Cats are great mousers. When you own cats you never get used to that they will sometimes honor you by leaving a "kill" at the bottom of your bed. How delightful! When we lived in the Upper Catskills we had mice problems at the end of every Autumn because they were looking to come in and nest warmly for the winter. I am a great fan of spring traps which I would bait with a cheapo red jellybean. It didn't take long...I would sit out on the porch by the porch apartment (their fave roost) and wait for the "snap!" which came very soon after I baited and placed the trap. I would then go into the porch apartment and remove the jellybean from the victim's mouth, remove the mouse and toss it into the shrub row. Before baiting the trap with that same jellybean I would turn over the trap and draw a little mouse on the back of it. By two weeks time I had gotten all the mice and each spring trap had about a dozen mice drawn on them.

I lost my husband of 38 years 30 days ago and it has been so hard. He needed a liver, which was diagnosed in June, he was in and out of the hospital. His last stay was for six weeks and until the last couple of days I just knew he was going to get one. I was devastated when I lost him. I feel empty and lost. even though we have 3 wonderful grown daughters it is not the same. sometimes I feel like I cant go on without him. I feel like a I have no purpose. Everywhere I look or go, reminds me of him, my heart hurts so much. I know that God doesn't give us more than we can bear, and I am trying to believe that but its hard. I have my family,friends and church but its still so very hard. I know life goes on but I feel at a standstill and don't really want to go on. I feel like it was just happened yesterday, its just been so hard to go on.

Thank you again, everyone, for sharing your thoughts and experiences with me. I've gained a lot of perspective from your answers. My mom was here for several days and as it turns out, my in-laws will be coming tomorrow or Saturday for a couple of days, so I've been super-busy. Anyway, I called Mary's mom on Sunday and talked to her a bit and will send along the hand-me-downs back with my in-laws, who live in the same town. (They're the new baby's great-grandparents.) When I called Mary's mom, I made it easy on her by starting off with "I understand that you're going to have a new little addition to your family and I was wondering if you'd like some of M----'s baby things?!" -- so that she didn't have to go into any explanation of the situation. She said yes, they could use clothes and things and that they have plenty of the newborn to 6-month stuff, but not the older stuff. Most of my stuff is for an older baby, anyways, since my son is nearly 3, so it should be a good fit. I bought a card to include for Mary to let her know I'm thinking of her and I'll also include a chatty card for Susie along with a small cash gift. I'll send a congratulations to Mary's folks, too. I know some of the GW replies I've received indicate that Susie doesn't need to receive a gift....but I want to repeat that in my opinion, she's watching Mary be the center of attention and watching the family and everyone else spend money on Mary, so I don't want her to be left behind. The girls' mom said they aren't having any showers for Mary until after the baby is born. As I see it, there aren't too many terrible decisions that a person can make that result in parties and gift-giving for them. When's the last time anyone threw a party for someone who, for example, robbed a store or dropped out of high school or took too many drugs? Mary decided she was old enough to handle sex and its consequences and Mary's parents decided to let it happen. Mary's mom took her to the family doctor early on, but when the doctor began discussing sex, Mary's response was "Oh, GROSS! I'm not going to do THAT!" and her parents took her for her word. This pregnancy couldn't have been too much of surprise. My in-laws received a call one morning many months ago, from Mary's mom. Both the mom and dad were at work, and Mary and Susie were home and Mary's boyfriend was there. Could FIL please go check on them? My FIL went over to the house to chaperon and found Mary in pajamas and she and her boyfriend were laying on the couch. When my DH and I heard that story we looked bug-eyed at each other and we agreed it was not IF she'd become a teen mother, but HOW SOON. At the end of the phone conversation with Mary's mom, she said something like - "Yeah, we were thinking of coming down to see you guys -- maybe we can do it in August or something?" Of course I agreed, but I'm wondering if she really believes the whole family, including a newborn and all of the newborn baby gear will be driving 7 hours or if just Mary's parents will come and let a 16-year-old take sole care of the newborn while the folks are away. I'll leave it at that, and hope and pray that the baby has a bright future and long, happy life.

Hi Everyone, Sorry I haven't made it back here until now. Belle, so sorry you have been feeling poorly. Hope it clears up soon. I asked some questions over on your gallery post, but you can disregard them since you answered them here. Your body must be telling you to rest or something--sometimes it goes like that, just one thing after the other! Take care. Punk, glad you had a bit of time to paint again. It is so good that your business is doing so well--and that the new helper is working out too! Anj, so glad you and DH got to have some "personal" Valentine times together. I'm sure that is sort of hard to come by with the young ones and their activities. Here's my latest movie review. We debated between the Valentine Day movie and the new Wolfman movie. DH decided we'd see Wolfman now and wait for the other one to come out on video. Wolfman had really good special effects as you might expect, and I always enjoy Anthony Hopkins--but this pretty much was the same old story we've heard many times before, silver bullets and all! LOL I did love the setting and the mansion and the horse drawn carriages. I probably shouldn't tell you that we've been in the 80's the last couple of days! It's been wonderful, and I managed to get a bit more work done in the yard while it was so nice. Hear we are getting more rain by the weekend, so that will be good too. A friend invited me to join her and a couple other friends for some TS hopping yesterday. I joined them in the afternoon when they got to this area and hit a couple of with them. I got so excited because I found a few painting books at both places--but they are not that great--maybe a project or two that I liked in each one. These may be some that I can soon list on the exchange in case they appeal to the rest of you. ;o) They were only 39 cents each so worth it just for the browsing pleasure! ;o) Punk, I also found a neat leaf dish with acorns on it--you know my "love" of acorns. It's posted over on Holidays if you want to see. Guess it's time to pull out some Spring designs and get some things made for Spring and Easter. Can't wait to see your decorations, so please share any you've made--past or present, okay? TTYL, Luvs