Hi Merri, thanks for checking in...you sound busy, and then some! Things here in L'burg have been pretty tense...one of our "tall ships" lost a crew member when a rogue wave swept her off the ship and so the town is very subdued. It's good to hear your enthusiasm, hope we can be forgiven for conversing on this side of our forum....M

What can I say--I feel you pain. My MIL has been with us for a little over a year now. I have recently quit my job of 9 years to stay home with her. She is 85 and her mobility is not good, confused on a daily basis, short term memory is bad and right now trying to keep her dressed seems to be the new thing with her. All in all she is a joy--pleasant and loveable but a real handfull sometimes. She stayed alone while my DH and I worked for nearly a year. I lived in fear that she would fall or get hurt while we were gone. We came home and found the house full of smoke and we knew we were really pushing our luck with this. She (for some reason) filled a skillet full of oil, placed it on the stove, turned it on and walked into the other room and forgot it. She didn't even see the smoke. She apparently fell asleep cause she said a loud noise woke her up--smoke alarms. And she still didn't notice the smoke. We came in just in the nick of time. I didn't go back to work. The first week I was home with her I was amazed at how good she was at "hiding" her confusion. Somedays she shines like a little star but others not so good and we are having a lot more not so good right now. I'm really suprised she didn't get hurt--we were so lucky. I REALLY miss going to dinner and running to the store or just going somewhere. It seems like my life revolves around how she is today. I miss doing things with just my husband or daughter. We sort of do shifts--one of us stays with her so the other can get out for a while. Like you we couldn't get any straight answers about the legalitys of leaving her home alone--and still can't . I guess we just have to go with our judgment with this. I keep telling myself how wonderful she's been to me through the years and how I"ll be in that shape one day. It's not easy.

And lets get THIS one off the top of the list!! Please, people-- if it's that urgent that I see a particular post, shoot me an email! My email address shows up in every post I put up, and I check it every time I get on line. Keep in mind-- I do this free of charge, and I DO have other things going on in my life. Every time a new thread like this is added, it unnecessarily knocks another thread off the last page.

Thank you for all of your comments. These wonderful ideas are giving me so much to think about. I would love to simply repair the door--I didn't even know that was possible. Who does that sort of thing? The floor in our sunroom is "Kentile" which is a hard, rubbery, impossible-to-clean fake tile. It needs to go as well. We have so many projects to do, all seem financially daunting, but we know that a non-functioning door is something that needs attention. We've lived with it for 17 years, it needs to be dealt with. The pictures of the pool tables reminded me that I have always wanted a game table/chairs set somewhere in the house. We play a lot of board games and sometimes you want to leave them up when a break is needed. This would be a wonderful addition to our house. Would love wicker too, and plants. Can you grow herbs indoors? I have a lot to think about. Thanks so much!