I understand. And I do value the program. But I also value those once in a blue moon experiences that come up that revolve around family and travel and seeing and doing things you normally can't, and I sort of expected that the school would see it that way too, particularly for a kid who isn't of compulsory school age anyway- but I was wrong about that, unfortunately! Anyway, I do know I have to follow the rules, so I'm willing to go through the process of dropping her and re-enrolling her if that's what I need to do... I just don't want it to be a problem for me to GET her back in!

Yep, that's what I was thinking. And my daughter's teacher totally agrees, she made a point of telling me that. Too bad it's not just up to her!

And I was going to ask for your autograph! But that would just swell your head! LOL. Ooh. Should I market it to SWB...?!

Yeah, at that age they kind of have to lol. At my daughter's age, they might pull some weird "sorry, we don't have room" thing in retaliation for my poor choice of not following the rules or some such! I don't know! Maybe I'm just being paranoid. I will look into it more, thanks!

This month, I decided to start maintaining a list of the Funniest/Best WTM Quotes, and then posting them on a monthly basis for fun. I compiled these in December and was GOING to post them in early January, but I just can't wait anymore (patience is a virtue, but it's not one of mine!) and I'm going to share with you the funniest/best quotes (so far, and in my personal, humble opinion) now. I will add to this list as things come up, and you are certainly welcome to add to this list at any time, too, as I don't read/see every post! Without further ado: --- Funniest/Best Quotes Of The Month, December, 2010, According To Nance, For Your (Re) Reading Pleasure --- I'm still waiting to see if mine is self-cleaning. It's been ten years, but I'm patient. Sharon In Austin, 12/4/10, in the "How often do you clean your oven?" thread. --- Because they want to. Because Christians don't own the day or the season. Because axial tilt is the reason for the season. Because it was a special time of year long before Jesus or Christians existed. Because it has little to do with Christ. Because there's no reason not to. Because each day is what you make of it and everyone has a right to celebrate what they want to and none of us need permission from anyone else. Because our children are just as deserving of presents and fun as Christian children. Because we exist. Secular Mom, 12/4/10, in the "Why do non-Christians celebrate Christmas?" thread. --- Maybe we should be called Hallmarkers, because we celebrate most of the Hallmark holidays. Night Elf, 12/4/10, in the "Why do non-Christians celebrate Christmas?" thread. --- 10. I will not take Mama's school supplies without permission. 11. I will not take Mama's shcool shuppliesh without permission. 12. I will take Mama's shcoot shuppliesh wittout pemission. 13. I ain't gonna snitch Ma's hoojywhatsits widout a permit. 14. I would not dare think of purloining my Mother's possessions. 15. I won't take Mama's stuff without asking first. 16. I don't think I'll steal Mama's supplies without asking. 17. I will not take Mama's school supplies without permission. Dulcimeramy, 12/4/10, in the "You must read my 10 year old's sentences, written for punishment" thread. --- With the week you've had, I would have been making Jack Daniels smoothies for breakfast daily. nono, 11/19/10, in the Xanax prescription thread. (I know this one wasn't from December but it was brought to my attention in December and, darn it, it was funny). --- A sick day? You go throw up and try to remember to take the baby with you. Starr, 12/8/10, in the "How do you take a sick day?" thread. --- Just face it: chickens are evil. You can see it in their beady little eyes. They may hide it for a while, but their true nature eventually reveals itself. katilac, 12/8/10, in the "What to do with a mean chicken" thread. --- "Look! A fight about Christmas! Wait til the inlaws arrive, folks." One Of The Moderators, 12/9/10, as a reason for deleting one of the "Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays" debate threads. (Later in the evening, after someone posted a thread saying how funny they thought that response was, and after someone in said thread complained that they'd never been involved in a deleted thread, said thread was deleted. The reason given by the moderators? "We only deleted this thread so that danybug could say she'd posted in a deleted thread.") --- "You know how to clear a room? Talk about two things...your child's dried animal droppings collection and the mountain oysters you are cooking for supper. THEY WILL STAY AWAY FROM YOU!" FaithManor, 12/9/10, in the "Dealing With HS Group Mothers" thread. --- "I love the one where the dad explains to Cleo about money. There are some great episodes. ETA: Oops, I mean Theo! Cleo is on this board, Theo is on the Cosby show. Must remember!" Stripe, 12/9/10, in the "The Cosby Show- Any Warnings?" thread. --- "I guess I never realized that some people have "personal beliefs" that are anti-tampon?" ThatCyndiGirl, 12/10/10, in the "Explaining Female Cycle To Young Boys" thread --- I had a maternity [photo] shoot today, and I could have done so much better if I had seen this yesterday! It never even dawned on me to ask if they had a dead turkey or a watermelon. Nakia, 12/11/10, in the "If You Need a Chuckle" (Awkward Pregnancy Photos) thread. --- Perfume is my thing. I wear hideous orthopedic shoes, a dreadfully thick pair of bifocals and generally rock the wardrobe of a babushka but wear only the finest perfume. Elizabeth, 12/11/10, in the "Exotic, erotic, spicy perfume" thread. --- Oh brother. Here we go again. Someone always has to get bent out of shape about diacritical markings. Daisy, 12/12/10, in a post Aubrey started wherein she only put a "." resulting in a bunch of joking "I'm offended by your post!" replies. --- Karyn, thanks for posting this juicy story. It wouldn't be a fun day on TWTM board if we didn't have a villain to be outraged at. Rebecca VA, 12/15/10, in the "Engaged on Christmas Eve = ripped off?" thread. --- Last night I had a nightmare that SWB was a psychotic murderer chasing me around with a knife. newlifemom, 12/15/10, in the "I Think I Am Spending Too Much Time Here" thread. --- I wish you could come over here. I wouldn't make you bake or homeschool. I'd even be willing to *not* clean my house, just to make you feel better about yours. (I cleaned up the poop running from the living room to the bathroom already, though. Sorry.) Aubrey, 12/16/10, in the “I’ve Had Enough” thread. --- In response to a quoted line which said "IMO, it's like bringing your own drinks to a bar"- "Now, I know I'm not the only person who has done that as well, right? When you're young and poor and don't have the money for bar drinks, because you spent it all on the fake ID?" -katilac, 12/17/10, in the "How Wrong Is It To Sneak Snacks Into Movie Theaters?" thread. --- Seriously? Just because your dh is an attorney and agrees with you makes your argument the right one? ...(snip)... What would you say if someone one-ups you and says their dh is a judge and he says it is wrong. -Parrothead, 12/17/10, in the "How Wrong Is It To Sneak Snacks Into Movie Theaters?" thread. --- LOL I agree. Tho I think it takes a different turn if the person drinking has had to resort to sneaking their drinks into dark theaters. Kind of screams unhealthy issue going on, kwim? -Martha, 12/17/10, in the "How Wrong Is It To Sneak Snacks Into Movie Theaters?" thread. (In response to someone asking, "Do people really think those that drink alcohol are so unruly and horrid to be around?") --- Start a controversial thread, then go watch some shows online, & come back to see what's happened to your thread. *Highly* entertaining. I'd suggest shopping carts. Or grammar. Aubrey, 12/17/10, in the "I Am Possibly Stranded At My Office For The Night"/what should I do while I'm here? thread. --- My little Christian-schooled K girl brought home her December journal. On one page she was to draw an illustration from the Christmas story. She chose to draw the angel speaking to Mary, telling her that she was miraculously with child. So dd drew a stick angel, a stick Mary, and a caption bubble by Mary's head with these words: "How can this be, for I am a vegan?" -AuntieM, 12/17/10, in the "Something I Never Knew About Mary" thread. (I don't think I will ever hear/see the word "virgin" without thinking "vegan" again. Thank you. LOL.) --- That's like sextuplets dog style. - joannqn Now I have to go to confession. -librarylover 12/17/10, in the "Can You Believe This?" thread (depicting a large litter of English Mastiff puppies). --- Too bad you already replied, but if you hadn't... "Dear Wow-That's-Quite-A-Pair-You've-Got, Since my boys have never taken a game from your son, and since we haven't even seen you in a year, you must have us mixed up with a different family. Sincerely, Don't-Even-Think-About-Bothering-Me-With-This-Again" Mamabegood, 12/17/10, in the "Is This Rude? Nintendo DS Issue" thread. --- Thanks. I'll have to drive over the frou-frou store. I go to the local somewhat-run down place right next to the mental hospital because my son LOVES to see the patients. kalanamak, 12/17/10, in the "Where do you get helium balloons?" thread. --- Yah...see, I wouldn't ask my neighbors to call the cops if I was being attacked, so I certainly would never borrow anything from them. 3littlekeets, 12/17/10, in the "Borrowing while baking" thread. --- I should just get cards printed up that say, "Sorry if my children made your grocery shopping experience unpleasant." farrarwilliams, 12/17/10, in the "I Am Shaking Right Now" thread (re: conflict with someone in a grocery store) --- I'd rather do anything than that. Gimme pain, gimme a rash... just don't make me puke. mejane, 12/18/10, in the "Stomach Virus" thread. --- I completely agree with you. Our core curriculum is Sonlight and unfortunately, I think if my kids saw a standardized test... I'm afraid they would read it, discuss it, make a painting of it, create several lapbooks, write a haiku poem about it and create their own Snap Circuit lesson where the musical doorbell sings about it. Our school district would think we were insane. We're so weird. Starrbuck12 (submitted by freerange; I'm not sure of date or post title) --- Darn you, people, I really don't need any more annoying characters for my book. I'm surrounded by enough already. Sebastian (a lady), in the "Boy Scout Vent" thread. (This one was from November but I'm including it at the request of Suzanne who submitted it) --- ***NOTE*** PLEASE GO TO PAGE 7 OF THIS THREAD FOR MORE FUNNY QUOTES!

Thanks, Angela- I do see your (their?) point, I guess... I'm just aggravated. But hopefully like you said they will have to re-enroll her and it won't be a problem. Jean- I don't, I would need to bring her with me, but thanks for the suggestion!

I voted 9 to 10 months. But with that said, I did start TRYING to introduce some baby foods at 6 months (I don't believe in offering solids before then). But my son was not at all interested, so I gave up. I tried again at 9 months with table scraps (rather than baby food) and he started eating those. Breastmilk was still his main diet though.

Thanks for all the feedback so far! And, Meriwether- this is me, too! I get my books from the library most of the time. I pick them up at yard sales, thrift stores, and used book sales. And if I REALLY want to keep a particular book, I'll buy it used on Amazon if it's a 'good price.' I think the price of these ebooks is more than I'd ever normally spend!

So my younger two are homeschooled, of course. But I also have a daughter- who is going to turn 19 in January- who is NOT of compulsory school age (that would be age 8 to 17 where I live). She attends a special needs/life skills school at a facility that is still part of our local school district, but is a separate facility, just for kids with special needs. She can go there until she's 21. So, my family is planning a vacation to Florida in February/March. We're going to drive there and back, and we're going to spend a little over a week with my husband's aunt and uncle and cousins, and then a week or so with his mom (they live in two different parts of Florida) and then we'll drive back. We expect to be gone somewhere between 3 and 4 weeks total. (including travel time, and in case we spontaneously decide to stay at one or another house for an extra few days or whatever). So I wrote my daughter's teacher a note the other day explaining our plans and asking how this works insofar as the school is concerned. And as it turned out, she talked to the school principal, who had "never heard of" someone taking a trip that long over the school year, and who got in touch with the district to ask them about it, and they just called me back, and here's what they said: The district will NOT approve a student being absent for more than ten days. And even if it was ten days, even a special ed student would be required to do schoolwork while they were away. And it doesn't matter that she's not compulsory school age, they won't approve a trip that long. And my options are: 1) Don't take her out that long. 2) Allow her to be dropped from the school roll and when I get back from my trip, I will have to re-register/re-enroll her. Now, I'm fine with doing number 2 if that's what I have to do, if it's just a matter of bringing in paperwork again and so on. But I'm a little worried about whether they will give me a problem about LETTING her back in for some reason. This is very frustrating! What would you do? Am I right to be concerned about her being able to get back in, or do you think that shouldn't be a problem? I did call and leave a message for the person at the district who is in charge of Special Ed and I'm waiting for her to call back to try to see what she says. But in the meanwhile I figured I'd vent a little and get your thoughts! ETA: I just added a post on Page 2 of this thread which contains a letter I am thinking of sending to the superintendent of my school district, and I would appreciate any thoughts/feedback on that letter! Thanks!

I haven't done it, but I have to be totally honest and confess that I have thought about it- many times. Possible TMI in this thread so skip it if you want :P I have a special needs/mentally impaired daughter, too (mine will be 19 next month). She can't use tampons either, only pads, but she's not great about positioning them right/using them properly, and she's CONSTANTLY staining her underwear, her pants, her sheets. And in school they're expected to swim and shower after gym etc. And she's not so discreet about where she drops her pants...and underwear, pads and all...when she has to shower after gym...the teacher actually called me about it once. I keep thinking it would be so nice to do something like maybe get her on those bcp's or some such that make you only have periods a few times a year, rather than every single month. But I've been afraid to mess with her body like that; I don't want to do anything harmful to her. And I've felt like it would be awful of me to inquire about it anyway. But I think about it. Often. Like, on a monthly basis. lol.

Wow, that's fantastic! Congrats! I've lost 26 in 16 weeks- you're doing better than me!

:lol: I never brought my own drinks into a bar. But man I was so proud of my fake ID. So proud, I would whip it out before anyone ever asked me for it. I think it said I was from Minnesota or some such. Or maybe it was Missouri. (I was actually from Long Island, New York).

:lol:

I haven't. I also hardly ever wear my rings. I never really liked wearing jewelry, it makes my hands feel claustrophobic or something lol. When we are dressing up or going somewhere nice or some such I try to remember to put them on but I hardly ever wear them.

I agree with the others. Pauline's website, mentioned above, was a tremendous help to me when I first started homeschooling. It looks overwhelming at first when you're new to it all- but really once you read it over a couple of times, break it down into steps, and especially once you go through the process once, you realize it wasn't really all that hard/bad. At the beginning of the year, there's an affidavit I have to file (a sample of which you can get from Pauline's site). I also have to file Objectives (samples of which you can get from Pauline's site, or you can look at the ones I used which are on my site, click link in sig and see sidebar to the left). Throughout the year, I have to keep a log of reading materials (I just do this in a wordpad file which can later be printed, it's title only, not author's name) and samples of work in all required subjects (required subjects are listed on pauline's site also). You can just pick out your samples at the end of the year, or you can select them as you go if you want. I always, always, submit photocopies of those things, never originals, just an FYI. Toward the end of the year, I have to make sure I've done standardized testing IF it's a required year (3rd, 5th, 8th) and I have to bring our portfolio to our evaluator. He works with us, he's very nice. There are also a list of evaluator's on pauline's site and you can contact them and find out in advance whether they will work well with you- your style of homeschooling- etc. He looks over our stuff, and then gives us a letter, which has to be submitted to the district by the end of the year along with the portfolio (I submit 3-5 samples from each required subject), log of reading materials, test results if applicable, etc. And then you're pretty much done with them. It really hasn't been so bad, once you understand what you have to do.

It sounds, even just from these posts, like the kind of thing where you might get lucky and never have anything go wrong. But it's such a risk. And you know what they say about how hindsight is always 20/20. You don't want to be looking back and kicking yourself for the choice you made if god forbid something does go wrong. It just seems like there are much safer ways to exercise and have fun! By the way, we host for The Fresh Air Fund and one of their rules is No Trampolines.

Er, yeah, an 11 year old girl should not have been participating in a boy scouts gift exchange, IMHO. And, no, you shouldn't feel bad about it- it sounds really cool!!! Actually, I think the girl just didn't realize what it really was, and once she gets home and has a chance to really explore it, she'll probably appreciate it more, too! I say this because I know my 10 y/o daughter would love something like that!

I wish the same could be said for here. It's in the 20's. I'll take 80's over freezing any time!

I don't know, my daughter went on one at a cousin's house last year, and she got hurt...somehow she jumped, bounced, and her knees came up and rammed into her own chest, and her chest was bruised, and she was crying... ...I'm not a big fan of them, and I've heard a lot of stories like that and worse.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, kind of, too. If I'm just going somewhere close to home, I'm going to bring whatever paper book I'm reading (like if I want something to read while the kids play a sport or some such). I don't travel a lot. But as I mentioned before, I AM going on vacation for a few weeks this winter. And we do usually go away a couple of times over the summer. So, I don't know, maybe it will be good for things like that, even if I don't just use it all the time for general use.

I don't think my library has digital books! At least, I don't see that on their website anywhere. That would have been pretty cool!

Ah that stinks, I'm sorry! I guess I am pretty trusting, too, I used that option last time I purchased something when I was asked to. I also had someone trust ME with it the last time I sold something. Neither were very expensive items, but it does make sense NOT to use that option unless you know the person in real life/personally and know you can trust them! It's good to know, for future reference, that there's an option where you can pay an extra nominal fee to cover their fees, so you don't have to use an option that could come back to bite you later!

hmm...no I don't travel much, generally speaking, but I AM going to be taking like a three week vacation in February/March so maybe that will be a good time to use it and get used to it! We'll be driving down to Florida and visiting family in a couple of different locations, and maybe that will be a great time to have this thing since it can store more than one book at once and I won't have to pack several books or worry about having nothing to read when I finish one etc. Maybe it'll grow on me while we're there lol. We'll see!

I missed the original post... it's still all very exciting! Congrats on finishing it! That does not sound like a form letter to me, it was definitely much more personal! I hope that you submit elsewhere with better luck!

ewwwwwww :lurk5::ack2: