HEY Vacation HIVE We would like to take two trips to the mountains this year. We have never been on a vacation to the mountains. We would like to go when the leaves are beautiful in the fall and again when we can ski (never done that before either- never seen snow regularly either) When would be a good time to go? our schedules are flexible so we can avoid peak times (though the leaf thing may only have a small window) Kids from 4-17, two adults, live in southeast, would drive only. NC, Georgia, TN are all possible driving points with VA a possibility Would need to rent any gear for snow. Just have no use or reason to buy it even if we went every year! Other than maybe gloves and shoes. There have been times we could have used good snow gloves and boots. Suggestions? It is annual vacation request time so we are trying to plan something. TIA

Fire nation and the Epic battle with the Last Airbender. Pokemon, yu-GI-oh, Mine craft porn. Oh dear,

Yep, intense pissed offness to the max when I get glutened. I may or may not have any other symptoms but suddenly I am in a rage and everything can send me over the edge. The joke is if we are ever invaded, especially by those pesky zombies, give me a slice of bread! :laugh: I'll handle it!

Thank you! I'll send a pm and double check what it was.

LOL! Awhile back (long while it seems) a member here posted about competition fighting, pictures included of her in a match all geared up. She was training with knives and everything! at the time, I googled the type and found one near me but now that I am ready......I can't remember the name of it! Any idea who that was and the name of that particular sport????? TIA :lol:

YES! And YES and YES!!!!! My god eliminating gluten did more for The sad mean littles than anything else. O for it and be thrilled with the better attitudes! :)

My viewpoint is we use the SAT subject test to verify the grades on the transcript. If the kid has an A on the transcript and over 700 on the subject test, then I feel that my "mommy grade" isn't going to be questioned (if it even is going to be questioned) Just an assurance to me that he did learn something. :lol: As luck would have it, the schools he wants to go to require SAT subject tests from everybody. So the money was well spent.

Mine self studied and we used a tutor from Live Online Math. They met once every two weeks online for the school year and covered any questions he had. She also had problems for him to work and gave him tips concerning the test. He made a 5 on the AB test and we are following the same format for the BC test this year, except we are just now starting the tutor part and will try to meet every week instead of every two. He worked through an AP test prep book during the last couple of months of the course and seemed pleased with the testing. John Bovey from Live Online Math was great to work with and the tutor was excellent.

From experience, take your projected redo date and shove it back a couple of years! :) So with that in mind, I would spend time making the kitchen livable and doable for a few years. I would find a really high quality primer which would probably (and did) make me cry over how much it cost but it saved us so much time in painting. At least primer gray works better than make me cry ugly... Counter tops aren't that expensive at Lowes/Home dept if you or you Dh can handle the installation. But the new laminate paint really does a great job on redoing countertops and the butcher block inset would look good as well. A new vent cover and you could probably save the kitchen for a few years! And painting fans can do so much!!! We had to paint a few and it changed the room so much! Really good spray paint and a nice hot day gave us a great paint job that looks out of the box new and made the whole room look great.

I'm sorry ((HUGS)). I have greatest patience with parents who are trying to do something. Anything.... I'll even help if I can. But today was like WTF??? Your kid is so out of control.....Do something!!! Like the mom on Incredibles when she is trying to control the kids at the dinner table. I wanted to yell -" It's time to engage. Do something! Don't just stand there! I need you to intervene! " Instead, The TINY MIGHTY did something.

After a trip to the Children's Science Center, my very unpopular opinion is that regardless of the label, regardless of what spot your child is on the spectrum or how close they are to standing near the spectrum....... no matter whether your kid had red dye, sugar, gluten (we are gluten free so I Get It), dairy, or whatever other food causes problems........ no matter that they just spent the night with Grandma and stayed up too late and pigged out on sugar-filled-chemical-laden-processed food which has turned your organic, all natural no sugar child into a maniac, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE control the animal!!! CONTROL IT I SAY!!! IF you don't and the child breaks the display designed to withstand hours of abuse from children and hogs it from all the other children and is being a bratty brat of all brats AND elbows my teeny weeny 7 yr old girl with her yellow belt (who looks 4 and like she could blow away in the wind) THREE TIMES as she is standing in line behind your child and stomps her foot on purpose, DO NOT stare at me like I have a serial killer on my hands when she stops his next elbow and puts him on the ground in one neat little move. Just DON'T. Don't go there. Even when he runs to you and points her out to you and says "She pushed me down" causing you to drop your texting and look all annoyed and pouty at me, just don't bother to go there. Cause I am sure my face said text somebody who gives a flying you know what. And she is not going to apologize for defending herself and I am not going to give any either. And you can't stand there all miffed and put out waiting for me to apologize and then snark to your kid when I don't. ***For the record, I am normally very tolerant and understanding of public meltdowns and misbehaving children and children who have issues that makes them challenging. I have some myself that have caused me to wish I could crawl in a hole somewhere.. We have all been there at some point somewhere. IT happens and happens at the worst time it seems. But my little girl has bruises and a nasty looking toe from your child's issues today. ​So that is my very unpopular opinion today.

The Sound of music...... Can't stand the original and watched a whopping 5 mins of the new live version and caught on real quick that it was neither improved or any better than the last. Extended family and their increasing demands. You haven't see us all year, haven't spoken to us since last year's phone call, why do you call asking if we are attending the family gathering in a couple of hours? (We live a couple of hours away) All the work related parties/events/gifts...... Seriously?

WTH?? Where in the world do you live where you don't heat your house above 55 degrees is COMMON????? We are fussing over it being cold when it is 55 outside. 55 inside would be considered emergency heat time, burn up all the furniture in the fireplace while waiting for the heat guy kinda cold......:) Lordy, I'm shuddering thinking about it. It is going to be 48 this weekend and people are acting like the next ice age may start. ( it is 80 today so they might be right)

Wonderful picture!!!! Will steal that idea. Way too cute

Mine arrived today!!!!! What should I cook? We just had cake yesterday. And I still need to make dinner!

I have one on order too!!! Same deal. Candy red pro!!! I am so excited too. My very old Sunbeam bit the dust this week and we just can't make it without a mixer. I don't know how women make every single thing by hand. My arms are like mush.

Another viewpoint maybe........ She may be thinking why in the world am I spending my limited holiday time with my baby's father's family friends. Because no matter how close the families have been or how well you know him, you aren't family relations like mom. She may be trying to figure out why are we here and how do I make him understand that I certainly won't be spending the rest of my holidays with a bunch of people that we aren't related to! Holidays are short enough with all the demands family puts on a couple especially one with a new baby. You may have no idea how many people she is trying to please with seeing over the holidays and the idea of giving up a slot for non family just because his family and you are dear friends may be one straw too many. In my family, you would be stretching it quite a bit to consider yourself family. She might be having the same reaction. I know I laid it out for my hubby with a drawing. Here are the off times we have, here are all the people who are demanding we see them, their locations... Now pick who gets what time slots and who gets left off. Long time family friend celebrations bit the Dust quickly. Both our parents had hurt feelings over no longer attending these get togethers but the Other choice was not to spend any time with them. In other words, did they give up their holiday time with us so we can spend it with them and the family friends ? Or did they value having us at a private celebration over a more public affair with the long term family friends? One parent even had issues with us spending time with her at grandma's house and then not spending time with her again at her house just us. Geez, There is only so many "family" get togethers one can attend. Something had to give. My family alone has 6 different holiday events- one every single weekend and sometime 2 in a weekend from thanksgiving to New Years. His side easily had that many again. Priorities have to be set or you wind up with cranky out of sort miserable babies and even more stressed momma. Don't get upset if your event falls to the bottom of the list. You may have to figure out non holiday times.

LOL! Feeling fortified by your meal, eh? All stuffed??? :lol: We had our usual Thanksgiving meal and then went like fools to evening pre Black Friday deals. My hubby had never been and was shocked!!!! The kids and I had a great time laughing at him and the crazy. Then we came home and feasted again on Thanksgiving. Two Dinners for the price of one!!!

You can google the phone number and it can pull up some info sometimes. IF you can get an address, you can search property tax records and find the owner and contact them and tell them the story. But otherwise, she's 21. If she wants to meet him, she will. She would just have to do it on her own dime as I would be too busy spending money on educating her and providing her with stuff to spend on a trip.

I would save out enough to put 20% down on a reasonable house and put at least 6 months in an emergency fund. The rest would fund our retirement. I would greatly encourage the kiddos to work hard, learn a lot, get great test scores and let them figure out college. I paid for mine 3 separate times and am none the worse for it. The upside is my parents and my hubby's were then able to take care of themselves in retirement and have not been a financial burden. To me it seems one way or the other. Either you have more than enough income to pay college and provide for your own retirement or you can do only one well. Pick the one that will be the best help to your kids in the future. I know we would be in a mess (parents are much older and near end of life span already) if we had to fund them and manage small children. it's hard enough to deal with the physical aspect of caring for the elderly.

It also has to do with Medicaid reimbursement. It is a 2% reduction ( or increase I've never gotten the straight of it) if you have less than 90% vaccination rate among employees. 2014 is the year they start the penalties. I pretty sure a similar thread ran last year and links to the policies were in that thread. That aside. Getting the flu vaccine doesn't protect any person but the one vaccinated from catching the flu. (It may or may not depending on which lit and from which country you read prevent the person vaccinated from getting the flu.) But it does not keep said vaccinated person from being exposed to the flu and passing that exposure on to the patient. Mandating hand washing and mask wearing would lower the rates faster than mandated flu vaccines. Even if every single person was vaccinated, flu possibility is still there and it can still be passed on even if the vaccinated person never gets sick. It does not ensure you won't be exposed and pass that exposure on. But everyone wearing a mask and washing hands would. But flu vaccines certainly ensure more money goes in the pocket of your employer. Not that I am jaded or anything. My hospital is still allowing voluntary flu shots. They seem to think as long as everyone participates by filling out the forms either yes they do have a flu vaccine or no they refuse that will fulfill the mandate. We'll see. I love my job but I will leave if it becomes mandatory and I can't be exempt. There are better ways to prevent the flu with more effective rates but for now, the flu vaccine gets the hype.

Everyone with kids in school around here is upset and yes it is the white suburban mom screaming the loudest. For years, I have been treated like a two headed purple people eater because "why would I homeschool when the schools are so wonderful?" No one and I mean no one in my mainstream typical American group of acquaintances thought homeschooling was necessary. I have been depriving my kids of excellent learning opportunities, wonderful teachers, wonderful education. No matter how many times I explained test scores, no matter how much I showed true grade level curriculum, I was always met with that round eye blink of the eye and " well that may be other schools, but our school is wonderful and my children are doing wonderful!! We have not one single national test until the SAT and those scores are dismal! But parents still say how wonderful! Because they can get their kids into our public universities. We have valedictorians who worry and sweat they may not have the scores get into our state colleges.( and their scores are low for entrance) Remedial class rates are through the roof but everyone thinks their kids are doing wonderful! Now common core is being brought here. People are holding protest meetings on the state capital steps. Meetings are announced on the news regularly to discuss CC. And the main reason is because we are so damn far behind those standards and everyone feels the punch in the gut. Suddenly, that wonderful school, great education is truly being measured and we do not measure even close. White suburban moms are fighting hard against it. Their smart brilliant on the path to high achieving are suddenly below average. Thus CC must be wrong because their child has done well for years!! Sunday school chatter has become most entertaining listening to the fight against CC. I am for it in my state just so it would force the schools to teach some kind of minimum and not what makes every parent in every school think their kid is brilliant and high achieving. My favorite saying around during these talks is being the best of crap, still makes you crap. But after years of being on the white ivory tower, they are having a hard time seeing the pile of crap they have been sitting on. CC has been a bad wake up call.

cover the area in orange/lemon peels. For some reason cats don't like the smell. I've warded off a few from my flower beds by leaving shredded orange rinds around. I think someone here suggested it to me and it worked!

Only dh and medical professionals. All not by my choice. I would have so much rather just gone out in the backwoods , had my babies and then come home. Hubby nixed that, nixed home birth, and then was irritated when I joked about him not being in the room. So I compromised and let him and the medical people watch me have babies. (My labors are really quick and only one birth was the baby actually delivered by the dr. The rest came out while they were busy getting things together or gloved or prepared or not around)

I would spring for the parts and let her daddy show her how to fix it. That's how reality is around here. We break something, we do our best to repair it if we can.