Random Stuff

During our Christmas gathering at my daughters home in Rockingham Linda & I stayed at a motel for some quiet away time. Linda was busy taking pictures and caught me reading your blogs on her laptop.

She caught me in a moment of thought while responding to one of the many blogs that I try to keep track of.

I was put to work at Linda's brother Juniors place at her side of the family gathering at Christmas. They had me slicing turkey and Linda's mother was sampling to make sure it was going to be ok for everyone else. Of course it passed her test.

One of the rides at the Christmas parade in Roanoke Rapids, NC on a chilly day.

Attending the parade. Linda's daughter Beth in the middle and Linda's neice Haley with the red hair at the back. The others are their friends.

More fun for the children and adults at the parade.

Imagine how awwwwwwwww Rocky must have felt snuggled in those towels that just came out of the dryer. Is it easy to see that we indulge our Rocky? He is our baby & we love to make him happy whatever it takes.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

In the words of "Hannibal", I love it when a plan comes together. I was having difficulty working with my blog page and a quick email to my friend Shady over at Shady Dell and my problems vanished. Thanks a lot Shady, I actually think I can act like I know something the next time I need to update the page.

Well my friends, its about 3PM here on a Friday and this short but crazy week is coming to a close and going out like a lamb. I love that too. It has been quiet in the office this afternoon and the peace is so welcomed.

To add to the plan coming together I received a package in our UPS delivery today that I have been waiting for quite a while. There is a lady that writes a daily devotional for women but guys can get a blessing out of her daily blessing too. Her name is Lysa Terkeurst and she is also the author of a new book that has just been released from the printers and my copy arrived today. The title is "Made to Crave, Satisfying your deepest desire with God, Not Food". She is also President of Proverbs 31 Ministries. I plan to find some quiet time this weekend to get into this new book.

The book has four objectives:

Break the cycle of "I'll start again on Monday", and feel good about yourself today.

Stop agonizing over numbers on the scale and make peace with your body.

Replace rationalizations that lead to failure with wisdom that leads to victory.

Reach your healthy goals and grow closer to God through the process.

I'll let you know later how the book is impacting my life and my relationship with my Lord. Have a wonderful weekend.

Odie

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for the "Word" of God. The best selling book of all time filled with everything we need for our daily existence. I also like the neat way someone came up with using the letters B.I.B.L.E. to mean basic instruction before leaving earth. How great is that?

No matter what subject you may think of the bible has teachings to cover it. If you haven't been in yours lately give it a try and let God bless you. A great place to start would be Proverbs. It is short and will give you such wisdom about how to live everyday life to its fullest.

I wanted to share a section from Psalm 19 verses 12 - 14 that was on one of my blog friends page some time back. It is a great way to start each day and is from the "Message" bible putting it into todays language.

"Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!

Keep me from stupid sins,

from thinking I can take over your work;

then I can start this day sun-washed,

scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.

These are the words of my mouth;

these are what I chew on and pray.

Accept them when I place them on the morning altar,

O God, my Altar-Rock, God, my Priest-of-My-Altar."

Wordless Wednesday

North Carolina

Thought I would take the opportunity to let you all know a little bit about the part of the world I live in. I love to travel but I really love North Carolina. It is located along the I95 corridor & is about at the half way point between Florida & Maine giving it a climate that attracts lots of people since our seasons are less extreme than other parts of the country.

Being on the eastern coastline would seem that we are in a hurricane zone but that is not really true. We have had some bad ones like Hazel in 1954 but didn't have another until "40" years later. We have had a few since then but spread out with years when none were recorded.

My state has the distinction of being first in a number of things. Go here to check out a list of notable firsts.

In a previous blog I was mentioning foods that I enjoy. There are a number of famous foods & drinks that originated in North Carolina. Go here to check them out.

There were lots of notable people that came from my state as well. Check out this list of famous people.

As with any state North Carolina has dumb laws that are still on the books and may give you a chuckle. Check these out.

Finally in case you did not know the little town of Halifax where I live had a significant part in our independence. I honestly did not realize this fully until I relocated here from only 40 miles south of here back in 2004. Check this out.

Hope you found this interesting.

Lunch with Linda for her birthday

Linda & I had our lunch date for her birthday and it was very enjoyable. We ate at David's Restaurant in Roanoke Rapids, NC which is the larger city about 5 miles up the interstate from our home.

Our reservations were for 11:30 so we beat the church crowd and so it didn't feel so close with bodies. It is a narrow restaurant but makes up for that with length. The walls are covered with attractive pictures and has a border of grape vines with bunches of grapes going around the top of the walls. David, the owner is up front greeting everyone as we walk in.

On Sundays he has a large buffet with lots of choices and a great salad bar and dessert bar as well. Some of the things available were; fried chicken, meat loaf, chicken pastry, vegetable lasagna, mashed potatoes, candied yams, blackeyed peas, garden peas, carrots, mini cheese biscuits, hush puppies, shrimp, fried fish & lots of desserts including fresh banana pudding which Linda tried and enjoyed.

The sad thing is that we wished we had been earlier and will definately be back. Another major plus was that the whole bill was only $21.52 for the both of us and we were stuffed.

First day of 2011 is almost history

Yes, the first day of the new year is almost over & it has been a restful day. We had our traditional blackeyed peas today cooked with a ham hock so I guess we are covered going in to 2011. I know the correct southern tradition calls for hog jowls which is taken from the head of the hog but I haven't been successful in convincing Linda to try it. I was in Lowes Foods yesterday and they had smoked hog jowls poslofgitioned all over the store trying to entice their customers to carry some home.

I was visiting at Kathieys World today and she had found a wonderful prayer for the new year that I just had to share with you. Go here to see the prayer and check out her blog if you don't already follow her.

Tomorrow is Linda's birthday & we will be going to a fancy restaurant in Roanoke Rapids for lunch to celebrate. I think it's the first time we've gone to eat at any restaurant that requires a reservation. Time will tell how good it really is.

It got up to 60 degrees here today so a lot of snow melted but there is still plenty especially in shady areas. At least Rocky got to have some outside time today which I am so glad of since he spends so much time inside the house.

Hope everyone had a great 1st day of the year. I am looking forward to having a whole year to blog and to get to know all of you better.