FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT DESIGN

I figured you had heard enough silliness for a couple of days and looked for something a little more cultured to post:) I was going through some pictures that we had taken in the last year or so and came across these pictures of the Rosenbaum home in Florence Al.

This house was designed by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright. It is one of the few built in Al. It was amazing to go through the house. It was designed for a place for everything and everything in its place. Apparently they raised four boys in this house. Their bedroom looks almost like a dormitory and I think that is what they called it, with four beds built in a bunk bed design on the back wall. One side of the room is all windows. ( I have a hard time imagining any of mine sharing this space without someone horsing around and going through the window). There were desk built in ,the closets were very tiny and the drawers were all built in the wall. You can see the drawers in the picture above. They had to be well organized people.

The dining room is very basic with a wood table built almost like a table/ bar that fits 6 chairs. The original kitchen was the most compact kitchen you have ever seen. It was almost like a closet that you could close off when entertaining. Stove on one wall, sink on one wall and the refrigerator on the third wall. All the halls are very narrow less than 30" in width.

I loved the sewing room. Some of Mrs Rosenbaum's handiwork is on display. It is just a very unusual home design. I think the furniture had to be carried in through the doors that opened from each room to the outside. There is no way anything could be carried down the narrow halls.

If I could find my brochure I could give more details. If you every get a chance to visit Florence, it may be one of the places to put on your list of things to see.

Hope someone enjoys these pictures. ( Todd I posted these with you in mind).

HOW EMBARASSING IS THAT?

One day Sandra and I decided that we would meet at her house and fire up the big black pot and make homemade chicken stew. John and I arrived at 7:30 to find that Sandra wasn't home. I guess she had gone to the store to pick up something we had forgotton for the stew.

We sat in the car waiting for about 15 minutes when nature called in a very loud voice. I got out of the car went to every door in her house and even a couple of windows, but everything was locked up tight as a drum.
I came back and told John that I had to find a restroom, so off we went as fast as the speed limit would let us go. We finally stopped at Shoney's and I made a bee line for the restroom. I lined the toilet and sat down, "major relief". After a few minutes I wash my hands, gave my hair a comb through with my fingers, checked to see if my lipstick was still on and walked back to the car.

We went back to Sandra's and by this time she was home. We go in and start getting our things ready when she says " Pat do you have a bad cold" and I tell her, "No. Why"? and she says " Well what are you doing with that toilet paper hanging out of you pants. Oh my goodness. I reached into the back waistband and hanging there was a string of toilet paper about 2 feet long. Evidently when I pulled my jeans up the paper had caught. I walked through Shoney's, out the door and past the whole front of the building with this toilet paper hanging like a giant long white tail.

Needless to say, it was quite a while before I returned to Shoney's.

With that said, and I can't believe I just put that into my blog, I will give you the recipe for:

HOMEMADE CHICKEN STEW

3 lbs chicken ( dark and light meat)
4 lbs potatoes ( red are the best)
1 large onion
1 large can of tomato juice
1 can cream style corn
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken until tender. Pull chicken from bone and save broth. Add potatoes, onion, tomato juice, salt, pepper and pulled chicken to broth. Cook until potatoes and onions are done. If you stir it often the potatoes will break up and the stew will start to get thick. Add the cream style corn the last 15 minutes. The corn helps the stew to thicken more.

Serve with crackers or white bread and cheddar cheese. I always add about teaspoon of dill pickle juice to bowl. Yummy!

NO. 1 EMBARASSING MOMENT

When I was in high school, I took all the business classes and was pretty good at short hand and typed 85 or 90 words a minute. When you were typing on an old Royal electric or just a plain manual typewriter, that was pretty darn good.

Well I graduated at 18 and was not the most confident teenager in the world, but knew it was time to either get a job, go to college or get married. Since John had not come along at that time, I had to opt for the first two. I took my ACT test but didn't feel that I did as well as I should so I never went back to get my score.

My Dad insisted that I go over to the TVA employment office and take their secretarial test. I went because if Daddy told me to jump my only question was "how high?. Well I got there and the room was was full of women of all ages hopeful of landing a job with TVA. I could feel the tension rising from my stomach, up into my throat, my palms were sweating and when I looked down my hands were shaking visiblely. We all took a seat in front of a type writer, got our paper inserted and waited for the instructor to give us directions. In the mean time I am about to get sick from the tension. The instructor tells us what we are supposed to do and that the test will last for five minute and we will be graded on the number of words we get right per minute.

She set the timer and says now start. I start typing and glance down after the first few words, everything is going great. I start to relax and the tension is lessening in my shoulders, my head starts to clear and I think, why was I so afraid. I continue typing like a demon, my fingers are literally flying across the keyboard. The bell goes off indicating that the test is over and I breath a sigh of relief. Then I look down at my paper and this is what I see.

Hjejug eh ui g s joo jdui ut iijk jxxxoj mmm enthh toi toelll oih nkw.n jtnnmi ieht mem ii eiuio lemt ml elk mremjjw. o sm divj s nui O vsmy nr;ofbr yjomd Gr ylr hommr frmloyn dn okk ekrt

After the first line where I glanced up to see if I was doing OK, I got my fingers in the wrong position, and the rest of the five minutes I didn't hit a single right key. Well being the naive person that I was, instead of taking the paper, folding it and putting it in my purse, I did like the instructor said and put my name in the right hand corner and left it on my desk. I can't even imagine the laugh that those people got out of my typing test. I figure that somewhere, on some wall, in some personel office still hangs my infamous TVA typing test.

Needless to say I did not pursue a career in office management.

EMILY'S BAPTISIM

Today was Emily's baptism into the Catholic Church. It was a real special day for the whole family. Mark and Monica were her Godparents and were both able to make it in for the ceremony. Father Andy was the celebrant.

When we got up this morning there was about 2" of snow on the ground, and believe it or not 2" of snow in Alabama can completely paralyze the whole area. As it turned out the roads were not cold enough for the snow to stick on them and it was just a beautiful white morning and everything had melted by the time we got out of church.

Johnny and Tracy took us out to Olive Garden after church and we had a nice meal and time to sit and talk and laugh. I would post the silly pictures we all made at the restruant, but I want do that and take away from Emily's special day. Maybe I will post them at a later date.

I wish all the family could have been here to celebrate with her, but it is almost impossible to get everyone together at the same time now. Sondra, David and Jonathan had taken care of Luke and Charlotte while Sarah and Cody came down to close out the sale of their house. Sarah and Cody's flight back to CO. left on Saturday. Tim, Andrew, Matthew and Aaron had to stay in Memphis for a retreat that Matthew was having today. The retreat was canceled because of the snow. Had they have known, they could have come in with Monica. Oh well that's what happens when there are so many family members.

All in all it was a wonderful day and we are truly blest to have such a large and beautiful family.

Coming next week: SOME OF MY MOST EMBARASSING MOMENTS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!!

YHAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR DAVID HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

Grandaddy and I can't believe you are already four years old. You are getting to be SO BIG. We wish we could have been there for this special day. I hope you and Luke and Charlotte had lots of fun and ate lots of cake and ice cream and played and played all day long.

Look how much you have grow since these pictures. Happy birthday again and we love you THIS MUCH.

We will come and see you in March. HUGS AND KISSES. NYYYYYYYYYYY YOU.

PS: Jonathan picture of John was supposed to a picture of you. So much for my skills. Thinking of you anyway.

LIFE LESSONS

I just got in from work a little bit ago, John picked up Emily at the school bus stop and I thought I would try to think of something to write about. It has been very slow moving this month. For a month to be the shortest of the year, it sometimes takes the longest to past. I think maybe it is because it is winter and cold and I don't get out and do much outside. Every day I think this is the day that I get back out and start walking, but by the time I get off work I put it off one more day. I am the biggest procrastinator in the world. Life lesson: Always put off til tomorrow what you should have done today.

I did finish a couple more pictures this past week. I wonder how many you need to have a starving artist sale, although I would have a hard time passing for a starving anything. The barn picture puts me in mind of the barn that we had on our farm when I was a kid. I was scared to death to go out to the barn because I was afraid of the horse, cow, pig and even the chickens. We didn't move to the farm until I was about seven or eight years old, so I didn't grow up with all those animals and I just never could warm up to any of them. Life lesson: If you aren't around animals when you are little you just don't turn out to be an animal person. Sorry

The beach picture makes me think of all the vacations we have taken to Gulf Shores and Myrtle Beach. There is nothing like walking along the beach and picking up seashells and watching the seagulls. I don't care to go into the water though and if I do it is just to wade where the water breaks. When I was little my brother Bruce and I got caught up in and undertow and was almost swept out, but was rescued by a couple that pulled us to safety. Mother couldn't swim so she was just sitting on a blanket watching us in the shallow water and she thought the couple was just playing with us. She didn't know anything was wrong until they informed her that we could have drown. Life lesson:Don't take your kids to the beach if you can't swim.

Bruce and I were always close growing up and usually into lots of trouble. We usually got a spanking every day whether we needed it or not. Mother would get a switch and tell us if we ran from her, we would get a harder spanking. Bruce would always run and hide and I was afraid to because I didn't want a harder spanking. I really couldn't see that his was any different from mine. Life lesson: Run for you life.

One time when we lived in Bogalussa La.(?) The neighbor call the police because we picked up rocks from their driveway. I must have been 4 and Bruce was 6. And there was the time when we lived in North Carolina and we pulled a icebox over on us. The icebox fell in front of the back door and Mother and Daddy was outside washing the car and heard the crash of two kids, icebox and a fifty lb block of ice falling to the floor. They couldn't get in the back door and had to run around to the front and pull the icebox off us. After the initial relief of realizing that we weren't dead, we both got a spanking. Life lesson: Play dead as long as it takes.

Bruce would have been 66 years old the 25 th of Feb. Life lesson: Remember the good times. To hell with the bad.

VISITING FRANCE AND ROME

After we got back from Sweden, we spent the couple of week just hanging out with David and exploring around Germany. We took the train and went to several small towns and visited a couple of castles. We took a long weekend and went to a small town in France. It was in the wine country and the scenery was just beautiful, flowers everywhere, it was like stepping back in time. We stayed in a small hotel and slept with the windows open onto a small balcony. There was a church just across the street and when they rung the chimes the sound was almost deafening yet pleasant to hear.

We went to a really nice resturant while we were there. There was an elderly lady eating alone and it was amazing to watch her eat. It was almost like an art. She was served a large chafer of red wine and a whole carp. When I looked over after she was finished with this course, the only thing left of the fish was the skeleton. She had started at the head and ate the whole thing except the bones. In the mean time she drank the whole bottle of red wine. Then she was served cheese and later a desert along with a small chafer of white wine. She was still finishing the last of the wine when we left. I had to hope that she was either walking or didn't have far to drive. I guess wine is more of a staple in France than in the south.

When we were down to our last two weeks of vacation. We decided we would take a trip to Rome. Sondra could not go with us because she had to work. She booked us a flight and a hotel for our four day stay. I think she was actually surprised that we took this adventure by ourselves, but I figured if we got lost we would get lost together.

We flew into the Rome airport and then had to take almost an hour train ride in the the city. Everything went great, no problems at all, and we were patting ourselves on the back. We had directions to the hotel which was just one block down and just a short walk to the left. Three hours later we were still walking up and down and around and around the same area. It was hotter than a two dollar pistol, the sweat was rolling down our backs and our clothes were soaking wet. We finally got a taxi which is a real no no. The driver charged us $100.00, drove us the long way around the block and let us off at the wrong hotel. We finally made it back to the train station, and a service desk attendant finally walked us to the hotel which was one block down and just to the left. We were looking for a big sign for the hotel and this was a sign about a foot tall and a foot and a half wide fitting flat against the wall among a bunch of other signs. I could go on and on about trying to actually get into the hotel and finding the person in charge and trying to get the air conditioner to work for the first two days, but I won't. This was a bad start to an otherwise wonderful visit.

We took a couple of bus tours and visited the Vatican. I was a little disappointed in the fact that the commericalism detracted from the beauty of the whole place. The tourist were herded through and there was no time just to stand and reflect on the awesomeness of the surroundings. I guess it was because we went at the peak tourist season, but at least we can say "been there,done that".

The traffic was unreal. It was as though everyone had the right away and took it. You were taking you life in your hands to cross the street, because buses, cars and motor scooters were coming at you from all directions.

We ate in some great little cafes and the food was delicious. The pizza was different but really good.

We were glad that we took the venture and made it on our own. We may forget some of the places and things that we saw, but we will never forget trying to find the Termini Hotel.

RUNAWAY BLAZER

I have got to tell you all this while I am still chuckling about it.

John has been kind of under the weather, so this morning when I ask him if he would like to get out for awhile, I didn't know if he would go out or not. He said it would probably make him feel better to get some fresh air. We went to Heart's Crys and then decided to go into town where they had opened another thrift store ( you know our passion for those.) We looked around for a little bit and decided to go home.

We had started out of town, when John ask if I wanted to stop and get a bite to eat. Well I am never going to turn down an opportunity to eat out. We stopped at Sonic and ordered a chicken tender basket. We sat there for about 15 minutes eating, talking and people watching. I looked up and I said to John, "have we rolled?". Well we could see the menu board and speaker up in front of us about a car length and a half. We had ever so slowly rolled into the middle of the drive threw and were sitting right smack dab in the middle of it just eating and talking. We had noticed that other cars were cutting us a wide path, but figured they were dodging something else. We didn't realize it was us. When we figured out what happened we pulled up and sat there and laughed until we both had tears running down our cheeks.

Just another reason not to take yourself to seriously.

OUR TRIP TO SWEDEN

This past summer Sondra wanted us to come back and visit her in Germany, so once again we made the transatlantic flight to Europe. We were not hardly as apprehensive this time. We left on July 3 rd and this time we were staying for six weeks. This was hard to do since were leaving the other grand kids for such a long time. We were use to being with Luke and Charlotte everyday and seeing John Pearson and Emily almost everyday. We decided that everyone could take care of themselves without John and I being here.

The first week we were in Germany we adjusted to our jet lack and rested for a couple of days. After we had been there for a week we left on a five day trip to Sweden. That was the most exciting part of the whole trip for John. Since the Sundquist came from Sweden John felt kind of like Alex Haley searching for his roots. Sondra had contacted a distant relative to let them know that we were coming to Sweden and would like to touch base with them while we were there.

These people were unbelievable, they told us to come and stay in a bungalow that they had and to just make ourselves at home. The bungalow was right on the bay and the view was just breathtaking. I felt like I was staying in a Southern Living Magazine layout. Curt took us out on one of his tourist boat, we went out and ate authentic Swedish meatballs served with ligion (?) berry preserves. We also went to visit the old Sundquist home place. It had deteriorated and not much left of it, but to be standing in the same spot that your ancestors stood gave even me goose pumps. Both John and Curt got a little misty eyed. Over in a area that was grown over with vine was an old sled, probably used by John's great grandad when he was a boy.

Sweden is probably the most beautiful place we visited. The wild flowers grew along the side of the roads and looked as though they had been hand sewn. Flying over the area it looked like you could literally see the land coming up from the ocean. We were there at a great time, because it was daylight almost 24 hours a day. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Going and coming to Ullanger we stayed the night in Upssila, which was a beautiful town with a college and the students were lounging and picnicing along the canal that ran through town. We flew into a smaller airport, but drove through Stocholm. We were able to see the Royal Castle from a distance. We were so glad that we were able to make this wonderful side trip.

Yet another place I never thought I would see.

PS the pictures are of the Sundquist home place.

TO MY SWEETHEARTS ON VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy Valentine's day to all our grand children.. John Pearson, Emily, Andrew, Matthew, Aaron, David, Luke and Charlotte. Hope you all had fun. Since I didn't send cards through the mail, this will be your special Valentine card.

HUGS AND KISSES, HUGS AND KISSES, HUGS AND KISSES.

LOVE YOU ALL. MAWMAW AND GRAND DADDY.

SCOUTING IS HARD WORK

Monica sent me these pictures of Andrew and Matthew's recent scouting event at a cave camp out. They spent the weekend exploring the cave, crawling into nooks and crannies, looking at the formations of rocks, falling asleep listening to whole group of scouts and leaders snoring simantaniously, cooking out and eating inside the cavern.

They sure looked full of pep and energy at the beginning of the trip, but that all changed on the way back. I think they slept most of the five hour trip home. It's a good thing Tim was not as zonked as the boys.

HAVING A ROUGH WEEK

Well I hate to complain, but this has been the most frustrating week I have had in a long time. It started out great, went had a long weekend in Memphis, but it has been down hill from there. Of course I went back to work on Tuesday and had a very long day about 12 hours. Then had to be back in this morning at 5:45, but I can handle that. Now I know that I am not the smartest person in the world but I don't think I'm as dumb as a stump.

We have been in this on going battle over the email address change for almost two weeks. I reckon everything that has had that email address on it is completely screwed up. The only real people that you can reach to talk to are Jeff or Lisa somewhere in deepest India. It is funny, when you first start talking to them they sound like you are talking to an english speaking person, but the longer you talk to heavier accent they have and suddenly you understand nothing they are saying. I start wondering if I have had a stroke or am I standing under the tower of Bable. After about an hour Jeff tells me to hold on and he will switch me to someone who can for certain help me. CLICK........ Then the operator comes on and says "If you want to make a call, please hang up and dial again".


I can't understand why with all this confusion, that we can't receive a payment to my account, but they continue to take out service charges. Same account, same address, same email address. It seems I'm putting water in a bucket with a hole in it. I am beginning to think the computer is a means to get rid of everyone over 50. Why resort to euthanisia, when you can just drive people crazy with a computer. I hope Jeff and Lisa feel really bad when they read the obits and it says "Pat was found with one fist threw the computer screen and the other clutching the mouse".

I promise after to day I will blog about kids, grand kids, vacations, aches and pains, but not about my computer woes.
".

STAYING BUSY

We have been very busy the last few days. I have things to post but I will have to do that tomorrow or the next day. We went to Memphis this weekend and just got in time to day to pick up Emily after school.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

As of tomorrow I will be having my 64th birthday. It is hard to define how you feel about having another birthday. I am glad I made it to celebrate another, because I had friends that didn't make it this far. On the other hand you start to notice that people look at you differently as you get older. Like when I first started to work I was one of the younger women working there ( age 45 ) and everyone treated me like a kid and thought I didn't know anything. ( which I didn't ). Now everyone calls me Miss Pat and assumes that I should know everything, ( which I don't). It is the comments about why are you still working that get me. Younger people assume that when you hit about 50 you should give up your life as you know it and start the down hill decline. I still work because I need the pay check for one thing, but I feel I actually have more to offer at this point in my life. I don't have children that I have to put first, so I don't miss any work because of that. I don't have to worry about maturnity leave, baby sitters and missing special days at their school. I don't have to worry about what to fix for dinner after working all day. John and I will heat up whatever and make it fine. So it is much easier now than it was when the kids were all home.

Having another birthday make you think back to other birthdayS. I wonder how mother felt 64 years ago today. Was she scared, how big was she, was she excited to have another baby? She tells me that one Feb 4th it was so warm outside that I had a birthday party outside. I remember having my thirteenth birthday party at our house on Bridge Road. I still have pictures of that. I remember turning 16 and learning to drive although I didn't try for my drivers licence until I was 18. The year I turned 21 John and I had been married just a month and Mother, Daddy, Wayne and Robbie surprised me with a birthday cake at our appartment.
The next year John and I had a nice dinner at a fancy resturant and I almost choked on a bread tie that had been french fried with the onion rings. The following year we had Johnny, then Monica, then Sondra, then Mark, then Sarah, so it was quite a number of year after that that I just don't recall vivid memories of my birthdays. I know they were all special, but there comes a time in your life that it is not all about ME, I was more concerned about my family than my birthday.

I know this sounds a little morbid but at this stage of my life I realize that there are more years to look back on than to look forward to. I'm closer to 100 than 1. I will continue to enjoy myself. LIFE IS SHORT, LIVE IT ANYWAY.

I NEED YOUR HELP

You remember I told you about the trouble I was having changing my email over the other day. Well apparently I have lost all this information in cyber space. My old account was closed before I could make a record of all my email addresses.

So what I need you to do is drop me a note in the mail and send me your email address. You know who you are: Jim, Tom, Diane, Mark, Sarah, Sondra, Rosmary ( I think I remembered your's) , and anyone else that has my home address. If you have been emailing me stuff and I have not responded, this is the reason.

Hope to hear from all of you real soon. Thanks

I HAVE POSTED AN EMAIL LINK IN MY PROFILE. SEND ME AND EMAIL AND I CAN SAVE YOU ADDRESS. THANKS

Grandma Moses

It seems lately that I have been at loose ends. I go to work at 5:30 a.m. and get home about 2:30 p.m.. I don't like to feel like the "Groundhog Day" movie, where you get up and the same thing happens every day. Every thing becomes to predictable.

Well I was prowling around in some of our stuff, you know the kind of stuff that you find at yard sales or auctions, and you're are sure you will never use these things but you keep them anyway. On one of the shelves was an art set that we had found somewhere, so I decided I would paint something. Well I have never had a brush in hand, as you can probaby tell, but I became totally lost in my painting efforts. John was very complimentery, but I secretly thinks he thinks I have gone nuts.

I have always felt that I must have a talent for something, but I have just never found it. I took music lessons for 9 years when I was a kid and I swear to you about the only thing I remember is where middle C is. This has always been a big disappointment since most of my family was very musical. My Dad could play just about any instrument and so could my older brother. I'm still looking for my special talent. I also feel that everyone has at least one book in them. I have two or three chapters of two or three books in my head but nothing on paper. Seems when you start to write it down you can't get it from the brain to the pen. Maybe that will come when I'm older and have less clutter upstairs:)

Anyway I am going to share my pictures with you. If I paint anymore you will be the first to see. Don't laugh, just shake your head and say "What in the world was she thinking".

TECHNOLGY REALLY STINKS

I had great plans to tell you all about our trip back to Germany and everywhere else we went in '08, but when I got in that all changed.

John had been on the phone most of the day trying to get our old Att plan changed over to this supposedly new faster, easier no worry Att. plan that bundles your phone, cell phone, dish and computer services together. Sounds great doesn't it.

He had been but on hold and switched to a different opperator 11 time in an hour and 45 minutes. His face was so red I swear I thought he was going to have a stroke. This comes after he had spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get the computer to work the day before. He had to move everthing in the bedroom to find a spot that we could pick up a signal.

Well after finding out that this particular Att plan doesn't offer email service but we could get an account through Google, OK so this should be easy enough. I go to igoogle and set up an account. Then I go to paypal to change my email account with them. First it wouldn't accept by old acount to get in to change to the new one. After about an hour I am finally able to change to the new account and remove the old account.

I thought I will go to my blog.spot and unwind and bore everyone for a while. Well my new email address was on the sign in page and would not accept my old password. At this point I am about the blow a fuse. I am sitting in front of the computer cussing like a drunken sailor. I finally got on the blog page, I don't know how, I don't know if this will post or not, but at least I have vented my frustration on this darn keyboard.

What ever happened to the good old days when you had rotary dial phones, rabbit ears on your tv and a transistor radio hold to next to your ear and keep you company?.

MORE EXCITING VACATION STORIES AND PICTURES!!

I know everyone is sitting at the computer in nail biting suspence anticipating my next vacation post. In case your not, then let me bore you some more.

In 2007, Sondra, Jonathan and David moved to Germany. This seemed like a million miles away instead of just a few thousand. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have the opportunity to travel outside the United States and to be honest I never wanted to. I always said there was to much that I had not seen and probably never would see right here in the states. Well that all changed when Sondra got there and decided she wanted us to visit. Again you do things for your kids that you wouldn't do for anyone else.

Well after I gave her a possible maybe, she made plans the very next week. So before we knew what had hit us, we had tickets for a flight to Germany for a three week visit and a cruise for the five of us while we were there. We flew out on John's birthday, the 21st of May and arrived on the 22nd. We were both a little apprehensive about the fight, but by clinging to each others hands and the help of a couple of night time P.M pills for me we were able to make our very first transalantic flight. I still think Sondra was surprised when we actually got off the plane.

We were in Germany for a week when we drove down to Italy to board our ship. We drove through parts of Austria which is the greenest most lush looking landscape you can imagine. We drove through the wine country of Italy, and it seened as though each mile brought a prettier picture. After a little stress over a traffic stalh, we made it to Venice Italy to board our ship the "Splendour of the Seas". We unloaded the car, the luggage, David and headed for the ship. After we got into our cabin and freshened up a bit we went up to the main deck to see Venice as we departed. I told John "oh we need to get the camera to take pictures of this", that is when we realized we had left the camera behind the seat in Jonathan's car. Needless to say we didn't take any pictures of the places we stopped at on the cruise. But that's OK we will let Sondra take pictures for us. As it turned of her camera malfuntioned and we have no pictures of the cruise.

This may be great for you all.

Our cruise was a seven day cruise. Our itinerary included Dubrovnik Croatia, Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkey, Santorini Greece, Corfu Greece and then back to Venice Italy.

In Croatia we went to a small outside resturant to eat. I didn't recognize any thing on the menu so I ordered the small fish, so living in the south I invisioned something like a small catfish plate. Well when it was brought to the table and the waiter set down in front of me, you can imagine my shock when I told him I thought he had brought the wrong plate. It looked like they had drained a bucket of minnows and dropped the into the deep fryer head guts and all. Now I can eat just about anything, but I could not eat those tiny fish. The fries were great though.

When we disembarked in Kusadasi. Turkey, Jonathan hired a taxi for the day. We drove the the ruins of Ephesus. It was suprising how big the city of Epheses was and how elaborate the buildings and the colisum. This is where St Paul preached. Then we went up on the where St John brought Mary and she spent her last day. It was so peaceful and sirene.

Next we sailed to Santorini Greece. John and I chose to stay on ship with David, but Sondra and Jonathan went up to the city. The only way to get to the top is walk or ride a donkey up. They chose the donkey. Sondra said she had never hugged a donkey so hard in her life, as they made it up the steep cliff to get to the top. All I can say is I'm glad I passed that one up.

Our third stop was Corfu, Greece. We did our own walking tour of the city and took a buggy ride through to old part of the town. Again just beautiful. We arrived back in Italy on the eight day and decided to drive to Turin, Italy to the church that houses the Shroud of Turin. We then drove up to Switzerland and stayed over night. We drove through the Swiss Alps, I mean we liteally drove through most of the Alps. The roads take you through tunnel after tunnel for miles and miles. If I had know before hand how long we were going to be underground, my claustrophia would have kicked in and I would have paniced.

Oh I almost forgot. On the last day of our cruise, we decided to play bingo. The pot had grown each day, so we were playing for something like $1,700.00, when they called the winning number and Sondra was the winner and didn't have to split it with anyone. This could not have happened to a better person, since she had treated us to this magnificent trip.

Stripes and Plaids

When I posted my "Red Neck Seafood Dinner" post a few weeks ago, I said that I would put a picture of Jim in his stripes and plaids outfit as soon as I found the right picture.

Well I have looked and was unable to lay my hands on the particular picture I was looking for. Today I received another email from Jim and he had attached this picture of him, Rosemary and their dad . Of course Jim is wearing his signature out fit, which is a pair of plaid madris walking shorts and a horizontal striped pull over usually in a contrasting color. To put the finishing touch on this eye popping ensemble is the tennis shoes which comes in a color of his choice.

Thanks for the picture and we can probably hope see this new fade hit the open market in the very near future. Strut you stuff!!!!

INFLIGHT PICTURES

When we flew to Alaska, it was the first time I had flown since Johnny was in basic training at the Great Lake's Navel base. I had only flown once before that and had a bad experience when we flew to NJ when John and I were first married. One of the engines went out and we kind of fell from the sky for a few seconds. ( It seemed like an eternity). We made an emergency landing in Pittsburgh and continued on from there. I swore I would never fly again but when it come to seeing you kids you disregard all those oaths.

When we started our flight to Alaska I became so engrossed with the view that I forgot about being nervous and started taking pictures of the ground patterns, clouds and sky. As a matter of fact I probably took more pictures of the sky than I took on the whole trip.

Flying makes me feel very small and insignificant When you look down and even something as large as a semi truck looks like an ant and a person cannot even be seen, then you wonder why we think everything centers around me. When you compare the little speck that is me, to the whole universe and everything in it, my wants and needs seem beyond small.

Flying and childbirth are two things that make me know there is a God.

When you have a child and you look down at that baby and see what was created inside you body and started from a tiny speck and comes into the world with tiny hands, feet, eyes, and a beating heart that has been beating from the time it was no bigger that a grape, this boggles the mind. When you look out of a plane window and you see the land with all it quilt shaped patterns, the rivers making snake like twist and turns and the beauty of horizon, you know that something bigger than the me's in the world created this.

Even though I will never feel completely comfortable flying, it does reenforce my faith in God.