Morning, Tiff..I know what you mean. Dh goes to work, comes home. I serve him dinner, he takes the dog for a walk then sits in front of 'his' tv w/head phones until bedtime. Plus my family and I had an argument, so I no longer call them, or accept their calls. And winter is just, plain depressing. Going on a week w/o sunlight. It seems the most exiting thing I do is go to the grocery store and doctors..and the docs isn't very entertaining..I despise going. I ended up taking most of my TC's and potting them in a hanging basket..several stems broke, so doubt they'll produce more flowers this year. See what boredom does??? End up doing stupid things like repotting budded TC's!!! Tiff, can you, your dh and dk's move w/your mom? Please understand I'm not trying to nosy myself in your business, just a suggestion. You do need others to talk to. Adult conversation, or at least people who enjoy plants, kids and any other hobbies you're into. There are many here who like talking to you, so if you ever feel blue, sign into GW.. :) Marjie..I didn't know you had twins..Oh you poor thing.. :) Twin babies? Oh Lord, when do you find time to think? God bless you, girl. How old are they? Ha, your Sadie sounds like our dearly departed, Mastiff, Sam..Forget tennis balls..they lasted two seconds..when dh took Sam to the woods, Sam saw a cute dog playing w/his tennis ball. Sam ran over, stole his ball and chewed it to smithereens. The owner laughed, but his poor dog lost so many tennis balls because of Sam. I bought a bag of tennis balls for the man, or rather his dog to replace those destroyed by Sam..lol. I love Labs..How much does Sadie weigh? Is she high-strung? I worked as an asst vet. When it was time to spay Black Labs, 'not so much neutering males,' the females needed extra sedation. Their breed was so much fun to work with..lol. j/k. Labs are extremely intelligent, loyal AND beautiful.. After surgery, Labs couldn't wait to see mom, dad, brother or sister, ready to take them home. lol. Yep, rubber rings last longest. Even w/love to chewy-teeth dogs, and mid-extra large breeds. Sam had a rubber, U-shaped band called Pull & Tug..One toy he couldn't chew to pieces. lol. Marjie, if you're serious about running away, I'll go along. As long as we can bring our pets, children and plants! We'd have to buy a couple buses though. More like five. lol. Hey JoJo..wow, a chicken named Hawk hanging around you..You should go to YouTube, seach for chicken sounds..Wonder what Hawk would do?? lol. How nice. What a lucky chicken!! AWWW, why are the other chickens pecking on her? Are they plucking her feathers? Funny she hangs with the dogs..maybe she thinks she's a canine...lol Poor kitty..wonder what's going through his mind??!! I can imagine..no wonder he seeks a higher level. lol. JoJo, only the best for our feathered/furred family, right? Bet your zoo pets are as spoiled as ours..lol. Don't blame you for investing in a jeep..Can you imagine trying to haul all that food in a Fiero? lol. I don't know much about quail. How do they behave and what do they eat? Are they in or outdoors? I remember you said you got a new turtle..how's he/she working out? I forgot, is he/she a water or land turtle? 3 dogs..wow! lol. Does your gecko have an English accent like the commercial? lol. The gecko commercial is one of a few I don't mind watching...makes me laugh. JoJo, I know you addressed to Marjie, but I too bred Betas. Wasn't it amusing watching the male spitting a nest for babies? But, poor moms. JoJo,, what type of plants are you looking for? Wow, you wake before the roosters..lol..Toni

This was awesome cawfe. I could not have put it all better myself. I guess some people on here say things to tear apart a thread, and then will say the opposite in order to tear apart another thread. And why do they do it all? Who knows for sure, though I have a good idea. Its sad how some people have so much hate inside and spew it out all the time on complete strangers. I can imagine what must come out in their own lives to the people they know. As much as I dislike the way they act on here I do feel bad for them. Their lives are filled with so much misery and hatred it is eating them up! Their whole life revolves around this misery and anger, that can not be productive for them or for their children! Hatred is not a good value to pass on, though from what they have told us here about "being honest" to their children and what they discuss with their children it is almost inevidable that they passed that hatred onto their children. Sadly they probably did it to keep their children from liking their fathers becuase they were wronged by him. How selfish it is to make your child dislike their own father because of your personal issues with him! Get a friend to complain to about your ex, do not use your children! Oh well. When I log off this forum I go back to my wonderful husband and all 4 of OUR wonderful children. Oh ya, I said OUR becuase they all live with us full-time and we are the custodial parents. We raise them. My son sees his dad often, but I do ALL mom stuff for the stepkids while their mom sits on her a$$ at her house, across the country, with all her "new" kids not paying attention to the ones she left behind. That was her choice to abandon her children. I go back to my happy job. And I enjoy my life. And at night I cuddle into bed with my dh. Sure beats a cold bed and thoughts of hatred!

Reggie, When I met my DH, I was 29 years old and I knew then that I didn't want to have children. He has three children and he would also see them every other weekend. Believe me, I did find it hard when they were around. I especially found it hard with the oldest child who right from the start did not like me at all. With time, I started disliking it when she would come over to our house because what missy wanted, missy got! It would just infuriate me and for years I had arguments with hubby about the way he treated this child, never, ever, ever saying no to whatever she asked for. Well, she grew up to be a spoiled, irreponsible child.She quit school early, got pregnant at 16 years old, got in-debth, etc. etc. etc. She got married and treated her husband just like she had treated her dad all her life, that is, when she asked for something, she had to get it NOW, her husband is the one who was stuck with cleaning the house, taking care of the children, etc. etc. That marriage did not last long needless to say. Today, she is divorced and she has had to make major changes in her life. And I must admit that she has matured quite a bit in the last two years and she is now in a new relationship and believe me, she doesn't treat that man the way she treated her x. But I find it so sad that she has had to go through all these experiences at such a young age. I sometimes think if her father had spoiled her less and had felt less guilty towards her, this child wouldn't have had to go through such negative experiences when she was so young. Today, my relationship with this step-daughter is good but it was hell getting there. I always told her that at 20 years old, she had gone through what a 40 year old woman would have gone through. So sad. This being said, I feel for you. I know you have been with this man for several years, but believe me, he will never, ever agree with you if you say anything wrong about his child, whether it's about the fact that you think she goes to bed too late or she is really childish or whatever. He will always defend her no matter how much he loves you. And believe me, this little girl's demands are going to become more and more big as she grows up. Whatever she will want from her father, I guarantee you she will get it and that will cause major, major fights between you and him! Believe me, I've been there. I have been with hubby for 20 years now and there were many times that I said to myself, if i knew then, what I do know now in regards to being a step-parent, I don't know if I would have started a relationship with him. So, all I can say to you from experience is you either have to accept this child in your life and try and detach yourself from her with love or....leave this man. I know you love him but you will drive yourself mad and make yourself sick to death if you continue in this relationship knowing there is a child that will always, always be there. Sometimes, in order to understand my husband's behavior towards his child, I would sit down for a minute and wonder what would I do if that was my child. Most of the time, when I truly thought about it, I thought I would do the same thing he did. These men love their children to death and they feel really guilty about not being in their life 24/7 and because of this, they will do anything an everything for them just so these children will be happy and not hate their father. I truly wish you luck sweetie.Keep posting.

Jin, Paul and Ingrid,once again many heartfelt thanks for your kind thoughts. Here's an update (keeping in mind those of you who are going to have this operation done in the near future, to give you some idea of what the recovery period entails, though remember, everyone is different!) Actually,the PT exercises don't hurt; it's just something you have to keep up with, though a bore. I'm finding it so hard to remember to keep the 90° angle between hip and torso, though, and often screw up; I just forget! (BAD!!!) Another difficulty is that I am supposed to do two walks of at least 20 minutes per day. This is painful some days, since my knee is giving me problems (have to go back to the doctor about that; think it's a soft-tissue problem, like bad tendonitis and/or inflammation of meniscus, since I had an RX done on it in August 2017,and the bones were fine. The hip problem probably caused too much stress on the poor knee...) And this is another reason why this was a very bad time of the year for this operation: it is not pleasant to go out for a stroll with temperatures around 0 Celsius,and cold wind,plus the days are so short... Then. there's the problem of over-doing. The day before yesterday,too intimidated by the cold, grey weather, I decided to venture out to the mini-mall and do some shopping. Well, I wound up remaining on my feet and walking around for at least two hours-probably more-and am still feeling the consequences. My knee and ankle really hurt, even my hip does a bit (and it has not hurt much at all for some time now). So I wound up setting myself back, I'm afraid. In spite of this, I'm still hoping to get out to my land soon,accompanied by my DH for the first visit back,just to see if I'm capable of doing the slope by myself. I still am clinging to the hope that I'll somehow manage to plant those five roses that should go out within the next month! though I know I will have to be very, very careful and do very, very little at a time. Experience has taught me that things planted out in the spring can't survive the summers here.