Saturday

 

Ducktown is very close to my daughter and son-in-law's home.  I got  to visit with them a few hours yesterday.   According to Wikipedia, this next-door town was named after a Cherokee leader, Chief Duck.  The Cherokee name was Kawana which means "duck town" in English.

Traveling to and from Cleveland to Copperhill,  you will pass this 'store' in the Ocoee area.

 

 

This is on the deck to the left of the entrance door.

 

Much of the merchandise is retro-hippie.  You can find some pretty trinkets and accessories if this is your style. 

 

 

And while the majority of us are going about business-as-usual, there are many, many, many who are still dealing with the aftermath of the tornado.  Blue tarps on roofs are a common sight in some areas.

 

 

Not all fallen trees have been cut up yet.

 

The yards that have been cleaned up are ready for pick-up by the county.  Their trucks have been working diligently on curbside debris removal.

Our business-as-usual had us beginning the summer reading program this morning with over fifty already signed up.  You can see our display board with prizes now at www.libraryfbc.blogspot.com

Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Romans 12:2a

Seasons - - of Life

 

Buttercup - - - beautiful yellow flower of spring and summer.  When we were children, we would pick bouquets of them - - as did our own children.

Now I have another Buttercup in my life - - a blogger buddy named Buttercup.  She sent me  bouquets of flowers . . . . on pages in a book - - accompanied by springtime poetry.

THANK YOU, BUTTERCUP!

Here's another bouquet of flowers I received this week from my older daughter.  Her college used them to decorate for graduation and then the employees had the option of buying one.  It will be planted in our yard.

Remember Missy - - Miss Kiss - - - Miss Kitty - - - who went to be with Jesus a couple of months ago?

 

She was sixteen and a half years old.  She had a stroke or something similar.  Today her sister went to join her.

Sissy had been losing weight - - was down to 7 pounds a month ago and down to 6.3 today.  Her kidneys had shrunk to half their normal size and were hard - - obviously in renal failure.  This was one 'unique' cat - - - quite the loner.  She belonged to our married daughter - - - spent all her time in Amanda's room - - - even after Amanda moved out two and a half years ago.  Sissy enjoyed 'one-on-one' time with people but wanted nothing to do with other cats.  That was her personality.  Love accepts people and pets as they are - right?  Please don't feel badly for us.  Both cats were rescue pets from the same litter whose mom had been killed.  They lived a good life - - - a lot longer than if they had been in the wild.

And speaking of wild - - - it's starting to get that way at work as we get ready for the summer reading program.  If you want to look at pictures, you can go to the link at www.libraryfbc.blogspot.com.   We will update it weekly.  We anticipate at least 500 children joining us this summer!

Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.  Leviticus 26:4

 

 

Mother's Day

When one of your daughters asks what you want for Mother's Day, it's okay to tell them.  I said I wanted a corsage.  Thanks, Mildred, for reminding me that this is a great day to wear one.  Remember when families wore a flower on Mother's Day?  Some would cut them out of the yard on the way to church.  I loved mine.  It made me feel special all day - - - just like I was supposed to cuz it was a day to celebrate me and the gifts God has given us - - our precious daughters.

Our younger daughter gave me the pendants below.  She is the one who makes jewelry and knows I love these to wear individually on my silver necklace.  She is great at picking colors and styles for me, too.

My sweetie-pie husband remembered that I wanted a radio/CD player.  This one is also an alarm clock.  It's only about 10 by 6 inches in size and less than 2 inches deep.  It's fun how much technology can fit in a small space.  The best part is he programmed it for me because I obviously wasn't understanding the simple directions.

And I usually don't talk about material things but wanted to share how my loved ones blessed me with items they knew would make me happy.

Another gift today was the gift of sharing lunch with friends and family.  We were invited to Mamaw's again.  She is our son-in-law's grandmother.  His parents and sister's family were there, too.   It was delicious as usual but just being with them is the best part of the meal.

And you know the expression - - - look what the cat drug in?  Well, Kit Kat

found a playmate and brought it up onto our screened-in deck.  I know it's probably part-rodent but we didn't want to see the cat kill a cute little chipmunk.  It was definitely doing its best to avoid that fate, too.  So we distracted Kit-Kat and showed  Chip 'n' Dale's cousin the way back into the woods.

 - - - and whether you are a mom or just the child of one, I pray you have had a wonderful day of celebration on this beautiful Sunday!

Every wise woman buildeth her house  Proverbs 14:1a

Libary Meeting

 

On this blog of mine, I was going to tell you about our library meeting at church this week.  Since I already posted about it on our library blog, I will link  you there because it doesn't make sense to write about it twice.

www.libraryfbc.blogspot.com

  . . . . of making many books there is no end . . . . Ecclesiastes 12:12b

Tornado Damage

I am giving you links to two other blogs.  The first one is Mary Helen's.  It is mostly pictures.  She was on one of the work crews that went out from our church.    The second is the Munck's Family.  She wrote about what it was like here in Cleveland on Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

http://bigmikemh.blogspot.com/2011/04/tornado-damage.html

http://muncksquiver.blogspot.com/2011/04/devastation-in-south.html

Our family was one of the more fortunate ones.  Although there were trees through roofs and across roads just barely over a mile from us, we had only sticks and leaves on our property.  We lost power for only six hours.

The stories that have been reported are amazing.  One couple in their seventies heard the storm and ran to the basement.  They had just reached the bottom step when they looked up to see their entire house gone.  Their view was of the sky.

Some are humorous - - - like a friend who said they had 24 rolls of someone's toilet paper in a tree in their yard.

This link gives the number of homes destroyed as well as the current status in our county.

http://www.wrcbtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=14546201

One of the roads they list as closed is Freewill.  It is the area just over a mile from our home.  Remarkably, only nine deaths have been reported thus far.

For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy .  Psalm 61:3

Easter Family Fun

Siblings - - the first time in ten a half years we were all in the same location!

Birth order L to R

Kev = #4; San = #2; Lynn = #1; and Rick = #3

Within the last two months, Rick and wife, Mary,

 moved from downstate GA to be within 20 miles of Sandie.  Kev made an impromptu visit from NY on Friday for the weekend.  So my sweet husband and I decided we could drive five hours to join the other three.

We took lots of pictures.

Ate a LOT of food - - excellent barbecue.

 

Equally excellent Mexican lunch at Vera Cruz on Peach Orchard Road in Augusta, GA

 

Took a little time to 'smell the roses'

 

And just generally hung out and had fun together!

 

The four of us could write a book on the many experiences we have had in the last half century.  We started out together, went many different directions geographically, but whenever we are together, we LOVE being with each other because we love each other a lot.

We stayed at my sister's new home.

  It was just a couple of weeks after the anniversary of  when her home burned last year.  The new house is beautiful and spacious inside.

Living within 25 miles are her children and 'Princess' granddaughter (Mom is on the left).  (If you ask the granddaughter what she plans to be when she grows up, she will tell you 'a princess'.)

 

 The princess' dad was not present for this photo but had been there the previous evening.

A couple of friends of the family were there, too.  Here is Melissa.

 

She is an amazing woman who has lived and fought with a serious blood disease for 10+ years.  She is beautiful and vivacious.  We are always delighted that she takes her time to visit with us when we are there - - but she is family to all of us so should be there!!!

Amber is a good friend who helped my sister a LOT with last year's clean-up - - - but the only picture I have of her is the back of her hat!  She is a remarkable young woman, too who has served our country and is now in college.

And I saved the best picture for last - - my sweet husband 

 who drove 600 miles round trip - - - the worst part of it all was the horrendous traffic in Atlanta!!!  We hits delays on the way down and then the HOV exit to 75 was CLOSED - - found that out at the last minute and could not merge over 4 lanes in a mile so detoured around until we could get back on 75 - - but Praise God - - - we arrived home safely.

Today was a wonderful Easter celebration worship service at our church - - - followed by an amazing dinner at my son-in-law's parents & grandmother's home.  I've said it before but it bears repeating that we are honored and blessed to be including in their loving families' celebrations!!!  They are wonderful people and have become precious friends.

He is not here: for he is risen , as he said . Come , see the place where the Lord lay .  Matthew 28:6

Show Time!

This cute donkey was part of our Easter Musical Celebration at our First Baptist Church this weekend.  It was the only live animal.  He walked through our sanctuary with the young man who was portraying Jesus - - and then walked out.  Here he is calmly waiting to make his grand entrance.  He was such a calm animal. 

 

As you can see, there was a great turnout for this Easter Celebration Event.  The cars in the background represent only about 1/3 of our parking lot.  The sanctuary seats about 1,400 people.  We were almost 100 percent full Friday and Saturday evening.  Tonight there was an overflow crowd.

 

The music was phenomenal.  We have an orchestra and band so all the music is live.  Did I mention it was phenomenal and definitely gave our Lord glory and honor!

 

  

Last Sunday afternoon, our younger daughter and I went to see My Fair Lady at Lee University.  They have two productions each school year and if you live in the area, they are well worth the price of the tickets.  The music and costuming this year were exceptional!  Amanda and I enjoyed ourselves immensely since this has always been one of our favorite shows.  What is one of your favorite musicals?

And there's more I could write about this week but I have taken half a Benadryl and it's helped me fight the heavy pollen in the air - - but it has also made me very sleepy.

O come , let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!