Thanks for all the compliments on the home, everyone! And thanks for all the great suggestions too. It won't be me putting them up... It'll be my SO. LOL He just doesn't know it yet. Mwoods, we live in Oklahoma City. We actually live just down the street from my parents and our house is one that I've always loved. And I agree with you about the people in Oklahoma... I can't imagine living anywhere else. Firstkim, I thought about your suggestion yesterday, actually. I will be starting out with all new lights and am now kicking myself that we discarded a bunch of old ones during our last move (not to this house, but the one before it). It's a brilliant idea though and I might ask around to see if anyone has any old burnt out bulbs. Someone also suggested electrical tape over the ones that I don't want to show. BTW, the house picture that I've posted is actually one from before we purchased the house. Everything's the same, but we did take the ivy off the front by the porch. It was already growing into the window and getting up under the siding under the porch!!! I was sad to see it go, but it was just too much potential for too much damage.

And it smells like suntan lotion. I run a school in my house and I keep telling the kids, 'this is what Hawaii smells like...' They say, 'Yum!' I think they want to eat Hawaii!

Thats a pretty one !!! Love those big eyes!! Hope everything goes okay tomorrow Caroline!

After the bath, a couple shriveled, clearly not liking it. But it's definitely satisfying to see white dots floating in the water. I left them out to dry and started to pick more stubborn bugs from some of my plants. Most of them were motionless, so I assumed the soap bath did the trick. So I left the rest alone. Nuked all the soil of new pots with boiling water, followed by a 4 minute cook off in the microwave. I set them off to dry for a few days, and I tried to pot them up last night. And guess what? The mealies SURVIVE!! Except for those that I had picked on, the rest still had tiny bugs crawling in them. You can call them eggs, larvae whatever, I got fed up. Took out my tub of rubbing Alcohol dunk half a containerful with more dish soap, and yanked everything into the concoction. Rinsed them into another tub of water, and set them off to dry again. This time I inspected every single one. Miraculously, no white stuff or survivors. I'm guessing it worked. The poor remaining plantlets all don't look good. I guess only time will tell if these all can be saved. Will continue to update... Oh, and I also found infestations on my new jades too, thankfully I caught the spread and am now containing it, or at least am trying to..