i don't know but i would sure try. :grouphug:

well I turn 40 in August and have never had one so I am starting to think should I? should I not? and the conflicting informations is...well...conflicting!

I think it is awesome! What an amazing, life-changing experience to give to your children!! Definitely do working with orphanages, drilling wells, helping out in villages... those pics...pics of the faces of REAL people you got to meet and serve will mean so much more to you than pics of tigers and gazelles. How exciting!

I keep getting all this conflicting information and it is making me a little crazy. My regular family doctor in the states said I should start getting them every two years at age 35. My ob/gyn in the states said yearly starting at age 40. I went to a new ob/gyn here today (what a great doctor!) and she said with no family history and no extra risk factors they recommend age 50. So which is it? And why all the discrepancy? I mean if there is a "correct age" to start then why isn't it the same everywhere?

:iagree: Wow, I never heard of an AWANA nazi before. None of the AWANA groups we have been in have been like this. That is crazy. I would get out of there and FAST. You may also want to discuss this with church leadership.

last summer I had 3 silver fillings replaced because of cracks in my teeth. they replaced them with white fillings. They look nicer BUT those teeth are A LOT more sensitive now.

Not me...but my ds shot competitvely in NRA competitions. I am such a proud republican mommy!

CONGRATS!!!!!!

The Malaysian end of it will be done on July 9. Then we can apply for a Malaysian passport which will allow her to travel. In order to get her U.S. citizenship it will take filing all the paperwork and waiting a few months but we should be done by Christmas. At any rate, I am still trying to talk him into a motorcycle instead. :D

Now this is a good idea! I can add a third list of "books I finished but wished I hadn't"....

Wow, so I am not the only one who pumps gas to the the nearest whole dollar? I thought that was my sick little secret. 50 page rule...interesting. I am way past page 50 so maybe I will just donate to the library and forget it ever happened. As for series...I totally get it. I have read all of the Sookie Stackhouse series except the last one because I just can't take it any more. I don't care who she ends up with and I kind of wish they would just kill off her character and be done with it. I also read the first two Outlander books and by the end of the second one I could hardly hold my head up. Ok...this is it people...I am getting rid of the book. I will never know how it ends...oh wait, yes I do, Anne Boleyn loses her HEAD! :)

NOT finish this book I am reading? Do you always finish the books you start? I do. Always. It is compulsive. Even if it is not a good book I still finish it because the "unfinished" aspect of it drives me crazy if I don't (yes I am a little OCD). But I started "Wolf Hall" and it is killing me. First, the book is huge and the print is tiny and normally that wouldn't bother me (I devoured Pillars of the Earth in no time) but this book D R A G S....... I am only 1/4 of the way through it and it just stares at me from my nightstand...taunting me with its unfinished-ness. But it is so boring. Really. So please, someone tell me this book is going to suddenly become amazing. Is there some kind of 12-step program I can join that will help me learn to not finish a book and that is OK?

Yup. Ours did too. This is an AWANA thing and not necessarily a church thing but it is up to the individual church to look at that requirement in the club book and say "let's just skip that". I have seen some churches do this for camps too. One thing our former church did which I thought was nice was instead of giving the inviting camper $100 for each camper they invited, they put the $100 towards the cost of attending the camp for the invitee. That way if my ds invites someone to camp it is an honest invitation and he gets no reward for it.

Ok so maybe I need to talk him into buying a better motorcycle instead? :D

Toni Morrison

Well we have been living in Malaysia for one year now (gosh time flies!) and so far it has been a really amazing experience. The international school where we work and where my children attend (one full time, one part-time and part-time homeschool) has kids from 28 different countries. My kids are meeting people and having experiences they never would have had staying in suburban Michigan. Sure, some of it has been challenging but it has helped build character in all of us. My kids are wanting to know where we might live next! :D

Wow, you might be right. I am being very casual about the whole thing. I mean, he followed me to Malaysia and so I sort of owe him one. :D But gosh, I really hope this passes. It would not be my first choice at our age.

So my dh says to me today... "Did you hear they raised the enlistment age for the army to 42?" He is 41 yo. And he is giving me that look. It's one of the things he always wanted to do but when he was fresh out of high school his parents discouraged him from doing it. Then life happened. And now... My initial reaction was :svengo: Don't get me wrong, if he wants to follow his dream I will support him but I know ZILCH about being a military wife and this whole idea freaks me out a bit. I assume we would have to go back to the states for this. Where would he go after basic training? Would I be able to work wherever we end up (Assuming we all go somewhere together?)? If not, can you live on one military salary? This whole thing has my head spinning. Not sure how serious he is or if this is just a mid-life crisis. But he has 4 months to make up his mind. Yikes.

Certified? Most of them, yes. They have to hire certified teachers for accreditation reasons and here in Malaysia the country will not give you a work visa unless you are certified (but that varies by country). Some small missionary schools will let you teach without a cert. but be prepared to raise your own support (as in no salary). Best places to look for jobs: http://missionteach.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=134&Itemid=137 (this is for christian schools) http://www.tieonline.com/ (for secular schools) or you can go to many of the schools directly by going to http://www.state.gov and looking up their Office of Overseas Schools. They have listings of hundreds of schools all over the world. And there is also Department of Defense Schools (my friend taught at one in the Marshall Islands for 8 years and LOVED it): http://www.dodea.edu/home/ When to apply: The best time to send your resume is late fall (November is good). We are one of the later schools and we post our job openings for the following school year in January and have them filled NO LATER than April but usually by March. This is one of the biggest mistakes rookies make...waiting too late to apply. So if you are interested in going during the, say, 2011-2012 school year then you should start researching schools now and start sending resumes in the fall. Let me know if you have any more questions. :D

Well in Malaysia it moves like m o l a s s e s..... I miss U.S. internet speed every day. :glare:

I feel caught in the middle. The secular textbooks go so far out of their way to remove an hint of creation or intelligent design but many christian texts do not adequately address anything other than creationism. So what's a mom to do? When trying to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea we chose to err on the side of christian and are using apologia materials but supplementing with secular texts.

:iagree::iagree:

pedicures once a month!

.

congrats!!!!!