Good Morning, Everyone! Thank you all for the "welcome back". I missed each and every one of you. Stormy here today on this Good Friday. Dark and a bit chilly out. Good weather for gardens though. Glad for the rain though. We've had high temps and high, dry winds this past week and wildfires every day. Nothing close to here, but close enough that I could smell the smoke. My dogs erupted in chorus with every firetruck that passed by over on the highway.(hehehe). I took pictures of the gardens on the 31st. Glad I did, as the hot, dry winds dried out all the pretty yellow Jonquils later that day. Blasted hot winds ruined them before our Easter Sunday family picnic and egg hunt. They were magnificent in chorus with the yellow forsythias, white Bridle's Wreath, and Redbud trees now in full bloom all over the garden. My beloved Jane Magnolia is breathtakingly beautiful this year and smells so wonderful. I planted out some Orange Perfection Phlox yesterday. Tried them last year, but they didn't make it. This rain may ensure these do. I dug around in the bin at the store until I found one, just one package with moist peat inside. Holding it up to to sunlight, I could just make out something possibly alive in that dark green plastic bag. Makes me mad to pay five bucks for dead rootstock. They are not the best looking root stocks I ever saw, but think they will make it. I only need one to survive to establish a nice clump this year for next year's blooms. I also planted a package of purple Liatris and a package of Freesia bulbs for summer blooms. I love the smell of Freesia. Yummy. All the Peonies are up and beginning to make tiny flower buds. Hopefully the red ones and deep magenta ones will bloom this year too. If they do, it will be their first time. Some deer came into the yard this winter and ate the top branches off the one surviving River birch sapling, but it is recovering nicely now. I caged it with a tomato cage and for now they are leaving it alone. They are "camped" up on the hill, hiding in wait for my juicy, delicious roses to start blooming, no doubt. :[ I've been taking the dogs for walks up there every morning and hopefully their pee and poop will make them think twice about coming any closer to the back yard. My English Shepherd could easily take down a whitetail deer. DH said this weekend he would finish stretching field fence around on the inside of the existing barbed wire fencing to keep out critters. That won't keep deer out, but it will keep our dogs in, so we can let them run loose on the property. That will be great. They need the exercise and I need them to do their job protecting the place. They love it, too. Hopefully the raccoons & coyotes will take the hint. Keep Out! Anyhow, so far so good. Gotta go check on my chicks. They poopy up their water really fast and will be ready for breakfast. :) Talk to you guys later. ~Annie

Janet, I'm so glad to see you posting. That's a first step to getting some "normal" time back in your life--or at least it has been for me. I can't tell you what a blessing our emails to each other have been since both our DH's have been diagnozed with Dementia/Alzheimer's and seem to be at about the same stages. I know that at first I just wanted to crawl in a hole somewhere and pretend it wasn't happening. The hardest part was learning that it is progressive and there is no cure. If you are like me, you suddenly realized that your whole world had changed. It is so great to have people like Marlene who have been through it and are willing to share their experiences to help us sort of know what to expect and how to handle things. Marlene, I'm so sorry you had two loved ones who had it. The doctors sure don't tell us much, most of what we've learned are from books and the experiences others are willing to share. Janet, you know you are in my thoughts and prayers too, and we can keep sharing our experiences and offering each other encouragement. Luvs aka Kay

You could have your son dictate his memories to you while you type--his earliest memory of daddy, going to daddy's favorite restaurant, dad's favorite foods, etc. He could draw pictures of his own, put in photos, ticket stubs, wrapper from Dad's favorite candy bar, pictures of Dad's parents or siblings, anything and everything which fits into a scrapbook. You could even draw up a family tree to put in it. It would be a satisfying project. I made two scrapbooks of my parents when they were both gone, one for each of my sons. We lost a dear family member, and my son and I put together three identical small photo albums of her to give to other family members as mementos. We chose the photos, the order of the photos, got them printed, and so forth. It was a good thing for us to do together instead of just sitting around feeling bad (not that you are doing that, please don't misunderstand). Take care.

Patricia, My Mother died the same exact way as yours. She had been suffering with a stiff neck for a couple of weeks. On Monday (June 4, 2007) she went to the hospital to get it checked. On Wednesday (6th) we found out she had liver cancer. It had spread to her adrenial glands, lungs and into her neck. On Sunday (10th) she was gone. She too went peacefully in her sleep. I know what you went through, she went really fast. Although this is all still new to me, I too feel your pain. Grieving is not easy for me right now. I smelt saukraut (sp?) the other day and thought it was kind of funny as I was driving down the road. I close my eyes and see her smiling face but yet I can not cry. Her services are this coming week end (17th/18th) and she is being buried on my son's (her grandson's) birthday. He is taking it so hard, but there is nothing I can do. I have talked till I was blue in the face and can not gt my brother to budge. I just hope I have the strength to go through this. With God's help we wil get through this. Here is a link that might be useful: Mother's Memorial