Thank you for the suggestions. I'll see if our library happens to have back issues of that magazine, and some of those plants I know and some I don't. The latter I will try to find out more about, sounds like a good start. Our summers have some days that climb to the high 90's and sometimes top 100, but not like some parts of Texas. Thank you also for giving me a name for those crystals. He had that grillwork custom made. I like the house, it's really nice on the inside, a lot fancier than mine for sure. Sure, he (or I) can check with a local nursery, but people here come up with more original ideas. Everybody around here grows the same stuff, what you can get locally. There are more choices now, but I'm finding things online that will grow here that people never heard of. york rose, it is the same zone as me, 5a, eastern Iowa. I should have thought of that. Not all kids stay in the same location their parents live in once their grown and on their own.

Facebook is great for sharing with friends, but is a terrible place to post photos you wish to share with a broader audience. I'm on facebook, but the only way I can see your photos there is if you leave them open to the public since were not "friends" there. Personally, I leave hardly any portions of my profile open to the public on facebook, for security reasons, and, well its my personal profile, and mainly people I am friends with on there, I know personally in real life. I'm not sure I would want strangers / the general public to be able to go through all my personal photos which also contain photos of close personal friends either. Probably a better place to put them for the purposes of sharing them on places like Garden Web, or any other public forum would be a free photo sharing sites like Photobucket, Flickr, or Picasaweb. That said, I too look forward to seeing your photos! Please post them here! As the old message board Icon saying goes... "THIS THREAD IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT PICTURES!"

I live in a college town and was just looking at some of the ads to see what they say here for decent housing. I think, rather than proof of employment, (you might get a full time student) you could say, "Must pass background and credit check." Also, "references exchanged" so they know they are getting into a "normal" situation. A few ads here use the term, "no drama household." along with the no drug/smoking/partying caveats. I also think you will limit female applicants by stating there is a shared bath. Most women are not going to want to share a bath with a strange man. You could leave that out and if you get a strong female applicant, you could tell her she can have a private bath (if she could). And then you could tell male applicants the bath is shared.

One of my closest friends lives two blocks from me and has a daughter just a few months older than my DD, they are both 9 right now. Of course in the beginning we thought how fun for the four of us to do things together. We'd get together at each other home for coffee and bring the girls to play together. Always invited the other's daughter to birthday parties. Finally we recognized, these two don't click. Yeah, they *can* get along, and play together respectfully, there is no conflict. But they would not initiate playing together, after a while they get bored with each other, have nothing else to talk about, and generally think the other is "strange." My friend planned a party for her daughter's most recent birthday. At some point in a conversation she just said to me, "I hope you aren't offended, but B didn't put C on her guest list." She considered inviting C (my DD) anyway, b/c of our friendship. But decided the girls are old enough to choose their own friends. I was absolutely NOT offended. I see as well as she does that these girls do not click. My own DD would not be interested in B's party, she would declare the whole affair "too girly." Sure, she'd behave and be polite, but she'd be disinterested and want to leave as soon as possible. I agree that kids must learn to get along with all personalities and special needs. You never know what surprises await in new people, and you have to get to know them to find out. My kids' friends reflect different cultures, religions, and special needs and just plain quirks. One of DS#2's closest friends is deaf, wears cochlear implants, and it can be very frustrating to communicate with him. But the boys are together almost every day and make it work. We had some neighbors who drove my kids nuts, but I talked to them about how to make it work for at least a little while from time to time. I didn't make them play every time the boy rang our doorbell, but I didn't let them avoid the boy if they were all outside. Despite the fact that he could trip while walking, I encouraged my boys to give him skates and sticks they've outgrown to let him play street hockey with them... b/c he just wants to learn what they're doing. He had some learning disability and didn't socialize well, either. I did give my kids instructions on how to talk to him, to be direct and clear, literal with their words. He didn't get "between the lines." They needed to learn that, but when playing with him was all work on their part, they don't need to develop it any further. They did their part, but don't need to be responsible for his socialization. At the same time, kids deserve to have their feelings respected. If they say they don't want a close friendship with a person, it need not be forced for the purpose of life lessons. Especially when it is based on having spent time with the person and learning that they don't have a lot in common. We can learn to get along with everyone, but that's not the same as investing emotions and time into a friendship. Mom2emall's DS can learn to make it work when they are together, but should have his feelings respected and not be pushed to host playdates. Also, no kid needs to be the object of a "pity friendship." The other child deserves to be in a friendship with kids who have common interests and have fun being with him, who like him for who he is; not with kids who are with him so parents can teach them to be friends with people who are "different." That's condescending. The friendship my DS has with his friend who is deaf works b/c DS really has fun with the boy, not b/c DS is being charitable. It works b/c of mutual interests and complementary personalities... the way friendships are supposed to work. They really are quite a pair! Incidentally, the met b/c his mom and I were friends first, too. However, the boys' friendship as surpassed ours! They just hit it off the first time they met. Picking your own friends and getting along with (almost) everyone is not mutually exclusive. When the families are together let your DS know that it is a short time and they can find something to do that works for everyone. Regarding requests for playdates, I would agree to have the boy over if it helped my friend out with her schedule. But I think I'd just be honest, decline and say "I really wish our boys hit it off better, and maybe they will when they get older."