The Land of the Free & the Home of the Brave (expats)... All Those in the US!

[UnderRated]

I just finished the old thread by accident

You go to the website, sign up, and they send you surveys, depending on the profile information you entered. Those surveys give you points, which you redeem for cash. You will never come close to getting rich, but it is a teeny little bit of money that doesn't require much effort.

Although sometimes the surveys are really long and tedious.

Long and tedious, but not much effort!!!!

AnnieLaurie - I am also going to be going out to Seattle with my family for a year starting Feb/March time so we should keep in touch! I also have a little one, he's almost 2, and an older one, also a boy, just turned 5

Both mine are finally in (pre)school again. We all went yesterday. I'm a mother helper for Colin's class on every Monday, so Caitlin comes with us. He said he was happy I went, but will go by himself on Wednesdays and Fridays because he needs to be alone then. His class is pretty small, because it is the afternoon one, but he's 1 of only 2 that have done preschool or anything like that before. The others are all going for only one year, and it is pretty obvious they've never been anywhere that is structured or where you have to sit for long periods of time, and aren't used to it at all. They seem like a great group of kids, and I'm guessing it will be a breeze when they're used to the routine. 2 of them gave me hugs and one of them told me I was really fun to play with, so that made me warm and fuzzy inside.

Caitlin went for her first time today. There were several children that were crying, but she just started waving at me, and told me bye-bye, Mommy, so I was the first parent that left. She had a great time at school, and has told me she really likes school at least every hour since she's been home.

How exciting, Dooney. Both DC in preschool.

The only ones here are private and cost $$$. The main one requires an application form to be sent in by the end of this month if Dinner is going to go NEXT September. Then there is the $200 non-refundable application fee, the interview, the playdate... honestly, I think it might be easier to get into college.

To return to my question a few pages ago, I have finally managed to get my children to the doctors. You were all entirely right to say that the schools would be indifferent to the return of the medical forms.

Luckily however, it turns out that, if necessary (for example if you take in a nice print-out of all your dc's medical history the week before their appointment and they LOSE IT), US paediatricians can decipher vaccination records from the UK red book system.

So it was all fine.

I have met a few families from ds's nursery pre-school thing who live locally, so may have some new friends before too long. It seems much easier here to meet people. Americans really are friendlier!

There are the ultra $$$ ones, but there's quite a few affordable ones, too. I get a big break on Colin's tuition, because I'm a mother helper. She's only got a few from each class, so they get a discount if they help. She's basically doing this for something to do, and won't increase your tuition if you were there the year before. Both classes went up $10 a month from last year, but since Colin was there last year, both of them are paying last year's rates.

That's not too bad for the waiting list. When we lived down south, there were so few preschools, you had to be really early. I got Colin on the list at 18 months where we wanted to send him, and he got the next to the last spot before the waiting list started.

It's all so stressful.

Glad the Dr stuff went well, alarka.

Yes, pretty typical for a waiting list. Ds2 is still on the list for the school I really want but I was fortunate to get him into a Mother's Day Out Program that is a really nice program. It runs about $325 per month for 4 days a week.

We paid $400 per month for 3 days a week for ds1's preschool but it was a regular school day. It's a bit cheaper in the South. Cali is in the high-dollar state

Holy Cow!!!! We were going to have to pay $60 for 2 days (2 1/2 hrs each) in Southern Oregon. Caitlin's at 90 for the same amount of time, and Colin's at $110 if I wasn't helping for 3 hours 3 times a week. I know we aren't as expensive as California, but figured we're fairly high for cost of living compared to other places, and it would be cheaper in other parts of the country.

For that price, I think there would be no question that Colin would be in Kindergarten right now instead of waiting.

I know she's cheaper than a lot of schools out there around here. The awful one we sent Colin to our first year here was cheaper, but since we moved up here so quickly, we didn't have much choice as there was less than a month to find one and all the other ones I called were full up.

my sister has refused to evacuate from Galveston County.

shit.

I was trying to google because I knew that not everywhere was under mandatory evacuation, and hopefully say not to worry too much, but I'll share in your assessment of

shit.

It looks like they're not making the entire county evacuate, but why on earth would you stay if a hurricane is coming?????

the mayor has just ordered evacuation of the entire county.

of course, they can't force everyone to go and she's being a pendeja, an idiot, and says the roadways are too jammed to go.

cabrona, i have just had it out with her.

I wish I had something helpful to say, but I can't think of anything, so I'll just stick with I'm sorry.

I don't know what gets into these people. DH's aunt's sister has rode out every major hurricane since the early 60's in Mississippi. She stayed for Katrina, and it was miserable. She rode it out on top of her counters. She freaked everyone out, because it was forever before they could get in touch with her. She told DH's aunt that if there were any Katrina sized storms this year she wasn't going to evacuate.

that's just it.

all the power and everything will go out and no one will know what has happened or how they are doing and it makes us all want to vomit.

mama cannot get back and she is out of her judgement with worry, papa really doesn't need this and he'd better not reach for the ciggies again because that's what got him into this mess to begin with.

and she is a burro. it was all i could do not to hang up on her. .

You don't need it right now, either. Just read your other thread, and your papa obviously doesn't either, so not diminishing that.

It is too bad these people are not around to see how everyone else reacts to not hearing from them after a storm.

Oh goodness, expat

now i have no idea.

her husband works for NASA as an engineer. they were up all night shutting stuff down. he usually works 6AM-3PM. he came home and boarded up, then went to help neighbours board up, then went back into work for 9PM.

they're in one of the zip codes told to evacuate (League City).

they have been ordered to evacuate in the past, done it and then the storm changed directions, but hey, that's what happens when you live in Galveston County.

she's doing my nut!

i don't want to phone until about noon their time - everyone is going home early (she's a teacher) and of course, the school district wanted everyone to stay till noon so they don't have to make up a day.

From CNN:

"It's dangerous, but it's Mother Nature," Bobby Taylor, 47, who planned to stay, told the Chronicle... He told the paper he could walk or kayak out if necessary. "It's just water, man."

I just read the Yahoo version of that with good ol' Bobby Taylor. It made me beyond angry as his wife was tearing up and worried about him as she evacuated but he refused to come. It made me want to go down there and call him a selfish bastard and kick him.