A few tips from a northern horticulturist now living south of Santee. 1. Soil is sand with very little nutrition and high in phosphorus. Do not use fertilizers high in phosphorus. 2. You will find that many plants grow best in high shade or morning sun, afternoon shade. 3. Epsom salts will be your best friend. It is magnesium which is necessary for plant absorption of iron. Don't be afraid to scatter it around plants. 4. Sandy soils are best amended by placing compost/manures on soil surface under pine needle mulch. Don't dig them in. Compost everything you can get your hands on. You will need it. 5. Winter gardening is fabulous here. Prowl the growers on St. John's Island near Charleston for plants and advice. Spring bulbs should be purchased when they come on the market in the fall, refrigerated until Jan. 1, then planted. Carleton is the best daffodil to grow here and is one of the few that will rebloom every year. Be certain to attend the hidden garden tours in Charleston for great ideas. 6. Careful selection of disease free rose varieties and many of the old shrub rose varieties will prove to be valuable garden additions. 7. Study on-line catalogs such as Plants Delight and Singing Spring Nursery for helpful tips. Best to buy plants rated for Zone 8b-9 to grow in this area. Be prepared to say goodbye to many of your favorite plants and be ready to learn about many new ones. Also, you will find far fewer insect and disease problems here. No Japanese beetles! Fire ants...yes. Numerous northern annuals are perennial here. You will have an enjoyable learning curve and quickly adapt to gardening in this area.

I hear you and sympathize. I have thyroid problems but not Hashimoto's. Mine is just not functioning adequately. The doctor hasn't given me a name for the problem. I take Levoxyl (plus Cytomel). I'm much older than you, 58. Want to warn you that you are right to be concerned now because it will get a whole lot harder when you reach menopause. Sorry to be negative but I'm hoping to help others keep from being in denial about their weight. I buried my head in the sand and allowed myself to get to 250 lbs! I'm can assure you that the quality of life at 250 is rather poor. Also, if you are married, your poor quality of life affects your partner as well. Not good. So, I don't have a solution but want to encourage you to exercise and move. Find something that is fun that doesn't seem like too much work. If you are single, perhaps a bicyle club would be good. I have recently joined a gym and enjoy swimming 20 laps per day. Hope to move to more activity when I lose more. You might consider a gym. I'm sure you've heard of these suggestions. I'm sure you have heard others say that "you ought to be glad, things could be worse". I'm afraid I'm going to be one of those. I have a lovely friend who is quite attractive, very petite and has always been trim. I've watched her eat and she doesn't watch her food intake that much. She doesn't even like to exercise so she doesn't. But... she gets migraine headaches that cause her to become totally unable to work/play/eat for days. Lots of pain. I must say if I had to trade problems with her, I wouldn't. For some reason, recently, even with my thyroid problems, my appetite is under control and I've been able to lose weight (30 pounds lost since Januaary 04). There are lots of possible reasons. I'm trying many things. Too many to include here but want to encourage you to keep trying. One thing that seems to really help is that I eat nuts at the end of a meal to keep me from eating too much. It seems to shut down my hypothalmus gland. Overeating, quantity has been my problem. Didn't really sound like that is your problem but in case it is and you find yourself eating when you shouldn't try a small handful of nuts. I know they are relatively high in calories but on those day I eat the most nuts, I lose weight. Go figure! I don't eat salted or roasted nuts, no peanuts, but try a variety (all raw) including walnuts, macadamia, brazil, pecans and almonds. I get them at the health food store. I also am one of those weirdos who drinks 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 Tablespoon of honey in a glass of water with my breakfast and also before I go to bed. I think this may help my systemic yeast problems more than weight loss but since I'm not sure why I am able to lose now and didn't use to, I thought I would include it. (you can read about this on the web. A guy named Bragg first suggested it.) You have the internet. I'm sure you have researched. Hopefully, you can find some "tricks" of your own to help you with your thyroid problems. My main advice is to not give up! Good luck. --Alice

My DD! She drives the rest of us crazy! Sometimes (in car) I have to tell her to stop talking *at* me, I can't concentrate, I need to drive. Then there are the conversations that go on forever b/c someone's just not getting it. I must have spent 5 minutes at dinner last night trying to describe to my dad where/why I thought they were putting catch basins in on my uncle's street. It started with my dad saying he drove that road around 3pm, noticed surveyor was at lot behind my uncles' (he's on the corner). I said yes, at 4:45 I saw the flags and OBTW they were putting in catch basins on that (short) road. Dad said he saw the patched asphalt. I said well the heavy equipment was there, and I saw the concrete storm drains off to the side of the road. *That* started it - "Where?" "At the end of the road near the land that's for sale" "There's no land for sale, that's the house, they just have the sign on the state hwy so people know it's for sale around the corner." "No, uncle told me last year land was for sale, sign said acreage, but the drains aren't on the hwy, they're on cross street." "Mr. X used to own that house, he sold it, but he owns all the land back behind all the way up to your other uncle, but he sold the house, he doesn't live there anymore, but he always had a problem with water running down the driveway of that house, he dug out so it doesn't run in the road. Maybe the new owner is doing something" ... it turned into a 20-min conversation, both of us getting frustrated, and all I meant was to mention they're working on the road and we shouldn't use it as a shortcut til they're done. Most conversations with my dad end up like the old Abbott and Costello "Who's on First?" routine...

I spoke w/ my sister yesterday and asked if her if she really wanted me to give my honest opinions even if she may be upset at them and she said yes. I floated the opportunity of having Sue come here w/ us for a month for a lifetime - whatever she wanted and needed. I told her that if she felt it would be good for Sue to please discuss it w/ the psychologist. I really tried to press her more about other things as I just wanted to try and expand her thinking and options. Like I said, my sister is a follower where as I knock down doors asking questions looking for feedback and answers. My sister does not. I guess that's what big sisters are for. If the younger one can't do it we assist in clearing the path to help them walk it a little easier. I really tried to drive home the 'Family Counseling' and how would they manage that? If BIL is on the road how will ER set up the family counseling to adapt to that? How will they individualize it for that because him not working isn't an option and working means being on the road. I tried to impress upon my sister that it's not just Sue's problem but that the family as a whole needs counseling as well as my sister and BIL in regards to better parenting alternatives as to what they currently do. I attempted to drive that point home to her that if they don't work as hard as Sue then nothing that they do will amount to a hill of beans. I let her know that mandatory family counseling w/ Sue was a great pro about ER and something that I could not offer them because I think that Sue has to be a participant. I also mentioned that even if Sue weren't a factor in this whole thing that I still thought they needed counseling as a whole. I asked her if she just sat back and listened to what the psychologist said and if she asked questions. She said that she did ask questions but when she told me what the questions were they seemed to be on the 'follower' side of things. I asked her to think outside of the box and ask more probing questions. I told her to think of it as if she were diagnosed w/ a potentially deadly disease and what would she do. She said research and ask very pointed questions. She would want to know the Dr.s background, how often had they treated the deadly disease, how would they treat it and why specifically that way? What was the success rate w/ of recovery w/ the Dr.s pts.? Did the Dr. only ever refer pts. to 1 specific place and if so why? And so on. When I posed it to her that way a light bulb seemed to go on in her head. I told her not to be afraid and to try and find a chunk of quiet time to write her questions down and go back to the psychologist w/ them. I pointedly asked if she ever thought about counseling for the 2nd daughter and she said 'No. Why does evryone think that she has a problem. She's fine w/ us." I told her to carefully think about that statement and ask herself why others have said that. I left it at that. She cried and asked me to talk to BIL that he needs to hear what I've said and just talk w/ me. I asked her what point she would like to see come across if I spoke w/ him so that I could gather my wits about me. DS has tried and always keeps trying to do the right thing for Sue, I just think that many times DS doesn't see what she's doing herself. Funkyart - no need to feel uneasy - we all have perspectives and thoughts and come from varied backgrounds always giving a different viewpoint. I guess I am just of the being that we do what needs to be done, don't look back and take it day by day. Once we set a realistic goal ther is no quiting - we try every way possible to finish the task at hand. We try to raise our children that way. Ever since I was in the Marine Corps I always told myself "Only God can can stop the end of the day from coming" and it always made me feel that no matter how hard a task was that eventually I would see the other side - that a task could not go on forever, I just had to be strong. Nobody or nothing humanly possible could stop me.