Hi Luna, glad you are back! Good that the tests came out OK. Not everything is stress as drs. used to tell ulcer patients to stop stressing, well they 'got stressed by the nasty little bug they had in their guts, nothing to do with stress & type A personalities. But in your case it is a job that you can hardly keep up with,(can any work be given to someone else?) And you have just had a terrific blow losing your mom. With your other problems "the pot boiled over"!With women tho a lot just "pass it off" & have a heart attack so you were wise to get it checked out. Do yourself a favor & get a BP machine as some meds lower it too much & wash you out or if you feel dizzy again you can take it & see if it has gotten too high. We learned to control my dad's at home most of the time, he had an attack of extreme weakness today & after looking at the written record since yesterday of his BP we figured out it was little too much medicine even tho his BP wasn't quite as low as should have been. We got him to eat & he did straighten out OK. Few times he hasn't & we went to hosptial. It may be that you won't need much BP med. if you can get the work situation a little better,also as time passes & feelings arn't as raw in loss of your dear mom. So get BP machine & check in morning & at night or whatever works for you. Hugs & prayers that you get some relief from meds & workload! Jan

I'd recommend you do all your shopping on the way home. I cannot imagine trying to vacation and keep your plant purchases in good shape between hot car and cool hotel rooms. But you could stop on the way down, get the business cards and arrange purchase and shipping once you get home.

I have to agree with tina61 as we did the same exact thing after 9/11. We traveled to the High Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, etc. Was it a hassle for security reasons, yes. Was it a totally different traveling experience on this side of the Atlantic, yes. But it was necessary to get back on a plane and get over living in fear of traveling both in and outside of the U.S. We had always done so before 9/11 but were a bit leery of traveling with my then 12 yr old, but it felt so good doing it. The folks of the Gulf need every person who can visit to come to their beaches, drink at the bars, eat at their restaurants. I do not think there would be a health hazard to your children as long as they do not suffer from any type of breathing problems already. If there were a problem and you had to leave, you've had the place for free, done a good thing by supporting those in the Gulf region. Most of all, I would take the opportunity, for it's teachable moment for your kids. We plan to travel to the area in the Fall and I am so looking forward to putting some serious cash into the pockets of the suffering business owners.

If you want something a little different, do a search for Cumberland Island. It's off the GA coast and it takes a 45 minute boat ride to get there. The boat stops at two locations. One will take you to the beach (after about a 1/2 mile or more walk) and the other to see the ruins of a mansion once owned by (I think) the DuPont family. That may be the wrong name. The island is mostly uninhabited and you need to take lunch and plenty of water with you because there's no food/drink for sale unless you're staying at the one little B&B type place. I prefer the beach myself. Miles and miles of beautiful sand and hardly any people. There are wild horses that roam the island. Frankly, they scared me to death, but they don't bother you and you are warned NOT to bother them. They are really wild. It's just a a beautiful place to spend a day. I've been there 3 or 4 times and am blown away every time by the beauty of nature. Not sure how the weather would be the first part of April, though.