Wow, June went by sooo fast, I can't believe July is just around the corner! I really enjoyed Jan's early birthday intro, and was able to prepare the box a little better just because of it. So, I'm going to do the same! My real birthday is December 17. Getting to celebrate my birthday during the summer for the first time is a real treat! I would never be able to receive any plants in December! I'm still working on my moon garden, and would appreciate anything that I could add to it (plants, seeds, small statues, etc). I also adore sunflowers, glass suncatchers, homemade soaps. Anything with a sunflower motiff is perfect. Candles (any scent), things for the garden, garden related items. I collect birdhouse items (any) especially crafted items by Marjolein Bastin (Hallmark). I love feeding the birds, and basically just love anything that has to do with nature! I also collect african violets, hoyas- (would love a piece of a 'crinkle' hoya, rope hoya (regular or variegated, or any unusual hoya, I already have Publicalyx, Silver pink, Phillipine black. I would love a few indoor ferns (don't have any), regular, rabbit's foot fern, or a division of an outdoor fern, that can tolerate cold temperatures. More indoor plants that I'm looking for are- a chunk of monstera, variegated monstera cutting/small plant. Variegated plants are my favorite, and am always wanting to try something new! I also appreciate vegetable/herb seeds. I have a huge garden that I'm constantly still trying to complete! Herbs grow really fast anyways! ;) I love Heirloom seeds too. I'm sooo excited to be the July birthday person! I'll be happy with ANYTHING, I love hand crafted items too! I make crafts occasionally, and know how much work goes into making something! Deb Debbya

OH, Tracy! That is SO SWEET!!! Thank you! I've been cookin' up a storm! Enough complaining about making all the fudge for that vendor, as Dave called and told me that someone up there wanted to order 3 pounds of it from me!!! Yippee! So, had to make more fudge, plus that which my hubby wants to put in the "care packages" that we are giving to all the families on my side. And cookies... I had to run the fudge up to Des Moines today, but I had alterior motives for offering to do that - I wanted to badly to go to Michaels and get William some good art stuff. He is such a drawer! I got him a good sketch book, a set of oil pastels, a set of chalk pastels, and some good pencils and an artist eraser. It was all on the cheaper side - each of the pastel sets was $4.99 - no biggy compared to the sets I saw that were upwards of $80!! Anyway, last year I got him one of the cheap artist kid sets, and he has loved that thing! So, this year we decided to get him some "real" artist things. I still want to get some charcoal pencils for him, as I forgot to get those today - Lily was a bit distracting. Oh, and then I got Elizabeth one of the art sets that I got William last year, because she was so envious of that! She'll love it! I am getting so frustrated on waiting on packages!!! I waited until the last minute, but paid the crazy prices people wanted to get it shipped Priority, and figured if it was sent on Monday or Tuesday, I should get it in time! Only one of the 5 packages has made it yet! Then, the stuff I ordered from Amazon for my nieces and nephews - one of the boxes arrived as planned today, but there was one box that was supposed to arrive yesterday, and was in Indianapolis as of this morning. Later today is said leaving Des Moines and out for delivery. So, I watched and watched and watched - finally I looked again around 7 this evening, and it said "Checked back into Des Moines due to external prolems" I'm like, WHAT???? Ugh! Anyway, hopefully it will get here tomorrow or Monday!!! It has the stuff for all my nephews!! Would you believe I have 7 neices and nephews, and not one is over the age of 3??!! Crazy, huh? And here I am with my oldest being 14, and even having stepsons 22 and 23 (or something like that - my brain's not all here this evening!) Anyway, I am hoping my packages arrive, as they are ALL the video games I ordered for my boys!!! If not, I'll be having to go out and buy them new! Oh, then today I got an email with some really good deals for Lily at Amazon, plus William mentioned on other Bionicle he wanted (and I wanted to get, as all the other stuff he put on his list were video games) - but of course to get it shipped now for Chirstmas is $26!! So, we decided to order the goodies, and save the ones for Lily and put a note in William's stocking, saying that he has one more gift coming that's a surprise. That will keep him suspenceful! Okay, the boys have to be asleep by now, so it's safe to go down and get their stuff! Oh, Tracy, the supper sounds so nice! I'm happy you and Ed got to go out!!! My kids have that habit of trying to lick their plates - we always say, "You are NOT a dog!!" : ) (But it makes me feel good that they liked their food so much!) Okay, did I write enough to make up for my absence?? Becki

This is such a wonderful swap! Wonderful cards with warm holiday greetings and seeds for the new year! I can't believe it, but I received even more cards! You are all sooooo generous! From Margirta10 came a lovely snowman card with a snowman angel and "BELIEVE" on the front. Wonderful sentiment for this time of year! Inside were packets of Giant California mixed zinnias, white phlox, Pastel Carpet mixed alyssum and Tall Deluxe mixed snapdragons. Thanks so much - I love them all! A Happy Holiday stocking card came from Melinda/ilovefarac with one of my all time favorites --Hyacinth beans. woohoo! Thanks, Melinda! Karendee sent a hilarious card. Santa is standing with a shopping cart full of flowers and long shopping list. On the front it reads, "Seeds 'n Greetings!" Inside were another one of my favorites - mixed larkspur! Thanks, Karen! Funny larkspur story -- maybe some of you have had this happen to you... The first time the larkspur reseeded, it went outside the flower beds and into the yard a few feet from the original beds. Some of them were in such numbers that I went out and surrounded it with bricks so my DH wouldn't mow it down. I told him I was going to expand the flower beds - and that's what I did. Couldn't have had a better reason to expand the flower beds! Thanks so much for all the seeds and warm wishes! ~Kathy

Someone asked on a different thread how it's going. I don't want to hijack the other thread, but it's been WONDERFUL!!! My days are so much less stressful & DH is now spending his evenings in a bad mood, trying to learn 6th grade math (at least the lessons SD is being assigned)~She lied about turning in an assignment & when he told her to redo it to humor him since online shows a zero, she wrote a bunch of math answers on the page & handed it to him, knowing he is not great at multiplying fractions ~ so he asked me to explain one word problem "If you give each cat 3/4 cup of food & you have 16 1/2 cups of food, how many cats can you feed?" SD said 2. so he knew that was wrong & I looked at the page & saw all the answers were wrong, she had written down anything that looked like a math answer & I guess she figured daddy isn't good with math so he won't check it... so he got out the text book & started learning the lesson so he can check it. I thought that was GREAT! and he's getting his mom involved by taking SD everyday during Thanksgiving week, while he's at work. (let her put her money where her mouth is since she has acted like I am just so evil to SD because I don't let her do anything or I won't buy her whatever she wants.... grandma gets to step up & taste it now) SD has to do remedial work for each failing grade. She failed every academic class, except social studies teacher bumped her to a D-, even though she had 54%. (I thought 54% was an F) but whatever, so the school requires her to do 'tutorials' online for each failed grade. MIL is going to have her do them from her house & he will drop her off on his way to work, pick her up on his way home. BM wanted to have her for the weekend to go cut their Christmas tree but DH told her no, she has to stay here to do school stuff because of her grades. I thought that was a great consequence... to miss out on something she really wanted to do since she just acts like she could care less when we take things away or don't do things with her. It's interesting to see DH realize just how much stuff I really did for her... a lot more than he thought! Even stuff like taking care of her bus fee. SD 'lost' the paper at the end of October. I asked her to get another one but she didn't so I didn't pay it. Finally the bus driver told her she had to pay to ride the bus & DH has to wait until he gets paid again to pay it... so he tells me that I am going to have to pick her up from school. NO I'M NOT, YOU HAVE TO. So then he says, well can you call the school & let them know I'll take care of it next week? NO, YOU CALL THE SCHOOL & TELL THEM YOURSELF. I think he's finally getting it... all the stuff I do, but get ignored by SD until she wants from me, lied about to her mom & grandma by SD to try & get me in 'trouble', the power struggle over homework, the daily lying about everything, the stealing... Now he knows why I am fed up & done. I was worried he would resent me putting it back in his lap but I think he's developed a better appreciation. SD on the other hand completely ignores me. She waits until I am giving the baby a bath to come out of her room & ask DH for anything. She does not talk to me at all. She comes to my office after work & sits there pretending to study when I am looking. (others have told me she grabs a book when she sees me coming) and she will talk to my dad when I leave the office for any reason. That part of dealing with her is still unpleasant but I've decided to ignore it & let it go. She doesn't have to talk to me & it really doesn't bother me too much anymore. It used to bother me a lot because I wanted us to have a relationship but she has made up her mind & now I wonder if she has ever really liked me from day 1. I think back to the manipulative things she's tried since the beginning & wonder if the times that we did get along were genuine or fake? But I don't spend too much time thinking about that anymore either. She's a product of her parents & I'm still very sad for her, but there is nothing I could have done to change what her mom puts her through & how she reacts to it. That's my update.