Peter Is Coming

It is 7:00 pm and we are soon to have another baby in our family. Naomi has been in labor since 7 this morning and is close to delivering her first born son. I don't have pictures yet but I will soon.

We are still working towards healing Caleb and now Lydia. We have visited with psychologists, family councilors and our Chiropractor nutritionist who is helping us with all the testing. We are all busy with school and work and of course --church so we are happy everyone is doing well.

More to come.......

2010 Handbook For A Better Year

It is hard to believe the year is 2010. It sounds too much like a futuristic science fiction movie but in reality, it really is 2010. A message sent to me by my mother-in-law gave me seven handy hints for a great new year. One to remember each day of the week.

One: Drink plenty of water. This is a great tip for a healthy body. It is common knowledge now that we should all drink at least eight glasses of water every day to feel healthy.

Two: Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip. I would say most of the time those unkind things you hear from others are not true and if they are you shouldn’t repeat them. Life is too short to waste time in passing on unwanted news. You have no idea what the other person has gone through so don’t pass on any gossip.

Three: Live by the Three E’s: Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy. All that you spend your time doing can either uplift you or drag you down. Calling your family often, doing something good for others and forgiving others of any inconveniences can be of great worth in living by the “E’s” of life. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, and show up.

Four: Make time to pray. The world would tell you that praying is a waste of time, but I don’t believe that. No matter what religious sect you belong to, there is always time to pray. You can pray while driving to work or cleaning the house or before eating breakfast. It helps the day go by much better and you will find that enthusiasm and empathy stay with you longer.

Five: Play more games. This reminds us how fun life is or is supposed to be. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so find time during the month whether weekly or every other week to play games with your friends and family.

Six: Read more books than you did in 2009. Reading is so good for the mind and it can take to far away places which makes it less expensive than taking a trip to Europe . Reading also helps you ponder the challenges you face every day while also giving you an escape.

Seven: Take a ten to thirty minute walk daily, and while you walk smile. I learned something very profound from my own son last week. His secret to a happier life was to smile all the time. I was very surprised to hear him say that as he has not always been a happy kid. No one is in charge of your happiness except you. While the walking is physically good for your heart, the smiling is emotionally good for your soul and everyone else around you.

So there you have it, seven helpful hints for a better 2010. Happy New Year.

Wild and a Crazy Week

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful and we enjoyed our time with our friends. Swinging into the Christmas season was easier this year. Monday morning came and the boys had half the Christmas decorations out of the attic so we spent the rest of that day and the next putting up decorations.

Last week was unbelieveable. Tuesday morning, Jim went to work on the motorcycle and the bar attached to the seat became loose and fell off the motorcycle. It wouldn't have been so bad but his backpack with all of his personal items including a checkbook was lost. I drove up and down the highway trying to find it for an hour and a half. Luckily, the police department found it and called us to return it the next day.

Then on Wednesday I tried to log into my hotmail account and my yahoo account and was blocked out. Come to find out, some cyberspace moron stole my identity and was emailing my friends online asking for $500 to be sent to the UK. The spelling was off and it sounded like a forgeiner speaking so luckily no one sent money. It took almost a week to get back on my accounts. Even my facebook was taken over. I should have changed the password as soon as I saw what happened but I didn't think of it.

I lost a lot of time from that experience and will always remember to change up the passwords every so often so it won't happen again.

We are tyring to keep ahead of all sicknesses so we have been drinking fresh lemonade making it from a neighbor's tree.

Tasha and Matt moved to Elberta which is much closer than Mobile. They are both working now at the new Wincells in Orange Beach.

A good book to read

One of the many blessings of belonging to a writer's group is that you are privileged to read

other books. This one particular book is being promoted this week and I am happy to say that I really like the story. The first chapter just sucked me in and keeps me wanting more.

Joan Sowards wrote this marvelous tale called Haunts Haven which is the story of Callie Wilford, a young single lds girl, who inherits an old haunted bed and breakfast Inn from her deceased mother located somewhere in an old western town. Once you start it, it is hard to stop. The story includes a love interest, a stubborn ghost and the town manager.

Read the first chapter at http://www.joansowards.blogstop.com/ and order it at Amazon. It's worth every penny!!!!

Be Grateful For What We Have

Last Thursday, our electricity was out most of the morning. Apparently a switch from a substation went down and we were without power for over three hours. Everything I needed to do that day took electricity. Checking my email, sewing something on my machine, and watching a movie. My crock-pot dinner was evern put on hold. We are so accustomed to electricity that it was hard to fill the time while I was waiting for it to come back on.

It's amazing how grateful you become when something is taken away from you that you take for granted. In case you haven't been forced into gratitude as I have been, this might help to put your life in perspective. These are some statistics from the internet:

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have money in the back, in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the worlds' weathly.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare, even in the United States.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them, or even touch them on the shoulder, you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not."

Thanksgiving is this week and I'm reminded by force what I am truly thankful for in my life. I need to remember this all year round. Besides being grateful for electricity, I am grateful that I live in my own home in a nice neighborhood, drive a "paid-for" care and live a healthy, active life. My children are good citizens, and keep active with school, work and church activity. I have food on my table, money in the bank and extended family I can count on any time. I am truly blessed and grateful for what I have. I hope you are too.

A good book to read

Marsha Ward started this series a long time ago. She wrote and rewrote the first story and turns out a marvelous book called the Man From Shenandoah. Fast foward to the present day and the third book in this series called Trail of Storms is now published and on sale at Barnes and Noble.

This interesting story of Jessie Bingham in a bewildering tangle of values, emotions and high adventure. I'm not a western kind of person but I want to read this book.


http://search.%20barnesandnoble.%20com/Trail-%20Of-Storms/%20Marsha-Ward/%20e/9781440126048/%20?itm=1

Ida was here

Hurricane Ida wasn't much of a hurricane by the time it got here to Loxley. Although there were wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour, we had more rain than anything else.

I'm very excited though for the snowball affect going on with my Of One Heart book. I did an interview yesterday and had several writer friends promote it on their blogs and websites. Its very exciting.

No school today either or tomorrow for Veteran's Day so we have some time to do some extra stuff that we don't get to do very often. A surprize short vacation. I did get more of my next manuscript done but I still have much more to do. Since this lastest manuscript (Dogs, Blogs, and Hobbits: Writings from a Widow's Perspective) was typed on two different computers, I had to type the whole thing over again because there was some corruption in the file. The PDF conversion manuscript would not work for my publisher so I am now typing the whole thing over. What a pain but I have to do it. My hands are going to be hurting for a while.

As for the rest of the week---soccer will be canceled because of the flooded fields and this friday is the 13th. Our day for Jim and me to go on a date!

Stay dry!!

Halloween

Today it's halloween and the last day of October. I would have had my 4th book submitted by now but I am having such a hard time with the manuscipt not being corrupted ---it is taking so much time. I have redone the manuscript on WORD 3 or 4 times and still it is corrupted in some way that the pdf file won't format correctly.

The boys are out trick or treating with the neighbor children. We have had 35 to 40 kids so far and it has been fun. The ward (church congregation) fall festival yesterday was a great success. There were close to 100 people there and many brought friends. There were lots of pots of chili, the games were well played and the trunk or treating was really fun. A new addition to the festivities was the Young Men's Truck of Terror haunted house. One of the parents had a big truck which they transformed into a haunted house. Pretty funny. It threatened to rain all night but didn't at all until 10:30pm after we got home. Good timing.

Watching Arthur......

Today, (October 9th) Matt and Tasha had the opportunity to work down at the beach so I watched Arthur for about six hours. He is really a cutie. He is starting to smile and make baby noices. Yesterday, Sarah and Drew, Pat and Jeff, Matt and Tasha and myself --Jim couldn't make it---all met together at the Oyster House in Gulf Shores and ate lunch together. It was really fun. Matt's Dad, Bud Morris is the manager down there and was so nice. He sent a few platters of appetizers for us. It was so good. I was so full.

My Birthday.......

About a month ago, (September 6th) I turned 50 years old. It was hard to imagine that I was that old but live went on just the same and I don't look much older than 35. So I'm happy with my life. I did want to have some kind of celebration so Sarah said don't worry about anything---everyone will pitch in. So with my birthday on Sunday, I figured we would do something on Saturday. I really want to go to Lamberts in Foley.

Thursday came around and we went to the Bozemans for a night of dominoes. That was fun because Jessie and Katy were there with their children. We all ate dinner together--Lydia, Moses and Henry included.

Friday we went to the Delgatos for an evening of swimming and eating. That was fun too. But Saturday morning I woke up to take the dogs out and I saw a girl coming out of the bathroom. This girl looked familiar and I realized it was Sarah. She had surprized me by flying home for the weekend. So we all had a great time on Saturday. We did get to go to Lamberts as well. What a weekend. It was so much fun. The only bad thing was that I had to drive Sarah to the airport in New Orleans so I couldn't stay at church on my birthday but that's okay. When I got home, everyone was there to say happy birthday including Jeff and Melonie Holifield. That was a surprize!!!

The picture here is of Jeff, Melonie, Arthur sitting on Melonie's lap, Naomi and Jon reading his book. It was a fun time the whole weekend.