My dh is the ONLY male in this house...and potty humor runs rampant! :lol: It often IS funny. (And I grew up in a family that this wasn't even discussed, let alone laughed about. I like our funny family much better!)

Well, I'm still reading, but I have too many going at once, AND I'm in the middle of moving to a new house! But here's what I'm reading right now: Pride and Predjudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith The Shelter of God's Promises by Sheila Walsh The Goodness of God by Randy Alcorn Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank If I get them all finished soon, I should be on schedule! :lol:

:001_huh::willy_nilly::willy_nilly::willy_nilly: :blink: :svengo:I just died.

Rue 21 is pretty popular with a lot of teens I know http://www.rue21.com/ They definitely have guy jewelry there and some cool clothes. The prices are good too, especially the clearance racks.

I have memberships at both. I've been to Sam's twice this year. I go to Costco almost weekly. For us the savings are on: lunch meat (their filler/nitrate free lunch meats are MUCH cheaper than the grocery store) ground turkey eggs dairy products spinach organic evaporated cane juice crystals (sugar) flax seed quinoa-Huge savings on quinoa if you eat it. almond butter And then there are the additive free/organic things that I can't find at a reasonable price elsewhere...like frozen fruit and veggies, and canned veggies. When we ate bread, it was a lot cheaper to buy our brand there as well.

Mine is the same way, and it used to drive me nuts. But I've discovered that he just shows stress differently than I do. His comes out in his body (pain, muscle problems, etc.) Or he'll suddenly become Mr. Talkative (He's not a big talker) although, it's not "I'm so stressed", it's just about some technical thing..lol.

Cleaning and packing. We are likely moving in a week or so...not one thing packed up..lol.

We are currently using it (10-14 year olds) I think it would be a good fit for early elementary on up. You can easily simplify it for younger students, and get into deeper discussions with the older ones.

We use Turbo Tax. I did use a CPA for 2 years when I ran my own business, but other than that, we do our own.

I love being able to walk into a house and see that people are actually LIVING there. If nothing is out of place, it seems about as lived in as a hotel room to me. (I grew up in a place like that...not fun :glare: ) My house is mostly clean, but often messy...if that makes sense? There are 5 people living, working and schooling here 24/7 and it looks like it. I like it that way :D

Nope, not the last. I get strange looks when I tell people I don't text, and my phone only makes calls.

From the boxed stuff you listed, I think learning how to do two things will go REALLY far to get you moving in the right direction. First, is making your own tomato based sauces. It's super easy to take canned tomato sauce (organic is even better) and add basil, garlic, oregano, onions, etc. to make a spagetti or pizza sauce that is much lower in sugar, salt, and other additives. The second is making your own white sauce. It's really not hard, and you can find recipes online for basic white sauce. Then you can add shredded cheeses to make alfredo, mac-n-cheese, etc. Or for cream of style soups, you can add mushrooms or chicken stock to make the soup base from the white sauce. Learning these two things and using your own pastas and potatoes would eliminate a TON of the processed food from your list.

Same here!

I agree...one step at a time. We went from eating Hamburger Helper and Easy..everything, to a whole foods, mostly grain free diet. Switch to brown rice, and use this recipe..even my "I hate brown rice" kids LOVE it and prefer it to white now. For bread, Orowheat makes some AWESOME whole grain breads that are HFCS free. (Oat nut was our favorite, and we miss it!) And honestly, after you eat whole grain for a while, the white stuff is what tastes like cardboard. Go for whole grain, not just whole wheat. Go simple with the veggies. Steamed broccoli. Roasted brussel sprouts/asparagus. If your family likes garlic, the easiest, tastiest seasoning for veggies is a little minced garlic, salt and olive oil. Change your main cooking oil to olive oil. Use real butter instead of margerine. That stuff is mostly a chemical soup anyway..lol.

This is just....wrong. You are in New England? I'm in TX and it's a whopping 17F :glare: I think the poles got reversed on Monday. :lol:

Yes, but I live in Fort Worth...so I'd have to have my head in a hole not to know :glare: Otherwise, I could care less! lol.

Welcome them. When my step-dad lost my mom he was DEVASTATED. The grief was huge. On top of that, he is the type of man that cannot stand to be alone. He NEEDS a woman in his life. My family was horrible to him because he had a girlfriend so soon. I seemed to be one of the few people saw it for the pain that it was, not as an affront to the memory of my mother. It WILL be hard. (It was so hard for me to see another woman in my mother's home) But know that this is also part of her grief.

We haven't lost power yet, but friends not too far from us have. Seems as if the powers that be have exempted the Superbowl Stadium and the NFL experience from the blackouts. :glare:

My girls have snow fever I think. So far they have dressed the dog up in every fashion imaginable. Then they did the same for themselves. They moved on to make-overs. They are now playing "nail-salon" in the kitchen...and I think the stylist is certifiably insane judging from the conversations. :lol: Not to mention it's 64 inside my house right now, and one is wearing a spagetti strap dress. My 14 year old is hiding some where with a book, trying to avoid all the girliness going on.

Do you expect him to pray out loud? I'm a grown woman, married to a future pastor/minister. I STILL do not pray out loud unless it's just me and the kids. I just have a thing about it. Does he know that he can have a conversation with God in his head, and prayer isn't about what you say aloud?

Cut out the cereal, unless it's on sale. (or altogether if you'd like to cut down on milk) Sandwiches are deceivingly expensive. Bread, cheese, and deli meat are really costly. Eat leftovers instead (cooking a little extra with that in mind) Most of my meals have rice or potatoes with it (cheap) We also eat a lot of soup and stew. I always make stock with chicken bones, and save ham bones, etc. for soup. If you eat ham, and watch out for sales, you can often get a simple (not honey roasted or anything) ham for less than $1.00 a pound. This can be used cubed in salads, sliced in sandwhiches, cubed in casseroles or soups, etc. I can stretch a cup of diced ham to feed 5 people well. A $7 ham can go a LONG way at our house. So can a turkey that is on sale. If you don't have a large freezer, it could be worth the investment to buy one. I also shop sales for produce. Then I only buy what is on sale that week. (Sometimes this means I go to more than one store) I try to use everything I buy, without much waste. If I have a small amount of veggie left over, I freeze it for soup later. If lettuce or spinach is cheap that week, I serve salad with every meal. Make your own salad dressings.

We had leftover Mexican casserole for lunch (rice, refried beans, shredded chicken, cheese and enchilada sauce layered and baked.) We are having a definite snowy day here. The city is pretty much shut down. So much for the dental appointments today. The kids already had a light school schedule for today because of the dentist, so we are just relaxing. (the twins have spent the morning dressing the dog up in ethnic outfits...the coolest was the Indian Sarai, complete with marriage dot) Projects: keeping warm and trying to fight off my urge to bake unhealthy desserts all day.

There is NO traffic here right now. A city truck came by about an hour ago and barely made his turn. As it was there was much tire spinning and fishtailing...and he was going slow! It's cold and SLICK!

With everything being electronic now, it's actually FASTER than it used to be, not slower. If you wait a week to 10 days, the odds of it clearing are extremely high. Also, if you keep a copy of the check, you can call the person's bank to see if it has cleared. They can only give you a yes or no answer, but they should be able to do at least that. (unless the privacy laws have changed in the 10 years since I've worked at the bank...which is entirely possible)

Both places. At Walmart, look in the mailing supplies section.