You can sit next to me, dearie!!! Just scoot your rocker on over! :)

:w00t: That's great news!!!!!!! :hurray:

You young whippersnapper!!! He was elected about 6 months before I graduated from high school! :looking for Geritol and her reading glasses: :leaving:

Well, my 14yo son is a political science whiz. Name the year, and he can tell you who was president in 15 seconds or less. Some of it has rubbed off on me! :)

Here's a fun sort of 'how old are you' thread with Presidential twist!!! Who was President of the US the year you were born? (For those of you who live outside the US, you'll have to use Google or Wikipedia for the answer to who was President of the US during that year!) I'll go first --- John F. Kennedy was president when I was born

My 9 year old had a friend spend the night last night, so we'll be taking him home in a few hours....and other than that, we're just relaxing and planning on watching football later this afternoon. GO REDSKINS!!!!!!! :party:

NBC Universal owns the rights to SNL and they've been removing them rapidly from YouTube whenever they're found, so I always try to use NBC Universal's own links. Sarah Palin was on twice last night -- here are links to both skits http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/gov-palin-cold-open/773761/ http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-palin-rap/773781/

We drink rice milk here....but not the Rice Dream brand, if you have any potential gluten issues because the Rice Dream brand does contain gluten. But my kids love it! The vanilla is the best..and the chocolate is good too!

Dan Akroyd is my all-time favorite SNL cast member. My oldest daughter loves Amy Poehler.

Wonder if voting for him will work as a write-in vote??? :lol:

It's just about ending here... She was in the opening scene...and then she's on again when they do their "Weekend Update" news skit ... which is probably an hour into the show? Or thereabouts? The funniest thing we saw tonight was the Suze Orman skit ...

Awwww.... I'm firmly convinced that the placenta is made up of brain matter, taken from the mother during pregnancy!! ;)

I voted for "hang on a sec while I add you", because I couldn't resist!!! :lol: But you're not on my ignore list!! You are, however, on my friend list!! :D

Not sure if there's one particular name for it. Unit studies comes to mind. Also child-led learning .. interest-led learning ... or even unschooling would also fit.

:party: Hope you're having a great day!!!

That's good to know!! Of course, I don't think, "Honey, can we go to Colorado on our next vacation so that I can get an Orange Julius?" will go over very well! :lol:

Not about to attack you!! I'm searching for my missing rep points!!!! :hurray: And I will say this much....I'm not about to attack anyone for voting for John McCain. If he's your candidate, that's just fine by me. That's what makes this a free country! All *I* ask for is the same respect in kind to *my* candidate of choice. And please...do not assume that just because this is a homeschooling board, everyone on here is a Christian who shares your point of view.

I used to love those!!!!!!! I haven't seen an Orange Julius in a mall in ... 20 years!!!! Man...now I want one!! Thanks, Kate! :lol:

I agree with you again, Rebecca. We need more studies of children with autism, and by independent researchers (not subsidized by the pharmaceuticals). We were completely convinced that our oldest son's autism was caused by vaccines because he stopped talking at 15 months, 5 days after his MMR vaccine, and didn't speak again until he was 4 1/2 (other than echolalia, repeating memorized phrases, etc.) My youngest daughter has never been vaccinated, and she still has autism .. and a more severe form of autism than my oldest son (as I related in an earlier post). Genetically predisposed? Definitely!!! Also there was another study that came out recently that noted that if the father of a child was over 40 at the time of conception, there was a significantly higher chance that the child would have autism (and my hubby was 43 when I got pregnant with my youngest). So I think there could be something to this as well...and would at least partially explain the reasons for the rise of autism within the last ten years, as families are having children later and later in life, due to advances in fertility treatments for older moms (and dads). I would love to read more about what helped your children!! My daughter's never had an EEG and I'm curious to see if it might help her in some way (even though you mentioned in another post that it was less effective with girls). I know that for my daughter, her sensory issues have decreased a hundredfold since she started occupational therapy a year and a half ago (before then, we couldn't even take her out in public because her sensory system would just go on 'overload meltdown'. Now we can take her out to restaurants, take her shopping ... she still can't handle shopping malls, but she can handle places like Wal-Mart and grocery stores, and we've been on short vacations numerous times -- so it's like having a completely new child!!) What we had to handle before OT would curl your toes! (My dd had a passion for taking her diaper off at night and smearing the contents on the walls -- and this went on for YEARS. She no longer does this and OT was what helped more than anything else. Her therapist said that my dd was one of the worst cases of sensory integration dysfunction that she'd ever seen) She still has some sensory issues, but they're not as significant as they once were (she doesn't like crowds, she can't wear tight pants, she doesn't like her hair brushed, etc.) Her language issues affect her the most in her day to day life. She has trouble asking and answering questions. Her vocabulary is very good, but she has no concept whatsover about word order, so her sentences come out like "Grass the pumpkin is on the" instead of "The pumpkin is on the grass". Her therapist believes that it is definitely caused by something inside her brain, neurons missfiring, etc., so that caused my ears to perk up when you mentioned EEG's with your children. Sorry this was so long, btw!!

That was awesome!!!! Thanks for posting this!!

That's sad!! As everyone knows, I'm not voting for McCain / Palin, but I would NEVER presume that someone is voting for McCain because they're racist! I do assume that they're Republican, Pro-life, Pro-NRA, or one of the other platforms that many who are voting for McCain / Palin support, but I don't assume that they're voting for McCain because they're racist.

I can't wait!! But...I wish it could've been done as a surprise to Tina Fey!!! I'll never forget the look on Will Farrell's face when he was all dressed up as Janet Reno...and the real Janet Reno came in from backstage, wearing the same dress! I thought he'd die!! They did the same thing to Amy Pohler with Hillary Clinton. I would've loved the opportunity for Tina Fey to be surprised by having Sarah Palin show up unannounced.

Northern Virginia is outrageously expensive!!! You could try Alexandria, but most of Fairfax County is going to really be stretching your dollar. You could also try Prince William County, but then your dh would be driving up I-95 at rush hour -- not fun! But I know that PWC has numerous vacant houses (they've been really hurt by the foreclosure crisis and many folks are renting their homes because they can't sell them). If your dh would be traveling off hours, or is somehow able to use the HOV lanes, like by carpooling or driving a hybrid, then the trip up I-95 from Manassas or other areas of PWC wouldn't be bad.

I voted for 'other'. We buy organic eggs, milk, and meat because organic farmers raise and slaughter their animals in a more humane way. They also use fewer pesticides and antibiotics, which end up in our food in the end.

CNN just had an article this morning about Virginia!! There's a bill before the General Assembly (which will reconvene in January) that will require insurance companies to cover the cost of therapy for treating autism, up to $36,000 per year!! :w00t: Our youngest daughter's speech and occupational therapy costs us around $20K per year, so this would be VERY VERY helpful!!!! If anyone reading this thread lives in Virginia, and would like to write to the members of the General Assembly, it's House Bill 83. I'm sooo very hopeful this will pass!!! We have health insurance, but it doesn't cover therapy for autism and this would help our family tremendously!!! Here's the article on CNN about the Virginia bill: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/17/autism.insurance/index.html Here's a link to the legislation itself: http://leg2.state.va.us/DLS/H&SDocs.NSF/682def7a6a969fbf85256ec100529ebd/a61f58940da54611852574d7004e4b27?OpenDocument