planner from the education store. I've been using Homeschool Tracker, which I love for the record keeping and scheduling, but I may need to go back to transferring the weekly lessons to the book... once I schedule in HST, I tend not to look in there, let alone print. :001_huh:

What if you do whatever you like on paper or card stock, then just laminate them? (And leave pointy ends to poke into the soil)

I haven't had my hair cut in 9 years. Situations like this would be why. On the other hand, your hair dresser should schedule to accommodate YOU, and you should not be charged to fix her error. Really.

Oh :ack2: ! Yep, that's what got my 8 y.o. to start reading (at 6). After the rainbow, jewel, holiday, pet, flower and - good grief! - who knows what fairies, she moved on to Spiderwick, a Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter, and Cornelia Funke within a few months and is now reading Peter Beagle, one of my dad's favorite authors. They're great for getting little girls reading but, oh my, they.are.so.baaaaaaad!:svengo: I was happy to see that phase end. On the other hand, I am beginning to worry about running out of appropriate reading material... maybe I can interest her in the Economist?

:rofl: This is my preferred way of marking my territory, especially books. The coffee ring is like my personal crest. :D

I shared this new perspective with my SIL, a teacher, last night. She also fails to see the downside. :lol:

Yep, that's been my experience, too. Especially frustrating when I am pondering reading material for my 8 y.o., usually when following one of those "people who looked at this also looked at..." or other related material links. BTW, we've had Prime for about 3 years now, and absolutely love it. Further, my in-laws use it by logging into my account and adding their own shipping/payment info. It has more than paid for itself every year.

In that case, I would have him take it back, apologise, and make restitution. As far as I'm concerned, that would be an egregious instance of disobedience, and willful destruction of property that the child had been instructed was NOT for his use. But, that is MY perspective and assuming MY child. You're the only one who can say if that is the case with your particular child. Know what I mean?

Huh. I was hoping it had just taken off... I should be able to see it from my house. Alas, it looks like another delay due to a front. Ironically, there are high clouds and a visible moon right now. :confused:

We had a similar situation with hospital proximity and decided (it may have something to do with both of us being paramedics, and my MIL a neonatologist) that, because bad things can happen during birthing, and when they do you want fast intervention, we felt more comfortable with the birth center near the (further) hospital with the proper NICU. My twins were born in that hospital - my pregnancy was high-risk as was the delivery (not the same with "advanced maternal age" and a healthy singleton, as Jann noted), but we spelled out a detailed, low intervention, birth plan (with contingencies) with our OB and I had a largely hands-off labor and delivery. (And the midwife who delivered my second daughter was on call that night and spent the majority of her time with us, as our cheerleader - she had also delivered our OB's last child, so they were on friendly terms.) We have friends who delivered at another birth center, about the same distance away, and simply got a hotel room nearby when labor began, to avoid that Bay Bridge in transition horror. Go with your comfort level. You're in control of your own birth experience, whether at home, in a hospital, or in a taxi. You can absolutely say no to continuous monitoring, IV, medication, bed confinement, etc. Your friend the doula can be a great asset in advocating for your wishes while you focus on your labor.

Evidently, they were, uh, a bit "overwhelmed". NPR Blog

In my circle, we have blessingways, where each guest brings their own blessing, poem, song, what have you, and shares it in celebration of the mother to be. We each bring a bead or stone, which is incorporated into a necklace or bracelet for the mom - and each guest is presented with a bracelet - to wear until the birth, in solidarity. Generally, there is a potluck meal, henna, music, general pampering of the mom to be... good times. Google "blessingway". I'm sure you will come up with several ideas, some that will suit your worldview, and some that will not.

Ghastly is an appropriate description. When I was looking at dealers' stock online, a HUGE number of them said Seats: orange. I thought it was some kind of code. Not so much. They were totally orange. No idea who thought that was going to be a popular choice. :ack2:

As a board member of a co-op (obviously not the OP's co-op), we have had a similar situation, where a troubled member was suspended during the last week of the year due to fighting with another kid, then damaging the host church when he was punished (by his mother, and not harshly). The timing was unfortunate, to say the least. The family handled it well, sent out an apology to the rest of the members, paid restitution immediately for the damage to be repaired, addressed the outburst with their therapist, etc. We have, however, had "heightened security" after asking an adult member not to return because of really offensive behaviour. That mainly consisted of having a couple of the dads in attendance, stationed by the front door in the event that this person decided to show up anyway and make a scene. That was totally "drama control" and not concern for life and limb, though. Without knowing the details of your situation, I guess I couldn't say what I would do. Is your location walkable - i.e. could he just show up? - or are the parents not understanding why the expulsion occurred? Those would be red flags, particularly if there were threats made. It sounds like you've made a decision, anyway. I'm sorry for your kids, though. Even if they understand, it's such a bummer. :grouphug:

I own an Odyssey (which, yes, I do love), but the three that were in the running when we were looking were this one, the Sienna, and the Quest. I, quite frankly, had high hopes for the Quest and found it... awful. The Kia Sedona wasn't around then, otherwise that would have definitely been in the running. I have never owned a GM product that was even remotely reliable - the current one is on my list of things I would set fire to in the driveway if that wasn't a felony - and will never, ever own another. I've had British cars with fewer issues. FWIW, I was looking for cloth seats and couldn't find them very easily. All of the "top three" on our list had leather. (And, in the case of the Quest, orange, striped leather... brrrrrr.) I don't like leather because my bum slides around and that is, as it turns out, one of the major sensory inputs for driving. (Feet, hands, bum.) We have seat warmers, though, so it's not bad in winter. Not crazy about sticking to the seat in summer, though.

Doesn't phase me a bit. Really, I have no concern about intrusion of my "privacy" in answering questions on a form that I would, largely, answer at a cocktail party. And, frankly, the rest of the questions are just consolidating data the government already has. The GPS component, as I understand it, has been used to identify inhabited dwellings (e.g. the apartment that used to be the barn at the back of a main property) for mapping potential disaster evacuation. Emergency management systems are both creating maps of potential danger zones that can be interactive models scaled to the current disaster data (if the the area gets 12" of rain that comes from a system that hit upriver areas first, where is the flood zone and how many people need to be evacuated, etc.). It should be noted that I honestly do not care if some poor soul at NSA wants to listen to my telephone conversations, either, though I would feel bad for the person assigned to me... talk about dull surveillance. Nor do I care that I have an FBI file. It is what it is and there's nothing beyond the pedestrian details of my life that can be dug up. Know what I mean?

When I was working as a software engineer, I worked mainly from home (sometimes on site) and could easily fill 60-70 hours a week. I had multiple projects going on at once and, generally, had clients with 24 hour shops, so I was available (within reason) to all three shifts for input on designs or to answer questions / fix glitches. My husband is a firefighter/paramedic. On a 24 on / 48 off schedule, their weekly average is 56 hours and some change. They've recently gone to 24/72, so now their average is a more civilized 42.something hours. ;) The great irony is that, for all the hours worked, I'm pretty sure our neighbors thought we were both unemployed for years. LOL.

I suspect it is probably that the pot isn't seated properly, or there are grounds blocking up the little widget that pushes up and allows the brew to exit. (My husband achieved this when forgetting to put the lid on the pot once... we will not speak of the cleaning necessary to unplug the water lines after grounds were washed into the reservoir. Ghastly.) Generally speaking, you're supposed to use a coarser grind (like pre-ground Folgers) for flat-bottom filters, and a fine grind for cone filters. But the difference is because the cones channel the water through faster so it's in contact with the coffee for a shorter amount of time, not because it will back up.

We (my husband and I) each lost about 40 lbs a few years ago, simply by planning our meals with Cooking Light recipes and tracking calories on Fit Day. After a small adjustment period, I found I was having to eat a snack and a glass of milk before bed just to meet my minimum calories. :D

Yes. In fact, our ridiculously expensive bundled service just went up another $60, which landed it firmly in the "f-you, Comcast" zone. Our phone cuts back over to Verizon - dial-tone only - next week, and my husband spent the better part of the afternoon on the mid-level roof, messing around with the ancient antenna we have, trying to ascertain whether it will work (it didn't when we moved in 10 years ago, as far as we could tell) well enough with the digital converter box to hold off on a new one. Alas, not so much. However, our research has yielded some very interesting information: if we get a higher-range antenna, we should be able to get stations from our local area, plus DC, Baltimore, Philly and points between. All free, after we buy a new antenna and converter boxes. Even if we keep internet through them (because we've had the same email addresses for 6 years or so), we'll be saving around $120/month just on phone and tv. Essentially, all equipment - if we go really high-end - will be paid for in 2 months of no cable. Makes me a little nauseous, frankly. So yes, we have fought with the cable company. And we have finished fighting with them and have told them to take a flying leap. Other than the bill, there is nothing they provide us that we can't get elsewhere.

Yep, me too. We had one that peed.on.everything - rugs, furniture, drapes!! - and there was nothing medically wrong with him... He was also too lazy to clean himself, so our other cat would groom him (with a disgusted look on his face). I swear I can't pass a juniper without having a flashback... that's really an unfortunate scent for a bush that people like to plant in their entries. :ack2: Anyway, I'd start with the Nature's Miracle and Ssscat (or other deterrent) and keeping the door shut at all times. (And yes, investigate the UTI possibility, but that area has now been designated a litter box by her, so you'll need to address that aspect regardless.)