A Tribute to Billy Joel....

or
How Music can Enlighten a Life.................

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to drive into the wilds of Georgia to visit with my two small grandchildren and meet the third just born a week before. (I had made this particular trip several times before but there is always a few spots which are confusing and I've gotten a bit turned around in my travels.) I ended up renting a car to insure no break downs from my other cars and was looking forward to the break in reality. So, with this car rental came satellite radio and it was an adventure in music as well as driving.

 Besides leaving after my shift at work which caused most of the travel at night, I had to travel by myself for five hours. There was so much to listen to on satellite radio which really surprised me. From comedy stand-ups, political talks, sports talk, and music from every era of history we know, you can drive for days and not get bored. There were stations dedicated to just one musician or you could hear a variety of musicians.  What ever you wanted, it was there.

This is where I stumbled onto a station highlighting Billy Joel's music career from beginning to present day. I personally remember hearing Billy Joel as I grew up in New Jersey during the '70's.  As I listened to song after song of wonderful songs I realized what a great and timeless musician Billy Joel is.  From my youth to my adulthood and in almost all the stages of my children's life Billy Joel is there.  I have enjoyed it all. Wth this introduction, I want to post his songs and some videos which I really enjoy.

As Dick Clark was known to say:  "Music is the sound track of your life" This is so true.


I have a list here that I found in alphabetical order with some comments about the song: (facts were taken from www.songfacts.com )

1.  A Matter Of Trust-

In this song, Joel sings about what it takes to make a relationship last. Once the wave of passion subsides, it becomes a partnership where the couple has to trust each other and be there in times of need. Joel married model Christie Brinkley the year before this was released.

While Joel is known as "The Piano Man," this is the only song that he regularly plays guitar on in concert, giving him a chance to step out from behind the piano.

2. All About Soul-

3.  All For Leyna

4. Allentown-

Allentown is a town in Northeast Pennsylvania about 45 minutes away from the Pocono mountains. An industrial town, many of the once-thriving factories and mills had fallen on hard times when Joel wrote the song, and unemployment in the area was at an all-time high of 12%.

Also mentioned in the song is nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, whose main employer, Bethlehem Steel, had been closing operations. Joel sings about the unemployed workers in the line, "Out in Bethlehem they're killing time, filling out forms, standing in line."

Billy Joel did not grow up in Allentown - he grew up in Levittown, on Long Island. In an interview with James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio, he compared Allentown with his hometown while he was growing up, noting the similarities. Joel stated that the original title was "Levittown," and the original lyrics seemed kind of bland, and he felt that they would possibly be considered boring to the listeners. Some of the original lyrics included lines like, "Well we're living here in Levittown. And there's really not much going down. I don't see much when I look around. The grass is green, the trees are brown. And we're living here in Levittown." So, during the time of the upcoming studio sessions for The Nylon Curtain, Billy took a trip to Pennsylvania. It was here that he came up with the idea for new lyrics. At that time, he originally had Bethlehem in mind, but people would suddenly get the impression that the song was religious. The confusion would come from the fact that the place where the birth of Christ was said to have happened was Bethlehem, Israel. It is worth noting that Bethlehem and Allentown are right next to each other. So, he started writing down some lyrics for what later became the song "Allentown".

5.  An Innocent Man

6. And So It Goes- Personally I wasn't as familiar with this song but have grown to love it. So insightful.

Joel started writing this in the early 1980's about a relationship he then had with supermodel Elle MacPherson. Their backgrounds were so different that he knew the relationship would fail, which it did. He predicted the end of the relationship with the line "And you can have this heart to break."

The title comes from television journalist Linda Ellerbee's signature line and best-selling book title.

When Joel appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2010, he said that this was his least-appreciated song - the best one that casual fans aren't aware of.

7. Baby Grand

8. Big Man On Mulberry Street

9. Big Shot- (interesting story behind this song) When Joel appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2010, he explained that he wrote this song about Bianca Jagger, who was a socialite married to Mick Jagger, but it was written from Mick's perspective. Mick and Bianca were on the outs and divorced shortly before the album was released, and Billy was thinking about how Mick would sing the song to Bianca when he recorded it.

10. Captain Jack

11.  Easy Money

12.  Everybody Has a Dream

13.  Famous Last Words

14. Get It Right the First Time

15. Goodnight Saigon

16. Honesty-Just a simple song about being honest in relationships.... very insightful.

17. I Go To Extremes

18.  It's Still Rock And Roll To Me

19.  Just The Way You Are--Joel wrote this song about his first wife, Elizabeth. He gave it to her as a birthday present. After 9 years of marriage, Joel divorced Elizabeth in 1982. After Joel recorded this, he didn't think much of it, considering it a "gloppy ballad" that would only get played at weddings. He credits his producer, Phil Ramone, with convincing him that it was a great song. Ramone brought Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow into the recording studio to hear the song, and of course they loved it, which was good enough for Billy. On Australian TV in 2006, Joel confirmed: "We almost didn't put it on an album. We were sitting around listening to it going naaah, that's a chick song." Billy says: "I dreamt the melody, not the words. I remember waking up in the middle of the night and going, 'This is a great idea for a song.' A couple of weeks later, I'm in a business meeting, and the dream reoccurs to me right at that moment because my mind had drifted off from hearing numbers and legal jargon. And I said, 'I have to go!' I got home and I ended up writing it all in one sitting, pretty much. It took me maybe two or three hours to write the lyrics."

20. Keeping The Faith--This is an autobiographical song about Joel's teen years in the 1960s and his love for the era's music and culture. Fittingly, it is the last song on An Innocent Man, which consists of songs done in a '60s Pop style.

21. Laura

22.  Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) (One of my favorites!!!)  Joel wrote this as a lullaby for his 7-year-old daughter Alexa Ray in response to her question, "Where do we go when we die?" Alexa's mom, Christie Brinkley, did the artwork for the album.  The original lyrics were about a man who lost his faith. According to a chat on Joel's The Complete Hits Collection 1973-1997, he had these lyrics translated to Latin and worked them out as a Gregorian chant. It was when putting his daughter to bed one night that he got the idea to turn the song into a lullaby - a song that would represent drifting off to sleep into the River of Dreams.

23. Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)

24.  Modern Woman

25.  Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)--We knew this song when it first came out as the Yak, Yak, Yak, song.   The lyrics refer to the New York working-class immigrant masculine ethos, in which wage-earners take pride at working long hours to afford the outwards signs of having "made it" in America. The character "Anthony" questions if owning a house in Hackensack (a suburb of New York city) is worth the effort, while "Sergeant O'Leary" works 2 jobs in hopes of one day owning a Cadillac.  oel first wrote this song to a soft ballad mystery tune he had in his head. When he performed it for his band in the studio, they informed him WHERE he got the tune - it was identical to Neil Sadaka's "Laughter In The Rain." Embarrassed, Joel changed it to a more rocking tune.

26.  My Life

27. New York State Of Mind

28.  No Man's Land

29.  Only The Good Die Young-- (This song was banned from my church youth dances. Not conducive to promoting church attendance) Virginia was Virginia Callaghan, a girl Billy had a crush on when he first started playing in a band. She didn't even know he existed until she saw him in a gig, but thirteen years later he used her as the main character in this song about a Catholic girl who won't have premarital sex.

Billy says: "I originally started in bands just to meet girls – it was round the time The Beatles first hit America – but I didn't know you could actually make a living out of it. My first gig was in a church, about '64 – we did Beatles songs, and this girl I had a crush on, Virginia Callaghan, who normally wouldn't look twice at me, just stared at me through the whole gig. And I thought, 'This is so cool!' And then all these other girls were lookin' at me as well. Then, at the end of the night, the priest comes up and gives us like 15 dollars apiece, which in '64 was a fortune! Girls and money! Man, I was hooked."

 "That song was released as a single back in 1977, I think. It was not really doing very well, just languishing in the charts. Then it was banned by a radio station in New Jersey at a Catholic university. The minute the kids found out it was banned, they ran out in droves and it became a huge hit. If you tell kids they can't have something, that's what they want. I don't understand the problem with the song. It's about a guy trying to seduce a girl but, at the end of the song, she's still chaste and pure and he hasn't got anything. So I never understood what the furor was about. But I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned it, asking them to ban my next record." 

As a side note: The words only the good die young might have something to do with banning the song.

Piano Man -  I love this song too...

This was inspired by Joel's experiences playing at The Executive Room, a piano bar in Los Angeles. He worked there for 6 months in 1972 after his first solo album, Cold Spring Harbor, tanked. The characters in the song are based on real people Joel encountered while working at The Executive Room.

Joel played under the name Bill Martin, which explains why the patrons in the song call him Bill. Martin is his middle name.

Joel recalled to the Metro newspaper July 6, 2006 his time playing at The Executive Room: "It was a gig I did for about 6 months just to pay rent. I was living in LA and trying to get out of a bad record contract I'd signed. I worked under an assumed name, the Piano Stylings of Bill Martin, and just bulls--ted my way through it. I have no idea why that song became so popular. It's like a karaoke favorite. The melody is not very good and very repetitious, while the lyrics are like limericks. I was shocked and embarrassed when it became a hit. But my songs are like my kids and I look at that song and think: 'My kid did pretty well.'"

 Pressure: In this song, Joel talks about a guy who is struggling to cope with the pressures of his life. The song is unusual because it is sung in the second person (Joel referring to the character as "you") and is a Rock song with very little guitar. The driving synthesizer implies the near-paranoia the man is feeling.

 Rosalinda's Eyes

Say Goodbye To Hollywood

 Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

 She's Always A Woman: The lady in question was Elizabeth Small, and they first got together when she was still married to Joel's drummer Jon Small. Billy Joel was so tormented by his affair that he tried to kill himself by drinking furniture polish.(Other opinions on this suicide attempt says that he did not try because of this affair but that it had happened before the affair)  It was before and ironically, the rocker was saved by the very man he was betraying when Jon Small rushed him to hospital. The pair later married.
Billy no longer plays this in concert. On one of his college tour shows, Billy said that it was about his first wife, who he didn't really want to be singing about in the first place. He also said that while he was singing it, he would start thinking about what meal he would eat after the show. No passion whatsoever, so he dropped it.

She's Right On Time

 Sometimes A Fantasy

 Tell Her About It

 The Ballad Of Billy The Kid

 The Downeaster Alexa

 The Entertainer

The Great Wall of China

 The Longest Time

 The River Of Dreams:

Billy Joel gets a lot of song ideas in his dreams, and often struggles to remember them when he wakes up. For this song, however, he woke up with the song in his head, but tried NOT to write it. He explained on The Howard Stern Show in 2010: "I thought, Who the hell am I to try to pull off this gospel song, so I took a shower to wash this song away. I sang it in the shower and knew I had to do it."

In Joel's dream, he was "walking in his sleep," which inspired that lyric.

Joel has said that the phrase "River of Dreams" is a play on the phrase "Stream of Consciousness."

This is a very spiritual song where Joel, who identifies himself as an atheist, includes some biblical imagery, including the line, "Through the valley of fear," which is a reference to Psalm 23:4 - "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Joel also says that the river is a religious image, as "there's baptizing in a river and you have to cross the river - people are getting dunked in the river and there's rivers of blood."

The Stranger

 This Night

 Tomorrow Is Today

 Uptown Girl: Billy Joel married the supermodel Christie Brinkley less than two years after this song was released, but he wasn't even dating her when he started writing the song - he was actually dating another supermodel: Elle McPherson. Asked about his relationship with Elle on The Howard Stern Show in 2010, Joel explained: "We dated on and off. We weren't like engaged or anything. We just kind of dated. She was 19."
Joel went on to explain that he and Elle parted ways when she went off to Europe, which is around the time he started dating Brinkley. He reworked the lyrics, and by the time he finished the song, it was about Brinkley.
 Joel is from Long Island, New York, and always considered himself a working-class, regular guy. This song reflects his surprise at his ability to attract such beautiful, glamorous women. In a 1987 interview with Q magazine, Joel said: "The fact that I can attract such a beautiful woman as Christie should give hope to every ugly guy in the world!"

 Vienna: On the fourth album of his greatest hits boxed set, Joel said he was visiting his estranged father in Vienna, Austria when he saw an elderly woman sweeping the streets. He commented that is was awful to have an old woman doing that kind of work. His father said something like, "No, it isn't. she's being useful and she's doing a service that benefits everyone. She's not just sitting at home wasting away, and she's got dignity." Joel realized how American culture can push aside the elderly and strip them of their purpose and worth.

Billy's parents got divorced when he was young, and his father, Howard Joel, returned to his homeland of Germany where he got married and started a new family. He had another son (Billy Joel's half brother) Alexander Joel who is an acclaimed classical conductor in Europe who is currently chief musical director of the Staatstheater Braunschweig. Obviously their family is very musical. When Billy appeared on The Howard Stern show in 2010, Joel revealed that he doesn't always know what a song is about when he writes it, and he came to realize that he was dealing with his feelings about his father in this song.

 We Didn't Start The Fire:

The lyrics are a stream of consciousness list of events that Joel felt his generation was not responsible for. A lot of the references are to the Cold War (US vs. Russia), a problem his generation inherited. In the liner notes of Piano Man: The Very Best of Billy Joel, Joel explains that he wrote this song after a conversation with John Lennon's son Sean. (thanks, P - Geelong, Australia)

The rapid lyrics style was first used in a Pop song by R.E.M. in "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Before that, Bob Dylan did something similar on "Subterranean Homesick Blues."

Joel wrote the lyrics first, which he rarely does. He says that is why the song has no melody. Joel told Billboard magazine: "It's terrible musically. It's like a mosquito buzzing around your head."

This is a very popular song, and while Joel doesn't consider it one of his favorites and admits it has no melody, he explained on The Howard Stern Show that he doesn't hate the song. He does, however, have a hard time remembering all the words when he performs it in concert and has even looked to audience members mouthing the words to the song to pick up the lyrics. He is often asked if he is going to write a sequel with updated lyrics, but he has no plans to.

 Where's The Orchestra?

 You May Be Right: Love this song....

In this song, Joel takes the persona of a guy who is told he is reckless. Joel confirms the suspicion, admitting that he is crazy and extolling the virtues of a more carefree, but dangerous existence.

This is the opening track to Billy Joel's album Glass Houses. Before the song starts, there is the sound of shattered glass, to match the cover picture of Joel throwing a rock into the window of an all-glass house, as a parody of the saying "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." This was Joel's statement to his critics.

This was used as the theme song to the TV show Dave's World, which ran from 1993-1997 on CBS. Like Joel's "My Life," Billy didn't sing the version used on the show. The version of "You May Be Right" on Dave's World was sung by Southside Johnny.

 You're My Home

 You're Only Human (Second Wind)

Video to "We didn't start the Fire" 

 Video to "And So It Goes"

Enjoyable video of Keeping the Faith

You May Be Right....

Beautiful video of "Goodnight my Angel"

So what is Billy Joel doing now?  He gives concerts!!!  He has a standing invitation at "The Garden"  almost every month and the crowds fill the place up.  (For those living outside the "Tri-state area --New York, New Jersey and Connecticut--The Garden is actually Madison Square Garden)
The last new song he wrote River of Dreams in 1993 was over 20 years ago. He just doesn't want to write any more "pop songs" and wants to entertain by singing and playing.  He used to really do a physically draining show but since that put pressure on his hip dyspepsia and had them both replace in 2010.

So...there you have it... A musician who will last through out the ages.  I would just love to see him at the Garden this summer.... maybe I will.

For the week leading up to Easter.....

Those who attend church know the significance of this weekend.... Our Savior was crucified on Good Friday and was resurrected on the 3rd day which is now known as Easter Sunday.

Many Christian sects have different opinions of how or why this all came about but the fact remains straight from the New Testament itself that this did happen and we need to remember with reverence what our Lord did for us in order to return to our Father In Heaven....

So to mark this Easter week--I am posting what happened each day leading up to our blessed Easter holiday:




Sunday before (April 13, 2014)

The Savior's triumphal entry into Jerusalem:

                                                                 Matthew 21: 1-11

 Monday before:
Second cleansing of the temple








Matthew 21:12-16  Mark 11:15-18













Also  Cursing of the barren Fig Trees
Matthew 21: 18-20

Tuesday before:
Last day of the Lord's public ministry

 Matthew 22


Judas Iscariot plots against the Savior

Matthew 26:14-16





Wednesday before--No record of what he did that day....


Thursday before: 
Last Supper.....
 Jesus washes the Apostle's feet, introduces the Sacrament and goes to the Garden of Gethsemane
John 13:4-17
Mark 14: 20-25
Luke 22: 40-46






















































Friday
Trial and Crucifixion....



















 Saturday---not resurrected yet


 Sunday: Jesus is Resurrected....

We should remember Him and His Sacrifice........



 

First Presidency Easter Message

Jesus Christ was the promised Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Son of the living God. He was with His Father before He came to earth in mortality, the Creator of the earth upon which we stand.

In His mortal ministry He walked the dusty roads of Palestine, healed the sick, raised the dead, taught His gospel, gave His life on Calvary’s hill, and rose on the third day, a perfected, resurrected being, breaking the bands of death for us all, thus becoming “the first fruits of them that slept.”

The Savior paid the price for all of our sins. The prophet Isaiah saw the gift beyond the price of the Atonement of Jesus Christ:

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).

We testify that Jesus Christ was resurrected and that He lives today as our Savior and Redeemer.

The First Presidency

President Thomas S. Monson

President Henry B. Eyring

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

A Link to My New Column

About three years ago I started writing for an organization called MORE GOOD FOUNDATION which consists of a group of people who want to promote The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its standards and moral character.

I was given my own column which was going along pretty well for about 2 years. I had a hard time keeping up the writing at times but I did it until the same group of people decided to tweak some of their websites and I was one of the unfortunate souls of getting dropped.  Hence the story of my life.

 I have written for other columns over the course of my life that got dropped. They then become books of the collection of posts.

This is one of the columns which can still be visited:

 Bonds That Tie the Family

 Ha... I just keep going back for more. I guess this won't be the last time it happens...

So now column #4 has been started again thanks to Terrie Bittner who loves my stuff and I am off again and this time the column is called Strengthening Families.

From the LDSBLOGS.COM comes Strengthening Families and in this day and age--we really need this kind of encouragement.

There goes Sunday School.... Noah is not right.

Movie Review: Noah

Hollywood has done it again. A biblical story in disturbing proportions. It's unbelievable how a simple story like Noah and the Ark can get so blown up out of proportion. The latest in Hollywood bunk has opened this past weekend in the form of Noah and I'm afraid this movie will be believed as a true account from the bible.

It's not!!!  The only similarity from the bible account and the movie is that Noah builds an ark, has a wife and three sons and it rains to flood the earth.  All portrayals are so out of wack....this is not a movie for families to watch.

From Plugged In (http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/noah-2014.aspx) we read:

From PluggedIn.com

"Noah goes pretty far off the Sunday school flannel board to tell its story, beginning with 'the beginning.' Noah recounts the story of creation to his children, reciting what happened on each of the six days. Using time-lapse photography, his account blends the Bible with Darwinian evolution, as animals change into other animals in rapid-fire sequence. (And most of the creatures on the ark appear to be evolutionary forebears of the ones we live with today.)

 Unlike the direct commands issued by God to Noah in Genesis, His will is obscured in Noah. The titular character receives only visions, their meaning never fully clear to him. And because Noah and his family deeply desire to do God's will exactly, this exacerbating lack of communication creates some serious conflicts—an echo of sometimes our own uncertainty of what God would have us do now."

It is a dark portrayal of  what really happened.  Noah is a prophet of God. He has the light of goodness in him and is not at all the way Russell Crowe has portrayed him. Although it's not really Russell Crowe's fault. I really like his work most of the time but with Darren Aronofsky as director (also directed Black Swan-another disturbing movie) he didn't have much of a choice.

In the biblical story all three sons are married which is one of main points of having a family get on the ark to start a new life....each son has a wife so they can  have children to populate the world.
 
When I see a biblical story on the movie screen, I expect the story to stay true to it's original writing such as The Ten Commandments or Jesus of  Nazareth not misconstrued as a fairy tale although anyone can produce a movie with their own take. This might be a compelling story but it's not what really happened in my eyes. It was too dark and misleading as to the integrity of it's main character.

I'm sure many curious seekers will watch Noah for the entertainment.  I just wouldn't believe it as the truth...which is what I'm thinking the rest of the world will do.

Feelings of a tender heart as a parent....

In all my driving around recently, I have had the opportunity to think about the effects my children have had in other lives.  I have always felt that if my children thought enough about another person to marry them, then I would accept that person as my own child.

So far so good--all of my married children have married well and I feel that their spouses are one of my own.  So my plan is with nine children is when they are all married at sometime, I won't just have nine children, I will have eighteen.

Recently I have had a discussion with someone I have known for a long time but his family situation had changed and his opinions of family life were way different than I had expected.

This friend and I have discussed many topics of family importance going around and around in discussion so we could not agree.  I finally had to concede to "agree to disagree" because aligning ourselves to each others opinion was not going to happen. The whole discussion centered around parents making decisions for their children and then I found this little gem from Michael Ramey of parentalrights.org  (http://www.parentalrights.org/ )

Two Great Stories of 'Parents Know Best'

                                                                                                                                                             "We turn to 

experts every day for insight and guidance because 

they are, well, experts. They know more on the subject at hand than we do, whether it’s “What is making my faucet drip?” or “Why is my car overheating?” Experts can be, if you will, a helpful diagnostic tool.

But when it’s time to make decisions about your child, you know the real expert is you.

That proved especially true in two heart-warming stories in the news this past week, as parents defied the experts and saved their children’s lives – one figuratively and one literally.

At age 2, Jacob Barnett was diagnosed with autism when, after learning to talk, he suddenly and irreversibly went silent. Experts recognized that his attention had turned inward, and they prescribed what would become a 60-hour-per-week therapy regimen. One specialist warned he would never even learn to read.

Then one day, mother Kristine realized that while she was playing with other children in the daycare she ran from her home, her own son was losing his childhood.“I knew in my heart that if Jake stayed in special ed, he would slip away,” Kristine later told a 60 Minutes interview.

That’s when she decided to focus not on what he couldn’t do, but on what he could. She halted his therapy and instead invested time in what he liked – which appeared to be the stars. They would lie out at night and look at the sky, and make occasional trips to the planetarium.

On one such trip, a university lecture was taking place, so mother and son decided to sit in. At the end of the class, the professor asked if anyone knows why Mars’s moons are oblong. Jacob’s hand went up. “How large are the moons?” he asked when called upon.

When the professor answered that they’re quite small, Jacob correctly responded, “The gravitational effects of the moons are not large enough [compared to that of Mars] to pull them into complete spheres.”

Jacob was 3 years old.

Today, at age 15, he is involved in an international study program for post-graduate level physicists at Perimeter Scholars International in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He has developed his own theory of relativity, expanding on that of Albert Einstein. His level of genius is literally off the charts – and he can share all of this with the world that so amazes him because his mother decided to counter the experts and take an unconventional approach.

In a similar vein, young Congresswoman Jaime Herrera-Beutler of Washington recently faced a parental dilemma of her own. Five months into her first pregnancy, doctors discovered that her baby, suffered from Potter’s Syndrome: the baby had developed no kidneys, and could therefore produce no fetal urine. Without fetal urine, she would have little or no amniotic fluid, which would ultimately keep the baby’s lungs from developing.

Doctors told Congresswoman Herrera-Beutler and her husband, Dan, that there was zero chance that their baby would live.

“As the doctor was giving us the diagnosis (Abigail) was kicking,” Herrera-Beutler told FoxNews. “We were totally broken, we’re sobbing, we’re asking, ‘What can be done? Is there anything that can be done?’ And she’s moving inside of me, and the doctor is saying, ‘No, there is no option. This is fatal.’”

But the Beutlers refused to give up, and instead located a doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore who had an experimental treatment he was willing to try. There was no pre-natal fix for the absence of kidneys, but perhaps injecting saline solution into Jaime’s abdomen would provide the fluid the lungs needed to develop.

Miraculously, Abigail was born on July 15 with a healthy set of lungs – the first known survivor of Potter’s Syndrome anywhere, ever. She still needs special care, and won’t be ready for a kidney transplant for about a year. From that point, however, doctors are hopeful she can have a normal, healthy life.

And the difference between no chance and full life was in the decision of loving parents who dared to defy the odds and prove the experts wrong.

Both of these stories feature a variety of experts, including those who "got it wrong" – and those who ultimately helped these parents to save the children they seemed destined to lose. There is nothing wrong with experts.


But there is a powerful, natural reason why parents, not the experts, should make the vital decisions that will ultimately shape their children’s lives. The proposed Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution will ensure that the right to make these decisions remains with parents for generations to come."


  I couldn't have said it better. Thank you Michael Ramey from Parentalrights.org for saying it so well.....
 

Blog Tour for: The Roilden Stone of Elf Mountain...

 If you are an Anna del C. Dye fan or a fan of elf stories (who isn't)  then you are in for a treat. The newest Elf story comes as a pre-sequel to all of Anna del C Dye's books and it's number seven of the series.

The Roilden Stone of Elf Mountain 
    by Anna del C. Dye

Here is a blurb of the story:

Liberty … or Monarchy? Should the wisest of races choose such a path, or return to the traditional council? Their queen has lost the Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain to a power-hungry wizard. After all, one can be deceived, but twenty?

With the stones missing, a fatal drought grips Andoriah, the new elfin home. Death to all is imminent. Who will retrieve the Stones when the Gold Elfs won’t act? Will heroes arise before Andoriah burns in eternal fire?  Can the missing elf queen and her daughter be found?

The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain is the long awaited prequel, and final installment in Anna del C.’s elf series. Discover the Elfs, an eternal race who chose to live in a world of woes away from their motherland. Love them, feel their pain and their happiness in a land that will test the core of their beliefs and bravery. Written in the genre of The Lord of the Rings and the Shannara series, The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain comes alive with battles, heroism, action and romance.

About Anna:

Anna del C. Dye was born in the extreme South along some famous beaches. She is the third child and twins with her sister Elena. She grew up with four other siblings being placed in the middle. Her mother died when she was six years old and her father never married again.
The green eyed, brown haired author found a mother in her husband's mother and loves her dearly. She accredits her mother-in-law with teaching her many things in life.
Anna loves reading, but had few opportunities to do so while growing up. Once married she was introduced to the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books that she admits to having collected, which collections she still retains. They were the ones who wet her appetite. A few years ago she was introduced to Tolkien's Lord of the Ring's and to J. K. Rowling's writings, which she loves. She also loves romantic music that she listens to every day, plays that she attends at least six times a year, and cats (when they are not shedding.) She likes her clothes to be very feminine, with lace being one of her favorites. "I am afraid that I do not follow fashions," she was heard to say. "I wear what I like."
Early on in her life she showed an affinity for sewing and took classes that rewarded her with the opportunities of taking care of the costumes for the cast of four different plays, which she enjoyed immensely. She is fluent in both English and Spanish and understands Portuguese.
At twenty-one she moved north to marry Rodney and has resided in Utah since then. Her husband, a native of Idaho, met her in her hometown. They fell in love and she came to Utah on Christmas Eve to be married two weeks later. They are the parents of three princes and a princess.
With her husband and his family she has have the opportunity of traveling to many of the states in USA, most of them camping, and to three other countries, something she enjoys very much. Soon, she would like to visit the castles in Germany and other European countries.
Anna possesses a great mind and imagination, which, with the encouragement of her husband, she set to writing. The creation of her two series of books The Elf Series and her Medieval Romance series; are the result of many years of daydreaming and now, her own laptop.

Anna del C. has received numerous awards like “First Page” “First Chapter” in three of her books. A bronze Medal for book three in The Silent Warrior Trilogy and honor place for others.

Anna is fluent in Spanish and English and loves to travel the world.

You can fallow Anna in her website at: http://www.annadelc.com

Anna is sponsoring an Ebook Giveaway  today until March 8th:  You have a chance to win The Roilden Stone of Elf Mountain. After you "Like" the book trailer.

Trailer is located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C79Nc2ZjcXs&feature=youtu.be

Remember to leave a comment with your e-mail to receive an ebook. One ebook will be given in each stop in this tour and the entries can be international.

You can find The Roilden Stones of Elf Mountain here:

Amazon: http://j.mp/1dvqXP6

Book Review: Turning Pages

I just finished a wonderful book by Tristi Pinkston.   

Turning Pages is a terrific story for anyone who wants to "get away" from reality for a while.

As the dedication says: "To every girl who has ever spent an entire day curled up with a good book."

With interesting characters and touching story of how a girl deals with the death of her father, Turning Pages takes the reader on a journey to another place. You cheer, you cry, you laugh and you cannot put this book down until you find out what happens.

 Some readers might claim it was a modern "Pride and Prejudice" but I didn't think so.  It did remind me of the story somewhat but there are enough details changed that it really isn't the story at all but it's own world of love and librarians.

Turning Pages
by Trista Pinkston

With his pride and her prejudice, what could possibly go wrong?

When the arrogant Blake Hansen steals Addie Preston¹s promotion at the
library, he pretty much rubs her nose in it. But Addie, who dreams of being
a full-fledged librarian, decides to stick it out. She loves surrounding
herself with books and keeping her father¹s memory alive in the building
where they spent so much time together.

Soon, Addie learns that her beloved library will be torn down to make room
for a larger facility, and she has to make a choice. Fight, or let go?
 To complicate things, she finds herself attracted to Blake, who is engaged
to someone else. Will Blake and Addie ever resolve their differences?


Buy your copy here..............


Tristi Pinkston:


Tristi Pinkston is the author of twenty published books, including the bestsellers "Dearly Departed" and "Dialogue Dynamics." She works as a freelance editor and author mentor, and when she's not writing, editing, or homeschooling her children, she enjoys reading, watching good movies, and taking really long naps. She eats ice, which she realizes is very bad for her teeth but she does it anyway, and she can't write without a tube of Chapstick nearby. Visit her website at www.tristipinkston.com

Our Newest Member of the Family.....

Evelyn Olivia Steimle

Evelyn Olivia Steimle was born on a special day.  Not only was it her birthday but it was also Ground Hog's Day to one of the worst winters on record.....

AND

            It was Superbowl Sunday.....Not to just any team in the U.S playing in this big game but the team she is connected to....Her parents live in Everett, Washington, a suburb city of Seattle... The Seahawks were playing in the Superbowl against the Denver Broncos and the miraculous thing is that they won.... The Seahawks were the underdogs and never won a Superbowl and they came out fighting. They won!!! They won!!!    but I digress....

Isaac holding Evie

 This is about Evie (as her parents call her) and her birth......weighing in at 8lbs and 8oz. and measuring 22 inches long.  

She will always have a special birthday.

The South Will Be Warm Again......

Snow man we built

From Lower Alabama on the Gulf Coast:
What a crazy week!!  Winter Storm Leon just reeked havoc on the entire south for two days.  Those from the north are just laughing and shaking their heads but they don't realize what it's like to live in the south with ice and snow.  

For one--most  of those living in the south have never really dealt with ice and snow.  And even the best of those from the north can't navigate in a car through ice which is what mostly fell for 10 hours straight.  There were cars slipping all over the place on all the roads. Even the major interstates had cars in the ditches because it was just too slippery.  The traffic got so bad in Birmingham that people were abandoning their cars to walk home.  Unbelievable. Some people stayed in their cars all night because they were just too far to walk home. What a mess.

Ice hanging off a chair

Two-We aren't prepared with snow plows and sand as the north is because we just don't see this kind of weather very often.  Cities don't have the extra cash to stash snow plows and salt away for a snowy day, so we have to do the best we can when this does happened every 10 years.

Among all the terrible traffic and weather good things were happening too: 
A baby girl was born in a car in Atlanta.
A Chick-Filet Restaurant manager started feeding people food and water for free so they won't starve or dehydrate.

Front of our house

Several schools had to keep children overnight for safety and fed and entertained them while at school.          
Out door winter activities were taking place unlike any time before: sledding, making snow angels, snow man building.
Everyone from schools to banks got a mid-winter break to stay home and just snuggle.
I have to add this one:  A 62 year-old doctor walks from one hospital in Birmingham during the storm to another hospital to save a person's life in brain surgery.... see below link.

Frozen leaves from our bush

That's the blessing of living in the South....there are still such good people who care about everyone's well being.  It is truly a blessing to live here.



But never fear.... the South will be warm again.  Just wait a few days and this whole episode will not even be noticed as it will be back in the 60's by the weekend. We can get back to barbequing, 4-wheeling, going to church and living our lives in the warmer weather.

Link to article about Doctor walking in storm in Birmingham
                                               

Indie Author Celebration January 2014!

Happy New Year Everyone and we are starting the year off with a bang!!!

A writer friend of mine is sponsoring a book giveaway through Amazon's Kindle program. So for a week Andrea Pearson is giving away her first book of this Six book series.

Here is what she says:

It's time to celebrate the release of The Golden Symbol, Kilenya Series Book Six, the last in my series!

As part of the celebration, we're giving away a Kindle Fire. Enter at the bottom of this post, after you check out the fantastic eBooks I've chosen to showcase here. All of them were hand-selected based on the fact that they're well-edited and really good. I loved them!

Please note that on January 18, 2014, my first book, The Key of Kilenya, will no longer be available for free. Pick up your copy while you can!

Have fun browsing. I know you'll love these books. :-)

The Key of Kilenya

Author: Andrea Pearson
Original and discounted price: $3.99 to Free
Discounted until January 18
Genre and target audience: Fantasy for readers 10 and older
If this book were a movie, what would it be rated? PG
Download it from: Kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Book Description:

We all have a choice—but we can’t choose the consequences.

Jacob Clark is chased down a path that takes him to another world—a world where he is a wanted young man. The Lorkon want to control him and the special powers he possesses. The people of the new world want him to save them from the destruction of the Lorkon. All Jacob wants is to go home, but even that choice has consequences. He doesn’t know what to do and if he waits too long the new world and the one he came from will be destroyed. As Jacob looks for people he can trust, he finds himself in the center of the fight for freedom—both for himself and the people he’s come to know.

Jacob has no idea where the path he chooses will take him, but once the choice has been made—bring on the consequences.


The Ember Gods

 Author: Andrea Pearson

Original and discounted price: $3.99 to $0.99

Discounted until January 18

Genre and target audience: Fantasy for readers 10 and older

If this book were a movie, what would it be rated? PG

Download it from: Kindle, Nook

Book description:

Jacob Clark’s new abilities are a blessing and a curse. He’s a hero for returning the magical Key of Kilenya to its rightful owners, but at school he's starting to get noticed for something other than his basketball skills. And the attention is freaking him out.

Balancing both worlds is tricky enough, but Jacob has tasked himself with saving Aloren who’s trapped in Maivoryl City by the Ember Gods. He doesn't want to wait for the potion that will protect his team from the corrosive influence of the Lorkon, but the desire to prove himself to the high school basketball coach conflicts with his plans to rescue her.

Feeling pulled by both sides, Jacob must walk a tightrope of warring worlds with lives on the line. Lives that will be lost if he doesn’t figure out how to complete his quest and balance his abilities. Fast.


Those were the first two books to get you started.  Now for the introduction of book 6......





                                                       The Golden Symbol

Author: Andrea Pearson
Original and discounted price: $4.99 to $2.99
Discounted until January 18
Genre and target audience: Fantasy for readers 10 and older
If this book were a movie, what would it be rated? PG
Download it from: Kindle, Nook, Smashwords

Book description:

In the final installment of the Kilenya Series, Jacob Clark and his friends only have two months to prepare for their enemy’s return—an event which is sure to bring war—and to discover the recipe for the special antidote that will cure the Lorkon. As things become more and more dangerous, Jacob is surprised to find help in the most unlikely people and places. Things look up briefly when Azuriah agrees to share the well-guarded secret of the Golden Symbol. With its help, Jacob may have a chance against the Lorkon, but even so, he and his friends are greatly outnumbered.

Will they be able to find the recipe and create the antidote before the Lorkon arrive, or will Eklaron—and Earth—fall into the hands of the evil empire for good?