My mom and dad divorced when I was 4. Dad got custody because mom was into drugs. Mom stopped coming around for visitation when I was 8. I looked mom up when I was 18, went across town to find her. She didn't recognize me. She also didn't call or write even though I gave her my contact info. I'm 35 now. Haven't heard from her in 17 years. And she just friended me on facebook.

Thank you. so much. This looks like what we need. I just called though, and the testing is SO expensive! $600!

Well thank you for your not-so-random comment. He has been diagnosed with migraines by a pediatric neurologist. He has a prescription medication he takes for them when he gets them. I will look into that, thank you so much. Funny, his eyes looked liked they do when he gets a migraine. I even asked him if his head hurt. Thank you so much.

Any moms who have BTDT, I need help. I'm pretty sure Moose has dyslexia. Maybe it's something else, I don't know. But I can tell you that I need help to help him. He can read, but it's exhausting for him. He has trouble tracking; frequently skips lines. He still writes random numbers backwards. I know people are going to tell me that's ok for his age, and I get it. But he doesn't realize the number is even backwards sometimes. There is definitely something going on, and i need to have him tested. But how? Where? I have no experience in this area. If there's a way to get him tested for free through the schools, we'd like to do that. But I have no idea how. If we need to pay for it through someone else, we will. Please help me. I'm lost. I need to get ds some help, but I don't know where to start.

If you can afford that nice set of pots and pans, get that for her. She will appreciate it for years, and likely use it every day. My inlaws are a blessing to me in regards to supplying my kitchen. Every year for Christmas, they want a gift idea from me. Right now in my kitchen from my in laws: my wonderful set of stainless steel pots and pans that are used daily, my plates and bowls that are used at practically every meal, my very nice set of knives that are in constant use as well, my kitchenaid stand mixer that I'd never have bought for myself, and a much fancier toaster oven than I would've bought to replace the one that broke. Really, they spoil me. It's what they do. Buy her the nice, quality set if you can. I can tell you that I think of my inlaws frequently when cooking, and thank God for the blessings they give me. To have good quality kitchen things makes my 'job' so much easier and more enjoyable, you know? Some day I hope to be the mother in law that spoils her daughter in laws like that. :)

Uh, I'm assuming you've never waited tables, Wendy? :D

This is a rather new development with Zee, over the past year or so. Certain strong odors make him sick to his stomach. Even after the smell is gone, he'll be nauseous for a good long while; sometimes a few hours. And it's not even necessarily things *most* people would consider gross smells, you know? For example, we were just at the grocery store. At the front of the store is a Subway. They were cooking something, don't know what. It smelled good to me, and it didn't seem to be a super strong smell, either. Just quite noticeable. Zee asked if we could leave the area quickly, because the smell was making him feel like he was going to throw up. Even now that we're home his stomach is still upset by it. He's never actually vomited, just feels like he might. And if I need to make a balsamic vinegar reduction? Forget about it. He's done for the day, LOL. We're familiar with Sensory Integration Disorder; Moose has it. But Zee doesn't seem to have 'sensory stuff' except this thing with smells. How can I help him? Is there anything I can do except trying to avoid smells that trigger the nausea? Like I said, it's not all smells, or even all strong smells. He LOVES my perfume, for example. Any BTDT?

I totally hear you, Remudamom. I want to avoid this .Which is why I let my dh take the lead on stuff like this. In fact, I have real life examples of some men who were homeschooled, are now married, some with children of their own, who still have lots of "teenager" attributes. I don't want to baby my boys like that. It's what I'm trying to avoid.

We don't watch tv or movies. Interesting, hunh?

All good points Wendy. Dh has explained it to him. He's a very bright boy, he understands that he *shouldn't* be able to beat daddy very often in chess. Dh also compliments ds in his chess playing. Zee and I have "our" game, too. Uno. More chance involved there. He beats me sometimes, and never cries when he loses. Perhaps it's just more painful to lose to daddy than to me.

I'm gonna have to hit Bible Gateway. Got any references for me? ETA: Ah. Ephesians 5:4 covers it nicely.

Well I appreciate the feedback that my boys are normal, at least. :D I'll see if dh can get on board with the "ignoring it" idea for the gross stuff. I dunno if he'll go for it or not, but it's worth a suggestion.

Oh my word, thank you SO much for the link. This couldn't be a more perfect book! His birthday is in a few weeks, and we're getting him a nice wood chess board. And this book to go with it. :D He has checked out quite a few chess books from the library, which is why he's been able to beat dh twice now. Heh. Great minds link alike. This is the rule *I* suggested. "One game a night". But nooooo, dh and Zee *always* want to play more than one. What do *I* know, right? :glare: :D

Pffft. Cruel schmuel. I think it's HILARIOUS. :D

Ok, each of my little boys does something that I'd like feedback on. Zee, who is almost 10, cries when he loses a game of chess to his dad. They usually play two games of chess most evenings. Being that he's only 10, he has only beat dh twice. He's usually fine after losing the first game, and wants to play again. But then after losing the second game, there are usually tears. Not a tantrum or sobbing, but he tears up and pouts a bit. He *is* a sensitive boy. He claims he enjoys playing chess, and is always begging to play dh. I've asked him about the crying, and he can't articulate why he cries. My questions: Is this "normal"? Should we discourage the crying somehow, and if so, how? Now Moose, who is 7. The boy is driving me INSANE with being gross. He thinks grossness is *hilarious*. He likes to tell "jokes" about, um, bodily functions. He made a mask out of construction paper this morning, and drew vomit by the guy's mouth. The words "po0p" and "fart" are the funniest ones in the English language, apparently.Stuff like that. And I *get* that that is very normal for boys. I get it. But it is way, WAY too much; it's gotten out of hand. He does it too often, and it's gotten really old. Dh and I have explained, over and over, about how there is a time and place for 'gross' jokes. We started sending him to the bathroom everytime he did it (I got that idea here, in fact. Bathroom words belong in the bathroom.) That hasn't worked. You're going to have to trust me that this has gone past "normal boy behavior" to "a socially unacceptable thing that must be reigned in". Please, I'm begging for suggestions on how to break him of this habit. Today, he's already been sent to the bathroom once, and I warned him that anymore grossness that I hear will mean a ten minute break in his bed. He's allowed to "be gross" when he's just around his brothers/dad, but not around Mommy ("because girls don't like to hear gross stuff"). I realize not everyone will agree with the gender stereotype there, but we're trying to teach him that things have a time and a place, you know? I'm open to advice, even suggestions that we're handling it wrong right now. Which I'm pretty sure we are, since we're not getting the desired results. :D

Glad to hear the good news about your dad, Bill. Hoping things continue to improve for him.

Praise Jesus! My mom just texted me that a bed opened up! He's going tomorrow! Yay!

I understand what you're saying, But the reality of healthcare in Flint does not work that way, unfortunately.

Running out of milk. (I'm serious. It's a childhood issue.)

He's in the hospital right now. We need to get him transferred to a Long Term Acute Care Hospital, instead of back to the nursing home. The LTAC hospital doesn't have a bed open for my dad yet. The hopsital dad's in has to discharge him tomorrow, because he's not sick enough to stay there. If he gets sent back to the nursing home, he'll just get another infection and end up back in the hospital again. We need a place to open up for dad in the LTAC hospital. I'm doing all I can. Prayer is appreciated. Dad's doing better, but going back to the nursing home instead of the LTAC hospital is going to set him back.

We've been cable free for years. We *just* bought our first flat screen tv. We will NOT be getting cable, but we have wireless internet. The tv is a, lemme check... sharp aquos. What kind of neat, educational things can I do with this for the kids? I'd like to get them watching some documentaries. They'd enjoy that. I know we can connect our computer to the tv; dh did that already. Help this non-techy girl out. :D

Julie, first of all, God bless that fabulous friend of yours for her kindness. The dress is very pretty. Do try it on for fit and color, of course. I'm the same size as you, so I browsed David's Bridal for what I'd want to try on just looking at the pictures. In addition to the dress you linked, I like this one.

My dss has one. Well, *had* one. He loved it. He busted his hump doing yard work and odd jobs to save up for it. We bought him a case. Let me just make that quite clear. It HAD a case. :D He kept cramming the thing in his front pants pocket. I told him not to; both because it looked *ridiculous* AND because it wasn't safe.He didn't listen. Oh, and apparently he wasn't closing the case cover over the screen before he crammed it in his pocket. :glare: We were at a family party. He must have bumped into the corner of a table or leaned too hard on something. The tablet, which was (of course) crammed into his front pocket without the case cover closed over the screen, cracked. Nice big crack on the screen. He was devastated. I found it hard to muster sympathy instead of shouting "I TOLD you to stop doing that! Why don't you EVER listen!" :p My point is, get a good case. With a flap that covers the screen. And make sure your kid knows to actually, you know, close the case over the screen when he's not using it. (Dss really liked his tablet. He is very techy and did a LOT of research before picking the Nexus7.)

Me! I started cooking at age 12, when I was responsible for making dinner for my family of 6 every day. Now back then, it was stuff like hamburger helper, frozen corn, and canned biscuits. Not exactly what I wanted to feed my *own* family once I got married and had kids. :p So, I started small. Pick one thing at a time that you want to improve or learn, and work on that. For example, it wasn't till I was married for 9 or so years that I ever made homemade bread. I was intimidated by it. Now, it's easy, but I've been doing it for a couple years. Pretty much any recipe you could ever want can be found online. I like Allrecipes; there's ratings, you can search for a recipe by what ingredients you want to use, and lots of good reviews on the recipes, too. They have lots of how-to videos, too. You can always google for how-to videos as well, and youtube has a TON. I find watching someone do something to be more helpful than written directions sometimes, especially if it's something *completely* new to me.

Skechers has some cute styles that look comfy, too.