Perky, my old pink flamingo that I found in the antique mall last year, has some beads around her neck. I'm debating on painting her purple now. Why not, LOL. I painted my "Blue's Brothers" last night. Talk about frustrating! The seller had mentioned that there was some protective coating on them to keep them from ever fading in the sun. Well even tho I used Fusion for plastics, and it covered perfectly. The slightest thing will scratch it off. And of course I bumped them on things a few times trying to repaint the eyes and glue the metal legs on so they'd stay in place. So had to keep doing touch ups. I am going to spray a poly on them and hope that takes care of that problem. If not, then I hope nothing touches them once they are in the yard. LOL. I need to get to Michaels and see if they still have those black hats. If not, I might be buying the little straw hats and these two can be the country bumpkin cousins of the Blues Brothers. LOL. Instead of Jake and Elwood, I'll have LeRoy and Billy Bob. Maybe I'll put my other by them, she can be Sally Ann. Lord I am losing my marbles at an alarming rate these days. fldirt, TAKE PICTURES. Pretty Please. Suzysparkle, oh how I wish you had kept yours or taken pictures. They sound so neat painted all those colors. A herd of Rainbow Flamingos~~how cool is that! luckygal, if I couldn't shop eBay or online, I'd be a mess. LOL. I love that kind of shopping, especially finding neat things. I've shipped to Canada when I sell a friend's artwork for her, and its not been much more than across the US most of the time. Have you ever checked with a seller to ask their price to ship to you? Might be worth it for something you can't find there. I'll take photos of my flamingos soon. Think I might be doing the one in purple tonight after the sun goes down. We're over 110 and I'm not happy. Phoenix is Hell in summer. I can't wait till end of Oct. LOL hugs, Karen

Thank you for posting and verifying what many people in the USA have learned the hard way. I am curious if recent crackdowns on illegally sourced timber and higher taxes on the export of Russian logs have caused Chinese furniture prices to rise? Rubberwood is still relatively cheap, but birch and oak from Russia and tropical hardwoods have risen? N. American hardwoods are low at the moment due to the weak housing market which impacts cabinet, moulding, and furniture demand. There are many pieces of furniture Made in the USA today, and in the past, that have inferior quality standards. Many eventually get sold at yard sales and used furniture stores and then fixed (or tossed into the garbage) by the some owner. Generally, the same problems arise like poor quality joinery, weak or inferior glides, and poor choices for materials in the drawer sides and/or bottom. My biggest problem with world trade is the lack of uniform standards between developing and developed countries. Companies in developing countries get to trash the environment, use stolen raw material, ignore worker rights, etc., and thus produce goods at a lower unit cost (i.e. it's not just the labor rate). To be fair, one could argue that USA companies should have the right to carryout the same practices in order to be competitive. Of course, no one here (USA) wants that, but we just allow this hypocrisy of "free" trade to go on. And then when oil prices get high again, the furniture jobs will probably come back to N. America because of high shipping costs for bulky goods. By then, China will have moved on to supplying its own people with such furniture and/or shifted to producing higher value goods. I believe that all of this "free" trade happened because those few who wanted it for financial gain were able to pay off, in one way or another, our elected officials back in the 70's-early 2000's. Gullible economists assumed that everybody in the world would play fair and raise all standards. I guess economists like to ignore the lessons of history.

I don't think you are being realistic. It sounds like you want to find a group of mothers who already have an established group to meet YOUR needs. They will have something established that meets THEIR needs. Maybe some of those will be the same as your needs, if you join them you should be willing to contribute ideas and planning and in that way you can do things that meet your needs (and probably those of others as well). You have to be flexible, and willing to do some of the work. Every MOMS Club does a variety of things. Today, we had a Valentine Party with crafts, exchanged cards, and some free play time. I planned it. I personally hardly ever go to playgroups at homes, and host one even less, it's not me. I want outings and planned activities (as planned as you can be with toddlers). The club I used to belong to had certain set activity days, Tuesdays were park days (weather permitting). Every other Wednesday we had an arrangement with a local kids gym to reserve it for a one hour MOMS Club class, with the instructor and everything (we just had to include all ages to have enough kids) for $5 a child. The same gym also had an arrangement with our group that if we filled a class of 8 similar aged kids from our club for a regular weekly class, they gave us 50% off. I participated in that the entire time I lived there with one child or another, what a deal! The other Wednesdays a different mom volunteered to to do a story time and craft to go with it at a local church. Our group had nothing to do with the church/religion, churches are just usually really nice about letting the moms use the room for free provided we clean up. Other things we did included tours of grocery stores and McDonalds (for preschool age -yours will be there before you know it), trips to the zoo and children's museums, and special parties including clowns or petting zoos (when everyone chips in a couple $$ those kinds of things are doable). oh, and moms night out. I don't go to things that don't interst me. If I don't see things that interest me, I get involved and plan activities. I do what I want to do, I just like to put it on the calendar as a way of inviting other moms/kids to come join us. Members joined for different reasons, the ones who contribute get out of it what they want and need. We meet monthly to plan the calendar, so we can continually adjust our activities to best meet the needs of our members and growing children. We also form little circles of friends just by having same aged kids, or sometimes common interests between women regardless the age of our children. What activities are out there for moms and babes is so often word of mouth, I don't know any way of looking it up in the phone book. Even info about really good preschools comes from other moms, not the phone book. Even if you found something now that meets your needs perfectly, it probably won't in a year as your child grows unless you are willing to be a part of the planning process. So it is really worth your trouble to get involved, give some input, make some friends, and find a niche. If you attend any meeting or group for moms and babies, even if it doesn't sound like exactly what you are looking for, you will get in on the loop. So go even if it's just a fact finding mission. Consider it networking. Starting a new group of any kind isn't for everyone. But if nothing else comes up for you, it might be the best way to get what you want. I'm not trying to be mean, here, but from what I'm reading it seems like you have a excuse to nix every suggestion made. It's not likely there is a group out there with your name on it. If you don't like the groups that already exist, I'm sure with a little creativity and a few phone calls, maybe a notice in your ped's office (make a few fliers and just leave them in the waiting room) you could organize something to meet your needs. Afterall, no one else is going to knock on your door and offer to tailor something to your needs.

We do have full custody she has vistation but "her boss says" she has to work so she can't pick them up today betwen her boss and the judge she can't be a mom Yes this is what the kids say. They will get ready for her to pick them up and she'll call "stuck at work" can't pick them up we have a court order as to visitation and support she completely ignores it and does what she wants when she wants. Blames the boss and judge its the judges fault she has to have a boss and its daddys fault the judge made her get another job. See the cycle... everyone else's fault but hers. Each time we go back to court it costs us over $1000 and we still don't get any help. He tells her you are going to end up in jail... her response "I'll go to jail before I pay you anything" and "will you bring the kids to visit me in jail?" yes she has told the kids daddy and the judge are going to put me in jail. They don't get to visit with mom they take a guilt trip and we have to deal with the meltdowns. We cannot say mommy is hurt or angry the 11 yr old says we "pick on mommy" and "talk about her" when we say anything about mom that so we can't. He feels he has to defend mommy because she is the victim because its 2 against 1. Dad told her until you pay your support and bills you are going to equally provide meals for them if its your day you feed them. She makes twice the money he does. She wanted the 5:30 pick up time. Mcdonalds is open 24 hours a day she can feed them anytime she wants. They stuff themselves and their backpacks with food/snacks when going to moms she doesn't have anything in her house they only have fast food with her. The 7 yr old had a meltdown over not having dessert ( I usually bake something or we have fruit but I didn't bake anything that day) ... Do you have dessert at mommy's? (this would be a comment the 11yr old thinks we are picking on mommy about) No it costs too much at mcdonalds... then don't expect it here she now knows dessert is a treat not an everyday event ... even though we have something just about everyday.