Well, I'm a big fan of green kitchens (I like that vintage pea green color that my mother shudders and calls "hospital green"). But on my monitor, it doesn't look very green. It looks more yellow/gold, with a greenish tinge to it. So I see what you mean. I do like the color, but I disagree with your painter's opinion that it was a great choice for the cabinets. (Except that I never saw it in real life, as he did.) Do make sure it is the right color. That said, I think you should move on to other things. It is fresh paint! That is a good thing. I agree that something dramatic above the windows or on the walls would be great. Your buyer will probably repaint everything! In our previous house, we frantically repainted lots of rooms before selling. Neutral colors. The new owners immediately hired painters b/c our colors were too boring (except they kept the pea green kitchen)! But here is the one that got my goat: Our bedroom was painted in a very pale shade of pink. The furniture was dark brown antique. The bedding and sheers were plain white. The main artwork was Chagall (with some pinks in it). Anyone who has passed through Restoration Hardware lately has seen the coupling of pink and brown. It can look very elegant. I loved it! Well, we moved out, and the realtor/stager moved in. She totally "pinked up" our room--floral bedding and pillows, lacy curtains and matching shower curtain, etc. etc. etc. It looked like a pink explosion!! When I asked her if the buyers liked all the paint colors we had chosen, she specifically said, "I think they'll change the bedroom first--it was a little too pink for them." Ok, I'm babbling. It is fine! It is clean and fresh. Move on to the next thing! :-) Francy

So, I guess I don't have to trowel a large "fixed" area over entirely. It will feather out at some point from the edges and the rest can just be the bare drywall. Right? That makes me feel better. The drywall does get knicked up though. I do like peeling this stuff off, lol. This post was edited by snookums2 on Fri, Apr 19, 13 at 19:25

How would you have handled this situation? is a good question but can be tough to answer. Without being in the situation makes it more difficult to say. Would I physically confront them, slap them in cuffs, lynch them or the like, well no. But I'd *like* to think I would have spoken up then and there in some manner, whether I'd clear my throat, say WHAT THE??? or something. Guess it's a had to be there thing. And really, if for some reason I felt threatened in a store, I think I'd have been leaving the store before the incident anyway. Why would I stay where I don't feel safe? I certainly can shop stores where I feel safe. I don't judge what you did or didn't do with the exception of applauding that you did call later. It may have helped. Good for you. The reality is that there's a good chance that at least one of those jars went home with someone. Hopefully they used it right away since I doubt many people would pay any attention to whether it had a tight seal. I'm generally one here who says let's get the whole story, more facts or something before jumping to conclusions on a lot of things but on this one, I too cut them no slack. Theft is theft. Vandalism is vandalism. And their vandalism could affect other people. Most things in a grocery store are not guaranteed sale items meaning the store buys it and can't return it for credit so any broken jar, stolen jar or opened one that has to be written off is a cost to the store, which means a cost to every customer since those losses are simply passed on. I know these things go on in stores. What people do is often so disgusting. People open up boxes of things, switch them then seal it up and head to the checkouts. I always check the seals on jars and I check boxes and bags. I'll often open the top on a jar with inner seal to see it's intact. I also check that the eggs aren't cracked! And I generally make a wide path around those self-serve bulk bins where people are so often grazing! On a different note, what bugs me more is when people hide behind the lines like "You never know what they'll do" or "They might____". It's code for "I don't want to get involved" and that's why some criminals walk free, some thieves go unpunished, taxes go higher, insurance prices soar and other costs go up. I feel we often have a responsibility to stand up for what's right. If we witness something, do something, watch out for your neighbors' homes. The "everyone for themself" is long obsolete. Cops can't be everywhere. We have to be their eyes and ears. What each person can physically do of course varies. As far as the cameras, so what? Yeah they have cameras but are they really going to be expected to take security personnel, sit them down to watch video and try to find the incident? What are they supposed to do then? Launch a search for them? It's a petty theft so it's not worth the cost for the store to waste the time of doing this. The time to do something is when it's happening. Then all that really would be done is to ask them to leave. And casually telling a cashier on the way out is effectively worthless too. At least take the time to go to customer service. At that rate, even calling them later was a far better option than mentioning it to a cashier on the way out. A cashier is too busy to stop checking people out to go alert Customer Service, which is what they'd need to do and then hopefully they were able to get the info from you accurately, which could be questionable if they're concentrating on cashiering (or other things job or non-job related). Telling a cashier would be fine in a convenience store but not a mega store. It's been a long long time since I've shopped in a Walmart. Do they have any customer service call buttons or phones scattered as do some stores? That could be a possibility. I keep a digital notetaker in a case on my belt at all times. I take notes on it often, record phone calls, conversations etc since my memory is getting challenged more as I age. When I'm driving and remember I need to do something I don't have to fumble for pen and paper to make a note for later. You could have used this to get a description of the people, time, details etc. About 2 weeks ago I was at a target and just getting ready to leave when I saw a woman pull in to a parking space in the next row. It caught my eye because she was *so* far over instead of being centered in the lines. Then I saw the vehicle next to her sort of "shake". Obviously she hit it. She got out of her car and I was by then recording the vehicle description, her description and the 2 digits of the plate that I could see. She got back into her car, backed out and drove off. I decided I couldn't live with myself to let this go so I followed her but all she did was move down 2 rows and park way at the end. I got her full license number, better vehicle description and then debated what to do. Didn't want to wait so I decided to leave a note on the affected vehicle. When I got over there I couldn't see any damage. Where she had to have hit it had the side guards which apparently is what she hit. I even got out and took a close look and there was no damage so I let it go. But I felt good that I did what I did. I look at it this way, if I won't get involved, why should someone get involved if something happens to me? BTW, the lids on many jars have instructions to tell how to check the seal.

We were dealing with this when my SD (7 at the time) was going one week here, one week with her mom. Every time she went back, DH got a phone call. I don't know how much of it was 'drilling' her for info or how much was offered by SD. She called to say that my teenage daughter listens to her music too loud and it's inappropriate music (Green Day). She called once to say that I was watching & letting SD watch shows that 'scare' SD and give her nightmares. The show was forensic files and I watched it in the livingroom while SD was in her room playing. She might have heard parts of it, but she certainly didn't sit & watch anything like that. (not that it would be as bad as when her mom let her watch 'lady in the water' and 'jackass 2) but what it comes down to, is telling the children (and the ex) that you can't control what the other does in their home. If you make out in front of them, it's none of her business. What movies or tv shows you watch, or even what your husband allows his kids to see, is HIS business. Unless it affects the child's health or safety, he is the parent during his time and he gets to make those judgment calls. Just as mom makes them when the kids are with her. I told my step daughter that she can tell her mom whatever she wants. It isn't going to change the way we do things in our house. As for the kids lying, she used to lie all the time about things. Once, she said she was feeling sick. (it wasn't uncommon for her to say she felt sick when she didn't want to do something) so, when my kids were sick, I would put them to bed (to rest) and give them chicken soup. when SD saw we were having enchiladas, she told DH she hates soup. I asked her if she hates chicken soup and she said she hates ALL soup. About a week later, we went out for chinese food. When the won ton soup came, she didn't get any. Later, she took DH aside and complained that she didn't get any soup. He told her, well you said you hate all soups. Then she decided, not anymore. We told her that she needs to stop lying about little things like that. When she does, she will suffer the logical consequence. I don't know what your step sons lie about, but there should be a logical consequence to it. For example, if they say that dad watches or lets them watch bad movies, then when they come over... no movies. Why? Well, you tell your mom we watch bad movies and I can't be sure what you think is bad or what is okay, so we won't watch movies... we'll just mow the grass today. Kids are going to try to manipulate, it's pretty much expected. They lie and manipulate because they can and they get something out of it. When SD tells her mom something and gets a reaction, then she continues to do that. I'll give a couple of examples. When SD went and told her mom that she can't fix her own meals, her mom decided that she was going to let her make anything she wants at her house. SD ate chocolate/coffee ice cream for breakfast and made herself a tuna sandwich (not draining the oii) and came home sick, throwing up. or she tells her mom something and mom picks up the phone in front of SD and calls DH... she'll yell, rant & rave in front of SD so SD knows what will get a reaction. She used to try it here, but we'd say 'that's nice' and if there was any real concern, DH would call or email BM later, when SD wasn't around. When SD wants us to allow something her mom lets her do, she'll say 'well my mom lets me' and we say, 'that's nice of her. we have different rules and our rules are ____'. It's taken time and patience and consistency. It also took DH telling BM repeatedly, she can't control our home any more than he can control hers. good luck.