Are the grandparents the parents of the brother that was killed??? I do not think that you are overreacting - not. one. little. bit. To me it sounds like those girls knew the gun was there and found a way to "accidentally" show it to your daughters. I do not think any amount of "training" is sufficient to trust a group of young kids in an unfamiliar environment with a loaded gun. No way. Glad your kiddos are safe!

Does the coach behave abusively when the parents are around? Could you all rotate practices so that there is always a parent present?

I love Michael Pollan. I cannot stand Al Gore.

IME I didn't find Pollan's Ominvore's Dilemma to be depressing. I actually found it motivating, and hopeful. I read it as there are things that can be done, and there are people doing good work - we just have to support them. Individual choices do matter.

Have you read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma? http://www.amazon.com/Omnivores-Dilemma-Natural-History-Meals/dp/0143038583/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247617483&sr=1-1 Or The Fluoride Deception by Christopher Bryson? http://www.amazon.com/Fluoride-Deception-Christopher-Bryson/dp/1583225269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247617246&sr=1-1 Don't even get me started on the FDA, organic certification, or the CDC. :glare:

No. We don't eat anything from China.

You might enjoy reading Dr. Laura's books about husbands and marriage. I am not a submissive wife - but I have learned that my marriage is a lot better when I am a NICE wife.

I use the app iflippr. It is pretty fabulous! You can go cards in order, cards presented according to an algorithm, cards back to front. I am using the flashcards primarily for Latin. Since the flashcards can be "shared" I searched for Wheelock's and found vocab cards for all of the chapters. So for those all I had to do was mark them as favorites. :D

:blink:

I thought that they just had to fail three times?

:smilielol5: Is it wrong that I would love secret messages from SWB?

Looks like there is a book coming out with some additional suggestions: http://www.amazon.com/BananaGrams-Official-Abe-Rena-Nathanson/dp/0761156356/ref=pd_sbs_t_12

I would use Shutterfly. Once you upload your pictures it is pretty darn easy. You can add text/captions if you want, or not. You can even have Shutterfly auto load all of the photos into an album.

Are you in Sacramento?

GP babies are absolutely the cutest! I still remember the surprise GP babies we had when I was a kid. :001_wub:

We have had great service with Dreamhost. There are coupon codes for new customers, so google around if you decide to use them. Be careful if you decide to go with someone else, because many less honest companies renew your domain name in THEIR name. So if later you want to switch you are out of luck.

Thanks for the great links! I fully understand the limitations of Wheelock's, and plan to mix it with other sources. However I have a very good tutor who is willing to help me through Wheelock's - so Wheelock's it is, at least for right now. My problem is that I seem to be unable to memorize. It goes in one eyeball and out the other. I was hoping to find some sort of song, chant, crazy sentence that helped me remember the declensions. I think that the MP cds are Christian pronunciation, which I am going to find confusing. Off to investigate...

We mostly lose ours under the couch and behind the books. :D I am interested to hear what others do... I know that there must be some great ideas. :bigear:

I meant good old plastic camp lanyards. They can be tricky to start - I remember that my mom used to start them, and then we would do the rest. http://www.boondoggleman.com/what_is_it.htm

I am blundering my way through Wheelock's and am really struggling to make the memorization stick. I already own the Wheelock's CD, which is helpful, but not quite what I need. So, I am looking for a CD of chants or songs of the declensions etc. I don't care if it is set to the tune of Old MacDonald, as long as I can listen to it over and over. Classical preferred. I would also be open to other memory tricks or ideas about how to get this all into my head. Flashcards just aren't cutting it! :001_huh: Thanks!!!

Some of the most amazing knitters I know are men. Often they are men who learned to knit in the NAVY! Knitting can involve a lot of math, imagination, and engineering. Even with finger knitting, boys often turn the cords into snakes, forts, streamers, etc... So, I think that you should let the gender thing go. Other ideas: Wood burning cooking lanyards book making decoupage building with popsicle sticks mosaics painting simple wood projects painting paper making wool felting spinning making games decoupage

It can be REALLY hard to engage when you are suffering from depression. I think that you need to try to help him out from under the depression before you can really expect a "spark". I understand if you are not interested in a drug treatment... but there are other things that should help. Diet, exercise, and sunshine can have a HUGE effect on depression. People who are depressed want to be happy, spark-y, engaged... they just can't get themselves there. For me, when I am depressed, having someone say "what do you want? What would make you happy? What do you want to do with the rest of your life?" makes me want to hide. At best I could pick between two options. Do you want to research dinosaurs or the moon? Okay, the moon. If it were me, I would address the depression first. I would continue to plug along with your chosen work. And I would add in a subscription to Smithsonian magazine. Every issue ask him to talk to you about one article that he found interesting. Follow up on that topic as desired.

Can someone please link to the other pencil thread? I tried searching, but it didn't come up. Thanks!:D

Yes, but I've always had very good service from Peace Hill Press! ;) Seriously, if you paid with a credit card, call your credit card company. A credit card dispute is really very little work, and may result in you receiving a full refund. Often, the mere appearance of the credit card company prompts vendors to "find" a customer friendly response. :glare:

Thanks! I have no idea if this is what you meant... but you helped me figure it out. I was trying to get it to work within the web application for iflipr, but instead I needed my computer to insert the special character. For the mac this requires ---> Edit ---> Special Characters -----> insert. Thanks!