THE FOUR WORD MEME

That sounded easy so even though I didn't receive a Tag as such, the invitation to join was there.

CANDY No problem there, my favorite is anything with Dark Chocolate. I especially like Hershey's Dark chocolate bars.

BEACH Well since my sister & I are taking a trip to the Island of Oahu in November, I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the beautiful Beach near Waikiki. I have never been to Hawaii so, I'm very excited about going. I've always enjoyed looking at the Ocean, but this will be so different from the rugged Pacific coast than I am used to seing.

SEASON Summer is my favorite, & today even though it is officially fall, we are experiencing a warming period. Though I love the beutiful colors of fall, I love the warmer weather that summer brings.

HE LIVED WHAT HE LOVED - STEVE IRWIN 1962-2006

The world lost a wonderful caring person in Steve Irwin, commonly know as the Crocodile Hunter.
He taught us to care because he cared so much. Today I watched the Animal Planet's tribute to Steve which they called CROC RULES. They presented stories of his life, a life whose passion was a love of Crocodiles & other Wildlife species including many different types such as the Penguins his crew filmed.

Animal Planet presented a love story, of a young woman, who also was interested in finding out ways to preserve & protect wildlife, & how a visit to a then small Zoo across the world from her hometown of Eugene, Oregon, had a God ordained meeting with Steve when she took a trip to Austrailia. As Steve was speaking during a presentation at the zoo, their eyes met & it was love at first sight, Steve said. They married in Eugene & about to go on their honeymoon, a call from Austrailia , caused them to return because of some pressing problem at the zoo.Terri was introduced to her new life, & it showed her scairy introduction to a snake which Steve's ever present film crew caught on tape.

Steve had grown up in this zoo which his parents started, & this is where Steve's passion as he refered to it began. In due time a baby girl arrived on the scene to bless Steve & Terri, & this dad who immediately fell in love with his tiny daughter named her, Bindy, after his favorite female crocodile, & Sue as her middle name, & this shouldn't surprise anyone, the name of his beloved dog. Bindy Sue who is now 8 years old has that same passion & love for animals as her parents. She will be having a show on Animal Planet soon.

There is also a baby brother, Bob, this time, named after his dad, who shares his name also with one of the large male crocs. Steve's dad has invented a type of net to catch these very large Salt Water crocodiles.

They also use cages & once caught, the crocodiles are equiped with a tracking device & transported with the aid of a helicopter to other locations.

Steve's belief that it is his mission in life is to save wildlife & their habitat. He appeared on many TV talk shows & did a number of series on Animal Planet about different species. One I particularly liked was a show about Penquins, & Steve being filmed sliding across the ice on his stomach just like the Penquins which were being filmed. Other trips shown were desert areas in Africa.

Steve felt that if you teach people about Wildlife, they will want to save it. Little Bindy Sue, & possibly baby Bob, I'm sure will follow in their mom & dad's footsteps.

The most important thing I heard about Steve this week, however did not come from the tribute on Animal Planet, but from a program called Celebration, on Daystar, a Christian Network.
The owner of the Network, Marcus Lamb, said that two & a half weeks before Steve Irwin was killed by the Sting Ray during the filming of one of his shows, Steve had gone forward in a church & had asked the Lord into his heart. I would imagine that this was from a reliable source, since I doubt that it would have been said otherwise. How wonderful to know that this young man, who had such a love for the animals created by the Lord, would himself become a new creation"

Though I'm sad that he is gone, I am happy to know where he is right now. Tuesday night the Memorial service being held at the auditorium of the zoo will be broadcast on the Animal Planet network. It will be as all services should be, a celebration of Steve Irwin's life.

EAST MEETS WEST IN AN UNLIKELY PLACE

It's not surprising that the apple did not fall far from the tree in some of the similar ways my daughter's life has been like my own.

I too was a late bloomer. Five years after I graduated from High school, I enrolled in a Christian College in Tennessee, 700 miles from my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. The Lord had to have had a hand in this because my grades in High School were not such which should have allowed me enroll in any College. Since this was the ealy 50s & I guess since it was quite samll at that time, they were purhaps a little desperate to get students. The poor grades however were the result of a lot of chaos which was going on in my life at the time.
The divorce of my parents, & the death of my beloved Principal were perhaps the major ones.

Since I was a late bloomer,though my chronological age was 5 years older than the other Freshman, emotionally & maturity wise, I fit in very well with my classmates embarking on their college career.

After graduating, I decided to add additional courses at a College in Kentucky, influnenced a lot by a crush on a younger member of the College group at church. At the end of that year, & since my sister was getting married in California, I was able to get a ride with some other students who were returning to the Sunshine state.

After my sister's wedding, as the Maid of Honor, I decided to stay in California where I was able to find a job & an apartment in Hollywood where I had always dreamed of living. Later I moved into a larger apartment in the same building which I shared with roomates. ( Just like College). It was in Hollywood that I finally met Mr. Right. There were a lot of Mr. Wrongs prior to meeting him in that year following my arrival to California.

I had of course prayed for a long time to find the person the Lord would have for me. I very much wanted children & had since I was a little girl playing house.
I did however have a lot of preconcieved ideas as to what he would be like. First, he would not be divorced, but realistically, when one is 29 or 30 the chances are that the good ones have already been taken. My daughter was lucky to find one who hadn't been. My Mr Right had been a "child groom at 17 who marrried a "child bride" the same age. Unfortunatley as they grew up the grew apart & a 14 or 15 year marrige ended.

OK Confssion time coming up as to how we found each other in the big city. Would you believe at a phone booth in Hollywood. Yes you read that correctly. I had been out driving & had stopped at a phone booth to return a call to a person who had asked me out. I kept dialing & kept getting a busy signal. In the meantime Mr Right who was in the same parking lot had spotted me & was watching me. I turned around & saw this very tall man & opened the door to ask him if he wanted to use the phone. he said yes & I did not know it was really a ploy to meet me. He made his call, probobly dialing the time information or something. Anyway, he didn't leave & when I opened the door of the phone booth again, he asked me out to go eat. The strangest thing of all was I accepted & this is totally unlike me, not only that, but I left my car in the parking lot & went with him in his car. This was in June of 1957, possibly a little safer then, but what was I thinking? Anyway we talked & even though it wasn't love at first sight, love soon blossumed after our 2nd date(I invited him to church the next day). We were together 30 almost 31 years before he went home to be with the Lord. A wonderful daughter Tammy was born 5 years after we married.
I have always been grateful to the Lord who brought us together n such an unlikly manner & place, a very tall Texan down from Oregon, & a tiny translant from Ohio

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11th

I do not have the clear concise memories of that day Five years ago. I believe they are locked away in a Journal written on that day. I think this is because of the shock that I felt as I watched events occurring live on my television set. I do remember thinking, not again as the realization came that for the second time in my lifetime, my country was being attacked. The first time the news came over the radio, but this time there it was, unfolding before my very eyes, the death & destruction occurring in both New York & in our nations capital at the Pentagon.

I may have received a phone call to turn on my TV, possibly from my daughter, or I may have just turned it on, but I watched in stunned & shocked horror as the images flashed upon the screen, my mind not wanting to accept what I was seeing as being real.

For days I watched different programs & prayed that some of those unaccounted for whose pictures were displayed by friends & relatives who were hoping against hope that their loved one had somehow escaped. I rejoiced when someone was interviewed who through a set of circumstances, (God's intervention) had not been in one of the Towers & escaped death. The stories were all illustrations of that, missed planes, & in one instance a pair of broken eyeglasses kept a man from being with coworkers at the restaurant on the top floor of one of the towers.

I thought too of the trip my daughter had taken a few years before to New York during Fleet Week when my son-in-law was in the Navy & had been in those very towers
Now in addition to the loss of life which of course was the most important factor in this horrendous event, a beautiful landmark was no more, never to be visited by those coming to New York.

At one point the networks stopped playing the horiffic scene of the burning buildings & them eventually crashing to the ground, but not before they were forevever etched in our minds. For a brief time patriotism was in effect,& people turned to God looking for answers. Politics seemed temporarily forgotten, as a nation tried to bond together to somehow heal, even as we did during the long war in WW2 when the first attack occurred in the remote part of our nation in Hawaii.

The one thing that I hope everyone will be aware of is this "God is in control" He loves & cares for each one of us. I heard in a sermon yesterday,that the Lord deliberately waited on shore while the disciples struggled for hours in huge waves far from the shore, & came to them in the wee hours of the morning. When they saw him coming towards them walking on the water, they were really petrified with fear.
What they did not know was that the Lord spent that time in prayer for them. God is in control, of our lives, of our families, of our nation, of our world, & if we could just learn to rest in Him, what occurs in our lives is in His hands.

Bloging Lessons

Daughter Tammy was here this weekend helping with one of those dreaded yard sales that she described in one of her posts. She did much better financially than I did because of all those cute baby & kid things she had to sell but my reward was a few more items gotten rid of. What didn't sell was off to the Goodwill store or the local woman's shelter.

When we did have a few minutes at the end of a tiring day, she was able to show me how to get a bigger font & how to change color ink plus that wonderful invention spell check.

Of course one of the best things was being able to spend some mother daughter bonding time. She ended up spending Saturday night because it was so late when we finished delivering our leftovers to thier respective donation locations. My son-in-law, bless his heart agreed that it would be better for her to drive home this morning than drive home when she was exhausted last night. Sunday morning freeway driving is much lighter in traffic than Saturday night traffic.

I hope that I can be a better Blogger now that I know how to print in color & use Spell check & all those other little goodies in my

A FLYING PIZZA MEME

Though you didn't Tag me, I thought it would be fun to do.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT BEING A KID?
Playing house (what we called playing with our dolls) All of our children(dolls) had names & my sister & I would pretend that we were visiting each other. Sometimes mama would let us play dress up with her old clothes. For outdoor acitites when I was small I liked riding my scooter & later roller skates.

WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL?
Well I actual liked 3,reading of course,& in some grades ART & MUSIC.

WHO WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND WHEN YOU WERE 10? I think I was younger than that but the friend I stayed friends longest with was Mary Notice. pronounced No & T ice.
I came back to see her one time after I had moved away.

IF YOU COULD BE ANY ANIMAL WHAT WOULD YOU BE?
I suppose a dog, Puppies are so cute & cuddily

WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL, OCCUPATION. OR LIFE RIGHT NOW?
Thats an easy one I would be living closer to my daugter& her family. I'd be all moved & settled in.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR
I love BLUE

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF CRUST & FAVORITE TOPPING ON PIZZA?
Well back when I could eat them (chewing is a problem)
My favorite was a soft crust & Hawaiian with Pinapple & Canadian Bacon. I loved the taste of the Pinapple mixed with the cheese.