So does your school have better food now like the schools where he has managed to revamp the lunch programs?!
No my school has awful food still. And I don't think he would try to help the school he hated so much when he was a child... lol. Our school cafeteria is GREAT though if you want cold pizza or rock-hard cakes! 
What I know about MSG, is that it is a naturally occurring amino acid, but in the way it is gotten into such a strong and pure form and added to foods, it is reputed to be bad for you causing many different possible reactions in different people. I personally know a guy who always seemed very withdrawn and unfriendly (knew him for a couple of years that he was like that) who gave it up and turned into a completely different person, happy and outgoing. He's had a far better life since he gave it up, something like 5 years ago. My dad's wife gets headaches when she has it. And I personally just decided with all the health things I've had to deal with, I should just play it safe and stay away from it. I would not be surprised if it is addictive. It certainly is known to have an effect on the nervous system.
That's bad. I'm not sure if MSG is in anything I eat- I certainly hope not! Different foods obviously do have different effects on different people... I steer clear of chocolate in the evening seeing as I can never get to sleep if I eat it too close to going to bed. Do you have Lucozade where you live? I'm sure you do. Apparently looking at the list of ingredients in that drink is enough to make you feel sick and never drink it again. 
I don't drink soft drinks (don't you call them soda?) as I find them disgusting. And they are addictive too! Lol.
Yes, the food problems can be pretty difficult to deal with at times. But I guess you can get used to anything when you have no choice.
The biggest thing is just that I know it is difficult for other people just like it can be for me at times and so it effects eating out and going to friend's homes quite a bit.
Oh yes, that must be difficult. It can be hard getting people to cater for your dietary requirements when you're out and stuff. At WDW they are SO accommodating with people's allergies though... maybe you can use that as your excuse for moving over there...
If I were only allergic to fish that would be easy enough for people to cope with but when there are multiple things and when some of them can be "hidden ingredients" it's pretty much impossible to put that burden on others not to mention, then would you be able to trust they can get it right and you won't have some sort of anaphylaxis, that they would never stop apologizing for? Oh, well. Everyone has different stuff to deal with in life, right?
Yes, it must be scary. Nowadays there are so many hidden ingredients in food that you wouldn't expect to be there! Can you eat nuts? Because that is the one ingredient that is in lots of foods even when you wouldn't expect it. Do you not eat out with friends and family then? I would find the risk of falling ill worrying and that would stop me. At least you can cope with it, even if it's hard or challenging. I guess it must make you a stronger person too!
Yes, it's just juice all day. I have an appliance called a juicer and for the juice fast you are supposed to make the juice fresh and drink it right away. I'm not doing it so well right now partly because things keep coming up like a friend needing to go out and talk so at the restaurant I got food. lol. And as mentioned in my previous post, my DH took me on an overnight trip, so I didn't try to do it 100%. I took juice with me for breakfast and lunch and I ate at the restaurant at the hotel last night. Then we had today to deal with lunch today before we got home in the afternoon. Anywho.
How can you do that? If I were doing a juice fast I would be starving by midday! Do you puree lots of fruit and make juice and smoothies? They must be a little more filling than just juice. Ah yes, the good thing about trips is that you get to eat out and enjoy nice food! Who could say no to delicious food and a fun overnight trip?! 
It was not hard when I did a juice fast last summer. As long as I made my juices 80% veg and 20% fruit and always started with something green and leafy I had no food cravings or hunger or anything. And when I did it for fifteen days last summer, I lost 15 pounds and I never gained them back.
Wow! That sounds great! I hear so many things about how hard it is to lose weight... but it looks like it was easy for you! Vegetables in a juice? Wouldn't that taste a little odd? I always thought it was just fruit. Lol. Vegetables are more filling than fruits though, that's something! And losing that much weight is great too!
Now that I've said the juice thing isn't hard, I have to say I don't think it would be the right choice for a permanent way to eat. There are lots of people who think being vegan is perfectly healthy, but I can't say they have me convinced, not by a long shot. Not that I'm inviting debate, I just want to be clear that for your health I, personally, don't recommend veganism. I'm just full of opinions, I know. *blush*
Surely you'd be malnourished if you did a juice fast all the time... because compared to the big meals you're meant to eat it sounds like nothing. I agree- I would find being a vegan so difficult to stick to and a challenge to prepare meals too. And vegan foods surely just can't be as good as dairy and meat? Some people with allergies to meat or lactose intolerance might have to be vegans, but I wouldn't do it by choice. I know it must be good for some people, but for me... and you!... it probably isn't. Everyone's got opinions... lol... You should hear some people at my school. But in the end opinions are great! 
Actually, no. He ended up deciding to get a paying job and end the apprenticeship. I can't blame him, but I hope he can get back to learning that on the side at some point, especially since he is not interested in college.
Oh, well he can always go back to it! It's always good to have some sort of qualification or skill... but as long as he enjoys what he's doing! (Okay... who actually DOES enjoy work?! Lol.) Apprenticships are a great way to go if you aren't interested in college apparently, as you must know, being a homeschool teacher!
Yes, there was a real Pocahontas but her real life story doesn't really bare much resemblance to the story Disney told. Being a person who loved her story for years before the Disney movie came out I couldn't really understand why Disney stole her name to tell their tale of the evil white man coming in for profit and mayhem. The part of her story that people know and that they sort of worked with in the movie is the part where she saved John Smith's life. Outside of including a version of that Disney didn't really have anything going on in the movie that had anything to do with reality. But since you loved the movie and you love history you might enjoy this site:
http://pocahontas.morenus.org/
I used to love it when The History Channel would show a movie based on a historical event and then do an episode of "history vs. hollywood" about it. Good Stuff.
I didn't know that there was a real Pocahontus! It is a great story though, even the way Disney tells it! Disney makes everything seem magical- even when in real life the stories must have been more gory. I guess Disney movies can't be too realistic to history, because of the audience they are aimed at. Thanks for the link- it's really interesting! I think the history channel is also in England- so I'll look and see if anything like 'history vs. hollywood' is on. Is it discontinued? It must be on youtube or something. I love documentaries like that- they're fascinating.
Ah, ok. I get it. So a U.S. penny is to a dollar as a U.K. penny is to a pound. And a dime is just like a 10 pence piece. I could deal with that, since y'all have the value on yours unlike our dime, which you just have to memorize.
Wait- don't you have 'cents' anywhere? I thought that the US had dollars and cents. Shows how little I know! Lol!
Wow, I didn't know it was in the 60's when they stopped minting those other coins. No wonder it was so confusing when I was there in the 80's. I remember thinking that it was crazy to have so many different coins. I'm supposing there were still coins in circulation from the old system all those years later. But on the other hand, I might be remembering incorrectly. Maybe it was just the new coins and I was just being really dense with them. To be serious for a moment, I'm pretty sure it was the old ones because there weren't any that had the values on them any of the times I had trouble. I was there in 1986. So not quite twenty years later. That is a good bit of time!
Ah yes. That is confusing! I'm not sure when they stopped circulating, but it was well out of my lifetime. Well... there are a few coins I missed out when I last mentioned British coins. We have a 1pence coin, 2pence coin, 5pence coin, 10pence coin, 20pence coin, 50pence coin, £1 coin and £2 coin. So we do have a lot... whoops! To be honest, there are far less coins in the US dollar currency, and also in the Euro currency most of Europe uses. I guess British coins are so simple to me because I have grown up with them- like US coins are probably simple to you.
It seems like the French people were predisposed to dislike or even to hate Marie Antoinette even when she was still essentially a child just before being sent to France to meet her intended. It must have had to do with the political climate of the time, rather than with her personally, stuff like French attitudes's towards Austria and the poorer people's of France and their feelings about the ruling class.
That's such a shame. She obviously didn't really deserve it then... all the hate directed at her! It usually is because of political climate or relationships with other countries. Did the French public dislike the Monarchy like other countries did at that time?
Here is a passage from an article I found on her trial:
"On 14th October, when the galleries had filled with expectant crowds (including the diehard groups of women who attended so many trials and executions that they now brought their knitting with them to do while they watched), the trial commenced. As expected Foquier-Tinville began with a lengthy, vitriolic speech in which he outlined the charges, and placed Marie Antoinette in a long line of infamously wicked women like Messalina, Brunhilda, Fredegund and Medici. He described her as the scourge and the blood-sucker of the French, and in language reminiscent of witchcraft accusations talked of the creatures and midnight meetings she employed.
From the outset then it was clear that the trial was to proceed along familiar lines of character assassination, the rationale seemingly being that proving Marie Antoinettes complete moral degeneracy would show her capable of committing any crime, thereby absolving the need to prove her guilty of actually committing particular ones."
That does sound bad- like they hated her so much! She was beheaded, right? Or was she hung? It's like what Henry VIII did to his wife Anne Boleyn (spelling?) in a way- didn't he accuse her of witchcraft and adultery? She was beheaded- no one realised that it was Henry's way of getting rid of her!
I didn't study very much history in college, but I did take a few history courses just during my freshman year of college. Good stuff. Mostly I'm just interested in it and I read a lot. And since I can't seem to hold much math in my head, there is lots of good space there for my high reading comprehension and retention.
Actually I have pretty good comprehension and retention for listening to lectures as well, if I'm being serious. And that is a good thing, because I do NOT have good note-taking skills!
Well- if you studied a little history in college that must be partly why you're so knowledgable about the subject as a whole! And considering there is so much history to learn, that is a really good thing. You must read a lot even now... to know so much and remember everything. At least you can learn from lectures... the word 'lecture' to me sounds so dull and long! (As does the actual thing!) My parents say there are a lot of lectures in university and college. So... I'm not exactly looking forward to that!
I agree. I've always liked the name Megan. In fact, I have a niece named Megan. And I love your screenname here! It's true that my girls have uncommon names. They are ahead of the trend I guess. Since we picked the names we see them more so we know they are becoming a bit more used. But Anneliese is still very rare even with a bit of increase. And the people who use it all seem to make up new spellings for it. We went with the traditional German spelling for it, knowing it was a German name. When I was still pregnant, my brother in law who was stationed in Germany at the time told his elderly neighbor about our expecting a girl and choosing that name and the old fellow said (in German) "They can't name that little baby that! That is an old woman's name!" I recently learned that although it is a German name and not terribly common there among the young folk, there was some famous German lady with it who had an influence in certain hispanic cultures for some reason and that it is currently very common among Spanish speaking people. I wish I knew who she was and what she was famous for with them!
Oh thanks! 
Well my middle name is Elizabeth (shortened to 'Beth') and my grandmother used to call me Meggie Beth. I'm guessing 'fromscratchmom' means you do everything from scratch? That's an awesome nickname too! 
Anneliese is a great name- it sounds quite elegant and pretty. If I had an uncommon name I would feel quite 'special' seeing as you don't feel particularly special when there's 10 people in your school with the same name as you! Anneliese isn't so uncommon that I haven't heard of it, but I don't know anyone with that name. Haha, Anneliese doesn't sound like an 'old' name to me! Names like 'Gertrude' and 'Margaret' do. I'm pretty sure that you could find out who this german person was that made it so common with Spanish speaking people! To me, Anneliese sounds more French than German. German sounds like quite a harsh language to me, and Anneliese doesn't sound harsh at all. As for Gwyneth, my grandmother is called that but spells it 'Gwynneth'. Personally I think 'Gwyneth' is more pretty than it with 2 'n's. Do you know what country Gwyneth is from? I have always wondered that seeing as it is quite an unusual name.
He lives with us, in fact. He gets to pay low rent and save up some money from his job while he figures out what he is going to do with his life.
Oh that's nice! You must be enjoying spending time with him. It must be hard for a parent to say goodbye to their grown up child, moving out. Especially seeing as America is so big- he could go anywhere.
OH, I forgot about liquid cups vs. dry cups. But that is OK. They aren't actually different amounts. They are just differently shaped containers for holding the amount. Its because when you are measuring flour and the like, if you aren't going to put it on a scale, which a lot of American's don't, the best you can do to be precise with your measurement is to fill your container to the brim and then level it off across the top, but when you are measuring liquids you need to have a larger container and a line to fill to for the measurement, so that you don't spill.
Oh, really? I though cups were a weight. Whoops! So they are like ml and litres then... you measure upto a line. I've always thought that must be just a little innaccurate. Do you not use grams or kilograms at all? I know your country uses imperial but I thought the metric system was spreading across the world. Lol.
Oh your poor dog, the timid thing! I have a tiny little dog and he might be scared of fireworks too, but somehow I picture him just getting obnoxious barking at them.
Hehehe! He's actually a labrador, so quite big, but he gets scared at big bangs and little dogs too! Lol! He's so playful and most other dogs get cross with him and bite him, especially little ones. What kind of dog do you have? I can just imagine a tiny dog barking at fireworks.
I had heard of Guy Fawkes and I thought I knew that he had been behind some sort of rebellion, but I didn't know about the holiday. I'll have to look into it. So see you have inspired me too!
It isn't really a holiday... there's still school and work! But there are lots of fireworks and things. Schools usually make a guy fawkes model and burn it on a bonfire.
We don't have many of them here and when we do, they sell really tacky plastic decorations. Sounds like you had a great time! And who doesn't like shopping?! 
I hear September is a great time to go! I take it your trip was wonderful? 
Look at how close we are... we used to be such good friends! 
so yummy. I used to be pretty good but a couple years went by that I didn't bake hardly at all and now I mess up all the time 
all well I guess it's not a big deal right now if I can't bake since my mom can't have gluten anyways, but I'm going to try to make a pie for thanksgiving this year 
