I could use the distraction. Someone must have someone crazy in their life to complain about! :lurk5:

It's just hair. It grows out, fades away, gets cut, it's no big deal. It's one of the few things kids and teens can kind of have control over when it comes to their appearance, it is a fun way of being a bit creative, it doesn't hurt anyone or anything. I would definitely not make a big issue with your stepdaughter over her hair, and if your kids start exclaiming how they want to change their hair, too, your choices are to say that her mother allowed her to make that decision but you are not okay with it for them, or to loosen up and just say "yes." You might want to at least consider the latter. :)

Happy anniversary! :)

Congrats to everyone else who is recommitting or already has! Summer tips? Hmm. I'm nervous, too! But I plan to eat things like burgers and hot dogs without the buns at bbq's. I eat the skin on my chicken, I eat the salad dressings etc, just not the breads and pasta salads and desserts!

Glad a few of you have joined the group. :) I went for a 2 mile walk this morning by myself which was peaceful, and about to eat a no carb breakfast!

Okay, well, my oldest daughter (age 20) goes to a special needs school/life skills class, and the other day we bought end of the year gifts for her teacher, aide, and bus driver. And in the car on the way home I joked, "I wonder what my students will give ME for an end of the year teacher present!" So it was probably because of that haha. But my 11 y/o dd made me a really cute card, and then she took her wooden ruler and drew all these cute designs and pictures on it, and wrapped it in tissue paper and gave it to me for a gift. See pics. :) (On the other side of the ruler, not shown, she wrote, "Hope we have a nice summer together!"). And make sure you read her little notations on the card, they were kind of funny. P.S. My 6 y/o son tells me he is planning to clean the house for his end of the year gift to me but that he might change his mind. LOL. P.S.S. Yes, those are claw marks from my cat in the arm of my recliner. Grr. lol.

Thanks, Jamee, and congrats on the 25 lbs! Feel free to come over to the Weight Loss Challenge group and see if you can find a burst of motivation over there! :)

I've never actually seen the movie, but I did know right away the title of the movie you were referring to, so I guess that means I consider it sort of common pop culture knowledge! I am 39 and from the USA.

Putting it out there in public! As a lot of you know, I started my weight loss efforts at 247.6 lbs. By going pretty much grain-free and walking, I lost 59.2 lbs in a relatively short period of time, getting down to 188.4 lbs. So I didn't quite hit my goal of 60 lbs when I found out I was pregnant. And then I did something stupid. I totally stopped eating the way I had been, stopped walking most days, and just didn't think about healthy eating at all. I ate whatever I felt like eating, including way too many carbs and sugars. Then, 6 days ago as I'm sure you all know, I miscarried. Well, this morning, needing to focus on something positive for a while, like losing a bit more weight, I stepped on the scale. 196.2. That means I'm up 7.8 lbs from my low. BUT, I'm still down 51.4 overall, which is nothing to sneeze at. I do NOT want to hit 200 lbs again. And I DO want to start my next pregnancy (fingers crossed!) at as healthy a start weight as possible. So today, I'm going back to my grain free diet, and I'm going to start walking again, and I'm going to hopefully hit that 60 lb goal and then some prior to conceiving again. Wish me luck! P.S. if you haven't seen it/joined yet and you're trying to lose weight, too, the Weight Loss Challenge social group is quite active these days, and it's a fantastic group for motivation, encouragement, support, info, and fun weight loss challenges to try to accomplish!

This year I blogged 6th grade. We're relaxed, secular homeschoolers who use Oak Meadow, which is a non-textbookish, hands-on, literature and project based sort of curriculum.

I'm kind of jealous. I wish I was reading those for the first time, since I'm sad the series is over and I'll never have a "new" Harry Potter book to look forward to again! 52 Books In 52 Weeks 2012 COMPLETE 1. Envy, by J.R. Ward (Fallen Angels series) 2. Kiss of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 3. The Ramayana, A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic, by R.K. Narayan (with my daughter for school reading) 4. Dark Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 5. The Immortal Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 6. Spell of the Highlander, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 7. 11/22/63, by Stephen King 8. The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1) 9. Into the Dreaming, by Karen Marie Moning (Highlander series) 10. A Judgement In Stone, by Ruth Rendel 11. The Dark River, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 2) 12. The Golden City, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 3) 13. Forbidden Pleasure, by Lora Leigh 14. Relic, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child 15. House Rules, by Jodi Picoult 16. Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian 17. Wind Through the Keyhole, by Stephen King 18. The High Flyer, by Susan Howatch. 19. Daughter of the Blood, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels Trilogy, Book 1) 20. Heir to the Shadows, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels Trilogy, Book 2) 21. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer 22. Queen of the Darkness, by Anne Bishop (The Black Jewels Trilogy, Book 3) CURRENT 23. Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund (Yeah, this one has been my "current" for a while now; I keep putting it aside to read other books)!

We struggle to keep enough room in our DVR by watching some of the many shows we record.

Hi and welcome! I was one of those moms who had never even thought about homeschooling. My 11 1/2 year old daughter went to public school from Kindergarten through most of third grade. Then I got sick of a bunch of stuff with the school system in general and my district in particular and started looking into homeschooling. I read everything I could, and decided I wanted to give it a try. And I didn't even want to wait until the fall, so toward the end of March of her 3rd grade year, I pulled her out and began homeschooling instead. In a way, I think you're more nervous when you pull your kids out. It's a big change, kind of different from knowing all along you want to homeschool. So was I nervous? Yep! I hoped I wouldn't screw them up, that I could do it, that I would like it, etc. But I also really believed there were a lot of bad things about my district/the system and that I probably couldn't do much of a worse job lol. Honestly, it has been great. I never regretted pulling her out and never looked back (it was three years this past March). I never sent my now 6 1/2 year old son to school. I love that I get to spend more of their childhood with them, I love that they get to actually experience more of their own childhood, I love the freedom I have to do my own thing and get out in the world more. I knew I didn't want something dry and textbookish, I'm a pretty relaxed homeschooler, and I wanted something fun, creative, and hands-on, too. I chose a curriculum called Oak Meadow which starts out slow and gentle in the early years but does eventually move on to having quite a bit of literature and writing requirements. I've used it for K with my son, and for 4th, 5th, and 6th grades with my daughter and I love that it's not dry, not textbookish, not boring. Lots of integration, living books, creative writing assignments, hands on crafts and activities (even though I'm not very crafty myself), interesting discussion, etc. We supplement with a few other things that seem interesting and fun to us, we do a lot of field trips and activities, we have a lot of free time to do our own thing, and I really enjoy it. If you want to learn more about that, you can look up Oak Meadow's website, and/or you can click the link in my signature to check out my blog- I've been blogging about our day to day relaxed/secular days with Oak Meadow (and whatever else I feel like using) for a few years now. Daily entries with pics in the main body and lots of useful stuff on the sidebar to the left, including info about homeschooling, articles I've written about it, curriculum reviews, and so on. Good luck and don't stress about it too much. Your kids are young, enjoy being with them and have fun! :) Nance P.S. I meant to add, I can see that my kids are learning and more often retaining what they learn. Here in PA we occasionally have to do standardized testing, and my daughter has scored well. We also have to have an evaluation each year, and my evaluator has always been pleased with our portfolios, and our district has always accepted them and acknowledged that an "appropriate education is being received," so I am confident I am not screwing up my kids afterall- even being as relaxed a homeschooler as I am! And my daughter is quite a few years older than yours, so, seriously, don't stress over it! You have a vested interest in your kids, you care about them, you're going to be giving them more intensive one on one time, and kids kind of can't help learning anyway. It'll be fine! :)

I've typed something out and then deleted it without submitting a small handful of times. Maybe four or five times over my several years here. Usually, I submit what I type. :)

Well, it took more than five minutes, but I was in and out in under 25 min and spent it all in the waiting room by myself where I got to watch Sponge Bob and did not see or hear any babies or pregnant women. In return for that small favor, I came out to a drenching downpour and had to walk across the street and to the other end of the parking lot in a thin teeshirt, jeans that were immediately plastered to my legs, and slippery rubber sandals. I got into my car freezing, barely able to see out of my glasses, and my ponytail dripping down my neck, and could only think, 'Glad that is over with.' My husband is leaving work early to come home and deal with dinner, and I'm going to find some mind-numbing trashy movie or DVR'd show to get lost in afterward, and tomorrow will hopefully be a less craptastic day.

I called my dr office and started crying and said it is so hard to have to go to a maternity ward during a miscarriage and could I get the shot somewhere else. They said they'd call me back. Then they called and said they are going to call over and ask someone from maternity to meet me elsewhere in the hospital to do the shot and will call me back again with details. . . . And they called back and said my choices are going to the ER where I would have to be registered and wait to see a dr there, which would prob take hours, or to go to maternity where "you'll be in and out in five minutes." Some choice. :( Oh and my kids are at work with dh because I had no one to watch them, which makes spending hours in an ER less desirable. Not that any of these options are desirable. So I prob have to suck it up and go to maternity. :(

Ugh. Just had my blood drawn at the lab and was told I have to go in an hour to get my rhogam shot. Where? At the maternity ward of the hospital. I HATE that they send women going through a loss to the maternity ward. Last time I was there, it was to get a shot of methotrexate for my ectopic and I had to see babies being wheeled around in those little plastic crib things, and heard a nurse counting for a woman in labor. I went to my car after and cried and cried. I feel like crying now. I don't want to go there.

I did ask about the progesterone. She said if I wanted she would test it early on in my next pregnancy. Hopefully that will be soon.

Once again, thank you all for being there for me! I called the doctor at 9 AM when they opened and got an "Oh, wow, we are beyond booked solid today, there is not a free minute anywhere...let me talk to them and call you back." About an hour later they called back and told me to come in at 11:30. I was there well over two hours (during which time I tried to studiously avoid looking at the newborn there with its mom and the several very pregnant women- good thing I brought a book along). They did the ultrasound and I had to wait for the doctor to interpret it. The doctor said the lining looks very thin, meaning pretty much everything is already out and over and done with, though I still may have some bleeding for a few days. The plus, I guess, is that no medical intervention is required, leaving me able to try again as soon as possible. She says when I get my first normal period to go for it again. She also seems to think it's good that the ectopic and the m/c were two different things, I guess meaning there's not a history of one particular thing repeatedly going wrong. She says that unfortunately as we get older things are more likely to go genetically wrong but that that doesn't by any means imply that I will keep having problems or anything like that. I do have to head over to the lab in a few minutes...since I am RH Negative, I need a shot of Rhogam, and she's going to have them check my HCG levels while I'm there. She then wants me to return in about a week to check them one more time as she feels obligated to follow them down. So, that's where things stand now. I will try again as soon as I can and hope for the best.

Where's the option that says: "Well, once in a while, after the kids are in bed, just for fun....." ? :thumbup::blushing::lol:

We told her. She handled it fine. We told her I was pregnant but that it didn't work out this time, that in the early weeks of a pregnancy a lot of things can go wrong for various reasons with the development and that there is nothing we or the doctor or anyone could do about it, that it is sad and we are sad about it, but sometimes it just happens, and that was why I had a bunch of dr appointments lately and haven't been feeling that well etc, that I was sad but okay and that hopefully some day there will be a baby but it could take months and no guarantee it would happen etc. She handled it really well- I tried to be pretty matter of fact. She said it was sad but seemed kind of excited about the prospect of a baby down the road. She gave me a hug, agreed to help out as needed and agreed to keep it to herself, though we told her if she wanted to talk about it more, she could always talk to me or her dad, and that was that. She's reading now, she seems fine.

Nice to wake up to all this extra support! Thank you all! The bleeding slowed down last night and this morning but is still going on, kind of like a light period. Had some cramping on and off yesterday and at 5 this morning when I took a pain pill and went back to bed a few hours. No more clotting as far as I can tell. I feel kind of like an idiot because I really can't tell if I already did pass the baby with one of those larger clots. So I will just wait and see if anything further happens today or tomorrow, and I'll get a confirmation scan Tuesday. The scan will be hard. It sucks that there was a heartbeat Friday and even though I never felt good about it and just kind of knew when I heard about the sac, a few days later I'm going to be told there's no baby. Even though I already know. Even though the closure is important. I just hope it happens again quickly without too much disappointing waiting. I have had a lot of support here and with my family and friends. One friend stopped over for a while last night. That has been really nice, and while putting so much of this in writing has been emotional it has also been helpful. Last night I visited with a friend, deleted all the Baby Story type shows I had recorded, and ate ice cream in bed while watching Mob Wives instead. Today I feel kind of peaceful like I've come to terms with it, but I know that sadness and feeling all emotional will still randomly blindside me for a while to come. Thanks for being there!

Thanks again, all. We are definitely going to tell her, but not until tomorrow, because she's leaving in a few minutes to sleep at a friend's house and dh wants us to tell her together. I will try to be matter-of-fact about it and encourage her to talk and ask questions if she wants to, and let her be helpful without putting too much burden on her etc. I think she will be okay about it.

I'm sorry for your losses, too. :( Hope the third time is the charm for both of us!

:grouphug: Wow. I hope this coming week is significantly better for you. And I hope you get the guitar back! Pretty craptastic week for me, too. Maybe we should share lots of wine and chocolate in hopes of feeling somewhat better!