My sister (up in Maine) bought a house whose plantings were all of the iron clad variety. She spent the first year or so digging out ditch lilies and zapping them with roundup, went on to dig out the hostas (the old fashioned plantain lily with very little to recommend it except longevity) cut down the two story lilacs, and is now working on the snow berry that has suckered all over. Her other foe is horseradish but she's managed to whittle that down to one patch. All the phlox is of the seedling magenta kind which flowers merrily along with the orange Enchantment lily.

I'm in a similar nightmare now. My husband & I have pretty much raised our granddaughter since she was 5 weeks old. She is now four & 1/2 years old. My daughter is a lair, thief, & has been turning aggressive for some time. About a month ago she attacked me after calling me filthy names. The father of the kids got tired of the aggression, the drinking the pills, the stealing (7600 dollars out of his account) & the lying, he found another woman & ran for Florida. For seven weeks I baby sat for her son along with raising her daughter. The boy is large, he smells bad all the time, he has no manners, (blows nose on his clothes) he's three & 1/2 years old, not potty trained, has the biggest, worse smelling poopy. Talking to this child is like talking to drift wood. Not only is my daughter lazy but there is something terribly wrong with this child. He weights in at fifty some pounds & I am only 97 pounds. (He wears me out lifting him) My mother & I got together & got an appointment to have him evaluated. Mom took her cause I had my granddaughter & she lied to my Mom & said they SAID nothing was wrong with him. A few weeks later I get a phone call from them saying she & the boy missed the 2 hour evaluation. (Pull my hair out) I was only supposed to watch him for a day, which turned into seven weeks & she still wasn't even looking. (slit wrists) I have been taxiing her to work, stores, everywhere. (run cold water over bleeding wrists) This night I ask her why she wasn't looking for a sitter? Suddenly I'm a bad grandparent, we'd had a prior fight about her rent, I told her she needed to pay her own rent, she makes enough money, where was all her money going? She sure wasn't paying for a sitter, or food during the day, or gas & I didn't ask her to. I just wanted her to help herself. She went bonkers trying to spin it like I'm the bad grandparent, (this is a girl who we had in college, bought a new T-bird for she had everything I wish I'd had when I was a kid. She meets the father drops out of school, totals out the T-bird & turns up pregnant) Proceeds to dump the baby on me, which I took her, then gets pregnant again & wasn't happy when I informed her she wasn't dumping that one on me.) Anyway she is spoiled & thinks we owe her a living, she doesn't learn from her mistakes but faults others for them. I told her she was no longer welcome at our house after she attacked me. She comes takes my baby & now says we will never see her again. What a joy my daughter has turned out to be. I still see my granddaughter at my mothers, & she told me her mother locked her in the garage in the dark. She cries that she wants to come home with me & Papa, she cries for me all the time. She said Nana you got to do something, you got to try. (She talks like an old lady sometimes, I love it) So I called Child protective services. That was like 3 weeks ago, & I'm still waiting, in the mean time she has been evicted, & is due in court for a DUI. The girl lost her license years ago, has a DUI & is now driving a friends van. It's a crazy world & I keep thinking with time she will have enough rope & hang herself (I mean that in legal terms of keeps getting in trouble) & I will be able to bring my granddaughter back home to the only stability she has ever known. Her court date for the DUI is Tuesday. Thanks for letting me vent.

Colleen, you can "ask" for fabric instead of waiting for it to be listed. FreeCycle is a place to list both things you want to pass on, and things you'd like to have. It doesn't guarantee you'll get them; but you can always ask. (I told DH I'm going to post "Wanted...Round trip tickets to London." He gave me the blank "I married her?" stare! LOL I get those a lot.) Perhaps someone has an unwanted "stash" but just hasn't thought "Put it on FreeCycle." That's how I got my 10-gallon fish tank. My three finned-friends are living in a 3-gallon Eclipse tank. Even with the filters and pumps, I have to change out water every two weeks to keep them sparkly clear and fresh; goldfish are rather messy. Anyway, I just knew there would be someone with an unwanted tank. The day after I posted as "looking for a 10-20 gallon fish tank" I had a response from a new mother that no longer had neither the time nor inclination to keep fish. We were both happy with the situation. I still want a 20-gallon set up; when I do get one I'll offer the 10-gallon set up back to FreeCycle. I never hesitate to ask for anything I'm thinking I could use. Also, I've given away some really good stuff...a 30x65-inch 1/2 plate glass mirror, fender flares for an F-250, two large bags of needlework, cross stitch, and scrapbooking supplies (separated out into complete kits or projects), an old Dell 19" flat panel monitor, two PDAs that were fixable (and the man has offered one back to me once he finished repairing them!) and several perfectly good cat kennels/carriers that people tossed in the trash when they moved off base. I don't have cats, but for people that do they can be invaluable for vet visits and car trips. FreeCycle, "it's a good thing!" Here is a link that might be useful: FreeCycle

I remember reading that...but it's still just as funny.... I am completely surprised that I didn't find a post from me on there...My DH has done a few things during our 42 years that I tell on him every now and then. patti