I would tell her point blank, but instead of making your focus her safety, make it your son's well being. I'd tell her that she is upsetting him and while you appreciate her interest, she needs to give him more space. I can see how someone who has a heart for special needs kids could write off their own safety without realizing that they aren't doing the kid any favors. I've had to have similar discussions with people about ds. "Don't pick him up, you'll hurt your back," does not have the same effect as, "don't try to pick him up, because if you don't do it a certain way, you'll hurt him." Good luck!

I use linear, though I prefer hybrid. Hybrid does something screwy on my phone and I'm reading the board on my phone about 90% of the time now. If I was just on my computer, I'd use hybrid.

Why not? Out of curiosity, why do you have contests at all? Is it to drive readership up? Is the blog a source of income for you? How much can one make off of a well read blog? How does one even begin to make anything off of a blog? Feel free to answer any or none of these questions if I'm being too nosey. Just something I was wondering about.

Discovery science is different than discovery streaming. I did the trial and went through several levels. My problem is while it seems great, I don't know how it compares to other science courses. It seemed a little light. I focused on the earth science course. Hope you get some better answers!

Even compared to when I was a kid in the 80's, it's way, WAY better. I remember many days of indoor recess due to smog alerts. Yay for smog checks! ~even if they're a pain in the rear~ As for beauty, SoCal is pretty ugly. We call it the concrete jungle. (dh and I grew up there) NorCal, on the other hand, is truly beautiful. We live on the central coast and the beauty of the area frequently takes my breath away. Towering redwoods, waves pounding against sheer cliffs, the wildlife and sea animals... But Cali is a big state, and the range from nasty to breathtaking is pretty representative of California. It's a state of extremes.

I can hear music, but not the way you describe. I don't think I could hear a song from beginning to end, all parts included. When I have a song stuck in my head, it's mostly just the melody, and generally just the chorus- over and over. If I try, I can hear the instruments, but I really have to concentrate. I need at least a couple of hours of music play each day to fill my bucket. There's no way that the music in my head could fulfill my music needs.

Wow, that's really fantastic!

I'm 28, so it's not menopause. It could be stress, but on the scale of stress I've gone through, this is a 4 and I've never been late during times of stress before. Still, it's a contender. I really don't think it's a false negative. So I guess it's just a weird month? And yes, it sure is expensive! Especially when you send dh for the test and he buys the uber fancy digital kind. :)

I took a test- negatory. I feel totally normal. What do you think is going here?

Bingo! My thoughts exactly.

Everything was a winner. The kids only get to ask for 1 thing each. I was surprised by their reactions, considering that they got exactly what they asked for. Squealing, jumping up and down, ect. DD11- cell phone. Not in a million years did I think we would give her one this early, but it makes sense both financially and convenience wise. I feel silly admitting it out loud though. Ds6- Webkinz Dd4- a barbie Surprise hits were rain boots for the 2 youngers. They went on and on about how much they loved them. DH- I got him a super plush robe, which I wasn't sure about, but he loves. It feels heavenly and I was a little jealous when we walked out into our living room and it was under 50 degrees this morning. Me- A nano (my 1st gen ipod pooped out on me recently), with a fm transmitter. We all LOVE our new Wii. Only miss was my asked for house slippers which were too small, because I'm vain and when dh asked my size, I told him 9 instead of 10, which would have been a safer choice. This year, instead of buying a bunch of stuff for Ds8, we made a donation to Harvest of Hope and provided therapy for kids in other countries. Each year I struggle to figure out what to do with him. We make the other kids wait on things till Christmas, but if he needs something, we get it. There is no waiting for that child. So when Christmas rolls around, there is literally nothing he needs. I feel like we found a great solution this year.

I was 24. Started young, finished young.

We're loving it too! This is the first family gift that has truly been fun for the whole family. I'm having so much fun!

I agree. Your mom has a home, she needs to stay in it. She is emotionally manipulating your sis and that needs to stop. Hopefully your sis's desire to protect her kids will win out over the patterns of manipulation/enabling. (((hugs))))

Isn't there something about magnesium supplements too? I wet until I was about 12 and then grew out of it. As did my mom. As did my brother. Our only bed wetter is my 6yo. So far, I've done nothing about it. I don't have a strong desire to treat it, but I would be willing to make simple efforts. At this point, he's at about 50%, which is better than I was doing at his age. I thank God that my mom and dad were always understanding and never shamed me about it.

My most difficult year isn't grade related. It was the year of our cross country move. If I had to pick a year, purely based on grade, I'd say K. Not so much because it's hard to teach, but my consistency sucks.

In the last week we have received- $300 cash $800 in gift cards a cord of wood a Wii and not one, but 2 cars!!! I am so stunned by all of these things. The only need that we actually communicated was the car. We weren't so much needing a free car, we just needed a loaner. This has been such an OVERWHELMING God filled Christmas. Not because we've been given *stuff*, but because we made some decisions to follow God's lead on giving, without even knowing how we were going to cover the cost. Then THIS! Our greatest joy is that we will be gifting one of the cars to our very good friends, who are also in ministry and in great need of a car. I am SO excited. We will be with them tomorrow and I feel like I'm going to just burst with anticipation. Yippee!!!

Your weather is far superior, IMO. This is the furthest north I've ever lived, so I'm pretty much used to 7 month summers. The weather was gorgeous here in the summer, but it was just too short. It looks like we're going to be landing up in San Rafael next, so we'll see how that goes!

Hey Jenne! We moved from sunny, warm Florida to Santa Cruz (on the coast, about an hour from you). I FEEL your pain!!

I'm cheap. All of these apps are free. I know that for some of them, you could find better if you pay (I'm thinking of the shopping list, especially), but there is just so much free stuff! I have a plethora of games for the kids to play in waiting rooms, and other situations where I need them to be distracted. Here are some of my favorites- Say Who- voice recognition dialing, works wonderfully. ShopShop- shopping list i.TV- gives you full tv listings, very handy if you don't have digital cable Google mobile- great search app. Does voice recognition searching, but it's not always accurate. Gives you maps from your location to whatever you are searching for- handy. AP mobile news I get a lot of my news from here * I gotta tell you, in the middle of writing this, we just had a little earthquake. Yay adrenaline rush!* Back to your regularly scheduled programing- Bible I have no idea which specific app I used. Pandora I LOVE this app. Free radio based on the artist you put in. If you like music, get this app. Have fun, I love free apps!

You are not a failure. At. All. For starters, tell your friend that you are so sorry, but she's going to have to fly on her own. She can do it. You shouldn't. If she's any sort of friend, she'll understand. Do you have any homeschooling friends that can take on your kids, even if it's half time?

My oldest has a great laugh and mischievous smile. ds 8 is the only one in the family that doesn't have brown eyes. His are hazel/gray/blue/green, depending on what he's wearing. Along with super long eyelashes. ds6 is the clown, with the funniest expressions. He's very physical and can do all sorts of "cool moves". He impresses me on a regular basis. dd4 has raven dark hair and eyes to match. Huge eyes, so dark that you can hardly tell where her iris starts. She's gorgeous.

Excellent, non-biased article. Thanks!