I agree. He also has another show called Dogs and Cats, or something like that, and they had this exact situation. He was adamant that the dog had to be trained and, until he was trained to ignore the cat, he had to be leashed 100% of the time in the house. He taught the couple how to train the dog to ignore the cat and, in the end, the dog was safe around the cat and no longer needed to be on the leash. He also had the owners create lots of safe places up high for the cat, so the cat could be in the same common areas with the family even if the dog was around. I have had cats my entire life and my cats have always been very social. They also have territory issues and need to feel they "own" their house/territory. When they feel their territory is threatened, that is when you end up with issues of them peeing all over the place. If they feel confident they "own" their territory, they typically walk around with their tail held high, which show confidence, and they rub their whiskers on all of the door frames and hard furniture to leave their scent. I had a large cat (Dancer) who spent some of his time outside, always near the house. The neighbors daucsand (Pete) would run over to Dancer, barking up a storm. The first time I saw it, I was getting ready to go pick him so he wouldn't run away scared but the neighbor told me to wait and see what happened. When Pete ran up barking, Dancer laid on the lawn as calm as could be until Pete got really close and then Dancer jump up and ran really fast toward Pete. Pete very quickly turned and ran home while yelping loudly. It was pretty funny and quite surprising to me, since Dancer had not been raised around any dogs. But he was an old cat and was probably about the same size as Pete. Good luck with your difficult situation.

That's great to know! Thanks so much. If they know I can see the questions on my phone, they would not take that risk:).

I have been wanting one but I am concerned about my two 12 yo sons possibly asking something they shouldn't when we are not home (like, goofing around or daring each other or something) and hearing something really nasty. Is this a concern? I really want one:).

My cat once got into the attic of a rental house we lived in while building our current house. She fell down INTO the wall, all the way to the floor of the first floor, in the wall between the toilet and the shower. I happened to be in the master bathroom and heard her crying from inside the wall. My husband had to cut into the wall to get her out. She was scared but ok.

My mom's name was Mozella and my grandmother was Rilla.

I had two cats the last time we sold a house. One was the escape artist and the other was not and did not really care for people she didn't know. We started out by leaving them both but warning the RE about the escape artist. After she let him out (on purpose- she forgot he was not allowed out!) I took him with us every time we left the house for a showing. He got used to it and enjoyed it after a couple of times hanging out with us in the van, down the street from our house. The other cat we left in the house and she was fine....although one of them (can't remember which one now) was let into the attic once and it took a while to get it back out.

We had something like that and hired a carpet cleaner. I am pretty sure they covered it with a wet cloth and then used a hot iron to basically melt it to the cloth. They said to make sure the cloth is wet or the iron would burn the carpet. I didn't see them do it though. I just heard about it later. Not sure if it would work on the kind of slim you have or not.

Those are great options, thank you all.

How long does it take to take the bus from the Meadowlands? Also, how long does it take to take the ferry from Staten Island...that actually sounds like a really good option. Our primary objective for staying outside of the cities is cost so if we can find a reasonably price place as close in as possible, that would be great. I actually live in the Boston area for 4 years but it was a long time ago. I lived in Stoneham and Andover, each for one year, and on Beacon Hill for 2 years...but it was a very long time ago. I would love to be able to stay in the city, if we could find a place for a reasonable price but I seem to remember it being very expensive.

We are getting ready to go on a family trip, including visits to NYC and Boston. We are planning to stay just outside of these two cities, where we can take a quick train ride into the city. Would anyone be able to provide recommendations for safe areas to stay near these cities? Thanks!

We have kept our frozen for many years now. We thaw it when we need to, such as buying our rental houses, but we keep it frozen the vast majority of the time. It is absolutely worth it for the peace of mind of not having to worry about identity theft.

We have it in our fridge door and I love it.....when it works:). It keeps freezing over and then it stops making ice. We have already had 2 repair men out to try to fix it and so far, no luck. I use a lot of ice so this is a big frustration for me. I am now running out to buy bags of ice. Dh is pretty handy. He purchased another ice maker and replaced the one that is in the fridge but it didn't help....still froze up. Anyway, if you or your husband are not handy, you might want to think twice about getting the kind in the door. The other ones that just make ice in the freezer never seem to have a problem.

I am wondering if his gf's dependence on him is affecting his decisions. What would she do if he took a traveling job for a year? Based on what you have said about her family, it sounds like he is really all she has and she depends on him every day. And she spends half of her time at your house? What would she do if he was not around? How long have they been seeing each other?

It doesn't bother me at all. I never can remember how grey/gray is suppose to be spelled (grey always seems more correct to me, for some reason). I really enjoy hearing the different words/phrases. I have read enough that i am familiar with many of them but we were watching a British cooking show the other day and there was a phrase that had us all rolling with laughter because it would have meant something very different in the U.S. (unfortunately I can't remember what it was). I like it when people on the forum use spelling, words and phrases specific to their countries. It provides another piece of information and maybe helps to better understand a point of view or context a bit. I think it is fun to be on a forum where people from all over the world are discussing their viewpoints..

I think I would at least encourage her to not assume he is gay. There are plenty of guys out there who are not high up on the masculine scale but who are not gay and many of them would be offended to be thought of that way. It is better not to assume.

Back in my single days, I had a guy friend who everyone thought was gay. I knew he wasn't but my other guy friends insisted he had to be just because he was not as masculine as they thought a guy should be. His dad died when he was very young and he was raised with his sister and mom. He was an awesome guy though and did end up finding the right lady who appreciated all of his wonderful qualities. I think they have 5 kids now. I am so happy for him, even though we don't really keep in touch because I am living across the country these days.

It certainly seems as if the media's purpose has changed drastically over the years. In the past, it seemed they were determined to tell all sides of a story, to really question and dig deep and to let the consumer decide for themselves what to think. Now it seems they want to tell a story and to shape the story to convince viewers to buy in on the story they are selling. They want to shape opinions and convince people to agree with their beliefs. They also want the "news" to make money so it has to be sensational, even if that means including half truths or adding sensational "questions" that they are never able to definitively answer but are left open to imply something that may not even exist. And this does not happen just on one side of the political aisle. It is both sides that do this. It is so prevalent, so frustrating and annoying that I now get about 99.9% of my news online, where I can read about just what I want to read about and move on when I want and not necessarily have to listen to someone drone on with an opinion that I really don't agree with.

We are in tornado alley and have had a weather radio for years. FINALLY, we recently reset it to only alert for tornado watches and warnings, NOT severe thunderstorms. I like it much better this way and wish we had had it set up that way from the beginning. Can't count how many nights we have been awakened multiple times for severe thunderstorms.....every one of them we could have slept through without any problems. We have never had a severe thunderstorm in which we would have needed to do something different than we were already doing (staying indoors). We have never had to go to our tornado shelter for a severe thunderstorm.

I recently saw an episode of Fixer Upper on HGTV where Chip was putting a black metal roof on a house in the Waco Texas area. He said that it would reflect the sunlight and actually keep the attic area at somewhere in the 80's during the Texas summer heat. I found that interesting. Also, those metal roofs are suppose to last a really long time. Maybe you should consider black metal siding if you are really determined to have a black house. Otherwise, I think it would likely be way too hot. ETA: The black metal roof actually looked really nice. It was a more modern house though.

You might also want to check out the Victus Study Skills System. They cover goal setting, time management, more effective study skills, etc. They sell a workbook version and also have a DVD. I'm definitely going to go through this with my two sons....probably once a year from now (6th grade) until they graduate, and then make sure they are using it in their day to day work.

Nope, would not even consider it.

Sounds a lot like the book lists from Ambleside. https://www.amblesideonline.org/curriculum.shtml

Thanks, that's good to know. I am feeling better about this now:). Thanks for your help!

Wow, that sounds like it was a really good study of American History. Thanks for the information. That certainly gives me some additional ideas. I have purchased a couple of American History encyclopedias, really about the only two I could find, but they are for children around 12 years old / 6 grade down to 3rd grade, I think. So I'm not sure if they will be what we need or not. My sons are 11 and will be 12 in the fall, so it will likely be on the easier end for them. That may not matter that much, if we are really focusing on learning how to study history though. I plan to look at them when they arrive and if they won't work for us I will return them. One is DK Children's Encyclopedia of American History and the other is United States Encyclopedia: America's People, Places and Events by National Geographic Kids.

I want to do a year (6th grade) of American History but I want to do it the way The Well Trained Mind book describes studying history. I am wondering if maybe someone else has already done this and could provide some info on what spines and other books/materials they used, map work, etc. and also just how it went. I have searched the forum and didn't find anything so thought I would post and see what might turn up.