When a local nursery here wanted 10 of my Royalty Raspberries they gave me an $8 credit each. They sold them each for $10 and made $100 cash. The credit I was given I used to buy plants at their nursery. They got $10 each in real money for the raspberries but when I went to use my credit...the plants that I got from them, didn't cost them the same amount that they were marked as, because they would have purchased those plants at wholesale prices, so, maybe only $20 for an $80 marked up price. So if my $80 credit is only in reality costing them $20 then they just made a profit of $80 on my raspberries ($100 to sell the raspberries for minus the real cost of the plants that I bought with my $80 credit note.) Make sense? So, what I am saying is that if they offer you a credit of $300 it does seem low, because they will sell each of them for $125. They make $500 cash on the bushes. Then, your credit of $300 only costs them maybe...$50 'cause they will have purchased the plants you are interested in at wholesale prices. So, sale of your bushes at their nursery ($500) minus the real cost of your credit ($50) is $450 clear in their books. Not bad for them, assuming that they can sell them, which is a chance that they will be taking. On the other hand, these trees that you have that are available to be sold, as I am assuming that you don't need them in your own landscaping projects. If you can get a $300 credit for them that is better then them just sitting around not being properly used in your landscaping. Why not go for it? Get other plants that you can use. Or, get hardscaping items or chemicals (which will actually cost them more than the plant material cause they won't have as much markup.) If you think $300 is not enough, then negotiate. You know that they will make $500. Ask for a $350 or $400 credit and see what they say. Be open and maybe??? What do you think? Brenda

No nursery, or anyone else for that matter, will do this unless they are going to make money on it. It takes specialized equipment and/or hard skillfull work that not many people are equiped to do. You can either participate and get some money, or forget about it. The real resource in this case is the ability to move the plants successfully, not so much the plants. They have to make the sale to the customer, negotiate a price with you, wrap the plant, tie the plant, dig the plant, burlap the plant, move the plant, and plant the plant. That is a lot of work that they need to get paid for. None of it happens without the sale. If your price goes up, so does the price to the customer. That could kill the sale and no one gets paid.

Sigh. I am bothered by rude children and I do not hesitate to correct my nieces and nephews, my grandkids, heck, even the neighbor's kids. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, I don't think at the party is a good time to do it. If you see these boys in advance I'd probably take them aside, tell them that this year is a bit tight and ask for their help in making sure there's enough for everyone. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for and they do not need to be protected or insulated from all of life's realities. Other than that, I think putting out portions at different intervals is a good idea, it'll keep the buffet line fresher anyway. If you really can't afford to throw all those wings into the bottomless pits that are your nephews, I'd change the menu to something less expensive. You could ditch the wings and personally, I love a baked potato bar and never eat chicken wings. They are all skin and bones and here they are $3 a pound. I can get chicken breasts more cheaply than I can get wings and I can get thighs for even less. Cut those into strips or chunks, add the sauce you'd use for the wings and you have the same thing, but cheaper. Good luck, and happy holidays. I'm thinking good thoughts for your DH and the work situation. Above all, have a good time, this is a celebration. Annie

"Was BM actually told to 'schedule' a time for a later day at her chosing? Or is it possible you misunderstood the timing of it?" Keep in mind I'm getting this info from the BF, so I'm not getting first hand knowledge of what's going on. But, yes, BM was allowed to schedule a time to take the drug test. "If I seriously thought any of my children were abusing, neglecting, and/or putting a chld in danger I'd rat them out in a heartbeat. It would not be to 'punish' the adult but to protect an innocent minor child who can not stand for him/herself." This is what I have been trying to say. Grandma has known about this behavior for a long time, but it is only when she gets into a fight with her daughter that she reports her to DSS. If she was really concerned for her grandson�s welfare, she would not wait until she got into a fight with her daughter to report her to DSS. Well, I had a talk with BF yesterday. I told him I am tired of hearing him complain that his son's grandma gets more time than him and I�m tired of him complain about what his BM does. I told him he needs to get over it. He can't control how much the grandma sees his son, so long as if doesn't interfere with his time. And I told him that if he was really felt that BM was such a terrible mother he needed to clean his act up and find out what he needed to do to get custody of his son. I told him I would support him in any way I could to help him get custody of his son. I also told BF that I was not giving him an ultimatum, but that if he is serious about getting custody of his kid he needs to think about how his smoking weed could affect that. BF was open to everything I said, did not get mad, and basically said I was right about everything. We had a great discussion, he was very receptive to everything I had to say. We had a great discussion and we resolved the two main issues I had in the relationship, complaining about the Bm's mom all the time, and being so critical of BM. BF admitted that he needs to stop being so critical of everything BM does. "I'm not meaning to 'pick' on Amber, but I'm a bit afraid she's making too many excuses for this guy that maybe should not be being made." BF has his faults, same as I do, but when I talk to him about them he is able to admit where he is wrong. And I can admit when I'm wrong too. The wonderful thing about our relationship is our ability to communicate and get things resolved. We may not get all our problems resolved right away, but we do work on them. And some things may take longer than others to get resolved, but we do work on them together. Just like the situation where when I point out something about BF's son and he would turn around and say "well, your daughter does it too!" We talked about that, and BF admited he shouldn't try to deflect responsilbility. Since we had that talk he has never said that to me again.