Cynthia, it was always bobbins and tension for me. Every item had one HUGE mistake: the leg in the sleeve hole or some such nonsense. Knitting was easier somehow. I hear more about bum knees these days than ever before. It must be the ailment du jour. DD's FIL just had one repaired and is due for the other at the end of the month. DSIL now has problems as well. My good friend Joan, 87, is delighted with her new knees and is back in the garden planting this year. Such a woman! I can only hope to age as perfectly in mind, spirit, activity level and kindness & generosity. Paddle to the Sea and others by Holling C. Holling were favorites of our kids too. I know that Skyler has them already. Whether or not he is up to reading them solo I'm not sure. DD & DSIL visited the nearby school today. Here's her opinion: My goodness, it's a beautiful school. I never thought you could say that about a modern school. Hardly any of the rooms are rectangular. There is bright light all over the place. They have a huge library and a GREAT (according to the principal) teacher librarian. They have a huge special needs program (which Skyler wouldn't fall into - it's for people with learning disabilities - called "learning strategies" - who are generally 1-2 years behind who are separate classes). They have a huge ELL program (ESL for people who are BRAND NEW to the country, as in know NO English). They have two regular classes for each grade, and the ELL students are mixed in. There are animals (REAL ONES!) in the school - an 8' boa, a finch, some gerbils, a bearded dragon. They have a brand new computer lab. The teachers are really involved with making the school fun - they do a year long study of something (example government) and spend a week at city hall to learn how things work. They have an "artist in residence" program where an artist comes through for 2 weeks and works with the students on whatever their specialty is - dance, music, watercolours (the artist that just came through is actually the native artist who painted the picture I almost bought for DH for Christmas). There is artwork by the students all over the building. The kids were happy and excited about whatever they were doing (we walked around for 1/2hr). They have a serious focus on behaviour and treatment of each other, something that I think would be GREAT for Skyler. They have FM (for Skyler's hearing aid) systems in every classroom. They have tons of clubs like choir, running, robotics (they build a robot and program it to do stuff like go through mazes), TV (they do the daily announcements broadcast, interview staff about what their healthy snacks are for lunch, what they do for physical activity), they do a daily morning 10 minute exercise in the classroom (another thing I think Skyler would greatly benefit from). They have a Friday morning coffee for parents association - who happened to be there while we were there so we got to talk to some of the parents. It's right next to the ravine. All in all, it seemed like a great place. I want to go there. Can I go to elementary school all over again? But I fear it was simply an exercise in frustration because "SHE" will simply say "NO". Oh well. At least we know what one option is for Reed! It is really frustrating for both of us to deal with the crap .................... And so it goes.

The difference between my hosta and those grown by a commercial grower is that they amend their soil and feed their plants but it doesn't take massive roots and perfect soil to grow massive hosta. I have already proven that. Those Maples won't come down until their replacements can provide at least 50% of the shade that is here now. I lost a few branches between the house and the trees which started cooking my hosta a few years ago. I went out and spent almost $500.00 for a 40' long by 10' wide shade cloth and the hardware to install it. I use it every year now until some of those branches grow back. I am the exception to the rule that hostas don't grow under Maples. The one thing that the Maples do kill is Heuchera. Even though they have similar fibrous roots to the Maples, the Maples choke them out within a few years. I am going to use bone meal and Osmocote on the entire yard this year. Once in April and again in July. I will also be using fertilizer spikes around all of the trees and shrubs including the Maples. There will be enough fertilizer used out there to satisfy everything that is growing. I am guesstimating that it will cost around $500.00 to do it. Some of it will get worked into the soil around the plants since I plan on going around and chopping up tree roots around the hostas and in the path to remove some of them before I mulch. I have already tried the pergola route, city said no. I would never intentionally plant an Oak tree for a couple reasons. I don't do acorns or the squirrels and damage they cause to plants because of the acorns. I'll take Maple seeds over acorns any day. I would also like to have shade in my lifetime. I have had giant oaks before(3' diameter trunks) and I hated them. The falling limbs from a Silver Maple is not much different than the branches that come down because of squirrels keeping their paths open along the big branches. We own a couple massive Oaks on another piece of property(4' diameter trunks). All I see when I look at them are dollar signs if they ever come down. I would never intentially cut them down but if they happened to fall down I would sell the wood.

ROTFL!! Gosh, don't even worry about it, LOL! : D Thank you sooooooo much for emailing it to me- I appreciate it. I know life gets majorly crazy! I can't wait to try it- the recipe looks INCREDIBLY tasty!!!!! Just my style, and I LOL'd at your "butter" comment. : D I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out. Blessings, Haley

LOL Marilyn. Glenda, if they're enjoying the peanuts, they can toss on the living room carpet and even grind them in and I won't care ... we're getting new carpet next week. :-) I wonder if we have Moon Pies here is So Cal. I'll have to check around. Don't need them for the meeting though as I'm set with desserts. I ordered a Cherry pie, Pecan pie and of course (you'll understand why if read the book) ... a Chocolate cream pie from Marie Callendars. I took tomorrow off to get ready for the meeting. I will attempt to make cheese straws. I'm disappointed that I couldn't make them a day or two early so they could set but 10pm is the earliest I've left the office since Sunday. ugh. If that doesn't work out, I'll be making cute little cucumber and pimento sandwiches. No time or energy to do much more. Jodi-