Good morning! I too try to visualize people and it rarely, if ever, works out. it is nice to put faces to names. Shirley, still thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers. i know that's your daughter, brittney and dawson -- who are the others (inquiring nosey minds want to know) and as for your mom, you never know what the next roommate may be, perhaps you can hold off on the move until you see what comes in LOL, however, I think I'd want to be with my own and her secrets kept!!!! annie your dogs are beautiful, as are you. my aunt and uncle, for as long as i can remember, were the first home for service dogs until they were ready to go into training. they had several different dogs from what i recall. sorry about your lizzie...i know how hard it is to lose a beloved pet. my next dog is going to be a shepherd, but it's been decided that we will only have one dog at a time now, so I have to wait my turn. (we'll see) i made an anniversary cake for a group i belong to, it was our 7 year anniversary so i made this massive cake. i filled it with alternating layers of buttercream and lemon curd, and dang, if it was not tasty. I was able to take a slice home for the family to taste and seriously wish there had been more leftover, would have made a nice breakfast!!!! a real nice combination, even though it started out that i was going to use raspberry as well...i just couldn't get enough to cook them down to make a nice sauce/filling. it's still so cold and seems to be staying that way until at least next week, when it's supposed to go to the high 40's, with rain. by then, i'll think it's summer. this cold is bone chilling and of course, they are calling for more snow. we haven't got much of it, but.....this year it is bothering me like mad! i shouldn't complain, there are parts of the country that are in the negatives, so i'll just keep my mouth shut on this subject any further! so whose left to post their pic? come out. come out whereever you are! speaking of which, jeanne, how are those triplets of late? is mary ellen still a part of this group? i feel like i haven't seen her in a long time...maybe since she became a grandmom, or right before that? hae a nice thursday! maryanne

Ann t...Bump???? Fish tacos, yum, I'd forgotten all about them. At the restaurant, we used to make them with that pre-marinated Cajun Catfish from the grocery store, charcoal broiled and served in a soft flour tortilla with fresh tomato salsa, thinly sliced cabbage and a jalapeno cream sauce...they were a terrific hit at the bar. I'm not sure what that Catfish was marinated in. My guess would be black and cayenne peppers, salt, paprika, onion & garlic powders, oregano, thyme and maybe some gumbo file powder. Mmmm...I think I'm going to experiment. I guess we'll be having Cajun Catfish Tacos for dinner!

After reading some of these posts, I'm curious what you would do "if something happened" Great point Cynic. I love reading your posts whether I agree with them or not. (I mostly agree). It's nice to have someone on here who has a pragmatic viewpoint rather than an emotional one. This is a bit off topic but my DS once asked me to drop him off at the hospital a distance from where I live while he had knee surgery. I did and then hung out in town while I waited to pick him up. He said he's call me once he was either in recovery or have a nurse call me. You wouldn't believe how many people were just flabbergasted that I wasn't in the waiting room the whole time. What if something happened? What if they had complications. What if God forbid he died under the knife? How could I just go on like nothing was happening? The implication was that if I was a good mom I would be holding vigil. of course my DH and DD should have taken off work to keep vigil too. We're a cold-hearted family ,we are. Well duh. I'm not a surgeon. I'm not a nurse. I'm not anyone other than someone who would be in the way. But being in the way wouldn't be an issue because I wouldn't be told anything until after the fact. Yeah Like I'm sure they would come running out of the ER to get me if something went bad. "Go get the mom, we're losing him!" "Clear" Riiiggght. Sure that's the way it works. Sometimes you just have to let things go and hope for the best. It's not always in your hands. Parents never stop worrying about their kids. Not even when the kids get to the age where they start to worry about us. But you can't let the fears and worry take hold to the point where the child isn't allowed to grow.

That's great, a gift he will enjoy for many years! I like that, not many kids can remember what they got last year. He will remember this Christmas forever! When our kids quit believing in Santa we would ask them if they wanted regular Christmas or a trip. They are 27 and 32 now and still remember the trips. Now, we are starting that with the little grandsons.