i have a question and i hope somebody can help me, my manager and i do not know what is legal or what to do, we have a call into the state but getting through to the attorney general or the governors office is not happening very fast.... i work at a convenience store, right down the road from an amish settlement here in my town and at night when i work the young men come in the store to purchase beer, cigarettes and the like, mostly french fries with mayo if you are interested, new york state and the store i work for has a law that no purchases of tobacco or alcohol can be made by anyone that looks under the age of thirty without a photo id, i have had to refuse sales, i get accused of all kinds of things by the boys, i have nothing against any of them, i admire their convictions and life style if the truth be known, but, as i said my manager and i do not know what to do, we could lose our jobs if someone, the wrong someone saw any of us sell them these items without a proper id, which they obviously do not have due to religious convictions, any advice, any info on where we could find out for sure, personal experience, anything would help, we are making some people very angry, HELP, thanks and i love your column, the cookbooks and all, i have been a fan since the first book by elizabeth came out years ago, cheryl ames

I was just reading the news, we have been watching the midwest weather closely as we had just traveled through the area on our trip and our oldest daughter is working in Minnesota this summer (she spent yesterday evening dodging tornados).  I saw that Keokuk is now on the flood watch list.  So I thought I would see how you and your family are holding out?  Give us an update as soon as it is possible, I cerrtainly understand that you may be dealing with some difficult stuff and getting through a day might be tough.  Hang in, pray lots and know that lots of us Believers around the country are praying for all of you.

God Bless, KJuneug     

My almost 4-year old daughter came to me yesterday and said "I want to go to the Cayman Islands"... now where did THAT come from??  Well, there are commercials running on Nick Jr. for Cayman Island vacations featuring the cartoon character, Diego (Dora's cousin).

Remember when commercials only targeted kids for breakfast cereal, checkout-lane candy, and Barbies/Hotwheels?  Now, they are resorting to getting kids to nag their parents for high ticket tropical vacations!

(Hmmm... you know, a tropical vacation doesn't sound too bad right about now )

I just received a forward from a friend.  I am not the type to pass this kind of stuff on, but if the info is true it could be very helpful indeed in the coming months!  A bottle of Listerine and a cheap spray bottle... I will give it a try!

I was at a deck party awhile back, and the bugs were having a ball biting everyone. A man at the party sprayed the lawn and deck floor with Listerine, and the little demons disappeared. The next year I filled a 4-ounce spray bottle and used it around my seat whenever I saw mosquitoes. And voila! That worked as well. It worked at a picnic where we sprayed the area around the food table, the children's swing area, and the standing water nearby. During the summer, I don't leave home without it.....Pass it on.

... a garage sale!  Yes, after 7 years of marriage, I finally broke down and had one.  The sad thing is, 75% of it was my old clothing!  All nice, name brand stuff, but since I have gradually allowed myself to get "fat" 5 lbs at a time... well, there was just no use in keeping it around.  I am working on losing weight, but as my best friend said, "If we work hard to lose the weight, we should be able to reward ourself with new clothes!."  Agreed!

Anyone who has ever had one or been to one knows what it is like when the garage door opens for the first round of customers... it's nuts!  Some people are nice, some people are rude... but isn't it that way everywhere?  I only had one person that really tried to haggle, and she just wore me down.  I just couldn't take 25 cents for a new pair of $60 pants (which, by the way, I only had $1 on).  Thank God it is over.  We made a little over $300 (I had everything marked dirt cheap just so it would go), which was enough to buy a nice supper last night and pay for our little Amish-made oak DVD cabinet we just got... with a little left over.

 It feels good to purge, but I won't tell my husband I said that