Ok not a winter story so doesn't count, but cute and I had to share. Jordan (age 4) was sleeping over Sunday night and grandpa asked her to go get his cup from the bathroom. Grandpa proceeded to take out his teeth and put them in the cup. Jordan had never seen him do this before and had to look in his mouth. She had to look for quite some time to figure out what just happened. She then looked in his cup and said, "Wow Grandpa! The tooth fairy is going to bring you lots of money!!!" Grandpa just laughed and said big people don't get money from the tooth fairy...after much explaining, grandpa finally just agreed that he would get lots of money...there is no reasoning with a 4 year old who believes :) Later at night I hear my husband yell, "what the h---! Turn on the light". What I ask groggy??? He yells "TURN ON THE LIGHT, TURN ON THE LIGHT"! I crack my head on the nightstand as I reach over to turn on the light fearing something really bad just happened. Once the light was on my husband flips over his pillow and there sits his dentures!!! I laughed so hard I forgot about the growing lump on my head. I guess Jordan was going to make sure grandpa got rich that night...Happy Holidays everyone. Kim

It seems like almost everything in my yard carries some form or another of significance. Even when I am spitting, swearing, and throwing garden tools while pulling mint and mint roots, the smell will waft through the air and I am reminded of when we first looked at this house. It seems so long ago and that feeling of not believing the house is finally ours has long since passed. The few things that were planted here when we moved in have a way of bringing me back to those first few moments. Every time the daffodils and snowflake bloom in the spring it takes me back to our first spring here and the sheer delight I felt to see these beauties that I didn't even know existed in the yard. The balloon flowers to follow were equally exciting to see. The things I brought with me are constant reminders of the beginnings of a fascination that also tagged along. Some items were purchased while learning my way around the retail scene and from the days when I just plucked anything pretty off the shelf and haphazardly threw it in the ground. I must confess, I still find myself doing that sometimes. Other things brought home were gifts from family and friends eager to find something fitting to give to let me know they were thinking about me. My mom tried to get me interested in gardening almost all my life so when finally, at twenty-nine years old, I became interested she couldn't wait to dig up half her yard and send it off in the trunk of my car... every time I visited. My neighbor and I sort of inspired each other through the beginnings of this hobby and I still have chunks of this and that she would bring over. Still others are the remnants of plants I grew from seed the first year I had my little greenhouse. Of my current plantings, since we moved here, each one reminds me of a moment that makes me smile or in some cases laugh. If it isn't a lesson learned such as, don't buy thirty two of something you don't have a clue where you are going to put, it is a connection I made while browsing the nurseries. Some of these have also come from family and friends again as gifts. Out of all of my plants, the one that means the absolute most to me is a ball of pink sorrel. My favorite and most bestest neighbor in the entire world gave it to me when we first started gardening together. It is the first chunk of this or that I received from her and boy I have brought it back from near death too many times to count. I think it helps to know now that it isn't shamrock, which is what she was told it was, told me it was, and we had been calling it for five years. We barely knew each other at the time and both of us had little interest in gardening. I know why I got into gardening but I can't tell you what happened from there. We just hung out and worked in each others yards and somewhere along the way our love for gardening and each other grew. We have since moved and are no longer neighbors but we are still friends and keep in contact regularly. She still brings me chunks of this and that when she gets new plants and I the same. Yeah, I am a little sentimental I guess. I have a long term memory a mile long to store and cherish those little moments. Ask me about anything I grow and I'll have a story. While I hope my skills improve and my yard becomes more lush as the years pass, I hope that one thing never changes. For me, that is what makes all of the work worthwhile!

I've been dealing with Mum's desire to "reclaim" her former independence, too, Scotland! It's been really tough for me. We went to my favorite aunt's funeral a couple of weeks ago. Mum is the last one of her age group standing. She enjoyed seeing her neices and nephews and people who were part of her circle. The visit to her home, however, brought on all sorts of "issues" I've been dreading. Her complete lack of planning for the dissolution of her estate was very clear to her. (In fact, she was stubbornly unwilling to address ANY of those important issues before her cancer was diagnosed!). She was all jazzed up to "sell things"; her way of trying to mop up the mess she left for my brother and me. "Those are really quite valuable, you know", "I have someone in mind for that table over there..." (the "someone" wasn't my brother or me and the table in question was the dining room table! and the silverware she was so hot to "sell" was our paternal grandmother's set). My brother coolly asked her how she was going to go about "selling things"; "I'll have a yard sale". "How are you going to organize it from 70 miles away?" "I'll have to come up here and stay for a few days". Of course she can't do that. She can't cook for herself, remember her pills or take care of her urostomy by herself... she wasn't really capable of really grasping the extent of her inability to be self-sufficient. It was wrenching to watch. But we were brutally honest with her about what was going to happen to things. She was told, unequivocally, that her unwillingness to get it done when she was able meant that WE would take care of it now. She would participate, but she would NOT be "in charge". My brother and I have spent the past 2 years getting her estate in order; isolating valuable assets and establishing powers of attorney for both legal and medical situations. It hasn't been easy, let me tell you! Painful though it may have been for her, she has to know that she's "off the case"... she dilly-dalleyed too long and neither my brother nor I have the time or inclination to be pulled through a knothole because she was unwilling to "take care of details". PERIOD. I thought I was going to lose my mind the weekend of the funeral. My brother, more removed from her daily care than I am, offered some excellent ways to "deal with her". It's helped immeasurably and I'm looking forward to another 2-3 weeks "off" while she stays with him. It's hard. I sympathize, and can offer little more than my own stories... hang in there.

You talking about ppl exposing themselves reminded me of a couple funny incidents that happened when I was a kid,,, One Halloween there was a story in the newspaper about a guy who had been sitting by the front door dispensing candy to the trick or treaters all evening. About 10pm his wife got the silly idea to put on a gorilla mask and her full length fur coat, then slip out the back door and go around front and ring the bell. When hubby opened the door she hollered Trick or Treat and pulled the coat open to expose herself nude to hubby...she thought it would be funny, but instead it shocked hubby so bad he had a heart attach and had to go to the hospital... There was another story about a guy in Steubenville, Ohio who was awakened in the night by a prowler in his house. He jumped out of bed and shouted at the prowler who instantly fled. The man slept nude so he grabbed his pistol and put on a raincoat and pursued the villain.. Two blocks down the street the man was arrested for indecent exposure..it seems the raincoat he had put on was clear plastic...LOL