Making a difference

When I die, Lord please have people remember me as a person that made a difference. Don't have them worry about my money, Lord we both know that would be a small worry. Don't have them worry about my belongings, I would give them whatever they wanted now before I die. Don't have them worry about my family, I hope they know I'll never really leave them. I will always be in their heart.
Lord, have them remember me with a smile, a kind word (okay Lord, we're working on the kind part), a helping hand and generous spirit.
Amen

Alabama... Football country

I was raised watching football, from the backyard games, to school competitions to college. Paul "Bear" Bryant was the king of football. But if you look beyond the football field you would see why this man was great. Many people have stated this man was a mean **** but I say he was tough with morals and class. He died 28 years ago 01-26-1983 but I can still see him at pre-game time leaning on the goal post watching his boys. How little kids would walk up and ask for autographs and he never acted impatience and annoyed.
One of my favorite quotes from Bear was when Coach Bryant started laying down the rules for the Alabama team. He was clear that he would expect the players to behave like the winners they were.

"There's only one thing I expect...When you are out in public you represent this football team and you represent the state of Alabama, and you are to act accordingly. If you don't you will answer to me."


In my book excitement is required but showboating is unforgivable. When the players today jump up and beat their chest, point fingers at the other team or walk around like a gorilla showing male dominance .... well it makes me want to throw-up first then my aggressive personally kicks in and I want to beat their head, break their fingers or laugh at them for acting stupid.
Getting into the end zone is not a solitary feat and it is expected by the fans not a unexpected feat that should be cheered or praise for the one crossing the line. You are part of a team and I wish players today would start acting like they know that, and if they can't... well I think they should play a game where the out come depends on Just their effort.

Advise from my Granny

Granny always told us grandkids, "Don't wish your life away. Enjoy the moment."
Sorry Granny, but I wish it was spring. Enough already with the snow and below average temps. I live in the south and would like to have my mild winters back, please.

Kiss of Death

You can almost rate a book by how many times I lose it. One time, slow start. Two times, pace is still slow. Three times, I'm taking too long to read. Four times, must have picked up some because I'm still reading. Five times... The Kiss of Death or in book language... Thrift Store donation. Sigh, I'm looking for the book I'm reading now... this is the first time I've lost it so there is still hope.

Have you ever wished...

That you was a fly on the wall or maybe a dog on shag carpet! Love this picture. I feel this way sometimes, like everyone doesn't see me and I just blend in to my surroundings.

Envy... a four letter word

I really get steamed when a person can't be happy for another writer's good fortune. Be happy for them people! You can not always be the best at everything. Someone will be prettier, smarter, taller, have longer ears.... haheheheheha
To all my published writing buddies, I feel you're the one that can see over the fence and what is beyond (and you have a cool punk hair going and longer ears... the better to listen with my dear) and I'm right there beside you cheering you on knowing that one day I'll be able to see over that wall, too. Do you think my ears will grow?
I know I'm being silly but my silly message is be happy with what and who you are and don't be envies of others that seem to be achieving your goals and dreams. Work hard to achieve yours and be truly happy that your friend reached their dream. I mean wanting their happiness is like taking a sucker away from a baby... sure the flavor is there but you just can't get past the fact that there is gross slobber all over it.
Not that I've ever taken a sucker away from a baby... well maybe once when he was sticking it in his sister's hair.

The Only 12 1/2 writing rules you'll ever need

My niece put this on her fb page and I thought it was so cool and true.

I often see things in pictures

I love this picture by Jim Warren. What do you see, other than horses running out of a snow cap mountain.
I see change like winter changing into spring. A visual re-enforcement that things change when they move forward.

St. Florian Church at Christmas time

I was raised going to this church. My brother and his family still attend, thanks for posting the pictures Amy.

I still like to go to Midnight Mass because the stain-glass windows are so beautiful. Those windows and the church itself have a very old history. Those windows have witness many marriages, funerals and baptisms. When I was young I always imagined God lived in this church. I now know he lives in me.

The poor priest of my youth... my confessions were long and redundant. I often thought I should just record them so I could save time each week.

Between Shades of Gray star review from Kirkus

Way to go Ruta

go to Amazon and watch her video




Editor Review (reviewed on December 11, 2010)
This bitterly sad, fluidly written historical novel tackles a topic woefully underdiscussed in English-language children's fiction: Joseph Stalin's reign of terror.

On June 14th, 1941, Soviet officers arrest 15-year-old Lina, her younger brother and her mother and deport them from Lithuania to Siberia. Their crammed-full boxcar is labeled, ludicrously, "Thieves and Prostitutes." They work at a frigid gulag for eight months—hungry, filthy and brutalized by Soviet officers—before being taken to the Siberian Arctic and left without shelter. Lina doesn't know the breadth of Stalin's mass deportations of Baltic citizens, but she hears scraps of discussion about politics and World War II. Cold, starvation, exhaustion and disease (scurvy, dysentery, typhus) claim countless victims. Lina sketches urgently, passing her drawings along to other deportees, hoping they'll reach Papa in a Soviet prison. Brief flashbacks, seamlessly interwoven, illuminate Lina's sweet old life in Kaunas like flashes of light, eventually helping to reveal why the repressive, deadly regime targeted this family.

Sepetys' flowing prose gently carries readers through the crushing tragedy of this tale that needs telling. (maps, timeline, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12 & up, adult)

Wooly Worms... Weathermen?

All my life I've heard that the black bands on wooly worms tells how hard the winter will be. I've posted a chart of how to tell. All the wooly worms I've seen this year were solid black...I've never seen them before without some orange. We've had two measurable snows in a month... how do you think they're doing. Remember I live in Alabama where we get ice most of the time instead of snow.

You might be a redneck if....

You wear a robe, riding boots and Christmas socks to go out in 7 inch snow. This is the biggest snow since 1988 and in truth I think some areas got more than the 10 inches we got that year. No tracks on my road and if you'll look you will see why... that is a hill going down to a 90 degree turn. Even 4W drive would have trouble with this hill.

I don't write poetry but I do

Go figure... the more I say I don't write poetry the more pop into my head. This is a poem for my writing buddies who work very hard to keep me on track. I know nothing about beat and meter or just about any other rules for poems but that really doesn't matter because this is for me and I'm sharing it with you.











Friendship

Full sails, sandy beaches
Big rocks, and saddles

White capped waves, sunny days
Good books, and exploring places

New ideas, old stories
Understanding hearts and laughs

Free spirits, no judgments
secrets and shared tears

2011 Alabama Library Association Author Award

I just have to tell everyone about Irene Latham winning this award. If you've not heard about this book, Leaving Gee's Bend, check it out at www.irenelatham.com
Here is the first part (to me most important part) of the email she received.
Got to go and dance the happy dance for her

Ms. Latham,
As chair of the Alabama Library Association’s Author Awards Committee, it is my pleasure to inform you that Leaving Gee’s Bend has been selected to receive this year’s prize in the Children’s category.

I'm smoking ....

the keyboard... hehehe Burning Bridges is nearly ready for the treak job I've been think about... have two really great scenes I want to put in about chapter 5
Thanks to my writing friends that nagged, teased, and pushed me to get this done. It does feel great to be so close.

Words, words some we know and some we don't

How many of you look up words when you don't know them??? Or do you just make a intelligent guess or just skip them saying to yourself... Why do they put words like this in a novel. I've done all these things, but I've decided that if I like a book... then I need to know what it's saying.
Here is the word that had me running for the dictionary this weekend.

The cemetery had been in business since the pioneer days. There were graves that had been so exposed to the elements that you could barely read the rudimentary inscriptions.

If you know what it means... great you're smarter than me. If you don't .... :)
Look it up, I had to.

House is Christmas free and CLEAN

I love for my house to be clean.... the perfect world would be someone as ADD as me to clean it for me while I'm doing fun things... alas it's not a perfect world so I've got my exercise the last few days. Bend and polish, squat and mop, climb the stairs to put of tree, go up and down stairs to put up Christmas stuff. I think I should make a after Christmas workout video!!!

Granddaughter's new puppy, Lulu

Lulu makes four Aussies in the family. Lexie, Levi, Lilly, and Lulu I know we're a sick family but it makes it easy to call the dogs... we just call LLLLLLLLLLLL and they all come