:lol: Hopefully a young version!!! :lol:

Oh gosh! Don't apologize! I was just letting you know that it reminded me of the exact same thing. :tongue_smilie: (But the thread where I mentioned that went poof a long time ago, so it's not even serachable. :glare:)

I've made the exact same comparison in the past.

I had forgotten about that quote. Sheds a new light on what he was looking for in a VP candidate.

No, it's certainly not achieving its original purpose. It's developed a life of its own now, though, and I can't see that changing.

Have you seen that happen? Once someone repped me before they had 50 posts, but once they hit fifty, I didn't get a point for it. I would think it really can't be retroactive that way, because otherwise, people I repped when I was only worth 1 point would keep getting more and more points as my value increased. But I always tell new posters to rep away, even if there's no point value to it, because everyone loves getting a nice thought sent their way. Just remember to leave a message because neutral rep won't show as red or green, so the person won't automatically know it was positive. Also, always type your name, because otherwise it's anonymous. :D

All I can say at this point is that I'm glad it was such a monstrous stage, because my husband made incredible overtime last night taking it down. :D

Keep in mind, also, that many kids who have trouble with b/d do so because they are very visual-spatial. Many times they think in pictures. To them, a dog is a dog whether it faces to the left or to the right. A b and a d are the same shape, just facing different ways. (As are p and q.) They don't always naturally think "left to right" in regards to letters, words, and reading. So while some kids do well with the "bat hits a ball" or "dog starts with d and its tail sticks up behind him", many kids that are really struggling with it can easily imagine a bat hitting a ball from any direction, or a dog facing any direction with its tail behind it. I'm not picking on those suggestions, because for most kids, they do the trick. But if you've tried those and it's still not working, this may be why. Like I said, my daughter still will write them the wrong way sometimes, even in cursive! Go figure. But she's an incredible artist who can draw things from any perspective with great detail. :)

My guess is that she already knows. Bringing it up to her might embarrass her if she's already uncomfortable with it. I suppose you could bring it up in conversation without making it sound like you're "informing" her. Something like, "I don't know if I could handle my husband going to strip clubs on a regular basis. How do you let it not bother you?" Okay, that didn't come out right. I don't know. I'm just thinking that there could be a way to bring it up that's not like you're telling her, just discussing it with her. I don't think my husband would last long at strip clubs on his own. I've been to a couple with him, but he was such a cheapskate I was totally embarrassed. I think if I hadn't been there with him he'd have gotten tossed out. The DJ even made a comment, "Remember, this IS a pay-per-view." Made me laugh.

What finally worked for my daughter (who's 11 and still has to think about it sometimes) is Mr. Beady Eyes: If you make his glasses with your hands, you can use the trick wherever you are. The good thing about this one is that they don't have to associate the phonetic sound with the letter, just the name.

What do you think this is, a democracy??? :D

Well, I've always assumed anyone running for the position of President must have pretty healthy self-esteem. I haven't seen anything that would indicate that Obama's is any healthier than other candidates'.

Doran's right, it can go either way. The admin has control over whether to leave the rep points or remove them when deleting a thread.

I didn't say that was my POV. ;)

I was speaking about my personal experience of how I was raised, in addition to how I watched my friends being raised, and additionally how I've watched some of my friends raise their children. I've seen it enough times to have a pretty accurate understanding of the situation I'm discussing. I don't think I ever implied that you or anyone here was doing the same. That's not what I was saying, at all. I never said, nor do I think I implied she "should only" do what she wants to do. My point is that the best kind of motivation is self-motivation. I don't disagree with what you've said above, it's just not reflective of the point I was trying to make. Again, you're personalizing my post way too much here. I was telling of my experience, not making implications about yours.

Kind of a hijack, but ever since downloading Firefox 3, my spell check keeps telling me contractions are misspelled. There will be a red squiggly line under the "wasn" part of wasn't. (But not under the "'t" part.) Is anyone else having this problem? Or is it just a coincidence that it started at the same time?

I'm living proof that sheltering and teaching abstinence-only doesn't necessarily work. I've spent a lot of time analyzing what it was about my upbringing that led me to rebel so much in my teens years. Were there things my parents could have done differently, or was it just my nature? I truly believe that for my particular personality, a very matter-of-fact attitude about sex would have been the best. Turning it into something naughty, or something you "just don't do", only made ME more curious. I never had any intention of waiting until marriage, and wanted to experience everything possible as soon as possible. Because I know how I was, I never made any assumptions about my daughter. I've always been very open with any questions she has had, and I let her know that she can talk to me about anything. And she often does. Most recently she was talking about how a friend of hers (who is two years older) wants to have sex before marriage. My daughter was saying how she thinks she wants to wait until marriage. My daughter. The one whose mom talks to her about sex, has never told her she has to wait until marriage for sex, who has never treated sex as anything but a natural thing some people do. She came to this decision completely on her own. It's hers. She owns it. And if she decides to wait, it will not be because it's what she's been told she SHOULD do, but because it's what SHE wants to do. I can't think of any better reason than that.

Funny you say this! I'm the same way. I want to know as little about a book (or movie) as possible before I read (or see) it. I'm struggling with the exact same issue, and even the exact same book! I have a set of Britannica's Great Books of the Western World, and slowly my daughter is gaining interest in them. (She's only 11, we have time.) But one night she really wanted me to read to her from one of them, so I grabbed The Brothers. Not sure what I was thinking. We haven't gone back to it, although she enjoyed what we did read that night and found it humorous. But I didn't go any farther because I didn't want to read about it first, but I wasn't sure if I'd catch enough if I didn't read about it first, and I certainly didn't want to have to read it twice. So I have no advice. Just sympathy.

The increase in access to material of a sexual nature is far from speculation. As to the other part, that's precisely why I said "I can only imagine".

I couldn't tell you why "exactly", but it would only be fair to note that all types of information have increased in the same time period, including teens' access to material of a sexual nature. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if there weren't public service information available to teens.

I've heard 3 days, but that wasn't directly from the source. :glare:

:lol: I figured they must have somehow been able to see my hair in the mornings. :lol: I'm guessing Michelle's brain is impulsive... :D

Well why the heck did you think we were so stinking passionate about talking about the episodes every Thursday night?!?! It is good beyond belief. And Megsmachine, just start with Season 1 and go through Season 3. Season 4 has not yet been released on DVD (probably will be around Christmas time), but it seems like you can watch them online. Prepare to become completely addicted. My Sawyer nickname is Einstein. :lol:

I have a Hoover Floormate. It works well in some regards, not so much in others. I liked it on my laminate flooring, but my mother-in-law doesn't. I don't like it so much for tile, but my mom does. No good on wood, at least not shiny wood. Wonderful on linoleum, though I don't have any in my current house. It's great as a hard-floor vacuum, though. It doesn't spit things out the back.

I don't know that there's a "list", but I know it's possible to almost completely hide yourself here, to where you don't show up on the Member List, but your posts are still searchable by user name. It seems that is what is done to the banned members.