Ohhh no no no Never ending, not at all. Sorry for the banker speak!!! "High risk" means different things in the merchant services world than it does in the real world and sometimes I forget and just whip out a topic with banker speak without explaining. A salon with small charges (below 20 or so including tips) is considered higher risk than one with larger average charges (ie a salon that offers additional services) because clientele tend to not be dedicated to a $7 bill (for instance) and will protest it more likely than a larger bill (say over $100). Seems odd, but its true. A salon who takes the very rare credit card would be rated higher risk than one who takes them daily because their experience in processing effects risk (experienced processors learn to take id etc). It does not mean that you're a bad person or it's a bad salon, it's just that on the average if you don't meet certain threasholds the account risks tend to elevate. Not that the salon owner or the business is "risky" in a bad way. Sorry about that. I probably still didn't. An interior decorator is a great example....one charge a week maybe and it's huge....verses a fabric store that sells fabric daily. The decorator is a big risk (did the room in pink and the client wanted coral so they protest the charge) and the fabric store, they're not because the small ticket isn't a big loss due to a retail item being taken from the store (more protests come from intangible services than from the purchase of items). I give up :) I do hope I did explain somewhat....and if not, let me just say sorry for being a dork :OP

A cheap source of protein is chicken livers. Here's how I make them most often: CHICKEN LIVERS AND RICE - 2 to 3 servings 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/ 2 inch slices 1 lb. chicken livers, trimmed and quartered 1/ 4 cup flour 1/ 2 tsp. salt 1/ 4 tsp. pepper 1/ 2 cup chopped onion 1/ 2 cup uncooked rice 1/ 2 tsp. dried basil, crumbled 1 whole bay leaf 1 1/ 4 cups chicken broth 2 Tbs. chopped fresh parsley (do not omit) Cook bacon until crisp in large skillet. Combine flour, salt and pepper and dredge chicken livers in it. Remove bacon and reserve. Brown livers in bacon grease. Remove and reserve. Saute onion over medium heat in same skillet (add 1 Tbs. olive oil of needed.) Stir in rice, broth, basil, and bay leaf. Heat to boiling; then turn heat to low. Stir mixture thoroughly, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom of the skillet. Cover. Simmer 20 minutes without lifting lid. Spoon reserved livers over rice but don't stir. Put lid back on and simmer for another 10 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Remove bay leaf. Sprinkle with bacon and chopped parsley. Healthy? Yes, in many ways except for cholesterol. Since our numbers are good, I'd rather occasionally have the shot of iron and vitamins. Here is a link that might be useful: Chicken Liver nutrition This post was edited by ruthanna on Wed, Feb 26, 14 at 17:37

I've been skimming quickly, and have a few comments based on my quick read. First, everyone's work on their ranches - fabulous! However, and apologies if I've misread or misinterpreted, but cathleen has or will have a relatively limited budget and is not a DIYer. pirula's gorgeous reno looks like one that had a nice-sized budget, and joanneemb, you've said you and your DH did all the work yourselves. mtnr is 100% correct IMO that if cathleen has the budget to do all that kind of thing herself, she also the budget to get a nicer house from the start. "Built ins, higher baseboards, solid wood doors, new windows, custom moulding, new kitchen and bathrooms...... All of that is very expensive, especially if you are not DIY, and if you were you probably wouldn't be asking us. It kind of begs the question, if you can afford to do all of the above, you can afford a nicer house to begin with (especially since, often, all of the above are cash expenses and a nicer house you pay for over 30 years)." That list above - baseboards, wood doors, and so on - those are just the things you can see. Sometimes (not always, of course, but it could happen), there is basic work you have to do first, or you may have to do it in order to make the changes you envision. We had to have lots of electrical work done before we even got to the good stuff. Our electrician is great, a true artist if you will, and reasonable, compulsively careful and concientious. He told us that for what he had to charge to do the work on our house, he could have rewired an entire new house. We did everything we had to for safety plus some things we wanted to do - and there is still work we decided not to do because of the cost. We were so lucky to have found an excellent, very reasonable contractor. By our calculations, had we gone with anyone else, our total reno costs would easily be two-thirds higher than they've been. We would not have been able to do this work; it simply would have broken the budget, so badly damaged as it is anyway. That leads to: if you are not a DIYer but will want to make many changes to a house to transform its look and style, you will need to be confident of your ability to hire the right people. Our contractor has great taste and an aesthetic sense, as well as technical skills, and he has worked on many old houses. The guy before him, let's just say the work was perfectly competent, but he would have done only and exactly what we told him to do. That means we would have had to have been thoroughly informed and completely educated before starting anything. Through word of mouth, including our contractor's own recommendations, we now have competent, trustworthy people to work on every conceivable part of our house if necessary. The last find - finally - a great plumber. We just paid him ~$400 to fix a kludged-together mess with the kitchen plumbing.... That leads to another thing: cathleen, even after you've bought what you hope will be your perfect house and have budgeted for molding, wood doors and all the rest, you will still need to have plenty of funds available for fixes and problems that could pop up over time, things you might have failed to account for in the beginning. "If anyone knows where to find detailed cost breakdowns, please let me know. I have not been able to find this information." Can anyone steer cathleen to some websites or other places where this info is available?

Bbstx- Thank you so much for the info...and the pictures! Those are great and exactly what I need :) MamaGoose and Sjhockeyfan- Thank you both for the good wishes! My husband is doing very well, considering...and getting better every day. So good to see him able to do more for himself, even in little ways. He's still in pain quite a bit, but he just keeps going anyway. My hero! Tlbean- The cabinets do look beautiful! That's more the color I was thinking...something light and cheerful. The shine bounces the light around the room, which is really nice. My3dogs- Thank you so much for the coupon! I want to thank everyone so much...having the forum and all the wonderful people here has made some very tough times a lot better! Hugs to everyone :)