I'll never get tired of pics of this special room in the woods! Any nature lover would love to spend time there. It's right out there in it, yet has all the comforts. DD, I said ALL the comforts, I don't think you forgot one thing! LOL Thanks for sharing your fantastic space, and the great tips like the Gorilla tape, I never would have guessed that the glass had any help with stability. ~tenderlee

I've got the double whammy here. We got this prematurely frigid winter weather like a lot of you guys, plus I gimped up my ankle last week. I'm waiting for it to heal and the swelling to go down but it doesn't seem to be getting better, its been over a week now. I must have really strained it with all that back and forth walking around I frantically did in the garden before the front hit, savoring the last few days and digging up that Flame Acanthus didn't help. I also broke the shovel trying to get it out. The arctic front killed stuff back and now there's piles of green leaves everywhere along with fallen branches but there's plenty of dead looking green leaves still up in the trees so its just the beginning of the leaves. I guess its good that its so cold which helps force me to stay inside like a good patient and off the ankle. I look out the window and it appears overwhelmingly depressing looking out there at the moment, like a disaster in fact. Today is sunny and 50 degrees and I'm dying to get out there to start cleaning up the mess but I don't dare. I guess I will get it cleaned up finally but usually I do it in stages. I'm kind of pitted with this weather and the rest of it.

Thank you all for the info and good wishes! Kkay, the ENT dr. said that mine were developing along a nerve bundle in my ear and that side of my face. It is nice to hear someone with the same experience. I keep waiting for blisters to show up, but it's been almost a week and nothing yet. My dr. was already aware of the upcoming surgeries, so she only put me on prednisone for four days. I was so full of steroid energy! I got all sorts of projects done last weekend. I really should have been resting. After the last dose wore off, I could just feel the fatigue coming on like a wave. Thank goodness my four year old has already had the immunization, or that would be the last straw. I will definitely look into getting it for myself down the road. I had the chicken pox when I was about 11, and I had a really severe case. It was even in my ears and mouth! I wonder if that has any relationship to getting shingles later on. I am SO tired. I just want to sleep and sleep. However, I am trying to get everything tied up at work so I can have the surgeries and go out on sick leave with a clear conscience. And when I'm at home, my 4 year old is the love of my life, but being with him is not too conducive to resting :) Thanks-- and I will update on my tale of woe next week... Jen

We've learned our lesson too. BM regularly 'needs' to have the skids when they are with us, and there's always the promise that she will make up for it later. But this never happens because whenever FDH requests compensation she blows him off saying she already has plans herself, but ANY OTHER time would be fine. It's always ANY OTHER time, but not when FDH suggests, therefore we never have compensation time. Our solution is that we do let the skids go to BM's when they wanht to, and we just don't expect a 'trade'anymore. We just accept that we loose some time with them, and we don't plan anything outside r'time with them. Saves us a lot of frustration. Good for your DH for putting his foot down this time :-) When BM demands a change (she will never EVER ask, but always demand