B2B 11/08

Currently I am a nanny/housekeeper for a family with five children, two are still in diapers the other three are school aged. During the school year (this is my first year with them) I work 9 hours a day, the first hour I have all five of them and get them ready for school. Then the next four hours I clean the house (laundry, deep cleaning, dishes etc) then the last four hours I take care of the two in diapers and one of the school aged kids. I make 325 dollars a week or 65 dollars a day. However with summer coming I will have all five kids all day, plus be expected to keep up with most of the cleaning. Also the mom will only be working three days a week but still wants me to come in all five days. I am currently pregnant and have been very exhausted so I was thinking of asking if I could only work the days she works since she really doesn't need me the other days. But I am also thinking of asking for more money the days I do work. It will sort of be like I'm asking for more money to work less. But if she bumps my rate to 100 a day (still much cheaper than daycare) and I only work three days she will be paying less weekly. I think its fair to ask for more money when you see that ill be doing more work, but I want some opinions. I am so nervous to even talk to her about it, since I'm leaving when the baby comes in the fall anyway what if she just fires me? Please lots of opinions!

Okay I am a nanny and usually for holidays I come up with really fun things but I am preggo now and my energy and brain are shot! I need ideas quick for St Patties day. I work with twin boys who are 3 but are delayed so crafts and projects should be geared more toward 2 year olds, and then a five year old boy. It doesnt have to be tons of stuff but just some fun st patties day ideas, with stuff most people already have laying around becuase I dont know if I will have time to have the parents buy everything!

Thanks so much for helping me pick up my slack!

Okay here's the situation (may get detailed or gross) I have been menstrating for the last 14 years so at this point in my life I'm very regular I always with the exception of maybe 5 or 10 cycles have started on day 26. I keep very close watch of these things. Well Monday was day 26 so today is day 29 (I have only started on day 28 twice, never ever as late as 29). So the obvious default is pregnancy which my husband and I have been ttc, so I did take a test Sunday which was negative ( I am aware of false negatives). And I have been having symptoms of pregnancy such as breast tenderness, extreme nasuea, I've been gagging at everything. But I have also been having extreme cramping, worse than any I have ever experianced. So I think maybe ectopic pregnancy or something. So most of the evidence points toward pregnancy except the extremem cramping. I have also been having a lot of clear discharge its not even tinged pink.

So I started feeling a little concern so I called the nurse, she basically blew me off, didn't credit me for knowing my body and just said your periods just late take some tylonol!!!

So what do you think?

I plan on taking another test tomorrow but I'm going out of town this weekend and if is a tubal pregnancy I don't want to be in danger.

I normally do an intense full body workout that only lasts for 15 mins (later in the day I take on my cardio via jogging or walking) it is a workout in which each excersize tackles multiple muscle groups. However I seem to have hurt my knee so I need a routine that is very very low impact as well as not too much bending as in squatting or lunging. Which really limits me. I need something intense that in a short amount of time works a lot of body yet won't injure me further...any ideas?

I have really bad headaches that the doctors have just labeled atypical migraines and here take this med and be on your way. Well I decided to be an advocate for my own health and am trying to issolate possible causes. My first idea is that maybe I'm gluten intolerant. So on jan the 10th I started going gluten free so almost two weeks. However on the 13th my headaches started getting more frequent and more intense. Not so much so that I think I should see a doctor but enough to be noticed. Well I did some research and found out that you can have gluten withdrawals. How long do I wait to say either it does or doesn't work. I had planned a month but with the headaches getting worse I wonder if its worth it. Could this still be withdrawal almost two weeks later?

My husband and I are interested in dairy free gluten free living for a variety of reasons. We are attempting it for one month to see if we accomplish our goals. However we are also anti soy because of the hormones. Our goal is to eat as natural and organic and unprocessed as possible. Also as cheap as possible. Please give me any tips you might have recipes or other resources...thank you!

We have two parakeets. We feed and water them daily. They never take baths (even when they are offered they hate them). They chirp all day and they play with their toys and eat their food. They seem happy even though we rarely interact with them. I feel bad like we are neglecting them but they seem happy just hanging out the two of them. When we do open the cage for them to come out they never do and they bite if you try to hold them so I think they are pretty happy just ignoring us. But I could be wrong and I love animals too much to be making them miserable. We are just so busy! We think they are fun to watch and stuff but like I said they seem content. They always talk to each other and play and eat. What is your opinion?

A friend of mine just had a baby and she is going to attempt to do her first ever marathon in 7 months. Being a beginner she asked if I would like to join her since I have never done one either. Here is a briefing of me. I am about 35 lbs overweight and have been losing weight since August. I currently do excersize videos in my home and occasionally walk two or so miles. I have never in my life been a runner in fact the last time I tried to run I sprained my ankle just from the impact. I would need to master my form obviously. But if I were to attempt this marathon how should I go about training for it?

FOr example is it a good place to raise a family what is the best school district inthe area...whats the crime level. why would there be a shorttage of people willing to be a cop there? What is a good place to live in the country outside of Canton if you had to commute to Canton...etc. I may be moving there and I need a read on the area! Thanks!

I have a 1997 Dodge Neon. The only things on the dash are a speedometer, a trip gauge, a gas gauge, and a hot and cold gauge. The speedometer has been coming and going for the last year. Now all of the sudden my trip gauge and my gas gauge and my hot and cold gauge all quit! The speedometer is still hit or miss. We checked the wires it appears good! Help we dont have money to fix it so any ideas?

Thanks

Okay for about a year we have been renting this house, and now we have signed another lease. We have older used furniture and none of it matches. For the first year I resigned myself to the fact that since we couldn't afford new furniture and are very limited in our paint selection the house would just have to look bad, but I have decided that I want it to look nice, however I am no interior designer. HELP!

Living room first others later: currently the carpet is a lighter sky blue (I hate blue in decorating!) and that won't be able to change. The walls are a lighter blue (we can paint but nothing to 'extreme'). We have a sofa and a loveseat that are shades of brown and off white (could buy cheaper slip covers). We have wood end tables that are brown and we also have some black/glass ones in the garage. Our entertainment center is a black metal and a light wood. So that is what we are working with. In decorating I personally like darker colors (so nothing like the blues ;) ) like blacks darker maroons and then creme accents. But I want it to look nice with what we have!

Thanks so mcuh!

Okay I have been very tired the past few months. I have headaches but I have always since I was young been a headache sufferer. Other than that I have had no constant other symptoms. This started about 5 months ago. I have gone to the dr they did blood tests iron is normal thyroid is normal kidneys great, everything looked great! They did a basic neuro exam (you know touch your nose, walk in a straight line etc.) passed with flying colors. They decided it was anxiety and put me on Zoloft. Seems to have helped my attitude but now I think I am even more fatigued. Any ideas about what could be causing this and how to fix it? I have been too tired to even do chores and I am a very anal retentive person in that my home is always clean! Also my periods have been regular so I don't think it could be a pregnancy!

Okay I have been having a burning/stinging sensation in my chest that hurts pretty bad since Monday. I went to the dr yesterday and he said it was heartburn but he didn't do any tests, he was just pretty confident it wasnt heart problems since I am so young with no history of heart problems which make sense. But I am a little freaked out becuase I have been having pain in my left shoulder shooting down my arm since last night. This could be a pinched nerve but I am afraid it is connected to the chest pain. Any opinions?

Thanks a ton!

I have a lot of symptoms but none of which are causing me as much pain as this burning in my lungs. They gave me an antibiotic so there is hope in sight but is there any medicine that I can get over the counter to take away the burning in my lungs? Thanks!

My husband and I both work and go to school. We have spring break next week and we still have to work so we get about two days off. We want to plan a little vacation, nothing big or expensive since we are in school! We live in near Grand Rapids MI and we just want some ideas for a night or two worth of vacation. Any ideas?

I am going to a tropical valentines party on Friday and I need an easy recipe. I have two bananas, some pineapple, and mandarin oranges. I can buy more but would like to not have to. Thanks!

Okay I have a bag of dry pinto beans and left over ham slices. I want to make a ham and bean soup for dinner tonight! Every recipe I can find says something to the effect of soak beans overnight! I didn't know I needed to do that. Do you have a recipe that I could actually make for dinner tonight assuming we will eat in about 3-4 hours. Also I have a recipe that can be done in my time limit however it calls for navy beans... can I use pinto beans instead of navy beans?

Thank you so much!

My brother is getting married in FL in April...my siblings their spouses and children myself and my husband and my parents are all going to the wedding. But we are also all taking a good week off to go. We plan on driving so we will only be there for about 4 days. Two days being consumed by the wedding the other two free to do whatever. We are thinking probably a beach day, but what are some other good activities? Obviousl there disney and universal but we dont know much about them. The prices etc. Some of us hate roller coaster while some love them. We would like something everyone would enjoy and that isn't too expensive since the trip isnt actually for the amusment parks! So what do you think? Also with a group of twleve can we get group rates?

Okay we are looking into getting a camcorder and we dont have a terrible lot of money to spend on it. We were planning on getting a dvd one so that we could you know actually watch the discs. But they are a lot more costly than say the digital ones. So with digital one can we upload the videos to the laptop and then burn the dvds right on the laptop. My husband said there are some movie editting programs on the computer but there is nothing special that we bought just whatever came on it. Also there is iTunes which I don't know if you can use for that or not. What do you think can we do it without investing in new programs for the computer? Also what are some tips on making sure we get a good one? Brands, megapix, zoom, etc... Thanks!

Okay I am no good at haircuts...I mean after I get them...I forget to style a lot and I don't really know how to adjust from having no bangs to having even side swiping bangs.. I usually wind up hating my new style and growing it out...do you have any tips on how to adjust to a new style without all the sudden loathing it?