Any progress on this issue? Do not add any soil to you property until you have a full drainage plan! ÃÂ Getting an engineer involved is advisable, but expensive, I know, I am one. :-) ÃÂ Consider these issues: 1. Drainage should take water away from the house, as quickly as possible, w/o flooding or causing erosion to you or others. Water near the house can cause many problems: ÃÂ movement near the foundation can move soil, which could cause the house to move. More immediately is the dry rot the moisture will cause to the wood of the house. Mold can form ÃÂ Maintaining any vegetation is a problem. Mosquitos will love it.ÃÂ 2. Adding fill material improperly could make matters worse.ÃÂ 3. Water always flows downhill. So, where is the water going. Try to follow it. The best way is to get the elevations of your property surveyed. I love the ability of a contour map to communicate slope of the ground. And water will follow the slope.ÃÂ 4. Decide on the outlets for water from your property. ÃÂ Drain water to the street, if possible. ÃÂ If not, build dry wells, but check percolation rates carefully. ÃÂ Be very careful about draining water on to neighboring property.ÃÂ 5. Find the sources of the water.ÃÂ 6. ÃÂ Create drain paths from (or near) sources to the outlets: There are several options to do this: (a) ditch, which needs a slope of at least 1%, 3 % is recommended; (b) Underground drain, such as a French Drain, which needs no slope, or a mini-storm drain pipe, which only it needs at least 0.1% slope, or combine French Drain and pipe; (c) pressure pipe,collect the water at a central spot and then pump the water. There are a lot of pages about all of these issues on the Web. This can be a big job.ÃÂ Good luck!

Stephanie, I understand your confusion, and agree that it is not a true bully / victim situation. However, I really think that what my son did was over the line, and wanted to be sure he realized it, too. If they were playing out in the yard, I would have handled it differently, but there are different rules for the yard than for school, and he is old enough to save any roughhousing for after school. I don't know what, if any, punishment the other boy received, and truthfully, I'm not even sure it matters. Ds has never complained about "MJ", so what reason would the school have for punishing him? When the asst principal first talked to ds, ds only said that they were playing around - didn't mention the pencil-poking until later when he talked to dh. What I wanted ds to get out of this, is reinforcement of something he learned years ago with my niece. My boys and their friends all play rough with each other, and know not to expect any sympathy from me if they get bruised while wrestling or playing dodge ball. But when my niece would come over, ds would play with her the same as he plays with his friends, she would screech, and he would get in trouble (because she had made it clear that she was not interested in their games). Pretty soon she would screech whenever he came anywhere near her - I think just for the fun of getting him in trouble. So I told him, I know that she is overreacting, but I can't defend you if you have so much as touched her. So just stay clear of her, and then you'll never be in trouble. I know it isn't exactly fair that he has to walk on eggshells around her, but in life he'll find there are always a few people who don't play by the same rules he does, and I wanted him to be able to differentiate between who is "safe" and who is not. To me this is nearly the same situation - the school makes it clear that students are not to touch each other, but he did it anyway and paid the price. Yes, the other kid seems to have changed the rules between himself and ds midstream, which is unfortunate, but still, I really don't feel that I can defend ds' behavior here - he has to be responsible for what he does regardless of what anyone else did. Probably will not call "MJ"'s mom, though - your comments made me realize that there is really nothing I can say to improve what will be an uncomfortable situation. "MJ"'s mom will eventually see ds out playing with his friends enough to realize he is not a big bad bully :)

I have my own story about food stamps going back to the early 70's. I don't know when the program started, but it sure was handled differently back then. I was newly divorced with two small kids and had just started a job at the minimum wage of $2 an hr. I'd been a SAHM mom during my marriage and sure wasn't prepared for this dramatic change. I was so scared and worried about feeding us and I did qualify for food stamps which were in paper form. At the scheduled time, I had to go to our Main Post Office and pay cash for the stamps I could afford. Only once did I have enough cash to buy my full amount; the rest was kept and no longer available to me. Gosh, I didn't like shopping with those darn things. I was only able to buy these stamps 2 or 3 times before I realized I could shop better on my own with my own little budget. FYI: Sadly, at that time, I only received $100 a month in child support for my 10 yr. old DD and my infant son. It took that amount to pay for child care for the baby so I could work. I wouldn't wish that kind of life for anyone. :( I just can't imagine people would prefer living that way, but I know it happens.

You have my sympathy, but being honest I doubt you will get much satisfaction from your insurance or the power co. Usually you get the run around for a period and then are told such would not have happed had you had a whole house surge protector installed, therefore it,s not their fault. I had a similair occurance. The power went off due to a storm, when it was restored. 3 cordless phones, the modem in my web tv, and the furnace control panel were fried, The surge protector I had on my fridge was also fried.however, it saved the fridge. I got no satisfaction from either the power or insurance company neither. Since I am in the hvac field I was able to replace the furnace panel for cost. I paid for for everything. Several other neighborhood residents had the same problems. and so far as I know none have been able to collecet a dime from anyone. I truly hope you have better luck. Iggie