Love Busy

I just figured out I can not post any pictures under my name... UGH... OH MAC (new computer) I am not totally sold on you yet.. I liked it better when I knew what I was doing.  Off to the other computer Land and try this again.  Beautiful weather here in Southern California today.... AHHHHH even the air smells good.  Hey, did I just fall down a rabbit hole?

Better?

The flat pancake tire I found on my car this am is fixed (sort of the triple A man put the spare on) and my kitchen sink is again working.  Better right?  Lots of tension in the family air here tonight, dinner was lacking in any conversation... but it is better right? When is it going to be better? Reading the bible study ONE MONTH TO LIVE and I have not picked it up in days.... after the wonderful stimulating dinner tonight and bible study next Monday, I thought I better pick it up and start reading a little more.... SMACK, Smack, Smack in the face... How would you live your life differently if you only had one month to live.... Or are you living that way now?  Big questions... Failure is never fatal... love that line only it should say minor inconvenience are not fatal... So having the flat tire fixed and the sink back... better right? Other inspiring words.... We don't have control over many things in life.  We don't get to decide the dates on our gravestone.  We don't know when our time on earth will be up.  Only God knows.... BUT there is one thing we have a vast amount of control over.  We get to decide how we're going to use our DASH (the dash is that little line between the year when we were born and when we die.... it's our life in between).  Then they ask the question are you living the dash? Or dashing to live? ahhhh I am better...

RECAP: Rich is home from his mancation (love this word from Lia), I would like to say he had a great time but to quote him he said sometimes the golf got in the way of a really good time, because it was GOLF.... probably something only real golf players understand.

I spent the weekend up in Big Bear with my friend Donna.  The sky is always so blue up in the mountains and the peace, quiet and solitude is so refreshing. No  constant hum of freeway noise like here at home.  We didn't get much scapbooking done but we did go down the hill to Temecula for the Susan G. Komen Breast cancer walk. Very festive and motivating to see all those people walking for  "HEALTH OF HOOTERS"  (this was a little song diddy I heard one of the team singing).  Little kids walking, a girl on crutches, wheel chairs being pushed... lots of people in pink shirts.  You just can't help but get emotional! Walked with niece Cassie Donna, had a couple of her nieces there and I am just glad we did it.  Sometimes it is so easy to talk your self out of something... even if it is something you want to do.  

Robin Kelso, is doing a huge craft show in Clairmont this weekend.... 450 vendors according to the web page.  Robin designs for DEMDACO.  You can go to Demdaco put her name in search and see her line.  At the show she will only be selling originals.  Yes, I plan to get there early since she never has as much product as she can sell. 

I started this blog post on Tuesday and it is now Wednesday.  Life just keeps happening. Off to live and love in my dash moment.  A little happy hour with the hotties and then a trip to Scrap Nation.... or Scrapbook Oasis for a little fun with Lia and the ladies.  LOVE YA.  Tomorrow I am going to post a picture of the HUGE screw that was in my tire. They pulled it out today, plugged the tire and put the spare away.  IT WAS HUGE and I am thankful I did not have a flat on the way down from Big Bear Mountain on Monday.  Yeah, things are better.  

testing 2,3,4

The new IMac is home and sort of up and running, with the exception of our local cable email provider.  So I thought lets give this a try with the new Mac and google and see what happens. So hello this is me on the new mac...   Now I will attempt to add a picture from Iphoto...  Not as smooth or as fast as I would like but I am still on the learning curve with the new puter...

This is where I made Rich sit on his bottom for about 2 hours on hard black lava rock while we waited for night fall to see the glow of the volcano.  It was so worth it.  Or so I thought till we had to hike back with our flashlights in the dark, back over the lumpy bumpy lava rocks with other tourist who see better than you breathing like hot lava down your neck so they can pass you ... IN THE DARK,  driving back to our hotel in the darkest dark, no street lights on a two lane road we didn't know, in the rain, just enough rain to keep the wipers wiping... with the ocean on one side... we think we could not actual see the ocean and one car in front of us, bright lights bearing down on the other side of the road.  At one point Rich had the opportunity to pass the car in front and I said I don't think we want to be the lead DOG here. Rich slowly letting the circulation back into his fingers from grabbing and holding the steering wheel so tightly... that is when you are scared and say God, I really liked seeing the volcano but now I am questioning my wisdom in this decision so please see us back safely... He did.  Now it is safe to say I really like it.  You can check out the local flow and volcano update here.  I will add more photo's later.  Have to go check for FIRE update.  Rich just called and said there is one burning here in Irvine...  ALOHA

Aunt Liz

While we were in Hawaii, Kauai to be exact, the services were held in Las Vegas for Aunt Liz. We were sad we were not there to say Aloha and be with her sister Susan and her family during this time and to say our final earthly good bye to a beautiful woman. I did want to share with you a letter we had written to express some of the emotions that courageous Aunt Liz brought to our lives.

Aloha - to everyone gathered here today to honor the memory and joyfulness that Aunt Liz brought to our lives. We wish a special Aloha to Susan, Jerry, Deborah, Elizabeth, Jerry and to the rest of your family. Even though we are not there today with you – we are there in spirit and holding you all close in our hearts and prayers today.

Richard, myself and the rest of our family wanted to express our love, emotion, gratitude and admiration for this amazingly brave and courageous women we called Aunt Liz. It is very hard to find the right words to convey to others what a true treasure she was in our lives. After writing and rewriting words in trying to describe the meaning of what Liz met to us I think God stepped in and said here it is - this is what Liz showed you - this is how she lived her life. I am going to use parts of a daily devotional from an email that was written by Jim Liebeit from March 30, 2008, that best describe our Aunt and Friend Elizabeth Fix

The bible verse is from James 1:2-4

Consider it pure JOY, my brothers, whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.

Jim Liebeit, goes on to say… an elderly blind women was being moved to a nursing home. When she arrived, she was taken to her room. She entered and told the attendant enthusiastically, “I love it” the attendant questioned the women…. “how can you say you love it, when you’ve never been in it before – and you can’t see what it looks like?’ The woman spoke up “seeing the room dosen’t have anything to do with it. Happiness is my choice. I have decided to love my room. Every morning, I have a choice on whether I focus on what I don’t like about my life or what I do like about it. I’m choosing right now to love the new room where I’m going to live”.

Liz had more than her share of trials, being windowed much to young, two time breast cancer survivor and many other life challenges….. Pastor Liebeit goes on to say “so much about the quality of our lives is determined not by the situation itself, but rather how we respond to it and one thing we all can count on for sure: Our lives will not be lived without trail, struggle and pain”.

Liz demonstrated that she lived with grace, she choose joy and even happiness, in the face of difficult life situations. I am not sure many of us could find it within ourselves to choose joy during the difficult seasons in our lives. She showed us joy in her relationships: being married to Uncle Bob, being a fabulous sister to Susan, a friend and companion to Charles. She showed us joy in this crazy place called Las Vegas. If you were in her presence you were in her JOY.

From a trip to the Shore of New Jersey years ago to the shores of Kauai in September 2006, celebrating a birthday with Liz and Susan this past March, here in Las Vegas…. These are a few memories to treasure for a lifetime.

Her lively personality and fiestness…. Her adorable LIZ ISMS – “housework is bad for your finger nails” and money in your pocket book in the casino is called LETTUCE. The time in Kauai she looked out the window of the car at all the vegetation and plant growth along the side of the road and said “you know it would look a lot neater if they would trim it up”.

We have a huge empty spot in our heart knowing Aunt Liz is no longer there to show us the joy that she so generously gave away to everyone.

We don’t want to think of today as saying Good Bye to Aunt Liz, rather we want to think of it as ALOHA. Thank you Liz, for spreading the joy and letting us be part of it…

All our Love
Hugs, Prayers, Aloha and Kisses


Rich and Jackie

Rich and I had our own goodbye in Kauai at the Waiohai on Friday morning at about the same time as the service in Las Vegas. We found this great place in Las Vegas aloha 2 go, from the Internet and there is a man their named Joe who took care of us and made sure the lei's were delivered where they need to be and were at the Church on Friday. We along with Rich's brother Kevin and family sent special lei's for Aunt Liz and Susan, and had the purple orchid lei's sent for the rest of the family. We felt at least that way we could all be their in spirit with all of them. Susan, later told us that they were beautiful and plentiful lei's (since you never know sight unseen over the Internet what you might get - we were happy to hear her review, we have since called JOE to thank him for all his help and assistance and we have threatened to stop in his store next time we are in Vegas and say hello, bye the way he lived on Oahu til he moved to Vegas 10 years ago, we enjoyed a few conversations about his Islands).

Here is a picture from Friday September 26 at 6:00 am in the morning, the sun had not yet risen over the horizon so it is a little dark but you can see some of the Orchid flowers on the rocks waiting for the tides to take them out to sea. We shared a few memories of 2006 out loud with each other and we could see Liz standing their putting her flowers in that same spot only two short years ago on a Friday Morning. We cried, remembered and prayed asking for that peace and understanding only the Lord can provide. I think we felt some peace but as a human I don't think I will ever understand it all til I am one day standing in heaven.

Some of my friends call me a romantic (notice Friends not spouse call me that) and I have this beautiful picture in my mind of Jesus at this colorful garden gate all covered in lovely flowers of all Liz's favorites - welcoming and saying hello to Aunt Liz. And then through the gate she see Uncle Bob, no words are exchanged he just takes her hand and walks her back through the gates into heaven and they just smile at each other so much in love and the only thing he says is "I have been waiting for you".

They now get to spend eternity together!

I know they had a true love and I want to thank them both for being a "married relationship example" for Rich and I.

In the previous post STUFF, a couple below you can see the three of standing at the same spot by the green railing in 2006 and the flowers from Liz and Susan's lei on some of the same rocks. Oh thank heaven for pictures!

Time to turn the computers off and get them into the computer store for their BRAIN merge. We had to buy that new computer and we did go MAC.... and they will transfer the information from the old one to the new one and it will take about three days. We have great pictures from our trip and lots to tell about the Islands - but it will have to wait for now.

God Bless you all with a wonderful day and week... Interesting side note my bible study group is reading ONE MONTH TO LIVE this fall. I will keep you posted on the insights... Find your happiness Aloha

Tropical Vacation

oh my -  am I really home from that fabulous tropical vacation?.  Two weeks of fun, a little adventure, sun, fish, food and about 500 plus pictures.  OH MY digital is great but 500 pictures. Still on major re-entry after the red eye last night... I mean this morning.  Lots to share later...The tropical music in the background is fading slowly.... So happy to be home love to travel love to come home.   Love to all of you.