Our Families 'JOY child'...as a child...

Britt is now the 'joyful' Mother of two beautiful sons,

Joshua, 'JJ', and baby Dylan...

believe it or not...she still has JOY and is a continuous JOY to others....

Thank you Britt, for always reminding us to be.....Joyful and ....H A P P Y,

NO MATTER WHAT.....

!

Wonderful Life....A Daily Gift...

From the book, "Laughter For A Woman's Soul" by

several well know 'Women of Faith'

I am delighted today by Barbara Johnsons words about

the Joy of a Wonderful Life...

I quote, "Every day I take joy by refusing to accept the lie that

I have to be miserable about the 'stuff', that trails me

no matter how I try to outwit it.

I CHOOSE to do zany, kooky, and funny things

to make myself and others....laugh!

And I fling JOY- beyond my next-door neighbor's fence,

clear across town, and into the outside world.

Then it curves right back to me.

Sometimes with a whack on the head when I need it.

Sometimes with a th-whack into my heart.

But....it always comes back!

No doubt about it..."

By experience,

I have found this above simple formula....to be true .

While reading in Ecclesiastes

(and the smoke clears from all the drama of life expressed, good and bad)

I find that

I have full permission to ...enjoy the GOOD Life...

Ecclesiastes 11:7-8 in 'The Message Bible' reads...

"Oh, how sweet the light of day.

And how wonderful to live in the sunshine!

Even if you live a long time,

DON'T take a single day for granted.

Take delight in each light-filled hour."

Let's make a choice, even a

New Years' Resolution....

To fill our life with JOY and DELIGHT....

and LAUGHTER...every single day

that we are on planet earth....

Such 'internal happiness' is

contagious!

Have a 'big dose' of the GOOD Life!

I DARE you!

GIT-R-DONE

When I use the above phrase, it comes from the mouth of

our families 5 yr. old Joshua...

As you know , the videos the children see today

find their way into their speech AND BEHAVIOR, good and bad.

This phrase above is one our 'JJ' uses with his very

best southern accent to emphasize his point.

I can hear JJ say this in my mind as I

today read a verse in the Bible, The Message Bible which

speaks 'southern'....Proverbs 28:2 says,

"When the country is in chaos,

everybody has a plan to fix it ---

But it takes a leader of real understanding and wisdom

to straighten things out"...

These words were written years B.C....before Christ..

Years before Democrats and Republicans..

Yet they are still applicable in 2006...

It is simply great when someone comes up with 'new' ideas

and implements them successfully...

But it is 'better yet' when there are problems, unresolved issues,

chaos and confusion and along comes

people and leaders

who are willing to help and works with others

in order to straighten things out and 'fix-it'.

This applies to countries,

this applies to.....Families...

May we hear JJ's words in action across our land...

GIT-R-DONE

Joshua as an Indian tells us all to celebrate the beauty of our earth...sun, flowers, stars, and to please eat chicken and 'not turkey'. Ash tries NOT to laugh....

Part of the Family Celebration....We are all thankful for 'each other'....
and many other things as well....we tried to make it short when
we were listing our many 'thanks'....Joshua cracked us up with his
5yr. old 'profound' remarks....

Joshua pulls 'wishbone' with his Neena...Joshua wins:)

Brothers playing together...Joshua is a great 'Big' brother.

Ash swings Baby Dylan..

Football guys, Pops & Mattie C. smile for the girls....

Neena/Lynn and Ash smile for the 'many' cameras....

Britt and two precious sons....celebrate Turkey day at our house....
Britt carved the turkey this year and she was so...'ladylike'...:)

Matt, Ash, Britt and Dylan say, "Happy, Fun, and Family....Thanksgiving from Florida!"

Give Thanks....or .....Happy Thanksgiving

In America we are so blessed that in order to

communicate accurately

how blessed we really are.....

it would be an 'impossible' undertaking ....

Then, again, there are no words in some cases, that

can genuinely articulate the blessings of our land.

From the dusty pages of the past this task was

attempted by the writer of our song....

America, My Country 'Tis of Thee...

There are verses in it that I have never,

ever read or heard in my entire life....

some are so applicable to our life now in 2006.

Be sure and read versus 4 thru 8 as you

dust off these words from 1832

and look at the gold underneath...

America....I Give Thanks for YOU!

America
by Rev. Samuel F. Smith

My country, 'tis of Thee,

Sweet Land of Liberty

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From every mountain side

Let Freedom ring.

My native country, thee,

Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,

Thy woods and templed hills,

My heart with rapture thrills

Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,

And ring from all the trees

Sweet Freedom's song;

Let mortal tongues awake;

Let all that breathe partake;

Let rocks their silence break,

The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God to Thee,

Author of Liberty,

To thee we sing,

Long may our land be bright

With Freedom's holy light,

Protect us by thy might

Great God, our King.

Our glorious Land to-day,

'Neath Education's sway,

Soars upward still.

Its hills of learning fair,

Whose bounties all may share,

Behold them everywhere

On vale and hill!

Thy safeguard, Liberty,

The school shall ever be,

Our Nation's pride!

No tyrant hand shall smite,

While with encircling might

All here are taught the Right

With Truth allied.

Beneath Heaven's gracious will

The stars of progress still

Our course do sway;

In unity sublime

To broader heights we climb,

Triumphant over Time,

God speeds our way!

Grand birthright of our sires,

Our altars and our fires

Keep we still pure!

Our starry flag unfurled,

The hope of all the world,

In peace and light impearled,

God hold secure

God Bless America.......

Our Marine, Chuckie and Melissa Jo, at the Military Ball on Sat.

Results of MJ & Pipo/Chuckie love....our own 'grown up' Lil Turkey...

Tenacity

The quality or state of being stubbornly unyielding: bullheadedness, doggedness, hardheadedness, perverseness, or firm determination...

Seems like a negative trait from some of the above dictionary

descriptions....

But I see tenaciousness in family members that is

certainly channeled in a positive way...

For example, the trait of 'not giving up', or

the 'don't quit' attitude has it's roots in being....tenacious!

I have a cousin who has no arms...

Yvonne can do anything that I can do...and do it better!

As children she was one of the first to suggest adventures

for only the brave...often I carried them out and got caught

in the process but she was the 'tenacious instigator' of

my youth... it took me years to figure out that

there was a 'good guy/bad guy' role here and

everyone thought Yvonne was a 'sweet angel'....

NOT....

Years later as she and I were in the process of getting contact lens,

the young Dr. was trying to be very diplomatic when

he asked her

if she could put them in her eyes herself...

Her reply, "Sonny, I'll put it like this,

I have not seen nothing yet

that I can't do!"

That is the positive definition of

Tenacity....

Yvonne & I... aka: 'sweet angel' and 'bad guy'!
Only we know the 'whole' story of the broken toilet top....

Charlie's 'work in progress' , The Milagro, on the Kissimmee River in Okeechobee...

Charlie's beloved Milagro...he is working this week on her in Okeechobee....this is what he calls FUN!

Our Britt and her two boys, Joshua and Dylan...today the family did a special 'blessing' of little Dylan and an added one to our dear Joshua...This took place at Chad's on the water and was a very inspiring and fun time....

Chad & Joshua 'cutting up' as usual...

The 'Family Blessing' of baby Dylan...

Britt and her special Dad, Rich...

Pops and 'his Joshua' after not seeing each other for 3 weeks...

Who is the happiest?

Check out Photo Show Animated....Miracle Cruise

Dreams DO Come True....
7 days at sea with no work what-so-ever!
Now that is a dream vacation!

Long awaited cruise for Charlie and I....

Leaving Tampa harbor....rainbow blessing of cruise was a great start to a Miracle week of Fun, Food, Foolishenss and Friends....

First formal night with the Captain....lobster and champagne....

Eating.....eating and more eating....5-star meals in the dining room....this was just an early morn coffee break....ship, Carnival Valor, in the background....we were served coffee in our room every morning by a steward who looked just like a man from Okeechobee...

Cozumel harbor....cruise ships make the people happy....

In Cozumel we rented a car and toured the Island which is still
recovering from last year's Hurricane Wilma...

Click on pictures to enlarge....
Senor Frog and Charlie at.....Carlos n' Charlie's in Cozumel....
Matt had picture made in this same spot 2 week before....
Charlie got hat and shirt to prove it....

Sister ships, Miracle and Fascination in the Cozumel harbor....off loading around 5,000 happy tourist....rain or shine!

Sam & Sally, Faith & Charlie.....Belize under cloudy skies....yet we were HAPPY tourist!

Finally made it....Belize was one of my 'dreams' from years past....

Joseph, our very capable guide...he is a single father with 3 children....11yr. old twins and a 6 year old...we will be mailing presents to his family at Christmas if anyone wants to participate...

This is 'stilt living' for the poor in Belize...since Belize is 2/4 ft. below sea level, water is everywhere almost all the time...drainage and burying the dead is a real problem....

Joseph with Sam & Sally...he showed us the good, bad and ugly of Belize...

Cucumber Island in Belize...

Our second 'formal' night on Friday...

Saying good-bye to our young friend, Frank, from Ohio...yep, it is a GOOD Life!