I received my wonderful box from Jeanette! It was full to the brim with bright orange and black wrapped surprises! I got: a wonderful Halloween kitchen towel. I love to change my kitchen towels for the season and didn't have a Halloween-themed one - thanks! a cute pumpkin votive candle holder with a scented candle in it a black and orange paper lantern a wonderfully scented potpurri mix a halloween wind sock a spider web wine/champagne goblet (so cute!) a spider on a spring a silver starred Halloween hat (sorry Jeanette - no digital camera to take a picture - my daughter kept saying "you're not going to wear that in front of my friends are you? - LOL!" a spooky hanging ghosty that emits an eeery sound - scares the daylights out of my little dog......... mummy's passion fruit tea bags and a ghost tin of chocolate kisses (oops all gone - how did that happen he he) Thanks Jeanette! Sue G.

Bev, I'm glad you liked your package. It was a lot of fun putting together, and when I thought I had enough, I'd come across something else to put in it...lol! When I was wrapping your gifts, Bump was watching and "administrating", and Stella still swears she helped! She kept getting into the wrapping paper and sitting on it! When I saw the canister of old-time candy it made me think of my childhood, and I was hoping it would do the same for you. Sadly, the canister was a bit bigger than the box was deep, but the candy made it through, which was the most important thing. As for the seam ripper and pins, I got those on one of my excursions to joanns. I was needing both, and I figured you could always use them too. ENJOY! -Dan ____________________________________________________ Still needing to send their packages: Linda and Bev. ____________________________________________________

Jay, how great of you to "volunteer" for this and what a great idea! (I'm sure a lot of us get asked to do things when it comes to tables/decor as we start to get a "reputation" for it!) Your Mother/Daughter Tea set up reminds me so much of the Victorian Tea we did for quite a few years at our church. We had lots of different tables each decorated by different ladies using what they had so that each table was very unique - even the tablecloths were their own so it was not "matchy" at all. The way we did the tea was to keep big pots (soup stock type) full of water boiling on the stove. We made the tea in the kitchen in urns so that it steeped nicely and then poured it into individual teapots that were taken to and left on the tables. Do you have enough teapots for that? The part that is nice about that too is that the guests can refill their cups (which are usually small!)as often as they need to right at the table. We even had someone who loved to sew make us a bunch of different tea cozies to keep the pot warm on the table (that way the teapot didn't have to match the china as it was covered most of the time) Hope you have fun planning it and don't get too stressed out! DD

Hi, I'm new here. I've been looking online for ways to cope with living with a very sloppy person. It seems nearly impossible to change a slob. I found one site about living with a sloppy partner. I have read such sad accounts, couples that marry (I guess totally unaware of how the other really keeps house), and end up divorcing. I notice that mostly, the tidy, organized person, the one who prefer to live in a sanitary and orderly house, ends up having to change, ends up having to relax their standards, ends up having to back down, and having to live in silent frustration. It seems so unfair, how slobs are able to have/take such control. They dictate how things are going to be, how things going to look, smell, etc. Slobs don't see a need to change how they are, all they have to do is drive the clean person crazy. My daughter and her child and I share a rental since she split up with her bf. Every day I wake up and cringe, dreading what the day will hold. It starts with my daughter never waking to my gd crying and screaming. I have to go in her room to wake her and I dread it because I just know I'm going to have an out of body experience. The smell of her room hits me as I open the door. This sets me off. She doesn't bother to flush her toilet. She lived in poverty with her bf for several years and developed some really bad habits, like half the time they didn't have tp, so she doesn't always bother to use it. Her floor always has junk thrown about, clothes all over, clean mixed with dirty, who know which is which, dirty silverware and drinking glasses she has repeatedly been asked not to take to her room, pop cans spilled or half full and just waiting to be spilled by her child. A big stinky mess, squalor. And there she is snoring away, none of this bothering her, not even a bit. Sigh She makes a mess in every other room, has to be reminded to clean up after herself, or she won't do it. Her cleaning up after herself barely qualifies as cleaning. She works full-time and goes to school, so she is busy, but she uses this as an excuse every time we get into it over her piggish ways. We get into some big screaming matches, and I'm always the loser. Nothing ever changes. She might go to her room and make an angry attempt at straightening out, but not really cleaning, slamming things and yelling so I hear her. I feel like I'm living with a child, not a young adult. I'm having to parent her, and should not have to. I'm near retirement age with my many joint pains, it was a struggle to keep up with my own chores when I lived alone. and now I feel like I work nonstop and get nowhere. I'm sad and angry over all of this, and when depression sets in, it really affects how I feel and what I'm able to do. None of this filth bothers her. Her brand new car, the new car smell has been replaced with the smell of rotting food. She is so gross. I sometimes lose my mind, especially when the smell from her room makes it's way downstairs. I have simply lost it and have started cleaning her room while she's at work, because I just can't take it anymore. I have found dirty diapers tossed in the cabinet under the sink, pads with dried blood thrown on the floor by the toilet, scum with hair, dried toothpaste and makeup on every inch of her sink. I can't understand how someone can live comfortably in such an unsanitary environment. Disgusting. Thanks for reading my long vent about what I'm living with. Thank you for your comments.