I just love those kinds of moments between siblings! * I am sometimes self-conscious about my accent. I can always communicate my POV, but sometimes I stumble on pronounciation or inflection. People assure me it's no big deal, but I feel silly. I sort of relate to your son - we totally GET the language but our tongues sabotage us!

Mine traveled in a pack, so I didn't worry much. And our family dynamic expects the younger kids to listen to the older kids anyhow, so that wouldn't have been a deterring factor. They're encouraged to be responsible for each other, always - not just in certain situations. This gives me peace in situations like yours. But I know this isn't how all families operate, so it may take some work ensuring the older kids know how to keep tabs on your youngest (and to ensure they even want to or feel comfortable doing so.) My youngest kids are 7, 11, 12 and 13. They frequently go to the park, grocery store, ballfields and batting cages, and Starbucks without me. My rule is there needs to be at least three and they have to stay/go together - majority rules. None of them have cell phones. Well, my 12 year old has a cell phone that he bought himself but it's the kind you buy minutes for and he's usually out of minutes LOL. The four of them get along pretty well, and my 7 year old is mature for her age (and desperate to keep being invited, so she's always "good" for the boys). To leave our neighborhood they cross the main drag, which is a two-lane road. It has a crosswalk, but no light directing the flow of it - it's just there, almost like a suggestion. From there they cross larger streets, but all have lights directing the crosswalks. My older boys did the same when they were those ages. Never had any problems, but my sons all have a pretty easy-going personalities. If one or any were a bit more ... intense ... I may have made different choices. A few times something felt off, so I kept them home (telling them exactly that). But generally I trust my gut, and it gave the green light 99% of the time. If ever I felt weird, the park was a 10 minute car ride and I could do a drive-by. I follow these same guidelines still, with my younger ones.

Hmm. This was a Christmas gift that has been sitting on our shelves, yet unused. We play a lot of games on a pretty frequent basis, but my rushed mind is always more into playing what we already know. Sounds like just the push I need to break out of our norm and give this game a go :) Sad to say that it's actually likely to happen now that I know I can watch YouTube vidoes on how to play, rather than figuring it out on the fly during a game LOL. I'm also curious ... what is there NOT a YouTube video for??

:( How long do you have before you can leave, Faith?

I'm Roman Catholic, but not a social media user. I may make an exception in the name of furthering our Latin studies LOL. Thanks for the article, and the heads up!

I haven't noticed it with home phones and doorbells, but I believe it. Like you, I tune out both LOL. Another thing I've noticed lately is that so many people expect others to be at the ready - reachable whenever they want to get ahold of someone. I screen my calls, so if I ignore someone they'll hang up, call back, try the house phone, call the cell back, text, call the cell back again and maybe leave a vm, then call again in three minutes. I wonder if you notice this trend, too, especially since you don't have a voicemail feature. I love voicemail; it's how I screen my calls with peace LOL. What phone do you have? I've set my work phone to have different tones based on which number is calling, and I ignore the tones that aren't urgent. I'd love to be able to set those numbers up to ring while the others stay mute. I'm not phone-saavy, maybe my kids know. Never thought to ask, but what a great feature.

It strikes me as very Pavlovian, and a little bit scary, that so many people's lives are now dictated by the tones from their phones. Watch a crowd sometime. Test it out on a friend. I did this to my best friend the other day at a soccer game. I know she has everything pushed, so I texted and emailed repeatedly. Even when she figured out it was me and had determined I was just messing with her, she couldn't NOT react and check her phone when it kept beeping at her. Even as she stared at me while I kept doing it LOL.

This doesn't seem that odd (to me) for a first generation family. It could be that they prefer she date Russian, but they're being cautiously open to your American boy. They might see what a good young man he is, and they're willing to support her getting to know him BUT they're treading new water and are naturally erring on the side of over-protecting. I came from a family that sounds similar. It wasn't controlling so much as it was protecting - at least that was the intent. It was more old-school than the way many of our American peers were raised. Where we're from, children - in particular, daughters - are under the responsibility of their parents until they are married. Chaperones are the norm, for both genders. I come from a huge family so it was our natural default to group date/meet up. In a small family like this Russian girl's, it becomes harder and more noticeably odd. It never bothered me, but the arrangment was often the discussion of the dorm since none of my American peers could understand why I stood for that. Yes, I was a legal adult but I was also dependent upon my parents so I was happy to follow their rules LOL. I trusted they had my best intentions in mind, even when I disagreed. (Not to say I didn't go around some of their restrictions ;) but I never questioned that they were looking out for my best interests!) I love the idea of lunch with the mother, getting to know her and respectfulling inquiring as to their cultural expectations, etc. re: this blooming relationship. I view this as cultural, not controlling in the Western sense of the word.

I have a regular cell phone for personal use, and an iPhone for work. I have the 5. Siri bugs the heck out of me, so I pretend she doesn't exist. What I like is the size. I'm pretty petite, and the 5 fits in my hand better than did the 4. It feels lighter, too, but that could be my imagination LOL. FWIW, I was plenty happy with my 4s and only upgraded to the 5 because my brother bought it for me. He knew the size would work better for my toddler-sized hands, and he thought I'd like the voice-to-text and Siri (both annoy me so I don't). I'm sorry to hear of your mom's passing and your diagnosis. What wonderful news of your family visits, and upcoming grandbaby! Here's to continued blessings for you and yours.

I'd guess Vin-koh-vitch with the emphasis on the first syllable. Maybe Win-koh-witch? I used to have a job where I needed to refer to people by their title and last name. It was sometimes hard, but after awhile I figured out commonalities even in different languages. Sometimes I ran into people who had Americanized the pronounciation, if not the spelling, but they knew their names were ethnic and tricky so they were always good-natured about my efforts.

I like the loan idea (not that you asked, sorry!) especially since it allows her to play with the camera some before she takes in on vacation. There's nothing worse than learning a camera on the fly, and she's working so hard to be able use this camera on the trip. I respect your decision not to teach them to use credit, especially for non-essentials, but I think viewing it as a loan could be the win. I don't think a loan would make this "too easy" considering she's been saving up for so long. I think she's proven how hard she's willing to work for it. If you want her to do a few more chores, great - but if she's short $10 at the end of this week, why not just give it to her? If you want, tell her you'll match what she earns this week. That gives her a week to play with her new camera before the trip. (My sons all get paid work outside of the home by 13, so I'm totally on your side. It allows me to be benevolent for situations such as yours.) I'd pay more for the weeding than the other chores, because it's outside and I hate weeding LOL. I'd consider $8/hour for that job and probably round up to $20. The others would be more in the $5 range. I really like the idea of halving minimum wage that was posted upthread, too - have you considered that?

Indigo is another option, if one is unsure of or nervous about the red in the henna.

Wait for Friday, wish it to him then, and tell him it's your way of extending the celebration into an entire week! Who doesn't love Birthday Week?! LOL Also, the tax story cracked me up. That'd have been me, I'm awful with numbers and associate everything with events or landmarks.

I vote with Rough Collie. I started to write something similar. She said it better, and had personal experience to back it up.

Sounds painful :( what an unfortunate experience. Praying he recovers and is home very soon.

My first year at college I shared a kitchen with people who could barely boil water, didn't know how to sort laundry, and couldn't work an iron. It made an impression on me. I actually got all annoyed at my parents, telling them it must've been nice to have Cinderella living with them all those years before I left for college! (Kind of a lie since I'm in the middle of many kids LOL but it FELT like I was always doing everything!) So those basics are important to me: basic cooking skills and familiarity basic laundry and ironing skills basic housekeeping (light and heavy) basic car upkeep and maintenance (gas, oil, tires) basic accounting (reconciling accounts, setting up bill pays, reading CC terms) basic gun skills and familiarity (not my idea, and my kids are all big shoot-for-sporters) basic nutrition knowledge (recipes, exercise/sports plan, etc.) My oldest ones have left with that knowledge. A few sons into it I realized that the Boy Scout badges have lots of good ideas. The requirements for each badge are found online for free, so I began pulling from them to work on at home. That may be one place to find ideas, too.

In slang terms, I've heard it referred to as a ho'mance. Lovely, no? In terms of grown women with true friendships, I'm guessing BFF or soul sisters. Most of my closest friends are related to me, and we're a physically demonstrative family :) Those friends who aren't related to me come from the same culture, so they're also physically demonstrative LOL.

One thing TSA agents look for when pulling someone for random screening is someone who will likely comply. This generally includes cops/firemen/military, older men and women, parents with young children, etc. It can also include people who physically fit the profile du jour but who give off the vibe they'll comply. The agents also know that these people are accustomed to the extra screening and can be willing to suffer through it in order to make their flight. I spent a few years working in San Jose, CA where there is a huge Asian Indian population - including the third of the TSA agents. Most reasonable people realize that Asian Indians share dark skin and hair with their Middle Eastern cousins, but are very different groups entirely. And yet, there are those who don't who think Good for them for doing extra screening on those shady looking brown people. Even the Asian Indian TSA agents seemed to favor screening the Asian Indian passengers. I actually spent months at the airport in the restaurant across from security. I was hired to study the behaviors of everyone involved in the process. Not my most exciting gig, but the garlic fries were to-die-for and billable so it was a no-brainer ;) I had nothing but great experiences with the SJC TSA agents. It should be noted that I am dark brown, with black hair and I'm often mistaken for every ethnic group in the Bay Area - including the various Asian groups, some Mediterrean groups, and most Latin groups. I may have good luck because of how I present myself to security (I toe the line between compliant but not willing to comply further and the jerk they're going to make an example of). TSA agents are regular Joes, take advantage of that. They're humans first, and will behave predictably 99% of the time - regardless of who you are and what you look like.

Or at least that's what they told you ;)

I have one friend who does this. I love her to death, but it's cut down on our socializing because I hate having to feel like I'm constantly in competition for her attention. I can just text her the same conversation from the comfort of my sofa and skip the annoying interruptions. I've mentioned it to her, because we have that kind of relationship. I know she's not intending to be rude, so that helps. When I've brought it up, she's been good about ignoring her phone, but I can tell it's a struggle LOL. So I just let her be her, me be me, and we hang out less in person than we used to. When we can't avoid each other, like at our kids' sports, I just nicely beg off when our conversation is continually interrupted. I've learned not to take it personally, because it isn't. I had to arrive at that, though.

I've never heard "never trust a fart" but that's hilarious. How true! We call those Hershey Squirts LOL. They happen enough that we named them. Not LOL.

Butting in to say I like El Farolito followed closely by Los Coyotes. If I'm missing a better one, please school me. I should be in that area in a few weeks and am always game for new, recommended food joints. I'll just have to remember to scarf it down before security I guess! Actually I wonder if the tin foil is the problem, and if re-wrapping it in wax paper would help any. They'd still know it's food, but maybe it'd be less HERE I AM than the foil? Son of a gun, now I'm feeling like I need to conduct an experiment.

So you doughnut lovers, who has been to Psycho Donuts in California? I spent a few years commuting to the Bay Area. I usually bring one or a few sons with me when I can, and on one particular trip we read about Psycho Donuts in the inflight magazine. They talked me into trying it, and from then onwards SJC was the only trip they wanted to join me on LOL.

I fly almost every week, for work, and have since pre-9/11. I always bring food, always. I usually bring yogurt, and in all of those trips (national, international, big airport, small airport, busy time, slow time) have only had it tossed once. I had it questioned a second time, but the scanner let it go once she saw what it was. I've had a few scanners question my ice packs, but only ever if they were thawing (and thereby, becoming liquid). I've never had any ice packs thrown out. I think there are a few things going on with TSA agents. One, it's a big organization and there's always bound to be inconsistencies with those. Two, it's like playing Monopoly at a friend's house - "house rules" differ, and most people don't know if the customs they're following are the "real" rules or a house variation. The agents just know "how it's done here" and act accordingly, right or wrong. That frustrates them as much as it does us, the travelers. Three, nobody likes the TSA. Yes they've chosen this job and yes some think that putting on smurfy blues gives them the right to rule the security lane and the world ... but for the most part, it's hard showing up to work knowing the world hates you LOL. I know because I've BTDT in a different job. It doesn't excuse those agents on power trips, but it's an insight worth considering given the few who truly are high on their wittle bitty bit of control. All jobs have morons on ego trips, even the job of homeschooling mother ;). I am fortunate to frequent the same few airports on a regular basis, so I "know" many of "my" TSA agents. But on the few occasions I travel somewhere new I can still break even the most stubborn of agents by simply smiling and being nice. Even if they're barking. I don't take it personally and they seem relieved that someone is actually recognizing them as a human being. They soften up, for the people behind me also. They're humans; humans are predictable. Use the predictability of humans to your advantage! I look ethnic. I'm the kind of person who passes for many non-white and non-black ethnicities. I get confused for mediterranean, asian, latin, and every mix in between - even middle eastern. I have black hair and dark skin, and I don't talk much so people assume I don't speak English. (Actually that's a favorite time-passer of mine at the airport - pretending I don't understand the people around me. They really do change how they speak when they think no one understands or can hear.) I don't mean to be an apologist for the TSA. They're far from perfect, and I remember more fondly the days before they were around. And even around to a lesser extent (pre-9/11). I travel fairly often outside of work with anywhere from one to nine minor children and haven't had any problems there either. In fact, just today I went through security with two sons and the TSA at LAX was overly accommodating. They even mucked it up with my boys, discussing the new Superman movie and debating on who was the better superhero, Superman or Batman. My experiences? Some good, some bad, most mediocre. Same as anything LOL.

There is a wealth of information at the Longhair Community forums. To get you started, visit the Henna Thread ... tips, tutorials, experiences galore. 300 pages worth LOL but a good sampling of info is linked in the first post of that thread.