I would like a red leather couch and sofa or a couch and an easy chair. But that's just me! :D

:iagree::iagree: You expressed how I feel so much better than I did! ;) :D

I just ignore it. :D hehe Personally, I don't care what other people think. They're my kids not theirs. Not to be a smart aleck, but that's what I really think. God gave these kids to ME, He gave ME the conviction of my heart to homeschool. If He had wanted my kids to be raised differently He would have given these kids to another mom. ;) The way I see it, He's the one I need to answer to, not any person. ;) :D

Maybe you just need a different state?? I think the taxes in the US are pretty low compared to other countries in the world, you have a lot of freedom here too that you don't necessarily have in other places. It is legal to homeschool your children which is not legal in many other countries, you already speak the language of the land and have protections of a citizen and the employment rate compared to other countries is pretty good here. Not to mention you even have AC and other first world creature comforts. Gasoline is decided lower here than in Europe as well as the taxes and you have access to state of the art hospitals and medical care as well. I can see getting tired and longing for the greener grass on the other side, but maybe you just need a vacation?? I'm not trying to convince you of anything, just trying to point out the good things about living in the US. I love my husband's country (the Dominican Republic) I think it is breathtakingly beautiful, the people are warm and friendly, the food is great, but the downside is people are desperately poor. I've seen entire families living under overpasses on the side of the road with a cook fire burning right there to cook their food in and a makeshift clothesline on the side of the road to dry their clothes. The police are pretty corrupt, the government stability is always a little shaky, cashiers always pocket your change when you go to the grocery store etc. As much as I love visiting my hubby's country, when I see the good and the bad side by side, I still think living in the US is a pretty good thing. Just my humble 2 cents. :) I wish you and your husband all the best in searching for a place where you can feel home. :)

ooh ooh, the tales and poems of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne!! I LOVE Pooh bear!! :) Oh the Places You'll go by Dr. Seuss, that book brings me to tears when I read it. Beautiful. :)

Awww!! Happy Anniversary!!! :) May you have another 21 years as happy as the first!! :party: :hurray:

LOL I confess I was wondering if some big political change had taken place. :) hehe I"m glad you got your book. :D

Wow!! It's been a crazy winter this year. It was even cold here for a long time. I cannot even imagine what it must have been like for you all up there in the Great White North. :grouphug:

The only berries I've ever seen down here by me are the strawberry fields at U-Pick. I can grow strawberries good in the winter, but whether I get to eat any is another matter. Between the racoons, birds and bugs if I get one berry I am lucky! How I WISH I was in a rural area. I'm SO tired of the city. The drivers get worse and worse all the time. I've always been a confident/competent driver, but I95 is really starting to scare me. Between the Miamians who think they're in Nascar, the people who are high on something and those who are too busy texting, talking, putting on makeup or working on their laptop to drive, I am really thinking about avoiding the I altogether. I wish I was in Howie in the Hills. :(

:D :D :D Amen. :D:D:D

:iagree: I'm happy it's raining too!! My car is getting washed outside and the grass is starting to grow again. Besides, I have a theory. I think the summers when it is really really rainy, the hurricanes are less intense/frequent and the summers that are drier have more intense/frequent hurricanes. I have absolutely NO data to support this theory and I confess that mostly I have pulled it straight out of my nether regions, but it's just what I've noticed. ;) :D Lisa, where in the heck are you that you found blackberries???? I've never seen anything like that before! :( I didn't even know we had blackberries in Fla. I'm in the concrete jungle of South Fla though. :( I haven't even seen a lady bug since I was in elementary school. :(

:lol:LOL I have to say, Bill, that you have really inspired me when it comes to math and I want to thank you publicly for it. :) I have always been horribly inept in math and have always believed that it is my own fault and that I just lack the intelligence to learn it. I've always chocked it up to, "oh well, I guess I'm just not a math person" and accepted it as a matter of course. Well, since doing Singapore with my daughter I can say that I am actually learning things that I have never learned before in all of my years of PS. When I saw that I could learn and understand I thought, "wow! I get this, I wonder how much more I could really learn and understand?" and it started me on a journey of changing that old belief that I've had that I just couldn't learn anything beyond the most basic math. Well after reading your posts and you and Stripe talking about ordering math books for teachers it inspired me to do the same and I bought Singapore's book for teaching secondary mathematics. I confess that I am more than a little intimidated by this book (it actually terrifies me a little bit), but I am going into it telling myself that I can do this. I want to thank you for your posts, that although they are not directed at me personally, I have found inspiration in them to strive to better myself and I now have the faith in myself to believe that I can do it. :) So for that, sir, I thank you. :) btw, if you are older than the hills, does that mean you get your pick of which hill you live on?? ;) :) Happy birthday from me, the smart aleck. :D

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

I use this!! http://www.amazon.com/Shark-Ultra-Steam-Blaster-S3325/dp/B000BQSJVK I love it!! I have all tile floors (white also) and I used to sweep, mop and then dry the floor with towels in order to not get streaks and my back would be broken when I was done. Since I bought this it is so much easier. Now I just sweep and steam clean the floor. It works great and it dries almost instantly so I never have to use towels and it doesn't leave streaks! :) It's so easy that I clean the floor more often now. :)

Enjoy your special day!! :):party::hurray::hat::thumbup1::biggrinjester: :party:

:lol::lol::lol: LOL Too funny!! :) Man, you're lucky. My husband doesn't do a single bit of housework at all! He doesn't even know how to sweep a floor or use the washing machine or anything. His only "chore" is to take out the garbage which he never even does anyway. I make grocery lists and ALWAYS forget to take them with me to the store. :tongue_smilie:

Oh Heather, that's wonderful. I was waiting for you to come in and report. Congratulations!! I'm glad it all went so smoothly. That has to be a tremendous load off of your mind! I hope you can sleep tonight. Btw, I LOVED this ---> too funny! :lol: I wish you all the best! :)

My absolute favorite tv show is Overhaulin! hehehe I can't wait to go visit my mom because she has cable and then I can watch it. Otherwise I watch it online. :) I hate to use the word "curricula". Even though I know it is correct, I always feel like I'm putting on airs when I use it, is so often times I'll say curriculum, even though I KNOW that it is not the proper usage. ;) :D hehe

That's cool. You sound a lot like me. BTW, just for your daughter's sake, the pink one is the Ibanez Roadstar RG 420 in Cherry Ice. The acoustic is my Ibanez Concord 669. :) There's a white one like my pink one on Music go round right now. http://musicgoround.com/search.aspx?q=roadstar&cid=1&scid=161&sid=0&z=&d=10&min=&max=&c=10&ob=6 It's the one at the bottom. It looks in good shape. It's missing the trem arm, but you can find a replacement easy enough for a few dollars. :) I have a couple more also.... I LOVE the smell of my son. I'm always smelling the top of his head or his skin when I give him hugs. I even like the smell of his breath! hehehe I make him take his shoes off when I put him in his car seat so he won't put dirty shoes on the backs of the seat in front. I don't let anyone eat or drink in my car unless it's an absolute emergency and I always park way way out in a parking lot to avoid door dings!! It's OCD for sure, but my car is 3 years old and doesn't have a single ding and that makes me happy! hehehe I also make people wash their hands before handling my guitar and they have to take their belts off if they want to play it! hehehe :)

:) It looks like you'll get your wish then. :) It's POURING outside right now as I type this. I hope you have a wonderful visit with your parents. :) You should take a walk along the New River at night while your here,(if it's not pouring that is) I always loved walking down Las Olas at night. :)

It's never to late to begin again. I got my first electric guitar when I was like 14 or 15 years old. My stepdad bought it for $20.00 from a local Pawn shop. It was old and beat to heck when I got it, but it was a cool guitar. I lent my amp to my brother and he kept it for the longest time. Like a year later I asked him for my amp back and he confessed to me that he had sold it!! :eek: My guitar hibernated in my closet for years and I just mostly played acoustics since I didn't have an amp. Finally I told myself that I need to either buy an another amp or get rid of the guitar. I bought an amp. It was so cool to hear her plugged in again. It inspired me to start playing electric guitar again and to work on my lead style. I haven't looked back since then. I have now 3 other electric guitars beside that one plus one electric bass that is KILLER!! I love it! hehe Oh btw, thank you for your kind compliments about my guitar! :) I love this thread! :D hehe ;) Thank you kindly. :) I hope you pick up your guitar again. There are all kinds of videos on Youtube that give guitar lessons and some of them are pretty good. I have a book of easy praise and worship guitar songs. If you want I can send you some of them to play. I think that is the key. If you play something that you like to play, it keeps you coming back. I also think that playing guitar is like riding a bike, although you may be a little shaky to get back on it after a long time, you never really forget how to ride. :)

Oh bless her heart! :) It's an AWESOME guitar!! It's a 1986 Ibanez Roadstar II RG420. It was the first year they came out with the floating (Floyd Rose licensed) bridge. It's sick the stuff you can do with that bridge. I can do all kinds of insane crazy dive bombs a la Eddie Van Halen, trem flutters etc. It's A LOT of fun to play! :) You can still find some on Ebay, but I've never found another one in the color I have (Cherry Ice), but any Roadstar II from 1986 is awesome! :) I love my acoustics too but this one is my absolute favorite!! The sound on it is so amazingly beautiful that it brings me to tears when I play it. It's a GREAT guitar. It's a 1976 Ibanez Concord. This is one of the best guitars that I am lucky enough to own. :) The bookmatched back is just amazing! :) I love it when people agree with me! hehehehe It's so nice to see another Tomboy! ;)

Ay, I hope you beat all the rain!! The weatherman tonight said that we have two low pressure systems that are coming over our state in the next few days one from the Gulf the other up from Cuba and the Bahamas. It's supposed to be a deluge! The truth is we really need the rain. Our dry season has been really really dry and we're in drought conditions, but it's no fun to visit Fla when it's pouring rain all the time. :grouphug: I hope that you have fun on your visit. :) I was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale. :) But I live about 25 minutes south of it now. :)

You and I could be friends if you don't mind my being such a tomboy!! I am so used to getting strange looks when I speak that I just take it as normal. I have very few friends. Being such a tomboy into cars and guitars it's not that surprising to me, but I've just always been that way and can't be any way else. I've always related better to men than women, and have always had more guy friends than girl friends, but since being married I had to give up all my guy friends. I try to make friends with ladies, but I struggle. I just feel like I live on another planet. I love to drive too, although lately it's bugging me because the people on the highways here are getting more and more reckless all the time. I really resent it too because I absolutely LOVE my car and love to spend time working on it and driving in it, but I just get so sick of the bad drivers that they are ruining it for me. :( :D:D She likes my guitar!!! (beaming with joy) Oh bless you, Jessica! :D:D

I ordered the sandals for my son this morning. Thank you so much Judomom for the heads up. He needed a new pair for summer as well. :) The promtion code worked and I got the free shipping on the shoes. :)