New high school cell phone policy

When I was in school, it was 85 cents for [2008-11-18]
lunch and 15 cents for milk. All 3 of my kids do go to the same school. The discounted meals aren It We make too much to qualify for any of the state-funded programs (not that I

Trak phone users -- [2008-11-17]
I He He often earns money mowing grass, in addition to birthday/holiday money that he receives throughout the year. He So, my question is, can you text with Trak phones? I don Do the minutes expire on Trak phones?

Yes, that's pretty much it. Phone tells you when they're due. [2008-11-17]
nn

The only sure thing about having a High IQ [2008-11-11]
is that you can score high on an IQ test. My mother had an IQ of 150 and she was a data entry clerk all of her life.

I have a 16yo son. On school nights, he has to be home by 9p. SM [2008-11-04]
On weekends, midnight. However, he is not allowed to be gone every night during the week. It helps that his girlfriend Plus they do their homework together which is nice. My son when from failing classes last year to make all As and Bs this year. So I try to give him a little more freedom because of the effort he's been giving.

could be from online access from phone [2008-11-02]
x

not normal...usually a plan covers all the fancy phone options sm [2008-11-01]
if that was my phone bill I would freak out. Heck I don A good cell phone plan, with data included should not even cost that much because you get allowances for texting, etc. whose ever that is really needs to revisit their contract.

I use Tracfone but have heard of cell phone - sm [2008-11-01]
bills being quite high due to texting. If your plan does not cover that, and your kid or whoever has the third phone on your plan is texting up a storm, you are being charged for each and ever text he/she sends, who knows maybe on the received texts too, call your provider and ask why it is so high, then either find out if you can cancel the texting ability or take the phone away from the guilty party. ---make them pay for the overage too.

cell phone [2008-11-01]
I have 4 phones on my bill. We pay $9.00/month extra for unlimited texting for my son, otherwise our bill would probably be that high. Our bill with 4 phones and extra for the texting is $90.

We have a few school closings now in Sussex County. [2008-10-28]
I am in Morris, very close to Sussex and in the mountains. We should be getting a few inches for the day is over.

Our first cold front in Miami. High 50's. It hasn't [2008-10-28]
nm

On phone call: Yes, this is her. ARGH! Should be: This is SHE sm [2008-10-27]
and I was taught (112 years ago in school) that it is she and her brother not her and her brother. I know it is not always her or she, but I am not clear which is which. I often default to my elementary school English lessons.

Not educational. This is something that should be the parents job to teach, not the school. sm [2008-10-16]
Besides, why should school children have a field trip to ANY wedding? What would people say if someone had a field trip to a church service? These are things that parents need to be able to teach their children when the time is right.

So did they do this on school time? [2008-10-16]
If so that would mean that this teacher was married on the job and that someones tax dollars paid for the children to be there. I would much rather my children be in the classroom learning to better THEIR future than attending a wedding.

I'd be all over that school with an attorney for it. [2008-10-16]
nm

I still think it should be the parents who teach the child these things, not the school's place. [2008-10-16]
Each child goes to school to learn facts. They learn their social skills, values, etc.at home and from friends that their parents allow them to associate with. The school is a public entity full of many INDIVIDUALS who all have different values and opinions. Teachers should not be teaching children their own personal values and should leave that to the parents.

But this is not a school-wide accepted teaching practice, it is individual (nm) [2008-10-16]
x

No, in the MW our kids go to school to get an acutal [2008-10-16]
xx

Yes, and friends too. But school is where kids learn facts, so whatever their teacher says (sm) [2008-10-16]
they are going to think it must be right. I think that is unfair leverage to use to support your own point of view as a teacher.

It's not on school time. [2008-10-16]
.

And here I do agree with you, which is why I don't want the school to have a legal right (sm) [2008-10-16]
to teach my child what the teacher personally thinks is right or wrong, but to let me as the parent do that. Yes, they will grow up and decide for themselves, but at that point I will have done what I felt was right.

A "Gay Friendly" high school [2008-10-15]
Chicago may get 'gay-friendly' high school. Gay students bullied so much by classmates that their grades suffer are set to get a school more friendly to them in Chicago, Illinois. Local officials say the proposed Pride Campus will not be a gay school but is likely to include children who have been victimized for their sexual orientation or perceived orientation. Gay students who are harassed have lower grades and higher dropout rates than classmates who are heterosexual, a national study found last week. Link below...

Maybe, but do they have to be that tough even in high school? sm [2008-10-15]
There are so many stories of homosexual high-schoolers being bullied and some even killed. I agree that they have to learn to live in the world as it is, but as high-schoolers, I am inclined to say they deserve some protection.

Has anyone else noticed food prices going SKY HIGH??? [2008-10-11]
Seems like everything is outrageous anymore!!

I'm going back to school!!!! [2008-10-09]
Sorry ya'll I am just so excited! I've really been wanting to go back and finish my psychology degree and now I can! We're gonna have to sacrifice some things (bye bye cable TV and cell phone extras) but if I don't go now when will I?? I just hope that this economic mess doesn't mess up my Stafford loan.... :/

live in a town of <150. No zeros. [2008-11-22]
that's less than 150 people, 13 miles from nearest grocery, in the middle of the USA...and i grew up in a big city in CA. but whoohoo!! now we have a cell tower too. turkeys roam the yard every day. sometimes deer, right in town :) and we've been upgraded to high speed I/N as well. Living is good!!

My town has 25,000 people but when I first moved [2008-11-22]
here 23 years ago, it only had 5,000. We had a Tastee Freeze and a Chicken Country and that was it. Our town has gotten to big for our liking but the school system is excellent so I suppose we'll just bear with it for a while.

Has our country taken a turn for the ... [2008-11-21]
Our once great country, I afraid, has just turned a corner for the worse. I have watched as the mentality of our country has gone from setting your mind to something, working hard, and you can accomplish it to giving up, sitting back, and letting somebody else take care of them. I was brought up, as many were, with a good work ethic that was instilled in us by our parents. With the idea that if you want something you had to work for it, and by working for something you learned quickly the difference between wants and needs. There were always incentives for a person to strive to better themselves. Whether it were financial incentives, or just the pride you gained in knowing that you did something yourself, it didn�t matter. I wasn�t long ago that people had that �small town� mentality, and everybody knew their neighbors. And those neighbors helped each other out, in any situation, it was just what you did. And people were so proud that some times help would have to be disguised, you remember the lines like..�Mom made more stew than we could eat, could you help us out by taking it so that it doesn�t go to waste?� But, somewhere along the line those thoughts of some (I guess now the majority) have changed. Some how, if somebody works hard to gain something others feel entitled to have the same things, even if they didn�t have to go through the struggle to earn it. Some how, things like big screen TVs, cell phones, and shiny new cars have wrongly slipped from the �wants� list to the �needs� list. Somewhere the incentives to strive for betterment have been replaced by incentives to be lazy. The easy way out and hand outs are now the norm. The feeling of pride about being self sufficient is supposed to be replaced by guilt for having more than others. The �small town� mentality is gone and our neighbors have turned into strangers. People no longer help out their neighbors or even themselves, instead they sit and wait for the government to come solve things for them. And when help does come they complain that the help wasn�t good enough or didn�t come fast enough, the pride is gone. Well, I refuse to think that way, my small town roots and work ethic runs to deep. I refuse to let somebody take care of me while I am willing and able to take care of myself. I will continue to meet and know my neighbors and help them out when they need it. I will continue to work hard to take care of my needs and by doing so, my wants will take care of themselves. I will continue to volunteer for things and give to charities of my choice regardless of what the government wants to take away from me and give to the undeserving. My hope is to change the thinking back to the way it was. The sun will rise again tomorrow, I�ll keep doing what I do, and this country can be great again�.at least in my little corner of it�

How exciting for you -- sm [2008-11-21]
I My mom always drug me out an hour before the stores opened. The ads usually come out in Thursday In the past, I Get the paper and makea game plan. Some stores open an hour or 2 later than others, so you may be able to get to both in time for the specials you Wal-Mart generally has a lot of specials, especially in the toys dept. Our Wal-Mart gives you a map when you enter to tell you where each BF special is located in the store. They put some stuff in strange places -- like TVs in the meat dept, computers in dairy, etc. It Ask the Wal-Mart greeter when you enter. Our Wal-Mart is also open 24 hours, as are most, which means no waiting outside. We usually arrive an hour before the sales start so we can be in position for the item. Obviously, the most-sought after items are electronics, so be there early if you Target is 1 of my favorite places because their specials run all weekend, not just until 11 a.m. (I hope it They usually open an hour after Wal-Mart. I usually head there second because even though the specials run all weekend, they do run out of stock. Kohl The cash can be redeemed usually starting the Sunday after Black Friday. Don If there General advise: Wear comfortable shoes. Be polite to others, but don If you got there first, it Make sure you and DH have cell phones so you can communicate if you get separated. Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!! Let us know how you make out afterwards.

Will spend about $300 for the grandkids.. [2008-11-21]
we donmetal detector, probably around $1200 and I have the same amount to do something with. We don't really buy gifts for each other but we do go away for Christmas week to a cabin in the mountains that we rent, no phone, no TV, have to drive 12 miles to get cell service. We relax, read, snowshoe, ski, bring the portable DVD player and catch up on movies, sleep late. That's our gift to each other.

make a call [2008-11-20]
Look in the phone book under Alcoholics Anonymous and call the central office. Tell them you need someone to make a 12-step call. Someone from your local area who is in AA will come over to your house and talk to your husband and you can leave with the kids during this time. By the time you get back, your husband will have decided whether or not he will sober up. Usually the person he talked to will assume responsibility for taking him to the meetings or finding someone who will sponsor him. So you are off the hook at this point. On the other hand, he may decide no thanks and then you will have your real answer. AA is free and pretty crowded with new people around the holidays, so the timing is good. The average age of a person coming into AA is 25 to 45, so there should be plenty of people for him to talk to. At the same meeting place there should be meetings for you called Al-Anon and for your son called Alateen. Good Luck!

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation 1863 [2008-11-19]
Abraham Lincoln while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.By The President: Abraham LincolnWilliam H. Seward, Secretary of State

We have been spending less than 100 [2008-11-19]
And we are starving. DH took over going to the grocery store from me (He thought I spent too much when I would spend about 150 a week.) It has been months since we do not have a bare cupboard. I am not complaining. I understand we are broke and he needs to pay the creditors. But the one person who has pretty much stopped eating is me. I am home all day and there is never bread to make a sandwich and I often pass up supper because I am tired of eating junky stuff like mac and cheese or spaghetti with meat sauce. He and our 11 year old son, on the other hand eat thirds of whatever meal it is. I get kind of annoyed. Our littlest boy and middle girl eat very little. All 3 take their lunch to school. I say to DH either stop eating so much (for him and the older boy) or buy more. He flips his eyes at me. We even stopped getting microwave popcorn which used to fill them up. So, now I am hoping to work extra to go to the grocery store myself and put an extra 100 a week in myself, but I keep running out of work. You see, this all started when we started running out of work in transcription about a year ago this fall, and my DH took over the bills. Apparently food was the first to be cut. And, BTW I don't ever go anywhere because there is no gas in my car, and it has 2 flat tires. We live by the school and I borrow DH's car to take the kids but it is always on empty. We seem to make it every time. Oh, well. No need to complain. Just cutting back. The family is lucky I work at home, don't use gas, barely eat. But I do have to pay 10 bucks a month for nerve pills, because it is hard doing without. Like I said, when work picks up transcribing first place I am going after I get gas for the car is to the food store. Eventually I can repair my flat tires.

Deenibeeni, you are right on sm [2008-11-19]
and the question is...why do you have creditors that have to be paid before you can eat? Is it his high spending habits that got you into this mess? He is starving you because why...you don't make the same money he does??? Toro poo poo! Email me...we'll find you a better job at the very least. We need to talk and I won't harp on you, I only want to help. I'll pay for the call if you send the number and tell me when you are safe to talk.

My family is hurting :( [2008-11-19]
Some of you may remember the recent pet picture postings here. I posted a picture of my baby girl, Daisy, nursing her three babies who arenow nearly two years old. My husbandcame home about an hour and a half ago and went to let them inside, and the only boy (besides the dad), Chewy,did not come with the others. They all always come up on the deck when they hear his car, so he knew something was going on. He came into my office and asked if we had Chewy with us, and then went to see if he had gotten out of the fence. A few minutes later he came in and said that he found him still in the backyard, lying under the trees on a pile of leaves, and that he wasdead. We are all so sad . We do not know what happenedto our baby .. . he had been fine just a couple of hours before, when my son got home from school and went to see the dogs. He said that Chewy was acting no differently than usual and seemed fine. I am just beside myself not knowing what happened to this sweet little guy. He was the SWEETEST EVER and we will miss him dearly. WE LOVE YOU,CHEWY!!! May you rest in peace.

My family is hurting :( [2008-11-19]
Some of you may remember the recent pet picture postings here. I posted a picture of my baby girl, Daisy, nursing her three babies who arenow nearly two years old. My husbandcame home about an hour and a half ago and went to let them inside, and the only boy (besides the dad), Chewy,did not come with the others. They all always come up on the deck when they hear his car, so he knew something was going on. He came into my office and asked if we had Chewy with us, and then went to see if he had gotten out of the fence. A few minutes later he came in and said that he found him still in the backyard, lying under the trees on a pile of leaves, and that he wasdead. We are all so sad . We do not know what happenedto our baby .. . he had been fine just a couple of hours before, when my son got home from school and went to see the dogs. He said that Chewy was acting no differently than usual and seemed fine. I am just beside myself not knowing what happened to this sweet little guy. He was the SWEETEST EVER and we will miss him dearly. WE LOVE YOU,CHEWY!!! May you rest in peace.

Christmas Gifts [2008-11-19]
We have two daughters 5 and 14. It's harder with the 14 year old because now she wants all the high end gifts. We usually spend about $300 per child and we're probably going to do about the same this year. Luckily they're about the only people we buy for any more. If we had a lot of family members to buy for it would probably be a lot less. Now that the nieces and nephews are older and some married, we don't get them gifts and the few relatives we do buy for we usually don't spend a whole lot. My husband and I already got our Christmas gift for each other, a big flat screen TV so we're basically done with ourselves too.

I'm in Florida and spend about $175/wk for 5 sm [2008-11-18]
I5 and 158 lbs,eats more than my husband, who is 6 and 345 lbs. FIL had to have a feeding tube put in last July, and I had to cut down meals by half because we were having so many leftovers and wasting money. Just when I thought I had it figured out, he was able to get the tube removed, so II donwe (FIL and I) will just eat a sandwich or leftovers from the fridge As far as special foods, we dona recipe, and for a while we were buying meat ata butcher shop but have had to cut that out for now. It was really good but was close to DH's work, and if he couldn't pick it up while he was in the area, it was a 45-minute drive. I cook most things from scratch, except lasagna because I hate making it. Once a month, we have a luncheon at church that I bring a dish and a dessert, and I cook Wednesday night dinner there one night per month, but I get reimbursed for the Wednesday night dinner. I do include paper products and toiletries in with my grocery budget but that's it, and I usually go to Sam's once a month for those. I have it easy compared to my parents though. My dad got paid once a month, and there were 4 kids at home all the time, 5 when my sister came up during the summer. They used to have 3 grocery carts slap full of food, and my mom figured out that it took something like 18 boxes of cereal to last a month, each one with a date marked on it so we didnWe also hada freezer to keep extra bread and other things, and my mom also used to mix in powdered milk when the gallon was half-way gone. I never knew until I was grown, so she definitely blended it well.

I think I spend less at the store when [2008-11-18]
we eat out/order in. Of course, then our entertaining budget increases. But some things are cheaper to just order in. For example, pizzas -- I can get 2 large pepperoni pizzas from the local pizzeria for under $20. If I buy them in the store, I spend about $15 and then have to cook them and my kids don The frozen kind are also smaller. I just got groceries this past Friday and spent $200. I had an entire cart full. In addition to the coupons I had, I also had a 20% discount on everything (one of those reward plans for spending so much the previous 2 months). I got value packs of skinless/boneless chicken breasts - buy 1 get 1 free -- $15 packs of chicken, breakfast sausage on sale, ham steaks on sale, plus my 20% off all that. Overall, I think I spend somewhere around $150 a week on groceries. There are 5 of us -- me, my hubs, and 3 boys -- ages 6 to 11. What I notice that I spend more on are school lunches. It costs $2.00 a day per child and I don I $2/day x 3 kids = $6/day x 5 days/week = $30/week x 4 weeks/month = $120 for lunch. YIKES!!! I think I can do better than that if I pack them.

Not a charge per se........sm [2008-11-18]
Just be sure that you do it from your land line or online throught the Tracfone web site. If you use your Tracfone to activate or add air time, you could lose some of your air time. Overall, I think it is a great way to have a cell phone because you can control the costs (no surprise $400 phone bills) and there is no contract (therefore no fee for cancellation of your contract if you choose to end the service).

Dogs v kids [2008-11-18]
I am a sucker for a pretty face & don't have kids, so I am at my dogs' mercy. You should see their stockpile of dog treats. It's ridiculous. School lunches. $2 a day! Doesn't sound like a lot for a meal, but it sure adds up...you would think they would give you some kind of deal because you have 3 kids. I guess I'm assuming they all go to the same school. Now I'm dating myself, but when I was in elementary school I think it cost 40 or 45 cents for lunch. A nickel for milk. Amazing!

I'm in Delaware... [2008-11-18]
but I go usually twice a week. I don I like to buy it, cook it, and move it out, so I can go back and buy fresh. I have 3 grocery stores right within 5 miles to choose from and just got a Super WalMart, but prefer the smaller grocery stores. But, if I bring DH, we spend more. He likes to try different marinades and spices that can get costly, but we do use them. I tend to be more frugal than my DH. But, then again, that's just me. Oh, we have two school-aged children that eat plenty of anything you put in front of them. So, not much goes to waste. I was taught to cook enough to feed an Army so we usually have plenty of leftovers that I can also fool with for another meal, i.e., leftover meatloaf becomes meat for spaghetti sauce. Mashed potatoes become fried potatoe pancakes in the pan for a great side dish. I also by those Pillsbury french loafs in the can and make my own strombolis out of leftover taco meat or even just lunch meat. My Mom taught me a lot about making food serve multiple purposes. We eat out very rarely although there is plenty to choose from, but it I guess I'm lucky there..

I have a tracfone - sm [2008-11-18]
the minutes do not expire per se. Your service plan does though. I buy mine one year at a time, $99 for a year of service, then you buy minutes. Granted I buy a service plan and minutes together, and have the double minutes for life plan too. You can rollover minutes when your renew your service. You can get service either every two months or yearly I believe. I can text with my phone which is one of the Motorola flip phones. I used to have an old dinosaur Nokia but upgaded to a new phone for $10 or so at the Dollar store, phones are a lot cheaper there. If he is a yakker then it will get expensive fast, texting is a bit cheaper but he gets into the habit of doing that all the time his units will disappear fast. It is a good phone to have for the occasional call, etc. I would not use it as an everyday general use phone though. My old model phone actually worked better and got a signal just about everywhere, my new one is good but does not work everywhere my old one did, but I like it much better as it is smaller and lighter.

I have a TracFone. And I LOVE it. It is the original Nokia, but..sm [2008-11-18]
I can text on it. Texting uses up your minutes. However, when you run out of minutes, you doncodes that you have, you sometimes can get bonus minutes etc. So if I have 10 minutes left on my phone and I buy another 120 minute card, when I am done activating it I will have 130 minutes on my phone. And if I have a code then I will have the minutes from that also. I would not hesitate to get another TracFone. They have some really cheap, reconditioned ones too.

Mine does too. She will come home for [2008-11-18]
school and ask Is this whatever I can find for dinner night? She is 14 and has just started cooking, so she absolutely loves it.

When I was in school, it was 85 cents for [2008-11-18]
lunch and 15 cents for milk. All 3 of my kids do go to the same school. The discounted meals aren It We make too much to qualify for any of the state-funded programs (not that I

My daughter mentioned True Blood before [2008-11-18]
but I told her no way. She's only 14. I heard about the series, but I haven't had a chance to watch it. If I had a moment to read, I'd like to read the Twilight books myself, but I just can't seem to find a minute to do any reading. My daughter is going on Friday with her Twilight school group and then again on Saturday.

I drove Ford pickups most of my life, but - sm [2008-11-17]
I got tired of the fact that the danged things don't steer well. They all have steering-gear problems. Each of my trucks ended up having anywhere from 2-4 new or rebuilt gears put in during my ownership, and they still were next to impossible to drive in a straight line. Getting parts was a pain too, as often you had to know the month the vehicle was built in order to get the right part. Simple do-it-yourself work often had to go to the shop instead, because of the difficulty of accessing the area without taking half of the front end apart. So of course the shop bills were high, too. It became increasingly difficult to get parts after the truck was 5 or 6 years old, and I drove most of mine for 12+ years. So when it was time for a new car, I wanted a midsize SUM. I did my homework, and chose a 4Runner because of the quality & favorable consumer reports. I couldn't afford a new one, so got a used one that was 5 years old. I'm still driving it, loving it, and it's like they say in the Timex watch commercials: 'It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'!'

Trak phone users -- [2008-11-17]
I He He often earns money mowing grass, in addition to birthday/holiday money that he receives throughout the year. He So, my question is, can you text with Trak phones? I don Do the minutes expire on Trak phones?

Both my boys have tracfones..........sm [2008-11-17]
or at least until the youngest lost his, LOL. My oldest son's tracfone has texting capabilities but I don't know if all of them do. His is Motorola flip phone. I don't know the number on it, but it is thin and black. The minutes don't expire as long as you purchase and redeem air time cards when they are due. Hope this helps.