Thanks all! Jane, I know it would never bother you if we copied one of your ideas. You're not that kind of person. I do always try and mention it, though, where I got my inspiration . . . if I remember where I got it from (LOL)! I'm always a bit paranoid about my poor memory. When I was 6 months pregnant with Emily, I became pre-eclamptic and had to go on complete bed-rest. I got progressively worse and at 7 months, went dangerously eclamptic. My kidneys failed, and I quickly gained a huge amount of water weight from it. My feet and legs swelled until I couldn't walk, I had fluid in the pericardial sac around my heart and in my lungs. the worst was that my brain swelled the the increased pressure on my optic nerves caused me to go (temporarily) blind. This is what caused my subsequent memory problems. They of course, did an emergency C-section and everything eventually went back to normal, including my eyesight. But, I sadly lost a lot of memories and even today, my memory is still not back to normal . . . although at my age, I can now blame it on that instead ;^D I do get worried that I might come across as rude for not mentioning or remembering things. But, I'm extremely blessed that both DD and I are both doing great, so who can complain :~)

Well this is timely as I'm having a colonoscopy tomorrow morning. I've been limiting my food intake since mid-January so I think that helped. I am used to eating less. I don't usually eat at night but I ate a turkey sandwich before bed last night. I wasn't going to bed hungry. Today I ate sugar-free lemon jello, white cranberry juice, sodium-free chicken bouillon, and tea (I can't drink black coffee). I sucked on hard candy too. I had to drink half-lytely which was a half gallon. That is the part you should be worried about - it was nasty! Took me over two hours and I still tossed about 2/3 cup at the end. I was gagging by then. The outcome itself wasn't that bad - there wasn't much to flush out. I'm not really hungry right now and I can't sip another drop of liquid either.

And, sparksals, we definitely will not get into a house just so we can stop paying rent. I'm VERY picky, and it might be awhile before we find something that suits our needs. But, I think it's better to start sooner, rather than later, based on everyone's advice. It took me 7 months to find a house. I walked about 50 or so used houses, then every new housing community in 3 counties, which was a good 100 houses. We drove by others and ruled them out due to location. Well, I HATED renting. I hope never to have to go back to renting. Ever. I hate it! I hated sharing walls with others, hating putting up with others' noises, hated padding my landlord's pocketbook, hated not owning a piece of the American pie. So I'd be inclined to buy sooner, rather than later. But I agree that you should not rush into the single largest financial investment of your life. Take your time, look around, get a good handle on pricing, find a good loan, find a good realtor, etc. I grew up on the bottom floor of a 2 family. It helped my dad get the American Dream. The problem was, the house was original when he sold as he came from a poor country and did not believe in "wasting money" to update as everything worked, nor did he have a lot of time to do things due to working 5-7 days per week. Your husband is still in school, and the real estate market is not at the bottom yet. We just kept renting until my husband was finished with school. It kept the pressure off him and let him graduate. Owning a home is more than just the difference in payments--if a leak occurs, you or your DH have to fix it. Depends on where the OP is. Some markets did not have an increase so it may not matter if they wait to buy. After what I went through, I would get out there asap. There are a lot of houses for sale in most parts, it takes time to cover them all. Yes, owning a home everything falls on you. With my truck driver hubby, something always happens the rare times he drives the roads. I've dealt with storms & tree branches as well as not having water due to the softener being clogged. A few months ago we put out $7,000 on a new furnace. Not knowing what you can buy for the amount you are looking at, decide if you want an updated house or good mechanicals like newer roof, furnace, upgraded electric, central air, etc. I know someone that purchased a house they did not move into until 6 months after buying it as it needed floors redone, the master redone plus other cosmetics. The master had been torn apart by the original owner, so this was a must for them to live there. They then moved in to have all sorts of mechanical problems, water heater, electric. I see a heating/cooling truck there now, don't know if they are fixing something else or doing central air. I can't stress enough to sign up on every site you can find, even the local smaller sites to get email updates. One site gives addresses in the emails where it may not say so in the listing. This site has been very helpful to me. Good luck. It's a good time to buy a house in most areas.

I'm not familiar enough with long term growth of pencil holly to know how long it would take for them to achieve a size that is meaningful for your house. At least they're skinny and could fit in the tight space in the side yard. But really ... grass and mowing in a narrow area that is all slope? It seems so impractical! I am sure if mine, it would be groundcover only.