Thanks ladies for the well wishes. Yock said thank you very much also, it was very kind of you. His surgery went well. Wasn't as much to it as I thought. I got more grey hairs for worring for nothing. Thanks again for the prayers.

Nirvana I'm so sorry you couldn't attend. That must have been very hard. It is nice to have people rally around you when you need a friend. I'll be there for you.

Cindy tell him I send my condolences on his Aunt.

Thank you Dolittle. I need to read up on this disease some. He was so good to me while I had a bo bo. Now my turn. ;•)

Thanks Radiant ;)

I have to take my honey in for eye surgery in the morning. A clogged tear duct that has his eye swollen and a mole looking thing in the corner of his eye. Both have to be clipped. We also found out he has glocoma. I can't even spell it. I'm more worried then he is. Oh the pains of old age. ;•)

To live in the hearts of those you leave behind is never to die.' Robert Orr.

How true......

So sorry about your loss Nirvana. Such a shame.

Louise Redden, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.
 
John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store.
Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can."
John told her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account at his store.
 
Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family.
The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list?"
Louise replied, "Yes sir"
 
"O.K." he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries."
Louise, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.
The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down.
 
The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it."
The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more. The grocer stood there in utter disgust.
 
Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer which said:
"Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."
The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence. Louise thanked him and left the store. The customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said, "It was worth every penny of it."

It was sometime later that the grocer discovered the scales were broken; therefore, only God knows how much a prayer weighs.
~Author Unknown~

When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
 
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
 
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and call it Pluralism.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
 
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.
 
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
 
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen!"         
 
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest..
In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively.
The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea.
  
Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, "The Rest of the Story," and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called "one nation under God."
If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for everything."
~Based on an actual prayer by Rev. Wright

Thanks Roberta you're a sweety. ;•)

Correction on Yvettes age, she was only 39. To young to die.

Thanks Radiant and Yock said thanks too. Yvette's funeral is tomorrow. It's never easy.

My honey's cousin just died of liver cancer. She was only 44 years old with a little 4 year old girl. They were very close, more like sister & brother then cousins.

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal-Mart.
We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom, let's run through the rain," she said.
"What?" Mom asked.
"Let 's run through the rain!" She repeated.
"No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.
This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,"
"We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.
"No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.
This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?
"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"
The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.
Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.
"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said.
Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.
And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.
Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A friend sent this to me to remind me of life. Hope you enjoy it.
I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

Anger is a condition in which
the tongue works faster than the mind.
 
You can't change the past,
but you can ruin the present
by worrying over the future.
 
Love...and you shall be loved.
 
God always gives His best to those
who leave the choice with Him.
 
All people smile in the same language.
 
A hug is a great gift... one size fits all.
It can be given for any occasion
and it's easy to exchange.
 
Everyone needs to be loved...
especially when they do not deserve it.
 
The real measure of a man's wealth
is what he has invested in eternity.
 
Laughter is God's sunshine.
 
Everyone has beauty
but not everyone sees it.
 
It's important for parents to live
the same things they teach.
 
Thank God for what you have,
TRUST GOD for what you need.
 
If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday
and the worries of tomorrow,
you have no today to be thankful for.
 
Man looks at outward appearance
but the Lord looks within.
 
The choice you make today
will usually affect tomorrow.
 
Take time to laugh, for it is
the music of the soul.
 
If anyone speaks badly of you,
live so none will believe it.
 
Patience is the ability to idle your motor
when you feel like stripping your gears.
 
Love is strengthened by working
through conflicts together.
  
The best thing parents can do
for their children is to love each other.
 
Harsh words break no bones
but they do break hearts.
 
To get out of a difficulty,
one usually must go through it.
  
We take for granted the things
that we should be giving thanks for.
 
Love is the only thing that can be
divided without being diminished.
 
Happiness is enhanced by others
but does not depend upon others.
 
For every minute you are angry with someone,
you lose 60 seconds of happiness
that you can never get back.
 
Do what you can, for who you can,
with what you have, and where you are.
~Author Unknown~
 
   
   

It's the space shuttles 1st tragic anniversary.
May we never forget their bravery.

Commander Rick Husband,
Pilot William McCool,
Payload Commander Michael Anderson
Kalpana Chawla,
David Brown,
Laurel Clark,
Ilan Ramon
 
May God forever bless & keep them.

Whatever it held of good or evil is now woven into the inevitable pattern of life. I cannot recall one unkind word, nor retrace one foolish step.
 
 
The tapestry is woven. I might look at the pattern and regret the threads of selfishness, the ravelings of hate, but I cannot remove them,
for they are now a lasting part that
holds together the weavings of today.
 
 
I may search for a thread of human kindness, may look for a touch of love and beauty to give color
to my drab design, but if I did not weave
them in my gleanings of today,
I cannot add them.
 
 
Today has passed.
 
 
But if tomorrow comes,
it will offer me a clean and empty loom,
and fresh strands of hope and faith.
 
 
Perhaps then I can weave a lovelier pattern, with less of the gray of care and the purple of pain,
and more of the gold of truth,
and the blue of trust, and the shimmering
white of faith and purity.
 
 
Perchance I can throw open my mental blinds so that there may be reflected upon my loom more of the sunshine of cheer and the hope of optimism.
Perchance I can focus upon the beautiful
instead of the ugly.
 
 
I will not be mortgaged to the past.
Today is no more.
 
 
~by Leola Archer~

Tomorrow is yours 
 

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10 percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk She would never talk She would probably be blind She would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation And on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live- and live to be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.
"David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements," Diana remembers "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen I couldn't listen.
I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"
As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana.
Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw," the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort- so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later - though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero - Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments.
Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more- but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.
Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?" Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet It smells like rain." Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with the other children before the rains came her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest--and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
 

I like the candy cane story better,far less boring.But thanks for the info.

I loved this story and wanted to share it.I'll always think of a candy cane differently from now on...

(Author Unknown)

A candy-maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God.
The candy-maker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It could also represent the staff of the " Good Shepherd " with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep have gone astray.
Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy-maker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Unfortunately, the candy became known as a Candy Cane - a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time.

But the meaning is still there for those who " have eyes to see and ears to hear " I pray that this symbol will again be used to witness To The Wonder of Jesus and His Great Love that came down at Christmas and remains the ultimate and dominant force in the universe today.

Nice story Radiant

RonsLove my condolences....It's very hard to lose a loved one.Keep them close in your heart and they will always be with you.When you feel the wind blow so gentle on your face look up and remember the good times with them. :•)