It is good to see that I am not the only one to suffer from Spring Fever! Here are a few pictures from the garden this morning- Sweet Almond Verbena Old Blush Louisiana Iris Brightside Cream Bridal Wreath Spirea Peaches Blueberries Crepuscule Tausendschon Native Wisteria Bud False Rosemary Cherokee Rose

"...cindylou, imagine if you can what it would be like after all you and your husband have experienced with your MIL if your own children grew up and estranged you..." If I had a child who estranged me, I would not think it had anything to do or not to do with my MIL. I would not think that they owed me a relationship because I tolerated my MIL (maybe I misunderstood what you meant by connecting my MIL into that idea). If my child estranged me suddenly and with no warning and if I asked and they said, "You know", and I truly didn't, I would make the assumption they didn't quite didn't know themselves. That they have feelings and upsets they don't quite understand themselves and that they needed time away from me to work them out. (This is assuming there's no mental illness or addiction. If there is mental illness or addiction, then I do know and frankly, maybe I'm just getting too old, but I've seen the hopelessness and heartache of addiction and mental illness, and I think I'd just be grateful for being cut out). More likely, I would have been told the answer. And I'd accept it, even if it didn't make sense. "Because you wore blue to my kindergaren graduation." Huh? Ok. I don't think I'd argue. I can't imagine arguing with an adult child. They are an adult. I barely argue with them now. My parents didn't argue with me, I never saw them argue with their parents. My aunts and uncles on both sides didn't argue with either their adult children or their parents. It's just not done. I can't imagine it. There are differences of opinion and hurt feelings and misunderstandings and on rare occasions, conflict between adult members of my extended family. Of course there is. But everyone seems to understand a basic rule. I live my life and you live yours, and I can offer my opinion and it's fair if you don't follow it. The person who's business it is, gets the final say. The person who has the most responsibility gets to decide. The person who takes the biggest risk chooses. We are none of us perfect people; but we don't squabble and manipulate and gang up on each other and form one alliance and then another to force family members to do what we want. And we don't stab each other in the back. That's such a bizarre concept to me. And we are very close--without melodrama. There's not a lot of conflict. So if a child told me, "I don't want contact from you because you wouldn't let me go to Aruba on spring break." I'd respect that. I'd figure sooner or later they'd understand. Or if not, sooner or later it wouldn't matter any more. I would absolutely believe that eventually they'd come back. Not the way they were, it wouldn't be the same relationship, but had we stayed close, it wouldn't be the same relationship at 30 as it was at 20 or 10. Would I miss them and be hurt. You bet. But I'd be comforted that I would see them again and focus on the other blessings of my life while I waited. I truly believe that if you love something you let it go, and if it loves you, it will come back. And if it doesn't come back, you never had it to begin with. If after 10 or 20 years there was still no contact, I'd have to face the fact that it's probably for the best. We didn't have the relationship I thought we had; I didn't know them, and we obviously weren't a match even if they have half my DNA. Do I hope to have close, intimate relationships with the families of my adult children? Of course. But I will be happy with any non exploitive relationship my children feel comfortable with. I may want more contact or less, depending on the personalities, but perfection doesn't happen in relationships; it's like tension between togetherness and individuality that has to be worked out in a marriage. When your children are adults with families, you renegotiate your relationship, and if it REALLY doesn't work for someone, you might have to walk away. Sad, painful, but realistic. I have a coworker who is retiring and moving to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren. They are delighted to have her. On a recent house hunting trip she was dismayed that her daughter seemed to expect/demand a lot of babysitting from her. She's not moving there to take on the responsibility of babysitting her grandchildren, altho she does hope to see a lot of them and participate in their lives. Things were tense as she attempted to come to understanding with her daughter. She came back and asked if things don't work out in the other state, can she have her job back. I sometimes in the past had wondered if she's a meddling MIL so much does she talk about her grandchildren. But I see now she's got a life outside them and is not exploiting her daughter's family to fill the emptiness (if any) in her own life. And she's not going to allow herself to be exploited by her daughter however much she loves her family. She sees her standing up for herself may result in a cut off; and I respect her handling of this delicate situation. I'm sure it will all work out, but I can see myself in her place; in any relationship, there's always the possibility that you or the other person will walk away for whatever reason. You may think, oh yeah, you are so philosophical, just wait until it happens to you. Well, like anything, what choices do you have: you either accept with grace or you don't. How does not accepting with grace help anything? The ends don't justify the means. Bullying, manipulating, harassing, yelling...none of that is going to help. If you accept with grace, while you are waiting for the problem to resolve itself enough so the child talks to you again with a willingness to compromise, at least you can still have meaning and pleasure in your life. It also gives you time to reflect as well. It might not be that you did something WRONG, it's just that you don't mesh well. And you can measure in the absence how you and your adult child's family don't mesh and what you are willing to compromise to make the relationship more pleasant for EVERYONE. "Mom, you can never be unsupervised with my kids." "Why?" "Because you are a taurus". Huh? Well, that makes no sense to me. But why jeopardize my supervised visits with my grandchildren which can be wonderful by arguing if being a taurus prevents one from being a good grandma or not. Why fill that time with strife and anger and posturing and demands and righteousness and counter accusations when I can be on the floor playing Candyland and angling for the chocolate swamp or coloring in Barbie coloring books or stacking Lincoln logs as high as the sky. Who cares if DIL is glaring at me when my darling grandson and I are holding our breathes to see if we can make a Pixie Stix teepee? I believe letting them go gracefully gets them back eventually, and if it doesn't, the relationship would have just caused heartache all around anyway, estranged or not.

Hi Guys And Gals!! Things have been busy around my house lately and work is never ending. Sorry for my late response.. Jesse.. It is a prolific bloomer and I'm so stoked with this tree. Thank you for your kind comments!! i did have few cuttings grafted at Florida Colors and they all took. As far as costs.... I gave them to my good friends. They are all at great homes and I hope they grow and become beauties like their mother tree. The smiles on their faces is more than dollars to me and the feeling I get is priceless. I tried water rooting before and I have better success with my own way.. I know James loves rooting this way and has great success. Wendi did as well.. I'll share some more pictures of the latest blooms for you!!! Thank you .. The pool area is finally finished and I'm so glad .. Here is a picture from this weekend.. Hi Wendi!! Thank you so much.. It truly made me so excited because of it being so difficult. It just shows that you should never give up! I even have a nasty mid cut from when I made the cuttings to send down to Florida that is rooting. It has taken a long time, but it's working its magic. I almost threw it away.. Sheesh! I'm so glad I potted it up and tried to forget about it!! I hope you are doing well!! Xo Hi Mike!!! Thank you so much!! I'm so glad you are having a good season.. Pretty hot eh? It's been un bearable in our area... Stay cool!! Hi Tom!! I think you totally understand my feelings.. It was such a huge challenge for me and finally.. I'm so thankful! Your kind comments are spot on!! Mahalo!! The rooting mix I used was more of a mix of fir bark, perlite and peat based product. Fox Farm Ocean Forest. ( 5-1-1 basically) it looks dark because I just watered the container....I had used this mixture before along with the gritty mix for rooting and they both work great. I had this already made and I have used this mixture on the Kapalua cuttings before with no success... So I don't think it was the mix, but the variety . Diana's Compulation even list it as a difficult rooter. ( I can agree with that statement!!!). All of my other cuttings are rooting and I was just thinking at the last minute when I was packing up the cuttings to FC. I thought I'm going to try one more time. So I kept this one aside to try... This was really bothering me because it just wouldn't root and I have tried so hard and a few other times on this variety. Same with the nasty mid section ( knobby) cutting. It was close to being tossed, but I just grabbed a cup and thought.. Let's try. That little guy is trying and is giving me hope too! Im ready to take the two tipped cutting and pot up into its own container ... It is like my own trophy.. I'll cherish this tree forever as well as the mother tree that was gifted to me years ago. It's the true Aloha!! You are in Huntington Beach right? FB? Please pm me if you are on... Thanks again for all of the kind comments!!! Laura

Glad your whale watch actually found some whales! Our winter breaks on Maui coincide with Whale Season in Hawaii -- best viewed from Maui and Big Island of Hawaii. Whales migrate from Alaska to warmer waters to calve -- and to mate. There are astounding breaches by bulls competing to impress the cows. Using binoculars, I can see a lot of 'showboating' from our condo's lanai. Last Christmas we took our son and his family on a morning whale watch out of Maalaea harbor. We were fortunate to have a calm day, with a sea like glass. The bay is a favorite 'nursery' for whales, and we were only out five minutes before seeing a cow, her newborn calf, and an accompanying 'auntie'. (Auntie cows aid with the babies and help keep too-eager bulls at bay.) Later, we were still in the water watching a pod of dolphins when a young bull came alongside the boat and then went under us to the other side. We could almost scratch his back! I don't expect to experience that again. (By law, boats must keep a good distance from whales, but a pilot can only cut engines and wait when a whale decides to approach.)