Books: A world of Pleasure!

Books bring me the greatest pleasure and I am surrounded by them. I don't think there is a room in the house where I don't have some books displayed. I love to read and I love to learn about new things, or about peoples lives who have lived in the past or about different periods of time and the history of those different periods. I like all kinds of books: history, biographies, auto-biographies, fiction, poetry, historical novels, mysteries, missionary stories, devotionals, commentaries, etc.

If you don't believe me when I say I have books in every room, let me show you.

Books in the hallway ....

In the guest room...

I have so many books on this bookshelf that I'm covering up the ones in back on two separate shelves.

In my office......

These are just two of the walls....there is a third one but I have things setting in front of it and it looks to messy to show right now.

In my livingroom....there are more shelves where the books are not so visable because there behind glass doors and on the otherside of the entertainment center, there are also more books. Basically, there are two more book shelves similar to these plus the ones behind the glass doors.

Books in my bedroom.....

on the wall....

Behind my chair and

In the kitchen with .....

a whole cabinet devoted to cookbooks.

I simply love books and now that I'm going to the gym, I even get to read while I'm on the treadmill before and after working out. What a luxury!

I share my books with friends who enjoy reading as much as I do and especially those who return them promptly and take care of them while they are in their possession. I would miss my books if I didn't have them. You are probably wondering if I have read them all. The answer is no but I probably have read at least half of them and am working on the other half.

If I run out of reading material, there is always the Library. We have an excellent library in our town and believe it or not, sometimes, I take books out of the library even though I have my own. That's how much I enjoy reading! But the book that gets my most attention is my Bible!

The Snow has Gone

It has only been two days and the snow has disappeared as I told you it would. The only place where there is any snow is on my deck and it will stay there for several days if I don't shovel it off because the sun doesn't quite reach my deck in the winter.

You can compare these pictures with the previous posting to see the change from just two days ago. Actually it has only taken one day for it to disappear but I didn't take pictures until just now.

The only place there is any snow in this picture is on my deck table on on that area of ground near the deck that doesn't get the sun in the winter time.

And of course, there is snow on the deck itself. This looks kind of pretty with the afternoon sun adding a blue hue to the snow in this picture. It has been a beautiful day here today but a little chilly. The temperatures only got to 50 degrees today but the sun makes it feel warmer than it is.

No snow in the front yard at all.

The purple hue in the above picture comes from the sun. It was shining really bright in my camera lens and I got this streak of purple.

You can actually see the rays from the sun in this picture.

I went to prayer meeting at the church this morning and left the house at 9:15 AM. From there I went to the school at 11 AM and cooked through the two lunch periods and then helped with the clean-up. I left the school at about 2:15 pm and then went to the store, getting home around 3 pm. That is when I took the pictures and put them on this post.

We had spaghetti at school today and had quite a bit left over so I brought some home and that is what we are going to have for supper. I bought a little extra spaghetti sauce, some sausage and some garlic bread to go with it and I will cook up some zucchini to have as a side dish. So supper tonight will be fairly easy to make. We are not allowed to keep any food left over and rather than waste it, I brought it home and put some money in the cash box to pay for it because it helps out the school.

Now, I'm off to clean the bathroom! Have a marvelous evening, Ladies.

First Snow of the Year

Overnight we received the first snow of the 2008-2009 Winter. We received approximately 2" of snow and was snowing when we got up and stopped around 10 o'clock this morning. I thought I would share some pictures with you.

This was taken from our deck and is a picture of our backyard.

This is of our deck and to the right of the deck taking in our arborvitae and our neighbor's shed.

Taken from the french doors of our livingroom onto the deck.

This was taken from our front porch. It is a cloudy day but everything is covered with this blanket of white. Very pretty!

A picture of my neighbor's house across the street from us.

And this one is to the right of the previous one.

This one was taken to the right of the front porch.

Though this is all very pretty as soon as the sun comes out, it will be gone in a day. You all will probably be showing pictures of snow several feet deep and put my poor pictures to shame.

A New Year and A New President

We are in a new year which I think will bring a lot of new changes to the United States. Things in our country are in a real mess right now. Our dollar has lost its value and our economy is in shambles. Job losses are increasing by the day and our unemployment rates are at an all time high.

Now, I know that this kind of talk sounds kind of depressing to those of you who will be reading this but that is not the tone that I want to leave in this message because I am not feeling the least bit depressed right now. Why, you might ask? Then, I would have to say that I have a great God who is able to do all things and even though things look bad, I am willing to put my life in his hands and believe that He will take us through this time of hardship.

Those of us who put their trust in Christ should know that nothing has to happen as far as prophecy is concerned to have Christ return for his people. I am looking forward to that day and it could be any day now or it could be many years but the most important thing is to know where you will spend Eternity and be ready for that day when ever it may appear.

But in the meantime, we should be reaching out to any that we know who do not know Christ because if He should come tomorrow, it would be disastrous for them. We all have people who are our friends, in our families, our neighbors and acquaintances who do not know Jesus. Now is the day of Salvation for them and we need to be reaching out to them so that they can be part of our family in Christ. So let's do our part to assure as many a place in heaven as we can.

If Christ should delay in coming, we might be required to tighten the belt a bit. But I think in this country at least, that we have become like fattened calves as spoken by Amos 4:1 to the Samaratans. We have so much and have become so spoiled that it actually might do us some good to experience what many people across this world have to experience every day.

We spend fortunes on our children with the modern day video games, designer jeans, and high-end sports shoes and equipment but we don't teach our children to be respectful to their parents, adults or their teachers, we don't teach them any manners, we don't expect them to reach for higher standards but keep lowering our expectations which just means that they give us less of what we expect of them. We don't teach them any morals and we don't tell them that there is a higher authority than ourselves that they will one day answer to. So maybe just maybe, we deserve to be shocked into realizing how far we have come from those days and ideals that our founding fathers stood for. Right now, there are many adults who don't even believe that this country was founded on Christian Principals. They don't want "In God we Trust" on our money or the 10 commandments in our schools or government buildings. We want to take God out of everything.

Tomorrow, we will have a new president and though I have had my doubts as to whether or not he would be the best man for the job, he has won the election by a large margine and now, he deserves the respect that that office brings and he deserves to be given a chance to prove himself. Furthermore, he deserves that each and every one of us should give him our support and do our part in trying to bring our country back to the place and the kind of country that we once were. We should pray for this man every day that he will be and give the very best that he can and pray that God will guide his path and that God would give him the wisdom to lead this country in the way that we should go.

So I wish this man a very successful presidency and that God would lead him every step of the way. These are trying times and we need a strong president. I think Obama is a strong leader and I will pray that he will do a great job!

The Youngest Skier In Our Family

Let me introduce you to the youngest skier in our family. This is Bethany and this is her first skiing trip to Lake Tahoe. She will be three in April. She looks like she is a pro. Her grandmother, that's me, doesn't even know how to ski and look at her. Wow!! I'm impressed, Bethany.

I think she's showing off now, don't you.

She is the youngest in her family. She has two brothers ages 17 and 15 and a sister who is 12.

This is Bethany's big sister, Hannah who loves watching over Bethany and play with her. They are very close.

Bethany is a unique child and she is being taught at a early age to love the bible and the word of God. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I know these photos will speak volumns.

This was taken last Easter in church with Bethany holding her hymnal.

She just loves to sit and look through the Bible. She does this all the time.

Isn't this just too cute! I hope she continues her interest as she grows older. She will if her mom has anything to say about it.

A Miracle on the Hudson River!

The pilot who was Captain of the US Air flight that landed his plane on the Hudson River in NYC deserves a medal. He did a tremendous job and saved the lives of 151 people yesterday. It was because of his heroic and clear thinking that everyone on board lived to tell the story.


Everyone is singing his praises and what he did is simply amazing. He kept his cool, knew what he needed to do and went about doing just that. It was a perfect landing and he even went through the plane twice just to make sure that everyone got out and was safe.


I thank God for this man for he surely was the man for such a job! But I also want to recognize someone who I have not heard any praise for and that is for God himself. Though this pilot did exactly what he was trained for and I don't want to diminish the job that he did, this incident could have gone completely the other way if it were not for the fact that God had engineered the circumstances to be what they were.


Timing is everything and I believe that God had his hand on the shoulder of this pilot all the way though this whole flight. There were so many circumstances that proved to be helpful in the fact that this event turned out the way that it did. Things like the fact that there was a river near by and the plane was high enough to clear the George Washington Bridge, that this flight took place in the winter and that the water was cold. If the water had been warm, this plane might have broken up. There were so many details that if any one of them had been different, there might have been a different outcome.


God is not surprised by anything. I believe that He rode in that cockpit with that pilot and turned the events that saved the lives of all these people and that he even orchestrated this pilot to this flight. I am grateful to God for saving the lives of these people and for using the best pilot for the job. I would say that we have experienced a Miracle.

Hair Dilemmas

Fifties Hair Styles

Most of the time I wear my hair cut short. No matter how many times I have tried to let it grow longer after about a month or so it starts driving me nuts.

My hair just looks better if it is short all over. If it gets too long on top, it droops and wants to lay flat and I definitely need some heighth on top. Usually, I have my beautician cut it just over my ears and taper it up the sides. The back I get cut at the hair line and have it tapered up as well.

But every so often I decide to let it grow thinking that I'll like it. Usually I decide that when I see someone else with hair that might not be real long but is maybe an inch or two below their hairline in the back and the sides are grown just below their ears and the sides are blended into the back. They will look really attractive and I'll say to myself, "maybe I'll try that".

Then I tell my beautician not to cut so much off the back because I want to let it grow "just a little bit, not much" and then I'll say, "don't take any off the ears because I want to let it grow to below my ears but you can trim it up so that its layered" and there starts the process. She'll cut it to my specifications one month. Then I'll go back the next month for a trim just to get rid of any uneven growth but won't have any cut of the back or sides but just the top and I'll get a perm.

Another month or five weeks will go by and by this time, all this hair starts driving me crazy and by the third month, I'm ready to hack it off.

This is what I did three months ago and Tuesday I couldn't stand it any more so went and had it cut off. I thought I'd show you some before and after shots and you can tell me what you think.

This is before my haircut. You notice how the top is starting to flatten out.

This is after my haircut. I don't always like the way my beautician fixes my hair after she cuts it but she gives me a good cut and I will fix it the way I like the next time I wash my hair. So I'm not particularly happy with this style and I need a little color job done but I'm happy again now that its short. What do you think?

Now if only I could look like this then I could wear my hair any old way I wanted, wouldn't you think?

Grace Kelly

But alas, that is not my lot in life so I'll just have to live with what I've got and will probably keep wavering back and forth between short and an attempt to let it grow and then cutting it off again. Who said a woman's life is easy, huh?