Tag Archives: #amblogging

You Can’t Outgive God~Part 3

19 Aug

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Red Spot Plane

 

DiVoran remembers that when it was time for lunch that day, we went upstairs to a fancy Trattoria. After we were seated, Erika discerned a small spot on the white tablecloth. When the waiter came to take our orders, she insisted, in rapid Italian and much hand waving, that the waiter immediately change the tablecloth for her American friends. DiVoran and I really felt sorry for that poor waiter but, the way Erika brow beat him, it was all we could do to keep from laughing out loud.

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On the train back to Venice, we joked and laughed so hard, about all of our experiences of the day that the four hour trip passed like one. We were each given a small package of cookies as a snack and, later, when DiVoran said she wished she had more, a young man who had been listening and enjoying our jokes, tossed his package of cookies onto her small table as he walked past to get off at his stop. That brought on another round of giggles.

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That day’s experiences will give you just a small idea of how many of our wonderful Italian vacation days went for us. Some were better than others, but they were all marvelous and we treasure the memory of each one of them. We really hated to leave when our vacation time was up, but all good things can’t last forever. We also learned that Marcia was instrumental in helping Erika’s father Lorenzo get a job with DCL as translator and Italian coordinator with the shipyard workers. She really had her hand on the pulse of that DCL office.

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So, when construction on the “Wonder” was finished Marcia and Erika, along with Lorenzo and his wife Ornella, were among the Disney team members who worked their way across the Atlantic, on the ship making it ready for its first Disney cruise from Port Canaveral, FL. DCL had made some special arrangements for their two cruise ships to arrive at Port Canaveral at the same time for PR purposes. The “Wonder” was arriving from Italy, and the “Magic” was returning from a regularly scheduled cruise. Our whole family went to the port to see the two ships arrive and it was quite a sight. There were news helicopters everywhere, “Welcome“ signs towed by airplanes, daylight fireworks fired off from the two ships, and “Mickey” hands for all of us to wave at each other with. It was a typical Disney gala event.

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DiVoran and I invited Marcia, Erika, Lorenzo and Ornella to a birthday dinner for my sister Judy, where they were able to meet our entire family. Judy and her husband Fred, our daughter Charlene and her husband Ron, our son Billy and his wife Lisa, and their two children Jacob and Lacey all crowded around the dinner table, getting acquainted while we ate. It was Lorenzo and Ornella’s first trip to America and they were interested in everything they saw and heard.

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We all had a great time and Erika invited DiVoran and me to be her guests on the first training cruise to the Bahamas on the “Wonder.” You can imagine our surprise! Neither of us had ever been on a pleasure cruise of any kind, so this was too wonderful for us to believe. And let me tell you, it was every bit as WONDERFUL as you might imagine!

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As you can see, that original gesture of love and acceptance DiVoran showed Marcia way back in 1987, began a friendship that has lasted many years. And, for us, has been returned many times over and in many different ways over in the years since then. Our God is so good about keeping His promises to us when we listen and follow His instructions and directions.

 

Luke 6:38

 

—–The End—–

 

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More Thoughts on Church Music

10 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistWal  pardner, now that you have asked, I have a couple of  things to say about church music. Loved your blog, by the way, Onisha. Opening a dialogue may help.

The church we are now attending has a contemporary service and a traditional one. The traditional one is at 9:30, which is okay with us. It gives us time to get ready in a leisurely way and gets us out by 11:00. That’s when the contemporary service starts. We get the beautiful sanctuary, they get the big fellowship hall. I’m sorry to report that stained glass windows and real pews are pleasurable to me.

Stained glass png

They don’t seem to label the two services, so we first attended the 11:00 o’clock contemporary service. I, who have not yet lost my hearing, had to wear earplugs, not only for the music but for the service as well. Oh, by the way, in case anyone needs to know, I’ve used about all the earplugs on the market and I’ve found the white wax ones work best. I can still hear but it’s not painful. Soon all the children will start to turn deaf and then no one will need earplugs any more. There are only so many decibels the human body can stand without deafness setting in.

But I digress.  Our grandchildren’s parents used to invite us to Christmas specials at churches around their town, but they had to stop because even when we didn’t complain they could tell the service was just plain too loud for us. That was one pleasure forfeited, but the grandchildren are all grown up now and out on their own, so I suppose it’s not a huge loss.

I read that one of the churches in town is going to have a “Swing Low,” evening. I’ll bet that would be fun, but I’ve been fooled too often to think the volume will be something I can handle, so I have decided not to ask Bill to take me. That’s okay, as a young performer said in a contemporary service: if you want to hear hymns, listen to them on your iPod. Believe me, I do, I listen to them frequently and I sing along too. iPod,  iPhone, and You Tube are my go-to devices. Really, if we didn’t want to, we wouldn’t have to attend church at all. We could just use the T. V. and the Internet and send our tithe to them. A friend told me that their minister of youth made a teaching out of “why we don’t use hymns in the church anymore.” I wouldn’t have minded hearing his thinking on the subject, but I probably would have had to wear my earplugs in order to do it.

Believe it or not, loud sounds distress me in a way I can’t control. One time, I had to walk out of a church because the music gave me such a panicky feeling I felt driven out. It would be all right not to have instruments, as Onisha suggests, but perhaps it’s not so much the instruments that raise the decibels as it is the powerful microphones and speakers.

Any good rant has the phrase, when I was a child:  When I was a child and we had plays in school, we were taught to speak loudly enough so we could be heard all the way at the back of the room. I know from personal experience that it’s easier to use mikes, but at least everything didn’t have to shut down if the candles blew out.

The church we’re attending now seems to have some decent long-range plans for making more people on both sides happy. We’ve been going there for a couple of months now and haven’t heard the same music group twice. This church has a long history of highly valuing its music and musicians. Sometimes the young people come in and sing hymns for us, too. They seem to like them fine, even though they’re not particularly easy to sing if you aren’t used to them. Many younger people, learn real music in chorus and band. I’d love to hear the fruit of their labors reflected more in church services – and we are hearing that now, so I’m not complaining about what we currently get.

The church we’re attending has a small, but good band. They have an admittedly senior choir. They had a “younger person” play a gorgeous saxophone piece last week. The pianist is top-notch and well educated in music. She lives for it. During the week she may be seen popping into the library in a lovely dress on her way to a nursing home to play.

One good thing has happened with the hymns here, they’ve been jazzed a bit. Maybe the no-hymns group will like them better that way. I do. You could actually waltz to them now.

The church we were in before was so casual they even valued having me as part of the praise team because I could sing loudly and usually carry a tune. We had a keyboard, acoustic rhythm instruments (yes, tambourines – gasp!) and six or seven singers. We had one hymn a week. Other than that we sang the older choruses that had melodies and the songs that the minister of music wrote herself. We had no hypnotizing droning. Everyone could hear the music very well, but it wasn’t so loud that anyone would be deafened by it.

I dearly love the younger church set. I love their enthusiasm for church and what they are doing for the children in giving them pertinent and exciting activities.  Such grace, such variety, such hard work. Sorry if you feel that we older people are a burden because we won’t or can’t change. We’ll be gone before you know it. You’ll miss us, though. Is it possible that even God cannot deal with this problem? Now why would that be? I thought he could do anything.

Here’s an old one made new. I like it, how about you?

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Go West Chapter One~Ellie

3 Aug

I was having fun with my cousins from Georgia over the weekend and didn’t have a chance to  collaborate with DiVoran on her regular Monday post. So I thought it would be fun to share with you what else she has been up to. As well as blogging and poetry, DiVoran is also an author of Christian fiction. She has been writing a serial  western romacne novel and a new chapter is posted each week on Rebekah Lyn Books. PLUS she creates orginal art work for each chapter! If you like this excerpt be sure to read the other chapters~Onisha

Go West

By DiVoran Lites

Chapter One

Ellie

Elizabeth Morgan, riding backward, looked out the train window at a sign that said, Clifton. It was here she hoped to find a plan and purpose for her life. As she stood, she studied the Victorian-style train station with several men milling on the boardwalk. They wore ragged clothes, battered hats, and down-at-the-heel boots. For a moment, she tried to imagine them dressed in well-fitting woolen suits with homburgs or fedoras on their heads. Then shaking her head, she gave it up. All the imagining in the world would not make this burg into downtown Chicago, and that was fine with her. She needed a new life, maybe she’d find it here.

Smoothing kiss curls over each cheek, she straightened her narrow-brimmed cloche. As she reached toward the shelf for her tapestry carpet bag, an arm went over her head and carefully lifted it down. She looked up at a tall man with silver-blond hair and gray eyes that were the kind that turned blue on a sunny day. He now held the carpetbag in one hand and a deep brown Boss of the Prairie Stetson in the other. She didn’t know yet who he was, but she knew from working in her grandparents’ department store back home, that he had good taste in hats. His frayed khaki shirt, however, looked as if it were part of a uniform from the Great War.

via Go West Chapter One~Ellie.

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Midnight Excitement Part 2

15 Jul

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Small Red Plane

 

 

The helicopter left the scene and officers began to return to their cars, so I assumed the excitement was over and went back to bed. My neighbor told me that later, after I had gone back to bed, they retrieved a pickup truck and an unmarked police car from the woods, and carried them away on a tow-truck. I had only seen what was going on in the street in front of my house, but my neighbor also informed me that she had seen and heard Sheriff’s vehicles on the power line sand clearing (trail) that runs alongside her house while all this activity was going on. That apparently was where the police officers/sheriff deputies had finally apprehended the suspect.

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And now for the rest of the story!

 A couple of days later I was able to view the 30-minute Sheriff’s Department helicopter video of the chase and discovered that the suspect was driving a pickup truck during the chase, and that the small dark car (with its lights off) was actually an unmarked police car at the front of the chase. When I had first been awakened and looked out the window, the suspect’s truck had already passed our house and rounded the corner, and I had thought the unmarked police car (with its lights off) was the suspect’s car. And, when I saw the two cars facing in opposite directions in the intersection, it was really two police cars, and the two officers must have been trying to work out their next move in the chase of the suspect. I also learned that, before racing thru our quiet little neighborhood, the suspect had been chased through a fatal hit-and-run police crime scene on U.S. #1, where he hit two police cars and nearly hit at least one officer. The video also showed the truck being chased off the paved streets into the woods and onto a power line clearing (trail) and a walking trail, where at one point a second person jumped out of the truck and ran off into the woods.

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In a subsequent newspaper article, I learned that at some point in the chase, the suspect stopped long enough for deputies to attempt to arrest him. As they approach his truck, he refused to exit his vehicle and suddenly accelerated, ramming into a deputy’s car and speeding away. When the suspect was finally apprehended, having gotten stuck in the deep sand portion of the power line clearing (trail), he resisted arrest to the extent that officers had to TASER him. So, that was why the EMTs had been called, to make sure the suspect was OK after having been TASERED. That same newspaper article listed the following charges that had been filed against this suspect:

 ‘Grand theft of a motor vehicle, DUI with property damage, driving while license suspended/revoked/canceled with knowledge of first offense, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident without giving information, four counts of aggravated assault of law enforcement officers with a weapon or firearm, two counts of aggravated fleeing or eluding an accident with injury or property damage, and one count each of fleeing or eluding with lights, siren, high speed or recklessness.’

 And if that isn’t enough!

 Today we learned, on the local NEWS, that Law Enforcement Authorities believed that the suspect, driving another vehicle, was the same person who hours before the chase I had witnessed, was the one who had caused the death of a motor cyclist on U.S. #1, and fled the scene. This was the very crime scene location on U.S. #1 at which the suspect, in the stolen truck, later had been chased through, hitting two police cars, before being chased into and through our neighborhood.

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NEXT STOP FOR THIS SUSPECT

 Now that’s what I call some real “Midnight Excitement” part of which had taken place right here in our very own quiet little neighborhood!

 

—–The End—–

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A Third Option

13 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

Sometimes when we go to a doctor and we’re not sure the doctor knows what he’s talking about, we decide to get a second opinion. It’s the same with making a personal decision. We can study and work at making the right one, but we may not be able to come to a solution without asking for advice from a friend. That’s all right, there is safety in consulting together. But there is another way.

A general of the Israelite army, Joshua once said,

“As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

It turned out that Joshua did serve the Lord in every possible way. Title of picture that comes with this one is Jericho. It’s the walls of Jericho and the trumpet players.

Jerico Small

One day, Joshua knew that his army was supposed to occupy the walled town of Jericho, but he wasn’t quite ready to make his move. Suddenly, he looked up and saw a big man standing in front of him with a gleaming sword in his hand. Joshua asked, “Are you on our side, or on the side of our enemies?”

“Neither, “ said the man. I am here as Prince of the Lord’s host. Take off your shoes for you are on holy ground.” Joshua took off his shoes and stood ready to listen to anything the Lord had to say.

In his commentary, Matthew Henry says this big man was the same one who came with three others to Sarah and Abraham to tell them they were going to have a baby in their ninetieth decade of life. It was actually Jesus who visited them and now he had come to see Joshua.

Jesus told Joshua that God had secured Jericho for the Israelites and he told him exactly how the army was to claim their victory. There was no need for Joshua to strategize or plan, no need for him to consult his officers. The Lord was in charge.

You may already know what happened at Jericho, but if you don’t, you can read all about God’s surprising action in the Holy Bible in Joshua Chapter 6.

Now, think about it. Could Joshua or any of his men have come up with the plan they saw worked out by the Lord? Never in a million years. And what if they had been able to imagine it? Do you think they would have had success carrying it out? Not at all. If you don’t know the story, please read it in your Bible in The Book of Joshua Chapter 6.

No one but God knew and no one but God had the power to carry out the plan. The answer he gave transcended anything a human could have thought up or accomplished. What an adventure for the humans involved!

Dear one, do you know that you and I can experience miracles every day. They may not be what we expect. Maybe they aren’t even what we think of as miracles, but if we are open to God working in our lives, we can experience surprise, synchronicity, and serendipity every day. All we have to do is forget plotting and planning, and forget asking advice from our friends. The more we practice hearing from God and following His leading, the more exciting our lives will be. Let’s do it, let’s ask for that third opinion.

Joshua, Chapters 5 and 6.

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Granny~Part1

12 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                                  

 

I call her my “favorite” Granny, mainly because I didn’t know my other Grandmother very well. The “other” Grandmother lived two states away, and we only saw her once in a while – I would like to think we went there every Summer, but I’m not sure.

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But Granny lived in Albuquerque near us (with my Aunt Jessie), and we saw her quite often. She and Aunt Jessie moved to Albuquerque in 1952, but before that, Granny would come and stay most of the summer with us. One of my strangest memories, is of coming home from school and realizing that she wasn’t there anymore – she had returned home to San Antonio. It was a very empty feeling.

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But then they moved to Albuquerque, and she became a very real part of my life. They lived about 10 minutes away from us, and then in the years I could drive, I would spend nearly as much time at their house as I did at ours. So that house became as dear to me as our house did.

4I remember that Granny could make the best meringue pies ever. She could seal that meringue to the pie crust so I could never tell what kind of pie it was – until it was cut.

I would come home from school and she would have a pie cooling on the rack, and would challenge me to guess what kind of pie it was. It could be one of her wonderful chocolate cream pies, or perhaps her butterscotch pie, or then again, it could be her great lemon meringue pie. And by George – I could never tell what it was. When I make a meringue pie now, even if I seal that meringue to the crust, it ALWAYS pulls away from the crust as it is browning! Shucks!! I’ve never gotten the knack – and she never taught me how to do it. I have her recipes for the chocolate and butterscotch pies, but she died before I could get the lemon. I’ve never found any recipe to match the one she had.

One memory I have of her pies is a fun memory, but wasn’t too pleasant at the time. She had made a coconut cream pie especially for my Dad, since it was his favorite. He took one bite of it and didn’t really say anything about it – most unusual for him, as he always complimented Mother and Granny for their cooking. Then Granny took a bite and exclaimed, “Whoa! Who put the salt in the sugar bowl?” Apparently she had mistakenly replaced the sugar with salt and didn’t know it until she tasted it! Into the trash THAT pie went! And Daddy was too much of a gentleman to tell her how horrible it tasted!

I have mentioned in other musings that my Aunt Jessie owned and operated a small diner in downtown San Antonio in years past.

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It was small, but well attended and even earned a write-up in the San Antonio newspaper.

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While they had a “cook” for the diner, Granny made all the pies. And people would come in for a slice – or even purchase an entire pie to take home to their families! They were that good.

~~~~~~~~~~To be continued~~~~~~~~~~

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Midnight Excitement~Part 1

8 Jul

A Slice of Life

 Bill Lites

Bill Cross Plane

 

The other night, at 2:30 in the morning, the wailing of sirens and flashing red and blue lights bouncing off my bedroom walls jolted me out of a sound sleep. “What was going on?” I said to myself. I sat up and looked out my front bedroom window just in time to see a small dark car (with its lights off), followed by four Titusville city police cars, zip around the corner in front of our house and race off up the street. I thought, “Wow, a movie style chase scene right here in our quiet little neighborhood!”   I had never seen a movie or TV chase scene that took place anywhere but on a busy city freeway or on an open two-lane road out in the middle of nowhere. I wondered, “How could anyone expect to get away from the police in this maze of one-block and curving streets that make up our small neighborhood?”

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I waited a few minutes to see if anything else was going to happen, and then laid back down to try to go to sleep. A short time later I heard the wamp-wamp-wamp of a helicopter buzzing around overhead and more flashing red and blue lights. When I looked out the window this time, there were two cars at the intersection, a police car facing one direction and the other car (with its lights off), facing the opposite direction. I thought “What kind of a standoff is this?” Just then, the car (with its lights off) sped off up the street, and the police car wheeled around to follow after it. This time I sat there waiting to see if there would be any more activity. I could see the helicopter flying around in large circles with its search light probing the area.

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It wasn’t long before the first car (with his lights off) came speeding back down the street it had just gone up, whipping around the corner, and headed for the dead-end of our street just two houses down. I said to myself, “They’ve got you now Dude.” That short portion of our street has a big steel barrier across it with nothing but thick woods on the other side. Just then the three other police cars came roaring up and uniformed officers piled out of their cars and headed for the woods.

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A couple minutes later, as the helicopter continued to circle overhead, illuminating the woods with its search light, several Brevard County Sherriff cars, red and blue lights flashing, came zipping into the intersection to join the fracas.

The whole area was swarming with uniformed officers, and one of the Sherriff Deputies removed a German Shepherd dog from his K-9 SUV on a leash.

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As this scene unfolded before my eyes, I wondered what the suspect(s) could have done to warrant such an extensive manhunt. I would have to watch the local NEWS in the morning for sure. About ten minutes later an EMT vehicle threaded its way through the crush of official vehicles in the intersection and stopped. The EMTs got out with their emergency bag and headed for the woods. I couldn’t see where they went, but my neighbor told me later that by then they had the suspect out of the woods and handcuffed, at the dead end, out in front of her house. She said that after putting on gloves, it appeared the EMTs didn’t have anything to deal with on that suspect, as it seemed that they only questioned him.

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—–To Be Continued—–

 

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Janet and the Paint Puddle

7 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

                                          

Fred and I waited until he graduated from college before we married. We had known each other about three years and engaged for half that time (I invite you to revisit my October 5, 12, 19, 2014 posts on “How We Met”).

As soon as we left the wedding, we headed for Fort Worth, Texas, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where Fred was to study for the ministry. While there for four years, I went to work, getting my “PHT” degree – you know – Putting Hubby Through, while Fred achieved his MDiv and MRE (Master of Divinity/Master of Religious Education).

When no ministry openings came available for Fred upon his graduation, and his Draft Board became interested in him, he began checking into the military openings. And so we found ourselves in the United States Air Force.

We spent one year in San Jose, California, while Fred studied Meteorology. We then spent three years in Wiesbaden, Germany. Our next tour was 13 months in northern Maine. And the follow-on tour was in San Antonio, Texas, where Fred was an instructor in the Air Force Officer Training School.

After living in apartments and government housing all that time, we decided it was time to finally own our own home. And we found one that was quite comfortable, and a new construction.

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The entry to the house was divided from the living room by a half-wall, with spindles to the ceiling.

After we had been in the house for several years, we thought of painting that half-wall and entry way, and set about to do it. We laid out a cover for the carpet, just in case. We had a step-stool to get the higher-up areas. We had our rollers, brushes, and paint trays that we kept filled with paint.

Roller
Roller
Brush
Paint tray
Paint

Karen was in school, but Janet was still at home with us. We were busy painting, and had warned Janet to stay either in the living room or her room, but do NOT come in the entry way. However, I frequently found her edging her way around one of the half-walls and into the entry way, rather than going the other way, through the kitchen and family room. And then, as you might surmise, I looked up, saw her squeezing by that half-wall again, and I yelled, “JANET!” Startled, she looked up, whirled around and lost her balance, and SPLAT! landed right in the middle of the “puddle” of paint in the paint tray!

Fred was rather furious, but I picked her up (she was bawling by this time), and took her to the nearest bathroom. While she was in the tub, with me “hosing” her down, the whole thing just tickled my funny bone. I began to giggle – as did she – and we had a great time cleaning up.

She survived the paint – and we survived the painting. And it’s a sweet memory.

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Grateful to be an American | Janet Perez Eckles

4 Jul

We were the envy of the neighborhood. Our neighbors watched us ride in a cab toward the airport. We were leaving Bolivia and heading to the land where dreams come true.

And along with dreams, integrity fueled my father to enter the U.S. with documents in hand, sacrifice in his heart, and commitment in his resolve.

Now, years later, as naturalized citizens, each 4th of July fireworks of gratitude explode in me.

Yes, America has her issues, problems and struggles. But to me and my family, it is still the greatest country on earth. And America   is uniquely special as he is the place where her founders honored God above all.

Through the years living in our new home, we learned the joy of prosperity and also the sadness of trials. But how sweet to know that mountaintop episodes make us grateful, but rough valleys make us grow.

Read more via Grateful to be an American | Janet Perez Eckles.

 

 

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Are electronic devices the doom of family time?

2 Jul

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

FrienI'm a winner

The heat wave here in the hills last week, kept me inside chilling with the A/C. This week is much more pleasant, weather wise and fun wise.  We have been enjoying a visit from a Florida forever friend and have taken some short but scenic drives. When we haven’t been out enjoying the sights, we seem to gravitate to a comfy space and spend time on our “devices” At first thought, this seemed a bit anti-social. But today I realized, it is very much like the “olden days” when people would grab a section of the newspaper to read, then share a laugh or tidbit of news with everyone else.

Last evening our daughter Rebekah flew up  to spend the holiday with us. We always have a good time when we are together here in the hills. There was a lot of excitement going on this morning. We could hear a mowing/chopping machine moving through the neighborhood. Our roads are communtiy owned and we hadn’t paid for any maintenance. Those machines are impressive! The saplings that were crowding the road were no match for this beast. I watched, fascinated as it’s arm reached out and leaned the tree over then began chopping and grinding. By the time  the machine moved on, the road looked like a tornado had been through. Can you tell it doesn’t take much to entertain me? Meanwhile, our friend from Florida was so excited about the cool temperature that she insisted on dead heading our rose bushes.I made the barest of protests before handing her the pruning shears. We now have tidy rose plants and clean (sort of ) road sides. What a day!  But wait, there’s more. Our son and his family came for dinner and even though it was raining, the husband set up a large umbrella and grilled chicken. I had brined it that morning and it was so juicy, we all enjoyed it. After dinner we played some rounds of Would You Rather and Apples to Apples with the grandchildren, who like everyone’s grandchildren, are the most beautiful, adorable and smart grands around.

To finish the evening after our son went home  we spent time on our back porch, listening to the drip-drip of the rain and enjoying the fireflies. Rebekah reminisced about the fun she had chasing them each summer and I smirked remembering the blessed relief of not having to entertain her! Then we all retired to our comfy spots and picked up our electronic devices, kind of like the times when cities had a morning and evening edition of the newspaper.

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