Way behind on blogging!!!

What an incredibly crazy few months!  I have been working so much with the people in Joplin and once we entered the time of the holidays, it just got crazier from there!  I am going to take the time now to make my blog a bit more festive for Christmas!  Stay tuned.....

Too good not to share!!

 This was posted on my Facebook page by a friend.  I found it to be a wonderful and inspirational message.

At a WalMart store, a cashier hands this little boy some money back. The boy couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old. The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll.' ... Then the little boy turned to the old woman next to him, ''Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?'' The old lady replied, ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy this doll, my dear.'' Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look around. She left quickly. The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand. A lady walked toward him and asked him who he wished to give this doll to. 'It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas. She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.' She replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry. But he replied back sadly. 'No, Santa Claus can't bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.' His eyes were so sad while saying this, 'My Sister has gone to be with God. Dad dy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.'' My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at the lady and said, 'I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.' Then he showed her a very nice photo of himself. He was laughing. He then told me 'I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won't forget me.' 'I love my mommy and I wish she didn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.' Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly. She quickly reached for her wallet and said to the boy. 'Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll!'' OK' he said, 'I hope I do have enough.' She added some of her money to his without him seeing and they started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money. The little boy said, 'Thank you God for giving me enough money!' Then he looked at the lady and added, 'I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give it to my sister. He heard me!'' 'I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.'' 'My mommy loves white roses.' A few minutes later, the boys granny returned and the lady left with her basket. She finished her shopping in a totally different state of mind from when she started. She couldn't get the little boy out of her mind. Then she remembered a local newspaper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy? Two days after this encounter with the little boy, The woman read in the newspaper that the young woman had passed away. She couldn't stop herself as she bought a bunch of white roses and went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was for people to see and make last wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. She left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that her life had been changed forever. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine, and in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him.

Boomer Sooner!

I would just like to say: BOOMER SOONER!  I love my Sooners!  Always have and always will!  I am not a professional football fan other than a Pittsburgh Steeler fan by marriage.   Good or bad, no matter how they play, I am forever faithful to my Sooners! 

Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner,
Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner,
Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner,
Boomer Sooner, O-K-U!

Oklahoma, Oklahoma,
Oklahoma, Oklahoma,
Oklahoma, Oklahoma,
Oklahoma, O-K-U!

I'm a Sooner born
And a Sooner bred,
And when I die
I'll be Sooner dead.

Rah, Oklahoma! Rah, Oklahoma!
Rah, Oklahoma! O-K-U!

The Knots Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father:

Please untie the knots that are in my mind, my heart, and my life. Remove the have nots, the cannots, and the do nots that I have in my mind.
Erase the will nots, may nots, and might nots that may find a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots, would nots, and should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all, Dear God. I ask that you remove from my mind, my heart, and my life all the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back.

In Jesus' name, Amen

THE SENSES OF MORNING

Good Morning!  I am thankful that I opened my eyes this morning to see the beauty of God's creation that surrounds me! 

Our cove on the lake

I am thankful that my ears can hear my daughter's feet moving on the hardwood floor causing me to reflect on those early years when the steps were smaller and softer.  These steps also remind me that the day is rapidly approaching when I will no longer hear her steps daily in my home.  She is growing up so quickly and will soon be off to make a life for herself. 


I am thankful that my nose can smell the fresh morning air and the dew on the grass to remind me that God provides all resources for renewal of our world.  The smells of baking blueberry muffins make thankful that I am able to provide food for my family.  It also reminds me that we are rapidly approaching the holiday seasons.  My favorite time of year because it turns the attentions of those who might not think of the true meaning behind thankfulness, giving, sharing, and the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  As a Christian, these are things that are so much a part of my daily life that the transition into the holidays are not much different other than some bling and bobbles in the home.  I am thankful that the rest of the world gets to focus on what we experience everyday.  Even if it is only once a year for some!


I am thankful for the feel of my warm and fluffy, favorite blanket that wraps me up on this chilly, Fall morning.  It wraps me in love and keeps me warm.  It is a reminder of the love and caring that went into each stitch. The blanket was made by my wonderful, ex-mother-in-law.  A beautiful woman who still loves me and accepts me as her "daughter" even after the heartaches and tragedies surrounding my divorce.  She is with me in my heart and surrounds me with her embrace each day through the blanket she made just for me!


Finally, I am thankful for the taste of my sweet morning coffee and a fresh baked muffin right from the oven! The tastes of things that God put on this earth to sustain life until we leave to join him for eternity.


May God's love engulf all of your senses today!  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever!  1 Chronicles 16:34


May the Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you! Numbers 6:24-25

A Windows Open Kind of Day

After what seems like an eternity of sweltering, 100+ days of heat, the chain has finally been broken!  For 3 days now, I have been able to leave my air conditioner off in the house and leave the windows open!  This is one of my favorite times of the year!  Everywhere you look or even listen, you can witness the wonder and beauty created by God!  I woke up this morning to the sound of the birds singing and the squirrels having their "Squirrel Olympics" on my roof as the scurry gathering up their food for winter storage.  The cooler breezes are clearing out the Summer staleness that has been closed up in my home.  I imagine that I am storing up all the freshness I can before I have to put my home on lock down for the Winter.  I will do a final hanging of the bed linens, rugs, and curtains.  I want to absorb all of the outdoors that I can before the super cold sets in.

Jasmine Sophia out for her ride

This morning I will get all of my Fall decorations out of storage.  Now that it is September and football season has officially began, I believe it is socially acceptable to do so!  My new Fall Scentsy burners are on their way along with those fabulous Fall fragrances!  My home will soon be filled to the brim with the sights and smells of fall!

If you are fortunate enough to be somewhere today where the weather allows, open up those windows and air out your world!  I pray that everyone has a very blessed day!

New adventures...

New adventures always tug at my heart.  I have always been the spontaneous and daring one,  just ask my Mom!  Growing up between two boys, I think I was the one (and still am) who keeps my parents on their toes!  I will jump out of the plane and then consider the consequences! I am quite the opposite of my Mom, I assure you!  If I were an element, I would be the wind.  I will pretty much go wherever there is an opportunity for adventure and new experiences!

Right now I am beginning a new adventure.  I have decided that since the stock market stinks up the joint, I can find my own ways to sock funds away for my old age.  So what did I do?  I bought a second home.  Yep, that's what I said, a second home.  Now, my husband and I joke around calling this our Summer Estate.  It is a simple, two bedroom home on the shores of Grand Lake here in Oklahoma.  It comes complete with fishing docks (one is enclosed for the cooler months), a swim dock, boat ramp and tons of fish!  It is conveniently located just 5 minutes from anywhere in Grove you want to be!

I am currently remodeling this abode inside and out so that I can share my love of Grand Lake with my friends and family.  This is going to be a getaway spot for any of my friends and family who wish to make their escape from the hustle and bustle of the city and experience the peace that we have to offer in small town America.


I have dubbed my place, Rustic Cove on Grand Lake.  The decor has a bit of a western flair with touches of rustic design and my own personal touches throughout the home.  This home sleeps up to 4 adults and there is always floor space for kiddos.  If you are interested, please contact me for details.


The anticipated construction wrap up date is somewhere around early to mid-September.  (I'm hoping so anyway!)  I would love to have this open for the fall and especially the holidays.  I HAVE ONLY ONE RULE: This is for my friends and family ONLY!  I will not allow anyone I don't know to stay here.

This home is in a retirement community and quiet time begins at 10:00 pm!  No parties, no loud music, no nothing to draw attention is permitted whatsoever! Smoking is only permitted outside under the canopy and never permitted inside of the home.  No pets are allowed either.  This is not South Grand Lake so the party is NEVER welcome here!  This is a place of peace and solitude and I'm sure the neighbors would appreciate this as well.

I'm looking forward to this opportunity!  I pray that God allows me to bless each of your lives the way he has blessed mine!

Prayer Request

I have a prayer request. There's a lady I've known forever. She's very sick. On top of that, she's being abused by those she has given everything to. Lies about her abound, and seem to come from all sides. Just breaks my heart. Seems there's nothing I can do alone. But maybe, if we join in we can lift her up. She's well over 200 years old, but way too young to die. Her name is America... and I love her. Re-Post if you love her too♥ ♥ 

Reflections of Joplin

Once in a while you have a life experience that leaves an imprint on your soul.   An imprint that will never leave you the same as you were before the experience.   On May 22, 2011, as an E-5 tornado ripped across the town of Joplin, Missouri, thousands of lives were changed forever.  Not only were the people who lived in Joplin physically left in ruins and emotionally changed forever but on that day the people of Joplin were about to realize how resilient they were and just how loved they were.

I have been honored to be a ground zero volunteer since the first week following the tornado.  I work with others to help victims of this tragedy be able to quickly replace items that were necessary to their survival.  We have provided hundreds of items so far and the list of needs just keeps growing each day.  The generosity of this nation is overwhelming!

In the midst of all of the destruction, what you will see in Joplin is the beauty of those who have gathered from all over this nation for a common purpose. What you will see is a place where political parties play no part, ethnic background, or religious affiliations aren't relevant. It is simply people helping people, families helping families, and those who were once strangers and might not have ever crossed paths in this lifetime, that are now considered family. God has blessed Joplin in so many ways. In a time when the world seems to be falling apart because of the things I mentioned above, there sure is a lot of humanity happening right in the middle of it all! It is shocking when you see Joplin for the first time but when you look beyond the surface, you being to see the hope and strength of its people. Joplin will never be the same but not in the way that most may think. They are forever changed. They mourn for the people who were lost but support those who are still here. They lost material possessions but are finding out that the true meaning in their lives don't amount to what they had in their hands but what is now in their hearts. They have one another.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

In Congress, July 4 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America 

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it; and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.
Nor have We been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.—
WE, THEREFORE, the REPRESENTATIVES of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.—And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Signed by ORDER and in BEHALF of the CONGRESS,
JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT.
ATTEST.
CHARLES THOMSON, SECRETARY.