Lavender -- thanks! And now, for some 3D action: Overview of the kitchen (low quality rendering for this one, sorry!) Looking out across the island: Sitting in the LR, looking in the general direction of the kitchen (the TV will be on the wall unit on the left side of the pic). (You can see the hutch and catch a glimpse of the island from here).: And finally, for kicks, a view from the FR into the LR, head-on: In case you're interested -- I used google sketchup 3D to model the island countertop and imported it into sweethome 3D, where I gave it the texture. There's probably an easier way using sketchup for everything, but I had all of this stuff already in sweethome 3D.

Welcome arosegirl, It is "Free" so jump right in and join the rest of us here. If you need help, it will give us something to do? :) OK, Judy, I saw that. Hee hee. AND SUE! That is, was, such a wonderful site you did of our loooong struggle through learning PSP, to look back on. I wish I would have had the brains to do that or to do what I just started to do in keeping files of the tuts! Some day, I am going to look back at my notebook to see the ones I did. Yes, I did print them all out to do but not the URL in case I can look them up and didn't save the tut to a file I now have called "Tutes". I really have a neat system now where I can at least find things pertaining to the tutorials. They have their own little folder of the supplies needed where before, I used to dump them all in ONE file and didn't know what to look for? Sorry to ramble on but it's "Urlee" and I have a lot of wind, "LOL" "Good morning" ~~Urlee~~

Thank you Sue, Yes, didn't Bev come up with a darling idea? Teri, You did great. How many hairs do you have left on your head? I had to buy a wig! You did better than I did when I was about to call it quits! I didn't know what she meant half the time. It wasn't 'til I switched to PSP 8 and towards the end of the tute, that I discovered the COPYMERGED!!!! Can you imagine of how long I have been using PSP, I never came across that feature? I just now checked to see if PSP7 has it. I didn't know what she meant by that 'til I accidently saw it after I experimented my own way of getting that santa in AniS like I knew it should be. AND----in PSP7, the stars don't show up and I was confused there! I also wondered what she meant by "replace" in the lasso step? Found it in PSP8 but wanted to know why? Couldn't find the answer so I seen what it does. Makes the ants hug the letter when you click on the letter. If you want to know one of the stupid things that confused me was, she said to lasso each of the letters but didn't "hold my hand" and tell me-----oh, I am not going to tell you what I thought and did. For sure you would choke on your coffee. After struggling through for the ( ) time, coming up with the above, I plan on doing it over armed this time. :) ~Urlee~

I don't think you're a child-hating ogre. I think you're feeling frustrated and isolated, which is a perfectly normal set of human emotions. You said that DH is stepping up, which is promising. It sounds like he genuinely wants to work on this, but isn't sure how to be a real parent. IMO, he wants to be his son's buddy, not his father, which explains the sundae when SS didn't finish his supper. I understand the annoyance at SS asking your mom for a birthday gift. My FDH's son (also 9) also has his "I want" on these days... And it drives me nuts!! But try not to compare what your family does for SS vs. what DH's family does for your kids - it's out of your hands, and isn't worth stewing over. For next year's birthdays, maybe drop a STRONG hint to DH's mom and ask "Do you need gift ideas?" when you invite them to your kids' parties, but try not to waste your energy on this one. Stealing and lying are not OK. What consequence came down for stealing the game and lying about it? Would you mark kids' initials on their games and other valuables to help prevent this is the future? It sounds to me like overall, SS is showing improvement and so are you and DH. In past posts, you didn't seem to even be able to focus on certain things that SS did, or identify exact cases where DH was slipping... But in this one, you are able to articulate precise things that are issues and why. This is probably going to come out all wrong, but if I can clearly identify specific things that A__ (FDH's 9yo son) did that were "bad", then it was a good couple days. For example, A__'s last stay was Friday morning to Sunday afternoon, and it was quite good. He had his "I wants" out, he got busted for a small lie, and he was chewing on the Wii remote, but was overall well-behaved. He had pretty good manners, was positive and helpful, had a good attitude and was mostly listening to us. Basically, he was being 9, not being a little sh17, so it was good. Does that make any sense? IMO, if you can say "He was mostly good, but with the following bad behaviors, ___, ___ and ___" then you're on the right track. I think that venting to us is probably a good way to get your frustration with SS and DH off your chest, and get your thoughts together so that you can talk to DH without exploding. But one thing to note... You mentioned that you feel DH is comparing the kids - well, to be frank, that's what you're doing too. I only deal with one kid at home, so I don't fully know what boat you're in, but please try to remember that each of these kids is different and needs different things from you and DH. Thinking "one does this, and one does that" just sets you, DH and the kids all up for failure.