I'm going to eat until I get sick and even then that probably won't stop me. Pictures are at my blog.

I'm barely keeping up with the flower gardens this year. If I can manage to keep them alive I'll experiment with veggies next year. I have two cherry trees and the kids were out picking a big bowl for breakfast. We also have an apricot tree, a peach tree and a plum tree.

Oh. My. Goodness. Will you come and help my poor cupboards? On second thought, don't because I think seeing the inside of my cupboards would give someone like you a heart attack. I'm trying to think of something that I'm OCD about, but I don't think there is anything - I sure wish I could develop OCD for things, though. My poor ds (8) has issues with doors being locked. He'll race back into the house as I'm locking the door and check all of the other doors before we leave.

I love the kitchen and the hutch. Doesn't it make it really feel like home to have a significant piece from your childhood? The big stained glass light fixture in my picture was the one that always hung in my home growing up.

That is so cool! What a great job.

Whew! Did I mention that he isn't a bad guy? I just got off the phone with him. He was very apologetic for being out of the picture for so long. I explained my concerns about allowing him to speak to dd and he was completely Ok with that. He was happy to have an update on her life and he asked me to send him a picture. Thank you so much for all of the support.

So cute!

Thank you so much, everyone. The prayers and hugs have bolstered me and I'm feeling a lot better now. It doesn't help that dh is away right now and my sister is insane (thinks dd should learn the life lesson that contact with him will teach her), at least I have the Hive Mind. Cadam - I never really thought about not allowing access. We've always tried to go out of our way to be accommodating. The one worry I would have would be if dd decides later in life to contact him and then he lets her know that he "tried" to establish a relationship with her at 12 but that I prevented that from happening. On the other hand, anything she may or may not feel from that would probably pale in comparison to the type of pain that rejection at 12 or 13 would cause. I'm going to spend some time reading my Bible after the kids go to bed and then I'm going to pray. After that, I'll call and see where his head is at. We've always been able to talk. Then, dh and I can talk and try to figure out what to do next. Again, thanks for the hugs and the prayers. They really have made me feel stronger and better equipped to handle this.

Dh has been parenting dd since she was a year old. He was finally able to adopt her when she was 4. Bio-dad is a nice enough guy, but young and inconsistant. The adoption was open and we've always granted access. Contact has been sporadic to say the least. The last time he called was three and a half years ago. Now he has asked my sister for my new number (I moved 6 months ago) and he wants to talk to dd. I'm sorry, but wtf? I had to deal with the, "Why hasn't so-and-so called me, why didn't he send something for Christmas (one thing he was pretty good about until 3 years ago)" questions from dd. Now he wants to have contact again - now, when she's 12 and she's fragile and she's starting to grow up and figure out who she is. Now? Dd doesn't remember a time when dh wasn't her father and he is a fantastic father - they're very close. It's not like she needs a father. What she doesn't need is for bio-dad to call and then not call again for a year or more. One year he called on Christmas (his usual) and said he wanted to be in touch weekly. He called again on New Year's Eve and then again on her birthday (one week after NYE) - that was it. He didn't call again until the next Christmas and my 7 year old was left wondering why. I'll repeat that he is not a bad guy. He's a nice guy. But, at this point I worry that the only thing he's going to offer to dd is more rejection and I see no reason for a girl who is growing up in a solid two-parent home to get a side order of rejection from someone who faded out of her life completely 3 years ago and who had mostly been a "once a year" communicator before that. Ugh. Having a child as an unmarried 18 year old is something I can't ever regret because I wouldn't trade dd for all the pain in the world but the fact that my actions have caused her pain really eats at my soul.

Thanks for posting that, Lisa. It's absolutely beautiful.

Oh - you are not! I enjoy reading your posts.

Oh, my kitchen looks clean...just don't open any of the cupboards. Or the fridge. Or the drawers.

It's like writing the headline to a newspaper article - it needs to be a little bit flashy so you can hook everyone in and get them to read more. I also feel I'm terrible at it. But, I came up with a pretty good one a few weeks ago with something like, "Peeing on my Peace Hill Press bag was the last straw". It was provocative, it was flashy, and it involved a terrible atrocity :)

Well, thanks! Here's how it looked before the reno: The entire house screamed 1980's when we moved in.

I really don't think that "too much knowledge" is accurate. I think that sometimes people think that too much knowledge has convinced them away from a faith but underneath I think it had more to do with not enough knowledge. I look at some of the absolutely brilliant people who set out to disprove Christianity - like C.S. Lewis - and then became believers because they couldn't deny what they had learned through their studies. Or St. Augustine. Again, someone very knowledgeable who was not a believer until he began studying it. We had a scientist at church talk to the congregation about how he came to Christ through his studies. I'm sure I could dig up more examples. I became an atheist at age 10. We had received our copies of The New Testament at school that year. My best friend and I read ours and prayed faithfully for about a week. Then we had a "rational" discussion on how religion is just created by people to explain the unexplainable and to ease the fear of death. We thought we were too smart for Christianity. That was a fairly big stumbling block for me on my journey. It still crops up from time to time, but I remind myself that first off I know too little and secondly I can't deny the relationship aspect. I know God is present because I have experienced his love, his grace, and his presence.

I think my favourite part about my kitchen are the counter seats for the kids.

My goodness, Rose! What a scare! I hope you're able to get a good sleep tonight and I'm glad your son is sleeping with his dog and that no one was hurt.

I'd check mine more often, but the paranoid side of me thinks there's someone sitting at PHP checking to see who checks their rep points the most often...

Don't ask. Just don't ask. In fact, I'm sticking my fingers in my ears right now. La, la, la, la - I can't hear you! I have three boys and my oldest is 8. There is NO such thing as full blown puberty. In fact, there is no such thing as puberty at all. One day they will wake up with a deep voice and a need to shave but that IS IT...Ok?? I mean it. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh! (running away)

:lol: Now I've got to check the TV listings to see if any Seinfeld reruns are on tonight.

Definitely the episode where George's two worlds collide. Remember when his girlfriend was going to come up to Jerry's apartment? It's probably my favourite because I feel like that way too often now. I love my little online world, but it's been colliding with my IRL world and it always puts me off balance. Not that there's anything wrong with my two worlds colliding, but it just feels weird. Anyway, whenever someone IRL mentions reading something of mine online I see George pacing around Jerry's aparment with his hands waving in the air talking about how his worlds are going collide. I'm just a teensy bit introverted as well, so I think that's why it throws me.

:lol::lol::lol:

Singapore math for 8 years. SOTW for 5 years. Classical Writing for 3 or 4 years.

Well, let me know if it works! The vet mentioned it to me as well. My cat is having similar behavior issues, minus the skittishness, but I have no idea what's causing it. We're trying to slowly work through it, but if she starts peeing in the house again I'm going back for Xanax!

In our last house we put in an aboveground pool and I concur with everything the other poster said about what a crazy job it is to put it in. We priced out inground pools and decided against it. Over here pools are considered an asset and they definitely do not lower property values, but I don't think they raise them either so any money you put in will not translate into house. That being said, when we started looking for a new house an inground pool was high on the list. We've had it open since the end of May and we are absolutely *loving* it. The kids are in at least once a day and are often in for hours at a time. We've had so many people come over to swim and enjoy the pool. I love having friends in and sitting poolside while our kids swim. The summers get hot here and it's blissful to be able to jump into the pool. We bought an automatic vacuum so vacuuming isn't really a chore at all. Nowadays you can get self-cleaning pools so even more of the cleaning is automatic. Balancing our chemicals has been a bit tricky as we're on a well. If I was putting my own pool in I'd do salt water. If you have the money and you think you'll be in the house for a long time then I suggest going for it.