Get a hamster ;)

ahhh going to make some coffee

Two lessons you learned from your parents (or the folks/institution that raised you), one positive and one negative. For Instance: My mom told me, once my daughter was born, that she regretted saying 'no' so much. She told me to consider why I was saying no, if it was for dc own good or because I just didn't want too. DM, used to like to correct us in public (or as close to it as possible). I don't mean correcting our behavior while we were in public, I mean bringing up past transgressions while we were in public. Now, I never argue or discuss family matters infront of non-family members. We have a zero 'on the spot' policy.

LOL@ "I have lots of friends..." I think I'm getting giddy tired, because that just set me off on another giggle fest. Not that I don't believe you ;)

Lol, that's how my dh and I know we'll never be splitsville. At the end of the day, who has the energy? That and he's the greatest guy ever, and for some reason thinks I'm wonder woman. I was definitely given pause though. TMI? Lol.

Lol, I'm sleepy and I have no idea what your response meant. But, even more important... I WAS A JUJU eeeeeeeeeeehhhh :grouphug:

I have a friend that sounds a lot like you :) Most people cast her off pretty quick, she tends to look irritated, arms crossed, etc. She is a nice person, you just can't tell by looking at her. The friends that are right for you will stick around and the ones that aren't won't. Really, do you want friends you have to play to?

In Pre-K, one of Andrew's classmates had an "accident." I actually got a call home from his teacher about all this. The other kids were pointing and laughing and 'eww'ing. Andrew told them all they needed to be quiet now, they were being mean and that was wrong. My normally, extremely introverted (to the point where the school wanted him in counseling) son is able to stand up and be heard in defense of others. He was not even friends with this little boy, at that point Andrew didn't have any friends, he preferred sitting quietly and reading or coloring. I'm astounded by the amount of steel my son carries in his back bone. Jocelyn, is waaaaaay more outgoing than me. She's got tons of friends and is involved in everything. Luke has a threshold for pain that seriously concerns me. He is also completely lacking in fear.

Our super secret family recipe is for brownies. LOL, my daughter was convinced that we used bacon grease, instead of oil. That might be because dh told her that :glare: Anyway, she told my mother that her brownies wouldn't be so yucky if she just used bacon grease, like RooDaddy. And my mother did. BTW, we use butter instead of oil. We are the Buttertons.

What did you use? Luke can recognise and name all the letters. He can find his name, and "reads" it with great relish. He's also started "reading" the books we read together (you know, the ones we have memorized). I'm considering adding some structure to it all, so he CAN read, IF he wants to, but I don't know what to use.

naughty list ;) roflol, sorry, it just took me a minute to realize you didn't mean girlfriend, but girl friend.

There are times when I wonder what would happen if I just stopped doing all of it. Then, I imagine what would happen. After that, I recommit to doing it all.

I think it really depends on where you grow up and who your friends are.

Drew's younger, but... I've seen my son's good penmanship. When he started writing sloppy (rushing), I tried breathing down his neck. Then, I found out that I could draw the line (so-to-speak). I started chucking his homework in the trash. "I will not allow you to turn this in. Sit down, write it correctly, and we'll try this again." It didn't help his penmanship at school, but his homework was always done in his best penmanship. We are also really big on, 'when you are out in public you are representing your entire family. Behave as such.' Now that he's doing cursive, he loves to write nicely, so there's not much of a problem.

pumpkin pie spice, sour cream, and vanilla So funny, we don't make recipes, we just add stuff :)

As far as good being innocent, no, I don't believe anyone else is using that definition. Rights, based on the Bill of Rights, are relative to the USA, but I believe the FFs were right about God given inalienable rights (life, liberty and the persuit of happiness), so those rights would only be relative to human beings, or born human beings. Good, though, I'll still have to stick to my original defintion equating goodness with innocence. Once you have the knowledge of "evil" or "bad," then you've lost your innocence and have an obligation to do good. Since people will become lazy and give into vice, or perhaps prefer vice to the arduousness of persuing "good," laws are put into place. Paine wrote a whole thing about this in "Common Sense" in the section on government. The laws are not so much to prevent people from doing "bad" things as to protect fellow citizens from experiencing a loss of their own rights due to the actions of someone else.

Well, in the USA, the idea is to make laws only to protect the rights of others. So, the laws are designed to keep one person's free speach from libeling another, one person's freedom of expression from resulting in the loss of life of another, etc. The real issues arise when people try to enforce morality, rather than protect rights. I already wrote the whole innocence to knowledge, moving from God towards vice, etc. Go back a page or two, I'm feeling too lazy to be redundant. And yes, the loss of innocence is what creates the vaccuum in which vice thrives. Oh, and the definition of "innocence" is pretty simple: it is the lack of knowledge, the inability to understand "right" and "wrong," uncorrupted.

Lol, we both (dh and I) grew up in homes without credit cards and the first offers we got... well, I admit, it seemed like the sky was the limit. Then we read the fine print and the sermons (from our parents) came back to us and we decided we just didn't need the debt that much. The sky's still the limit, we just have to fly on cash, rofl.

We have two "secret recipes" in our family. One is for Oma's Trifle and the other is for Gramma's Curry Chicken. I have, apparently, not proven myself family enough for these recipes. Once I get them, maybe I'll share ;)

No, I was just trying to say that there were other "authorities" quoted, and Thomas Paine, as the guy that outlined the idea for our democracy and brought the country together to fight for that ideal and then provided the encouragement necessary when the going got tough, is a good authority for why we have laws. He even broaches the subject of vice and its place in society and government.

Innocence has no concept of right and wrong. A baby does not pee on the parent changing its diaper out of spite or malice. It does so with no concept of what it is doing. However, should an adult pee on another person (or another person's video camera), they know their action is wrong, they are not "innocent".

What is this "credit card" of which you speak? None of those in our house ;)

It seems like the Better Business Bureau or the Federal Do Not Call List could help then. How does a company that is out of business call your house???? That is something I would think the phone company could tell you. When we had all the election phone calls, we found out that if we didn't say anything, the call would finally start (otherwise it would just hang-up). You could try that and see if there's a 'push two to be removed from our list' option. You could also do what my parents did when the telemarketers got to be too much. Since your family is already awake, ;) , put a whistle by the phone and blow out all your anger and agression into the mouth piece. If there's an ear near the phone, or retrieving the messages later, they will remove you from their list.

good = innocent yes?