I love it when I see my friends get excited about having a grandchild. And usually I’m a little sad because we don’t have any but now…..I’m not!
We celebrated with sparklers.
The Great Gatsby opened not long ago, filled with fabulous fashions and jewels. Can you imagine being invited to a party where you would be decked out in pearls and shiny clothing?
My grandparents were married in 1928. I don’t have photos of them but I do know they didn’t live the fancy life. Grandma was probably married in a simple dress and not a many pearls, if any would have adorned her neck. While the flapper era seemed exciting I imagine only a few lived the fancy party life with excessive partying.
My grandmother on her graduation day in the 20s.
Still the era left its mark, a romantic one.
We were invited to attend a 1920s themed wedding and asked to dress in the era if possible. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding at a botanical garden. Many of the guests wore something that would bring to mind that era. It wasn’t over done or costume party style–it was what my grandparents would have done if they’d have had the means. (that means money for those of you to young to know that!)
The thrill of the 20s came at the reception held at the Timothy Demonruen House built in 1906. Walking up the front steps, seeing the doors and woodwork while ragtime plays and you’re transported.
Inside the house there is an expanse of well carved woodwork and mirrored mantels. This historic house is also a bed and breakfast, complete with a claw footed tub.
My husband Ed and I did our part, my poor guy wore a white tie and spats from the party store. The tie was slippery!
My friend and co-author Marty Lintvedt and I wore feathers and beads. Lots of laughter and fun.
Have you been to a themed wedding? What was it like?
Picture this:
I’m sitting in a chair surrounded by people I’ve just met at the (AWSA) Advanced Writers and Speakers Association conference.
Annetta Dellinger, the group leader and Joyologist pulls out a sheet of paper and says, “I’ve been visiting your website and I have some questions.”
While I wait my turn I wonder what she’ll ask, will it be about my quilts, or blended families or maybe she’ll want to know about Mind of Her Own. I start putting words together in my mind on what I’ll say.
It’s my turn. I hope I can get this out without stumbling over the words. Deep breath –I’m ready.
Annetta asks, “Why do you have stringing 26 letters into stories in the header of your blog?”
Brain melts, tongue takes over. “I stole it.”
Someone says, “At least she’s honest.”
I feel the capillaries in my cheeks lighting up like a Roman candle on the 4th of July. Quick recover, you can do this. “It came from a song and it touched me, I did tweak the artists words but the idea is the same. All we have are 26 letters to tell our stories about God.” Whew.
So here is my official statement:
The song is called 26 Letters by Ben Glover
Here’s the chorus:
Chorus:
26 letters is all I got
To tell You how I feel about You
26 letters and you know I’m never ever
Gonna write the perfect paragraph
I try to express
With adjectives of thankfulness
But, I don’t know if I can do it
With 26 letters
See how well it works with writing?
You can read the rest of the words to 26 letters here.
Buy 26 Letters I’m not an affiliate.
How do you handle suprise questions?
Does God speak in a loud voice, show you through action what you want to know, or share His wisdom with you through other people?
I’ve never heard God speak. Not like Moses or the people of Israel or the followers of Christ.
Attending church, Sunday School and reading my bible gives me a lot of information about who God is and who He would like me to be. Through those things I discovered how much God loves me, so much that He sent His only son to die for me. Still even with faith and knowledge I long for a personal message so I search and watch and wait. I spend a lot of time searching for the Cloud Rider in the clouds.
And one day….
while we were driving…..
I stared at the clouds and wondered. “God, I know you are there by faith but can you show me you love me today?”
And this appeared.
Do you see it? You have to look at the middle cloud. There is a heart. There was an even bigger one to the right but while I was staring in wonder it broke apart. For a moment God spoke to me, showing me His love once again in a form I would recognize. Or maybe instead of saying spoke, more like a hug just for me and I wanted to share that with you.
Where do you see or hear God speak?
2 Corinthians 4: 18
Sow we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since wha is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Writer’s often get asked, “What is like to get published?”
I’m not sure what other writer’s say but my answer is something like this:
It is an amazing feeling but the getting there takes a lot of work.
I was hanging out on Missy Tippen’s blog and found the perfect look at what the process of getting published looks like.
Missy sent me to Nathan Bradford’s blog. He has posted The Publishing Process in GIF. It’s a realistic but fun view. Check it out. It will make you smile.
Have you seen the new movie?
We celebrated our 23rd anniversary this weekend by going to one of the newer bistro cinemas. I picked the movie, Gatsby would never have been Ed’s pick. That’s how I know our marriage is doing well. He treats me special.
The bistro is fun, you sit in leather recliners and press a call button and the waitress to brings you yummy edibles. That made Ed happy all he was missing was the remote!
I’ve heard the previous movie starring Robert Redford was amazing but I haven’t seen it so I can’t say.
This version I loved. I won’t give anything away so feel free to read. The costumes made me want to live in the 20s, they used some original Tiffany jewelry l along with pieces from Tiffany’s archives. I love the head-piece and ring! I’ve always been a fan of Art Deco and I wasn’t disappointed in what I saw.
One of the things that intrigued me is how the lavish parties looked like marvelous fun, but instead of cutting away to the next big event (scene) the producers showed the ugly side of those kind of parties, drunken guests who should have left several hours earlier, the litter left behind, and the morning after the party when the Gatsby mansion had to be cleaned.
It made me consider the times I’ve had high expectations of events and stayed a little to long not wanting to leave, afraid I’d miss some kind of excitement. The excitement never comes.
The one thing I know for sure is I have high expectations of heaven and seeing God and I can rest knowing that event will not leave me wanting more. I can only imagine how He can outshine Tiffany’s.
Michelle Shaeffer.com had this amazing ‘to do’ board video and I wanted to see if I could make her system work for me.
Michelle has a much larger company than I do. My company has 3 employees.
Me and
Oliver and Wendell.
So I have this ‘to do’ board but instead of ‘doing’ those things I made a video. I think my hand gets in the way once, sorry about that! If you don’t have time to watch most of what I said about post it notes and washi tape organization is below the video.
I could have made a huge board with all the daily chores that need to be done around the house but honestly that was too depressing! So I thought this board would work better for my office chores.
I have two Ikea bookshelves –full of course and one of the sides is close to my desk. Perfect place to do my board. Michelle uses white board but this was handy and free.
I bought some fun tape at Target in the scrapbook aisle. There were a lot of choices but I went with something tame.
I probably should have used something to make sure the lines were level but that’s not my style. I did measure to make sure there would be room for the post it notes.
I kept it manageable for me. My columns can be changed by removing the top post it. I have 5 ‘to do’ lists that I can easily keep track of. One thing I loved about Michelle’s idea was the horizontal line at the end of her boards to keep track of what’s been accomplished. I like to see what I’ve finished by the end of the week.
Right now my columns are:
A Time to Dance—rewrite for ebook
Numbers—where I’m keeping track of an ad I placed and how it effects the amazon ranks
L&L –another book I’m working on
Blogs-where I keep ideas or where I need to write a post for someone else
Social-media—what tweets, fB, google+ I want to focus on for the week
Critiques and Reviews—I need to know where I stand in the stack of books I have to review and what needs to be sent back to my critique partner.
Here’s a link to Michelle Shaeffer’s video on using a white board with post it notes.
How do you make your to do lists? Please share!
It took me awhile to realize this was a sequel to Short-Straw Bride which I loved (see my review here).
Crockett Archer is on the adventure of his life, he’s all packed, sermon notes are ready all he has to do is ride the train all the way to Piney Woods of Texas. This is what God’s been preparing him for all his life. Then the train is stopped by outlaws and all they want is a preacher! Surely this wasn’t in God’s plan.
Joanna Robbins has requested a preacher for her birthday, she’s worn out from trying follow her mother’s dying wish—turn her father into a Christian. She didn’t expect him to deliver her present tethered to a horse.
I enjoyed reading the escapades of Crockett trying to win over Joanna’s father by showing him who Jesus is though his actions. There’s some delightful ‘girl shenanigans’ as well as one of the single women in the church decides she’d make a dandy preacher’s wife.
Watching Joanna–maybe I should say reading– falling in love with Crockett but at the same time trying to let him focus on his reason for being at the ranch was touching. She
It’s a fast paced read and many layers of problems that made me wonder how they could be resolved in a way that would leave me happy. Wittemeyer came through with this book. Another winner and yet I’m wondering about golden hair Holly who clearly needs a husband and has no idea how to find one. Could she be the star in the next book?
Gee I think I need more sleep! Thanks Karen Wittemeyer for writing such a good book to keep me company last night.
Link to purchase Stealing the Preacher
Link to read about Karen Wittemeyer.
Many people swallow statin drugs daily and physically fine.
For some of us those statins wreak havoc on our bodies. They aren’t safe.
Remember the posts I wrote about Zumba and Essentrics?
I started those classes about the same time I began taking Pravistatin. I thought the working out was causing my muscles to ache. I asked others in the class if they were hurting too. They were sore but not as much, they were also a lot younger.
In Feburary, I still hurt but it was worth the pain since I was getting in shape. One day in class my trainer said my hands and arms were purple and my face was white–not to mention I had trouble breathing. She told me not to return to class until I saw a doctor.
This is my story of Pravastatin.
Pravastatin was my last hope of taking something to reduce my cholesterol.
It did just that, knocked that number way down. While doing its job of cleaning plaque from my veins it also did this:
Killed my will to move, I slept 14-18 hours a day.
Breathing was difficult. I needed to use an inhaler and I don’t have asthma.
Any kind of exertion and my blood pressure would plummet and I’d almost pass out.
Then there was the short-term memory loss. If I were 80, my family would have put me in assisted living. Yes, it was that bad.
I was sent to a cardiologist for a stress test and an ultra sound of my heart. He thought there was a chance I had pulmonary hypertension. Thankfully, that was ruled out.
My symptoms continued.
I was miserable. Cleaning, talking on the phone, even responding to email was a struggle.
Dinners became sandwiches, hot dogs and take out. I felt like the Five at 5 cast on Fox had become my best friends, along with Paula Dean, Rachael Rae and Giada.
While waiting for the next appointment which was still several weeks away, my husband heard a doctor on a morning talk show discussing the side effects of cholesterol medications. Ed said it was as if the doctor knew me. I had all of those things going on. I stopped taking it.
In one week I could feel a difference. The clouds in my mind were beginning to part and my memory improved. It’s been four weeks since I’ve quit and I’m almost back to normal. My arms still hurt and my energy level isn’t where it was but it’s getting there.
Why am I telling you all of this? I hoped you might have missed my posts, tweets and facebook updates. 🙂
I wanted this written in hopes of helping someone else going through this as well as to re-read before I consider taking such a drug again.
I’d also like to ask you for prayers as you can imagine the things left undone the past 4 months have piled to scary heights. It’s overwhelming what needs to be cleaned, washed, and written.
Have you had an experience like this with a statin drug? Please share.
My friend sent me this video on statins http://vimeo.com/65517435 it’s an hour long but very informative.
*it seems the video is no longer available 🙁