hello everyone. weather is very intense today/tonight. shirley, sure hope you are not in this storms path. carol, i sent those mold things (kind of like a joke, but they are useful), becase a while back you actually had mold and weren't sure how to test it...remember? not on your feet though, as i recall. happiest of birthdays to beth and tina. beth, are you getting hit with this weather as well? not sure what part of MD you are in. we only have one state separating us...one of these days, it would be nice to meet. wow amy - 5 boys. GOD BLESS YOU! i spent some real quality time with "my baby" today. she's so yummy. my heart can't get enough of her. oh well, dogs are going crazy with the rain and wind...be back later . have a safe weekend all, stay dry! maryanne i sent marsha her hostess gift too, but haven't heard weather she received it. sue/squazon - i certainly enjoyed reading above ava and can hear the pride even in your type. thanks for sharing. theresa, i'm happy with whatever you decide to send me. i'll leave it to you and appreciate whatever you decide to send.

I agree with you, Lisa. We live in the country in a hollow in the woods surrounded by acres of woods and farmland. We have a visiting raccoon if I keep out the cat food and the bird feeders but when I remember to bring them in every night, we don't see it. We moved from the city 4 years ago to an existing home that was quite new and there were still signs of the abuse of the land to build this house, so we have made an effort to let everything go back to nature. I look out my back patio door into the woods and see many different species of wildflowers and birds feeding on the feeder. Looking out the front door more birds and vegetation, and the side door a huge trumpet vine being frequented by many hummingbirds. I know there must be inconveniences and problems living here but I don't see them - I appreciate them - coyotes fighting right outside out bedroom windows, the nice skunk perfume permeating the house at night, numerous whipporwills overlapping each others calls ALL night etc. Aaaahhh, what a life. Couldn't get any better. I understand that I am the outsider that moved into their world. There have been bears spotted in this area but I have never seen one, so I don't think I'll even worry about it.

I called the local office and was told that the congressman that WAS in our small town, is an attorney now...though it still has him on the Internet as the congressman for our county...Shows you how little I keep up with politics. The lady gave me a number to call our "new" congressman...Phil Gringey. Who's office is not located in our town. I spoke with a man briefly, mentioning the social security letter and medicare...He said that he would have to send us a form to fill out, to get our permission for them to "look into it." Social Security called yesterday and told us the "Reconsider" was turned down. That we could file an appeal to Waiver it...I said, Ok., and they'll send a paper to file out. Seems that you have 2 options after SS claims they overpaid you...One is that you want them to Reconsider the situation because you don't believe that you are at fault in any way...the other is a Waiver...that asks them to waive it because you're not financially able to pay it back. Doubt that is in our favor either...because I told the SS lady yesterday that I don't see how we can live on $229.00 a week...and she said, "Sure you can." I asked, How?...and she said, "Just sit down and go over what you owe, and you'll see that you can eliminate a few of them." She didn't say what "them" were. Eliminate what? water? phone? electricity? gas? insurance? food?

Hi myfampg! Actually today is the first time in a very long time I've come here. This summer has been far too busy to breath, let alone get on here. I'll try a quick catch up...... it's NOT been all good, just been too busy. DS17 dad moved to Michigan. He's 3 hours north. He's been great though, if he wants him he's been coming all the way and getting him and he's even brought him all the way home. He also took him to the race up there for Father's day. I have to say, I'm imppressed. No problems with him. DS12.... his sperm donor was sentenced to 17 months, is doing half then he is done. No probation, nothing. When he doesn't pay I will have to start all over from square one. He is scheduled to be released September 10. They actually moved him to a real prison. So he's no longer in a county jail. This suprised the heck outta me and I'm actually scared to death of retaliation. I guess I'll deal with that when September comes. SS..... well of course there's been drama there. BM originally told dh that she wouldn't mess with ss's baseball or all stars at all this summer. She said he could stay until it was all over, she didn't care. Well, all star tournament is this weekend, she's getting him tomorrow. Go figure, right?!?! Oh and yes, you know the date.... it's July 10. She has to have him back to us by August 5 because he has a middle school rally that he has to go to since he'll just be entering the school. So not even close to 8 weeks this summer. We tried getting her to take him July 4. We went to TN for ds12 World series baseball (BTW... they were the runners up!!! Wooohooooo!). We thought we could drop him to her on the way, well she had promised him a trip to Virginia beach that she cancelled so she wanted us to take him to TN with us. I honestly didn't want to cause I was trying to save money on the trip. DS17 didn't go cause he had to work. So anyway, we took him with us, she was supposed to call on Sunday to meet us. She never called.... we didn't end up coming home till Monday anyway since the team did so well and we kept playing and playing till late Sunday. We made ss call her last night cause we had a feeling she was going to try to cancel again. She did try.... ss wouldn't let it happen. LOL! We knew he wouldn't so that's why he called and not dh. She is now moving to the southern part of our state, right next to Kentucky. (Which btw is where ds12 donor lives.... OMG!! Kill me now if they ever meet each other or get together!) She told ss that she'll now be 2 1/2 hours away. There is NOT one part of KY (her dh will be working in Louisville) that is 2 1/2 hours from us. She's so full of crap! It's gonna be 3 hours and 15 minutes away compared to 4 hours. Oh my... like 45 minute difference will make her come to his games. Which she still has never made it to. She also told dh that she will no longer be working. Oh freaking wonderful! Now she'll quit paying her support again! I'm so over this crap with her. I told dh that she doesn't pay, they go back to court. She gets treated exactly the same as ds12 donor. No if's and's or but's. Also, if she's not going to be working, she does NOT get the tax exemption every other year. Period. (She's never going to be current on support to be allowed to have it anyway) I'm so nervous that she's going to pull what she pulled in February (trying to keep him). This time she'll be in our state ..... which I think she is moving to our state and not KY for this reason. She's going to think she can keep him. I'm just so stressed that we are going to have to go through this again next month.... and stressed that she's NOT going to pay her support. Oh and last time she saw him was Memorial Day weekend. Her ss (the evil little brat) broke ss's ipod, he poured water on it. No discipline given, no ipod replaced. UGH!!! So wrong! So glad to see you again though myfampg. Don't take exdh crap!