I used to get really, really bad bouts of croup as a kid and I have so many memories of sitting in the super hot bathroom with steam filling the room and a "hot toddy" made of hot water/apple juice, bourbon, and lemon. I still have a fondness for bourbon.:tongue_smilie:

Not only no, but...____ NO! :D I can't even get my dh to consider jeans other than Levi's 501's which he has been wearing since 1985. :rolleyes: His legs are very "chicken-esque" as well, and so white they are practically transparent, so we prefer the more modest and covered-up look. :tongue_smilie:

Hey Rebecca, As far as I know it's still not available here (Central TX). And I don't know an anticipated delivery date. Wonder which states will get it first? BTW, we're still on the fence too. DH and my kids have had the reg seasonal one, like we always do (I'll get mine this week). I keep hearing so many conflicting reports on people's doctor's recommending H1N1 vax or not. :confused:

Will be praying. :grouphug:

Well, if you do go the cell phone route, check into seeing if Cricket is in your area. I just found out they have a pay-as-you-go phone that you load with money and it will only charge you $1 per day and only on the days you use it. So if you use it 10 times in a month, then $10, if you use it only once, $1. And then it reloads $$ when it gets low, but that might be only every 3 months or something. We had an old pay as you go phone that was a big pain because you had to remember to add minutes to it on a certain date or it wouldn't work. Maybe the technology has improved, but this Cricket one looks good. I was also thinking about Magic Jack. Our issue is no extra USB on this older Mac we have, but it might be an option. Check out reviews and such on Radio Shacks website.

Check out www.bmi-calculator.net I was just figuring this last night as I am on very restricted calories (Medifast) and thinking that for my size I ought to really be losing even more than I am. The calculator says that my basal metabolic rate (the # of calories I need if I don't get out of bed) is 2185. (No one please try to guess my weight based on this. :001_huh:) Anyhoo... If I multiply that by my activity level (mostly not much) it's 2622 calories per day to just maintain my current weight. One pound of fat is 3500 calories, right? SO, in order to lose 2 pounds per week, I need to create weekly calorie deficit of 7000 calories. 2622 x 7 = 18354. -7000 = 11354. / 7 = 1622 calories per day to lose 2 lbs a week. If you play with these calculations, on the site, you can see just how big an impact burning calories through exercise can have. And you can further see how the more you lose you would have to adjust either your burning of calories, or your consuming of them to continue losing. BTW, I trust this site as it has been mentioned and endorsed by the Biggest Loser and I have heard other weight loss experts mention it. BUT, I am open to critique on this issue. I just think it helped me see that my calorie restriction needed to be quite severe. HTH!

I owe you all an apology. I made some offensive statements in my post in this thread and I should not have done so. I wasn't clear, my intent and my heart on this did not come across as expressed at all, and I am truly sorry. Kathleen is right when she pointed out that as a Christian who does celebrate Christmas, why did I feel the need to open, read and post? I don't know. I am very sorry I was hurtful.

:iagree:We keep Christ at the center of all we do, and if we are not we feel that we are seeking Him so much with our whole hearts that He will reveal to us the areas we need to revise our thinking. Our Christmas celebration is full of beautiful traditions that we all look forward to and I wouldn't take that away from my kids. It's not only a remembrance of Christ, it's also a time for us to reflect on treasured family memories and traditions. Not to offend, but I think trying to conform to some other "religions" ideas or to look for rules in the Bible that aren't there smacks of legalism. I won't listen to false teachers trying to convince me that something is in scripture when it isn't. I never claim that my Christmas tree is in the bible, but neither is the pretty fall wreath I have on my door. It's just a decoration - no more meaning to it than that.

There is a series about a nurse set in WW II times (I think) and her name is Cherry Ames. Someone here recommended it and we have really liked them. "Cherry Ames, Student Nurse" "Cherry Ames, Camp Nurse" "Cherry Ames, Department Store Nurse" you get the idea. Really sweet and old fashioned! We also like the Elsie Dinsmore books by Martha Finley. For books not in a series, some of our recent favs have been: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane The Doll People The Castle in the Attic + Battle for the Castle The Marguerite Henry Horse books Ballet Shoes + Theater Shoes ,etc Homer Price Indian in the Cupboard Emily's Runaway Imagination Little Princess Baby Island + Caddie Woodlawn Year of Miss Agnes Hitty Gone Away Lake HTH!!:D

This is a good thread, but I keep reading all these flu threads and am still unsure about the H1N1 vax. We do seasonal flu vax because we have a child in our home who is high risk, as are my elderly in-laws, etc. But we also do all the other vax. (I know, I feel like I am in the minority on that) I'd like to just wait a while to see what kinds of reactions come from from the H1N1 vax when it's available, but for all I know there will be such a rush on it that if we did want to get it we wouldn't be able to. As it is the reg seasonal flu vax is all but sold out locally. Almost no doc offices still have it. Confused I am.:confused::confused:

Happy Friday! Cold and rainy here too. Mmmmmm...just about time for a spot o' tea. Earl Grey? English Breakfast? Vanilla Spice Chai?:confused: DD is having a play date and ds is watching "Star Wars". It's been a good day. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!

Well, since I'm about to pinch the head off my 9yo dd, I will join you!:glare::tongue_smilie:

Hmmmmm... you must have gone to Justice and Kohl's.:glare: I hear ya, I can't stand it either. My dd is big for her age, quite tall, so I feel like I have to buy her even older looking things. I do not want my 9yo looking 16!!!:001_huh: ETA: We find some good stuff at Old Navy pretty often. Jeans that fit well, longer t-shirts w/o suggestive pics or ideas on them. And good sales too.

I'm glad this thread came up today because I really want a name for our school. Logo, colors, mascot, all of it. Just for fun! Lemme ask this...If you thought of a name, did you Google it to find out if it's really a school somewhere? I like one name, but when I googled it I find it's a real private school in another state. Does that matter? I'm thinking it might, but not sure...I don't want it to seem like we are claiming to attend that particular school.:confused:

I also have plantar fac. and I wear Birks 24/7. But they are not cute, and I too want something I can wear to church. Dansko has some really, really cute ones! I wonder if they run narrow? Met a nurse the other day in some leopard print patent ones like this. :tongue_smilie::D SO CUTE! I have a pair of Merrills that are really good too (mine are plain dk brown and ok with jeans, but not nice for church or going out). Let us know what you find!

Wow. No way. That was recommended for juvenile readers? Gosh I sure hope I can find more conservative reviews that will detail. If nothing else, just to know it's there before handing it over to the kid. I can sure see how finding reading material for kids that are more advanced readers would be soooooo hard. I had a Christian site recommended to me called Squeaky Clean Reviews but it's still new and many books are not yet reviewed. They are looking for people to submit reviews though!

I think it must be just a poor design. Ours will lower the front gate, but will not raise it. The red circle with footprints just outside the gate has a little handle on it that will raise and lower the gate and when you move it, it also turns the purple dial on the inside, so I get the impression the purple dial is supposed to raise and lower the gate. Not a good design I guess...but HOURS of fun!!:D

Do you have a really good local pet store? We have the obvious Petco and Petsmarts, but the one we really love is a locally owned one that is like a visit to the zoo. They are reptile specialists and have so many WILD and wonderful frogs, lizards, turtles, snakes, spiders, scorpions, rats and guinea pigs. We got our piggie from them and visit often because it's a neat place, but also the employees are total small animal/reptile nerds. We have learned so much from them. We want to get our son either a turtle or a beardie in a year or so and will not hesitate to use them. Go local!:D (sorry, that doesn't answer your question really)

At the risk of sounding dumb and like I should be doing my own research, I wish someone would just tell me if we should get the H1N1 vax or not. Definitively. I feel like I just keep reading conflicting reports. My family is me and DH and dd, all healthy w/no immuno-issues 9-44 years. Then there is ds. He was a preemie and has mild allergy-induced asthma for which he take Allbuterol (sp?) when needed. He also had 1 year of Synagis vaccine for RSV when he was a baby and he is the most bullet-proof of all of us. Because he was a preemie, and we have close contact with our 80 yo in-laws, we have all four all gotten the seasonal flu vax every year for 5 or so years. DS has had his reg seasonal flu vax already upon the advice of our ped. I was assuming the rest of us would get the reg seasonal vax and then also the H1N1 when it's available, but I am wary of it. I just don't know what to do.:confused: And the elderly in-laws have been told not to get it, but MiL couldn't really say why other than her doc thought it was untested. But our ped (a very conservative and cautious and intelligent man that I respect greatly) said he is recommending it. :confused::confused::confused: and :confused:.

We started in Singapore 2A when I pulled my dd mid-3rd grade. She flew through most of 2A but started to struggle with 2B. I wasn't "getting it" and neither was she. I wanted her to be mathy so bad and thought Singapore would turn her into a math whiz, but it didn't and that's fine. So I dropped it for CLE 300. She just started 4th grade and so far all of 301 is review, as was expected, and hopefully a lot of the 300 LU's will be too. I'm fine with that. While speeding though we are diligently doing the flash cards and timed drills which I never seemed to get to with Singapore. I am hoping to get into 400 before the year is out, but if all we wind up doing is staying in 300 but getting really strong in math facts...well then GREAT! And my dd said "Mom, I like this math a lot better!" *said with a sigh of relief* :D So far I am sold on CLE. (We even picked up the LA too!):tongue_smilie:

Isn't it just so creepy and weird that she would go on national tv and share that? I'm afraid it's hard for me to feel sorry for people with this kind of money and advantages to put themselves in this pickle. I am working to help a mom of 2 who left her husband because of physical abuse, and she would love to have $1000. Or better yet, $5000 so she could retain a decent attorney instead of the deadbeat pro-bono one she has. She lives on $608 a month in child support and can't get a job that will pay for rent, daycare, bills, etc. The Gosselins have made this bed, I wish they would just stop talking about it! I guess it's the public eating it all up that causes the magazines and talk shows to keep on putting it out there. Maybe the news will die down soon...like Octomom.

I'm pretty sure the silver is either in a liquid form (in saline solution) that you pour on the wounds, or a cream. My FiL was just treated for open wounds as a result of diabetes and they used these silver pads with silicone on them. He healed beautifully. It has antibacterial and antimicrobial factors I believe, so it protects against infection and allows the skin to do it's job healing. So long as she does exactly what the wound care/burn care folks tell her to do, she will do okay. You might even look in to hyperbaric treatment as that is supposed to help oxygenate the skin. We found this at a Wound Treatment Center locally. If Austin has a fairly state-of-the-art facility, I would assume Augusta does. :grouphug::grouphug:

Lately ours has been School of Neatness Counts!:glare: or Wiggles Academy:willy_nilly: or Whine with Cheese School:toetap05:

We're outa here in a minute too - as soon as I can finish cramming my lunch down my throat! :auto: First stop Library to return overdue books/DVDs and pay fines. :glare: Next up, picking up my disabled father in law to take him to 2 doc appointments this afternoon. Today is day 4 of doc appointments this week, 4 last week, 5 the week before, yada yada. Its a good thing my little guy is pre-k and that I can call Leap Frog videos "School". :001_huh::confused: My dd is just doing the 3 r's the last couple of weeks because everything else is too mom-intensive. I have to remember it's just a small season and things will calm down with the in laws soon. Please.:chillpill: Could someone open a window? Now we have burned popcorn smell!:tongue_smilie:

Yeah, I bet they know exactly which *lovely* neighbor reported it. Cranky old man? Jealous mom left out of the loop? Someone with a grudge, no doubt.