Answered Prayers

God was so good to keep the tree colors glorious for my daughter-in-law to see. I prayed like crazy and He so answered. Annie was thrilled with the fall colors which she's never seen in Texas! She took so many pictures. It was great.

When I picked Walt and Annie up at the airport on Thurs, it was a beautiful day: 70's, sunny, clear. But as the evening moved on, some clouds began to roll in and Friday looked like rain.

After a big home cooked breakfast, we managed to get out on the road to Coopers Rock early and God held back the rain til our little hike to Rock City. Thank you Lord! The rest of the day was spent shopping (Gabes) and eating (Olive Garden), then a drive around town so Walt could catch up on all the building and changes in Morgantown as well as to show Annie his home town.

Evening consisted of dinner and a movie at home. It was a great day!

Saturday, Mike was able to get the day off so the plan was to get to Damon's by 11a to get a good seat for the game on BIG screen. It was too late to get decent, cheap tickets so Walt suggested this as plan B. Worked great. We ate tons of food, saw some old friends (Jeremy Myers and wife, the Stollar family and Jim Holehouse). And the game was fantastic! A great day to be a Mountaineer....Annie even liked it! She's learning about "Almost Heaven, WV". Hope she comes to love her visits here as much as we love it!

My favorite quote by Walt was when we walked into the Mountaineer Store in the Colliseum and he said "Mom, being here just makes me FEEL GOOD". I loved it!

Sunday was church, lunch, quick trip to Arboretum to get a few more pics and then back to the airport. Time flew by as I knew it would. If you're a fan of the "Office", the day Pam and Jim got married, she made a tradition of taking mental snapshots. I loved that idea to imprint special moments in my memory. So even though I took lots of iPhone and camera pics, I took numerous "mental" snaps, just so I could be in the moment and remember.

I love seeing my son and his wife together. They are so very happy and the love just exudes from them. I've never seen my son so happy and content as he is now. He says they are building a good life in San Antonio with their marriage, church, friends, jobs, etc. Sounds like they'll be there awhile.

Thank you God for the blessing of this weekend and answering my prayers for the trees. You're in all the details and I am so glad.

Falling into Fall

Another summer has come and gone. This one seemed to go by particularly fast. I don't mind Fall. It's still warm but the humidity is gone and at night it is cool for sleeping. It's just that what comes after Fall is my least favorite time of the year and seems to be the longest. So I just won't think about that and look forward to what Fall is offering.

Today I went for a walk and ended up running more than walking. It felt really good and was actually fun.... not the work that I felt when I was preparing for the 5K. I've decided, no more races. I can check that off my yet to be made Bucket List. So after today, I'm looking forward to getting outside for some more walk/runs and enjoy the cooler weather.

I've also been preparing cards for next week's Stamp Camp. They are all Fall/Thanksgiving type designs and I find that I really enjoy making up my own designs for them. I do search other stamper's blogs for ideas, but try never to copy them 100%. And I've got a couple Workshops coming up in October so those will be fun to organize.

The best thing that's soon to be coming up is a visit from Walt and Annie! They are coming up the end of October from their home in hot San Antonio so they can enjoy the cooler weather and hopefully still see some color in the trees. Their last visit to WV was in Dec 2007, just before they got married in Spring '08. I keep thinking they are just too far away! Or maybe it's me that's far away?!

So I'll be enjoying every day that I can before the cold, blustery weather returns. Happy Fall!

Deviation from the Norm

I'm going to go out on a limb and deviate from my normal chatty blog post to write a review of a site I discovered. The name of the site is Nat Med Talk. You can link to it at NatMedTalk I'm not really crazy about Forum designed sites but this one seemed interesting to me and the folks who started it up seem to want feedback about the site and suggestions for improvement. So here is my take on Natural Medicine Talk:
As I said in the intro, it's a form that is focused on healthcare, all aspects of health and illness. But there was an emphasis on natural or alternative healthcare. Registration is free and only takes a minute to join the group. At that point you can join in with the topics they have listed with your comments or questions. Some of the topics are: general discussion, nutrition, health insurance (big news right now!), dentistry, women's health, men's health and the list goes on. I found it interesting that they also have a section they call "off-topic" or unrelated to healthcare that includes humor, money saving tips, chitchat and such.
They currently have 1214 members to this site but as far as actual active members, they only listed 171. At the time I visited, there were 290 people on the site. I glanced through some of the topics and some of the questions/comments and they were interesting. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the content but typically, forums are just peoples personal opinions or their story about what worked for them.
There was a link on the site to a blog called "Health Fellow, Your Natural Health Critic", link at Healthy Fellow. Now to me, that was a lot more interesting than the forum. But if you like this type of site to get information, check it out!
Look for more of my reviews in the future. As if I don't have enough to do, I thought I might beef up my writing skills a little bit.
God Bless...Pam

Morning, Glory!

This is a picture of a Morning Glory that I planted in my yard this year. I love waking up in the cool mornings and see them smiling at me. The last time I had planted them was when I lived on Morgan Dr... quite a few years ago (right Lorrie?) They were planted by my front door. I just had a very little patch of ground since it was an apartment complex. But to see them every day made me smile.
Now I have almost an acre of land and my little patch of "Glories" gives me joy every day.
This morning, as I took this photo, I looked around to see the other glories that have come to me from our God. The word 'glory' means the 'worth' of something. The glory of God is the worthiness of God- the presence of God in the fullness of his attributes in some place or everywhere (from NIV compact dictionary of the Bible) Wow! As I looked around, my eyes took in the Glory of God! Everywhere I looked was the master artistry of our Creator in nature. I don't thank Him enough for His Presence in my life.
So when you look at a favorite flower, tree, bug, bird.....remember who made it and give thanks!
Have a lovely day!

50 Years and Counting

This is a photo of my sister and her husband and their 50th wedding anniversary party. It was quite a festive occasion. Mike and I left WV on 6/27 and had a leisurely "vacation" drive to Florida so we could attend the celebration. After driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and camping a couple nights and after being tourists in NC and GA, we arrived in Homosassa FL on 7/1. My sister's 2 son's, their wives and kids had already arrived. MY son and his wife were arriving on Thurs. That's a picture of them working on the pictures they took at the party.
We had an incredible time with family and friends. My husband, who isn't very comfortable around a lot of people handled the situation really well. He even danced with me.... fast and slow dances! We had a great time playing in the pool with all the kids and eating lots and lots of great food!
I'm really proud of my sister and her hubby. 50 years of staying together in good times and bad is quite an accomplishment. I was asked to give the blessing at the party before dinner and the one thing I wanted to point out is that they made a promise to love one another and in keeping that promise, they honored God. It was Awesome!!

Aero "Garden"... a gourmet delight!

Ok, so I want to introduce you to my new method of gardening. Since the groundhog enjoys it when I plant outdoors, I decided to try something new so that I can actually enjoy the fruits of my labor. Before Christmas, Mike and I were at Big Lots and we saw reburbished Aerogarden kits for $79. Since they usually run much more, I told Mike that would be a great Christmas gift. Sure enough, on Christmas morn, I had one to open. The first one (being refurbished) had a malfunctioning motor but the customer service people were awesome and sent a new one. It worked perfectly.
So my first "garden" was herbs. I planted the pods for cilantro, parsley, 2 kinds of basil, dill, chives, and peppermint. It didn't take anytime for the little sprouts to pop up. And remember, there is not soil involved. It's all hydroponic and the water ripples over the "pods". They also provide nutrients for you to feed the little pods. As you can see by the picture, my herbs have now been transplanted to soil and are doing just fine. I love having fresh herbs to season with. As the season progresses, I will transplant them once again to the outdoor herb garden that I plan to start this year.
So this morning I opened the package that my "postman" husband brought home yesterday and I planted my new garden. It is a salad green mix. I absolutely cannot wait for this one to come to fruition!
I would highly recommend this option for planting and even starting plants for your outdoor garden.
By the way, Hans is home.... no cancer in the brain.... just a pretty major, treatable infection. Thanks for all the prayers!
Bon Apetit!

Another bump in the road

This is a photo an me with a "friend". His name is Hans Rueffert. A few years back, he was one of the finalist on the Foodnetwork show called the Next Foodnetwork Star. He's from Jasper, GA were my son was living at the time so I became very interested in him and cheered for him. He didn't win the contest. And to make matters worse, during that time he developed stomach cancer.
I was blessed to get to meet him in person at a cooking class at the Whole Foods Market in Alpharetta GA on one of my visits to Walt.
Hans has been cancer free for quite a while now. I had gotten lax in reading his blogs. When I returned recently from a trip to Florida visiting with my sister who has a cancer scare, I decided to see what Hans was up to. Upon checking his blog I discovered that he was diagnosed with several brain lesions. This was found after he'd been suffering with headaches. So the problem is: is it cancer or is it infection. At this point Hans returned to MD Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston. This is where he was treated for his stomach cancer. As of today, they know he has a "nasty infection" in his brain that could have been deadly. The biopsy results are not yet back so as for cancer, we don't know. He's been in excruciating pain from the biopsies. He was to go thru full brain radiation but that's on hold til the biopsy results.
I would like to put a shout out for prayer for this young man and his family (wife Amy and 2 kids, Ella and Finn) Amy is with Hans in TX. I would also like to make you aware that Hans recently published a cookbook called "Eat Like There's No Tomorrow". It's a compilation of recipes and stories about his cancer battle. You can go to Hanscooks.com for a link to purchase the cookbook. An autographed copy is $24.95. He still has bills and since he is not working, the sales of his cookbook could be a blessing. In the meantime. I'll try to keep you posted or you can keep up with his blog by googling his name for the link. I'll put it on my facebook page.
I just ordered my cookbook. I was going to order one anyway. But now that I know there is a good reason (to help with his finances) I bought it sooner than later.
Thanks for your Prayers.