Celebrating America This Week

Type in on the Bible search on the right...Psalm 115:14....

this is my prayer for YOU and

A M E R I C A....

Rainbow Connection

Photo from: Angie Poole

There’s No Debate…..
Reading my inspirational devotion today makes me ‘certain’ of my ‘core beliefs’…..
……that being…God IS Good!
Knowing God personally….from years of ‘faith living and believing’ as well as reading His resume in His Instructional Book for Life and Living….
there is NO debating the fact that…..God IS Good!
Beside all that…..He deals in…..Miracles!
I don’t know about YOU….but I really NEED Miracles for myself and my family and friends… Does any other ’religion’ offer miracles?
Why waste our short time on earth….not knowing….the Creator of the human race?
This is what my ‘inspirational reading’ has to say for today….

“Unknowingly, some of us think we serve a God who is stingy, who loves us only in proportion to how much we work for Him, who is embarrassed by laughter and surprised by spontaneity.
We have forgotten that each day is a gift---and all the work in the world won’t give us more. We’ve forgotten that the mark of a believer is not only love but joy, wonder, appreciation, surprise, creativity, peace, tenacity, hope, simplicity, and even…..PLAY.
May God open us to the ’little things in life’ so that our hearts don’t grow old…
May He teach us to be supple and thirsty for the everyday wonders of being alive so that our minds won’t grow weary.
May He help us not to have to be so useful…..that…we become useless…."

My ‘core values’ are the same as those above…..there is no debating the fact that…..God is the author of…..The Good Life!
***Devotional taken from…Keep On Dancin’ by Tim Hansel

2-4-1
After writing the above....I decided to include something that I had written in
April 2003...(from the archives)....it elaborates on the above....

Are You Sure?
When I think of......miracles.....Joy leaps in my heart!
They are a delight to behold, to experience, to pray into others lives and to receive.....out of the blue!
Miracles happen every day.
The brilliant genius Albert Einstein has this view on miracles:
“There are only two ways to live your life:
One is as though nothing is a miracle;
the other is as though EVERYTHING is a miracle.”
The dictionary defines a miracle as.... “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.”
Do you know that you can make miracles happen in your life and the life of others? The most familiar way to make a miracle happen is to.....requisition or harness the tremendous, often underestimated....power of prayer.... particularly if you are one who is blessed with.....faith.
Prayers are answered.
You do not need to feel you are being pushy or presumptuous when you pray for something.
After all, it was Jesus Himself who urged his followers over and over....to lobby God for their needs. “Ask and you shall receive,” Jesus said.
“Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Jesus always practiced what He preached and did not hesitate to perform His wonderful miracles on those who ASKED Him for a miracle.
The medical field is paying more attention to the fact that at times seemingly incurable diseases disappear without standard medical treatment or other human means.
It is often described on medical charts as.. ”spontaneous remission”....Yet, they still can’t explain....how it happens, or why it happens to one patient and not another. There is medical truth that our attitudes and emotions are linked in critical ways to our bodies, specifically our brain, and nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. Numerous brain chemicals - - -released in response to everything from sadness to euphoria - have been proven to affect the immune system.
Exactly why the emotions affect the body is not fully understood.
But there is evidence that certain psychological and spiritual states CAN change the course of disease.....
An on-site doctor and president of the Lourdes Medical Bureau, Dr. Roger Pilon has this to say about miraculous healings at the famous Lourdes Shrine in the French Pyrenees....
”In every disease there is a psychological part.
Any doctor will tell you that someone who wants to be cured is a better patient and has a better chance of recovery than one who give up.”
Why do some people have miracles ....and others don’t?
Only God knows the answer on an individual basis but based on my experience with Him..... ....Faith is the answer.....
Faith’s definition based on Hebrews 11:l says.....
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and CERTAIN of what we do not see...” or....”substance of things hoped for.....yet evidence of things not seen...”
That’s faith.... Faith produces miracles for ourselves and others.....when we petition God...believing in our hearts ....we are Blessed by.....Miracles.
I pray for a MIRACLE for YOU.....today!
....God's only pain is to be Doubted:
....God's only Pleasure is to be BELIEVED!

Human Statue of Liberty!

CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO....THEN YOU WILL SEE THE ACCURATE DISPLAY!
I checked this out on : Snopes.Com
It said this:

Human Statue of Liberty
Claim: Photograph shows U.S. soldiers forming a giant Statue of Liberty figure.
Status: True.


I find it amazing that this photo, taken so many years ago, actually still exists!
Now someone has put it online for all of us to see.
This INCREDIBLE picture was taken in 1918.
It is 18,000 men preparing for war in training camp at Camp Dodge in Iowa.
EIGHTEEN THOUSAND MEN!!!
What a priceless gift from our grandfathers!!!

A reader whose great-grandfather appeared in this picture passed along some contemporaneous information about the photograph prepared by the Committee on Public Information for selling of war bonds.

The design for the living picture was laid out at the drill ground at Camp Dodge, situated in the beautiful valley of the Des Moines River.
Thousands of yards of white tape were fastened to the ground and formed the outlines on which 18,000 officers and men marched to their respective positions.
In this body of soldiers are any hundreds of men of foreign birth — born of parents whose first impression of the Land of Freedom and Promise was of the world's greatest colossus standing with beacon light at the portal of a nation of free people, holding aloft a torch symbolic of the light of liberty which the statue represents.
Side by side with native sons these men, with unstinted patriotism, now offer to sacrifice not only their liberty but even life itself for our beloved country.
The day on which the photograph was taken was extremely hot and the heat was intensified by the mass formation of men.
The dimensions of the platting for the picture seem astonishing.
The camera was placed on a high tower.
From the position nearest the camera occupied by Colonel Newman and his staff, to the last man at the top of the torch as platted on the ground was 1,235 feet, or approximately a quarter of a mile.
The appended figures will give an adequate idea of the distorted proportions of the actual ground measurements for this photograph:
Base to shoulder: 150 feet.
Right arm: 340 feet.
Widest part of arm holding torch: 12-1/2 feet.
Right thumb: 35 feet.
Thickest part of body: 29 feet.
Left hand (length): 30 feet.
Tablet in left hand: 27 feet.
Face: 60 feet.
Nose: 21 feet.
Longest spike of head piece: 70 feet.
Flame on torch.: 600 feet.
Torch and flame combined: 980 feet.
Number of men in flame of torch: 12,000
Number of men in torch: 2,800
Number of men in right arm: 1,200
Number of men in body, head and balance of figure only: 2,000
Total: 18,000
Incredible as it may seem there are twice the number of men in the flame of the torch as in the whole remaining design, while there are eight times as many men in the arm, torch and flame as in all the rest of the figure.
It will be noted that the right thumb is five feet longer than the left hand, while the right arm, torch and flame is eight times the length of the body.
God Bless America...Land of the FREE and Home of the BRAVE!

Carla, Kason & Kevin visit...Go Gators

Carla & Kevin gave Pops 'Gator shirts' , what else?

Pipo with son Chuckie, swim before rain arrives....

Of course, Lil Chuck is my 'playmate'....he says "I'm the IVth"...

Ash gets Kason as a playmate while Lynn and Carla take

Lil Turkey for 'ice cream'....

Kason is sooooo good....a wonderful 9 mo. old.

Carla & Kevin....wonderful parents.

Uncle Matt always gets the baby sooner or later.

Carla and nephew, Lil Chuck, who loves her sooooo much!

Vinnie V. arrives with Samatha....Kason has another playmate....

I Appreciate Life!

As I read my todays 'Daily Word' about the Wonder of Life, my heart leaps with the joy of agreement. Taking a nature walk, basking in the sun's glow as our family will be doing today when our Carla, Kevin & Kason visits, I am immersed in the awareness of God's blessing to us.

One verse says it all to me about the beauty that God has provided on this earth.

Type in on the Bible search on the right

Romans 1:20

then scroll to the New Living Translation ....click Update

Yep, man is without excuse when we see, daily, the wonders of God....

Check it Out!

I have added a new link on the right of this page.

It is the complete Bible - Online - in many versions and with a concordance so that you can

type any word in the search bar and it will take you to scripture that includes that word.

Or type a Book and Chapter number in and when you get to page you can select, in the

scroll arrow, which version you want to read.

For instance: try Psalm 139

Poor David was being chased by 'his enemies'....enemies of 'righteousness' for the

God kind of living.....but he halted in his distress of life to reflect on who God really

was to him and how vital each life is to God.

Read it as a personal letter and you will see....how SPECIAL YOU ARE!

Life is a book of memories we start writing early to be read over and over again.

Happy is the person who enjoys what he has written....even when he is old!

Then.....and....NOW!

Double Trouble....Double Fun!

Smartest girl in the World....

Let me tell you about my cuz, Yvonne.
She is the 'smartest girl in the world' to me!
She can 'figure out' how to do ANYTHING that she needs or wants to do.
I was fascinated again last week when I went up to Live Oak to celebrate her birthday with her...
She had an elaborate meal cooked when I walked in the door, she had run errands all over town (in her new RED car) and all before 12:00 noon.
She puts me to shame!
When I saw her newly decorated guest room that she had been working on, I was sooooo impressed! It was beautiful....then I heard her craZy story of 'returns' in order to get the colors she wanted and I 'laughed my head off'.....
After our cemetery visit and some clean up there and bench painting, we started doing some 'clean up' on her new laptop. Again, I have to say, 'she puts others to shame'.....
We started organizing her pictures....she 'had help' from various relatives and there was pictures 'everywhere, everywhere, everywhere'....
Finally, we went to work and named albums, threw some 'relatives' in the recycle bin because of duplicates, and she then took over the control of her computer....
Again, I say, SHE IS SOOOO SMART! She was steps ahead of me in everything!
I salute you, dear Yvonne....you are the greatest!

"What now, girlfriend?"

Laptop, digital camera, GPS, anything at all is her 'expertise'

Finally we began to 'party'....just the two of us....
Pepsi, candy bars and each other was our 'happy hour'!
Yvonne with new 'Palm Beach' sunglasses....way to go girl!
Did I mention that she had a RED car?

Happy Birthday my dear cousin....I am proud of YOU!

Happy...was the name of the Day!

C H A D.......
....
From Joshua & Dylan...
We celebrated Chad's birthday and Father's Day together at Chad's
pool and clubhouse at Channelside....
it was fun with our family and the 'Pulido' Family as well...
What is Charlie doing with those 'Elvis looking' pants?

Chad & Joshua acting crazy as usual...

Hope, Ash, Teresa, Lynn & Dylan enjoying the outdoors...
BEFORE the 'pool incident'!

The children swim & eat....having fun.

Ash has a B I G bite of pizza.....

Happy Father's Day to....Drew, Danny, Charlie & Jeff
We celebrate YOU!

Celebrating Yvonne's Birthday in Live Oak

Good Morning, Birthday Girl!

Seafood lunch for two in Lake City...

Happy and Blessed Day to Yvonne, my dear

cousin....I love you!

Fun with Sally, Sam, Susan & Bill...celebrating birthdays and visiting Cindy

Friends, Bill & Susan came for a visit and we took them to
Ybor City...they are 'Floridians' and had never been to Ybor
before so it was fun to share it with them...
Sally & Sam also came and we celebrated Sally's B'day for
4 days....had a wonderful, fun time....eating continuously!

Highlights of the fun was visiting Cindy in Cortez Village...
She is such a delightful host, and her unique cottage home
is a wonderful surprise every time we visit...
She certainly brings 'life' to her home....

Susan 'sets a spell' at Cindy's neighbors dock....
Bill 'sets a spell' in Cindy's inviting chairs...
Mustang Sally, I presume....

Open Wide Bill!
Annie's Bait Shop Hamburgers...the best!
Thanks, Cindy, for a wonderful 'old Florida' treat...

Bill, Sam, Sally, Susan & Faith....Columbia Restaurant...

Thank you guys, for a fun time....Thanks, Charlie, for

taking the picture.....'Click on picture to enlarge....

Prayer.....Family Tradition

Prayer is as essential to my life as......breathing!

Our family knows one thing about life....that praying to God, inviting Him into our activities as a family, is a 'known given'. The young ones learned early to bow their heads and 'thank God, by 'saying the 'blessing' before eating their food.
But of course, I 'come from' a praying family....Always the 'blessing before meals' was a southern tradition of our faith.
Just wouldn't feel right to eat without first 'blessing the food' as my Uncle Os used to say....
Our Joshua learned early that everyone holds hands and 'says the blessing' before eating...
Now I love to hear him 'say the blessing'.....even 1 yr. old 'rascal' Dylan knows the blessing routine. What a joy it is to hear a child pray.
I remember Carla when she was about 6 or 7 during a family prayer time and we reminded everyone to 'pray for Uncle Rich' who was in the Desert Storm Gulf War in 1990-91.
Carla began by saying, "Lord, please help Uncle Rich as he rides the camels in the desert" and everyone cracking up laughing...I'm sure God did too!
After all, where do you think we got our 'sense of humor' from if we are 'made in His image' as it says in Genesis 1:26-28...."Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature....God created human beings, reflecting God's nature, He created them male and female..." Thank you, Lord, for a 'sense of humor' being part of your 'nature' reflected in us.... .

Nena Lynn, teaches Joshua to pray before eating when he is 1 year old.
JJ will be 7 on July 13th and I love to hear him 'say the blessing'......
Joshua N O W.....This is what 'Happy' look like!

Dedicating a child to God is of even more importance

than educating him.

Celebrating Mattie's C's Birthday

"Yes, it is true....I'm 26"

Ash & parents, Hope & Danny and Mom, Lynn
think it is....Hot, Hot, Hot

Being in the pool sure helps cool things off...

Special cards and gifts...

Lynn tempted to give brother, Chad, some 'pie in the face'...


Nena and grandson, Dylan, and pest, Chad...

Dylan & Joshua's Mom, Britt, and her special Uncle...

Pipo, Matt, Chad & Brian....being nice for a change...

Happy Birthday Matt...also, Congratulations on
your new 'promotion'.....