The thread was two pages...too much pressure for me.
I am cooking on Thursday. Maybe I will just throw it together...maybe I'll do the nice linens and pretty serving dishes. I suppose it depends on how everyone feels. We plan to start decorating for Christmas and to watch movies all day.
It seems so underwhelming to spend a holiday with just us....both of us are used to big holiday gatherings. But in both families if a big gathering is going to happen I have to do it. I don't want it that much. I always end up mad by the end of those events.
All these clean dogs...I'm sure they feel beautiful.
Wabby, everyone says that this is the hardest part. I have to say that we are starting to understand each other better. I think she understands that we mean well even when we're making her very mad.
Is it going to be harder with the boys?
I'm trying to clean today. Not succeeding. I'd post a list...but it is too boring.
l

You haven't mentioned if you are tubby or slender---I will have to imagine it for myself----I will tell you of the first display---I have one of those twig chairs on the front porch steps{fairly wide landing}---It will have a big wreath on it,with a big bow {on the back of the chair}--- a wooden bird house sits on the seat of the chair---there are pine boughs and red berries{fake ones so they will last}There is also a gradiose wreath on the door---This year,my plan is to get about 5-7 small evergreen Christmas trees and have them all lit with white mini lights---My porch has around 12 windows in it,so I will have a wreath with white lights in each window---also,I collect snowflakes and they hang here and there on the tiny windows over the big windows----that is all for now-----other than that----I am having a baby shower here on Thursday night,so I have to prepare for that-----I read some ideas on the internet and they are ALL jeuvenile---they still play stupid GAMES!!!!I have to go check Flytramp and get my intructions for the 127 fling booger.

Does he want to go? Can you bear to send him?
Picking the right school for the right kid is everything. At a good school, academics are usually better. Bullies are usually the biggest problem.
My cousins went to The Hill School ( I tried a link but it wouldn't work) at around 14. Most of their dads went there before them. They were happy enough, but none of them sent their own kids.
Don't you have day schools? In addition to Catholic schools, there are many Christian and Friends schools around here. Even schools that say they are non-religious usually are at their core.
Hi Bagzie, Naturally I am big as a house. My time off the internet was very positive for the appearance of my house and me but today, I've barely spent 10 minutes off the puter...so doom is just around the corner.
Baby shower, huh? I love little meatballs.

That tells you how much work I'm doing. Bookwork is sooooo boring. We watched Fried Green Tomatoes on tv last night. Remember that movie? The scary part is that I related to Kathy Bate's roll.

I only scolded you because my children are grown and I have no one to take out my maternal instinct on anymore, Peaches. Besides, I'm practicing not being so darn nice all the time. I've realized that nice ppl never get what they want. All the goodies are reserved for difficult, hard to please women.

Bagzie, your displays sound beautiful. Tell me something to get me motivated to do something in the holiday mode. I made 24 jars of Ginger-Pear butter on Sunday to give as Christmas gifts. How was that? Now I'm going to put together some muffin mixes & pack them in zip lock bags inside a cutsey cloth bag tied with raffia. Somebody slap me and call me Martha.

Where's Sugar??

Sugar has a nasty dry cough and has dosed herself silly with some awful tasting cough syrup. Think I'll go pass out now. Night night, darlings. I promise to post tomorrow when I'm semi-conscious again.

I guess I won't send him. Culver Academy in Indiana asked him to apply for a $100,000+ scholarship to go there. He shows little interest.

After talking to the local librarian/chess club guy about it, he pointed out that most kids go to boarding schools because they want to get away from home (DS does not) and other kids would be going home on some weekends while DS could not.

Bullies sound like a problem. They have "**** night" which some Capt explained as "not scheduled and not sanctioned so therefore does not exist."

Ds and Herbie and I are having Thanksgiving alone at the Place on the Lake. I think the lake is dry. The turkey wont' be. It's smoked.

Just coming out of lurk mode ( I read you guys still) to say Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

I am still huge 243 !!!! Which is the same as DS who was just diagnosed with High Chol. Actually, his triglycerides were 440. The STUPID doctor said to change diets and retest in a couple of years. I think not.....we see a different dr. tomorrow and have enrolled in a Healthy Bodies class for teens. This will be monitored a little more closely than that. Anyway, he and I will be losing together. I could not believe weighed that much, he does not look that big.

I graduated, took a couple of months off to be with the kidlets, and have started my job search. I HATE interviewing. Yuck. I finally got strong and booted SO in April(?). Works much better this way. Pumpkin, myself and SO spend one day a week together on the weekends, and she sees him every Wednesday for a bit. We get along much better and I LOVE not dealing with US. We are not good for each other, no matter how much we THINK we love each other.

Anyway, my intention was not to talk about me, but to say Happy Thanksgiving. That includes Bagz and SugP.

~kathy

A day early, but who's counting? Hi Muffie, sorry to hear DS is having physical probs, but of course the sooner he starts to get a handle on it the better. How's lil Pumpkin? Good luck with the job search

Sort of glad to hear he's not interested, Peachie. Aren't you? My little sister went to boarding school for last 2 years of highschool. She was having problems at public school because she was brilliant and outspoken and you know how fond bad teachers can be of that combo. Plus she I think wanted to have a "prep school" education when she went to college. It didn't do her any good; she was unremittingly homesick, felt poor compared to her classmates and it put her on an emotional rollercoaster that followed her to college. And she even had a good reason and wanted to be there.

Local private school is another matter -- I wish we had that choice. We went to parent/teacher conference today. DD's school is just so lacking. In money, but also in imagination. They ask the parents to limit the number of teachers that they talk to because of time -- but they only allow half a day for conferences. And this marking period is the only one they even encourage conferences at all, unless the kid's having a lot of trouble. The next town over, where my sil lives, is much smaller, but allows most of 3 days for these conferences, and encourages parents to see all their kids' teachers. So anyway, we saw DD's homeroom teacher, who she has for algebra and reading, so it wasn't a waste of time, but I didn't have any desire to push this guy to challenge her in any way (when I see a teacher that has a feel for what kind of kid she is, I start asking for her to be challenged). He was nice, competent, but I kind of doubt this is going to be a stellar year. It's kind of depressing. I start thinking what highschool is going to be like -- there are no AP classes at all, I have a suspicion she is going to cruise through like I did -- in neutral. Gotta shake things up somewhere along the line (I got little more than nothing out of hs).

Oh well, ranting button off. Gotta go play a few rounds at pogo before I turn in. Big day tomorrow (Wed.) -- cutting up those veggies. Pretty important stuff. Gotta do my part for the big todo (if you only knew how little a todo it is )

Bye kids.

Kiwi

You poor darling Sick Girl!. I feel for you.

Indiana is too far away, anyway. If they are willing to provide a scholarship, he would probably qualify for a scholarship to a local private school. Most give a test sometime in January or February.
I would worry about the bully problem Remember, most kids are sent to boarding school because their parents can't handle them at home. No matter what the academic standards.

I'm pretty happy with Dd's school. It is tiny and that doesn't thrill her, but all in all, she's doing well and enjoying herself.
We had conferences last night. In my kids' schools, parents must pick up report cards and progress reports. Teachers are there and available for conferences. That way, we can see the teachers up to 6 times a year. It solves the accessability problem BUT...I don't think they challenge DD enough either. I think that part of it is universal. She slides by. Don't they all. I worry about her study habits...or lack thereof.

I have to get ready for tomorrow. I don't feel like it!

I never thought of that -- that a lot of kids at boarding school are just too impossible to live at home. Well, just one more reason against it.

That's a good system for report cards, Lush. Would you believe the only time we do that is after school is out for the summer? They designate one day in the summer when you (or your kid) are supposed to show up at school and pick up their end of year report card. They don't send this date home to parents, they just tell the kids before the end of school. Stupidest thing I've ever heard of. We've never hit the date once. And you practically have to make an appt with the school sec'y to get it later. One year I had to track it down all over town.

This town still thinks it is a tiny little town in the 1930s, where all men work in the mill, all children walk to school, all women sit at home making a big noon meal, the men and the kids come home for lunch and go back, the women go pick up their husband's paychecks and walk around town paying bills in person. Of course the reality is that kids aren't allowed to go home for lunch, most parents work, everybody drives their kids to school and pays their bills online. But the institutions are still set up for conditions from decades ago. Pretty ******ed, eh? Developmentally delayed might be the appropriate term.

Lahdidah.

Hope you're feeling better, Sugar. How about all of the Lushly's? Over the blahs?

Was thinking of Bagz yesterday -- They had all the Christmas candy out in the grocery store, but I didn't see any mint M&Ms Horrors!

Gotta go cook. I'm making a pot roast today and taking it to a friend's house for dinner. What an odd thing to do the day before Turkey Day, huh? Nothing I do makes much sense.

Sounds like Peaches and Lush are going to have a nice quiet T-day, and Wabbit is going to have a controversial one (hope no gate-crashers...). Later, gators

Kiwi

I posted a long winded blah-blah-blah post and it disappeared. Here's the gist of it - I flooded my laundry room by leaving the water trickling on a plant in the sink. Oops, sink was plugged, water ran all night, DH annoyed with me. Floor is swelling, cabinet ruined. Poor Sugar. Kids leave home too soon as it is, Peaches. Hiya Muffie. Mint M&M's here. See ya.

Just wanted you to know, Wabby, that I've caused several floods in the way you've mentioned...leaving water running for a GOOD reason, only to find out that it wasn't so good a reason after all.
I don't have anything else to share.
Oh yes, Kiwi, all schools are set up as you describe. Crazy. Didn't these teachers ever notice that THEY work?
L