I've started looking at things & thinking would my SS person like this? Can't wait to see who I get. I like cross stitch, cats, candles, baking & cake decorating items. Any plant I don't have (including bulbs or seeds) is great especially fragrant, colorful, odd or unusual & I like plants with a story behind them. An actual non-fading marker that works on my window blind tags would be priceless. Sign me up for your favorite seed, craft & other interests catalogs too. Linda

lass, My secret is that I tell everyone that I leave the dead heads on the plants for the birds and for seed collecting for next year. The birds actually do enjoy it, but I have a shoe box full of old seed and have never successfully planted any of it. Bev, I'm old and our parents always were conservationists, burying all the kitchen scraps and yard stuff in the gardens. Whar veggies and flowers - Wow! kitten, I know about the "sleep, creep and leap" trilogy, but can never really believe my hostas will begin to be as large as they say. Need to start moving some, ugh! gramma jan

I am a new member of this forum. I have really enjoyed looking at the terrariums linked on these pages. The info regarding certain harder-to-keep varieties of plants has also been helpful. When I read this thread, I felt that I had to reply. PDF's are not hard to keep. There are 10 year old children in my neighborhood who are successfully maintaining a vivarium with the frogs, and even breeding the frogs. Personally, I have over 50 vivariums in my home. Each one contains some poison dart frogs. Any and every color you can imagine. Orchids, bromeliads, tropical mosses, waterfalls, you name it. I really like the terrariums, but when you add a pair of bright, electric blue frogs, now you have some life!! Yes, you do have to culture, or purchase, the fruit flies. The flies we use in the hobby cannot fly. They are non-invasive and very easy to culture. They do not smell either. I have 200 cultures going at a time, there is a slight smell with this many cultures, but most visitors to our frog rooms do not even notice it. Mixing the frogs and plants to create vivariums has been the most rewarding journey of my life. I encourage everyone, not to base your opinions of keeping PDF's based on heresay, or an experience of a friend from 10 years ago. The hobby has changed drastically over the last decade. The frogs are easy to obtain, and there is soooo much info on keeping these precious little gems. Remember, everyone starts with no experience. Please fell free to email with any questions. I live in the Chicago suburbs. Pete

I agree this is a red flag. I'm recently divorced and my exH was abusive & controlling when it came to money (among other things). It was a slow progression, so by the time it got bad and I had to ask friends & family about marital money & what other couples did, I was already being taken advantage of. It had gone far enough that our money dysfunction seemed "normal" to me, and getting back on-track was not possible. If you would go seek advice from an attorney (in my state-IL), 50% of his marital money is yours, and vice versa. At minimum, you should have knowledge of it. Best-case scenario, you should have access to it. I'm of the opinion that if he says it's not your business...he is hiding something from you. To what level of terror or embarrassment???...who knows...and that's relative to each person. What I'm ashamed of may not be a big deal to the next person. You need to see the taxes. You need to see the bank accounts & statements. In a marriage, his windfalls and losses are yours too. Don't turn a blind eye in HOPES it's all okay. Verify for yourself it's okay.