Thanksgiving smiles and a Miracle

My blog friend, Linda, from Behind My Red Door, has been posting things she is thankful for during this November month of Thanksgiving.

She encouraged us to do the same.

In a way, my Sunday smiles are really just lists of things I am thankful for....
...but in the spirit of thanksgiving I am going to call my smiles

Thanksgiving smiles this month.

Thanks for the idea Linda. Linda is a Grammee L. like me.

She has an amazing prim home and she is a lovely person.

Be sure to hop over to her blog and see the things she is thankful for.

...

I am so thankful for the trip we were able to make to

Arizona a couple of weeks ago.

Let me tell you of the things I am thankful for

and about our miracle.

...

Our trip was full of diverse experiences.

We had delightful visits with young family....

...and with my "not so young" family.
My 88 year old aunt Susy gave me a book of remembrance
while I was there that will help me learn more about my family
and do genealogy work
I am thankful for that.
...
On our trip we visited little houses in the desert Arizona lands....

...And big houses in the mountainous forests.



We saw all sorts of vegetation we are not used to...

...From small cacti

...to large ones.
...
We drove through beautiful rocky hills...

... and though not so pretty flat lands...

...through deserts...

... and forests...

I thought as we were driving how thankful I am for the
beautiful and diverse world that God has created for us.
...
However, we had an experience on this trip that was life changing.
This is what I am most thankful for....
and what I want to share with you today.
...
After we left my Aunt Suzy we were driving on the freeway.
We were in the fast left lane going about 75 miles per hour or a little faster.
There were cars and trucks in the other lanes beside us but we were
by ourselves driving along in the fast lane.

All at once, John saw that we were coming up on the car in front of us too fast.

Then to his total surprise he realized the car was headed straight
towards us...going against the flow of traffic in our direction.

The on coming car did not slow down

or pull over onto the center shoulder of the freeway.

Within the blink of an eye, John swerved our car

and we missed a head on collision and certain death by a split second.

...

In hearing us tell this story, some have said that we were lucky that we

did not crash into another car or truck when John changed lanes so quickly.

..

Some have said we are lucky that John didn't over- correct when he turned the steering wheel so quickly to get out of the way, causing our car to roll over and then be hit by other cars which would have also probably caused a fatal accident.

...

I am here to testify that luck had nothing to do with it.

John and I both know that it was God who protected us that day.

John is a good driver...but not that good!

We believe that angels guided John's hands

in turning our steering wheel

and kept the other cars from hitting us.

...

I know that God lives.

He knows and loves each of us, his children.

I know we are alive today because of this miracle in our behalf.

We were not lucky...we were blessed.

I bear this testimony to you with a thankful heart.

...

I hope you have a week full of blessings.

A week full of sweet birthday love

Happy Birthday Dear Emma

Today is my son's oldest daughter's 10th birthday.

She is a precious girl.

I can't be with her today but I am going to cyber- sing her this song...

I love you Emma

Oh yes I do....

I love you Emma...
And your family too...

When I'm not with you...

I'm blue...

Sweet Emma...

I LOVE YOU!!!
Yes I do!

I wish that I could be there to watch her open her gifts...
...and have some birthday cake...

Well...maybe it is a good thing that I'm not there to have cake.
With 3 other birthdays in the past week...

I have had more than my share of cake.
...
Let me tell you about our birthday bashes last week.

Friday the 22 was our Mindy's birthday.
She had to attend a seminar for speech therapists at work that day
so I snuck over to her house to set up a birthday surprise
for her to find when she got home.

Ernie had to be with his band at the football game that night
so we went back that evening with dinner...and...

We enjoyed birthday cake #1
(Actually it was cake #2 because Ernie's mom's birthday was the week before...
...but who is counting????)

That night the kids came home with us to spend the weekend.

We spent Saturday at Knott's to celebrate EJ's and Claire's birthdays...

and had a fun spooky time there.

Sunday the 24th was EJ's 11 birthday.
(We attend church at 9:00 a.m. so I had to get up early to get his
birthday breakfast ready before we left.)
...
That is when we had cake #3.

..But technically that one doesn't count because... it was really cinnamon rolls.

After church Mindy and Ernie game home from their little
get-away and we had birthday dinner #2

And opened gifts....

Among other things, EJ got what he wanted most...

A little hamster. (Oh joy!)

Then we had birthday cake # 4
(Or 3 or 2 depending on how you are counting.)
...
Which brings us up to ...

Cake # 5
(or what ever???)

Because Claire's birthday was the 31st on Halloween.

Which means that after opening gifts.....
We put on costumes and got ready to trick-or-treat.
Mindy and Ernie had bowls full of yummy candy to give to little spooks.
....but...
I will have to post about Halloween at another time...
I am getting light headed from a sugar high.
...
So, maybe it is a good thing that I am not there to have cake with my dear Emma today....

but I am sending her lots and lots of birthday love.

I am not smiling

I hope that you have had a

Happy Halloween

Today is Claire's birthday.
We have had a lovely day together.
In fact with 3 birthdays this week....we have had a great time all week.
...
I just spent the last 2 hours uploading pictures to share with you.
My newly fixed computer will only let me upload 2 at a time.
But I was determined and persisted until they were all in my post.
Then...as I went to publish it.... everything disappeared....
gone....poof????
I HATE THIS TOSHIBA COMPUTER!!!!
It is too late to start over.
I will probably try again tomorrow.
Please check in with me again soon....maybe I can get it to work.
Until then, I am not smiling but I send you my best wishes.

I'm almost back with smiles and woes

Dear Blog Friends

I finally got my computer back...
I thought I was back in blogland business...

but I was wrong!!!!

For some reason each time I click on ANYTHING

I get told

Internet Explorer cannot display this page.

I am going nuts!

I have only been able to visit 2 of your blogs today...
It took me 3 hours to download these few pictures...

I can't read my email.

WHY????

I have no idea..... do you?
...

Meanwhile these are the happy things that I've been smiling about.

Last Friday my sweet Mindy celebrated her birthday.
This wonderful daughter is such a joy to me.
No mother ever had a dearer daughter..

Yesterday her son, our grandson, E.J. turned 11.

We have had so much birthday fun this past weekend.
...
Two weeks ago we went on another cruise.

This is one of the lovely perks of being travel agents.

We had a lovely time on this beautiful ship.

I will show you more of the Mariner of the Seas
in a future post.
...
Last week we visited family in Arizona

It was so nice to visit with my 88 year old Aunt Susy
and my cousins, Randy and David (Dave is not pictured)
and Linda

Linda got lung cancer earlier this year.

She is a cancer survivor. What a blessing!
...
We also got to visit my nephew, Jim and his sweet family.

I want to share a lot more with you when my computer is behaving better.
I hope that I will be able to visit all of you soon.
These computer problems are so maddening.
I think of you often and really miss visiting with you.
It is so frustrating.
I send love.

Wednesday's woes and wisdom

Dear Blog Friends,

Here are my Wednesday Woes.....I STILL AM LAP TOPLESS!!!

As I mentioned in my last post, my brand new laptop crashed.

We took it to the computer hospital last week...

It is still there in intensive care.

The hard drive is fried... along with all my pictures and documents.

It can not be repaired until Toshiba mails us the restore disk....which we had to order and pay $25.00.

...

Those are my woes....

Now for my wisdom...

1. Don't buy a Toshiba lap top.

It was recommended to us by 3 different Geek squads at Best Buy as being the most dependable...... WRONG!

2. If you do buy a Toshiba be sure to make restore disks when you first turn it on.

3. Back up all your documents and pictures as soon as you upload them.

I didn't because my lap top was so new I thought I was safe. I intended to do it but thought

I had plenty of time to get around to it.....WRONG!

So, here I am waiting for Toshiba to mail us the restore disks.

John is always on his computer doing business and does not like to share.... so

I am in computer limbo.

I miss all of you. I think of you often and send you mental hugs.

I hope you are all doing well....and I hope I will be back in the world of blogland soon.

Birthday Smiles for Jordan and Gracie and news

I couldn't wait until Sunday to share my smiles this week.

I am full of Happy Birthday smiles

for Jordan and Gracie.

First I will share my smiles....and then I will tell you my news.

...

This week 2 of my grandchildren had birthdays.

Our Jordan turned 22 last Tuesday on Sept. 28th.

How I love this dear young man who was the first to make me a Grammy...

When we are visiting him, he never leaves the house without giving me a hug and telling me that he loves me. He is great with his cousins and siblings.

Jordan makes me smile.

...and...

Our little pixie Gracie Lynn turned 8 today.

I could not be with either of them... but I am sending them lots of love.

Gracie I have your confirmation dress all finished except for
some of the hand work.

I will get it done tomorrow. That makes me smile.
I did not mail it to you since you are coming here to be baptised and confirmed.

I can't wait to give it to you.
It was made with love for this special 8th birthday.
...

Here are some pictures of Jordan, Gracie and the rest of us at Snake River this past July.

Our son David, Gracie's dad, wanted me to send these pictures to them.

But maybe I shouldn't do it.
They may not let her come again after they see them.

This was Gracie's first time on the river....

She was really brave....and loved it....

...in spite of being such a wee one.

The most amazing thing that Gracie, Loni, Johnny, Jalen and E.J. did was

jumping off of a 30 foot cliff into the icy waters.

Climbing up to the cliff was a major accomplishment by itself.

Just thinking about jumping nearly gave me a heart attack .

Gracie really wanted to jump when she saw her cousins do it the day before.

She called home and got her dad's permission to do so.

(I had said no...I tell everyone NO! It scares me to death.)

Even though Gracie really wanted to do it,

she got scared when she got up there and saw how high it was.
Loni jumped in first to show her how to do it... but Grace was still afraid...
...but with lots of encouragement...
...and...
since there was no other way to get down ...

Gracie jumped!

What a brave little trooper you are Gracie Girl !

You were full of smiles after your jump and so were all of us.

Happy Birthday Dear.

I hope that you had a wonderful day.

Grampy and I love you very much.

...

These are my smiles for this week.

I hope that you have many smiles too.

...

Now for the NEWS!

I had planned on putting on a new post....instead of this p.s.

but I can't because...

MY BRAND NEW COMPUTER DIED!

Yes, that is right.

I got out my new lap top yesterday to read your blogs and do a post..

AND MY COMPUTER WOULD NOT BOOT UP.

##!!**///*ZIP!## NADA!!**##//

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

I had not backed up all the pictures because it was so new.

(John says I should know better.)

Well anyway...It is fatally ill and in the hospital for up to 2 weeks.

So I am back to borrowing use on a computer

or being computerless.

...

That is my bad news.... Now for the good news...

...

It is conference weekend.

Twice year the leaders of our church speak to us in

General Conference.

With Direct TV it is on channel 374.

I don't know about the other carriers but you can

click Here to find conference in your area or get it on your computer.

I hope that you will take a look and see for yourselves.

The talks are wonderfully inspiring.

They up lift and edify no matter what your religious beliefs.

...

I am sending hugs.... I will be back as soon as I can.

I will miss you until then.