Okay...read the FAQ and then maybe this will help too: You upload your original picture to photobucket where it is "stored" until you delete it. It is not stored on the GardenWeb forum. GardenWeb doesn't allow you to store the photo (which saves on storage space for them). This means your photo does NOT exist in the stored message you typed. Instead there has to be a way to refer to the photo in photobucket so we use HTML code, in your typed message, that points at the photo in photobucket. When the message is displayed in the forum for people to read, the HTML points to the photos and displays the photo. Now most people don't know how to construct the HTML code. So lucky you, photobucket does it for you for each photo (made available for you under each photo in photobucket). You simply copy the HTML code and paste it into the body of the message at the location you want the photo displayed. If more than one photo, copy and paste more than one set of html code from photobucket into the message. If you do this correctly, it will display correctly in the preview. When you come across a message with a photobucket error, it is because someone deleted (or moved) the photo from photobucket and the forum message has HTML that is now pointing to nothing. I suppose this could have done more harm than good but I really hope it helps.

When I needed to lose weight I knew I was going to be in for the long haul. It was a coincidence that my long haul started in January (it's when my birthday is and so it's when the life insurance company did the check-up and discovered high blood pressure). I planned on a year to lose 42 pounds and that would include maintenance. I figured I had a choice - December was going to come regardless so I could greet it being the same weight or I could greet it being 42 pounds lighter. It probably took 15 years to put it on - taking a year to take it off was doable. I can't remember how far in I was before noticing a real difference (2-3 months) and when you see and feel the difference it is (for me) so easy to keep going. Good Luck everyone. And remember December 2012 is coming regardless. So do you want to wear sexy new clothes for next years open houses and be able to eat a couple of extra treats without feeling guilty? The bottom line though is having that extra energy and "feel good" for all the running around that the holidays require. bethpen: I didn't do WW and know nothing about it. But when I was trying to lose weight and even now, I have a 5 lb. margin that I allow myself. If I see the weight creeping up I reassess what I'm eating immediately, but there are times where that 5 lbs leeway does get used. This christmas it was 4 lbs and it's off now but I do watch what I eat. IT isn't a chore to do that anymore because I love the way I feel without the extra weight - the way I look is just a nice by-product. At my age (58) it isn't why I did it.

Probably like most people my most intense gardening started out with buying a house. We tore out & re-did the inside from stem to stern, decorated it to our liking and took the same approach outside--we tore out & decorated that as well for curb appeal, approaching it as a sort of an outdoor room arranged to look just so. I was a neat-nik to the point of trimming plants with scissors, mulching for perfect looking neatness around chosen plants, obsessive weeding to keep up a perfect deep green, weed free 'carpet' to go around the 'furniture' and keeping it all watered ---which meant sprinklers running every other day most of the time in summer. Meanwhile, I was constantly buying more pretty plants which I arranged and rearranged or discarded as my taste changed or when I got bored. The beds kept growing in size. Perfection and lots of color was my goal along with a desire to impress passers-by if I'm being honest about it. Sooner or later I'd get bored with just about anything I bought but often I just wanted some new piece of flash that caught my eye which gave me an excuse to go plant shopping (again) which I loved to do back then. Then in 2006 we took a trip to New Mexico. I loved the wild plants growing in the countryside and the SW look of peoples yards and it hit me hard how trite and artificial my own landscape and most of the others around Oklahoma City were. None of them reflected where we lived. It was as if we had no local pride or sense of place. I remember thinking even the weeds are pretty in New Mexico. That was the first thing that got me focused on 'weeds' or more to the point, natives. When we got home I started ripping out the next day. I enjoyed doing this once I started because I was so motivated and disgusted with the whole thing and I had a focus unlike any I'd ever had. As the massive piles stacked up by the curb the yard soon became totally bare. I now had a clean slate. A wider world opened up as the country-side became the example to follow for what I wanted to see on my own small space of land. I began reading books about the dust bowl, early settlers and inevitably drifted into ecological issues and the shrinking grasslands. I felt a stronger connection to my own location where I'd grown up and always lived. I was able to see the simple beauty of it and my appreciation grew. I fell in love with prairie grasses, they reminded me of the small towns of my childhood and a strong sense of nostalgia set in. I also noticed with alarm the amount of forestation and urban sprawl happening all around me and our lack of appreciation for what is native in our area. Each new development ate up more of the prairie which was quickly replaced with green bermuda lawns & sprinkler systems along with beds filled with imported trees, shrubs, perennial and alien ornamental grasses, usually Miscanthus. Each new addition displayed a boring and expected sameness. Foreign trees are naturalizing further into the grasslands all around these additions like weeds. Around the same time, the city began urban renewal downtown and around the capitol where they were mass planting prairie grasses to serve as decorative plants. The effect was refreshing and surprisingly modern looking. Several post modern homes were being built and industrial buildings were also being refitted into high end modern housing. All of these tend to opt for a prairie type of landscape which means lots of texture and sunlight effects. The result is an spacious, open, pared down, clean, modern look and distinctly Oklahoma. It was becoming 'cool and with it' to go this route but it shows people are beginning to think of the environment. Oklahoma is a rough place to garden where nature seems uncooperative if you try to go against it. With the trend of using native plants and grasses it seems we might be coming full circle and learning about self sustaining landscaping. For me, its more interesting and appealing. I didn't start out with ideas or concerns about ecology but that change I made back in 2006 lead me there very quickly.

Different people use the word "friend" differently, so a lot of this is semantics. I tend to extend "friend" much more broadly than my husband, who has zero people he considers friends. But the lesson is what is necessary to be successful in group situations--manners and civility, which seem to be on the wane in today's society, but I don't think that is a good thing or something I would want my kid to emulate. I have this argument with my husband all the time, knowing what is and is not appropriate to say in group settings. I grew up in a small town, I learned early on to avoid gossip and trash talking anyone, ever. You never know you might be speaking to their cousin or brother-in-law!! :) My grandmother survived in her tiny village in Poland during World War I because she could get along with all sides in the conflict and smuggle resources into her town to keep people alive . . .Hence I grew up with an emphasis of not making enemies although also was taught to have principles and to stand up for them . . . just do so in a way as to not alienate those around me . . . easier said than done . . . Look at all the people who are suffering because of snarky things they have said publicly. I am in the camp that says best to err on the side of civility which is not the same thing as agreeing or supporting things that clash with your values. It's just a matter of knowing how to chose your battles. A good life would not be a constant battle ground, but it is for some people. I would definitely want my child to learn to find some ways to develop inner strength/peace/serenity or whatever the right word is. It's a life long struggle. My Mom's mantra was the "Serenity Prayer." But of course no matter how many times we discussed this concept, it never totally went away because that's life. However, my mother was quite successful professionally because she learned to overlook certain things and just keep moving forward, not get bogged down by drama. As a teacher and person who gives public program and raises money, I had to learn to never, ever speak ill of anyone, it just isn't worth it, life is long, people and circumstances change, one never knows. On the one hand. But on the other hand, if the hitting bothered your daughter and she asked her friend to stop and she didn't, they you daughter has every right to distance herself from that behavior. I would just advise your daughter not to rush to put people in the "friend/not friend" category. Just treat all people with dignity but also you can detach from the drama that troubled people might bring into your life. This is not the strong suit of a teenager, but a good skill to develop. Otherwise, your life could be much more stressful if you don't learn techniques for tamping down interpersonal drama in your life. One has to be able to do what my Mom advised, not make other people's problems your own. You have to be able to be in this world, experience the drama, but not get pulled into it. A good technique is to focus on projects and actions, not personalities. A tough balancing act, one that teenagers have to learn to navigate and it can be tough even for adults. Trust is tricky. There's a whole other dynamic too, being liked vs being a doormat vs being mean and unlike-able. It's just a balancing act we all have to perform . . . Detachment has not been my strong suit, and I've often wondered if it is possible to develop more of it or if it is just in your genes . . . vs passion . . . and then when to hold it and when to play it ???