I got mine today too, and just in time! I'm leaving at some strange hour of morning on tuesday, and this is the last day they could have arrived that I would've had a chance to do something with them :) I wasn't expecting them, I was so surprised! in a looong stretch of inconvenient days, they arrived on the ONE convenient day possible. I love it when that happens, it's usually the opposite. lol. they're extremely wilted and I don't blame them, LOL. the more hardwood part seems pretty firm but the thick green stems are a little rubbery. the growing tip on the coral pink appears to have just given up, but the ecuador has some decent sized leaves and they seem to be perking back up again :) so, someone needs to tell me when I get back who to send the moneys to! :) omg, and I think I still owe theresa money for the lotus tubers! if I owe anyone money please let me know. lol. things have been so crazy lately! thanks again, lindas and gloria and everyone on here that made this possible. you guys are absolute dolls. Ria

One day while walking the dog, & chewing gum I choked and spit out the gum, then got to thinking "what if someone gets murdered here, & all they can find is that gum, and they have my DNA and nothing else??? Of course now we tease about "don't spit out that piece of gum/candy/lifesaver" Since i was in the army, worked with mentally retarded patients, and took a training as dispatch, my fingerprints are in every database they could check, that would mean my DNA to right? (on the show it would.... )

ML- my MIL had actually given me her jewelry and silver shortly before she died. She hadn't been sick or anything, she just wanted them to be passed on and I was the only close female and mother of her only gd. Also, she knew I treasured family things - and old things. When my kids were little a neighbor girl (close friend) died. They passed on her skates to my dd. A yr later when our oldest ds died we also gave special items of his to his close friends. dd (about 10) decided she wanted to give her other friend her watch now while she was alive. Wow. what we can learn from kids. I told her that was a great idea, so off she went with her treasured watch. I encouraged the other kids to do the same. My bgf at the time admired a diamond chip ring I wore - so, I just took it off and gave it to her. It meant so much to her she wore it with her wedding rings. It wasn't an expensive ring by any means. In more recent yrs my sister has often admired a 'jade tree' (oriental) that I inherited from my MIL (it's very small - maybe 8" tall w/little pieces of 'jade' (don't know if real) for leaves). She thought I planned to leave it to her in my will. A yr or 2 ago I gave it to her for Christmas. It has a front position in her china cabinet. Decades ago another sister collected Hummels and I had lots of them from MIL so I gave her a bunch of them. and maybe 10 yrs ago now I sent my #3 son my wedding ring and his ggf's pocket watch for Christmas (I had no idea what to buy him, refused to buy something he might not want or need. I knew that of all the kids he also treasured old family things (he's the future 'keeper' of the family history). Also, my wedding ring would mean something to one of the kids (not me). He later told me that those were the best presents he had ever received! Another yr I reprinted a bunch of pics from his childhood (some with siblings and/or pets) and put in a small album. Again he loved it. He told me 'keep things like that coming'. He'll get all the family pics when I die but why make him wait til then to have some to go thru and show to show to his kids? In the 90's I gave my Apple dishes (tons of them!) and some silver serving pieces to another bgf. She did 'Sunday' dinners and other entertaining. I didn't, my kids were grown and in other states. She'd get great use of them, I wouldn't. I ran across a beautiful crystal bowl the other day in a box and decided that I'd be keeping that out - to USE now, just for me. Time to have it out regularly and enjoy seeing it. I also plan to use the good china just for me. now that I think about those Hummels - I ran across more of them while unpacking. My BIL bought one each Christmas and sent to my MIL. Those will be good things to tuck into a Christmas pkg to the kids. I like it much better knowing these people are enjoying the things now rather then them being in a box in my closet. Monk - that is the one show I've watched on regular tv in recent yrs. well, until it went off. darn. I didn't watch the first few yrs of it, so caught them on reruns.

Mustbe, I just ordered a Candice and looking forward to her doing well in my climate. I ordered it largely due to your beautiful photos - thanks for that. It's good to hear she's doing well for you. I was also thinking Ingrid... I have lost countless other plants in my climate/environment due to weather and critters. Hydrangea? Yeah, right. Gardenia? Smells great, can't take the heat. Love chives and parsley? So do the chipmunks. Like Gerber Daisy flowers? Hope you like looking at the stems. So many slow deaths. I hate to think about how much I've spent so I just don't think about it. We're gardeners. We garden and let nature take its course. I get down sometimes and write about it in my garden journal, but then the sun comes up another day and it's so nice to see the good things. At the moment, I'm seeing munched-on rose buds by grasshoppers. Seems to be quite a colony of them this year. No disease yet - that comes in the Fall. I was irritated yesterday because I picked up a no-name "Vig Rosa Patented Assortment" red rose and when I got home it was infested with spider mites. Swarming. How charming. I really don't understand how I didn't see any when I was looking at the bush at the store - very strange because I did look at it. Now it's in quarantine getting spray baths for a while. I learn more every day...