Evening all, Well apparently my ISP has been having some problems....i havent been able to get on for days. busy signal. they are experiencing techinal problems....unknown fix date. however, when i told them im cutting service today, i can get in. who knows when next though. Shirley, OH i will keep your Dad in prayers. i hope they find whats wrong soon try and keep his spirits up. Susan, why do i need Ceasar Milon at all? ive got you. :) Big smiles. thankyou for all the info, esp the biting. i had assumed that was teething lol but even that hasnt been too bad. for info- she is a good kitty, has all shots, not spayed but has appt next fri. and given all your info i am really lucky actually. the biggest problem is kneading (sp?), her obsession to do so, and why oh why must this be done at 3 am??? its a ritual with her, started a few weeks ago. ok i could act about dog interaction too but will save. Annie and Anita...oh my word.12...32.....and i have such troubles with one. Annie, would love pics when you get again. i got my camera as a santa gift. ask for one with not too many buttons. wish mine didn't have so many. i spent weeks figuring out closeups and now cant take any others. :). and Anita...maybe the barn is why we get so many dumps. hadnt though of that, not that i can get rid of it. they usually dont get this far alive though :(. Canna, your Ziggy is beautiful. OK onto daylilies..... Marea, aw how i would have LOVED to hear petit on growing better daylilies. bet is was inspirational. :). as it is...we have an interesting speaker Nov 12th....Gil Stelter. Oddly enough, his "specialty" is crossing new hybrids with hemerocallis fulva "the ditch lilly". ive heard hes getting great things and cant wait to see for myself. Sharon. spiny Sea Urchin here came out like the pic you see. what i didnt like was the constant color break in the sepals. that was the best pic i could take. but mort morss and a couple of other here were worse. thrips, lack of water, new here, who knows? take it for what its worth (all have not been here long), but the winner for garden beauty in this class was Spacecoast Sharptooth. spines and a beauty to knock you over. (pic prev posted) if you want one thats been here longer, heres a surprise... Crown of Creation. Registered double, it never does here (im not the only one in this area) awesome every time. Bambi, the good news is that if ive bought it, the price will plummet! mark my word:). i usually buy at least a few years out though...with a few hybridizing exceptions, expect at least 20% per year. more earlier. Anita, getting is even better than need lol. im on a limit this year and trying to stay there though. 2o is what i can fit at leat with the current spots open. Shirley, at least thus far, spiny su has made small fans here. it is small here too, but keep your fingers crossed. One more pic. a couple of people asked earlier if crosses came out the same, or how different they can be. the pic is of two of the same....Bill Munson x Lace Cookies. the one on the left is a huge flower (8"?) but ugly version of mommy, the one on the right i really liked, looks likes daddy quite a bit, but i thought it had some edge potential. of the 3 others, 2 non-descript yellows, and one even uglier version of Bill Munson. This outcome is typical imho. but occasionally, you can get one that looks nothing like neither parent as well. Cindy Gloria & Paul, what beautiful families! G, you do not look a thing like i pictured....are you a movie star too?

Congratulations! I'm not sure what you mean by "unique verbiage." If what you mean is something clever and creative, you may want to consider that it might be counterproductive. After all, the real purpose of any invitation is to convey information that the guests really need about the event. In your case, you need to be especially clear, because you are having the reception a month after the wedding, and you don't want anyone to be confused. It's hard enough to word such an invitation for clarity without compounding it with attempts at clever or original language. You want your guests to be charmed, not annoyed by having to read the thing three times and then make a phone call to find out to what they are being invited. It's like a personal letter vs. a pre-printed greeting card, no matter how nice. They are going to be charmed by the fact that it is YOUR marriage, not by "unique verbiage." Miss Manners warns that people really get themselves into trouble trying to be too original or personal with invitation wording, and that it's best to let your happiness shine through the traditional forms. (In one response, she refers to her "fervent rejection of the 'originally' worded pseudo-formal announcement. It is vulgar, in its assumption that this wedding is somehow more joyous than others, and it is open to severe misunderstanding." Another time, I remember her writing something about an invitation that said something like, "Please join us as we celebrate our love." She said that it sounds like at best the couple are bragging that somehow their love is more important or unusual than anyone else's, and at worst that perhaps there is something wrong there, if they feel a need to make such a point of it. I think that may be a bit harsh, but at the same time I see her point about using traditional, or at least very simple, wording. I found a few samples on this site: http://www.invitationconsultants.com/sww-private_ceremony.asp. As you can guess, I prefer the ones that aren't poems. I like "verse 3" the best. You will need to put in the date of your reception, though. I would put the date, time, and location of your reception on separate lines, so they will pop out and no one will get confused by the first date (of the actual wedding). You may even want to avoid the word "reception," if you think that will confuse people. For the welcome baskets, of course it really doesn't matter. Personally, I don't usually like little poems and such -- they usually seem cutesy to me, and again, I wouldn't want to let an effort to make a cute poem get in the way of giving the guests the real information they need. Around here, friends often make up welcome bags with snacks for out of town guests, and the hosts include a letter welcoming everyone, thanking them for coming, and including all the information they will need for the trip: times and locations of all events, directions if needed, cell phone numbers of helpful people, etc. If it is only a few people (or really I guess the relevant number is baskets, not individuals), I think it would be really nice to put the info on a separate page and hand write a short, personal note for each basket. Wouldn't you feel special if you found that waiting for you? This is all just my opinion, of course. There is nothing "wrong" with cleverness or originality. But I think often people worry needlessly that if they stick to simplicity, clarity, and convention, their invitations, etc., will seem impersonal and "blah." They really don't -- YOUR NAMES on that invitation make it absolutely unique and wonderful to your guests. Nothing else you could write will accomplish that as much.

I thought I would address some of your inquiries - My husband and I most definitely talked/talk about this. We both feel very similarly about the situation, but I think he is more angry because it he felt it was embarrassing and disrespectful. I have let him take the lead in the situation. The last time he spoke to her was over a month ago. I actually encourage he to talk with his sister, but she has been slowly cutting him and the rest of the family off - she changed her cell and home phone numbers and email address and didn't tell anyone. Their grandparents were in a serious car accident a couple of months ago and no one knew how to get a hold of her. I absolutely do not talk about this publicly, however I do talk with my close friends and immediate family - my husband knows what I say and to whom regarding his sister. He does not mind and understands. I don't expect her to apologize for her BF's behavior. I think it would have been nice if she had said that she was sorry that she had to leave the reception so early and that she missed such a special day in her only brother's life. I am over the lack of apology and have been for months. I think that it is really difficult to say that this is only my DH's issue, b/c I am apart of the family now. But, I most definitely differ to my DH's wishes re: what to do in handling his sister. Except I do insist on the following: we send her a Christmas card from us. I have talked to DH about my suspicions about her being in a borderline abusive relationship. They really have all the telltale signs (isolation, withdrawl, dominate personality with strong machoistic tendancies, etc.). We don't believe he is physically abusing her (yet), but we know about the signs. I think we will continue to follow her lead on the direction of the relationship, but we are most definitely vocal about the fact that we care about her and would like nothing more to at least be civil. BTW, I had a wonderful time at my wedding and reception. I didn't realize half of the things that happened were going on until after the honeymoon. My brother, DH's BM and ushers, and other loved ones worked at handling everything discreetly. I think most guests didn't even know that these things happened too. I know my Grandmothers had/have no clue. I guess we will just continue to send cards to her for her birthday and holidays, for now. I guess I just wanted to check to see if DH and I should be doing more. DH and I are extremely close to my family, and it pains me that we can't establish a good relationship with his sister. But, I think I just need to come to terms with the fact that it isn't my fault - she doesn't understand how to have a relationship with anyone in her own family. She actually makes her own Mom cry when they talk by telling their Mom that she is fat and needs to loose weight and criticises her about her hair, clothes, etc. It is awful. Jenny is really mean and horrid to all of these people who love her so much. I truly do not understand her. My DH thinks that there is something broken in his sister - they are sooo different. It is amazing that they are siblings. I believe that she has a predisposition to be mean, but that she has also attached herself to a person (her BF) who is like poison. BF has the attitude that you should only have to do what you want to do no matter what, that he and Jenny are right, if anyone disgrees "F@#! them" - sorry for the language, but I've actually heard his say this before about several people. Sigh! Well, thank you for letting me vent. I wish that there was a solution to making the situation better, but there doesn't seem to be a magic bullet. I just have to let go of the idea that all siblings and families relationships work in a particular way when certain criteria are met - it just isn't so. I wish there was an explaination for her behavior - it just doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, her Mom and Dad aren't perfect, but I think there is something really wrong and illogical to her behavior.

Many years ago when I was in high school, it was the custom for boys to give their class ring to their girl friend to wear. My boyfriend’s ring was very large, but my hands are small. So I wore it on a chain like pictured at the very beginning of this thread. The ring’s band very quickly started deteriorating by abraiding and sliding around on the chain. I don’t know if his ring was exceptionally soft or not, but I learned my lesson about wearing a ring on a chain.