God Bless…

What follows I received in an email from my cousin.  She didn’t know who the credit should go to for this heart felt poem.  Whoever wrote it (along with the picture included) has captured in words what has been in my heart and in my prayers.

God Bless those little children and their teachers.  God be with their families.

twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38

when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.

they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.

"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."

when what to their wondering eyes did appear,

but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.

then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring

those children all flew into the arms of their King

and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,

one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

and as if He could read all the questions she had

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."

then He looked down on earth, the world far below

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe

then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

then He and the children stood up without a sound.

"come now my children, let me show you around."

excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.

all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Wedding Dress and Politics

Have no idea how the two go together except I had both thoughts in the middle of the night.  I thought about my wedding dress from my first marriage.  My dad drove me to Decatur, IL to the Sears store.  Yes, my dress came off the rack from Sears.  It was street length, white and that’s all I remember about it. 

As for politics in the middle of the night…made me want to get up and pull an Elvis Presley and shoot the TV all to smitherines.  I’m sick of all the ads, lies, accusations.  What happened to decency in this country?  What’s happened to decency and morality?  Shame on them. 

Time Warp

This picture really doesn’t have anything to do with the purpose of this post other than it does reflect another period of time in my life.  I learned how to sew on this type of machine. 
I got to thinking about the last 4 years and decided we were caught in a time warp.  Wikepedia’s definition:  According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, when a body of mass "m" and volume "V" (each length of "l") moves with a velocity "v", then many changes take place in is physical appearance. Its length decreases and mass increases. These factors keep on increasing and decreasing with the increase in velocity. When the body reaches the speed of light "c", the length becomes zero, mass becomes infinite and time factor vanishes. In other words, no time passes inside the event horizon of the moving body. In this way, the body sometimes takes irregular shapes and covers a distance of millions of light years in no time, because the passage of time for that moving body is vanished. During this process, the body is said to be moving with a time-warp speed. 

You got all that, right?  Allow me to clarify.

Einstein’s theory:  In other words, no time passes inside the event horizon of the moving body. In this way, the body sometimes takes irregular shapes and covers a distance of millions of light years in no time, because the passage of time for that moving body is vanished.

Sue’s theory:  The moving body we were in for the last 4 years was a 38 foot motor home.  It did take on irregular shapes at times since we had three slide outs.  And, we covered a whole lot of miles in what now seems like no time, since we are back in our stick home and that moving motor home has gone bye bye.  Yup, no doubt about it, we were in a time warp.

Medio Enchilada Sauce

Tim was in the mood for enchiladas and since we were in the grocery store that caters to the Hispanic population I thought it would be a good place to get some enchilada sauce.

  I understood “salsa, roja, and figured ‘medio’ met medium heat.  I always buy ‘medium’ salsa so thought this would be a good choice.  I had not made enchiladas before but I had watched “The Pioneer Cooking Woman’s” show the day before and she had made enchiladas.  I had dvr’d the show so I could replay it and follow her instructions. No problem.  I had the ground beef, the tortillas and my “medio salsa roja sauce”.  I opened the enchilada sauce, added ingredients per the recipe, cooked up the ground beef, assembled the tortillas and then thought I would taste the sauce to see if it needed anything.  Holy Moley!  Mother of fire! Get me water, milk, wine!  What am I going to do?  Tim said, “It can’t be that hot…let me taste it.”  He took a spoonful, looked at me, eyes watering, and said, “What are you going to do?”  I started with adding a can of tomato paste, then tomato sauce, dumped in some salsa (that was the dumbest thing I did since it was “medium salsa”), added some sugar, stared at it for awhile waiting for enlightenment, and finally added a can of tomato soup.  I couldn’t add anything else without pouring it all into another pot.  Decided it was as good as it was going to get.  The filled tortillas went into a casserole, I ladled in the sauce and topped it with as much cheddar cheese as I could get on it.  Here’s the verdict.  Tim said it was the best enchiladas he’s ever had.  I thought they were horrible.  I’m sticking with Taco Bell.

Lucy’s Travels

Lucy is 5 1/2 years old.  Most of her life has been spent in our motorhome travelling.  Her world has been about 300 square feet.  There have been a few times when we were in a hotel room or at someone’s home for night or two and she seemed overwhelmed.  The place was too big for her.  We moved back into our home May 1 and it took weeks for her to adjust to all the space.  Now, it’s hard to find her.  She has her cubby holes/hiding places everywhere! 

I got to thinking about all the places she’s travelled especially the last 5 years.  Here are a few of her travels:  Her first trip was to Show Low, AZ when she was 6 months old.  We still had Tootsie and Lucy had a travel partner for a couple of years.  Fort Bragg, CA was next.  She and Tootsie weren’t too keen on the twisty, winding highway to Fort Bragg.  I wasn’t either.  The road was narrow and the logging trucks were big and fast.  Lucy’s been to Salt Lake City, Park City, Utah, Olympia, Seattle, Spokane, Moses Lake, Deer Park, WA, Newport, Florence, Tillamook, Rockaway Beach, OR.  She doesn’t want to spend anymore time on the coast.  She’s done with rain. However, she really did like the beach.  She would just flat out run toward the ocean and run tail when the tide came in. She’s been to Bandon, Canyonville, Bend, LaPine, Albany, Redmond, Lincoln City, Seaside, Astoria (all in OR).  We spent a lot of time in Oregon.  She’s spent many nights in RV parks, (some good some dumps) fair grounds, overnighted in WalMart parking lots, Elk’s Lodge and casino parking lots. She wasn’t too crazy about the WalMart parking lots.  She and Tim had that in common.  He wasn’t crazy about them either.

As far as Lucy was concerned, the motorhome was her crate and it had wheels on it.  She really is a good travel dog.  We never let her run loose when we were driving.  She was always tethered to the seat belt on the sofa.  And, she’s always belted when she’s in the truck.  The people who let their animals sit on the dash of the motorhome or run loose while driving are just plain stupid. 

Lucy’s been a whole lot of places and there are many stories to tell.  Maybe that’s the direction I’ll take with this blog.  I’ll recreate a diary (after the fact) of the 4 years we dropped out of the rat race.  Where do I start? 

Done with Facebook

Not sure what really prompted me to delete my Facebook account…I think I really just got bored with it.  It’s not that I had a kagillon “friends” cause I didn’t.  I was pretty selective who I “friended”.  Then some of my friends were into the games and that was a turn off for me.  I blocked them.  What I did look forward to was the posts from Dogwork.com and Hopeforpaws.org but I can go directly to those websites and see what’s happening there.  Same is true for JoyceMeyer.org – don’t need Facebook for her.  So, what was the point?  Couldn’t see any reason to keep it up…so…kaput – it’s history.  One less techie thing I’m tethered to.

Update on Pressure Cooker

Remember awhile back I got one at a sale?  Well, it’s history.  Gave it to Goodwill.   

End of an era...

 Eight years ago we bought this motor home.  We never owned one before.... no tent, trailer, nada.  My idea of camping was JW Marriott.  I'm not sure what possessed us to buy one. 

The last three years we lived in it full time.  (That's less than 300 square feet of living quarters.)  We primarily travelled west of the Mississippi except for one trip to Alabama.  I was raised in the Midwest and I told Tim I wasn't travelling back there until Wal-Mart had underground parking for RVs to escape the tornados. 
It's been a great motorhome.  We've had experiences of a lifetime and most important of all...we've reconnected with Tim's cousin, Dick and his wife, Rosemary (we had lost touch with them for years and ran into them at a rally in Albuquerque, NM).  We've also made new friendships that will last a lifetime whom we never would have met if it had not been for the motorhome, rallies (and Lucy).  Things happen for a reason. 

However, it is time to hang up the keys.  As Tim says, he's managed to drive the side of a barn down the road for 8 years with no one hitting us and us not hitting them...a good time to quit.

Shake, Rattle and Roll

About 9 am this morning while sitting at the computer I felt the motorhome shaking.  My first thought was it was my imagination.  I looked at Tim and asked if he felt anything.  Yep, he did.  I looked at my plant sitting on the dash and the leaves were really shaking.  I told him we were experiencing a pretty substantial earthquake (after all we are in California only a few miles from the San Andreas fault).  My second thought was this may be a big one since we really felt it.  My third thought was “crap, there may be damage to the roads and we won’t be able to leave next week and we’re really ready to head back to AZ”.  Tim said earthquakes don’t last this long.  My fourth thought was “damn, it’s the spin cycle on the washing machine”. 

Then there was FIRE!

Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.  I’m talking about Kindle Fire.   

SkyMed ( follow the link on the left to know more about SkyMed) awarded us a Kindle Fire for sales we had last October/November.  We are avid book readers.  We are always perusing the local libraries looking for books.  We drop books off…we get new books.  I have books stashed everywhere.  We very seldom buy a book. I wasn’t sure if I would like reading a book on an E-reader.  I have the Kindle app on my Droid and have read a book or two on it but the screen on the Droid is so small and I’m flipping pages so fast that it makes me dizzy.  The Kindle Fire is like a small I Pad.  I have downloaded books…books that were already in my “Cloud”.  I have downloaded free music albums that stay in my “Cloud” so I can then download them to my MPG3 player on my Droid. I can surf the web, check email, download apps, watch streaming videos through my Amazon Prime account, browse for free books and music. I can also borrow books from Amazon’s lending library. There are free e-book sites other than Amazon not to mention the local library for their e-books.  There are functions of the Fire that I haven’t even begun to understand yet.

The biggest problem I seem to have is Tim.  He keeps eyeing MY Kindle.  I don’t plan on showing him how to turn it on.

Guess who???

Jaywalking…

Tim sent me the link. Very funny but also scary considering they can vote, too.

http://www.iviewtube.com/v/65379/jay-leno-in-jaywalking-(very-funny)

Talk about intensity…

I posted this on Facebook but not everyone is on Facebook.  Tim and Lucy start their morning watching this. 

http://www.dogwork.com/bcw2b/

Adams School

We moved back to Lincoln when I was 8.  I was in the 3rd grade.  I don’t remember the teacher but I do remember Adams School.  It was a 2 room schoolhouse and was just a few blocks from where we lived with “Mom”. First and second grades were in one room and third and fourth were in the other.  There were 2 teachers…one for each room.  The only real memory I have of attending Adams is coming home with a plastic bag with a couple of guppies.  Guppies are baby fish.  Not sure what they grew into.  I think gold fish.  I remember my mother and grandmother saying “no way”.  Guppies were like rabbits and I’d end up with millions.  I begged and begged.  I finally wore them down and my grandmother gave me a bowl to put them in.  I promised to take care of them.  My mother gave me some money to go buy fish food.  I fed them every time I walked by the fish bowl.  They had to eat, after all.  Well, they didn’t have to worry about millions of guppies.  After a few days the guppies were belly up.  I think I over fed them.  End of story.

Here’s a picture of Adams School:  

Changes in the wind…

Lots of wind the past few days.  However, the changes we’re making has nothing to do with the wind.  Change is good, keeps one out of a rut.  I don’t like ruts. 

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2012/02/mouth-watering-monday-20-breakfast-in.html

http://www.ziplist.com/recipes/459300-Bacon_Guacamole_Grilled_Cheese_Sandwich

http://www.closetcooking.com/2011/02/double-smoked-bacon-wrapped-fillet.html

http://www.closetcooking.com/2012/02/raspberry-and-dark-chocolate-cheesecake.html

I’m stuffed.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Watcha doin?

Family history continued

As I get older it has become important to me to try to remember stuff and write it down.  Stories told to me as a young adult went in one ear and out the other.  My Dad talked about being a POW during World War II only one time.  He was in Patton’s Third Army, went in with the group that liberated a POW camp that Patton’s son-in-law was in and then ended up being captured by the Germans on the way out.  I would give anything today to have had a recording of that conversation.  He never would talk about it again.  Hopefully, some day my grandkids, nieces and nephews will find and read this blog to get a sense of who their family was (is).  My mother and grandmother use to tell stories about their parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, children born and died young.  My mother lived in New Harmony, Indiana and remembered when a devastating tornado came through and killed hundreds of people.  She helped to pull bodies from the wreckage.  She also told me about her first marriage to Bill Hyatt.  She didn’t really want to marry him but when he showed up at my Aunt Dena’s cabin (where she was staying) in a wagon pulled by horses she got in and they went to town to get married. I do remember my Aunt Dena. She had a twin sister named Lena.  I don’t think I ever met her.  I’m not positive but I think they were my grandmother’s sisters.  My family history is murky.   Aunt Dena was a little looney.  She not only smoked a corn cob pipe but kept dead copperhead snakes in some sort of liquid in quart jars.  Ii have no idea why.  Maybe that’s why my mother got in the wagon!

Ramblings

Started a post on more family history but it’s late and my mind is wandering.  Saved it as a draft and will work on it later.

Been doing SkyMed presentations.  For 20 minutes of SkyMed attendees then get a chicken dinner (or lunch).  We started doing the presentations in November.  I’m sick of chicken.

Made a Nutella cheesecake.  Basically just cream cheese, a little sugar, vanilla and a jar of Nutella.  Dump in an Oreo cookie crust. Yummy. 

Watched a couple good movies.  This evening was The Greatest Game Ever Played.  It’s a true golf story in the early 1900’s.  Didn’t recognize any of the characters.  The other was Secondhand Lions with Robert Duvall and Michael Caine.  Great movie.  Tim actually stayed awake for both.

Growing tomatoes.  It’s a contest between the birds and me to see who’s going to get the tomatoes first.  We’re about even. 

I have a headache.  Too much chicken. 

Time to go to bed.  Lucy’s already snoring.  

A memoir

Lorie seems to think my recent blogging is going to lead to my writing a memoir.  Definition (loosely) of a memoir is it’s sort of like an autobiography.  Well, I think I agree with Will Rogers:  "Memoirs means when you put down the good things you ought to have done and leave out the bad ones you did do."  There’s a WHOLE LOT I wouldn’t put in writing.  I can just see it now.  Granddaughter Audrey sneaking up on a sleeping grandmother (me) with a glass of water in her hand to put my fingers into so she can find out all of my secrets.  At some point I would like to be able to print off the posts I have done, make a front and back cover with bright colored construction paper (like I did in third grade) and staple it to make it resemble a book. It’s a pain to scroll through the archives to try and find a post I did a couple of years ago.  I guess I could call it a memoir!  

Family History

My family is pretty small.  I have one brother who is 10 years older than me.  As a child I don’t remember much about him.  I know he was around at least for the first 8 years of my life but I have very few memories of interaction with him.  One memory I do have is when I was about 5 or 6  and I was getting a spanking from my mother (across the knee kind) and my brother was peaking around the corner laughing at me.  I also remember he let me sit on his lap and steer his car as we drove through a park.  I was 8 when we moved in with my grandmother (mother’s side).  We called my grandmother “Mom”.  Everyone called her Mom.  We had moved back to Lincoln from Springfield, OH and my brother stayed in Ohio to attend Ohio State University. I didn’t really connect with my brother until I was in my 20’s.  Since then our connection and interaction has been strong.  It’s just the first 20 years I don’t have a lot of memories of him.  I also only have a picture or two of us in those early years.  This one was a couple of years ago when we visited he and Mimi in Alabama.

I do have vivid memories of “Mom’s” house.  It was small.  Two bedrooms large enough to hold a double bed and a small dresser. You couldn’t walk around the bed.  It fit wall to wall backed in to a wall.  Only one side was open.  One person would have to crawl over the other person to get in or out of bed.  I slept on the “davenport”…for 7 years.  The house had electricity but no indoor plumbing, water, bathroom, or furnace.  There was a coal stove in the living room for heat and a coal cooking stove in the small kitchen.  I used to carry coal in each morning from the coal bin at the back of the yard.  I would fill the coal bucket with the largest chunks I could find but Mom would make me take them back and get the smaller pieces.  They would burn faster.  I also had to rake the ashes from the stove.  The outhouse was by the coal bin.  I hated the outhouse.  I think it was a two holer…but, I never shared it with anyone. I hated the chamber pots more.  Baths were on Saturday night in large granite tubs heated with water from the kettle on the stove. Laundry was done in a winger-washer machine and hung outside on clotheslines…year round.  There were no dryers.  Have you ever taken frozen clothes off a clothes line?  I have.  Ironing was done with cast iron irons.  The kind you leave on the cooking stove to get hot.  She also had coal oil lamps. She would leave one lit in the parlor each night. 

We’re not talking about the 1920’s, 30’s or 40’s.  We moved in with Mom in 1956!  And, the house was in the middle of town.  I forgot to mention it sat on a street right across from the railroad tracks…maybe about 75 feet from the front porch.  I use to watch the trains go by with hobos in the box cars.  There were cabooses, too.  I miss seeing a caboose on a train.  It’s like an uncompleted act. The house would shake whenever a train passed.  There was also an air raid/tornado siren next to the tracks.  It’s a wonder I got any sleep.

Last Will and Testament Plus Instruction Booklet

Tim not only wanted to know where my Will was he also wanted to know if the pressure cooker came with an instruction booklet so he could see what I did wrong after I blew myself up. 

Yes, I’ve read the instructions.  No, I don’t understand them.  There’s a green thingy and a red thingy.  You decide which thingy you use based on the amount of pressure you want.  I’m thinking the red thingy would blow the roof off the motorhome.  (We do have insurance but I should probably check under the “exclusions list”.)  The pressure cooker is a Fagor, circa 1997.  I think that’s a good thing since they’ve still got a website.  I’ve also surfed for pressure cooker cookbooks and there’s a couple on Amazon that look like interesting.  So, in the meantime I’ve got a ham bone in the freezer and dried beans in the pantry.  I’m sure Tim and Lucy will be checking into the local motel once I bring the pressure cooker in the motorhome.

Pressure Cooker

I’ve wanted one for a long time.  I have absolutely no idea how they work.  I have no idea why I thought I had to have one.  Or, what would I do with it.  Well, as of today I am the proud owner of a pressure cooker.  Today was “yard sales” at everyone’s lot here in Outdoor Resorts in Indio, CA.  The golf cart was fully charged and I backed it out of our lot at 8 AM in search of purchases I couldn’t live without.  Of course, I had no money.  I never have any cash…but I took my check book in case I could convince someone there was money in the account.  Ta dah!  I hit the jackpot.  I found not only a pressure cooker but they also had corelle dishes.  The pressure cooker was $10.00 and the corelle dishes for 8 was $5.00!!  She agreed to the check only if I replaced it for cold hard cash.  Well, I knew I couldn’t get cash from Tim since I’m the one who doles out $$ to him.  I could always go to the store and get “cash back” but I was too lazy to leave the resort.  We had dinner with friends last night who said “I can spot you…just let me know what you need.”  So, putting the golf cart in go…I found out how fast that puppy could go.  You see, my friends were out and about checking on yard sales too.  Took awhile to track them down…but ended up not as hard as I thought it would be since the batteries died on their golf cart and they were an easy find dead in the street!!  He gave me 2 $20’s…I only needed $15.00…so I had money left over to buy a coffee pot, coffee grinder and 8 cups. 

I think pressure cookers can blow their top if you don’t follow the directions closely.  I’ll let you know.

Church memories continued…

Most of my memories are from the Nazarene side.  My Grandmother and Aunt Sara and Uncle Russ went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and on Wednesdays.  I managed to escape Sunday night and Wednesdays.  My Grandfather managed to escape, as well, including Sunday mornings.  Not sure how he got away with it but he did.  Come to think of it, my father escaped, too.  After Sunday morning church I would go back to my Grandmother’s house for a big Sunday meal.  My Grandmother would then take her afternoon nap and my cousins and I would wait until we thought she was asleep, crawl on our knees keeping as quiet as 3 young girls could, with me  holding a glass of water.  You see, we had heard somewhere if you put a sleeping person’s fingers (just the fingers) in a glass of water they would spill the beans about anything you asked them!!  We knew Grandmother had secrets and we wanted to know what they were.  Well, it didn’t quite work out the way we thought it would.  I spilled the glass of water, we started laughing and woke Granny up.  Needless to say, we had some explaining to do.

My other memory is when the Nazarene Grandmother took my cousins and I to church camp.  Don’t remember much about it except every night we would all form a big circle and each person would give their testimony.  I was about 10 or 12 years old and I wasn’t sure what “testimony” was.  I felt guilty because I just knew I didn’t have “it” after listening to the other kids speak of seeing the light, hear the calling or meeting up with the Three Kings. I would look at my cousins and even they managed to come up with something original. I really knew I was screwed then. When it was my turn I basically said “ditto”.  After the 3rd night my Grandmother caught on to my “dittos” and I got THE look.  That was the end of Church camp. 

I checked out of organized religion when I was about 15.  And, I stayed checked out for a very long time. 

Childhood memories

I grew up in a small town in central Illinois.  Lincoln, IL.  Population 16,000…today, 2012, still 16,000 people.  We lived with my grandmother (on my mother’s side) in a 2 bedroom house, no bathroom, coal stove in the living room for heat, coal cooking stove in the small kitchen…wait, that will be another post.  What today’s memory is about is going to church.  My grandmother (on my Dad’s side) also lived in Lincoln along with my Aunt Sara and Uncle Russ and various cousins.  My mother’s side was Baptist.  The no drinking, dancing kind.  My grandmother – Dad’s side – was an ordained Nazarene minister – the kind who came to the alter, got down on their knees  and pound the day lights out of it.  I was never sure what the purpose was.  One Sunday I would go to the Baptist Church.   The next would be to the Nazarene Church.   Both churches scared the hell out of me.  They preached fire, hell and brimstone.  Still don’t know what brimstone is.  I just knew I was in trouble and was going to hell.  I sang in the Nazarene church choir with my cousins until we got kicked out for having the giggles.  We use to poke each other about the different people who went to the alter to pound the crap out of it.  Some were very vocal and really laid into that alter.  I was baptized in the Baptist church.  Don’t remember how old I was…I just was afraid I would drown.  I was sure the preacher knew I had been at the “rec” the night before dancing up a storm and this was his chance to get even for my sins.  I had a lot of guilt about going to church.  Didn’t like it.  Scared of it.  Didn’t understand the God, Jesus, Holy Spirit thing.  No one could explain (nor did anyone try to) how we went from Adam and Eve to the kajillon people of all different races.  I did like the songs.  Still do.  More Church memories tomorrow.

Just for me…

Don’t think anyone checks on this blog anymore.  I’m not a regular “poster”.  That’s ok.  I’ve been thinking I might just do this for me.  What I like. What I don’t like.  What pisses me off.  What makes me smile.  What recipes I like.  What recipe I tried that turned out like crap.  (Tim always says it’s good…smart man.)  I don’t care if anyone reads this or not.  Maybe some day my grandchildren will find this blog and finally get to know me. 

Facebook bores me (even though  I do check in daily to get my Dogwork videos).  Care less about Twitter.  The only tweet I miss is the singing of my grandmother’s canary.  That bird could sing.  I don’t need to know what everyone thinks every minute of the day.  It becomes intrusive. 

What gave me the idea to post again was reading about Pinterest.  It’s another social media site where you again “sign up” for an account and then you can “pin” whatever you see or like on the net to your “boards”.  It’s sort of like cutting magazine articles/pictures out and sticking them to a bulletin board…this is the digital version.  It may take a little more effort on my part but I can do the same thing (sort of) with my blog and probably have less people viewing it.  If I have readers of this blog…that’s ok.  But, from now on I’m posting for myself.  I use to get my feelings hurt if who I thought should read it…didn’t. 

This DogWork video reminds me of Tootsie -

http://www.dogwork.com/bcw2b/

Got to go cut ham off a bone and freeze it.  I want to make ham and beans.