Pathways of Life...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Freedom is NOT Free....God help America

If you love our wonderful country, your freedom and God's Blessings, would
you be so kind...take a moment and do a favor to SUPPORT our awesome
Soldiers and their families for the sacrifice that THEY give daily for OUR
awesome nation and freedom.

Our Nations economics are also very, very hard for the families of our Service Men and Women---their CHILDREN and families need us and this is something very simple that we CAN do.

CUT out COUPONS from your daily newspapers and especially your SUNDAY newspaper, magazines and whatever....where ever... and MAIL them in an envelope to:

Betty Carey-coupons

Ft. Hood Commissary #1

50,001 Clearcreek, Ft. Hood, Texas 76544

This lady realized the great need for this ministry for the children of our soldiers. These coupons are seldom used and yet so vastly needed AND APPRECIATED by the families back home.

I was absolutely astounded to find 62 coupons in only 2 portions of our local Sunday newspaper last week. All it takes is about 20 minutes and the price of a stamp. Please do what you can to show your appreciation and support..and bless the lives of those who serve our nation daily. Share this information with others and encourage them to do the same.

Be safe. Be blessed. Be Grateful for our freedom and nation. We are still the best...thanks to many thousands who gave their all...for the last 233 years----have died (or were/are crippled... physically or mentally)...for you and me.







Sunday, March 22, 2009

SNICKERS' gone...thanks for funny comments

Ha ha...thank each of you that commented...some complimented and some identified...hahaha & Blessings to all. Snicker not......haha

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Special Gifts....a blessing or a curse???













How do you eat a Snicker.....
Oh my, let me Count Thee ways!!!

Yesterday evening I was taken back to my childhood days of when I was about 8 or 9 years old, about 1948 or 9. Wow, so long ago and I remember SO well. My older brother David was in high school and was utterly 'thrilled to pieces' that he was lucky enough to 'get a job' as a Bell Hop (or usher) after school each day....at the Ritziest Movie Theatre in our fair city.

This was REALLY awesome luck for that period of time since World War II was just over and all the soldiers were all coming back home to the USA and everybody needed jobs....and as OUR NATIONS HEROS...they got most of the jobs that were available---not a kid in high school. So, David, KNEW how blessed that he was to have been chosen for his job and to get to wear a maroon 'monkey suit'...trimmed in beautiful gold braid ropes and gold brass buttons across the front of the suit....the frosting on the cake....was his little round PILL BOX maroon and gold hat...with a gold braid chin strap!! ha ha He was

very tall and handsome and picture perfect for the period time---celebration of life!

His purpose for the job: simple---to buy a car to drive from our ranch in the country to the city and school. With his very first pay check he bought a 'weathered looking little old Chevy Coupe' from an elderly couple. Thrilled beyond words...he came home...drove it into our FRONT yard...which I had never seen anyone do that before. Beneath the giant live oak trees, with greatest pains he 'wrapped the windows of his little car in old newspaper and began PAINTING!.......... 'WATERMELON' green....not dark...but bright, rich GREEN! To him, green meant prosperity! It took a day or so for the car to dry...but it was truly beautiful....that is AFTER all the old newspaper and tape was removed! That was the joy for me as a little sister to see 'the success and pleasure' of my brother with a really good job and still in high school. Wow!

Now, the second part of my admiration of his new job. CANDY!! Awesome Chocolate candy. We were not allowed those treats very often on the ranch. But like MAGIC...David who dearly LOVED our Mother...began buying and bringing home...those awesome, yummy, magical....SNICKERS, MILKY WAYS, BABY RUTH AND HERSHEY CANDY BARS!!! They were for her....and her ALONE! It was His gift....and that was His orders. Rightly so. He certainly DID NOT want any of us other kids to have EVEN a smell....of his gifts...certainly no bites!

I was usually a very good kid...or so my Mother told me often as an adult...but geepers, I have to admit that THOSE chocolate candy bars were such a horrible, horrible temptation to my dry mouth after school each day. No, I NEVER opened one of them---but I rolled them, smelled them...once I carried it in my pocket...to the barn...with the intention to sneak it and EAT it...but my guilty conscience got me and I took it back and put RIGHT BACK on the top shelf of the refrigerator where he had placed it. (why can't I have that power today...ha ha)

There were many, many times AFTER that incident that I would come in ....look in the fridge and see that Mom had opened her candy bar and take a bite or two--or, I would quietly and quickly break me off a bite or nibble....and I'd hold that awesome delicious stolen chocolate and peanuts in my mouth for 10 or 15 minutes....savoring the yummy flavors that were never meant for me. Oh, Oh Oh....how sweet it was...how wonderful to have the fobidden...
Momma was renown for CUTTING candy into slices...tiny slices...off of the Snickers or Milkyways and eating to make it last longer. Well, my thought....if I do the same thing....she will just think that SHE ate it herself. I did that for a few times...until one day when she walked in on me slowly cutting my sliver away---and instead of scolding me....she simply took the knife from my hand and sat down at the table and we sliced out the whole giant Snicker bar...and we both laughed and slurped up that yummy chocolate and peanuts in the greatest of Mother and daughter consumption and joy ever known to man.

This became a Special time for us, during those years and for the rest of life of her nearly 100 years. Candy was to be eaten, enjoyed SLOOOOWLY, chilled in the fridge...cut in thin slices, so that it would last longer. It was fun...it was good.

Now, like my mother, today, I, too, am a diabetic in my Senior years and do NOT buy candy, unless it is sugar free....excluding making Christmas fudge of coarse.haha Then yesterday evening my dearly beloved hubby.....has watched me go through some really bad pains for the last week or so and he wanted to do something SPECIAL for me...he loves to surprise me with his little treats. and as you may have already guessed....he came home and put something in the refrigerator and turned to tell me that the EASTER BUNNY had a surprise for me in the fridge.

He KNOWS how hard I try to keep my diabetic blood gluclose readings down and in line...and I am good at staying in line...in fact I have to carry the gluclose tablets with me constantly to stop from going too Low... blood count from dropping to hypoglycemia (which I have had about 4 really bad black out spells and know the dangers of that world.) and I often have mild 'gluclose drops' (lows) every few days or so.... when we don't get to eat on time and I have to take a tablet to stop the weakness and black outs.

Anyway, with his encouragement to OPEN the fridge door to see his surprise...I Did...and THERE in all it's SHINING GLORY AND GRACE....lay an innocent little brown and white SNICKER BAR...with my name on it.
Hallllla lu ia...what joy is greater...unless its an Almond JOY? Wow... Is this a blessing or is this a curse....for the diabetic...over weight, crippled, pained. (ha ha....do we really have to ask)

I am not a little girl in Kansas. I don't have a dog named Toto....but so help me, all I want to do is exactly WHAT I wanted to do when I was a little girl and stole the candy bar and went to the barn then brought it back to the fridge, I WANTED TO GOBBLE IT UP...INSTANTLY VANISHED!!! SNORF, SNORF, SNORF----GONE. HAHAHAHA

Then my mind went quickly back to Momma and me...cutting the tiny slices of the cool refridgerated chocolate peanuts and carmel...eating it really slow and now tonight....sharing it with my hubby in joy of two old idiots making a game out of a simple little candy bar. and.... no, that didn't happen either.

Well---it is now past Midnight....and the first day of SPRING...so what will happen with this meer little SNICKER CANDY BAR. It IS still in the fridge....still fully wrappped.

How long will it take for me to 'stay in control'. I am headed to bed....with visions of sleep...but will I have nightmares of some burly crummy robber coming in the house in the middle of the night with a hatchet or a chainsaw....and attack my little Snicker. Or maybe I will just PRETEND that I have a problem ....and walk in my sleep....straight for the fridge.....grab that brown candy bar and BEGIN GROWLING like a hungry bear and slurp it down in one gulp...never know what the real flavor was.

Or I could leave this computer right now....put the iron skillet on the stove and DEEP FRY it in peanuts and coconuts, sprinkle powdered sugar on for a tad of good looks. Hummm, maybe even a Snicker Salad....Oh lord, I am too tired and my Ambien is kicking in , so I am going to bed and forget that stupid Snicker---Jims sweet gift....a blessing or a curse. Tomorrow is a new day. Momma....Heeelp. (tune in later...maybe...to find the truth---is this neat, well intentioned gift a blessing or a curse)?


























Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Spring Rain and Rainbows of Joys...



HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY.... all ye ole Irishmons, lassies...and lads-----aaah vot a vonderful vay to staart de day!

Wow, isn't God good! Central Texas has not had rain in FOR...EV...ER.... or at least that is the way it has seemed! Now we have had a week of rain....about five inches that brought LIFE and green hillsides, prairies and fields...once again! Greeen, Greeeen, Green---and wow, for the beauty of our wonderful TEXAS Bluebonnets! So perfect. So refreshing!

The birds outside of my window sill are singing at the top of their lungs...eating at a feeder nearby....as my cat lays on my computer table....watching with pleasure and licking his chops...twitching his tail with vigor. (he KNOWS darn well, he's too fat and too slow---so the least that he can do is have 'wishful thoughts'. ha ha

Today, I am humbly grateful ....for a million things...but most emphatically...that I am NOT where I was last week at this time....FLAT of my back in bed with horrific PAIN! Yes, I have been telling everyone that my health has been getting better...that the latest injections and treatment since November have seemingly been working....THEN...zap...bang...bonk...and I have pain so awful that I cannot get out of the bed=== for all of last week. It was BACK to the old grab for ANYTHING to hold on to. just to go to the bathroom. Pain from head to foot...& there were very few of my other 'body parts' that didn't participate in this game of roulette....all of it followed by deepest depression of 'giving up/throwing in the towel ...on the word....hope'....

People, in case you have NOT LIVED long enough to know it....believe me....when you hurt bad enough, long enough.... your hope is gone---there is no FINDING that word. (Yes, God is there to carry you thru...but that by far...does not always take away...or erase the PAIN OR depression from pains (regardless the various types). Physical...is mine--- and I thank God daily that I don't have the added ones of spiritual, mental, relational, financial---altho I guess anybody could use a bit more 'green backs' here and there. lol ha ha

However, sometimes I find that...good and well meaning friends...think they are helping you through the situations of life...but everything they say sometimes just makes it hurt worse. I have a few of these darlings..ha ha........BUT thank God....I also have those that KNOW where I am...and where I am coming from. ha ha (clue: I already know my Bible verses/meaning and I am on the first hand basis, (one to one) with my Father, my creator/savior... but that does not stop my body from screaming with pain. Heaven IS FULL of dead Christians WHO loved, honored, followed and fellowshipped with God prior to their death of pain---the tombstones/cemeteries are good reminders of this fact. Plez--- (so may---be, my suffering is allowed...so that others also can be reminded that compassion/understanding is ALSO part of God's plan for mankind.
So, with that said--(quite bluntly...as the Irish are often known to do---ha ha), I truly am so happy today--- because I am feeling better...and again HOPEFUL... AND then it's also dear old St. Patrick's Day, the awesome Christian Saint that my Irish/English/Scott... Mom adored (& was Baptist ha ha). This day always makes me remember my awesome Memories of joy and blessings of all my wonderful years and life with her! I'm just GLAD my memory is still there. ha ha (parts of that are 'fleeting fast' hahahahaha


But most importantly... I have to say in listing todays GRATITUDES...that....I am soooo very grateful to our daughter and son n law for sharing an awesome weekend in their home.

(I did not FEEL like making a trip to their house originally this weekend...I truly hurt too badly...but I went because of my beloved---he needed the break as well. But naturally..altho going to someone else's house was nice but.. this didn't let my pain go away. Howev er ---I was so beautifully blest to have had an absolutely wonderful time with them--they were tops in the 'hosting' dept. ha ha... and their adopted little daughter from China, is so amusing, entertaining and amazing to just sit and watch....listen to her praddle talk to her babies....toys/dolls. She is awesome in being able to entertain herself...in pure child like innocence. Pure joy to watch God's hand roll and curl around the heart of a little child at play.


It was truly 'frosting on the cake' for us to enjoy going to church with our kids. Their church is so beautiful...both outside....as well as inside.... with the 'heart of the people'...very friendly. And as stated so many times in my blog....I LOVE MUSIC....it is God's touch to my soul....and Sonday's music was all... some of my very FAVORITES... And YA can't beat that! The sermon, like most, hit home....very touching and real! I love that in pastors.

Our daughter was on an 'arts & crafty' (ha) binge...into to re-decorating with thrift store goodies and like our daughter n law....they are SOOOO GOOOD....at finding the cutest darn stuff...for almost nothing. (they, natch....gotta add a few more costly additives here and there...hahaha)

Son n law is so creative and willing to 'do what it takes'....to 'get er done' (ha meant in a good manner here)....and he is turning their garage into an 'organized storage and exercise playroom...with great success. As with all things---and everybody---it all takes time and $$$---but it is always good to see your grown kids succeeding. (it's even BETTER than when your kids are small....and YOU HAVE TO BE part of their succeeding process....yet now in old age...you can just sit back and say....'hooray...that's so neat!!!!) hahahaha lol

I had weekend photos to post but for some reason beyond my knowledge ...after repeatedly trying for over 2 hours....I cannot get them transferred over to the blog like all the other jillion that I have done ...including getting graphics in a mego second. It didn't work today. (the faster that I go...the hinder I get) if you know what I mean. Just not meant to be I guess for this blog.

Well, vith the heart of the Irish jig---- and the kiss of zee ole Blarney Stone, may I bid you each a very Happy dey----- and may all ye troubles be tourned into glorious nuggets of gold and treasures.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Monday, March 9, 2009

SURVIVOR....Texas Style....



I didn't come up with this...but since millions seem to enjoy SURVIVOR each week...including us...I thought this was cute...as long as no one takes it seriously. Laugh and the world laughs with you...cry and we cry alone----so keep laughing....
Due to the popularity of the "Survivor" shows, Texas is planning to do one called,
"Survivor, Texas-Style."

The contestants will all start in Dallas , then drive to Waco , Austin , San Antonio, over to Houston and down to Brownsville .

They will then proceed up to Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Odessa, Lubbock and Amarillo . From there they will go on to Abilene, Fort Worth and finally.....back to Dallas .

The Survivor Challenge:
Each contestant will be driving a pink Volvo with bumper stickers that read:
"I'm Gay,"
"I Love the Dixie Chicks,"
"Boycott Beef,"
"I Voted for Obama,"
"George Strait Sucks,"
"Hillary in 2012"
and "I'm here to confiscate your Guns."

The first one to make it back to Dallas alive, WINS!!!!

(God Bless Texas!)
(NO DUMPING allowed in Texas)
We Texans love you and bid you a peaceful journey, Pardner...Survival comes to the fittest!