I think little dogs are barking caterpillars. As my heart is breaking over having to put my dog down very soon, I think those who think dogs are gross need their heads (and hearts) examined.

IMO, nearly any traditional English name of two or more syllables would be fine as a first name for Serenity. Maria, Angela, Madeline, Alexandra, Catherine, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Abigail, etc. All those sound fine to me preceding it.

Hallmark cards and thank you notes are dumb, and I wish no one would give me any or want me to send any. Tea is better than coffee. Modesty is an interior quality, not related to amount of skin showing. The LOTR movies are terrible, and miss the point of the books.

Cool, thanks!

My family and I much prefer mashed potatoes with skin on, so I never peel them at all. This year we are having blue ones! :)

Only hymns, no jazzy stuff, real choirs. Kings college Cambridge is a good example.

Never boxed.

Eh, why bother peeling them? I make pie with unpeeled apples--deelish!

We make pies, rolls, and cranberry sauce ahead of time. Everything else we do the day of. At this point, with two teen dds to help, plus miscellaneous relatives, it's not a big deal. But I've done everything on the day too, and that's fine. Cooking doesn't stress me, especially since it's the same thing every year. :)

I like all of those, except that nasty pecan pie! :P I make key lime, apple, cherry, chocolate, banana, unbaked strawberry, peach-raspberry, lemon, and pumpkin. Pumpkin is not my favorite, but if it's made with enough spices, I'll eat a little bit. ;)

I had an interesting conversation with someone at church, and it turns out he and I had very different definitions of this word. What's yours?

I have six of those. Whatcha wanna know? ;)

I have had hamsters, my sister has had gerbils, my kids have had both rats and guinea pigs. Agreeing with pp, hamsters are cute but dumb, gerbils are fun but very active and very nocturnal. Guineas are sweet and cute and great for veggie scrap disposal, but IME kinda dull. We prefer rats as they are fun and interactive, affectionate pets. But dd9 is getting a guinea pup for Christmas, so... ;)

Youngest ds is 5; my area is not especially vbac friendly (South Dakota is not known for its crunchiness!), but I have a great midwife. This last time I had to meet with a doctor who was required to lay out for me what the risks would be, which was a new thing with that birth. She "couldn't advise me to do the vbac" but there was no hospital policy prohibiting it. I think it's largely to do with the docs themselves and their CYA concerns vs the hospital, in my experience.

I had 3VA2Cs, and I'd not trade any of them. I went to 41 and 5 with last baby, and we had an induction scheduled for the following day when I went into labor. (I was about ready to perform csection on myself by that point! Lol) I had such good experiences with my vbacs, I can't imagine opting for a section, given the choice. Best wishes as you decide, and many congrats on new baby bean!

Lol, except for mine, Ellie, who only get the real stovetop kind! ;)

Classical historian is running a 50% off sale on their games right now! ETA: http://www.classicalhistorian.com/games-for-all-ages.html

We have an '08 Toyota sienna; it has 8 full size seats, and it's very comfortable even on long (18+ hour) trips. It seems to me that the newer models have a smaller 8th seat, more like the odysseys, but I could be wrong.

I had 3VA2Cs. All were low intervention, unmedicated births attended by a midwife. :) ETA: hospital births, but just the natural births I wanted.

None of the options describes where we live: rural, in town, population 3K. In the summer, easily 16-25; in winter? Maybe 3. ;)

I think they will each be getting a new "nice" purse from a local artisan, and something Doctor Who related. They've not asked for anything specific yet. Oh, and as they're new drivers, a mini icon for their dashboard. Beyond that, books. :)

Tickets to see Josh Ritter in concert. :)

I thought super 8 was dumb, and I like scifi thrillers. I'd look for something else, personally.

Byzantine chant. All the time. The end. ;)

:grouphug: