I think you did fine. Forcing a 9 year old child to do something that makes them anxious just because you as an adult perceive some sort of "opportunity to step up and take control of a situation" isn't going to make them grow up to be more confident than they otherwise would have. She'll develop naturally into that anyway. Especially if you help her feel more (not less) secure in her childhood years. You did the right thing.

I know lol. And I'm dying (no pun intended) to see what the inside looks like. I really want to just walk in one day and be like "No, I don't need any help, just looking" and try to sneak some pictures, but I don't have the guts. I mean, a funeral home probably isn't the kind of place in which you can do that, right? One of my neighbors told me there are dolls everywhere and paintings of angels on the ceiling and stuff like that. I asked my mom if she wanted to go in with me one day and pretend we were "browsing" for her for when her time comes, she just snorted but didn't go along with it lol. I always wonder, who actually chooses a place like that over the more traditional, stately looking places...I can't fathom. It's pink and red and they put paper flowers and butterflies and witches in the windows. It boggles my mind lol. There IS! :lol::lol::lol: Too bad "Backlick Road" wasn't in Intercourse, PA, that would've been the icing on the cake, huh? :P

You know, I always suspected you were a troll! :lol::lol: j/k I don't know if it was yours but of course you made me look and that "You can't enslave me!!" sign just made me die laughing. So I don't even care if it was you, you made me laugh! I think my blog is a happy medium. I post a bit about the challenges and the funny stuff in our day to day lives along with the good stuff, but I don't go overboard with anything personal and never say anything rotten about my kids. Nor have I seen any blogs like that.

You can do the Leslie Sansone/Walk Away the Pounds tapes right in your living room with no large or expensive exercise equipment needed, often the littles will enjoy trying it with you for a while, you don't need much space, and best of all (for me) you don't need much coordination, either lol. And they're all normal people, not a bunch of swimsuit model look alikes, and they're pretty easy to keep up with... you should check it out!

That's the most tacky, ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I've never heard of being charged to attend a birthday party we were invited to. If that ever happened I don't think I'd be able to refrain from going, "Are you serious?" We would not be attending on principal. My kid could play paintball and do fun things another time. There's no way I'd shell out $100 for some kid's birthday party entrance fee and gift. No way.

I haven't finished last week's reading, The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks yet- made it to page 130 (of 456); I was reading kind of sporadically. But anyway, I put it aside as yesterday I got 11/22/63 by Stephen King from the library (finally!!) and started reading that instead. I'm on page 180 of 849 and can't put it down, loving this book!

Janice, no I haven't had anything checked since the testing they did to make sure my hcg levels were back down to 0 after the ectopic. I've never taken my temperature, I just used the Opks in the past. Wapiti, I've been testing about 10:30ish with second or third morning urine and don't drink much before then. Maybe I should test twice the next couple of days! Starr I have no idea how much it costs to see a fertility specialist but I'd be paying out of pocket for it so I'm just really, really hoping that it doesn't have to come to that! I'd like to just see that I seem to be ovulating, spend another month or two losing weight, and then start trying and hopefully have it happen on its own. I hope!! Thank you, Faithe!

Hi, Yes, I will stop taking the topamax prior to TTC. I'm not TTC yet, just testing to see if I am even ovulating. My dr actually prescribed it as an off label weight loss aid as opposed to what it's actually for (seizures and migraines). Due to me being so overweight, the high insulin levels, the fact that I've already struggled so long with diet, and wanted to try to lose weight more quickly so I could ttc from a healthier weight as soon as possible considering my age, he agreed to prescribe something that would help facilitate weight loss. He didn't want to do actual weight loss pills though as he said they are addictive and have more side effects. He did tell me I have to stop the meds prior to ttc though.

So, I had an ectopic in the summer and in October and November I used ovulation predictor tests and never got a positive. I worried a bit it was age related (I will be 39 in May). But in November I also went to my dr and decided to focus for a while on losing some weight. I was at my highest weight ever (247.6) and found out I had high insulin. So I thought maybe that was why I never got a positive those two months. I got put on Topamax and Metformin to help with weight loss and insulin and I went on a very restricted carb diet. I eat virtually no grains/carbs, watch my sugar intake etc. I've now lost 38 lbs (I'm down to 209.6 and still going), and I've heard Metformin helps if you have PCOS or something, so I'm really really hoping I'm able to get a positive with the opk tests now so I can know it was something controllable at least. I started testing again this cycle just to know. I started on cd6. I didn't expect a positive until "around" cd12 or so. Today is cd12 and it was negative today. I REALLY want a positive in the next couple of days. It is bad enough I was supposed to be having a baby at the end of this month and it was an ectopic last summer instead. I'm going to be heartbroken if I find out I'm still not even ovulating. I will feel a LOT better if I can just see a stupid smiley face on that test in the next couple of days, to know I still have a chance. Send some good thoughts my way if you wouldn't mind! ETA: Just to clarify I have NOT been formally diagnosed with PCOS or anything. I just mentioned it because I thought that Metformin might still help someone in my situation, too, as I had problems with my insulin levels, didn't ovulate the last two cycles I checked in the fall, my cycles were always a little irregular and so on. P.S. The OPK tests DID work for me when I initially got pregnant with the ectopic so it's not that they just don't work for me. ETA again: changed the weight I originally wrote up there because the stupid scale FINALLY put me out of the 210's this morning, so, yay, I've said goodbye to the 240's, 230's, 220's, and now the 210's as well. I can't wait to get out of these stupid 200's altogether! :D

I should have read this thread sooner. It's hilarious! I can't think of a funny sign, although of course living here in PA we've got some funny town names. Paradise, Blue Ball, Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, Butztown. Not a sign, but I do pass the tackiest looking funeral home sometimes in a nearby town that always has me gawking, so once I finally had to stop and take pictures. It's got pink and red and blue trim and every time I pass it, it's got something weird in the windows, depending on season or holiday. You expect a funeral home to be kind of stately and solemn, right? But this one will have turquoise miniature fake trees in the window around Christmas time, big fake paper flowers and butterflies in the spring, and around Halloween these little witch dolls, and all sorts of oddities. I swear, I do a double take every time I see it. Attaching a few pics of the building and windows from one particular display when I stopped to take pics.

I hope everything is okay!

I haven't really used their new program though I've tried several of their older programs with decent success (and now I'm using more of a South Beach Diet than WW and losing much better/faster doing the low carb thing), but here's an interesting article for you regarding the scale, and I think every dieter should read it! Why The Scale Lies by Renee Cloe, ACE Certified Personal Trainer We’ve been told over an over again that daily weighing is unnecessary, yet many of us can’t resist peeking at that number every morning. If you just can’t bring yourself to toss the scale in the trash, you should definitely familiarize yourself with the factors that influence it’s readings. From water retention to glycogen storage and changes in lean body mass, daily weight fluctuations are normal. They are not indicators of your success or failure. Once you understand how these mechanisms work, you can free yourself from the daily battle with the bathroom scale. Water makes up about 60% of total body mass. Normal fluctuations in the body’s water content can send scale-watchers into a tailspin if they don’t understand what’s happening. Two factors influencing water retention are water consumption and salt intake. Strange as it sounds, the less water you drink, the more of it your body retains. If you are even slightly dehydrated your body will hang onto it’s water supplies with a vengeance, possibly causing the number on the scale to inch upward. The solution is to drink plenty of water. Excess salt (sodium) can also play a big role in water retention. A single teaspoon of salt contains over 2,000 mg of sodium. Generally, we should only eat between 1,000 and 3,000 mg of sodium a day, so it’s easy to go overboard. Sodium is a sneaky substance. You would expect it to be most highly concentrated in salty chips, nuts, and crackers. However, a food doesn’t have to taste salty to be loaded with sodium. A half cup of instant pudding actually contains nearly four times as much sodium as an ounce of salted nuts, 460 mg in the pudding versus 123 mg in the nuts. The more highly processed a food is, the more likely it is to have a high sodium content. That’s why, when it comes to eating, it’s wise to stick mainly to the basics: fruits, vegetables, lean meat, beans, and whole grains. Be sure to read the labels on canned foods, boxed mixes, and frozen dinners. Women may also retain several pounds of water prior to menstruation. This is very common and the weight will likely disappear as quickly as it arrives. Pre-menstrual water-weight gain can be minimized by drinking plenty of water, maintaining an exercise program, and keeping high-sodium processed foods to a minimum. Another factor that can influence the scale is glycogen. Think of glycogen as a fuel tank full of stored carbohydrate. Some glycogen is stored in the liver and some is stored the muscles themselves. This energy reserve weighs more than a pound and it’s packaged with 3-4 pounds of water when it’s stored. Your glycogen supply will shrink during the day if you fail to take in enough carbohydrates. As the glycogen supply shrinks you will experience a small imperceptible increase in appetite and your body will restore this fuel reserve along with it’s associated water. It’s normal to experience glycogen and water weight shifts of up to 2 pounds per day even with no changes in your calorie intake or activity level. These fluctuations have nothing to do with fat loss, although they can make for some unnecessarily dramatic weigh-ins if you’re prone to obsessing over the number on the scale. Otherwise rational people also tend to forget about the actual weight of the food they eat. For this reason, it’s wise to weigh yourself first thing in the morning before you’ve had anything to eat or drink. Swallowing a bunch of food before you step on the scale is no different than putting a bunch of rocks in your pocket. The 5 pounds that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It’s the actual weight of everything you’ve had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you’ve finished digesting it. Exercise physiologists tell us that in order to store one pound of fat, you need to eat 3,500 calories more than your body is able to burn. In other words, to actually store the above dinner as 5 pounds of fat, it would have to contain a whopping 17,500 calories. This is not likely, in fact it’s not humanly possible. So when the scale goes up 3 or 4 pounds overnight, rest easy, it’s likely to be water, glycogen, and the weight of your dinner. Keep in mind that the 3,500 calorie rule works in reverse also. In order to lose one pound of fat you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in. Generally, it’s only possible to lose 1-2 pounds of fat per week. When you follow a very low calorie diet that causes your weight to drop 10 pounds in 7 days, it’s physically impossible for all of that to be fat. What you’re really losing is water, glycogen, and muscle. This brings us to the scale’s sneakiest attribute. It doesn’t just weigh fat. It weighs muscle, bone, water, internal organs and all. When you lose "weight," that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve lost fat. In fact, the scale has no way of telling you what you’ve lost (or gained). Losing muscle is nothing to celebrate. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue. The more muscle you have the more calories your body burns, even when you’re just sitting around. That’s one reason why a fit, active person is able to eat considerably more food than the dieter who is unwittingly destroying muscle tissue. Robin Landis, author of "Body Fueling," compares fat and muscles to feathers and gold. One pound of fat is like a big fluffy, lumpy bunch of feathers, and one pound of muscle is small and valuable like a piece of gold. Obviously, you want to lose the dumpy, bulky feathers and keep the sleek beautiful gold. The problem with the scale is that it doesn’t differentiate between the two. It can’t tell you how much of your total body weight is lean tissue and how much is fat. There are several other measuring techniques that can accomplish this, although they vary in convenience, accuracy, and cost. Skin-fold calipers pinch and measure fat folds at various locations on the body, hydrostatic (or underwater) weighing involves exhaling all of the air from your lungs before being lowered into a tank of water, and bioelectrical impedance measures the degree to which your body fat impedes a mild electrical current. If the thought of being pinched, dunked, or gently zapped just doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry. The best measurement tool of all turns out to be your very own eyes. How do you look? How do you feel? How do your clothes fit? Are your rings looser? Do your muscles feel firmer? These are the true measurements of success. If you are exercising and eating right, don’t be discouraged by a small gain on the scale. Fluctuations are perfectly normal. Expect them to happen and take them in stride. It’s a matter of mind over scale.

:iagree: Odds are he did it, but in the end YOU are the one who is responsible for making sure that all your paperwork is legitimately filed, and if that didn't happen, YOU are the one who is going to have to deal with the resulting hassle, not your old super. I'd do it just to be on the safe side. Where in PA are you?

Here in PA at least we are entitled to request curriculum from the school district to use. Not that I'd want to! But yes, we are entitled to as per our home ed law: "The school district of residence shall, at the request of the supervisor, lend to the home education program copies of the school district's planned courses, textbooks and other curriculum materials appropriate to the student's age and grade level." I am not sure if that is the case in other states, though.

No, unless it's a relative or extremely close best friend.

I'm sorry. :( I think most of the time for standard co-op meetings they could have gone without food for two hours if they didn't like the snack you brought, or ate what you brought, or touched base with you to see what other things might be ok. I can understand them wanting to have "regular food" at a Valentine's Day party or some such and maybe there would have to be a compromise where you'd be able to participate in some of the things, and some of the things you wouldn't. But the way they went about it, making no effort whatsoever and totally disregarding you was wrong and really unfortunate. I hope you're able to meet someone in another way, just one or two friend's even, to hook up with now and then, who are more understanding! Try meetup for other Homeschool groups (or start one!), allergy groups, see if there are Homeschool clubs or programs or leagues through the library, bowling alley, 4H, etc.

I didn't vote in the poll. I think you can use any name YOU like. With that said, I've only ever personally met one Hadassah and she was our rabbi's daughter. Still, in my opinion, if you both like it, why not?

Of the two, academics. But of course, there are a whole slew of other reasons. Hating the school system in general. Wanting my kids to have more of a childhood. Wanting more time with them. Wanting their education to be a more well-rounded, hands on, and, yes, FUN experience. Wanting to avoid a bunch of the negative experiences that come with the public school territory. And so on and so forth.

I liked a lot of them. The rest of that Anne Sullivan one (I'd found it elsewhere a long time ago) was: I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less slowly. Let him come and go freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table while a sweet-voiced teacher suggest that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of colored paper, or plant straw trees in flower pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences. Anne Sullivan

Did your husband agree to back off on that idea? I know I would feel awkward about getting such a letter if I were the friend, I agree she shouldn't have to do that. If she had done it in a fit of anger, intentionally trying to destroy property, that would be different story, but that wasn't the case here. She saw it as "decorating" something of hers and obviously didn't realize the safety issues or that she was doing something wrong, and obviously it never would have crossed your mind to say, "hey, by the way, don't attempt to put windows in your trampoline netting..." some object lessons are just learned through trial and error and all you can do is discuss them as they come up and discussion really is enough. Now if she did something like that a second time after you'd discuss it, then that would warrant some sort of punishment, because THEN she knew better and did it anyway. But this time the natural consequence is just not being able to use her new item until you have a chance to make it safe again. And maybe she can help with that, and you can explain the situation to her, and I think that's all it will take for now.

:iagree: with the former, other than the fact that it reminds me of Jamie from the Outlander series, who I have a crush on, even though he's fictional, as it's my favorite series ever, although the Gerard pics and the Russel pics some post here ARE pretty yummy too, :D , and I don't think I've EVER read the latter, I have to confess.

Just wanted to come back and say thank you to the rest of you who posted with congratulatory messages since my last post, and also wanted to say congratulations to those of you who posted to tell about your own weight loss efforts so far! And lastly to extend the invite one more time to any one of you who are interested in joining the Weight Loss Challenge social group! We have a great group of people who post in weigh in threads, on walking challenges and other exercise challenges, we have menu challenges, water challenges, and all sorts of others with an eye toward encouragement, support, and improved health and fitness. :)

My 11 year old enjoys it. Some of the recommended books and activities are a little young but there are still plenty that are great for that age I think. (And on the flip side I think most of it is too OLD for a K/1st grader even though it recommends that and that like 3rd to 6th is perfect for it)! That varies per kid of course though. Plenty of people here agree with me on that, and yet there are also plenty who say their youngers really enjoy it and do get stuff out of it, so who knows!

Perfect motivation to clean your house, which will make you feel a lot better, I'm sure. And then you'll get to catch up with an old friend, which will be fun. Go do it!!!

Left out, but my son's only 6. He's definitely getting a heart shaped box of candy hugs and kisses right along with the girls this year and for many years to come! If he ever expresses some form of "Uh, I really don't want this stuff, Mom and Dad, this is for girls!" then maybe he will no longer get them. :P But seriously, who doesn't like CHOCOLATE? P.S. I disagree it's just for girls. Public schools, homeschool groups etc have "Valentine's Day parties" and EVERYONE exchanges treats and Valentines. And husbands and wives BOTH exchange cards if not always necessarily gifts. And I've sent my husband flowers and such for fun on Valentine's Day here and there in the past. Why not? :D