Good Morning Everyone, Sorry I've been away so long - time for me to re-join the world. Again, I can't thank you all enough for the kindness and support that has come from this group. There was such an outpouring of love - you all are truly special! Shirley and Dawn, that is just too funny when you say that your Mom/Gram did all the talking for the men - it was just the same with my FIL and MIL - she definitely did all the planning for what they would do and also talked for him much of the time. He would just get that twinkle in his eye and smile. It must be such a common thing with couples that are together for so many years. We (the family) finally all got together yesterday and celebrated Christmas. Art was so sick and in the hospital much of December and into January that we just never did it. Yesterday was the first time we were all together since the funeral. We all had some good laughs and some good crys, but definitely felt his presence there with us. Carol, I am so sorry to hear of your granddaughter's miscarriage. I know that you were excited for the baby even though she was so young. We always have to try to believe that everything is for a reason to help us accept and get through it. Oh, it must have been so hard to let those last two sweet little pups go! Glad your planning for a vacation and something to look forward to. Dawn, crossing my fingers and saying a prayer that your footers stay put until the temps warm. Once it warms up are you guys ready to get the walls in place now? I'm looking forward to seeing pics when that happens and it really looks like a house. It will be so fun for you too when you are able to start doing some of the things inside. New belly pictures too please - I imagine you're quite a bit bigger since the last picture. It is such a cool feeling when the baby starts really moving around alot when they get bigger. I can remember actually seeing a knee or a foot pushing out from my belly sometimes. Oh yes, and the hiccups. These next couple of months are going to go so fast for you now. Now really is the time for you to try to get get lots of rest and also get anything done to prepare. Your life is about to change forever - very exciting but very physically and emotionally draining much of the time too. We just celebrated my firstborn's 14th birthday last week and I look back and wonder where the time has gone. Feeling a little anxiety already about how fast the next few years will go by and I have to let him go out into the world. Annie, I am also so sorry to hear about Kelly's miscarriage. I'm glad she is feeling better now though. Your family has certainly been through enough. You are such an amazing woman to always keep your chin up and stay so strong. Sharon, Nancy, Carol, Annie and Dawn - Just want to say thank you for being the "bones" of our group lately. We all have times that we all but disappear for awhile and there always seems to be a core group that steps up and keeps it going, keeps us all connected. Thank you for being that these past few weeks. And speaking of disappearances - Miss Cindy, I sure do miss you and could certainly use some pictures of some of your awesome daylilies right about now. Oh, and please drag that friend of yours Sherri on over here too. Miss you guys. Marea, love the canna in the living room pictures. It's so nice that your sun is strong enough to grow them indoors in the winter. What a nice thing to look at in February. Glad to hear you're still making progress towards your move. I'll bet you will be so happy when it's done. "Snazzy Memories' is just beautiful and will be so meaningful to Dawn and Jenna. Once again, I am so touched by your big heart. I hope that some day we are all lucky enough to have 'Snazzy Memories' in our gardens. I have a few hostas that were potted on the porch that I ended up bring in a few weeks ago. They have all sprouted and opened their leaves. Makes me want Spring even more. An early arrival would be just fine with me.It is so cold here too right now. Hope you're all remembering to keep those bird feeders full. I've been filling mine twice a day. The birds will just sit in the trees within 3' of me now waiting while I fill them. I barely turn my back to head for the house before they flock to the feeders and ground to eat. The poor babies are so cold and hungry right now. Barb, hope your "blueness" ends soon and things start looking up for you and hubby. Missing your posts. I'm going to try to get those DL seeds out to you soon. Debbie, MaryS, Gloria and Angie, it was so nice to see you all post. Please come around more often - miss you guys. Jo, I don't think I have ever seen you so quiet - miss you too but know how busy your life is these past few months. Please let us hear from you. Anita, so sorry about the tragedy at your house. Hope your hubby realizes that he did all he could for his friend and feels at peace with it. We sure would like to hear from you again soon too. Dawn, how are the fish? Well, enough rambling. Sorry if I missed anyone. Got to work later on today so I have some chores to do at home ofcourse. Hope you all have a great day. Any big Colts or Bears fans here? Hugs, MaryB

Dee, I was going to ask husband if I could take a picture of his behind (clothed of course) because it looks so good for his age, or any age for that matter. However, I know he would never go for that lol. He's feeling old lately with all the work we are doing. Still, I know he would feel really great if he got some nice comments. I don't think most men get enough nice comments about their person. I mean not like us women anyway. In a weeks time we will usually get comments on something whether it be a, hey nice shirt or nice earrings or oh I like your hair. Men don't usually get that. I have made the mistake of complimenting men's appearance in the past, usually something like, that is a nice shirt and color on you. But I guess it looked like I was flirting. I can assure you I was not. Sometimes I'm clueless to the insecurity of some women. I'm not a jealous person so I don't always understand that emotion in others. Auntjen, you are funny...yes indeedy!

No dance at our wedding Feb.23,1960.We married at my aunt's house with cake and punch reception.If we'd had a song to dance to it would have been "Only You" by the Platters.The words expressed how we both felt (and still feel 49 years later) about each other. Marilyn-DH worked all the time too,didn't get paid unless he worked.We tried to plan the day for a Friday so we would have the weekend for the "honeymoon",such as it would be because we had no money to go anywhere.LOL We married on his parent's 25th. anniversary and it didn't work out to be on a Friday.I can't remember what day of the week it was but after the wedding we went and ate at a steak house,42 miles away,then went back home.We lived in the country,17 miles from where he worked and 27 miles from there to the town where my parents lived.Next morning we woke up to 6 in. of snow on the ground! I dressed up in my "going away" suit,heels and SIL's fur jacket she had loaned me. I took him to work then drove to my mom's and spent most of the day with her.She had a fit because I drove that 27 miles with snow on the ground!LOL I went to the grocery store,then picked him up after work and went back home to the country!

I took a trip into the HD that my friend works at just so I could eyball the cabinets further. What I'm seeing is that each piece is wrapped with the thermofoil before assembly, much like a high quality custom maker would do to make sure than no unpainted areas show during the change of the seasons. The thermofoil isn't like any other thermofoil that I've seen in person on cabinets. It's more matte/satin than fake and shiny. It REALLY looks like paint. It didn't smell "plasticy" either. The abrasion resistance seems to be superior to most thermofoil as well. (I took a quarter and really roughly rubbed it along one edge--something I would NOT recommend anyone else doing, as I was doing this with my friend's permission and wouldn't want to see folks bringing in wire brushes and diamond nail files to do their own tests!) I love the fact that soft close is a standard on her cabinets and that she offers some nice truly modern styles as well as some traditional ones. I'd buy it for my own kitchen, that's for sure. But, I can't afford the Italian cabinet lines I lust after, so you may want to take that endorsement with a grain of salt if your budget is on the higher scale. And, the whole line is made by Masterbrand, which makes Decora and other pretty darn good cabinet choices. They have all of the same toekick drawers and organizer inserts as Masterbrand offers on their other lines, plus a few decorative details that are unique to Martha. I particularly liked the Pierced Corbel which has a hole for a stainless rod to be linked between a pair to serve as a tool hanger or towel rod. The "stable brace door" was also a nice decorative detail for whichever doorstyle it's linked with. I'm pretty convinced it's a good quality cabinetry. Especially for the price that it seems to carry. Her glass choices, like all glass choices, are not cheap, and she shows a lot of glass in her book, so it will be easy to take that inexpensive "basic" kitchen of 5K and turn it into a 15K one in a heartbeat by all of the add ons that the line offers. But that's also pretty easily done in any other cabinet line if you don't realize that anything beyond just plain 30" wall cabinets with no moldings and no drawer bases will cost you more than you think it should. If you are concerned about the local HD KD, then post your own plan here first to get a good workflow of the basic elements and have your contractor lined up to double check any measurements on the final design before you order.Make sure you utilize their measuring service for the design, which is $100, I think. That way, if there are any errors, it's HD's $ problem to solve. As long as you have a good installer and order most runs with a filler in them, and it's not an extremely challening small space, you should be OK with all of these extra eyes helping you.