here is a pic she just sent me.
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It is very normal. A good portion of the original small fruit that a citrus tree sets, is discarded by the tree. Only 1-3 percent of the fruit that a citrus tree sets is retained by the tree, the rest is discarded. This ratio of retention remains true weather the tree is a young new tree, or a aged mature tree.

i guess i am going to have to go look at it myself to see exactly what is going on. b/c the little yellow ones as far as she said are still staying on the tree but they are tiny still

I have seen this happen many times on my trees. Sometimes they can hang on a week or two but they will fall off.

as you can see in the pic, the stem is brown = dead.

i read somewhere citrus trees will keep around one fruit per ten leaves it has. i guess it takes the energy of about 10 leaves to get one fruit to mature.

Actually it is known that all the energy required by a citrus fruit to grow to maturity comes from only the three or four closest leaves to the fruit.