this post had me in tears when i read it earlier. I am that way about my quilting, absolutely NO desire. So I do know the feeling you get with your gardens. However, my gardens are a totally different story. I WANT to get out there sooooo badly. for the last hmm, six years, I have not been able to physically get the work done. I've finally been diagnosed with MS (18 mos ago), have had two surgeries on my neck do to herniated disks that compressed my spinal cord, and am this year FINALLY getting the energy up to get out there again. I'm starting with a clean slate, which is nice in many ways, but so daunting in other ways. I miss all my flowers so much though, that I will find a way, some way, to get them back again. I hope that you also find the desire to garden soon, the maintenance is enough to drive you bonkers when you don't want to be out there, but left alone, it's going to be horrendous to get motivated again. it takes no time for the weeds to notice lack of interest, and they take over like crazy then. wishing you all best of luck! sally

The stand....I cheated...I found it at the GoodWill..99¢. The glass ball I found at Mangelson's..a large hobby and crafts store in Omaha. They were on sale for 99¢ also. I found a package of wedding trims at WalMart It is attached to a fine net so you can sew it on dresses or what ever. I trimmed the netting as close to the sewing as I could without causing it to ravel. And glued it to the glass with the GE silicon glue and glued the beads and flowers with that too. The Feather was a long fluffy one and the glass had a small hole. I couldn't get the feather down in there..So I took a drinking straw and pushed the feather inside the straw. Stuck the straw inside the glass and then pushed a small dowel down inside the straw to push the feather out. I put some of the diamond dust...but won't do that again. Because it got static elec. and stuck to the inside of the glass. I enjoyed making it and will do them in the future but hope I won't need to. patti

From the post "BMs Interference in Weddings, Honeymoons" * Posted by finedreams (My Page) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 12:47 what's wrong with man helping mother of his children to fix something in her house where his kids live? unless he is a selfish jerk he would love to help. when people share children, there is nothing wrong in helping each other in time of need. people here judge everybody's situation by their own. if you have bad realtionship with your Xs or weren't even married to them or your Dhs have bad realtiosnhip with their xs etc it does not mean everyone has such drama in their lives. many people maintain decent respectful attitude toward each other especially since they share children! we are talking here about people we have children with! not somebody we had meaningless encounters. * Posted by imamommy (misshalk_2000@yahoo.com) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:08 you are absolutely right finedreams.... If he wants to help, he should! If his kids live there and he refuses to do something that will cause his kids suffering or discomfort, then yes he is a jerk. TOS's husband is a jerk for not opening the window. But he is a bigger jerk for cheating & leaving her with six kids. But, June's husband did not have any kids living with his ex. If he doesn't want to look at her furnace or anything else, so what? He has no obligation. He isn't a jerk for saying no. It doesn't make June an insecure woman because she doesn't want her husband to be his ex wife's handyman. Maybe, once he starts doing tasks around her house, she'll keep finding more for him to do. He is married to June. That's where his priority is, fixing things around their home. My husband has an ex wife. She has NEVER called him for a thing. They didn't have children together and the marriage didn't work out, she moved on and so did he. His ExGF that he has a child with, he doesn't mind when she asks for anything related to their daughter. When they had 50/50, he would run out and buy his daughter whatever she needed. He would give her money if she needed (and she wasn't even paying rent, utilities or food). He paid for all of his daughter's extra curricular activities. But when she calls to ask for band aids or directions or a ride home (she took her car into the dealership where he works for service and the shuttle offered to take her home, she refused and waited until DH went on his lunch break and had him drive her. He didn't get to eat lunch, but she didn't care about that), then she's out of line. Being married at one time or having children together does not create a lifelong obligation to the spouse when the marriage ends. The only lifelong obligation is to the children. It is nice if the ex spouses do things for each other (because they are their children's parent) but it's in no way an obligation. and just to set the record straight, you can have children with somebody you had a meaningless encounter with. It may not be the way to go, but it's not impossible. * Posted by finedreams (My Page) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:10 people have some twisted understanding of independency. wow!!! two miscarriages, one ectopic pregnancy, three babies. that's a lot to do by yourself! and driven herself to a hospital being pregnant. what is here to be so proud about? that you had that many babies and pregnancies by yourself, is that a proof of independency? i see it as a proof of bad choices and lack of responsibility not independence. and a pregnant woman usually does it all yourself not because she is independent but because she has no man. and when a woman who had 6 children with her lawful husband thinks it is OK to ask him for help she is labeled dependent. wow. that's really upside down kind of logic. * Posted by finedreams (My Page) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:14 TOS husband is a jerk, but he fathered six children with her. This is not about him being this or that, he had children with her. It is not like she did it all by herself. I can't believe you, imaommy, don't see it. maybe because your children are all from different men, and none of these men is in a picture, and you weren't married you don't understand that we are talking about TOS's childrens father, her exhusband of many years. not somebody she just had one date or one night with. * Posted by finedreams (My Page) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:17 if you have children together then it cannot possibly be a meaningless encounter. * Posted by imamommy (misshalk_2000@yahoo.com) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:24 Having three kids before I was 22, irresponsible. I was irresponsible. I've admitted that and my mistakes. I was living with my BF when I had the ectopic pregnancy and drove myself to the hospital because he didn't feel like taking me. It was a huge factor in the ending of our relationship. and I don't know anyone that has ever physically shared the experience of a miscarriage with her BF or Husband. I never said I was alone and went through it by myself, but TOS is whining that she birthed six large babies. My point is that she sounds like a big baby, crying about how hard she had it giving birth to her children. She chose to have more children. She knew the first ones were big, did she think the next one would be small or hurt any less? Are you kidding? Or just want to judge my morals? She thinks it's okay to sleep with her exH now that he's remarried. How would you like your BF to be at his exW fixing things for her and if he felt like getting some, why not? They did have those 'til death do us part' vows!! * Posted by imamommy (misshalk_2000@yahoo.com) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:26 You don't think it's possible to get pregnant from rape, incest or a one night fling? * Posted by finedreams (My Page) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 13:41 we were talking about TOS's children. she had them in marriage. and you weren't raped either. so how many of us here had children in those terrible circumstances you described? as about one night stand, not too many of us here had that happened either. but even if it did happened it is prefectly fine to ask that person for help when it relates to our children. we are not discussing theoretical probabilties of what could have happened but what really is happening in our lives. if you can't engage your children's fathers in helping to raise your children it does not mean nobody else shouldn't either. i can't believe your logic! * Posted by imamommy (misshalk_2000@yahoo.com) on Fri, Feb 29, 08 at 14:11 you don't know about my life. You know what I've posted here and you can judge me... I'm sure your life is perfect and you are living the best life, or better than me. I'm sure you are much happier in your life than I am. You said it's not possible, I disagree and give examples of how it is possible. You may not like my answer but if you read my earlier posts, you will see that I don't say ANYWHERE that it is okay for a father to not help in raising his children. What does that have to do with my situation? You want to be the moral police and i'm just wrong because I am not as morally correct as you? Get off your high horse lady... The man that molested me when I was six died two weeks ago. I can sleep better now, knowing he won't hurt anymore children. He's been free for the last twenty two years and I don't know how many other lives he's affected. But, he was a pilar of the community. A respected professor at a nearby college. Honored for his achievements in life. I'd rather be the whore that had three illegitimate kids with three different fathers in the forum of public opinion as long as I am at peace with myself. Only he and his victims knew the monster he was. Why should I care what a judgmental faceless person that is perfect thinks? and just how do you know whether someone hasn't been raped? You want the details or something? Then you can try to find a reason that it was MY fault. Kiss my @ss! Here is a link that might be useful: BMs Interference in Weddings, Honeymoons

I knew I could count on you guys! Thanks Rebunky. I'm thinking I might ditch the idea of a cabinet there completely the more I think about it? When do you get the KD drawings and elevation views? I'm so excited to see them! So am I! Well she was working on them but then I just hit them up Monday with the idea of putting the two windows in instead of the three high windows, so my guess is she's gone back to the drawing board a bit. Plus I know she just finished my fireplace wall. Haven't seen it yet, though. Thanks Autumn. CP - look at this space, the corner is not a 90 degree but it reminds me of what you have going on around the range part. I really like that space, including the narrow cabinets attached to the hood. I had considered doing something like that and moving the windows out a bit more, but wasn't sure how it would look. I think something like that might work and will see if I can mock it up. Thank you fishcow, mrspete, LL and Omelet. Cpart- I know you can move the table closer to the windows....but 42" with chair and stools sliding out is going to push people into your work area. A wider walkway on the 'helper' side of the island might be a good idea :) i think if you get big, chair-like bar stools the space between the table and island will be crowded, but if you do backless ones that tuck under the overhang when not in use it will be fine. It's not like people are going to be using both sets of seats at the same time.42" from island counter to table is pretty tight. Have you mocked that up? I'm answering all the above at once. LOL. Including Mrspete's comments about the narrowness. :) In answer to if I mocked it up, no I haven't because I actually have the same amount of space (actually a bit less to be honest) between my bar area and dining table in my condo now, so I know exactly how tight the space is. Is it ideal? Nope and if I ever need to have a sit down dinner, I can move the dining table further towards the sliding doors. Yes it would be tight for the people sitting on that side of the table, but they'll be sitting. And since the last time I had a sit down dinner for more than DH, myself and one visiting child was about 4 years ago, I doubt there's much worry about all that. LOL. Additionally as fishcow mentioned, I'm not planning on getting big type chairs for my bar area. The stools I have now have a small back but they still fit under the counter and I'm planning on something like that as I don't like "in your face" barstools. Plus if they are able to be pushed underneath, then people can stand there if they don't want to sit. To answer Mrspete's question DH likes to eat breakfast at the counter and when I do prepare dinner once in a blue moon, he likes to sit there chatting with me. I don't see any mention of a microwave. Since you say you eat out frequently, I'm guessing that you'd have leftovers to warm up. The microwave will be on a shelf above the oven. :) No leftovers to heat up as I normally order appetizers when I eat out. Otherwise I'd weigh 2000 pounds. LOL. However we do use a microwave occasionally. Since you say you're not a serious cook, why go with a larger-than-standard cooktop and range hood? No, I said I didn't cook often. When I do cook, I am serious about cooking and cook only from scratch. No canned sauces or soups for us. No microwave dinners, etc. Only fresh and real ingredients. Additionally, most of my cooking is done on a cooktop and not the oven. I do a lot of sauteing, making soups, sauces, pasta, rice, etc. Conversely, since I rarely use my oven, I'm going for a fairly basic oven. Instead of the glass cabinet, what if you use a narrowish china buffet? That is, a furniture piece instead of something built-in. It'd give a break from the cabinets -- a break from the white cabinets? My island will be cherry wood to break up the white. Plus my dining table and chairs are cherry. I also have the buffet already that is going to wind up in the living room. I may just leave off the china cabinet all together as I'm not sure I need the extra storage. Maybe this got asked already, but what is the distance between the DW corner of the island and that post at the entrance to the living room? That looks like it could be a pinch point. I think you're correct fishcow. It looks like I may have to shorten my island by about a 6-8" which is still a nice sized island. I noticed that myself tonight when I was looking at it.