I know Carolyn has been asked this before but rather than copy and paste her long reply or risk editing it incorrectly, I'll leave it to her to reply again. :) But you can read her previous comments in the threads titled 100 Heirloom Tomatoes Part 1 and 100 Heirloom Tomatoes Part 2 if interested. I'm sure they are still here somewhere as they pop up often. And as Helen suggested you can always use your clipping feature and 'clip' and save Carolyn's many posts with comments on varieties. Dave

Sorry....I can see the scenario....your MIL has been talking non stop about the new grandchild...to these friends you don't know....so they brought over gifts to her for her new grandchild.....theyw eren't thinking of you at all, these were gifts for her grandchild. And, naturally they wanted to see her reaction to the wonderful things they brought, so told her to open them, and she did. Then of course brought them to you. She thanked the giver, because of course they were really for her grand child, and thinks that's all that's necessary. But if it were me, I would write them a note saying how thoughtful they were to send a gift, and mention how thrilled Grandma was and delighted when she bropught them over. I am sure they won't expect a thank you....but it's the nice thing to do....and don't worry about who sent what, just mention a baby gift. And remember.....these were first of all gifts for your inlaw's new grand child, not necessarily your baby. Linda C

Well, in my sister's case, she has mental health issues, but was a bright young lady. She was overweight since childhood, but she was an absolutely beautiful girl. She went through a stage where she thought she was a lesbian. She liked to say that she wanted to bring a girl to Thanksgiving dinner as her date and upset our folks. I told her I figured they would get over it eventually. They loved her very much. Maybe too much. She met a guy on Yahoo personals and they had German ancestry in common. Turns out he's into White Supremacy, but we didn't know that at the time. They married within the first year of dating. He moved into her apartment and it didn't take long to find out that he was emotionally abusive. He blames it on his diabetes, but he even tried to start a fight with my husband at dad's funeral. My sister was unhappy in her marriage and we learned quickly that mom and dad were NOT allowed to give her and hubby anything. I didn't know anything was wrong until mom wanted to go visit them at their house one night. They weren't home and mom started crying and saying that she wished she hadn't married this guy. It was then that I found out about his white supremacist tendencies and the way he was controlling of my sister. Of course, she has gone back and forth over this saying it's not him, it's her that's the problem, but the night our dad died guess who was with her at the hospital. Dear old mom in law, the enforcer. This woman-the boy's mother-is the one, I'm really sure of it, who is most behind the estrangement. She tried telling my aunt and grandma that our dad molested us and that we were "stair-step" children. We were in fact 7 and 11 years apart in age and our dad NEVER molested us, ever! Of course, madam wolf didn't bother to ask my oldest sister and myself. She raises a child who thinks hitler is someone to look up to and takes a giant crap on our family. I have found out that there often is an older woman in the family that is behind the estrangement of the spouses parents and family. Well, my sister says that I'm a n**ger now and she hasn't let us see their daughter. We suspect she is pregnant again, but they won't let mom see that child either-even though the big bad dad is dead as a doornail. My dad is pushing up daisies. How would you feel if you were accused of molesting your own children and denied seeing your grandchildren? It is the most bull crap thing I have ever seen. I'm sure they are feeding her the whole, their toxic people, line and I'm sure it feeds her narcissism to believe it. God will have to deal with it. I miss my dad so much. This is NOT the way things were supposed to be and her actions have affected ALL of us. Of course, she doesn't even think about any of that. It's all her up in there. Our mother is very broken. I pray for her because only God can help the hole in her heart. That chicken sister of mine couldn't even go in and see dad's lifeless body laying on the gurney the night he died, but I remember his eyes. I was with mom and we went in right after they pronounced him dead. I remember his beautiful blue eyes had faded to a green as deep as the ocean because the life had fled from them. He choose not to get that open heart surgery. I guess he didn't think dying could hurt any less than being accused of being a child molester and a sob supreme by the woman who raised a model SS career man. It's not all about any one person. What you do affects everyone and we are ALL responsible for each other. I loved and protected my sister to the best of my abilities. Our dad did yell a lot and he was an ignorant man. He didn't know how to raise children because he came from an alcoholic dad-but our did was NOT an alcoholic nor was he a child abuser. My children remember their grandparents and I would never, ever have refused my parents or my husbands' parents from getting to know their grandchildren. Never.

Earnest money is deposited to the escrow account of a disinterested third party. Here, it's almost always the title company, but it could be an attorney, maybe some other entity in different states. The contract & the escrow company determine how the earnest money is to be disbursed if the contract does not close. *Neither party to the contract can hold the other party's money hostage*. Here in Texas, the contracts promulgated by the real estate commission have a provision for earnest money & no provision for a "deposit", other than on the buyer's or seller's temporary lease. If a homebuyer writes a "deposit" check to the seller, what's it for? to hold the property? for how long? to assure the buyer's performance? If the buyer can't get the loan or can't sell his house or loses his job, what then? What if the seller defaults? What if the seller is 5 months behind on the mortgage & cashes the buyer's check & moves out in the middle of the night?