LOLOL! Thank you everybody. So very nice of you to think of me. : ) What a surprise to come here and find my post resurrected. I was just stoppin' in to see what Semper had to say about the big game. : ) I'd love to give you an update..... Well, first of all....it's a boy! Things are going pretty well with the pregnancy. I only have 3 more mos. to go! I see the doc today for a check up and will start to go every 2 weeks from now on. I'm bustin' at the seams, lol. Been driving DH crazy....the frigid temps. have had me on "pond watch" and I walk up to check on things several times a day. He always tells me to come right back in the house but I end up fiddling around with one of my de-icer contraptions or something and disappear for a while. He is now making me take the walkie talkie with me, lol. Guess he's afraid my large belly might throw me off balance and into the water. The new house is coming along but the bad weather and a death in the family has slowed us down. Our fingers are crossed that it will warm back up into the 20's or 30's this weekend so we can get back to work. Right now our biggest fear is the cold temps. causing the footers to heave and that would be BAD. DH is pretty much throwing up right now he's so worried. It's the coldest weather we've had in over 10 years. The deck (floor) is complete and we are currently in the middle of framing. We've built most of the walls but haven't stood them up yet. We decided to construct our 22' tall see-through fireplace first. Mainly because it is also structural and our ridge boards will run in to it. So basically we look like the crazy people with the smokestack on the hill. We are ready to start standing up walls and hopefully start on the roof trusses as soon as the weather allows. And as long as nothing heaved. Keep your fingers crossed. I'll post a pic of the giant smokestack as soon as I go over and take a new one. The pics I have now were taken in bad weather and you can't see real good. Poor DH keeps saying that this project is going to kill him. All the worrying is causing him a "slow death" he says. I'm trying to keep him positive. It's definitely an adventure and I have faith that someday we'll be happy we made this decision. Semper, yes, let's hope they are back in there next year. Really looking forward to seeing how things go with our new coach. I may have to go up to training camp and spy. Comet, no herons at the new place would be wonderful! I'm still trying to figure out how to heron-proof the new pond in an aesthetically pleasing kinda' way. ; ) Hope you are all doing well and getting through this cold weather with no troubles. Thanks again! I had a great day...what could be better than football and birthday cake? ~Dawn (mamabirrd)

Thanks everyone for all your prayers and caring words. It does help when I 'visit' here to escape for a little while. It's so nice to see all your lovely tables and holiday decorations..please forgive me if I haven't commented on them...but I do love them all. I'm going to have my GKids here for a few days and for Easter...so I'm getting a little excited to do some decorating for them. It will be something nice to look forward to., Thanks again...love you guys for all your support. jane

The stand....I cheated...I found it at the GoodWill..99¢. The glass ball I found at Mangelson's..a large hobby and crafts store in Omaha. They were on sale for 99¢ also. I found a package of wedding trims at WalMart It is attached to a fine net so you can sew it on dresses or what ever. I trimmed the netting as close to the sewing as I could without causing it to ravel. And glued it to the glass with the GE silicon glue and glued the beads and flowers with that too. The Feather was a long fluffy one and the glass had a small hole. I couldn't get the feather down in there..So I took a drinking straw and pushed the feather inside the straw. Stuck the straw inside the glass and then pushed a small dowel down inside the straw to push the feather out. I put some of the diamond dust...but won't do that again. Because it got static elec. and stuck to the inside of the glass. I enjoyed making it and will do them in the future but hope I won't need to. patti

Thank you, Cherryfizz! that was very sweet and really appreciated! I am fine! The last 4 months leading up to Dad's passing were so very very hard. I'm glad he is no longer in any pain. Was hard to see that, when you can do nothing. And so tough to see such a lively man slip to 85 pounds... BUT, he wouldn't want us mourning ALL the time. And the service was great!