OMG I had a post all typed out and this thing ATE IT!!!! Man, I wish I hadn't missed the Mini Roses Cindy! I didn't have the Cleopatra, I have Orange, 1 Bengal Tiger Baby, small mini red Cannas. Please do list a wish/wants list Cindy so if there is anything we have we can offer you then we will ;). New Request from Cindy: Zebra Grass I am looking for ANY grasses I plan on putting in a grass bed at the top of our driveway so we don't have to mow up there anymore :) I put in some rocks with the house number all ready and our neighbor gave us and ornamental solar light decoration to go up there!!! Tammy you asked me how the spiderwort looked lining the drive, there wasn't as much left over after the swap as I thought there would be. I DO have some I got from my mom and a friend though, not sure if it will cover the lenght of the drive or not. And I haven't really decided if I want that or that red mini grass I forgot what it is called at the moment... OK posting thread #3 now too. :) Fran

Many thanks to all of you. I love knowing we can all come here and vent to friends. It really does help. Annie bless your heart, I can't imagine having to pay that much for a perscription. Healthcare and the whole works are just out of hand in this country. It's really rediculous. Jerry and I do not have insurance. I had a minor surgery back in March and my bill was almost $10,000 and I can't even imagine what Jerry's bill is going to be. And naturally they tell him he makes too much money to get aid. Anyway, I've decided I'm going back to work and make sure we have some insurance and help him with these bills. Men are so hard headed! (Sorry Dan) I've preached at him for years.....we're getting older here, we need to get some insurance! Oh well, they might can take this house but I have one they can't touch, lol. Don't get me wrong, we have no intention of not paying each month, but the hospital wanted $300 a month for my bill before this even happened to Jerry. That is just outrageous and its not happening. I won't committ to more than I know I can do, now if I can send more a particular month, I will. K, nuff of that! lol Fran....no no is what I say to HER! lol (I'll give you all a clue shortly) Annie....she does call me MeMaw. Vic...when Kenzie wants something its just....Me! Me! Me! lol and I mean until you give it to her! 20/hrs a week plus benefits? girl I'm thrilled for you, sure wish I could find something like that. I was planning to put an application in at the hospital, lol, I've spent so much time there lately, I figured, why not? Good luck sweetie, I have my fingers crossed for you:) And YES! We did need some happy news in here! Annie, lol, no she hasn't gotten to that one yet (the H*!! no) but she did say the 's' word right behind guess who? Yep, her MeMaw! And btw, I wouldn't have went back to that darn pharmacy either! Dan, the cat story is too funny! Put plenty of food out! lol Pix, lol, she hasn't learned my bad habits yet, well except one, and thankfully its only that one word. Glad you got some badly needed rain. Annie, sure you can! Anyone can play a game anytime even if we already have one going. I'm dying to get my hands on some of your beautiful iris:))) *grin* So happy about your a/c, I'll bet its the connect switch, we had that problem at the riverhouse a month or so back. I think we're all spoiled when it comes to a/c's. OK, its time for a hint! When she's about to get into something (which is all the time) and she sees me coming to get her, she sticks that little hand out and basically is telling me to take a hike. It should be easy now:) Remember, its only 2 little words. Jeeezzzz, I didn't mean to write a letter! Sassy

Bunny I'm sorry the ick is running amuck in your household. Good thing the little ones can bounce back faster then us. I am amazed at how fast they can recoup and it takes us a WHOLE lot longer. I guess that is the price you pay for getting older. Thanks for the tips, but I don't like raspberry anything and for some reason just this year peppermint makes me sick I just can't stand the flavor anymore, and I LOVE peppermint candy canes! Don't know WHAT I am gonna do about that this Christmas, BUT I am thinking it is just the gum I was trying to chew. It was the extreme flavor burst stuff and it was overwhelming! Really turned my stomach though, so I am thinking it was just TOO much flavor from the gum. I will have to try to find some lavender oil to check that out. I am prone to sore throats, sinus issues and all which usually turn into a sore throat OR bronchitis which I have chronic bronchitis. SO ANYTIME I start getting sick I can almost always bet on a bout with that. That is ALWAYS fun to have too (yeah, ummm NOT!!!) NIKKI....I went outside while ago to just sit and stare at my seed babies I started. THEY are just sitting there too! I talked to my mom a few minutes ago and told her that, she said and THEY WON'T DO ANYTHING AS COLD AS THE NIGHTS ARE....bring them in the house! So I went outside after talking to her to "look" at them to try to figure out IF I want to go that route...I SHOULD have waited a bit before trying to start them BUT I wanted to see what they would do...oh well, I KNEW better, I WAS hoping the cold wouldn't reach us until Nov! Then they would have had time to do something. Deb, honey, how are you? How is your mom? I am sure you are busy with her this week. Just know that I am thinking of you both. Hoping for a speedy recovery with the surgery and praying all else falls into place and she is completely well soon. Vic, how was your first day at work? All is good I hope, hopefully this is your job you were hoping for. Mariann, I hope you are feeling better honey, I know how bad it was. Are you finally sleeping better now? Marie, just thought I would say HI!!! HI! lol. Kym, glad you cleaned out your email. I will shoot you a line just so you will have my new email addy so you won't have to go searching for it. How are you by the way? diene, how is your weather and you? Hope you are well. Haven't heard much from you lately. How's it going? Ok ya'll, you know it is less then a week away now...ARE WE READY???? I know you are Deb,,,hehe. Ok, guess I have said enough, and I like, Bunny prolly need to go lay back down...ugghhh!!! I HATE BEING SICK!!!! This is the 3rd stinking time this month! Seriously thinking about holding my nose and downing some Red Raspberry leaf tea! Or the extract......if it will boost me up, Bunny you SURE it will help? (grumbling, I really DON't LIKE raspberry, but I am WILLING to TRY anything at the moment)Humm, Bunny? Will it? Will it really? :) Fran

desert, I plan to get out to some showrooms this week to see what's there and I'm really hoping that will help move me forward a lot more. When we built this house, we hooked up a trailer and drove to Dalton GA and came back with all the flooring needed to do the entire house. It was easier to make choices when we were looking at the entire roll and not just small samples. We got terrific deals and then just paid the labor to have everything installed by a friend of DH. For the majority of other items we spent hours at Lowes. lanval, I plan to give the island a new top along with whatever we choose for the countertops and I know that will help spruce it up more. Originally we were told there was no room for an island at all, but our cabinet guy designed the funky shape to fit one in. I wish we had space to redesign it to allow more of a rectangle shape with an overhang to fit a couple of stools, but there is just not enough space around the u-design of my current layout. Anne, DH is assigned the reno to his brother. He doesn't have time to get involved in the work itself. That's probably a good thing since we end up disagreeing on details most of the time. I've learned we just see things from different perspectives because I'm considering details he thinks are not important. And since the kitchen is not really his domain, I don't want to get into a power struggle over the choices I make. I tried to discuss the timing with him yesterday and he sees no problem moving ahead with the April schedule. I pointed out the events coming up that will coincide with the time the kitchen is torn apart, and his basic outlook/comment is "it's no big deal"...he's just a 'get'r done' kinda guy. I tried to remind him this is not one of his empty houses that is unoccupied and the fact there is more involved than just slapping on a countertop and being done. Maybe I'm just thinking too hard, but I can see the entire kitchen torn apart and me being stressed enough over that while trying to juggle our spring busy season and my DD's precious time left living at home knowing the activities associated with that. Plus the responsibilities of finishing up our eoy business details is difficult enough alone, and now I'm sposed to be doing research/legwork to plan a kitchen reno. I'm sorry if I'm rambling, but when I say 'overwhelmed' I'm not exaggerating. If I could just put everything else in my life on hold right now, it might be no problem, but everything else is not going to just stop. I'm glad you see what I'm feeling about the timing of my DD last days at home. Just last year when she wanted to have her after-prom party here, I had some mini meltdowns feeling overwhelmed with my regular daily workload and then adding more to it. This year isn't looking much better... Anyway, to clarify some of the questions you asked: I broke the measurements into 2 sections since the bar seems to separate it into 2 areas. The nook area is 13'x9'8". The kitchen area is 9'5"x13'2" but that is only the actual floor space. The cabinets are 25" deep so you could add that to the width of 9.5 for a size of the actual room. The garage is on the other end of the house. There is door to the backyard patio in the nook area. The original plan called for columns and a more open floorplan. DH chose to change it to large c.o. I posted pics from different angles to try to show this. I measured everything you asked to help clarify; fridge is 35"Dx35"W - cab depth is 25" - MW cab is 29"D - raised bar is 12"D. I checked the face frame of cabs and it appears the only ones sharing is the section to the right of the sink where the raised bar is. The rest are chopped up due to the DW, stove, and corner that leads to the MW cab. I'm trying to visualize the changes you suggested...I guess I need to sketch it out to understand it completely. Since his brother is doing the reno, it actually gives me more comfort b/c I know is fully capable of any little details I bring up. At this point...right now...I'm in panic mode after talking with DH last night and he totally doesn't get my lack of enthusiasm about the schedule. He makes it sound so easy. The ct can be done in one day, the floor can be done in one day... what's the problem??? Arrggh!! happy, Glad to hear of your wp sucess, painted and stripped. I hung every bit of the paper in this house and have 3 baths of wp also facing stripping.