Sorry Alana! I'm stealing box #9. Current Standings Player #1 (Lisa) has Box # 3 (Denise's stolen from Karen) Player #2 (Mariann) has Box #12 (Lainey's stolen from Carmen) Player #3 (Denise) has Box # 2 (Mariann's stolen from Karen) Player #5 (Tracy) has Box #14 (Frozen-Alana's box stolen from Sue) Player #6 (Karen) has Box # 9 (Pat's stolen from Alana) Player #7 (Sue) has Box #5 (Tracy's, stolen from Lisa-frozen) Player #8 (Shirley) has box #10 (Carmen's, stolen from Barb) Player #9 (Pat) has Box #8 (Frozen-Shirley's) Player #10 (Carmen) has #1 (Lisa's, stolen from Karen) Player #11 (Becky) has Box #13 (Margaret's, stolen from Mariann) Player #12 (Lainey) has box #7 (Sue's) Player #13 (Margaret) has box #6 (Karen's stolen from Denise) Player #14 (Alana) has # Updated Number of Possessions Lisa- box 9, 5, 3 Mariann- box 12, 13, 3, 12 Denise- box 5, 12, 2, 5, 6, 2 Tracy- box 12, 14, 12, 14, 4, 8, 14 (frozen) Karen- box 3, 1, 3, 2, 9 Sue- box 3, 8, 14, 5, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5 (frozen) Shirley- box 10 Pat- box 8, 4, 8, 14, 8 (frozen) Carmen- box 12, 14, 12, 5, 1 Becky- box 13 Lainey- box 7 Margaret- box 8, 2, 6 Alana-box 3, 9 Alana's turn. Alana, have fun with your family gathering!

Hi all, I'm behind again. I've got 2 days worth of cards to list. From foreverrecyclereuse I received round cantaulope,Broccoli and Grand Rapids lettuce. jas.il sent poppies, chives and Buttercrunch lettuce. Panhandle_seed_swap sent a huge package of foxgloves, I would love to plant each one of them. Tularosa Market melon. Dirt Daddy sent a mother lode. There's moneymaker tomato, White lisbon onion, marigold mix, lettuce mix, Super beefsteak tomato, evergreen long white bunching onion, gourmet blend lettuce, bibb lettuce, Aunt Gertie's gold tomato, German Johnson tomato, Abe Lincoln tomato, and Rutgers tomato. Nikkineel sent a wonderful card with a snowman. I received Castor beans, echinacea cheyenne spirit, Cannibals tomato and zinnia swirls. jhgarden9 sent marigolds, Korean melon, and cucumbers. smitties sent sea holly and sombrero echinacia. and last but not least, roper 2008 sent red barn tomato, pink poppy and red and yellow speckled marigold. All I can say is WOW. To each and every one, thank you very much. Debby

teeth chatter

Welcome debunny! You've already gotten some very good advice on breakfast in particular so I was going to address the situation in general. It seems to be a recurring theme here where Dad has/gets custody, but SM is the one who spends the most time with the kids, trying to maintain consistency and keep to the agreed schedule and rules, only to have her DH pop in and start making "exceptions" and un-do all of the progress SM has made. As for SS's trying to get a rise out of you, I wonder about that. My SS is only eight and has lately started arguing with me about everything, and I mean everything - if I mention a news story I read he'll try to argue with some part of it! But, he mainly does this with me, not with DH - and he only does this after weekends at BM's. I'm wondering if he's testing me. He's already said if he pushes at BM she either gives in or screams at him and spanks him. I don't know if SS is trying to see if he can make me reach my breaking point, or if he's checking to make sure that I don't push him away too. I can't imagine how a 14 year old must feel when their mother announces that she doesn't want to deal with him anymore and wants him gone. I'd have to think that he has some issues right now with maternal figures - and unfortunately it is now you who is right in that spotlight. To make matters worse, it sounds like your DH just wants to stick his head in the sand and dump most of this onto your shoulders - so of course now you look like the "bad guy" on top of being a woman - and thus likely to kick him out with almost no notice yourself. I don't have a magical solution (yet!) because we're struggling through some of our own things right now. Some of the things that have helped us are to have very clear, very well-defined, agreed upon expectations, with set penalties for violation thereof. I try to make sure that the "rules" do not involve any judgment calls - because that's when DH is most likely to want to make an excuse or an exception. So, instead of saying, for example, "room must be tidied" it would be "floor must have nothing on it but furniture, all clothes must be either in dresser if clean or hamper if dirty, bed must be made, all toys must be in toy box". SS knows exactly what to expect, and I have that clear guideline as well, so there's less of DH wandering in from work to find a room two-thirds of the way tidied and saying "Oh, I think it's pretty good - what's the problem?". Meanwhile I'm ready to pull my hair out because I've spent the past four hours with SS coming to me every five minutes saying "It's done!", when I check, the only thing he'll have done is maybe make the bed - and SS will put away one more toy and then find me again - "It's done!" Over, and over, and over. Maybe you should all sit down and come to an agreement - here is a list of foods SS can eat for breakfast. He can eat as much of them as he likes. He is not to have breakfast at school. (You may have to negotiate in "exceptions clause" because guaranteed otherwise DH will say "Oh, it was only one time! Let him go!"). Here is what will happen if SS eats breakfast at school - the cost comes from his allowance, he is required to do household chores, whatever. Done, post them, proceed. Now, it's not incumbent upon you to convince SS he needs more milk, apples are good for him, he didn't eat "enough" breakfast, or anything else. Did he eat food from "the list" or not? Did he eat breakfast at school? Yes or no, true or false? See what I mean? It's no longer your judgment that's in question - it's a clear infraction of rules and boundaries agreed upon by all of you. And the complaining about meals needs to be stopped now. I'm usually the one who cooks dinner as well, and I told DH in no uncertain terms that I was going to stop cooking entirely if I had to ever hear "Ewwwww! Yuck!" at the dinner table - it's just very bad manners. You don't have to like my cooking, you certainly don't have to praise it - but since I went to the effort to put a nice homecooked dinner on the table you'd better not disparage it while I 'm sitting right there!