My DH is the birder in our family. He's been birding for over 20 years and has a "lifetime list" and lists from everywhere we've lived (military family). We have nine different feeders in our yard. We've visited the Cornell Ornithological Lab in New York. I highly recommend a visit if you can get there. THe highlight is "Sapsucker Woods" which has trails through it and several habitats, so MANY different types of birds. They also have several different "bird cams" throughout the year available for viewing online. Every February the Lab runs the "Great Backyard Bird Count" over Presidents' Day weekend. It tallies bird info from all of the world. If you want to take part check it out here - http://gbbc.birdcount.org. They also have Webinars about different birds available. You can watch them live or see the archived ones. I gave my husband the gift of five webinars for Christmas. I'm always on the lookout for bird related gifts and it's challenging because I long ago exhausted feeders and usual bird gifts.

Unfortunately it looks like they ruined Annie too! The first reviews are not looking good, http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/film-review-annie-1201377921/ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/annie/review/757491 http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/163175/Annie-film-review-starring-Cameron-Diaz-and-Jamie-Foxx

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!! NO, NO, NO, just NO!!!! That is just wrong!!!! No Rockettes in the Nutcracker! Ballet mom here. DD 20, is now in college, majoring in dance, so we have no Nutcracker in our lives. I must say it's kind of a relief. We are going to see a professional Nut this year just because we have to at least go to one. But it has to be traditional, NO ROCKETTES! I was a little worried about the Washington Ballet's Nutcracker before we saw it years ago. It's set in 1880's Georgetown, the Nutcracker is George Washington, the Rat King was King George III, the Land of Sweets was springtime on the Potomac, but it was wonderful!!! (I highly recommend it!) But is was traditional in dance and close enough to the spirit of the original. But modern music with a kick line and Santa costumes, NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Oh I loved Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility!

The adults call the pastors by their first names, the children/teens call them Pastor Lastname.

I LOVED Peter Pan when I was a kid. I thought Mary Martin was Peter and I never saw the wires. Boy was I disappointed as a teen when the wires were clearly visible and Mary Martin was clearly a lady. I have seen Cathy Rigby as Peter live twice, over ten years apart. Both times I thought she was fantastic and much better than Mary Martin. She acted like a boy with speech and mannerisms. And of course given her gymnastics background her flying was amazing. I wanted to love last night's Peter Pan but I was just kind of "meh" about it. I loved some of the dancing - pirates, lost boys and Indians. I thought Allison Williams was great in parts, but she wasn't boy enough for me. I loved a lot of the staging from "I Won't Grow Up," particularly the tea cups on the heads. I HATED Christopher Walken. Hook is an over the top, campy part. He was too low key and boring. He was just Christopher Walken, not Hook. His timing seemed way off with lines that just fell flat. I loved Christian Borle and wish he had played Hook. I DVR'd it for my college DD but I don't know if she will last through it. She LOVED Cathy Rigby's Peter.

Our cat is about six and she has a crazy hour in the evenings too. She is an only cat so I am the one she attacks when she wigs out. She gets wild eyed and jumps out at me, grabs me around the calf and nips me. She never breaks skin, but it is very disconcerting. She will actually keep coming at me repeatedly. She will really only bother me, although once in a while she'll go for my husband. I bought a cat laser pointer at Pet Smart. When she starts to get feisty I break it out and get her chasing it instead of me. I wear her out and then she seems fine. She also likes to chew on me. If I am sitting watching television, or even in bed sometimes, she will walk up to my arm, put her whole mouth around it and gnaw on my arm. She seems to like it best if I have a sweater or sweatshirt on. She will keep doing it, but never break skin. I've never had a cat do that before and at first it freaked me out. Now I just watch her. Anyone seen that before?

I agree with all the others who say tell the director. Boys in dance, particularly ballet, are rare and need to be encouraged. Who do those girls think they are going to be dancing a pas de deus with in the future? They definitely need to be called out on their attitudes. It is wrong to comment or make fun of any dancer, but it is particularly stupid to be discouraging the boys!!!!

Try your library. We have a bunch of quilting books to choose from. Most quilt books have different size options for the patterns in them. Just get several and browse over a cup of tea. BUt I will add my vote to Yellow Brick Road. It's easy, particularly since it's all squares and rectangles-no points to cut off :001_smile:

I don't know how it works in Australia, but here in the U.S. wills are often not looked at until after the funeral. So it's a good idea to make sure any people who might be making the arrangements knows the plan too, i.e. spouse, parents, grown children. My dh knows what I want, but he won't specify for himself. I've told him what I would do for him if he went first and told him if he doesn't like those plans he'd better speak up ahead of time!

When she finds her ballet shoes (being hopeful here) write her name inside each one. We always wrote my dancing daughter's name in each of her shoes. Same daughter lost her apartments keys and all her id's at college last week. They were hanging in a pouch and lanyard from her backpack and fell off on campus. She lost her driver's license (she's 16 hours from home), debit card, campus id and military dependent id (needed for medical coverage). Thankfully the license was up for renewal, which we could do on-line. Campus id was an easy fix. Debit card was cancelled and new one expedited. Military id was in the works at a National Guard base near campus when she found everything was turned in at the gym. So I certainly feel your pain!!! From now on all these items will be IN the backpack. She is a dance major and her name still goes in her shoes though :001_smile:

I know you said natural, but Nexium works for me very well. I know it recently became over the counter so if you can't find a natural remedy it might be worth a try. I take it every morning when I get up, an hour before eating breakfast, and it lasts all day. Occasionally it will come back in the evening if I'd had something acidic/spicy for dinner. The doctor said I could take it twice a day if I need to, but generally once a day works for me. If I forget to take it I know an hour after eating breakfast because the reflux comes back with a vengeance. HTH, Mary

I'm not a big fan of lawsuits, but I hope he gets a fantastic lawyer and wins a HUGE judgement against county/school district!

Yes, PLEASE DON'T WAIT!!!!! I've had two friends with detached retinas, It's not something you can wait on. ER's have opthamologists on call and they can fix detached retinas if they are found quickly.

I think it's kind of funny when homeschoolers want to argue with someone about their decision to do something other than homeschool. We can homeschool because we have the right in this country as parents to direct the education of our children as we see fit. I'm SURE they would agree that this is an important right, but they don't want you doing something different than what they do. When we would see families we know making choices that are very different then we would I'd always tell my dds the following, God gave those children to those parents for a reason, every family is different and God helps those parents determine what is best for those children and their family, we are not cookie cutter people or families. I am sure people we know think we are crazy to encourage and support our younger dd to pursue dance as a major in college-what a major waste of time and money, how can you make a living at that, . . . But thankfully it only comes out in subtle undercurrents to conversations. I have been encouraged by parents who tell us they think it is so great we have supported her and allowed her to pursue dance. All this to say, YOU are the parents, God gave your son to YOU, and he will direct You in what is best for your son. It sounds like you have thought this out and have many good reasons for sending him to 7th grade. It is no one else's business!!!!!!

The itinerary just says "Quebec City." We have a several excursion options in Quebec City. Any one have any "must sees" there for me?

Colleen-(or anyone else) I looked at the excursions in Sydney and we can go to the Sydney Old Town Walking Tour or the Highland Village and Museum in the afternoon. We are going to go to a Celtic music performance in the morning near the terminal. We can't do anything in the evening because the ship leaves at 6pm. Any advice on which afternoon tour to take?

Thanks for all the tips. For those who asked, the cruise line is Princess Cruises. We looked at several others but Princess had longer cruises and Prince Edward Island. If we were going to do this I HAD to go to Prince Edward Island! A ceilidh would be fantastic! I LOVE anything celtic, must be genetic, all my paternal grandparents were from Ireland. Colleen, thanks for the link. I will definitely have to check that out because our cruise if from 12-22 October! Any more tips would be greatly appreciated!

My dh and I are going on a 10 day cruise to New England and Canada in October. We've cruised twice before, over 17 years ago in Europe when we were stationed in Germany-much less luxurious than American cruise ships. We did the Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea. We loved it, but it was with kids. This time it's just us-we're calling it our second honeymoon, although we're in year 27 and it's nowhere near our anniversary :001_smile: Anyway, I'd like any tips you experienced cruisers can give us. I really am not thrilled with the "Formal Nights" idea (2), am I wrong about that? Can you talk me into going? What about the shore excursions for this particular cruise? Stops are Newport, R.I.; Boston, Mass; Bar Harbor, Maine; Saint John, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Sydney, Nova Scotia; Charlottetown (Anne of Green Gables, yeah!); and Quebec. I'm leaning to the historical walking tour in Boston. I've never been there and we want to see all the historical high points. We're not big into shopping. Another question is about cell phone coverage. We'd like to be able to get in touch with our dds if we need to without paying through the nose. They are 24 and 19, so it's not like we'll be talking to them a lot, but want access should they need to get ahold of us. We have Verizon. Do we need a Canada or Cruise Ship plan? We don't have smart phones so we just need call and texting. Any other tips you can offer to may this trip more fun or to avoid pitfalls would be appreciated. Our cruise line is Princess. Thanks in advance! Mary

I haven't read this whole thread but wanted to add my experience in this area. Last fall my 19 yo college freshman dd accidentally spilled water on her roommate's laptop. The roommate had borrowed my dd's speakers and dd was getting them off of the shelf above roommate's desk. She didn't realize the cords were behind a small vase with a flower . When she took the speakers the cords pulled the vase down, spilling on the laptop on the desk. DD and roommate did all they could to dry the laptop and called Apple for advice. I spoke with dd and then with roommates parents assuring them we would make sure the laptop was fixed on our dime. DD and roommate were friends from home, but that didn't make any difference. I knew our homeowner's insurance covered dd's laptop, so I called the insurance company to see if it could help us at all. I wasn't really expecting a positive result but it turned out our liability coverage would cover the repair of the computer. The girls took it to Apple, we charged the repair cost on our credit card and the insurance company reimbursed us. Maybe the spiller could check with her insurance on the off chance it is covered.

When applying to colleges you need to see how many credits they will accept and still consider your student an incoming freshman. Usually more scholarships are allotted to freshman than transfer students. Scholarships are usually a recruiting tool of the admissions office. My daughter's college let her in as a freshman with 30 credits. Any credits earned prior to high school graduation did not count when determining if she was a transfer student or not. But not all colleges do it the same way. Some friends of hers were considered transfer students at their colleges and lost out on scholarship opportunities. Of course they saved a lot of money with cc tuition for two years vs. those same years at a 4 year school. So you need to sit down and do the math. Of course you can always not ask to transfer all the classes taken to remain under the threshold of transfer student.

A couple advantages to dual enrollment: 1. Classes at a community college will probably be much cheaper than a four-year college. 2. Taking gen ed classes and getting them out of the way before graduating high school allows the student more flexibility when going to the four year school. My 19 yo dd is an example of this. She took 6 credits of pre-calc at the cc and also did Belhaven High Scholars on-line during her junior and senior years of high school. Those together gave her a total of 30 credits before she went to college. Because of that she has the flexibility to major in one subject (dance-very time consuming) and also take all the pre-requisites for a graduate program she would like to ultimately pursue (physical therapy school-42 hours of science pre-reqs). Because she went in with so many credits she will be able to do this in four years instead of 5 or more. With some classes out of the way a student may be able to have a double major, or minor, that would not otherwise be possible in 4 years. Just some ideas. Mary

Like others have said, I'd recommend doing some research on the statistics etc. Everybody knows somebody who took HRT and got cancer. BUt then a while back almost every woman was given HRT (my mother was on it for YEARS) and older women, past menopause, have a higher risk of ovarian and breast cancers to begin with. I think is is a very personal decision and needs to be based on each woman's medical history, symptoms, etc. I was on HRT for about 3 years. I weighed the risk of cancer vs. they symptoms of menopause and the risks of osteoporosis. My mother had severe osteoporosis (but she was a smoker), I am of northern European ancestry, and have other risk factors for osteo. My mother suffered with great pain the last 12 years of her life. I also had terrible menopausal symptoms. For me it made sense. One of my best friend's mom had breast cancer and my friend will never take HRT. She couldn't understand why I would. But she hadn't witnessed her mom in excruciating pain from osteo. It is a very personal decision. I have very minor symptoms now and make sure to keep my vitamin D and calcium levels up.

I think a lot of it comes down to your point of view. We have two dds who are now grown, 24 and 19. The younger is still in college. Looking from the outside at our family it would look like we had "sacrificed" for our children. I gave up a career as a lawyer to stay home with them, we homeschooled them (sacrificing time and money), we paid/are paying for the college costs not covered by scholarships, just raising children in general is a big time and money investment. And all of that is not counting the emotional investment in them. BUT we don't feel like we have sacrificed AT ALL. It is the way we chose to live our lives an we love it and our children. It is particularly rewarding now as we are seeing the fruits of our labor-adult children we enjoy being around. :001_smile: My husband has a married co-worker with no children. They travel and cruise A LOT. They have tons of disposable income and a beautiful, expensive house. We look at their life and think how sad we would be in that situation. We are happy with the "sacrifices" we have chosen and the outcomes. We are looking forward to in-laws and grandkids when the time comes.

I totally get it. My dd is 19 almost 20 and finally got her license last week. She's a GREAT driver, in fact the DMV person who gave her the road test complimented her. But I still worry when she is out alone. I guess it's those things you only learn by experience that I worry about. :grouphug: I REAlly, REALLY, get it! All that being said, I think your DH is right. It just doesn't make it easy. Do you and ds have texting? If so, just have your ds sent you a quick text when he gets there and another when he leaves tonight. That way you can limit your worrying to when he's actually on the road :001_smile: HTH, Mary