The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Gabe1 said:
Oh, yes! A well known family. Candy always sold in places like grocery stores, Walgreen's etc. Their sugar candies like the Jelly Beans, Lemon Drops and Circus Peanuts were better than most candies in the same category. But here is the rest of the story.......

Known as "The Candy Lady", Helen Brach was one of Chicago's richest widowers after inheriting the Brach Company fortune when her husband Frank died in 1970.

When Mrs. Brach went missing 41 years ago in a murder plot aimed at stealing her fortune, swindlers didn't know that her money was untouchable. It had been hidden away in a foundation bearing her name- an organization that continues to pay out decades after her death.

Mrs. Brach's body was never found. Some investigators believe her remains were buried in a South Side forest preserve.
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Wow, what a story!
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
:hilarious::hilarious::hilarious::hilarious: My daughter was the GIRLIEST of girls at that age...wouldn't wear anything but pink. My brother got married and I was a bridesmaid, DD was flower girl, and DS was ring bearer. So their colors were purple and peach, and I got the cutest little dress....white, with a tulle skirt that had "diamonds" on it, and a purple sash. And I got her white sandals to wear with it, as it was an outdoor wedding in July and no way was I going to make her wear tights. I made a hair appointment with my high school friend who is a hair dresser and had done my hair for my wedding...my brother got her a tiara and we had the florist put some flowers on it. We tried to get DD to put all this on, and she was NOT having ANY of it...it wasn't pink and she wasn't going to wear it, nope!!
View attachment 269548View attachment 269549

She was a little upset. LOL Fastforward to about an hour or 2 before the ceremony, and 50 people had told her how she looked like a real princess!!!

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And then she wouldn't take the dress off. She insisted on sleeping in it, and then when we went to Disney a few days later, she insisted on wearing it to the park....it was August!!! She WAS however, smart enough to express that she needed to take the dress off because it was too hot, and me, being the prepared mommy I am, I had packed a little sundress in my backpack for her to change into when she inevitable got overheated in layers of tulle. So we DID eventually get her out of it, which was why I asked you how long it took you to convince your princess to change clothes.
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Love the dress! Such a pretty little girl!:)
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
I forgot to post this the other day....there was an attack on a school in the Netherlands a few days ago. I didn't hear about it on the news, so apparently it wasn't a big deal here...I don't think anyone got hurt, but the reason I heard about it is because of how the attack was stopped. This cracked me up....I know the article is in Dutch, but if you scroll down a bit, there's a video. It starts off pretty far away, but then it zooms in. The kids actually scared away the attacker by throwing their backpacks at him! :hilarious::hilarious::hilarious: These teenagers chase him down the street with their backpacks. He's swinging these knives around and gets beaned by a big heavy, book-filled backpack. On the one hand, I know it's not at all funny that someone tried to attack (it was apparently someone with mental illness...so not funny), but on the other hand these sudents are chasing a knife-wielding attacker, armed with....backpacks. And I think it's pretty awesome and brave of them, and I'm glad that no one seems to have gotten hurt. I read that police were able to arrest the man...that the students followed the guy down the street and were able to subdue him until police got there. Since we've been talking about how sad the news is, I thought this was actually pretty positive.
https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/1754770/leerlingen-verjagen-messentrekker-van-schoolplein
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Good for them. Brave kids!
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
No homework? They actually get all their work done at school? I think that is great!
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Yep, everything is done at school. They are given resources so they can practice spelling words or review for topography...it's usually a website where they can log in and it quizzes them, etc. But as far as doing worksheets, or math problems, or diagraming sentences, etc, that's all done at school, and my understanding is that that's true for every kid. DD was a bit stressed last week because the math work required some estimating, which took her a bit longer, and she had to get it done by a certain time...they can't bring it home. At DS's school, they told us before we enrolled him that they do not do homework there, because the majority of the kids are there because they have autism and kids with autism see themselves as having distinct parts of themselves...there's the school A and the Home A and the soccer A....they don't overlap, so A doesn't understand why he has to do school work at home....that's School A's job, not Home A's job. (A, being my DS) So when A is at school, he's school A. He doesn't get to do the things he does as Home A, so if he's at home, why does he have to do stuff he would do at school. So they don't give homework there at all. Anything they need to work on, they'll be given time to do it in class, including practicing spelling words and doing topography reviews. It's really nice because they really hit the nail on the head...we had to really push him to practice those things at his old school. We thought he was just being lazy...all he had to do was go through the words once and he'd get 100% on the quiz...how hard was it to practice for 10 minutes once in the week?? But it was like pulling teeth to get him to sit down and do it, and they explained that is confusing for him...he doesn't understand what's being required of him in different places if it overlaps. So you have to keep the schoolwork at school, the home stuff at home, the chess stuff at chess...that way he understands what's expected of him in each environment. And it's nice not to have to be the bad guy and force him to do that stuff at home! More time to just play and be a kid...not everything has to be about school work. I love that.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
Happy ending! That is nice to read! I bet your showing kindness was a huge help.:)
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Not really, to be honest. The kids who were mean to him didn't like me any better than they liked him...me standing up for him just confirmed for them that we were different and didn't belong. I don't regret it...it was the right thing to do. But I don't think it really helped in any way. What really helped him was getting the heck out of our town! And joining the military. It really did wonders for his self esteem because he did so well in that environment.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
Love the dress! Such a pretty little girl!:)
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Thanks! I loved that dress too, and I really thought she'd love it. And she did....AFTER people told her she looked like a princess. LOL I was kind of sad when she grew out of that one...not that she could really wear it for anything but dress up after the wedding...way too formal even for parties over here, but it was so cute. I think I may have sent it to my best friend for her daughter...we give most of our old clothes and stuff to an orphanage in Romania, but I think that one I may have sent to a friend because she needed something for an event. I don't remember now. I rather miss the dress days, though I do like that DD will actually wear pants now...SO much more practical in the winter months!!
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
Yep, everything is done at school. They are given resources so they can practice spelling words or review for topography...it's usually a website where they can log in and it quizzes them, etc. But as far as doing worksheets, or math problems, or diagraming sentences, etc, that's all done at school, and my understanding is that that's true for every kid. DD was a bit stressed last week because the math work required some estimating, which took her a bit longer, and she had to get it done by a certain time...they can't bring it home. At DS's school, they told us before we enrolled him that they do not do homework there, because the majority of the kids are there because they have autism and kids with autism see themselves as having distinct parts of themselves...there's the school A and the Home A and the soccer A....they don't overlap, so A doesn't understand why he has to do school work at home....that's School A's job, not Home A's job. (A, being my DS) So when A is at school, he's school A. He doesn't get to do the things he does as Home A, so if he's at home, why does he have to do stuff he would do at school. So they don't give homework there at all. Anything they need to work on, they'll be given time to do it in class, including practicing spelling words and doing topography reviews. It's really nice because they really hit the nail on the head...we had to really push him to practice those things at his old school. We thought he was just being lazy...all he had to do was go through the words once and he'd get 100% on the quiz...how hard was it to practice for 10 minutes once in the week?? But it was like pulling teeth to get him to sit down and do it, and they explained that is confusing for him...he doesn't understand what's being required of him in different places if it overlaps. So you have to keep the schoolwork at school, the home stuff at home, the chess stuff at chess...that way he understands what's expected of him in each environment. And it's nice not to have to be the bad guy and force him to do that stuff at home! More time to just play and be a kid...not everything has to be about school work. I love that.
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When does the school day start and end? I think not having homework does allow for more activities. I know some kids that at 4th grade had 3 hours of homework. They wouldn't be done until after 6. Then it is dinner and clean-up time and bed. No wonder kids hate school so much here, not to mention the common core, right @Gabe1? No common core in my house. :)
 
MySmallWorldof4

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
Not really, to be honest. The kids who were mean to him didn't like me any better than they liked him...me standing up for him just confirmed for them that we were different and didn't belong. I don't regret it...it was the right thing to do. But I don't think it really helped in any way. What really helped him was getting the heck out of our town! And joining the military. It really did wonders for his self esteem because he did so well in that environment.
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But it was nice that you showed kindness where no one else did.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
Love the dress! Such a pretty little girl!:)
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Also, thank you. I think she's a pretty girl, too, though she's much taller now! LOL But I MIGHT be a bit biased. She's a bit young yet and so far doesn't seem to be real interested in having a boyfriend...she's had a couple of crushes, but nothing major, and she doesn't really like most of the boys in her class because they are not very mature and not always very nice. But I suspect that once she gets into jr. high next year, there may be some boys beating down the door. She's smart, she's pretty, and she's very mature and kind-hearted. Again, I'm probably biased, but I think they'd have to be crazy not to see the catch she is.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Songbird76 said:
Wait..so he DID give you a ticket? Or didn't? It looks like something happened halfway through your post and it ate some of the text? But what rotten luck to get pulled over. So do you mean the police have a remote control for the stoplights? That hardly seems ethical!
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I believe she didn't get one. It's not the police that have one (although they might) it is that in many places emergency vehicles have signals that change the lights to red so they can pass through without having to stop. I think what she was saying is that the timing made it so she really didn't have time to stop as the ambulance was approaching. There is usually a amber flashing light at the entrance/exit of a fire station and as soon as they start out the lights will change to red allowing them to go through.

There are so many things that drivers are not aware of because some of the technology is new. Things like intersection with separate left turn signals currently almost always have sensors embedded in the road. I watch people come to an intersection like that and creep up past the stop line so they can get a jump on traffic when the light changes. The problem is that the light doesn't change because it no longer senses a vehicle is waiting to turn. Had they just stopped at the stop line they would have been gone ages ago. Don't really blame them because anyone with a long time ago acquired license and isn't a professional driver is not aware of how that technology works unless they are observant enough to have noticed it on their own.
 
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BAChicagoGal

BAChicagoGal

Well-Known Member
My friend Annette didn't get to go on her Disneyland trip last year when her son had to have some unexpected surgery. Thankfully, she was able to get a refund on her airline tickets, and recently found someone who could use her unused park hopper tickets. She was/is super excited about the opening of the new Star Wars Land, and kept asking me about that date. It never mattered much to me, but I doubt that I would want to pay extra for that. Doesn't mean that much to me. It is all a moot point at the moment anyhow, since my bank balance, right now, forbids me from taking a trip for quite some time. Gotta fill up the piggy bank first.
 
Songbird76

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
When does the school day start and end? I think not having homework does allow for more activities. I know some kids that at 4th grade had 3 hours of homework. They wouldn't be done until after 6. Then it is dinner and clean-up time and bed. No wonder kids hate school so much here, not to mention the common core, right @Gabe1? No common core in my house. :)
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Yeah, I haven't heard anything positive about common core from anyone, though I don't know what it is.
Our school starts at 8:30 in the morning and it depends on the school what time they get out. Our old school, you had to pick them up at 11:45 for lunch and bring them back at 1 and then they got out at 3:15. If you wanted them to stay at school during the lunch period, you had to provide a sack lunch and pay something like...3 Euros per kid per day? But last year they went to "continuous roster" which means the kids have to stay at school for lunch, you have to send them a sack lunch..there's no hot lunch program here. They eat at their desks and then go out to play. It caused some problems because schools are required by law to give the teachers a lunch break, which they couldn't take in the classroom and supervise kids..so they had to kind of alternate and use non-teaching staff to supervise the classes for lunch. So now they start at 8:30 and get out at 2:15 for DD's school. DS also has continuous Roster on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, so he goes 8:30 to 3 on those days, and then on Wednesdays and Fridays I have to pick him up at 12:30 and bring him home and feed him. But then he's done for the day. So it's really up to the school...most schools do some form of continuous roster in which they either get out a little earlier every day, or they have 1 or 2 half-days. Very few schools have continued with the old fashioned pick them up for lunch and bring them back model. I personally like the continuous roster because the pick-ups take so much time out of your day if you have to go back and forth. Now I just go once, and it's done.
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
MySmallWorldof4 said:
DVC pass renewal is $550? I think our renewals will be close to $800. Probably will only go once next year so may not renew, or just renew one for discount purposes. It is too much for a large family. You are just one person, so it is much easier. Hard to shell out almost $5000 at once. They should offer a slight discount if you purchase more than 3 or 4. Maybe an extra 10 or 20% off for each additional. What we did the last time when we bought our AP's, was we bought them for a discount with Park Savers. Huge discount actually. Then we upgraded them after using them, which allowed us to keep the discount. Used our Disney Visa Rewards to pay off the balance. This broke the payments up in 2 parts which was helpful, and not having to pay cash for the balance was nice. Since they also raise prices every year and this year was huge, is when you renew, you are almost paying what you did initially, so there isn't too much of a discount.
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We didn't renew; we bought them fresh, and they were about $550 per person. Then they let us upgrade and get the waterparks for free. We've been finding that it's cheaper to buy fresh than to renew. I think now they went up to $580, but still not bad.
 

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