Remembering

It is a time for remembering those who have gone before us. When I was a little girl, it was the time for us to go to Jasper, Alabama, to Homecoming at the First Baptist Church where my Mother's family lived. We would stay at my Grandma and Grandpa Jones house or at Aunt Vera's house. It would depend on how many people in our family was going to show up.

My Grandmother, Gertie, had an Aunt Genara and I remembered standing on the back of her rocking chair when I was about 4.  I saw down her blouse; she had a prosthesis breast. This was in 1952 and I was about 6 years old. I remember wondering what she had in her bra. Aunt Genara was probably 60 years old by then, overweight, with white hair and granny glasses. She wore an apron most of the time. She was Grandma Jones' younger sister. I never asked anyone anything or even said anything to anyone about what I saw. Those were the days that children were to be seen, not heard.


In 2009, when I discovered the lump on my breast, that memory came back to me. I had not thought about it in years. When I told my mother, she did not even know, neither did her sister Margie. Then the BRACA test came back and said the cancer was not genetic. So, it really did not matter any way.

The point is that when we remember things about family members, illnesses, problems with hearing or eyes, we should write them down in a journal or the family Bible. I have always relied on my memory a lot, but now since I have been experiencing Fibro-Fog, I will be keeping a better log of things going on in our family. My grandmother always wrote things in her Bible.

Google has some amazing ways to sort your pictures and events in your life. Facebook does the same thing. It seems like every day I get asked to join another Social Media program; I think I have reached my max. I have been deleting myself from some. The ones that matter to me are the ones I need to keep Empire Avenue going. I could care less about my scores on Klout and other things like that.-

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

L - Live, Laugh, Love A to Z Blogging Challenge

These three words are the purpose of our lives. God wants us to Live, Laugh, and Love.

• Living life to the max is to know your creator. 
• Pray He agrees when you tell Him your plans. 
• He wants you to depend on His grace and not your own understanding. 
• He wants to see joy in your eyes when you are obeying his commands. 
• He lives in your heart and whispers in your ear. 
• He wants you to hear what he has to say.

As we approach the day of Jesus' death on Good Friday, and his Resurrection on Easter Sunday, we need to give thanks that God gave us his Son, Jesus, to bear our sins on the Cross. All the sins that man ever committed or will commit were carried by Jesus. 

I read Matthew 27 last Sunday. It was eye-opening to me.

The Death of Jesus

27:45-56pp 

45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 

46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ""Eloi, Eloi," "lama" "sabachthani?""--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 

49 The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes to save him." 

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 

52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 

53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!" 

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 

56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

Verses 52-53

Did you ever notice these two verses before?

I had read them before, but they never had jumped off the page at me until Sunday, when Ray told me what his class discussed in Bible Study. Here is a copy of what Matthew Henry had to say:

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible 

"The graves were opened, and many bodies of saints which slept, arose. To whom they appeared, in what manner, and how they disappeared, we are not told; and we must not desire to be wise above what is written. The dreadful appearances of God in his providence, sometimes work strangely for the conviction and awakening of sinners. This was expressed in the terror that fell upon the centurion and the Roman soldiers. We may reflect with comfort on the abundant testimonies given to the character of Jesus; and, seeking to give no just cause of offence, we may leave it to the Lord to clear our characters, if we live to Him. Let us, with an eye of faith, behold Christ and him crucified, and be affected with that great love wherewith he loved us. But his friends could give no more than a look; they beheld him, but could not help him. Never were the horrid nature and effects of sin so tremendously displayed, as on that day when the beloved Son of the Father hung upon the cross, suffering for sin, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Let us yield ourselves willingly to his service."    

I pray that this has helped someone in some way. I have the conviction that God spoke to me to put this out today. To me it shows that when Christ comes again, we will be taken from the grave and rise to Heaven with to be with God.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

 I am also putting this on my blog "Thoughts of Christ" 

and will expand over the next week or so.

YEARS ENDING PINK?

Flowers sent to me by
Kathy Ireland
when I was so sick
with pneumonia.

ENDING PINK? On January 2, it will be 4 years since I found the lump on my right breast. On January 28, it will be 4 years since I had surgery to remove part of my right breast and some lymph nodes. It has been a rocky 4 years, after the life-sucking tiredness of radiation and the nauseating chemo-therapy, there still is the overwhelming feeling that the cancer is coming back. I know this is not a good way to think, but sometimes you just cannot control your thoughts.

Kathy Ireland - Super Friend!

I try so hard to be positive and be the Professional Encourager that I say that I am, fights this feeling every day. Something about the word "Cancer" just changes your life in ways that people that have not been through it can not understand. For me, it was like hitting a brick wall at full speed. I was fortunate that the cancer was only very minuscule in the lymph nodes. The treatment was supposed to take care of that and I am still on the 5 year regimen of pills that is supposed to keep it from coming back.

Then, after the chemo, my mother came to visit. You know that when your mother comes to visit, especially if you haven't seen her in a while, you hire people to clean the house and the yard. The house looked great, but unfortunately, the yard guys stripped out all my beautiful Clematis vines and my Grecian urn garden (actually dragged the stones and pots into the street). Mother and I were both prolific gardeners and it made us both sick. The second day she was here, we drove to our "beach house" in NC. On the way down, I started having terrible pain in my right side. I thought it was just "air." Not so, by the time we reached the house, I was in so much pain, I could barely walk. My daughter called 911 and the Rescue Squad was there in less than 4 minutes.

They took me to the beautiful hospital in New Bern. They took many tests and determined it was pneumonia. Ten days there in the hospital went so quickly because Ray brought my computer and doped up on morphine as I was, I really got into Twitter. I became fast friends with people all over the world who ended up praying for me to get better.

Finally, I got to go home to VA. Then I checked in with my doctor here, and ended up back in Riverside Regional Medical Center with pneumonia again. Ten more days with my Twitter friends. During that time, our new pastor at First Baptist Church of Newport News VA, came to visit. He is a very kind and caring person, Pastor Dale Seley. He later told me that they were not sure I was going to make it. They had people come in and sit with me from church because I was in a private room and Ray had to work. The lovely ladies from church were wonderful.

The morphine must have been keeping me upbeat, because I don't remember feeling that I wouldn't make it. The one thing that I clung to the whole time was my love of God and knowing that no matter what happened to me personally, I would be in a good place with Him. I guess he wasn't finished with me yet, so here I am.

Looking back over the past four years, there have been many times when I have been depressed. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis from the markers on the BRACA  test for cancer. I have experienced a lot of pain, but I must always take another look at the day from a different prospective. I see so many people out there who are a lot more worse off than I am. A dear friend, Sandy Gueierre in Wilmington NC has been a great help to me. All I can tell you, is keep your faith in God; He will carry you through it all. He will be your best friend and the love of your life.


My husband, Ray, has be absolutely wonderful through all this. He is so patient with me and says "yes" to everything I want to do. He knows my heart and is truly the man that I prayed for so many years.

I have met so many people on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. They all had a part in my life that kept me positive. Dabney Porte, my beautiful Social Media Girlfriend has been there for me the past couple of years. She always has a positive attitude, no matter who is trying to tear her down. She has been one of the rocks that I lean on. She has so much integrity, spirit, and love that I cannot imagine how anyone could ever be mean to her. Although, lately, there are a couple of sick people who are trying to destroy what she has, but they will not succeed. Any time you try to tear down others, you are the one who ends up on the bottom of the heap.

Thank you all for all the help, love, and friendship you have shown me over the past 4 years. I love you all more than you will ever know.

GOD IS GOOD - ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME - GOD IS GOOD!

By the way, if you like this blog,  

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Also, be encouraged by:

http://thoughts-of-christ.blogspot.com

http://thoughts-of-harmony.blogspot.com

http://barbara-duke.blogspot.com

http://attitudeaptitude.blogspot.com

http://lionsgreenroom.blogspot.com

http://nnlions.blogspot.com

http://sweettweetslifeplan.blogspot.com

http://twitter-sweettweets.blogspot.com

http://environmentalhome.blogspot.com

LABOR Pink

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Last week was intense. Ray insisted on watching every minute of the Republican Party Convention. Not that I didn't enjoy it, it does get boring after a while. I just wish I could go and vote tomorrow. I started watching the Democratic Party Convention tonight and it was even more boring. I just don't know about politicians, do they think we believe every thing they say. I do know that things in this country are in a mess. I wish they would quit blaming each other and just fix it.  They seem to want to fight over every thing so nothing gets done. Just put the money back in Social Security and leave it alone. It was not meant to be a backup for the budget. Why, if we have all this oil underneath us, are we in an energy crisis where a gallon of milk cost less than a gallon of gas? So much for that. I am getting off my soapbox for today.

We went down to NC for the weekend to see family and check out our Beach House. It rained most of the weekend but that wasn't so bad. Ray and I had a chance to relax. I had a strange week. I found a tender spot on the breast where I had the lumpectomy. I had a mammogram and a diagnostic ultrasound. Then they made a hurry up appointment with a surgeon. It turns out his father actually removed my gall bladder in the 90s. Dr Marshall Cross, what a personality. He made me feel better. He tried to contact the radiologist but he was gone for the weekend. He said that he would call me on Wednesday and if I didn't hear from him, to please call him on Friday. He asked me if that was alright and it was because he said I was probably fine, he just had a question about the way the radiologist worded something in the report. He wanted to make sure I am okay. We are praying (but I still have my wig!).

Can you believe that I fell asleep typing last night? I was so tired from cleaning and doing laundry all day. The only thing about going to NC is I usually bring home work to do. I have a Doctor's appointment this afternoon and then I have to go to church to hang up the quilts we made for CHKD chemo patients (children). The quilts are going to be part of our celebration tonight for the beginning of our new year at our family dinners and Bible study. It will be so nice to see all my regular friends and also some of the new members. We have had quite a few this past year. I may have to stop somewhere on the way to get some candy for the children tonight.

There have been a lot of things that have come to mind since I wrote my last post, but I just have to learn to write my ideas down. I am thinking about creating a blog to sell some of our personal items. I have some very nice things and the quality is just better than you see at yard sales. I have been thinking about a local site to do this. Just thinking. If you have ideas let me know. We are selling our beach house and it is full of nice things too. Too much stuff.

Got to go get ready for my exercise. Love to all!

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME-ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!

Pajama Party Week of Pink

I am the hostess on the Twitter #Slumberparty tonight at 11pm EST. We are having a #PajamaParty. I have asked everyone to put up a picture of their favorite PJs. We will see who has the best PJs. I wish we had a sponsor to give out prizes, maybe Victoria's Secret later on and we can have an actual contest. Think I will contact a retail company to sponsor our party next time so we can have prizes.
Dabney has great plans working on this fall. Dabney Porte is one of the most motivated people that I know. She is the ultimate Girlfriend. I just love #smgirlfriends. Click on the link to see what is going on today! Join us! Then there is #smmanners . Of course the SM in the titles stand for Social Media. It is a blast and I have made some really good girl friends on there. There are even guys on #boysontwitter on the Man Cave .
You can also check out #SMGirlfriends, Social Media Girlfriends, #SMManners, #SMManCave, and my favorite #SweetTweets on my Pinterest Board. Be careful, you can get stuck there all day.

I have started my exercise again. Monday, I woke up with a lot of pain. At 8:45, I called a friend and I worked out with the girls over the phone. By the time we were done, all joint pain was gone. My neck even quit hurting. Usually, I can only get over this by taking a Vicadin. I have felt better everyday that I have exercised with them and the days that I did it on my own. The pain has been so much better, I dropped 1mg of cortisone from my regimen on Tuesday and I was a little achy yesterday and today when I first woke up. My fingers even froze up this morning. After the O2 it quits. I think the oxygen part of this program is the key. It gets the blood flowing and cuts down on inflammation. I had shots in my knees yesterday and they really hurt this morning.

I am back. Pain free! The Exercise Session really helped. I did a lot better today, even though my little Snow Ball kept trying to lick my face and eat my tissue. He is so funny. Maybe I can get him interested in the exercise. I am cooling down now so I decided to let you know what I am doing. I was doing it last year before I started watching Benita and I really shouldn't have stopped. I was doing better and watching someone with Alzheimer's is so stressful and the breathing and the stretching really removes the stress in life.

Snow Ball

I am watching "The Doctors" and a weight loss program they are sharing. I still think the best thing you can do is "Eat Less, Move More!" You can eat just about any raw vegetables you want. They told me not to eat spinach, kale, turnip greens, broccoli, etc. because it had more Vitamin K and since I am on a blood thinner, it could make my blood too thin. Well, Dr. Oz says that I would have to eat a small car full of those things for it to make a difference in the thinness of my blood.

Barbara Duke

We have a new WELCOME Center at our church and I have been there the last two Sundays'. It is so nice to be in the foyer again. I really miss being the leader of the Welcome and Greeting Committee (ushers). At least at the Welcome Center, I can get my Sunday hugs again. We also have mints. We give out gift bags to visitors with information about becoming a Christian, information about our Sunday Bible Study, and our services. There is usually a small book with poems or stories inside also. I love doing things for the Lord. I missed quilting this week. Judy went to Northern Virginia, Lena and Hettie were not feeling well, and I had shots in my knees. Oh well, everyone needs a break sometime. I am going to do some cutting before next week. I need to put together another top.

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD

Sunday Rest Pink

Me and Ray

I am blogging, Ray is watching the Redskins play the Jets and reading the paper. He keeps reading to me about the sales. Why is the only time he really wants to talk when I am blogging.

We went to church this morning and I was the Lead Usher for the first service. Sandra took over so I could leave before the second service. I wasn't feeling too well. I may be a little depressed. I have been the Lead Usher for 5 or 6 years and now all of a sudden, I was asked to resign so someone else could do it for a while. I really didn't want to, but you just don't argue with God. There must be something that He has in the plan for me that will take away the hurt that I have felt because of this. I said a couple of times that if someone else would step up, I might be persuaded to give it up. Well, I guess the nominating committee found someone to do it. They never called and asked me if I wanted to stay on and help out. But, then I guess it will be easier for that person taking over, to do so without me in the wings.

Garrett and Taylor

I used to walk around the sanctuary to greet and hug people before the service. I know some of the elderly probably don't get a hug all week. So, I guess that is what I will do for a while. Meanwhile, I am going to take a couple of weeks and go to North Carolina and stay, so I can enjoy my grandchildren. I know my Sunday Bible Class will be glad to see me again.

Mother, Pat, Cindy, Jeremy

I still need some help in my house. I went into the upstairs in the shop yesterday and brought some Christmas Items out, but I am not going to do a lot. (Just enough to make me feel like Christmas is coming!) I just love Christmas. I love giving gifts much more than I do receiving them. I try really hard to get something that I think the person really wants and will not re-gift. My mother-in-law from my first husband is the original re-gifter. I always like to give her something that is personal, like a book. I even inscribe it. I still give her something, even though her son has been gone about 7 years and I haven't been married to him in almost 25 years. I always told her that I didn't divorce her, just him.  She is a real sweetie and I love her dearly.

Mother and Taylor

Karch, Jason, Heather, Tabitha

Speaking of mothers, my mother, Bertha, was doing well when I saw her at Thanksgiving. We were all at my brother's and it was so very nice there. Everyone had plenty of room and the children had a ball in the Movie/Play Room downstairs. They guys even enjoyed the play room, since part of it had a pool table. Most of the ladies took turns putting together a jigsaw puzzle. We didn't get finished but it was on the game table in the basement, so it may be there to finish when we go back. (I hope).

Jesse and Bryan in kitchen

I have been having fun on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and Google+. I just love all the wonderful people in my streams. Only occasionally, do I come upon someone who makes me pause. If someone is not nice, uses profanity, or is undressed in their Avatar, they are gone from my stream. I have a low tolerance for fools. LOL! I try to follow all who follow me, Sometimes Twitter hiccups and won't let me follow any more until I un-follow some, so I use Tweepi.com to see who has not tweeted in the past couple of months, and un-follow them. That way, I can follow people who will actually engage.

It is an absolutely beautiful day here, I hope that you are having the same. Just remember, God is Good, All the Time!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!