Cool! I was directed to this site recently and I asked if the 4H instructor was an AIMS instructor and they said yeah. Apparently people here are really good... I figure if he's going to learn it, this is the right place. Makes sense with all the hunters here :lol: https://www.mdwfp.com/aims/

Last time I went to the dentist I got really embarrassed. I wasn't flossing and I bled a lot during the appointment. The dr. commented on it a lot, said I had gingivitis. She said some people have to work harder at certain things and I may just need to work harder than others at flossing. I started flossing and read online that you can reverse gingivitis in like 10 days or so. I was excited, bleeding stopped, inflammation went down. I flossed a lot, then stopped for a bit and bleeding happened again. I'm flossing a couple times a week or more, but not every night like I should. I kind of made it into a challenge for myself... I'm gonna show this dentist LOL! But then I got sick and had to cancel my appt. which was this summer and now can't figure out a time they can see me where dh can take off work. I knew a guy that basically said he never flossed and just used a mouthwash. I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm sure the more things you do, the better. I use Glide brand floss. It's one of the only ones I can stand. They have some coupons for it online I've printed recently, too. Anyway, I go about every 6 months and for a time I didn't go for a long stretch due to finances. It happens. Even going every 6 months my check ups aren't without their moments. They always ask about x-rays at the first visit with a new dentist so if you have any, see if you can send them over. If not, just tell them you haven't been in a while and they'll probably say ok if you don't have any current records we need to do some today. I would think insurance covers it every six months. X-rays varies, might be every other year or so. Which is okay for me because I do not like getting more radiation than necessary, even if it's minor digital x-rays. I just really dislike x-rays, at least the ones with the bitewing thing. Hurts my mouth.

That sounds frustrating. I think the instructor(s) are not offering what you need (whether or not they are doing their job, I don't know. Maybe there is a manager you can discuss this with if you return). I've been looking at options. I just saw one posting for classes a healthplex that says Red Cross lessons but I got discouraged because they broke them up into so many levels that it sounds like you learn to blow bubbles and something else minor in class 1 lol. I was like uhhh... I'm going to see if there's any way we can carve a chunk of time out next summer to get to a pool while we're visiting family. I'm also keeping the swim school in the back of my mind. Both the Red Cross and the swim school place charge roughly $20/30 min. I don't know if that's normal or not, but seems a bit expensive.

We were asked to bring box tops for our homeschool group and date the bag with their graduation year. I thought, "what??" Graduation dates seem so open-ended with homeschooling to me. I didn't have any with me to donate so I didn't. Don't make me think about graduation when my son is entering 4th LOL

In our area the therapist does not come to the home. Which for me worked out okay. They initially tried to send me to another county. Then they said no that's not necessary and let me come to the local one. But the SLP we saw was from the other county's school district.

I had my 2.5 yr old evaluated recently by Early Intervention (I've also heard it called First Steps here). She did not meet criteria for Early Intervention. Her speech improved a good bit between the initial intake and the actual eval. The eval. kept getting delayed so weeks had passed. Mine adds "uh" to the end of words and doesn't use as many as was ideal for her age at her 2 year checkup. She was not using very many. I was really having trouble coming up with the words. It was like mama, dada, bye bye and maybe a handful of others. She says much more now, but a lot of them are said incorrectly. "cute" is "cu-ought." "Please" is "pea-uh." I can get her to do the "z" at the end sometimes but she struggles with make "pl" so there's no L sound. She can say the "L" sound independently. Long story short the eval. had hardly anything to do with speech. They asked if she could throw a ball, stack blocks, etc. They just said when she turns 3 it goes over to the school district and it would be a good idea to call and see if she qualifies for speech articulation. She also drops endings off words. I don't know what she says for milk exactly but you can't hear "k." Fast forward a week or two later I ran into an SLP at a homeschool sign up event. She was there with an audiologist at a vendor booth. We talked privately at the end of the event and I asked if she usually looked inside the child's mouth when evaluating. She said yes unless the kid really doesn't want to because she doesn't want to traumatize them and make them cry. She tries to figure out a way to do it without being invasive, though. Anyway, so I told her that my child has had two frenectomies and I didn't know if that has anything to do with her speech or not but that the SLP at the EI eval. didn't even look in her mouth. I had a dr/IBCLC that does frenectomies look at my dd's mouth post surgery for her opinion once. She looked at mine and the baby's and said mine is worse and she wasn't really worried. That did put my mind at some ease. But function and visual looks don't always go hand in hand. My dad also has a tied tongue but he does wonderfully with language compared to me. I think I am not physically able to roll/trill an R in Spanish. Anyway, the SLP basically said I may need to show her lip and tongue placement and work with her and if I want to have her seen by the school district to call ASAP to line up an appointment because they will be packed. Just thought I'd throw that in there. If you want to look at your child's mouth I can give you some links. I know my dd is still tied but I don't know if it will affect her speech or not. She's improved a lot. She used to scream at me all.the.time. Now she speaks more. I don't always know what she's saying but there's definitely been progress. In short, you probably have some free resources available and if you want to use those, I would say go that route. Are you in the US? Did you go to a private speech therapist or no? What did your pediatrician think? Mine just said she urged me to have dd evaluated before she turned 3.

Oh and we did have a laundry line in the backyard. I tried that before... it didn't work out too well for me. My camisole fell on the grass. I guess I thought no big deal and brought it inside. I got dressed for work and started screaming in pain. Fire ants had gotten into the article of clothing. It was horrible. I don't think I touched the clothes line again after that LOL

We didn't have a sink at either outdoor location. But we did have a dryer. It was absolutely horrible when I was supposed to try to do laundry but had a toddler in the home. Dh was at work when I was home from work. I wasn't sure how to leave to go to the carport and keep an eye on ds. Back then I had a crappy carrier and it hurt me too much to wear him. I also hated going outside at night and seeing a roach scurry past. It's like do you want me to drop the laundry?! Lol

What you're doing sounds fine. IIRC the video really talked about glasses in general, not specifically lenses. For lenses I went through our optometrist's office. They needed a certain type of lens for dd, anyway. I couldn't get what I needed at zenni for her so I found out what brand the doctor's office carries. Then I saw that it was cheaper for me to order myself. I found a buy one get one half off coupon on facebook, too so I ordered hers and ds' there (Kids Bright Eyes). So I ordered the frames and brought them into the store. They were supposed to charge a fee for setting the lenses when you bring in your own frames, but they waived it.

Well, I suppose it's better than outdoors. I've had one on a back porch and one inside a carport. But I still don't like it. Looking at wet bath towels and having limited places to set things down in the kitchen it just seems like such a space hog. But that is more a kitchen design flaw than a laundry being in the kitchen issue I suppose.

I've only seen it on YouTube. But I don't have cable.

I've been following the Krazy Coupon lady a bit more lately. I don't take everything to heart, as her post about Back to School supplies seemed outdated with 2016 prices I haven't seen (she said maybe the prices will drop closer to school). Anyway, I saw a post about a Star Wars lego set on clearance at Walmart. Mine has it in stock so I'm crossing my fingers I can get it when I go to the store this week. We are trying to conserve gas so making less trips out when possible. I have $8 in Savings Catcher to redeem and the Lego Star Wars set is $7 (normally like $25). If I get it, it will be one of my nephew's Christmas gifts. The price is not online, only in stores. Just signed up for Driscoll's Stawberries mailing list to get a coupon (also heard about from KCL). I forgot I can't use it at Sam's because they don't accept coupons but I'll keep it in case we end up buying them at Kroger or Walmart. Our budget is completely out of whack because we got new tires recently and we're already in debt on our credit card. Each week lately we've been keeping our grocery bill low and submitting ibotta and savings catcher info to get a bit back. I debated about whether or not to continue taking ds to Sunday school because the church is approx. 40 min. away. But in the end we agreed to do it. I'm also going to be helping in one of the Sunday school classes. Mass is after class. Then we will go grocery shopping after Mass or dh will do the shopping with dd while we're in class/Mass (I don't take dd to Mass that often because it's really hard and dh does not go with us that often as he is not Catholic). The church is not that far from where we normally shop. I think I mentioned this on the July thread but I found out that our 4H will have archery this fall. This could be a fairly inexpensive extracurricular for ds. 4H meets 20 min. from our home. I don't think he'd have to meet with them that often, dh could do some practice with him at home. The main expense I'm thinking is we'd need to upgrade to a particular bow (they have to use the Genesis which I looked up and it's $200!). Maybe they can get a group discount, depending on how many kids need one. I will ask more questions. I really hope the archery thing works out because it's so much closer to home than anything we've tried so far (like martial arts).

Maybe when they are ready for those subjects you could outsource... dual enrollment? I would think that could be a compromise if possible. Teaching the 4yr old to read. I guess you could work on it and if he grasps it, great. If he's really not interested, then I can see not pushing it. Benefit, maybe so that he can read independently earlier when you need to focus on one-on-one with the older ones? I don't know.

I live in the US and mine is smack in the middle of my kitchen. Mostly, I hate it. When we first moved here we thought we'd be real disciplined. Use the clothing sorter on wheels. We don't even use that thing anymore. I just lug hampers (we have a cloth hamper sack but haven't used it in some time) to the kitchen and more often than not they are there. I have very little counter space so dh and others think the lid of my washer is their counter. It's a pet peeve of mine. And I don't want crumbs to accidentally fall into the machine. Above the washer/dryer are cabinets but we don't use them for dishes. We keep some bottles like Olive oil and to the other side we keep spare cleaning items like more detergent or pads for the Swiffer. This is an old pic.

That's probably what he wants to be thanked for, and you aren't doing it or don't want to because you don't really appreciate it. He needs to know, gently, that you enjoy those one on one visits with your dd. He needs that spelled out by someone. My dh and MIL sometimes would shop together when we lived closer to them. It was torture for me the one or two times I went along. They would spend hours in the grocery store and when I tried to split up to hurry up the trip they acted insulted. One time I said something to my FIL about grocery shopping and he said to me privately, but you know, it's their way of spending time together. I guess I kinda knew that, but hearing it said aloud made it click more? You and your dd are bonding when you're alone at the hospital playing cards. Perhaps one of you could spell that out for him and he wouldn't feel inclined to "help" free up your schedule. Maybe find another way he could help if he's seeking to help. Maybe he is secretly trying to people please and wondering why no one seems to appreciate it. Yes, you thank him, but it sounds like he might have been seeking "thank you" specifically for the times he "covered" for you.

I'm not sure if they are moving close or far. I would be hesitant to give anyone a physical item when moving (it's stressful to pack and fit it all. They might worry about an item breaking as well). But I love the idea of a gift card to somewhere they would use it. Maybe a gift card for lowe's or something where they might need need fixtures or appliances or I don't know what.

aww that was sweet of you to buy the chowder. I would have had a hard time spending an extra $10, too LOL

Cling wrap. Too difficult to get out of the box. Clings to itself. Yes, I use foil too, but dh doesn't like it.

What do you call a serious partner that you're not engaged to? Boyfriend seems like the default to me. Relationships move at all kinds of paces. On the outside maybe two people don't seem to have a serious relationship because they haven't been seeing each other long, but maybe they are discussing moving in together or other things. At 18 I might not be so quick to label a relationship serious, but sometimes people get married young or move in together early in a relationship so you never know.

Yeah, true. I forgot he was talking over her.. but I think he may do this all the time, so not sure how much weight to put on it happening when the nurse is present. I was just responding to Catwoman's comment because I imagine at age 18 if I was dating someone and they were sick I might want to be at some of their appointments, if they wanted me there. I would be fine not going as well. No where in this thread did I really figure out if the dd has an opinion about him being present. Her mom asked him not to come, I know that. But I don't know how she felt about it. Maybe she likes him around.

moral support? He's enamored with her?

It varies. Dh is involved in something outside of work that requires a meeting once a month. Those days he goes straight from work to meeting. Sometimes he teaches a night class on a day he'd normally be home for dinner. Fridays he could be home for dinner, but last year he pretty consistently chose to come home and take ds grocery shopping with him. Then dd and I ate alone or ate late (like if they brought home a pizza). On an average week during fall/spring I'd say we could eat dinner up to 4 times if I count Saturday (he usually works Sun. nights). Summer much more. He works in walking distance so could come home for lunch more often than he does, but sometimes eats at work or goes out to eat with coworkers. We could consistently eat lunch together more often than dinner. When we homeschooled in the past this was distruptive as he might take an early or late lunch without any notification and it disrupted our schooling.

Jobs, yeah, it depends. I worked at one retailer and had no idea you could make like an extra buck/hr if you spoke Spanish. That would have probably been most helpful say, at our cell phone service area or customer service desk, where you tend to need to hold a conversation with a customer. I have a couple sites bookmarked for ds. I don't know if they would appeal to adults or not. Like the Salsa videos. http://www.gpb.org/salsa/term/episode I printed off some of the transcript/vocabulary in the past. I don't know if those are still on the site. I don't think it's included with Prime anymore, but I did try out the "little Pim" videos (made by daughter of the guy who released Pimsleur cassettes/cds). I wanted to hit my head against a brick wall. It might be good for a toddler. That's who I think they are aimed at. My problem was the pacing. I can sit through Dora and lots of other shows, though. Maybe I should translate Dora into full Spanish. dd loves that show.

I was taken advantage of financially (not physically) by a magazine sales person when I was in college. He approached me on campus posing as a fellow student from xyz club and told me about their prize thing, too. He gave me some paper (receipt or something) and I went to the website. It was clearly bogus. That's when I knew for sure it was a scam, but by then he had my fake order/money. We actually concocted a plan to catch him, but it didn't pan out. If I could find him again I was going to convince him that my friends in the dorm wanted to buy magazines, too. Then we were going to have campus security deal with him. I never saw him again, but some magazine people came to my HOME (when I lived off campus) and one of my roommates refused to believe me that this was a scam and insisted on chatting with this other person about magazines. I really don't know if she wanted to get a rise out of me or wanted attention or what.

Look, I'll be honest. I have been jolted out of bed with my heart racing because my own husband came pounding on the window by my bed. He was locked out of the house (had a key, but chain was on door) and I was asleep. I didn't hear him knock on the door so he came into the backyard. It doesn't matter if it's a criminal or not, hearing someone knock on your door/window can be scary (at the time). NO, not as scary as someone IN your home! Oh my!! Yikes!! One time we had people knocking on our door at like, midnight?? Luckily dh was home. He didn't want to say anything. He was waiting for them to speak. They didn't speak, just kept knocking on our doors. What the heck?! Finally he got to the bottom of it... I think he called the campus police and the police approached them (students)? Then the students approached dh at work later that week explaining it was them. They had left their student IDs in his library. Umm does that really warrant coming to his home and knocking on the door at like midnight? You would think they would have called out his name. "Mr. Heartlikealion? Sorry to bug you... we left our IDs..." I mean it's not as if dh had them! He still would have had to go back to his building and unlock it to get them.