Anyone Remember This?

Anyone else out there remember stuff like this from the 1970's & 80's?  I was cleaning out some old boxes of papers I'd collected over the years and ran across this.

God Is Like . . .

God is like Coke - He's the real thing.

God is like Pan Am - He makes the going great.

God is like General Electric - He lights your path.

God is like Hallmark Cards - He cares enough to send the very best.

God is like Tide - He gets the stains out that others leave behind.

God is like VO Hair Spray - He holds through all kinds of weather.

God is like Dial Soap - Aren't you glad you know Him?  Don't you wish everyone did?

God is like Sears - He has everything.

God is like Alka-Seltzer - Try Him, you'll like Him.

God is like Scotch tape - You can't see Him but you know He's there.

- Barnwell (S.C.) People-Sentinel

Being There For A Friend

This past week my best friend's mother died. The funeral was today.  She had Alzheimer's and had been slowly disappearing both mentally and physically.  D showed such love and patience with her mother and had found very good care for her.  They were very close and this will be a difficult loss and yet at the same time it was an answer to my friend's prayer that something would take her mother before the Alzheimer's totally took every shred of who she had once been.  Although she had shrunk to a mere 60 pounds and maybe 4' 8" and had been robbed of most of her memories and abilities, she could still respond to questions and prompts and knew who her children were.  We had just taken her to lunch with us last Tuesday and upon returning to her room she told D that that would probably be the last time as it was just too tiring.  On Friday she slipped into a coma like state and died Saturday morning.  D gave me 40 pictures of her mother from throughout her life which I scanned and made into a slide show for the service today.  It not only gave them a visual reminder of her, but helped them to get past the awful or just plain weird things that this disease made her say and do, and help them remember what she had truly been like.

D and I have known each other since high school (over 40 years now) and although we were always good friends, it has been in the last ten years that we have truly become best friends.  With the children grown and gone we've had more time to get together and our husbands have become best friends as well which makes for a really nice foursome for dinner, or cards or a trip to the beach.  We've also come to value our friendship enough to make allowances or not let little things bother us like they might have when we were younger.

She sometimes feels like she's always the one asking my help (such as the slide show or transportation or .....) and that I'm never needing help in return, but I beg to differ.  She is the one who has been my emotional support these past few years.  She is the one that when the depression was so bad and I almost never left my house, she insisted I go shopping with her so I could help her find what she needed.  The one who can always make me laugh.  The one who invited me to go to TOPS with her when I complained about my weight gain after thyroid surgery.  The own who gently nudges me to go or do or enjoy.  The one I took a 4 week road trip with two summers ago and had a blast.  The one who loves me even with my imperfections.  In short - she is my friend.  I love you D.

Our First Grandchild

Our son and daughter-in-law were blessed in July with a healthy baby girl. Their first child and our first grandchild. She's a petite little thing, weighing in at 5 lbs. 9 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. She has a good set of lungs, is very alert, strong and hungry, hungry, hungry. When she wants to be fed or to have her diaper changed, she wants it now. I had mentioned to them that her daddy had been very demanding as a baby (that hasn't changed). Can we all say payback? She was very active in the womb so we shall see if that continues now that she's out here in the world at large. Hopefully she won't be too much of a handful since I'll be helping to care for her when my daughter-in-law goes back to work. I don't know how soon that will be though - she's really loving the mommy role and 3 months is going by fast. She's thinking of asking her boss if she can use some of her sick time for another couple of weeks off.

My daughter and son-in-law flew out to spend a week visiting with their new little niece and my husband is already wrapped around her little finger. We're all enjoying her very much.

Happy 4th of July

Let freedom ring! We are so blessed to live here. There are a lot of wonderful places in the world, but none with the type of history and freedoms that this country has had. I hope you have a fantastic and safe holiday celebrating our country's independence.

Times Change

Times change and so must we.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Which is true? Are they both true? Is it only our surroundings that change and we stay the same or do we by necessity change in order to adapt to our changing environment?  Is it only the way in which we interact with our surroundings that changes or does our inward, fundamental character change as well?

I believe that both statements are true.  We do have to change and adapt as things around us change. Sometimes those changes can be quick and necessary as in a matter of survival, or sometimes slower because we're resistant to the changes or need time to adjust and change our thinking.  We are born with a particular personality that has both positive and negative aspects to it.  Our environment (parents, siblings, teachers, friends and the world in general) interact with our personality based on their own personalities and bring out the positive or negative in ours.  They help to shape our thinking, our character and how we react to what goes on in our world.

Although our personalty is there for life, how we operate or react is not.  We can choose to accentuate the positive and have the negative take a back seat.  We can change or improve character traits.  We can change how we look at things and how we react to things.  Is it easy?  No, or we would see more people doing it.  Is it impossible?  No, because we do see people doing it.  Basic human nature will always be with us, good and evil will always be with us, but that is not a license to give up or to say change is impossible.

Well, I'm off to see if I can play up the more positive aspects of me and downplay the negative.  Maybe, just maybe, I can turn someday into today. 

Sadie

Well, Sadie has proved once again that she is one lucky dog. Or is it unlucky? The reason I say that is that she seems to have been a bit accident prone over the years, but also comes out none the worse for wear each time. Last week she tangled with a car and came out of it with a couple of scrapes. She was out front with Big Bear while he finished up some work in the yard, saw something (cat) across the street and darted into the street just as a car was going by. She hit the car rather than the car hitting her or it would have been a lot worse. She has a skinned spot under her chin and one on her left leg and was undoubtedly a bit bruised and sore. I took her into the vet and he checked her over, gave me some cream for the scrapes and an anti-inflammatory/pain reliever. $91.50 later we went home and she stayed pretty quiet for the next two days. By the end of the second day she was back to her normal prancing step, jumping up to follow me with no problem at all. Big Bear says she's not going out front with him any more unless I'm out there to watch her.

She turned 11 years old this month and shows no signs of arthritis or any other health problems. She's as nimble and springy as ever and does not seem to show many signs of aging other then gray hair and a little less energy. She has been a little quieter this past year, but that has been due to her missing our other dog and wanting to stay in the house with me. She's been like my shadow since Cody died. He was not quite 7 and became quite ill (vet thinks it might have been cancer). Even before that though he had been having problems with his joints and stiffness. Part of the difference probably lies with their size and breed. Cody was a 100 lb. yellow lab while Sadie is a 50 lb. mixed breed. Her mother was a lab/rottweiler mix and I figure that dad must have been a border collie because she looks and acts a lot more like a border collie then either a lab or a rottweiler. The only thing she seems to have gotten from mom is the big deep bark and the all black color. She's a bit stubborn too, I was able to teach Cody not to go past the curb, but Sadie doesn't always want to adhere to that (obviously). Cody's ball could go rolling into the street and he would stop at the curb and wait for one of us to go get it. :o) Big Bear just loved it because he could wash the car, mow the lawn, etc. and Cody would just follow along dropping the ball at his feet.

Good News

Although the Thanksgiving weekend brought sadness with the loss of a family friend in a boating accident on the Willamette River(and they still haven't found his body) it also brought some good news. Our son and daughter-in-law announced that they are expecting. This will be their first child and our first grandchild. We're very excited and they've asked if I would help care for it when she returns to work. The baby is due in July and she'll have 3 months maternity leave. They live just half a mile from us so I'll get to be the hands on Grandma I've always hoped to be. I hope I'm up to the task energy wise. I was a young mom, but my kids are late having their kids so I'm going to be an older grandma. It's inspired me to start sewing and quilting again. I want to make lots of wonderful clothes and blankets and toys for this new little one. Of course, that means I have to get organized and clear out all the boxes and junk so I can even get into my sewing room to clean it up and do all that sewing.