Hi Everyone, looks like this thread will roll over soon! Way to go AL!!! : ) I also LOVE those frogs, they are so cute .... Thanks for the kind words from those cute little guys!!! I just love them...They keep the slugs away from my trees and the lizards keep a close watch as well. That is a great "protector" in my eyes!!! : ) Hi Rina... Thank you!! I do love all of the little critters that like to visit my yard. I aslo have butterflies and Hummingbirds too! I swear they act like they want me to make new sugar water everytime i come outside. I really think they know i will do that when they start swarming me and talking.. They are really precious. Hey Mike, My Bull frog lives in the pond most of the year, but in the summer when the water it to hot for him, he decides to take the large pool..lol I se him jump in when i come outside at night to check on the trees. He has finally decided that he likes me now, and wont jump off into the pool. My DH checks in the am to see if he is in the skimmers and he is gone. He is so strong that he can get into the corner and pull himself right out of the pool. He is to funny. I just love these guys.. i named him my 'little Prince' hopefully he wont be kissing anyone, so he can stay as he is and keep eating the slugs from my Plumeria. My cell has been acting up and i finally had to say goodbye to it... :( I really likes that one becauses i was so comfortable with it, but it was time for an upgrade. Now, i trying to figure out how to work this new cell..LOL I did receive your text, but i have been so busy at work, and when im done it is to late to respond. I will tomorrow. How are your frogs? I wonder where mine will stay this winter? Hi Josh!! Love your cute little tree frog too! How cool is that? Does he stay around or is he only here and there? My Bullfrog comes out every evening around the same time and hangs around the same tree, LOL..I think he like the containers with Gritty Mix too! Must be the feel of the mix and the heat that is still around for him in the late evening... Take good care all.. AL, Since you like frogs so much.. Here are a few more pics for you!! Good night !!! Laura loving the Gritty Mix..lol He just sits and stares at my trees for any tasty treats that may crawl his way.. it is just to funny!!! Take care, Laura

All's well here. Retired 4 years ago and have been loving it - have plenty to keep me busy and active. Just finished setting up new jet-boat for shallow water fishing. Amazing how far electronics has come. The trolling motor has Spot Lock, which automatically keeps the boat in one spot w/o using an anchor, it can follow a directional setting and keep the boat on a perfectly straight line regardless of wind/waves/current, and automatically navigate from way-point to way point which can be set from the helm using the sonar to set the points on a chart, or it will follow a depth contour. I don't know if I'll ever figure out all the features on the sonar equipment. I don't do all the mixed planting containers I used to and I've rid the garden of the ill-behaved ground covers and spreading ground covers I used to be willing to put up with and work to keep corralled. Now, it's pretty muck bones (trees/shrubs) and some well-behaved perennials - just not as ambitious as I used to be. I've started to cut back on the number of trees I tend. I have so many young trees it's not likely I'll ever see their potential realized, so I've been giving them away or handing them over them to local gardening clubs ...... none of my kids are interested in them other than to look at, so I'll pare the number down to less than 100. 30 tropicals and 50 outdoor trees is more realistic. I forgot how much I enjoyed fishing and I can't be fishing and care for trees at the same time ...... I hope you get to feeling better! Take care. Al

Thank you, Laura... such wonderful sentiments! :-) Our weather has been crazy, too... but we half expected it. Last year, we were already laying out soaker hoses and starting to water...and this year, we've gotten so much rain that we're completely saturated! We're just now able to get in and cut grass, and talk about tall! It's hard on the mowers, I'm sure, but what can you do?! If it's grass, it has to be kept mowed at least semi-regularly... and if it's garden beds, they must be kept weeded or the grasses, thistles and other nasties take over! So, we're darned if we do and darned if we don't! Mother's Day was nice... calls from my kids, and the husband made a nice dinner... while I spent the day relaxing, for the most part. There are certain chores that must be done regardless of what day it is, like cleaning and feeding dogs and other animals, but that's no big deal... I have it down to a science! ;-) I finally got the old guy to help me get photos off my camera, so I thought I'd share a few this morning... Here's a mama and her twins... My very best mouser... I call her Vixen! The next generation of excellent mousers... one of Vixen's 3 little ones... Walking from the shade garden area toward the new rose arbor... A young Peony Tree in the dappled shade garden... notice the rambler rose runners everywhere on the ground! Closeup of the flower from the Peony Tree... Another Peony Tree in the front yard... north side... And this is a Trillium that opened white and is turning a pale pink shade. It's among a patch of purple flowered hybrid Trillium I planted several years ago... you can see the mottled leaves of the hybrid... I didn't plant the white one, though... And finally, the first of the Irises are starting! I hope you enjoyed a walk around the yards with me... stick around as all the roses begin blooming and other perennials begin to color the gardens a wonderful rainbow of scented color! Thanks, Al... I can finally view Youtube, but the monitor I'm using has no sound on board... for a girl with a technological genius as a husband, I'm always the last to get upgraded! Would you believe I'm still using Windows XP?! I desperately need an upgrade to Windows 7, which should be coming shortly... when he has time to upgrade me. :-) It's kind of like being the plumber with the leaky toilet handle that sticks, or the barber that doesn't have time to cut his own hair... when you're in the business, you're last in line! :-) It looks to be another gorgeous day... sunny and hot with strong humidity... I may spend some time weeding and edging today, instead of killing myself cutting grass! Hope everyone has a lovely day! And... Happy Gardening!

Sueb, my pediatrician said the same thing about my dd when she was 11. Her well visits are always in May around her birthday. She'd had body hair since she was probably 10, but she is very hairy anyway thanks to my Italian heritage. But he looked at her development, breast buds, etc and predicted she'd get her period about a year from then, which would have been at the start of summer that year. I also have a May birthday and got my period the summer I turned 12. Well, that summer came and went for her. She didn't get her period until the end of last summer, when she was 13, a full year after the pediatrician predicted. I was shocked as I know that girls get it earlier these days. I kept thinking maybe she was keeping it from me somehow (she HATED talking about anything puberty related with me, although now she has no problems discussing that stuff with me). When she eventually did get it, she waited nearly 3 days to tell me! I was in the process of getting ready for a trip to Ireland with dh and she said she didn't want to bother me. Fortunately, she knew all about it already and I'd already made sure she had supplies - I'd given her a variety of items the year before when she went off to camp just in case she got it there. Back to the OP, I think the earlier you talk with your dd, the better. I've found that some girls just shut down once they kind of understand that it's going to be a "sex talk" b/c they get embarrassed, think it's gross, etc. By talking to her now, I think you can have an easier time discussing it (at least that's my experience based on my dd and the things her friends' moms told me). Coincidentally, I have an 8 y/o dd too and am a little concerned about her possibly having early onset puberty. She too has hair under her arms already. She has always been tall for her age, especially compared to my other kids (my other kids have always been average/below average), and then when I saw the hair under her arms, I started to get concerned. She didn't have it at her well visit in February, so I've been thinking of calling her ped just to see if I should get her checked out. Since she's always been high on the growth chart since birth, that didn't worry me (except found it odd since we are a family of short/average people), but the underarm hair thing does. no puberty hair yet though. That said, my kids are not big milk drinkers and I only buy organic, hormone free mik products anyway, so I don't think there's a link there for her. I'd be interested to hear what your specialist says if you don't mind sharing once you meet with him/her. And BTW, I also highly recommend the American Girl books. Love them for my girls.