The B textbook uses the B workbook. What do you mean it has them using the A workbook? Maybe for review at the very beginning?

We went to Costa Rica relatively cheaply - 2 adults and 2 kids for 10 days cost us $4000. We traveled in January/February and actually had great weather (not too rainy). We used airline miles, booked our own accommodations through AirBnB, and used a local rental car company. The car was SO much cheaper than getting something like Hertz at the airport. Because we booked apartments with kitchens, we made most meals at our lodging.

And he was told the reason his report date is a Sunday is because that is when their pay period begins. So I assume we are supposed to arrive earlier and they start his salary on the 11th. He doesn't expect to hear back until Tuesday. Nothing like the last minute!

The sponsorship paperwork says that they are supposed to forbid new arrivals from arriving on the weekend. I get that. We have a for-now sponsor who is apparently a man of few words - I assume he is is super busy. Hopefully we will get an official sponsor who will be more helpful. Luckily I connected with a couple great ladies on Facebook who are able to answer a lot of my questions.

I'm not stressing about packing stuff myself - but like the science stuff I bagged neatly and stacked in boxes sorted by subject. I got all the Mindstorms kits taped shut. The art supplies I stacked all in one box. If they want to repack it, more power to them, but at least it will be together. I bagged up our bathroom stuff by type (how did I end up with so many brand new toothbrushes?) and put back on the shelf. We had to sort books between keep, store, and give away, so we put all the books to store in boxes and moved to the garage. Same with kitchen stuff - I am not getting rid of my 110v appliances or large baking dishes, but I needed them separated so I boxed them up. I left all boxes untaped so hopefully it will still save them time. Movers should arrive in 5 days!

Happy update! We have HHG packing & moving scheduled for next week, and NTS scheduled for the 5th. The NTS is kept in a great temp-controlled facility on the AF base in Anchorage and they know of no problems. DH was told it's the nicest place they know of. So I will get space bags for the bedding and see if I can get some of those silicone desiccant packets. We were also told that getting airline tickets won't be a problem - we were told to report on a Sunday but all of the official stuff says to never arrive on a weekend. So do we fly before or after?

Great advice, everyone! Online there are the same 20 tips that are mostly obvious. I appreciate the inside info. We got orders this morning. Hallelujah! Now let's see if they can get us there in 18 days. I am grateful for all of the prep we have done and we will hit it hard this weekend. I'm going to look for space bags today. I'm ordering dishes on Amazon

Dh and I have decided to store limited stuff in the non temp storage facility. We are renting out our house with a property management company and will seal off an outbuilding. Our neighbors will help keep an eye on it and we will have an insurance policy on it along without house. I will feel better about storing artwork and family china in there rather than in crates somewhere. And this way I can stash my perfume and batteries ;). Our new house does have a large attic, so we will likely bring some of the non-essentials we had planned on storing. Originally we were preparing for an apartment, but we lucked into a house that is bigger than our current one and still walking distance to the village center. I got a video tour from the current tenant and it is such a nice house! We plan to be there for five years.

Don't know what happened to my response - I was trying to say that we are moving to Belgium! I am super excited!

Dh was emailed today asking him to resend a form they had "lost". Turns out they had never sent it in the first place. I will not be surprised if they delay his report date. No coins??? Why not? No medicine? Not even Advil? I just stocked up on some things. We're not taking any vehicles or pets.

Good idea on the appraisal - I think all I have worth it is a cello. We will definitely start a rental policy. We aren't bringing any cars.

The house isn't furnished, but we are ready to get rid of our hodgepodge garage sale furnishings and downsize/upgrade to matching stuff. We are leaving behind our 110v appliances, 30 boxes of dh's books that we really don't need to move, and we have things like family quilts that we don't want to lose but won't be using anytime soon. We are basically bringing clothes, toys, minimal kitchen equipment, bedding, beds, a dining room set, Christmas decorations, and my homeschool stuff. We will be buying dishes, desks, living room furniture, wardrobes, rugs, etc. when we are there. I'll be ordering a European-spec steam mop, Instant Pot, kitchen mixer, etc. from Amazon.de. Is toothpaste OK? I have a bunch of rechargeable batteries I'd rather not toss - I guess I can give them away and buy new ones there. Same with my stash of Scentsy melts. I don't think they still make mochadoodle, lol.

Those are great points - but we have a furnished guest house so will live out of there until we're ready to go. I was thinking storage last, so we we can keep throwing things into that pile as we go. I guess it could go either way. The stuff I have packed myself isn't particularly valuable, just a pain to organize if it gets split up. I will ask them to repack only if necessary. I can't wait until this is over!

DH accepted a civilian job with the army back in March. We have a report date of June 11 but STILL do not have official orders in hand. June 11 is 19 days away! The delay has been due to staffing issues - only one person at a time seems to be able to process anything, and we keep waiting for people to come back from vacation, come back from training, deal with their own backlog, etc. Orders were supposed to be finished last Wednesday, then Friday, then Monday, and here it is Wednesday and we are still waiting. Ok, now that I got that off my chest .... We have never done a PCS move or an official relocation. We have only ever done a DIY U-Haul move. I don't really know what to expect! We have sold & donated a ton of stuff and started filling the garage with stuff we want to have stored. I have figured out our weight allowance (18,000 lbs) and we know that HHG will take about 8 weeks and UAB will take about 7, so we plan to just send everything as HHG except for what we take as luggage. The minute we get orders we will log into the website that allows us to schedule movers - we were told we could schedule them to come within a couple of days, and I hope that's true! To maintain my own sanity and any kind of organization, we have bought our own moving boxes and have been packing some ourselves. I know we're supposed to let the movers do it, but there is no way they will pack in a way that makes sense to me. We packed up the science kits, art supplies, winter gear, yarn, etc. Is this going to be a huge problem - are they going to re-pack everything? I left the top flaps untaped, so hopefully they can just peek inside and then seal it up. We luckily did find a house on the economy already - the people will be moving out a couple of weeks after we get there and will sell us some wardrobes and their barbecue grill :). That takes a huge weight off my shoulders, and I know what we will have room for. We are going to hit up IKEA for some furniture as soon as we move into our house, and I have already had Amazon send some stuff to our APO box. It took less time to get to Europe than it does to Alaska. We are storing more than we are taking - anything I need to know about that? I assume to schedule the packers for the stored stuff last? I know I need to take videos of all the furniture and valuables. I have heard horror stories of mold ruining everything. I have also heard that the sealed crates have been unsealed and stuff has been lost. How strict are they about not shipping liquids? What about double-bagged poster paint? Small bottles of perfume? Shampoo? Canned soup? Actually, what are the rules for food? Is there a chance we won't be able to get moving & transportation scheduled to make our June 11th date? Would they just bump us to the next date (the 25th?). I am nervous that we are getting so close to the deadline.

She can gargle with half-strength hydrogen peroxide. That usually resolves any soreness for me. I remove stones by swiping upwards on my tonsil with my index finger. I use moderate pressure and they pop right out. Lovely, isn't it?

Did you ever do a barium swallow study? It's boring as heck, but it revealed my lower esophageal sphincter was not keeping the stomach contents down, and I have a mild hiatal hernia. I am not interested in the hiatal hernia surgery because it prevents you from burping or vomiting, which sounds absolutely miserable to me. And I love my sparkling water.

Calibre is free! It has a bit of a learning curve, but if you follow the directions it is straight forward. https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/calibre-plugins-the-simplest-option-for-removing-most-ebook-drm/

I really hate DRM that makes it difficult to use products I purchase. I did buy an ebook from Prufrock and was able to remove the DRM. I think I uploaded it to Google Drive (GD removes the DRM), and then downloaded it back to my computer. If that didn't work, then I probably tried importing it into Calibre and then using the converted file - but I think I did use the Google Drive method.

I am on day 8 of Celexa. I'm taking it at night, so the sleepiness isn't too bad (though I have taken an afternoon nap I think 3 days this week, and one night I went to bed at 7 pm). My anxiety has maybe improved a little bit, but it's hard to tell. I have the physical symptoms of anxiety but not the mental ones, if that makes sense (I'm not feeling stressed or worried, but my body is overreacting like crazy!). I was on Celexa 10 years ago for anxiety/depression and it worked then, so I am pretty sure it will work soon. I'm ready for my body to calm down.

It seems like something you could try and evaluate - if it helps, great! If it doesn't help, then no harm done, right? If this is something that really makes a difference for her, you will be so glad you found it. I don't see what you have to lose by trying. I get the hesitation, though. I have been having an anxiety flare for a couple of months and it is getting so tiring. I have wondered if cannabis oil might help. MJ is legal for recreational use in my state, and there is a shop about two minutes from my home. I am even acquainted with the owner. I am too chicken to check it out, though, because it is something I have zero experience with and I'm afraid of sounding like such a weirdo square. LOL. I have no desire to get high.

I love EKT's ideas. I did cross stitch, puzzles, and crosswords during many summers. :) You might look at buying single Doodle Crates. We have a subscription and have a wide variety of crafts - making papier mache masks, rubber stamps, soap, and paper; book binding, tie dying, sewing slippers, etc. http://www.kiwicrate.com/store DIY.org is a fantastic website that has kids earn badges similar to scouts - you pick what you skill you want to work on and which projects you want to make. Other ideas: Zoob STEM challenge kit make stop-motion animation with the ipad (we used Smoovie) work through a cookbook friendship bracelets weaving build a club house out of pallets and scraps

Yes, you can choose which apps to install, and require it to be unlocked with a password before any apps are added. I unsubscribed from the trial of "Free Time" that comes loaded for kids - the apps were dumb, and there was no way to listen to audiobooks while in Free Time. So I just was selective about what I put on device instead. My son has access to email, Draw Something (he plays with me), books, Audible, and things like the calendar and calculator. He mostly carries it around and listens to audiobooks.

Ugh, money stress is the worst! We sold a house last year in another state, and hired an accountant to help us do the taxes. We started with Turbo Tax and I think it said we owed like $20k. But we had paid some tax at the time of the sale, and we needed to itemize deductions, so it should be a lot less ... anyway we hired someone locally and turned in everything she asked for, answered all her questions, etc. We haven't heard anything for over 2 weeks. DH has been leaving her messages, and hasn't heard anything back. I'm about to stop by the office tomorrow and try to get some answers. We need to know if we can contribute to our Roth IRA and file everything before the deadline! I am ticked. Luckily we knew we would owe and have the money ready to go.

I found a fillable PDF that had 9 rows of 5 boxes, which is perfect for scheduling a quarter's worth of work. I used a spreadsheet to coordinate textbook lessons, videos, labs, etc. and figured out what each would be done each day. I figure 40 days of work per quarter (gives us a little wiggle room), and sometimes that means I cut out chapters or lessons. Like our psychology book could fill a full year, so I selected the chapters I wanted to cover and made sure we weren't over-scheduled. I then filled the boxes with the daily assignments, leaving a few gaps here and there for make-up days. I only schedule one subject per sheet. So the kid can see the assignments for the whole quarter at a glance, can cross off the day's work when it's done, can see if they are on schedule or behind, and nothing needs to be moved around if you get behind or work ahead.

It really depends how far the package has to go. I think the longest I've waited for media mail was 5 or 6 weeks. I always upgrade shipping if I can.