Good morning Phyllis, You are much more on the ball trying to make something. Husband and I used to do that , now I just gave up on this stuff.

The best Valentine (our anniversary) Bob ever gave me is plastered on my kitchen wall. He cut out a heart on a  our shop’s  mailing label and wrote on it ":Happy Anniversary, I love you very much ".It was in the beginning of his illness and I just glued it on the wall. I love it.

I think that for me the paper issue goes way back to my childhood and the war. Paper was made but it was ersatz , had tons of pulp still in it. In school we cherished every piece we could get our hands on. We used our little chalkboards left from kindergarten days. You might remember the jokes about toilet paper in Europe after the war. Paper was precious. I am still saving paper when I can. Now if I could only become stingy about my need for purses…..

I am the worst nightmare for Hallmark. I hate to spend money on giftwrap and cards. Just hate it. I do not expect it either.

I think it is great that men are different in some ways, it gives us something to "work" with.

Yes, in Spain and in Belgium.Both times with hotel doctors who came (one on New year’s eve) within minutes after the call. Last one was in Belgium, grandson became very ill with some sort of flu bug. Dr.came refused to give him antibiotics and said that he would come back in the morning, he did and Peter got better. The Dr. explained that we Americans run for antibiotics at the first sneeze. When you will actually need it ,it  will not work anymore.

He also told me that Namenda (Alzheimer drug) is stopped at a certain stage, reason being that after awhile the medicine stops helping and a study in Germany showed an increase of violence. 

By the way, the dr,visit on New Year’s eve , (about 4 years ago ) cost us 45.00

Recently my daughter helped out an older couple who were lost. When they found the house they were looking for the old man asked if he could give her something for  all her troubles. She asked: give me advice on what you gathered worthwhile at your age. The man did not hesitate and said: Don’t get old!

All good and well, should that be our dream when we are 50 or 60 ????Should we run around saying that we don’t want to see 80 or heaven forbid 90.

Every age , I found out, has challenges and yes, dreams. If not then we will just wither away. Life sucks! An expression floating about and if we catch the phrase mid air and accept it as ours then I can assure you it will suck.

Perhaps you say there are moments when life does suck but then is the time to see what we are made off. Give in? Fight? The choice is ours.

Having written all of this wisdom (Ha ha) I surely do not want to be 90..because I will not have enough money to live till I am 90!

Lately my dreams are full of joy and people loving one another. I wake up feeling great and then ……the day start…but I try very hard to remember how it felt during the night.

I do not want to be without my dreams.

Loved Walter. Now I no longer watch the news and my blood pressure has gone down. So I celebrate that decision. 

My bad, Phyllis, did not read the line with credits to Mr.Moore, guess I was still sleepy  but the text woke me up in a hurry.

Phyllis, thank you for this post.

Son who lived for a short time in Texas told me exactly what you wrote and I found it hard to believe.

Since then research on my part has made me as angry as he is. 

"Church and state are to be separated. No damned religion of any kind or any of its texts should be taught in public schools."

That is what scares me the most and I totally agree with you.

"Y’all come on down.  " No, thank you but I am not so sure we are not following.

Small detail got my eye this week at a street fair we had. A printed sign on the entry told us that we were not to go into the festival

with pets, skateboards,bikes,guns.  On second thought the committee crossed out GUNS. So guns were welcome but not my Maltese.

Nancy, I will never forget that experience.

I had searched for the man for decades, he had no idea that I came to the USA.

When I went on line I also put my brother in law where he belonged on the Marauders site.

It is there that the web master helped me to find my old friend.

He visited us and told my grandsons his war stories and how he found their grandmother. The guys were in awe of this grey haired gent. We visited him in PA and we were welcomed like royalty in his VFW. I will never get tired of saying thanks to the WW2 vets. My husband was one too , he served in the Pacific.