Hi Stephanie! We had hours of thunder and lighning....but so little rain. I was hoping that if we were going to have all that "fuss", we'd have a good old-fashioned downpour to go along with it. We haven't had a REAL thunderstorm in such a very long time here. We had a thunderstorm last summer, probably in late July or early August. It had been SO VERY LONG since we'd had one that we went out to the covered porch that is attached to our barn and sat in the lawn chairs and watched it rain! Isn't that pitiful? We later found out that a lot of our neighbors did the same thing. LOL It was a lovely storm...lots of huge dark clouds and tons of lightning (one lightning strike ignited a fire in a hay barn north of us)...and we had a double rainbow. We got about 3/4s of an inch of rain in a fairly short time. I really miss the rain. (sigh) During the recent ice storms we had thundersleet and that was pretty cool. And, back in 2004 we had thundersnow. Oklahoma weather can be pretty interesting, and is rarely dull. Already this morning I have started seeds in little peat pots for 60 kinds of hot peppers, sweet peppers and herbs . Now that all the tomatoes are outside for good, the lighted shelves I use for seed starting were looking sort of empty. I don't get into much of a hurry with the peppers since they sulk if planted in cool soil. I'll be mowing three acres of rye grass today! Also planting nasturtiums "Caribbean Cocktail" as a companion plant in the vegetable garden, and, of course, today the tomatoes will actually go into the ground. About that laundry and housework....do you mean to tell me that we are actually expected to do those tasks when it is "gardening time"? I ALMOST have my husband and son convinced that you shouldn't cook or do laundry or do housework anytime the sun is shining and it is warm enough to be outside in the yard. Note that I said "almost". I'm home alone today, so once I step outside in a few minutes, I have no intention of coming inside to do anything! Have a wonderful and productive day. Hope the fence project goes well. Dawn

I hear you ladies........since I've hit 40, I first had my gall bladder removed. Then a year ago, I had a bladder suspension, now I'm trying to deal with my lifelong endometriosis and cyst pain. I spot bleed on and off all month. The loss of hair on your head and additional hair on the face is no picnic........... But.....if we had lived just a century ago, we would really be in "Old Age", nearing the end of our lives. The good thing is, that we really are still young enough to enjoy our families and choices that we've made in life. Even with all the nuisances of mid-life, I wouldn't change and go back 30 years. Nothing comes easy.....getting where you are today didn't come easy...I have a philosophy that our bodies break down as we age, we become dependant (somewhat) on our families and on God, and leave this world in the same condition that we came.......there is a lesson in it, it's up to us to get it......trials, blessings, the whole package of life.

All excellent points. I am not at all saying that things should always be equal and even. Like I said, we DO try to abide by the "fairness isn't everyone getting the same but everyone getting what he/she needs" mentality. But, and unless you do have two children the same age, this can be hard to understand---there IS a competitiveness between them. I think it is exacerbated by the fact that we are a stepfamily, so there is always that under current of "well, she is favored" or "he is favored." It's also simply because they are the same age so their interests/needs/wants are often quite similar. It would be easier in many ways if one were older. IE--if DD were twelve, for example, I highly doubt she'd care one iota that SS were getting a bunk bed. Her interests would be different and she'd be more concerned about getting this or that. But she is still at that age where she thinks bunk beds are super cool! As far as big gifts and such--for Christmas and birthdays, we DO match things up equally. They get a variety of different presents BUT if we know it is something they both want--they each get one. IE--each got a Nintendo DS for Christmas two yrs ago, each got a new bike another Christmas, etc. Those are the "big ticket" items that we keep even. There is just no way we could justify saying "oh, that's too bad that Santa brought SS a new bike and not you" or "that's too bad DD got a DS for her birthday but you didn't." Not only are they both 8 but their birthdays are only six weeks apart! Now--like Ima pointed out--there are other things not within our control, like DD goes to a private school, SS to public, SS with dad half the time, DD all the time. (It's funny, Ima, that you stated it like DD "doesn't get" to see her dad; I view it in a positive light, like she is fortunate she has DH as her full time dad, fortunate she has one stable home. I know at some point she will be curious about bio-dad but for now, I see it as a blessing that she doesn't see him.) I don't know. Some of this is MY own issue, I guess, too. I do feel like we *more often* bend over backwards to make sure that SS doesn't feel slighted and we *more often* take the approach that DD can suck it up. Not all the time, but I feel like it is like is more that way than it is the reverse. A lot of that IS because DD IS just generally more reselient to that stuff. And THAT is partly her personality, but also partly because I don't think she HAS a sense of being left out the way SS sometimes does--due to his going back and forth. SS is very jealous by nature, and I think some of it is the divided homes. For example--he WIGGED OUT a couple weeks ago b/c he talked to his mom on the phone, and she mentioned she had taken his 2 yr old sister to the dollar store. He loves the dollar store and he spent a good 30 mins sobbing at our house about how unfair it was. :( When he gets like that, there is just no consoling him, no pointing out all the fun things he does with us---like vacations and camps and circuses and pool trips, etc. He just get so emotional about these things. DH spoke with BM about it at length after that and both agreed it is a problem for SS but neither knows what to do about it. It's one of those sad things---he has two families but he only spends 50% of time with each--and he, as a result, is kind of always left out a bit. On the upside, he gets two of everything. I guess? Anyway, I guess that is maybe what is irritating ME more than anything. If it were DD getting the new bdrm set, SS would be devastated, no doubt, and DH even agreed with me about that. I think he would be really concerned about how SS would react in that case. BUT b/c we know that DD is pretty laidback about these things, it's like it just doesn't matter and DH isn't concerned. Kind of like the prodigal son story. Does that make sense? I am glad I vented this b/c I am now seeing it's really more MY issue and communication with DH than it is about the bedroom set.

Oh my goodness! I haven't been on here for awhile as it's been very hectic. I have at this point moved on from the kitchen cabinets. Dwelling on it is pointless and just makes me angry. Besides I've had other things on my mind (some of you may have seen my post regarding our backsplash disaster). Also, we noticed later that we didn't have any sockets on the island despite my having specified I wanted a socket on either side of my large island. KD said she didn't have anything in her notes about sockets on the island. Really??? And what do her notes say about the code for electrical outlets on a kitchen island to pass inspection????!!! Of course, there was NO room for us to add them in. Her solution: cut two of the drawer backs to shorten them, buy new shorter soft close rails for the now shortened drawers and then add sockets behind them. I. don't. think. so. We were left to sort that out on her own. Couldn't be bothered to deal with her anymore after that. Anyhows. I thought I'd give a quick update. I re-ordered the white drawer fronts and decided to leave the blue island drawers as is. The new fronts just arrived today and have yet to be installed. I still don't have any hardware on the blue island. I want it to be different but haven't really had time to properly look. I'll get there eventually. I think it's a good compromise. The drawers don't bother me as much on the island and I'm pretty certain that after a few months I won't notice it at all. Or as much ;)