Well, *this* certainly isn't any LESS rude than them quoting you in their social group, Scarlett. :tongue_smilie: I get it, Ok? Some (many? a lot? I don't know) of the ladies on this board dislike me. Perhaps because of my faith, perhaps my personality. Or maybe they just don't care for the font in my signature. Whatever. Truly, I'm ok with that. Anyone IRL knows I can certainly handle not being liked; being hated, even. I've got the message; feel free to spend your time doing something more productive than trying to communicate that sentiment to me further. And if I may be so bold, I'm gonna go right ahead and guess Scarlett's heard you loud and clear as well. And the "mysterious" facebook group is just another avenue for ladies, all (or almost all) of whom met on this forum to talk to one another. And if I may; both {Edited out other member's name, because maybe she'd rather stay out of it, LOL} and I are in that facebook group. Anyone who has been here any length of time knows that she and I have very, very different world views. But somehow, we manage not only to get along, but actually enjoy one another's company. Imagine that!

Um, fwiw, it would bother me if I got a notification that I had been quoted in a social group I didn't have access to. It seems kinda, I dunno; rude? I mean, lets be real, if someone's talking about me behind my back (or in a social group I'm not a member of), I'd honestly rather not know it. It's kinda like someone sending you a pm saying "Hey, just so you know, we're talking about you/what you said in ABC social group. Oh, and we're not inviting you to join the group or telling you what we said." Well, okaaaay, that's certainly your right. But *why* exactly did I need to know? Maybe I'm totally wrong. Perhaps they were just agreeing with something you said. I guess I'm skeptical of that because of the particular social group and knowing that you are very much NOT atheist? I don't like to think the worst of people; perhaps I'm growing more cynical. And I'm not trying to slander any members of the Atheist social group, so don't send me angry pm's, mmmkay? :tongue_smilie: If Scarlett got a notification that someone quoted her in the, I dunno, "I adore my ex-husband" social group, I'd wonder why just as much.

Um, I *love* that. :blushing: {scurries off to add cottage cheese to the grocery list} A THOUSAND times yes. Dh made "special bread" the other day. You see, I've been sick with some mutant form of stomach flu or something for several days now. I couldn't keep anything but water down until today; there was NO WAY I was cooking. Anyway, dh finds a package of hot dog buns, spreads butter on them, and sprinkles on parmesean cheese and garlic powder. I think he cooked them in the oven, then served them with pizza sauce from a can. DS7 declared them "the best bread ever", and asked if Daddy would make them every single day. :glare: My husband has talents; cooking is not one of them. He literally NEVER even fixes food, let alone cooks. Like, he's legendary in our home for NOT preparing food. But let him whip out some hotdog buns and toast them, and stand back Mommy, we are not in need of your culinary services any longer. (I know it's just because Daddy made them. Shoot, he could've sprinkled cheese on a dry leaf and his admirers (aka ds7 and ds10) would've gobbled them up. But come ON! I make the most delicious, melt in your mouth dinner rolls. People rave. My boys? They won't eat them. :sneaky2: )

I totally agree with trying a credit union first. When I was 17, my credit union gave me my first credit card. I had zero credit. Now granted I didn't have negative credit either, and this was (ahem) SEVERAL years ago. And the limit was $500. :D But they were taking a chance on a minor with no credit history at all. I had a checking and savings account there for a few years prior to applying, but I don't know that made much difference.

Sounds like you're allergic to grass. My 7 year old son is allergic to trees, dust, cats, and dogs.. Now the cats and dogs are pretty easy, but ow in the world I'm supposed to help him avoid trees is beyond me. :001_unsure: FWIW, during the spring when his allergies flare. He takes a daily claritin and flonase, which help him immensely. Also, I only know what he's allergic to because of testing by an allergist; something to consider. Oh, and I LOVE the smell of freshly cut grass. For some reason, it's a good childhood memory for me. Perhaps because it meant I was on summer vacation from school?

Yes. I do SO know where you're coming from. If you only knew just how much I knew. :grouphug:

He is using the flexhaler by Pulmicort. Thank you so much, I will look into this!

I do this for my local area stores using a local lady's blog. I'm no help to the op, but just wanted to let you know you're not alone. :D

I realize this is OT, but I read this and wanted to post. I *did* have library fines affect my credit. In my pre-kids, pre-marriage, pre-being-a-real-responsible-adult years (which would be from ages 17-22 for me, LOL), I checked out a few books at my local library and never returned them. I ended up with like $150 debt on my credit. Seriously. (And yes, several years later when I grew up, I went and paid it off.) So they can report you to credit agencies, just so you know. I don't know if they can report you just for fines, or if you have to actually not return things.

Wanted to come back and both update and thank all you ladies. We got ds in to the pediatrician on the 11th; we left on the 12th for a ten day vacation. She did breathing tests and determined he does indeed have asthma. She has him on Pulmicort to control it for now, with using albuterol nebulizer treatments as needed. The Pulmicort is helping *some*; I'm hoping things will continue to improve over the next two or so weeks as it builds up. He hasn't needed a nebulizer treatment in over a week, so obviously things are getting some better. Anyone have any experiences to share with Pulmicort? Is there anything "better" I should ask for? Not to mention, there's no generic for Pulmicort yet, so the prescription had a FIFTY DOLLAR copay. :/

Dawn, I've been missing you as well!

Yes, we will address stds, contraception, all of it. For example, they will know what condoms are for, how they are used, they will know what STDs are and how they are contracted. I have no intention of sheltering them from the facts and reality of sex and all that it entails. But I will be teaching it from the viewpoint of the Word of God, and dh and I will have the expectation that the children follow our teachings on it while still children. Just like we expect them to follow our teachings on everything else while still children.

When I read your post initially, I was nodding my head and agreeing. And then I remembered that ds10 texts from his own phone. :blushing: To be *fair*, he only texts his older sister (dsd19), because she doesn't live with us anymore and he wants to stay in touch with her; especially when she's away at college. AND he only has a phone because we gave him my old prepaid when we got smart phones. Ugh. I really do agree that texting your other friends during a play date when you're 9 years old shouldn't be the norm. I guess I'm kinda a hypocrite because my boy had a phone when he was even younger than that. I guess the difference is that we set up clear expectations regarding phone usage; one of which is that he does NOT have unlimited access to text whoever he wants whenever he wants.

As a teen, I called it a stick shift. I still do occasionally, but since dh works in the automotive industry as did I in my life before kids, I try to remember to call it a manual transmission; it sounds more professional, I guess. :D

We teach our children what the Bible says regarding sex and marriage; specifically, that sex is for a married man and woman ONLY. We teach them that any sex outside of that is a sin, because that's what the Lord's word says. If they decide to reject these teachings once they no longer live in our home, that is outside of our control. But while still children under our care, dh and I have the expectation that they will follow our teachings, whether they agree with them or not.

Macy's has a whole section online just for your situation. I like this one. And this one. And this one. And this one.

Wow. I didn't realize that relying on common sense, nature, and OBVIOUSNESS wasn't allowed on here to support one's opinion, but rather that I must have a study to support it. I must have missed that in the rules somewhere. ETA: I'm sorry, I just had to come back. What kind of bizarro world/alternate reality am I living in that someone is asking for a STUDY to back up my claim that women are more capable of nursing babies than men. I mean, seriously?! Look around you. We have boobs. They don't. It's not that hard. Moms nurse, dad's don't. Because that's the way the Lord made it. A study. Come on.

No one's arguing that. Yes, they *can* nurse. Is the milk going to be as good or abundant as a mother's if the father is in a natural, healthy state? No. It's not. Because that's the way the Lord designed it. For women to do the nursing. I don't see it as a bad thing that men are not designed to nurse children. We are all designed in His image, but for different purposes.

My sons play Minecraft, and we are the same mindset as you, OP. My 10 year old son says he plays on the peaceful mode in Survival or creative, so there's no Zombies or nocturnal animals. We're not ok with the gratuitous killing, either. I'm ok with them slaughtering animals to use them for things; that's what we do IRL. But for no reason, or Zombies or Villagers? No. We're not ok with that. And apparently setting it on peaceful mode achieves that. (I don't play, dh and dss help the boys set it up.) ETA: Oh, and they don't play online with other people. Ever.

Indeed you may. We will sit here with our slightly horrified, informed looks on our faces. I'm sorry, but a father breastfeeding is NOT natural. The Lord just did not design men's bodies to do that if they are healthy and in a natural state. So I will NOT be encouraging my sons to do that. I am very, VERY pro breast feeding, I nursed both my boys. There's no reason a woman can't be pro breast feeding and be pro modesty at the same time. Good grief. And no, I don't get bent out of shape if I see a mama nursing in public not covered up. But I have taught my boys that breasts are a private part of a woman, and while they are for feeding babies, they should also be covered up. So if my boys saw a mama out feeding without a cover, they'd look away out of modesty. And I find NOTHING wrong with that. That doesn't teach them that breastfeeding is shameful or gross or immodest. It teaches them that there is a time, place, and way for everything, and we should be decent. And that different people have different standards of what "decent" is, and that we should respect both them and ourselves by following our own standards while not judging theirs. If there's nothing in the Bible about it, it's not a big enough deal to make a "rule" for. We just strive to be modest AND understand the natural uses of a woman's breasts. Same concept as when we go to the pool or beach regarding clothing. It's honestly not that hard to teach.

Well. This thread certainly has been... enlightening. I'm going to go over in the corner here and sit quietly with Ellie now if that's ok. :mellow:

All I can say is that I wish I had had a mother that was as involvled and cared as much about me and my baby with my first pregnancy as Stacey is with her daughter. It certainly can be scary, being a very young woman, pregnant, having never given birth before. I know I didn't know all the right questions to ask, I didn't know where to go or who to lean on. God Bless you, Stacey, for being there for your daughter.

I actually have a great idea for you. There are several of us on here that work for this company. Kristin (K2Bdeutmeyer) introduced us to it. It's called Lionbridge. Basically they're contracted to Google. There are several positions for working from home. It is very legitimate, part time, independent contractor work. They are based out of the UK. They direct deposit your pay once a month. It's no joke junk job. They pay quite a fair wage. For the position I have, Internet Assessor, you have to pass a three part exam. They send you a pdf study guide that's about 150 pages long that explains in detail the sort of work you'll be doing, and they give you a week to study and pass all three parts of the test. Basically, I rate google results; how well the results answer the intent of the user's query, how good the webpages are, stuff like that. It's very technical, and kind of boring, to be honest. But the hours are completely flexible; they ask that you work between 10-20 hours a week. And actually, in the two-ish months I've been working for them, they've been offering to let people work up to 30 hours a week about half the time, because they have a surplus of work. Many of the job descriptions say they require a bachelors degree. This does not appear to be true. The one I applied for said so. I don't have a bachelors; I don't even have an associates. I do have a computer aided drafting career background in the years before kids, as well as some college, which I guess proved that I have something of a "techy" background. But that was TEN years ago. I haven't worked since then. And they hired me. Kristin doesn't have her degree either, though again she does have some college. If you have any more questions, feel free to post a "Hey anyone who works for Lionbidge" thread. Like I said, there are actually several of us now thanks to Kristen recommending it. It was exactly the sort of job my dh and I had been wanting me to find, but didn't think actually existed. Here's a link to the job listings in the US. From what I understand for the different postions, the pay range is $13-$16/hr. I have no desire to go back to the CAD field I was in before kids (nor could I without putting the kids in school, which is not something we'd consider),but those are the only skills I have that could make me any sort of decent money. Dh and I didn't think it worth it for me to go earn minimum wage somewhere for 15 hours a week. I mean, if we NEEDED the money, for sure I'd do it. But this was the perfect compromise.

Thanks Mrs. Mungo. At 11:15 when he was STILL awake because he was coughing so much, I pulled out the nebulizer and albuterol and gave him a breathing treatment. Before we did it, he said "Mommy, I have this awful tickle in my throat that no matter how hard or how much I cough it won't go away!". I explained to him the best I could what I thought was going on, and how this medicine should help. After he finished the treatment, he said the tickle was small now, and he felt like he could breathe better. He still coughed some but was able to fall asleep. I'm going to try to get him in to be seen tomorrow, because from my reading, it seems I want him on a inhaled controller med for the summer months.

Wow. So, yeah, cough variant asthma triggered by allergies does seem to be exactly what he has. He gets hay fever allergies every summer, and starts coughing. It's been this way at least three years now. Good grief I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure out what's going on. I feel kinda like a bad mom. Ugh. I'll be calling his pediatrician in the morning.