I got it working. thanks for your help. the problem was that the 'notification box' under 'enable sounds for:' in settings/sounds¬ification was NOT checked. the vibrate box was checked in setting/sound¬ificaton/notificaton/new text messages. so I never even looked to see if the other box needed to be checked until I read your text and typed my opinion. then after I got to thinking about what both of us was thinking, it made me look at the other sections of sounds & notification. I say all of this to point out how simple discussion leads to good problem solving solutions... and just in case anyone else has this
problem. thanks again.
pernell