New Year's Resolutions verses My Bucket List...

Every New Year's Day I reflect on what the coming year might bring.  I follow the crowd and usually create a couple of resolutions that I know I can complete - keeping my car clean, sending birthday cards to all my family, and reading for an hour a day.  Then I take on the task of thinking about the resolutions I should make that require a lot more effort and thought - you know the ones...lose weight, get out of debt, faithfully attend church every Sunday, eat out less and cook at home more (yeah, that's gonna work!!!), and the hateful 8 letter "E" word (EXERCISE!!!).  So let's be real.  How many of the resolutions are already out the door and it's only 1/2/12? Pretty much most of them at this point.  Am I alone in this state of affairs?  I think not...So, to put it in the positive, let's look at my own personal "Bucket List" of things to do before I die, and see if I have mastered any of them.  You might be surprised!!!
1. Go to the Swiss Alps. NO
2. Para Sail. YES
3. Go to Hawaii. YES
4. Go to Alaska. YES
5. Leave the United States. YES
6. Get married. YES
7. Have children and witness their marriage.  YES for 1
8. Have grandchildren whom I love to the moon and back. YES
9. Skydive. YES (indoor form)
10. Zipline. YES
11. Join the Army. NO
12. Write a book. NO
13. Take a cruise. YES
14. Meet a celebrity. YES
15. See Barry Manilow in concert. YES
16. Finish College and get Master's Degree. YES
17. Work in a job I love. YES
18. Have many friends and family to love and who love me. YES
19. Have Lasik surgery. YES
20. Be BLESSED beyond belief by GOD. YES, YES, and more YES
Let's see...17/20 that's about 85% completion and fullfillment.  I do believe that trumps the New Year's Resolutions.  Enough said. I will look to the sky, SMILE, and thank God for my Blessings, and kiss the resolutions goodbye!!!! Happy New Year to all my reader's! (all 2 of you!)

Reflections of Thanks

Several weeks now, I have been in 3 card stores and 2 retail stores searching for the perfect Thanksgiving card for my son and daughter-in-law.  Much to my dismay, I have found none...none!  Being the observant, diligent card-sending guru that I am, it amazed me to see the stacks for Thanksgiving cards were limited with just a minimal number of each, yet...the Halloween cards, the Pastor Appreciation cards, the Sweetest Day cards, and of course, the Christmas cards ALL had endless supplies to whomever you wished would be the receiver.  I am aghast!  However, to keep up with my goal of maintaining a positive blog, I am going to turn this into a learning experience.  Perhaps I will make Trent and Kristin a card...perhaps I will send an ecard... or, perhaps I will forgo the card (naw, that won't do. Hallmark would definitely miss me!!!)  Ok...so back on track.  Thanksgiving is about remembering and making memories.  It's about family and friends - past and present. It's about getting together, laughing, singing, teasing, cooking (anybody BUT me!), taking lots of photo's (my favorite thing to do!), and looking at old photo's of loved ones passed or present.  I love the holidays - all of them...but Thanksgiving has many fond memories of my childhood.  Growing up, there was an elderly couple that lived across the street from the schoolhouse near our home.  They didn't have a lot of money and their family never seemed to visit.  I loved Nick and Twila.  I would go visit whenever I could. Mom and Dad encouraged us to always share - even if we were poor, so one Thanksgiving, my sister and I piled plates high with turkey/stuffing, plus all the trimmings, and delivered them to Nick and Twila.  Their faces lit up when they saw us and we were thanked profusely with tears streaming down each of their faces.  After that, everytime our family had a feast, we made sure plates were made for Nick and Twila.  We did this until the year they both died (within a couple of months of each other).  This is a memory you can't buy, but will never lose...  So, Nick and Twila if you're looking down at us - we all moved on, but never forgot and I always SMILE when I think of you both.  God Bless... 

Heaven's Resident Angel

Aunt Laurine died last week.  She was 91.  During her life, Aunt Laurine was blessed so many times, but 14 of which I am aware.  First she married Uncle Roy, then the thirteen blessings were born - 8 boys (one set of twins) and 5 girls.  In family pictures, they created stair steps.  Growing up in a small town in Kansas, we would often pack up the old pickup and head to Aunt Laurine's farm a good three hours away in the country in Missouri.  The roads were windy and hilly and I suffered many boughts of carsickness - much to the chagrin of my sister, who inevitably sat next to me and would gain the contents of my stomach on her...but who cares, afterall, the story is about Aunt Laurine.  We would arrive at the old farmhouse way after bedtime.  She immediately greeted us, offered food or drink and then direct us to the very full bedrooms.  That was such a great memory.  Sometimes there would be more than four of us girls in a bed, but we didn't care.  To this day when I hear John Denver's song "Grandma's Feather Bed", I smile and think of Aunt Laurine. (the lyrics go, "It was nine feet high, six feet wide, soft as a downy chick...would hold eight kids, four hounddogs, and the piggy we stole from the shed...didn't get much sleep but we had a lot of fun on Grandma's Feather Bed...")  In the morning, she would be awake before the sun rose, baking the most wonderful smelling bread, churning butter, and frying up bacon, eggs, pancakes, you name it...she made it!!!  I never heard a harsh word out of her mouth, nor see a frown on her beautiful face.  I'm sure she did, but my view of Aunt Laurine was of a niece looking in awe at a woman who put her faith first and then her family.  She was and is one of the most spiritual women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  She began each day with a prayer, each meal with a prayer, and ended the day thanking God for his Grace and her blessings.  Aunt Laurine's smile could light up the room - she emitted goodness to everyone.  It didn't matter if she saw you daily, once a month, every year, etc. she treated everyone like they were her family.  At her funeral the Priest stated that he had often heard in reference to Aunt Laurine that if she didn't get into Heaven, nobody has a chance.  That is so true.  Her granddaughter recited a poem about the twelve jewels created that have come to symbolize goodness and mercy. After the service, I told her granddaughter how that poem touched me.  She simply stated "It sounded like my grandma." I totally agree.  Aunt Laurine was solid as a diamond, tough as a ruby, soft as an amythest, and bright as an emerald.  Perhaps I didn't get to see her as often, or keep in touch like I wish, but each visit was quality time with an Aunt who loved everyone unconditionally. She is now soaring with the eagles under God's roof and I have to SMILE as I look to the Heaven's and feel comfort knowing she is there watching...

Traveling In Unknown Territories

Traveling across Highway 36 East in Missouri to take my mom to a funeral was quite an experience educationally and socially.  I had reserved two rooms (one for me and mom, and one for my cousins from Illinois) at one of the two Hotels in this small town sight unseen...Needless to say when mom and I exited the highway and saw the OLD billboard, minus color and letters on the add, I knew we were destined to a learning experience neither one of us was prepared for.  Pulling into the dilapidated building with the air-conditioners so old, trash littering the premises, peeling paint, and holes in some of the doors, I somehow managed to drag myself to the office (which was the residence of the owner) and request a 'look-see' at the room, as my mom was fragile. (Prior to that, I had told mom to make her physical disability a little more prominent because we were gonna get out of this reservation one way or another!!!) The office stank of old cigarettes, mold, and grease.  The proprietor asked what mom's disability was and I told her she had had two hip replacements and that walking was difficult.  She then stated "you didn't tell me she was disabled" (as if that was any of her business to begin with...just saying) and the rooms are on the second floor.  I looked up at the frail steps with the rotted railing and informed her that mom could not walk up those steps and that she had told me we would be in rooms 3 and 8 not upstairs. I stated we would not be staying and would head on down the road.  The woman actually followed me to the car and said "come and look at room 8, it's available after all and has a bed and a half "(I'm thinking what the heck???), so being considerate I agree to look - after all, we are there and I did give the woman my credit card.  Entering the room, I was engulfed by mold - I swear it was everywhere!!!! When commenting on the smell and discussing my allergies, the woman asked "You can smell that dearie?" Uh...YES!!! The room had two doors to the outside and one of them had no doorknob and you could see light from outside around the entire door and there were holes in the wall (going to who knows where).  She said "come and see how clean the bathroom is".  By this time, I just want to leave, take a shower, and get a penicillin shot for whatever germs had landed on my body, so I peeked in quickly and said "no thanks' we are leaving.  She followed me to the car again and wanted me to see if my cousins still wanted a room. OMG LADY - NO!!! ARE YA NOT LISTENING???? I jump in the car, tell mom we might be sleeping in the car and head east. Amazingly, we found a quaint little motel about a mile away that was CLEAN, had fresh sheets, TV, parking, and no stairs. I paid for the two rooms quickly and we were set!!!! I called the other proprietor back to make sure she didn't use my credit card for the disgusting rooms, and she informed me that she would be charging me for one of the rooms because she might not be able to rent it out for the night. (ya think???)  I just SMILED and considered it a blessing...after all, it's only money - NOT GERMS!!!!!

Reflections of 9/11/01

At about 8:50AM, on 9/11/01, our school counselor came into my office and told me that one of the World Trade Center Twin Towers had been hit by an airplane and terrorism was suspected.  I immediately went to our High School classroom and asked the teacher if we could turn on the TV.  The picture of the tower on fire was so devastatingly sad.  Several minutes later, while watching, the second tower was hit!!!! The students were shell-shocked to the point of disbelief.  Staff was hauntingly quiet.  I remember watching, not sure I was processing, and praying to God this was someones idea of a sick joke and the newsmen would come on any minute and tell us the TV stations had been hacked and the film was photo shopped.  When that didn't happen, and all TV stations were reporting the same news, we all became mesmerized by the images.  Book learning was not going on at this time, but actual history lessons were taking place.  Later in the morning, the entire school assembled outside to Pledge Allegiance and sing God Bless America.  During both, people were solemn, tears in their eyes, and others (myself included) couldn't stop the tears rolling down their devastated faces.  All in all, we came together not only as a nation, but as a school.  Watching the towers implode on TV and seeing the people jump to their deaths from the top of the towers took its toll on everyone impacted.  The images became nightmares for some, and death reports for others.  
     It is now the tenth Anniversary of 9/11/01 and I have been watching the memorials, the minute-by-minute replay of actual footage, listening to the interviews by survivors, and basically, just reliving the horror that all the victims and their families felt ten year ago today.  It is so overwhelming, as I am so empathetic to the pain of other people (it's nothing I do, God gave me this gift) that I actually feel like I know these people personally...  I have watched the movie, Flight 93 at least twice this week, and every single time, I sob with the passengers and their families.  How unselfishly brave all those passengers were to save complete strangers in the USA.  I wonder how many of us would have done the same as Todd, Jeremy, Elizabeth, (just to mention a few), and the flight crew.  I like to believe and hope that most of us would be as selfless and loyal to want to save many more lives enough to sacrifice our own to keep the world a safer place. 
      Watching the memorial events today has definitely cleared my tear ducts and sinus passages, but has also made me realize that God is good.  As I look to the Heaven's today of all days, I SMILE and thank him for my wonderful life in America...God will continue to Bless all the victims of 9/11/01, as well as the people of the United States.

Random Acts of Kindness...

I am a HUGE proponent of Random Acts of Kindness.  It makes my heart smile to do something nice for people and not let them know who it was from.  Some of my favorite ways to bless people include: leaving car wash money for the next person in line and leaving before they notice; paying for a drink at a local convenient store for a random person still filling their drink; giving chocolate bars to the WalMart checkers; paying the quarter for the cart at Aldi's; buying a biscuit at Burger King for the person behind you; and going into a laundro mat and handing people quarters for the washers.  Sometimes at the car wash I will pull over to the gas station and watch the face of the person getting the free wash.  Some people leave the money, some look around for the person who just left, and others just smile and use the quarters!!!!  Lately, I have had had several random acts given to me and it's awesome to know that some stranger (or perhaps someone I know) wanted to make me smile.  I challenge all of you reader's of my blog (all 2 of you!) to bless someone this week with a Random Act and watch yourself SMILE!!!!!

A Moment in Time...

I love taking photos of barns - old, new, it doesn't matter.  Barns have such character!  Last year, after a snowstorm, I was driving west on Picket Road and my favorite Red Barn was sitting on the hill in all her splendor...snow covering her with it's winter blanket and creating a spectacular sight on the barren trees.  I ran home and grabbed my faithful Sony and returned to take the perfect picture.  Oh my, it was breathtaking!  I immediately enlarged and framed that picture and decided to take pics of that particular beautiful barn in all four seasons from the exact same spot.  I made a copy of the 'Winter Red Barn' and drove to the home of the owner of my beauty.  Mr. A. was thrilled and gave me permission to take any and all pictures of 'her' whenever I wanted.  Wow!  I went in April for the Spring pic and today I went for the Summer shot.  All four are so different and unique.  Today, Mr. A. was in his garden working and watched while I shot the wonder of his precious red barn.  We talked for a bit, he showed me his wonderful flower garden that must have been 1/2 block long, and even gave me seeds to plant in my yard.  He is such a sweet gentleman.  He and his wife have lived in this house with my barn for many years.  We shared photo  and flower stories, and Mr. A. asked if I would email my pics of the beautiful Red Barn to him so he could email them to his brother, the photographer.  We exchanged emails and phone numbers with the promise I would share all pics of my favorite barn with him anytime I took them.  What a blessed day, and as I drove away, I looked up at God, told him 'Thanks' and SMILED!!!!