Thank you all - I am back to the drawing board, I only wanted to do tulips because my 8 year daugther has loved them since she was a toddler and this was to be "her" flowerbed. I am not to worried about critters, i have a completely fenced in yard, and a dog :) things that are silly enough to come in, do not usally get back out! ( ekk!) thank you again, i will start looking at flowers more now, as the weather warms up. Maintence free / easy care to me would be not having to "dead head" , not have a ton of bees or ants, and be able to tolerate once or twice a week watering ~ i grow mostly veggies and i would like to water then entire garden at the same time. (more often mid summer) thank you again! Tina

my grandbabe sings "clean up, clean up, bath time clean up" and then we do it for toy time too. at times i find myself singing it when i'm doing my own chores. i heard a song similar on barney one day and assumed that's where her mom picked it up and taught her. when i was a 4th grader, we sang a song for every subject. to this day, there are still some i can sing and i hate to admit how long ago i was in the 4th grade!!! maryanne

plllog- I'm strict with the amount of the fructose portion of "sugars" due to Fructose Malabsorption (aka fructan intolerance) and the list of foods I need to limit or avoid. As much as 30% of the population are deficient (to some degree) in fructose receptors and don't even realize they may have a problem. This has nothing to do with the "anti-fructose or high-fructose corn syrup" issues popular in the last few years. Fructose Malabsorption can be the cause of mild to severe GI issues. It can be hereditary, but more often it develops as we age. Your physician can perform a hydrogen and methane breath test in his office to determine whether you have this condition. With all sugars, the glucose portion is used for energy in your body - it's used by your muscles. I don't have a problem with that kind of "sugar". I can consume dextrose, corn syrup, and other sweeteners/sugars/syrups as long as they are low in fructose . I just don't use a lot of ANY of them as a general practice because high-sugar diets are basically --- deadly. But, this may be what you are missing, and I didn't make it clear, the fructose portion of a sugar goes to the liver to be processed, and that's where the problem with fructose/fructans begins. I need to avoid the fructose/fructans for this reason since having my gallbladder removed, which means your only "filter" remaining is your liver - so be kind to it and avoid fructose/fructans - PLUS the GI issues from the malabsorption issue (double trouble). But long before that, we have avoided high-glycemic foods AND sugars due to diabetes in hubby's family as a way to hopefully avoid diabetes. Two of his siblings died due to diabetes-related issues (age 55 and 66), and another is seriously ill and disabled due to diabetes (age 59) and another sibling is also a longtime diabetic (age 74), and another one has blood glucose issues, but not diabetes (65). That leaves one sister, one brother, and my husband, out of 8, who don't have diabetes. So we are dealing with several different issues, not one, and that may be where the confusion comes from. Sorry about that.... -Grainlady

are you thinking of expanding to get more room? does that large table need to stay? can you move the fridge? what's on the other side? the kitchen has no working space. none. if you want to rework the space, post more pics or a floorpan. if you want to keep everything the same, you can buy a sink base and few upper cabinets on the cheap, paint them and redo the back wall. easy. you could look on craigslist (if you're near a big city) and see what perfectly good kitchens people are ripping out so that they can remodel. I've seen entire kitchens, (cabs, granite, sink, and appliances) sell for 1K, total. lighting. is this a one story w/access to the attic above the kitchen? if so, look into some recessed lights. so, tell us what you want, what you need, and how much you can spend.