This is certainly an unusual post. Maybe it should have pictures attached.

To answer your question Iris Gal, no I am not starting a business. I'm just someone who loves Iris's and lost most of mine this summer. Can't stand the thought of not being surrounded by their beauty this coming Spring. Walter could you please email me and tell me more about your iris's? I am pleased to know that some of them are your babies. However I have no ideal which ones they are. I look farward to hearing from you. Best Regards Marian AKA Lovely Iris marianwinnsboro@hotmail.com

I'm Italian and from NJ......here is my take on it: Melissa is a BIG troublemaker. In our family, I am the sister in law, I would NEVER allow my DH to not speak to any of his family, just because I had a falling out with them, and trust me it HAS happened. To me it looks like Melissa and her sisters are a little pack egging Joe (teresa's brother) on. Teresa went over to her brother and SIL to congratulate them, and they were HORRIBLE to her. I am NOT a fan of Teresa either, her excessive spending and spoiling she does w/ her kids annoy me, but she was clearly being the bigger person there. Her brother was drunk and ruined his own son's christening by reacting to his sister that way. Melissa's sister should have kept her mouth shut, how do you say to the Aunt of the child being christened you were invited on a technicality. Clearly they all exhibited a lot of class right there. I can't believe Melissa and Joe are expecting an apology. Disclaimer: In NJ, we do not all have larger than life christenings, homes, cars and hair- even if we are Italian.

I think the food is fun. All of our kids and now the grands would love something like that for lunch. Actually, they sort of create their own fun images as long as they're not told, "don't play with your food!". lol I believe we're all born creative. How that creativity develops has more to do with whether it's nurtured, or not. My DH is a good example. His parents discouraged creativity and turned every activity into a chore. Result? DH would not practice his music lessons. DH would not attempt to learn a foreign language and avoided majors in college that required such. DH would get angry when he tried a new skill and wasn't perfect right away saying he, "just wasn't creative" or not good enough. Etc. etc. I was raised differently. My Dad was strict but stressed creativity and patience. When I became too ill to play my piano any more, DH missed the music in our home. One day I said to him, "Rather than complaining about what I can no longer do for you why don't you learn to play yourself?!" To my surprise, he said, "I'd love it if you'd teach me." That was almost 3 years ago (will be in January). He has been diligent with his practice and there is beautiful music in our home again. Suddenly through his own effort he's become "creative" and has started listening to Scott Houston and learning to adlib his own riffs. I love listening to him, smiling, and remembering how he grouched, "I can't do that." Creativity is just a skill like any other. It needs to be nurtured, practiced, and used. Some are born a couple jumps ahead of the rest of us but I really believe we are all full of creativity. I lost my art supplies in Sandy. I said there was no need to replace since I can't even write now much less draw. He purchased new anyway. I see what's coming...DH wants to try charcoal. He's not fooling anyone! :) I've been planning how I'm going to encourage and teach him a bit about perspective and shading and ratios... (grin) A few years ago, I was watching one of my 5 grandsons play. He was fiddling around with action figures. He'd pretend to have a "war". But, I noticed there was a rhythm to the way he had each figure interact. He made "boy" noises along with his "battles". I told my DS & DIL - get that boy a trap set - SOON. Now, two year later he plays drums in church every Sunday. He's now 10 years old. My Yamaha Clavinova (the first thing replaced in our home after Sandy) can be set to become a full drum set. DGS pounds away on it whenever he's here. He's good. My almost 13 year old DGD is an accomplished pianist and uses the piano to express her emotions rather than acting them out. Listening to her it's easy to tell her mood. She's also getting very good with her violin. She started her own henna tattoo business a year ago. No lessons in music or art. I did get DGS a few basic drum lessons since I don't play and didn't have a clue how to get him started. I think it was six lessons and he's been on his own since. Encourage creativity wherever you see it. It's everywhere if you look. /tricia