Well, we wouldn't be renting anymore, in either case. We're planning to buy next year. (At LAST, thank GOD.)

Schools...well, we may be looking at private schools even if we stay here. Our lease isn't up till April, which means Annabel's public school assignment is going to be based on our current address. You get to tour schools and express a preference within your general section of the city. There are five possibilities in our area, one excellent, three good, and one terrible (low scores, bad academic reputation, etc.). We're closest to the best of the lot, but everyone wants to go there, so only kids who lived within a few blocks got in for kindergarten last year. We're second closest to the terrible school, which as I understand it means the odds are high that no matter what our expressed preference is, she'll be assigned there. And if she is, we're going to put her in private school. Fortunately there are some decent possibilities nearby, and we're going to tour them as we're touring public schools this fall so we'll know our options.

I'm kinda kicking myself for not researching the issue before renewing our lease. I don't suppose it makes me a bad mommy, but it may make me a mommy who's paying private school tuition for the next 6-8 years. Sigh.

I don't suppose it makes me a bad mommy, but it may make me a mommy who's paying private school tuition for the next 6-8 years. Sigh.

....but if you bought a house, wouldn't you move? And then be in a different public school area? Couldn't she then go to a decent public school? So it'd be a year of private school tuition? Or heck, a year of bad public school, even, if you decided you couldn't afford private school adn buying a house in the same year? If it wasn't a TRULY bad (ie guns and drugs in the elementary school) public school, a year probably wouldn't be anything she couldn't catch up from, in kindergarten.

I honestly don't know what happens if you move. I'm sure if we moved into an entirely different area of the city, it would mean a different school assignment, but I'm not sure you get to change if you move within your area, which is what we're looking at doing.

Susan, Frances right now is slated to go to a very mediocre elementary school, and we've about run out of charter/magnet/permit enrollment options at least for fall. And I've kind of made me peace with it. We've decided that she can go there for kinder and we can resume the search for a better school for 1st grade. It's so crazy trying to game the system here.

Sometimes I feel like a bad mommy for not going the private school route in order to ensure a great education, especially since I know that my own LAUSD education was pretty damn spotty. Sometimes I feel like it'll be fine, that I'm the kind of parent who would want to augment her education with extracurriculars anyway.

Given the givens, school quality is generally not predictive of a child's performance once you're in a certain socioeconomic group anyhow. Like most things, it only really hammers on the poor and the working class.

IOW, save your money, esp. for kindergarten.

The whole process is crazy-making. I mean, I know it's not the end of the world if she doesn't go to the best school in the city. The schools in my hometown were, frankly, kinda crappy, and I did just fine. But still, you feel like it's your child's FUTURE, and you've got to get it right, but there's only so much of it that's under your control, and it's all so arcane and strange for someone like me who grew up in a small town where you didn't have multiple public schools to choose/be chosen from.

Given the givens, school quality is generally not predictive of a child's performance once you're in a certain socioeconomic group anyhow. Like most things, it only really hammers on the poor and the working class.

I agree completely. It also depends on how much effort you put into helping your child develop good study habits. Having a good foundation at home does wonders. K-Bug went to a "bad" school K-2 and yet she was accepted to some amazing universities...

I went to private schools and thought my children would. The programs offered in public school were more desirable. Save the money for enhancements like travel, private music lessons, etc.

Two places have "called" me when I visited them: Islamorada (Florida Keys) and Plymouth, MA

Go Keys! Choose Keys!

Every time I get my brows plucked I swear to myself that I'll keep it up, and then two more years go by before I get around to getting them plucked again.

I think I have done this a total of twice in my life. And my SIL owns a salon that I can go to for free any time I want. I still don't manage to make the time. I get my toes done about once a month. BC I got a manicure once a week. Oh well, maybe when I retire I will manage to do this again.

{{DJ & Friend}}

It also depends on how much effort you put into helping your child develop good study habits. Having a good foundation at home does wonders.

Annabel's current preschool teacher confided to us that she can totally tell that we read to AB at home and try to tell her about the world because she's so interested in learning her letters and the sounds they make, she was the one kid in class who, when the teacher was trying to explain the presidential election, piped up that her mommy had been telling her about that, etc. Which is encouraging, because I feel like that compared to my mother, who was a SAHM and had a lot more time to focus on me, I don't spend that much time trying to educate Annabel.

I know it *could* be just extra fat, but combined with the unexplained pain that occurs randomly throughout the month, it's got me a little concerned. Not overly, but still. I'll be glad to get it checked out tomorrow.

Steph, it might be a fibroid. Have you noticed any changes in your cycle?

Since I got the IUD (Mirena), I've stopped getting a period, which makes the randomly-yet-frequently occurring cramp-like pain all the more disconcerting. It feels like cramps, but it doesn't occur on any kind of schedule, the way that menstrual cramps generally do.

I know that a fibroid could explain the disproportionately large lower abdomen; I kind of do and don't want it to be a fibroid. I do, because if it is, then it explains everything. I don't, because I don't want to have a fibroid, or have to deal with one.

Then again, I could just be in denial about my fat.