DeeÂdeeÂdee, Yes your feathered friends may look sweet and innocent now but let us look a few short months into the future when your newly adopted family begins to sport their gang colors. Have you not noticed the ever increasing pitch to their call, if you record it and play it backwards it says "The higher destruction of the garden the bigger the buffet" over and over again!! Just think of yourself this August lounging on your deck loftily thinking of your feathered family when suddenly you hear from the tree tops "OH MY GODÂthatÂs her the voyeur Â.and dee, I donÂt have the heart to tell you what comes nextÂI just hope you have a good laundry detergent. kt

Today I went to a couple of nurseries and the plant sale in Ft. Worth. I was looking at some plants and it dawned on me that it was Jolana's plant in the contest so I wrote the name down. Gosh this is such a wonderful prize. I don't know which one to pick. Decisions...Decisions!

Dan and Paula, I will continue to keep you in my prayers and meditations. I know that you don't hold faith in prayer, but positive energy is coming your way in waves. I know it is a very difficult time, and one that you are not in the mood to speak of much. I know what you two are going through. Shortly after the birth of my next to youngest son, my stepmother was diagnosed. Hers had already spread too far before being diagnosed. When my youngest son was a year old, my favorite uncle passed after a 15 year remission. Even my stepmother had several years to enjoy life after her diagnosis, even with it having spread so far there wasn't much that could be done to treat it. If you can have faith in nothing else, have faith in the fact that you are a strong individual who has much left to share with the world. Have faith in the woman at your side who loves you, and your family who does as well. Have faith in the doctors who found this quickly. I had not left off of my prayers and meditations for both of you. In addition to healing and strength (light blue and red), I will also be lighting a pure white beeswax candle, one of the few left to me by my mentor, which holds her blessings and meditations for purity, faith and energy. I hope you feel well enough to join us and just hang out and talk. About anything. Gardening is a way of cleansing the soul and mind. And your friends here love you and hold faith for you that this will be well. Kathy

I did like The Holiday. I watched it again yesterday while DH napped. He'll watch chick flicks, but he makes stupid comments all thru them so I'd just as soon watch them by myself. Good idea to bring along a few extra things in case people want them which I'm sure they will. They are right, you are an excellent painter. You are your own worst critic. :) When are you leaving? We changed our plans up a little and will be leaving on Thursday for our long weekend getaway. The kids are pretty excited for the swimming mostly. I got a cow painted!, but need to cut off one little part that I don't like with the saw. Then I can sand it, touch it up and seal it. I combined one of your patterns with a sheep that Sal had done on crafts that I liked. I like the way it turned out. Have two little garden angels I need to finish up. Had some rusty metal hearts I was going to use for the wings on one and now I don't know what I did with them. Have to look thru my stash to see if I can find those and finish her up today. Have a big long shelf I need to give another coat of paint and seal so I can put it up on my newly painted wall and get the pictures and things hung back up. Have a shelf and a knob hanger I need to put a coat of sealer on so I can put those up in the girls room. DD may want something painted on the one, but she hasn't decided what yet. Those are my finish up projects. My starter projects are to paint a small gun rack to hold my g-grandpas canes instead of guns, paint a picture frame so I can hang up an oil painting that DH did when he was in high school of a swamp scene and another shelf to paint for my bedroom, but those are just black. As DH says I've been on a black kick for the past year or so. ha Found a graphic online that I want to try to duplicate on some burner covers for my stove. Don't know if it was in any of the TS find pics, but I found another little block wagon that I need to find a pattern for, but that's a Christmas project. I guess it's about time to start planning some fall projects too. I have quite a few things stashed. Turkeys, scarecrows, pilgrims, and various small leaves and pies for hangers I've been saving up to paint. Need to start a little earlier this year so it doesn't sneak up on me like usual and I end up not adding to that seasons decorations. Since I got the silicone and it worked so well I've been trying to find some pieces for my own little totem. Yea, I'm the last one on the wagon. ha Our bouncy horse finally bit the dust and I convinced DH to save the horse for me to put on a pole. Don't know if I want to paint it pretty colors or just spray it with the stone spraypaint. I'm kind of leaning toward the stone look. Waiting for him to have time to drill the holes in it and affix it to a pole. Sorry for the long litany of projects, but I was kind of typing out loud. ha Are you thinking ahead yet to any future projects?