I totally agree with you about Central Hatchery! We have ordered a few times from them when we just wanted some good production hens. Never had any problems with them, very nice healthy chicks too! Now Ideal on the other hand.....we have had NOTHING but headaches from them this year, what a total nightmare! Horrible hatches, very weak chicks and terrible customer serve when it comes to replacements!! We like to order some "fancy" rare chicks each year for the kids to show at 4-H county fair, but this year Im thinking these birds wont be old enough to show even! we had to have our first order resent, they were all dead (in the mail for 3 days!) and it took 1 month for a partial reorder...the rest wont get sent to till mid May! We ordered these birds Feb. 2nd by the way.Needless to say, I wont be ordering from Ideal again. Murray or maybe Cackle (I hear Cackle hatchery is pretty good) next year.

Hi Jackie;I'd love to have a couple of the trillium.Would you check & see if I have anything you want? Thanks Jan

I haven't read the replies yet, but will after I post my thoughts. You all know I don't decorate for Fall, including Thanksgiving. It's because I find those colors to be extremely ugly and boring ONLY inside the house. Outside they're stunning! We love Thanksgiving, but TG is the official first day of the holiday season in my family. I used to wait until Dec. 15th to put up my tree, now it's sometimes after TG. Everything turns brown right now and is so dull, why carry it into the house? Right now I've put up my winter tablecloths. They will match with Christmas decorating but can also hold their own as a winter decor. It's a sneaky way to begin. lol. Christmas is the long holiday, if we're lucky, the joy of Christmas stays with us until New Years. SO MUCH THOUGHT goes into decorating, if I waited until December to decide what I want to do this year I'd be frazzled half the month and not enjoy myself. This year's decorating won't be as over the top as last year, but I still want it cheerful and elegant at the same time. I already have my Christmas Card station set up! I wish others than myself sent out old-fashioned cards instead of just pictures, but that's another topic! lol

DS moved out. DD got her apartment & is nearly moved out. I'm buying paint today so I can paint the room this weekend. SD has mumbled goodnight to me twice this week & that is the extent of it. It's actually been a bit emotional for me... all of MY kids have left & even though I have DGS still, I'm sad... I guess this might be what they are talking about with "empty nest" syndrome? At least there hasn't been any talk over who gets the room. I told DH on Sunday, that when all the kids move out, I will finally have a room for my exercise equipment. Then, after he found out my daughter got her apartment, I told him that when my daughter moves out, I'm gonna move DGS's stuff to that room because I'm tired of tripping over his toys.. because his room is so small. & mentioned my bike & treadmill will go in the smaller room. He didn't say a word, but he sorta looked like he wanted to... then said, ok. He is well aware of how SD is with me so he probably figures it's pointless to argue over it? I don't know... and I don't care. It's not an issue & I'm happy to have peace. In reading Yabbers recent post to JNM... and hearing about how bad things are there... and with me... and with pseudo... and with others... maybe it's just unrealistic to think we can ever build an unbreakable bond with someone else's child like we can our own. I don't think it is really possible anymore. It's not that I don't think step parents and step children will always wind up like this, because I know some have GREAT relationships at all different levels of family/caring. I guess the "secret" ingredient is DESIRE. If the child (or step parent) do not DESIRE to have an unbreakable bond, then it can be as close of a relationship as they want as long as they want, but when that desire fades, the bottom line is "you're not my parent" or "you're not my kid" and either or both can walk away from it... no legal ties... no emotional ties??? I guess I'm bringing it up because it's part of why I'm sad this week. Years ago, JNM's situation gave me hope that one day, my SD would realize I care & would accept me as part of her life. I had hope for the kind of relationship she had with her SD. After a couple of years, I realized it was never going to happen. BM wasn't going to allow it... and SD didn't want it. I can, and have, blamed BM for being a wedge to me having a relationship with her daughter... but the truth is that SD has never warmed up to me (or anyone else in her dad's life) and probably never will. She is entitled to feel that way I suppose. In my opinion, it is very sad because her dad is aloof and her mom is self centered so neither of them is giving her what she wants. Nobody sees any problem, except me. Maybe I'm the problem??? Anyway, it's just discouraging to hear so many of these stories... I mean, I watched my dad treat my stepsister like (sometimes even better than) one of his own kids... took her & her family (husband & kids) to Disney for a week (he's never done that with his own kids) and paid for her to go visit her husband's family back east, was "grandpa" to her kids, etc. She would give him Birthday, Christmas & other cards "To Dad" with heartfelt messages... I will admit I was a bit jealous but we were all grown ups & he's entitled to have whatever relationship he wants. But, just before my stepmom passed away, my stepbrothers filed in court to make my dad account for their mom's assets. They were worried when she died, they would get nothing. She really had nothing. All her income (disability) was paid out to caregivers (and my dad paid a good chunk out of his pocket in addition to that) but dad had given my stepsister all my stepmom's clothes, jewlery, her Mustang (after HE paid it off) and family heirlooms (piano, china, etc) and the day before court... my stepsister was visiting my dad to ask for the only thing left belonging to her mother... the silver. My dad didn't think twice, he gave it to her. She mentioned that what her brothers were doing is BS and she wanted nothing to do with them. (one of them had molested her as a teenager) Anyway, the next morning my dad goes to the court hearing & who do you think is sitting there with the brothers... yep, stepsister. After 20 years of calling my dad "dad", going on vacations, holidays, grandkids, weddings, and caring for her mom together for 6 years, she was sitting with the brothers. My dad was served with a declaration she signed, stating she had taken care of her mother for all those years and was "woefully underpaid". She had lived in the marital home, expense free [he paid the mortgage, utilities & bought groceries], she had a vehicle (w/ins. & fuel) provided, and when she moved out... he refinanced & gave her 60K, which she used to buy a new truck & a down payment on her house. All of that was on top of giving her all of her mother's things... seriously, my dad went into a deep depression over it. So, maybe no matter how long things are good... maybe it's just never enough. (I just needed to vent... thanks!!)