TABLE OVERFLOWING!

Our older daughter had Thanksgiving yesterday and her table was overladen with every kind of food you could think of.

A sampling of each dish made my plate loaded down. I ended up too full to even eat dessert, which is a rarity indeed.

This year we had an addition to our family and she was "Our tiny One". She is already six months old and again she hardly cried at all. One happy baby!! A few stories ago, I had written about her baptizm.

After visiting, games, and video games, we settled back to our own homes with great memories.

We did have one person that we hadn't met and he was our youngest granddaughter's friend. He seemed to enjoy the family and we all were happy to meet him. He was friendly and seemed to be right at home. He was very likable and all the family had favorable comments. We are looking forward to more family get-to-gathers in the future.

Wisdom--After so much "fun and games" it is nice to curl up with a book to read and wind down and give thanks for all of God's daily blessings.

ONE DOWN AND ONE TO GO!

Thanksgiving day this year was spent at our younger daughters home. As I have mentioned before, she has a knack at making "Holidays" very special.

The menu they had was: Smoked turkey, dressing, cranberries, chalet green beans, avocado/fruit green salad, mashed potatoes & gravy, candied sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, specialty bread, chocolate-raspberry pie, chocolate pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. A feast fit for a king.

It was so good to see our grandchildren and great grandchildren. We played games after the children were put to bed. Our "Cutie" was a tad sick when he was put to bed, but today he is full of life and back to normal.

Oh yes, I wanted to mention that a new arrival came to their home this year. A baby girl (God's gift) and she is crawling and standing. What joy these little ones are to a family!!

Wisdom--Cherish the moments in life, as they are fleeting at best! Now on to another home and another cherished day at our other daughter's home.

MOST THANKFUL THANKSGIVING!

While I was in the hospital, they scheduled open heart surgery. I asked the nurse, "What if I have another heart attack during surgery?" She said, that the doctors would be right there and would take care of me. That satisfied my question for the moment.

The morning of the surgery, they did all the prep work that they were scheduled to do. I laid in bed and since I have tried to memorize scripture from the bible, I would ponder over all the promises God had written in His Word. He promised that he will never leave or forsake me. (Hebrews 13:5). I repeated the 23rd Psalm in my thoughts as I laid waiting to go to surgery. So many scripture verses ran through my head that morning and a "FLOOD OF PEACE" filled my very being. I knew that whether I lived or I died I would be with JESUS, which was all I needed to know.

I'm confident that my blood pressure had reflected that "TOTAL PEACE" that I felt that morning as I mulled over in my mind all the scripture verses that I could recall to memory.
God was going to be with me in surgery, I did not have to face this alone.

They performed triple by-pass surgery and they took me to intensive care for the first part of my recovery. During this time I was in ICU my family would come in and visit. My "Special grandson" and his sister (Sweetie Pie) came in together a short time. I was wired up to so many wires and could hardly speak. I noticed as they were leaving that my grandson was laying outside of the ICU door (glass wall) on a stretcher and the nurses was having him drink orange juice. I realized after that incident that hospital life wasn't quite his "cup of tea". I must have looked like "death warmed over" that day.

Each day, I proceeded to get better and was removed to a regular hospital room. They would have me walk each day to build up my strength.

They dismissed me a day or two before Thanksgiving Day that year. Of course, I was in no shape to celebrate Thanksgiving with the rest of the family. My husband cooked some soup for me and I can truthfully tell you, that was the best Thanksgiving Dinner I have ever eaten in my life! The soup was so-oooo good and I was so-oooo thankful for God's protective hand on my life. The quiet day was really just what the doctor ordered! Thank you to my husband for such good care.

I received therapy after I came home and each week was better than the week prior. Each month was better than the previous month and by the next Thanksgiving, I was as good as new.

Wisdom--One doesn't have to have a lot of "stuff" to be thankful. Christ and His love and provision was all I needed that year to be perfectly content. It truly was the MOST THANKFUL THANKSGIVING EVER! I was thankful for such a loving family that cared for me, also.

DENTIST OR DOCTOR?

This was the question that I asked myself about 10 years ago. I will try to tell you about the sequence leading up to this below.


It was a Sunday evening no different than any other, but I went to bed early as I just wasn't feeling up to par. In the middle of the night I woke up and was still feeling rather "puny". My chest seemed to be not in sync and my heart was beating rather irregularly. I had my husband listen and he said it didn't seem to be sounding normal. I had no pain, but was feeling rather funny.


I fell back to sleep and on Monday morning I woke up and knew I had a dentist appointment early and proceeded to get ready for that. All the time, my mind kept thinking, if I didn't have this dentist appointment, I would go to the doctor about the underlying problem I had during the night.


Off to the dentist I went (which was about 10 miles away). They were going to clean my teeth and ex ray them. I opted out of the ex ray, since I wasn't up to par. This dentist gave five percent discount if you paid on the day of your appointment. That was great so I was writing out the check and noticed that my chest was hurting a bit.


I went back to the car where my husband was, and told him that perhaps we need to go back to our doctor (10 miles back). I thought that going to the emergency room (which we drove right past) was really a bit much, since I wasn't used to pampering myself.


During the 10 mile ride, my chest seemed to be getting worse. I hadn't mentioned this on the ride to the doctors office since I wanted us to arrive safely. I told my husband to let me off at the doctor's front door and then he could park the car.


Upon going into see the doctor I told the nurse I needed to speak to the nurse. She asked me if I had an appointment. I told her that I didn't. I stood there for a few minutes and nothing happened, so I told the receptionist that I was having chest pain. Well now, I not only got one nurse immediately, but the doctor and the whole crew. They wired me up (EKG) and checked me, and gave me medicine.

They told me that I needed to go to the hospital immediately. I told them that my husband was with me and he could take me. They were not in favor of that idea, and took me in an ambulance
and checking on me as we drove.

They suspicioned that I was having a heart attack. They were right after totally checking me out and I was scheduled for open heart surgery in a couple of days. They wanted my heart to settle down before having major surgery.

Wisdom--Women do not have the usual pains and symptoms that men have when having a heart attack. One better check out anything that seems abnormal concerning your body.
A lot of good, clean teeth would have done that morning, I should have gone directly to the emergency room even yet in the middle of the night. Just take this as a warning if you happen to have some chest/heart palpitations.

WHAT'S THE MATTER? WHAT'S THE MATTER?

These are the words that I heard 55 years ago yesterday as I had just switched on the light in the hospital for a nurse.

My husband was in the labor room for only 5 minutes and they told him to leave as they were wanting to prep me for my baby's birth. The nurses were getting the supplies ready to proceed. While they were gone, my pains were getting very strong and I thought to myself, if they linger in coming I could have my baby without anyone in the room. Knowing this, I turned on the nurses call light so I wouldn't be alone. I had no more switched on the light and I think all the nurses on the floor rushed into my room immediately and asked me what was the matter?

They tested me and told them not to do anything else, that I was ready to go to the delivery room. Two hours after I had my first pain, I delivered a 8# 1 oz. baby girl.

Yesterday was her 55Th birthday and we celebrated it at her "big" sister's home. Carol had a
lunch for us that was fabulous and then we went to the Festival of Trees. Carol had decorated a tree for the festival. The Angel price was $660 and she had a bid of $450. The festival was still on today, so don't know the final bid.

Mary and Carol went on shopping after that, but my husband and I were tired and went back to the house.

Wisdom--We had no idea when we had our daughter's that our lives would be so enriched!
Both of them have made us very proud of their accomplishments and desire to serve God.
You have only a short window of opportunity to teach and guide your children, you blink and they have grown up. Make every day count on what you teach them, as they grow up so fast!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

When I hear about our government and the manner in which they spend money when we are so indebted already that it can make your head spin, it is beyond comprehension.

I just wish that they would leave their mitts off of OUR money. Anything they touch and try to work out fails and we get further and further in debt. Both parties are guilty of this. They want to have government run health care. They haven't been able to manage Social Security, Medicare or any programs they are in charge of. You would think they would fix those and have those solvent before taking on a mass thing like health care for everybody. They claim it isn't going to cost us a cent. Now if you believe that, I really do have some swamp land I would like to sell you in the middle of the ocean. Would you like to buy that, too? They claim that the illegal immigrants will not be included, BUT when they are given amnesty and citizenship, they too will get a free ride. Have you thought about this amnesty bit? It is purely political for future votes.

Our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and it contained approximately 17 pages. Now they are coming out with 2000 pages (approximate) for the health care bill. Everything they can think of has been squeezed into this and they don't give enough time to read and digest it before voting on it. IS THERE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? I have always been told, that you read the fine print before you agree to a contract. This seems to be out of vogue in today world.

Wisdom--When you have states that are going bankrupt, one better take a 2ND look at spending more money with the government in charge of any added programs. This is just plain "HORSE SENSE". We better get back to our Constitution and adhering to that. Keep government out of our lives as much as possible.

BOOK RECOMMENDATION!!

I have just finished reading, the first book in a series of books, "AN UNTAMED LAND" by Lauraine Snelling--"Red River of the North" (series I). My sister is one book ahead of me and my husband is just starting to read the series, also.

It is about an immigrant family that came over legally to this country to stake out a claim for a piece of land in Dakota territory. It tells about the hardships that they encountered. Since my grandparents homesteaded in Nebraska, it really brings their life and what they had to endure to the forefront.

When you read it, I'm sure you will have a new appreciation of what our forefathers went through and struggles they encountered just to have a roof over their head, food on the table, and clothes on their back.

Wisdom--One learns what hard work is and how by the sweat of their brows our forefathers forged out this great land of ours. This scene was duplicated over and over again. Some of the ones that set out to homestead didn't have the stamina to continue. What courage these people had and what determination they had to try to make a better living for their family. Guard our country and its founding principles.

OUR TINY ONE WAS BAPTIZED!

Yes it was a red letter day Sunday as "Our Tiny One" was baptized. I can't believe how good she was Sunday. She only puckered her face up once that I know of and that was when they handed her to me to hold. Well, she wasn't used to this "Ole grannies face". It was very short lived as I had a bottle and she was a "happy camper" after that.

She took a nap in the afternoon and then got up and entertained us all with her talking and laughing. She has such a sunny disposition. She has two great parents and no wonder she is all bubbly and happy.

It behooves us to be an example in life and deed so that when she gets an age where she understands what Christ has done for her on the cross, that she will accept Him and live her life to please Him. That is our prayer for her today and the coming years.

Our day was full and we had such a "fun" day.

Thought--This will certainly be one of those days that we cherish. All our love to "Our Tiny One"! She is our great granddaughter and her parents are talked about in "Our Special Boy" article.

MAKING LEMONADE!

When life dishes out something different from your original plans that you didn't expect, one needs to seize the opportunity and make lemonade!

Nothing in our life comes to a surprise to God and when things happen contrary to our own timetable, we need to accept this change as well.

We moved to our present home and I still look at the things in our home and wonder how they got from house A to house B. We turned a new page in our life and now it was time to enjoy retirement.

Did we change the way we lived? Not much, we got up early and enjoyed the things we scheduled to do that day. Our lives as far as spending went on as before. We weren't in the habit of outlandish spending, so this didn't change.

We had more time to "smell the roses" along life's way. This is a "good thing"!

We had more time to enjoy our grandchildren and attend much of their activities. Another "good thing"!

We had more time to travel via camping. Another "good thing"!

Wisdom--Just because life changes, it doesn't necessarily mean that the change is a "bad change", just a different era in one's life. Again, just think positive and accept things as they come, and one has the recipe for "happy living".

THE SWITCHOVER!

A new treasurer was elected and it was time to turn over the reigns.

I tried to give many of my chores to others in the office, since it would probably be a full load to learn the new job, let alone the nitty-gritty things I had been doing, also.

The auditors were all finished with their work and all funds and money were in place. I thought it was wise to write down the securities that I had in my possession and present each security to the new Treasurer as we checked them off. Then he signed for these and I gave him the key for his safe keeping. It was all his ball of wax from here on out. Nobody told me to do this, but I thought it a wise thing to do.

He struggled with his new job and even after I moved to our new locale, he would come over on weekends and I would try to help him. After a few months, I told him he had to learn on his own. He hired an assistant to do some of the work that I was doing. Also, he came down and dumped a lot of the work on the comptroller and said he wasn't going to do that work.

Wisdom--When you are responsible for certain funds, it doesn't hurt to have things in writing. I was so glad that I had the securities signed for by the new incoming Treasurer.

THE WATCHDOG!

Things were shaping up, we had sold our home with great speed, purchased a home in our new locale.

Elections were going to take place for the incoming new form of government. During these months the auditors were finishing up their yearly audit. (This yearly audit was very intense and took quite a number of months to complete). I was preparing to give over the responsibility
to the newly elected treasurer.

When I first was appointed City Treasurer, I had a visitor come into my office and said, "What gives you the skill to be able to handle the pension funds and investments?" This was from a firefighter that was watching over the fire pension funds so they were safe. I did not take offense to this question as it was a valid question and should be addressed. Every fund should have just this type of person questioning the ability and safety policies of each and every fund that affects THEIR money. I'm not sure how I answered this question that day, but I assured him that I would take care of all the funds that I was responsible for, as honestly and the best I could adhering to State statutes. There were State guidelines of what kind of investments that we could invest in. I planned to safeguard all the money entrusted in my care. I did not take this responsibility lightly.

After the election occurred and before I had left, this same firefighter (Watchdog) came into my office and asked me if I couldn't handle their pension funds, even though I was in another city and no longer City Treasurer. This of course, I couldn't do legally. The new City treasurer was to handle the Police and Fire Pension funds. I was glad that he was happy with how I had kept the Pension funds safely and secure under my watch. His confidence in my performance, I considered this quite a compliment coming from the very man that originally was questioning my ability to handle the funds.

Wisdom--Every governing body and funds should have "Watchdogs" watching over OUR MONEY that is being spent. If we had more of these type of fearless people, we would have less corruption, more accountability and our government would not be in the dire straights it is in today. We have gotten in a spending spree that has gone way beyond accountability. Most of the media is not addressing this. I applaud people like Glen Beck that calls for accountability of our elected officials. We need to demand that our voices and concerns be heard how they are spending OUR money.

THE HUNT IS ON!

We have been in both places, a purchased house and one not yet sold, and now our house sold but where are we going to find one of equal value elsewhere? It is no fun to have two houses on your shoulders, but the other way gives one an uneasy feeling, also.

Our daughters were checking out homes for us. We would drive over and try to hunt houses on the weekends. We couldn't find any that was equal value with charm that we were looking for.
Plenty of homes were on sale, but most of them were beyond what we budgeted ourself to pay.

Our younger daughter was having devotions with her daughters and was downhearted as she was looking all day for a house for us. After the devotions and prayer that evening, she said to her daughters, "All day I have been thinking that mom and dad had sold their house and we can't find one for them." She then said, "This devotion helped me realize that there IS a home out there for them and we just haven't found it yet!"

I loved the house we sold, loved the screened in front porch, loved the 3 beautiful maple trees in our yard, and loved the blue spruce tree. I had been praying, "Lord, you know how much we love this house, and please give us a screened in porch (but make it in the back) and please give us a beautiful maple tree." People in the fall would stop their car and take pictures of our maple trees. They were so-oooo pretty! I really did hate to not have a pretty tree in our yard.

The next day after my daughter had her devotions with her girls, she went out looking again. That evening she called me and said, "Mom, we found your house!" She said it was a brick ranch on a beautiful 100 X 200 ft lot. There was a screened in porch. I said, "yes, it is in the back of the house isn't it?" She said, "Yes, how did you know that?" Well, wasn't that what I prayed for? I figured God would supply that request. She went on to tell me that there was a HUGE tree in the front yard. I said, "Yes, and it is a maple tree!". She told me she didn't know what kind of tree it was, but it covered the whole yard. It turned out the "maple" tree was in the back yard. No, it wasn't a "Hard Maple" like was in our sold house, but it was maple. My son in law said that I hadn't prayed specific enough about the trees.

We went over to look at it and before we went inside, I KNEW WE HAD FOUND OUR HOUSE!
I LOVED IT! All we had to do is to get our budget in line with their price that they asked.
We gave them an offer (within our budget) and they accepted.

Wisdom--When praying to God, be specific about things. God is listening and He really wants us to see His Loving Hand in answered prayers.

BRAINSTORM IN ACTION!

Since the decision was made about my job, we decided to explore the possibility to move closer to our children that my sister brainstormed one day.

We thought that we would try to sell our home on our own, if at all possible. If it didn't sell, well we would just stay PUT. It was rather unlikely that we could sell it, since houses where we lived were on the market for a couple years and not moving. It was certainly a buyers market. Well we put a sign out in our front lawn on a rainy day in midweek (our telephone # and for appointment only written on sign). We really didn't expect much traffic and interest in our house because of the slow housing market, but lets wait and see what happened

The following Saturday morning I woke up, showered, dressed and decided to have a sip of coffee and read the paper while relaxing on the front porch (which by the way, we loved).

No more than my first sip and a car drove into our driveway. The man got out and inquired about the house. He was driving a Mercedes diesel car and said he was looking for a house for his children. I gave him the specs and of course he wanted to see the house right then. I thought a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, so I told him OK. Remember, they were supposed to
make an appointment to see the house).

He went through each room and he was ecstatic, HE LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THE HOUSE! Now this is not what you expect from a interested buyer (they usually aren't that vocal). He said that the house reminded him of his own home. Of course, I didn't know where he lived, so I thought he probably had a brick bungalow like we were offering for sale. The house did have a "charm" about it, with 3 large picture windows in the living room with small panes, fireplace, etc. The last thing he said after going through the house was, "Don't sell this house before noon, as I want my children to see it this afternoon". I thought to myself, NO WAY WOULD WE SELL IT BEFORE NOON (remember the slow market out there).

He came back in the afternoon and his son and daughter in law looked at it. They weren't as verbal as he was about the house, and we thought they were the final say of whether they liked it or not. They left that Saturday and we really didn't know what was going to happen.

Monday morning rolled around and I had showered, gotten ready to go to work, sipping my morning coffee in the living room catching up on the current news from the paper as I had a few minutes to spare. I heard this diesel engine car driving very slowly past and around the side of the house (our house was on a corner). I thought, this sounds like the same car that came on Saturday and sure enough, it was. Then I knew that they were still interested in the house.

It was our custom to go out to eat at a local steak house on Tuesday evening after work. They always ran a steak special that night and you know us, we like bargains.

I had gotten off work and before we could leave to eat, the son came around to present a verbal offer for the house. He offered quite a bit less than what we were asking. We said no to that offer. We said that we didn't have that much to play with. We had the house appraised and added the newly custom made drapes to the appraisal price, and added a little bit more (so we could come down a little). We gave him the appraisal price sheet and we went to out to eat.

By the time we came back from eating, the son had a written signed offer for the appraisal price of our house! Now we thought this was too good to pass up, since we would have to pay the realtor more than what we had added to the appraisal price. The house was "SOLD", within a week of our feeble attempt to put out that sign in the rain. God surely, had put his stamp of approval on our move!

The house at least was sold pending approval of the loan. I'm sure the father gave a helpful hand to his children in this regard. The loan went through with flying colors, we were without a house and they had our house pending upon our move in about three months.

The father by the way, was an owner of a business in our city and had a gorgeous older estate home closer to the lake.

Wisdom--When God is guiding our lives, we need not worry about the surrounding circumstances, we just know when He is working in our behalf. Now, we had to see where and what to do next and follow His lead.

LAWSUIT!

It wasn't more than a half year after my sister came up with both of us moving after I retired, to be closer to both her children and ours, that the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the city. They claimed that the black people weren't getting equal representation the way the Commission form of government was set up. The way the existing form of government was, that you could run for the office of Commissioner and all be living in the same area of the city.

They sued and won other cities, and their form of government was changed. Now it was our city that they were suing. They wanted an Alderman form of government, where there was an Alderman voted on from different sections of the city. My personal view on this was that they definitely had a point. I think each section of town should be represented by their own elected official. I think this is a fair way to proceed.

Our city settled out of court and the entire form of government was changed to an Elected Alderman instead of elected Commissioners.

My job just happened to get changed from an Appointed position to an Elective position. I did not want to run for the following reasons. My husband was already retired. I only wanted to work a couple years longer and then retire. It would be expensive to run for an elective position and then you wouldn't be sure that you would win. By running, one would be committed for a 4 year term in office. Taking all this into consideration, I chose not to run.

Wisdom--I felt that it was God who allowed me the privilege to be appointed to be City Treasurer for awhile, and that God was closing that door and opening up new avenues in my life. I like the prayer, "Lord help me to change the things that I can, and help me to accept the things that I can not change, and Oh Lord, grant me the wisdom to know the difference." Unknown source.

MY SISTER'S BRAINSTORM!

My sister and husband were retired and were visiting our home. One day early in the morning she came up with this "brainstorm" of an idea. It seems like her mind was always working overtime!

She was so excited and told me that when I retired, that we all should sell our home and move to a centrally located homes between our children's homes. She said, "You know where that would be, don't you?" I said that I had no idea. Then she said it would be where we live now.

This move would be about 800 miles for them, but for us it would only be about 100 miles. One of their boys lived in Kansas City area and the other son lived in the Dayton, Ohio area. Our girls would be extremely close, but not right in the city where either one lived. This seemed like a feasible foreseeable plan.

Little did we know that this would occur sooner than we were planning. Stay tuned and I will describe how it all came about.

Wisdom--Don't close the door on new ideas, it might turn out that those ideas turn out to be excellent!

E-MAIL SAYS IT ALL!

It seems like one gets a lot of e-mail, some make more sense than others, but the one I received today makes what I was talking about yesterday in my writing very clear.

THIS PROFESSOR IS A GENIUS

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism would work and that no one would be poor and everyone would be rich, a great equalizer. (Does this sound familiar?)

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism type plan."

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied became upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the students who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great. But when government takes the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could it not be any simpler.

Wisdom--The late Adrian Rodgers said, "You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

COUSIN LAID TO REST!

Yesterday we went to a dear cousin's funeral. It reminds us of how very short our life is, even though she was getting up in years.


One thing that sticks out in that particular generation that seems to be in short supply today, is how hard they worked to get what they have. The last writing I told you about a couple that had nothing but a strong love for each other and God and how hard they worked to become successful both in life and growth in the Lord.


Marie was from that caliber of thinking. You worked hard, loved much, and never gave up. You kept on keeping on! She and her husband was from the "greatest generation" as Tom Brokaw wrote about in his book.


It seems like our country is going to the opposite way of our founding fathers, watch for the handouts that our Government will provide. This is not how our country was founded. You worked for what you got and had little government interference.


Today our government wants to give everybody ice cream, don't worry if you didn't work for it, it is FREE! Who is going to pay for this FREE ice cream? Well, who cares, it is FREE ice cream. I'm telling you somebody is going to pay dearly for this so called FREE ice cream. It is our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They will be so in debt, that all our whole country will be a third world country and everybody will be dirt poor. Does that sound like a good plan to you?


When hard work is no longer in vogue, and everyone gets a FREE lunch. The FREE lunches will run out. Why work, when you get it for nothing. No incentive!

Wisdom--Proverbs 6:6-11 says--"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man." Does this mean we don't care about those truly in need, no it doesn't, but it teaches us that we work diligently for our own needs and then we can reach out to help those in need. (No government involved).