Hilton Head Snow!

This is a picture of one of my very favorite places to go. This is Harbour Town, Hilton Head Island on December 23rd, 1989. I don't think they see much snow in Hilton Head. My sweetie and I received this print as a gift and I framed it and put it in my office. You can see the lighthouse in the background. They really did have a white Christmas that year, but I bet it didn't last long. I'll be back later on, I've been really busy with work so I need to get a few things done. Have a great Monday!

Beauty & the Beast

Okay, so I had to post this picture of Cleo(the beast) watching over Maddie(the beauty) while she was sleeping. It's in the category too cute for words. Don't worry, Grandma and her trusty camera were never far from the scene so Maddie couldn't fall off the couch. Actually she can climb off the couch herself now that she's such a big girl. But isn't this cute? Maddie, Cleo and Mr. Potato Guy(Spudy Buddy)all hanging out. Have a great weekend!

Cold Morning Walk

My sister June and I walked this morning in the 17 degree weather and this is how the river looked from the walking path. If you click on the photo you can see the steam rising from the water. We were the only brave souls out by the river except for an old man walking his dog. If we had a mall close to us it would be great to go and mall walk but any mall is at least a half hour away. But it wasn't too bad, we were both pretty bundled up. My sweetie's taking me out to get some warm walking clothes this weekend, so I'll be ready to go. He was a runner and knows just the kind of gear I'll need to walk in the cold. Here's hoping for warmer weather soon!

The Note

I was browsing the book store in search of Karen Kingsbury's newest book when I came upon this book called The Note. The photo on the front caught my attention first and then I read the back of the book and here is what it says:
When the unthinkable happens.....
En route from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Tampa International, Flight 848 bursts into flames and crashes into Tampa Bay. All 261 passengers and crew are killed. For one week, newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder and her fellow reporters cover one of the nation's worst air disasters in years with overwhelming and numbed emotions.
Then a woman Peyton's never met gives her a plastic bag that has washed up behind her house. The bag contains a note, almost certainly from the doomed flight, with a simple yet wrenching message:
T ~ I LOVE YOU. ALL IS FORGIVEN ~ DAD
Combing through the passenger list to find the victims whose children's names begin with T, Peyton is determined to deliver the note to it's proper owner. A quest that will prove as important to Peyton's own life as to the mysterious T.

I am about a fourth of the way through this book and it is good. You guys know I am a big Karen Kingsbury fan so I am thrilled to find another author. The woman who wrote this book is Angela Hunt and this book is considered women of faith fiction. In her author's note at the back of the book she writes about how God has written mankind such a note as the one above. Just like the fathers in the book, He loves, He cares, He mourns when his children leave Him out of their lives. He wants us to know he loves us and has forgiven our neglect of this all important relationship.
Maybe that is what drew me to this book. In the note he doesn't say that this thing is forgiven or that thing is forgiven but all is forgiven. Awesome....
On an end note, this book has been made into a Hallmark movie you can go here to check it out. It is on this Saturday @ 9pm on the Hallmark Channel, it stars Genie Francis. It does look like they have changed a few things. The location is North Carolina instead of Tampa and it is Christmas time instead of the summer but they always do that in movies. I am going to DVR this movie. I don't know how this book will translate into a movie. Sometimes a good book doesn't make a good movie and sometimes a book I can hardly get through makes a good movie. Who knows why, either way check out the book, it is a good read. Have a good day!

Travel Tuesday - Ireland

This is my sweetie kissing the Blarney Stone, where it said if you kiss the stone, you gain the gift of gab. I didn't kiss the stone because number one it's really high up and there is a huge gap between the stone and wall and number two I already have the gift of gab. But really I was so scared of the height and kept thinking the man that holds you might lose his grip and you would fall, so I walked all the way up the castle for nothing. Also on the property is where I bought most of my Irish treasures at the Blarney Woolen Mills where I got the most beautiful Irish wool sweater. Check it out if you love beautiful wool sweaters and the styles are timeless.
This is my sweetie and I at the Cliffs of Moher, which rise 700 feet up from the Atlantic and stretch for 5 miles along the coastline. Absolutely spectacular! This was one of the most awesome sights I have ever seen. Read that first sentence again, these cliffs rise 700 feet up from the Atlantic and stretch for 5 miles! But let me tell you, it is very windy at the Cliffs of Moher and there are no barriers to stop anyone from falling off and I heard stories of people falling before. We were there in February of 2003, so it was cold and very windy. You'll notice that when I travel, I always go in the off season and that is because it is less expensive and also less crowded then the busy time of year.
This is a picture of me at the Blarney Castle. Just wanted to show you that even in the winter that the grass is green.
And I'm not sure where this was at. We were on a escorted bus tour and the bus just stopped here for a photo op, but I liked the landscape.

And here is one more photo of the Cliffs of Moher, just to show you how awesome they are. When you stand at the top, you really feel the awesome power of what God has created.



My sweetie and I went to Ireland on an escorted bus tour in February of 2003. It was our first experience with an escorted tour and we both really enjoyed it. We were with a group of travel agents from around the country and we just all clicked as a group. We flew into Shannon and even as the plane landed you could see just how pretty this country is. All green with many streams, just beautiful and while we were in Shannon we went to Bunratty's Folk Park, which depicts Ireland's past. We headed on to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway City where we visited the Royal Tara China Factory and then on our way to Dublin we stopped at the Waterford Crystal Factory and watch the artists at work. Now that was fun! You should see some of the one of a kind pieces on display. In Dublin, we went to Trinity College, home to the Book of Kells and we also visited St. Patricks Cathedral. Dublin was also a fun shopping city. Then it was on to Blarney where my sweetie kissed the stone. We also did the Ring of Kerry, which has spectacular scenery. Now that I go over it all, we did so much in a little over a week and I would encourage anyone who has the desire to go to Ireland, to do it. Either as we did it or on your own. What was great about the escorted tour was that everything was done for us, all of our bags were loaded and unloaded at each stop for us. But you are on a schedule, so if that's not your thing, doing it on your own would be better. Once again I feel like I glossed over this wonderful country, it is beautiful and the people of Ireland are about the most friendly I have ever encountered on my trips. I would love to go back to that area someday and see Scotland and maybe Northern Ireland. I haven't decided where to go next week yet, maybe we'll try somewhere I haven't been too yet. Either way, I hope you enjoyed our visit to Ireland!

Christmas Past and Christmas Present

When I was growing up in the 1960's my parents had a silver aluminum tree like the one above with a rotating light like the one below. I wish I had a picture of that tree and I'm sure there's one somewhere but this is the best I could find on the internet. Do you know these trees are now considered vintage? And that some stores have a price of $300.00 or more for one of these babies. My sweetie tells me he remembers my parents still having that tree in the early 70's when we started dating but my memory is fuzzy on the time frame that this little beauty left the living room for good. I think it was one of those items where you either loved it or hated it.
Gotta love that rotating light. LOL So when we were married in 1976, it was my first experience with a real tree or at least that I remember. My sweetie's family has always sold Christmas trees since his Grandfather started their business and this year might be the last year for the seasonal Christmas tree sales. We used to have so much fun going and picking out our tree and so many families would come and it would be a big party of food and fun each year. But things change and we had to move from our downtown location to another one. I do love the smell of a real tree, but I don't love cleaning all the needles when we take the tree down.
So Maddie(granddaughter) and Mommy(daughter) and Daddy(son in law) came over on Saturday night to help with the tree. I think Maddie liked taking the ornaments off more than putting them on the tree. My tree is a mixture of ornaments from our 31 years together. I still have one from our honeymoon, a Mickey and Minnie ornament.
And just to show you how sick my Starbucks habit is, I even have a Starbucks ornament. I really only go maybe once a week to get my Pumpkin Spice Latte, but that's probably because there are no Starbucks close to my house. :-)
And here's the finish product. We have another little tree in the family room and I'll show that some other time. I'm trying to figure out the best scene selection with my new camera, I'm still learning about it so right now this picture was taken with the flash but I think I can get a better one without the flash. Happy Monday and have a great week!

The New Do

This picture was taken a week ago on Thanksgiving.
And this is a picture of my sweetie and I last night with my new do. I really like it, now comes the hard part, getting it to look like this again. LOL Can't I just have someone come fix it for me everyday? She explained to me how to fix it, but my eyes kind of glazed over as she was talking, round brush, blow dry in opposite direction...... yea, yea..... We got a decent start on our Christmas shopping last night and hope to finish it tonight and our Christmas tree is in out of the cold and ready to be decorated. Hope the weekend is going well for everyone.