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)

Florence, I'm so sorry about all the difficulties you've experienced lately, physically and emotionally. From the picture above you have a lovely home and I know your garden is beautiful, and I hope these things will be a joy to you again soon. Warm regards, Ingrid

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

Thank you all. :) I feel like she was sent to us for a reason and we love her so much. She hasn't snapped at me in almost a week. LOL She still doesn't care much for our pug kids but we're making tiny steps in the right direction. I took a chance on her level of trust in me and cut her hair earlier. She done very! well , much to my suprise. Healthwise, she's on a roll in the right direction. Finally putting on some weight (she was 9 whole lbs @ her vet checkup :( ) , her hair is growing back and her owies are healing. I hope on hope there's a special place in hell for the person that treated her so badly and the more I work with her and learn , the more I hope that person goes there. That isn't neccessarily the right way to think but from my experience and in working with her , I've figured out she was absolutly loved , pampered and trained by someone in her former life and then for whatever reason landed in the wrong hands. I took her to a public event and she socially gravitated toward older gentleman and not even knowing them , sat ever so gently next to them at their feet. I really think she was owned by such a gentleman and then he met an unfortunate fate of some type (i.e. nursing home, facility or worse) and whomever was supposed to care for her in a way he hoped, sure failed her miserably. She lets me work with her , love on her and care for her BUT she truly thinks the sun rises and sets on my husband so she certainly puts more trust in men than women. Lucky for her , he loves her as much as she does him or she'd be in trouble (or I would...LOL). Anyways, that's the Honey update. :) Have a safe and happy holiday weekend everyone!!