Here I am. Thank-you Nancy for giving me a pointer in this direction. I'm fine and I'm not. Off work at the moment with health issues. Hopefully nothing but I'm having problems. Doc found my thyroid out of whack a few months back and that was a major stride forward. Mostly healthy enough to make it to work and have a drink after work. Work is half the problem. Mostly stress issues that I suspect are not helping my personal health. Telling myself that I'm strong enough to beat the stress. Expected blow-back from my getting control of the chemicals situation. I think I have control... or more so then in the past. Some new issues but all I've had to do is e-mail and things get taken care of. That is all I ask as a safety person is that things get looked at and a rational decision made. Some recent personal attacks that I have weathered fairly well so far. Ahh... work place drama! Some serious consideration to going off on disability. Almost enough to live on... almost. Kitties are all fine. Favorite moved to the garage and has pet door access to the great outdoors. She turned into a world-class mouser... pity the small rodents in her sights. Leelee moved in and her former owner was a young girl. Leelee has this whole surrogate baby syndrome going on so she sleeps with her head on my pillow and lays on her back in the crook of my arm. Impossible not to love her. Yoko is getting old and spends more time sleeping in warm spots then I care for. Annie and Jessy remain litter mate close and are seldom apart from each other. Three watermelons on the vine in my garden this week! : ) lyra

I purchased there waterless cookware set about 6 months ago. They have a store in Odessa, Fl. and stopped by one day. What a great store and the sales help are very friendly and helpfull. Not pushie at all, they answered my questions and gave me a booklet on waterless cookware. When I left I started to do my homework, let me tell you it is very impressive. I bought a 20 pc set for under $500. try to find that someplace else. I bet you can't! Anyway I love the cookware set, the nice thing is you don't have to do waterless you can cook anyway you want to, it is up to you. I also have some of there knives. Really nice.

ilovepink - how was the party? I hope you had fun and that no one showed up with uninvited kids. I have only 1 child (18 yrs old now), but DH and have always attended adult events/parties when she was younger. It was never been a problem to get a sitter with some notice. That said, we also had a group of friends with kids similar in age to DD so we did host and attend to "kid friendly" parties as well. The kid friendly parties were usually spontaneous dinner parties on short notice or nights when our town celebrated fall festival or some similar occasion. Formal parties never included the little ones. I really enjoyed an adults only night out. Being a stay at home mom for many years, it was a real treat to get out for an evening with DH alone. I didn't feel guilty in the least. Each year I contacted our district high school childcare program director. Our high school childcare program provides daycare for working moms, and has an entire curriculum teaching students how to care for small children. They are certified in CPR, etc. The director would give me 3 or 4 names (prescreened by the school). I would interview them and then have them interact with DD for awhile while I was making dinner. I would keep an ear for what was going on and it was a great way to find a sitter for the year. I usually chose a senior that drove, so I paid a bit more. I would always pick a girl who actually played with my daughter. I liked the idea that in the event of an emergency in my absence, there was a licensed driver caring for my child. I will also tell you that when we would vacation with friends with the kids, we took the babysitter as well. It was money very well spent. Everyone would contribute toward the week/weekend fee, and even though we really didn't need a "sitter" every night, it was great having an extra set of hands with an early dinner and bath time for several kids. It also would free up a couple of moms who were starting to prep our late dinner as well. Being at the beach was also nicer if the adults wanted to stay a bit longer, the sitter would take the little ones back to the house and start the process of getting the kids going in the outside shower. The kids loved it, the parents loved it, win win for everyone. We even took the sitter on weekend trips to the beach. The friends who hosted at their beach house had high school age kids and the sitter always got a night out to hit the boards or whatever our hosts' kids were doing she was included. In our part of the country, people usually have 1 or 2 "regular" sitters whom they pay well and count on to entertain their kids until it is time for bed. They don't just put the kids in front of the tv and talk on the phone. My DD never really did much babysitting, but the friends of hers that did, made at least $50-75 for a Saturday nite. IMHO money well spent for parents in need of a reliable sitter. I always overpaid our sitters, but in return I never had a worry when I went out for an evening. The next morning my DD would be going on and on about how much fun she had the night before:).

Hi @Tracy I used Sherwin Williams Pure White for my cabinets, and also used it on all of our trim, doors, and ceiling. The name 'pure white' is deceiving as the color is more of a soft/warm white versus a stark bright white, but it doesn't have a yellow tinge to it ... hopefully that makes sense? I must have watched a gazilion youtube vides comparing different tones of white before landing on 'pure white'! We used knotty alder wood for our stained lower cabinets. I LOVE white oak, but it was not in our budget as we also remodeled our primary bathroom, fireplace and outdoor area (I've attached a pic of our bathroom below - same color palette as the kitchen with agreeable grey on the wall and pure white for the trim and same stain as our kitchen cabinets). I showed our painter a sample of the post oak flooring and had him make up a few custom stain samples that would compliment it. We wanted to go with a more natural look, he ended up only adding a few drops of brown and white into a clear coat to land on the stain that we have. I wonder if you can ask your painter to try and do the same or go into a Sherwin Williams and see what they suggest. I wish it was a straight up answer for you ... unfortunately I don't know what color of brown or white he added to the clear coat or exactly how much of it. I hope this helps! There are so many stressful decisions.