Were you able to escape with the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe too, or did they charge you $250 for it? As to the OP's question, I am generally for sharing, but some things I definitely wait until I'm asked about them. There are probably a few things I would likely keep private no matter what, but those things have never been asked about yet.

I just grade the chapter tests and any cumulative tests that come with our math program. The daily work is for learning the concepts, so like a couple others above mentioned, I don't like to penalize for those if some answers are wrong during the learning process. We just correct daily work and don't assign a grade. Participation is just expected here, and I never really though about grading for it. Test scores seem like enough to me.

I've tried pureed white beans and that worked pretty well. I have also tried using rice milk. It was fair the first day, except for being a little thin maybe. The second day it was broken down and watery and the texture certainly didn't improve with re-heating. We prefer pureed potatoes or white beans to the rice milk in soup, but that's just us.

I usually take ours down New Year's Day. Maybe New Year's Eve this year, since it's a Saturday. I enjoy the lights, but I get tired of looking at the Christmas ornaments once Christmas Day is over.

Partly privacy concerns, but mostly I'm just not that interested in the minutiae of other people's lives. I tend to be pretty quiet and reserved in real life and don't have an overpowering need to share my daily trivia online. I'd rather communicate in other ways. It's not like I'm hiding out from family and friends; I just don't have any desire to interact in that particular way.

Talking on the phone is not my favorite thing. I'm an introvert and not much of a talker anyway. Also, I've got some mild hearing loss that sometimes makes it hard if the person on the other end has a soft voice. I'd rather talk to someone in person so I have the visuals to go along with the noise. Or else just email. This poll has been interesting. I wouldn't have thought so many people disliked talking on the phone.

I saved just a few clothes that had been hand-made by me or my mom for my dd, plus one dress that my grandma had made for me when I was a baby. We don't have much space in our house, so I couldn't really justify taking it up to store old clothes. Someone had just as well be using them, rather than having them go out of style in my attic. If my dd ever has a dd of her own, she'll have a few special hand-made things. If she has nothing but boys, she's out of luck anyway. I'd rather store things like her old drawings and stories. Every now and then we do look at some of that stuff, and my daughter is amused by how much she has changed over the years. I think she and her kids would probably get a kick out of that kind of stuff later on. More personal than old clothes. But that's just me.

About $60 for the one kiddo left at home, some of which will be a few clothing necessities.

Same here! I guess I just didn't buy enough of it. There was also a snack made out of black sesame seeds that I loved and which was discontinued ages ago. There's still plenty to like, but it is disappointing.

I was given a Nook as a gift. I use it occasionally. It's handy to download ebooks from the library or the free classics. However, I've found that quite a number of the free classics I've downloaded are full of errors. Sometimes so many that it has really detracted from my reading experience. The Nook is fine for reading novels, but seems very clunky for accessing reference materials. However, my machine is the first generation, so maybe the newer ones are better in that regard. Mine is not backlit or in color. To me, the e-reader is a handy tool that I use sometimes, but not a replacement for most of my library.

No. We have a greyhound and he's not allowed on the couch (although I occasionally find evidence that he's been on there while we're gone). My last 2 greyhounds were allowed on the couch and the covers got dirty quite quickly. One of them had a habit of scratching at the covers and tore them. After those 2 passed on, we decided the new dog needed to not be on the furniture. He has dog beds and plenty of blankies.

Yes, my teen would have eaten soup. She gets a little tired of the ever-present pizza that seems to show up at nearly all teen get-togethers in these parts.

My dd was 9 when she first started needing deodorant, shortly before puberty struck. It didn't seem like a gradual need either. All of a sudden she just had very stinky pits. I thought 9 was kinda early, but I guess not! We use Tom's of Maine deodorant as well. If I can't find that I've also bought Herbal Clear Naturally.

Several years back, my daughter attended a virtual school - different one, but they used Study Island too. Dd had a very hard time with Study Island, especially math, because Study Island kept asking her questions about concepts that she hadn't yet been introduced to in her math course. It was very frustration-inducing for her, as she didn't really have the math tools yet to figure out a lot of the questions. I complained to the virtual school teacher and she was eventually able to target the assigned Study Island sections a little more appropriately. If you have a teacher or resource person at your virtual school, you might give them some feedback about this, if you haven't already. My dd passed her state tests with flying colors on the first try, so I think what a previous poster said about the test being easier than the test practice may be true. Anyway, after passing the test, we were able to discontinue the dreaded Study Island for the year.

We always packed up the kid and the dogs and went out for a drive or to the park for a while. Our realtor told us it was best for us not to be there. The first house we looked at, the owners were there and hovered around us the whole time. Rather uncomfortable. I felt like we couldn't really talk openly at the house about the pros and cons for us.

I will help mine if I can. I'm setting aside some money, but our resources are fairly limited and there will never be enough to cover all college expenses. My parents helped with some tuition and auxilliary things. I worked and borrowed some money, but my parents' help made the difference. I don't view it as an entitlement thing necessarily, but if a kid is working hard at school, then I want to do what I reasonably can within my means to help that kid succeed. They will probably have to work, try for scholarships or help figure out other ways to pay the cost.

Desk top for now, but it's getting older. When we are ready to get a new one, I think it will be a laptop.

I don't have a specific time that I go grocery shopping, but generally I like to do it during the week, earlier in the day, when a lot of people are at work. Seems to be less crowded earlier than if I wait until evening. If I go on weekends, I try to do it in the early morning.

This has happened to us several times. Our library has been good about renewing it to allow time for the book to turn up. Sometimes the librarian will go check the shelves, but usually I end up doing it myself.

I'm just letting nature take its course. It bugs my mother more than it does me. For that reason alone, it is worth not coloring the gray. I don't use make-up either. Gosh, I don't even wear a bra unless I think I absolutely have to.

It sounds like the OP's niece has grown and accepted dad's new wife over time, but when the child was 13 and the loss of her family unit was fresh and very painful, it seems rather insensitive of dad to be accusing a child of being manipulative while trying to force every in the family to accept his choice. I agree that during that early time frame, more grace should have been extended to this young girl, rather than focusing on dad's self-centered needs. She is fortunate to have such a caring auntie as OP, who is still thinking about this incident so long after the event. I like texasmama's s suggestion about talking to the girl about this. She might be really happy to know that OP is still concerned about how this affected her.

I had to make that decision last year with both my greyhounds, within two months of each other. They both got to where they could hardly walk any more, weren't really eating, and couldn't make it outside for potty duty. It's such a hard thing to do because our animal friends become so integrated into our lives. My hounds were very stoic creatures, but it didn't seem kind to them to keep them lingering when they couldn't even manage daily living activities any more. I'm sure your cat had a happy life with all the love and attention you gave him. Hugs to you, Polly. :grouphug:

My mother was a hitter, screamer, name-caller and face-slapper. She seemed to have a hard time with her rage management skills. However, she succeeded in not showing that to other people very much, usually not even my dad, but she let it it fly when she was alone with us kids. It was like she thought she had some kind of free pass to vent her anger on the kids. Never an apology from her. As an adult I've never been physically abused, but my first husband was emotionally manipulative - saying mean things, name-calling, and snotty passive-aggressive types of things.

There is a textbook exception at PBS, but the burden is on the sender to contact the requesting party and inform them of the highlighting. The person requesting the book then supposedly has an opportunity to say yes or no. I've found that textbook senders seldom comply with that rule. If they send a book without asking you first whether you are okay with the highlighting, you are entitled to ask for your credit back. I've done so a couple times and had my credit refunded. Other times I have just not made an issue of it, because I planned to use the book anyway. I've received quite a few books for school from PBS, but I have encountered a few swappers who don't follow the rules. Overall, I'd say it's been a positive experience though. I've only had one book that didn't arrive and my credit was refunded.

I've been encountering a lot more bicyclists who are ignoring stop signs, and they aren't all college kids. A couple weeks ago I ran across a group of five gray-haired bike riders who all decided to pedal right on past the stop sign without stopping. Another time I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting an older man on a bike who didn't stop for a stop sign. Several years ago I had a scary near-accident when a boy flew over an embankment on this bike right in front of me. If he'd come over just a fraction of a second later I would never have been able to stop in time. I know it can be dangerous for bike riders who are traveling alongside cars, but it does irk me when bicyclists deliberately flaunt the rules.