That is so neat! Do you mind sharing how you made all of your ghost and what you used? I hate Halloween! When our kids were little, and my husband was working two jobs Monday-Friday, and we were new homeowners, times were tough financially but you bought the kids a Halloween costume to wear once or maybe twice that year. We were in a young neighborhood where there were so many kids; we'd have as many as 300 kids show up. Our last house, not as many but it was the middle school kids that would show up with king size pillow cases to gather treats, wearing no costumes and being boisterous and rude. You were scared to say anything about their behavior scared of retaliation or that they would damage your car or property. They spoiled it for the small ones. It got to the point where parents with little ones would come along with their kids as soon as it got dark. Probably the parents had just come home from work and the kids probably hadn't had dinner yet. The last two years at our previous residence, we turned out all lights off, even though our car was parked in our driveway, fortunately there was no damage. More schools and churches and shopping centers are providing Halloween festivities that take the place of kids going out in the neighborhoods. Sadly, there is too much bad things happening to kids these days. We used to see kids from other neighborhoods be driven in vans and dropped off to Trick or Treat in our neighborhood, not their own. I was always happy to see it raining on Halloween. I know that is not the right attitude to have but that's the way society has become, even in the best neighborhoods.

(((( Karen)))) It's been awhile since I've been here in awhile but have thought about all of you. April & May were horrible personally with lots of travel to and from hospitals. I lost my dear FIL to cancer on May 21 and my best friend to heart failure on May 27 so shortly after overcoming the horrifying thought of losing my mother earlier in the year. Needless to say , I hit the skids pretty hard with the emotional toll in a way that is very much not usually myself, just that I couldn't take so much in such a short amount of time. I felt I had done & done & done for family and friends and left nothing for myself. For a time, I simply reclused to the house and did nothing but cry. What you are going through is NORMAL , and as tears go , in time they do lessen but there's no rush to ""make yourself accomplish anything"". Your loss and pain are still very fresh and forcing yourself to do something creative will not help. If you're going to decorate, you have to do it for YOU. I lost my own dad 13 yrs ago and though I've come to accept that and 'normal' has long since returned, I LOVED my FIL. He's been a very integral and special man to me for almost 11 years. I knew he was going to pass, but I just wasn't ready. My best friend was also my neighbor and I wasn't ready to lose him either, though I knew the time would come once we learned his defibrilator wasn't keeping up with regulating his heart anymore and it was going to wear out. I put him in the hospital 2 weeks before FIL passed and he crashed to a coma the very day I was away burying FIL. To tell you how far off the skids I've been , my table is still set for Easter , minus the centerpiece which I tossed into the basement on my way out the door for the 3hr drive to visit FIL. I wasn't in the mood to see "cute" when I returned. I haven't bought any new pieces of anything since April , the big pug flag I display for each month in the LR is still easter... I just don't care and haven't felt the creative urge to do anything about it. For me to tell you to pull yourself together would not only be wrong and immoral , it would be the pot calling the kettle black. Do what YOU want to do for YOU and in time , the pain will change and you will want to pull out your fun stuff again. Major Huggs to you sweet lady, it's been a rough road to hoe for a long time. :( Sarah

I just found this list of reasons to recycle and thought you all might enjoy reading it, too. Lynn *If not recycled, one quart of used motor oil could pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water. �Recycling one ton of old paper saves, 7,000 gallons of water or, put another way, every ton of recycled paper requires 7,000 fewer gallons of water to manufacture than virgin paper. �Every ton of recycled paper requires 4100 KWH less energy than virgin paper to produce. � Recycling saves energy and reduces air pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions. � Half of all polyester carpet made in the United States is made from recycled plastic (PET) � Recycling the steel from six cars can provide enough steel framing for an entire new house. � Recycling one glass bottle saves enough electricity to light a 60-watt bulb for four hours. � Aluminum cans produced in the United States can contain at least 50 percent recycled content. � Americans represent only five percent of the world's population, but generate 30 percent of the world's garbage. � Forty percent of all U.S. municipal solid waste consists of paper and paperboard products. � Each ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees. � Each ton of recycled paper saves over 3 cubic yards of landfill space. � The estimated 272 billion aluminum cans reclaimed during the 1980s saved 2 billion feet of landfill space. � Recycling reduces taxes and landfill fees. � Making paper from recycled materials results in 74% less air pollution and 35% less water pollution than virgin paper. � Manufacturing with aluminum scrap saves an estimated 95% in energy costs. � Manufacturing with copper scrap saves an estimated 85% in energy costs. � Ninety-nine percent of all beer cans and 97 percent of all soda cans are made of aluminum. American consumers and industry throw away enough aluminum to rebuild the entire United States commercial air fleet every three months. � Recycling generates jobs and revenue.

We looked into it when we needed a new one two years ago and liked the concept of it but financially decided it wasn't worth it right now. Our next unit, when the prices come down and technology changes will be one :) but for now, we choose to get a regular unit as with having to rework the plumbing (and we have a small house) and venting, it just wasn't worth it and the plumber said don't bother. Plus, financially, you aren't saving that much on your gas/heating costs when you look at the extra money you save on the unit, so eco wise, you may be helping the enviroment some, but I'm not 100% convinced in less you are building a new house that is set up to handle it, it is the best choice. Now, as a single unit for an individual bathroom, etc. I would buy one but not as an entire house, if you have the space in the basement... we dreamed of one too... and it turned out to be a better concept than reality and went with Sears as we could order it online and they'd install. I figure just getting a new unit has to help the enviroment as our clearly wasn't working properly!