Monday's Morning Love Songs

This morning I headed off to school and for the entire trip I listened to Country Music.  Every single song they played was a positive upbeat love song and by the time I got to school I just wanted to turn around and head back home and spend the entire day with Frank.  I love my job....but for some reason those songs just nailed me.  When I got home this evening I made sure that the first thing he heard from me was how much I loved him....and that he got a big kiss.  I thought all day about every time I leave....and wondered does Frank really know how much I love him?   You know when you leave someone...it may be the last time you see them.  I really thought about how important it is to tell people you love just how much you love them.  I talked to Kat today too.  I have not seen her since December because we have both been so busy....but I never pass up a chance to tell her how much I love her.  I have decided to make February my tell people you love them month....wonder why?  Anyways....I rode for an hour...singing my heart out....I am glad no one could see me.  This one was my favorite.  Hope you enjoy it.  

Project 365 Week 5

It is Sunday and that means it is Project 365 day.  I have had an interesting weekend but most of those pictures will be on next weeks post....sigh.  I took a photography class this weekend at Calloway Gardens.  It was a blast but my brain is fried.  If you want to see some other really great shots then hop over to Sara's blog and join in the fun.  Here is my week in pictures.  I hope you enjoy my offering.

Sunday, January 29th

Frank's church sign this week and I thought it was rather funny.  I watched all the men in church as their heads bobbed up and down.  It made me laugh.

Monday, January 30th

On my way home from school there was a cow...number 14 that caught my eye just outside of Daviston, AL.  I had to stop and grab the shot.  He looks like he is saying, "What?" to me...don't you think?

Tuesday, January 31st

Sunrise from my parking spot at school.  After a week of terrible weather last week it was good to see the sun.

Wednesday, February 1st

My students ham it up when the camera is around.

Thursday, February 2nd

Patriots Point - An Alex City landmark

Friday, February 3rd

Sherry at Edie Marie's Attic sent me a lovely thank you gift for the gifts that she won on my giveaway.  I love it!

Saturday, February 4th at Calloway Gardens

Two of the few photos I took on Saturday.  The top is a Kestral - a raptor that is in the bird's of Georgia exhibit.  The second is out the window from the classroom.  It was a gorgeous day!  Hope you have a great week and hope to see you back next week.  I can't wait for you to see my shoot photos from today!

Saturday Classes

I left my house this morning at 7 heading to Calloway Gardens(if you have never been here....you need to see it once in your life) for a photography class with my friend, Renee.  She got a new camera for Christmas and is learning about it.  I want to know more about mine.  Well, my wish was granted....I am fried tonight.  I don't think I can think at all.  I spent seven hours today learning about aperture, shutter speed,  shutter priority, getting out of Auto mode, lenses and a plethera of other photographic terms.  I went into this feeling pretty good about what all I have....I left feeling so inadequate.  I have a tripod....in fact...I have two....but today I learned that since mine did not cost 500.00+ dollars...it is not adequate.  Oh come on!  I am not in this professionally....I am in it for the joy it gives me.  I don't have that kind of money for a hobby.  I got home at 4:45, got out of the car, back in another car, went to Sonny's for supper with the gang....and then to the auction where I stayed until nearly 10.  I cannot hang out here very long tonight because I have to be up bright and early again tomorrow for part deux of the class.  Tomorrow we will be at the Sibbley Center and we will be using what all we talked about today from 9:30 - 1:30.  I am going to have to take a day off next week to recover from the weekend.  I will post my Project 365 pictures on Sunday and hopefully have something for you to see from the class.  Did I say I was fried?  Well I am and going to bed.  Tomorrow is another day.

Special Thank You From A Friend

I had the greatest surprise (of the special treat variety) yesterday when I got home.  Several months ago I had a giveaway....and it took me a while to get the prize to the winner.  Since it took me longer than I had planned I thought I would make the giveaway prize extra special.....and obviously I did a good job.  In my mail yesterday was the most fabulous thank you I have ever had.  I got a wonderful cookbook with some great recipes  for me to try out at church potlucks.  It is the PBinJ Cookbook and that does not stand for what you think it does...it is the People Believing in Jesus puppet team.  We poured over the recipes this morning and I will be busy for a while fixing them for Friday lunch at school between now and May 25th.    The other gift was a note pad...(and I am a note pad nut)...it has a crown on it....on the inside is a sweet note from Sherry, over at Edie Marie's Attic(one of my favorite blogs to visit.  She can use a treasured garment from a loved one and create a handbag for you.  How cool is that?)....and she parts with.."if the crown fits wear it!"  How could she know how much I love crowns.....and no...I have never been in a pageant.  That still is not all....there was a sweet cross pin....that actually belonged to her mom.....and I will wear it with pride.  I feel so touched by this act of kindness....and to top it all off....was the sweetest Thank You note, which is already serving as a bookmark in my Bible.  God truly is good...and He has given me some really neat people through my blog.  I am so Blessed!  Thank you Sherry and you made me feel so very special.

Remodeling Me

This morning during my planning period I began my day as I always do with a short devotional.  I did not like the one that was for today....so I went surfing to find something better and this one just reached out and hit me upside the head.  It is by Mary Southerland and called Remodeling 101.  I look around my house....get House Beautiful online....and constantly think of how I can make my dwelling prettier.....today it occurred to me that I might need to be working on the inside of ME!The Bible lesson comes from Colossians 3:13 “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Ok...so let's look at this......I promised myself that I would never again buy a house that could be described as a “fixer-upper.” The first one we bought....almost cost me my marriage....the second one did....I am a slow learner.  I have to be honest....I don’t like fixing things. I want everything to be fixed before I move in.  I have to be even more honest....I don't have a visual on fixer-uppers.  I can't see through the grossness to the beauty it will be....to me...it is gross...period.  When we began the first fixer upper I had no idea how horrible the process of remodeling could be. Layer after layer of dirt, grime, stains and ugliness was stripped away. Rotten kitchen cabinets were torn from the walls and rusty appliances were replaced. We basically gutted the wholeinside of the place and rebuilt it – while living in it. I was not a happy camper!  It was never my idea to do this...and continue to trade up.  I wanted to just buy it....and live in it happily ever after...with minor face lifts being done from time to time.  I will never forget the day I woke up to a man-made skylight in my bedroom that was covered with clear plastic and rain was leaking in.   It was at that moment I resolved to never set foot in another house that required so much work. Ok...so it took me two times.  I am so thankful God didn't  feel that way about me. Honestly, I used to wonder why God didn’t just demolish the old me and build a new one. Then He did just that.  I don't know when it happened but sometime while I was sitting at the bottom of a deep, dark and slimy pit feeling sorry for myself, the Father lovingly stripped away all of my old fears and insecurities. From the walls of my heart, He tore the rotten attitudes, undisciplined thoughts and unholy desires that had walked me to the edge of my pit; then pushed me in. He replaced rusty old dreams with new ones and basically, gutted my life to build a new one, a better one, and a stronger one. Part of that new life was forgiveness. God taught me how to forgive myself so I could then forgive others.  It was that same year that Kat and I took a trip to Prince Edward Island....just the two of us.  The old me....would never have done that.  Because forgiveness is so important, it only stands to reason that there are roadblocks that can hinder our willingness to forgive. We must make the commitment to identify and remove each one. And believe me....they pop up in my little world often.  So what are some of my roadblocks....easy....
Selfishness - Selfishness shouts, “I have been hurt! It is so unfair. I have rights!” What I am really saying is that how I feel about the hurt is more important than forgiving the hurt.  Have you ever said or felt that?  I have...I remember many nights going to sleep with tears falling down my face because someone hurt me.  Once, while attending a small church in town my feelings were hurt by another lady in the church.  I blew a gasket....and the look of hurt on her face felt good for a fleeting moment....and then it was replaced by a bitter taste in my mouth.  I should have gone to her right then and asked her to forgive me....but I didn't.  I waited for another lady to come to me and tell me I needed to.  Even after I apologized....I felt I was cheated....because she never said she was sorry back.  It was then that I began looking at things in the grand scheme....would it matter to me in a week?  a month?  a year?  If it was not important enough to lose sleep over...I moved on.
Pride - Pride cries, “Look at what they have done to me. Don’t they realize who I am?” To receive or give forgiveness requires humility.  (See story above...it fits both places.)  I remember when I finally forgave my ex-husband all the hurts.....what a freeing day that was for me.
Low self-esteem - Some of us have built an entire identity around a hurt. The attention we gain from the wrong we have suffered defines who we are. It is something we cherish and refuse to relinquish for the sake of forgiveness.  (This one was my nemesis.  I could not seem to get past it, no matter how hard I tried.)  If you have read my blog for any time....you have heard many tales of my mom and her type A personality....and my barely a B one.
Blindness - We may be blind to the fact that we have not forgiven a hurt. We have convinced ourselves that we really have forgiven the one who hurt us by going through the motions and saying the right words without really dealing with the pain. In reality, all we have done is dig a hole and bury the pain. As long as hurt is buried alive, it will keep resurrecting itself in our life, but when the hurt is dealt with and forgiveness is given, the pain is buried dead – and it stays dead.
Pain - Forgiveness is spiritual surgery. It exposes old hurts that have never completely healed. We can move, change jobs, change churches, change friends or even change families, but until we yank up the root of bitterness and cover it with forgiveness, we will live with unresolved pain.  I did not even realize that I was carrying pain around....until we began working on my mom's house...and I unearthed some old memories. 
Ignorance - Maybe we don’t know how to forgive someone because are under the impression that forgiveness is an emotion or feeling. True forgiveness is a choice – a deliberate choice to release the person who has hurt us from the pain they have caused. We can stop forgiving others when God stops forgiving us. We need to identify and eliminate the roadblocks to forgiveness so God can set us free, heal our pain and make us more like Him. Now that is a remodeling job I would welcome. The next part was my favorite part of the devtional I read this morning.....once I read her words...it was time for me to step up and identify my own.  Believe me...I am a poster child for emotional pain....If I have learned nothing in my life it is that emotional pain can cripple our lives unless we deal with it and forgive the hurt. A family member has wounded you and shows no sign of remorse. Maybe a friend has betrayed you and refuses to apologize. Or you may be struggling to forgive yourself because you don’t think you deserve to be forgiven. None of us deserves forgiveness. Forgiveness is a gift from God. Today is the day to make the choice to forgive. Beside each statement below, write the name of someone in your life who needs your forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not limited to those who deserve it. ______________________________
Forgiveness is not limited to those who apologize. ______________________________
Forgiveness is not limited to those who change. ________________________________
1 John 1:9 tells us:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  Let me tell you all that God is the One who heals. Forgiveness puts us in the correct posture for Him to do so. If you are hurting....or suffering from an unforgiving heart......don’t wait another minute to deal with the issue of forgiveness in your life. Choose forgiveness...I promise you won't regret it for one minute....I didn't...and don't today.  God Bless You Today!
Taken from Girlfriends in God website at:  www.girlfriendsingod.com

Are You A Grammaticaster????

Are you a grammaticaster?  Do you know what one is?  I was pretty sure it was the equivalent to a grammarian but looked it up just to be sure.  You know it is sad when you look up a word…and have to look up other words in the definition because you don’t understand them.  Anyways….a grammaticaster is:  A pejorative term for a grammarian, especially one who is concerned with petty matters of usage.  Ok…so what is pejorative?   Back to the dictionary….it means:   1. Tending to make or become worse.2. Disparaging; belittling.  As a noun it is a disparaging or belittling word or expression.  My topic today is the pronunciation of the word February.  How do YOU pronounce it?  Why is it such a big deal?  Why is "February" so often pronounced without the first "r"?  More and more you seem to  hear "Feb-U-ary" instead of "Feb-RU-ary." So I went looking for the correct way to say this word.  I found out that while "Feb-RU-ary" is still considered the standard pronunciation, most dictionaries recognize the pronunciation of February without the first "r" ("Feb-U-ary") as an acceptable variant.  I remember learning the word in elementary school.  I remember learning it with the “ru” sound…..but as I practiced saying it here at my desk I found that my years of living in the south have caused me to drop the “ru” for the “you” sound.  Lord Have Mercy!  Will the world end????  Well….i have discovered that not everyone is tolerant of this “mispronunciation.”   In his Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations (2005), purist Charles Harrington Elster defends the "traditional and cultivated pronunciation." February, he says, "is a different word and a different month, with a peculiar spelling, a peculiar pronunciation, and a very peculiar number of days, all of which adds up to the fact that we must treat the creature with particular respect."  Yet I have found that in common speech, the shortest month has long been abused. “ In The New Schoolmaster, a one-act play that appeared in Sargent's School Monthly in May 1858, Mr. Hardcase says of February that "there is a prejudice in favor of an 'r' at the beginning of the second syllable; but if you choose to drop it, where's the harm?"  Here! Here!  Mr. Hardcase.  I discovered in my searching that the loss of the first "r" in the pronunciation of February is (in part) the result of a process called dissimilation (or haplology), where one of two similar sounds in a word is sometimes changed or dropped to avoid the repetition of that sound. (A similar process sometimes occurs with the pronunciation of library.)  Ok….I teach high school and it drives me nuts when my students ask to go to the liberry.  I was delighted when ours became a Media Center!  Whew….that nipped that problem in the bud.  “There are, of course, many discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation in English. As David Crystal reminds us in The English Language, "[S]peech came first, in the history of our species," and "English spelling hasn't been a good guide to pronunciation for hundreds of years."  With that said….you also have to look at where you live.  I was born and raised in South Florida….my neighbors were from Harwich Port, Queens, Upstate New York, Cuba, Pennsylvania, Ohio….and I have lived in the Bible Belt for over 30 years….several weeks ago a sweet, gentile, little southern lady told me my speaking voice sounded flat….like I was from Kansas. (Sorry those of you who live there)…I went home and taped myself speaking…and she was right.  I don’t have that soft sweet southern drawl…I saw  aww n for on….she says…own for the same word.  I say “boys”….she says baw weeez.  I asked her once during the holiday if she got taw weez for Christmas when she was younger….and if she sang Jaw weee to the world at Christmas time.  She did not have a clue what I was implying….and answered me with a resounding southern….yeah us (that is yes in the rest of the country.)  You have got to love it! 

Hodge Podge Week 64

It is Wednesday and it is time for another riotous adventure into the world of Joyce's Hodge Podge.  Won't you join in?  Hop over to Joyce's blog and get the questions and then link up so we can get to know more about you!  Here are the questions for week 64.

 

1.It's that most wonderful time of the year...tax season! Do you complete your own returns or farm that job out to the professionals?   I used to do my own taxes but when Frank became a pastor I hired someone because there are so many little nit picky details to be handled.

2. This next question comes from Kansas Bob...he posed it in his response to something I asked in an earlier Wednesday post and I asked him if I could add it to the Hodgepodge some day. Today's the day....Which do you think has changed you more-love or pain? I think both of them have formed me into who I am.  Pain made me strong and love made me gentle.

3. Tangerine Tango has been named color of the year for 2012. Your thoughts? Would I find this color anywhere in your house? How about in your closet? If not, will you be adding this color to your life in some way in 2012? If you're not sure what tangerine tango looks like click here. Tangerine tango would not even be an accent color in my house.  I don’t like the color orange with any name.

4. Are you a collector? What do you collect and does it get admired, used, and/or dusted regularly? I used to collect David Winter houses….but gave them away.  Then I collected lighthouses…..but grew tired when everyone gave them to me…..there was a specific reason when I collected them for myself.  I love Forest Green Charm plates and buppee glasses…but as far as collecting….I don’t collect them….I use them…..not just display them.  I think I will tell my friends I am collecting hundred dollar bills.  Think they will bite?

5. February is National Heart Month...besides a green salad what is one tasty heart healthy dish you like to prepare?  Steamed green beans – whole.  Yummy!  I can eat them like pop corn.

6. When was the last time you had car trouble? Back in October - November.  I took my car to Bobby(local mechanic) and he fixed it.

7. Have you been more demanding on yourself lately or less? Is that a good trend?  Bad trend stated - I have been less demanding since the death of my good friend and just did not have the energy to do anything after getting home from work.  I just sat and stared.  I read a lot(not a bad thing)…..I finally got some get up and go and went and joined a local gym.  This has been the good trend that came out of the bad trend.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  Did you know?  Groundhog Day is celebrated in the U.S. each year on February 2nd. On this day in mid-winter, the groundhog awakens from a long winter's nap, and goes outside of his den to see if he sees his shadow. This tradition is big on an otherwise cold and dreary mid-winter's day. According to legend, if the groundhog sees his shadow (a sunny morning), there will be six more weeks of winter. He then returns to his den and goes back to sleep. If however, he does not see his shadow (cloudy days), he plays around outside of his hole for a while. If he does not see his shadow, spring is just around the corner. The Groundhog's Day tradition travelled long ways. It comes from German roots. German immigrants brought the tradition with them from Germany. As they settled in hills of Pennsylvania, they began the tradition of using the Groundhog to predict the the arrival of Spring. The tradition is based upon Candlemas, the day that is the midpoint between Winter and Spring. A famous Candlemas poems goes:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Winter will not come again.

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania is the site of the annual Ground Hog event. Our little rodent friend (yes, Groundhogs are classified as rodents) is called Punxsutawney Phil. There are a few other "predictors" around the country, but they all pale in comparison to Phil's ability to predict the remainder of winter.
For the Record Phil sees his shadow about 9 out of 10 times .  Think about it….shadow or not…..Spring officially is six weeks away, March 20^th.