right now HUSBAND is on my ignore list. But only because it seems that all the children are on HIS ignore list and I was trying to sleep so I could work tonight. I'm right there with everyone wanting the button for MIL! Upcoming Winter Weather is on my list too....I refuse to acknowledge the end of beautiful, warm weather.

So, are you saying that getting your hormone levels checked is what causes pregnancy? Good to know. :D My theory was that every time I got back to what I consider my "ideal" weight, I got pregnant. I think I'm right, cuz I still haven't lost my baby weight ("baby" is now 4) and still remain preg free! My family is beginning to think I actually resemble my avatar for about 1 week/month so something's gotta give. I'm fer sure gonna talk to doc bout this miracle cream. Either that or I've got to seriously increase my alcohol intake!:tongue_smilie:

The only friends I have are pretend friends, so, YES, I feel exactly that way.

I have an apt in Nov w/my gyn, so perhaps I'll bring this up. Do I request labs be drawn to determine levels, or just try it and see if symptoms improve? And, if it's not too personal (as, if too personal would be an issue on this board!?) where exactly do you apply the cream?

Alright, I guess I need the scoop on the P-cream. I could do my own research, but, really, who has the time or energy? I am not a fan of holistic meds (dh recently convinced me to take a vitamin, kelp & probiotic by putting them by my coffee in the am) but all this talk has got me wondering what this is all about....at first I thought it was just intercourse related....Anecdotal evidence welcome.

A study was done w/drs & med students doing CPR. AHA's new regs for compressions during CPR is 100 beats/min, which is quite fast. Drs & med students were told to do compressions to the beat of the song Staying Alive which has 103 beats/min. A few days later the same health professionals were told to do compressions again, this time *thinking* about the song. All of them averaged 113-119 beats per minute. Faster than the 100 beats rec by the AHA, but faster is better than slower when it comes to compressions! http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/September-October-08/Bee-Gees-Song-Helps-Doctors-Keep-CPR-Patients--Stayin--Alive-.html

Thanks a lot! :glare:

I grew up w/septic and my papa was the "tampon police" VERY embarassing to have to be confronted with that. Once we had the septic pumped and the septic guy came with a gross, smelly tampon from the tank and showed it to the girls and reprimanded us all for letting it get into the septic tank (I swear it wasn't mine!). Now I'm all grown up and managing a septic of my own. NOTHING is put down the toilet except what your body produces & toilet paper. Not even those butt wipes that are supposed to be septic safe. Maybe if you did a science experiment and put a tampon in a bowl of water to see how long it lasts (forever) your dd would see that they clog up any system.

I could not get my ds in to see the ped for 2 months. Once I got an "emergency" apt at the office (ear infection, screaming kid) and waited 2.5 hrs past my supposed apt time. I finally left and took ds to FNP clinic. Also, I just had to reschedule my pap (I got my period day before apt that was scheduled 6 months ago) and next available apt was 2 months in advance. I had to make 2 apts just in case my very irregular period decided to rear its ugly head on my apt day again. Dh recently had a big bill because he *forgot* that the specialist he was seeing could not order labs, had to come from primary doc. We have to choose docs from a special list if we want to get the reduced price benefits. If we want to see a particular doc that we *know* is the best in the field, we have to pay lots of $$ out of our own pocket. Oh, did I mention I live in USA? AND I have what is considered excellent health insurance through dh's employer? I never heard of these particular problems when I lived in Canada, so I'll jump on the Canadian bandwagon and oppose those who decry their system. And FWIW, neither party's candidate is proposing a system that mimics Canada's, so comparisons are moot.

So, what I'm getting is: (1) I'm on track & (2) Don't worry so much about day count? Right? I don't *think* we'll take 2 weeks at xmas or any other time because it seems to take my boys (and me) too much time to get back on track mentally even if we take a 3 day weekend. And I think I'll at the very least do math & reading through the summer. Now I'll have to find some other small thing to obsess/stress about. :)

Here in Indiana, we are supposed to HS 180 days/year....I'm having a hard time figuring out if I'm on track or not. We started a bit earlier than PS, and they've had some days off by now, but so have we. So as of yesterday, we've had 38 days of school. Are we on track to do 180 days by June, even with some "vacation" days? Since this is our first year, I want to make sure we're on track, but also don't want to stress if we skip some days. Thanks in advance.

If we lived in the suburbs/city I would have my kids pick up dog poop from yards. Nobody likes to do this, but it really is an easy job with the right equipment on a daily basis. They could be the Poop Patrol or something similar, post flyers and have a set fee per yard. Here at home, we pay my ds8 50 cents per pile, but I think we're getting off cheap!

I find nothing "sweet" or "cute" about that. Sometimes daycare is a necessity, there are no cages. My children all attended a very good daycare for a few hours each day while I was in school & working full time. They all came through unscathed, and even learned some Spanish. They all have fond memories of it. Also, just because *we* choose to homeschool, does not mean that it is the best, absolute, only choice that is good. Homeschooling is one option that a good, involved parent can use...daycare, preschool, private school, tutoring, public school; all of these are other options that a good, involved parent can use.

We say "the package man" I know that is sexist, but really, no woman has ever been the U.P.S. delivery driver for us! We usually have the same guy & my kids even call him Mr. Package Man to his face (as in "Thank you, Mr. Package Man). I think he likes it.

I guess you know by now that it is possible, so I'll add my 2 cents. I negotiated a cash price for my dd's birth w/the ob & hospital 4 yrs ago. The ob let me pay her what she said she actually received from medicaid if I paid cash up front and then I opted out of some of the "required" lab tests. For instance, instead of the glucose tolerance test, I agreed to check my own blood sugar 2X/day and if it was ever high, I'd call her and take the tolerance test. Keep in mind I'm an RN so that may have made a difference when we were discussing lab tests. Then 2 yrs ago (or was it 3?) anymahow, I took a little trip to the hospital in an ambulance & spent one night to find out I'm absolutely fine. $14,000 hospital bill, not including dr bills (3 sep docs saw & billed me whilst I was in the hospital & I had numerous tests, EEG, EKG, 2 CTs, etc.). Our insurance had a high deductible ($1,000) and then paid 80/20. Worked out to about $3,000 I was to pay. First thing I did was to call the neuro doc, explain my situation, and he reduced his bill a bit. Then I called the billing dept of the hospital. They were not willing to lop any off the top, but they did agree to let me make interest free payments of $25 per month. About 6 months into the payments, I called to let them know that I could increase my monthly payment, but the total was still a burden to me, they took (I think) $500 off as a goodwill gesture. Then when my bill was down to under $1,000 they sent me a little letter saying that if I could pay half, they would call that good. I coughed up the $500 just to be done with it. So, it may not be a straightforward adjustment, and may not be what you want at first, but negotiation is possible. AND, renegotiation is also possible after a few months. Just be diligent.

okay, good. Although I wasn't going to loose any sleep over it! :)

Okay, I don't download music or movies and don't think its okay. I'll go ahead and pay the buck or whatever to get my songs from itunes. This works out better for me anyway, because I rarely want the whole album. On the other hand, I have stored all our old CD's to our computer so we can have them on our ipods. Is this illegal? We own the original CD's we just don't have portable CD players and we also play them through our computer. I guess I kinda thought that making a copy for our own, private use was okay but now I wonder. But, I'm not going to delete the hundreds of CDs off our computer....I love the orginazation.

Okay, now I have two things to work on! J/K :D

If I were to do it all over again, I'd pay to stay at one of the Disney hotels or resorts. Go to Disney-dot-com and you'll see that some packages are reasonable. The prices include hotel, park admission and some include some food in the park. Price varys on nights spent, number of days in the park and food options. We spent more than we should have on a non-Disney hotel, then admission and food. We did not buy any souveniers because anything sold at the park can be bought less expensive on the website. My kids were fine with this. One parent at the fireworks had an awake, smiling kid (mine were exhausted & crabby by 8pm). I asked if the kids was a freak, and the parents said, no they were at an inside-the-park hotel so were able to go back and take a nap midday and come back to see the fireworks. When I got home and priced it out on the website, I saw that we had definately made the wrong choice. And there are lots of perks for staying at a Disney-owned hotel or resort that we coulda/woulda taken advantage of. I know there are no prices in this long reply, but wanted to give you some food for thought. ETA you can pack your own lunch/snacks in a backpack to save $ on food. We did this . . . and then forgot the backpack at our condo!

:iagree: with waiting. I had totally given up on my first son. Then he wanted specific tie shoes. I showed him one (more) time in the shoe aisle. He got it and has been tying independently since. He was 7.5 and I just figured his motor skills had finally matured enough that it was not a struggle. Now, with my younger kids, it is a non-issue. They'll tie when they tie.

We live near Chicago and like to do the Navey Pier, and we rotate museum memberships each year between the M of Sci & Industry, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium & Art Instutute. We went to the Chi Childrens Museum one time and my kids never requested to go back, but they're weird. We could easily spend most of one day in any other. Here's Chicago's website. Lots of fun stuff to do! http://www.choosechicago.com/attractions/Pages/default.aspx

I don't know how "educational" it is, but my ds6(7 on Friday) loves to play backgammon with me. I am of the opinion that almost any board game can be educational because it teaches to take turns, sportsmanship, most involve counting of some sort, some strategy. The most educational game we all like to play is yahtzee, although it takes a long time with kids...I need to see if there's a jr yahtzz. It really helps them with mental addition, IMO.

type abdominal pain in to the search and see if it works.

:iagree: I expect my kids to go to college. Tests will be given in college. Therefore, I test them on something almost every week. These tests have no pressure - its just part of teaching them a skill they will eventually need. Somtetimes they correct their own tests. My kids are young, so I let them control the timer. They have their test, pencil & timer in front of them. When they feel ready, they start the timer (I even let the younger one look over the first few questions for a few seconds before he presses start). We go through the incorrect answers at the end. We always look for the "good mistakes." Good mistakes are mistakes you learn from. Every mistake is a good mistake at this point. Either learn how to do the problem correctly, learn to read the question more carefully, or learn that we need more practice on certain kinds of questions. I also teach them test strategies and hope by the time they're in college, these will be "second nature" to them.

:iagree::iagree: