The hotels did used to allow people to pay a small amount to come in and swim. I used to take dd to them frequently. Years ago they quit doing that. Insurance reasons is what they say. You can rent the pools for bday parties but cannot pay to just come in and swim for an hour. I don't begrudge the university their pool policy. The pool is pretty booked all day and into the evening. The very team dd wants to join has that pool booked after school on weekdays for their practices. With multiple age groups and levels, they have it Monday-Friday 4-7pm. Then the intermurals come in after that well into the late night. I'm not even sure when they would be able to squeeze in time during the week for a traditional "open swim." Weekends are full of lessons, group classes, university classes, intermurals, etc.... They DO have open swim and camps in the summer when school is out. But by then, we can use the free beaches so that is where we swim most days. We might be lacking in pools but we do have at least 30 public ice rinks within 10 miles of my house, several even covered or indoors. But that is all beside the point really. Dd is interested in joining the team. Given the constraints we have, it sounds like daily lessons at first would be the best way to start. She might even decide she hates it after a few lessons so I am not too worried about the long term. I just wanted to know what would be the best way to book the initial lessons and have gotten some good advice.

The pool is at a university so it is primarily there for university purposes. They have twice-daily open-to-the-public lap swim times but they are adult only. You must be 16 or older to be in the pool. I lap swim twice a week there during those times and can confirm that indeed no children are allowed. The private lesson program is through the university. Lessons occur during other events happening at the pool when guards are on duty. So dd's lesson might be during aqua-fit or ROTC exercises or group lesson time or whatever. Only people in those classes/events or taking a private lesson can be in the pool at that time. It is not really a "community" resource. There are no other pools at all except in a couple of hotels. The schools to do have them. There is no public pool. We do have lots and LOTS of public beaches which we do utilize all summer. But they are under about 4 feet of snow right now.

It sounds like consecutive is the way to go. The reason we are even going to private lesson route to begin with is because the waiting list for lessons locally is so long she would not get in until next year. We live in a geographically isolated area which many people do not understand. There is one pool, one source of lessons, and one team. Nothing else within two hours. So our options are more limited than what most people experience.

I am not sure about the diving. She can dive now but probably not off of a block into shallow water. How is this even handled for youth swim teams now? I was on the swim team growing up and we dove off the blocks, but I noticed all of the blocks have been removed from most of the pools I have been in over the last 10 years. With our now super-litigious society, I just cannot see this being allowed anywhere. The team she aims to join is a YMCA team where the kids would be doing a little of everything based on their ability and interest. The requirements for joining the team are simply "cross the pool with proper freestyle form." Speaking with one of the organizers, "proper" is pretty loosely adhered to.....I think they are just going for "willing to put their heads in the in water."

My 11 yo dd is going to be taking private swim lessons. She already knows how to swim for playing and safety but she is interested in trying the swim team next fall and must be able to swim across the pool with proper freestyle form before that is a possibility. Her normal mode of swimming is a cross between dog paddle and freestyle-with-head-up. She can tread water indefinitely and can easily get across the pool with her style of swimming so she is pretty comfortable in the water (no fear issues). As we are setting this up, we have the option of hour-long lessons once a week for 6 weeks or 6 one-hour lessons over 6 consecutive days. Either works fine for our schedule. Which one is likely to end with the most progress? We do not have access to a pool between lessons in either case so she would not be "practicing" between lessons. When she took group lessons she had both scenarios at one time or another. The consecutive classes were much better. But I'm not sure if the same would be true for more advanced lessons.

I am beginning to see that this is true. I am trying to SAVE time. Ha ha!

I have been looking at the suggested sites (and others) since my last reply and am now even more baffled than I was before! Maybe a little more background would help you know what I am looking for. My family takes a great deal of photos. I used to scrapbook the old-school way (paper, scissors, markers, stamps, etc....). The pace of photo-taking eventually FAR outstripped the time I had to deal with scrapbooking so I mostly gave it up and have reverted to putting plain old photos in plain old photo albums writing down a caption here and there. This would be fine to continue in theory, but even that amount of effort seems to be too much for me. I spend hours picking out the photos online (I do this about quarterly), then they get printed and mailed, then I have to gather the books, photo corners, etc..., then decide what goes on what page, then actually paste everything in. It takes forever and is boring. I am over two years behind right now. I have the photos and I at least put them in groups and chronological order, but physically getting them into the books is just not happening. The PL stuff looks awesome but I think I will be in the same boat. For my regular-at-home photo albums, I just want the photos digitally slapped on pages and printed out. It appears that Shutterfly might be a good resource for this? If that is the case, I would love to chat with someone who has used it this way. The big downside is that all of the books are bound so books would not be a work-in-progress. I could see myself saving up photos for a once or twice-a-year book that is bound and just done. Then there is the other application I need. Back when I was scrapbooking, I started a tradition of making mother's books for my mom and MIL. This was pre-CM and other companies so I just use plain three-ring binders with clear sleeves. I give a page (or more) as gifts several times a year to add to the books. I can spend much more time on these because we are only talking about a few photos. But I am really done with the mechanics behind it and would love to get all of the supplies out of my house freeing up space for other things. Project Life is looking pretty attractive for that sort of thing. Someone mentioned PL digital. What is that? Unfortunately, we do not have a Costco or other major stores that do printing. We have to send everything out.

This is how little I know about this stuff! I didn't know there was 2 ways either. I assumed you formatted online then got a printed page. I believe that is what I want. Off to check out everyone's suggestions. I'll be back with questions I am sure:)

We always do (in addition to a little bit of candy) fun fruit that we do not normally buy. Like pomegranates, mangos, blood oranges, coconut (for some real fun), and kiwis. This would only be appealing to kids who like fruit, obviously, but works well for my usually-deprived-of-cool-fruit kiddo. Fruit leathers are another hit. They are almost candy, I know, but a tiny bit better. Small bottles of fun juice or non-HFCS soda, soap, wacky socks, pencils/pens/markers, garden seeds, etc have also made appearances in dd's basket in the past.

I am looking for a way to get our digital photos into a physical book format without the scissors and glue. I have some (maybe) odd requirements and there is so much out there I just do not know where to start. I need this application for more than one type of output which is where things get complicated. I am not sure what I need even exists. Here is what I need: 1. Most of our photos go into what would be considered a "traditional" photo album....meaning, I just want to photos (with captions) on pages in books. I would like to be able to crop and vary the size of the photos but other than that, nothing fancy for most pages. 2. I want to be able to add and/or reorder pages to the books over time. This rules out hard-bound books. 3. I would like a 12x12 format if possible. 4. I would like to have some basic "scrapbooking" type designs for the occasional pages. Not every page but for certain bigger life events. It is the mix of #1 and #4 that has me concerned. I don't want to pay through the teeth for this since most pages will not require any fancy formatting but do want to option occasionally. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears!

I never shop at this store for any other reason but their tank tops are perfect so I stock up every year: http://www.maurices.com/product/index.jsp?expcsl=1280762%7c%7c&productId=21880796 I have been buying them for over a decade. Lots of colors, hold up well, and (most importantly) cover bra straps!

Seeing as we rarely own a car that is younger or with less miles, I don't find the stats on your car to be worrisome. As long as it is well-maintained, I see no issue. Ironically, it has always been our "newer" cars that have been the culprits during mid-trip mechanical drama. The three times it has happened, it was a hassle but not a huge deal.

Number 11. Sigh.

There is no secret where this comes from. This was my life as a kid. It was horrible. I try to be sensitive about this with my own dd.

I have seriously contemplated this idea. But I believe she (we) would be in a lot of trouble is she were "caught." She is going to camp on a very large scholarship and the rules are very clear. Even in my own childhood camp experiences this was the case. No, they would not search her belongings. But I do remember having to check in tylenol for my own headache issues as a teen. I could take them when I needed them but had to go to the nurse's station. They made sure I did not take more than I should or too frequently. While I 100% trust that dd would take her melatonin in the correct dose and at the correct time, I also 100% understand why a camp would not want to be responsible for anyone not administering their own meds correctly.

I'm not sure a sleep study is in order since the problem is not staying asleep. She is fine once actually asleep and never has middle-of-the-night problems. It is just the falling asleep. I know medications are normal at camps but I worry that a non-prescription medication would be a problem.

This JUST happened to us two months ago. However, the owner of the car was NOT cool about it. At all. She was livid. I guess the car is brand new and dd (who has never yakked in a car before) did not really know how to do it gracefully so it got all over her own clothing and the seat. Because the owner was so upset, I felt obligated to purchase a $100 interior detail gift card. Despite this the owner never fails to remind me or my dd about the incident every time we run into her. As of yesterday (the last time we saw her), her car STILL smells. Thanks for the update. Poor dd was mortified enough without the anger and comments. She is now so nervous, she will not ride in anyone else's car which is tricky because this was for a team sport that requires a lot of travel. We typically take turns driving. I guess not us anymore..... So, given that your people are being very nice, I would not only give a small thank you gift but also profusely thank them for not making your child feel like mine does.

I am not worried about how it looks. I am especially intrigued because I need a veggie garden solution that can be moved from one year to the next. We are having work done on our house/yard over the next few years and my well-established raised bed gardens are in the path of the destruction. So they have to be removed or moved. But anywhere I move it to will also have to be temporary. It is starting to add up to a whole lot of effort and I am hoping something as simple as straw bale could be used during these few years when an established garden would be more work. The idea seems so slick....if it really works. But I don't know anyone who has ever tried it so don't know if it really works. I is cheap enough to just try it out so I plan to with 3-4 bales this summer. But if I knew someone who had done it that had any tips or tricks, that would be helpful.

Thanks for all of the responses. If I knew that it was 100% "harmless" I would not hesitate to use it. The difference in dd's quality of life on the days she has gotten enough sleep is huge. I feel so bad that she spends most of her days in an exhausted daze. It sounds like those that use it regularly have the blessing of their doctors? Dd's doctor did not seem to know much about it and was not really interested in discussing it at all. Short of finding a new doctor (we really like this doctor in all other ways), I don't think I will get any further in that discussion. Her doctor seems to have the opinion that trouble sleeping is normal for tween girls and is just a phase. She knows dd's sleep patterns have been a problem her entire life but I get the impression that the doctor thinks we are exaggerating. And I feel a little weird pushing for "sleeping drugs." Then I go online and the general opinion is that not enough is known about melatonin supplements in general and that it is especially worrisome for kids due to lack of studies and the potential for hormone issues during puberty. It requires a prescription in other countries. For those that are using it regularly, what is your opinion on these potential dangers? Do you think it is just general caution that is probably not a real concern or is it something you do worry about but even less so than your kid being perpetually exhausted? Do you worry about it becoming habit-forming?

For those that use glasses and/or lights, how do you handle times when you are not home? We find that dd has even more trouble when we are traveling, camping, or when she is at summer camp. This adds up to a significant portion of our nights.

How does he know (now) when he needs to use it? Does he wait until he has tried to fall asleep or does he choose nights when poor sleep would have dire consequences? Also, did he ever attend summer camp? If so, did he take it then?

http://strawbalegardens.com

I have an 11 yo that does not sleep well. She never has, not even as an infant. Because she is homeschooled, it has not been as big of a problem as it could have been. She can sleep later on bad nights and we can just be more flexible in general. But as she is getting older, she is getting more involved in activities and online classes that require her to be up and functioning earlier in the morning. I have done so much research about good sleep habits and I do think we are doing everything as right as we can. One big factor is that we are northern enough that it gets dark here at 4pm in the winter and stays light until 11pm in the summer. Morning light also fluctuates seasonally. Natural melatonin is triggered by darkness at bedtime. Natural light upon waking is also an important factor. Aside from light-blocking blinds which can help with summer evenings, there is not much I can do about the fact that our natural light rarely lines up with our sleep times. We traveled overseas a few months ago. During past trips, we have all suffered from jet lag so I did some research before we left for this trip and decided that it was worth it to try melatonin. It worked great. We all slept very well and got into the local time quickly. We only took it for three nights then stopped. Because we walked miles and miles every day and were up late, dd did not have trouble sleeping. She was just simply exhausted and sleep came easy. Since then, she quickly fell back into her normal patterns of going to bed around 9pm but being awake in bed until close to midnight sometimes even later. It is very frustrating for her. She asked if we could try the melatonin again. So we did for 4 days last week. It worked perfectly. She took it a bit before bedtime and was asleep within 15 minuets of going to bed. Hoping that "reset" would stick, I stopped giving it to her. Immediately she was back to being awake at midnight. I have looked at all the info about melatonin and kids. I know they do not have much research and the general consensus is to just not give it to kids. It is a hormone and that is scary. Dd's doctor just told us there is nothing really for kids and gave us the same old list of suggestions we have been following her whole life (no screen time before bed, light blocking blinds, calm before bed, etc.....). Anyone have info about melatonin that might not be kicked up in a common internet search? Anyone have a kid that takes it regularly? If so, have you seen any reason to be concerned?

Has anyone tried this? If so, tell me your experiences. Especially if you live in northern climates.

Mostly water. The adults drink coffee (no sugar) in the morning and sometimes beer/wine with dinner. Everyone drinks unsweetened herbal tea instead of water when we are chilly. Dd will occasionally have raw cow milk when I am trying to use it up but that is pretty rare. I will buy La Croix (unsweetened, flavored fizzy water) for dd as a treat for camping or parties. We never have juice or soda in the house. Other than that, water is the main beverage.