Queen Lilly......

Today Miss Lilly Belle celebrated her birthday. She turned seven in dog years. In human years she is old enough to enter a bar and order an adult beverage. She has been queen of the house all day, but she is queen of the house every day, just ask Bristol who wears the pants . Happy Birthday Miss Lilly!!

Wordless Wednesday........Happy Birthday Thomas...xo

Hot, Hot, Hot......

Weather man says heat and humidity for the rest of the week. So I thought we would look back at this past winter.  I don't care for heat and humidity. Not only does it bake my flowers and dry out my grass, it's just to hot and sticky to set on the porch and enjoy the evening. Give me cool mornings and evenings with daytime temperature not above 84. 

Rivers are crooked.....

   The sermon today at the Crothersville Christian Church was titled, "Rivers are Crooked." Pastor Ralph showed many pictures of crooked rivers. One picture showed many turns and bends as the river flowed through the country side. He talked of how each bend is a choice for us to do good, follow the higher path and resist evil.
  Those of you who follow my blog will recall I talk alot about our journey through life. A crooked river is much like the crooked path we walk each day. There are tons of bends, turns, pot holes and muck that we face as we walk along our journey. How we choose to walk that path says much about us as a person. When you come to a bend do you follow evil or do you resit it. When you hit a pot hole pick your self up and keep going. Staying in the pot hole will only make life rough.
   The Muscatatuck River flows through Vernon Township. It goes from a stretch of shallow spots where you have to carry your canoe or flat bottom boat to a deep wide section. It twist and turns through farm ground and at many places you will find a log jam. Remember the times we've carried our friends when they came to a shallow spot in life. How many times have we came to a log jam on our journey. No matter what's around the bend, always take the high road and keep pushing forward. As one of my friends put it one day-put on your big girl panties, smile and be the best that you can be....
This picture was taken of the Muscatatuck River early one morning this past winter.
               

Wordless Wednesday.....

Blessings of Rain......

 







Setting here on the porch there is a certain hush when it rains.






                               

 



   It brings a calmness to the soul as the rain bounces off the roof.

   Rain drops dance off my flowers. After a few weeks of no rain they raise their leaves to the sky and drink in natures water.

   Thank you Lord for blessing me with eyes and ears to enjoy the rain.

My blue bike.........

   I'm so proud of my bike can't you tell. I still remember going to Seymour to Bill's Hardware, which was across the street from the catholic school. I picked the blue one. We loaded it in the trunk of Daddy's Chevy and headed home.
    I loved riding my bike up and down the road and still do. When I was allowed to ride on the road it was gravel. I still have scares on my knees to prove it. As you can see I have the training wheels on. I road in the driveway  for a couple weeks until I was brave enough to ask Daddy to take them off. Mom would help me in the afternoons to balance myself and after a few days I was on my own.
Finally, our road was blacktopped and I was riding in style. My brother Gary and I use to ride every evening. Up and down and up and down. We were only allowed to ride from the corner post that separated John D's property from Betty Rothring's and then to the top of the hill. We had to stay in eye sight of Mom and Dad. We use to take old maid cards and pin them to the spokes with clothes pins to make a clicking noise. Boy we thought we were cool.
   Every now and then we ask if we could ride down the hill. Being able to go down the hill was a big deal. We would let loose of the handlebars and coast with the wind blowing in our face. It was like-look Mom no hands!! Once we got to the small bridge we always had to park our bikes and check out the creek. Wasn't much of a creek now that I think back. But it did have a bit of water in it. We always made a point to throw a few rocks in.
  Now days as I ride I still go to the corner post and the top of the hill. No need to go any farther. I stopped one day and looked down at the old bridge and could see us still. I wonder how many miles I rode all those years.  Riding till Mom called us in. Loved those days, wouldn't mind going back one evening......

Kicking back on a Friday night......

Enjoying good conservation and good times. Working on emptying the bag of marshmallows.

Miss Lily Belle had to have her share. 

 

Wordless Wednesday......

Marshmallows............

   Had a great conversation with one of my bff's the other evening. We got caught up on our kids, school starting, birthday's, hubby's and work. We made plans for her to come out one night now that the evenings are getting cooler to roast marshmallows on our new fire pit. Before we were ready to hang up she says, I got one more thing to tell you. The conservation went....

Me: Do I really want to hear this?
Her: Maybe
Me: Who said it?
Her: ____  ____
Me: Nope, don't want to hear it
Her: I knew you would say that
Me: Nothing from them interest me. They thrive on drama.
Her: I do agree with you, they sure love drama. It's like they are still in Junior High.
Me: So why did you bring it up?
Her: I don't know, it just rubbed me the wrong way.
Me: You just have to ignore them. That's how they get attention and it makes them feel important.
Her: Sorry
Me: It's Ok, you just have to learn to ignore those kind of people. They can't get through a day without drama. It's all they know. Just think how sad their life is, look at what they are missing out on. Life is so precious, why waste time being dragged down by them when there are so many good people in the world like YOU!
Her: I love you
Me: I love you to....
Her: I'll bring the marshmallows
Me: See you in a couple days.

     

A little kindness......

   A few days before the shop moved to our new location, the show room was a mess. There was very little to be found. I knew the guys were on their way to load the shelves for the Vera handbags and I just tossed them in the corner to sort and pack in moving boxes later. The guys had just left when in walked a customer and wanted to return a purse she bought for a friend over a month ago. The store policy which is and was still posted in more than one place seemed not to interest her. The rules didn't apply to her that day.
   I explained to her the policy and showed it to her and repeated many times her purchase was actually over 60 days. Still didn't phase her and she was ignoring what I was saying and to be quite frank very overbearing and just plane rude. She explained to me how many purses she has bought and she always orders her flowers from us. I thanked her for her allowing us to serve her needs and how much we appreciate her business. She finally admitted that she knew there was a return policy but she was a good customer and if I didn't allow her to get her money back she would never step foot in our business again. I explained how important she was to us and I would hate to loose her as a good customer over a purse. I listened to her for the next few minutes with a smile on my face and trying my best to help her......"Lord give me understanding with this woman"  I must have showed her 20 purses, she responded, "to big, to small, to much color, to dark, don't like the strap.
   I tried one more time saying, I can give you a gift certificate of the full amount and you can come back at your convenience and check out the new patterns that will be released in the next few weeks. About that time she said, maybe I do like this one, and she headed to the check out counter. Her purchase was less than the original bag and I started to write out her gift certificate. "What are you doing? I don't want a gift certificate" After another 10 minutes she found something close to the amount spent and I sacked her up. Actually she came out $10 dollars ahead as I showed her the receipt. Didn't matter to her, her reply to me was, "this has been very stressful to me". My reply," it's been a pleasure to serve you and it's been stressful on both of us."
   Today she was back. As I came in from the back room I seen her talking to Heather. She called out my name and said she wanted to speak with me. She had tears in her eyes, she wanted to apologize for the way she spoke to me a few days ago. She was ashamed of herself and that she was wrong in demanding that she be treated different just because she shops with us all the time. She put her hand on my shoulder and said, "Jesus was not very proud of my actions that day". I am so sorry and will you accept my apology? I gave her a hug and said I sure will. She told me she was proud of me for taking the high road with her and that I never lost my temper and I kept smiling. I thanked her again with another hug and we talked for the next few minutes. One more hug and she was one her way.
   A little kindness goes a long way......

Birthday girl..........

   Today is Cindy's birthday and she still sizzles.
   Cindy has been my friend longer than anyone. We have been friends since we were five years old. We've lived less than a mile from each other our entire life and proud to say we reside in Uniontown.
   My wish for Cindy is that the sun always shines bright where ever she goes and each day brings nothing but happiness.....love you girlfriend.
 

Wordless Wednesday.........

August 6......

 


Thomas and I have been together for 27 years. Our journey together has been through every emotion. From the happiness of finding each other to the lows of losing our little girl. Through it all we have held tight to each other and never given up on us.

 Tomorrow, August 6 we will celebrate 20 years of marriage. Time has gone fast. Together we guided Sarah and Sandra through their journey and sent them out into the world.
   We promised to stand by each other no matter what the world handed us. To grow old together and fall in love with each other day after day........

August 3......

   This picture was taken about three days after Momma and Daddy were married 67 years ago.
   What makes a good marriage I ask Mom, well, she says. It's a lot of things. Each day is different and each day has it problems. But...each day you have to over look those problems and remember what brought you together, there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. Even after 67 years things have not been perfect, your Daddy has aggravated me a few times and I'm sure I've done some things that he wasn't crazy about but we never gave up on us. Your a team and you have to work together and if that means working over time, then so be it.
   Daddy says he never once thought about throwing in the towel. Mom is everything to me and we battled the world together. Even when we only had 50 cents to our name on some weeks after our bills were paid those first few years, it made us stronger. She is my sweetie......