Katkin sorry I have not gotten to you sooner about the B PUP. My son in law has been in the hospital for a week so I was helping with their baby Yes I am exhausted but thankfully son in law is back home. This week end was Indian Rivers Hurricane Expo so I did the Master Gradener booth and my daughter had to do their booth(they do shutters) without hubby.My sweet hubby helped him out even though shutters are not his thing!Katkin if someone else is jerking on your garden aprons with puppy dog eyes saying they want it then that is ok. I will wait for another time to adopt the B pup.Let me know.If you could email me your phone number I could call you as we tend to do things spur of the moment. ----Also thanks to all who read my story. There are plenty of seniors who would love ANY attention so find one and love on them!

I got my father an early Father's Day gift, a limousine that took him and Mom from their Florida (winter) home to the Tampa airport recently. My dad is very frugal and they usually take the airport shuttle . . . making about 6 other stops along the way there, with Dad fretting the entire time ;^D They're getting up in years now and it was good to know that the driver got them and their luggage easily and safely to the airport on time. At this stage in their lives, they tell us that they don't want "more things to dust and clutter up the place". Dad's birthday gift will be a limo back to their winter place this Fall. DH's father is no longer with us. He was an awesome guy and I miss him a lot :~ ( For DH, I'm making Huevos Rancheros for breakfast and shish kebobs on the grill for dinner, with Mari's fantastic couscous, a Greek salad and my molten lava cakes. This morning while DD & I were in town, we got him a hole-in-one ball and score card display case (this is a HUGE thing for a golfer), and a Tracy Chapman CD. I still need to get him a golf range finder and am sitting here by the phone waiting for one of his long-time golf cronies to call me back with the one he recommends . . . as I don't play golf and don't have a clue! Lynn

IMO, its still the HUBBY who makes the final choice. Anyone, anyone even his own sister can tell him off and convince him not to pick up his kids. but in the end its his choice. No one elses. So it doesn't matter what a SM or a BM wants. Its the decision of that person. And let me bring another perspective to this arguement. You all are ticked off when a weekend is missed from an already constricted schedual eh..???? WELL WHAT HAPPENS WHEN BM MAKES PLANS ON DADS' WEEKENDS OR CONVINCES THE KIDS ITS NOT A GOOD PLACE TO GO??? Then WHAT? SHE MAKES DAD LOOK LIKE A PUTZ FOR THE LOST WEEKENDS. Its happening now with us. Damned if you do take them, and damned if youdont. Well guess what, i'm keeping a log for the last 2 years now of all the weekends lost with his kids and the reasons behind it. When on misses and why. Whether its a school activities, grandma's bday, cousins bdya party, just not up to it, wants to be with mom that weekend...ALL OF IT!. This way, when bm accuses my dh of it , i will have a record with dates and who showed up and who didn't so she doesn't try any funny business. and even the kdis have lashed out at my husband saying, oh your msising alot of weekends. He said yah, and who';s fault is that? YOURS NOT MINE! you want ot be with your friends, and go party and i call you ever week to know if you are coming...so dont play the tag game on me and try to guilt me. YOU ARE DITCHING ME. Be responsible , accept it and stop blaming others for you actions! And this is what i would say about this situation. STOP BLAMING SM'S FOR DADS DECISIONS. She has an imput but not the ultimate say. I think the mentality of blaming sm all the time comes for the same mentality that kids have the final say in these divorce situation and i cannot stress the fact even more that kids have absolutely no say and power lies between the adults. Between mom and dad. And in the end , a SM can b****ch all she wants, if dad says otherwise, its otherwise. And to add, if dad wants to skip one weekend, its also his right. He can make arrangments to picck them up another time for longer.

Well this is what happened last year for my DH. no card , no gift, no acknowledgement of fathers day until the morning of and while he was passing by the hallway, SD says oh yah, happy fathers day. Well i had a feeling that this would happen cause i asked her the two weeks before if she had any ideas and she didnt answer. I said to myself, she's gonna plan to hurt him. Well i'll make sure he's gonna have a net from me. So the day came and of course no card , no gift last year. I can tell he was hurt. So when h e took the kids to drive up ( its takes 3 hours to go and come back) I created a card for him several pages thick that was from our son, went out got a new guitar and some clothes for him while my friend baby sat. So when he came back he was completely surprised at the gifts and friends and when he read that card, he cried like a baby. His sister phoned at the time and hecouldnt get on the phone. Well my husband displayed that card over the fireplace with pride and when his kids came and saw it they freaked. THe mouths dropped. SS immediately said 'i wrote a card but forgot it at home' i said nothign stopped you from bringing it this weeekend. SD was silent the entire weekend. And silent for over 2 months after that. I do not like anyone who plans things in advance to hurt someone. That was so obvious and i wasn't gonnna let her do that. I let her make her own decision and let her look like the idiot for not doing anything for her father. I'm not going to push anything on his kids. THey have ot do it on their own. THis year was great. I threw a barbq party with gifts and a large people gathering and my husband loved it! He got his traditional thick card from my son. I also added a poster with all the kids pictures for good measure and put all the kids names. SD brought a card and 2 gifts for her father this year. SS brought nothing but he acknowledged the day and liked the poster since the pics were all of the kids. So you see, the kids have tto do this on their own. THey cannot be pushed by anyone. If they don't want to give something to their father its their loss, he will celebrate that day with or without them and i will make sure he'll have a good time. My stepkids realize this. They are good kids and we all have our ups and downs but this year turned out nice for hubby. As for mothers day. I was always acknowledged except for this year. I was told happy mom day by both kids afterwards when they saw me drink out of my MOM cup which i proudly displayed:) Cause lets face, it doesn't matter who doesnt acknowlege what and where. ITs how you feel and what you will do about that day. Me, i enjoyed mothers day and i didn't care who called me and who didn't. WHO CARES! HAVE FUN FOR YOURSELVES! Anyone who doesn't want to have fun, its their loss. :)