Caren, Happy Birthday to your dad! It was also one of my very best friend's birthday; we will get together soon to celebrate. Not 73, but getting closer, 65! I had a fantastic lunch with a couple of friends, and later a great time at Benihana's for dinner. Afterwards we all went to my dd's for cake and presents. All the presents were wonderful, but the very best was a bareroot Lady Apple tree that I had been wanting, yay!!!! Amazing how simple things make me happy :-) Here's a few pictures:

Thanks so much guys !! I did have a great day. Went and played golf with hubby and some friends and then we all went to a very casual dinner... has been a good day.... for an old woman... LOL

John said thank you all and yes I can't keep a secret so I end up giving him gifts for a month, lol. I went to pick up his cake today and saw a freshwater puffer fish and got him that so I would have something to give him today, lol. I thought about that earlier and said boy you racked up since I kept giving him each thing as I bought it, lol. It was a good day. His boys helped finish up the cement board on the greenhouse and just have a couple of small pieces left to do thank goodness. That stuff is incredibly heavy.

Ok, I am back from California. Not a good trip at all. Sad news, Small cell cancer. My mother did not survive. She passed on November 17th. At 1:05 AM. It has been a rough road for me. I know I still need to send funds to one person who sent me brugs prior to this catastrophe happening. Please post and remind me who it is that I still owe money to. It's been quite a wild up and down emotional ride for me. I did not intend to blow off the person I still owe money to! I WILL repay you, I promise! =) Just let me know who it is. I feel horrible about that. You see, prior to leaving, the plan was to bring my mother home, So my daughter and husband brought my mother in law in and the 3 of them tore up the home. To install wood flooring so my mother who was wheel chair bound would be able to move around the house. Well, in doing so, the name of the person I owe funds to, got lost! LoL Dec. 9th or somewhere around there, my mothers ashes arrive, so that when my sister arrives, she and I can go into the Black Hills and spread my mothers ashes. My mothers last wishes were to have this done. Any idea how hard it is to sit there and tell your mother good bye, to tell her it is Okay, that she can die and we will be Okay? Good gods, even typing this out to share with you, my friends, is painful. However, it is also cathartic to do so. And so, I do it. Knowing I need to do it. Otherwise, it will eat at me. I'm a creature of the written word, I detest misspelled words, abused written language. I always correct my daughter and husband. It can be a burden sometimes. Yet even here, in my pain, I know I need to share the burden, with strangers and those of you I've gotten to know fairly well, those of you who share my absolute love of gardening. So now I ask you to share my pain, my burden of loss. Knowing it will help me, just a little bit. To overcome that hurt, that absolute total complete loss of the one person that meant the whole world to me... My Mother. ~With a Major hole in my heart and soul, Tina Marie