If you are lucky enough to have a garden.........you are lucky enough!!

I recently have been coresponding with a second cousin that I didn't know existed. She lives in New Zealand and her grandpa and my grandpa were brothers. So this morning I was on a quest...looking for an old photograph I had promised a friend and at the same time looking for a copy of the family record book I had put together back in 1983. Wow...good thing the date was printed on the back cover because I had told my cousin that I thought I had done it about 15 years ago. OOPS...more like 27 years ago. But in my search for these items I got lost in a sea of old photographs and old memories. Pictures of my Grandma and Grandpa...pictures of my Mom...pictures of my husband (all in heaven now) and lots and lots of pictures of flowers.

The love of flowers and plants and digging in the dirt is the hertitage passed from my Grandpa....to Mom....to me...and then to my daughter. Take a look at my nails this time of the year and you can eaasily tell that yes I have the digging in the dirt gene.  I'll have to remember to ask my new cousin if she also inherited this gene.

Mom was a lover of cut flowers..if she saw a flower growing she just had to pick it and make an arrangement. She owned and operated a florist shop most of her "retirement" years. She was self taught and in her element when fussing with her flowers.

Now I love cut flowers also but my favorite place to view flowers is in the dirt.....right where God planted them. With my help of course!!

My secret garden!!

My fancy friend!!

 

I have a good friend...I call her my fancy friend. The first of the week her husband Terry lost his long time battle with cancer, and my friend Kay lost her best friend. This morning over-whelmed with the pain she must be going through I wrote this poem for her.

A Candle for Terry!

Here's a candle for you, it's just a flicker of light

but it will remind you of him and help with the night.

When the world is dark and you are missing him so

just light the candle and be embraced by the glow.

It broke your heart to loose him but he did not go alone

for part of you went with him when God called him home.

I know your heart is sad with all the words you didn't say

just whisper the words to God and they will fly his way.

Just light the candle and think of him with a smile in your soul

and remember his suffering but now he's completely whole.

You didn't get to say goodbye and that is hard to abide

but he was escorted by angels and is now at God's side.

So just light the candle when the pain won't go away

and remember his smile and that is here to stay.

He is in a beautiful new world with no daarkness or pain

and the memories he left will always remain.

When you think of him then he will be near

when you open his favorite wine...his voice you will hear.

So light a candle for he is not really gone

with each flicker of the candle...his memory lives on!!

I love you Kay and my prayers are with you!!

A story just waitiing to be told!

Oh how I do love a good story!! Sometimes a story is just too good to keep to myself, even when my good sense dictates "don't tell anyone". When I was little I would tell stories to my dolls, mainly because no one else wanted to listen. It was then when I realized that any event that happens in my life is a story just waiting to be told.
     My husband would tolerate my stories...he would listen for maybe two or three minutes and then his favorite phrase was "short version". He just didn't realize that to a story teller there just isn't a "short version".  Last night was one of those nights,  "a story just waiting to be told".
     It started out just fine with us four ladies traveling with our little  rented car to the street fair in downtown Palm Springs. We decided to leave a couple hours early so we could visit some of the local shops and then eat dinner before the fair sets up. Parked the car in a perfectly good spot..left our sweaters in the car, read the big blue sign that said two hour parking only till 6:00 PM.  No problem , we'd check around 5:30 and move it if we had to. OK at this point you are probably thinking we got a ticket...nope...no ticket for us. Had a leisurely walk looking for a good restaurant that had great salads. After dinner we decided to go to the car and get our sweaters and the car was gone. It was stolden!! We stood on the very same ground where our car had been parked and turned in circles looking...very confused.  Is this the right street? Why would someone want to steal a "rent a junker" ? What now? Then we noticed the big red sign posted on the pole just below the blue one...cars towed after 5:30 PM.  Wow-ser ...our car has been towed . @#$#. Now what do we do? Just then a police cruiser pulled up and sat there. I was positive God saw our diemma and sent them to help us. OK maybe not since they were the ones that called the tow truck to take our vehicle. They informed us that our vehicle was taken to a lot about one mile away. Thank you God for sending these ncie police officers to take care of us four senior citizens lady's in our distress. OK maybe not since they didn't even offer to drive us there and said we'd better hurry because soon they will be taking it to their downtown lot. That is the quickest mile I think I've ever done. Just in time..the car is still there and so is the tow truck. I paid the tow fee $77.00  and we were out of there and heading back to the street fair. I did ask the tow truck driver if that $77.00 covered the rest of the night....you know like double ideminity...they can't tow us twice for the same offence.
     Lesson learned....read all signs. Red ones and blue ones. Don't automatically assume that police officers are there to help you...but in their defence they did give us directions to the lot.  Where was God in all of this you ask?
      We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14. God knows every aspect of our bodies and   and he gave us free will.  We come to forks in the road as we travel throough life and have choices to make when we come to these forks. If we fail to use the wonderful mind that God gave us sometimes we suffer for the bad choices we make. King David did not live a perfect life, did not always choose the good path, let alone the best path God had offered him. Yet in spite of the bad choices he made "God still blessed him".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KARLI GRACE

In the garden of my heart

a rare beauty grows.

It is a flower picked by angels

Most carefully it was chose.

In making you up

from the very start

I know for a fact

God began with your heart.

For surely some hearts

are much bigger by far

In those that ever show

how special they are.

Some have hearts as deep

and as big as the ocean

and you share your quite freely

with love and devotion.

It's easy to recognize

those with hearts like this

Sincere warmth grows

quite impossible to miss.

You have beauty to look at

and the angels will say

your beauty on the inside

far exceeds in every way!!

Happy Birthday Karli Grace

I love you!!

Grandma Shirley

GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE

HERE IS MOM ON HER 85th BIRTHDAY

THREE GENERATIONS BORN ON FEBRUARY 19th

A picture of Mom on February 19th on her 85th birthday...me born on February 19th (with 5 of my 8 grand kids)...Son Darin also born on February 19th.(with wife Deb)

My mother the original sunshine lady, would always wake me in the mornings with the song, "good morning sunshine". Mom passed away last year and I miss her immensely. She always had a song in her heart. Her last month of life she couldn't talk but it seemed she could still hum whatever hymn was going through her head that day. I was born on my mother's birthday on February 19th and twenty-four years later my son was also born on that day. At the time there was even a write-up in the local paper..."three generations born on February 19th".

Next week Mom would be "86" years old....my birthday will never be the same with out her.

Hiking in Joshua Tree National Park

Yesterday we spent the day hiking and sightseeing in Joshua Tree National Park. We hiked the many trails...climbed numerous rock formations..and stood and gazed over the smog filled valley at the San Andreas fault. Awesome view!

Then home (for another month) to the healing hot mineral waters to soak our hot tired feet.

LaVerne & Shirley's Excellent Adventure!!

Here we are on one of our LaVerne & Shirley Hikes



I’m not exactly sure what possessed three very intelligent (or so I thought)
“60 something” ladies to hike the perimeter of Timothy Lake. Maybe it was the need to do it one more time before...you know… everything gives out. I heard the bladder is the first to go and I can’t imagine hiking anywhere with wet pants, let alone 13 miles around the lake. OK after yesterday I can imagine hiking with wet pants…I’ll get into that later.

We left Bethany at 8:00 AM sharp…back packs…food and water jugs and more than ready for this adventure. We met newly weds Thor and Christine and their 3 children at the lake and at exactly 10:05 we hit the trail with high expectations. Now different people have different reasons for hiking and I hike just because I love nature and gabbing with friends. When packing my fanny pack I crammed all the food it would hold and filled my 22 ounce water bottle. Heck yea 22 ounces is enough water…I was worried about not having enough food. That was my first mistake…and believe me when I say there were many more “mistakes” along the way.

#1….I already mentioned my thinking 13 miles would be a walk in the park. “We can do it”, was our chant. We started out dodging horse poop alone the way and I couldn’t help thinking, “I wish they would clean up after their animals”. With a frown and averted eyes I would step around the obnoxious odor. At approx the half way mark I was just barely missing the poop (feet too tired to step much out of the way) and I no longer required my rests to be “poop Free”.

#2….Oh if I could do it all over again…if only God would give me a do over…I would take more water. If only I had taken more water I would not be known by new friends Thor and Christine “as the woman who steals water”. Yes I admit it and as I write this I must admit that’s not one of my finest moments. Half-way through the hike my bottle is empty and with mouth dry…a headache and seeing water mirages…OK maybe I exaggerate some…we came upon a campsite and there on their picnic table is a HUGE bottle of water. I asked if I could have some of their water..nobody answered…and I was reasonable sure that if they would have been there they would have said yes.

#3….OK the wet pants thing. I think we were probably 8 miles or so into the hike and we had lost our fearless leaders but just as we turned the bend there they were in the lake with water up to their neck. OK so who said you needed a swim suit to jump in a lake….shorts and t-shirts worked very fine I might add. After a 30-45 minute water break we were continuing our hike with dripping pants but totally revived.

#4...I think mistake number four is not realizing exactly how far thirteen miles really is. Ardis put it in prospective for us at about the eight mile marker when she made here excellent observation, "do you realize 13 miles is like me walking from my house t o Woodburn". The hike, or should I say plodding, by that point was no longer fun. It was not a walk in the park. It was an extreme test of our character and heat indurance. I so totally wanted to whine at that point...but we plodded along with our blisters hurting...our hips grinding (at that age, yes our hips do grind) my wet pants rubbing my upper thighs sore...fly's so big they tried to carry me off...and horse poop on my shoes (too tired at this point to step over it) I was no longer interested in looking at the beautiful scenery, or chattiing for that matter. Thor tried endless times to point out to us the wild flowers...yes, yes big deal...for the 30th time the lake is beautiful..now how far is it agian to the car.

Thanks Thor and Christine for escorting three senior ladies on our excellent adventure. After Thor's 15th time of walking back to see what haooened to us he told us the car is just over the dam. Did I believe him? No I did not. He had tried that ploy many times with "just one more mile". We parted with hugs all around so I think we are still friends.

A golf tournament to remember!!

After one day of golf lessons…no after 1 hour of golf lessons we decided to sign up for a golf tournament. In all honesty I guess I should say I decided to sign up for a golf tournament and encouraged my family members…once friends…to sign up with me. I guess I am also using the word encouraged very loosely.

But I do need a little credit here because it was advertised by word and by mouth that this is a “golf fun day”!! Our one hour golf instructor also told us, “go and have a good time”. So with much enthusiasm on my part and lots of second thoughts by my team members we signed up for a “fun day of golf”. We did have fun even though one lady on the team behind us kept a constant stream of obscenities flowing our way. OK maybe not obscenities but very rude behavior for someone that is supposed to be having a "fun day of golf”. We were too slow…we were holding people up…we needed to hurry along!! We lost a total of 10 balls in the water….that was fun…hit the roof or sides of 3 different houses….that was fun…stepped in lots of duck poop…but that was while trying to retrieve our numerous balls from the water. We finished in 1 ½ hours and they said have fun you have 2 hours to finish…so we did good…especially considering we spent at least half of that time looking for the next T.

Then the big grand finale the dinner and the award ceremony. On the way there Irene exclaimed, “Oh no I forgot my camera”. I said bummer, “now who’s going to take our picture when they give us the winning trophy”? Our score was 74…don’t ask me what that means because our 1 hour golf lesson did not include scoring. Then they announced the lowest and the highest score. Forty something for low and 62 for high. What happened to our 74? We were afraid to ask but it was suggested they probably threw our score card away….you really can’t say that kind of score out loud I guess.

So all in all I can honestly say I had a fun day of golf….but I can’t answer for the others.