May 15, 2004 After 19 years of owning a private in-home day care, I have announced my retirement. My last day will be May 28th. It is bittersweet for me, in that I will miss my children, some of whom I've had for 8 years. And I'm not good with saying good-bye! The sweet part is that I will devote myself full time to building my jewelry business, traveling, doing more art fairs and home parties. I was featured in a Sunday article of our local newspaper, and the response has been so amazing. I hope to put it on the web site for you to read.  Please keep me in your prayers as I end a career that has been my livelihood; it has provided me with some 200 children to care for;it has humbled our own sons in many ways and watched them grow up (they now are 22 & 24) and it has touched my heart in countless ways. To say good-bye to all this means that Julie's Prayers and Squares is very close to my heart also and I feel the time is now to pursue this even further. My fondest thanks to all of you who have helped me realize what I should do at this point in my life.  It is a little scary! But I've never walked away from a dream. Building my jewelry business is my dream. I hope you will appear in my dream,somewhere, somehow.    Heartfelt thanks, Julie