Sharing the Love

Oh my - sometimes something comes across the email that just makes your morning - this is one of those times! I could forward it to a couple of friends or stick it out here for you all to enjoy!! So - - Enjoy!!

The other day I went up to a local Christian bookstore and saw a "Honk if You Love Jesus" bumper sticker. I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting, so I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper.
Later, after I picked up my grandson from school, I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good He is and I didn't notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn't honked, I'd never have noticed!
I found that LOTS of people love Jesus. Why, while I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, "for the love of God, GO! GO!" What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started honking! I just leaned out of my window and started waving and smiling at all these loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love.
There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach... I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. When I asked my teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant, he said that it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something.
Well, I've never met anyone from Hawaii, so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign back. My grandson burst out laughing, why - even he was enjoying this religious experience! A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me.
I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, I waved to all my sisters and brothers, and grinning, drove on through the intersection. I noticed I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and I felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared, so I slowed the car down, leaned out of the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away.
Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!

Another Trip North

We headed north again in early January to visit Morning Glory and the Dr - and to check on our retirement home! We had a great time - the weather was cold but not stormy and it was a super weekend! We really enjoy their church - it will be ours too when we move! We also stopped in to see Queen Beth and the Royal family and Karen Tradeoff and a couple of the little Tradeoffs! The new little guy is adorable!

One of the days we drove up to the local ski area - the road up is VERY turny and twisty but the views off to the side were wonderful! We looked around the ski lodge and had lunch, then the clouds started dropping a bit of snow and since we didn't have chains it was time to head down the hill! As you can tell it was cold - but really pretty! We are looking forward to skiing here when we finally live close! I'm thinking season passes!! As we were driving down the mountain, the blue sky reappeared and the view out over the valley was just incredible!!

That night the moon was especially pretty - so I went out on the front lawn to balance my camera on the tree branch and the frozen grass crunched under my feet!! That was not something this California girl has ever experienced!! I thought it was neat!! Morning Glory just laughed!

We took several drives past our house - we didn't want to bother our renter - so we just "lurked"!! The fence we put in a few months ago looked good, but the bright white of the fence sure made the pale trim on the house look dingy! With the winter grass and the leafless tree everything looked pretty bland! We decided we will have some planting and painting to do when we move in!! The park was all in behind the house - grass, trees and a walking path along the creek! We have now set mid June, 2008 to be our move-in target! It seems like a long time - but if the last year is any indication - the time will fly by!!




Not to be outdone by Morning Glory's Sunrise/Sunset site - this was the sunset from my office window the evening of the day after we returned! Oh my - the view can be great on a clear day - I can see the islands off the coast of SoCal! But this sunset was one of the best I can remember from this window!!

Wow! 2 posts in 2 days!! This has got to be some sort of record for me!! Tee-hee!! Happy weekend friends!

Christmas - FINALLY!

Oh my goodness - where does the time go? It is almost the end of January, and I just got my Christmas pictures off my camera and into my computer yesterday!!

It seems a little funny to be talking about Christmas at this "late" date - but some of the pictures were so good - I just had to go back and share!! There is just something so grand about children at Christmas!! Having granddaughters is such a blast!! We went down to San Diego on Christmas Eve and went to a Christmas service then dinner with Darling Wife's family - they are a fun bunch - we really had a good time!

This is MissC all dressed up for Christmas eve - and getting a hug from Poppie. At dinner she got a bit bored, so she spent some time with dad's headphones and a music cd!

We went back to Computer Guy and DW's house and MissC went to bed. We had such a good time catching up and drinking hot cocoa with homemade peppermint marshmallows!! It was sooooo wonderful!!

Mom and hubby and I stayed in a hotel close by and came back in the morning for presents! MissC got her Christmas Morning Jamies on and we took our places for "Santa CG" to hand out presents! This is hubby, and DW's brother - and notice the "grand-dog" Cooper - all ready!

Of course we all bought waaaay too many presents for MissC - we'll be more contained next year - she wore herself out opening presents and took a little rest on her "Dora the Explorer Ready-Bed"! (Too cute! - it is a little sleeping bag with the air mattress built in!) She opened a few more, then we got the 4-generation picture in before she passed out on Nana's shoulder!

Not to be left out of course - Cooper got his present and was delighted! It was a huge rawhide bone in the shape of a candy cane!

We had a wonderful late breakfast and headed back to Mom's house about 1.5 hours north. We had a wonderful prime rib dinner that evening and Dave and Jeanne (of Hawaii condo fame) and their son joined us!



Christmas was very different this year - CG and DW wanted to start their Christmas morning tradition for MissC at their house and it was so fun! But it was also different because this was the first Christmas without daddy! It was odd not to have him there, so it was good to something new and different - it made his absence seem not quite so "loud".

I'm Still Here!

Hi Ya'll - I just wanted to let you know that I haven't given up on blogging - and I have some adorable Christmas pictures of MissC to post (when I have time to download them from my camera)!! The last few weeks here at work have been hectic! I don't have a computer at home, so any blogging has to be done before work or at lunch - - and the past few weeks I have started early and worked through most lunches! (I'm exempt from overtime - darn!) I have lurked around some of your blogs when I just needed a few minutes break in the afternoon - but haven't even done much commenting!

All the spreadsheets for the upcoming audits and contributions and payouts are almost done (yea!!) so maybe in the next week or so I'll have time to do this fun stuff!

Check here occasionally - "Ah'll be baack"!
Grandi