:iagree:

I love Survivor! I liked Colton at first but then, ugh, he was just SO hateful. I didn't even feel the slightest bit sorry for him when he was writhing in pain and had to leave the game, all I could think was "karma!" It was horrible the way he was treating Christina! I only wish they held off on the merge and that they would have turned around and voted Alicia off next, because that would have been Karma, too. I can't believe how horrid she was, too. (Maybe it'll still happen next time. She deserves it, too! I was snickering a little that he didn't give her the idol)! P.S. For some reason I really liked Russell lol.

So sorry you guys had to go through that! Taking into consideration everything you said, I would give her the benefit of the doubt and one more chance. You said you like her (aside from this issue that's come up), and that you don't have many friends and would prefer not to lose this one if possible. She did something inappropriate and she didn't take a hint well, but I think at this stage if it is your preference, it is okay to give her the benefit of the doubt, give her another chance, and nicely and tactfully lay your feelings on this matter on the line to her. And I DO think it's perfectly okay to do so in a private email to her via Facebook since you won't be seeing her again in person without your daughter there. Just something sort of casual sounding and to the point, something like, "Hi, I don't want this to cause any awkwardness between us but I do need to ask a favor of you that I wanted to mention before DD and I see you again next week. I need to ask that from now on you not bring up the subject of DD's homeschooling or anxiety issues etc to her or in front of her. I know that when we went to lunch last week your intentions were good when you discussed these things with her, but it really raised her anxiety levels to the point where she ended up feeling sick and tense for hours after we got home, and at her age, my parenting and educational decisions are just not the sort of thing I want to have critiqued or debated in front of her. I know you couldn't have realized the effect it would have and I know, again, that you had the best of intentions and didn't mean anything by it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up so that it doesn't become an issue again. I consider you a good friend and love to spend time with you and chat with you about just about anything else but just wanted to ask that we leave these particular matters off the table, especially around dd. Thanks so much for understanding and I'm looking forward to seeing you at the book sale next week".... or something like that. If she gives you a snippy response, or she disrespects you, and/or disrespects your request or your child and does something like this again AFTER you've spelled it out in no uncertain terms, then you KNOW she's no real friend and that she wasn't worth having as a friend anyway. Good luck, I hope that you find she was worth the effort and that it works out how you are hoping!

My 11 y/o and 6 y/o both love that show! :)

Don't you have Facebook? That's when you go on Facebook and post: "One of my friends needs to call me, I can't find my phone." :D

I've never seen the younger one to compare as I bought the 10+ one for my daughter (who is 11) but if you want to see what the projects ARE for the 10+ I have pictures of the first few completed projects my daughter did for 10+ on my blog under my MTM review. I also have a couple of pictures from one of the scripts that I printed and a screenshot or two and stuff that you can compare as I was showing what the program is like, so it might give you a little bit of an idea: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/252723.html

While I would never wait as late as 14 or anywhere near it, I do think the Moores offer some perspective that can be helpful to some parents who are inclined to start pushing and getting into a tizzy with their very young children. I don't believe that disinterested three, four, five year olds need to be pushed and forced into academics for example and that it's perfectly okay to wait until 6-7 to teach a child to read if that's when the child is more developmentally ready, interested, and willing and able to sit for reading lessons and such. I think a more gentle, play based and more active 'childhood' before then is perfectly okay. And that if they learn in say 1st grade instead of preschool or Kindergarten (much like many of us did) that isn't going to damage them in any way and could certainly be much less stressful for all involved and may be much easier to do.

I've actually NEVER gotten to a healthy BMI range. I've gotten to be overweight instead of "obese" but I never made it to the point where I was NOT overweight. I've lost weight for a certain amount of time and then eventually lost motivation and started gaining again... I've never made it to a healthy goal weight. Ever. The last time I was at a medically healthy BMI/not overweight must have been...wow, I don't even know. Over two decades ago, in my early 20's. The closest I've ever come at any point since was getting into the 170's, I think. I think I could probably do it now with this way of eating (giving up grains, processed foods etc) instead of the low fat diets I've always gone on in the past, but I guess I may not really have the chance since I plan to TTC before I get there lol. (I do still plan to keep up the healthy eating while TTC and lose some more weight until I get confirmation of a pregnancy but don't know how far that will get so we'll just have to see)! I've NEVER given myself the opportunity to "maintain" weight loss! I am proud of you for losing 75 and your dedication to getting back on track and relosing that 30 before it turned back into the whole 75, and to being determined to maintain it this time! Good luck, you can do it- stick with your support system and keep it off, 75 is amazing and we both know how awful it feels to put that weight back on!

That sounds so awesome! Glad you had such a good time! Welcome back!

I am down 50 lbs as of this morning! (50.2 to be exact)! So this feels like a pretty cool milestone. I've now gone from 247.6 to 197.4! 50 lbs ago, I was taking 3-6 ibuprofen a day every day because my sciatica hurt so bad all the time. Right now, I can't remember the last time I had to take any for it. Recently, I've been going on hikes in the woods (well only twice so far, but, hey!) whereas before I could barely walk one slow flat mile on my treadmill when I first started out. At the last kickball game with my homeschool group, I joined in and played and ran the bases and everything! Okay, I was out of breath, not gonna lie, lol...but previously I used to just stand on the sidelines and watch and take pictures! At my last trip to Fashion Bug to buy some spring capris and such I got to shop all on the left side of the store- the one that's got sizes 0-16 instead of the right side that's got sizes 18 and all the way up to, well, I don't know but extremely large. Clothes shopping is getting to be fun again. :D I feel really good these days! 50 lbs, by the way, is the equivalent of a small bale of hay. Only 10 more lbs to my goal of losing that elephant's you know what! :D And then... I can start TTC again! :) How are all my other weight loss buddies here doing??

I'll be using Oak Meadow for 1st grade next year. We will likely continue with a combination of Funnix Beginning Reading Lessons and/or Reading Eggs. We're doing those sporadically this year in conjunction with sporadic Oak Meadow K (we're pretty informal with Kindergarten). We're up to lesson 40 in Funnix, and more recently he's been REALLY enjoying a free trial of Reading Eggs. I may check out the free Funnix Beginning Math lessons that I downloaded a while back and see if my son likes that, he seems to have a natural liking for math and has picked up a lot of math concepts through games, conversation, etc, but we'll see how it goes.

Storm Runner = Best. Rollercoaster. EVER. :D http://www.hersheypark.com/rides/detail.php?id=83 (You can watch it on Youtube too but it just REALLY doesn't do justice to how fast it actually feels when you're on it)!

Stormrunner = Best. Rollercoaster. EVER. :D http://www.hersheypark.com/rides/detail.php?id=83 (You can watch it on Youtube too but it just REALLY doesn't do justice to how fast it actually feels when you're on it)!

:iagree:

Next time he tries to, er, drink teA with you, tell him, "Nah, I was talking to the other wives in the neighborhood and they aren't having teA tonight, so I don't think I should either. I know how important it is to you that we do everything on the same schedule everyone else in the neighborhood does." :P

I didn't vote, I'm just going to answer: I'm in my late 30's (will turn 39 in May) and I've seen only very few stray, random gray/silvery hairs appearing so far. Maybe I've seen one like four or five times. I've plucked them! I did dye my hair red back around New Year's Eve but that was for fun not for covering anything up. I like it, and so does my husband. :D (My hair is usually a medium brown). However, if my hair was going mostly gray/white at this stage, yes, I would totally color it regularly.

My husband is one of those people who seems to know a lot of things about a lot of things. He's good with trivia type stuff, good with sciency type stuff, good with math. He's got a lot of hobbies, can fix almost anything, owns a small business. He's sickeningly good at almost everything he tries to do, has a lot of skills. On top of it all, he even cooks! :D But his spelling and grammar skills are weak. So if you knew him in person you'd think he was a smart guy. If you "met" him on a message board, you'd probably think he wasn't.

:grouphug: Glad that he seems to be coming around and "on your side" now. I hope this puts an end to it!

So sad. I hope more people sign and promote that petition on change.org. I had signed it and the most recent update I got said: Dear Nancy, Our son didn't deserve to die. Trayvon Martin was just 17 years old when he was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Trayvon wasn't doing anything besides walking home with a bag of Skittles and some iced tea in his hands. What makes Trayvon’s death so much harder is knowing that the man who confessed to killing Trayvon, George Zimmerman, still hasn't been charged for Trayvon’s killing. Despite all this, we have hope. Since we started to lead a campaign on Change.org, more than 500,000 people -- including you -- have signed our petition calling for Florida authorities to prosecute our son’s killer. Our campaign is already starting to work. Just last night, the FBI and Department of Justice announced they were investigating our son’s killing. Newspapers around the globe are reporting that it’s because of our petition. But our son’s killer is still free, and we need more people to speak out if we want justice for Trayvon. Can you please share our petition on Facebook and ask your friends and family to sign? Click here to share. You can also click here to email your friends and ask them to sign that way. We aren't looking for revenge, we're looking for justice -- the same justice anyone would expect if their son were shot and killed for no reason. Thank you so much for all you’ve done to support our family. - Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton ...if you haven't already signed the petition, consider doing so! The guy who shot him shot an unarmed minor who had candy in his hands, when the police told him NOT to confront him...and he's not in jail. WHAT?!?! Self-defense my $!!#%R! What, he was afraid he'd get beaten with a bag of Skittles and have to taste the rainbow? Please.

Choice 1 because otherwise what's the point? If it's separate homes with separate everything it doesn't seem like much of communal living. Choice 1 seems more "communal" and eliminates the need to have to do all the separate cooking for just yourself which is nice because I hate doing that. :D Someone mentioned needing their own kitchen for snacks and breakfasts but I would assume you could store dry snacks in your house and could even get a little mini dorm size fridge if you really wanted to, so bring on the community kitchen and dinners if I was going to agree to live in a communal setting like that to begin with anyway! :D

LOL sounds fun, I'm in for the visit and the wine (if it's on the sweet side, I have to confess I like my drinks kind of girlie and fruity). Ooh, you know, House Rules is one of the few Jodi Picoult books I've never yet read! So now I'm extra glad I responded to your post; it's going on my "to order from the library" list! :) :lol: It's worth a try!

I used to have one. They're cute but honestly I just can't stand the smell. They got to the bathroom what seems like nonstop and if you don't want to clean up after them literally SEVERAL TIMES A DAY, it just stinks. I really got sick of it. If you believe that your kids will do this and not eventually get tired of it and leave you to have to do it (or that you won't mind doing it), then they ARE adorable, funny, friendly creatures.

lol...I hate to say this but I'm not so sure it's cheaper than booze anymore! It used to be I could walk into a bookstore and get a paperback for like $5.95, now they're all like $15.00 or something. I can get a bottle for that cheap, too haha. Nance, who likes all of Jodi Picoult's books! (And does NOT drink as much as that might have made it sound. :P) Okay, here's my list so far: 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) CURRENT 12. The Golden City, by John Twelve Hawks (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 3)

Congrats! I plan to ttc number 4 just in time for my 39th bday! :)

Wow. You sure live around a bunch of idiots.