Four Things About Me That Begin With A "B"

This is a random post I'm writing to save for a day when I'm tired or too busy. It looks like today is one of those days. So here are four things about me that begin with a "B". That just came to mind, not sure where it came from. If these are someone elses words, please forgive me, I didn't mean to steal them.

#1 My favorite sport is basketball. I played on a team for a couple years during ninth and tenth grade. I played the position of Forward and sometimes Center. I was not, and still am not, aggressive so I spent a lot of time on the bench. I quit and enjoyed watching our boys basketball team play twice a week. I always wanted basketball season to last longer. I couldn't wait for Tuesday nights and then Friday nights because those were game nights. We had a good team.

#2 I like the color brown with almost any color. I used to not care much for brown. The color brown was for shoes and purses and maybe pants. But now I think brown looks good on anyone and with just about every color. Maybe because chocolate is brown! I love chocolate.

#3 I like baking. I don't do very much baking these days, but when I take the time I love to bake cookies, brownies, lemon bars, casseroles, and quick breads. I usually use boxed mixes now days and rarely make quick breads. My mom taught me how to make pies and cinnamon rolls, bread and scratch cakes, but I just haven't done it since I was a teen.

#4 I was baptized shortly after I became a Christian in 1988 at the age of thirty. I was in the Navy and stationed in the Philippines. I accepted the Lord as my savior one Sunday night after a message that was given at, what was then called, The Overseas Christian Servicemen's Center (OCSC).

It was really exciting to be baptized in the South China Sea. I don't remember being baptized as a baby so when I became a Christian, it was shared with me that I should be baptized as soon as possible. I have a video of my testimony and pictures. What a great experience and testimony. God is so good.

A Time of Upheaval and Conflict

Today I am feeling the effects of my life being in upheaval and a small
(I hope it's small) conflict.









I looked for verses to help me with these feelings and I'm going to share them tonight.

I know I keep going on about my life being in a bit of turmoil and you have all been so kind to listen, encourage and pray.

Since I'm still trying to get through this I'm stressed out and am taking a break tonight. Here are the verses I read tonight to help me.

"You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me."
Psalm 139: 3, 5, 7, 9-10 NLT

AND

"...live in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you."
2 Corinthians 13:11 NCV

AND

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
Matthew 5:9 NRSV

The True Heart Award

My friend Kat over at Art's Chili has given me the True Heart Award. I am glad she sees the qualities in my blog that are written below.

I don't feel like I have earned it, but if my friend, Kat thinks that I do, I will not question her thoughts and beliefs. I will accept and pass along this really special award. Thanks Kat, you are so sweet and sincere in your blog.

"Those who receive this award are of the sweetest nature. They are kind, friendly, funny, loving, eager to share their love for Jesus with others, and brave in their efforts to reflect Him to this darkened world. They are the kind of folks you're blessed to know, even if it's only in the bloggy-sphere."

I'm not sure if there is a specific number of people that the award is suppose to be sent to so I just started selecting and came up with ten.

There are so many I would choose and so many that have already received this award that I would send it to, but I'm going to send it to some special people in my blog world that may not have received it yet. I won't be surprised if they have though.

Ladies, please accept this True Heart Award because your words and pictures have inspired me and made me think about my life as a Christian woman. You are all sincere women with sweet spirits, yet each of you is unique and special to me.

Maryleigh at Blue Cotton Memory

Laura at Goose Hill Farm

Beth at I'm Heading Towards My Destiny

Darcy Lee at In This Season

Mich at "Mich"

Alicia at More Than Words

Amber at Raising Rascals

Sarah Dawn at Splashin Glory

Pilar at The Stark Family

Christine at Vista Woman

These ladies have also encouraged me and shown me by their lives how to be nearer to God my Lord and Savior. Thanks ladies. Have a True Heart kind of a day.

An 80's Birthday Party

Gosh the 80's were bright! NEON, baby!! I was in my twenties and I didn't wear quite so bright outfits as these birthday girls did. We had fun tonight celebrating birthdays for three girls from our church. The youngest turned 18 today. She obviously was not born in the 80's, but she dressed the part. Alright, here we go...

Here they are from left to right. Ashly, the 18 year old; Jenny, my Letterboxing teacher; and Rhonda a mom who blogs at have2havehumor.

Here are some of the leggings and shoes. It's a little dark, but I think you get the idea.

What better to celebrate with than a "HOT PINK" cake. Ashly's mom made it and it was good.

The inside was Neapolitan, Mmmm Mmmm good! I love her cakes.

You know the "Preppie" on the right. That's Nan at Momstheword. She's with Kaytee who also has a blog or two. Kaytee is also 18 and going off to college this fall. Nan jokes about going with her in one of her suit cases.

Some cake for the colorful birthday girls.

We ate some BBQ, had some cake and listened to music from the eighties. We also remembered movies that we enjoyed or were forbidden to see. It was a great time and the little kids liked it too. Some of the guys even dressed up a little. I was a party pooper, but I still had fun.

"Every party has a pooper that's why we invited you, party pooper, party pooper, that's you" Just thought I'd throw that in there. Take care.

Happy Birthday GIRLS!! Have a great year.

Safety Seals...Ack!!

What is it with safety seals anyway? Now I understand that, thanks to a woman near my hometown here, we need safety seals. Yes, the Tylenol murderer lived near here. I don't know if that is what they called her, but she wanted to kill her husband or someone so she tainted several Tylenol bottles, returned them to the store shelf and unfortunately, not only did she kill her husband, but at least one other person.

Thanks to our local murderer, we have seals on everything even food. Even peanut butter. Yes, you know that heavy, foil, cardboardy thing. Pain relievers and other meds have a thinner, but fingernail resisitant foil on them.

So what do I do? I get a sharp knife out and proceed to puncture, slice, sever, cut, obliterate the foil seal. Now how safe is that? A butter knife isn't sharp enough so the sharp knife seems to be the only option.

Do you send your kids out to open the new container of peanut butter? Probably not. You can't even let them stay in the room while you open it because certainly no on should use a knife to open a safely sealed container. We teach our kids the proper way to use a sharp knife and end up stabbing ourself while opening the peanut butter with a sharp knife.

The other day I tried to lift the cardboardy, foily seal up with my fingernails. I managed to get a bit of an opening so I pulled harder and "rip" goes a piece of the seal. So I tried again and this time I managed to get peanut butter on my finger.

I continued with this pulling and ripping craziness and I surely had enough peanut butter on my fingers and the outside of the jar to make a sandwich. I should have taken a slice of bread and wiped the outside of the container and my fingers on it and just been happy with that. But I continued after washing my hands, to pull and rip, pull and rip, wash my hands again and pull and rip.

I think I might have said a bad word or two while I continued on my determined way to get this bleep jar of peanut butter open. Boy was I hungry by the time I got the jar open.

I collected all of the peanut buttery pieces of the foily, cardboardy seal and tried to throw them away, but of course they were sticking to my hands and I was flinging and shaking my hands over the bleep garbage can. I rubbed and scraped my hands onto the garbage can until I got it all off of me. Washed my hands again and spread that lovely peanut butter on my, now very cold toast, sat down at the table with cold tea and cold toast. Ahhhhhh!

Now isn't that just the most pleasant way to start a day? I love it and I can't wait until we get another jar of peanut butter. I'll be the first one there to open it. Maybe I'll think of a new and exciting way to obliterate remove the lovely foily, cardboardy seal.

Another lesson in patience, longsuffering and anger management brought to you exageratingly, by Mocha Momma. AH!

Good Friends Say Good Bye For Now

Yesterday we said farewell to some friends who stopped by our town on their way out of the country. Some of us church friends heard that our friends who moved to VA two years ago were going to be at our local airport for several hours, so one family organized a BBQ and they picked up our friends from the airport and brought them home.
Here's the happy family now. They are a military family and we are proud of them and their service to our country. We also love them. They are great friends to us.

My daughter, H and their daughter, M became friends about five years ago when they came to our church. Now they are eleven and twelve year olds. Oh my gosh how they have grown. I remember them dressing up, slip and sliding, having tea parties, playing in the back yard and playing with dolls.

This is the little sister, S. She was two when they left here to go to VA. She's a cutie and very energetic. She was singing and walking around playing this guitar yesterday.
She was teaching her dad how to play and holding the piano music up for him while he played the guitar.

Another friend plays another guitar.

M and H getting to know each other again.

Worship team friends chat while waiting for the BBQ'd goodies to come off of the grill.

We call this little guy "Chunkie Munkie". He was scooting all around the table on his bum. Isn't he the cutest? He goes to our church nursery.

More visiting with good friends.

Little friends get to know each other again. They were too young to know each other two years ago. They sure had fun playing the piano together yesterday.

We say "Farewell for now," and we are hoping they will move back here again some day. We will miss them while they are out of the country, but we appreciate how they are serving our country. God bless you, friends. We love you. Keep in touch.

A Walk Down Memory Lane, August 12, 2009

Come for a walk with me down Memory Lane!
And if you have a "Memory Lane" post, head on over to Scottsville to join in on the fun!

I like to try and join Erica at Scottsville every Wednesday for a walk down memory lane. This week I have another old picture of me from the 60's. Some of my followers and lurking, beloved, friends can rememebr the 60's. Those were the days my friends.

I'm quite sure this is my fifth birthday. I also believe my mom made this cake with the doll in it. I also think this is when I received my first and only Barbie Doll. You know, the one with the black and white striped bathing suit? I believe that was the first Barbie that was sold. Correct me if I'm wrong. Hope might know.

I just saw a picture on Amy's blog In Search of Normal yesterday of her daughter, Padme, who just had her fifth birthday and she had the doll cake. It reminded me of mine many years ago. Some cool things never die. (the cake idea, not me. LOL!)

So there it is, another quick trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoyed it.