They're having a birthday!

Two of the men in my life have birthdays today.

  My firstborn is 40 today.  An incredible testimony to how fast our lives pass.  Forty.  Seems I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E.

Impossible to go from your first cup of coffee.......

to being 40!  

I love you son.  I pray this is the best year.   You have made incredible strides this year and I'm so thankful and proud!

And this man....

What a special gift from God!

Every year he just grows dearer and sweeter.  He's the most patient man I've ever known.....and believe me when I say I try his patience with my anxious personality.  He is truly happy almost all the time.  Russell will come home after working a 10 hour day and walk in the door like he's just gotten up in the morning!  He wakes up happy and he goes to bed happy!

He loves the Lord, his family, his work and his church.  He has a servant's heart and he has had my heart for the last 18 1/2 years!  This year we will celebrate 15 years of marriage and I can honestly say that though those years have been full of trials and heartaches, Russell has always been a calm place in rough seas!  

He can make me laugh in the most dismal of moments.  Just a small example!  Several years ago, I was frustrated over something (who knows what now?) and he was trying to soothe me.  I turned to him like a shrew who could not be tamed and said I'm going to knock you to New York City!  One of our sons was standing nearby and Russell said, with a laugh, Grab on Tommy, we're going to New York!  Who can ever be mad at him???

This is the birthday wish Russell got from Charley.....

His mama wrote this with the picture Hope your birthday is as relaxed as I am! The best gift!

I am so thankful that God brought us together.  I'm so thankful he starts a new year today and I'm so thankful that I get to walk through this year with him.  

OH, it's the last year he'll be in the 50's.  I reminded him of that this morning and he said am I 59???

Today I say how thankful I am to have these two birthday boys in my life.  

Happy Birthday to you both and may God richly bless this year!

Friends.....another year gone by...

These two friends and I have birthdays around the same time and once again they rolled around and we had our annual dinner.  

This year Linda, on left, offered to have us to her home for ours girl's night.  We had a delicious meal and a wonderful visit.  We solved most of the world's problems and laughed until we cried several times.

  We have a such a long history together and celebrate good things and cry together during heartaches, and we have had both in abundance!  

Between us, we have eleven children.  Of those, two are at home in heaven, two have either had or have drug and alcohol problems, at least three don't understand the term grow up, four have given us the gift of grandchildren and all are loved even when they aren't so loveable!  

We three started out as Baptist Young Women and now are in three different denominations, but are all followers of Christ.  We have all had three husbands, although I will say I hold the distinction of having the same one twice before marrying the final one.

Sharon on the right has a daughter six weeks older than my granddaughter and both started college recently.

Bottom line, we three are getting old!

Happy Birthday friends, until next year!

Go on......

Please take a minute or two and go over to Mercy Uganda  ....... we have a new post up there.

Thanks!

A walk, a rescue and a reminder

Lately I've been eating like it was my full time job and I was getting a bonus a little too much and exercising not as much!  So this morning I just bit the bullet, put on my walking shoes and off I went to the brand new dedicated walk/run/bike trail just up the road from our home.  The weather outside was frightening with dark clouds all around but I figured I had just about time to walk before it rained.

I hadn't been walking long when I saw a turtle hightailing it across the road.  The cars were stopped on either side.  Praying he wasn't a snapping turtle, but knowing it would probably thunder soon if he was, I walked out, gingerly picked him up nearer to his back end .......just to be on the safe side.......and put him way off the road heading into the woods.  I'm sure he wasn't happy because he really wanted to get across that road!  I wish I had gotten a picture of him but I forgot my phone is also a camera.  But he really did look a lot like this actual snapping turtle.

Here are some pictures I did take though....

A bank toward the end of my walk...I suddenly remembered my phone takes pictures.   I like this part of the walk because it's shady!

I tried hard to stay under the speed limit!

This cemetery is also on my path.  For several years a sweet older man would come every day rain or shine and sit in a lawn chair by what I assumed was his wife's headstone.  He would have an umbrella always up to keep off the sun and the rain.  I haven't seen him now in a long time and that's all I need to say about that.

And last, but certainly not least, a mother duck with her older ducklings.  A gentle reminder that our babies may get older but they might still try to follow us everywhere!   Mama duck is probably thinking Could you please stop that incessant quacking!

I made it home with just a few sprinkles of rain.  When I got in the garage the bottom fell out and the rain came down!
Now if only I can make myself walk every day!  If not, I'll be waddling like mama duck!

Bits and Pieces

Last night as I was crying over my computer not doing something.....youngest son says you know Macs are usually very intuitive.  To which I replied hysterically....

So am I, but I didn't intuitively know this computer was NOT my friend!

I then found out the network was down and not my computer.  O.K. so who knew???

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I am trying to go through a wonderful little book called 

Too Wonderful For Me

Studies from Job

by

Emalyn Spencer

I bought this book years ago and it is no longer in print, but if you're interested, you can probably get a used one on Am*zon.com

Although my blog is not in any way a theological blog.....I took it's name from this verse in Job...  Chapter 42: 3.  I confess that most of the time in life I, along with I would guess many of you, don't understand why things happen the way they do.  I also understand, even though I forget this,  that I don't have to know why things happen the way they do.  

A friend said to me recently......

I don't see believing God as a choice...

Trusting God is not a choice....

Hope in God is not a choice...

Not a direct quote, just the way I remember.

Oh, that I might repeat this every day along with every Christian.  Our hope IS in God and we have hope in nothing else.  In chapter 42 of the book of Job after he hears God in the whirlwind, Job makes the confession we should all make....

Job 42:3b & 5

Therefore I have uttered what I do not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

When I start to question God, I need to read what God says to Job out of the whirlwind in chapters 38-41.  Re-read those chapters if it's been awhile....it will make you realize anew how small we are and what a BIG God we serve.

***************

We had a nice, long weekend at a nearby state park last weekend.  We saw this...

Le Gr*and C*rque.  I don't enjoy events that put me in a large group of people.  My DH knows that and got end row seats which made it a better experience.  It was amazing to see people move their bodies the way they do....AMAZING!

We did a little of this......

The weather didn't permit a lot of beach time and as you can see, there was lots of seaweed.  But we don't mind the seaweed because we know that is the way nature works to rebuild beaches.  When we got in from the gulf and took off our bathing suits, we were covered in algae!   It rinses right off, no harm done!

This made me unhappy!

If you click on this picture you will notice three 4 wheel type vehicles on the beach.  These were from the not to be named controversial oil company.  I suppose they were looking for oil......I'm sure they did more damage to the beach than good because they were going way too fast (not to mention that the beach just was not made for vehicles!) and were way too far up to see any oil!  If they had stopped and walked the beach they would have seen there was NO OIL just seaweed.  There were actually four of these vehicles altogether, two to four men in each.

We did a lot of relaxing with good books and a little napping too!

These two were overjoyed that it poured all day Sunday which meant we had to stay put with them all day.

Thanks DH for a nice, relaxing weekend.

The week is already half over....how does this happen???

Friday and it's stories....

Just a little of this and that to sum up the week.

Monday started out great with a massage....that always makes the week go better.  And not that I need to justify having massages, but since I'm probably the guiltiest person in the universe.....I feel I must.  I clean my own house and mow my own yard because I'd rather have a massage than a clean house. Just kidding!  Sort of.....

Had lunch with mama then came home to wash all the clothes in the entire world...are some of you bringing your clothes and slipping them into my basket??  

My very sweet MIL took us out to eat Monday night for my birthday which I like to stretch out as long as possible.  Picture above.....


Hubby did point out that it is now HIS birthday month !  


Tuesday a sweet group of mamas and children came over to swim.  The kids are all learning to swim and it is so much fun to watch!  

This is especially nice for me since my grandchildren don't live near.

Wednesday my MIL and I rode over to an airport so she would know the way when she picks my SIL up in a few weeks.  We had such a nice time, stopping to shop a little then to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Grand Blvd.  La Cantina Laredo....so good.  We waddled back to the car to come back home.  On the way home I got a call from my brother that mama was sick, so I dropped MIL off at her car and went to mama's.  She was so sick!  Her temperature was subnormal, yet she was sweating and just had lots of symptoms.  Thankfully, we got her doctor on the phone and she didn't have to make an awful trip to the ER!  

Later that day I got a call from my DIL in California......don't panic but Paul's in ICU.  He may have had a stroke.   Thankfully he just had a small TIA and needs to be on cholesterol medicine and aspirin.  He hasn't had the healthiest lifestyle in the past so I pray he will from now on, and have been praising God for watching over him.  No matter how old they get .....and he has a big birthday this month...they are always and forever our babies.

Whew, the week is going forth and I'm kind of thinking about avoiding Thursday and Friday!

Thursday we had another swimming time.....later in the afternoon I drove Matt to the airport to catch a flight to Minnesota to his granny's 90th birthday celebration.  Tommy, Claudia and Charley went too, but flew out of Orlando.  Matt's flight was uneventful.  Tommy, Claudia and Charley had an adventure but did get there eventually.

AND finally Friday.....


As a nice end to a lonnnnggg week, we had dinner with Russell's mom and his niece and nephew who were visiting.

Patrick and Kristen 

Thanks Mema for dinner!  


I did actually have a weekend.  Saturday, a baby shower and Sunday a great day at church and of course our Biblical nap :)


I can hardly believe it's already Wednesday of the next week. ....I'm having trouble with that time management thing!


This week is going fast, but I still have things to say!  Next time!

Another one.....

You know what I mean.  It comes around once every single, solitary year.......ready or not....it's your birthday.  You're another year older and maybe a teeny bit wiser, but probably not.

The weekend started on Friday with lunch at mama's for my brother's birthday....you may recall he was my eighth birthday present.  Michael's looking very happy in this picture isn't he? 

I want to say thank you to my mama for giving birth to me and not selling me to the gypsies during my teen years!  No one could have a better mama than we do.  We are truly blessed!

A few weeks before my birthday, my sweet husband called and said he had reserved a place at one of our favorite RV parks for the weekend.  Since it was such a short trip and so blazing hot, we decided no cooking.....code for no cooking for Russell.....because, as we all know I do NOT cook on vacation.   If you're not very careful, cooking can become a really bad habit! 

Instead we went to lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant near the park.  Then.... because it was much too hot to sit on the beach.....and we forgot our umbrellas, we decided to go shopping.

Like real authors sometimes do, I'm going to flash back to the morning of said birthday.  We started with a long bike ride along 30A.  Did I mention it was HOT? We stopped at a public access to the beach and got someone to take our picture with the beach in the background.

Russell got ahead of me quickly because it was hot  and I was pedaling as fast as I could. 

Even though school was not in session, I tried not to exceed the 20 mph speed limit. 

We were happy to see the pet hospital....one of our dogs usually needs emergency treatment as soon as they realize we are away from home.  Thankfully, we didn't have to call on the vet.  But isn't that a nice name?

After riding about 3 miles with only one bottle of water, Russell says oh, I didn't bring any money!  We turned around and started back as I was feeling like an ice cream and we had no money!

On the ride back, we saw this guy and I thought maybe he was having bike trouble, but when I asked he said no, he had stopped to look at this snake....which I hadn't noticed.  Obviously being from another planet and thinking I was some kind of snake oil saleswoman handler, he asked if I would pick up the snake so he could look at it's head.  I'm thinking about this time about going back and seeing if the vet would give the guy a shot of something because he was delusional if he thought I was picking up a snake (it was dead) when big, strong guy that he was.....he was afraid to even touch it with his bike tire.

I called to Russell to come back and look at the snake.  The man who obviously had had a heat stroke, asked what kind of snake it was.....you will notice I didn't say he asked Russell to pick the snake up......so I guess I looked like the dummy who could possibly be persuaded to do such a bizarre thing!

Russell pronounced it to probably be a moccasin and I bid the stranger good day and we left him there trying to decide if he should touch it or not.

Finally, we rode back into the park, which incidentally is a birding trail.  I don't recall seeing a lot of birds, but then maybe they all opted for staying in the shade since it was so HOT.

They did not want our dogs on the beach....which was o.k. with the dogs since it was so HOT.

We believe this sign, we think this is the best park too!

I was honestly pedaling as hard as my poor, tired legs would go and taking pictures at the same time.

Not too bad for a moving, amateur photographer huh?
Just one of the pretty little lakes in the park.

I was so thankful when we got here and saw our home away from home waiting.

Saturday night after a day of biking, eating and shopping, we were just relaxing when a bad thunderstorm started.  The power in the RV park went out and it was as dark as a cave!  We had power in the motorhome, but I was so sorry for the tent campers!  Not only were they already hot, now they were most likely wet and hovering in those tents hoping not to be hit by lightning.

Another year has gone.   Looking forward to the next!

Oh, and just an added note.....I officially love facebook.  I got over 50 birthday wishes....I feel so honored!  Thanks to all!