I have some ideas that help me keep in touch with kids that were close to my little girl. Always take alot of pictures when together. Take professional & alot yourself. Those will be fun memories for her to look at. Make scrapbooks of your family & send her some fun scrapbooking material like stickers, stamps, fun scissors, & paper. I have my boys hold up signs & take pictures. Can you & DH hold up an "I love you" sign & mail to her? Do you have a webcam? Sometimes Webcams can be fun. Do you know her interests? Some girls love to receive flowers at school. I just sent one girl flowers(favorite color) & balloons. I think it makes them feel special. Find out if her school has a memory book. Parents can write a poem for their kids. Does she have email or myspace? Does she like Neopets or anything like that. You can get her an account & you both get pets & take care of them. Find something of interest for the both of you & mention it to her. That might give you something to talk about on the phone. Try emailing first & finding her interests. Oh yeah...kids love things that are in & Hannah Montana is in for little girls. How about a pillowcase with Dads picture on it, & an "I Love You". A Build a Bear with a special message you both have recorded. Also, if you ever get the opportunity, say real nice things about the BM. Even if you can't stand her. Think of anything positive to say, and say it. "Oh your mom is pretty & you got her...hair, eyes etc. If I were you, I would try real hard to help the relationship DH has with her. I think that was my job as the SM & my obligation as the BM to do that for my children. I think many moms are very special and talented that way(some aren't). I feel for you being long distance & for her. It's a tough situation to be in & it's not fair to the little girl, BM, you, or BF. I think the custodial parent has alot of influence in those situations. If she's not selfish she will nurture a good relationship between her little girl & you & Dad. If she's selfish & doesn't like you, good luck...as the little girl will probably not like you either. My little girl was young so I definetly influenced the relationship the best I could. I gave my daughter $50.00 of the child support each month saying it was from her Dad & she could spend it on herself, donate, or relatives. We chose Dad cards on holidays. Called several times during week(slow times). She had his picture hanging up in the bedroom which I framed. I really believe in the long distance situation the custodial parent can make it work or break it & the noncustodial deals with the outcome of the circumstances.

I'm in Sonoma, my temperatures are probably similar to San Jose, but not as hot as Napa or Gilroy. In general, compared to other roses, David Austin's roses are water hogs in our climate; especially when the flowers are opening. In hot summer temps the flowers will shrivel and melt if not given enough water. They also require steady water after the flowers are done to coax the next buds to develop or the flower size will shrink in half. You will notice a difference when the roots get deep enough to reach the underground water table. For heavy flower production, they also like to be fed, a lot. Once your plants get about knee height or taller any rose fertilizer will do until you find your favorite brand, but small first year bands or gallons from heirloom will get fertilizer burn if you're not careful. If you must feed small plants, go organic with fish emulsion or use liquid fertilizer with NPK in the single digits (follow the orchid growers' mantra: feed weakly weekly). Because I have gophers, I generally pot bands up to #1 gallons and then #5 gallons their first year before putting them in the ground in wire baskets. After your Austins get established and grow enormous, look into summer pruning to get more flowers.

From what Laura has: Earth Angel, Day Breaker, La Park, Honey Dijon, Firefighter, Twilight Zone, Caribbean Breeze, Distant Drums, Falstaff, Boscobel, Koko Loko, Dee-lish, and The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild. Here's the info. on OWN-ROOTS that I gather from HMF: Earth Angel has a reputation of balling, best in full-sun. 4 excellent votes on cold-hardy, also best winter-survival for a friend nearby. Day Breaker & La Park: both are floribunda & below average on cold-hardy. My experience with own-root Floribunda: 90% of them die in my zone 5, that's why the old Chamblee catalog classified Floribunda as hardy to zone 6, versus Grandiflora as hardy to zone 5. Floribunda tend to be short with short roots as own-root .. I lost at least a dozen varieties of own-root floribunda through my zone 5 winter. Honey Dijon is a grandiflora with a better rating on winter-survival. Grandiflora are taller with deeper roots. Firefighter: it's a tall hybrid tea but is a water-hog due to low-thorn & glossy foliage. Very vigorous in my dense & wet clay. But I still lost Firefighter 3 times as own-root due to my fault. HMF comments state that it needs shade. I agree. Twilight Zone: water-hog since it's low-thorn & glossy foliage, survived 5+ winters since I learned my lesson from Firefighter. This need shade since it's a water-hog. Carribean Breeze: Another floribunda, best as grafted for best chance of winter-survival. Distant Drums: total wimp & BS-fest as reported by 2 people who grew it as own-root. Falstaff: HMF comments stated that it likes full sun. Average in cold-hardy Boscobel: folks who grow it as own-root said it's wimpy. Any wimpy rose is best in full-sun for faster growth. Koko Loco: Another floribunda with the lowest rating on cold-hardy, 6 people voted it as Fair, which is like a C average. Dee-lish: This gets 7 perfect Excellent rating on cold-hardy. Plus 9 votes of Excellent in heat-tolerance. I have 2 Dee-lish, both are 7th-year-own-roots, but the one in full sun blooms 6 times more than the one in partial shade. The Ingenious Mr. Fairchild: Depends on if the rootstock is appropriate for your soil. If there's tons of rain, Austin-grafted-on-Dr.Huey don't live for more than 5 years in acidic clay. If it's grafted on multiflora, then it can handle acidic rain or snow in winter better.

Jeet Jeet- Before you sign on all these add ons, please hire an experienced interior designer that is not affiliated in any way with this builder, to ask about all this. And you want someone who has common sense who will tell you what is a waste of money. Someone who will say to you, how will you change the light bulbs on the top of those cabinets? And what do you need lights there for anyway? There is glass in the top, you can see in them why do you need the lights, the room is lit. And you don't need the glass cabinets either, all the cabinets will have to be totally perfectly neat all the time. Who needs that? And it limits what you can put in them because they have to be perfectly neat. Ask how much the undercabinet lighting is. I'll bet you money that you can get a far less expensive stick-on lighting system at Home Depot or Lowes. A 50 " deep island is too deep. You can't reach across it to clean it, you will have to walk around which is a waste of time and energy. Unless you are 6 feet tall. Very important- don't spend too much money over-improving. You will never make it back when you sell. Your house will only sell for the average house value in that development which you can be sure, was not over-improved. I do suggest finding out if you can soundproof your guest bedroom on the first floor, else there will be problems with your elderly parents. Don't ask the builder to install the grab bars, but do have the builder reinforce behind and beside the guest toilet and in the shower. It may be much cheaper for you to purchase grab bars and hire someone to install the grab bars if and when they are needed. You can ask what the builder would charge to install the grab bars. It may be worth the cost for the builder to just go ahead and do the whole thing for you. See, this is way more important to me than fancy glass-fronted cabinets. And did you choose slip resistant tile for the bathroom?