General Chat thread

I know I couldn't teach any class because I'm not good with other's ppl children and I'd be too nervous to teach adults.

I got my Hep A shot today for our upcoming mission trip to Nicaragua and holy heck that hurts like crap. It's much worse than a tetanus. I can tolerate shots well since I was having to give them to myself up to 5 times a day when doing IVF. DH is a big baby with shots (but admits it) and I gave his to him and he said it hurt. I thought he was over-exaggerating until I got mine. We'll have to get a booster in 6-12 months. We'll start our oral typhoid tonight. It's 4 pills taken everyother day. I'm glad I refused to have that shot given to our oldest DD when I took her in for her vaccine update. They tried to give it to her because it's recommended by the CDC for her age but the risk of exposure is so low in the US. If she decides to travel she can choose to get it.

I'm in the process of picking out paint colors for our family. It's really hard because the pillows I got have so many good colors in them so it's hard to choose what I like best. I'm leaning towards an orangish color called Aztec Fire.

My violin teacher will be here soon to start up lessons for the year. I'm sure we'll do more chatting this time to catch up from not seeing eachother over the summer. I had to get my violin out to make sure I remembered how to play. I was bad and hadn't had it out all summer.

How fun that you are getting violin lesson and going on a missions trip. DH went on a mission's trip a few years ago, but I stayed home with our children.

I'm hoping DH's parents can come and stay with the kids. Depends on if his mom has any doctor's appts. If they are unable to we have enough people in town to help us out. Fortunately our kids aren't difficult kids to keep so that helps. I've always wanted to do this trip as my parents and younger sister are going also. It will be my parent's 3rd time and my sister's 2nd. I talked to a missionary once and they said to go with your spouse since it's such a life changing event. My sister, DH and I will be on the medical team along with another nurse. I think it will be a real eye opener.

I agree with going with your spouse. We have talked about it since and decided any future missions trips will be taken as a couple.

Sometime in the next few years DH and I want to do a mission trip to Africa. While we're there we'll do a safari also. Since it costs so much to get there we'll combine the two trips into one.

I ripped down the wallpaper border in my family room. Here are the pillows I got. I think I'm going to paint it the darker color.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8030/8...ee57890b_m.jpg

So glad you started this thread!

And please, DO be "those" moms. I will show off my baby -- now 17 once in a while if you'd like. :D Meg, we'd love to hear your adventures with the girls. Those ages can be some of the most rewarding AND the most challenging. Alyssa, love the video. Nicky, great picture. I read he is off the vent. Good job, Sam!

Little about me (stolen off my profile): I live in the greater Seattle area and yes, we do have many words for rain and our weather reports do say "sun breaks." By day I'm Senior Editor at Pregnancy.org. Each night I morph into the "Mommy" of six creative kids, mostly grown up, most of the time (a present lively discussion on pointy ears and that spray stuff you use to clean computers confirm that they haven't quite reached that grown up space).

I love being out in nature, quilting, reading and eating healthy, tasty foods -- which generally means cooking. But my real passion is empowering families and families-to-be with encouragement and information.

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I know that most of us are busy with juggling a number of responsibilities (parenting, work, home, and 1,000,001 other things on an endless "to do list".) At times, it can get tricky to carve out time for your relationship. Dh and I do ok but will both admit it absolutely takes WORK! How do you all try to meet that challenge?

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Finding time for our relationship definitely is a challenge. Dh works night -- 10:30 to 8:30 and sleeps from about noon to 8ish. I'm working mornings when he's awake. When he gets up at night, I'm winding down. The last three years he worked weekends AND nights. It seemed the only time we saw each other was in the shower. He was able to change his schedule to have weekends off, so that gives us a little time to talk, work on a project or even head to a yard sale. We're doing something big this year though. We've planned a couple's only vacation, spending time exploring in the southwest, just us.

Beautiful fabric. I can see using it as the focus in a quilt...

Must dive into work and eventually figure out a good use for the zucchini in the fridge. Anyone else have fall garden produce challenge?

Luckily the girls are very well behaved. I know that may change as they get older. I don't think DH will handle them misbehaving too well. I grew up in a family of 3 girls also and we physically fought with eachother. I think DH would go crazy if our girls did. He never did anything too bad when he was young so I think it's hard for him imagining his children not doing everything right.

We tried to grow some tomato plants this year but failed. The plants grew and we got maybe 4 cherry tomatoes off of one. We don't have a good spot for a garden in our yard as it's on a hillside. We planted the plants at the edge of the yard and the ravine. I think they didn't have enough sun. DH trimmed some branches back and maybe we'll try again next year. If anything it was good deer food since they nipped the leaves off. My gpa and parents have a garden so we get stuff from them. There seems to be an overabundance of tomates from their gardens. I love garden fresh tomatoes so we've been eating on those. You could make zucchini bread. I love sauteeing zucchini and onions in butter then put mozzarella cheese on top. Very unhealthy but oh so good!

Tonight we are doing breakfast food for dinner. I'm making waffles and sausage patties. It's kind of nice doing it for a dinner meal because I'm not rushed around trying to get it done like in the mornings.

Yeah! Julie joined in (and trust me -- you HAVE to "meet" her kids and you'd see that their fascinating discussions are fodder for your own. Just beware. One year I think mine were lead to take on the look of sludge from the backyard in an attempt to copy a costume! LOL)

Ack -- Julie wait! I just caught that you are planning that vacation for TWO ONLY. Does that mean that I can't stowaway in the suitcase? :cry:

Meg - I love those colors. I actually painted one of our rooms the lighter color and still wish that I had gone with the darker. It just seems like it is both more vibrant and would at the same time lend a "cozy feel" to the room.

Nicky -- how is Sam today? and YOU? I know it is hard to remember in the throes that you have to take care of your own body's needs as you are still recovering from delivery. Make sure you are getting enough iron to help give you energy to deal with everything. ((((HUGS)))) I saw that your November group had another preemie delivery this week as well! Sending you all positive thoughts and prayers!

We had tons of rain yesterday. While I somewhat appreciate the break in outdoor activities, I am not fond of the backlog that I know it will create as it all has to be made up. Woohoo. What I NEED to do, is declutter -- especially my desk! It seems to be the "catchall" spot for everyone to dump their stuff! It is also getting to be that time of year where I need to go through the clothing for everyone and begin transitioning from short to long-sleeve and figure out what gaps I have for the upcoming colder weather. I was able to score some amazing sales near the end of last winter to buy kids coats. Now praying they fit!

It is "Taco Tuesday" here tonight! Love it! Easy meal. Everyone puts together their own -- and easy clean up! Hooray!

We had a little bit of rain yesterday and now it's been pretty chilly. It got down into the 30's last night. Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 though. I'm going to need to start going through the girls' clothes and transitioning them from summer to winter. Since the girls are so close in age they can just hand down to the next one which helps with storage of clothes. I just have them try on all of their clothes for the season we are going into before putting them away. Saves putting them in drawers and then not having them fit. It's a big project so that will have to come once I get DD2 room put back together after her room redo. I used to be really good about hitting up clearance racks to buy coats for the next year or fancy dresses for Easter and Christmas. Lately I haven't done a great job. Maybe it's because they have so many dresses and don't need anymore and I've bought their coats on the bigger side so they fit for a few years.

Missy...I'm glad you've painted a room similar color. I do like different colors and I think it will be "homey" also. We just got done painting DD's room bright pink...like a deep fuschia. It's really pretty. For our family room I'm trying to decide if I want to make an accent wall on the wall our fireplace is on but idk what color to make it.

DH and I took a "just us" vacation a little more than a month ago. We went to Sedona, AZ to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We had a great time. We've tended to take more vacations alone. We've taken the girls to FL and NJ twice so they've gotten to travel also. At the end of May we are taking them on a Disney Cruise. They don't know this yet as it is their Christmas present.

Taco Tuesday sounds good! Do you ever do walking tacos? The girls love those.

I was watching the talk show "Katie" today with Katie Couric. Didn't even know she had a show. On it she had a story of a lady who was diagnosed with fallopian tube cancer. I didn't even know that type of cancer existed. I guess you can get cancer anywhere. She was pregnant with her daughter and was working with a doula to do a natural birth. She ended up having a placental abruption so had to have an emergency c-section where they found the cancer. She feels had she not had the c-section she'd be dead since that type of cancer is diagnosed when it's too late. She's did 6 months of chemo and is cancer free as of now. She has a 50/50 chance of it coming back. The doctor called the day after she brought her baby home to tell her what they found was cancer. I think she has a show or wrote a book but I'm not sure because I caught the middle of it.

This week is Homecoming week. The middle school has 3 dress up days. Tomorrow is fake an injury day so DD1 is going to wrap her arm with gauze and we'll put some steri-strips on her forehead. We thought about taping the cathlon from an IV on her also. She doesn't really like a lot of attention so this is kind of out there for her. I told her if she didn't dress up she'd be the odd ball out. It's hard to believe midterm for my girls is on Friday.