I own a Vitamix and have subscription to Consumer Reports and I read that as well, that the Ninja ranks right up there with the Vitamix.

I own a Vitamix and have subscription to Consumer Reports and I read that as well, that the Ninja ranks right up there with the Vitamix.

What's K12? How can I find it?

Does it exist? I'm looking for such and I'm willing to pay (doesn't have to be free) this is one subject I'd like to delegate. Need for grades 2 - 5.

Thanks!

I own Startwrite and really like it but there's a particular font that it doesn't have the I found on educationalfontware.com. However, before I purchase the educational fontware, I'm curious how the software works. Is it the same as Startwrite as far as the tools you can use in creating your worksheet? i.e. can you have the red start-dot, directional arrows, choose whether you have the base line/middle-line,etc. I wish they had a trial version. What's the software like?

I want to do my bikini line. If I haven't shaven there for like 10+ days and I shave, it looks smooth, but when I re-shave 3 days later, I get bumps and I can't wear a swimsuit without looking red/bumpy. So that's where I want to do it mostly. I think I'll look into the Tria for starters. Thanks all.

Anyone had laser hair removal? Scars? Thoughts?

Both time you were instructing and time they were working on something.

Trying to compare instructional hours per year in our homeschool vs. public. 1. If you've been a public school teacher (grade 1 to 12) before, how many ACTUAL instructional hrs were there in a regular day? (not counting the standing in line, lunchtime, physical ed time, bathroom breaks, locker time, disciplining/gaining crowd control time, etc.). Please include the time you were instructing and the time they were actually working on assignments/worksheets/etc independently. 2. Also.....of the 180 schooldays, how many of them were actual SCHOOL days and not trips/test days/field day/etc.? 3. Please identify the grade level in your reply. Thanks!

I see she's inside in the most recent pic(I know this is only because she's in rehab), but does she need a chicken diaper!?!!! (a friend of mine had told me that people have INDOOR CHICKENS and that they make actual diapers to fit chickens!) GUFFAW!!!

Had one more thought.....If she (or another) isn't top chicken, then I've heard of the meaner/headfish girls snowballing and not allowing other "lessers" to get to the food or water supply. I'd have more than one water option, esp in this hot season.

I've been keeping up with her...so glad to hear she's on the mend. YAY! I'd keep pampering her for the next 10 days or so lest she relapses. Perhaps keep her isolated for some time too as chickens tend to notice and peck on weak members. What a good chicken Momma you are to have nursed her back to health!

Sounds like you're doing all you can do. If I remember correctly from your other posts, these chickens are new/young, right? One thing to rule out is whether she's got a busted egg stuck in her. This is usually an issue with really old chickens (like 5+ years old; my 9 year old chicken still lays --- RARELY...but I've seen her do it) because their eggshells get so frail/thin. On occasion my oldie gets a busted egg at her cloaca. I have to take her out and lather her butt up with Dial soap and spray her off (I know......but she's my favorite girl....although, knowing me...I'd do this for any of them if I saw the need). If they get the busted egg thing it CAN cause infection, but with your girls being so young, I just don't know if this is it. Has she started laying? If she's JUST starting to lay, then this(clogged cloaca) may be possible as their inner workings are new/nacent and their eggs are immature (that's why their first eggs can be ittybitty) and the shells could be more frail than they'll get with maturity. Rule that out, and other than that....who knows. Snake bite? Does her neck/anywhere look swollen like she's been bit? Chickens are frail but the best you can do is what you're doing and rule out infection. If infection (bacterial) which isn't likely, then she'll need antibiotics. Also, check her feet to see if she has "bumble foot" (swollen foot usually with some splinter/cut under it with pus oozing) === this is also usually a problem for older (obese) chickens like my favorite oldie (this kept happening to her so we lowered her roasting pole to like 6 inches off the ground so she wouldn't hop down and injure it); she's always been "portly". If she's drinking that's a really good sign. If it was heat exhaustion / stroke, she'll need to be pampered for MANY days to fully recover (if she does at all). I assume they have access to plenty of shade in your hot climate. Hope she heals soon, Alia P.S. At your local Farm Supply, they may have a product called Quick Chik which will likely REALLY help her. Here's what it is: http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/quik_chik.html

Thx all

I'm seeking PHYSICAL outcomes/experiences more than opinions about how you feel about terminating your fertility ;). Did you experience any negative physical outcomes that you attribute to it? Did it change your period? Libido? Would you do it again? Please share your thoughts.

I talked to my parents last night about my posting our incident with our pit attacking the biker on here. My parents reminded me of some things about her that I thought would be important to add. My dad allowed our pit to have 1 litter of pups before we spay her. He said she was about 2 years old when she had the litter. My little sister (8 years younger than I) who was age 6 at that time would get IN THE DOGHOUSE with the pit bull and her 8 newborn puppies and would spend long periods of time moving her pups from one teat to another to get this one or that one more comfortable, etc. She'd YANK each pup (and the teat would be pulled great lengths with the pup since neither she nor I knew about breaking the suction; it had to have been a major pain and nuisance to the mama dog. The pups would whimper when they were taken off a teat which makes any mama dog -- especially a first-time mom --- angry anyway. She would sit in there and rearrange the pups to whatever order/purpose, and our pit wouldn't growl or anything at this intrusion. So you can see why we perceived her to be harmless. And, yet, she snapped and mauled that man severely for NO reason. (and no, she wasn't rabid). My dad also reminded me of something else. My dad was a minister so we regularly had company over -- usually on Wednesday evening and Sunday afternoons. When we had company over, we tied her up as we didn't want her barking/intimidating people(we knew she looked intimidating) and we also didn't want her trying to eat peoples' burgers and begging for scraps. So she was accustomed to occasionally being tied up for a few hours and never minded it. Her clothesline/leash was completely in the shade near her doghouse, water and food so she was quite comfy. Dad said that she attacked him on a Sunday afternoon. He said we had 1 family over (3 people) on that particular Sunday and that he had her on her leash. He said we were all out on the porch when the biker appeared and she commenced to barking violently and pulling at her rope even with him well over 100 yards away!. She BROKE the rope and ran him down. In short, her drive to get him was THAT strong. I also want to add that my caution with dogs isn't limited to pit bulls. I feel that any dog that possesses the size and/or strength to harm a child in a moment lapse of stability when its unpredictable animalistic instincts shift, shouldn't be left alone and in close proximity to a child. No matter how "sweet" they act, they never earn that level of trust for me. For me personally, an animal's being esteemed as trustworthy and even their presence near us (those "benefits") never outweigh the potential risks (sliced cornea, permanently scarred face, ripped off earlobe, etc. -- and the list could get more gruesome). Whether it's a Chow, a German Shepherd, a Boxer, a great Pyrenees, a Mastiff, a great Dane, a Schnauzer, a Lab, a horse, a cow, etc. When I had my first baby, my little rat terrier dog was instantly demoted to outdoors and was never left near my babies/small kids.

I talked to my neighbor that lives 2 houses down yesterday and we were talking about the neighbor's pits and she said that it (neighbor's pit -- the one that was hit by the car months ago, which I mentioned in my earlier post), had attacked & killed her Schnauzer (sp?) ih their yard (the Schnauzer's yard) this past January.

Just trying to guess when my class reunion MIGHT be. This will be 20th reunion. (it's not THIS summer, but 2014). Any guesses?

Warning: this is lengthy, but I feel I have some important stuff to share....and since this is life and death, I let my passion shine forth here. Firstly, let me say that I fully empathize with your plight; this describes our neighbors perfectly complete with the wandering pit bull (who, by the way, did indeed kill my cat 2 months ago). I haven’t read the other posts, so I’m quite likely echoing, but here goes my 2 cents (in this case I feel my 2 cents are worth $2 billion dollars as I FIRMLY believe in the accuracy of what I have to say on this issue). PLEASE listen to your red flags in this situation and DO NOT TRUST that those dogs will not severly injure or even kill your children (or you adults). I’m not putting you in this category, but I anticipate the pit bull defenders showing up on this thread and going into what a bad rap pit bulls get. It’s interesting that pit bull defenders will gladly tout any other specific breeds “gifts†or “natural inclinationsâ€, but they dismiss a pit bull’s. What do I mean? They’ll gladly admit that a Collie is good at shepherding/herding, or that a Retriever is a good swimmer, or a Pointer is a good bird dog, or a Bloodhound has a superb sniffer. But, when it comes to what a pit bulldog is bred for, then we toss all of that out and only focus on what “sweet puppies†they are and ignore what they are CAPABLE of. The data is irrefutable and clear – they are a risky breed of dog. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule and not every pit is aggressive, but a pit bull LIKE ANY BREED of dog (even my own little rat terrier) is C A P A B L E of inflicting injury. And, in a pit’s case, because of their size, and genetic STRENGTH and athleticism, they are capable of inflicting worse injury than many other breeds of dog. As a person who used to own a pit bull, we learned the hard way; now, armed the that 20/20 hindsight, I’ve wised up and fully admit how dangerous they are. When I was a teenager (I was probably 14 ish), my dad bought a pit bull (female) puppy. She was sweet, kind-natured to us and acted normally when a stranger pulled into our yard – she’d bark the usual barks, but never acted aggressively. But, one day, we were outside grilling (we lived on 14 acres in the country and our house sat about 100 yards (a football field length) off of the main country road. On this one occasion a man pedaled his bike down the road (he didn’t even look our way or engage us at all) and, for no reason at all, she BOLTED off our porch the entire distance to the road and knocked him off his bike and mangled his legs so badly that he had to get 100s of stitches (I want to say it was 400 stitches). My strong dad COULD NOT get her off of him. When he finally did (he was bit in the process), the ambulance came and took that man to the hospital and my parents were sued and settled out of court (THANKFULLY) for $46,000. (this was back in the 80s when lawsuits were much less expensively settled than they are now). And, my parents GLADLY paid it. He suffered significant injury. My dad put her down that night. And my mom cried as she realized how foolish she had been and that that dog could have easily killed anyone of me or my siblings. She snapped for no apparent reason. NONE of us saw this coming. An hour before it happened, we would have sounded EXACTLY like your neighbors do and would have sworn up and down that our little sweetie wouldn’t hurt a fly. My brother-in-law went hunting back in November with a friend. The friend took his pit bulldog along. He said as they were walking in the woods a wild boar hog (male) crossed their path and the pit broke away from his (man) owner who COULD NOT hold her and she got into it with that MALE HUGE wild boar hog. (I don’t know if you know how big and aggressive wild boar hogs are, but they are DANGEROUS in their own right). She KILLED the wild boar hog. My brother-in-law said he had never seen such a fight in his life and he said he had NO idea who would be the victor and he said it was like the scene in OLD YELLER where his friend couldn’t fire the gun as he couldn’t get a clear shot off. He said she finally pinned the hog and bit and held its neck until it bled out. Said she was drenched in blood and was like a wild animal – in like state where she COULD NOT de-escalate her wild trance for all of her adrenaline. A friend of mine's sister was attacked by a pit bull who ran across the street at her in her own yard; her husband thankfully was home and heard it and ran out and couldn't get it off of her. She was in the hospital for WEEKS. When last I heard, she had had her 4th reconstructive surgery on her FACE and her husband had gotten numerous stitches also. I share all this to say: PIT BULLDOGS are powerful creatures with strong jaws and a strong attack instinct. They are (like ANY dog) unpredictable. Your neighbor’s dog sees NO difference in your 2 year old or your 4 year old being a homo eructus or a feline domesticus and your neighbor even admitted the dog might kill a cat. Abby may serve to help steer the attack her way but she is NO sure protection for your children. If that pit gets to them AT ALL, neither you nor one of your older kids nor ABBY is CAPABLE of stopping a ripped cornea, or a ripped jugular vein, (you get my point). You do not have TIME to redirect this type of animal. You don’t have time to get a gun. You (or even a man) CANNOT physically pull it off. They are capable of locking their jaws where they themselves CANNOT open them. My neighbor had 2 pit bulls – now they’re down to 1. We learned his AFTER we purchased our 8 acres. The mama dog and her puppy would come over to our land while we were working and that ended my and my kids’ abilities to go over there at all as the adult dog saw that as HER turf. She had lived next to it for years, so she’d come and stare us down. We put everything on hold and put ALL our money into fencing. Thankfully, the mama dog died in a car accident and that left the 4 month old puppy. We continued with the fencing efforts knowing that soon the puppy will be grown. We even BURIED the fencing ---- welded wire --- so she CAN’T dig under it. These neighbor’s aren’t going to spay the dog, so it’s a matter of time before she has a litter and doubtless they’ll keep one or two (likely males!), so we're prepared. They forced it to be our #1 priority, because LIKE YOU our freedom ENDED because of it. Now the little 4 month old puppy acts sweet and affectionate, and even if she grows up to be the same sweet and affectionate dog (like my own pit was as an adult), she’s still CAPABLE of turning on a moment’s notice and she has the POWER to inflict serious injury. You know in your heart that for all intents and purposes, your freedom there is over as things are now as there's no way you are worry-free when your kids are out in your front yard. There’s no way you feel “FREEâ€(peace/calm/tranquil) anymore knowing of what potentially could occur. So now that you KNOW this, you have to find a way to feel free on your own property. You know you can’t TRUST your neighbor not to let them out (or that they won’t get out on their own) as they do not think she's capable of hurting anything, so that's a dead end road, so I'd leave them out of the solution as that's a lost cause. They feel the EXACT same way WE did about our little precious pit). When these stories are on the news have you ever seen the owner say, “Well, it didn’t surprise me at all; we knew Buster was capable of this.†No, it’s always the disbelief and the stories of the dog’s sweet and calm disposition. You can move and hope that you won’t end up with similar neighbors (quite an expensive gamble). Or, you can do what is likely the ONLY solution, you can protect YOUR PROPERTY and allow your kids to ONLY go where there’s no way in Hades that that dogs CAN get to them and this takes fencing. And you don't have to spend a mint on fencing. You can get a roll of welded wire at Lowe's/Home Depot/Farm Supply stores for about $1 per foot -- not including the metal rods). The fencing has to be impenetrable by even a digging dog. IT’s the only way you’ll have FREEDOM and peace of mind. My own dog is 14 lbs and is 13 years old and he’s such a wimpy, cowardly acting dog that we’ve always called nicknamed him “Tender†and “Peacelilly†and “WussDogâ€. This was his natural temperament since birth. The night before last (when the moon was HUGE), he ran after an opossum and killed it with a few viciously powerful shakes to its neck. I would have N E V E R thought my little “WussDog†was capable of tossing a grown opossum around like a ragdoll, but he did. Even I was shocked. We assessed the opossum afterwards thinking perhaps it was “playing opossum†but it wasn’t. He had snapped its neck with a few violent shakes. Now that’s a 91year old dog (in dog years) --- who’s 14 lbs that was bred to kill RATS. So, what do you think a pit bull’s genetic musculature is CAPABLE of doing? These dogs were used to control BULLS (in cattle yards) and for hunting and killing wild hogs among other reasons, but a dog that is CAPABLE of controlling a 1800 lb. BULL and is CAPABLE of killing a wild hog is CAPABLE of hurting a person. Did you hear about that couple who went into their bedroom for intimate relations and had left their baby in a chair along with their indoor Pit Bulldog. They heard a commotion and came out and found that the dog had attacked the child and had eaten his testicles off. I think it was in Texas a few years ago. It was in the paper. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/04/08/Baby-mauled-by-two-pit-bulls/UPI-67771270771553/ Please heed your mama Bear instincts and realize how serious COULD potentially be. It may NEVER occur but the potential for serious, even fatal, injury is very real. And, please don't let anyone talk you into thinking that all you need to do is go over there with the dogs and their owners and let their dogs befriend you all. Even if they ACT like they like you/them on MANY occasions, they are still unpredictable enough to be deadly. A maimed or dead child is NOT worth the risk. Alia P.S. I'm adding an edit. When I got finished posting this, I went in and sat with my husband and he asked what in the world I had been typing. I told him about your situation and how I'd recommended the welded wire and he said, "well, make sure she knows that regular 4 foot welded wire and a regular height chain length fence is NOT enough protection as they get over that height and, quite possible push them over. He bought 5 foot welded wire than was tougher grade/gauge (made for large animals -- cattle, goat, etc.). He said the 4' welded wiring is more flimsy. He said pits can't get over or push over hat we have. He reminded me how large male pits were as it's been a while since I've seen one in person; he said that our neighbor's females are peewees by comparison (which is hard to fathom as when I look at their large muscular jaws/teeth) -- that's hard to imagine. My husband is a very level-headed, educated man, so please take this into consideration. Again, welded wire is the least expensive option in fencing that is strong enough to prevent their getting through it. And, quite honestly, I don't think it's as unattractive as chain-length. Best wishes!

I tried that but it didn't work..... I clicked on the MANAGE POLL OPTION and entered all my stuff and clicked FINISH then when I pressed PREVIEW, nothing is there.

How do you do a poll on here?

:-(

I went to START NEW TOPIC and posted my title, then I clicked on the MANAGE TOPIC POLL and filled all that in and pushed FINISHED, then when I went to preview, nothing is there. How do I start a poll on here?

you can download a free trial of startwrite and actually USE it to see if it looks like what you're seeking