Susan: There is a lot of give and take with car pool, and I think it works best between good friends because it can be such a strain. It sounds like this car pool may not work out for you, in that case, don't take anything personally and just let it go. Car pools are wonderful and its fun to see your children interact with others (that can be enlightening, in fact). However, some down time alone in the car with your daughter could be a very good thing for your relationship with her. Another alternative is to ask your daughter if she has a close friend that she can car pool with, although it might be out of your way, it could work very well. Plus, it's a good idea to expand your group of friends who you can call upon to pick your daughter up in the event of an emergency or something else that prohibits you from getting her on any given afternoon. Maybe there is a third party you can include in your car pool? One successful car pool I know of requires (in a nice way) that the 5 moms get together once a month and discuss their daughters schedules together. If any girl needs to be to school early or stay late due to a test, they've agreed to send all of the girls early or keep them all late rather than disrupt the car pool. Our girls high school has laptops and wireless, so the girls are never at a loss for something to keep them busy. I also want to add that I am usually the one who is on the receiving end of car pools. I have a lot of children and am grateful that my friends don't count the driving they do for my children. I cannot possibly repay them by driving their children an equal amount. The key to car pool is recognizing that any party might need to change plans overnight and might not be able to notify you until it's time to leave the next morning. For example, in the case of the girl skipping her first class because it was a study hall, perhaps she was feeling sick, perhaps she needed to finish a project up in the morning, or maybe she just needed a good night sleep and her mom told her to sleep in. Not the most considerate way to tell you, but with teens you really need to go with the flow or you will go berserk. And I know that you know that, it just helps to remind myself of that fact. Driving these long distances to and from schools and other activities can make you crazy. Good luck, I hope the problem resolves itself quickly.

i'm back. been a long day of telephone calls and tears. she said she will not be taking them back. she's come to the realization that she can't help them because they really haven't helped themselves. one positive thing, someone from her church sent someone to talk to her - not sure if this was a lawyer or a from a child agency (i'm getting some mixed info). she actually said "i have to realize the little ones kids are not my responsibility". i thought that was a big step. (we know how she means that, so don't think by not making calls to social services or the like, is what she meant). both are in school, first and third grades. she has talked to teachers, one plays sports - so his coach, etc., and no one ever thought neglect for a minute. even though the parents might be smacked azzes, they have not neglected the boys in the true sense of neglect. and she would know neglect, if you knew her story as a child. so i thank you all for your thoughts. earlier when i spoke to her, she cried when i read many of the posts and said after a while "that's enough, that's enough, i know, i know", i've heard it from all of you, i heard it from XXXX visitor. when i said do you really believe in what you are saying and she promised she did. a relative is on his way to her, he has a business trip mid week and is making a little side trip to stay for a few days and see what he can do to aid them in finding housing. she made it clear that they will not be returning and he will be with her and whoever this person was that visited earlier, so that they hear it face to face and there's no confusion. this woman is wonderful, with a heart as pure as gold. it's not the first time she has extended that heart and probably won't be the last. it's her nature. this one was hard given the circumstances of her family and the promises made. i know her heart is breaking, but i can also hear a certain relaxed manner about her knowing she has made the right decision. thank you all again.

Thank you very much for the feedback. A liitle more info on the situation-I did not request any particular placement on the foam jets and did not request the Crystal ones at all. I'd seen numerous comments on this site about kids enjoying playing in jets on sun shelves so I asked the PB about putting something like that in for my grand daughter. PB sold me on the idea of the Crystal ones so she wouldn't have problems with hitting her toes on the normal type. It took some convincing me on his part since they were considerably more expensive. So, the placement and type were totally on the PB. I looked at the Crystal website the day before the dig began and saw the limitation on water death and contacted the PB to discuss it and was told he forgot about that limitation but would adjust the plans before they began. Apparently that did not happen since the final level of water on them was even more than shown on the first plan. I don't want to complain about PB though because they have done a fabulous job and seem very willing to fix this problem. I just want to make the best decision on how I want them to attempt to fix it. Tearing it out seems drastic but my understanding is they would have to do that even to change them to the normal type foam jets. Just one more request for advice please - if they do tear it out would you take the chance on using pebble tech and hoping it matches or would you use flagstone on the sun shelf so you don't have to worry about it matching?

thanks Bill for your advice. That's probably what will happen, but who knows until they have talked to the owner and not his stupid brother or the sales agent(who is NOT to be blamed) Blue, I guess I should have stated in that in the first post. I love my cabinets and would hate to be without uppers for 5 weeks or however long it takes. This was the final straw for our GC with this Cabinet Maker. We still have not received one last door. They delivered 3 drawers a couple of weeks ago, but didn't bring the door at that time. I called in about it the next day. We think they hadn't even ordered it and did so only after I called. When the GC called on Thursday to find out when it would be available for pickup they told him early Friday. He called to make sure before driving over there and they said late Friday. He then called at 4:30 and they were gone. They just don't understand that messing with clients of a reputable GC will lose them business in the long run. And with my husband in an industry where is in homes that they have money to spend, he will not be referring them to this company, such a shame for the little guy who is messing up royally. (I didn't forget my bitter pill this morning) I JUST WANT MY KITCHEN TO BE FINISHED!