To the Sheep Ranchers that stopped to change my flat tire this weekend when I was on the way to the Lake with my kidlets:

Angels come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They say that angels have halos and fluffy wings. Today, I know that sometimes, angels wear dusty cowboy boots and wear plaid shirts. And angels even train their 16 year-old sons to be full-grown angels someday. Thank you for stopping to help a strange lady on the side of the road.

To the Elf that mowed my jungle (aka lawn) and spent hours in my garden clearing out the frozen vines while I was playing with my kidlets at the lake

I love you. Your kindness made me cry. I don't know how you were able to get your mower over to my house and then haul away the stuff from the garden. But I now feel like I can tackle the rest of my garden. And every time I look out and see my mowed lawn, and the missing weeds in the garden, I think I have the most wonderful friends anyone could ever have.

To the neighbor that is feeding my dog all sorts of junk food:

Have you seen my dog? He's FAT. He can't jump in the car to go with us anymore and he other issues that I won't share the details on. So, the next time he gives you that sad puppy dog face, please don't feed him, just send him home.

He really doesn't need a whole chocolate snowball. The ones with the creme filling, and an inch of marshmallow surrounding it. Those things really aren't so good for humans, let alone an obese dog. Luckily, I caught the one you gave him yesterday before he could consume it. But it makes me wonder how many other snowballs you've fed him.

And he really doesn't need a complete hamburger meal with steak cut french fries. It is kind of you to share -- but he just comes home and gets sick. (And cleaning up the mess is getting old.) The same goes for the days you feed him spaghetti, chicken breasts, and any other treats you share with him.

And as much as he may whine, I do feed him. I promise! I feed him boring food, but it is formulated for dogs and he does like it. Plus, it really is better for his system. And I am getting concerned about his life span. He snores terribly at night, and sometimes, I think he has sleep apnea. But who can blame him? He is overweight in a terrible way. His vet wants him to lose 30 pounds.

He was really doing well over the summer. Did you notice how nice and trim he was looking? But now's he's even heavier than ever before. And I'm really worried about him.

He is a very nice dog, and I do love him tons, but I'm trying to help him be healthy. I promise, he'll still love you just as much if you scratch his belly, rather than fill his belly with Halloween treats and Hostess snowballs.

To the Mother of the Groom who called me to change the invitation order AFTER the bride had approved everything (And no, the bride did not know that t

Yes, I understand that you really know how to do weddings since this is your 5th wedding now. I'm glad you have so much experience. I'm sure that has come in handy as you planned and prepared for this current wedding. Yes, I completely understand that it is important that things be done right. I think it's important to do things right too.

But just like there are a couple of ways to peel a potato, there are several ways to word a wedding invitation.

I know it is frustrating to you that I won't change the order, since you are of course so knowledgeable. And I know that the customer is always right. But my problem is -- you aren't my customer. The bride is. And she approved it. And her mom paid for it.

And, might I be so bold to offer you a word of advice? If you want to build a good relationship with your daughter-in-law to be, you might not want to go behind her back to change things she picked out and SHE is paying for. It probably won't give her warm fuzzies about you to have you criticizing her for wording on the wedding invitations. This might be something you want to back off on. Or it might not make her want to come to visit...

And just so you know, I've done a few more than five wedding invitations in the 10+ years I've been doing this.