That's brilliant! See, I never would have thought of that.

And while I'm ranting, another one of his teachers has the kids do a rather lengthy book project each quarter on a book they read in class. It's not even fun or creative. I am seriously tempted to write an anonymous postcard that says "Wow, way to make the kids hate this book."

He's doing all of it by himself. He first had to come up with 4 possible ideas, narrow it down to one and now he's got to come up with the materials required for it, the cost of the materials and make a model. He's just getting frustrated and emotional and I want to tell him not to do it because I am having flashbacks to elementary school. 😆 He wants to make a cup that hangs on the side of pot to put your mixing spoon. The teacher said plastic would melt. I told him to write "unmeltable plastic" for the material because I am helpful like that. How is he supposed to make a model? Ugh.

Ds10 goes to a public school that is kind of a full time g&t program. I like many things about the school. I hate some of the homework they give. He is supposed to come up with this elaborate plan for an invention-- he has to research if it's been invented already, come up with materials necessary and make a model. They have to display their invention so parents can come see. He's stressing out over this because his teacher said the materials he chose wouldn't work and he's a mess. And I am no help at all-- I did a similar project when I was in my g&t program in elem school. I HATED IT! I'm not creative like that. I thought my invention was stupid and I knew my teacher thought it was stupid. I hated the whole assignment and I'm reliving in again. I would strongly encourage DS to just skip the whole assignment, but it's a big portion of his grade and that really stresses him out. I don't know if this is a rant or a JAWM or a plea for help. But ugh.

I just love the imagery there. :) Though I don't think that's what anyone is doing here. I know he just passed away, but I still think we can have a civil conversation about it. I only opened this thread because I was curious and then had to start googling. I had a vague idea of he was was and it sounds like he was a talented musician. I can't play one instrument well, let alone 20. And it's a breath of fresh air to find out he was also quite charitable. However talented or charitable he may have been, the messages he is sending through his lyrics are not uplifting or inspiring... at least *my* definition of inspiring. But I am also pretty selective about the media that I listen to and watch in general. I've turned off the TV for much tamer stuff.

Google "modest formal dresses" and you'll find a lot of stuff. I've ordered a couple cute dresses from jenclothing.com.

He was a little before my time, but even then, I was pretty oblivious to pop culture growing up. I'd heard his name, obviously. And I vaguely remember as a kid hearing about "the artist formerly known as Prince." I might have been able to pick him out of a lineup. However, I just spent the last 15 minutes looking up his most popular songs... and I'd have to say I'm too much of a prude to enjoy any of it.

What I am getting from all of this is that because prom is a big party for teenagers and their clothes might get ruined I should take that into consideration when I decide how much time and money I am willing to put into the dress. Am I right? If the teenager is not expected to take of her things, then maybe I would reconsider my investment in it. I imagine if the teenager had been the one spending hours sewing her own dress she would have thought twice about having a water fight in it.

Really? Maybe it's because I have six kids that I would never just assume someone wants to feed us all. Sharing a vacation home doesn't necessarily cost them anything extra. But food is expensive. I figure if I am getting to stay in their home (or vacation home) for free the LEAST I can do is help pay for food.

I second the clippers! And the cloth diapers. I have diapers that have been worn by 5 of my babies and are so worn out I have to finally retire them. Dh would tell you all the tools he's bought has saved us loads of money since he can do the work himself. It's probably true. 😆

Utah is plagued with MLM companies. I think Mormons can sometimes do well in MLMs because there's a built in social network through the church wherever you go. At least that's my theory on why there are so many in Utah. Years ago (when we lived in Utah) we had some friends try to get us in on some new exciting health drink that was going to make everyone rich and we were so lucky to get in at the start and blah blah blah blah. IIRC, they hadn't evern TASTED the magical drink yet, but were convinced it was going to make them rich. We declined their offer. We probably could have been millionaires. :glare:

I married a perfect man. 12 years later and I might be able to point out a few of his faults. But mine are still bigger so I try not to. :) He's perfect for me.

We drove up Pike's Peak a few years ago. My goodness, that was the scariest drive ever. For. Reals. Never again. We don't live in CS, but DH's family does and we visit.

We all have clean clothes! They might be scattered throughout the house is various baskets and piles, but they are clean.

I am a FIRM believer that older is better when it comes to potty training! I started early with #1 and #2 and potty training was a lot more complicated. #3 came around and I waited until he was almost 3. I prepped him big time. For months, at every diaper change I told him how on his birthday he was going to wear big boy underwear and we made it sound awesome and exciting. I put him in underwear and basically forgot about the boy. He had a few accidents, but it was SO EASY! I tried to potty train #5 at 2 1/2 and she did okay, but when the baby came it all went downhill. I should have known better and just waited till she was closer to 3. I did put her back in diapers for a couple months and when we tried again, she did great.

When I was little I spent a lot of time at a neighbor's house because she had little toddlers and babies I loved to play with. I was a kid who apparently had diarrhea of the mouth because I said awfully insensitive things to her. Innocent coming from a 7 or 8 year old, but totally insensitive. I do remember her telling me I wasn't very tactful. I remember asking her why she ALWAYS had a pile of clean laundry on the couch in a "why not just put it away" kind of way. I think about that every time I was past my own mountain of clean laundry.

I think so much information has been lost about the natural process of birth. In Ina May Gaskin's book she talks about how it used to be understood that certain outside influences could stall a woman's labor and even make labor stop all together. (Like a person in the room that made her tense and nervous) Now we essentially tell women that their bodies are defective and threaten intervention. I can't tell you how many women I know who say things like "my body just won't go into labor on its own" or "I never dilate without pitocin." Women are being told their bodies are broken because OBs don't understand and respect the natural birth process.

I also think it requires more education about natural childbirth on the woman's part. Often women don't realize their "emergency c-section" was the result of a cascade of interventions that put their baby in distress. Then they think their doctor saved their baby when he/she likely caused the problems in the first place. I think a lot of women go into childbirth planning for a vaginal birth, but lack natural pain management techniques and easily give into the interventions, which they don't realize can have serious consequences. I know I'm a weird one, but I find the birth process totally fascinating. And while I know not everyone wants to or can have an unmedicated birth, even just being confined to the bed sets a woman up for potential problems.

There are over 30 grandchildren on my side of the family and not a single one born by c-section. Half of those are from my sils so it's not like we could give good genes the credit. Statistically, that's got to be like winning the lottery. 😊

I didn't read the article. But I have a friend who had a c-section with her 1st. She went on to have 5 successful vbacs. I din't know the specifics... if she moved or just changed hopsitals or what, but for baby #7 hospital policy required her to have a c-section because it didn't allow vbacs. Even though she had already had 5. Unbelievable.

LDS stakes actually host church dances that youth can attend once they are 14. :thumbup1: They are careful about the music and there are chaperones to make sure things don't get too wild.... no "bear hugging" during slow dances Lol. I was such a wallflower and I can't dance so I kind of hated church dances. :huh:

I started today. This is kind of how I'm feeling. :)

So DS hadn't been to the doctor in forever but he got pretty sick a while back. We saw a PA that we'd never seen before and I mentioned the bedwetting. Her advice was to have him to go the bathroom before he goes to bed. Hmm, who would have thought? I felt like this time around he was doing better, having occasional dry nights. He just learned to turn it off in his sleep. One review suggested having the child sleep in the parents' room so the parents wake up, which might help if it didn't wake up my 4mo.

In another thread the mention of Malem Bedwetting Alarms got me googling. Years ago I bought a Wet-Stop. DS(10) has made a couple attempts to use it over the years, never with any success because he hasn't been consistent. He says he "doesn't like waking up in the night." A couple months ago he tried it again. It was waking him up initially, but I didn't usually hear it down the hall. He eventually got to the point he would just pull out the cord to turn the sound off and go back to sleep, without really waking up enough to realize what he'd done. He'd have no memory of it in the morning. One time when I did hear the alarm, I tried to get him out of bed. He was half asleep and tried to argue with me that he was just sweaty and that the thing wasn't working right. I had to physically pull him out of bed so he would wake up all the way. I do think it may be malfunctioning a little bit. If he wakes up wet, changes his underwear, and tries to clip the sensor to fresh underwear it goes off, like the sensor is still damp. I tried fresh batteries, but that didn't help. So I might need a new one anyway. Anyway... I am now considering throwing down $120 for this new Malam thing. It says it has a variety of sounds so kids don't learn to sleep through the noise. I need it for DS10 and then for DS7, who recently admitted that if he does wake up and needs to pee, he just uses his underjams. :banghead: Tell me why this one is so much better and what I can do to make sure my boys are successful with it.

Immediately several very controversial topics came to mind, specifically with the line about "intense discomfort with admitting to error." I'm afraid the mere mention of them would derail this thread into oblivion.