After Dad died, Mom had so much to do. She wanted to sell the house they'd been in for 50 years. She wanted to purchase and move into a condo. Needless to say, this entailed a lot of work for her and therefore for us with helping her with finances, moving, cleaning, tag sales, real estate agents, lawyers, condo shopping and more. It was an immense task. As it was nearing Mother's Day, I was teasing her that, with all we've been doing for her, that I was the mother and she the daughter. Wouldn't you know it, come Mother's Day, she brought me an orchid, my favorite flower. I was so touched. I still have it -- the white one on the right which 18 years later is still one of my most faithful bloomers. Thanks, Mom, for being one of the most special people I've ever known, and for being my Mom.

As I child I remember feeling sad that I wasn’t a Girl Scout. When my oldest started kindergarten a notice went around asking for leaders. I volunteered and for the next twelve years was a leader for both my daughters.

I volunteered for many of the chairs, cookie mom, community cookie chair and community director. GS gave us gifts for bring a director. This one has particular meaning for me as it is useful and has a year engraved on it.

The 9k cast shell cut away was my 1st "good" piece of jewelry, I broke out in hives if I wore anything else. I found it at a Fashion Bar basement sale, I offered them .99cents! My mother was there, I'd turned her on to "junking". She couldn't understand why I was so excited. She said, "You must really like the ocean." It's been on every dive I've ever been on.........over 600. The 14k emerald eyed dolphin, to commemorate snorkeling with 2 wild dolphins, in Turks & Caicos....but that's another story....

I have so many memories of my children and my nephews going for tractor rides with my FIL, sitting on his lap and their fat little hands placed on the knob, helping him to steer.

I have posted this picture of my daughter before. The story is that Son-in-Law gave this photo blanket to me after she had passed away. He had taken that picture when they were enjoying time together hiking just about 2 weeks before she died. He said that it gave him comfort to see her smiling as she was entering the wooded path. He imagines her saying' " I have to go now, but it's ok. I will find peace here". I too find comfort in her smile in this picture. My beautiful child suffered with Rheumatoid Arthritis and the highest highs and deepest lows of Bipolar depression. Seeing this and remembering Son-in-laws words helps me remember the happier times she, and he, had together.

After my roommate died, the painting went to his brother, who was also one of my closest friends, and I was able to buy it from him a couple of years ago.

I think I have shown this before. A good friend I worked with came for a visit a few years ago after we both had retired. She had a lot of world-wide connections because of her professional work as a photographer. She sent this as a thank you. It has special meaning to me because NASA was my very first real job although I never worked there very long in my adult career. It’s a special relationship we all have if you live here and do any rocket science work.

Everything in the picture is meaningful to me! Left to right: the vase is from Iron Mountain Stoneware, the chickadee is from my FIL, the nativity was made by my sister, the Mr & Mrs Santas were made by my DH's grandfather, the green Christmas Tree with Cat is an ornament my DH and I bought early in our marriage, the blue bottle that you see just the edge of is a craft made by my step-MIL (it has lights in it and marbles glued to it resembling a bunch of grapes), the picture is by a favorite artist of DH's and mine, and the fireplace itself was built by the original owner of the house's uncle. And the bricks were made of clay from a nearby knob and fired just over the hill!

This belonged to one of our Meeting House friends, Daisy. I never got to meet her in person but was friends for many years. When she passed away, I asked her sister if there was some small item I could have as a memento and she sent me this little garden fairy which I treasure. We shared a great love for all things outdoors, especially gardening.

I admired this little Limoges basket in an antique store but didn't purchase it. While I was getting ready to go out to dinner DH left the hotel and went around the corner and bought it. When we sat down in the restaurant he managed to hide in underneath my napkin.

Awesome, maire-cate! He’s a keeper 🙂

roxsol - Thanks, I have to agree. He has a knack for gifting. We became engaged on Christmas Eve and he had placed the ring inside an old German Christmas ornament. It was a series of 3 nesting balls and the ring was inside the smallest. We had talked about getting married but I had no idea he had picked out a ring.