2 May 2008 ~~~ LIFE'S SWEETEST MOMENTS:
Thankfully, there have been many moments in my life when my heart had no room for anything other than pure joy ... moments of being overcome by awe, when all else in the world was shut out and I felt as close to Heaven as I could get with my feet still planted on the earth.
1. The moment Jesus entered my life and my heart, there were no doubts, no fears, and no questions. My life was all brand new! ... 2. Holding my newborn sons in my arms for the first time, I paid such close attention to every little movement to make sure I remembered each one forever. ... 3. After finally being diagnosed and treated for clinical depression, the heavy shroud I had lived under was finally lifted and I rose to find a whole new world worth living in. ... 4. I was so thrilled when my boys, Andy and Joe, graduated from high school, but more so it was the decent, hard-working, Godly men they had grown into. ... 5. After Joey was born, God promised me that, someday, I'd know what it was like to have a daughter; He promised me a daughter-in-law and a granddaughter. I questioned that for many years but, the evening Andy betrothed Melissa, I realized I was about to become a mom again, to a grown-up daughter! Nothing is more awesome than seeing God's promises being fulfilled right in front of your eyes! ... 6. Andy and Melissa's wedding was the most beautiful I had ever seen. At their reception, their first dance was to "Everything I Do, I Do It For You", and I knew they meant it. ... 7. Sighting the Sacré Couer from a train window was my first assurance that we had indeed arrived in Paris, France; then, a day or so later, my dream came true, finally reaching the top of the Eiffel Tower. ... 8. An extra-special poem Melissa gave me told me the baby she was carrying was confirmed to be a girl, something almost unheard of in our family. Again, even as I questioned God, He proved Himself faithful in His promise of a granddaughter. ... 9. Every note was angelic as lullaby chimes over a hospital PA system announced the birth of my first grandchild, Lily. ... 10. I had waited 45 years to see the aurora borealis, and my first sighting of it took me completely by surprise! And it was even a not-so-common red and blue one! ... 11. After almost 24 years of marriage, my husband knelt and proposed to me as we gazed at the neverending flow of water at the very edge of Niagara Falls. 12. Rocking my newborn grandson, Liam, the feeling compared to rocking my own baby sons. ... And all these precious moments made way for another one last night. 13. It was National Day Of Prayer and our family gathered at church for a special worship and prayer service. Amid so many of my dearest Christian friends, many of whom I hadn't seen in quite some time, Joe was at the piano, my dear mother-in-law was by my side, and Andy's beautiful family was seated right behind me. The music was so sweet and the Spirit of God flowed among His people. The sermon was delivered by one of the finest pastors I ever had, and left me hungering for more time in prayer, away from all the distractions that have too often left me with little time for more than a quick moment of meditation here and there. My little granddaughter came and sat with me for a time; being three years old her attention wanders easily and I was all too happy to have her come sit by me. After the sermon we rose to sing "Open My Eyes That I May See" and that's when it happened ... I held her in my arms and she cuddled close and sang right along! Then, singing together, she put her arms around my neck with the sweetest smile I've ever seen in my life. There's just nothing quite like a little child singing about God, and I'll hold that blessed moment in my heart forever.

3 January 2008 ~~~ TO-DO LIST FOR 2008:
1. welcome my new grandson in about two weeks ... 2. go to Montana to visit my sister ... 3. make a serious effort to see the Northern Lights one more time ... 4. go to Philadelphia with my son to get a cheesesteak ... 5. improve my Braille skills ... 6. work and play more with my dog ... 7. organize my 10,000+ digital pictures ... 8. organize my house, including kitchen and pantry ... 9. repaint and retile bathrooms ... 10. finish writing my book ... 11. travel to someplace I've never been before ... 12. lose one pound a month ... 13. scan as many photos as possible and convert them to digital.

18 October 2007 ~~~ HEAVENLY DAYS: Call it Heaven, the New Earth, the hereafter, or wherever else your faith takes you, but here are a few attributes of this eternal glory awaiting those whose hearts belong to Jesus Christ: 1. roses won't have thorns ... 2. there'll be more trees than even I can imagine ... 3. it'll be cool and crisp and clean ... 4. there'll be many brand new colors we've never seen or imagined before ... 5. chocolate won't have calories; in fact, nothing will ... 6. animals will roam free among us ... 7. we won't have to wonder anymore what the animals have been thinking ... 8. there'll only be one language, if one is even needed at all ... 9. this language will contain no swear words; yippee! ... 10. there'll be no such thing as time ... 11. no allergies or hiccups ... 12. there'll be music unlike anything we've ever heard ... 13. we'll finally understand how incredibly complex God really is, and also how simple.

14 June 2007 ~~~ FUNNY THINGS MY GRANDDAUGHTER DOES:
1. butt-scooting (before Lily began to walk or even crawl, she scooted on her butt anywhere she wanted to go; if I could do that I could lose that fifty pounds in nothing flat.) ... 2. gets a boo-boo, kisses it herself, and says "all better" ... 3. instead of cake or dessert, she wants more vegetables ... 4. walks all the way to the kitchen, picks up a dog food kibble, walks back into the living room, feeds it to Sophie, and then repeats the process over and over and over and over ... 5. dips a French Fry in ketchup and eats the other end ... 6. watches Sophie catch soap bubbles in her mouth and tries to catch them the same way ... 7. goes to the car wash, cries when she's in it, and then wants to go again ... 8. recites entire Disney movies and Wiggles videos ... 9. this little Trekkie is traumatized by a separating or exploding Enterprise ... 10. replicates with Legos the things she's afraid of (like car washes) ... 11. helps with laundry by using the loo as a washing machine ... 12. if she's into mischief and Mommy comes in, she waves and says, "Bye bye, Mommy" ... 13. makes it "snow" in the house if someone leaves the sugar out and she gets hold of it.

31 May 2007 ~~~ THINGS I'D LIKE TO LEARN SOMEDAY (thanks, Courtney, for the idea)
1. good housekeeping ... 2. speed-reading ... 3. manicuring ... 4. Microsoft Excel ... 5. geocaching and letterboxing ... 6. constellations ... 7. Spanish, French, and Italian ... 8. canine freestyle ... 9. Scottish highland dancing and games ... 10. "computer-ese" ... 11. veterinary care ... 12. piano ... 13. tin whistle

24 May 2007 ~~~ WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT AN ARIZONA SUMMER?
In a conscious effort to make the best out of the worst, here are a few good things about summertime in Phoenix: 1. sweet corn at roadside stands, fabulous! ... 2. cherry season too, yummy ... 3. our trees bear the most wonderful peaches ... 4. our garden produces bumper crops of zucchini which means only one thing, zucchini bread ... 5. being forced to stay inside, I get more done around the house ... 6. I don't have to worry about overchilling Sophie when I give her a bath at 11pm ... 7. genuine appreciation for any chance to get out of town ... 8. in an effort not to heat up the kitchen, we get a lot more outdoor BBQ cooking ... 9. desert monsoons, so beautiful and so welcome ... (Aug 1 ... What in the world was I thinking??!! Being in the middle of monsoon season, which does nothing to cool the valley down but hikes up the humidity to unbearable, I find absolutely nothing good about it!) ... 10. Sophie gets to play in her pool ... 11. paint dries faster ... 12. mail carriers like to start out very early to avoid the afternoon heat so we get our mail earlier in the day ... (come on, Wendy, one more, you can do it) ... 13. orange blossoms, such a wonderful scent, even though it only lasts a few weeks in early summer.

19 April 2007 ~~~ PET PEEVES
1. hearing God's name used in vain ... 2. people who try to fix things that aren't broken ... 3. irresponsible pet owners/stray dogs ... 4. jealousy ... 5. greed ... 6. anything to do with the sun or summer ... 7. presumptive people who don't listen ... 8. disrespect of people, especially children and elderly ... 9. my own defective brain function ... 10. people who overprotect me ... 11. loud rap, acid rock, or other excessive "musical" noise ... 12. people who think the laws are made for somebody else ... 13. unruly children and their parents who allow them to be that way. (easy to see I live in a big city, right?)

8 March 2007 ~~~ [REALISTIC] THINGS I'D LIKE TO DO/SEE BEFORE I DIE
1. Aurora Borealis again ... 2. Aurora Australis ... 3. Swiss Alps ... 4. Coastal Maine ... 5. North Pole ... 6. Autumn in New England ... 7. Mt. Airy, NC for Mayberry Days ... 8. Titanic relics exhibit ... 9. London, England ... 10. Mini-Europe in Brussels ... 11. Go to Scotland and find out more about Lord Fergus McCubbin (16G grandfather) ... 12. Travel cross-country with Mike ... 13. Finish writing current novel.

1 March 2007 ~~~ FAVORITE COMIC STRIPS
1. Pickles ... 2. Drabble ... 3. Frank & Ernest ... 4. Nancy ... 5. Born Loser ... 6. BC ... 7. Crabby Road (Maxine) ... 8. That's Life ... 9. Moderately Confused ... 10. Off the Mark ... 11. Reality Check ... 12. Speed Bump ... 13. Strange Brew.

22 February 2007 ~~~ TV TIME
1. MASH ... 2. Becker ... 3. Andy Griffith Show ... 4. Law & Order ... 5. Law & Order SVU ... 6. Crossing Jordan ... 7. Las Vegas ... 8. Little House On the Prairie ... 9. Dragnet ... 10. Dick Van Dyke Show ... 11. Animal Planet, Most Extreme ... 12. Happy Days ... 13. Gilligan's Island.

15 February 2007 ~~~ FAVORITE ANDREA BOCELLI SONGS
1. Sogno ... 2. Tu Ci Sei ... 3. Sempre O Mai ... 4. Non Servono Parole ... 5. Un Nuovo Giorno ... 6. Romanza ... 7. Sin Tu Amor ... 8. Sempre Sempre ... 9. Mille Luna, Mille Onde ... 10. Il Mare Calmo Della Sera ... 11. L'Attesa ... 12. Il Mistero Dell'Amore ... 13. L'Abitudine.

8 February 2007 ~~~ FAVORITE SINGERS OR GROUPS
1. Andrea Bocelli ... 2. Irish Rovers ... 3. Andrea Bocelli ... 4. Statler Brothers ... 5. Andrea Bocelli ... 6. George Strait ... 7. Andrea Bocelli ... 8. The Beatles ... 9. The Ventures ... 10. ABBA ... 12. Nelson Eddy ... 13. Andrea Bocelli.

1 February 2007 ~~~ CANDY COUNTER FAVORITES:
1. Snickers ... 2. Twix Caramel ... 3. Kit Kat ... 4. Hershey Almond ... 5. Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ... 6. Payday ... 7. Take 5 ... 8. Snickers Almond ... 9. Gummi Bears ... 10. Caramello ... 11. M&M's plain ... 12. Milky Way ... 13. Skittles.
25 January 2007 ~~~ FAVORITE MOVIES:
(in alphabetical order)
1. A League Of Their Own ... 2. Back To The Future I, II, & III ... 3. Charlotte's Web ... 4. Flight Of The Navigator ... 5. Jesus ... 6. The Lakehouse ... 7. Men In Black I & II ... 8. National Treasure ... 9. Naughty Marietta ... 10. Pure Country ... 11. Space Camp ... 12. Titanic ... 13. While You Were Sleeping.

18 January 2007 ~~~ FAVORITE BEANIE BABIES:
1. Leaves the autumn bear ... 2. Grandma & Grandpa bears (set) ... 3. Twitch the guinea pig ... 4. Bushy the lion ... 5. Charlie the monkey ... 6. Zoomer the monkey ... 7. Nami the rhinoceros ... 8. Lollipup the white dog ... 9. Spotters the leopard cub ... 10. Minxy the bunny ... 11. Serenity the dove ... 12. Carnation the kitty ... 13. Hairy the tarantula.

How I Spent The Evening Of Andrea Bocelli's Birthday

The purpose of this blog entry is to prove conclusively that, just because you can read a recipe and follow it to the letter, doesn't mean you can cook.
After serving an Italian chicken dinner late in the afternoon in commemoration of Andrea Bocelli's 49th birthday, I gathered all my cookware, mixing bowls, utensils, and ingredients for my first attempt at building cannoli. Working nicely through my defective eyesight, I let the bread maker do the messy work at mixing the dough, only to read later that the beaten egg is supposed to be brushed on the outside of the pastry before frying, not mixed into the dough. The oil was already hot and I figured it couldn't hurt to at least try to see if it would work anyway. It didn't. No problem; I just rebuilt the dough according to the recipe, minus the egg, and while that was mixing I chopped the chocolate chips and some maraschino cherries to put in with the ricotta cheese mixture. Then I dumped the new dough out of the bread machine onto the counter, wondering what in the world I was going to do with all those crumbs. Hey, the recipe said press them together so that's what I did. I came up with ONE usable pastry so, very carefully, I slipped it into the hot oil. By that time, it was unwise to continue working in dim light so I turned the overheads on; I don't know what was worse, the pain and glare from the lights or the horrible mess I was making with the oil. The pastry came out looking like a shortbread cookie that met up with a steam roller ... pretty pathetic it was. The rest of the dough was deemed hopeless after I tried once more to make another one before the oil started smoking and spilling out onto the burner causing a moment of panic as flames began shooting up from the side of the pan. Even Signor Bocelli would agree it might have been a nice thought but it was time to quit, especially with the smoke alarm drowning out a half a CD of his music. All is quiet now, except the dishwasher graciously cleaning up half the mess I made. When it's finished, I have another load ready for it to start all over again. And what about the greasy mess? Guess that's why God invented Dawn dishwashing liquid. Next year I'll get my cannoli at Carraba's.

Rhinoceros Revisited

On Monday when Mike and I drove Mom down to Tucson to get her taxes done, we picked up Andy and Lily on the way and made a day of it at the Reid Park Zoo. Showing up with a service dog, I had a chance to talk to one of the park supervisors to receive instructions on where not to go with Sophie. Just out of curiosity, I asked about the rhinos and how long they've been there. He said the two of them arrived in 1978! The rhinoceros whose feelings I hurt was the same one I apologized to, and was the same one who I got to talk to this time. The weather was heating up so it was no surprise that they didn't care to leave their cool mud bath but, when I began talking to them, their ears were moving in circles as they took it all in. With no one else around to call the men in the little white coats to take away that crazy woman who talks to animals, I reassured them that they're two of the most beautiful creatures God ever created. When I stopped talking, their ears stopped moving ... three or four times that happened. Did they understand what I was saying? You never know!!

My Own Advice

Well, it almost happened ... there was almost a time when I was happy I cut my hair. While on R&R in Vegas, I took leave of my senses and look what I did! I loved it ... for a few days, until it came time to wash it and blow dry it and curl it and worry about getting it wet ... what a pain! Was I stupid or what? It looks fine as long as I put a lot of work into it, but oh how I miss the wash it, braid it, sleep on it, and it's done. No work, no fuss, no worry. Oh, well ... two more years and I'll have it back and, meanwhile, maybe a young child will be able to put it to good use through Locks Of Love. Why is it I've never been able to remember my own advice, even with so much experience behind it? SIGH!

Regarding The Rhinoceros

I've been asked to relate the tale of the rhino's hurt feelings ... Well ...

This story convinced me beyond all doubt that animals understand every word we say. I took my little boys to Reid Park Zoo in Tucson when they were very young. As we reached the white rhino enclosure, one of them walked over to the edge like he was trying to be friendly. Right up close, I looked him square in the face and told him he was the ugliest creature I had ever seen in my life. I'm telling you the truth ... his head hit the ground. He was crushed!! He turned and walked away, leaving me with the worst case of the guilts that lingered for several years. One day we went back to the zoo and a rhino (who knows if it was even the same one) was already grazing over by the fence. If I thought I could've gotten away with it, I'd have jumped the fence and given that animal a hug. Instead, I told him how very very sorry I was for making such a cruel remark ... he really wasn't ugly in the least. God made him very special and very beautiful, and he should be proud to be a rhinoceros. He looked at me and, no kidding, he raised his head up, his eyes were twinkling, and I thought he was going to dance! I'm still ashamed to have made the unkind remark in the first place but I was grateful for the chance to atone for it, and now I have a genuine appreciation for rhinos as the truly unique animals God created them to be.

50 Little Factoids About Me

1--Jesus is first in my life.
2--Family is second.
3--I'm a very happily married homemaker.
4--There aren't very many things I like better than chocolate.
5--I'm not afraid of color but I hate orange.
6--There has never been a time when I was happy I cut my hair.
7--I can't be bothered with make-up.
8--Star-gazing on a dark night is awesome!
9--There are 814 Beanie Babies in my bedroom.
10--I've kissed my husband at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
11--I'm highly allergic to the sun.
12--My nephew's six cats are all named after comic book characters.
13--Some amount of alone time every day is an absolute must-have.
14--I'm a descendant of Lord Fergus McCubbin of Scotland.
15--The only thing purely Irish in me is my temper.
16--For the most part, I prefer being quiet and invisible.
17--My brother is a slot machine tech at a casino in Vegas.
18--I dabble a little bit in quilting but generally hate sewing.
19--I adore waterfalls.
20--I kept guinea pigs for sixteen years.
21--I used to be afraid of heights and flying but not anymore.
22--I'm fairly proficient at Braille.
23--I have a moral aversion to dunking Oreo cookies in milk.
24--Anything with mayonnaise or equiv is disgusting, including ranch dressing.
25--I'm at my functional best when it's between 50 and 60 degrees.
26--My husband proposed to me 23 years after we got married.
27--I've seen Aurora Borealis but would love to see it once more before I die.
28--I can play a bodhrán (an Irish frame drum) ... not an expert, just basic.
29--My sister is a professional dog whisperer and trainer.
30--I've been creatively writing since age 8.
31--I'm severely monofocal.
32--Volunteering at the hospital gift shop is my "playtime".
33--99% of the time I despise wearing dresses.
34--I love dollar stores.
35--I've written one novel and am currently working on its prequel/sequel.
36--The first novel took fifteen years to write.
37--I have over 24 million points at Bejeweled 2, Endless.
38--I've won over 100 ribbons at the AZ State Fair.
39--Through trial and error for a year, I developed a perfect zucchini bread recipe...
40--...so obviously I love to bake.
41--I know how to decorate cakes.
42--My favorite Baskin-Robbins flavor is German Chocolate Cake.
43--There are 11 years between my sister and me.
44--My sister was married 11 years before me.
45--There are nearly 11 years between my sister's oldest son and mine.
46--There are nearly 11 years between my sister's youngest son and mine.
47--My AZ living room is decorated like a Pacific NW wildlife lodge.
48--I once hurt a rhinoceros's feelings and atoned for it years later.
49--I hate practical jokes.
50--I'm addicted to Fill-It-In puzzles.

and a bonus 51--On our 25th wedding anniversary, my husband and I reaffirmed our marriage vows, of all places, outside the cell house at Alcatraz. (We decided on our trip to San Francisco that, wherever we were at 1:30pm on our anniversary day, we'd renew our vows there ... and that's where we were.)