We saw a miracle!!!!

I am so pumped! We saw a miracle today. About 4:00pm this afternoon, we saw an honest to goodness miracle!!! It rained. Yep, after almost 2 months of not a drop of rain here in Central Texas, we saw rain. Little Critter wasn't sure at first what that funny sound was....till he looked outside. Then he and I went running outside and stood in the rain, thanking Papa for sending it to us. This of course also means the temps stayed lower this afternoon! This is a wonderful miracle since it was 107.8 at 2:00pm....By the time the 15 minutes of gentle life-giving rain had ended, the temps had dropped under 100! WOOHOO!!! It's now at almost 10:00pm close to 88 degrees outside....only a couple of degrees higher than we keep the A/C (when it's working!!!!) in the house. Is that just too cool or what?!?!

So on that happy note, I have an email a friend of mine sent me. I really enjoyed it and thought you would too my friends. So read the following, never forget to thank Papa for His love letters to you and be blessed. Shalom, Spitfire

Inner Peace


If you can start the day without caffeine,

If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment ,


If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,


...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!



PS And no, I have proof I'm not the family dog.....mornings without caffeine is not a pretty sight at my house!!!!!giggle giggle.

On the road....part 2

Well, here's day two in Branson, Mo. We started the day with breakfast with Red Skelton. Tom Molika used to work as a writer for Red before his retirement. Now he impersonates him. The first picture is Little Critter with his favorite Red Skelton character, Clem Cadiddlehopper. I have video of Little Critter when he was really little, running around the house with one of my old felt fedora-like hats crammed on his head and an oversized shirt (one of mine) talking like he was Clem. It's hysterically funny. The second picture is Tom Molika. He even sounds like Red Skelton when he's not in character!! And he was so funny, I couldn't breathe! I had to pull out my inhaler and use it...I haven't had to use an inhaler in years!!!! (I always keep one handy for just in case scenerios. Trips to the ER are expensive....lots more so than a generic inhaler for asthma!!!!)








After we finally got our breathe back after Red Skelton...we took Little Critter to the Talking Rocks Cavern. It was incredible. This is a picture of one of the group of stalagtights called curtain stalagtights. Of course the young boy behind us had to remind us they were also called Bacon Stalagtights to the point I finally turned around with a grin and said "We're Jewish. We don't have bacon and certainly don't crawl thru it!! They're curtains!!!" He just looked at me a minute and then he and Little Critter in unison chimed out 'bacon, bacon, bacon!!!!" The two little rats.....it was really funny. But then again, we were 200 feet underground by that point, so most likely a lack of real air was beginning to make everything silly to us!!!!(Not to mention the fact that we were deep into a small tight place I could not readily get out of!!!! Which was only half as bad as the natural bridge we walked across....the one where Little Critter says so excitedly "Mom look! I can hardly see the bottom from here!" Of course I looked.....silly me....then when the vision returned to my stunned eyes I remembered I don't like heights either!) Little Critter loved the cavern....Dodi thought it was wonderfully fascinating.....I did it because I love my son. (I hate small, tight places and walking on very narrow, slippery natural bridges miles above the bottom of the hole we're crawling thru.....Next year-NO CAVERNS!!!!!) Wink, wink.


Once we finished panning for jewels (which we were guaranteed to find...
once we bought the sand to pan with) we drove back to the hotel and walked over to the Titanic museum. This picture is of Little Critter in front of the Museum. It's one of the coolest museums we've ever been to! The whole thing is built like the front half of the ship Titanic. You walk thru a man made ice berg with a real ice berg inside (out of the heat of course) to pick up your boarding pass and ticket. Then you find out which of the real passengers from the Titanic you are. The rest of the museum you walk thru various compartments of the ship and read all sorts of fasinating info about the people, building, launching and sailing of the Titanic. Little Critter was John Jacob Astor-the richest man in the world (in 1912 of course), Dodi was the head mailman on the ship and I was one of the women. Needless to say, I was the only survivor. We had little scavenger hunt pages to fill out that I'd downloaded from their website and all had a blast looking for the answers to the questions on the hunt. For instance, did you know there were 12 couples on their honeymoons on Titanic's maiden voyage? There were. And there were only 23 female staff members of the 432 employees on board. We all learned some neat facts about the ship, the crew and the passengers. Mr. Astor was there with his second wife on their honeymoon. (Which was probably a good thing since she was 5 months pregnant with his child....ooops) Mr. Astor was 47 yrs old ( I think) and his new bride was 18. She survived and the child was born later. Mr. Astor perished. I believe I remember reading there were only about 12-14 crew members who survived and they were all rowing the life boats. It was a beautifully well done and really family friendly museum with great things for kids to do hands on. At one place they could put their hands in water cooled to the 28 degrees the water was when Titanic sank and then punch the clock to see how long they could stay in that cold water. There was also a place were you walked along the promenade in front of the captain's deck and the air temp was about 32 degrees. Boy that one felt good!!!! Even in our shorts and t shirts!!!! All in all, this is for sure a place to visit more than once. It was great.

After Titanic, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next morning (Friday 6-19-09) we hit the road again....but that's for another post. On the road again....just gotta get on the road again... sorry, couldn't help myself.

Well my friends, I pray that as you travel on your journeys whether to new, exciting places or even if just to the local grocery store you take the time to see the wonders that surround us. Learn to savor the moments, make beautiful memories, enjoy the wonders around us. And always look for Papa's love letters to you....they're all around you. If you look. Shalom, until next time. Spitfire

Still on the road.....

Well, we made it back to Grandma's house. We actually made it here last Friday (6-19-09) just in time for Grandma's birthday! (Funny how that worked out heh? wink wink) I've checked the blog a couple of times and tried to check email, but it's tricky here. The WIFI link is iffy at best and unreliable at worst. So I'm just blogging a quickie while I have a signal.

We're having a great time here with Grandma and the cousins. I have some more pictures to post, but can't do it here. Will have to wait till after we get back home later this week. Little Critter is being spoiled rotten (that is with a capital R you understand!), Dodi is having a blast getting to sit and talk with his momma, and me....well, I'm enjoying not having to cook, clean and watch Little Critter every minute of the day! It's relaxing to be able to sit on the back porch of Mom's house, listen to the birds, and go pop fresh blue and blackberries in my mouth if I'm hungry! (OK, between Little Critter and I we've pretty much cleaned out the ripe blueberries...still working on the blackberries, but we still have a day to do it in!)

Mom's house is out in a small subdivision of folks that live about 15 miles from the nearest small town. It's my idea of heavenly. A few neighbors in case of emergency, but not so close as to be able to see all the goings on at your own house. In fact Dodi and I snuck out last night after Little Critter was asleep and went swimming in the swimming pool! At 11:00PM!!!! It was SO wonderful. The stars were amazingly clear and bright, the air was cool (but not cold, only about 87 degrees), the water was still warm from the daylight heating....ssssiiiigggghhhh. It was SO relaxing. I think we're going to do it again tonight. Without all the kids in there, it's quite pleasant. And it's the only time this whole trip we've had time to ourselves! It was even romantic! Kinda felt like Adam and Eve out there in that pool....just us and YHWH and the stars. I told Dodi we may have to consider one for our house! (someday)

Well, probably better check on Little Critter and Dodi....it's strangely quiet all of a sudden....of course Little Critter is down at the pool with Aunt and the girls, and Dodi's in with his mom....but I'd hate for them to forget me! Hahahaha Besides, I've got to get things ready for the Rosh Chodesh (New Moon)....had no bread, and no way to make it here, so Papa forgive me for using Popcorn....it's all we have. But we can salt it! He'll understand. We also don't have our shofars with us, so we'll have to use paper towel rollers I reckon....it's hard to do the feasts and festivals on the road. But I feel certain Papa understands and recognizes our effort even if it's unconventional. Yes, Gayle, I know, I know....I'm seldom accused of being conventional anyway, so what's new.....I could hear you thinking it clear up here! I still love you and know that's one of the things about me that you love too! Giggle, giggle.

So my friends, as you rush thru your days, please be sure to slow down enough to hear the birds. Papa sends them to remind us how much He loves us. And if you can find fresh berries, that's just an extra love letter from your Papa! Smile. Shalom, Spitfire

PS For my Jewish friends, Shauva tov. (I think that's the Hebrew phrase for Happy New Moon... If I'm wrong, at least I tried. Happy New Month anyway! :-)