1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? There are not many at all. Just Sweet Tomatoes (a soup and salad bar). However, in Arkansas there seem to be buffets on every corner!

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? Yes. My kids like to go barefoot which is fine. However, I need to have something on my feet (slippers, shoes, etc.) With all my knee problems, I don't feel comfortable going barefoot for any length of time.

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? Three boys do aikido, one does rock climbing, all four do swim team during the summer.

4. Are you done with your taxes? Yes. The money will be deducted from our account on April 15th. Because we are self-employed, we also get a double joy on that day and have to pay our first quarter taxes since we pay quarterly!

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Yup! Just got another one from the orthodontist. There's a glitch in their system if you have more than one kid going through orthodontic care. If you have any amount due (not past due, just "due") and there is another child on a payment plan, it shows up as delinquent. States "Collection Action Will Begin Soon."

We owe $12 for two maintenance follow-ups 2 weeks ago. However, we pay each month on my 3rd triplet. Always go to the VISA each month. Now it says it is ALL due. Just a hassle to do deal with this every time. Wish they'd just fix the problem!

Sharon
11 year old b/b/b + 14 year old son

On Saturday, I took the triplets out for lunch, and they repaid me by being a complete and utter pain in the butt in the supermarket. They've had their Nintendo DSs confiscated for a few days for that. DH actually had a day off work yesterday, so we took all the kids swimming, then chilled in the afternoon and watched DVDs. My kids' spring holidays start next week for 2 weeks.

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? Not really, but I only live in a small town.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? The kids and DH don't, but I do. I don't feel properly dressed without them.

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? DS1 does drama club and plays percussion in the wind band. The triplets to cross stitch and DD is in the school choir.

4. Are you done with your taxes? Um, ask me another.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Many, many times.

UK mum to Aaron 18, and Jasper, Eleanor & Nathaniel 11 born 17/3/99 33wks2days

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? Yes

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? No

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? Currently, oldest dd is in track and softball, other dd is in softball and Katie is in gymnastics. Ds doesn't start baseball until the end of spring.

4. Are you done with your taxes? Yes.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Yes! And I had a cow! It was the second installment on dd's ortho bill that was due in January. I was so busy with getting things in order for dd's surgery in Madison, that I TOTALLY forgot about it! Two days before dd's surgery, I got a call from the ortho office. I was SOOOOO embarrased and completely mortified!

Here are some questions to get us going this week.

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live?
none!

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? not unless we're entertaining or have people over.

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in?
two.

4. Are you done with your taxes? yes indeed!

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill?

ahem, oh yes! not so much these days thanks to internet payment, but i have been known to forget to put the payment in the post.


tess
mummy to 4yr old ds & the triumverate born 2004

"the days are slow but the years fly by quickly"

love the fact that you flew with two of the kids, sharon...you're officially my hero of the week.

tess
mummy to 6yr old ds & the triumverate born 2004

"the days are slow but the years fly by quickly"

Our spring break just started but becuase I took the trio to Florida during winter break while dh stayed home - and now opted out of taking spring break off with the kids - I met my aunt in Wisconsin and she took them to Minnesota (where I grew up) to spend break.

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? Yes - quite few but that's from being Chicago suburban.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? The girls and I don't - dh and son do.

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? The girls are in park district gymnastics and girl scouts and ds is on a traveling soccer league

4. Are you done with your taxes? yes

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Not since we were able to convince the insurance company that the dr. didn't "double bill" delivery costs - YES she delivered 3 babies. They didn't have any problem paying NICU costs but sure had issues with delivery.


Laura
Mom to M, N & C (5/8/99)

I figured that my girls are now 4.5 I could join the Vet board. I read here daily and all of the tips help. So today will be my first time answering your Monday questions! Hope that is okay!

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live?Yes, we live in Hawaii, so buffets are expected.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house?Never

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in?Gymnastics and soon Hula

4. Are you done with your taxes? Yes, my husband did them a while ago and we already spent the money.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Yes...usually for cable!


Liz

Hi all - Sharon - I am glad you had a nice vacation. I would be recovering for weeks if I had driven as much as your dh - he must be a trooper!!!

1-No, we live in a very small town

2-No - very little pavement around here - lots of snow, mud, sand (depending on the season) so NO shoes in the house!

3-We do a sport a season - soccer, snowboarding and cross country skiing, baseball and horseback riding and each play a different instrument and have weekly lessons.

4-Yes - can't wait for the refund!

5-I am sure we have but apparently not too major as I do not really remember

It is freezing rain here today - yuck! Had some nice spring skiing yesterday though so that was nice. I am ready for real Spring!!!

Have a good week
Suzanne
BBB 4/00

I hope your MIL recovers quickly.

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? Two Ryans and Shoney's and Chinese we do not eat there.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? Yep

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? None all their actives occur during school hours (home school programs)

4. Are you done with your taxes? Yep, that check sure was nice when it arrived at the beginning of the month.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Yep, I plum forgot last summer our electricity bill. Writing that check hurt. Dh now does the bills.

We picked up our girls bunk beds this weekend. It's so cool and sad to see them in that huge bed all by themselves. Sniff they grow so quickly. We had our first open house yesterday and two people came by. They like our home. YAY They are however already knocking down walls in their head ones my husband put up himself in the basement. :S Poor guy. I'd rather they keep that info to themselves. I think for me the only think I would hate for them to rip out is our girls playhouse out back. Hubby put in lots of hours to make it and our girls have put a ton of hours playing in it. I spend hours watching them out our kitchen window. We have a foundation on the house so we can't take it with us. Bummer. I promised myself I wouldn't be sad. It's just a stick of wood I get to keep the kids and the memories...whaaa.

Sure you can home school your kids: www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/How_To_Homeschool/tosbrochure.pdf
*†¯`·.,*† ¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.->*† .¸¸.·*†(¯`·.¸*†¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.->*†
I BELIEVE in miracles
g/g/g- June 2002
fs - November 1988
Married to my best friend
Living like

Hi vets,

Sharon, did you enjoy your trip to AR? My parents have a home there. I still haven't done the drive yet. What's it like?
Glad your MIL is on the mend!

1. Yes

2. Only designated "house shoes," (aka: slippers)

3. right now, one each

4. getting there

5. sometimes, our utilities are killer here!

Have a great week/end, everyone!

7mozz

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? a few--they aren't very popular here

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? sometimes

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in?
Michael: soccer/basketball
Francesca: dance/guitar
Matthew: soccer/basketball
Lexi: gymnastics
Gabi: gymnastics
We'll be adding piano and drum lessons extra dance, theatre, and track soon.

4. Are you done with your taxes? almost

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? LOL, only when I'm in charge of the bills

Tracey
Homeschooling Mom to:
Michael, Soccer Dude (11)
Francesca, Shining Star (10)
Matthew, Little Soccer Dude (8)
Alexis, Giggles (8)
Gabrielle, Darling Dash (8)

Host mom to:
Johannes, German exchange student (17)
Torunn, Norwegian former student (20)

1. buffet restaurants.. a few and we'll be going to them less for awhile since the boys are now 11 and kids prices seem to stop at 10 here...then we'll probably start going again when the boys' appatites really kick in!

2. shoes in your house? No

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? Golf, Basketball, Track (after-school clubs at school).

4. taxes? All done

5. past-due /delinquent bill? Par for the course.

My folks are visiting and we had a good BD for the boys today.

We are in the seemingly endless task of getting our house ready to put on the market.

Life is good...

Vaughn and the ABC Boys
Alex, Bryce, & Calder
3-31-97 @ 28.5 weeks

Sounds like quite a trip! I am sorry about your FIL, but glad everyone is home, safe and sound.

I have no idea about buffets. I guess we must as we live in a city.

I d wear shoes in the house if they are clean. We alwas remove shoes when we come in - clean soes get picked up and carried to closets/cubbies and dirty shoes go to the laundry room.

My kids are involved in nothing right now, but they do do soccer.

Our taxes have been done forever. My DH seems to LIKE doing them. Lucky me.

We haven't really gotten a delinquent bill, but we just went through credit checks and everything to buy our new house and they dredged up the same $38 bill had on my check the last time we bought a house. We paid it then, and it was removed from one credit agency, but it's on the other two. Interesting lesson there - we thought it was taken care of!

So our big news is that we sold our condo and bought a house. Hooray for a YARD! We close on April 28 and have to be out by the 30th - a Monday to a Wednesday, so that will be a neat trick with us working!

Ali
Jack, 6 years old on July 4
Abraham, Dylan and Zane, 4 years old on July 6
35 weekers and 6 pounds a pop!

I'm a day late but thought I'd join in. I've missed a few Monday updates because we've been so busy. My sister was here from Ireland visiting for 2 weeks. DS performed in his high school's musical (great job), my dad had surgery and my sister and I took care of him for a couple days.

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? No. Small town. We only have a McDonald's.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? No.

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? Girls basketball (season just ended) track and drama. DS football (already in conditioning 3 mornings a week), Golf and drama.

4. Are you done with your taxes? yep and money spent.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? yes.

Trish Dawson
Mom to bgg (1992 @ 31
weeks)

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? I have no idea. My guess is there are many, but we haven't been to a buffet in years.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? No, but I should.

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? My kids are in a soccer development program, Mad Science, choir and the boys will start baseball in a couple of week.

4. Are you done with your taxes? No, but I have to get started soon.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Yes, not when my husband does the bills!

Lisa

Good afternoon to everyone this week.

We are ending our 3rd quarter at work this week and it has been rough. I have so many students who are close to failing due to outstanding assignments. They will push it right to the limit as far as turning work in. It drives me CRAZY! I do have 2 who I think will fail. Dumb choice when you are in high school!

1. We have Old Country Buffet (OCB), Panda Garden Resaurant. I think there are more but I personally don't like buffets. I do wish we had a Sweet Tomatoes near our place though. We liked that one.

2. No shoes are allowed in our house since we put in all new floor coverings a few years ago.

3. When my kids were involved in sports, they played basketball year round, football in the fall, soccer in the fall when they were really little, baseball in the spring and summer, track in the spring, did weight lifting year round, golfed for fun, now they just play softball.

4. Taxes are filed and paid. This is the first itme in 27 years that we have had to pay. I guess this is a sign of what's to be from now on.

5. Luckily we always have paid all of our bills on time. I am a stickler on that.

mom to:
Ryan 32 The Lawyer
Jason 30 The Chief Meteorologist
Chris 30 The College Student
Tim 30 The college grad

I love hearing their versions of their childhood memories!!

1. Do you have many buffet restaurants where you live? Just a couple.

2. Do you wear shoes in your house? I am surprised how many folks don't wear shoes in the house. Living in Japan, it is normal to have the no shoes rule. I wonder, do you ask your guests to take off your shoes? How do you handle such a situation? Do folks ever get offended about being asked to take off their shoes if you ask?

3. How many sports/after-school activities are your kids involved in? All three- piano/ two kids- school dodgeball team/ one kid- Japanese calligraphy

4. Are you done with your taxes? Done but not yet paid the measly SS taxes I owe. I will pay on 4/15. However, I don't have to actually file until 6/15 as I am overseas.

5. Have you ever received a past-due /delinquent bill? Oh sure. This is one expensive place to live. Shoot, I am thrilled that gasoline prices went just below the equivalent of $6.00 a gallon yesterday. However, since I took over the bills and put all that I could on internet billing, it is much better.

Catherine

"

We just finished spring break too. It was fun but I am glad to have them back at school! Does anyone remember the postings that we had a few years back counting the days until summer vacation was over & there was a flamer criticizing our glee Anyways, my house is back in order and I'm going for a long run today. I'm running a marathon soon and my two big girls are running the 5k part w/me and my trio is doing the kid fun run.

1. We do have a couple of buffets in our area but we don't go very often. We go after church sometimes with a big group.

2. We do allow shoes in the house but the kids take theirs off almost immediately for comfort. I wear flip flops a lot because it hurts my feet to be barefoot. See above... I run and I have sore feet a lot. It doesn't help that I also love to wear high heels.

3. Big girls---golf, golf, golf. Almost everyday! Little kids---soccer & gymnastics. Piano lesson for 3 and guitar for one.

4. Taxes? We own our business so we are always doing taxes! Our accountant works year round.

5. Past due bills? Not for a very long time if at all. My dh handles this and is very type A organized.

Dh and I are having a weekend away this weekend. We are going to see Rascal Flatts on Friday night & staying at a hotel downtown that doesn't even have a pool! I miss my kids when I'm away but it is so nice to not be feeding someone every hour on the hour!

Theresa
DD-12.5
DD-11
GBG- 6.5

Hi Everyone-
I haven't posted in forever, hope you are all well. I've been busy as usual, wishing Spring would hurry up and get here already!!!

1. No, we really don't.

2. Not usually, but I am right now

3. Right now #1 is in Baseball and #2 is in Lacrosse, and I think the girls are going to do Soccer for the 1st time which starts the 26th. Otherwise, during the rest of the year it is Football for the boys in the Fall, hockey for #2 in the winter, basketball for #1 in the winter. I lost count.....alot!!!

4. Done, got the money back, waitng for the Tax Relief check too

5. Oh god yeah, not for lack of funds, for lack of staying on top of things

Liz
Proud mom to:
Stevie-age 10-my sports nut!
Shawn-age 6.5-the hockey star-big 1st grader!!!
Erin-age 3.5-the mother hen!
Katie-age 3.5-the snuggler!
Samantha-age 3.5-the pistol!

Today is the last day of our spring break. We drove to Nashville for a couple of days, and stopped at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky on the way home. We had a great visit. We saw some friends, did the General Jackson Showboat lunch cruise, toured Hermitage, took the boys to the science museum, drove around Vanderbilt and went to dinner at the riverfront area a couple of times.

1. We have buffet restaurants but don't go to them.

2. I grew up in the south and we wore our shoes inside. Since we moved to Ohio 8 years ago, we remove them. My boys even took off their shoes in our hotel in Nashville.

3. It depends on the time of year. We do soccer, flag football, Upward basketball, and little league baseball. I would like to add music lessons for one of the boys at some point. One boy took horseback riding for almost a year. He stopped a year ago, but has been talking about riding again. Maybe.....

4. Steve has finished them, but I'm not sure he mailed them in yet.

5. I occasionally forget to mail a bill. Late fees are killers!

Melissa
Mom to Will, Paul & Timothy
1st grade