Maybe now that it is Fall, we can get back to this again. I am glad I am not the only one! I have major medical issues (that involve flare-up & times that are fairly OK), but I was messy before that. The thing about the garden is that when I am feeling pretty good, I just do the garden. That way, it can grow on its own while I am down. One year, I tried to do both, and when "down" came along, the house got messier anyway, and there wasn't much food because I split my time trying to do both. I have kids that do what I ask pretty much (great kids!), but I have to do more fussing with my son to get there. However, he is mildly autistic--Asperger's--so just the transition of going from what he is doing to doing something else is where the struggle lies. Once his mind is on track, he gets the job done. I threatened to buy a roto-tiller, so my husband said he would dig. It took a bit to get him to dig before, but I guess he doesn't want to deal with a machine not used that often. I have always hand-dug--myself, my whole life--but with the med issues, I am not always able. As far as the house goes, I am merssy, not dirty (usually). I am a bit of a pack-rat, but it is good stuff. In the winter, sitting idle is NOT something I can do. I knit hats for babies in the hospital, pack seeds for the needy, all kinds of things to keep hands busy--even while the TV is going. So, I have bins/totes full of yarn (from hitting the sales when they are there), an entire wall shelf that goes withing a foot of the ceiling full of various beads, lots of gardening books...and here is what makes it all look so bad: we have an 850sq ft 2-bedroom house, and there are 4 of us. My husband is a carpenter, so half the one-car garage is full of extra building materials. Really, who could pass up several sheet of plywood? They were used to block stairways so that prople wouldn't use them during construction, and then unnecessary after (headed for the dumpster). We gat a bay window free and sliding glass doors. You get the picture. I do not Spring clean. I Fall clean. I makes more sense for me. I host Thanksgiving for my family, and I do a big thing on Christmas Eve. So, I Fall clean & have the holidays. During the winter, in a clean house, I do my charitable activities, read about gardening, peruse the gardening catalogs, and get ready. Then I bring out the dirt for staring seeds. The windows fill up with plants over the next few months. That can get messy. When it is time to harden off. Plants go in and out. That gets messy. Of course, I clean meanwhile. Then the muddy shoes, then the soil amendments (aka manure), then the filthy clothes. Then losing 5 pounds in the tub at night--hey, if you don't you haven't gardened! When the weather warms, I have kids in and out, as well as myself, and I cannot imagine hollering every time a dirty shoe comes inside. So my Fall clean starts the "cleanliness", and it goes downhill form there. Maybe this is TMI, but it is so great to find others who will focus more on the garden than the house. As long as my health hold up, I garden constantly. I had Lyme Disease in '06 & '08. It is rampant here (doctor's words). I am ready to go to Maine or something. They have a bit of Lyme up there. Well, it may be good for the house too. It would be a longer winter (clean house time) and a shorter summer (poop & dirt time). I do keep the meals, dishes, laundry, bathroom caught up. After that, DIY, or it will stay there. Poop on that too! Mom's need to have fun! The food is plentiful, nutricious, and delicious! Robin

Bad Hermit, bad Hermit.... First, I need to make an apology - unless my forgetfulness had me forget that I already mentioned this? Karen - I think I forgot to also thank you out here in front of everyone for the OTHER set of chimes as well? I was really struck with them (but I think I forgot to mention them because I got all mucked up in the overflowing emotions - but that's not a bad thing, I really did need a plug-puller to get the bulk of those emotions OUT - but I feel bad that it might have caused my forgetfulness in respect to the others).... Karen also included a lovely earthenware or pottery-type chime (a friend of mine is a sculptress and she'd whoop me if I didn't attempt to define between china, bisque, earthenware, ceramic, pottery, etc.) that is bell-shaped, glazed a nice - how to describe this hue? - a muted purple - not vivid, not bright, but neither is it pastel... almost an earthy yet distinct purple glaze WITH a Dragonfly raised motif on the surface. (the irony here is that awhile back one of my twins got me a dual-glass/one set inside the other - votive/tealight candleholder that is green with dragonflies - on the inside, the outside cup/holder is frosted glass - looks really neat when lit up) Part of my forgetfulness was because the moment I saw this bell-shaped chime - and duly noted what appears to be a brass "hammer" that moves to ring the bell, and is weighted with a grean ceramic leaf suspended from it - I knew instantly that it and the candleholder my daughter got me should go "together", so they both got placed in the "garden tub" (of a trailer/mobile home - not so upscale as my dream garden tub - but I'll get there!) - the candleholder went onto a cedar shelf I have in there and the dragonfly windchime I suspended from a wire "planter" that I've never lined for plants but instead mounted on the wall to suspend my favourite "relaxing" things from and put various bottles holding bath-related "stuff" in.... so each time I kick back for a hot soak (which is frequently with my screwed up back), I get to set the chime in motion and slide down into the hot water and it is suspended in just the right position where I can visually focus on it with ease and relax. I wish I could explain how "perfect" the colours are - and the tone - it's not flashy or glaring and the tone doesn't "demand" from the ears - it's just the perfect meditative piece. A little additional irony is that while I don't think I mentioned it while intro'ing myself or in my other babbling on the ongoing threads for this swap, I do "dig" dragonflies. :) It's pure coincidence that when our first Rottie passed, while I had "just the gazing globe" already ready, the first 'stand' I picked out for it was one with dragonflies and chimes suspended inside it - unfortunately it didn't fit my globe (smaller globe) and never got to be used before I discovered the stand/pedestal was too cheaply made to endure the elements here. So - across the board unconsciously - dragonflies and chimes have also been "tied into" things with the dogs... perhaps because of all the times I used to spend with them down at the creek "chasing" dragonflies of different types trying to get a good zoom/macro "perfect" picture (to no avail - I'm convinced dragonflies are a creature of this world best enjoyed as they come and go and without trying to capture them live or on film - some pix turned out okay, but just never had that brilliance that dragonflies do to the naked eye). You all have to promise me that you won't "close up shoppe" on this thread until photos are posted AND until I get Melissa's second parcel sent to her! I really want you all to see what Karen sent me - and for the same reason Melissa/HNB has not yet received her second box from me - I haven't gotten photos taken. I had been, if you will pardon the phrase, sick as a dog for awhile now. I thought I was getting over it, but I either relapsed or got a new strain or it mutated on me. I get "the crud" every year - I'm usually sick as a dog in bed every Thanksgiving since 1984- there's only been three exceptions 1) the year I had my twins - they were due in October but I had them in September and that year I got sick 2 months earlier than usual 2) the year I had my youngest (who was born just under an hour before it officially became Thanksgiving that year) I got sick in late September thru early October, and 3) the year my beloved Kerridwen passed, I started getting sick in October and had just cleared it mostly by the time she whelped ON Thanksgiving and we lost her just after midnight that night. Sooooo... suffice to say, I'm hoping that getting sick "early" with "the crud" this year isn't a portent of anything (definitely no more childbearing on my part) good or bad and just coincidence that the kids were exposed to medically confirmed stuff from a cousin/family they spent a good bit of time with combined with hubby now being "exposed to the public" with the work he's picked up (yes, he got a job! Once we get caught up it should pay the bills, but his humour is dry when he commented that he worked himself up to six-figures a year all the way back down to almost minimum-wage - mind you, the job he got, is with a man/company that knew him back when HE was in high school and some of his coworkers are from his "old friends/acquaintances" category from back in the day) and after two years of being really-really isolated from the public "germ-pool" he's no doubt bombarded with stuff we haven't had to contend with for a long time. ANYWAY, I haven't been keeping up with the messages or even my own personal email on a regular, much more daily, basis because I really have been "that sick" - like sleeping anywhere from 12, 14, 16, all the way up to 36 hours, not eating (no appetite combined with not being able to REALLY smell food, much more taste anything - it all seems the same and that doesn't do anything for building an appetite, ya know?), off/on fever, and well, I'm sure you all are familiar with one variety of another of "the crud" that just sucks the life-energy right out of you, ya know? My biggest meals have consisted of a half-cup of yellow/saffron rice with a 'jerk sauce' that has scotch bonnet peppers in it (pro-capsicum for anything sinus or bronchial) or crackers with some peanut butter (protein) and apricot preserves dabbed on for flavour, or four cubes (1"x1") of chicken sauteed in butter with tons of garlic (go garlic as a cure-all! well, it works better if you actually have more intake of it... but at least I could taste the garlic). Sad to say, I haven't even had more than a cup of tea over a period of every four days. That "blah". Sleep, sleep, and more sleep seems to be the only thing really helping to combat this strain, strains, or mutation(s) of "the crud" this year - but on the plus side - and not to gross anyone out - at least the mucous involved has remained normal in colour - no sign of infection. Again, ANYWAY, Melissa/HNB - I had every hope of having your second parcel en route to you no later than two days following your birthday, but it just didn't/hasn't turned out that way. I didn't forget your birthday. In fact, it was at the forefront of my thoughts once you told me in email while we corresponded with my other delays for just getting the first one out to you. I do hope that it was a very good day for you on some level. As for grey hairs... don't look for them. :) I saw my first WHITE hairs when I was like 27... for sure anyway, I suspect they were there at 26 but I easily overlooked them as platinum blonde at the time since they cropped up in an area on my head (top/forward but further back that "forelock" or "bangs") that at the time got a lot of sun exposure and areas like that my hair naturally sun-bleached out for the platinum blonde strands/individual hairs to mingle in with the natural mix of other shades in my 'mane'. I didn't cry when I saw them WHITE though. I actually thought it was pretty cool. To-date, I still don't get grey hairs, one by one strands just totally lose all pigment and go stark white. I keep hoping that given where most of them are showing up, maybe I'll get one or two of those really cool streaks where I'll have solid white locks on either side/towards the front and I can flaunt my white. Of course I'm utterly convinced that my white hairs are a direct result of stress... like the stress that comes on because of typical life with having/raising kids :) And the flipside is, for every stark white hair I get in front, I get an equally and totally opposite undeniably BLACK strand from the opposite area of my head (sides but towards the back or from "underneath")... Maybe I'll get to be "salt and pepper" like a Miniature Schnauzer? The only downside to the white strands is that I see a parallel with the "not feminine" whiskers emerging on my chin and the once platinum blonde, fine body hair that was once "normal" and "natural" and "not even noticed", has decided to darken over my upper lip and some of the emerging whiskers on my chin prove to be just as tough as Rottie hairs. Hrmm. Maybe I'll turn into a Rottweiler? :) For what it's worth though Melissa, whether it's a whisker, a darkening of hair where once-feminine begins to resemble a masculine mustache (I haven't yet worked up the nerve to wax it - too afraid it will grow back twice as thick, ten times as dark, and really become a self-consciousness issue for me), or some new stark white strands riddling my mane when I brush it back and put it up in a ponytail - I find I notice several to many more things around me - in the natural world - for each one of those things, that are I never noticed before that really take my breath away. I kinda stopped celebrating my own birthdays a long time back after other people (immediate family namely) pretty much forgot "it was my birthday" and then that got me into the mindset that as a mother, a wife, and a caretaker of animals in need, and plants, and all that... that my own birthdays are "just another day", BUT, I like to wish other people a happy birthday (or belated or early, depending on what all is going on in my own life at any given time) and try to, well, embrace the milestone in life... it is just a day, but at some point or another, I hope that "happy birthday!"s to other people will get them to take pause to maybe see the wonder(s) around them on any other day and perhaps even make it a habit, so that every day is special and from there every moment unique. I figure for most people it either takes really tapping into spirituality (not necessarily religion, but for some they go hand in hand), a taste of mortality or knowing one's number is about up, or simply with age, because it's never too late to start to really (and pardon the cliche) "stop and smell the roses". Space aside HNB/Melissa, the reason I sent you that windchime before the other (commercial) one (the custom one will speak for itself) wasn't so much because of the chimes - because it's sound is limited - but because of the symbolism and I really really hoped that given your colour preferences and that particular chime, you would have the opportunity to see how the mirrors and "beads" (with their different shapes and colours) would catch the (natural) light as we were right on the verge of the Autumnal Equinox (when it was sent) and I hoped that you and your family would be able to enjoy the changing lighting effects of the Sun as relected and refracted as we move into this time of the year... Spring sunlight is nice, but still smacks of Winter, Summer sunlight can be overwhelming - even if we have plants that thrive in it - but the sunlight of Autumn? And those colours... well, I hope you and your family get the chance to enjoy them and they warm your heart and souls. As to the cocoas - I couldn't resist the ones with Bunny Marshmallows! I hunted high and low for a permanent marker/sharpie because I wanted to write Hazel Nut above the "Bunny" much more blatantly. I thought your kids would enjoy those though. I was so totally "stuck" though on others - I personally *adore* the White Chocolate cocoa 99.9% caffeine free, so it's not a cocoa that will wind you up when you're trying to relax and it just feels so smooth in the mouth and going down. I didn't know if you liked DARK chocolate or not though - and I can't remember if I included a "Dark Chocolate Sensation" cocoa for you or not??? If you like Dark Chocolate and I didn't send you at least one of those, please let me know and I'll include one in box #2. I knew you liked coffee - but that doesn't necessitate liking dark chocolate. I tried, to no avail, to find a particular coffee for you that my few coffee-drinkers around here like (we don't get it often, they like coffee but don't drink it on a regular basis) - hopefully I'll find it available before box #2 goes out. The other cocoas - Let me know which ones you like and which ones you don't? BTW, do you like Raspberry/ies or the flavour at all? Was it enough teas? Were some of them totally redundant to what you've already had in the past? I just didn't know! But at the same time I didn't want to send too much or too little... sometimes it takes more than one cup to decide... like whether to have it with sweetener or milk or lemon, hot or cold... OH, and there's another tea that I debated on heavily but ended up not sending, because I didn't know if you had any gall bladder or gall stones? It's an herbal tincture ("tea") that my eldest (who is so totally not into infusions in general - he keeps things on the simple side) SWEARS by as a remedy for his version of "the crud"... but I just wasn't sure if I dared send any or not - I didn't want to make anyone sick or complicate a pre-existing condition since I wasn't copying ingredients for every single infusion/tea... I know this is probably confusing for others here since you're getting "mixed swap boxes"... I did get some "root" plants in there though, even if they weren't bulbs per se. Provided there is room, I do intend to send you some more (for that mostly shade/2 hours-of-sun area) that was talked about in email. If that Purple Obedient Plant doesn't take for you - please let me know and I will do a better dig for you. It's mixed in with a Rice Paper Plant that was one of only six to survive for me - but didn't thrive - so I will be digging that RPP for transplant into a container for the winter anyway and when I do that, I will have better access to the Purple Obedient Plant's rootstock, i.e. being able to get to more substantial rootstock to send to you. Well, it looks like I have written a lot - but "not much" again... so I'm going to get this posted and try to use what wee bit of energy I've got left (wanes as fast as the sun in late afternoon here these days) to try and do a little domestic task I set for myself today.... if I can keep these two new-to-us cats out of my business. Thankfully the female of the two that are residing in our room, her kittens aren't old enough to be out wandering and getting into things yet. The mama-cat is a real lover (and the people told us she was totally NOT a housecat - this mama-cat has excellent indoor/household manners! And green eyes - just noticed that for-sure with good northern light to check by - green, not yellow or gold, but green eyes... cool, thought it was artificial lighting misrepresenting her eye colour before) and the other one... he's, we estimate, coming up on 6 months old and has a penchant for the laptop - he quickly discovered (and is quite proficient) at using the "pad" on the laptop in lieu of a mouse - complete with scrolling up and down... he thinks this laptop I'm borrowing is his personal toy and when not a toy, his bottom-heat spot for sitting or sleeping... Hermit - who has confused herself

See this is where I just don't get it. Ex has never thanked me, even though the vast majority of taking care of DD and pay the most. Not that that is a concern of mine, but he does pay very little in CS. I would never expect DD to thank me for doing what I am supposed to be doing. It would never occur to me to train her to thank Dad for doing what he is supposed to be doing either. Even if he helps out with college, but I've seen different view points here about that. I expect to pay for college, I expect Ex too as well. I think it is a requirement as a parent to do that stuff, not an extra. But that is just me. As far as stepparents, I think the spouse who married them should be thanking them. Of course there are exceptions, like what Ashley said, she did something specifically for BM. But like babysitting or giving money/whatever for the child because the spouse couldn't, spouses responsibility to thank and appreciate. If Ex told me he couldn't watch DD on his time and his GF did for him and she wanted thanks, I'd probably die of laughter. Or if she paid his part of DD's college..same thing. It was HIS responsibility she took over, not mine, not DD's. And the child is the last one that should take up for a parents shortcomings, IMO. And of course, everyones situation is different. I know that!

Thanks everyone for your input. I left her a voice mail and an email this morning and no word from her yet... mindstorm: good point, which I had thought about too. But the manufacturer couldn't have just "made up" these dimensions, and I assumed the KD sent them more specs than just the rendering I posted on photobucket. She then emailed me a "sketch" yesterday from the manufacturer and asked me, "Didn't I send this to you?" It showed the openings as they appear on my (incorrect) cabinet. I never saw that sketch until yesterday. When she saw that in February, I'd imagine she would've realized it was wrong, or at least ask another KD's opinion on it? Plus, her comment about the specs saying it should be at least 32" from the floor, which is merely a recommendation for a single wall oven installation, that makes me wonder about her experience as well. live_wire_oak: Although I didn't have a drink last night (we had DD's instrumental concert at school), we find both our children have sleep overs at their friends' houses tonight, so we actually have a date night! We're going to look at light fixtures, but then we WILL go out to dinner and have those drinks!! Thanks again, y'all are great.