WEDNESDAY HODGEPODGE

Volume 288

Thank you Joyce! 

1. Give us three rhyming words that say something about your Thanksgiving holiday (or your most recent holiday gathering if you didn't celebrate Thanksgiving). 

Blessing, dressing and expressing .....

2. When did you last say, 'the more the merrier'? Did you mean it?

I can't think of a time recently when I've used that saying. 

3. What's one piece of advice you'd give someone who is your same age?

Well maybe someone a little younger than me. We bought this new house 10 years ago. (We still call it the new house) 

We thought we would go to a one story house to make it easier on us but truthfully you just end up not using your knees and they weaken on you. 

4. You're ordering a veggie plate, what four veggies are on it?

Mushrooms, spinach, snap peas and avocado. 

5. Shop til you drop! Did you? Have you ever? Will you between now and Christmas?

No I won't shop til I drop except online. I make my list and go get the items. Mostly today everyone wants gift cards and most everyone is out of town. 

No more wrapping and sending huge boxes to every one's houses. Some of the other random gifts I pick up are purchased during the year when something comes to my attention. 

6. What's your favorite chair in your house, and why is it a favorite?

Probably just our side chair that matches the sofa in our family room. It has the ottoman and I am most comfortable in it when I'm watching a movie with Mark. 

7. Share an early memory of faith, religion, or spirituality.

I have this memory of waking up in the middle of the night when I was probably 8 years old. I was drawn to our bedroom window and when I looked outside I saw the same star that the Shepard's saw and it was around Christmas time. It was stunning!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

VACATION ~ MAMMOTH LAKES, CA

We headed North on Sunday the 8th of August. Trip is always a bit stressful because of the many sections on the 395 that are two lane roads and my husband must be first! So lots of passing going on and many prayers sent to God from me in the car! I always tell him "it's vacation, we have all day!" We made our usual stop in Bishop, CA for bread at Schat's Bakery, then over to Mahogany Meats for jerky. My husband let me stop and gamble for an hour also :) at the little casino in town. Also we went to a small art fair in Mammoth Lakes that was ending that evening. Did our grocery shopping for the week and got all settled in for the evening in the cabin and our daily games of scrabble.

Crystal Craig Eastern Sierras

Because I am now a blogger I wanted to stop so many times to take pictures. Well you know who didn't want anything to do with that! (he was nice Wednesday when we went out for a ride and stopped several times for me to take pictures)

It was a perfect week, a little cooler then usual which was not a problem. Because of my extra weight and my asthma I don't do too much anymore. I mainly stay around the cabin and read. My husband did some hikes daily. Many bear warnings this year but none showed up at the cabin which was fine by me.

We are in cabin #6 off to the left.

Wednesday we went for a ride to Lee Vining, CA which is only about a 30 minute ride. That is where Mono Lake is but we didn't visit it this year. We have been coming up here annually for maybe 16 years now so we have seen a lot. We go to Lee Vining to stop at Mono Lakes Cones for a nice frozen custard. Then we drove around the June Lake loop to see the beautiful scenery. We did however see something new this year in Lee Vining. It's the upside down house.

Our son and daughter came up Thursday. (thank you for the prayers) We had a nice evening, they picked up pizza in town on their way to the cabin. Then we went the Minaret Summit around 11pm to see the meteor showers. OMG the stars are unbelievable! I knew that from coming here each year but when you really get away from any type of light source it was amazing. I had never seen the Milky Way Galaxy before. I am going to post a picture of what it looked like, I couldn't take a photo. (I will do a short post about my kids drive in a few days)So we hadn't seen any wild animals all week and our kids are here for like 4 hours and saw 3 deer, a bear and the meteor showers!

That's my cowboy!

Friday my husband , son & daughter went horseback riding. Husband was on Midnight, son was on Jr. and our daughter was on Bailey. I decided not to go because of my asthma and extra pounds. (it's not going to happen next year because I am going on a life change diet because I can't take it anymore) They showered when they came back and we were off to town to shop at the small outlet of shops. Mainly Van Huesen, Coach, Bass, Ralph Lauren, and a few shops with all kinds of goodies. Then it was off to a nice dinner at the Chart House.

This is prosciutto wrapped salmon and it was delicious. We had a bottle of wine + a few glasses and some great desserts. (this is with my cell phone and I am still not comfortable taking pictures of my food in restaurants) It was a wonderful day! This trip was filled with love and laughter. We stayed up late playing games and just having a ball!
Sunday we headed home and as you know we arrived safely. More to come about the ride home and a first for me!

This is just an overview of what we did, I have a lot more pictures to show you. I will work on some mosaic pictures and post them hopefully next week.

I WAS GIVEN A STAR

When I was a young child I woke up one night and was drawn to the window. It was winter back home in North Riverside, IL where I grew up. I think that I may have been seven or eight at the time, I really don't remember. I also know that I had never shared this with anyone and to this day I don't know why. Maybe it wasn't meant to be shared, maybe it was just between God & I. I went to the window and saw a star in the sky but it wasn't just any old star, it looked just like the star we envision the shepherd's seeing on the night Christ was born. That is all I remember of that evening 50 years ago. The above picture is exactly the photo my mind took so many years ago, minus the shepherds.

I have thought about that very night several times in my life and especially around Christmas. I would tell myself that maybe, just maybe, God has chosen me for something special. Something to be noticed for but not something to be famous for.

When I wrote my post on New Year's Eve I have to tell you what happened to me when I saw the handkerchief I mailed to Amanda Buckland. There it was on the table next to her in the interview she did on her local Fox station. I burst out crying. When I think about the fact that I could touch the heart of this woman who lost her family in a tragic fire I had to get down on my knees and thank God for blessing me. In my mind I figured that she would be so overwhelmed with sadness and receiving so much mail that it would be months before she saw the handkerchief that I sent to her. I know that when people are grieving they often will stay away from the cards they receive because it hurts too much to read them. But she had the handkerchief right next to her and it hit me real hard.

So I went right to my blogs and posted about this. I thought that I had to share this with all my friends, I wanted them to know how my heart felt. But what I realized is that this is between God and I. He knows my heart and that is all that matters, it was personal just like my STAR.

MAY GODS BLESSING SURROUND YOU DURING THE NEW YEAR

If you have time please go over and visit Theta Mom and read her post. It's short and sweet and I wish I had thought to do it. (it is my favorite movie)

"It's A Wonderful Life"