hmmm, some confusion to say the least. #1 confusion - who my pal was. boy was i off. and i have to admit you did the greatest job of keeping me off track. i have to thank you ever so much for all you have shared with me throughout the year. my gardens will forever remain gorgeous because of you and my heart will forever be filled with smiles at your kindness and geneorsity. #2 confusion - ruth/lil -- i didn't send that. i had ordered something for you back when it was your birthday that never was shipped but it wasn't from maine. i mailed your package out yesterday. i can't be that out of it that i don't remember ordering you a wreath LOL but then again! someone else deserves that credit and it sounds like a great gift. sure hope you enjoy the one i really sent! yaya, you will be missed. you really ran a tight ship and i so appreciated being a part of this group. i must admit, for a while there, i thought you were my pal. now i see how wrong i was. go figure. since i have been full of doom and gloom this year, a year i can't wait to end, i have some happy news. we got a new pup. he's a total freak, into everything, so mischeieveous, a pain in the butt, but so playful and sweet. i do think he's missing something upstairs, unless i just don't remember "puppy". already he's so spoiled. but it's just wonderful to have an animal in the house again. it was only a short period of time, but i certain missed having that special something! now the better news -- even though i am a youngster myself (LOL), i'm going to be a granny! i can't wait. things weren't done the "conventional" way, but what the heck...it's going to happen anyway! it was truly a good thanksgiving! it's been my pleasure belonging to this group. i'd love to stay in, but with the way things have been, i feel it would be unfair of me to commit for another full year. rose - i wish you as much success in running the group as yaya had. i'll even come around and sneak a peek and chat a bit. be well all, talk to you soon :) happy holidays earthly

I have 3 books by Hot of the press: wonderful pages, great pages, and brillant pages. It is a good source of ideas for me. Just ideas, I don't try to re-make pages but just pick up ideas, one border here, one die-cut there. My DH brought me back wonderful et brillant pages 10 days ago. I bought the other one 1 year ago when living in SC. My preferred one is wonderful pages. it is more basic, and I specially love the basic punch art pages. DH brought me too punch your art 1 and 2 by Memory makers and they are a great source of ideas for punch art. But what I found the most interesting are magazines, because they have tons of layouts . I have a subscription to Memory makers, because it is impossible to find here, and I got the may-june issue of many others by DH too. With all these new sources of ideas, I have been scrapbooking night and day for the last 2 weeks :-) Did you try to find some books in your local library ? If you want to pick some of my ideas, here is my site link. it is in french but layouts are universal (titles are in english!) I have many layouts to add but no time to scan them! bye Joelle Here is a link that might be useful: Joelle's scrapbooking site

I finally sent my letter. AFter reading that article a 2nd and 3rd time, I was fuming. I hadn't really read between the lines before and the more I read it, the more I found she had a condescending tone. Here's my letter: I'm writing in regards to an article on scrapbooking that appeared in your June 12, 2000 issue. I would be interested to see some of the research that was done in order to come up with the so called "facts" represented in your story. Where, in this country, was this writer able to create an album for $25??? Even the least expensive albums cost at least 1/2 of that. Factor in the cost of film, developing, acid and lignin free papers, stickers, and other accessories and I can guarantee that it will run well over $25. I challenge her to complete that task! Nadya Labi has basically scoffed at the hundreds of thousands of scrapbookers in this world (and I say world because yes, it is popular in other countries as well). She has trivialized the heritage that we are all trying to preserve for our future generations. We're not trying to "cut off those thighs" to make ourselves look better, but we are trying to show our children and grand children what life was like for us. We are not trying to "perfect the past", we are trying to preserve it. Ms. Labi writes, "That's just what folks across the country are doing: convening to cut and snip at their histories; to turn inconvenient realities into Kodak moments; to prove, in other words, that the past is perfectible." If this isn't the most condescending statement I've ever read about my hobby, I don't know what is. Isn't it always interesting to see how people lived in past generations? Don't you think that future generations will have the same fascination? With scrapbooking, my great-great-grandchildren wont have to watch movies to see about life in the 20th century. They can open MY scrapbook and see how their great-great-grandmother lived. Isn't that worth more than a plain photo album can offer? The purpose of scrapbooking is to document a life or an event with facts (journaling) and photos. Funny, but isn't that what Time is supposed to do too? Hmmmm. Does Ms. Lambi think that the magazine she's writing for is as trivial as she obviously feels about scrapbooks? Maybe she ought to attend a class at her local scrapbooking store or from a Creative Memories Consultant (and no, I'm not connected in any way to either of these). She may be pleasantly surprised to find that she likes it.

You two sound very well matched! (As I've said before, your guy sounds like a real gem.) One other secret to making a marriage and blended family work: Always divide the inevitable problems into 'around you' and 'between you', and don't ever let the 'around you' problems creep into the 'between you' territory.