OH,....I really hate to be the bearer of bad news...but that flower is really a strawflower glued onto a very nice Euphorbia. I bought several nice small cactus plants from Walmart that had these bright papery flowers on them. I took them home and carefully pried them loose or at least got the majority of the flower petals off. In time, the glue was removed through growth of the plant and coaxing. I wish they wouldn't glue the flowers to the plants, they would sell on their own merits to those of us that love them as they are, not "doctored". Now that I got that off my chest, I would repot the plant in the larger pot, and by all means try to remove that flower so that it doesn't damage a growing point on the plant, or leave it if you like, it will eventually degrade to a faded memory of itself. Kathy

here the finches eat the thistle or nygier seeds before anything else. I tried the net socks but they spilt too much. so i mix the thistle with millet and put it in the tube feder. I put a mix of cracked corn millet and boss in the small platform feeder which is mostly sparrows and juncos and a few finches and the chickadees and one lone flicker that eats from it twice a day. The other woodpeckers and the nuthatches and chickades eat on the woodpecker block mostly but do eat some from the homemade suet tray. the big plaform tray is loose nuts and corn and raisen and dried fruits and is mostly bigger birds. During the spring and summer i have necter feeders for the hummingbirds and orioles and a fruit tray for the grosbeaks and orioles I have some pine rounds stood on end like stumps and spread mixture of seeds and bread scraps and nuts on them and get a whole variety of birds on them. and the ground feeders cleanup everything that is spilt or dropped on the ground. the juncos and towhees normally eat on the ground but do try the stumps and feeders at times. The doves and jays and magpies eat on the stumps and the ground. I am lucky that i only get the red wing blackbirds in spring and summer because they eat a lot of everything. The starlings come through here but don't stay long and a few cowbirds are here some summers. get a rare hawk or owl and a raven or crow once in awhile.

Thanks Bill! You are a life saver! My "weekend" is over now, but I'll tackle it again next weekend, and I can stew over the color that whole time :) Fern- thank you! The tiles are a natural tumbled stone called "seagrass" and I got them from Arizona Tile, but I have seen very similar things elsewhere. (Arizona had by far the best price, and really good customer service.) There is a fair amount of variation in color and in the amount of shell/fossil bits in each one, but I wanted that variety. The glass accents are Sonoma Tiles "tantrum" in Tiki green and Tazo green. As far as the pattern goes, it really is random. If you have something printed out, it is prolly the little layout that Holligator made just to encourage me to "go random". I never had something printed of my own. I really did just lay them out on my dining room floor till it "looked right" and I did have to go back and mess with it a lot. First I did the field tile, then I went back and replaced 2x2's with glass tiles where I thought they'd look best and be well visible. (They are too expensive to get stuck behind the coffee maker!!!) The hardest part was trying to decide how much of each tile size to buy. If you are planning something really similar, I'd be happy to look up those details, since I ended up with very little waste, but enough tile to practice with first.

This is a very tough situation to be in. It is very disturbing to hear of the sexual abuse and the dead puppy. If I were you I'd be very concerned this boy doesnt have alot of contact with your young daughter. Unfortunately many abused victims do in turn become "abusers". Seeing as though you have tried counseling and everything and nothing is getting better,I can understand how you feel about wanting him in foster care. Can I ask...did it come out in counseling that his mom sexually abused him? If so,then have charges been pressed against her? It sounds as though she has had alot of men around too,and any of them could have abused the boy also. Of course your husband may blame himself.He feels he should have protected the boy from this ever happening. Still,my number one priority at this point would be making sure this does not happen to your daughter. You never said how old the boy is? I also do not see how DFS can tell you that you cant spank your kid. As far as I know spanking is not illegal. I'm so sorry that being a stepmom has turned out this way for you. I think for our own biological kids to do things like this is bad enough,but when step kids do it we feel more powerless in the situation. Is there a grand parent,or a aunt or uncle the boy could stay with? One that maybe does not have children who wouldnt mind being a sort of MENTOR? Hopefully you will get some more great advice from others in the forum. I can mainly only offer my sympathy...