Ann

So sorry to hear of your loss.

You guys sure do make me blossom and even keep me in full bloom!!! Great quote!!!

Very sweet ....thanks for sharing.

Karen...I have no expertise to offer you on this but do want to jump in here and let you know that you and Ken are never far from my thoughts and are always in my prayers. Please remember that I'm just a phone call away. It would probably take me all of 15 minutes to ever get to Melbourne. Please don't ever hesitate!!!

Mitzu, I am so very sorry to read of your loss. I am so glad that he was able to talk to you and your mother before passing. I will be thinking of you and sending hugs your way.

It is so good to hear that your sister made it home. I know this will be a great comfort for you. I am praying that your dad will continue to rest easily and remain pain free. Please know that I am continuing to pray for you, your dad and your family.

Count me in Kasey!!! Kasey...please bring me a clam chowder recipe!!! Read your PM. Cindi...you are the best! It sounds as if your rehab worked absolute wonders for you yesterday! Keep it up! Thanks so much for opening the pub today! You always keep our glassed full and our spirits up! You're amazing!!!

Ginny....keep an open mind here. Don't even think about looks right now. On the big list...looks are at the bottom. Just think of how absolutely wonderful this man must be to have cared for his wife during her illness. You may be on to sosmething here! All the dates seem to be more than coincidental. This can be the start of a really good friendship between two wonderful people!!!

I'm back!!!!!! I would like to thank Lillian for keeping these threads up and running in my absence! Great job, Lil! Now...... What is the absolutely sweetest thing anyone has ever done for you? Think of something that really surprised you. Tell us how it made you feel!

Welcome to the Mental Health Hospital! Hello, and welcome to the mental health hospital. If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly. If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for you. If you have multiple personalities, press 3,4,5 and 6. If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want. Stay on the line so we can trace your call. If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to the mother ship. If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a small voice will tell you which number to press. If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press, no one will answer. If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969696. If you have a nervous disorder, please fidget with the pound key until a representative comes on the line. If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, s-l-o-w-l-y & c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y press 0-0-0. If you are bi-polar, please leave a message after the beep or before the beep or after the beep. Please wait for the beep. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have low self-esteem, please hang up. Our operators are too busy to talk with you. If you are menopausal, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down and cry. You won't be crazy forever. If you are blonde, don't press any buttons, you'll just mess it up.

Way to go, Rich!!! I always enjoy reading each and every one of your posts!!! Keep 'em coming our way!

Hang in there Addie!!! We all love you and are sending lots of positive energy, thoughts and prayers your way! Oh...lots of Addie-Hugs, too! ((((((((((((((((((((((Addie))))))))))))))))))))))

((((Mandi))))) I am so very sorry that you lost your mother to this terrible disease. It is so very hard to lose someone you love. I can give you a few tips that may make things a bit easier for you. Be sure and talk about your mom a lot. This will help. Friends may stop talking about your mom with you, for fear they are causing you pain and stirring up memories. Let your friends know it is OK to talk about your mom. Have you thought of starting a journal? This journal can even be made up of letters that you write to your mom. I did this when my husband died and it really helped me a lot. Every time something happened that I would have normally told him, I would just write it down. I also wrote about a lot of my feelings and emotions. It really helped to release them onto the paper. Now, three years later, I can read those journals and see how far I have come in the healing process. Remember....your mom will always be alive in your heart. Please remember that you have all of us. We care and are always here to listen.

Best of luck during treatment! Please keep us posted on how you're doing. I will miss reading your posts. I think you've got some of that special "spunk" that we need more of around here!!!

Lil, I think you're doing a great job! I can jump in here at any time. Just let me know! Yes...I have these experiences a lot.

Teri...when the going gets tough, the tough get going and you're one heck of a tough gal!!! I hopeyou can talk to your doc soon and get a better handle on what's going on. I know how frustrating it is to have all these questions and not be able to get them answered by someone you trust. You just hang in there and know that we're backing you up with lots of love and prayers!!!

Carleen, I want you to know that my heart is reaching out to yours right now. What a very difficult decision to deal with right now. I know that you are someone that listens to your heart. That is always so very clear in all of your posts. Right now, I think I must agree with what many others have said. I think you should kick the brain in gear, over the heart, and think this through a bit more. You are under a tremendous amount of stress and worry right now. Carrying a child and giving birth to a healthy baby is difficult under the very best of circumstances. I know this is probably not the advice you want to hear right now but I am offering my honest opinion. Now is the time to concentrate all of your efforts on Keith and getting him through this difficult time. What if you should have some really tough times yourself with the pregnancy? Even morning sickness is no cake walk. I know how terrible you would feel if anything ever prevented you from being there for Keith. Honey, just really think this thing through. Being a parent is a really tough, yet rewarding, job. This is a life long responsibility. I know God will guide you in making the right decision. I'm saying prayers and asking Him to help!

Jaonie, I am so very glad to see that you are home and back with us. Listen, girlfriend...you just kick back and take it slow and easy. You have plenty of time to bring us up to speed on everything. We love and miss you but want you to take very good care of yourself!!!

Katie, thanks so much for letting us know how Connie is doing. I'll continue to pray for her recovery.

So cool, Donna. I just love penguins. They're the cutest little guys!!! Thanks for the post...really made me smile!

Glad to hear from you, Fay. Hope things go well for you.

This was emailed to me by a friend. Thought I'd share it with you. This is so amazing it's frightening, and I know being on Medicare and not having a supplementary insurance my med bills can be staggering. So for those of us that take meds for chronic illnesses, ie diabetes, fibromyalgia, etc. Read this....... Let's hear it for Costco!! (This is just mind-boggling!) Make sure you read all the way past the list of the drugs. The woman that signed below is a Budget Analyst out of federal Washington, DC offices. Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries. In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The data below speaks for itself. Celebrex: 100 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $130.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.60 Percent markup: 21,712% Claritin: 10 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $215.17 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.71 Percent markup: 30,306% Keflex: 250 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $157.39 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.88 Percent markup: 8,372% Lipitor: 20 mg Consumer Price (100 tablets): $272.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $5.80 Percent markup: 4,696% Norvasc: 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $188.29 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.14 Percent markup: 134,493% Paxil: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $220.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $7.60 Percent markup: 2,898% Prevacid: 30 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $44.77 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.01 Percent markup: 34,136% Prilosec: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $360.97 Cost of general active ingredients $0.52 Percent markup: 69,417% Prozac: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $247.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.11 Percent markup: 224,973% Tenormin: 50 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $104.47 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.13 Percent markup: 80,362% Vasotec: 10 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $102.37 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.20 Percent markup: 51,185% Xanax: 1 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) : $136.79 Cost of general active ingredients: $0.024 Percent markup: 569,958% Zestril: 20 mg Consumer price (100 tablets) $89.89 Cost of general active ingredients $3.20 Percent markup: 2,809 Zithromax: 600 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $1,482.19 Cost of general active ingredients: $18.78 Percent markup: 7,892% Zocor: 40 mg Consumer price (100 tablets): $350.27 Cost of general active ingredients: $8.63 Percent markup: 4,059% Zoloft: 50 mg Consumer price: $206.87 Cost of general active ingredients: $1.75 Percent markup: 11,821% Since the cost of prescription drugs is so outrageous, I thought everyone should know about this. Please read the following and pass it on. It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreen's on every corner. On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for Channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo.....three thousand percent! So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10! At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs. I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08. I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in. (this is true) I went there this past Thursday and asked them. I am asking each of you to please help me by copying this letter, and passing it into your own e-mail, and send it to everyone you know with an e-mail address.el

Great news, Trish! Thanks for letting us know. I'm still remembering you and Jeffery in my prayers!

Beautiful tribute, Frank!

Windows 2005 Southern Edition It has come to our attention that a few copies of the Windows 2005 Southern Edition may have accidentally been shipped outside of the south. If you have one of these, you may need help understanding the commands. The Southern Edition may be recognized by the unique opening screen. It reads: WINDERS 2005, with a background picture of Waylon and Willie superimposed on a bottle of Jack Daniels. Please also note: The Recycle Bin is labeled "Outhouse" My Computer is called "This Dern Contraption" Dial Up Networking is called "Good Ol' Boys" Control Panel is known as "The Dashboard" Hard Drive is referred to as "4-Wheel Drive" Floppies are "Them little ol' plastic thangs" Instead of an error message, "Duct Tape" pops up. Changes in Terminology In Southern Edition: Cancel............stopdat Reset..............try'er agin Yes...............yep No................nope Find...............hunt fer it Go to............over yonder Back...............back yonder Help..............hep me out here Stop...............kwitit (WHOA!) Start............crank'er up Settings..........settins Programs......... stuff at duz stuff Documents....... .stuff ah done did