Acai Berry Tea (thats my thing) - check! Chocolate - triple check! :D This is the same article I linked to, just on different domain. It is a very good article, but I would like to be prepared. Sometimes plan A or B or C (or up to Z) doesn't work out, as demonstrated in the current events in Japan. I personally doubt the current steam/radioactive parts released thus far will affect us here in the Northwest. That video could really cause some people chest pains if they don't read up on this situation to get a full scope and understanding of what is going on. If anybody is interested in that website showing the jetstreams go to http://www.stormsurf.com/locals/npac.shtml and click on "jetstreams" (right side of the top nav). This just shows the Pacific ocean, but they have a full range of maps for all over the world.

The article did ease my concern, but new reports today are saying the main containment vessel, the one next to the cores could melt too. That concerns me. If that first containment vessel stays intact, than it seems that it will contain the radioactive material. From what I understand from the many articles/wikipedia, we can use anything to cool down the rods including seawater. However, it seems for some reason they haven't been able to keep the rods covered and/or vent properly the heat. The sea water will just become radioactive, can't be pumped back into the ocean :c). Either way, we are not scientist and/or experts! We too are getting potassium iodine tablets too! :c)

This is the question I was just asking.. what is happening with their sea water plan? More questions... Why have they not been able to restore power or generate power to assist with the process and/or to restore other means of cooling the rods? Has any other containment vessels been breached? According to this article, the melting of the cores can break down its immediate and outer containment vessels: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/86996/NIGHMARE%3A-Nuke-Rods-Melting-In-3-Reactors.html

My DH found this link while researching the situation in Japan. My DH & I have been researching nuclear explosions since last week, as we are on the west coast and concerned. This article has put things into perspective. This was actually written for those in Australia who are even closer to Japan. The more I have learned about nuclear plants, I have become less worried -- but I'm still concerned, specifically for those in Japan, among the other issues they are dealing with. Now I understand what makes up these plants and how they function today as compared to Chernobyl and other really bad nuclear plant explosions/fall out. Knowledge to the rescue :c)! Please read this and other sources to get the best overall picture of what is going on: http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/ Also, here is another explanation from the NYT that is visual/interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/12/world/asia/the-explosion-at-the-japanese-reactor.html?ref=asia

I had this exact same question, after of course I already bought SOTW 1 & 2! I'm glad there are so many good reviews about this book! I did like it, but I do plan to add in a lot of other books that I find at the library too.

I was blessed with a DH who loves to read! He reads to the kids every night for about 2 hours. That is one of their favorite times of the day, when their daddy cuddles and reads to them. They pick and he picks some books. Some books that we didn't read for school earlier that day get read than too. My DH actually than reads to me for about 2 hours after the kids are to bed, so we read a lot too. During the day I spend about 1-2 hours reading to them from various books about school subjects. For read-aloud chapter books, I typically look at books from Sonlight and WinterPromise (which we are using now for our History). Anytime I read a thread also about read alouds or someone recommends a book that sounds interesting, I copy the books names down in a text file to refer to when I don't know what to read next. Alsoif we read a book from a series and like it, I put the rest of the series on our list to read. If I don't write these things down, I will forget! Our kids are still young, so they like to go to the library and pick out books on their own in the kids section. I usually just go grab all the books on the top of the shelf's for display (I feel so bad, but they look good) or search for a subject and put them on hold to pick up later. I usually have about 2-3 read aloud chapter books around, but they don't always get read. Whatever interest everyone is what gets read! My kids are on the young side, but my older can sit through longer chapter books. We still read a lot of shorter books too for my younger. Here are some of the books my kids really like now: Magic School Bus series Little House Series (my 6 & 4 year old both love these books a lot) The Chronicles of Narnia Berenstain bear books Magic Tree House (we've only read 2 so far but my 6 yr old loves these) ps. I love the jar idea. I might have to get that a shot with my list of books!

We had a discussion about this at our local homeschool group this week. It was handled differently by 2 different homeschooling moms. They said that it is normal and that most children will do this at some point in their schooling career. They are homeschooling middle-high school aged children. One of the moms kept the math teachers/answers next to the workbooks. All of a sudden their child was getting everything correct. She said at first she didn't confronted her child, but she finally did catch him in the act per say. She said she had a talk with him and he was to redo all of the work that appeared to be copied. She also removed the possible ways they could cheat again, in all subjects. The second mom, once she noticed a similar pattern ~ math again ~ she said she just kept letting them cheat. She would smile and be happy and congratulate them on their success. She would make them feel so good about their work, that eventually the guilt got to them and they came forward and confessed what they had done. They did a similar thing with having them redo the work. I am not sure the age of your children, but probably most children attempt at some point - not getting away with it is very important, so they can learn from their mistake! But don't think you've done anything wrong, I think you have a situation that you can use to teach your children about being honest.

Our Subaru Outback is a 2001 bought used in 2005. We have had to replace the alternator 2 months ago and before that we had to replace the head gaskets (2 years ago), which was a bit pricey. Other than that, we have had small repairs and normal maintenance. We do the oil every 2-3 months (or whatever that sticker on our car says), which we do at the dealer because they gave us free oil changes for life. So you can imagine we hear about every single problem our Subaru can have because they always check it out. Our transmission has no issues so far, but knocking on wood! We love our car and I would like to repair this one for as long as I can manage to do so.

This exact thing happened to us. Cat showed up 6 months later and we took kitten in to get fixed. She went missing at about 2-3 months old. Turned out she was already fixed, so we let her go back outside. She showed up a few days later with a collar and it turns out our neighbor right next to us had her! Anyhow, she has returned to living at our house mostly. The neighbor says she will visit ~ and said a cat chooses its home ( and I wish it choose theirs). They probably thought we would be upset, but honestly I had 6 cats at the time so I would not have mind if she stayed over there! :c)

I am wondering the same thing about my 6 yr old dd. She tends to write her lines from the bottom up also.

I watched last season on the abc.com website because we don't have cable/tv. A user on youtube.com was on the show. I ended up loving the show! It is so fun and I actually was going to try this season to watch with my kids. I would suggest that you go to abc.com on Mondays and watch the eposide first to see if it is acceptable for your family. The review above is not accurate from my point of view. Bascially the review only covers parts of the show, but failed to talk about all the good things the show covers. Last season there was a group of guys who liked to sing about everything and were the most positive people I've ever seen, no matter what was happening. They actually helped other teams out a lot. I did see a lot of stressed out people thats for sure! Sometimes they were not behaving in their right minds, you could tell -- but at the sametime some of them who were still just as stressed out handled themselfs just fine. Particullary the Dr's from last season! They were awesome. A lot of the users transformed over the course of the show and it was overall fun to watch.

RR is not as quick as Amazon for shipping, but I've never waited more than 2 weeks for it to be shipped. So if you didn't get the we "shipped" it e-mail, than call them and ask. They should be able to find your order!

It does not trouble me at all when a business makes a moral decision NOT to carry certain material. It is the RIGHT of the bookseller to do such, and they make their own policies regarding such material. I do want them to make the judgment in Amazons case, because they sell baby and childrens products! It is a little contradictive to say, "Here buy these things for your kids while I'm selling this book to people that may hurt your kids". They have to make a choice, do you want to market to parents or predators? I can say most parents won't like the decision for them to carry both of those products along side each other ~ as clearly that makes no sense. Perhaps you would have disagreed with Amazons decision last year to remove "the Rape Game" from their online store. A game where a mother and her 2 daughters get raped? If Amazon promptly removed that game, they should have done the same in this case too. Except they did not, which is the issue that most people have with the recent issue. Not that it was listed, but that they defended the listing of such material and only remove such material when social media pressured them. Any business has the right to sell what they want to, but as such the consumer has the right to choose from who they buy from. I want to do business with a company that DOES make choices. It is easier to judge a business that way. I will choose where I continue to do my business in the future based on those choices they make. In Amazons case, they simply said all material will be allowed according to their policies (which does state it will not allow morally objectionable material). Yet porn and other "morally objectionable" material have been rejected and removed in the past. Why practice free speech on this book, but not the other material removed for similar reasons? I personally am not waiting for their apology anymore. It is clear they want this brushed under the table as quickly as possible. Apologizing will bring this story to more people and back to the forefront. I hope they realize now that the consumer still does run this market and that they DO have to make some choices regarding what they carry. According to many sources they have removed many objectionable material over the last few weeks. I am thinking this was hopefully a learning experience for Amazon and in the future they will handle such cases better. Overall I'm annoyed, but also glad this issue came up and was resolved quickly. We are aware of such material now and retailers such as Amazon know where the consumer stands.

Amazon is one of the top places I buy from. I live in the same state as their HQ and everything gets to me within 2 days, even with free shipping. I am saddened by their response to the issue when the story first broke. I am glad that it has now been removed, but I have heard that it is still available on other countries websites (I can't confirm this). I will take nothing less than an apology, plus what they plan to say/do about it in the future. I am patiently awaiting this and in the meantime, I will not do business with them.

Looks about how my DH kept his room at that age too! I am reading this book right now (audio version), you might be interested in it! A Perfect Mess - http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Mess-Benefits-Cluttered-Fly/dp/0316114758

We call these frankenstein Totoros because we just used the felt pieces that we had on hand to make these. We sewed smaller pieces of felt together in coordinating colors and cut it up into a totoro shape. The biggest is about 15 inches tall. Here is the result: Bigger Pics: Photo 1 Photo 2 Seriously? The marketing team here really messed that one up! As most other PP's have said, it really tugs at your heart strings... I am sure I will watch Grave of the Fireflies again, but I am not positive when that will be since I've never gotten over watching it the first time. Lucky you! Do you guys need English pen pals? I am starting to teach them Japanese, very slow at this though because I don't know Japanese either (though I've been studying or trying to for a few years). I see the cute Totoro bento boxes online, I so want one of these... but we are home most of the time so at the moment I can't find a reason I should buy it... but still. If you go to the museum, you should post up some pictures, especially if you see the cat bus, I'm pretty sure its where they have a huge one that the kids can get into.

Love these movies, have ever since my DH and I watched Spirited Away a long long time ago. I can't name a favorite, it changes a lot... Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, and the new Ponyo which we went to see in the theaters when it came out (we had to travel 2 hours!) are my current top favorites. For Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, my DD did watch this film when she was rather young, maybe 4 years old and it is one of her favorites. I love the music in this film, maybe more than any of the others. It is very enchanting but also has a great moral story line. Princess Mononoke and Grave of the Fireflies imho are for a much older audience. Princess Mononoke is just a slightly different story telling and the subject manner is for mature audiences, it gets boring quickly for the little's. Grave of the Fireflies, I personally still haven't gotten over watching this film and I saw this over 7 years ago! It is very good film, but the subject matter for me is too close for comfort for me. I wouldn't want to give details away, so read the description carefully. I try to buy 1-2 of these movies each Christmas, since I really can't find a need to purchase them all at the sametime! But this is one DVD set I would love to own. For my DD's birthday, she had a pink soot sprite cake and totoro cup cake toppers. We've also make several soot sprites out of yarn and we sewed 3 different sized totoro's out of felt. We Love Miyazaki films and plan to visit the museum in Japan in the future. I hear there are some short films only shown at the museum there and I'd love to see those too! This is the blog I follow, and they are uber obsessed with all things Ghibli: http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/

That is possible, but also they might sell their books in multiple places online. So its possible that the stock was not there when they went to ship it? I haven't had your experience exactly, but I've never gotten good communication from amazon.com marketplace sellers or even half.com sellers, even though I still buy from those two places regularly. At least they did refund you the money, but it is too bad they did not inform you sooner so you could have repurchased it! I'm not sure if you can still leave feedback for that seller?

Ditto on Rainbow Resource! They seem to have a little bit of a discount too, but I've always got something else I need from them. Shipping cost is not that bad or if you are doing a big order you can get free shipping.

They seem to have sales regularly from what I can tell. I visit their site about every 3 months, because I can't decide yet :) but they always have some sale going on. I spoke to their online help, they gave me a sale coupon and another time I called them, they gave me a sale coupon too! So that is something to keep in mind if their is no sale on their website.

:thumbup:

I'm not surprised school/college or other adults would be there without kids, because the animated version is very much loved in the Anime crowd! I was so disappointed when I read the reviews, because I (yes me!) have been looking forward to the live action version. I don't typically care what the reviews say, but they spelled out exactly my concerns for the film based on the previews. I'm just hoping that they do not portray the story through serious eyes, which is what it seems they have done. I hope there is still a lot of fun and spunkieness still in the characters, basically that they are still kids! I am very much so looking forward to see this still, simply because I love the story. Our family loves the animated version and we will wait till our drive in has it, because its the best place to take the kids to watch it!

My DD actually love Science a tun, so we do it about 4-5 times a week -- but not everything we do is part of a curriculum. We tried some literature based science programs and also just working out of science experiment books, but it wasn't until I discovered the R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey and tried their .pdf free versions and that it clicked for us. You read 1-2 page summary of the topic (which does contain some humor, but I would say more like it is a conversation vs. reading a book or textbook, like a real human speaking to you) and than you do 1-3 experiments related to the topic you read about. The supplies you need are mostly something you already have, last year we didn't buy anything new and substituted where we could and we made it through. We did extra books from the Library or videos on the Internet when we wanted to explain topics more. We have only done The "Life" version, but this year we have the "Earth & Space" version and plan to continue with Chemistry and hopefully Physics when it comes out. Since there is a free trial version you can get on their website, I would say you could give it a try to see if it is something that would work for her. It http://www.pandiapress.com/trybeforeyoubuy.html

This is unfortunate situation for your friend. Without really knowing the details, its hard to make a judgment on what really happened. I haven't really heard of that many complaints from this company, but every company does have hiccups every now an than. I had similar issue with receiving book, but they were very helpful and apologized, sent out a new book right away. They also list their books at half.com so I do buy through them there too, if it ends up being cheaper somehow.

Wow, I'm not the only one! :lol: