Category Archives: Stuff I Actually Think

Thanksgiving Movies

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , , , ,

Let’s not rush into Christmas without considering a certain other “holiday” which does not get enough mention, in my opinion.  There are some Thanksgiving movies out there.  Here are 5 I like in no particular order…

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. 

Neal and Del (Steve Martin and John Candy) are hilarious in this 1987 movie about a business man desperate to get home in time for Thanksgiving and forced to travel with an obnoxious, yet engaging shower-ring salesman.  If you can watch it on TV, probably better, as the language on the DVD is pretty, wellllll – watch out! 

Quotes of note:

[waking up after sharing the same bed in the motel]
Neal: Del… Why did you kiss my ear?
Del: Why are you holding my hand?
Neal: [frowns] Where’s your other hand?
Del: Between two pillows…
Neal: Those aren’t pillows!

 “My dogs are barking.” ?  “You’re going the wrong way.” ? “I have, uh…two dollars and a Casio.” ?  “Git’ yer lazy butt out of that truck!” ? “Honey, I’d like you to meet Del Griffith.”

And? It has one of my all-time favorite songs, “Every time You Go Away ~ you take a piece of me with you.”

Oh, yeah.  Funny movie!  You’ll laugh.

 

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

 Why must you see this before Thanksgiving again?  Don’t ask that.  Just do it!  Do you really know anyone wiser than Linus, more vulnerable than the sympathetic Charlie Brown, more capable than Lucy (mygosh that girl is smart and such a choleric!), more talented than Schroeder, more loyal than Marcie, or more apt-to-question-her-feminine-identity-as-an-adult than Peppermint Patty?  And could there be, other than Gemma or Guini, perhaps, a cuter little sister than Sally?  Come on people, enjoy this o-so-sweet classic again.  And again. 

[after singing “Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother’s House We Go.”]
Charlie Brown: Well, there’s only one thing wrong with that.
Linus van Pelt: What’s that, Charlie Brown?
Charlie Brown: My grandmother lives in a condominium.

 

About a Boy.

This isn’t actually a Thanksgiving movie-because they don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving in London, since it is an American holiday.  And though it ends with a Christmas scene, and even though the main character is a man living off the royalties of his late father’s kitchsy Christmas song (which he loathes), it isn’t “Christmasy-enough” for me to watch it in December.  So, I enjoy it near Thanksgiving.

Wil (Hugh Grant) is living a hip, but shallow and pointless life compared to his friends, “My life is made up of units of time. Buying CDs – two units. Eating lunch – three units. Exercising – two units. All in all, I had a very full life. It’s just that it didn’t mean anything.”  He passes himself off as a single father so he can meet single moms (feeling they’ll be grateful for his attention, but easy to leave behind when they want commitment).  His game is interrupted by the eccentric Marcus, an odd 12-year old who desperately needs lessons in being cool, but is known for breaking out singing oldies in class (songs that make his wacky “suicide granola” mother happy).

When Marcus becomes a target for school bullies, Wil starts to understand the importance of his role in the young boy’s life.  They could have named the film About Two Boys, because initially, the 38-year-old Wil resists being an adult, but once he ever-so-charmingly steps into the young boy’s life, Wil begins to finally understand that “No man is an island,” or rather as he says it: “Every man is an island. I stand by that. But clearly some men are island chains. Underneath, they are connected…”  And so, this movie warms our hearts when we think of the people, the times and the circumstances that have connected us and with whom we shall celebrate Thanksgiving, grateful for the people we love.  Sweet movie.

 

Pieces of April 

The “black sheep” of the family, the one child the mother has only one good memory of, tries, with all her heart to make amends on Thanksgiving.  Her siblings dislike her for past mistakes, her complicated and withholding mother has terminal cancer and anything that can go wrong is just going wrong.  As odd as April may seem, you cannot help but love her, root for her and understand her very empathetically by the end.  Because at some time or another, we have all been her.  Or is it just me?

Quotes:

April’s mom about enduring Thanksgiving at April’s apartment: This way, instead of April showing up with some new piercing or some ugly new tattoo and, God forbid, staying overnight, this way, we get to show up, experience the disaster that is her life, smile through it, and before you know it, we’re on our way back home.

April, describing her “role” in her family: I’m the first pancake.
Evette: What do you mean?
Eugene: She’s the one you’re supposed to throw out.

April [becoming somewhat emotional over some old-fashioned turkey shaped salt and pepper shakers that Bobby-the-boyfriend bought]: We had these when I was a kid.
[sad pause]
April Burns: The one time [my mother] let me hold them she said, “Be careful, they’re worth more than you are.”
Bobby: Well, that’s terrible.
April Burns: Next year they were gone.
Bobby: So, what happened?
April Burns: A hammer I was holding fell on them.

 

Scent of a Woman

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1992. Rated R for language.   This film surprised me.  I had seen the trailers and they all seemed to support the title.  I feared it  was going to be about some dirty-old-man obsessed with women.  But it was Al Pacino, after all, so I tried it out anyway, and  wow!  In this Oscar-winning performance as blind, retired Army Lt. Colonel Slade, he was a.m.a.z.i.n.g!  He plays a man filled with somewhat-controlled, darkened (both in his sight and in his heart), gloomy rage and harbors life-sucking anger towards himself; a man born to be a hero, but with no deposit for his legacy.

Then you’ve got Chris O’Donnell playing Charlie Simms, a prep-school student totally out of his league with the regular crowd there, he, a poor scholarship recipient.  To earn money to get home for Christmas over the Thanksgiving weekend, he is hired to “watch over” Colonel Slade and an education for them both becomes inevitable.  Charlie learns about the Tango (great scene with Gabrielle Anwar), women (warning on his passionate discourse on women…just warning) and fast cars.  The Colonel finds a worthy recipient for his protective instinct and life’s heritage.

The “family Thanksgiving” scene is anything but warm and fuzzy, but you can’t help enjoying how the Colonel irritates and baits the twerp-of-a-nephew.  Not exactly a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

When the reserved, and innocent Charlie is being taken advantage of by school officials and parents of boys with no integrity (Philip Seamore Hoffman is great in his role as one of Charlie’s weak, partying classmates who is torn between doing right and following the money-crowd), the warrior in Colonel Slade emerges as he takes on the school, the parents and the classmates themselves urging them to let Charlie be the man of character he knows him to be.  The speech is a stand-up-and-applaud moment!

This is a movie about  a bitter man who needed love and needed to love some one, and a young man who needed a hero to help him become the person he was created to be.  It’s about what there is to love in life and all the reasons living is so wondrous.  It is a connection between two men whose highest virtue is integrity and it’s about  love.  And women.  Hoo-aah.

Honorable mention:

 

Holiday Inn, which covers most all of the holidays in a year, with a special focus on the bookend Christmases of the movie, has a great Thanksgiving song/scene with Bing Crosby.  Down in the dumps because Fred Astaire has stolen his sweetheart, he sings: “I have plenty to be thankful for…”  Bing is wry and tender and the guy can sing!

For your Thanksgiving entertainment… from Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Uh, yeah.  Thanksgiving is only 5 days away.  Planning a menu and buying a turkey right about now would be a good thing.

11.26.09 THANKSGIVING DAY update:  Yahoo weighs in with its’ list of top ten Thanksgiving movies: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/10-best-thanksgiving-movies-548260/

Love Actually is All Around

5 Songs I am Singing, 7 Keep Christmas, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , ,

Opening scene at a London airport as people are reunited, voice-over by the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant):  Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is ~ all around.

Spoiler Alert:  I am going to talk about this 2003 movie, which I love!

 

We kicked off the holiday-movie viewing season with one of my favorites last night:  Love Actually, from British Director, Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” and “Pirate Radio”) who has a knack for using a large array of actors and juggling multiple storylines within one pretty cohesive tale.  Love Actually focuses on more than a dozen characters, happy and sad threads being woven together during the Christmas season.  It isn’t a love story per se, but many stories about love, love that is good and happy, sad and devastating, surprising, open, closed, whatever.  But ultimately it explodes and multiplies in the giving.  Love.

In 2007, I watched this movie about 17 times between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I cried everytime.  I won’t tell  you why I cried, but I’ll tell you some things I love, songs (I have the soundtrack, naturally) and scenes.

Why I Actually Love Love Actually

  • Keira Knightly plays a gorgeous bride in a spectacular wedding scene in which almost all of the cast is present.  I have decided to surprise Tredessa with a similar ending to her wedding…when it happens.  Shh. Don’t tell her.  All you need is love…
  •  The best man, later found to have been hiding a secret crush is emotionally powerful, first in his “self-preservation” scene to the Dido song, “I won’t go, I won’t sleep,  I can’t breathe, until you’re resting Here with Me” (I love his sweater, his vulnerability, his angst), and later with a CD player and hand-written signs in his hands. {“But for now, let me say – Without hope or agenda – Just because it’s Christmas – And at Christmas you tell the truth – To me, you are perfect – And my wasted heart will love you – Until you look like this. [picture of a mummy]}
  • Kelly Clarkson’s “The Trouble with Love Is, it can tear you up inside; make your heart believe a lie;  it’s stronger than your pride…”
  • The sweet conversations between Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurelia even though he speaks English and she speaks Portuguese.  They don’t understand each other, yet, somehow, they do.  Jamie: [in English] It’s my favorite time of day, driving you home.   Aurelia: [in Portuguese] It’s the saddest part of my day, leaving you.
  • Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) ditching an Elton party for friendship.
  • {sigh} Sarah?  The dang phone over Karl?  Seriously?  What are you thinking…family.  I guess that is it.  But I love the happy dance on the stairwell!
  • The Nativity play is pretty modern and odd: Lobsters at the birth of Jesus?  More than one?  And an octopus!  But I don’t think a Hollywood filmmaker would even have put one in at all.
  • Natalie and the Prime Minister.  Oooohhhh.  So cute.  Her Christmas card to him.  Sweet.  And unlike everyone else, he does not see her as “chubby.”    Gotta love him!  But she does need to watch her mouth.
  • I kind of enjoy Billy Bob Thornton’s portrayal as the cocky, entitlement-mongering American President.  That is, before I wanted to slap him.  So-I guess it was a good performance.
  • Such strong emotion with the funeral scene set to the Bay City Rollers’ “Bye, Bye, Baby, baby, good-bye;  Bye Bye, baby, baby don’t cry.  You’re the one girl in town I’d marry...”  Then Liam Neeson as the grieving widower building relationship with his stepson, helping the boy express his true love to his classmate (who sings a crazy-amazing version of Mariah Carey’s, “All I Want for Christmas is You!“  That little girl can sing!). 
  • The no-nonsense Karen (played by Emma Thompson).  She is the rock.  She is the hardworking woman doing everything right for everyone, while still questioning her purpose (compared to, say, her brother – the Prime Minister).  But Joni Mitchell’s music is proof of her strong, deep emotion.
  • Rowan Atkinson’s performance as a slightly “Our-Town-‘stage-manager’-esque” character, sort of an all-knowing, otherworld diviner in a couple of small, but pivotal scenes is hilarious.  I have often wondered why, maybe, there wasn’t more of him.  But that may have taken the film to a whole new level of fantasy? 

 

It’s a silly, sad, sweet, funny, ridiculous, strange and adorable movie.  There are too many nude scenes and you have to fast-forward the “skin-flick” scenes a little, but hopefully not enough to miss the cute story that comes from it.  The storyline I could have done without was the strange-looking boy who went to America and very successfully got lots of girls because of his “cute, British accent.”  Yes, I can believe American girls are that shallow at times, sadly.  And the little vixen in the workplace is a {bad word I can’t say here} and I could have done without her, too.  But, it is full of great music and really good actors and lighthearted scenes.  It starts sweetly and ends amazingly!  It is the longest, most enjoyable ending after ending ever, set to the Beach Boys singing, “I may not always love you, but as sure as there are stars above you, you never need to doubt it.  I’ll make you so sure about it, God Only Knows what I’d be without you…”

I LOVE the ending. 

I wish I could show it here, but everytime it shows up on Youtube, it gets taken off again.  I will be watching this movie again before Christmas.  Maybe more than once.  Probably more than once.

 

Love Actually is Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.  It is NOT for children.

The Joey

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 5 Songs I am Singing, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think

My brother Joe painted a barn in a golden field for my 49th birthday.  He painted a house flanked by colorful autumn trees for my 50th birthday.  He just gave both of them to me when we met at my parents’ house in Springfield in October.   I have only been asking him to do something like this for me since, hmmm, the early 80s.  He is pretty laid back (my total opposite, ahem*).

joespainting2008 joes2009painting

But I love my brother and I love my paintings.  So now I am thinking they were worth the wait.

He is gentle Joe, my first best friend and partner-in-crime.  He once saved me from drowning and later from something far worse.  We were two peas in a pod!  He grew up to be a man I admire, pastoring, then serving his community as a Police Officer, then back to pastoring.  He married so well and has 4 amazing kids.  I am so glad to have such a great little brother (Except maybe when we were in Springfield at church on Sunday morning, he kept introducing me to people as his ‘little sister’.  I’d laugh and then say, “Actually I am his older sister.”  Then he’d say, “I believe that actually went without saying  I think they could tell.”  And?  I wanted to smack him).

He still watches over me and listens to my heart and I still pretend to beat him up (I always win because boys can’t hit girls).  And I still, everytime I see him, sing Joe the song I sang to him when I was 3 and he was almost 2 and I actually thought the song was written for and about him:

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I’ve got the Joey Joey Joey Joey down in my heart

Down in my heart,  Down in my heart!

I’ve got the Joey Joey Joey Joey down in my heart

Down in my heart to stay!

And it’s true.  I do.

ALTAR by Dave is on to the next level!

2 Mi Familia, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Dave’s Book Made it Through to the Next Round!

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Thank-you for voting  for Dave’s book.  There were 40 entries which have now been narrowed to the top 18.  
 
The next voting round is in early December (2 weeks away).  I will have details like the date and the HOW-TO here on the blog.  Marcher Lord Press will be posting the first 30 pages of each novel.  That vote will narrow it to 3 entries for the final vote in January.
 
THANK-YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO VOTED.  Remember-each registered voter only gets one chance each round, but multiple people in households are ok, so you know, nudge your spouse!  Thanks again, everybody!

BTW~His book was 4th highest voter-getter out of 40.  We have to get him in to the TOP THREE!

Snapped

9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

snapped

PROMO from OXYGEN’s Website: Each year, approximately 16,000 people are murdered in the United States. 7% of the killers are female.*
Who are these women and what drives them to kill? Oxygen’s hit true crime series, Snapped, in its 7th season, profiles the fascinating cases of women accused of murder. Did they really do it? And, if they did, why? Whether the motivation was revenge against a cheating husband, the promise of a hefty insurance payoff, or putting an end to years of abuse, the reasons are as varied as the women themselves. From socialites to secretaries, female killers share one thing in common: at some point, they all snapped.

 

I confess:  I love Snapped – The TV Show on Oxygen. 

It is fascinating viewing.  Dave has asked me if he should be worried. 

Here is a tip:

I have learned a thing or two from watching Snapped.  {1} Like, you know, don’t try to make the house look ransacked as if  a burglary has taken place if you’re going to shoot your husband while he is sleeping.  If you empty pill bottles into the sink and open every cupboard door, the smart detectives are going to be all over you like ugly on a monkey.

{2} And don’t ask the young minority kid who is friends with your teen-age daughter or cleans your pool or works for your husband to get you a gun or help you find some one to snuff your man.  Because he is just a kid.  He will turn on you like a pack of dogs during interrogation.  Don’t ruin his life too, man-killer.

{3} But the main thing I have learned is: don’t commit such a heinous crime and then call 911 crying.  That tape will be played back and analyzed and taken apart.  And you cannot pull that off.  You just can’t.  Everybody can tell there is some delirium going on and you’re practically giggling with the “crying”.  My advice would be to let some one else find the body and call in.  You can spend the time waiting by beating yourself up with a wooden spoon in an attempt to cause bruising so you can look like a victim, too,  and trying to make it look like you were duct-taped to the garage door by the “real killers” or something. It’s your only hope.  Don’t make the call.

{disclaimer} BTW ~ I AM JUST KIDDING.  Don’t kill anyone and PLEASE DO NOT use my tips.

Actually these stories are tragic.  Some say most of these women were trying to protect themselves from lives of abuse and that is sad.  That actually does happen and the pain of that has to be excruciating beyond belief.

But I am just shocked at how many women are killing, devising plans and schemes over impending divorce or custody or business disputes or just to collect insurance money and actually following through.  Oxygen can play whole, day-long marathons of these shows.  And it is my dream to spend one day of my life doing nothing but watching Snapped.  Yeah.  That’s right.  Because that’s entertainment! (???)

The Critter in the O-2

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The O-2 is where we have had Heaven Fest offices the past couple of years.  It is down the hall and around the corner past the elevator from the main church offices.  It is painted charcoal on dark gray to be very cool.  But I affectionately call our cubicles (not low enough to be seen over, but too high to know when some one is about to pop over and scare the heck out of you) “The Bat Cave.”

Fast Forward.

I am knocking frantically on Sebastian’s office door Friday night.  I can tell by his understated, “Yeeeees?”  that I am interrupting his dinner.  But it is like 10 o’clock and he should really be eating earlier than that!  For his health.

Anyway, I say:

“Sebastian?!?  I walked into the O-2 and there was this animal.  I don’t think it was a mouse, but it kind of looked like a mouse, but way cuter.  Because you know-mice are tiny and dart around and are gray or brown, right – like field mice and very nervous and annoying.  But when I opened the door, it was there and maybe it is a gerbil or hamster or something because it was very big – like maybe like 2 or 3 pounds, not mouse-tiny.  I mean it was just sitting there looking at me and it was white with a really cute face and very delicate whiskers.  It had brown coloring on it.  Well, maybe more like honey-gold colored spots, actually.  And it was very fat with short-looking legs, but I think it was about to have  babies and couldn’t seem to move very fast.  And I think it had a long tail, but basically I was looking at it and it was looking back and I told it to run, but it could only sort of waddle into the back cubicle.  Do you think it was a mouse?  It was soooo big, but I don’t think it was a rat because rats aren’t cute and this clearly had a cute face.”

There may or may not have actually been punctuation or periods of any sort in that entire monologue.  It could have been one, long run-on sentence.

 

I took a breath.  Sebastian got a word in edge-wise.

“So you’re saying you got a good look at it, then?”

Me, ignoring his apparent mockery:

“What?  Oh, yes.  It was cute, but do you have any D-Con?”

And then I did it.  I opened the box of D-Con and said, “Here, little pregnant animal, come and get it.”  Because I really wasn’t sure what it was and since there was a Cub Scout meeting going on in the building it clearly could have been smuggled in by some little boy, but regardless, there is just not room in the Bat Cave for anyone else.  We need the space.

What do you think?  Am I cruel?

mouse 176607503_0d36485c3d

I searched Google for images.  It looked a lot like these.  Very cute like the one on the left, but the spots were lighter, and the face was very white like the one on the right. And fat.  Mice.  Just a mouse.  It turns out.  And maybe less than 2 or 3 pounds?

 

Here is Sebastian-the-Poison-Provider with his gorgeous and amazingly wonderful wife, Denise, with their two cutie-patootie boys! 

I Am Forgiving You

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think

I love http://wordle.net. When I first wrote this post a while back, I was too raw and fearful to actually post it.  Thus, the “wordle” seemed a way I could express the anguish I was feeling as my own sinful, black heart was nakedly revealed, without actually exposing the situation.  The post has languished in the drafts folder for some time and though I still love the Wordle representation, I believe the original journal-type post has something valuable to say, reminding me to forgive and forgive and forgive, for I need so much forgiveness myself.  So, both are here: the Wordle and the words that poured from me in repentance.

I am surprised to discover that embracing offense (becoming “offended”) is often (always?) worse than whatever the original mis-deed was…That I am responsible for my reaction.

forgiving-wordle

I am forgiving you.  I am.

I am forgiving you even though you don’t even know I need to because you don’t know what I know, that even I know.  But I know too much and yet I have cancelled any and all of your guilt by running after offense to claim as some sort of sick-prize.  I owe YOU forgiveness.  I do.

I won’t come to you and tell you what you did that ripped my heart.    We are fine publicly, but the veil-of-innocent-trust has been ripped and I cannot deny my own guilt in it.  

I didn’t want to know, yet, against all good judgement, I craved the knowledge that would cut-so-deep.    I was both torn and tantalized by learning about things said, betrayals set on course.   I felt rejected and disappointed in your lack of loyalty, and oddly justified for not trusting you in the first place.   I have blamed you and raged against you in the hallways of my heart.   I have felt sorry for myself and built walls of protection when you come near.   I have been party to the devastation, fallen prey to the enemy’s destroying work, relished in self-pity, allowed small darts of offense to fester and ooze and become infectious, contaminating the beauty that once was, and tainting the atmosphere of blessing in my life with a sure-death-march toward a hardened bitterness.  

If I really cared about our relationship, I have asked myself, why wouldn’t I come to you to mend it?   Various reasons, I suppose.   Choose one: fear-of-man?  Absolutely.  Lack-of-love?  Almost certainly.  Was it a  fear  our relationship  wouldn’t hold up anyway under the scrutiny?  Probably.   And because I-am-guilty.   I am condemned by my own true lack of love for you.   My motivations, if I examine them closely, are about self-preservation, protecting my reputation, my agenda.  They are about pretending to take the high road by not having done to you what you did to me, yet, doesn’t that just make me a self-centered, self-protecting “martyr” in the unworthy and ridiculous cause  of self?

You may have done a wrong thing, but I magnified it by receiving it fully into my heart, picking up the offense and claiming it as mine ~ my own pride and joy, my ” See? -I-have-been-wronged” trophy.  So I wronged you more.  My guilt is greater. 

I repent.  I am forgiving you because my offense  (of being offended) is now killing us both.

Mark 11.25 “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Help get ALTAR Published!

2 Mi Familia, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , ,

UPDATE, 11-13-09:  The voting process has turned out to be slightly complicated, so Dave created a PDF with step-by-step instructions and pictures!  Hope this helps!

 http://www.daverhoades.com/pdffiles/step_by_step_altar_voting.pdf

 

Dave is one of 40 authors whose fiction book submission was accepted for a publishing promotional blitz by Marcher Lord Press (“The Premier Publisher of Christian Speculative Fiction”).  By vote of fans and the general public, one of the 40 manuscripts will be selected and published in the spring.

altar.jpg author

Your vote could be the one!  It is a 3-month process that involves just a few, simple steps (and a very small amount of your time reading each month).  Each “registered voter” can only vote once each round, but there will voting in November, December, and finally January.  Don’t quote me on these details, but I think the November voting will decide the top 10 entries, the December voting will decide the top 5 and then the January voting will determine the actual winning manuscript.

My humble request:

Become a registered voter and help Dave win!  The publishing company will not be spamming you or selling your information.  We won’t personally know if and when you registered and voted.  It is private.  But we’d be ever-so-grateful if you’d do this!

HELP!  Here is how:

PRE-REGISTER to become a certified book-choosing voter!

They will email you to make sure you are legitimate and not just our family voting for Dave a gazillion times.   ALTAR is entry # 27.  This month you’ll get to read a blurb and a synopsis of the story, which is really good, by the way.

First-round VOTING IS NOVEMBER 13, 14, 15!

Once you’re registered, you can go back in and vote on any one of these three days in November.  And I believe Marcher Lord Press will notify you in December and January of voting dates.  At any rate, I am certain I will mention it again.  Because I KNOW you are going to help me help Dave win!  Tell your friends and family and everybody you know to VOTE!  I don’t even read fiction and I am going to VOTE!  It really is a cool story.  I promise.  (NOTE:  You must vote for 3 submissions or your vote will be disqualified…be random if you don’t want to read them all…is it cheating to say that??)

Help Dave make it to the next round!  Come on!

Thank-You on Veteran’s Day

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , , ,

I don’t even know how you really say thank-you to all of the men and women who have selflessly, with great courage and bravery, protected our nation and the freedoms we enjoy.  I know that all the blessings we have as American citizens has come at a great price, a great sacrifice.  So, today, I want to remember and thank God for all who have served and for those who are serving.  And I want to remember some who are special to me.

Ova Dean Baker.   “Grandpa Baker”

ovadeanbakerradiooperarmy dean-baker 

Grandpa Baker was an ornery old cuss.  He is now deceased but lives big in my memory!  Thank-you for serving our country, Grandpa, and for marrying my Grandma and raising her babies as your own. You were a hero in so many ways.

Donald Baker, the day he left for Viet Nam.  “Uncle Donald.”

donald-baker-leaving-for-viet-nam uncle-donald-1966

Uncle Donald used to babysit me and play Beatles records and say “Your mom wears combat boots, ” which was simply not true.  He was a rascal of an uncle who impacted my life more than he knows.  I love him him because he reads my blog sometimes and gets very soft-hearted (his wife told me).  Thank-you Uncle Donald for being a kid who went to war and became a bigger-than-life hero to me and all of your nieces and nephews when there weren’t many to be found.  I love you!

Everett Allison.  “Grandpa Allison.”

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He served in WWII with a wife and 5 children at home.  He managed to do that and still be an amazing husband and father all at once.  He called me “Debbie Jean” the only person in the world who did, and wrote me actual letters – in the mail!  I admired him so much and miss him deeply.  He was like a movie star to me and since he passed a way a few years ago, the night sky has never again shined as brightly.

Raymond Rhoades, Dave’s Dad

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Thank-you, dad for serving your country with honor.  There is nothing we love more than getting you talking about all you remember and the ways you saw the faithful hand of God at work in your behalf when you served in Germany during WWII.  It is hard to believe how young you were and how much of your faith was being built and perfected during those long days away.  You have lived an admirable life and have our deepest love and respect.  Thank-you for serving your country and showing us how to have honor and respect and love for this country.

Garry Rhoades (Dave’s brother) and his son  Tim Rhoades (our nephew).

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Our nephew Tim is still in the Army National Guard.  This is him a couple of years ago with his maternal grandfather (Mr. Raymond Groves, now deceased), a veteran, his paternal grandfather (Dad Rhoades, see above),  and his father Garry Rhoades, Dave’s brother.  Garry passed away a year and a half ago having suffered medical problems due to Agent Orange exposure during his time in Viet Nam.  He was never bitter, never blamed the military.  Garry remained a patriotic citizen until the day he died, so proud to have served his country.  Thank-you, gentlemen, all of you, so much.   And Tim?  God bless you and keep you!  We have you in our hearts!

And God bless those serving actively today!

Thank-you  to all who have served, thank-you so much.  In my struggle to express my gratitude (me, a person who is rarely at a loss for words), my friend Marie wrote beautifully.  You may read her lovely, heartfelt words here.

With great gratefulness…Jeanie

Black Coffee and Pumpkin Butter

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , ,

Breakfast.  The most important meal of the day.

Joe brought me a present from his beautiful wife and my sweet sister-in-law (aka: Robin – sister of my heart) when we met in Springfield a few weeks ago.  She made me some perfectly earthy cinnamon and all the spices of autumn-seasoned pumpkin butter, beautifully presented in a prismed  jar.  She also sent some of her delicately tangy and ambrosial apple-pear jam.

Breakfast.  The most scrumptious meal of the day.

I brought them home and showed them off under the pretense of sharing, but I hide them in the refrigerator, moving them frequently, so that on early, dark  mornings I can toast some thick slices of multi-grain bread and have one of each: apple-pear jam and pumpkin butter (with real butter, of course…does that go without saying?).  And my black coffee.  My very dark, very strong black coffee.

Black coffee.

In my soul, I am Julie London and this is how I sing about black coffee (and anything I am really into).  Yeah.  That’s right, I am this passionate about black coffee.

A good start to my morning…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Call Robin because I am almost out of my delicate, almost-floral bread spreads.