Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!! :) :party: :cheers2: Enjoy your special day. :)

Oooh I see it too!! Congratulations honey!! :party: I'm doing the happy dance for you! woot! :hurray: :cheers2: :grouphug: Please update in the A.M. :)

Am I crazy or is this a positive pregnancy test?!?! That's a monkey.... and yes, you are crazy. :p j/k holding my breath for you Nance. I'm turning blue!! :svengo:

Oh nice!! :) Books are my weakness too! Dh and I both have tons of books. I've given so many away to the library and still have 4 book cases full downstairs! The upstairs has even more, but I'm not even going to think about the upstairs until my downstairs is done! lol Actually, the upstairs isn't too bad, because I go through my kids' room often and get rid of toys/clothes etc and my room too isn't too bad because we recently put in new floors and I got rid of TONS of books and stuff then, but the downstairs hadn't been touched in a looooooong time and it was super cluttered. My kitchen was a disaster area and it's coming a long now, but man my poor back! lol

Ay, I have been so busy in my house since I got back from GA 11 days ago. I got home just before midnight to a huge mess that my dh had left in the house while I was gone. I had read this thread while I was up in GA and was so inspired by Pretty in Pink's home that I was determined to tackle mine when I got back. The mess dh had made (in every single room in the house! :eek:) made it just that much more urgent. I haven't even started back to school yet since we got home. Since I've arrived I haven't stopped cleaning, de-cluttering, donating and throwing things away and trying to get my home under control. My back is KILLING me and I'm still not even done with the downstairs yet!! I am feeling like this is never going to end. I keep telling myself each day, (oh tomorrow I'll probably finally finish the downstairs) and then the next day I spend the whole day working, cleaning, scrubbing, etc. I really want to get this done this week. I thought for sure I'd be done with the kitchen today, but I'm not. :( I'm taking a break now since we just had dinner and I'm going to hit it again when I get off here, but man! I could use some words of encouragement or some more pictures if you all feel so inclined to help me get motivated. Pretty in Pink's pics are great and inspire me to keep on keeping on, but I am so ready to be done now. Any nice tidy room pics or words of encouragement would be GREATLY appreciated. :) Thanks. :)

:) That's amazing that you get your cleaning done so quickly. Your house has truly inspired me to try harder to get mine under control. :)

I'm so glad to hear the good news! :) :grouphug: :grouphug:

The Dominican Republic twice and on a single visit to Europe I went to Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein. I've never been to Hawaii. ;)

There was a really good video link in this thread on learning how to crochet. :)

Wow!! Is your house always that clean?? I mean, do you vacuum and sweep/mop everyday or was it just cleaned before the pictures?? Your home looks lovely and so orderly. :) Love the crape myrtles. :)

Cool! :) She has lovely eyes. :)

Here you go. There are a lot of great math threads on here that might help you find what you are looking for. :) As for the OP, SOS Health. Blech! :ack2:

I had something like that happen to me while reading an email in my yahoo, but through Google chrome. I don't like it either.

:lol::lol::lol:

Does your church project the words on a screen during worship?? If they have the set up to do that, then maybe I can offer a suggestion for the child care situation that might help. In my church, parents are given a sticker with their child's name and a number on it for themselves and one is also put on the child's shirt when they sign them in. The child care workers have walkie talkies and when a parent is needed they go on the walkie talkie to the guy in the church in the sound booth who does the Power Point and stuff and he puts the number up on the screen and the parents check their sticker to see if it is their number and if it is they go to the nursery. The way my church is set up, there are t.v. monitors in the overflow rooms as well as in the nursing mother's room so the service can be seen on those monitors as well. That way no matter where the parent is in the building they can still see the number on the screen. It works well for us. :) Hopefully that can be helpful to you. :)

I'm one who wouldn't leave over the worship because honestly, I have better worship singing hymns at home during my personal devotions than I do at church. The most important thing for me is the teaching not the music. Some pastors are better preachers than others and if I had a good teaching with a good preacher who had a gift for teaching The Word that allowed me to grow spiritually, no way would I give that up for music. Like I said before, worship is important, but can be done well at home as well, I can't preach to myself, kwim?

LOL Well thanks for that terribly important PSA. :p I like 'em more Latin personally, but I grant you that he is rather easy on the eyes. :p

:iagree::iagree: what Jean said. To me sound doctrine and teaching is much more important to me than worship. I appreciate the worship, but it isn't a deal breaker for me in any church I've been to. I do my own worship at home (and in my car) all the time so it's really not a big deal to me. OTOH I cannot say the same for preaching. I don't preach to myself and even if I did I don't think I'd be as good as my pastor. :p

LOL You're so funny. :p

Well, to me I certainly don't think that you are easily ignored as you are one of the big voices of reason here on these boards. In fact I'm sure many people have the same amount of respect and admiration for you as I do. :) I do think I must be the one taking the crazy pills here though because I don't see anything in any of the comments I've read on this thread or the other being particularly judgmental or in need of a :chillpill: I just see people stating their opinions that's all. I doesn't bother me if they don't agree with me or I with them. It's their opinion and mine is mine. To each his/her own. :)

LOL The bluetooth thing! I think it's called a bluetooth anyway, I don't have one. I find them weird because they are so inconspicuous. I always think the person is talking to me. I'll be in a store and someone near me will say, "Hi! How are you today?" and I smile and answer, "I'm fine thank you! How are you?" and they look at me like I'm nuts and I realize then that they are on the phone. :glare:

LOL Well good morning to you too! :p Now why don't you step into my kitchen and let me get some breakfast into you and you can tell me what you really think! ;) :D

Awwww!! My baby is a Josiah too! And he's a March baby too! How funny. Mine is turning 11 though next week. :) Happy birthday to your big boy. I know how you feel. I always thank God for my son. I don't know how I ever got so lucky. He's so wonderful. I can't imagine my life without him. ::001_wub:

I don't think you're rambling and I understand what you are saying and where you are coming from. For the record, I didn't read that thread as people thinking that others are vain for spending so much or thinking they are superior if they didn't. At least that wasn't how it came across to me, but rather people discussing more what they could afford, what they did and what those service were worth in their opinion. I think of my mother and myself. She has a more disposable income than I do, but not a HUGE amount more. However she spends a great deal more on beauty for herself than I do. She gets mani's and pedi's regularly and buys wigs for herself every time she comes back down to Florida to visit me. It makes her feel better about herself and so she just budgets it in to her expenses and saves money elsewhere. I'm in a different situation because I'm married and have a family (mom is single and lives alone) and my husband won't let me spend the money on those things (and we really don't have it anyway) so I do them myself, but I would love to be able to get pedicures if I could. My mom bought me my first one last summer and it was wonderful. I don't have anything in my general budget for beauty services for myself and I cut my children's hair myself. However, when I do get money (for Christmas and my birthday) I usually spend it on music related things (like a new guitar, pedal, amp or sheet music) instead of taking myself out to get a pedicure (even though I would love one) because when I weigh the two, I would rather spend that money on a new guitar that I will have for years (even though I have 7 others already but that's another discussion :p ) than a pedicure because to me the guitar is worth more than the pedicure. I think I am the one rambling now. :p So I guess part of it is income level and the amount of spending money for those types of things, but it also has to do with the priorities, preferences and spending habits in the consumer's life (like the example you gave of your mother's car vs. someone who is more like a Scrooge). I think those factors (and probably others too) make up the "value" that something is to a person and what they are willing to pay for it. I know many people look at my guitar collection and shake their head and probably think, "you already have a guitar, why do you need another one?" but what they don't understand is how much I enjoy them and how each one is different and each one is useful for different things that I may want to do musically. And besides, I just love them! :p To someone else it may be a great vacation somewhere or another sort of hobby, or to another clothing, cosmetics or beauty services. I think people should do what makes them happy as long as they are living within their means and not hurting themselves (or anyone else). That just my two cents for the 1 cent that they're worth! :p hehehe

Have you ever considered getting a wig?? My mother has hair like what you are describing (except brunette) and she was very unhappy with her hair and hair styles for a long time. Then one day when she was down visiting me she went out the the mall by herself and when she came back in the afternoon she looked amazing!! She had bought a "topper" that matched her hair color and just gave her styling, body and lift (with subtle highlights) and she looked instantly 10 years younger! I think the topper cost her $100.00 IIRC, but she's had it for years and it looks just like her hair, but better. Every time she comes and visits me now she buys a new topper and a wig. People always tell her how amazing her hair looks and ask her where she goes to get it done and she always tells them it's a wig. Her friends have all bought them too now and they're so happy because they don't have to do their hair anymore. Just pop on the wig and they're ready to go out the door! :) It might be a good option for you. I would get one myself to try out different styles if I didn't live in such a hot climate and didn't have so much hair (my hair is super long). They're really nice. :)