I forgot to add....we gave DS a little notebook. If we don't want him fogging up and forgetting, we tell him to write it down as soon as we tell him. then he is to go do it. If we find him wandering (my son will literally be walking in circles around the island in the kitchen LOL) or elsewhere or find it undone, we ask him to go get his notebook. It saves us from being exasperated AGAIN and saves him from being so frustrated with himself. Because even tho we fuss at him when he doesn't do what he's been asked to, or it seems like he's choosing to ignore us, many times he is as frustrated with himself as we are and this way, it's more of a gentle reminder.

awesome, thanks ladies!!

O..M...G.... I have one of those. He just turned 14 and the fog that I can almost see that surrounds him is thick thick thick! Sometimes I feel pretty bad for him although we stay super frustrated with him. On the days when this foggy stuff isn't so bad, he does REALLy good.

This keeps happening. I post something, and might not make it back for a few days, so I search in "my content" and it doesn't list my last post. I even keep entering some keywords from the title and it isn't coming up. What am I doing wrong? Does it come up for you guys? Its the one about a cross country move on a budget.

yeah, this was for one 28 ft trailer.

Any permanent or physical harm/safety issues, etc., I do step in on, like others said, it really depends on the situation. Other things like crappy essays and stuff I KNOW they can do better on, I may talk to them about their best and maybe just talk about those particular consequences. If they move forward anyway, they get the consequence that comes.

Out of curiosity I went to the site and requested a quote plugging in zip codes to/from and whether we would pack or need helpers. I chose that we'd do all the packing and unpacking. The quote came to $7900?! Does that sound right to you ladies who've used ABF? That is WAY more than I was ever expecting...

and... I think everyone is very different so the blood test results are usually key to how it's taken. Mine was at a 1 and the doc wanted me to at least at a 15, whatever that means. lol So, I started taking it daily (orally) all month long and only coming off of it for 5 days once my period starts. That worked ok for the #'s in the blood test, but emotionally/mentally I would take a huge dive when I was off of it, so she added the lowest dose cream to use during that 5 days so my body didn't feel a full withdrawl. But I was still to omit the oral dose during that 5 days. I asked why I wasn't mimicking the bodys natural rhythm of being little-to-no progest for 2 weeks of the month and she gave me a super techincal reason that bascially means we're all different and I was so chronically low that I have to take it this way. OTOH, my sister just bought something over the counter and used it for a year the way the label suggested and in the end, it messed up her body's ability to produce it on it's own and made things worse. I wouldn't have thought that so now I tell everyone to use a doctor when tweaking hormones!

A city of around 85,000..I haven't checked for sure lately, but when we lived there before we saw the POD company there. Thank you. We've moved across the country 3 other times, all a variety of different ways...but every time we moved DH's covered trailer ourselves. His tbird is non insurable for a company to move. There is no category in their database for a car like that. lol That was a surprise to me years ago. This time, with only 2 drivers (me not being one of them) and even after reducing still cannot fit every thing into one Uhaul truck (even the largest), and with two trailers to tow and it being a minimum of a 4 days drive, we cannot Uhaul it and be done. We DID do that two moves ago from CA to MT. DH sold all vehicles but my truck and he drove a Uhaul towing his covered trailer w/ his tbird it in while I followed in my truck. STILL....he had to drive my truck back and get a second load. And now we're talking a TON more mileage. Sadly, i am no longer capable of doing this type of drive. We are willing to DIY as much as humanly possible, but we need a company to deliver the bulk of the house stuff. This will likely mean we pack everything and pack a pod type trailer but either way, 2 people are going to have tow/drive the 2400 miles to MT. We have tons of people on both ends who have said they will help do whatever they can. Plus the moving office out on base here is helping me source some things. So I seem seem to have plenty resources to draw from. But once we leave, and how we GET it all there, is up to us. Ug...so many decisions... Welp, i don't really WANT to hire someone. I like to pinch pennys for blood...really. But we simply won't fit into any companies largest truck no matter what we do (classic car/trailers/heirloom tools/another trailer). It looks like we are going to HAVE to hire someone with this complicated move. We thought we were done moving...guess not! lol Thanks everyone!

well they are supposed to have some very healthy and important oils in them that can go rancid easily so I've read to grind them up and eat them right away. They can be used as an egg replacement in recipes by allowing the ground seeds to absorb water/milk and I've had very good success using them this way. But, it sounds like that's what happened in your yogurt and that's not so good! lol Unless you eat it right away. Lately I"ve been grinding them up and using them in our pancake mix. Any flour type item you are making, they will blend right in with the batter/dough. I've also sprinkled the (after grinding) on top of salads and granola.

bioidentical here b/c of extreme stress, my progesterone level went to zero and stayed there. It took a while to get the levels right but now that debilitating general anxiety disorder I had disappeared w/ the bio progesterone. It's SUCH a relief. But I would suggest using a knowledgeable dr for sure. My sister picked up the yam creams and other OTC stuff and used it for a couple years and in the end it made things much worse for her. The dr will keep tabs through blood tests and make sure things are right instead of self medicating. Not that you were thinking of doing that, but just sharing...

I didn't expect much but loved it! I'm always surprised by her voice, too, but she is a classically trained singer so that makes sense, I guess.

I have seriously considered selling a bunch of stuff, especially furniture, and rebuying in MT. But, when we moved here, we replaced everything so most all furniture is new so I'm thinking it would just cost us much more to sell it all and rebuy it. If it were all a few years old, I think it might be worth it. I can't be one of the drivers. We are paying our other driver (family friend) to come from MT to help drive us up. So we are already paying for a plane ticket down. It is FRIGHTFULLY expensive to fly out of Montana so I'm not sure about flying him out, then reflying him with my husband back down. I think it would be much more expensive. Plus, Uhaul gave us a quote and the biggest uhauls are $1600 each for that distance/size. I'm thinking it might actually be cheaper to use something like the ABF upack trailers for less $. But I'll run the $'s.... Wellll...... DH's hobby car is a '56 thunderbird that his mother drove in high school in the 60s. He later bought it from his grandparents when HE turned 16 and has been married to refinishing it all these years. There's no replacing it. If we sold the kids 4 wheeler/dirtbikes, we might gain some space not enough to get rid of a whole trailer. And..trailers are a staple in our household because DH is a gear head and all his grandfather's and father tools are in the trailer with the t-bird..so I guess we have to keep them. All this type of stuff seriously complicates every move, but I dare not suggest we downsize that stuff, though I'd love to!! LOL He will be looking for a job there and has been looking into the federal jobs. So far, all the ones he would apply for have specifically said "no relocation assistance". But, we aren't putting the house on the market until late March so our goal dates are from late June through September so it's really premature at this point and a LOT will likely pop up between now and then. This whole discussion is pretty premature, actually but we are making lists and info gathering right now. Between DH's retirement pay, some savings and two other sources of income, we can move ahead of securing a job. It will be tough but not impossible and can't go on past 6 months or so. Ideally, of course I'd LOVE for a federal job to relocate us...that is the ultimate hope. But again, it's early and we are just preparing for the scenario that it will be completely up to us. So many good ideas here, thanks ladies and keep them coming!

Yes..exactly. So..quotes. Just a quick google search pulls up a gazillion companies. Just start going down the line?

well DH has to drive his truck to tow his enclosed car trailer with his hobby car in it. And it's heavy enough so that not much else can go in it and it can't be towed by a uhaul. We are considering having a friend drive my truck and he'll be towing another enclosed trailer with dirt bikes and four wheelers and some of DH's tools that can't be packed. DH has a shop full of man-stuff that he's already ....'downsized'. Well anyway So, along with household goods/furniture, etc. that can be packed and sent ahead, we also have two enclosed trailers, 3 vehicles (and only 2 drivers), a bunch of heavy tools that can't be replaced (heirloom type stuff). So even if we have a company involved in some way, it seems like we will also need 2 drivers towing stuff. I think we have the "2 drivers towing the enclosed trailers" figured out. It's the household goods that we need some sort of help with.

After 20 yrs in the Air Force, DD retired about 1.5 yrs ago. We had them move us to our home state of FL from Montana. Welp, we weren't sure we were making the right decision and as it turns out, we feel our home is back in Montana and we all voted to move back. Because the military always moved us before, we just let them arrange a lot of it. Sometimes we partially moved ourselves. But now, we have too much stuff, even if we downsize, to use the biggest Uhaul truck. Basically, I am wondering if anyone can make suggestions on any variety of options. We need a company to either partially or fully move us. We also aren't opposed to companies that drop a 'pod' or semi and allow us to pack it, and they move it to our new address. The POD company itself seems awefully expensive though. And because we are footing the bill, we are on a very tight budget. We have to put aside funds to also make that drive up with the family while towing DH's car trailer (hobby car), gas..hotels...food..$$$$$. I mean...we are prepared to pay for this move, but I obviously want to look for the very best deal. Is there a company that will help retired vets with this? I've also entered info into the 'get a quote' section of some of these moving sites and they all say a rep will call me Monday. But I'm just hoping for some 'in-real-life' experiences and ideas.

oh great, thanks ladies! off to check it out.

We just bought the kids new laptops. The previous ones came with Microsoft office installed; these do not. In a quick search to figure out how to get MO onto both of their laptops, I'm finding only the option to pay for MO in a cloud type service per month? Seriously? I dont want another BILL. What am I missing? How do I get my hands on 2 licenses for an installed version?

No, we wouldn't be going through the full time option. We'd choose the part time, although I think that's a poor description. I just need more flexibility and the rep I talked to with FLVS said that with their full time option, they are told when to sign in to each class per day. We have lots of music classes and other things to do some days and would opt to do our school work in the evening and he told me that is not an option with the Full Time choice. SO, part time allows you do to do it when and where and at what pace and those are a lot of the reasons I homeschool anyway. I just need to know what kind of average time we're looking at to know how to load the classes and not set them up for failure. I think we're just going to have to go through it to know. AND we are mainly using Duval Virtual after all because it offers even more flexibility and I think we'll choose various FLVS courses to go along with it since Duval virtual will accepts those credits as well. So I guess we will experiment with each school a little and go from there.

If you have any experience with Duval Virtual Instructional Academy in Jacksonville, FL or Florida Virtual School, I have a question. Both schools have told me to count on 7 hours of uninterrupted instruction time per day if we are taking 6 courses ....and we are going to have to take that amt per year to meet the 12 credit requirement to advance as a Junior when the kids get that far. Part of the reason we HS is for the flexibility. Both kids are performing music students and we have other serious obligations weekly and I'm not sure 35 hours of school per week is doable to keep the balance. The guidance counselor said it's not that way with every kid, and some courses take a while per day and some are much quicker. She said too, that many students actually get ahead during the year and finish the year a little early. She keeps saying, that she 'honestly doesn't see this as a problem with most of the student body" and I wonder is it US or THEM? lol Granted, we have yet to try it out so my kids might actually be able to get it done much more quickly. I guess my question is...if you have experience in either of these virtual schools at the high school level, what has been your experience with the load or the pace?

If you have any experience with Duval Virtual Instructional Academy in Jacksonville, FL or Florida Virtual School, I have a question. Both schools have told me to count on 7 hours of uninterrupted instruction time per day if we are taking 6 courses ....and we are going to have to take that amt per year to meet the 12 credit requirement to advance as a Junior when the kids get that far. Part of the reason we HS is for the flexibility. Both kids are performing music students and we have other serious obligations weekly and I'm not sure 35 hours of school per week is doable to keep the balance. The guidance counselor said it's not that way with every kid, and some courses take a while per day and some are much quicker. She said too, that many students actually get ahead during the year and finish the year a little early. She keeps saying, that she 'honestly doesn't see this as a problem with most of the student body" and I wonder is it US or THEM? lol Granted, we have yet to try it out so my kids might actually be able to get it done much more quickly. I guess my question is...if you have experience in either of these virtual schools at the high school level, what has been your experience with the load or the pace? ETA: and may i just say, I KNOW the kids attending the local high schools aren't getting this kind of instructional time...for goodness sake.. why are homeschoolers required to spend so much time in school? DD said it feels more like a punishment than actually going to the local high school. sigh.......... She took 9th grade w/ another private homeschool and didn't have to do nearly this much time, completed 5 credits and was an all-A student that year. I realize every school has it's own requirments but there's more than one way to do this but I"m wondering if 7 hrs a day is necessary. I know some here spend that kind of time a day, and I don't find anything wrong with it, but it just isn't going to work here :( I'm hoping that's a very high estimate.

When my DD moved from girls to a bigger size, we found a nice variety of modest mix and match at our Target.

I know this is super specific but ..... I'm looking to change up my kids high school program. DS is entering 9th grade in August, DD is entering 10th. I looked into Florida Virtual School but marked it off my list when the rep told me that in high school, they must log in and do their work according to a schedule that is sent to them. So, for 6 hours, 5 days a week, they must sit in front of the computer, ONLY at the times indicated. So, that removes the type of flexibility we need. So I started looking around at other virtual schools and found that my county (Duval) offers one. I called and asked a billion questions and found out that even though they must follow the district calendar's begin/end dates (so, no year-round option) they can do their classes whenever they want within those months, even working through holidays and other 'off' days on the school calendar. There are a few other reasons that the Duval Virtual school appeals to us, but I was hoping for some personal feedback. It seems like it's been around a few years, but not an incredibly long time.

I have a lot of questions for anyone who has experience with the Florida Virtual online school. DS is in 8th grade and I predict he will be ready for high school around January 2017. I know people how use FLVS for their kids in middle school so I'm not sure if they can answer many of my high school questions. Maybe that doesn't matter..I don't know. Right now DS is working through Larson's Alg 1 (is in chapter 3), is working on 9th grade language arts and history/science from a variety of sources....despite what my outdated siggy says. I x-posted this in the middle school section, because if there is input from those of you using it in 8th grade, I'd like that, too since I don't really know if they'll place him in 8th or 9th. -I guess I would like to know if they test them to place them correctly? -What is the work load like (I keep hearing "it's harder than it has to be". I mean, give it to me straight, because my DS just turned 13, is pretty accelerated academically but is immature emotionally, therefore his natural pace seems to be very slow and he is overwhelmed easily. If I know FLVS was extremely rigorous in pace and expected loads of work per week, more than he could do, I would not choose that option. -Do they get a diploma in the end or GED? -Can they enroll and bring in credits from another school? (DD is almost finished with 9th grade thru American School and if this is a good fit for her, I would like her to count those credits). -I see there are part time/full time choices. I figured I could start DS out with the part time High School program until Jan 2017 just to dip our toes into the program and if we don't like it, we can start high school in Jan with the program I had already planned to use in Jan. -How involved are the teachers. Are there individual teachers per subject? How often are they in communication w/ them. Are they ever required to meet with them? -Are they required to do standardized testing? -Are they required to log in and out at certain hours, or are they allowed flexibility to do the weeks' assignments as they wish, as long as they get it done? -Are there activities scheduled that brings the students together at any point? Also........we are in the Jacksonville area and I understand high schooled homeschoolers can dual enroll for free. But I'm wondeing if the work load is super high, would there be time and stamina left for tackling dual enrolled classes? DS just needs so much more structure than I can give him and he needs to have input and pressure from teachers outside of the home. He just works much better that way. Would he get that w/ FLVS? Thanks so much!

I have a lot of questions for anyone who has experience with the Florida Virtual online school. DS is in 8th grade and I predict he will be ready for high school around January 2017. I know people how use FLVS for their kids in middle school so I'm not sure if they can answer many of my high school questions. Maybe that doesn't matter..I don't know. Right now DS is working through Larson's Alg 1 (is in chapter 3), is working on 9th grade language arts and history/science from a variety of sources....despite what my outdated siggy says. I x-posted this in the middle school section, because if there is input from those of you using it in 8th grade, I'd like that, too since I don't really know if they'll place him in 8th or 9th. -I guess I would like to know if they test them to place them correctly? -What is the work load like (I keep hearing "it's harder than it has to be". I mean, give it to me straight, because my DS just turned 13, is pretty accelerated academically but is immature emotionally, therefore his natural pace seems to be very slow and he is overwhelmed easily. If I know FLVS was extremely rigorous in pace and expected loads of work per week, more than he could do, I would not choose that option. -Do they get a diploma in the end or GED? -Can they enroll and bring in credits from another school? (DD is almost finished with 9th grade thru American School and if this is a good fit for her, I would like her to count those credits). -I see there are part time/full time choices. I figured I could start DS out with the part time High School program until Jan 2017 just to dip our toes into the program and if we don't like it, we can start high school in Jan with the program I had already planned to use in Jan. -How involved are the teachers. Are there individual teachers per subject? How often are they in communication w/ them. Are they ever required to meet with them? -Are they required to do standardized testing? -Are they required to log in and out at certain hours, or are they allowed flexibility to do the weeks' assignments as they wish, as long as they get it done? -Are there activities scheduled that brings the students together at any point? Also........we are in the Jacksonville area and I understand high schooled homeschoolers can dual enroll for free. But I'm wondeing if the work load is super high, would there be time and stamina left for tackling dual enrolled classes? DS just needs so much more structure than I can give him and he needs to have input and pressure from teachers outside of the home. He just works much better that way. Would he get that w/ FLVS? Thanks so much!