I don't think I planted it upside down, but I have a rooted cutting from last year (I think its a Petite Negri that George gave me) that grew straight out parallel to the ground about an inch then made a 90° turn as if trying to wrap itself around the trunk. It grew another 5 or 6 inches, but never made a significant turn upwards. I'm not sure what to do with it this year. Here is a link that might be useful: George's Reference

Have you tried offering a reward for staying in her bed all night? As far as transitioning to the new bed, let her help pick out her new bedding so she has some involvement. You might pick out a couple of options in advance and let her choose from those other she might go off on a whole new theme. Brag up how she is such a big girl to get the new bed. Have you friends and neighbors brag her up too. My kids liked to turn the light on too. I fixed the problem by getting (I don't know what this is called) a thing I could screw into the light socket. It sort of looks like a light socket. You can buy them at Wal-Mart back by the light switch covers. Anyway, it had a pull chain on it (some come with an extra outlet). I would just turn the light off at the bulb every night so flipping the switch didnt work. I put a night light in the extra outlet so the kids can't reach it. I would move the furniture away from the light switch so she doesn't have a reason to be climbing. Since your dd seems to enjoy her time in isolation, I would probably leave the door open. Give her a consequence for every time she wanders out. You may have to take away a toy or some other action. Don't sit and talk to her. Make a simple statement and return her to bed. After the first time, just use a gesture and no words. Don't let her have the attention she's wanting. If she knows you mean business, she'll quit. Good luck! She will get over this.

I'm not retired yet, but I'm getting close. I anticipate retiring at age 55. We've planned carefully, and we expect things to work out like this: Early retirement years: With our house and cars paid for, my pension will cover the bare-bones of our month-to-month needs. I will have my basic medical paid, and I will be able to cover him (at cost). We will be eleven years too young for Social Security. We intend to work either part-time or seasonally rather than dip into our savings too early. For example, if I substitute teach 8 days a month, I'll have as much money as I make now. We're also interested in "fun work" such as working at the seasonal Renaissance Faire. We have plans for travel and other such things in these years. We are not against using our savings at this point, but we want to do it sparingly /want to see that money continue to grow for later years, when we may need it more for medical issues, and we may see inflation eat into our spending power. Middle retirement years: 67 is full retirement age for both of us, and we're operating on the assumption that we'll begin collecting Social Security at 67. With two Social Security checks, we stop any part-time work in which we've been involved, and we will have more money than we are spending now ... and we won't have withdrawn much from our retirement savings. Later retirement years: Looking at our ages and health, this probably means just me. I'm assuming his Social Security will be gone, and we are assuming that inflation will hurt the value of my pension ... so it may not be enough to cover my basic needs at this point, especially because I may be paying for house cleaning, etc. -- things that I won't need to pay for in early retirement. However, at this point it'll be fine for me to dip into our savings. We have calculated the above general thoughts using real numbers, and we feel confident about financial security in our retirement years. Our biggest concern, of course, is medical needs. Regardless of what was taught, any teacher should use correct spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. I do agree that anyone who teaches should be able to write well; however -- in my experience -- it's the elementary teachers who come across worst in terms of the written word. All retirement programs that cover governmental employees (at any level of government) are funded by taxpayers. Did you mean something else? False, but not entirely false. I'm a state employee. When I retire, I will have contributed 8-10% of my salary to the state pension fund for 30 years. That money has been invested and has grown. The taxpayers won't be funding my retirement; rather, the state will be returning my own investment to me. HOWEVER, a pension is a defined benefit program, which means I cannot outlive my investment. If I retire at 55 and live only 5 years, the state wins ... they get to keep a bunch of my money. and I'd die unhappy knowing that I couldn't leave that money to my kids. On the other hand, if I live to be 105, my money will run out, and -- yes -- the taxpayers will kick in for my later years. Actuaries work on these numbers, and they predict how long the average employee will live -- and that's how they decide how much to withdraw from our paychecks. On average, people will live just about long enough to "make back" their own contributions plus interest earned. I'm fine on retirement funds and withdrawing 3.8% per year. I'll take SS at age 62 since there's no reason not to and will leave me more disposable income. Well, there is one reason not to take SS at age 62: For every year you take your benefits early (early meaning prior to your full retirement age, which is probably 67), you sacrifice 6% of your benefit. To say it differently, if you could collect $1500 at full retirement age ... and instead you take it five years early (at age 62), your monthly benefit would only be $1050 ... that's a great deal of income to give up for the rest of your life. Obviously, I made several assumptions in that equation, but consider exactly how much that 6% per year would be for you personally.

I got off pretty easy with my oldest. She has always been level headed and responsible which I think was partially the reason the girls who were her best friends going into h.s. eventually pushed her out of their social circle. At the time it was a very difficult experience for her (and as her mom, heart wrenching to see her being excluded), but now in hindsight, thank God! And dd has a much better circle of friends. The popular thing to do here upon graduation is to rent two huge houses in the Outer Banks-one for guys and one for girls. Each house has a couple,of parents present for the entire time and there are certain rules, tho from all the stories I’ve heard over the years, the entire week is binge drinking, sex and girl drama. How relieved was I when dd’s group decided to go on a cruise instead which, believe it or not was actually cheaper. It was well researched, as mentioned before, parent chaperoned (one kid didn’t turn 18 until end of summer so they were required to have an adult fortunately!). WRT parties with and without adults, I have been struggling with this the last few months with my son, a junior. It is unbelievable to me how many parents allow their kids to have parties, with underage drinking, while they are home! MD passed a law a year or so ago that holds parents accountable if caught - sadly the law was precipitated by an accident that killed several teens who had been drinking at a party where a parent provided alcohol. And then there are the parents who allow multiple teens (sometimes coed) to sleep at their homes when they return from underage drinking parties, basically enabling them to drink w/o parents. I know one mom in particular, who either allows the group to Uber back to her house, where she will hang out feeding them or chatting with them, knowing they are all drinking and/or drunk -this permissiveness makes her the “cool” mom. And then I wonder about the clueless parents - don’t they realize why their kids are always spending the night at that one house. I’m hoping the mean mom -won’t let my son go to these parties. Long winded post to say...I definitely would not allow my h.s. aged kid to go away for an unchaperoned weekend, not stay home overnight alone. Even a chaperoned weekend would be dependent on who the parents were b/c as mentioned above, even with parents present, there are plenty who still would allow them to drink, etc.