Here is a picture of the roses I received from Organic Bouquet. The special was buy one dozen get a second dozen for free. They arrived on time and in excellent condition. Very long stem roses. I was especially impressed with the free vase. I expected a vase that looks like the dollar vases you get from florists (who must shop at Michaels for them). So cheap and ugly I never reuse them. But this vase that Organic Bouquet sent is so nice I'm keeping it. It is made from recycled green glass, in Spain, specially for O.B. I love it. The roses lasted a long time, over a week, some colors more than others. The pink ones lasted the longest. What I did notice with the "buy one get one free" offer is that the 2nd dozen of roses is not the same mix of colors that you get with the first dozen. Clearly they're sending roses they have extras of, in this case two colors...whites and orange. I dislike orange flowers but I kept them in the bouquet because they created a pretty rainbow effect to the arrangement. As far as orange roses go these were very nice, they had a two-tone color to them that I'm sure those who are partial to orange would like. I don't know why but out of the 2 dozen flowers I received not one was yellow. I like yellow roses so that was a little disappointing but I really can't complain because the roses as a whole were very beautiful. As for the card. It's not a card at all. It's a little piece of paper. When I ordered the bouquet I forgot to add a note. Even though I was sending these to myself I wanted to see what the note looks like. So I immediately tried to change my order to include a message and there was NO way to alter it. Once you click the send button you can't change a thing! I sent a quick email telling them I just placed an order and I want to add a message so would they please correct that for me. And I gave them the message to be printed on the *card*. Well no one bothered to read my email so when the flowers arrived the card was blank. There was enough time to read the email and fix it but they didn't. Funny, even though there is no message they still throw the blank card in the box. Here's my final critique of Organic Bouquet. The product is good but the operations end of the business needs work. There's no convenient way to reach them quickly, customer service is asleep at the switch. After all that with the flowers guess what I receive on Thursday... a GIFT BASKET (from a friend who visited us awhile back). I flipped over it...this gorgeous basket was filled with an assortment of delicious edible treats and small tools like a cheese cutter and a miniature scissors to aid in the opening of the packages! How cute is that! I now know what I'm going to do from now on. Skip the flowers, for almost the same amount of moeny you can send a gift basket instead!! Here is a link that might be useful: Gift Tree

A couple of things come to mind here. The first is that I usually prefer to keep my DD's friend's parents at a healthy arms length. The reason is mostly because if the girls' relationship gets strained, it feels awkward for me to be buddies with Mom. A few years back, I met a woman through my DD's school....her daughter was in the same school. She and I became fairly close, but my DD really did not like the daughter. We socialized a bit on the weekends and DD went grudgingly for a while and then later started to refuse. When DD's birthday rolled around, I felt like I needed to invite my friend's daughter...DD said she'd "ruin" the party for her. We do still socialize every now and then with other school families, but only if we feel they're really interesting people. It is also easier now that DD is in high-school. Middle school girls have relationships that are complicated enough without the added layer of complexity that whole-family friendships bring. I also can fall into the trap of feeling judged when people are less than friendly. I have to remind myself that maybe they're just introverted. As others have suggested, maybe the parents feel a bit guilty and don't know who to deal with that, so they just give you the brush-off to minimize their own discomfort. They may also just not have any extra juice left for social interactions after what sounds like incredibly demanding workdays. They may be unhappy people or just going through a rough patch. It's hard to be nice to others when you are suffering. My guess is that its a mixture of some or all of these things. Finally, though you are going above and beyond in your generousity towards this girl, I do not think you need to reevaluate the situation or figure out a way to back off. Being the home that everyone flocks to is a great blessing. You are a blessing for those "fledgling" kids and a blessing to your own kids. It is a huge compliment that your DD wants to be home with you. And you are lucky she's not off elsewhere...so many kids just can't escape their homes/parents fast enough. Before you know it they'll all be off to college and you'll miss them terribly. We were the-house-everyone-comes-to in middle school and I just loved knowing my daughters friends. Now, she is a day-student at a boarding school and their social life is largely confined to campus. We hardly ever see her friends and the house is quiet on weekends. I miss the old days!

"has to balance what's best for him and best for you. And sometimes they just aren't going to work. IMO, childs needs come first." See, this is interesting. I think what is so interesting and diverse about this forum (or even when talking to friends in RL) is that EVERYONE is going to have their own opinion; and that opinion is one we have formed based on our own experiences and perspectives. Nivea, you were treated in a really cruel and hurtful manner by your SM, correct? (or am I mixing you up with another poster?) I believe it was you. Anyway, naturally, you are more inclined to empathize and identify with the child (stepchild) and perhaps even project a bit of your own feelings; and that's normal, we ALL do that. Just as I am more likely to identify with someone like Ima or Lamom or Silver, someone who is a SM dealing with difficult situations. Anyway, I know what you mean about the child needing to come first; but I think you are saying this out of your own experiences, which included being emotionally hurt by your cruel and emotionally immature SM who insisted HER needs come first. Correct? That is awful that happened and it's sad that your father allowed you to be pushed aside. (And please correct me if I am mixing up your history with someone else.) Our situation is a little different in that DH had continually made the mistake of doing things to harm our marriage---all under the guise of "it's best for SS." But a lot of what he was doing wasn't even really best for SS. DH wanted me to smooth things over and be nice to BM, even after she attacked me in front of SS. Sure, it might be superficially easier for SS if everything seemed hunky-dory again. But in the long run, what lesson is that teaching him? That violence is acceptable? That it's okay for his mom to behave like that and I will just pretend that everything is okay? Those aren't lessons I want SS or DD learning. So sometimes what IS best for SS isn't necessarily what one might think at face value. Sure, it would be more *pleasant* for him in the short term, but in the long run, I think it does more harm than good. (I don't think this particular weekend issue is even really about anything being "best" for SS, though.) And one thing our marriage counselor has been helping both of us see is that sometimes what's best for the marriage has to come first. And I will say this with 100% conviction: it would NOT be in SS's best interest for DH and I to divorce. Not at all. That would be one of the worst things that could happen for both him and my DD. I may be "just a stepmother" to him but I have been a positive and caring person in his life for almost 7 years. He views my daughter as his sister. He genuinely loves our family and feels a TOTAL part of our family unit...because he is! We are not just some people he spends a few days a month with, he has two families and we are one of them! If that unit were to dissolve, it would honestly devastate SS. It would devastate my DD, as well, but I really think it would be worse on SS. He is very sensitive to these things, and he is the type of child that turns his upsets inward. I know if he were to lose his family, it would really impact him negatively in an emotional sense. So in marriage counseling, one thing DH is having to focus on is sorting out when SS's needs really DO come first, and when it's just BM manipulating "in the name of their son." Obviously, there are times that the child's needs have to come first---heck, that is 95% of parenting! But it is my belief that this is not one of those times. SS's mom is doing well and there is no reason he can't be with her.

Originally I used the trench-edging method. But that needed refreshing three times a year (spring, mid-summer, and fall) so it became a big chore as the garden got bigger. Plus, since I use a walker for mobility, I had much the same problem as NHBab's husband with the mower :-) It was annoying - and hazardous- to have a wheel drop into the trench! So I moved to the metal edge + brick option. That worked quite well. But the winter of 2015/2016 caused a lot of frost heave for the metal edge. Along the 'moat bed' where the metal was highly visible, we actually lifted the sod and added more soil to hide the metal edge! In other places, I have planted things to drape over the edge - but when the plants are dormant the metal is annoyingly visible! Along the garage bed where it is shady, I planted hostas as an edging and removed the metal and bricks last week. I wish there were big leafed plants like hostas that would work well in full sun! In the shady backyard there is only a bit of brick edging - without metal edging as there is no grass near the edging to invade it. So the edging is only an issue in the sunny front garden. I'm not happy with the look of some of it now but am also not prepared to do the work to do a major overhaul, so will be tinkering with plants to hide the most egregious problem areas :-) I don't think there is any perfect edging!