I'm so sorry for your loss.

My twin girls just got their ACT scores back. I have one dd that has her heart set on getting a high score (she's kind of a perfectionist) and has some scholarship goals that she wants a high score for. The other dd doesn't really have any plans, and was pretty ok with whatever score that she got. Well, the perfectionist dd only raised her score by one point from her last test, and didn't get the score she thought she would. (She said she felt pretty confident after the test was over that she had done well) She did well, but not as well as she had hoped. The one that didn't care got a very good score, several points above her sister. It is pretty much impossible to keep their scores from one another, and they told each other anyway. My little perfectionist has been very upset with herself this evening. It is so hard to be very happy with one twin and sympathize with the other twin's disappointment. She will take it again, and has several opportunities to improve her score before graduation. Just for tonight she's a sad 15 year old that I think is feeling a little jealous of her sister. (Both girls have been very gracious with one another, I have to say.) Anyway...just feeling a little torn tonight.

Me too! lol. My girls are good kids. But they are also wearing me out. (please tell me I'm not the only one that has to remind her 19 year old to brush her teeth?!)

Well, the baby/toddler years were exhausting for me, but I had 3 under 3.5 years old and zero help. However, the teen years have been a different kind of exhausting. They have been super busy and mentally draining. Age 8 is good. Yeah. Eight is my favorite.

Honoring does not equal doormat. I couldn't handle being around someone that said something like that to me repeatedly.

To me, severe is when medical intervention is needed. I get migraines. About 90% of them are NOT severe. About 10% of them I just wished I would die already. Those were the severe ones. I have IBS. It isn't severe, THANK GOODNESS. A relative has severe IBS and it impacts their ability to function on a day to day basis. I've had diverticulitis. The pain from it has been severe once, and I rushed to the doc. (the ER would have been the next step if the doc hadn't been able to see me right away). DH had a colon rupture from diverticulitis and that was not just severe, but SEVERE!! For me, it is about perspective. Once you've experienced severe, most other things are simply painful or annoying. However, my healthy dd might think a headache I'd consider mild was severe because it ranked among the worst SHE has ever had.

Yes. You can spend as little or as much time on it as you want. If you wish the group to be heavily moderated, then I suggest appointing mods.

No, I do not. End of life scenarios can be very stressful, and if it is prolonged I don't want my kids to have to put their lives on hold for years while I waste away. I also hope to have some sort of plan in place in which extreme means to keep me alive aren't taken.

This is genius. My master closet shares a wall with my laundry room. This would be so nice.

Outside outlets and faucets on every side of the house. Make every dead space (like under stairs, attic, etc.) easily accessible for storage. Outlets on every wall inside. Two if the wall is over 10ft. Under the cabinet lighting in the kitchen. A pantry in the kitchen. Shelves that are far enough apart to store tall items like bottles of oil and boxes of cereal. Hardwood/laminate throughout (that is my preference and the best decision we made for this house!) A covered entry front and back. Ethernet lines in every room. We did not put any phone lines in this house though since we've not had a land line in years.

I have heard that random nausea is a symptom of Peri. http://www.34-menopause-symptoms.com/articles/34-menopause-symptoms-nausea.htm I've been having symptoms for a couple of years now, and sometimes the nausea is so bad that I end up taking a pregnancy test..lol.

I feel your pain. We have a white JRT that sheds her weight in hair every day. I have not found a solution, and threaten to shave her every time I sweep. We just keep lint rollers all over the house. Although, I'm ashamed to admit, I have found her hair on the pew we sit on at church (before we even sat down for the day). It follows us.

Very much the same here. My dh remembers SO MUCH of his childhood. He had a wonderful one, for the most part. Sometimes he finds it odd that I remember so little, but I think emotional trauma really does damage the mind. I used to just think I was very forgetful, but I remember the past 24 years much more clearly than I remembered the first 16 (even back when I was 18 or 19 I didn't remember those years well). I do, however have a big blank over about two years when the twins were born. I was suffering from PPD and some other personal problems. That time is very gray to me.

Not a lot. I did not have a good childhood, and many parts were rather traumatic. My most vivid memories are ones I wish I didn't have. I do remember a few good things. My grandma teaching me how to sew. Roaming the countryside with my uncles and fishing at the lake (my uncles were young, my dad was the oldest of 5 and was only 20 when I was born). Walking to town with an uncle to buy a soda and beef jerky. My mom laughing and singing on a good day. Playing with my cousin.

I started off going back for a degree in Art, just because I wanted to. Then I realized that my dh's health would necessitate me having a stable job with healthcare benefits. I couldn't take that big of a gamble on an Art degree. I had experience in accounting/finance from when I worked in the accounting department at a credit union years ago. I knew accounting was something I was good at, and was a very marketable degree. My plan, for now, is to follow it all the way out to CPA. That may shift if dh's health declines faster than we expect. I'm prepared to shift to a general business degree, and/or finish up my Bachelors degree online. (I'm over halfway to my Associates)

I'm having one of those days too. I love my girls, but they nearly drive me to drink some days. Usually over NOTHING.

Personally, I'm back in school. I looked around for jobs that I have experience in (payroll/accounting from 15-20 years ago) and pretty much everything above $8 an hour required a degree, which I didn't have. I'm working on my degree, and landed a work-study job that will update my resume and help me network. I need to be the breadwinner within 5 years or so and can't get stuck in a barely above minimum wage job if I can help it.

Don't try to keep them in the same level if they are performing differently, and don't be afraid to use two different curriculums for the same subject if needed. My twins differed greatly in writing ability (I'm talking about paper writing, not handwriting) and we had to approach things differently with each. Now as Juniors, they are only doing the same thing in Chemistry. Everything else is different. One is in Algebra 2, the other in Pre-Cal, etc. The biggest thing is to make sure they know that they will each have different strengths and weaknesses and that doesn't mean one is smarter.

If it is Stonyfield, I got a very strange batch of it a few weeks ago. It tasted extremely grassy. I ended up feeding it to my chickens..lol. I would bet that it is the container of yogurt, if you've been eating from the same one every time you feel sick.

I would probably be sad if a dd wanted to change her name, but I wouldn't fight them on it. They are the ones that have to live with it, not me.

Retail or waitressing would make me very unhappy. I would rather clean toilets. Happy? I could be happy doing a lot of things. If I could pick anything I would be a field archaeologist.

I would make him do biology. It is important to have that foundation, IMO. And Chemistry. The rest were up to the student for us as to how they wanted to fulfill credits. (we've done Anatomy, Marine Biology, Physics, and Forensic Science.) ETA: I'm not much help in the curriculum dept. though. One did BJU, and the other two took an outsourced class for Biology.

Lime green with a pink cover. :D

Creepy. The creature itself was bad enough. But when it started licking that dude? Creeped me right the heck out. Everyone at my house was just sitting there thinking WTH?!

Not as much as I'd like. I've moved a lot too, and lived in a lot of homes. This isn't my favorite. 1. I really, really, really miss the house we bought in Texas. It was beautiful and just felt like home from day one. Also, I didn't want to leave Texas. 2. I didn't want to build where we are. It is family property, and comes with strings. Big, trappy strings. I do really like the house itself. We put a lot of thought into the layout. It is the perfect size for us. However, I'd move in a heartbeat if I could easily do so. As it is, this is likely our forever home.