Thank you for the condolences. I am having a hard time with grief moreso than when I lost both my parents. I know it has been only a few days but I am really going to miss Lizzie's late night calls from work. I was with her when she died at 3:55 am. I had sat in the recliner just after joking with her about the show we had watched 3 times that day and said I would change the channel at 4 am. I sat down just before 3:50 am and must have nodded right off. I woke at 3:55 and I knew she was gone, the noise of her not breathing was what woke me up. Either that or she tapped me on the shoulder as she was leaving. I am glad she wasn't alone when she died. Lizzie worked as a nurse until the end of March but kind of figured her cancer had spread because of the weight loss since Christmas and she hadn't been able to eat anything. Lizzie had stopped taking her chemo drug "femara" because of the aches and pains and being a nurse she knew the fluid buildup in her abdomen was not a good sign. She had double breast cancer while working in Saudi Arabia the same year my Mom was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. She just turned 65 in March. Started chemo again in April, was finally admitted to the hospital to be hooked up to an intravenous bag of food which she tried to avoid having and then she got a blood infection and was too weak for chemo and finally on Wednesday she decided no more treatments or invasive procedures. She ate ice chips and took anti nausea medication and the odd pain med as needed. She had humour right up to the last day. When one of her nursing co-workers came to visit her on Thursday I told her it was Nurses Week and she said she knew that. Her friend said "Lizzie and I were going to go out" and Lizzie said "rats" LOL Patti, my oldest sister Marjorie is the one I usually talk about. She had inflammatory breast cancer over 22 years ago and then had another type of breast cancer last summer and had a mastectomy. She also has other health problems but you wouldn't know it to see her. She is 72 years old, travels back and forth to St. Louis just about every month and I keep telling her she is going to out live us all. Bahaaha, she gets on my last nerve sometimes but I sure would miss her. LOL She drives me nuts. LOL Lizzie and I shared a bedroom until I was in my 20's and she was only 10 years older than me so we were closer. Marjorie isn't like the rest of us. LOL While reading the rough draft of Lizzie's obit I kept saying something was wrong, I kept reading the names of my siblings - Marjorie, David, Donald, Raymond, Anne Louise and Paul. I read that over and over and to myself I said there aren't enough names and couldn't figure out who was missing. Then it dawned on me Lizzie's name was missing in the birth order, her name should have been after David's. That is when it really hit me, that she was gone. I have been crying off and on most of the day today. Okay, I feel better about my decision on the stove. I have always had an electric stove and the almond coloured one I do have still works but the door doesn't shut/lock properly so I can't use the self cleaning feature and I am sure heat is lost when I bake but I knew how to compensate for the temps. This stove is white so it will match my refrigerator. I was going to get the convection oven because I do a lot of baking but I couldn't rationalize spending $200 more for that feature. I would love a gas stove but I am used to cooking with electricity and I would have to run a gas line into the kitchen and I wouldn't have been able to vent out the exhaust because my stove is on an inside wall. My niece is getting my sisters expensive pots and pans and she is going to give me hers - I think they are Lagostino. I am still using some of my Mom's 70 year old Wearever pots. I was given a set of non stick frying pans for Christmas and the bottom of them are not smooth and are actually quite sharp if you run your hands across the bottom so they would definitely scratch the surface and Billy my friend the salesman said that type of aluminum used in those pans is soft and can melt if used on high heat which would really damage. I will continue to use my Le Cruset dutch oven though even though it is grooved on the bottom. Billy said heavy flat bottomed pots and pans are more suitable for this type of cooktop, and preferably stainless steel. He even said copper bottomed pots and pans were also not advisable. He also told me to get a thermometer to measure the oven because sometimes it could be off a bit with this type of stove. Some of the ceramic topped ovens he showed me were over $2000. I really like the one that came with a griddle feature but way out of my price league. LOL I still wanted to be able to buy my ereader. LOL Time will tell. My old stove goes out to the curb tomorrow. In with the new out with the old. I guess I won't be making omelets ala Julia Child anymore. I will have to get used to lifting my pan off the burner to shake the eggs to keep them loose. Anne

My best friend is French Canadian. We always celebrate birthday lunches! Hers is coming up, so I think I'll surprise her and cook and serve the Frois gras with the figs and wine before lunch! Emailed Nookie to see if she can send me a simple French lunch menu! Nookie, did you get my email?

Yeah, I always stay home on Black Friday or do a non-shopping outing, like a movie or theater trip. I hate crowds. I've been doing more and more of my Christmas shopping on the internet every year. I also buy "stock' gifts, the same thing for everyone. This year it's a Breakfast package for our siblings and their spouses- a package of pancake mix, maple syrup, etc. I like sending food gifts- hey, everyone eats, and no one has ever asked to exchange my gift. One year I gave everyone a coin-counting bank, another year it was a Christmas wreath, and another year a good flashlight.And if you order online, you can get gifts delivered right to the recipient. I can stay out of the store. Yay! And I am genuinely happy there will be a New Baby for next year Thanksgiving and Christmas.!!! This post was edited by jannie on Sat, Nov 29, 14 at 8:49

I've "chaired" all the class reunions. The way it happened is my best friend called me and said "We're having a class reunion and you're running it" lol. I didn't mind, it was work but fun. As years went by we had a fifth, tenth, twenty five and then fifty which was our last. I loved every minute of doing them but it was a lot of work, especially as time went by and people had remarried, moved etc. Thankful for Zaba Search, that's how I found most of them. Needless to say, there won't be another as no one will step up. It wasn't just securing a venue but I sent out questionaires which were amusing. made booklets for each of them as keepsakes filled with photos of our times together, along with that I had pens made with the school name inscribed on it. I went to a small private school in Boston, 32 in the class and we all truly cared for and looked after each other, that continues to this day. We still communicate via email and FB. Yeah you should do it, you have people to help and you'll enjoy yourself. I agree, get payment the first thing. We never had an issue with deadbeats.