JG-- The cuttings you show above that you put into your mix are normal, in my opinion. The roots you had previously are too mangled and stuck together to do much more growing in gritty mix, in my opinion. I've had some like this coming out of peat mix soils and for those, whereas others, I was able to cleanly pull apart, prune and plant as is. For yours, I'd have snipped off the roots, pulled off the leaves below the new roots and stood them in gritty mix. As you can see, forming roots in GM is not an issue, as shown by the new roots you have. A month or two like this and you have a fully established cutting. I have not used anything but Turface with GM since reading Al's posts, but it seems a lot of people claim the Napa product works just as well. Screening Turface, in my opinion, is THE most important step as those small bits can really make for a mess. The gritty mix will hold water, and despite how gritty it is, you still need to control watering. I don't think I can overwater to the point of drowning a plant to death like I could in regular potting mixes but I am certain I could overwater some succulents still, to the point of them not being at their best. Case in point: these were from two different small pots I bought where these particular cuttings were really hopeless as far as roots go. Just one small blob that I couldn't separate, so I chopped them off and put them into gritty mix with a couple other cuttings I took. I must water these once a week indoors or so and they look happy, as happy as plants can look anyway. Lol. FWIW, the mix is fir bark, screened Turface and small pebbles as I could not find chicken grit to save my life. Apparently, raising chicken is not popular in SF, haha. :-) I did find crushed granite but it was way too much dust for my liking. Good luck and I wouldn't toss the Napa stuff just yet! :-) Grace

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.

Thanks, everyone. We've already started working on the dining area issue. It was nearly unanimous here that it would be a big issue, as we suspected. Our feedback is very good on the inside of the house- these pictures eliminate the scope I guess and IRL the rooms are actually larger than what you find in many new builds nowadays. All of the bedrooms are 12x14 or 10x14. So not tiny by my standards anyways, although a larger master is certainly desirable. One of the most common negative feedback remarks we've gotten is something we can't do anything about- the location. Although we are on the outskirts of our community, we have a commercial building on the south side of our fence, and our neighbor behind us has a huge ugly shop (that's the big metallic thing). We should have planted a green screen back there when we first bought, but didn't know it would be such a distraction for future buyers. This would be a starter home- it was for us! But nice schools, nice backyard, TONS of storage (basement, standing height attic over garage, oversized brand new garage). Anyway, thank you for lending me your eyes. We are staging a dining set to the right of the couch, but behind where the camera shows. There's a piano there now, which we are going to move out. We're going to borrow a small dining set from some friends just to show the possibilities. Plus, we're going to leave the bistro table in the kitchen which would then show two seating areas for dining. Packed up more stuff already, and hubby's looking for different stand for t.v. Thanks, all!

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.