I think a good addition to this discussion is how my parents got married. It was August 3,1935. The impact of the Depression was still felt and so couples delayed getting married for financial reasons. My parents' crowd of friends included 4 unmarried couples and one married couple. They were all in their 30s and even early 40s. My mother was a preacher's daughter, but her father could not perform the ceremony in those days as my father was (Chicago Irish)Catholic. So everyone wanted to elope. They put together a caravan and traipsed all over central Illinois that day to each other's weddings. Dad had a friend who was a priest in Toluca, Illinois, so that was where they were married. Then they all went off for their honeymoons.

well, after a few wks of nothingness (other than runs to the vet and going broke!) the guys came out and filled in the trenches, took away a lot of the trash from it all and showed me which switches to turn on to put the juice to the lights and sockets. I need to buy a bunch of bulbs tomorrow - some are burned out and some are missing. And I can vacuum over there now and suck up a bunch of that dirt! I was tired yesterday but I did go to Lowe's and brought home a few sheet vinyl samples to try out (along with the one I had). and I bought 2 lever handles for the 2 rooms with deadbolts on them. I spent over an hour there looking at stuff - flooring, knobs, cab handles, doors, bathroom cabs and lighting. I think I'll have to get larger light fixtures for the outside doors. those small ones are just toooo small - unless someone knows a nifty way to change out the bulbs. I can't deal with the kind of globes you have to unscrew and rescrew back in. I also don't anticipate the thrill of squeezing my chubby fingers into the tiny opening they usually give to access the bulb on others. Didn't see any lights that I liked for the DR area or bathrooms. I might 'see' differently next time there when I'm not so tired. I should look at lights FIRST on the next trip there. certainly didn't see any cab handles I liked. they did have some unfinished bathroom cabs that were only 30" high (if my eye sight is correct). nothing special, just plain 'ol wood - oak. had some side sections with drawers - to purchase separately. just in case I don't find any at the restore or CL. I didn't like any of their indoor/outdoor carpet on the rolls in back. they did have a few precut rolls (most 5x7, a few were bigger) that looked good for about 26.00 - 45.00 $'s. that's an option in the coming weeks... I picked up 2 area rugs at the new 'used' store in our town last week. both 5 x 7. one solid color and one print with color of the solid color rug in it. might work in the back rooms or together in the DR/LR. Time will tell. I did see a sliding door I liked. It was 3,000.00. So much for what I like! ha! I'm sure dbf has a much cheaper 'model' around somewhere anyway. and free to me is the 'cheap' I like! Not much will get done monday or tuesday (doc appt for me and I have to do another glucose curve on boy Tuesday) but maybe on Wednesday I can make more progress over there. I tried to post this yesterday but every time I scrolled down to about the halfway mark the screen would disappear and it would say 'loading' again! I couldn't even scroll down more than that to read a post.

Katie, I am sorry yours was broken. I was taking a chance mailing without a bubble envelope but it would have cost 249 each to do so and didn't think those little sticks were worth that. LOL I can't believe your hubby ate that either. Mine would do the same though. Margo

The pillow is beautiful. Annie's suggestion about an eye pillow is also great. Lots of people like to use one during final relaxation. It sounds like you have a real friend who can be honest with you about not liking jewelry. When I first started dating my now husband, he gave me a necklace. I don't like to wear jewelry and anything around my neck, no matter how light, makes me feel like I'm strangling. Since we were not yet exclusive, i told him nicely to give the necklace to someone else. The next time I saw him, he had gotten the necklace made into a bracelet. I wore it in front of him until it (thankfully) broke. He had always dated women who liked jewelry and he wanted to give me gifts. As my birthday approached, he talked about taking me bracelet shopping and I knew he was thinking about something expensive. You should have seen his face when I told him that what I really wanted was a crown! And that's how I got some expensive, needed dentistry for my birthday.