I found a site that says that according to some Disney Guide Book from a few years ago, President's Week is one of the busiest weeks (that would be the week of Feb. 21, so I will avoid it that week!) but that the last week of Feb. and the first week of March are "average attendance" and then the second week of March on gets 'crowded' again for Spring Break. I'm going to have to hope that holds true because I don't think I'm going to be able to get there at another time and will probably need to go on that Monday, Feb. 28th. Which should at least be significantly better than the 22nd would have been!

We are likely driving down to Florida toward the end of February to visit family. While we were there, I would like to go to Islands of Adventure, to the new Harry Potter attraction there. Originally I was thinking of going on Tuesday, February 22nd (to the park) thinking February wouldn't be a busy month there. But I just found out from my ex SIL in NY that some schools (like there in NY) have that whole week (President's Week) off from school and that it will probably be very crowded there that week! I DON'T want to stand on ridiculous lines, and I DON'T want to pay ridiculous prices for that fast track thing, so now I'm trying to juggle dates, and the only other option for me would be going the following Monday, on February 28th. I'm hoping that not many schools will have their spring break that week (Feb 28th/first week of March) and that spring break will tend to start a little later in March, like the second or third week... ...what do you guys think...? Will I be okay if I go the 28th or would I be standing on hour (or more) long lines being miserable? :)

I've never participated in a challenge like this before, but I signed up for the one that starts in January. I don't have a list or very specific plan yet but I found myself looking a few minutes ago at the "1,001 books to read before you die" list; so maybe I'll just start picking and choosing from there in between reading ones I know I want to read.

Wow! That's pretty amazing!

Not sure if all of these are applicable but some that come to mind are: Addy Across The Prairie The Sign of the Beaver (male character) Little House On The Prairie, which you said you have maybe some stories about Buffalo Bill Children of the Wild West American Diaries has one about pioneer/frontier life, and so does the Dear America series, though those will both have female characters.

Gosh, that would take forever. It takes me an hour to walk just barely over 3 miles! Which I do on Monday and Wednesday. Then on Saturdays I usually walk about 2 miles. And sometimes I can squeeze in treadmill time on a Tuesday evening (2 miles or less). And I definitely can't eat whatever I want without gaining weight. Guess I have to walk for two hours or more for that lol.

This has really been bothering me. I don't know if I'm making too much of it, if I should talk to a supervisor next time I'm there, if I should just blow it off and continue to ignore it, or what. But at my Y (which I've only been a member of for approximately two months), everyone who works there is really nice, except for this one older woman. This one woman seems SO unfriendly to me. When I ask her to do something (like to sign us up for childcare for the following week or to register the kids for programs), she never does so with a smile, she always manages to look somehow annoyed or put off. If I ask her a question, the answer is very abrupt. If I need to ask her to do more than one thing/sign them up for more than one day, I feel like I'm majorly inconveniencing her by her expression, lack of a smile or conversation, etc. Whenever I walk in, whether I'm alone or with the kids, she never says hello, hi, how are you, makes conversation; likewise, when we leave, there's no "goodbye," "have a nice day," "see you later," it's like we don't exist. A couple of weeks ago, I had my son signed up for childcare for one particular time slot and nobody was there to provide it. This woman was at the desk and I asked, "Is somebody going to be in the childcare room?" and she just said "No." Very abruptly. I said, "Oh... we were signed up for it..." and she muttered some sort of "I don't know" type thing and turned away to do whatever she was doing. Not helpful whatsoever, she couldn't care less. Today, my daughter and I went in as my daughter has her Judo class there Saturday mornings. But since I also use the gym while she's doing that, I had to scan my card. That lady was there. She was busy talking to another woman, so I stood there and waited (because they have to get their computer onto the right screen before we can scan our cards). No smile, no hello, no "I'll be with you in a moment," not a word. I waited, and when the other member/customer walked away, the worker, without even looking at me, turned to her computer, clicked her mouse and then turned away and lowered her head and started doing paperwork. Again no "Hi," no "how are you," not even so much as an "okay, go ahead and scan your card now." Her clicking the mouse and turning away was my cue to scan my card. This has been really irking me, and I find myself getting more and more irritated every time I run across her. It's like WHY is she at a desk position greeting members if she's so freakin rude? I used to be the one to say "hi" first but the last couple of weeks I just stopped bothering, I never really got a response anyway, other than an unsmiling "can I help you" kind of look. But the kicker is- I've heard her and seen her smiling and chatting and being perfectly nice to other people, including the woman she was speaking with while I was there waiting this morning. So now I'm wondering- what is it about ME? Why is she like this with ME? The first time I dealt with her when I was brand new there, I: 1) Asked her to sign us up for several kids' programs and several childcare days at once. Did I inconvenience her and annoy her by asking her to do so many things? But isn't that her job? 2) She would have seen by signing us up that we get partial financial aid there and don't pay full membership fees. Does she have some sort of prejudice against that? 3) The first time I took my kids to childcare on a weekday morning so my husband and I could work out (they ONLY provide it Monday and Wednesday mornings from 9 AM to 10:30 AM during the daytime), the woman asked my 10 year old, "No school today?" and my daughter said, "I'm homeschooled," and the woman just said "Oh." Does she have something against homeschoolers? Even though the Y even has a "homeschool PE" program? I don't know what else to think. But she makes me feel uncomfortable, hesitant to ask her in particular to do anything, and, lately, more and more irritated. I'm a paying member, she's at the reception desk. She shouldn't be making me feel this way. She should be more polite. Right? What would you do?

Ah. Yeah I agree that 9 is too old for pre-arranged playdates with neighborhood kids! Next time she tries to arrange one, I'd just tell her "ds would prefer I not arrange playdates for him anymore. (your son) is welcome to call or drop by to see if (my son) would like to play and vice versa, but he feels he's getting too old for me to arrange playdates for him anymore, and I have to agree." There's definitely no need for you to allow yourself to be used as that kid's babysitter! Then proceed as mentioned above when the kid stops by, leaving it up to your son as to whether he feels like playing at that time.

LMAO at: "It's going to be a good year, Laura. A very Goodyear indeed." and "I'm just too tired to argue plus the kids won't be able to take off because hockey equipment will slow them down and I'll hold their heads. I'm sure it will look fine." :lol: Some of those were just... eww.

Well, just a few thoughts: If your son doesn't want to play with this boy, your son is old enough to say "I don't feel like playing right now" when the boy comes looking for him. Leave it up to your son. Maybe sometimes he'll decide he's bored and he DOES want to play with that boy. Maybe other times he'll tell him "I don't feel like playing." Maybe down the road they'll drift apart from each other naturally. Maybe they'll become better friends. I'm not sure you HAVE to take some drastic step of running interference and "breaking up with" the other family in some official manner on your son's behalf. When the kids DO play, it doesn't sound like it's just one of them- if they're both bickering or not agreeing on ways to play- let them work it out. Or let your son say he doesn't feel like playing anymore. Or, it's also okay if it's getting on YOUR nerves to step in and gently say "Listen boys, no more arguing, or this play date is going to have to end for the day." or "Okay, move it along outside to play, I don't want to hear any more arguing." Or "It's not going to be a video game day, you guys need to go play outside or do something else today." If the boy complains in front of you about the lack of blu-ray or big screens, you can tell him gently but matter of factly, "look honey, this is how it is over here. We don't have those things and we don't plan to get those things. You can always go play with something else instead if that bothers you, but I don't want to hear any more negativity/complaining, okay?" Maybe you can gently help the other boy BECOME a better friend/guest and help him TO have more friends.

Enchanted Learning (dot com) has info on each state, including some fill in the blank worksheet type things that are pretty simple, if you want to try that. You could also join some sort of postcard exchange and try to get one from each state.

I LIKE the word inclusive and it would make me more likely to want to join a group, knowing that it would mean that the main focus of the group wouldn't be on religion and that I wouldn't be excluded from said group for not being a Christian. Meetup.com is a good place to start a group, once you get enough members you could always charge a nominal amount per family for dues so that you don't have to cover the cost of meetup fees on your own, that's what our group does (basically charges $1.00 a month per family, payable in the form of $12.00 a year) (less at first if they join later in the year). You can start with a couple of field trips, tours, park day type things, social get togethers/craft days, something like bowling, or whatever, and then as you get members, start trying to find out where their interests lie, what sort of meetups they are wanting, if anybody is willing to help you organize/assist, etc.

Too funny! I keep an ongoing wordpad document of the funny things my kids say, too. They're always so fun to look back on!

Ranger :D

Well. Hm. It's a funny story (sort of) if you can bear with it... I was almost 6 months pregnant with my now 10 year old daughter, to start with :D We were married by a non-denominational minister who my husband knew because the guy A) owned a pool hall my husband liked to shoot pool in, B) had once hired my husband to paint his house, and C) who years later we saw on TV in a knife-throwing contest, doing quite well at it I might add. Did I mention he drove a big yellow Hummer back before it was common to see them around all over the place? Yes, he was a character. He married us in exchange for a bottle of wine at his beautiful, Long Island, water-front home where we didn't get to appreciate the water front view because there were so many gnats that they drove us all crazy and chased us INSIDE of the house to exchange our vows. No-one was in attendance except for my mother, my brother, my ex sister-in-law and my oldest daughter from a previous marriage. Heh. None of us remembered to bring a camera. So the non-denominational minister said that he had some disposable ones and would give us one. So we took it, had some pictures taken, subsequently went to develop them, and NOT A SINGLE ONE came out. Then we found out that the cameras/film had been expired- by several YEARS. So we don't have a single picture of us at our wedding day. We went out to dinner with the family afterward, and then on a two day "honeymoon" to Atlantic City, where I refrained from drinking, because I was pregnant, refrained from getting in the hot tub, because I was pregnant, and didn't do much gambling because I'm really not big on gambling... ....ah, good times. And when the result of that pregnancy, my daughter, was around four years old, it was to be our fifth wedding anniversary, and we managed to book a cruise to celebrate that fifth anniversary. You don't even know how tough this was, to arrange someone to watch our two kids, to save up the money for this cruise, etc. We were going with my husband's brother and sister-in-law, we put down our deposits and booked together, we're all excited, and I'm planning all these shore excursions and thinking of all the fun things I'll be able to do and the drinks I'll be able to have, and how this will be a "real" honeymoon because this time I'm not pregnant... ...do you see where I'm going with this? ....I then got accidentally (SURPRISE!) pregnant with my now 5 year old son. Frantically counting dates on the calendar, I realized that I would be too far along to be legally allowed on this cruise ship. Fortunately, I was able to push it back and go on the same cruise, but a couple of months earlier, and my brother in law and sister in law were able to reschedule too to go with us, and I had to cancel some of those shore excursions (there are some things pregnant women shouldn't or wouldn't want to do), and we went anyway- minus the alcohol and the more adventurous excursions lol. Admit it- you all wish you had a wedding like mine! :lol: (With that said, we just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary last summer at a dude ranch of all places and we brought the kids with us and yes we all had a blast and no I wasn't pregnant. :P)

I just very briefly skimmed for now as I have to be out the door in ten minutes but it doesn't seem to be applicable to homeschoolers...?

Going with Remudamom on this one. I'm not religious whatsoever and adultery still bugs the heck out of me. I can't hear his name without thinking of him and Monica. I don't have any respect for him.

:iagree: With that said, I don't think I've ever had anybody who actually knows me tell me they would pray for me lol. And if somebody on a forum ever said it (I don't even recall) I probably just figured that it was coming from their heart and appreciated the thought and that they probably didn't know I'm not a Christian. (In actuality, I'm a not-particularly-religious Jew who celebrates the main Jewish holidays for tradition and cultural reasons with the kids more so than religious ones and likely wouldn't bother at all if it weren't for the kids but who is probably a bit more agnostic than atheist at this point in time). On the flip side, when I respond to a thread where most people are praying, I tend to say "I will keep you in my thoughts" or "thinking of you" kind of thing, and I sometimes wonder if THAT bothers some people, like "if you can't pray for me, go away" lol you know what I mean?

I think the main thing is that you recognize this in yourself. And you do. The second biggest thing is that you recognize that your kids are doing well overall, enjoying homeschooling, progressing nicely, etc, and that testing isn't the be all end all (especially in elementary school) as to how they are doing. And you do recognize that. You're doing some prep work now, not an actual test, which gives you a chance to observe what he's missing. Then, later, SEPARATE from the test, you can go over something similar with him to reinforce the right way. (You can give him a problem similar that you write up, and see if he does it right this time. If he does, you can say "oh, good, you noticed that it said 'NOT' in there" to reinforce that it's good to take your time and pay attention to all the little words. If he doesn't, you can calmly say "remember, you have to read a sentence carefully and pay attention to all the little words, too, see here, this one is asking which is NOT...." and so on. Of course, that's just in regard to helping him do his best, not in regard to how to stop you from being anxious to begin with lol- I don't know if there IS a way for you to not feel at all anxious, but the main thing is that you don't transfer that to him, I think, and being aware is the biggest step toward that.

Yes. My mother in law (who does not live local) always sends her son (my husband) AND me a card with a small check (like $20 or $25 tops) in it for our birthdays. My mother (who does live local) usually gets me AND my husband a small gift for each of our birthdays. When it is one of our birthdays, we usually make a nice dinner, invite over my brother and sister-in-law and nephews (who live on our street) to come over with no gifts expected but just to enjoy dinner and a cake with us. Our birthdays are about 5 weeks apart so sometimes in between there we'll line up a sitter and go out and do something fun. Once in a while I do throw a bigger party for my husband though- I had surprise parties for him when he turned 25 and when he turned 35, inviting family and friends and just having fun but it wasn't the kind of party where they were all expected to bring presence or anything, we just wanted their presence and food and drink and conversation and so on.

:iagree: I expect pound cake or angel food cake; I never heard of a biscuit type strawberry shortcake.

Thanks for the replies. It really does look like fun, I think my 10 y/o WOULD enjoy it. I just may try it out!

Sorry if this has already been asked and answered but do kid's books that you read aloud with your child count? I don't mean little kid's books. I mean, for example, things like: The Phantom Tollbooth, The Secret Garden, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Pollyanna, Where The Red Fern Grows, Tuck Everlasting and things of that nature....?

Maybe this would be helpful for you? http://www.librarything.com/topic/70048 (I just googled "historical fiction set in russia") LOL.

I wouldn't necessarily think of it as "selfish"- I think a wedding day should be whatever the bride and groom want it to be. With that said, the caveat is that they must be understanding if others can't make it/can't afford it. If they decided on a destination wedding and were understanding of people not being able to attend, and/or willing to pay their way so they could, then it's not selfish. If they decided on a destination wedding and gave people a hard time/guilt trip/etc about not being able to attend- then, yes, it's selfish.