valtorrez, one more thing, applying fertilizer in April is on the borderline of being a little too early. The time to apply fertilizer is after the spring flush of new grass has subsided. If you apply fertilizer too early, the grass will grow so fast you cannot mow it fast enough. You should only mow 1/3 of the height of the grass off at any one time. When it is really growing fast, that might mean you should mow every 3 days. If you wait a week you might mow 1/2 to 2/3 off and put additional stress on the grass. I always suggest fertilizing with synthetic fertilizers on the federal holidays. Memorial Day is the first one for most people in the spring. Why Memorial Day? Because that is an easy date to remember, it is usually a day off, and it is well past the time when the spring flush of growth had subsided for most of us. Then you skip the 4th of July holiday, because it is too hot and the grass is already stressed. So the next date is Labor Day followed by Thanksgiving. Grass should get 2/3 to 3/4 of its annual nitrogen needs in the fall. Thus the 2 apps in the fall. If you choose organic fertilizer, you can do that any time and likely not have to face an enhanced spring flush of growth. Organic fertilizers work much differently than synthetic so the results are different. For organic lawns I suggest starting 3 weeks before your last frost date. That date is TODAY for me - Washington's Birthday. Then again on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. You can apply organics in the heat of summer and not suffer - again, they work differently.

I thought our 2300 sq ft. house was just perfect for the 3 of us... - then we decided I traveled too much for work and opened up my own business - in the house - then things grew and I added an employee - in the house - Then hubby took early out from the University and expanded his tax & consulting practice - in the house - then his practice grew and he added a part ime employee - in the house - then things really got successful and some parts of the year he can have as many as 3 employees - in the house!!! Net effect is that our 4 bedroom house some days feels like a 1 bedroom office - we no longer have a home. We are building on 20 acres in the country - house with a good sized office wing. I've redesigned about a dozen times and can't seem to get it down below 5000 sq ft. So, for us (and the assorted clients, employees and visiting relatives) I guess the perfect size is 5000 sq ft.

Yes BM went the other direction and now lives/sleeps/whatever else.....with this woman in the same household as SD. I do think it has a little to do with this behavior but I think it is mostly her father with me that is bring this behavior out. I did have a talk with SD over the weekend but DH did NOT as he promised he would do.....Go figure? anyways, I told her that it was not considered cute anymore taking pictures of herself in or out of the bath.....and that "what if someone else got a hold of those pictures?" she seemed to understand and I have a whole new twist to this whole story since it was just SD,DH and I this weekend and DH took my advice and distanced himself from her........Another post tomorrow about this interesting episode (Which, by the way, 9 year old females CAN be manipulative)......Oh by the way my SD does wear training bras and also has 5 boyfriends in the third/fourth grades which 2 of them she has already kissed! (She told me so) So the whole maturity/puberty thing is different for all of them! Depends on upbringing I guess?

Thanks Ladies...... Cat - I don't think the judge would have really listened to both sides if the claims BM made did not seem so outrageous and DH and I had not been collecting all of the information we did. BM in this case really took it way to far with the false allegations.... she claimed DH's entire family and myself and daughter were all against and abusing SD..... Of course the worse things were pointed against myself. But we had tons of things to counter as well..... pictures, dvd's of family events and vacations we took SD on, and the other things BM left as a paper trail.... letters from the school, daycares and doctor. It was extremely stressful to have to go through a BM trying to take away joint custody from my DH simply because he got married and to see all the lies and allegations.... BUT like the judge said - because DH got on that stand and said he did not want to take custody away from BM - he just wanted to have a peaceful relationship with his daughter and was willing to give BM another shot at trying to be mature - the judge as she put it is giving BM "custody probabtion" and hopefully BM will take her words to heart. We have been so much more peaceful at our home - and just to see SD be more peaceful when we pick her up or when she comes - lets us know that maybe the alienation for now has ceased. I just am hoping the situation remains peaceful for now - and this story may help someone else out in some kind of way.