My dd had two pet rats. They were fun and friendly, but honestly, I'll never have them as pets again. First of all, they do STINK. Ours had a very strong odor that permeated my dd's room (and yes, I cleaned daily, or close to it) Second, we were lucky enough to get an escape artist in our pair. One houdinied his way out of every possible lid we could devise for his terrarium. Not funny when you have over night guests that don't know you have pet rats, and a HUGE rat goes scurrying across the floor while they are in bed. :blink: So, if the potential smell does not bother you, and you are better at containment than we were, they do make neat pets.

:grouphug::grouphug: prayers sent

My husband's aunt has advanced Alzheimers, and was just put on hospice. She's having seizures, and it's just very hard on her husband and family. Also pray for my FIL. I know he sees his sister going through this, and pictures himself in a few years. (this disease runs strong in my dh's family).

I did until we moved! :lol:

Wow, that's great! (and I thought MY stamp/scrapping collection was big!)

And eat chocolate.

Cons: Dogs are a lot of work. It's like having a toddler (ok, some are more like preschoolers if well behaved) that never grows up. They are costly. Food, medical, damgage to home and property. They are messy. Dog hair, kibble trailed through the house, water spilled, muddy paws, etc. They are a pain to do something with when you go on vacation. That said, we've pretty much always had a dog or two, and probably always will. They are the most affectionate animals I've ever seen, and will totally steal your heart if you let them :D IMHO, they are worth the trouble...kind of like kids..lol.

No. Well, one of them doesn't. She'll even go change clothes if her sister puts on something even remotely similar. They have different hair length, and have gone through great pains to train their hair to part differently. Very, very different girls. (the ironic thing is, despite all the effort made to look different, people still get them mixed up)

Pretty close, but dh likes his space :D His mother lives in another state, so...... They do talk on the phone nearly every day, although often it's a very short call.

Mine is fond of wadded up fuzzy blankets. She has one in her crate that she sleeps on, and one on the couch for daytime.

Yep! I love to cook for people, and they always come back :D

Yes, I would have a big problem with it. Halo has no place at youth group. I'm Baptist. I would talk to the leadership and depending on the response, I might seek another church. We went through something similar at a church a year ago. The games being played were totally inappropriate (a weird game called touching body parts that ended with two girls kissing on the mouth) We spoke to the youth pastor AND the lead pastor, and they were not in the least concerned. We left. Had they made an effort to correct it, then we may not have left. (although I'm VERY glad we did...we ended up at a great church)

Mine have always been that exact way. My poor dd also inherited it. It's bad enough that I have been known to change my plans for the day or so that it's the worst. And my dh has even learned to sleep through my 2AM dash to the bathroom. It makes me REALLY look forward to menopause.

I've had to resort to making it pretty much totally from scratch due to food allergies. Here's my recipe (although I'm not one to measure things) I'll make a pot FULL of pinto beans cooked with lots of cumin, chili powder, chipotle chili powder, salt, and onion powder. Then, I'll brown ground beef with a large diced onion, drain. To this I start dumping....beans, can of diced chilis, diced tomatoes (rotel with chilis if I have it), tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, more chili powder and chipotle powder, paprika, a pinch of sugar, and salt to taste. If you want it hotter, add red pepper or diced jalapenos. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. The amounts of everything vary according to how much chili I'm making. Then I freeze the leftovers.

Eh, if I got down to a 'normal' weight on the BMI chart, people would think I was dying of some wasting disease. Even when I was a very non over-weight teen, at the same height, I wasn't in the healthy range. I'm dense :tongue_smilie: and come from a dense family. My dad, who is a RAIL that you can see every vein, muscle and sinew on his body weighs over 210lbs at 6'3.

I have an irregular heart beat, and mitral valve prolapse that has a habit of getting 'stuck' occassionally. It has sent me to the doctor many times, and landed me in the ER once. For me, it can range from a tiny flutter (very common in most people, but many can't feel it) to a pounding racing. I can actually feel it in my pulse if I check my wrist or neck. If it gets particularly racey, I get light headed and short of breath. It will often also trigger a panic attack and I'll begin to feel claustrophobic. I also have occassional chest pain, but nothing major. So far, the symptoms haven't been bad enough to deal with the side effects of the meds that are meant to help it.

No. Private school is only on our list if something happens to me and I can't school them any longer.

My most often repeated line to my kids: It's not my job to entertain you. I'm not a good player either. I can teach, craft, spend time with, talk to, exercise with them, etc. But to play...not usually gonna happen anymore. (Unless I can talk them into a board game :) )

We have no hard and fast age rules for any of that. As for make up, I've focused A LOT on why there isn't even a need for make up. I don't wear it and neither do my girls for the most part (aside from the occasional lip gloss) If/when they do want to wear it, I'll teach them how to use it to accent their faces, not try to make a new one ;) For clothing, what is acceptable at 10 is what is acceptable at 16. Nothing should be hanging out, and nothing should look painted on. My 14 year old has no desire to dress trashy, and won't even wear a normal bathing suit. Ear piercings have been when they wanted them. DD14 was 7, and the twins were 4. No big deal here. Hair...cut and style is up to them. Dad doesn't want them to color their hair and that's not a fight I want to have with him...so no color for the girls. Dating...we are pretty conservative on this. Our biggest concerns are getting into an unequal relationship faith wise, and getting extremely emotionally attached at a young age. We've been there, and want to help our girls avoid it if at all possible. IF a Christian young man becomes interested in having a relationship with one of our girls, he'll be welcome to spend time with our family. However, one on one dating will be discouraged. We feel like it's more important to build relationships than to date recreationally.

We skipped 8th with my dd, and if the twins continue to progress as they have, we'll skip it with them too.

There are so many schools here in Fort Worth. The closest one to us ranked a whopping 2. There's a very good reason why charter and private schools are so plentiful around here.

Hate them :ack2: They taste like Tums.

If you want JUST PB, you can make the bottom of your cups in cupcake papers with melted chocolate, then fill them with peanut butter. Freeze them or just refridgerate until stiff, and then cover the top with more melted chocolate. They'll be a little more fragile than the other recipes, but they'll taste yummy!

We have a Nanny and a Nono in our family. And nah, not weird to have another baby. It's happened several times in my family. My brother is the same age as my oldest. I have a cousin that is older than her uncle, etc. And my other brother is 28, and his stepdaughter just had a baby...making him a 28 year old grandpa. (now THAT is wierd..lol!)

I don't have any stats for you, but I thought I'd share what our allergist told us. (He's spent his career researching allergies and travels the world teaching other docs about it) He said that a person never really outgrows an allergy. They only go into remission for a time, and allergies will (most of the time) reappear in the later part of your life. So even if your son does get better with age, he needs to be aware of the possibility of reoccurrance as an adult. :grouphug: