Cynde's Daybook

"Update on What's Been Happening

2011-09-23T18:09:00.005-04:00

Hello, everybody! It's been quite a while since my last posting and I apologize for that. A lot of things have been going on in my life lately and now I think I'll let you know what's been happening.

Back in March of this year, I noticed a mole on the front of my right leg that was never there before. I showed it to Dion (my husband) and he wanted me to have it checked out right away, but I put it off. (That's why my father gave me the nickname of "Ben", for "Ben-puttin-it-off". I have a fear of doctors that goes way back, and I'm not exactly why it started, but I think it had to do with all the horror stories of what happened to my sister Carol Lee when she had her back surgeries. She was 16 and I was only 12 and well aware of what was happening to her. I felt helpless and ineffectual--I couldn't help her and I was terribly frightened for her, which also made me vow that I would never allow myself to be put in the position she had been in...ever.

Then, about two months ago, I happened to glance at my leg (I had been deliberately ignoring it because I was scared of what I might find) and now there were nine or ten moles instead of just one! It looked like a solar system had formed in the place where the moles were. It scared me, so I showed Dion again, and he wanted me to go to the doctor's right away, but I convinced him to let me wait until I went for my gynecological exam that was already scheduled for a little over two weeks away. My OB-GYN had sent me to have a biopsy on a mole once before, so I trusted him to know what he was looking at.

When my OB-GYN looked at my moles, he was alarmed. He told me that they looked very suspicious and he made me promise that I would get them looked at immediately and get in A.S.A.P.! It was too late to make an appointment when I got home that afternoon, so I called the next day. The dermatologist that I had been going to for years had retired, so I called a new one, and there was no opening until November.

When the secretary heard my hesitation, she said, "Will that be alright?" I said, "I guess it will have to be, but if you have a cancellation, could you please call me? My gynecologist looked at some moles on my leg and said they looked suspicious and wanted them looked at right away." Then she said, "Oh, in that case, we had a cancellation today. Can you come in today?" I believe that was the Lord's intervention! We jumped on it and we in the doctor's office two and a half hours later.

When they did my body check, they said they were amazed at how many moles I had all over my body. We discussed my history, and I told them it started with my having my first mole removed from my bellybutton area within a few days of being born.

After that, I have had a total of about 20 to 25 moles removed, either by surgery, having it burned off, or two of them almost fell off when it was time for them to be removed because I had ripped at them with my fingernails by mistake so many times (because they had been in my way). Only one of them had turned out to be melanoma, and it was benign. That was when I was a teenager--and my father took me to Geneva General Hospital for the surgery. I think I was somewhere between 17 and 19, but I'm not quite sure.

And now to the present. When I went to the Dermatologist's office, they were quite sure that I had a fast-growing melanoma, so they took two biopsies: a shave biopsy, and a plug biopsy, which was pretty deep because the melanoma is pretty extensive.

I got my results back and they are positive. I have malignant melanoma and I am scheduled for a consultation with the surgeon who will be performing my sentinel node biopsy. That biopsy is for determining how far the cancer has spread, and she will also schedule how much chemo I need and she'll determine if I need radiation or not, too.

Also, my husband, Dion, has hurt his back at work again and in a lot of pain. I can't bear to see him in this much agony, but naturally, he has gone back to work, even though he can hardly stand up, because he knows we'll be needing the money very soon and we don't know what we're going to do. The Lord is going to have to provide for us this time, that's for sure.

Please pray for us if you think about it, and in your spare time. It doesn't have to be a long prayer--just a few words would do. We could use all the prayers we can get. Thank you for being our friends and for caring.

"The Lord bless you and keep you--the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."

Until next time...stay safe, stay well and as always, may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"We're Baaaa-aaaack!"

2011-06-12T08:34:00.001-04:00

Hi, everyone! It's been so long since I've posted that I have almost forgotten how to do it.

Well, "we're baaaa-aaaack!" We had a fabulous time and it was so romantic!

The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time we were in the Caribbean and everyone was so nice to us. The foldable cane that my husband, Dion, bought for me to use on the trip really helped me a lot. I don't think I could have made it without having it.

Here are a few photos from our trip, just to whet your whistles:

This is our view from the ship at Ft. Lauderdale, FL. ~ You can see another cruise ship off in the distance, ready to set sail.

I just had to show you this odd little storm out to sea. The little storm clouds got so close to us at one point, we could almost touch them, but we didn't catch it on film ~ it happened so fast we didn't realize what was happening!

Then, almost as fast as it came upon us, the sun appeared and whisked it away. I hope you can see what I mean when looking at these photos. It was all so vivid out there on the deep, blue sea...

Here's one of the beautiful white, sandy beaches that we got to visit. Isn't it gorgeous? The weather was perfect and the water temperature couldn't have been more ideal.

This is a close-up of that same beach. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was like that Chevy Chase movie where he paid everyone in the town to act perfect during the Christmas season so that he and his wife could sell their home and get a divorce.

And then, "Oh, joy!" This is the sight we came home to when we drove in to our driveway at our home, sweet, home. I must add that we were glad to get home, though, because afterall, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

Well, everyone, aside from our trip, I've been busy writing. I took a class at the Writer's Village University and it was awesome. I'm so glad I joined there! I've made lots of new friends and joined a critique group for the first time in my life, and I've learned so much from them. I should have joined a critique group a long time ago, but to tell you the truth, I was too shy. But now that I've taken the plunge, and the Lord lead me to the perfect people, I see that it's not so bad afterall.

I'll write again as soon as I can. And I promise it won't take me five months this time!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"We're Going On A Cruise!"

2011-01-13T13:39:00.001-05:00

Hi, everyone.

Guess what. My husband, Dion, and I are going on a cruise! My husband's boss is sending us on a seven-day, all-expenses-paid-cruise aboard the Crown Princess to the Western Caribbean where we'll visit the Grand Cayman Islands; the island of Roatan, Hondoras; the island of Cozumel, Mexico; Princess Cays, Bahamas; plus we'll have three lovely, relaxing days out at sea.

The weather out here is horrible; we've been having a blizzard and the roads have been icy and slick for two days now. I've been sick with a nasty cold since Christmas and now I have a double ear infection that oral antibiotics and antibiotic ear drops don't seem to help at all, so I have an appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist tomorrow morning; I just hope the roads are clear enough for me to get there.

I'm so afraid that either the weather or my ear infections will be the cause of our missing out on this wonderful blessing, and I would feel so guilty if that happened. I am looking so forward to going. When we went to the cruise in 2003 to the Mexican Riviera (his boss, Billy Fuccillo, paid for that cruise, also) we had an amazing time.

Well, I guess I'll let you know how my trip went when I get back. I hope every one of you is doing fine and I miss you all. Can you believe it...I still have not hooked up my new laptop. Maybe this trip will be "just what the doctor ordered" and when I come back I'll finally feel like a human again. That sure would be an answer to prayer!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Today Is: Blog Jog Day!"

2010-05-09T04:42:00.001-04:00

Thank you for stopping by my Blog! Please explore all this Blog has to offer, then jog on over to Frontline Heroes. If you would like to visit a different Blog in the jog, then go to:

http://blogjogday.blogspot.com

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Blog Jog Day!"

2010-04-26T19:44:00.007-04:00

Have you heard about the amazing event that my friend and fellow writer, Carol Denbow (a.k.a. Author 101) is hosting on Sunday, 09 May 2010? It's called:

"Blog Jog Day!"

"This is the type of event that is designed for the sole purpose of benefitting any and all of those individuals that own a blog. Also, the more that participate in "Blog Jog Day!", the better the results for all!"

What is "Blog Jog Day"?

"It’s a one-day event where bloggers are joining together for a "pyramid effect" promotional rally. We all post on the same day with each post leading the visitor to the next blog, and so on, full circle.

That’s it! Visitors explore your blog, and then click on to the next one, bringing potentially thousands of unique visitors to your site."

"So...How Can "Blog Jog Day" Benefit Bloggers" did you say?

More unique visitors to your Blog

More subscribers

More comments

More inbound links

More Followers

More exposure and sales

Grow your daily hits

And all of these things look great to Google, Yahoo, Bing, and the other search engines, which translates into greater popularity!

And with greater popularity comes a higher Page Rank and greater exposure for your Blog!

So...How Cool

Is That!?!

So jog on over to the official "Blog Jog Day!" blog and sign up. There is a one-time $2.00 participation fee for each blog that you sign up to have in the event (a steal!), which helps support additional advertizing for "Blog Jog Day!" Furthermore, all the information about "how it works" and "where
to sign up" is right:

here

These are some ADDITIONAL BENEFITS of the event:

You'll be able to plug your blog

You could receive potentially thousands of hits in one day!

There will be long-term positive results!

You're bound to receive some permanent links!

Come On! Ask your friends to join us on "Blog Jog Day" on Sunday, 09 May 2010...

and let's have some "FUN!"

Check it all out by clicking on the official "Blog Jog Day" logo, below:

~http://blogjogday.blogspot.com~

and...

(DON'T FORGET TO: "Pass The Word!")

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"R. I. P. Barbara A. (Tillotson) Northrup"

2009-12-11T17:33:00.008-05:00

Barbara A. (Tillotson) Northrup, 80, of Endicott, born August 2, 1929 in Johnson City, NY, peacefully entered Heaven on Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at Lourdes Hospital surrounded by her family. Barbara was predeceased by her parents, Asa and Margaret (Davis) Tillotson; a niece, Nancy Wagner; and nephews, Donald Tillotson and James Tillotson. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, M. Carl Northrup; six sons, Carl Thrasher, Colchester, VT, Robert Northrup of Colorado, Richard (Ann) Northrup of Maine, NY, Randall (Diane) Northrup of Endicott, Thomas (Christine) Northrup of West Henrietta, NY, Timothy Northrup of Endicott; and one daughter, Debra (Lee) Vivian of Lancaster, PA. She also loved all eleven grandchildren, Jason, Melanie, Kristine, Richard, Heather, Nicholas, Zachary, Josiah, Kathryn, John and Matthew; and great-granddaughter, Mosel. Also surviving are two brothers, Ronald (Diana) Tillotson of Endicott and Donald (Sandra) Tillotson of Vestal; and sister, Louise (Warren) Whittemore of Endicott.

She was actively involved in supporting her children's and grandchildren's activities and sports and squeezed in some of her own activities. She was a member at various times of: PTA, Union Business Women's Club, U-E Wrestling Boosters, Good Sam Club, U-E Football and Band Boosters, Round Hill Chapter 104 OES, Old Town of Union Historical Society, Supervisor for Organization of Triangles, Parents Circle for DeMolay, Precious Moments Club and U-E Class of 48 Lunch Bunch. She enjoyed attending musicals, sporting events and most any activity her children and grandchildren participated in. She loved her family, a good party, her trips to Aruba and Las Vegas. After her 20th trip to Aruba she was honored as an honorary Ambassador to Aruba. A lifelong member of Central United Methodist Church, she loved her church and the many friends there. She was an election Inspector for Broome County and had previously worked for Day Hollow Restaurant, H&R Block, Art Services, and as a "Temp" at IBM. She also was an Avon Lady for many years.
Funeral Services will be held Saturday, 10 a.m. from the Allen Memorial Home, 511-513 East Main Street, Endicott, with the Reverend Douglas Clark, Pastor of her church, officiating. Burial will be in Maine Cemetery, Maine, NY. The family will receive friends at the Allen Memorial Home, Friday from 4-7 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please feel free to make a donation to a Children's Charity of your choice in memory of Barbara.

Barbara was my mother's cousin and was an important person in my life for as long as I can remember. Hers was one of the first faces that I would search for when we would go to our Carpenter-Davis family reunions. If I didn't see her, somehow I felt uneasy. Scanning the faces, I would search for someone with a big smile and an unusually huge photo album full to the brim with mostly photos of her little daughter, Debbie, in pretty party dresses. Barb was so happy that she had finally had her little girl—not to take away anything from her six amazing sons, mind you. It's just that she had been wanting to have at least one daughter in the mix, so she could dress her in lace and frills and now that she had her, she took every opportunity to show her off.

At the time, I was too young to understand that was what was happening. All I knew was that Debbie was so lucky to have all those neat clothes and I loved to hear the stories Barbara told about Debbie's latest accomplishments. I just always found myself wishing that I could do something special, too, (just one little thing!) but I couldn't come up with one single thing that I would call special that I could do. I guessed I wasn't special at all. My face must have showed that quite clearly because the next thing I knew, Barbara had wrapped her arms around me and was playing with my hair as she talked with me for the longest time, asking me about what I wanted to do when I got older. I confided in her that I was scared because everyone else seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do, but that I had no idea. I wanted to be a mommy most of all, I had told her, and to get married to someone like Dad. Just talking to her made me feel better—it always has.

I never forgot that day...or the many others that followed as she seemed to keep a special eye on me throughout the years—or at least I'd like to think she did. She was a very special lady, and I will miss her every day of the rest of my life here on this big old earth...until we meet again in Heaven.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Catching Up On The Past Few Weeks!"

2009-12-11T06:04:00.009-05:00

The past past few weeks have been pretty busy for me, with more activity than I'm used to. It's hard for me to get around and go out because of the pain that I'm in, but each of these trips were necessary and thank the Lord, I'm still alive to tell about it all. (LOL!)

Let's start with my monthly trip to the pain clinic with my sister, Carol. On Wednesday, 25 November 2009, Carol picked me up and we went to Groton to see Dr. Ortiz. The next day was Thanksgiving, so the waiting room was packed that day because they had over-booked appointments. We had quite a long wait and both of us were in a lot of pain to begin with, so it didn't go over big with us, but we always handle it well because we usually have a good time together.

I had what I call a "cruise control" appointment, which just means that everything was pretty much the same as it was the last time that I saw him, so there was no need to change anything. Carol did have some problems, so they worked on them and then we left.

After that, we went to Shur-Save for our groceries, went to the Post Office, then headed over to Mom's for our monthly get-together with Sande. We usually have such a nice time, but this time, it was a little strained because Carol said something to Mom about how Dion and I wouldn't be coming for Thanksgiving, and as usual, the whole thing got blamed on me.

I couldn't wait for Carol to take me home because I was in so much pain.

The next day was Thanksgiving and I needed to go home to rest up if I were to have any hope of being able to go to dinner—anywhere.

When Dion got home from work that night, he put away all the groceries that I brought home with me, plus he helped me get undressed and he put me to bed. I was in so much agony that I was in bed for the night by 6:30 p.m. and he took care of me like no nurse you have ever known. He was loving and tender, plus he even read to me. He is so wonderful to me—I love him so much!

Thursday, 26 November 2009...Thanksgiving Day. Dion and I definitely decided that we would go to his mother's for dinner and that we were not going to go over to my mother's and join them afterwards because they complain and say that it's just not good enough that we show up later anyway, so why spoil a perfectly good day?

We had a wonderful time at Dion's mom's. The dinner was delicious and as always, his mother was as adorable as can be. She is always so sweet to me and she makes me feel loved. It's so peaceful and calm over there—totally different from the chaos that has become the norm at my mother's now.

Besides Dion's mom, Dion and me, the following were present for dinner: Daren, Cheryl and Dara; and Donna, Bob and Matthew. I looked around the table and immediately wished that Duane had been there—I miss him so much. After that, I wistfully thought how nice it would have been if Drew, Vikki, Dana, and Katie would have popped in and joined us. I don't know about the rest of them, but I miss them a lot.

When dinner was done, Dion and I went home, sunggled together and watched some DVD movies. All in all, it was a great day. There was no arguing or back-biting and it was a day to be thankful for.

Monday, 30 November 2009...Dion took the day off from work today so that he could take me back to Dr. Ortiz's for my third in a series of "trigger point injection treatments" on my left shoulder. The first two times I received a series of twelve shots in each visit and this time I received somewhere between 8 to 10 shots, but they were big ones, and they hurt really bad! (I have to remember to tell Dr. O. that after he left the room, the pain went all the way up the left side of my face and my ear, plus it hurt my left arm and the top of my left hand.)

Dion and I stopped at the Phoenix Bookstore on the way home, but I didn't go in—I just didn't feel good after receiving all those shots. Then we went to Penny's for lunch. It was really nice, but we had to wait for quite a long time, which Dion can't seem to tolerate very well. Once he got food in his tummy he was in better spirits, though.

Then we went to get my prescriptions, which they promptly messed up at Rite Aid. Ever since Josie, the long-time pharmacist they had, left for medical reasons, that place has made mistakes and messed up my prescriptions every month. And to top it all of, they're rude!

When we finally got home, I called Audra and wished her a "Happy Birthday" because thirty years ago today, I went with Carol and the doctor into the delivery room and helped deliver her into this world. I was the first one to see her! She was "my little baby." I'll never forget it—it was wondrous to behold.

We ended the day much like any other—in each other's arms. There is nothing better for me than to fall asleep being held by the man I love, with my ear to his chest, listening to his heart beating steadily, as he strokes my hair and tells me that he cherishes me. Heaven is here on earth, sometimes.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Our Eight-Year Wedding Anniversary!"

2009-11-20T03:54:00.004-05:00

Dion and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary on Tuesday, 17 November 09. We didn't do much to celebrate—we just stayed home, snuggled, and watched movies. But you're never going to believe the movies we watched! Dion bought two DVD's for me that I've been wanting so much and I know it was a sacrifice for him to sit through both of them and watch them with me, but he did it because he loves me.

The movies that he bought for me were:

"The TinkerBell Movie"

and...

"TinkerBell and The Lost Treasure"

They were both amazing movies and nothing else he could have done for me would have topped that! I was completely surprised and happy with what he got for me. He's the best husband in the whole world!

Until next time...stay safe,stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Happy 18th Birthday, Jonathan!"

2009-11-10T19:23:00.005-05:00

Today, 10 November 2009, was our son, Jonathan's (we just call him "Jon") 18th birthday! It's so hard to believe that he's 18 already. It seems like it was only yesterday when he had to hold on to my hand when we went to the antique car shows with his brother, Joshua, his dad, and me. He would look to me for protection and security, and he used to be so little. But now...oh my goodness, just look at him now! He must be at least six foot three or four inches tall!

We're very proud of the man that he is becoming. He is a sensitive, caring, young man. For the most part, he is very good to his father and me--much more so than most young men his age. He has been a blessing to us for most of his life. He has been agreeable and helpful, and hasn't given us too much trouble when we've asked him to do things for us or even when we've asked him to just wait for something that he really had been wanting for a long time. He has always been wonderful about doing chores for his dad, like mowing the lawn or helping him clean out the gutters, and when we all got together to clean out and organize the attic and the dining room, he was right there, all ready to pitch in. And when we actually did the work, he was fast, efficient, and he gave me some great ideas to speed up the process that really helped! (In the photo above: That's my husband, Dion...Jon's dad...with Jon, the "birthday boy" himself, today, right on his birthday. I love my handsome boys!)

There are so many memories throughout the years, but I think my favorites are when I'm listening to the laughter of he and his dad as they watched movies/DVD's in the livingroom while I was in the bedroom, surfing the web on my laptop or reading, staying out of the way (they never put it that way—it's just a cute way of stating it) so that the guys could have some special "alone" time—I thought they needed it because they don't get much time together, really, and once the time is gone, you can never get it back.

So, Happy Birthday to you, Jon, and remember that we love you very much and always will.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please check out my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Happy Six-Month Birthday, Little Noah!"

2009-11-02T22:11:00.013-05:00

You may have guessed by the title of this post that our adorable little grandson has just recently turned six months old. The second of November was the big day for little Noah and, as always, it was marked with laughter and smiles, all the way around. I don't think that his Grandpa (my husband, Dion) or I have ever seen him cry, since the day he way born. He is such a happy, well-adjusted little boy. He exudes joy and he makes people want to smile just by looking at him--I've never seen anything quite like it.

Noah's giggle is quite infectious, too. His tummy seems to rumble with the joy of it. And somehow, he can't seem to stop after he has started. He is just too precious for words! Quite honestly, I'm sure that I would still love him, even if he weren't my grandson. But the fact that he is my grandson fills me with such pride that I could burst to overflowing. To think that Dion and I are that little treasure's "Grandma and Grandpa" makes me ecstactic beyond words. By the way: did you notice that Noah is sitting up all by himself? Isn't he amazing?

The Lord has really blessed us this time. Praise the Lord big time!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"I Confess To A TinkerBell OBSESSION!"

2009-11-02T21:45:00.004-05:00

There are so many people that love TinkerBell, too. I have her EVERYWHERE at home, do you? I have posters, bank checks, keyrings, backpacks,note cards, address labels, necklaces, earrings, Christmas decorations, yard art, you name it! I guess I must be OBSESSED! I have even named my computer TinkerBell and put beautiful little TinkerBell stickers on my laptop and even inside my CAR! Weird, huh?

And now that the new TinkerBell movie, "TinkerBell: And The Lost Treasure" is coming out, Dion (my husband) has ordered that and "TinkerBell: The Movie" both for me for presents for our eight-year wedding anniversary, which falls on a Tuesday this year (17 November 2009). I can't wait to watch them. Here are the clips that are posted on YouTube.com from "TinkerBell: And The Lost Treasure" for you to enjoy:

I bet you're just as hooked on TinkerBell as I am now, right? Well, there is plenty of TinkerBell memorabilia out there for you to choose from and you'll be able to surround yourself with TinkerBell things to your heart's content.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may the Lord bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write The Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Happy Blogaversary To Me!"

2009-10-28T20:45:00.005-04:00

If it hadn't been for "Teena in Toronto" who owns the blog called "It's All About Me", I would have completely missed my "Blogaversary" for this blog. Teena left me a "Happy Blogaversary" message, for which I am very thankful (Thank you, Teena!) and it reminded me that as of 27 October 2009, I have had this blog up and running for a whole year now!

So, "Happy Blogaversary" to ME! And to all of you, of course, because without you, I probably wouldn't even bother writing this blog. Thank you for reading my posts and for always encouraging me when you do. This has been a great year for me and I have met a lot of wonderful people. You have changed my life and also become a valuable part of my life.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Birthdays and Other Stuff..."

2009-10-05T11:51:00.018-04:00

Boy, it sure has been an eventful couple of weeks these past few weeks! On Tuesday, the 29th of September, my sister, Carol Lee, took me to my monthly trip to the pain clinic in Groton, NY (she has to go to the same doctor as I do, so we ride together and make our appointments together every month). It just so happens that this day it was also Carol Lee's birthday.

"Happy Birthday, Carol Lee!"

The only photo that I have of Carol Lee at the moment is the one that was taken about six years ago (see above) for a "four-generation" photo. It has from left to right in the top row, Carol Lee's daughter, Audra; then Carol Lee on the right; then on the bottom row it has Carol Lee's mother, Mary Ellen, with Carol Lee's granddaughter (Audra's daughter), Olivia, in her lap. Carol Lee looks basically the same now as she did then; if anything, she has only gotten prettier.

After our appointment, we did the usual and picked us a few groceries at Shur-Save in Trumansburg, then went to Mom's to spend time with Mom and Sande there. We look forward to the gab-fest that we have there together every month. It's the only time that the four of us can get together; and this time we had an extra special, surprise treat: Audra was able to join us, too!

I brought along a bunch of pictures of Noah (my grandson) for everybody, and they all picked out their favorites so that they'd have some to show off to the rest of their family and friends—even Livvie picked one out for herself. It was so adorable.

Then, on Thursday, the 1st of October, Dion reinjured his back at work again. He really did a number on it this time—he can hardly stand up straight at all. He was bent over so bad that he couldn't even stand up straight. It was just pitiful and it totally broke my heart. It is so unusual to see Dion down for the count like that and it really scares me. It also makes me wonder: if something happens to him, then who is going to take care of us? Because right now, Dion takes care of both of us. I'll just have to trust in the Lord, that's all. So...all of you out there reading this, would you please pray for my husband. I can't bear to see him in pain. I love him so much.

The next thing that happened was on Friday, the 2nd of October. Our grandson, Noah turned exactly five months old on that date. Isn't that amazing? And, as you already know by the photos that I have been posting, he is an adorable little guy. I'll post a couple again, just for a reminder. Here's Noah:

The final thing that has happened is with my nephew, Carol Lee's son, Bret. He had to go to court today to find out what his sentence would be after something that he did in March 2009 that he regrets very much.

Bret got a DWI; and then when the police went to arrest him, he took off, so they had to chase him, so he was cited for resisting arrest and fleeing the scene. I can't remember what else. Anyway, the Judge, who happened to be the same judge that denied me my right to get my pistol registration, was the one he had to go before.

The purpose of this court date today was for sentencing from when he went before and was found guilty. Carol knew that there was a chance that Bret might go to jail, but for some reason, she didn't think that he should have to go. I feel really bad that he did have to go, but we do have to face the consequences of our actions, and the only thing that I can figure is that the Lord must have thought that Bret must have needed to go. I am sure that the Lord is watching out for Bret, and not matter what happens, He is in control. I believe this with all of my heart—I have to—because if I didn't, then I would just break down and cry.

It breaks my heart to think of the possibility that Bret may be scared or claustrophobic, but Carol Lee hasn't mentioned it, so it must not be a problem. I've been praying for him and plan to write to him several times while he's in jail. I just hope he'll read my letters this time.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"More Photos Of My Adorable Grandson!"

2009-09-13T12:46:00.010-04:00

On the 1st of September, Dion went over to visit Josh and Noah and he had a great time. Noah was still taking his nap when he got there, so he talked to Josh for a while, and patiently waited for Noah to wake up.

Every time we go to Josh and Chrissy's place, we take our camera along so that we can take picture. Lately, Chrissy isn't there anymore because she's at her job at the bank and we're usually just stopping by after a physical therapy appointment for me or a doctor's appointment for Dion and it's a couple hours before Josh has to drop Noah off at Chrissy's mom and dad's house so they can watch him while Josh and Chrissy are both at work. Then Chrissy goes over there after work and stays until Josh gets home, or at least until it's Noah's bedtime.

I wish that Josh had normal, daytime hours for his job, but he makes good money and it's a good job with lots of responsibility, plus he's excellent at it and the main point is that he loves it. The fact that he loves his job is worth his weight in gold!

Anyway, after a little while, Noah did wake up and these are the pictures that Dion took of him. He sure is adorable, isn't he? He has been gorgeous since the moment he was born. But the best part of him is his sweet little spirit. He is so filled with joy and love that it just oozes out of him. You can tell that Josh and Chrissy shower him with love—and so do the rest of us! We can't help it—we love him so much!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

More Exciting Family News and Photos!

2009-09-12T17:14:00.011-04:00

I've been working on my writing quite steadily and I thought you might like to see some of the main characters ( or "protagonists", as we call them in the writing world) in the book that I'm working on for my grandson, Noah.

First of all, let me introduce you to the twins, "Joey" and "Baby"; and "Joey's" little friend, "Teddy".

"Baby" is pretty much the lead protagonist in the book because he is the most fearless and he is a leader. He is very loving, but he's also very spontaneous, which tends to get him in a lot of trouble.

Then there's "Cowie". He has very low self-esteem because people usually just automatically don't like him. It's not because of anything he's done. He's not rude or mean and he doesn't even smells. Also, it's not because of anything that's he's done, either, because you see, "Cowie" is the nicest guy around. The only reason people don't like him is because he's a different color—and that's it! So..."Baby" and the gang set out to fix that problem, set people straight, and teach them a valuable lesson...with the Lord's help, of course.

Which reminds me: my brother, John S. Bond's book, "Blood Kin" is now on sale at the Ithaca Border's Bookstore. The books were put out for sale on Monday, 31 August 2009—which, coincidentally, would also have been my brother's 62nd birthday, if he were still here will us.

If you would like to check out the two special articles that I wrote about my brother's book (one of the articles includes excerpts from the book) that are in my blog, "Cynde's Got The Write Stuff", they are here and here.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Catching Up Again!" (Gerald A. Flora Funeral)

2009-09-10T15:21:00.007-04:00

I thought I would post a recent photo of Dion and I so that you could see what we look like, just in case you don't know or don't remember. There is so much to catch up on, too.

As you may remember, one of my two best friends, both of whom are named Penny (I call them "My Pennys from Heaven!") was very saddened by the death of her father in July. Her name is Penny McGill. Well now, ironically, my other friend named Penny—her name is Penny Flora—has also lost her father. He died on August 22nd, while Dion was on vacation so we were blessedly able to go to the funeral.

Gerald A. Flora,72, VAN ETTEN, NY — died Saturday, August 22, 2009, at home. He was born in Brownsville, PA, July 1, 1937. He is survived by his wife, June M. (Pratt) Flora; two daughters and two sons, Penny Flora, Lansing, Allen (Marjorie) Flora, Las Vegas, NV, Pamela (David) Golden, Ithaca, Douglas Flora, Tres Pinos, CA; five grandchildren, Jessica Golden, Ashley Golden, Elizabeth Flora, Douglas Flora, Leland Flora; sisters, Joyce Broida, Long Boat Key, FL and Norma (Donald) Southard, Toano, VA; brothers, Leonard (Barbara) Flora, Horseheads and Danny (Sandra) Flora, Lockwood; aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and very special companion, "Charlie."
Jerry was predeceased by parents, Charles and Pearl (Cundy) Flora; brothers, Charles Jr. and Timothy; sister, Patricia Flora Brown. Jerry retired from Streeter Associates in Elmira after 38 years as carpenter. He was a member of Local 281 Carpenters Union for 50 years. He was a member of Van Etten Fire Department. Jerry had supervised on the Van Etten Town Highway building and worked on the Van Etten-Spencer VFW Post 8139 building addition.
Funeral services will be Tuesday, August 25, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. at Allen-Manzer Funeral Home in Spencer, NY. Friends may call from 3 to 5 p.m. before the service. Interment will be in Mount Hope Cemetery, Van Etten, NY. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Van Etten Fire Dept. or Southern Tier Hospice.

Penny's father was always very sweet to me. He seemed to be able to tell that I was shy when I went over to their house with Penny, so he would go out of his way to make sure that I felt comfortable. He would make sure that I always had plenty of pop to drink; he'd always keep the conversation going; he'd show me his new lawn mower or whatever gadgets he just bought and how they worked; he would show me whatever the latest projecthe was working on outside/around the house.

I particularly remember the time I went out to the house when they had first been given "Charlie" (their little black doggie). I couldn't believe that someone would want to give away an adorable little guy like him and I remember thinking that he was a perfect fit for June and Jerry and that God must have wanted "Charlie" to be part of their family. God works in mysterious ways, doesn't he? Look at how much joy "Charlie" brought to especially Jerry (he rode in the front seat of Jerry's truck with him everywhere he went)and vice versa. And now "Charlie" will be there to comfort and cuddle with June — how sweet can you get?

When I would spend Christmases with Penny and her family, both her dad and her mom treated me like gold — just like I was a member of the family. Those were good memories — memories that I will always cherish.

At his funeral, several people spoke about the nice things Jerry had done for others, about his excellent craftmanship, and there were even a few cute little stories about something funny he had done (he had a great personality). Jerry Flora truly was a lucky man. He was well loved by the community and his family. He was a good husband; father; grandfather; brother; uncle; cousin; friend; mentor; neighbor; fireman; carpenter; and whatever he set his mind to — Jerry Flora was just a good man...period. May he rest in peace in the arms of the Almighty Father. Amen.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

Did You Miss Me? Well, It's TINKERBELL's Fault!

2009-09-05T10:54:00.002-04:00

Did you miss me? Well, I certainly have missed you! I have been so busy, and I have lots of news to catch up on, too.

The only reason that I haven't been online is because: "Tinkerbell" (my laptop computer) has been extremely naughty! She refused to cooperate with me--at all! And then when she did decide to, it was only for an hour, here and there. She was driving me crazy!

I finally had to have the "Doctor" look at her, and her prescribed some medications that have worked wonders on her, shall we say, "attitude", and she is feeling much better now.

After I get situated and all of my photos downloaded, I'll try to get some more postings done in the next few days so that I can catch up on some of what has been going on.

I am amazed at how helpless I felt when I didn't have a laptop available to use. How did I become so dependent on one? I'm wondering--do all of you out there feel the same way as I do? I wish you would leave me some comments and tell me one way or the other and if you have an interesting story to tell along those lines.

Also..."Tinkerbell" just asked if she could leave a message for all of you and I said, "yes". Here is her message to you (and to me) for messing up my computer and interrupting my blog for three weeks:

"Awww...Your apology is accepted, "Tinkerbell". Right, guys? Now...let's try to put this episode behind us and we'll all try to do better, OK? But...if you do it again, I'll have to replace you. Understood, "Tinkerbell"? Alright then. Great!"

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Ahhh...The Memories!"

2009-08-12T22:59:00.010-04:00

This past Saturday, (08 August 2009) Dion was outside walking around our property, and guess who was keeping an eye on him? Yep, our kitty, Capote. Dion got a shot of him on a tree stump just behind our yard, right in front of the gully. We have a really deep gully running the whole length of our property, behind our home, and when it rains, the stream runs so wild that you would swear there was a train traveling full speed behind our place. Some nights, though, the sound of the wind combined with the roaring stream is so soothing, that it lulls us to sleep.

Also...back in the 70's, one of our favorite places to go was a little place on Rte. 96, just outside of Ovid, called Argus's Drive-In. They had a little Restaurant with regular tables and a bar to eat at inside the place, plus outdoor tables for when the weather was good, a really nice Gift Shop for the locals and the many tourists visiting our area, and a really nice spot for Miniature Golf.

The proprietors of the establishment, Walt and Jean Argus, were friends of Mom and Dad's and they always bought their cars from Dad. Dion's father used to own a gas station in the early 60's called R & R Texaco on the corner of Rte. 96 and County Rd. 139 in Ovid, which was just up the road from Argus's, so he knew Walt Argus pretty well. The Argus' son and daughter, Rick and Cathy (?), used to come over to our house and play with us when we were little--that was a long, long time ago, but they were very happy memories.

Argus's has been closed since 2001 or thereabouts, so Dion took our "new" car over there and snapped a few pictures of the place, just so we'd have them for our memories. The place hasn't really changed at all (except that it's all run down now) since when it opened up originally (in the 50's, I think). It was such a popular place, and it was so cute in there, too. It had a real homey feel to it, and everyone was very friendly. It kinda reminded me of "Happy Days" in a way, with the comaradarie and all of that--I wish that restaurants were still like that. Every once in a while you can find one that is, but not very often. When we do, those are the places that we keep going back to...so we can hold on to that feeling of "the good ol' days".

Dana's birthday was yesterday. He would have been 57.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Happy Birthday, Josh!"

2009-08-05T15:54:00.014-04:00

Dion had the day off on Monday (03 August 2009) so he took me to my early morning appointment with Dr. Alexander regarding my Worker's Compensation injury of my left shoulder. I've been dealing with this since 1992, and then I reinjured it in 1993, so it's been a long time that it's been hurting. When I hurt it again really bad in December of 2007, I thought it would never get better, and since then, I have had to go to court to have things approved. I wonder if they'll still give me a hard time or not because I took so long to go to the Drs. after then. Who knows?

Anyways...after that, we stopped at Empire Vision to see if they could fix my sunglasses, but they weren't open yet. So, we went over to Penny's Restaurant to have breakfast. That has fast become "our place" to have breakfast and lunch whenever we go out, which isn't very much, really, but has been more than normal lately, I'm happy to report. I go stir-crazy being cooped up at home all the time—I feel like life is passing me by and it scares me. I'm in pain a lot, but I can't let that totally stop me from living, can I? I have to do something to get out of this rut!

We had a nice breakfast and we laughed, talked and really enjoyed ourselves at Penny's. Then we went over to the drug store to pick a birthday card out for Josh while we checked on my prescription (which wasn't ready, of course!). We found the perfect card for Josh, and since they also would not make the copies we wanted made there, our next stop was "The Copy Shop."

We parked quite a ways down the street from "The Copy Shop" because it was such a beautiful day, we wanted to get some fresh air and exercise. When we opened the door to the shop, there was quite a heated discussion going on between two customers (an elderly man and his wife) and the proprietor of the shop. The proprietor was trying to convince the customers that "Obamacare" (The forced Healthcare package that Obama is trying to "sell" to the country) would be beneficial to all of us, and they just weren't having it. I thought I might need to jump in and assist the customers, but they were definitely holding their own while at the same time maintaining an air of dignity and decorum. They knew exactly what they were talking about! Of course, the proprietor kept waffling back and forth when the customer had an answer for everything she tried to point out (all of it false, naturally) and she was faltering, so she had to give up so she woundn't totally lose face in front of us (too late!). It was great to see that not all Americans have fallen for the propaganda that "Obamacare" is the next best thing since sliced bread.

After they left, we got our copies made in relative silence (which we were thankful for) and headed over to Josh's apartment. You know, I really love Josh and Chrissy's apartment. It's so bright, clean and airy. It's in a nice location and it has a great big yard—I really think they'll be quite happy there.

When we got there, I felt terrible because Josh had been sleeping—he said Noah was up late, so he looked exhausted. But Josh is always so happy to see us. He's such a sweet boy—he's a man, of course, but I can't help referring to him as a boy because he's my boy.

Anyway, we gave him his card, because his birthday is tomorrow—he'll be 22 yrs. old—it's hard to believe, but true. We went to the livingroom to talk for a while and catch up, plus we wanted to try out a DVD that we had brought with us because it would not play on our DVD player. It ended up not playing on his either, so Josh suggested that I try playing it on my computer—which I did later, and that didn't work, either. Oh well...the DVD must be defective.

I wrote a note to Chrissy and explained that she could go ahead and exchange the things that I had brought for Noah (I brought some adorable printed t-shirts for him) if they didn't fit or she didn't like them, but Josh said they would be fine.

We were just getting ready to leave (Noah had been taking his nap this whole time, but Dion wanted to leave because he didn't like being there when his "ex" was there. She acts like he doesn't have a right to be there!) when all of the sudden we heard Noah moving in his little crib. We all went into his bedroom, Josh picked him up, and he was scowling at us—he was trying to focus and wake up. I know that a couple of the pictures that I'm going to post aren't all that clear, but I have to post them anyway—they are just too cute not to. My camera doesn't click when a picture is done, so we don't know when we can click again, and the pictures sometimes turn out blurry. Time for a new camera, I guess.

When Noah heard our voices and finally focused, he was all smiles for his grandma (that's me!) and grandpa (that's Dion!). You can't imagine how that made me feel—I lit up like a Christmas tree inside. We love that little guy so very much that it's unbelievable. We are so blessed, aren't we?

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde
Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"What An Awesome Day We Had!"

2009-08-02T19:23:00.012-04:00

On Thursday (30 July 2009), Dion took the day off from work because he was scheduled to work on Saturday and Sunday due to the special "Cash for Clunkers Sale". Thurday just happened to be the day that Carol and I were scheduled to go to the Pain Clinic together to see Dr. Ortiz, so Dion said, "Why don't I go along with you?" I was ecstatic! I was so excited that he would finally be able to get to meet "Dr. O" and see what I was talking about, so he could decide if he wanted him for his pain doctor as well.

Things were going along great; I had my clothes laid out; the packages that were to be mailed were ready to go; everything that I had to take with me was lined up; my list was ready; and I was ready to step into the shower. Then the phone rang. It was Josh. He had Noah with him and he wanted to visit, but I really didn't have time, or I wouldn't be able to get ready on time.

Dion decided to zip on over to his mom's and meet Josh there and take some pictures and then I would finish get ready when he came back. (He helps me with my shower, etc. because I'm disabled.) So he was only gone about 15 minutes and I got the bathroom ready for my shower when he was gone.

When he came back, we still had two hours before Carol was to pick us up, so we were still in good shape. I hopped in the shower and started singing away, happy because I knew my sweetheart would be with me all day, and then the phone rang again. I dismissed it, thinking it was probably just a telemarketer (they hound me all through the week, every week!), but it wasn't—it was Carol, wondering if it was at all possible if we could be ready in 20 or 25 minutes!

She had explained to Dion that "Dr. O" was being called away on an emergency and that if we weren't able to get there early, we'd have to wait a whole week until we could get in to see him again—and I couldn't wait that long. My prescriptions were running out! So, I told Dion to tell her we'd be ready.

And we were! In fact, Carol was late five minutes and we were standing outside waiting for her! That's the fastest I've ever taken a shower and gotten dressed. I would never have been able to do it without Dion, though. And when we got home that afternoon, I felt as if I'd been run over by a Mac truck!
But we did have a great day. We went to the doctor's, and then to Shur-Save for groceries, then to the Post Office in Trumansburg to mail a couple of packages, and then on to Mom's to see Mom and Sande. We laughed and talked and had a great time.

I was so proud to be able to show off having Dion as my husband—you know what I mean, right? I mean because I'm proud to call him my husband. I love him so much and he's so sweet—that kind of showing off.

While we were at Mom's, Dion showed us the pictures that he took of Noah at his mother's place. He said that Max, her dog, was so jealous that little Noah was getting so much attention, that he was barking his head off. Poor little Noah jumped about a foot every time Noah barked because his bark is so shrill. I know that Max likes Noah—he's just a little jealous of him, that's all. He'll get over it. And when Noah gets older, I bet that he and Max will be the best of friends!

Aren't those photos all adorable? He is so photogenic! And look at those huge eyes. He is such a good-natured little guy, too. Dion and I love him so much! And his mother does, too. My mother hasn't had a chance to meet him yet, but Josh and Chrissy and Noah will be going to see her very soon—probably in the next few weeks. I can't wait. I'd like to have Jon there with us so we can have some pictures taken. Maybe Sande and Carol can go, too.

By the way—Noah is three month old today—
"Happy Three-Month Birthday, Noah!"

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!"

2009-07-29T13:53:00.007-04:00

While surfing through my Bloglist and checking out friends of friends, I came upon the most delightful site yesterday. It is called Today's Flowers, and it's full of the most beautiful flowers. It's run by a woman named Denise who is really sweet, and evidently, she allows people to become "Guest Friends" and post their own pictures of flowers on her site. Here is her logo:

I'm going to start searching for flowers around here that are worthy of photographing so that maybe I can become a "Guest Friend". I would love to do that! Here's a photo that would probably be ok:

Flowers have always been such an important part of my life, whether they be real, plastic, or even silk. My husband, Dion and I are just preparing to overhaul the window-boxes on the house and replant the flowers. The flash sleet-storm that we had on the 25th of June really destroyed a lot of our flowers. I'm just glad that I hadn't purchased our hanging plants yet or they would have all been destroyed, too. When we're done with the project, I'll take photos and post them, and then you can tell me what you think, ok? But before I go, I'll post two more of my favorite photos of flowers for your enjoyment. Here they are:

This one, of course, is a multi-colored rose. The rose is the most popular flower, by far, and is available all year-round, in all the colors of the rainbow.

And, each color has a different meaning meaning, so before you send them to your loved one, it's best to ask your florist. Here's a brief list of the most popular ones used:

Red Roses—Red roses speak of love, romance, passion, and beauty. The color red is the most popular of rose colors, expressing clarity and boldness of feeling. Red roses are perfectly suited for romantic adventures.

White Roses—The white rose symbolizes purity, innocence, virtue, girlhood, and happy (bridal) love. It also stands for truth, humility, secrecy, spirituality, and reverence. White roses add harmony to red or yellow bouquets. And, a single white rose bud represents pure and innocent youth. White may be the most widely used in the meaning of rose colors.

Yellow Roses—The meaning of yellow roses was once infidelity, jealousy, and dying love. This image may have been due to its once malodorous nature, which has long since vanished. The yellow rose is now admired for its sunny good looks. It represents joy, delight, friendship, and freedom (from romantic entanglements). Send them for “Congratulations” and “Get Well Soon.”

Pink Roses—Appreciation and gratitude capture the primary meaning of pink roses. Their cheerfulness sends a message of gladness, joy, happiness and fun. Their grace and gentleness make them appropriate to send for friendship as well as for sympathy.

Yellow Roses With Red Tips—Yellow roses with red tips represent friendship with the promise of love. We can easily hide our meaning behind the sunny disposition of the yellow rose, in case our feelings are not returned. But who knows what might happen if we add special meaning to our gift of flowers with a hint at attraction. Already have someone special in mind? Consider sending them a yellow roses with red tips birthday ecard.

Coral Roses—Coral roses speak of passion and desire. They are not quite as hot-blooded as red roses, a useful nuance in the language of flower colors.

Black Roses—The meaning of a black rose is death, farewell, and mourning.
“Black roses” are actually dark red or deep burgundy in color. They are the closest thing to a true black rose, which does not exist in nature. There are a few appropriate occasions when you might like to send black roses. You can send a black rose birthday ecard anytime.

Hot Pink Roses—Dark pink and hot pink roses express thankfulness, appreciation and gratitude. Use them on any occasion when you would like to say “Thank You.”

Blue Roses—Light blue roses are often called lilac or lavender. They tell a recipient of your enchantment with them, and of love at first sight. The blue rose also symbolizes mystery and yearning for attainment of the impossible.

Peach Roses—Peach roses express appreciation, admiration, sincerity and gratitude. These positive and gentle emotions are perfect for sending flowers to friends and business associates...to say "Thank You" and "Congratulations."

Purple Roses—Among blue colored roses are the purple roses. The purple rose represents majesty and protection. It has also come to symbolize love at first sight.

Orange Roses—Orange roses “turn up the heat” and represent enthusiasm, fascination, even desire. Consider these to add "spice" to your floral message.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Then, some added information that I thought that you may like to have:

Meaning Of Color Combinations
Red and White.......... Unity, harmony, and bonding
Red and Yellow......... Happiness, joy, celebration, and congratulations
Yellow and White...... Harmony
Yellow and Orange.... Passionate ideas

How Many Flowers To Send?
Single Red Rose........... I love you, I still love, new love
Single Rose, Any Color... Thank You
Rosebud..................... Pure and lovely, beauty and youth, innocent heart
Two Roses Entwined..... Engagement or marriage is eminent
Bouquet in Full Bloom.... Suggests "full flowering" of the emotion conveyed
One Dozen Roses......... Gratitude
Two Dozen Roses......... Congratulations
Four Dozen Roses......... Unconditional Love

I hope you've enjoyed this posting about flowers as much as I have. Don't forget to visit Today's Flowers as soon as you get a chance. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"This Sure Has Been A Looonnngggg Week!"

2009-07-24T15:10:00.009-04:00

Dion and I finally have our new (to us) car on the road. He took off a couple of hours from work on Tuesday and we went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to have it registered, etc., and everything went perfectly.

Sadly, on Wednesday evening, we had to attend the calling hours for the father of one of my two best friends named Penny. I think I've spoken about them before. I call them: "My Penny's From Heaven". One Penny's name is Penny Flora (she's not the one from Wednesday night) who used to work with me for Cayuga Auto Parts and also Allan's Auto Repair. We also used to be roommates and she was a bridesmaid in my wedding. She's been my best friend for about twenty years and I love her to death! The other Penny is Penelope McGill. She's been my hairdresser and my best friend for about eighteen years. I've known her father for just about as long, plus, when I used to rent an apartment from Penelope's sister, Patti, her father used to live right next door to me.

He was a sweet man who was lonely and just needed someone to love. He married two women that were not right for him and seemed to abuse him. They took advantage of his giving spirit and I do believe that they broke his poor little heart, but he never complained. He always had a smile upon his face. And now, praise God, he is with the Lord and reunited with the wife of his youth, the mother of his four loving daughters: Patricia, Pamela, Pandora and Penelope. Frank Peabody is now in Glory; he is happy and without pain. We don't have to feel sad for him anymore. I thank the Lord for that!

Please remember to say a prayer for Penelope and her family, won't you? Her husband, Doug (I call him Doogie!) and their children, Jon Philip (J.P.) and Faith, will be missing Frank and will need prayers for comfort during these coming weeks as they adjust to this tragic loss. Please also pray for Patricia, Pamela, Pandora and their families as well. Thank you.

My 84-year old mother made a peanut butter birthday cake for my twin sister and me (it's our favorite!) and it turned out so cute. Let me describe it for you: The cake itself was a yellow cake with peanut butter icing. (Yummy!) There was a bird in the middle of the top of it, flowers and candy sprinkles surrounding the bird, then chocolate buttons lining the whole outside of the cake. In addition to it being a very pretty cake, it was very moist and delicious! Check out the pictures. Am I right or am I right? (hahahaha!)

Mom also sent over enough ziti and meatballs for a couple dinners for both of us. That was scrumptious as well. My mom is an excellent cook—the best in the county, for sure and maybe the best in the state! I guess I'm prejudice, though, right? I've always thought that Mom was actually the best cook in the whole world, but I didn't want to go overboard and say that. That would make me sound quite juvenile, wouldn't it? ("Well, too bad! That is what I believe! So there! Naa-naa! she says, as she sticks her tongue out at the people looking backing at her.) LOL!

Speaking of moms...Dion's mom—one of my favorite people in the entire world—is in the hospital right now. She drove herself to the doctor's office yesterday, because she hadn't been feeling well for several days and thought it was because she had switched medications, and they sent her to the hospital. She had them call Dion at work so that he could take her to the Emergency Room (ER). I'm so thankful that he was not delivering a part or a car out of town, because then he would have felt terrible. This way he was able to take almost the entire day off and wait at the hospital with her until she was waited on, then when Aunt Betsy (his mother's sister) got there, they waited to hear what the results of her CT-scan and x-rays were.

In the meantime, we had gone to check on her the night before and brought Max, her dog, up to our place to watch him because it was getting too hard for her to keep letting him in and out to go potty, so we're going to keep him for a few days. He always settles right into the schedule here like he's always lived here because he had to live here for three months one time when she went into the hospital. She had major surgery and we almost lost her—it was pretty scary. Max was so glad to see her when we were finally able to return him to her. It was so precious when they were reunited. He must have thought she was gone forever! That's him in the photo. We just adore him, and he loves us right back.

It turns out that Barbara has a very mild case (thank the Lord!) of diverticulitis and she also has a urinary tract infection (UTI)—not good, either one! She must be absolutely miserable. No wonder she hasn't moved an inch off her couch in days. And now she's going to miss the festivities for her "60th High School Class Reunion". That is such a shame. Please pray for her speedy recovery, ok? I love her so much! She's been just like a second mom to me ever since I've been 14 years old—that's fourty years! Can you imagine that? Wow!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Cars, cars, cars!"

2009-07-17T19:08:00.006-04:00

Dion and I have been driving ourselves crazy trying to find a car (pardon the pun) these past several months, and there just hasn't been anything worthwhile out there. For the past 20 years, Dion has always bought his cars for a substantially reduced priced through his job, but that is not an option anymore. I can't imagine why they have taken that employee benefit away, but it has really caused hard feelings throughout most of the rank and file. Thankfully, Dion is not the type to let it bother him—he knows that the Lord is the one that provides for him, not his employers, so he doesn't worry or hold a grudge. I'm so blessed to have Dion for a husband—I love him so much!

Anyway, to make a long story short, I think we've finally found one. We're really excited. It's a 1999 Mercury Marquis LS, Limited Edition. It's light blue in color, just like the one that we had before it that we loved so much. We had to let my twin sister, Sande's husband, Allan, tow that one away because it had a broken frame and it broke our hearts as well because we loved that car, but with a broken frame, it just wasn't safe to drive anymore, and Dion feared for my safety. He's such a good man.

So, if all goes well, they'll deliver the car some time today and we should be able to drive it on Monday. I've posted a picture of the car so that you can see what it looks like. Isn't she beautiful? Those wheels are the exact ones that we have, also.
Now all we have to do is come up with her name. Do any of you out there have any ideas? Let me tell you the names of some of our other vehicles so that you'll know how we usually name them:

1963 Chevy Impala = "Bullet"

1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass = "Rocket"

1973 Honda motorcycle = "Punkin"

1970 Honda motorcycle = "Goldie"

I'd appreciate it if you'd post your ideas by commenting to this posting. Then I can choose the one that I like the best. I'm really having a hard time thing up a name for this one and usually they come to me quite easily. I'll be trying to think up one tonight, but I sure would like it if someone out there would give me a helping hand!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"We Went To Court For Our Pistol Permits And It Was A Nightmare!"

2009-07-11T05:46:00.008-04:00

My husband, Dion, and I both needed to go before the judge on Thursday regarding our applications for pistol permits and for me, it was an absolute nightmare!

Let me start off by saying that it is our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. With that being said, the following is the story, to the best of my recollection, of what happened on Thursday:

Dion and I submitted our permits, and because I wanted to be honest, I stated that in addition to wanting to use a pistol for target practice, I also wanted one for personal protection. I submitted a letter with my reasons, which included the fact that Dion drives for his job now and quite often gets home late, plus we live close to the Five Points Correctional Facility. My biggest reason was because of the stalker that I had and although I had hoped he wouldn't bother me again, I always wondered about it in the back of my mind and I wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

Had I opted to request the permit for target practice only, which would have meant that I would have had to have been less than honest, I would never have had any of the problems that I am going to describe to you and that is why I think this whole episode was ridiculous and uncalled for.

Almost as soon as I entered the courtroom, the judge, after saying a polite "Good Afternoon, Mrs. Hammond," put me on the defensive. He treated me as if I were a defendant in a criminal case. He wanted to know what medications I was taking, what dosages, and how often, and I wasn't able to list all of them precisely, but I also told him that I wasn't sure what he was getting at. He also wanted to know what my disability was, so I told him that I had osteoarthritis in both knees and both hips and also RSD. Then he wanted to know why I wanted the permit now, when I could have asked for it anytime. I told him there were all the factors in the letter, but he didn't seem to think those reasons were good enough because: Five Points had been there for five years, so why now? And the stalker hadn't been around for eight or nine years, so why now? I told him that for one thing, we had just now saved up enough money to buy a gun. Then Dion also explained, also, that our 17-year-old son had just become interested in target practice, so that was another reason, plus the fact that he had just started the new driving job. He wanted to know why I had to have a 357-magnum. I explained to him that the gunshop owner had specifically picked that gun own for me because it was a "ladies gun" and that I would be able to cock it, because of my hand problems. I told him he could call and check with him if he didn't believe me. I also told him that it was a little tiny thing, but he said the bullets were a large caliber. The judge said he would take it under advisement and that he needed to send my file to the sheriff so he could do some checking.

Maybe you're wondering why this whole thing has bothered me? Well, first of all, the judge treated me as if I had done something wrong by asking for a permit. I hadn't. It's my Constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and that right is not to be infringed upon. And secondly, he wielded his "power" like a sledge hammer and hammered away at me, disrespecting me for no reason at all. I, who have never even had a traffic infraction, was made to feel like a common criminal, for merely asking for something that was my "right" to obtain in the first place.

So, needless to say, I'm not at all sure that either of us will be getting our permits. He may have just wanted to give us a hard time, but it's hard to tell. The court stenographer at least had the decency to act as if his show of bravada embarrassed and disgusted her, which made me feel better at the time.

The only good thing about the whole day was the fact that we got to see the kids. First we went to see Josh and Noah while Chrissy was at work. I wish Chrissy could have been there, too, but it couldn't be helped. I hadn't seen Noah in about a month and he has grown so much. He was all smiles for his grandpa and me.

He is the most adorable little guy, and he's so good-natured, too. Josh took him for his shots on Wednesday, and I guess he cried a little, but was really quite good until later. He probably started hurting later in the evening and didn't know how to tell anyone because, gosh, he's only two months old!

Noah stood up on Dion's lap, all by himself, and just looked around, without any trouble at all. He's so strong, and he's so smart, too! I held him for a while and the moment that Dion looked away, Noah was trying to get his attention. He started crying and waving his arms, and I said, "Look honey, he's trying to get your attention!" so Dion turned around to look at him again and then Noah smiled a great big smile and started cooing. It was absolutely adorable.

Then we stopped in to see Jon for a minute, the went on home. It was a great finish to a lousy day, but after seeing the boys, everything seemed right with the world again.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Happy Fourth of July Weekend!"

2009-07-04T21:04:00.009-04:00

I have some really wonderful news. Chrissy, Josh's wife, got a new job! Remember how she used to work as a cashier at the P&C Foods grocery store right near where Dion works? Well, now she works as a bank teller at the Five Star Bank in Geneva, New York (I'm not sure which one, though). From what Dion says, she basically went in, asked if they had any jobs available, filled out an application, was interviewed, and then was hired on the spot. I'm really not surprised at all. Chrissy is very smart, she is also very pretty, and she presents herself to the public in a professional and pleasing manner. I bet she'll boost the business at the bank, too. Furthermore, I won't be surprised if she moves up to a position with more responsibility in a short amount of time, too.

She's an intelligent girl and I bet she'll do well at the bank. I hope she loves it there. I want so much for her to be happy at her job! I don't know what she aspires to be, but if this makes her happy, then I'm happy, too! It only makes sense that if you are happy in your job, then it will carry over into your home life, because it is equally true that when you are unhappy in your job, it definitely carries over into your home life.

I am certain that this kind of job is bound to increase Chrissy's self-esteem, and I'm so happy for her. I think the world of that girl and I pray that she and Josh will be able to get over whatever hurdles they are experiencing right now in their young marriage, especially for the sake of precious little Noah. I don't know if either of them can even fathom what is really at stake if there marriage were to break up. Let's just pray that it never reaches that stage.

Jon was supposed to spend the weekend with us this weekend, starting right after he was done with work this afternoon, but we never heard from him. Dion's not feeling well, so he said not to call anyone because he doesn't feel like talking to anyone. I hope it doesn't backfire on me like it always does. I usually get blamed because they think I'm the one that's keeping him from calling!

I understand, though. He just did not feel good. And when you're feeling like that, you just don't feel like chatting, and I'm never going to go against what Dion says not to do. He's the boss. And if anyone gets angry, then so be it. I have to obey my husband. They Bible says so, and this was not life or death, or illegal, or anything like that...so my choice is to always obey him in those instances. He would never ask me to otherwise, anyways. He's a good man, and I trust and love him totally.

I'm just hoping he'll feel better by tomorrow. I'm so worried about him. He's so run down and worn out from work. They run him ragged and they don't even appreciate him!

Well, here's wishing everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July weekend! We also hope that the Tea Parties around the country had a great showing. If Dion hadn't have been sick, we would have both been there, too!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"What A Flash Sleet-Storm We Had Yesterday!"

2009-06-26T04:56:00.018-04:00

My husband, Dion, drove his 1973 Honda CB750 motorcycle to work yesterday (to save on gas money) and his boss sent him home early — just in the nick of time. It seems that while the finance manager was in his office, he heard on his radio that a storm was heading their way in a hurry, so he got on the internet and checked it out. According to Doppler radar, a sleet-storm was almost overhead, so he looked out the window, and sure enough, he could see that the sky was a hazy-looking black, not too far in the distance. He called Dion into the office and told him that he better head on home, because he was aware of how dangerous it would be for him to ride his motorcycle in a storm like that.

In the photo above, the bright white circles that you see are chunks of marble-sized sleet falling down at the very beginning of the storm. The winds were whipping around and tearing the leaves off our trees. Dion was even able to catch a leaf in mid-air in the photo. Do you see it on the right up there? He did a great job, didn't he? However, I have decided that we need a much better camera than what we have, if we're going to expect to take nice, clear shots. I'll have to start saving my coins right away.

Back to the story: The skies had been clear and the weatherman had predicted a sunny, clear day when we listened to the weather report yesterday morning, but we weren't totally surprised to hear that they were "off" in their prediction; we were just stunned that it was "off" to this extent.

In the next photo above, (with the water pump in it) our poor kitties have run for cover, and the sidewalk looks like it has snow on it doesn't it? Well, it's hail stones! And this is still just the beginning of the storm. The wind is tremendously strong and even though our camera doesn't do it justice, the sky is getting dark and has that eerie look to it that it gets just before a tornado comes zipping through causing untold destruction.

My 84-year-old mother was glad that I had called her to warn her that the storm was on the way, because she and my grand niece, Olivia, (my niece, Audra's daughter — my sister, Carol Lee's only grand daughter) were out by her swimming pool, laying in the sun and/or swimming. Mother lives fives miles away from me and the weather at my house had been exactly like hers only minutes before. She tried to call my twin sister, who lives another two miles beyond her (because that's the relay we follow to warn each other of storms coming — and I'm usually the one that starts the relays and I have to call my mother and my other sister, who lives about seven miles in another direction, too) but she must not have been home because she never answered her phone, or returned her call. Anyhooooo...

In this final photo, you can see that our sidewalk has totally disappeared. It's filled with thousands of little hail-stones, and boy, are they cold and hard! We have an aluminum roof on our home and it almost sounds like someone is shooting bb's at us. I'm glad Dion's home because it's kind of scary. And no, it's not more proof that "Global Warming" is true. That garbage is a hoax! If you want to know the truth about it, please read my story here.

Also, please watch this video:

Well, it's time to get up and fix Dion his breakfast and pack his lunch for work. I guess he'll be driving the truck today — it sounds like it's thundering outside. Oh well. So much for saving gas money, huh?

A couple more important notes: First, our prayers go out to the families and loved ones of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, who both died yesterday, 25 June 2009. (It's the same date that my grandmother, Dorothy Denise Davis Carpenter ("Grammy"), passed away on in, gosh, I think it was 1995, at the age of 99 — she would have turned 100 yrs. old that August, less than two months away.)

Second, please pray for my sister Carol Lee's husband, Allen (everyone calls him "Foo"). He had to be taken to the emergency room last night. He had about four episodes yesterday where he couldn't catch his breath and almost passed out. The first time was while he was on his tractor, and he was able to get off it before he got hurt. He went in the house to lay down for a little while, thought he felt better, then went out to hang the laundry. It was beastly hot out and he could not catch his breath, felt a weight upon his chest (does that remind you of anything?) and fell to his knees). He went back in and layed back down for a few more hours. This kind of thing happened two more times!(Why do men have to be so pig-headed and think that they can fix everything on their own?) I guess he finally figured he better call Carol and get some help, so she took him to the hospital.

When they got to the emergency room, they took him to: "Trauma Room Two", which happens to be the very same room that Audra was admitted into when she was in that near-fatal car accident years ago where she got hurt so badly and received the horrible brain damage that has changed her personality and her entire life so much. It's been a rough road for her, but she's a real trooper. Anyway, they took a CT-scan of his brain and thank the Lord, he hasn't had a stroke, but they kept him overnight because they think there is something wrong with his heart. So, please pray that he'll be alright, would you? I love him so much! And of course, Carol; their daughter, Audra; they also have a son, Bret; and Livvie (that's Olivia); and the rest of the family love him, too.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Happy Father's Day!"

2009-06-21T06:53:00.013-04:00

First of all, I want to say "Happy Father's Day" to my husband, who I truly believe is the best father in the whole world. It's not easy being a part-time father when your children have been ripped away from you and then you can only have them every other weekend. Trying to keep a close relationship with the kids under those circumstances is difficult, at best, but he has done an amazing job, especially with Jon, the youngest.

For some reason, Josh, the oldest, pulled away from his dad almost right from the beginning. It tore Dion (my husband) apart, but my advice to him was to stop forcing him to come for visits. He was 13, he kept running away and hitch-hiking home, which was dangerous, and he was never punished for doing it by Dion's "ex" (which probably would have put a stop to it right away). I think "she" liked the idea that Josh didn't want to be here, but I believe it was because none of his friends were around and there really isn't that much to do around here. We were not able to ply them with every toy and gadget they wanted, like they were accustomed to at their other home, so being here probably seemed quite boring by comparison.

Thankfully, those things didn't seem to be as important to Jon as they did to Josh. Jon has always been insistant that he be allowed to come on his weekend, and he even tries to come on other weekends, too, if he can. He genuinely loves his father, and miraculously he loves me as well. Not to say that Josh doesn't love us, because I know that he does. I just don't think he knew that he did until he became a father himself in May of this year.

We are so proud of Josh. He's turning out to be such a great little daddy. He reminds me of the way Dion feels about him and his brother, Jon. I don't think they have any idea how much he loves them, but they will someday. Those two boys are the light of our lives and we both love them more than words can possibly express. And now, we have little Noah, Josh's son and our first grandchild, to love as well.

Men are such different animals, aren't they? Luckily, most are learning that it doesn't make you less manly to express your feelings or show your concern for someone. Quite the opposite, in fact. A man that can say, "I love you" or "I'm proud of you" to their son and/or daughter, is a big man in my eyes. I praise God that I had a father like that, and I'm proud to say that I have a husband like that, too.

Finally, I'd like to say "Happy Father's Day" to all those women out there that are having to/have decided to take on this role that was not originally/traditionally intended for them to fulfill. Sometimes, sudden changes can occur so that the family unit is no longer what it once was. It could be as a result of divorce; a death in the family; a parent in the military is away on duty for an extended time; or other unforeseen circumstances. No matter what the reason, the women that step forward to take on this responsibility should be commended. It's a big job, just as being a mother is, and that is probably why they each have their own special job duties and descriptions.

Like the former Miss California, Carrie Prejean, I believe that the Lord intended marriage to be between one man and one woman, just as I also believe that said couple was supposed to be fruitful and multiply, whenever possible, and if that was what they wanted (and no! I would never agree that an abortion was ok, because abortions are murder, plain and simple!). In addition, I believe, without question, that the Lord intended that "she" was to be the mother, while "he" was to be the father...and oh how far we have travelled from those simple truths.

At any rate, God bless all of you that have opened your homes to children in need of them, and who have given them love and direction. I pray that you give them proper direction, because we are all held accountable for what we teach our children, and rightfully so. Children are like open books, and it's such a huge job to be a parent. But it's also the best job, the most rewarding, and the only one whose benefits last generation after generation, while also increasing exponentially.

"Happy Father's Day and God Bless You!"

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Photos of Noah, Our Grandson, at Five Weeks Old!"

2009-06-11T03:28:00.014-04:00

Dion, otherwise known as "Grandpa," dropped by to see our little grandson, Noah, and his mommy and daddy on Wednesday, 09 June 2009, which happens to be my twin sisters', Barbara and Beverly's birthday.

Chrissy is such a lovely girl, and she, Josh, and Noah look so happy together. When I see photos like this one, it makes me wish for just a moment, that I could turn back the hands of time, so that I could have shared moments like that with Dion, but it's such a waste of time to do that. Besides, if we were to change anything in either of our lives, then we wouldn't have the life and love that we now have, and that would be a tragedy, so forget it! I love things just as they are. I only pray that I have many, many, many more years to share with Dion, because I love him so much!

As you can clearly see, little Noah totally loves his daddy! He stares up at him, listens to his voice, and seems to worship him...and believe me, the feelings are returned! Josh loves that little boy so much that I think it's overwhelming to him at times.
And, Josh will finally be able to realize how Dion feels about him! That's a good thing!

While Dion was taking photos and talking with Josh and Chrissy, all the sudden, Josh said, "Watch this, Dad." Josh had been holding Noah as he was standing on his lap, and then Josh let go. Dion couldn't believe his eyes! Little Noah was standing there, all by himself, at five weeks old! Is that amazing or what? It looks like he may beat his father's record, because Josh was up and walking at ten months old, so we'll see what happens.

Josh wears his grandfather's sunglasses now; you can see them best in the picture at the top of the page. They belonged to Dion's father, Duane Richard Hammond. How I wish Duane were here to meet Noah in person. Noah would have been his very first great-grandchild!

I bet Duane would have gone over to Josh & Chrissy's and tried to pick Noah up, and take him with him to different places all the time, but he would have had a big fight on his hands, because I think that Dion is going to be doing that himself.

I think that Dion is surprised at how much he loves the little guy, but I'm not! I knew he would! I can't wait until Noah looks up at Dion one day and says that magic word, in his sweet little boy voice: "Gampa!"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Catching Up!"

2009-06-09T19:04:00.012-04:00

This is "Capote." He is the one of "Momma Kitty's" two remaining male kittens that we still have on the premises that we are very close to. The other one's name is "Duke," but he's more of a loner -- but we're working on that!

In case you didn't hear about it yet, our precious "Momma Kitty" has gone on to wait for us at the "Rainbow Bridge." The complete story, with photos, is here. We miss her so much!

My sister, Carol Lee, and I went to the pain clinic together on Thursday, 04 June 2009, and on the way back, we swung over to visit my best friend, Penny Flora.

You've probably heard me mention this before, but I have two best friends, both with the first name of Penny, and I call them "My Penny's from Heaven!"

Anyway, this Penny is the one that runs the Carquest Auto Parts store in Lansing, New York. Her boyfriend, Frank, works there, too. I took a picture of the truck she bought for herself last year, and Frank bought the "cap" for it for a Christmas gift. It's a really nice truck and I'm so glad that finally, after all these years of knowing her, she has gotten herself a decent vehicle to drive.

The thing about Penny is, that she is so generous that she is always spending her money on everyone else, which means that she never seems to have enough to spend on herself, and the things that she desperately needs! She is so sweet, too. She is always there when you need her--especially in an extreme emergency! And she just seems to know ahead of time, what you're going to need! She is, quite frankly, amazing!

After that, we went to our mom's house and met for our usual "gab-fest" with my twin sister, Sande. We didn't get to stay as long as we usually do, because Carol had to get home. She had to go somewhere with her son, my nephew, Bret.

While I was at mom's, I took a couple of picture of the Sunburst trees that are planted out in the front yard. When the house was built in 1955, the year that Sande and I were born, those trees were spindly, little, five-foot-high "starters."

When I look at the house, sometimes I can't bear the thought of someone else living there someday. If only there were a way that it could be kept in the family, just like they used to keep homesteads "in the family" years ago. It was always "understood" that the homestead would be passed on down through the family, no matter what, and that they would do whatever they had to, to make sure that a farm was kept in running order or that a home was in good repair--it was a matter of honor.

But nowadays...it's every man for himself, I guess. And like Scarlett O'Hara always says, "I won't think about that now. If I do I'll just go crazy. I'll just have to think about it tomorrow."

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Welcome to my Page, Leona!"

2009-05-28T15:23:00.014-04:00

By now, you all know how excited I get when a new "follower" comes on board my site! I whoop and holler; I jump up and down; I dance the jig; and I do cartwheels--well, not really...but I do smile a lot!

Seriously speaking, every last one of my "followers" represents someone that likes my blog; that cares about what I have to say; and that cares about me. I'd say that's pretty special. I owe it to all of them to do my very best to at least write something, now and then, that is entertaining, or at the very least, interesting.

My newest "follower" is Leona G. Shankle, a published author and poet. Her book, entitled "At The Starting Gate," is a collection of assorted poetry and short stories ranging from humorous to serious and inspirational.

Leona also maintains her two blogs: Her first blog is named after her book, At The Starting Gate and it's filled with the things she learned "along the way to publishing [her] book," plus "some tips and insights," and what she calls "a mind-boggling set-back every now and then." Her second blog, Fun n Inspiration , is the sister site to her other blog, and in that blog, she shares inspirational emails and stories as well as things to "help make [our] day a little brighter."

Welcome to my site, Leona, and I hope you enjoy being part of the "Cynde's Daybook" family. I am honored to have you as a member, and I'll do my best to make you glad that you have joined us!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Dion and Jon go to the Norwich Antique Car Show"

2009-05-24T21:29:00.016-04:00

Today we celebrate Memorial Day, which is the holiday whose birthplace is officially recognized as Waterloo, New York and was traditionally set aside on the 30th of May, each year, to commemorate the U. S. men and women who died while in the military service. Throughout the years, this holiday has grown to mean so much to the people of the United States and its allies who have benefited from the sacrifices of the brave military men and women, and their families, as they have fought for our freedoms and sacrificed for the good of our country. God bless them, each and every one!

Before I got into the meat of my post today, I just had to show you the collage I made of our visit to see little Noah on his two-week-old birthday! It turned out so cute. I made it using a simple, free program, that I downloaded to my computer called Microsoft AutoCollage 2008. Try it. Once you do, you'll be hooked for life!

Ok...now let get on with my news. Dion picked Jon up yesterday (Saturday, 23 May 2009) and took him to the 44th Annual Norwich Antique Car Show at the Chenango Fairgrounds. They met Drew (Dion's youngest brother) and his son, Dana (our nephew) there. They live in outside of Ithaca now, so we hardly ever get to see them anymore and I really miss Vikki (Drew's wife) and Katey, too. (our niece--she was born on Dion's birthday)

The photo that you see above, is from last year's Norwich Antique Car Show, which Dion and the boys didn't make it to. However, I wanted to give you a little bit of an idea of what it looks like at one of them. There are usually hundreds of cars, motorcycles, and trucks, etc. all lined up in rows, so that people can look at them. Some are for sale and some are just for exhibit or just there for judging. There are also flea market items in booths and on tables. It's really so much fun to go to. Dion and the boys used to go with Dion's dad every year; it was a tradition, until he died, of course. We all miss Dad so much!

Had I gone to the car show, I would have taken lots of photos. Maybe next year I'll feel like it. This year, Dion and Jon stopped at the Honda shop outside of Ithaca where we bought Dion's motorcycle, "Punkin" from. It's called RiderSport-Ithaca, Inc., and we have both been doing business with them since we were teenagers, which is a lot of years ago, and before the man that owns the business now had it.

He took a couple photos of a beautiful, old, white 1967 Honda CB77 Super Hawk that some man just had on the showroom floor so that he could let people see what one of the old bikes looked like. It's in pretty good shape, too, but not in as good shape as either of Dion's antique Honda motorcycles! We stop in there to see what they have, windowshopping, and dreaming of what it would be like to have loads of cash to buy what we need so we could go on a nice, long road trip. That would be heaven!

I hope everyone has enjoyed the long weekend, which is quickly coming to a close. I think I end this post now so that I can spend a little time with my husband (which happens to be my favorite thing to do in life).

Until next time...stay safe, stay well and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Two-week-old Noah's photos!"

2009-05-22T03:02:00.013-04:00

This past Saturday, 16 May 2009, Dion (my husband) drove Jon (our son) and me out to see our other son, Josh and his wife, Chrissy and their two-week-old baby, Noah, who just happens to be our very first grandchild.

Jon had never in his life held a baby before, so when Noah gets older, I can't wait to show him the photos of Uncle Jon trying to get used to putting a little tiny baby in those great big hands of his. It was really an adorable sight! He did very well, though. I think Jon is going to make a great Dad--just like Josh and just like his own father has been.

I had never seen Josh and Chrissy's new apartment before--they moved there just before the baby arrived. It is so adorable! It's really quite big and it's really nice inside. My only problem if it were my place would be the stairs. I didn't mind them when I was in my apartment in Interlaken, just before I married Dion, and also when I lived in the townhouses in Virginia and Texas, but my knees aren't in the same shape as they were back then. Plus, I can't imagine myself being able to carry a baby up and down those stairs, but Josh and Chrissy will probably be able to handle it with no problem at all. I'll pray that nothing happens, just to be on the safe side, though. Other than that, it's an ideal place to live. I don't like living in town and this is the perfect combination of being just far enough outside of town so that it feels like it nowheres near, and just near enough so that you don't feel like you're out in the boonies. I think you can probably tell that I love their apartment, right?

I guess it must be just like riding a bike, because when Dion took baby Noah in his arms, you sure could tell that he was a pro. It's been a long, long time since these two boys were little. Jon's almost 18 and Josh is almost 22! Can you believe that?

And now, blessedly, we have a wonderful daughter, too, besides the most adorable grandson in the whole wide world!

I'm kind of ashamed that I haven't pinned Josh down on exactly when Chrissy's birthday is and how old she is, but I'm pretty sure that she'll be 22 yrs. old in December (on Christmas day, I believe). We'll see how close I am when I ask him the next time I see him--or else I'll have his dad ask him.

She let me hold Noah for at least a half an hour or maybe even a little longer, and I was so happy. It felt so wonderful to have him in my arms. I had such an overwhelming need to have a baby of my own, and I know that it will never happen. It's just too late now. Plus, with the way my health is now, I'm not sure that I could handle it. I resent my "ex" so much for what he did to me to make me lose my own babies (he was an abusive husband). I forgave him, but then I pick it up all over again. I need the Lord's help with this one, because it's such a huge ache in my heart. Thankfully, Dion understands and is very supportive and loves me no matter what. I love him so much!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Query Tracker Turns Two--Let's Celebrate!"

2009-05-22T01:49:00.007-04:00

Guess What! It looks like it's a proud parent moment--only I'm not the parent, and Query Tracky isn't exactly a kid anymore. But it's still the same excitement!

They're having a PARTY!

Copy and paste the link below the picture at the bottom of the page for more details. Oh, and there's also a little blog chain contest going on. The grand prize of this hulla-baloo is a FREE WEBSITE designed by the awesome Carolyn Kaufman and QT's daddy, Patrick McDonald. That's right. FREE. (They're the Purple Squirrel Web Designers. Check 'em out.)

You want that, don't you? Um, yeah..

You get one entry into the grand prize drawing for every contest you enter. (Details on the carnival page, click below.) You can also get another entry by helping us advertise!

Thanks, Elana!

Now here's how you do it: Simply make a post like this one you're reading on this blog. Make sure to use the wicked fun graphic and direct them to the carnival page for more deets. Then go here and leave a comment with your link and real name. Or email your link with your real name to any one of the members of the QT blogteam (listed on the right-hand side of the blog) on this page here. Use: Their Name(at)QueryTracker(dot)net.

They'll make sure you get in the drawing.

Be sure to tell your readers to EMAIL THEM (or comment here) your link and real name so they can put your name in the drawing. You can link to this post so everyone knows how to make sure they're entered for the FREE WEBSITE!

And hurry! You must have your blog post up by next Saturday, May 23 to get the extra entry.

Spread the word! Win a FREE WEBSITE!

"WooHoo--I Have Two More Followers!"

2009-05-21T14:54:00.010-04:00

Amazing as it may seem, I have two more followers for my blog! I'm so excited about making these new friends, so let me tell you who they are, ok?

First we have: Suzette Saxton.

Suzette is the author of the short story entitled The Bone Setter , that was recently published in the popular, new Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, called Mindflights. (Mindflights is the new magazine brought to you by Double-Edged Publishing by recently combining two award-winning magazines - "Dragons, Knights, and Angels" ~and~ "The Sword Review" - into one frequently-updated, high-quality magazine.)

Suzette's blog, entitled Shooting Stars is refreshing, informative, and packed with all kind of fun information. You'd be crazy to miss out on all the fun!

Next there is: Michelle McLean.

Michelle is an author who writes young adult novels, children's picture books and sometimes even historical romance novels. She also writes non-fiction articles about varied subjects, essays, and other works. Michelle's blog, which is entitled Michelle McLean's Writer Ramblings , is full of quotes, writing advice, tips, book reviews, and all kids of neat stuff.

Well folks...that about wraps it up. I hope I'm up to the task of keeping my "follower" happy as they go through the ups and downs of life with me.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Say 'Hello' To Our Brand New Grandson!"

2009-05-02T18:33:00.010-04:00

Announcing the arrival of our first-ever grandchild, I give you: Noah Christian Hammond Noah is the son of Joshua James and Christina Elizabeth (Scowcroft) Hammond, and the grandson of Dion Richard and Cynde Lou (Bond) Hammond, all from Upstate New York. He was born at 3:15 a.m. on Saturday, 02 May 2009, in the Geneva General Hospital. Noah weighed 7 lbs. 9 ozs. and was 20 inches long, with a head full of curly, medium-dark brown hair.

When Dion and I visited Josh and Chrissy at the hospital, Noah was in the room, snuggled in hisMommy's arms. I was so overwhelmed with feelings of love for him that tears immediately filled my eyes. He definitely looks like a "Hammond," that's for sure; he's the spitting image of Josh, and he also looks just like Josh did when he was a baby (and he looked like Dana, too). He looks like a perfect cross between Josh and Chrissy, too, which is great because they are both extremely good-looking kids. Noah looks like Dion, too, because Josh looks like Dion (his Dad) so I'm happy as can be!

This has been, without a doubt, one of the best days of my entire life! I feel so thankful and blessed by the Lord. I am thankful that Noah is well and that everything is alright with Chrissy. I do feel bad that she had to have a cesarean section (C-section) delivery, but I thank the Lord that He watched over her throughout it, and that she's going to be fine. I pray that she'll heal quickly and that she won't have a lot of pain and suffering--I love her so much.

I'll be posting more photos as I get them, and I'll probably bore you to tears with stories about my new little guy, but I promise you...the stories will all be filled with love!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"My Sister Made The Front Page!"

2009-04-30T17:57:00.009-04:00

To commemorate Obama's first 100 day's in office, our local newspaper, the Finger Lakes Times, solicited ratings from the public on how we thought Obama's job performance was during that period. We were given a 75-word limit in which to describe how we thought he had done or to mention any highlights we may have noticed during that period.

Imagine my delight when my husband brought the newspaper home, and I discovered that my sister, Carol Lee Bond Harris, had written such an awesome response that hers made the front page of the newspaper! I have mentioned before that ours is a family of writers, and now I have indisputable proof! As I was telling my husband, the only way that I will ever make the front page is if there's a murder involved...probably mine!

Here is what Carol's article said:

"So much damage in so short a time with so little effort. Millions of American dollars for foreign abortions. Increased wasteful spending on failed embryonic stem cell research, disregarding successful treatments derived from adult stem cells. Irresponsible banks and companies rewarded for their misdeeds. Our children consigned into debt for posterity to fund "spread the wealth" Big Government agenda. Reduction of missile defenses authorized following North Korea launching a missile over our allies. God help us."
Carol Lee Bond Harris of Waterloo

There were three more responses inside the newspaper as a continuation of the article, but they weren't even close to being as good as Carol's.

The response that I wrote did not get published, but if it had, then Carol and I together would have covered almost every issue that had happened within the 100 days. My response was as follows:

"Attempted multiple confirmations of tax-cheaters for Representatives; mismanaged AIG’s bailout; spending Billions of non-existent dollars; insulted British Prime Minister; escaped saluting flag and singing National Anthem at Camp Lejeune: bowed to the sovereignty of King Abdullah; classified our courageous vets as a "terrorist threat;" requested removal of IHS religious insignia at Georgetown University; delayed rescue of Captain from Somali pirates; and "unaware" of Tax Day Tea Parties translates into being out of touch. Great job."
Cynde Lou Bond Hammond of Romulus

Congratulations, Carol! You did a great job, I'm very proud of you, and I love you very much! Not only was it well-written, but it was factual and it was exactly right; you hit the nail right on the head. Way to go, girl!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Welcome, Elana!"

2009-04-27T20:49:00.008-04:00

I'm always so excited when I discover that I have a new "follower" on one of my blogs, and today, when I signed on to add my new "Facebook Badge" on to this site, I found that I had another "follower."

Welcome to the family of "followers," Elana! I hope you'll enjoy the stories about my family, our travels, and our adventures. I plan on adding some recipes and maybe some arts and crafty things to my site in the near future, so I hope you'll feel free to comment. If you have any ideas or requests, I'd love to hear them, too. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your interest and support, and I hope we'll become good friends!

By the way, did you notice my new "favicon" that's located on the tab up above, next to my blog name? It looks like a capital letter "H" in a box, which stands for the "H" in my last name, Hammond, just like the one that is here on the right:

Until next time... stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Our Son Got Married!"

2009-04-12T11:08:00.022-04:00

********************** Have you ever heard the phrase, "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words?" Well, I certainly think that the photo to the left, of our son, Joshua, embracing his new bride, Christina, at their marriage ceremony yesterday, qualifies as one of the pictures that are worth a thousand words, don't you agree? He looks as if he may be thinking, "She's mine now...we can do whatever we want!"

************ On Saturday, the eleventh day of April in the year of our Lord 2009, at 1:00 p.m., Miss Christina Elizabeth Scowcroft was joined in Holy Matrimony to Joshua James Hammond.

The attendees that were present to witness the blessed event, which took place at the town of Junius Court House in the State of New York, are pictured above. In addition to Judge Brian Laird, who presided over the event, from left to right they are: Chrissy's father, Terry Scowcroft; Chrissy's mother, Linda Scowcroft; Cynde (me, Josh & Jon's stepmother--but I love them as if they were my own and I hate that word step in front of mother!); Dion (my husband, Josh & Jon's father); Chrissy; Josh & Jon's grandmother, Barbara Hammond (back row, Dion's mother); Josh; Jon (our other son); and Josh's mother (Dion's "ex," also Jon's mother.)

Needless to say, Dion and I are very happy that Josh and Chrissy decided to get married before little Noah makes his entrance into the world, as there wasn't much time left to spare: he's due on the 18th of April! It's all in the Lord's perfect timing, right?

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

"Help! I've Fallen and I Can't... "

2009-04-05T07:59:00.024-04:00

**********************I've fallen a few times lately, but Praise the Lord it happened in the living room where the carpet is nice and fluffy, or I could have really gotten hurt!

I never know when it's going to happen. I'll be walking along, and all of the sudden, it seems like my hip just *S*N*A*P*S*! When I take my next step...my leg is like a soup ~n~o~o~d~l~e~ and down. I. go! Keep in mind that I can't catch my fall, because it would totally destroy my hands and arms if I tried. I tried anyway, because it was an involuntary reflex...and it hurt me, but not as bad as I thought it would.

I'm very grateful, obviously. But, I knew I'd have to find a temporary solution to this problem, while I'm waiting to be able to go to physical therapy for the osteoarthritis that I have in both knees, both hips and my left shoulder. My sister, Carol, thought of getting a big ace bandage to wrap around my knee, so the next time we went shopping, we picked one up that was four inches wides. I could get one of those leg braces, but I'd have to go back to the doctor's and pay for another doctor visit. No thanks. I already have enough bills coming up. I'm contemplating going to the Chiropractic College's Health Dept. in Seneca Falls for my physical therapy, but right now, we don't have a vehicle. Not even one! My poor 1990 Cutlass Supreme L/S Oldsmobile, "Rocket," (that's what the boys named her when they were little) is ill and is waiting to be fixed.

Yes, I have had this car for nearly eleven years. Now, come on. You have to admit it. She is really beautiful, isn't she? And you should feel how she handles! It's amazing! She's been an excellent car and I love her so much. I just wish that they weren't doing away with the entire line of Oldsmobiles, but alas, that's why they are...because they last too long. They are such good cars that they don't need to be replaced as often as other vehicles do. So why not charge more, then? I would gladly have paid a higher price to have kept the line alive. They were the absolute best! They definitely made a huge mistake and I think that why they're suffering the consequences right now. "Buh-Bye, General Motors GM!"

Anyway...we're very thankful to Dion's mother for helping us out. She is so good to us. I can't tell you how blessed I am to have a mother-in-law like that. And I'm going to strive to be a blessing to Chrissy, too. Speaking of Chrissy...a little birdie told us that she and Josh got their marriage certificate. If I remember correctly, you have to use it within a month. Maybe the letter I wrote to Josh about getting married before the baby comes did some good? I hope so. I didn't want to hurt their feelings...but why start out on the wrong foot if you don't need to? The baby is due soon, so I hope they hurry.

I hope we get asked to go to their little wedding (even if it's at the Justice of the Peace), for Dion's sake, but if not, it's their decision and their day. What's important to us is that they are happy! We are so excited about the baby and want only the best for our Josh and that lovely girl that he has chosen to be his wife and life partner. Chrissy is a precious girl and I love her already. I thank the Lord that He has blessed my Josh with such a sweet, God-fearing little girl from such a nice family. I knew that He would be faithful and answer the prayers that I have prayed for Josh and Jon all these years. (Jon will be next...but years from now, I pray!) Still...it has to be harder to raise girl. I feel bad for what we put my parents through. We just didn't realize...ah, but that's another story for another day. So...

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you.

"My Worker's Compensation Insurance Provider Is HOUNDING Me Again!"

2009-03-27T11:36:00.016-04:00

******************************************************************************************* When I went to court last month to settle the Workers Compensation case regarding the injury to my left shoulder, I knew something was fishy when things went so smoothly. Didn’t I tell you I’d be hearing from the Insurance Company again soon? You don’t deal with a company for seventeen years and not learn what their habits are. I have also learned what their work ethic and their little tricks are, and they are very underhanded, to say the least. It’s a shame that you can’t trust companies like that anyone; and they’re the ones getting bailed out!

Anyway…A few weeks back, I got a big, thick, legal-sized envelope in the mail from my lawyer, Peter N. Littman of Littman and Babiarz in Ithaca, New York. He has represented me in this case since 1995—so that’s a very long time on one case, I would think.

I remember the first time I went to his office. My twin sister, Sande, took me. I wasn’t driving, of course, because of the problem with my hands, and I also anticipated that I would need her to fill out any paperwork that they would give me on a “clipboard” when I entered their office. The last time I had any dealings with a lawyer before that had been when I had divorced my physically-abusive first husband, and I was suffering flash-backs while we were sitting there. It had to be because I was so nervous.

The time in the waiting room flew by and when we were called to enter Mr. Littman’s office, my knees buckled. I was so embarrassed; I hadn’t done anything wrong, so I had nothing to feel guilty for. Sande grabbed my arm and that bolstered my courage, so in the office we went, only to sit and wait—which only made me nervous, once again.

By the time Mr. Littman finally came to his office, Sande and I were laughing, and making jokes as to how he must have gotten lost on his way to the office. I’ll never share the actual jokes here, just in case I become a stand-up comic some day; I may need them and they were that good!

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Bond,” he said, as he walked into the office, reading my folder with his head down. He hadn’t seen Sande or me yet. “How are you this morning?” (I was single at the time and hadn’t even started dating my current husband yet.)

“Fine, thank you for asking,” we said in exact unison. “How are you, Mr. Littman?”

“Twins!” he said, as he tossed my folder on the desk and gave us both a smile. “Which one of you is Cynde Bond?”

“I could be,” Sande said, smiling mischievously.

“So could I,” was what I said, as he turned to look at me.

He was a very stern, nice-looking man, and this could go either way, but I was guessing that he would take it well. “I have eight-year-old twin boys, so I have to put up with this kind of stuff all the time. Wait until I tell them about you two characters,” he said, and right then, we both knew that he liked us.

We decided to let him off the hook and we told him which “twin had the Tony,” as it were, and then we got down to business.

Getting back to the present, inside the envelope was a letter from my Workers Compensation Insurance provider, which at the time happened to be Great American Insurance Company, and is now Ohio Casualty Group. They made a list of all the medications that I was taking that they covered (inaccurate, of course) and then explained how I didn’t need them or should be taking something else instead. As usual, they didn’t bother to read my doctor’s records, which they had requested in order to formulate this report, but what does that matter? We all know the real bottom line is the bottom line or translated: the only thing these people care about is saving money.

So, back to court we go. It’s all just blackmail, you know. They had threatened that they wouldn’t pay for my medications when they switched to the new provider, and that didn’t work, so they tried to sue me under what they called a #25a provision, but found they couldn’t, because my case was an on-going case. They have been trying to force me to settle early for years, but I said, “No, thank you.” Why would I do that? Are they nuts?

The next best thing, they thought, was to harass her. So they keep scheduling Independent Medical Examinations (IME’s) in the hopes that they’ll finally find a doctor that will side with them some day…but in fifteen years, it hasn’t happened yet.

It is stressful to me, which only adds to my pain level, but I’m sure they don’t care at all. Thankfully I have this voice-recognition software on my computer, plus my husband helps me so I can post these reports. My husband is an angel! I plan on keeping a record of all the things these people do to me, so when I go to get some help, it will be clear that I have been harassed for years. I’m tired of sitting back and being victimized. This has got to stop!

Until next time…stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

Where It All Began

2009-03-22T17:40:00.012-04:00

All I can think about lately is little Noah. I can't wait until he gets here. So that made me think that maybe it would be a good time to tell the story of Sande's and my beginning.

We were actually triplets, but little Cande didn't make it. My mother never talks about it, but I know it hurts her to this day. She does love to tell the story about when she found out she was pregnant for twins—even though they didn't know we were triplets until she lost Cande: the third baby, my tiny, little sister.

My father owned a car dealership (he sold Oldsmobiles and Chevrolets) and he was away at a big Dealership Meeting in Syracuse, N. Y. at Krebb’s Inn when my mother got the good news. Ordinarily, news like that could have waited until he got home a few days later, but this was different! You see, Dad and his ex-wife had their own set of twins, and when he had left her for cheating on him, (several times!) she kept telling him that he’d be sorry—he’d never be able to have twins with anyone else. In fact, she gloated over it.

My father told my mother about what she had said before they got married, and said it was a ridiculous thing for her to say. They both laughed about how funny it would be if he and Mom were able to have twins some day, but, it was soon forgotten; they got on with the beginning of their new, happy lives together. They had both agreed that whether or not they had twins would not be the key to their happiness. However, deep inside, my mother wanted to give my father twins—she wanted it that more than almost anything!

Mom and Dad totally erased that conversation from their minds, and one year later, my brother, John was born. Four years after that, my sister, Carol Lee, joined him. Now it was another four years later, and Mom was making a phone call to the secretary at the Dealership meeting. Mom briefly told her the story about Dad’s first set of twins and what his “ex” had said, then she asked when their next break would be.

"This is too good to wait!” the secretary had said. “Why don't I just go right over and have them take a phone to his table; it'll give those boys some real excitement!" and that's exactly what she did.

My mom excitedly spoke to my dad over the phone. “Sweetheart, I have some good news for you,” she said, trying hard to suppress the giggles that were waiting to burst forth.

“Go ahead, honey,” he replied, nervously. “I’m always happy to hear good news.”

“Miles, we’re having twins!”

“What do you know!” he exclaimed. Then he turned to the men in the meeting and said, “My wife and I are having twins!”

The room filled with men was abuzz, congratulating my father and making wise cracks. Everybody in the room started whooping and hollering; my dad was the proudest man in the world.

“I’ll have to get off the phone now, Mary Ellen. I can’t hear you over all the ruckus,” he told her. “You’ve made me so happy…and honey, don’t forget—I love you!”

“I love you, too, Miles,” she had answered, tears of joy spilling down her cheeks.

When our father put the announcement in our hometown newspaper five months later, it read: "New Models Arrive At Local Dealership," and he proudly heralded the arrival of their twin girls, Cynde and Sande. Boy! was his was ex-wife ANGRY!!

For your enjoyment: (This reminds me so much of our childhood. There is so much love in this home. What a blessed family!)

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

41 Days and Counting!

2009-03-20T17:59:00.016-04:00

It's hard to believe that in shortly over a month's time, our "little twinkle," Noah Christian Hammond is due to arrive, thus making Dion and I become first-time grand-parents,
and changing our lives...forever. Neither one of us can wait!

I find myself daydreaming about what he'll look like, smell like, and feel like in my arms. I already love him so much. When I think of how much I have loved Josh and Jon, and now to add a child of one of these gifts from God, I have to wonder what it was that I did that was so good, in order to deserve being blessed like this.

From the moment that I fell in love with the boys' father, I have been happier than I have ever thought possible, and I thank God every day for such wondrous joy. I pray that Josh and Chrissy will find that kind of happiness in their marriage, and that Noah's childhood will be one filled with safety, love and happiness.

Children of divorce, like Josh, carry hurts with them that they oftentimes can not express, and we do not want that to ever happen to little Noah. When Josh's mother dissolved their marriage, it was rough on the children and his father, but things could not be undone. I will never understand what she saw in another man, when she had perfection right under her nose, but I am more than happy to have him for my husband.

"I, Cynde, take thee Dion, to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part, In Jesus' name, Amen."

He's a wonderful husband, a wonderful father, and he's also going to be a wonderful grandfather! I can't wait to share this adventure with this man I married. It's bound to be filled with more love than we could ever imagine...and we're both ready and waiting for it, with our arms wide open!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you.

It's Official: They're Engaged!

2009-03-11T09:15:00.002-04:00

Well, it's official, folks! Our eldest son, Josh, and Chrissy, his girlfriend of three years (they had their three-year anniversary on 06 March 2009) are now engaged! He has even given her the Hammond family diamond, an heirloom that has been passed down through the family, originally belonging to my husband's Great, Great Grandmother Hammond. (I'll insert the photo of it on Chrissy's hand as soon as she emails it to me.)

I was finally able to meet her some weeks back when I went in to the P & C grocery store where she works. Dion and I had spent the day together doing shopping and errands. I had a doctor's appointment and blood tests earlier in the day, so we stopped to get a few things on the way home and when he noticed she was working, he took me right through her line and introduced us. Both of us are shy, so I was relieved that we hadn't had to plan our meeting and make a big deal out of it. I always worry that people won't like me, or that I'll embarrass Dion and the boys in some way (low self-esteem left over from my abusive first marriage, I guess).

She's a delightful girl and I liked her right away. As you can see from the photo, she's very pretty. She's also just as sweet as she can be. I think that she and I will become great friends. If she and I can get along a fraction as well as my mother-in-law and I get along, then we'll be doing great!

I'm so blessed because I have the best mother-in-law (MIL) in the world, and I want to be that way with Chrissy. Dion's mother is like no other MIL that I have ever heard about. I have never heard any of my married friends rave about their MIL's like I do about mine. She is so sweet, generous, loving, and I love her so much!

They always tell you that it's easy for a mom to get along with her daughter's husband, but that nobody is ever good enough for her little boy. I can see where that would be true in some cases, but I think Josh made a great choice in Chrissy. Furthermore, for added insurance, I'll be praying with all my heart that these two will be happy together, and that they'll have a close and loving partnership & marriage, like his father and I do. That would be a match made in Heaven!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

Please check out my other blogs:
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

Bringing Things Up-To-Date...

2009-03-09T16:18:00.004-04:00

One of the worst things about getting behind on posting in your blogs is trying to make some sense of all the information that you know you should catch up on so that you can bring people up-to-date. My best advice to you is this: don't get behind in the first place. That's the very reason my father used to call me "Ben" for my nickname. "Why Ben?" you ask. Simple. For: "Ben" putting it off! At the time, I had always been quite a procrastinator, and I have pretty much conquered that problem. Or, at least I thought I had. I really need to work on that.

On 12 February 2009, Dion took me to attend a Worker's Compensation Hearing regarding the injury to my left shoulder that happened on 12 December 2007. I have been fighting for over a year to get treatment and coverage for it, and because it relates to an injury that occurred in 1992 that I was awarded life-time coverage for, it made it more complicated than usual. To make a long story short, they were uncharacteristically nice to me at court and everything will be covered through New York State Special Funds (a division of Worker's Comp.) instead of my Worker's Compensation Insurance Company, which is good for me, but I don't think it is fair for New York State! It's just another one of those deals where the state gets the shaft while the insurance company gets the big bucks and they don't even have to pay out much because of some #25a provision where, even though they were court-ordered to pay me "forever" for the problem that I have, they can now opt-out. It's just not fair! I'm sure tax-payers pay the tab for this one, too!

Don't get me wrong here: I'm very thankful for the blessing that I have received here, but it's really no more than what I had already been previously awarded and what was already due me. I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Usually when they act as if they are bearing gifts with one hand, they are busy stabbing me in the back with their other hand. I'm praying that I'm wrong this time, and if so, I will gladly post a public apology and will also be very pleasantly surprised. Only time will tell.

On 15 February 2009, my twin sister Sande's mother-in-law passed away. Her name was Helen L. Smith, and she was 91 years old. Helen was very special to our entire family for many reasons. She was a very special lady, and because of that, we made her part of our own family, which is something we resist doing, unless we are quite sure that you'll fit in quite nicely with all of us. Once she moved back to New York State from her lengthy stay in Florida, she and my mom renewed their close friendship and became best friends again, frequently staying over night with her and staying up to watch movies until all hours of the night. They called each other every day, just like typical girlfriends do. I think she was particularly close to me because I am Sande's twin, and it was like getting two daughters-in-law for the price of one. This is what I wrote to be read at her memorial service (it will explain more plainly what I mean):

"Throughout the years, Helen has always treated me as though I were her second daughter-in-law. I guess it was an unusual situation, because I am Sande Smith’s twin sister. What is more, before I got married to my husband, Dion, in 2001, I used to spend quite a bit of my time with Allan, Sande, Ashleigh, Miles, Amity and Helen.

Not only were Helen and I family, but we were friends as well. I used to work for her years ago at the Happy Landing Restaurant, and I have gone on trips with her. One trip in particular was to Annapolis, MD; New York City; and thereabouts, just the two of us for two weeks—and we had a blast! I remember that was the first time that I had ever ridden in a single-engine plane. A friend of hers owned one, and she asked him to take us for a ride. We were both bug-eyed because he gave us quite a bumpy, daredevil type of ride, but we loved it.

She was so adventurous, full of mischief and young at heart. I remember sharing a room with her on another trip where I short-sheeted her bed. To do that, you have to take the non-fitted sheet and fold it in half instead of having it tucked into the foot of the bed like it’s supposed to be, so when the person slides into bed, they are stopped short, and they wonder what’s going on. Well, she kept looking at the bed, trying to figure it out, then she looked at me and exclaimed, “You dog!” That was one of her favorite sayings and we all loved coaxing her into situations where she’d have to say it again.

When I moved to Texas and Virginia and she to Florida, we kept in touch by faithfully writing to each other. Her letters were always newsy and interesting and inevitably contained coupons or a clipping about something that would be of particular interest to you. She was thoughtful that way.

One thing you could say about Helen was that she was definitely “unique.” And she was loyal. If she loved you, she would back you up, no matter what.

Furthermore, it was important to Helen that she stayed physically fit. She used to take a walk after each meal, and maintained this ritual faithfully until around age 89 when it became apparent that her dementia may be a problem.

When she fell and needed to be hospitalized, her dementia worsened, but she remained good-natured and sweet. In fact, she thought that she worked as a supervisor at Huntington’s and the girls there just loved her. They said that she was a delight to have around.

I thank the Lord for sending her into my life—she enriched it, and I loved her very much.

In the future, when I think of Helen, I know I will smile…,but I will also miss her terribly."

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and God bless you all.

Cynde

Please visit my other blogs:
Cynde's Got the Write Stuff ~and~ Usurper Exposed. Thank you!

Getting Organized!

2009-03-06T16:40:00.002-05:00

For quite some time now, I have been in a quandary as to what to do with this blog. Without realizing it, I seem to have been going in three different directions with my postings, and it's made a mess of what I had originally intended to do with it. Now I think I have a solution: I'll split my postings into three different blogs so that I can keep my thoughts organized. Why didn't I do that in the first place? (I know the answer to that. Because hindsight is 20/20, that's why!)

This blog, "Cynde's Daybook," will contain all the postings that have to do with my personal life, such as information about my family and the upcoming stories about my new grandson that is due to be born in April (I can't wait!).

The other two blogs will be as follows:

1.) "Usurper Exposed" will contain my postings about things that are primarily politically oriented. It will talk about what is happening to our country as Obama (the man who has still NOT proven to be legally eligible to be President because he can never possibly be a natural-born citizen!) goes on a spending spree with TRILLIONS of dollars that our country does not have! I have set the site up, but not posted yet. I will do that soon.

2.) "Cynde's Got The Write Stuff" will contain any postings that are related to my writing and being a writer. I'll pass along writing advice that I've learned along the way; links for sites that will be helpful to other writers; reviews on books that I've read that I thought were exceptional; and other goodies along those lines--I think you get the idea.

Hopefully, this will organize my blog in the way that I had envisioned earlier. If not, I'll just have to make another split. (The more, the merrier, right?) Well, I do hope you'll check out all of my blogs, and I also hope you'll find them interesting enough to keep coming back.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T13:25:00.001-05:00

******************Dion, Jon and I had a wonderful Christmas this year (except for the fact that this was our first year without Josh.) First we went to Dion's mom's, where we had appetizers and visited with Dion's brother and sister and their spouses and the nieces and nephew of the bunch. After that, we had a nice lasagna dinner with lots of other entrees; it was a fabulous feast that ended with oodles of homemade Christmas goodies.

There were all kinds of peanut-butter balls; chocolate-covered pretzels; light and dark "trash" (a mixture of nuts, pretzels, M&M's, and cereal covered with either white or dark, melted chocolate--yummy!); and all kinds of cookies! You name it--it was there. Most of it was made by Dion's brother's wife, Cheryl, and we got to take a huge bag of it home, which made Dion happy, because I'm not able to do much baking due to the problem with my hands.

While we were eating, we all caught up on the latest news of each others' families and Dion passed around some photos that Josh had just given him of himself and Chrissy together so that they all could see what Chrissy looked like. Everyone was very impressed by how cute Josh and Chrissy looked together and how pretty she is. I was so relieved that I had just gotten to meet her, even though it was just for a minute. She seemed very sweet and I'm looking so forward to getting to know her better, even though I'm nervous about it. (that's what I get for being shy, huh?)

Following dinner, we opened all our packages. Donna (Dion's sister) and Cheryl passed them out and Bob (Donna's husband) was taking pictures while we opened them. I feel bad every year when it's time to open the gifts. Dion's brother and sister always give us some little gift, but we just don't have the funds to give anything to them--especially this year, after Dion missed three months of work! I think they understand, though. There's nothing I love more than giving, but when you owe money to people, you can't put them off to buy gifts for others, IMHO. Someday...I'll get all caught up and then I'll buy, buy, buy! (not really! LOL!) I won't go hog-wild, but I will enjoy being able to give again!

The next order of business was to take family photos. They really have it down to a science where they do it by family, and at least two different people are taking a set of the same photos on two different cameras, so they have backups, just in case something happens with one of the cameras.

They took a set of the grandchildren together: Jennifer, Dara, Matthew and Jon. (I really missed Josh, Dana and Katey!) Then they added Gramma (Dion's mom, Barb) and her dog, Max. Those will be adorable photos and I can't wait to see them!

Next, we took the group family photos. They did the photos of Daren, Cheryl and Dara as a family, then with Gramma and Max, then Daren and Cheryl as a couple, then a couple of Dara and Jennifer together.

The next group were the Harts, which were Donna, Bob, Jennifer and Matthew. Then they added Gramma and Max, then Donna and Bob as a couple, then they did a couple of Jennifer and Matthew together.

Then it was our turn. Dion, Jon and me, then we added Gramma and Max. We had already been seated when I remembered that we didn't get our "couple" photo, so Dion said that we'd have Jon take it of us later on when we were at Mom's, but it never happened--we got so busy that we forgot it. It felt strange not having Josh there, but maybe next year we'll have Chrissy and the baby and Josh with us. Wouldn't that be awesome?

We hated to leave everyone, but we were also very excited to go to my mom's house and see my side of the family for Christmas next,(we don't usually get to do that) so that's just what we did. When we arrived at Mom's, we were just in time to pack up leftovers to bring home with us. After I said "hello" to everybody, I sent Dion and Jon in to visit with the folks and I got busy packing so that I would have time to visit, too.

My twin sister, Sande, her husband, Allan, and her youngest daughter, Amity, were there. Sande's son, Miles and his girlfriend, Brianne, had been there earlier and had already gone, plus her eldest daughter, Ashleigh, had other plans, so she didn't come at all. My other sister, Carol, her husband, Foo, (his real name is Allen) and her son, Bret were there. Carol's daughter, Audra, and Audra's husband, Russ, and their daughter, Olivia, were there also. Olivia is only six years old, so she was having a ball because there were presents there for her and the Christmas tree looked beautiful. My cousin, Stuart, was also there and then when the three of us popped in, and you also include my mother, you have a pretty full house!

After I packed the leftovers and helped a little with clean-up, I went in to join the others in catching up with the family gossip, but sadly, Carol and Foo had to leave and Bret followed shortly thereafter. We had a great time anyway, though, with lots of joking and laughter. Thankfully we remembered to pass the pictures of Josh and Chrissy around the first thing we got there, so they all got to see what Chrissy looked like. Foo didn't remember meeting Jon before, but I think he met him at Audra's wedding. No big deal, though...I think Jon's grown several inches since then, plus Foo met a lot of people at Audra's wedding, and he's quite shy, so it's not to be wondered at.

Oh well...overall, we had a really nice day! I kept thinking about the loved ones that were missing around the table, but I'm so thankful to God for what we have and the miracle of His Son. The Christmas miracle is the beginning of what has made it possible for us to be able to see our loved ones again.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(John 3:16,King James)

For the New Year's, Dion and I stayed home and watched movies like we usually do, and we cuddled together, bringing in the New Year. Every year, Sande calls me from wherever she is, right around midnight, to wish me a "Happy New Year," and she did again this year. Then I call Mom. In fact, Carol, Sande and I all call Mom around midnight, because we know she still misses Dad, even after all these years. Happy New Year, everybody!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

Cynde

"We're Gonna Be Grandparents!"

2008-11-23T14:07:00.001-05:00

In case you haven't gotten the word, Dion and I are going to be first-time grandparents! Our oldest son, Josh, and his girlfriend, Chrissy, are expecting a baby boy sometime in April 2009! They have said that they plan to get married, but there is no word as to when that might be.

When I think of all the so-called "pro-choice" advocates that push for the right to murder babies like my grandbaby, it makes me shudder. I thank God that Josh and Chrissy are not going to destroy that baby. I am so grateful to them for that I can hardly breathe. Just thinking of other grandmothers, you know who you are, who have had to lose their grandbabies because of this senseless, selfish murder called "abortion," it makes me feel sick.

Obama has promised that the first thing that he is going to do as president is to sign the "Freedom of Choice Act" (also known as FOCA). I bet most of you don't even realize the far-reaching implications of that act. In essence, it will sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws and policies including these, which are among the most important: parental consent and notification laws for minors; state and federal funding restrictions on abortion; conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry and protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs. Do you understand what I am saying here? I am saying that this proposed legislation will create a federally guaranteed "fundamental right" to abortions for undefined 'health' reasons, and to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks, through all nine months of pregnancy, in other words...infanticide!

To you, who claim to be Christians and yet you voted for a man that is clearly evil, I ask you, "How could you turn your back on the Lord like that?" You closed your ears and eyes completely when messengers of God tried to tell you the Truth; you spewed your wicked, hurtful messages of division, subversion and racism throughout the internet and media; and you tried to destroy not only the candidates of the opposing side, but their CHILDREN as well! And you claim WE are haters? What a joke!

For those of you that truly don't know what Obama's stand is on the issue of abortion, an article entitled "Obama's Abortion Extremism" is the perfect article to explain it. The author of the post, Robert P. George, is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and previously served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Here is the link:

http://thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2008.10.14_George_Robert%20P._Obama's%20Abortion%20Extremism_.xml

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

"Obama's Dirty Little Secret"

2008-11-04T12:07:00.001-05:00

The information was finally released on Saturday, 01 November 2008, that Barack Obama’s beloved Aunti Zeituni Onyango, the sister of his late father whom he has immortalized in his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," has been living in the United States as an illegal immigrant! She was refused asylum four years ago, evaded deportation and has been in defiance of a judicial ruling even since, but not without help. Obama’s aunt has been living in Boston public housing and receiving stipends for “volunteering” as a resident health advocate. While she’s not exactly an axe-murderer or living at the Ritz, she is still living in the United States illegally and we taxpayers are footing the bill. Hmmm…I wonder from whence her legal advice came? It’s not exactly an effortless task to weave your way in and out of the bureaucratic mine-field affectionately known as “social services.” Someone must have helped her, an elderly foreigner, to navigate her way through the system so that she could “fleece” our government, right along with the millions of other illegal immigrants that are currently in this country.

The best part is, she illegally donated to Obama’s presidential campaign, which proves that he has been receiving illegal donations, just as many of us suspected. There is no way to tell what the total amounts of the illegal donations that he has received are, since Obama will not release the list of his donations that are less than the legal guidelines. Neither candidate is required to do so, but in the interest of keeping with his policy of being open, transparent and truthful—something that Obama has been sadly lacking in since the beginning of his campaign—John McCain has gladly made his entire list available. In addition, it came as no surprise when Obama went back on his word to mutually agree to the limitations of public financing. Obama is the first major presidential candidate to refuse to adhere to these limitations since the new system was first started in 1976. It isn’t the first time Obama has gone back on his word to the American people, nor will it be his last, I’m afraid, but in a television interview between CNN’s Tony Harris and Candy Crowley, the matter is downplayed as they both giggle and present it as somehow “comical” saying, “obviously he couldn’t pass up that advantage, so he opts out.” It wouldn’t be important or even expected for Obama to keep
his “word,” of course.

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/06/19/the-problem-with-obama-s-public-financing-acrobatics.aspx

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/19/obama.public.financing/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Wow…that sure doesn’t speak well for the character of Barack Obama, does it? Give the man a better deal and “POOF!” Out the window goes his “word!” Yeah, right…as if his “word” meant anything to begin with. Plus, what better way to cover up receiving illegal campaign donations than to opt out of public financing—not that anyone will check on him anyway—but all he has to do is say, “I wasn’t aware of that,” like he did in the case of receiving illegal donations from his aunt and if he knew of his aunt’s illegal status. I wonder how many “millions” of illegal donations just like hers he’s “not aware of.”

Also, the concern in our nation about the number of illegal immigrants that are allowed to enter our country to receive free health, education and housing benefits at taxpayer’s expense, is growing rapidly. In addition, many of the illegal immigrants enter our country commit crimes stir up unrest, many start up gangs, and countless others ignore orders of deportation. When Obama was asked if he favored allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, something that met with strong opposition here in New York State and several other states, he said, “Yes.” He makes reckless, untrue statements about how Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs and people like them have called for the roundup and immediate deportation of illegal immigrants, just to incite dissention between the illegal immigrants and the whites. He tried to elevate his status in the eyes of the Germans in Berlin when he made his “grand” world speech there. He was disloyal to our nation and he portrayed all of the American people as selfish, spoiled and racist. How long are we going to stand by and let him disrespect our people and our nation so that he can further his own personal and Muslim/African/anti-American agenda?

As far as I am concerned, the only areas that Obama is really experienced in are: lying and pandering. That makes him supremely qualified to head the Democratic National Committee, perhaps, but certainly not the United States of America, the most powerful country in the world! When are you “Pied Piper Obama” followers going to wake up from your "daze" and realize the truth? I pray that it will be before it’s too late for our nation. If it’s not, then you each will get what you deserve and I will remain on my knees, asking God to help us all.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

"Obama's 'Pinocchio' Ears"

2008-11-01T21:03:00.002-04:00

*****************I thought I would take a little bit of time to write just some of the discrepancies that I have noticed in what Sen. Obama has said and done. I don’t have the time or energy to cover every one of them, so I’ve picked out the ones that I feel are the most important. As you all know, when you are dealing with someone who lies, their lies grow and grow, until they have Pinocchio-type proportions. I think we should definitely keep an eye on Obama’s ears!

The first glaring discrepancy that I noticed has to do with Obama’s continued opposition to the “Born-Alive Protection Act,” a bill to protect the survivors of abortion from being shelved and left to die in the hospital instead of being provided basic humanitarian and medical care. Obama’s “story” was that the reason he didn’t approve the subsequent versions of the bill after initially voting “no” was because the wording was not the same as the bill that was finally passed almost unanimously in the House. He said if the wording had been like that, he would gladly have signed off on it, but…in fact…the wording was exactly like that and even though he has been made aware of that on several occasions, (like he didn’t already know that) he still chose to announce that the NRLC (National Right to Life Committee) was lying, right on national television, just to save his own hide. Since then, surprisingly, FactCheck.Org exonerated the NRLC and the NRLC is still waiting for a public apology from Sen. Obama. Does anyone want to take bets on how long they’ll have to wait?

#1.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apLjGQnTVg8&NR=1

#2.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kIfFTP595Q

#3.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMwDq73gbm4

#4.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h80mSgsQ6CU&feature=related

#5.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9UXszZyivM&feature=related

#6.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypDwNpgIUQc&feature=related

#7.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDX52pEC7_w

Next, as you know, Sen. Obama has stated that the $700 billion bailout was necessary because of failed economic policies that Sen. McCain supported, specifically the deregulation issue. It is a matter of record that Sen. McCain tried to warn the Democrats of the impending problem by presenting a bill in 2005 which he co-sponsored called the “Housing Enterprise Regulatory Act of 2005” (Bill S-190, www.govtrack.us) that the Democrats totally fought.
Even before that, President Bush tried to create a new agency that would regulate the supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because he could see that there was a potential problem and he tried to inform the House Democrats then, but people like Barney Frank (D-MA) and Melvin Watt (D-NC) fought vehemently against it, saying that these controls were not necessary, just as they said Bill S-190 was not necessary in 2005 and also when it came back before the House again in 2007.

Friends of Fannie Mae in the Senate were: Sen. Christopher Dodd and none other than Sen. Barack Obama! To make a long story short, in a period of 3 years, Obama received more in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae than Sen. John Kerry did in 20 years! In fact, Obama received 4 times more than any other senator per year over the last 20 years. And, a fact that should interest you very much is that Obama received 49 times more in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae than Sen. John McCain did. What does that tell you? Just think about it.

Be sure to watch the first video very closely because it goes pretty fast. Use the “pause” button if you need to and check out the website they refer to or “Google” when you question something. Everything is well-documented and this video is packed with information. The second one is quite the eye-opener as well. You are not going to believe how the Democrats fought against having any kind of oversight of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and please pay particular attention to the reading of the bonuses that were handed out. Also listen carefully to the language between the two sides and then listen to President Clinton’s statement in which he acknowledges the responsibility of the Democrats for resisting the efforts of the Republicans in the Congress and himself to tighten up on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

#8.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wed5co_c-pg

#9.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

Next I’ll address the much-advertised “Reverend Wright Scandal.” You may recall that on several different occasions, Sen. Obama was questioned as to whether he had any idea that Rev. Wright was preaching such incendiary messages at his church and if so, why did he remain at that church. Just for the sake of proof, I am going to provide videos for you that show him clearly giving two different answers to that question. The second one is kind of long, but please watch the whole thing because it does get to the point and apply to this subject.

#10.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdAKM5bPX2M&feature=related

#11.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUdjhKbImwE

In addition, he also mentions, in detail in his book, “Dreams From My Father,” and in his own words, the fact that he did know the doctrine of the church before he went there and he did in fact hear him say a lot of the exact speeches that he was questioned about by reporters. These speeches were referenced in the book as well.

The next subject that I’d like to address is one that I think is very important. What is Obama hiding? As you must realize, when someone runs for public office, their life becomes an open book. The same holds true for the office of the President of the United States of America; in fact, it is even truer for that person because he or she needs to be thoroughly checked and rechecked for reasons of national security. For that reason I am concerned as to why Sen. Obama is so secretive and is not forthcoming when he has been asked to release normal documents for review. The following is the current list to date of items that he has still not released:

1. Occidental College records -- Not released
2. Columbia College records -- Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper -- "not available"
4. Harvard College records -- Not released
5. Selective Service Registration -- Not released
6. Illinois State Senate schedule -- "not available"
7. Law practice client list -- Not released
8. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate -- Not released
9. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth -- Not rel.
10. Harvard Law Review articles published -- None
11. University of Chicago scholarly articles -- None
12. His Record of baptism-- Not released or "not available"
13. His Illinois State Senate records--"not available"

Please watch this extremely urgent video:

#12.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Glyla5R7B8

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is currently a lawsuit that is before the highest court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, where they will have to make the final determination as to whether Barack H. Obama is even qualified to run for the presidency of the United States. The fact that this lawsuit has gone this far proves its merit and the American people should be asking themselves just one question right now: What is Obama trying to hide? They will have to determine if the evidence that they have will prove without a shadow of a doubt whether Obama is a natural-born citizen of the United States. If the birth certificate that he posted on his website, that investigators hired by Philip J. Berg have determined is clearly a fraud, is a fake like we are quite sure that it is…then what will Obama think up next? The dog ate my birth certificate? (I have a feeling that quite a few of his “groupies” will believe him, too, because they don’t care what he says or does, just as long as he gets to be the president.)

We all know how the Obama Campaign works—it’s a well-oiled machine. When they hear an “annoying” allegation, comment, or commercial that was made by the McCain Campaign, within 12 hours at the latest they have made a commercial or similar response to counteract the “damage.” They don’t let one little tidbit go unanswered! But what have any of us heard from the Obama Campaign about this particular subject? Not one word!

This is a real live lawsuit, ladies and gentlemen! It’s one that I believe that Obama rushed off to Hawaii under the guise of “concern for his sick grandmother,” (who had already been released from the hospital because the crisis had passed) to double-check that there wasn’t any incriminating evidence (such as his Kenyan birth certificate, perhaps) left at “Granny’s” house. Even though she was supposedly ill enough for Obama to suddenly suspend his campaign, cancel rallies and whisk off to be by her side with only 14 day left in the campaign, he didn’t think it was necessary to take Michelle and the two girls. Very curious behavior indeed, don’t you think?

While the media has dismissed Obama’s relationship with William Ayers as unimportant and ancient history, I think it bears taking a second look at the matter. In addition, I think we need to take a look at the big picture and see just who it is that our possible “future President” spends his time with, relies on and calls his friends. We need to assess his powers of judgment, as well. And just an interesting little tidbit, while we’re still on the subject of terrorists and judgment: I thought it might interest all of you to know that Obama would not even qualify to be one of his own secret service men, if he were to apply for the position—not with the questionable background that he has and all the undesirables that he chooses (and then denies) to call his friends. Now, please take a look at these videos:

#13.)http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/07/griffin.obama.ayers.cnn?iref=videosearch

#14.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE6_zdeJ79E

#15.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh10-w351MI

#16.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJyLX7X3PzU

#17.)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxzgn4fj4vw&feature=related

#18.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSemkPChvHo

I have only scratched the surface of the secretive and dishonest life of Barack Hussein Obama and I’m just an amateur writer. Imagine what someone with a background in journalism with ties and friends in the right places could uncover if they were so inclined. But we all know that the left-wing, main-stream media is not so inclined, because they have done everything they could to stack the deck in Obama’s favor, including trying to all but destroy Gov. Sarah Palin and her family.

It’s a disgrace when they label Bristol Palin, the 17-year-old daughter of the Governor, as a “slut” and call her “disgusting” and “irresponsible” because she wants to keep the baby and tag her fiancé, Levi as that “redneck who knocked her up.” What makes it even worse is that when Britney Spears’ 16-year-old, celebrity sister found herself in the exact same position as Bristol, they followed “adorable” Jamie Lynn around and showed pictures of her with her fiancé, that “stand-up guy,” Casey, and finally did a complete story of the “happy family.” (the quotation marks show how they were reported in the news)

Finally, I have another video here that was just too good to leave out of my report. It’s the first in a series of twelve and if you have the time, it would really be worth your while to watch all twelve.

#19.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqTjUWf4t3E

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless you all.

"Obama: Devoted or Devious?"

2008-10-30T11:15:00.000-04:00

Is there anyone else out there that thinks that the poignant story we were spoon-fed about Sen. Obama suddenly rushing to his beloved grandmother’s side, all because he was so concerned for her health, was just a little too “touching?” According to the reports, she had recently fallen and broken her hip and needed to be hospitalized.

This, you may recall, is the very same grandmother that Obama disrespected and nationally labeled as “a typical white person,” even after her years of willing sacrifice, love and a singular devotion toward seeing that Obama received an excellent education and was well cared for throughout his life; something that both his father and his mother did not or could not seem to do for him.

With only 14 days left in the campaign, Obama whisked off to Hawaii, but not to his grandmother’s hospital bedside as you would have naturally thought for someone at death’s door, but to her home. Another curious circumstance was the fact that if it was serious enough for Obama to disrupt his entire campaign schedule, having to cancel speaking engagements and rallies because his grandmother was so desperately ill, why did he chose not to take Michelle and the two girls along? It just doesn’t ring true to me; how about you?

Coincidentally, the very same day that Obama made his sudden plans to go to Hawaii, a press release was made by Philip J. Berg, the attorney who filed suit against Barack H. Obama challenging his “lack of qualifications” to serve as the President of the United States because he did not have a valid, certified copy of his original birth certificate and/or an embossed, signed, paper certficate of live birth as verification that he was a natural-born citizen. The fact that Obama has continually ignored the issue and filed for dismissals in court should speak volumes to the American people. Why do you suppose Obama wouldn't just turn these documents in to the courts and make this whole thing disappear? Could it be that it's because these charges are true or is it because he has something to hide?

Currently, there is an appeal that has been filed and is now before the U. S. Supreme Court. The case is Berg v. Obama 08-cv-04083 and is referenced at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Glyla5R7B8. I know that there are those that are skeptical about whether this claim could possibly have any validity to it, but let me remind you of one thing: if all the stories that the Obama Campaign and FactCheck.Org have printed about how these charges against Obama are false and ridiculous are true, then why has this suit had enough merit to reach the highest court in the land? If this had all been resolved as Obama wanted you to think it had been, then why do you think he rushed to his grandmother's side? I personally think that he went there to double check that "Granny" didn't leave any incriminating evidence that would prove that he was actually born in Kenya or maybe on board a ship on the way to Kenya, like photos or even the missing birth certificate and certificate of live birth. Obama's grandmother from Kenya is only too happy to tell anyone that she sees that she was there the night he was born in the Kenyan hospital. She's a proud Kenyan grandmother whose grandson is running for President of the United States and she is understandably proud. This grandmother hasn't been asked to lie about that night yet, but time will tell.

FactCheck.Org, you may or may not know, is actually "The Annenberg Political Fact Check Organization" and is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, established in 1994 by Walter Annenberg. They have concluded by examining whatever document they had before them (it's been reported to have been a copy of his half-sister Auma's birth certificate, doctored with PhotoShop imaging to look like an "Obama-original") that it is, in fact, a certified copy of his original birth certificate. See their report here: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html. One more important note I think I should make is that FactCheck.Org is primarily funded by the Annenberg Foundation. Are you getting clued in to just how "cozy" this all is yet? No? Well, read on.

The name "Annenberg" may seem familiar to you because that "coincidentally" is also the name of the project that Obama was chairman of under guidance from none other than unrepentant terrorist, William "Bill" Ayers. Ayers personally hand-picked Obama to Chair the $100 million "Annenberg Challenge Projects" in Chicago, whose purpose was to reportedly improve schools in the area. Instead of giving money to the needy schools where it would have done the most good, Obama and Ayers chose to distribute the money to pet projects of theirs referred to as "external partners of the schools." Some of the recipients of these funds are as follows: "Peace School," which had a United Nations theme; a project centered around African-American studies; Trinity United Church of Christ whose pastor was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, known to teach Black Liberation Theology and other divisive, subversive doctrine; and Family Justice Center, where Ayers' wife worked.

During a period of five years, Obama distributed the $60 million per year that was supposed to go to needy schools, to extremist organizations such as ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) whose primary function was to infuse students with their radical idealogy. ACORN is the same organization currently being investigated for voter fraud; the same organization that Obama previously worked for as a "leadership trainer" for their new recruits and also as one of their attornies in the 1995 suit that forced the state of Illinois to implement the federal "motor-voter" bill. In addition, while in his capacity as Chair of the Annenberg Challenge and after, monies were exchanged in contributions to his campaign and he also made sure that they continued to receive funding that they needed.

The same type of conflict-of-interest with regard to campaign contributions and funding being allocated to Annenberg affiliates brings the validity of the FactCheck.Org report into question. Here is the link to another study on the birth certificate that concludes without a doubt that it is a forgery: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/atlas-exclusive.html. The U.S. Supreme Court will have to make the final determination on this one. I'm just wondering: What is Obama hiding?

This is just one more incident to be added to the growing number of misrepresentations, half-truths, secrets, and omissions that have become what seem to be what we can expect from Sen. Obama. Is that what you want from your next President? If not, then vote for honesty, integrity, and for the veteran who laid his life down for our country and our freedom instead. Vote for John McCain for President of the United States, 2008.

Until next time...stay safe, stay well, and may God bless America!

"Second Opinions"

2008-10-28T22:10:00.000-04:00

I had an appointment today with a doctor that I had never been to and had never heard of before, for the purpose of a "Worker's Compensation Second Opinion Evaluation." The translation for that in English is: I don't believe we want to pay for this treatment that you need and are entitled to, so if we jerk you around and stall long enough, maybe you'll give up, right? Wrong!

For those of you who don't know my background, I'll try to give you as condensed a version as I can. My first injury at work was during our annual inventory in the year of 1992. I hurt my left shoulder moving heavy price catalogs on to a shelf high above my head. Then during our next inventory in 1993, I reinjured my left shoulder lifting car brake rotors and I missed approximately 6 weeks of work, plus I had to work half days, wear a sling, go to physical therapy and really nurse it for months after I went back to work. I went to a hearing, they gave me a settlement, said I had some permanent loss of use of the shoulder and that if I ever hurt that shoulder again, no matter where I was or what I was doing, worker's compensation would cover the expenses as part of the settlement. I can't remember what term they used for that, though.

In March of 1995, I discovered that I had bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. I had carpal tunnel release surgery on my right wrist in September of that same year and I have never been back to work since. The night of the surgery I had to sleep with my arm almost straight up in the air. It was absolutely purple! I told the nurses at the hospital that it was wrapped too tight and they wouldn't loosen the bandages; it throbbed and I was in agony because of it. I asked them to call my doctor and they said they couldn't get ahold of him and that they were sure the problem would resolve itself once I went home. Uh-huh...they wanted me out of their face!

When I got home, my roommate, Penny (she was later a bridesmaid in my wedding!) tried to locate my doctor, and then she called the hospital emergency room for advice. The ER told her that we would have to wait until morning and make an appointment with my doctor, which we did, but in the meantime, I was to sleep with my arm as highly elevated as possible.

Penny actually went out and constructed a platform with 2 slats on the sides for my arm to slide in between so I could fall asleep and not worry about my arm sliding down. I didn't get much sleep because of the throbbing and the pain, but I was able to use that device that she made later, when I got home from the doctor. The physician's assistant, who was actually there to assist in the surgery, was not happy with the nurses at the hospital at all! He took my bandages off and massaged my surgery area and then reapplied the bandages. It was so weird to look at the incision so soon after surgery. The way the skin opened up and looked like you could look right through to my bones without any blood showing--it was so cool!

Anyway, I have always had my suspicions that that was the reason or at least a major contributing factor to my getting RSD (reflex sympathetic dystrophy) or CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome), which are both basically just chronic pain syndromes that resulted from trauma to the body, such as surgery, injury or illness, and are characterized by severe pain, swelling and changes in the skin with additional evidence of obvious nerve damage.

At any rate, because I have been suffering from the RSD/CRPS since 1995 and have not been able to go back to work, the Worker's Compensation Insurance Company has not been very happy with me. They have sent me for several "second opinion evaluations" about my RSD/CRPS and the most recent one was last year (2007). Can you imagine that? At that point it had been twelve years and at least that many doctors had all confirmed that diagnosis.

My most recent injury was a reinjury to my left shoulder that happened in December of 2007 while I was lifting the corner of our mattress, trying to slip the fitted sheet over the edge. I don't normally attempt anything near that heavy in the line of housework because I'm not really able to do those things anymore, but I wanted to surprise my husband and get that done for him. What a mistake! It cost him plenty; because of my stupidity, (which he calls sweetness) he has had to do even more work than usual. This is the injury that necessitated the second opinion evaluation, which was accomplished today.

Finally...what I didn't tell you was that I have had the audacity to tell my Worker's Compensation Insurance Company "No Thankyou" when they had asked me just a few weeks prior to their scheduling this "second opinion evaluation" appointment, to please consider taking an early settlement on my case. When that happens, they give you a lump sum of the monthly cash payments that you receive from them, for a total period of five years. In other words, they give you a check for 60 months worth of your payments, all at one time. If they had been paying for your medications and office visits as well, you would no longer receive those benefits. They have been trying to get me to settle for about 10 years and at one point, one of the adjusters actually discussed it with me on the phone.

"Are you sure you don't want to settle now? That's quite a chunk of change all at once. I'm sure you and your husband could think of something to use it for," he said. I know he must have thought I would jump at the chance and that maybe I was one of those dumb bimbos that would fall for it, but he didn't know me...at all.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked him sarcastically. I didn't like his condescending tone and I decided I would let him know I wasn't as stupid as he thought I was.

"Excuse me?" was his haughty reply.

"Well, I was sure you must be joking. You were, weren't you?" I asked. No reply. "I mean, after all, you're offering a settlement for five years and I've probably got thirty or even forty years left. I'd be crazy to accept that, right?" Still no answer. I was enjoying this. "Not to mention the cost of my monthly office visits...and those medication! The cost of my medications is astronomical! Well, you already know that, right?" Still no answer. I smiled. "Are you still there?"

"Yes, I'm here," he answered curtly.

"Oh, I was worried for a second there. Did you hear what I said?" I asked him, knowing full well he heard every word, but I was enjoying rubbing it in.

"I heard you!" he snapped.

"Oh dear. Have I said something that has offended you?" I asked in my sweetest, most innocent voice.

"No. I'll let the office know that you don't want to settle."

"Ever," I said, firmly.

"What?" he asked.

"I said, ever. Tell them that I don't want to settle, ever. That way they won't have to waste your time or mine again."

"Got it. Bye." And that was that. Until next time, that is.

"Should Church and State Always Be Separate?"

2008-10-27T16:34:00.000-04:00

My answer to this question is a resounding yes, but probably not for the reason you think.

When our ancestors wrote the United Stated States Constitution, they tried to think of every conceivable thing that may happen in the future, based on what they knew to be true at that moment. In good faith, they drafted what is known to us as The Bill of Rights or the Amendments, of which there are now a total of twenty-seven (27).

In the First Amendment, it states the following:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

There have been many disagreements as to the meaning of this particular amendment, but to me, the meaning is crystal clear. Our Country was founded on biblical principles, by Christian men who crossed the ocean in order to preserve that religious freedom, not remove it from their lives! It is well-documented that they prayed together before each meeting and asked the Lord for guidance when deciding what the wording would be for the Constitution. James Madison, who was the chief framer of the United States Constitution said:

"We have staked the whole future of American Civilization...upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

Does it sound like it was the intention of our Founding Fathers to separate our Creator from our lives while governing the people, which is one of the most important responsibilities that one may be called to do in his/her service to others? I think not.

My interpretation of this situation is that anti-Christian liberals are trying to push their agenda for our nation, which is that it be Godless, so that our children can have freedom "from" religion, not freedom "of" religion." They would like nothing better than to destroy the roots and foundation of our great nation and replace them with Marxism, unequal justice, deceitfulness and anything that is the opposite of truth, justice, honesty and the Christian values set forth in the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution was not written to give religious content to our nation, but rather, the Constitution was intended to be and is an instrument that protects and perpetuates the already existing religious values of our nation. It would probably even come as a huge surprise to many people to discover that nowhere in the Constitution does the phrase "separation of church and state" appear. In fact, there has never been a document of state that has even proposed such a concept, but the phrase has been passed around so much, that it is as much believed as one of the gospels.

In 1947, Justice Hugo Black made a ruling with the United States Supreme Court in the case of Everson vs. Board of Education. In that ruling, Judge Black took the First Amendment clause that read: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and ruled that the absolute meaning of that clause was that any aid or benefit to religion from governmental actions is unconstitutional. As Justice Black stated, "The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach."

When the First Amendment was passed, it had only had two main purposes. First, was to prohibit the government from mandatorily establishing a "Church of the United States" and declaring that one particular religion be the religion of the region, such as Britain had done. This was in response to concerns expressed by some Baptist clergymen of Danbury, Connecticut in a letter that Thomas Jefferson received from them in January 1802. Jefferson answered that letter, assuring them about the "wall," which had a one-directional purpose and that was to protect the church from the state. The church should always be free to teach biblical values to the people, while at the same time keeping the government out of the church. Our ancestors crossed the ocean, founded this great Country, and fought to preserve and protect those freedoms!

Secondly, the part of the First Amendment in which many people have of late decided to disagree, is the part that had been interpreted as follows: “the government should not impede or interfere with the practice of free religion.” The voice of religion is not supposed to be removed from public debate, but protected so that each religion can have its say. The First Amendment was intended to be a safeguard so that the state has no jurisdiction over the Church, thus protecting it, but if non-believers and other First Amendment dissenters have their way, they will remove the Church from every forum and totally disestablish it.