well I got my box today and man was it well worth the wait!! the box was pretty big! much bigger than I expected it to be!! so I opened it up and what did I see? a lot of goodies staring back at me!! here's what I got... *plants* ~snow in the mountains-really pretty plant with varigated leaves!! ~jesky(sp?)pink tomato plant-she got the seeds from an indian tribe...isn't that cool?! ~green zebra tomato(heritage tomato) ~datura-"La Fleus Lilac" *seeds* ~red hawaiin hibiscus ~sweet peas(mixed colors)-from 1910!!!! ~woodland poppy ~tall lily(white) ~oriental lily "dizzy" ~oriental lily "aubade" ~oriental lily "stargazer" ~oriental lily "ginza" ~oriental lily "casa blanca" ~lily "black beauty" *bulbs* ~daffodil "cheerfulness" ~asiatic lily "moonshine" I also got a really pretty butterfly windchime! I really appreciate all this! I've been really wanting some of all that you sent me lol. and I really really needed some tomato plants too!! oh and I almost forgot! she sent me a yummy sounding recipe for tomato sauce!! I can't wait to try it :-) P.s.-I'm gonna go ahead and tell you here because I don't want to put more work on dawn because she's doing enough work already(**hugs to you dawn**)I hope that's ok with you pal...but anyway I do LOVE daturas and brugmansias...I don't have any of either but I do have datura now because of you...thanks so much! but if you want to send me more that's absolutely fine by me! send me anything you want I'm very easy to please :-) p.p.s.-to my pal that I'm sending to...I'm trying my darndest to get to the post office! I'll try to get it out next week sometime! sorry it's taking so long :-(

My secret pal sent a lovely surprise box again. A nice card with a short note. A very cute cat planter holder that wiggles, or I don't know what to call it, it is not a cat pot holder. It is a wire cat that wiggles that holds a 6 inch clay flower pot, included. I will have fun filling that pot! There is personalized stationery to use with my old people I write to. Gotta be careful there, I am in that bracket! A cute book on cats, questions and answers about cats. A real nice pair of garden gloves, which will come in handy. Mine have holes in the thumbs. Why do we just hang onto the old and not replace them? Then a super nice can of nice smelling garden soaps. No plants, which was super fine, we went to Ore. & I stopped at a few nurseries, and got plants for 50% off, and for over a week, have been working on getting them into the flower beds. I am taking pictures to send her eventually. I enjoy my secret pal, and it gives us a break in our routine. Now I have another great cat book to read! Thank you so much for all you send. P.S. we have sort of adopted a stray cat a mo. ago, and sure makes me long for a new one again. This one is outside, and always in fights, a unneutered male. Last week, he got part of his ear removed and his face all gouged up, fighting with a racoon. Have a good month secret pal!

Hi there nutbunch, yes we had Ryan and funny thing is that he did my brother's pool and some other friends as well! Just have to say, at this point we just want to finish things up. We kinda feel that we were taken advantage of with some issues. Of course we all work with some sort of budget and that was his excuse! Now that we are well over that budget McCauley is not working with us on these isse(s). That we believe they should owe up to. And being that the economy is so poor, one would think that a pool company or sales person would be a little more willing to work with numbers and be GREATFUL! Rather than tell them they are complaining about everything! Seems as though you are having a good experience and that is great. Tile is very hard to pick and with that said I choose a tile that was a $500 upgrade. We looked at some glass tile as well. We realized that glass seemed more contemp. not so much a natural look. Not as thrilled with tile after all and I don't believe it was installed properly. Unless the same three tiles (from a pattern of 4) are to be placed all in a row. So, beware of the installation. And if it's any help to you my thought process was this: 1) Didn't want tile that would date the pool. 2) Didn't want something that would take away from the upgraded rocks and waterfall. 3) Nothing that would show ugly water lines and something that would be low maintence if so. But, then 4) a tile that would tie into the PT, the rock and over all look of the pool. Like that is not enough to think about. The tile I choose is pretty perfect to all on my list. Maybe to perfect with the one exception of placement. But, I will say that everyone that peeks on the process, one of the first comments is that they love the tile! We are almost at the last inspection before PT and now I'm second guessing that color to, torn betwn. Carr. blue and Tahoe.

You've got a ton of advice but considering everything, I'd just roll out my DH or Auntie Decorator let one of them handle it. The guy is refusing to appear for the meeting because he "knows" what's coming. This isn't his first rodeo. If not now, eventually, he will appear to get his money. One thing's for sure: the house will get finished. But the priority now is you and the new world you're about to enter. Having just returned from a week with the GCs, including a 6 m.o. who's a bad sleeper, a month from now the construction will pale a bit. Of course, having the house torn up isn't comforting. (((((hoboken)))) stay strong. You'll get through it and it will look great in the end. Meanwhile, you've got bigger things happening very soon.