Some Awesome News!

I am so thrilled to tell you that I received the results of the MRI on my knee. I do not need to have surgery! There is damage to the cartilage on the inside of the meniscus (the cartilage under the knee cap). He said that it did not merit surgery and if I keep on taking care of it as I have, the need of arthroscopic surgery could be as far out at 10 years! (Sorry, this next stuff if kind of gross.) He drain a lot of fluid off the knee and put in another cortisone shot in it and I don't need to return until January 2010!

God is so good to allow all the events that led of up this so that I would not damage my knee any further. I am not allowed to kneel or squat (ever again), but I can live with that!

I am in the projectionist booth at church right now and service as begun . . so. . . I need to stop for now.

Have a wonderful Sunday evening!

Love,

. . but have you ever . . .?

July the 4th -- family -- friends -- food -- fun -- fireworks -- thunder storms ? ? ? You read right -- thunder storms -- severe thunder storms and wind!

Our small town has a city-wide celebration complete with fireworks. The day began with overcast skies that lasted the entire day. As darkness began to set it, we heard the fireworks begin. The festivities were across the street from us, so we stepped out on our front porch to watch the show. Very shortly after the display started, it began to rain. Did you know that a fireworks display can be quite beautiful even in the pelting rain and wind? Here are a few pictures. (For all you Photoshop gurus, sorry, but they are unedited.)

The raindrops were falling and the fireworks continued.

The rain began coming down much harder.
I turned on my camera's flash and it captured the rain drops.
The red spots in the center are the fireworks. The white spots are the rain.

Then . . the wind began blowing.
You can see the fireworks slanted to the right (east).
The wind was coming from the west.

This picture is very blurry in part due to the pelting rain but you can see
what the wind was doing to them.

Notice the how the top of the tree on the right is bent.
We were surprised that they kept setting them off.

This was near the end.

I'm not sure if this was their planned finale
or they were just trying to complete the job.

Fire drifting in the wind.

After the storm.
The sky was so mysterious and beautiful. The camera fails to capture the beauty.

This sunset reminds me that we may go through storms in our lives, but God has a golden "sky" waiting for us in the end. He has new mercies for us each and every day.

Love,

Happy Birthday, America!

Happy 233rd Birthday, America!

Love,

Scripture Memory Challenge

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother's womb."

Psalm 139:13

I can remember reading this particular verse when I was a young girl. I marvelled at the thought of God being so personable! How well He knows us, dear ones! There's never anything that we cannot share with Him. He knows! He wants us to tell Him of our concerns, hurts and joys. Let's make Him a vital part of our lives each and every day!

Love,

Smooth as a baby's . . .

When I was a little girl (around first grade), we had a sweet Cocker Spaniel. She was so black that in the sunlight you could see a hint of blue. She had big, loving brown eyes and was the absolute best pet ever. In fact, she looked very much like the dog in the picture on the right.

She had one very unique feature -- she had NO tail -- not even a stub! Her backside was as smooth as a baby's behind -- with hair, -- lots of hair. When she was happy or got excited, she wiggled her backside. Poor thing, she didn't have a tail or even a stub to wag, all she could do was wiggle. So we named her Wiggles. (I sure hope that didn't annihilate her self-esteem. If so, she never let on.)

One day, when she was curled up napping, I sat down beside her and gave her a big hug . . . only to realize that I was at the wrong end! Oooops! No tail to identify which end was which!

Wiggles lived for several years. It was a sad day when she went to meet her Maker. My Dad buried her in a special place on our farm. We still remember sweet Wiggles. Somehow , through all these years, she has continued to stand out as an especially beloved pet.

A boy + dog just seems natural. My son loves dogs and has had a number of them through the years. Pets are a lot of work for Mama's but they sure bring warmth to a home. Not only warmth, but countless hours of joy. (They never tell your secrets!) They are always so excited to see you and love unconditionally. Actually, they are great examples for us. We should show excitement around our family and friends when we are in their presence, and we should love them unconditionally. We could learn some things from our pets - don'tcha think?

Did you or do you have a special pet(s) that are a part of your family? Maybe there was a special pet in your childhood. I would love to hear your story!

Love,

Saturday Cartoons

Isn't interesting how our senses stir up memories? I grew up on a peanut farm in Caddo County, Oklahoma. I remember beautiful, cool summer mornings with birds chirping outside my bedroom window. Fast forward ?? years, and I still love hearing the birds sing in the morning. Most any day I can step out on our patio and hear their arias and sometimes just simple morning chatter.

Last week I heard a woodpecker trying it's best to bore a hole in the metal gutters on the parsonage. Loony bird! His beak must have been "Z" shaped by the time he gave up. I could just imagine how his poor little head must have been buzzing! I wonder if he saw stars!

Anyway, the woodpecker brought back memories of another woodpecker from my childhood -- the famous "Woody Woodpecker"! Remember him?

He was such a feisty little character!

When Mr. Lantz was looking for the right voice for the Woody Woodpecker cartoon show, his wife auditioned without revealing who she was. When her husband heard her interpretation of what a woodpecker might sound like, he loved it and hired the voice -- not know it was his wife! Isn't that a hoot?!!

Saturday morning cartoons -- being a carefree kid -- lovin' life! Remember?

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Love,

Not a good idea

It never pays to get in a hurry, does it? And . . most certainly, it's never a good idea to try to do something when one really DOESN'T have the time to do the job -- correctly -- or -- even at all.

Here's what happened last night:

All week I had been trying to polish my fingernails. So last night I had two or three extra minutes (that alone should have sent off some alarms) before leaving for church, so I thought I would get the job done. (The stirring wheel is a great place to let nail polish dry.) Anyway, . . . . . . the polish bottle slipped out of my hand and polish went all over the bathroom floor, the wall, the leg of my jeans, my shoe and on the bathmat! My NEW bathmat!

I quickly grabbed the polish remover and began cleaning the floor and wall. Next was my shoe then my jeans (which still bore hint of polish). Now, I'm standing there looking at white polish on my blue bathmat. (White because I was going to do a a quick french tip.) I didn't have time to clean the bathmat so I grabbed the mat and put it in the sink to soaked in water, which turned out to be overnight.

This morning I put the mat in the washing machine to spin out the excess water so I could see what was left to clean. Some of the polish actually did come out but I still had more to clean. You can still see some of the polish in the picture. It looked much worse last night.

I'm to say proud that I did get all of the polish out of the rug, off the floor, off the baseboard , off my shoe, and out of my jeans! No evidence of the incident visible. Whew!!

I am very tempted to call myself stupid - - however, I've started the Bible study, "Me, Myself, & Lies" by Jennifer Rothchild. (It's about self talk.) So I guess I'd better restrain myself and not give in to the temptation!

Note to self: Sweet thing, don't do that again!

Love,

1st Birtday Party

Sunday was the day of the big birthday party! Yes, it was on Father's Day, but it worked well for us and the guests. Here are some pictures from his special day:

"Hi! I'm the guest of honor.
I am 1 year old."

"This was my Daddy's hat! How do I look!"

"This is how the big boys wear it, Mom."

"Uh . . hey buddy, I think you've got yours on backwards!"

"Oh Dawlin! That looks simply smashing on you!"

The candles are lit.

Take a B-I-G breath! Now . . . BLOW!

"
What?!!! Another smash cake?!!"

"You've got to admit -- I've conquered this thing!"

The loot!

"Oh, boy! Presents!"

"Now, is there a crib in the house? I'm ready for a nap!"

This little darling is walking and tries so hard to hold a conversation with whomever will listen ;) He has an outgoing personality and loves people -- especially little people! We are so blessed to have him in our life.

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to share in Grammy's brag-post . . . . . .again! :)

Love,

The tenth picture . . .

I was tagged by Cathy at Tales of the TCKK Family I am supposed to post the 10th picture in the 1st folder in my picture files. There wasn't 10 pictures so I posted the 9th.

This is a picture of my mother (2nd from the left) and her friends on a toboggan. This was before she married my father. She lived in Southern California and they went to mountains to "play".

I couldn't resist adding a couple more of her on that day. In the next picture, her friend is trying to put a snowball down her back



In this next picture, mom is on the right. She was so fun. We had so many laughs and fun times together. I miss her and dad. (I don't have any pictures of dad on my computer.)

I'm in the process (it's turning into a loooooog one) of working on some genealogy scrapbooks. I want to record what I remember and what I've learned through research to put in these scrapbooks so that my grandchildren will know about their ancestors. If I don't, I fear that many facts and stories will be lost forever. It may seem a little strange to say this, but preserving their memories in these books feels like a way of loving them. And . . . I do love them!

Love,

Revealed by popular demand!

Due to an overwhelming number of requests, ( all 4 or 5 of you) *insert applause* (lol) here are the results of the birthday cakes. Yes, I said cakes.

This is Little Slugger's cake.

There wasn't a pan available for the glove. So I bought a 16" round pan,
Googled a suitable picture, zoomed it to size, transferred it to waxed paper,
cut the cake in the shape of the glove, crumb coated the cake

and then transferred the details to the cake.
After that it was time to outline all the details then fill in with "stars".

I purchased the largest cake board I could find but as you can see,
it barely fit in the board.

I carved a little ball and placed it in the glove.
The cake was milk chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting (so yuumy).
Here's a side view.

This ball cake was the original plan, but when the pan arrived
it was obvious that it would not yield enough servings for the number of guests
invited (mostly adults -- how many little friends can the average
one-year-old have anyway!) :)
The ball cake was coconut.
(If you like Mounds candy bars, this cake with the chocolate buttercream
could seriously send you over the edge!)


And . . . of course we needed another smash cake.


My DIL did a superb job of putting the party together.
Since the part began at 1:00 p.m, she served a pizza lunch
with salads and fruit tray (all homemade).

Here's Little Slugger's table.
My DIL make white chocolate baseball suckers for the kids.
They are on the right end of the table.


I have some cute pics from the party that I'll post tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have an awesome Monday!

Love,