I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Shadow Shot Sunday!

Get out the magnifying glass, get into your best sleuthing clothes and start prowling your environment looking for those wonderful, but sometimes elusive shadows. This fun and challenging meme is hosted each week by Tracy over at Hey Harriet! Click on the link under the blog title and sign up to play!!

No sun here lately other than a few minutes three or four times a day and then it wraps itself in clouds and fog and flips us off and disappears, laughing all the time!   Thank goodness for those captures that have been tucked away for just such days!  Hope all of you are enjoying the weekend as we head towards Christmas!! Wow! Time flies whether you're having fun or not!!!

If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through life,
choose a sense of humor.
Jennifer Jones


Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours."
Robert Byrne


The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.
e. e. cummings

Friday, December 2, 2011

Weekend Reflections

Weekend Reflections is hosted by James each week beginning Friday at 11 AM Eastern Standard Time. It's another wonderful way of opening your eyes to new and different kinds of beauty. Click on the web address under the blog title and sign up to play with us!

More fun and games with reflections! I do hope you have all had a good week and that you have a wonderful weekend with lots of love and laughter as we start the countdown to Christmas!!

The more I live, the more I think that humor is the saving sense.
Jacob August Riis

When humor goes, there goes civilization.
Erma Bombeck


You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.
Bill Cosby

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Sky Watch Friday!

Time to share your skies, the beauty over your world, the clouds, the colors! Sky Watch is hosted each week by  the Sky Watch team of  Sandy, Wren and me. And this week as every week, we remember Klaus and know that he joins us in spirit! Join us and the many people from all over the world who share theirs with us each week! Click on the address under the post title to be taken to the SWF website where you can sign up. 
Hope all of you have had a wonderful week!  Christmas is definitely on the way now -- it's DECEMBER! Can you believe it?? Time does fly whether you're having fun or not! So, enjoy and have a wonderful weekend!
You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
Virginia Woolf

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.
Charles Kuralt


The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.
Lee Iacocca

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that
gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.  G.K. Chesterton

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty In a Difficult Time


The past couple of days have been quite difficult. My children’s father has been diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer and given maybe a month to live.  We’ve been divorced for many years but our inability to work through our problems back then have nothing to do with the fact that he has always been an incredible father to our four children.  He hasn’t been well for some time and it has been so hard for the kids to see their Olympic Medalist father sinking down to where he is now.  I thought I was prepared for whatever, but learning last night of the latest diagnosis has been gut wrenching.  So, tonight I was definitely looking for peace and beauty and wisdom from somewhere and realized I needed a chance to put my thoughts, feelings into words. Thank you for understanding.


The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart. The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace.
Carlos Santana
 If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Mother Teresa
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.
John Lennon


Beautiful words from my friend Suranga.

The rose bush
resplendent
in flowers and fruit
of beauteous colors,
when young,
is very aware of its thorns.

They hurt,
but do not affect
the quality of the wonderful flowers.

The rose
also remembers the bees,
the honey,
and the buzzing
around all the little buds
waiting to grow.

Different gardens,
different soils,
living amidst
many flowers,
and you learn,
that
yet,
Life is beautiful.


Life's fall and winter,
the petals
detach
and slowly float down,
yet 
enriching
the Garden of Life
with
the flavors, the perfume,
the color,
and the caring
and amazingly,
no one
remembers the thorns
as the petals
become one with the earth,
finally at peace.


 



In My Next Life!

I want to live my next life backwards! You start out dead and get
that out of the way right off the bat. Then, you wake up in a nursing
home feeling better every day. When you are kicked out of the home for
being too healthy, you spend several years enjoying your retirement
and collecting benefit checks. When you start work, you get a gold
watch on your first day. You work 40 years or so, getting younger
every day until pretty soon you're too young to work. So then, you go
to high school: play sports, date, drink, and party. As you get even
younger, you become a kid again. You go to elementary school, play,
and have no responsibilities. In a few years, you become a baby and
everyone runs themselves ragged keeping you happy. You spend your last
9 months floating peacefully in luxury, spa-like conditions: central
heating, room service on tap. Until finally...You finish off as an
orgasm.

I rest my case.

Think about it!!!    
Hope you all have a wonderful day! 

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Watery Wednesday

Join the fun on Watery Wednesday hosted by 2sweetnsaxy!!  http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/
You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
Abdul Kalam

Nature is the art of God.
Dante Alighieri

HOW ABOUT THIS FOR AN EARLY CHRISTMAS GREETING???




And how about this for a Christmas gift????

 

Monday, November 28, 2011

Our World Tuesday!!

Time for "Our World" again! This is a wonderful way to find the beauty, the fun, the good and even the bad things about Our World and to share them! Hope you will join us! Click on the link  to go to the Our World site and sign up!!
http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

We're supposed to have some more great weather this week, but we'll see -- you know how weathermen lie!! It is always so beautiful at the beach when the sun does come out -- even if it's windy and chilly! And nothing like the moon peeking through the bare limbs of the trees!! Of course for me, my world is pretty much built around my kids and Sam Schnauzer and two of my kids - Adam and his fiancee, Amber, were visiting from Portland on Saturday! What a treat! My oldest daughter in Michigan sent me a terrific walker -- it's taken me a while to admit that one would be helpful!!! Adam put it together for me so I'm ready to roll!! And, to Sam's dismay, they gave him a shampoo and a haircut!!  Ah, life is good!!
The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege.
Charles Kuralt

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
Caskie Stinnett

Family is not an important thing, it's everything.
Michael J. Fox

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.
John Barrymore

Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.
Phil Jackson

When you cease to dream you cease to live.
Malcolm Forbes

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Pets Forever!

Hey guys, get up off your tush and lets go see Bozo over at his pad in Mumbai! It's always a fun time when we all get together and talk about what's been happin', Bro! You know? Get your human to click on the Post Title, that'll take them to the website where you can sign up! I'll be waiting for you!!

I hate it when family come to visit and give me a bath!!!

Not only a bath, but a hair cut!! Ughhh!! 

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

Portland Time