October - Breast Cancer Awareness Month

http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/

Sharing This Card

I made this card for someone tonight (as you can see by the date imprinted on the picture which I didn't realize it would do!).

It was very simple to do and pretty self explanatory. On top of the background paper I cut out vellum roses which already had sparkles and just glued them here and there.

I am pleased with it and pray the recipient will be encouraged when she receives it.

In the meantime, I've been making some Christmas cards to send to Cards for Heroes which I will upload before I send them off.

God bless.

Day Tripping

Yesterday DH and I went on a bus trip to Annapolis with our friends, Bernie & Ray. This was Gene's first chartered bus trip! Needless to say, it is his last!

Annapolis is a beautiful place but not so much when you're on a walking tour during pouring rain! I do mean, pouring! Everyone was soaked to the gills. The saving grace was that it wasn't cold outside.

This woman was our guide. At this point, it wasn't raining but shortly afterwards it started.

We started out by being dropped off near the Maryland State House. It looked like it would have been a nice place to tour, but because they were having a problem with a leaking roof, it was closed to visitors. We then walked to St. John's College.

I didn't get to take too many pictures because of the rain and then the batteries died on my camera! I had extra batteries but they didn't work and realized later that the reason they didn't work was because they were the original batteries I had in the camera from awhile ago that had died and been replaced but never removed from the case! Oy vey!!

From St. John's we walked over to the U.S. Naval Academy, still raining! Because of a wedding that was taking place we were not able to visit the Chapel. I did get a picture of it from the outside while we were all standing under a huge gazebo across the street.

I bought a postcard which shows part of the inside and it looks absolutely beautiful!!

I felt so sorry for the bride. Though they say rain on your wedding day means good luck, but I can't imagine how she got in and out of the church without getting wet even with umbrellas and covering. We didn't get to see the bride but a couple of the stretch limos must have been a block long!!!

After exiting the gazebo, we walked to John Paul Jones' crypt.

From here we walked over to Bancroft Hall, which is the world's largest college dormitory, housing the entire brigade of 4,500 midshipmen. It was a beautiful building, also. Because it was raining so hard, I couldn't get a picture from the outside but, again, I bought a postcard. We did get to go inside and I was able to take a picture of the ceiling before my camera died! Of course, the picture doesn't do it any kind of justice at all.

I never realized that this college is paid for by taxpayers and all the students go to school for free. They do have to pay $2500 when they enter which buys them a computer that they get to keep when they leave. However, after they have graduated, they are required to serve their country for five years.

In one of the hallways, they have pictures of some "famous" graduates - Jimmy Carter, Ross Perot, John McCain, Alan Sheperd and Roger Staubach, just to name a few.

After leaving the dormitory, our guide took us to the dock area where our tour ended. The dock area is known as "Ego Alley" because so many of the rich people dock their boats there just for show, though there were only a couple docked while we were there.

Still raining -- we were downtown at this point and looked for a place to eat lunch. After lunch there was a 45 minute boat cruise. When the cruise was over, we were on our own for a couple hours until the bus returned to take us home.

So, we decided to walk around and look at some of the shops. That way, we'd at least get out of the rain for a little bit. Suddenly, the rain stopped and the sun came out and it stayed out until we got on the bus to go home about 6:00. Then, it started raining again!

Annapolis - a beautiful town which Gene and I plan on returning to visit some time -- when it isn't raining!

Soul Journal - Part 6

For this step we were to recreate a home were we felt happiest and safe. Though I feel happy and safe in my present home, I wanted to recreate the home where I spent many summers of my early life.

Though I was born in Ohio, when I was about three my father's job required him to transfer to New Jersey but every summer my mother would take us children back to Ohio to our grandparents house. We would leave the week after school got out and come home the week before it started again. I loved going there.

This re-creation isn't exactly how their house looked, of course, but in reality, it wasn't a very big house anyway! For a number of years my grandparents actually lived in a very small motorhome on the property with an outhouse! I hated to have to use the outhouse. Yuck! I was use to modern conveniences back in NJ. It was more the bugs and the snakes I had to encounter on my way than the smell that I hated.

My grandfather, with the help of my mother, built the house pretty much on his own. It had a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and small laundry room and - hold onto your pants - a real indoor bathroom!!! It was actually one of the first in the neighborhood and I remember bringing friends into the house to show it to them! :-) But, this one had something we didn't even have - a built-in tub with no feet. At the time, we still had a bathtub with the claw feet (I would love to have one now!)


The only bad part about my summers in Ohio was that my dad couldn't be there. He had to stay home and work. But, I did get to see lots of cousins, aunts and uncles.


A few years ago when my DD, her 2 children and one of my other grandsons went to Ohio for a family reunion, my cousin took me back to see the house where my grandparents lived. The basic structure of it was the same, but I could see some additions. Plus, there were lots of trees growing that were only saplings the last time I had been there. For some reason, the yard looked a whole lot smaller than I remember.


Not to change the subject, but doesn't it seem funny to go back and see things that you knew as a child that looked so big but now as an adult seem so small. I remember the same feeling when I went back to my old elementary school. The chairs were so tiny!! :-)


I will always cherish my summers spent in Ohio as a child with fond, wonderful, funny and happy memories.

Soul Journal - Part 5

I decided to redo my Soul Journal. In looking ahead to the next steps we are to do, I realized my original book probably wouldn't hold up so decided to get a different journaling book. I got one with a little thicker pages and a little bit bigger area to work on.

The only pages I actually redid were the first page since I liked the others and didn't want to redo them. I just glued them into this book instead.

This was the next step of the Journal. First we had to write two pages with the heading "I forgot to tell you....". Then we had to use all kinds of different tapes to tape over the journaling. After that, we had to sand the tape and paint over it.

Though our journaling was to be something that no one else would ever see, I chose to write my known sins. The left page represents my heart filled with sin and the right page represents the cross where Jesus died to take away my sin. Even though I covered up my sins with tape and paint, Jesus covered them with His blood.

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace" Ephesians 1:7 (NIV)

God bless,
Linda

I'll Never Forget 9/11

The thought came to me this morning that 9/11 is one of those days, like the day when President Kennedy was assassinated -- we will always remember where we were and what we were doing at the time we first heard the news.

I was at work. A woman (I even remember her name) came into the office and said that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. I turned on the radio right away and heard all the excitement. Then they said another plane had crashed into the Towers. Shortly after that, they announced a plane had hit the Pentagon and another had crashed in Pennsylvania.

I remember thinking we were under some kind of attack, but what and who??? I wanted to be with my family.

A man called the office about something (I remember his name, too) and I asked if he was listening to the news but he wasn't. I told him our country was under attack. He seemed so calm, like I was being hysterical or something!! Then I explained what was happening. He still seemed calm almost as if I was imagining things!

In the meantime, several others had come in for a meeting. While they were getting ready, I heard on the radio that the Towers were falling down. I ran in to tell the others but everyone thought I must be mistaken. How could the Twin Towers fall? They weren't built to fall. They came in to hear the news on the radio that sure enough it had happened.

Of course, for days all we watched on TV and listened to on the radio were the reports. I couldn't (and still can't) watch the pictures of the people jumping out the buildings. Watching the people running ahead of the smoke was sureal, like something from a movie. That day in September is still sometimes hard to comprehend.

I've never been to Ground Zero but a few years ago while driving home from a family reunion in Ohio, my DD, along with three of my grandchildren, stopped in Shanksville, PA at the spot where the plane went down and that now familiar line, "Let's roll", was uttered by Todd Beamer. It was quite a sobering site and hard not to cry.

NEVER FORGET......

The Miracle Baby

I've written in the past about my friend's daughter and SIL who were told they could never have a baby but on July 17th Shane was born! He is definitely a miracle baby!!

I was finally able to get to visit them today. He is almost two months old. Apparently, from what his Mom and Grandmom said, he wasn't in a very good mood today...a little on the fussy side!! Don't we all have days like that?