Thanks everyone for your complements. I really appreciate them. Mike, yes I'm growing those moonflowers! They're still pretty small, and I'm hoping to see at least one flower before the frost comes. They usually don't bloom for me at least until mid-August or even September. Like you once said, plants are healing creatures. I know she would have loved the hoyas! Carnosa is the plant with the greatest sentiment since it's the one I started with. It hasn't bloomed yet, but I'm hoping it will soon. Brad AKA Moonwolf

I lost my Dad 27 years ago. I found out I was pregnant with my daughter Amanda the next day. I was the closest to my Dad. Oh how he would have loved her! And she would have adored him. She has heard so many stories about him over the years I think she truly feels like she knows him. My Mom died in my arms 15 years ago. It was the single hardest thing I have ever had to endure. I can say now that I think I was truly traumatized. We were very close. I was the only one of 6 kids that didn't move away. We only lived about 2 miles apart. We talked or saw each other every single day. I miss her so much still that it can be a physical ache. We do understand your pain Laura. Only time eases this hole in your heart pain. We are all here for each other. I'm sorry for your loss.

Yes, Socks. We still are not happy about the separation, of course. We were spoiled when they lived in Los Angeles, 75 minutes away and close to her uncle and brother. Nowadays, she visits 4 times a year, and we take the boys at Spring Break so that they can tour Napa wineries with his parents for his birthday celebration annually. We call and email a lot. We are happier having them visit us (than us flying to Dallas) and so have not been to Texas with Grandpa offering plane tickets for visits here whenever they can come. Here, they can get around to see friends and ex classmates, and she always has one of the cars at her disposal too. So it works, but not as well as when they were in LA. However, they are happier there than living in crowded, expensive big Los Angeles with a job he loves, so we are happy for them. Having moved all over the country ourselves, we know we can't expect our kids to stay close. They love the quieter suburb with a nicer home, job, schools, and neighborhood. It is hard to leave family and friends, but they are getting to know great folks there too. He graduated from TCU and has a few college couple friends in the area, and she is getting active as a parent volunteer at their schools and meeting other moms. They left really wonderful friends in San Francisco and then Los Angeles, but luckily they are making friends there too.

Here's a link to my eulogy for my mom, from my blog, titled, "Homeland Sustainability." The article is called My Good Fairy. How about this. Mom taught in Japan for a year on a US Army base. That's how I ended up with tons of Japonaise art and home goods. And one of the rare photos of me and her, to give you an idea of her hair color. Sadly I didn't inherit that, although I have a few red highlights, particularly when I used to treat my hair with henna. You can see the groovy studio couch that came from her Sausalito apt. in the background of that photo, along with one end table of a set of three gorgeous tables made out of redwood slabs. You could not buy such things today. Dad has them for now. The rice paper shaded lamp that you can barely make out sitting on the end table, is in my house now, on the right side of this photo below. The last photo is one I call, "Betty Draper Eat Your Heart Out!" and it is a photo of my mom and a friend at some park in San Francisco, probably the Golden Gate one. I wish I knew who the friend was, but mom did not mark the photo. I think it was one of her colleagues from school, at the time she was a school librarian at Presidio Jr. High.