Yay, I'm a winner!

I open my inbox and browse through my email and what do you know, but I have an email in there letting me know that I was a winner in a book give-away by this very nice lady over at http://trying2staycalm.blogspot.com/. I am so very excited and grateful, partly because I hardly ever win anything and also because this comes at a time when I have been feeling a little low. So thank-you Shauna for having such nice give-aways and everyone please go check out her wonderful blog!

Some favorite childhood books

So in line with my whole summer memories post, I got to thinking about what were some of my favorite books as a child. Here are ones that I loved most:Even before I could read, I loved going to my granny's house and looking at all the pictures in the Little House books. As an adult I've thankfully been able to collect all but one of the books and am so thankful for the way they bring back wonderful memories of my childhood.I was in the 3rd grade when I first read " Charlotte's Web" and even though I'd first seen the movie, I couldn't get enough of the book. In fact, I checked it out of my classroom library so much, that when the year was over, my teacher gave me the book. I've always cherished this book!

"The Giver" was the first book that I ever read that really opened my eyes and made me think. The society described in the book is one that left me feeling sorry for it and hoping that humankind would never sink to actually going through with something like this. Life is so worth living even with all the hurt and pain we have to face.

What are some of your most cherished childhood books?

Friday Lemonade

With Summer just around the corner, I find myself thinking back to past summers and the celebration that this time of year always brings me. I know it is the embracing remnants of childhood flights of fancy and freedom, that so inspire and instill this wondrous sense of excitement and adventure. There I am...12 years old and tearing off on my bike, trailing after my best friend as we head down to the little creek. Freckle-faced and with sun-kissed hair, we were mighty explorers charging through the wilds of far away lands and always on the look-out for dangerous natives and animals. Then there we are, hiding in the gloom of a lost forest, trying to grill some hot dogs and getting caught by the local authorities(my mother), to be marched off to prison. Each morning was wrapt in a magic web and pregnant with the gift of possibility. I still find myself waking to each new day and being awed by the quiet beauty of the hopeful unknown.

So as I pour us each a refreshing glass of lemonade, I hope you'll feel open to sharing your favorite summer memories with me!

Ramblings....

It's Late....I should be sleeping, but my tooth is keeping me up. I'm searching for a dentist on my insurance plan...but no luck just yet. I've contemplated having the dear husband knock me for a loop, but he keeps shaking his head no and muttering something about how he was raised not to hit a girl...le sigh!! So...what's a girl to do when sleep alludes her and she has all this time on her hands??? Why...try to learn algebra of course!!

Now you have to understand ,in high school, algebra was the first and only class that I failed. My first teacher wasn't the best of help and I admit that after him, I just sorta tuned out and didn't even really try. And it wasn't like I was a total idiot...I mean I was in honors classes in other subjects, but it just got frustrating when you need help and it isn't forthcoming. I wish now that I would have applied myself more...in everything really...because over the past few days I've been working through a copy of the dear husband's refresher algebra book and I've actually been understanding and enjoying most of it! Who would have thunk?!

I've also been looking over old-world maps and compasses because...well... they are things that I've always liked and they evoke thoughts of exploration and adventure. I could use a bit of both of the later, right now. I've been dreaming of Cairo...Istanbul...the Amazon...ah, exotic lands, foods, cultures! Okay so there would be bugs, poisonous snakes, not to mention restless natives...that's all part of adventure and exploration right?! Alright...so maybe it's better in dreams and fantasies, but it does sound awfully tempting doesn't it? Set your sights on the horizon and follow the compass north!

Where would you want your map or compass to lead you??

I am alive...sort of....

I haven't been around the past few days because I haven't been feeling ship-shape. Between my allergies driving me batty and having a toothache, all I've wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep. This isn't going to be much of a post either, but I just wanted to take a moment to send my congratulations out to a friend and a cousin of mine. They both had new babies on the same day!

Congrats Betsy and Husband on having your beautiful little girl Athena! May she grow in grace and beauty every day of her life!Congrats to my cousin Josh and his wife, Maggie, on the birth of their son, Tristan! It's hard to believe Josh that you are now a father of three, because I can remember when I was still your "Big Sissy" and we were playing Ninja Turtles! May all three of your boys grow up into the strong, handsome men that their father is today!

Well, I hope you all have a great day!!!!

I wouldn't normally ask...

I normally wouldn't come here to ask this, but I have a need of your prayers. I have really been praying lately that God would show me the career path He would have me choose and until last evening, I thought that would lead me towards nursing or something similar. Well yesterday, I sat reading 2 Chronicles 7:14, " If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways;then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." and I started praying that the verse would become my prayer for our country. I then prayed that I would always remember to follow not after my own heart, but after God's heart and almost immediately I heard the word, "minister". I was a little like...um excuse me...huh?! Um...what exactly does that mean and are you sure that you don't want the fellow down the street?? " Minister???" Really?? Do you not remember who I am?? I have to confess that as a career for me, a minister of any kind has been the furthest thing from my mind. But all that aside, what I am asking for is that you pray that God will not only make it abundantly clear to me exactly what He means by "minister", but also that He will prepare me for anything and give me an open, obedient heart! I thank-you ahead of time and will definitely keep you posted!

Wonders and Beauty

Last night, I was lucky to catch a program on about the Hubble telescope and some of the images it's captured. As some of you may know, the astronauts that are currently working on the telescope are scheduled to be the last ones to do so.


I was first struck by the beauty and amazement of how wonderfully different each and every single one of the stars, nebulae, and galaxies are.

Then I started thinking about something else that totally took my breath away and left me feeling so humbled and speechless.Amid all the vastness, brilliance, complexity, and motion of our universe ,God still saw fit to bring me into existence!And not only did he bring lil ole me into existence, but He also loves me and provided a way of salvation for me.The same God that put everything we see, everything in the universe into motion, still cares and loves me enough to be concerned over my every need! How wondrous and beautiful is that? If that doesn't give you pause for thought and send shivers up your spine, I don't know what will!

I hope you all have a wonderful blessed weekend!

A Love Story In The Making....

It was going to be the day she ended it all. She was tired of life and the constant pitfalls and storms it seemed bound and determined to send her way. Thankfully, she had early release from school, so she knew no one would be home to stop her. On a whim, she decided to log onto the cyber world and bid her friends there a good-bye, though she highly doubted anyone would miss her there even. The"Coffee Cellar", her friend Jen flirting with some guy as usual...Jen always seemed to find someone to flirt with. She sat reading their words till another guy friend of Jen's entered the chat room and Jen focused all her attention onto him with a "running tackle" to welcome him in. There sat poor Nemo...typing away about how he wished someone would "tackle" him and even though she figured it wasn't worth it...she decided to try to "Steal" one of Jen's guys. Little could she have known that the decision to start chatting with Nemo would lead her far away not only from the action of taking her own life, but also towards finding the love of her life. Over the next few days she and Nemo chatted constantly and then they decided they wanted to talk over the phone. His coming into her life at that time, was not only perfect timing as far as stopping the suicide, but also because even rougher waters were up ahead for her. Her parents began the long, painful, and drawn out process of a nasty divorce and when she felt that she had no one to turn to...Nemo was there waiting. Offering support and a shoulder to cry on...even if it was a few hundred miles away. That year she graduated High school and he enlisted in the Navy, but before he was sent away to boot camp, he made a special trip to Texas to visit her. Those two weeks sealed and cemented their relationship and they knew that they had both come to care deeply for each other. The year would pass quickly(though not as quick as they wanted) and they spent Christmas together with his family. They wouldn't see each other for 5 months after that and believe me...their phone bills showed it! Then one day in March of 2001, as they were talking, she playfully told him that she was going to move to Alaska so as to be as far from him as possible and his reply to that was that he hoped it wasn't true because he had been thinking about asking her something all day. Now, she had an inkling of what it might be, but not wanting to get her hopes up she told him to ask away and before she could fully understand...he'd said those magical words she'd waited a lifetime to hear...."Well, I was wondering if you would Marry me?" Without a hesitation and with all her heart and soul...she declared YES! They would finally see each other again in May of that year and in her grandmother's kitchen, with her daddy as minister, they became man and wife. They would go on in July of that year to have a wedding too, so that his family might be there and share in the joy and love they had found. Over the next few years they had some rocky times...almost called it all off, but now that they are coming up on their 8th year of marriage, they find they are even more in love with each other than ever before and hope and pray to continue that way for the rest of their lives....

Well, as you can probably tell this is the love story, or rather just the beginning, of the love story of my husband and I. We've had our ups and downs, but have truly come to realize and be thankful for the gift we have in each other. So, now that you know how we meet...would you want to share the story of you and your spouse? Would love to hear about it!

Some Awards To Hand Out...

So I thought today would be a perfect day to give out some awards to people whose blogs I have come to cherish and admire!

I would firstly like to give the above award to Doris the Great and Barbara for the lovely job they've done on their sites! Thank-you two for sharing with us a part of the beauty that is you!

I would love to give this award to both Carmen Gamble and Linda for their inspirational blogs! Thank both of you for always having such uplifting and thought provoking topics! What a wonderful gift you bring the world!

And last, but not least I wanted to give this award to Kathryn Magendie and Angie Ledbetter for having two blogs that I always turn to for a dose of help with writing! I admire the dedication and thoughtfulness you both put into the act of writing and I am thankful to have found such amazing blogs as your's!

A List

So the other day the thought occurred to me, what would be some of the top five things that I would want to do, if I knew I only had a year left to live. Well, obviously I would want to spend time with my family and friends and make sure I left my affairs in order...but if I could do 5 of my deepest wishes, what would they be. So, here's my top 5:

1.)Take a photography class( I think it would be interesting to see what I would find worthy of capturing in a photo.)

2.) Learn another language.( This is something that I've always wanted to do and hey if you don't do it then...when could you??)

3.)Get my pilot's license.( This actually came as a bit of surprise to me even , but I realize that after watching the pilots that train here on the base, I would love to be able to know what it's like to know how to fly a plane.)

4.)Buy my own home.( Since the dear husband and I have to be always ready to move, this has been a dream of ours from the beginning)

5.) Finally ride a rollercoaster.(Okay, so I admit...I've never actually been on one because I've always been a bit scared of them...but if I were dying it would definitely be a time I wouldn't want to let me fears get in the way of the little bit of living I had left to do!)

There is my list...it isn't full of totally ambitious things, but I think it's an interesting one and I've even started to take steps to actually working my way through a part of my list. I am beginning a new program to teach myself another language!What about yourselves? If you want, send me your lists and with your permission I'll post them for others to see and be inspired by! Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Because of the night...

A soft wind lifted up the branches and caused leaves to dance with cloud and stars. I lay on our back patio and stared up into the night sky, awash in thought and the illusion of thousands of years falling away. I was an Egyptian princess lost in the night...whispering out the name of my lover and with it the magical incantations to bring him to my arms. The stars overhead circle the sky and the moon lends her wings to my lover's feet. He is there suddenly, standing before me...looking deeply into my painted eyes and as our breathes mingle he calls my name. Bam...back thousands of years and I am once again me...happy wife of a loving man...half sphinx and half woman...a modern girl connecting in heart to the woman of long ago that loved her man and under the same night sky that saw it all.

A Letter Returned....

So as I mentioned earlier today, the dear husband and I had a meeting with Cpl. Robert McMahon's daughter. We waited at the bookstore cafe and at around 2 p.m. Ms. Tina McMahon arrived and greeted us. She was very grateful to have the letter back and we sat and talked for well over an hour. She told us that her father had come back to the states after leaving the army and became a geologist. He did that for several years, but hated how the companies he worked for kept him out of town a lot, so he finally settled in here and opened a little bait and tackle shop over on Padre Island. Her father and mother had two children, Tina, and an older brother and her mother passed away last year. Tina told us that at first she was a little confused, when my dear husband called because, the doctor that had administered her mother's dialysis shares the exact name of my dear husband! It was really great to sit and talk with Tina and we found we had so much in common and though we aren't certain yet, they even might be relations of mine! Before we parted, we exchanged numbers and the dear husband and I are planning to invite Tina to have dinner with us sometime this coming week. I'm so thankful and so happy that I was able to return something to not only Tina, but her father as well. It makes me feel very blessed!

Update on the letter...

I just wanted to give you all a little update on the letter we found last night. We did manage to find Cpl. Robert W. McMahon and in fact he lives here in Corpus Christi. He is 93 yrs old now and my dear husband was able to contact a daughter that we are going to meet this afternoon to return the letter. I'm very excited about this and will let you know how things went!

A Fun Little Find

The dear husband wanted to make a visit to our favorite little book corner, so this evening found us strolling through it's story-strewn walls. While he scoped out the role-playing games, I decided to browse through their antique section. I found a couple of lovely children's books I would love to have( I collect antique children's books...with one of my favorites being published in 1853), but moved on to look over other works. My fingers came across a copy of " Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam-by Edward Fitzgerald", I opened it up and on the first page there was a letter from 1945. That sealed it for me and I had to have the book. I worried a bit that the cashier might take it out, but he left it there and once in the car I had to read it! My husband and I sat wrapt up in the words of one Cpl. Robert McMahon and felt so lucky to have found such a wonderful little note! It seems to be a letter home to his family and he talks about how he hopes to only have to be in San Francisco for little over a year, now that the war was over...and how he'd sent a Billy(I assume a brother) some money from Japan. It wasn't a long letter, but he did talk about how he went to the show nearly every night and how the week before he had gotten to see the world premiere of "Big Sleep" with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I don't quite know how to explain the feelings this little piece of history has inspired in me, but I am kinda excited that now I get to be the guardian of something like this. I plan to try to do a bit of research and see if I can find out anything more about the young man that wrote this letter. The dear husband and I sat and wondered how life turned out for him...when did he get to go home again...did he ever marry....those kinds of things. If I find out anything more, I'll be sure to let you all know! Just had to share what a fun little find I made tonight!

Silly Picture Day photos

As promised here they are:

Gone DogFishin'

* I know that I promised to post the results from "Silly Picture Day" last night, and didn't, but I do promise to get them up tomorrow. Right now though, I just had to brag about our adventures in the growing sport of dogfishing.

You know it'll be a great day for dogfishing when the morning sky is cloaked in billowy waves of rosy-hued cotton and the mourning doves, seagulls, and blackbirds are joined in three part harmony. The dear husband and I rose from our bed, with eager anticipation for what the day might bring and after a few hours spent beach-combing for the ever elusive gold doubloon, we headed on back to try to get in a few hours of dogfishing. Now the sport of dogfishing is a fairly new event and requires relatively small capital for the initial investment.

Now, you'll want to purchase a time tested lure, such as the one you see above. Usually the furrier and squeaker the lure, the better the dogfish like them. I've yet to see one that can resist the charms of such a lure for too long! Oh and don't worry about hooks or any other such nonsense, since dogfish(or it's latin name fishiuscaninus) have pretty strong teeth and once they've sunk those babies into your lure...all you have to do is reel them on in!

Next, you'll want to find you the cosiest and most comfortable couch or chair in your very own living room. The best dogfishing spots tend to be in the living rooms or family rooms of your own home, so no real travel costs there! And hey...you'll always have a place keep those cold beverages too!If it seems like you just can't get a nibble, no matter how hard you might try...DON'T GIVE UP HOPE!! Sometimes dogfishing can be slow going, so that's why it's important to also bring along either a book, the radio, or even that ole idiot box, the T.V. But make sure that you don't get too involved in any of those things because dogfishing is a sport where the more attention you pay to it, the better it pays off!Before you know it...your diligence and patience will pay off and suddenly there will be a flurry of activity. The dogfish will start to show a great deal of interest and might even decide to take the bait!Be careful however, not to be too eager to reel the dogfish in, because that tends to scare them away! The bigger ones are the most cautious and have been around just a big longer than the rest of them.Whether it's the small and agile dogfish that you catch.....or the bigger, trickery ones....you can't get a bad one in the bunch when you've gone dogfishin'! Why not give it a try today!

*Paid for by the association of dogfishersRus

Something to tide you over...

Because I'm sure you all can't wait for the photos...I knew it might be a good idea to leave you with a little something:

THE GREAT PUPPY WARS OF TWENTY-09

No one even remembers what started it all, but the Great Puppy Wars of Twenty-09 were the puppy wars to end all puppy wars. It was between the:

BEDGUARDIAS

And the....

COUCHSLEEPIANS

Both sides fought, tumbled, crashed, crawled, fumbled, pillaged, and plundered....

The wars raged on and just when it seemed as if there were no hope left in sight...the Masterowni stepped in:

And taught the Bedguardias and the Couchsleepians how to live in peace and harmony....

THE END.....OR IS IT????!!!!!!!

For a bit of fun.....

Today we are having silly picture day, where one of us will grab the camera and declare "Silly picture day" and the other has to grab a prop from on hand and take a funny picture. I'll be posting some of our favorites later this evening, but wanted to challenge you all to take a silly picture of yourselves today and post them! Hope you'll have fun!

HE'S HOME!!!

So last evening, my dear husband came home! There aren't words enough to describe how wonderful it is to have my man back! Everything didn't go exactly as I had planned it, but you know what...it turned out the better for it! Over the next few days I'll post some pictures of our little party, but for now I hope you'll enjoy these...Well, I couldn't leave these two out of the whole spirit of things. Even if they had to wait here at home for their "dad", I wanted them to be able to share in the excitement!My friend Christina's husbad came in on the same flight as my dear husband did, so we went to the airport together. It was nice to have someone there to talk to, so I didn't get so nervous waiting. That is her beautiful daughter Hope with her and off to the side is her son, Cantrell. They were so happy to see their dad last night!Cantrell and I had to get our picture taken too. He's a great kid and was showing me how to play Mario on his Nintendo DS.And finally...there we are...so happy to be back with each other again! I can't get over how handsome he still looks, even if he did spend practically all day going from airport to plane to airport to plane and back to airport again!