I've never spoken to anyone there ,,, but while we're talking about them, I'll join in. On their website, it indicates that if you sign up, they'll send you email notices of EA shipments to your region. I've signed up for this service several times (using different email addresses) over the last couple of years and, to date, have never received a shipment notification. It'd be a great service, if it worked (it'd be nice to snag one of their hoyas before they're picked over or before the store starts to kill them off). Anyway, I've always wondered if anyone was successfully receiving shipping notifications from them? As an aside, today I was at Lowes and, of course, walked thru the plant section. They had an "royal flush" and a "mini waxleaf" loaded with blooms and buds. I couldn't believe it. I was so excited to finally see all those sweet little blooms in person ,,, it made my day!! :) Jennifer

Candy, that's an idea. I'll give that some thought. My MIL is notorious for giving back the presents you get her. It may take several years but they always come back. Not because she doesn't like them, she just thinks we need it more than she does and hates that we spend money on her. (After 30 years in the family, I have learned to buy something that I really like.) She does all of her children that way. But I'm sure my little scissors will never find their way home because she loves to embroidery. I have several pillow cases that she has done. They are beautiful. She is blind in one eye and getting to where she can't see as well as she used to so there are some mistakes made but that makes them even more special. Some of the things we have gotten her such as embroidery thread, needles, iron on transfers and pillow cases she does not return, except the pillow cases after she has embellished them. Trust me she will not offer them back after she uses them compared to what she has been using. I have to shake my head and laugh every time I think about it. IÂm going to put this story it in my grandchildrenÂs scrap books with a picture of her embroidering. It will be a funny memory. By the way, do you hear harp music and angels sing when I mention the scissors like I do? I'm sure MIL heard them when she used them for the first time.

:) oh, very much :) Dream is a place where heaven, hell, earth, and every other plane can meet, and things pass from one to another. Heaven is a sort of Bed and Breakfast/orientation center, where people can take their time making the transition from flesh to spirit. (hell is a choice- very few people actually get dragged out of the karmic cycle for punishment. usually, what is punishing you is your own knowledge that you were an ash in life) so it makes perfect sense to me that your mom would regain her flip good humour in short order (a sense of humor is possibly the best tool we have to adapt to new things) my bubbe and Zeyde are the same way- bubbe is always bookmarking things for me (I dog-ear my pages, which she was horified by) and Zeyde, a classical violinist, has developped into quite the fiddle player since he passed, and his horizions opened up. in a lot of ways, I'm MORE connected to them than I ever got to be when they were flesh-bound.

Shannon, you've put a whole new 'spin' on decorating! I've always known that a home should be a place where you look around and you're happy to be there, but being ill and possibly *not* being able to leave the house for days at a time, you have to be in an environment you love. God bless. ;o)