:smilielol5:

Works for me!!! I'll be waiting by the mailbox for my check! :D

Hmm...I agree! Have you heard about colanders yet? :D Perhaps not, if you're still able to receive their subliminal messages.... ;)

Social Services in your area is a good place to start. Our Tae Kwon Do school always adopts several families at Christmas from a list that social services gives us, and we all chip in to purchase everything on their list (along with gift cards to the local grocery store -- most of the time, the grocery store donates them for free so we can give them multiple cards -- that way, they can shop for several weeks of free groceries)

Well said!!! :iagree: You can't say "We want abortion to be illegal" and "If they keep their babies, don't offer them any help with my taxpayer dollars" in the same breath without sounding extremely heartless.

My 9yo has been talking about becoming a doctor for 2 years now, so I'm reading this thread with interest!!! One thing that my hubby and I are hoping he can do is attend an in-state public college for his undergrad so that he can do it without any student loans. Medical school will be very expensive and we don't want him to rack up alot of money in student loans getting his bachelor's, only to pile more on for medical school. Is this something to consider as well?

Question for those in South Carolina!!!! We're headed to Myrtle Beach for our annual vacation a week from Monday. Will we be able to buy gas once we get there?? (Getting it here in Virginia won't be a problem, but...if we can't get gas once we're there, that would be a problem!!!) Any idea on how much gas is costing there? (Ours averages anywhere from $3.59 to $3.69 a gallon for regular)

Sounds great! I'll even volunteer to go first! Here are the colleges my oldest has visited: Juniata College (PA) - in the middle of nowhere .. dd wasn't impressed at all with it because it didn't have much of a campus feel...sort of a college dropped in the middle of a neighborhood in a really, really small town Coastal Carolina Univ (SC) - my dd loved it! Beautiful campus about 10 miles from Myrtle Beach. Lots of out-of-state students (around 50%). Huge marine biology / science program. Campbell Univ (NC) - this was really in the middle of nowhere! Very Christian campus. It was pretty, though! Saint Mary's College (MD) - another college in the middle of nowhere -- right on the water literally - strong academic program -- a public honors college Virginia Tech (VA) - HUGE campus...all the buildings look the same .. freezing cold when we visited ... long, long walk from the dormitories to the academic buildings Univ of Virginia (VA) - beautiful campus -- lots of college tradition William & Mary (VA) - lovely historic campus -- hard working students (or so it appeared!) Radford Univ (VA) - nice campus -- friendly students Longwood Univ (VA) - lovely campus... in the middle of a cornfield -- nothing much there, other than the school Randolph-Macon (VA) - a very nice school! Very welcoming to homeschoolers -- if they can come up with the $$ needed for the $36K price tag Old Dominion Univ (VA) - an urban campus .. trying very hard to lose its reputation as a commuter school. Lots of construction on campus as they try to build more dormitories and other niceties (my niece graduated from ODU 2 years ago) Univ of Mary Washington (VA) - beautiful campus in the middle of an historic city (very similiar in feel to William & Mary) -- downside for dd is we live 20 minutes away from it James Madison Univ (VA) - my dd's 1st choice school and the only one she's applied to so far -- terrific campus -- huge student body involvement -- wonderful academics -- she has her fingers and toes crossed!!

I'm happy if mine wear pants!!! I'm serious!! Yesterday, at our school table, my 6yo was wearing nothing but a backpack and a pair of Dora the Explorer underwear. ;)

QUICK!!!!! Run and get your colander before it's too late!!!! :lol:

LOL!!! Makes me want to make friends with everyone! I don't have any friends either!!! :crying: :lol:

And you can click on other people and view what's been said about them! A lot more 'detailed' than the previous system. It'll tell you who has viewed your public profile and when.... . . . . Shhhhh...they're watching....time to put the colander on my head!! :leaving:

:lol:

Thanks!! Very helpful!! I never would've found it otherwise! :thumbup:

:lol:

:iagree: This has been true in our house, too!

John McCain has received money from Fannie & Freddie. I'll cut and paste a snippet: In the current election cycle, Sen. McCain has received $169,000 from the mortgage companies and their affiliates. Two of the top contributors -- Freddie Mac's board member Geoffrey T. Boisi and Fannie Mae lobbyist Richard F. Hohlt -- are listed on McCain's Web site as bundlers who've raised between $100,000-$250,000 for McCain. (A sidebar in the Times lists McCain's top donors connected to the mortgage companies.) McCain's campaign also has a few more direct connections with the companies. For example, the Times notes that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, was also previously "head of the Homeownership Alliance, a coalition of banks and housing industry interests led by Fannie and Freddie to stave off regulations." Meanwhile, Sen. Obama has received $122,850 from the Fannie and Freddie's employees and PACs since coming in office. Even though Obama has only been in the Senate since 2005, only one other colleague, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT), has received more from the same source over the past decade The entire article can be read here: http://www.propublica.org/article/fannie-freddie-gave-big-support-to-obama-mccain-910/

I think Safe Haven laws are wonderful, if they're used as they're intended to be but, what were they thinking with the wording?? If I remember correctly, the Nebraska law states that children younger than *19* can be dropped off without facing charges?? Safe Haven laws should be to protect newborns and infants. Any older than that and the children are going to have some serious abandonment issues!!! How tragic.

I used to post alot on the Sonlight forums several years ago, but when they started charging to use them, it turned me off completely. They didn't like it AT ALL when folks would post praises about a curriculum that Sonlight didn't sell, so they decided to only offer the forums on a 'subscription basis'. I've used Sonlight for nearly ten years, but I've only purchased 3 new cores, and you need to have purchased 4 to earn a 'lifetime membership'. For the other cores, I've purchased used Instructor's Guides at curriculum fairs and bought the books that go with it used. It has saved our family alot of money!! For instance, I put Core 4 together for my boys for around $150. To buy it new would cost around $450. My feeling is ... well, excuse me for trying to do what I can to stretch my homeschool dollar! I feel that they're penalizing those of us -- and I'm sure I'm not the only one! -- who love using Sonlight, but don't have $$$ to drop on a new core. That is why I'm so VERY grateful that SWB has these boards available for *all homeschoolers*, whether they're following a 'classical model' or not.

I've read three of them: Huckleberry Finn I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings The Color Purple (And my oldest dd read all three last year, when she "self-studied" American Literature)

If I were a first-time home buyer, yes. I would buy. Prices are really low right now and you can find great deals! Expect to have at least 10% to 20% of the price of the home in cash as a down payment, or be prepared to pay PMI (mortgage insurance), and you need to have excellent credit scores (high 700s) If you own a home that you need to sell in order to buy, then I would NOT buy a home -- because you'll likely wind up owning 2 and that would be really bad! (We have homes in our area that haven't sold in 2 years on the market).

I seriously considered going veggie several years ago, but my poor husband was afraid he was going to starve! But I was very worried about the state of our meat industry and I really, really believe that the way the animals are cared for before they reach our table is just barbaric. So we compromised. We eat all organic meat, poultry, and eggs. That way, he gets to eat meat and I know that it wasn't injected with hormones and forced to live in terrible conditions before it was slaughtered. If you're interested in researching it, look for organic farms near you. If you have a large enough freezer, you can really save money buying a 1/4 of a cow. And they'll be happy to divide it up however you would like and ours wraps it, too. Ready to pop into the freezer. We pay around $1.00 more for organic eggs vs. regular, and around $1.50 per gallon more for organic milk vs. regular. We buy alot of local produce and that's very inexpensive. I went to our local farmer's market a few days ago and came home with 3 bags worth of stuff for less than $15 (that was for homegrown lima beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and corn .. yum!!!) As far as encouraging a picky eater, serve one meal and that's it. They eat it or they go hungry. It's not up for debate and you're not a short-order cook.

Academics!!! Maybe they'll win a Nobel Prize, become filthy rich, and pay for us all to have maid service! :D Just ignore the dust bunnies. I'd rather have them on the floor than in my kids' heads. ;)

This really worries me, too!!! Sarah Palin has mentioned Putin in both of the interviews she gave (the one with Charlie Gibson and the recent one with Katie Couric) and she also seems anxious to jump on them with both barrels. We're stretched to the max already - militarily speaking - and I certainly don't think it's something we should be pursuing. And don't even get me started on Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela -- more tenacious situations there, too. We need level heads in Washington -- not folks with short fuses and quick trigger fingers, for lack of a better phrase.

That would be awesome!! I'd love to have an open thread for those watching the returns!! And, I could easily be posting here because my 14yo son will be glued to the TV and giving me minute-by-minute election results. (He's my politics junkie!)