Probably not answering your questions, BUT--if you want an e-card, save yourself on your phone in "contacts" with your logo as your icon. You can send the contact to anyone who gives you their number. So simple and free and elegant.

Yep. I get more priviledge [edited, never type posts after a beer...] from being slim--I work out but I'm naturally slim--than probably anything else. People tell me I look healthy and put together. Nobody doesn't hire someone because they think I'm superficial--they don't hire people whom they deem to be lazy. People hire skinny people even if they think they won't be fun at a birthday party. They are more likely to discriminate against someone they deem to have bad health or poor personal care habits. And yes, those are assumptions made about people who are fat, and they have been shown in studies to be beliefs implicitely held by even overweight individuals again and again, even though we all know plenty of people of all sizes who are hard working, smart, and intelligent. Well, I do, anyway. I'm also Hispanic. I don't get many remarks about it--people think I'm Asian--but I do get people complimenting me on my English. :eyeroll: Yeah, we've been here for like, 500 years and since the US became a country, but I guess we finally managed to learn English. Yay, us. But if I had to choose either white and fat or skinny and Hispanic, frankly, I'd choose skinny and Hispanic and not because I like tortillas. (Though I do love tortillas.) It's because I actually think people who are fat are more discriminated against because people view it as a choice. I agree with the author and Sadie's interpretation. She just meant that cruel remarks do not equal priviledge. That is true. You can't oppress someone who is in favor with those who have power. We individuals don't have power to oppress, just to be mean. Oppression goes beyond mean-spiritedness. As for the song--as many have said, she says, "I'm just playin'. I know you think you're fat, but let me tell you every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top." The point is that those women need to stop hating themselves. I am 100% behind that. Skinny B**** was a book about women who used disgusting self-talk to basically goad themselves into living on the edge of anorexia. It's still a big seller and it's really horrible. I don't view myself as a "skinny b****" at all. I'm slim and I am grateful to be able to eat cupcakes without consequences. I don't make myself suffer and if I gain weight I will buy new pants, not hate myself! Nothing is worth hating yourself. Kate Moss once foolishly said, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." I don't think the woman knows what it feels like to be loved--love tastes WAY better than skinny feels!

Where are you located? Is it possible that someone with a passion for patient care could be happy living in a more nurse/medical friendly state?

You have to report both so there is no point moving stuff around between child and parents, particularly if it's from a child's college savings account: you get a tax hit on that one if you move it out early anyway. Different assets are counted in different ways, too. They don't expect you to sell your house but you do need to dip into savings and a second house counts. However if you have a relative who's offered to pay, you do have to report that as income. So that should go to the parents rather than the student. Putting it directly in the hands of the student, when the student cannot decide how it's spent, is just going to hurt the student and be counted more. But the student has no control over whether that money keeps coming in, how it's earned, etc. etc. So best if it goes through the parents to be counted at that lower rate, particularly if it's a one-time gift. So that is one example of how it depends what you are asking about. Colleges are also usually well aware that it is EXTREMELY rare to have a high income and zero assets (but his uncle is suddenly a homeowner!), so they will flag an application of someone who, for example, has a 250k annual salary and no house, or conversely, both parents own a house in a posh area, but supposedly have no incomes. They may request further documentation. At 15, there is not a lot you can do to change most of the factors. Many major changes have to do with negative life events. Other major changes would look like "gaming the system" and even people who have negative life events often get trapped in nets intended to catch double-dippers, gamers, etc.

Whitehawk, depends on the source of your back pain. ChaLean extreme is something I'd recommend for building muscle and not too high impact. If you have not worked out in a while, I would suggest starting with that or something fun like Hip Hop Abs. Just to get in shape. If you want to like, transform your body, then move on to the "extreme" videos like P90X or Insanity (or the short versions, P90X3 or T25)--but I wouldn't start with those if you're having back pain and you don't know where it's coming from. First see if overall fitness, stretching and muscle tone can help, and then if it does, crank it up. Oh, and I hear that for beginners, the PiYo (Pilates-Yoga) DVDs by Chalene Johnson are good, but it also has some weak reviews. Good luck! I have never done a video besides Beachbody but I have friends who like Jillian Michaels' 30-day Shred. I do not know how hard that is, though. Just don't want anyone to think I'm a Beachbody coach (I am not, and I don't drink their Kool-Aid, er, Shakeology, either). :)

I read about the Victorian Christmas on mothering.com years back and have never looked back: Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read. Because my kids just have so much freaking stuff! I can't believe it. Between birthdays and living grandparents who are working and have income and buy real presents not just trinkets, getting my kids a bunch of presents is just nuts. We did adjust the saying because the kids rarely need anything other than clothes: Something to read, something to wear, something you want and something to share. The "share" is our family gift. Then they get one request, one thing from Santa, a winter coat or boots, a book, and a family game. We don't have video games in our family.

I am so sorry to hear that! The nurses here have a union which requires them to have a certain number of people to help them turn patients, etc. I don't know what they'd do without the union--most of the nurses I know are happy with their pay and working conditions. It's a hard job, but they get paid quite a bit, even $50k part time setting their own schedule. http://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-for-nurses/4041/ My sister paid off a house at under 35 nursing--she commutes pretty far, but she's working part time and making a lot of money even working as hourly. But again, they have the union, which does take care of them to some extent. I cannot imagine what it is like in states for people like teachers, nurses, machinists, if they just all can be hired and fired to beat them into submission--once you have your degree, you'd think you can negotiate, but they gave everyone in this generation loans so it's basically a bunch of indentured servants. It sucks!

Mine are 5 and 8. Fall--1 hour at school, 1-2 hours at home if they choose. 5-10 hours on weekends. Winter--Probably 1/2 hr less on school days. Same on weekends, 5 - 10 hours. Spring--Same at school, 2-3 hrs or so after school, all the weekend. Summer--Sunup to sunset, whenever they are not in camps. I'm thinking of hiring a sitter this summer so it will be purely outside play all the time. The limit is daylight hours. It gets dark 1 hour after school is out right now! We live in a temperate rainforest. If we let wet weather keep us inside, we'd have rickets by now. Rain boots, rain coats, snow boots, snow coats, scarves, mittens, snowshoes, skis, bikes... we've got it all. Oh, and yes, rain pants and snow pants. Of course. When they were smaller, I had to be outside with them 100% of the time. So they spent less time outdoors on weekends, but weekdays were the same, maybe more (because school was shorter). My kids need outside time and so do I.

It is apparent that the worst possible fate to befall any child is to have an artist's heart, a parentally-motivated JD, but to fall upon hard times and be forced to work in construction for the local school district.

Marble tracks but NOT the wooden ones which fall over just as you set them up. :)

When I was in school, a million years ago in 1994, we had to calculate all of those ourselves... Every time. I was literally in the very last class at my university--the absolute last--taught by a legacy substitute prof, a wonderful woman--who didn't know how to use a scientific calculator. So we were the very last ones to take our calculus tests without a calculator. :) I think it helped me on the GRE.

Great article and why I am so glad we don't live in Florida. Our teachers get to choose books; teachers are not evaluated based on test scores; our kids have recess; we have pull-outs and book groups; kids do not get their individual scores and can take AP classes without high standardized test scores. If people wouldn't have bought the line that schools are failing, and instead realize that society is failing some people, then we wouldn't have so eagerly grabbed on to this horrid idea that we must do ANYTHING to improve "our failing schools" and that teachers were the problem. Poor children continue to do poorly, but now we punish teachers and communities for it. Yeah, great idea. That will REALLY solve the problem. Common core as standards I agree with, like the letter writer. I believe our school has done a good job implementing methods to reach CC standards, actually. Lots of creative problem solving. Reading. Algebraic thinking. Sounds like her school has not. I think her letter makes more sense in the original context and not as an LTE, which is more how it's presented by the Post. It is a very well-written letter and she makes a lot of good points. I don't think she intended for anyone to feel bad about leaving kids in public school, and heck, my kids are in there for the free day care, so if anyone should feel bad, I should. But I really don't think that was her intent.

Okay, I just have to tell you--fennel gives a great texture and flavor in place of celery in bread stuffing. It's crunchy but not like celery. I don't care much for celery and we started doing this a few years back just as an experiment and never looked back.

Nobody likes everything, though. And there's a difference between substituting a traditional dish and just adding on. Adding on can always be done. Bring it on! But taking away a traditional dish or a veggie option--nope. I am a pluralist, not a secularist. :)

I learned as an adult that my mother had me evaluated for autism when I was a child but the doctor gave her some tips and said there was no program for kids doing as well as me, so don't bother, just help me do my best. I was fine, I was an individual. At the time, Asperger's was not on the menu of diagnoses they'd give, and people were much more hesitant to give out such diagnoses due to greater stigma. So it would not have been accurate to give me a diagnosis of autism. As an adult, I realized I met a lot of the criteria for Asperger's from articles about it. But like many people, I don't feel I have a disability because I feel I function well in life: http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html I am glad my mother was patient with me. I am glad she had an idea about where some of my behaviors were coming from. Very glad. I am glad I was not told she'd had me evaluated until I was much older. I also was not told my IQ scores until much later. I don't think I would have done as well with a label or a number attached to me. This is my personal opinion based on my individual experience. I understand why others have different experiences and needs. Every kid is different. Just wanted to share my own story.

I wrote a long, long reply and then it got eaten. I say two things: 1. Art is a way of being, not a job. You can plan to sell art, or teach art, but being an artist is a way of life, not a profession. Same goes for all the arts: music, literature, dance, drama. Dance if you must, but you need to sell a show. Also, be aware that supply and demand governs money. Lots of people want to do art, but because it can be copied, the demand for original art is low. Low demand / High supply = almost infinitely low salaries. Art marketing and advertising, however, involve knowing what other people want. And that is a rare talent and everyone needs it. So think about it. 2. People don't hate the government because it's inefficient. People hate the government because if they appreciated all the value it gave, they would be obligated to pay for it and not slash taxes and spending. People don't want to give more money to taxes, so they find a way to devalue the government services they receive even when said services are by almost any standard the best deal there is (from railroads to the Internet, from higher education to the NSF, nobody provides better value for money except in rare cases, because government benefits from economies of scale AND public oversight). That means that no matter what you do for the public, it will be systematically, repeatedly, and ferociously maligned by people who would rather see might-makes-right than a democracy, and the sad thing is, your customers, the public, will believe them, because they, the public, have an interest in paying fewer taxes (in the short term). So don't do what I did, kids. Don't work for "rewarding". "Rewarding" is a code word for, "You'd better like patting yourself on the back as much as you like trips to the coast or a decent car, because that's all you're going to get (a pat on the back from yourself)." "Rewarding" means, "feel good about giving up your life for society (even though I wouldn't and I think you're rather stupid for falling for that line)." I don't want my kids to face that.

Did not work out this morning. :( I will do it tonight before pizza! Kim I am so sorry about your phone. That sucks.

Yeah, I totally get that. I am the opposite. I am out of the house so much that I just cannot do one more "activity" so working out at home works for me. It really depends and it's like art... there is no one right way to do it!

The amount of speculation and assumption in this thread at this point is really over the top. The whole thing about diapers--why would she take it off, well some babies don't wear diapers, okay but is that reasonable to assume if it's such a small minority who are diaper free; Your kids never stuck anything in their holes, so is that normal, well my kid did, so does that mean we're weird abusers; Her dad, who knows, he wouldn't be the first artist to have a great sex life and kids but wow all the vaginas; Her nonchalance as an adult, but also as someone who sells shock, her sister's reaction, but find me a book that doesn't basically sell personal experience and family context and I'll find you a very boring book; The wide variety of normal experiences as well as the wide variety of what are quite clearly experiences of abuse. Nobody here knows what happened. Whether it is plausible that her sister and her were somewhat more open and experimental than most, or that her sister and her couldn't have done any of those things outside of the framework of abuse introducing hyper-sexuality--that is mainly going to be based on each individual's own experiences. But plausibility to me, which is based on my reality, has nothing to do with her reality. For me, molestation has a clear intent. I don't think seven year olds have that type of sexual intent, not in the same way adults do. It is clear to me that some people DO think seven year olds can be that manipulative and intentional in abuse. I really do not think we will come to an agreement on that. I think it's unwise to ascribe intent to seven-year-olds, but I can see how others would think it would be more unwise to fail to recognize abuse when it's done by a child. This goes around and around but with such fundamentally different perspectives on childhood development, what it means to molest another person, and most importantly VERY unreliable narratives about what happened--I doubt it will get anywhere.

When I'm sick I will half-sleepwalk with no memory of things like that, particularly if I'm very tired. I don't sleepwalk, per se, but if I'm sick and slightly feverish, then I will forget what I do before I go to bed. The other thread is FREAKY. :(

Ah. Well I could not care less whether our guests eat any or all of what we make. We make it as an offering, not a condition for friendship. As for not inviting people... it is time for The Thanksgiving Letter. If you have not read it, you MUST read it. It is a real e-mail sent by a woman to her family regarding Thanksgiving. Has me laughing out loud every last time. I'm most definitely with the Amy Misto family.

Pre-questions: (a) Are you talking about speaking with the high school issuing credits required for graduation, or the college to ask about their credit transfer agreement? (b) You are talking about semesters but you mention that he has to take something over "winter". Is this a semester or quarter system? Semester being Fall/Spring, with fall starting in late summer and spring in winter. © You're talking about transferring to a four-year. Have you spoken with the four-year? Is this within a transfer agreement between the CC and the four-year, or something else? How are you getting information about the major requirements? General answers: "He has done as much as is required for highs school I think but I wouldn't want his transcript to not be accurate." For that, it's really a homeschool question and it will probably be a lot easier to answer than the question with the high school, you know? Because you can just look up the rules for your state. Also, it seems odd that he's taking community college classes full time but needs to enroll in high school. Do you have Running Start in your state? Then he doesn't need to be enrolled in high school--he can get his AA by the end of his senior year and transfer that. If it is at all possible for him to deal just with the CC and four year, I'd do that. Three institutions to co-ordinate is complicated. I'd do it if necessary but if not, get as few in the equation as possible. I guess my fourth pre-question is why he's at the charter in the first place. Is that a requirement for him to continue to attend CC?

I screwed myself over scholarship-wise having been raised not to talk about hardship or achievement but to instead just be grateful. Try to write the essay you think your daughter should write--like if she were writing it, what would you tell her to say? Then I think the intro about being a homeschooling mom, by angela in ohio, is great. That is a hard letter to write!

To me picky is picky, none of my business really, but demanding special food for anything other than health reasons is just plain rude. He can make his own M&C. Fine. Great. Thanks for helping out! And he doesn't have to eat what we cook. But why can't you have what you usually have and just add a dish? Where does "no potatoes" come in?