Thanks, Schoolhouse, My husband lost my old photos that I had on my computer from the last 5 years or so. I can't seem to find many older ones. Thanks for the feedback on the fence. Heidi, our yellow lab loves spending time in the front yard. She's not as happy a dog, now that we have a grandson. She is very jealous, and does naughty things to get attention when he's over. I'll be glad when spring comes, and we can hang out in the yard again. Thanks for the information on gotta garden, Nell. Organic Flutter-by is Sunday Girl, right? Sue

Well I had seen ads in the back of magazines ad. table pads so I got mine from 800/737-3150 Berger's table Pad Factory out of Indianapolis,IN..Anyway they also have a website and when I placed my order either the print ad or internet site was cheaper and when I mentioned it, they gave me the cheaper price. Make sure you get the upgrade to the magnetic lock that joins the two halves and leaves together so they don't slip around. Also, at the time if you ordered a second pad for a buffet etc. you could get that for $40 extra so I did. They will send you a sample kit with colors etc and they have some manuf table bases in their data bases or just give them the measurements. I also opted to get the bags that are lined on the inside to put the leaves into and I'm glad I did that too. Very nice company to work with. I'm sure if you google them you can find them. Good luck and that sure gave me peace of mind when I got my new dining room table 2 yrs ago and I'm so glad I did,,don't have to worry about kids or husband now.

"Blood ties have nothing to do with it." My point exactly (see my previous post "Attachments"). I have two male cousins who divorced their first wives. I love my cousins but also cared deeply for the women to whom they were married. I still consider them family. They are welcome in my home. I visit them when I am back there. My relationship to them, my consideration of them as "family" does not alter the fact that they are no longer "family" to their ex-spouses. My one cousin refused to speak to his mother (my aunt) for an extended period of time because, like Kathline's X-MIL, she refused to renounce his XW. Her attitude was "You divorced her. I didn't." Eventually, my cousin got over himself and reconciled with his mom. In my post on another thread, I wrote that mothers and their children are and always will be family to one another; that fathers and their children will always be family to one another. In writing this, I was simply acknowledging a biological bond; in writing that XWs & XHs are no longer family to each other, I was referring to a "legal" attachment. (For those of you who did not read that earlier thread of mine, I suggested we can become attached/bonded to others on as many as seven different levels: emotional, spiritual, legal, financial, sexual, geographical, and biological/parental. We do not necessarily become attached to others on all 7 dimensions and the intensity of the attachment may be differ, also). I believe it was KKNY who responded to the post with something along the lines of "when ex-spouses share children, there will always be a relationship between them. I agree. And I would hope for the sake of any shared children, the relationship would be cooperative and cordial. It just strikes me as ironic (and somewhat contradictory) that some would deny the validity of the loving attachments that can and do exist between Stepparents and their stepchildren because of the absence of a biological bond but will vehemently insist that the bonds they have to the biological relatives of their former spouses remain valid and deserving of respect and recognition. Because, after all, "blood ties have nothing to do with it." I agree.

To rhizo, I'm baffled--I thought the boarding school story was on the blog, then looked on KT, then looked for it in my word processor files. I CAN'T find it, but I know it is somwhere. I'll give it a rest and look again. I have been writing some things for the 150th anniversary of my high school and I think it should be in there, too. A mystery. My brain is mushy today, I think. I'm going downstairs to play some sort of dice game-maybe that will brighten me up.