daisychain, We are educators as well. We hear these things frequently. The big one here (we live in a fairly poor area) is that teachers are paid too much. I wish everyone who thinks that teachers have it made would have the opportunity to volunteer in a school on a regular basis. These are the ones that never do. I am not talking about coming in to bring in goodies for a classroom party. What teachers do everyday can not even be described to those that have no experience in a school setting. There is not enough room to type it all! If you have not worked in a school setting, you can not possibly understand enough to make insulting comments on the profession. The "summers off" thing cracks me up. I think some parents honestly think that the job is done when their kids aren't actually in school. That is only a part of the job! Yes, the kids have the whole summer off, the teachers do not. But again, it is hard to make someone understand that if they do not work in this profession. We also have people in our family who have had corporate jobs that required a lot of hours and traveling. They were paid for it. That was the profession they chose. (If you are doing that kind of work for free and hating it, then I don't know what to tell you!) So when they make comments about teachers, it just makes me scratch my head. Anyone who had the ability to go to college had that option! People who choose to comment about teachers "having it made" are really insulting themselves, and making themselves look fairly silly. At least that is the way I have learned to look at it. If this is the ideal job, aren't you a fool not to take it?? (SImilar to what Olychick was saying...) There have been a lot of supportive comments from wonderful people here! We just have to understand that there are some people in this world that will never be convinced. Maybe we can even feel sorry for them that they missed out on the opportunity to be the most overpaid, underworked professional in the world ;-)

Oh my gosh, I was a kid when that song came out and I so remember it, lol. I am somewhat ready--planning to carve some pumkins Saturday during the Iowa/Michigan State game (Go Hawkeyes, you'll help out my Badgers with a win). I have all my candy in the trunk of my car so I don't eat it up, I probably won't pull it out til the last minute. I'm not so big on candy, but once I start.....

When all of our family (that lives here in town) always got together we would set up 3 or 4 tables and play pitch. Some would go through the paper to see what items they were going to head out for on Black Friday. and others would just sit and talk. But now each family has grown and we kind of just stayed with our own family. After losing 4 family members last year it went that way. I'm not liking it...I miss getting together with them all. My daughters are going to their spouses side of the family this year so it will be just our son and his girl friend with us tomorrow. One daughter will be coming later and we will have a game night Then on Saturday we will have another Thanksgiving day with the girls and Jeff if he wants. lol....aren't you sorry you ask. patti

Football- it is honestly so refreshing to see others as disinterested in the game as I am. I live in the Texas panhandle, essentially the birthplace of all the movies and TV shows based around "Friday Night Lights". You may think those shows/movies are exaggerations, but they aren't. NOTHING matters more around here than the local, (oftentimes Podunk) high school football team/s. It is nice to interact with others who are equally unobsesssed with the game. Schick- I'm not gonna lie, that fence is dreadful!!! Drywall screws?!?! Really?!?! What genius came up with that idea?? Remind me again what area of the country you are in? I keep hearing you say this is the best time for outside/attic work and I keep thinking you must be in the desert if it is that unbearable the rest of the year but your outside pics show green!! I'm confused! ;) CEF- don't worry, HGTV has been a guilty pleasure of ours since we got married. Like Doug, we don't have cable so we don't normally watch, but anytime we have stayed in a hotel or a hospital, we have had the channel on HGtv 24/7. We even joke that its a good thing we don't have cable b/c every time we watch those shows, we get inspired to DIY something!! If we actually had cable service, I'm certain our list would grow exponentially. Doug- I can totally relate to the mental imagery comment. There are only 3 rooms in my house that I can walk in to and NOTenvision my future plans/changes/remodels. They are the 2 kids bedrooms and the front/main bathroom. I walk in my bathroom, I invariably start envisioning the future and plan for it, my bedroom, the same. My LR, DR and kitchen all still need finishing details and/or cabinetry to make it work. My pantry, still needs shelving, counters and flooring. My mudroom/laundry room still needs the lockers and command center. The basement (900 sq ft) still needs to be framed up for 2 bedrooms plus a common area and the bathroom needs to be finished. As for me, our 1300 sq ft addition is, apparently a side job for the drywall crew so we are getting squeezed in around the "main jobs". They were here for a few hours Saturday, several hours Sunday, none yesterday and they showed up today around 5ish and worked until 10 or so. That is the living room area, they still need to finish hanging the rock in there and then the entire area needs taping and mudding. I'm glad we hired a crew to do it but at the same time I'm annoyed and almost ready to pick up a knife and some mud and just finish it myself. More than anything though, I'm ready to move away from the perpetual reno I've been living in for a year and a half. (Don't worry CEF, I KNOW you got me beat by a long shot in that area!!)