My family is all on the shorter side- Dad and brother are around 5' 6", mom is about 5' 4" and I'm 5'2" on a tall day. :-) I also spent many many years involved in gymnastics, so my height-o-meter is skewed small. DH is 6' though and so far DS seems to be taking after those genes. I voted 5'8".

just voted!

It's not too bad - I had an emergency root canal done a few years back. My biggest recommendations are to bring an ipod and headphones. Listen to an audiobook or podcast because it gets boring believe it or not. Also, don't drink too much before you go because it's long and you don't want to get up to pee midway through. :-) (I did and it wasn't fun!)

Clean - every time I mow, I end up seeing snakes and they freak me out. So I'd rather stay inside and clean!

I'm a once a weeker for sheets - in the winter, sometimes I'll go 2 weeks. For some reason, flannel sheets seem to stay nicer longer. But, weekly is my typical timeframe.

I love magic loop - I was taught on dpn first and always felt like I was wrestling an octopus. I avoided knitting things that required dpn for the longest time until the owner at our knitting store told me to look up magic loop on youtube. I got hooked quickly and love it! I think it would be fine to teach beginners. I taught my friend how to do it when she first started knitting and she picked it up quickly. Oh, I'm a lefty and my mom was the first person who taught me to knit. She didn't know how to reverse the knitting, so she taught me to knit righty. #leftyproblems I swear my parents taught me to do half of the things in life righty because they didn't know how to reverse - tying shoes, scissors, cutting food...

Slacker radio is DH's favorite. I usually use itunes radio, but I'm getting sick of hearing the same songs over and over, so I think I might try Amazon prime music next.

I agree - I would be thinking lots of rice based dishes with fresh veggies and tofu. Noodle stir fries, miso soup, stuff like that. Yum!!

Our trim is Sherwin Williams Rosemary and we love it: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeowners/color/find-and-explore-colors/paint-colors-by-family/SW6187-rosemary/#/6187/?s=products&p=PS0

I'm 38 and haven't found any gray hair yet. However I have very thick curly hair, so there could be a fair number of grays hiding in there and I wouldn't know. :-) My plan is to see how it looks and then decide. If I end up with a nice gray or silver, I'll keep it. If it comes in looking washed out, I'll probably dye for awhile. My mom is 61 and is not fully gray - she does dye her hair, but when it comes in, it's maybe 50% gray at the roots, so maybe I'll take after her. I went to college with a woman who was completely gray by 17 - she didn't color back then, but she since has started. When we became FB friends years later, I was surprised at the honey blond color in her hair! She looks great both ways though.

We're pretty low key around here about most holidays and mothers day is no exception. This morning, we're having MIL over for pancakes and fruit salad. DH and DS are out getting her flowers and a card right now actually. DS made me a card and brought me coffee this morning. That's about it. My mom is out of town for the weekend, so we'll make sure to have a card for her tomorrow and I might splurge and make appointments for us to get pre-summer pedicures together.

Did you make it through the whole report? (so long!) I managed to read it and it looks like it started happening after the Jets game in October when the equipment manager found that the balls had been overinflated by the NFL refs up to 16psi. Brady had been complaining through the game that the balls felt like rocks or something. After that game, he asked to see the rulebook and requested that the balls be set to 12.5 psi exactly - prior to that game, the balls had been set to between 12.75 and 12.85 psi because that was what had always been done. Do I think that Brady asked his equipment guys to make sure the refs didn't over inflate the balls again after the Jets game? Yup. Is it against the rules to do anything to the balls after the refs have them? Yup. Does every other quarterback in the league do it? Yup. I think Brady's agent and lawyer have done a horrible job prepping him for questions from the media and at his initial press conference he looked guilty. I think he should have just explained then what happened and that he knew technically it wasn't ok but that the balls had been overinflated before and he wanted them down to the legal minimum. He would be in much better standing with this situation if he did that from the get go. But - the league should be consistent. They gave the Vikings and Jaguars a very mild reminder when they were caught red handed tampering with balls mid-game this year. They basically said "we looked into it and reminded the teams that balls are not to be tampered with after the refs check them" Historically if Team A lodges a complaint with the NFL against Team B - the NFL will call up Team B and let them know what's going on and ask them to stop doing that particular infraction. In this case, the NFL set up a sting operation. Why did they treat the Patriots differently? 2 years ago, the Chargers were caught using stickum and tried to hide the evidence by not giving up their towels to the NFL when asked. They were fined $20,000. There wasn't a 103 day investigation into sticky towels. I think Brady and the equipment manager and ball boy should be punished. I think $25,000 each for tampering with the balls and then another $500,000 for Brady for his lack of cooperation would be fair. Goodell suspended Ray Rice 2 games for knocking his fiancee out cold. Oh and the game that started everything against the Colts during the regular season - at halftime, the Patriots led 14-10 (with the possibly deflated balls) by the end of the game, they won 42-20 (after the refs fixed them). If anything, the balls hurt their cause.

I use the Happy Herbivore meal plans and love them. :-) They're all plant based, but you can add eggs/dairy if you eat them pretty easily. I do for DH and DS. I think she offers a free 3 day sample meal plan on her website. I don't always love every meal, but I like most of them. Feel free to PM me if you want more details, I've been subscribing for over a year now.

Yes - that's kind of what I was trying to picture. thank you! We have a good amount of equity in our current home and when we sell, we should have a chunk to work with after the down payment. My mother's husband is also our contractor and he gives us the friends and family rate for his labor which helps. I like the idea of adding in windows on the other side. I'm not sure why they didn't do that to start - there's a nice view out the back. DH keeps trying to tell me that 27'x25' isn't that big and he doesn't think it can be split into two. I reminded him that our entire upstairs is smaller than that currently and we have 4 rooms up there. We're not 100% sold on the house because the yard is a bit small, but I love the idea of having an office/homeschool room wherever we end up. At the moment, homeschool stuff is all on various shelves around the house and we school at the kitchen table. Which isn't a horrible set up, but DH frequently doesn't have to be at the office until 10am which makes it really hard to work before he leaves. And my "office" at the moment is two briefcases that I have to unpack every time I need to work, which is every day. Not idea.

I'm leaning 3 - the pool sounds great with house 2, but having neighbors on top of me would make me nuts and 3 sounds like it has a better layout than 1. I agree with a PP about checking in on property taxes. We're house hunting right now too and I've had to eliminate houses because of the property tax. I'm not paying $7000+ a year for road maintenance.

Beautiful pictures and congratulations!!!

DH and I have been house hunting and we've found a house we like a lot. There's a large mostly unfinished room above the garage that we would like to finish if we purchase the house. It's insulated and wired and at the moment there is framing for 2 large walk in closets. I believe the current owners planned on making it a master suite with the two closets and adding a bathroom. But, it's giant and we don't need that much bedroom. It's 27' x 25'. Ideally, we'd like to pull down the closet framing and make two rooms - one a den for watching movies, playing games, etc. The other would either be an office/homeschool room or another bedroom and we'd use one of the other bedrooms in the house as the office/homeschool room. The problem is, we're both visual-spatially challenged. As in, we've looked at this space in person twice. We know it's quite large and there's more than enough room for 2 good sized rooms, but we can't picture how to break it up. Anyone want to help me visualize? Here's the link to the real estate listing with a couple of pictures of the space: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/441-Powder-Horn-Glen-Rd_Montpelier_VT_05602_M37867-78453?row=6

I drink it black, but all of the coffee shops around here have milk as an option. I'm in Vermont.

I love our mailman. He goes out of his way to make sure any packages are left inside our mudroom door instead of either under the mailbox by the road or outside in front of the front door. He is always friendly and seems to enjoy his job. We give our mailmen and garbage men a gift card to a local coffeeshop for Christmas along with some holiday cookies and he left us the nicest thank you note in our mailbox the day after Christmas. Our local post office is similar - friendly, helpful people who remember us and a few of them know that DS is homeschooled and have nice conversations with him about what he's been working on and what his interests are.

This. I've always looked younger, but as someone else posted, the older I get, the more that gap shrinks. I remember getting my tonsils out at about 22 and the nurse asked me, very concerned, where my mommy and daddy were. Um....what? DH has also been referred to as my father once or twice which was mortifying for both of us. Thankfully not in a few years though! I think it's at least partially because I'm short and have a round shaped face.

This hydroflask is $25 or under depending on the color. I love my hydroflask bottles. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A2C83FU/ref=twister_B00GA03F2O?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

We just went in November. Loved: Rose and Crown in England, Tutto Italia in Italy and Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood Studios. Liked less than the last time we went: Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios, Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco. Didn't care for: Pizza planet, Hollywood studios

I love hydroflask and I hate warm water in the summer. I can put water in cold in the morning, leave the bottle outside all day in the sun during July and it's still ice cold that night. They are worth every penny. And they come in fun colors! The review that got me to buy them on Amazon was from a guy who lived in the 110 degree desert of Saudi Arabia: http://www.amazon.com/review/RELCJIX1LTDKK/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B003WU6SOM&nodeID=3375251&store=sporting-goods

I started getting the Bali Comfort Revolution bras from Kohl's last year. They feel like a comfy sports bra, but have a lot of support without the underwire. I got them for buy one, get one 50% off, so it was under $50 for both. Liked them so much, I went back for more. Like these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005W0LPYS/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687682&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00550R2I8&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0DQHTYNQSCADHNYZ3YWY

The ones we got for DH are similar - 4 latex balloons and 1 mylar. All of them are still doing great. They put some special goo inside the balloons before they fill them so they will last longer. I'm wondering if they forgot the goo this time. I won't make a fuss about it, I'm just surprised because this is our 6th year of getting balloons and they've always lasted at least a week and usually longer than that. Thanks for the input!