JOURNEY OF FAITH AND LOVE (Book)

110. Sunday, 3 January	ID #682200
Posted: 1-3-2010 @ 9:24 am EST Edited: 1-3-2010 @ 9:25 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all today/tonight. I hope you are as blessed as I am.

Today is the last blog for the 12 Days of Christmas blog forum. It's a free subject day, so sit back and enjoy something that is near and dear to my heart.

MY BIGGEST BIGGEST PET PEEVE

Its a crying shame the way some people right. For those of you who have been reviewed by me you know what my biggest issue is. Im going two right this two show you how frustrated I get when I reed you’re work. Bye now you might have an idea what my pet peeve is. But just so your not without any doubt Ill make it perfectly clear. Their are some words that can be spelled many different ways and some words that without a apostrophe will make a completely different word you didnt intend. One thing we have at our disposal is spellcheck, but if you spell the word correctly it wont catch it. You dont want to turn this into a agent or editor. You will loose the contract every time, in fact the editor wont reed you’re peace, hell throw it in the garbage.

I guarantee you I will make not of every misspelled word and bring it two you’re attention. They’re are just some words that shouldnt be misspelled. Im sure youve already seen one of them. So when you right you’re peace make sure you check it over too make sure you have it correct. Then the next time you right something it will be a good reflection on you’re skills as a righter and my eye site wont suffer any permanent damage as I reed you’re work. You do agree with me dont you that they’re are more ways to right a word, we just need to be particularly careful so their wont be any errors when you present it for review.

Did you catch all the misspelled words? I’m going to write this again and show you all the misspelled words, I think you’ll also agree you’ll be able to read it much better.

It’s a crying shame the way some people write. For those of you who have been reviewed by me you know what my biggest issue is. I’m going to write this to show you how frustrated I get when I read your work. By now you might have an idea what my pet peeve is. But just so you’re not without any doubt I’ll make it perfectly clear. There are some words that can be spelled many different ways and some words that without an apostrophe will make a completely different word you didn’t intend. One thing we have at our disposal is spell check, but if you spell the word correctly it won’t catch it. You don’t want to turn this into an agent or editor. You will lose the contract every time, in fact the editor won’t read your piece he’ll throw it in the garbage.

I guarantee you I will make note of every misspelled word and bring it to your attention. There are just some words that shouldn’t be misspelled. I’m sure you’ve already seen one of them. So when you write your piece make sure you check it over to make sure you have it correct. Then the next time you write something it will be a good reflection on your skills as a writer and my eyesight won’t suffer any permanent damage as I read your work. You do agree with me don’t you that there are more ways to write a word, we just need to be particularly careful so there won’t be any errors when you present it for review.

Keep Writing
Valerie

109. Saturday, 2 January	ID #682158
Posted: 1-2-2010 @ 9:41 pm EST

Hi all,

How are you all tonight/today? Blessed I hope.

Today's blog for the 12 Days of Christmas blog is about the use of Jet Fuel aka air traffic. Again this is not a topic I either A) know nothing about, or B) don't think about it.

In today's world of fast everything, people want to get from place to place with the minimum amount of hardship. That includes getting from point A to B by plane. In this economy of rising and falling costs, the travel industry has not been left out. When fuel costs go up, the cost of tickets also go up, when they fall, so do ticket prices. It's an ever changing world and its a wonder anyone can keep up with it.

Fuel is something we can't live without from the fuel that heats our home during these really cold winter nights. At present its a nippy 3 above with a wind chill of -14. I do love winter, snowflakes, cloud cover and all that, but these wind chills go through you and take the breath right out of you. So I do like to be warm inside. For that we need fuel. Fuel is also essential in air traffic. Without it, you don't get from point A to B.

It doesn't take much to know how important jet fuel is. Just look up on any given day at any given time and you will see the trail mark the sky showing the path of the plane that just went overhead. Now I do think we could have a few less planes crowding our skies, but I understand the air traffic controllers know what they are doing and it is safer flying than it is taking a walk across a busy street.

Jet fuel is an essential part of our everyday life. Without it you would not be able to visit Grandma or Aunt Mary. Well you could, you would have to drive, but that takes fuel too. So no matter what you do, it all comes down to the fact that we cannot live without fuel in our lives. It's a part of everything we do, even the vacations we take.

Keep writing
Valerie

108. Friday, 1 January	ID #682045
Posted: 1-2-2010 @ 12:39 am EST

Hi all,

How is everyone tonight/today? I hope you are blessed. I know I am.

There is no prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas blog today, it's free choice, whatever we want to write about. So how about coming with me into my world.

I know that the main entry to my blog tells you a snippet of who I am. So I thought it might be nice to let you know a little bit more about me.

I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, USA, population about 5000 usually less. My parents were church going people, still are. They are in their late 70s now. Mom turns 78 on Sunday. She said once that Grandma had said how she was a late baby, supposing to come before the new year. I don't know the story about my parents and how they met, so this isn't about them.

There was one thing I could count on every Sunday while I was growing up. A trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in Green Bay, if the Packer's were playing a home game. My parents had season tickets to the game. We would come to Green Bay sometimes before church and go with Grandma and my cousins. Grandpa didn't go to church back then. Grandma taught Sunday school so I would go to one of the classes at her church. It was a regular family affair on those Sundays and I had a lot of fun with my cousins who lived around the corner from Grandma and Grandpa Routhieaux. Their house belonged to Grandma and Grandpa when my dad was a kid. He was born in that house. His sister, Aunt Caroline, dad's only sister, lived there. There were four cousins, the twins Jimmy and Johnny, Junior, and Carol Ann. There were three of us for a while and then the numbers changed. Aunt Caroline had a son and nine months later so did mom. I'm digressing again.

Anyway we would spend Sundays either at the bowling alley or the theater in winter. Those were the days before home games were televised. The only way you could hear a Packer's game was on the radio. That was during the glory years when the Packer's pretty much won every year of the 60s. My parents went to the famous Ice Bowl game. I'm thinking that game was against the Dallas Cowboys, and that's why they don't want to play in Green Bay anymore in winter, or else it was with the Cleveland Browns. I was only a kid at the time so my memory isn't that sharp as to who we played at that time.

There were two constants in our family. One sports. I was born a Packers fan, and the second was auto mechanic. Not so much my dad, but my cousins, Jimmy and Johnny always had their heads under the hood of a car. Johnny works in an auto shop in Green Bay today, no surprise. Because of the two big past times I purposed early that I wouldn't marry someone who had their head under the hood of a car all the time. I got my wish, believe me. Anyway, digressing again. That was pretty much my younger years. It would also be interesting to note that as most people carry pictures in their wallets of their family, the picture I carried in mine was of Bart Starr, star quarterback of the Packers during the 60s. There has only been one quarterback since him that was just as good, and he plays with the Vikings now, but not to be outdone, Aaron Rodgers is turning out to be a really good quarterback and in a lot of ways is better than that Viking quarterback.

There was another thing that I started thinking about while I was growing up, and no it wasn't getting married. Though I did choose enough names for a dozen kids. I wanted a large family when I did get married, but that wasn't what I started thinking a lot about. I wear glasses as you can see by my picture. I started wearing them when I was in first grade. The eye doctor's office was in the same building that housed the recruiting office. Every time I would go to get my eyes checked I would look over the brochures for the various services. It was a seed of an idea that I started to think more and more about, even after I graduated from high school and got my certificate as a nurse's aide. It was when I got fired from my first job as a nurse's aide that I started thinking more seriously about the military. I still didn't know which branch I would go in. It was a toss up between the Navy and the Air Force. I think I flipped a coin for which branch when it came time to seriously think about my future.

I was 18 when I made the decision to go into the Navy. It was 1972. I told my mother I was joining the Navy. She told me dad wouldn't allow it. I had to have his signature at the time to join. The legal age was 21. I told my mother I was joining. Dad signed the papers. I passed all the tests. I went to Milwaukee for the physical and the swearing in, and I was on my way to what I thought and hoped would be a promising career in the Navy. I really wanted to be a lifer. I joined the Navy on March 31, 1972. My career in the Navy ended on June 1, 1973 six weeks before my oldest son, Aaron, was born. I did everything I could to stay in, but the ultimate decision lay with the Captain. His thing was that pregnant women did not belong in the Navy. So 1 year, 2 months, and 2 days after I joined I was a civilian. An unhappy civilian.

Oh I was married at the time. I met my husband in the command I was attached to. He was okay, we had for the most part a good marriage and three of the dozen children I wanted. Three was a compromise on his part. He only wanted two. I'm glad we had three. Anyway, our marriage went bad when his mother died, always a momma's boy, it didn't go well for our marriage when she passed away. She never liked me and told me our marriage had a 50% chance of survival. Needless to say, it didn't survive and his mother had a lot to do with why, but that's not my story, or maybe it is, it's not something I want to talk about. We were married 21 years and have now been divorced 15, and I'm still single, unattached in every way, and wishing God would show me who my husband is real soon. I really do want to be married. But this time to a Christian man.

In the middle of all this my story took shape. I had always gone to church since the day I was born, you might say. I was born on Sunday and in church every Sunday afterward until I left home, and even then I went to church every Sunday. I grew up in the Lutheran church. It was during a time in my marriage when I was at odds with his father, he didn't like me either, and I wasn't allowed under their roof. We were circumstantially separated, he didn't stick up for me to his parents, not a good thing to do. Anyway, I'm digressing again. It was in 1979. He had just gotten out of the Navy and we had moved back home to Illinois, or that would be our home as soon as he found a job and a home for us. In the meantime I lived with my parents.

My parents had next door neighbors they weren't on speaking terms with, but I found her to be a wonderful friend and spent a lot of time with her. It was better than being home. My parents and I didn't see eye to eye, never did, anyway that's for another time, maybe. It was during those days when I spent a lot of time with Fae and her family that she started talking to me about being a Born Again Christian. I didn't think I needed to be Born Again since I did go to church every Sunday and Sunday school too. I was wrong as my testimony at the top shows. Anyway, after I gave my life over completely to Jesus Christ as my Savior I started feeling the prompting that I needed to be with my husband, so I called him and told him I was coming down there. He had every intention of sending me back north. God had other plans for me or us at the time. My mother called my mother-in-law and told her the route I had taken, and God just rerouted the bus. I got into Elgin, Illinois about an hour after I was expected, and with the aide of the police at the time, made my way to the Crisis Center. I wasn't allowed under my in-laws roof, and they saw to it that I never was for any length of time.

I suppose you want to know what I did that was so wrong and evil that my father-in-law would ban me from his home. I stood up to him. He told me that my 1.5 year old daughter was to go to bed without dinner because she had been naughty. I told him she was a baby, and she was going to eat. He kicked me out then and there. I had to find a way north the next day. I was actually kicked out of their home twice. The second time was three weeks after our youngest son was born. We were home on leave at the time. Just home from Guam, and my husband waited on orders for his new duty station. He got them two days before his son was born. Back in San Diego, so there I was in Illinois waiting for him to find a loop hole in his orders that would allow us to be together as a family. One was found four months later. If it weren't for his parents we might still be together.

He got out of the Navy in 1979 when I found myself back with my parents for about six months. We didn't find a home in Illinois until I went back down there and found a job myself and then found us a home. I guess in a way, our life and marriage just got worse from that point. I tried to make it work after his mother died in 1983, but we finally severed the tie that bound us together as man and wife in 1994.

There was another constant in my life, my writing. Somewhere in all these blogs I wrote about my abusive childhood. Like I said, I never got along with my parents, and the only way I could even face a single day was to write. It all started when I was watching an episode of Big Valley, and I told myself I hated it and could write it better. So my writing career started at the tender age of 8. Writing was how I survived my youth. It was also how I managed to keep myself together during the bad days of my marriage.

In November 1980, several months after I became a Born Again Christian, I started a book titled Joanne. First I worked it out in my head before I went to sleep, then I realized it was going good and decided it was time to write it down. It took me all of six months to write Joanne, and then I heard a children's story on the radio set in the same time period as my book and realized I needed to make some background changes to my book. And spent the next six months rewriting it. It wasn't right away, as I recall, but it did take another six months to get it rewritten. I wrote it longhand at the time, not on a typewriter.

It was when I was writing the first version of Joanne that I came to a decision. A second one really, because the first decision had to do with writing it for publishing in mind. Now that was some decision. I had heard that Isaac Asimov before he died said any book worth their weight had more than 250 pages in them. Okay, so I would write twice that - 500. The actual first version longhand was 400+. I would have 12 chapters, that meant that each chapter was 42 pages long. Aren't you glad none of those chapters are that long now? So with that plan in mind I set to work. It was when Edgar was 2 years old. The kids came home for lunch, and I made this statement -- I'm going to get the kids something to eat, send them back to school, put Edgar down for his nap and then I'll work on my book. So far so good. The kids ate and went back to school and I made another statement out loud mind you, I'm going to put Edgar down for a nap and take one myself. I've never until that moment heard the voice of God, but I did in the next several moments. "OH NO YOU'RE NOT" came through loud and clear, and so ensued at least a half hour of my arguing with God about how awful my book was and I hated it and I was going to scrap it. Aren't you glad I didn't? Anyway, God told me to work with it right where it was at and let Him take hold of it and make it better. Well you can't argue with God after all, He always wins, so with Edgar in bed I worked on Joanne and when all was said and done, chapter four was the best chapter in the book. As time went on, the rest of the chapters became it's equal.

Then came the day I needed to type it because I was going to a Writers' Conference. My husband, always so supportive, sarcasm, told me I would never make it as a Christian author. Aren't you glad I didn't listen to him? I took the three chapters with me to the conference, but only after I had another 'talk' with God about it. I told Him I would not let a man look at my manuscript. Aren't you glad God knows best? So I went to the conference armed with three chapters of my book. The first night of the conference was the banquet that started it all. There was a guest speaker who is a very famous evangelist. I don't know what he talked about, but I do remember talking to him face to face and shaking his hand. It was many years later that I saw Dr. Charles Stanley on television and recognized him as the keynote speaker at the banquet and I had talked to him face to face. That was a WOW moment for me.

At the banquet I talked with a woman who ghosted. It was an interesting topic, anyway I made an impression on her, to my chagrin. Remember I said I would not talk to a man about my manuscript, which was my baby. The next day was the editors panel. I sized up the panel of editors, there were about three women on the panel and I wondered which one was from Tyndale House Publishers, where God had told me to take my manuscript. So as I waited for the introductions all of a sudden the name Ken Peterson, Editor of Tyndale House Publishers spoke up. I made up my mind not to speak to him, especially when he said that if his sign-up sheet was full to make a personal appointment with him and he would fit us in. My mind was set. Aren't you glad you aren't in control of your life?

I was in line for the snack after the panel and in front of me was the woman from the banquet, and in front of her was the editor of Tyndale House Publishers. She pointed to him, knowing that I intended to talk to someone at that house. He turned around and she said to him "This is the person I was telling you about." I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole like what happened with those guys in the Wilderness in Moses day, but it didn't. He looked at me with interest and I simply said his sheet was full, it was. He said he would make an appointment for 1:15. God does know what He's doing.

I met with him at the designated time, and he looked over the three chapters as I sat on the edge of my chair. He said "This is good." I wanted to fall off the chair. He also asked if I considered a series. I had just barely gotten that one taken care of, series was a long way from my mind. Aren't you glad that editors and God know more than we do? He also said he wanted to see it when it was completed. In other words fully typed and he said disk. Well that didn't happen. I didn't have a computer, and it would be three years before I would be able to get him the full manuscript. I hand delivered it to him. I wasn't about to send it through the mail. He sent it back through the mail in just a couple days with a two page critique rejection of all the reasons why my manuscript didn't meet their criteria, but overall he said it was good and any other house would take it, but it wasn't up to their standards. So for the past years since 1983 and following I have been honing Joanne and bringing it up to standards. Joanne is now Scarred, and it is a four book series. God and editors do know what they are talking about. Aren't you glad?

I can see this went very long, and I hope you weren't bored as you read this peak into my life and how Scarred came about.

Keep Writing
Valerie

107. Thursday, 31 December	ID #681821
Posted: 1-1-2010 @ 12:19 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all tonight/today? Happy New Year to everyone who has entered the new decade. Blessings on you, happiness, and prosperity for the New Year.

Today's prompt, and I'm running late is about Hawk Mountain.

I'm afraid I don't know more than I gleaned just now from the Internet. I think it is a wonderful place to view the different raptors as the eagles, falcon's and such are considered. I never thought of them in that category before. When I think of raptors I think prehistoric dinosaur pterodactyls, not something alive and beautiful flying high in our skies. I think it is a wonderful place to observe these beautiful birds in the Appalachians of Pennsylvania.

Now before I get myself into an area I know nothing about I will let those in the know inform you of the area.

Happy New Year
Keep Writing
Valerie

106. Wednesday, 31 December	ID #681680
Posted: 12-31-2009 @ 2:04 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all tonight/today? I hope you are all blessed and looking forward to tomorrow. The beginning of new things with new hopes and new resolutions. What plans do you have for tonight?

There is no prompt yet for the 12 Days of Christmas blog. This is a regular post. I think we have a new/full moon going on. It felt that way at work last night. My call times which are supposed to be no more than seven minutes start to finish with documentation after the call was I think an average of a half hour, and in many cases longer. By six I was ready to pull my hair out. I can't work miracles and I can't go against policy. As much as I am burned out by this job, I can't afford to lose it because someone wants me to do something that would cost me my job. Sometimes I think people in general think they are the only ones on this planet and they and they only matter. I am so sick of people trying to get me fired with all their complaints about their bookings gone bad as if I can wave a magic wand and make it go right. I can't make a plane take off. I can't open up a room in an over booked hotel. And I certainly can't make a car agency accept a debit card if the agency doesn't even have a way to get a hold of them. That's right. I won't give out the name of the agency, but their phone number has a menu that doesn't even lead to the counter. I followed every rabbit hole I could to get to the counter to find out why this person's debit card wasn't accepted and she was denied the pick-up of the vehicle. I even talked to someone in the agency's corporate office that told me they - the counter personnel - would not pick up the phone. What kind of customer service is that when you can't get hold of them to find out why? And then I have this person asking me what she's supposed to do without a car. I'm sorry. I can't fix all the problems in the world. I did manage to do something that I was not bound to do. It could have been handled by the next agent when the customer called back. So I went above and beyond for the person, and won the day with the problem. The gentleman had a medical emergency, his father is ill and needed to cancel the first night of a three night hotel stay. I got a hold of the hotel and transferred to the manager. At first I thought she was being rude. She would come on, and put me right back on hold when I barely got my problem explained. The gentleman needed his reservation held for the following two nights because he would be able to make the remainder of his reservation as soon as his brother showed up to help out with his father. Needless to say the manager told me I would need to call back because the person she needed to talk to about the reservation wasn't available. They were all in a meeting. The normal hotel policy is that if you don't show up for your reservation it is automatically canceled as a no show, no exceptions even on a pre-paid reservation. Instead of letting someone else handle the call back, I told the manager I would personally call back when the meeting would be over and she was able to talk to someone about the reservation. So I called back as promised, and after several more long holds I was able to talk to the person who could move mountains in the hotel, and was able to secure the other two nights of the reservation for the guest. I called him back and left a message. That made me feel good that I was able to help someone. But that one incident was overshadowed by the many others who wanted bigger miracles than I could even think about.

Customer service is the hardest job in the world. I know there are people out there with construction jobs, hospital jobs, and so many other jobs that are back breaking and physically hard. But none compares to the hours of complaint calls a customer service person has to take all day every day. Personally I am not a people person. Or I wasn't when I was younger. I stayed as far away from people as I could. Every time I got close to someone I ended up with a knife sticking out of my back, and I would retreat further in my shell. When I got my first job in the public eye, I was scared to death. I was so afraid I would do something wrong, hurt, offend, and generally make a mess of things that I went to bed every night in need of a serious massage, though I never got one. Now I've been in the public eye since I got my first job in fast food. A couple of them went okay, one I got fired from because the owner thought I was looking for another job when I was supposed to be at work. I wasn't, and he never believed me. What happened on that occasion was that I agreed to watch a friend's kids while she went to a doctor's appointment, the only problem was that she ended up in a mental health hospital. She had some issues. Neither of us expected that to happen that day, and it was a while before someone came to take over with the kids so I could get to work. I was fired almost as soon as I walked in. That was the worst case, and I was better off without the job anyway. I tried to stay away from jobs that put me directly in the public eye. It never worked. One of my best jobs was working in the bakery department of a grocery store. My public service skills were honed to perfection the three years I was there. I learned a lot of things about the bakery including how to write on cakes, which I really enjoyed. I also made a lot of friends. One gave me a tree ornament that sits on my tree to this day, a little red sled, the wooden kind with the rope you use to steer with. I also had another lady who was concerned about me. I took the bus in those days too and one day it was pouring rain and she told me that if she ever saw me walking in the rain again she would pick me up and bring me the rest of the way to the store. She gave me a beautiful Poinsettia when I left the store for this job. I even had children draw pictures for me. So there were some good things about being in the public eye, but none prepared me for the last eight years. I won't say that last night was the worst, I'm sure it wasn't, I've had calls that were so frustrating I had to log off the phone and calm down because I was literally in tears from the call. Why do people think they have to make the CSR feel so guilty about what they can't do for a person that they have to threaten them or call them names and are just so mean? Is it because they don't believe the person they are talking to is real, or has any feelings? Believe me I am real and I do have feelings, and when they say things to me about my company or my job, they are saying those things to ME. It's my ear that hears the voice on the other end. I have to listen, I have to placate, I have to give out policy, and I have to be nice when all the while I want to scream. And then I can only hope that there is time between calls for me to calm down and sound happy when the next beep comes in my ear. So the next time you get on a call with a customer service rep, she or he is only doing their job. It doesn't do anybody any good to get angry at the person you are talking to. We are human too, and some of us are just a little more sensitive about the verbal abuse you hand out than others who are able to take it a lot better.

I've had my say on the subject. Now Pip is telling me it's time to go to bed. I have another long day today, so it's time for me to get some sleep. I'm praying for a better day tomorrow/today. I won't say it can't get worse, but hopefully with a lot of prayer going in, I will be able to handle it.

So from snowy Green Bay, Wisconsin, you all who are enjoying the sun

Keep writing
Valerie

105. Wednesday, 30 December	ID #681561
Posted: 12-30-2009 @ 11:06 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all today/tonight? I hope you are as blessed as I am!

The 12 Days of Christmas blog prompt for today is in literature. My favorite author - novel/non-fiction/current read.

That's a tough one. If you are like me you read a lot, and you read a lot of different author's. It's easier for me to pick my favorite actor than it is my favorite author, but I'll give it a whirl.

I tried something once a long time ago. I made the decision I would start at the A's in the library and read everything. It didn't last very long, in fact I got no further than the B's. That's where I found Laura Blackburn. I read all of her books in a matter of months. She's very good. I also made the decision at one time in my life and defied my now ex-husband and read romance. My favorite author in that genre was Barbara Cartland. It was clean and a good read, unlike most of the romance today. It is so seldom you find anything clean in a romance book. My other favorite author's, now dead, are Victoria Holt and Kathleen E. Woodwiss. Then I started reading Christian novels, this too was at the beginning of my Christian walk, and I found some really great authors - Frank Peretti - a really good suspense writer. His books will hold you on the edge of your seat to the last page. Tracie Peterson who wrote a series with James Scott Bell that I just finished reading again - The Shannon Saga, again very good. I have also read a number of James Scott Bells non-fiction books on writing. Very good if you are looking on how to write and keep your audience. But I would have to say my all time favorite duo in writing would have to be Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and their Left Behind series. I have read that series several times and even have the movies that have been made from the books. If you like an apocalyptic read this is the series for you. You will not be able to put it down. My biggest problem in this 16 book series is that there were times I had to wait several months before the next book came out. I have the entire series in hardback, and the paper covers are getting worn with the number of times I've read it. There are others that I read, but these are my favorites, and I do recommend James Scott Bell's non-fiction writing resources. The information is invaluable.

Read a lot -- Write a lot
Valerie

104. Tuesday, 29 December	ID #681412
Posted: 12-29-2009 @ 11:13 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all doing today/tonight? I'm blessed.

Today's prompt for the 12 Days of Christmas is handling the rising prices with regards to what we need everyday.

Now I don't know about you, but most people need to eat, yes, I can feel the heads nodding, and take care of their hygiene, jobs won't last long without it. So how do we handle the rising cost of prices when the economy is a bust? I'm sure if you have done any kind of shopping for your family you know the most economic way to buy things is in bulk. The smaller the bulk, the more it costs. It's always been that way.

I used to be an offset press operator, and one thing I was aware of was that a five hundred run cost a lot more than a five thousand run. Why? Because it took more time to set up and tear down. In a five thousand run you still have to set up, but you don't have to do more than make sure you have the ink and water to get the job done as you run it.

The same can be said with what you buy. A four pack of toilet paper is going to cost more than a twelve or twenty-four pack will per item. If you buy an eight ounce bottle of pancake syrup it will cost more than the thirty-two ounce size. So the best way to handle today's economy and the rising cost of living is to buy in bulk. You will save more, and if you can get it on sale in the bulk sizes, do it. Tip: Those coupons or the store ads for the buy two get one at half off thing still costs more than it would if you buy in bulk. Why? Because they only put the lower count or ounces on sale. The four pack of toilet paper on a buy one get one at half off costs the same as the bulk buy. Try it some time. If you have, you know what I'm talking about. So I will buy in bulk every time.

Have a great day and

Keep on writing
Valerie

103. Monday, 28 December	ID #681271
Posted: 12-28-2009 @ 11:02 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all this morning/evening? Blessed I hope.

This is the sixth entry for the 12 Days of Christmas blog with the prompt - My celebrity date (who) canceled out on me and it's New Years Eve, now what?

Those in the know, would know the answer to that immediately. I have every one of the Stargate SG-1 seasons on DVD and I've started on MacGuyver. I'm sure you know who my celebrity date would be, and we're both single. At least he's not married to the woman he lives with and has a child with, at least not that I'm aware of. There is no smile like Richard Dean Anderson's, and his ability to fix everything is simply amazing. Did you know he wrote the score for MacGuyver? Okay, yes, he would be my celebrity date.

The way this all came about was that I entered this fan club contest for a New Years Eve date with the man or woman of my choice. I had to write this essay and explain all the reasons why I should be so lucky. To my surprise I won. Now I never win anything, well I shouldn't say I don't win anything, I have won at bingo a few times, but that doesn't count. Anyway I won this once in a lifetime date with my favorite all time celebrity. Plans were made. I was supposed to fly out to Hollywood on December 30, I even had my plane tickets, non-refundable. My suitcases were packed the moment I heard the news. I went shopping for the latest clothes styles, got my hair done, the whole nine yards, and then wouldn't you know it, I got the e-mail that said he couldn't make it, he had been called on by NASA to fix something at the Space Station. He wouldn't be around, heck, he wouldn't even be on the planet.

Okay, so my win turned into a bust after all. No date with Mr. Anderson. What am I going to do about it? Well I do have non-refundable tickets to Hollywood, so I'm going to take a tour of MGM, hope some of the other celebrities from Stargate are around, maybe Michael Shanks, Joe Flanagan, or Jason Momoa, I'd even settle for David Hewlett. But I understand their contracts are up and might not be available. So okay, the new crew for Stargate Universe. I've liked Lou Diamond Philips since I first saw him in Stand and Deliver. Eli is too young, Colonel Young, is about the right age, and not all that bad looking either. I don't know all the names on SGU yet, but I'm learning. With my luck I'd end up with an Umpa Lumpa. My kids would say I'm just as short. Then I'm going to go to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl parade before I come back home and watch episodes of MacGuyver and Stargate SG-1. Oh, I already do that, well, I'll continue, and continue to dream that one day I will meet Richard Dean Anderson in person, and hope he is all he portrays himself to be and isn't just a surface kind of guy, and something totally different in real life.

Now you know.

Keep writing
Valerie

102. Sunday, 27 December	ID #681248
Posted: 12-28-2009 @ 12:46 am EST

The Twelve Days of Christmas 5th day prompt - Mountaintop Removal

Well now, after being alerted to what Mountaintop Removal actually is, I feel as stupid as I did in high school when I took a geography test and my answers were completely outside instead of inside the sphere. Such is the case again. I was way off base having never heard of mountaintop removal before.

Mountaintop Removal as I learned in Wikipedia is the removal of coal from mountains in the Appalachians, Kentucky, North Carolina, and other states where coal is prevalent. I read a lot of anti sentiment concerning the practice, including court cases that are being pursued at this time. So my opinion has been called for by this prompt.

My opinion:

Once upon a time at the beginning of the history of mankind, God created a perfect place, filled with everything a person would ever need to survive. When he finished this place called earth in the vast universe, He created Adam and Eve and told them to tend or take care of what He had created.

So you are wondering why I turn everything into a sermon or lecture with God at the center. Pay attention.

I am not an advocate of save the whale, save the tree, save everything but kill the baby. I'm the other way around, save the baby, and use the animals and trees that God created for our necessary survival. Coal is meant for our survival. It is used in electric plants, which in turn heat our homes, something that is very necessary at this time of year in the northern hemisphere. Without electricity it would be a very cold world, and as much as I love snow, I also like my comforts. Cold and snow belong outside.

In order to have coal for the electric plants, which in turn heat our homes, Mountaintop Removal mining has come into existence. 1966 is the year that MTR as it is most commonly referred to began. Since then the courts have been busy siting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as violating the Clean Water Act. Now I am in favor of a clean environment, but I am also in favor of survival.

We are looking for alternative ways to survive, wind power, solar power, and I'm also certain there would be water power as well. So why not use what God has given us for our survival? We are so worried about the earth wearing out, well guess what, the Bible says the earth will wear out like a blanket. In the meantime God has given us everything we need on this earth for our survival, and coal is one of those things God has given us. Yes, there is a lot of excavation, mining, explosives used to extricate the coal from the earth. If we didn't use these methods we would be guilty of suicide. Yes, suicide. We would be killing ourselves and for what reason? To keep the countryside looking nice? The article I read also stated that when the mining was complete in a region they replant the mountain with grass and trees, reclaiming the land to its former beauty.

We are using the resources God gave us for our survival. Is that so wrong? Personally I'm into living, and if using what God created on this earth for our survival will ensure that, I'm all for it. That's my opinion.

Have a wonderful day
Keep writing
Valerie

101. Sunday, 27 December	ID #681221
Posted: 12-27-2009 @ 8:36 pm EST

Hi all,

How are you all, blessed I hope. So am I.

Well first up before I get to the 12 days of Christmas blogging with the Mountaintop Removal topic for today, is that this is Sunday. It is still football season, and that means the Pack played today. It was a very lopsided game against the Seatlle Seahawks. We won 48-10. I did say it was lopsided. I was surprised when they actually got a touchdown in the last two minutes of the game. I will say that even though we won, getting 4 interceptions off of Matt Hasselbeck, it was nice of him to throw the ball to us instead of his own team members, which all, I think, resulted in a touchdown for us, Aaron Rodgers still saw a number of sacks. All in all it was a good game from my point of view. I'm afraid the Seahawks aren't of the same mind. It was also interesting that we weren't only playing against the Seahawks. We were also watching another game at the same time, or at least watching the score of that game - The Carolina Panthers and New York Giants -- the Giants needed to lose in order for us to get into the playoff's. The Panthers did to the Giants what we did to the Seahawks, so Green Bay is in the playoff's for the Super Bowl. Of course that means we have to play Minnesota again and Brett Favre. Hopefully we'll win this time. They can't possibly win three in a row on us, can they? And in their dome too. I can only hope. But that's a few weeks away, and who knows, maybe they'll get knocked out before we have to play them. No, you're right. We can't have that kind of luck, not when we get beat by Tampa Bay in their creamsickle uniforms from yesterday. But there's always hope.

Seasonal news. I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, and if you were in the blizzard areas know I was praying for your safety at the same time I was wishing the blizzard was here. We woke up to ice and rain, with rain all day Christmas, which didn't turn into snow until late Christmas night. I know weather wise this Christmas season will be one for the record books. When was the last time you heard of tornadoes, blizzards, rain, ice, sleet, and wind at the same time?

Now if you think the end times are upon us, just think that all this was predicted by Jesus, take a look -- Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (KJV)

I most certainly do believe with the weather patterns we are in the end times. How else would you explain this past weekend. Never before, that I can remember, has it rained on Christmas in Wisconsin, and to have snow in Dallas? Yeah, divers places. I just hope everyone was safe, and had a good holiday.

Christmas, my favorite time of year, and I was having the Christmas blues. I found out why I was so down. I didn't have the house decorated. It didn't help that Edgar and Jon were also gone for Christmas and I wasn't in the mood to decorate, but I did anyway, and as soon as I got the tree up - on Christmas day, and decorated, the blues disappeared. I have two strings of caroling lights, and they both played at the same time. Now if you listen carefully you can even make out the different songs as two different songs were playing at the same time. It might sound like a lot of noise to the average ear, but if you listen carefully you can hear the different songs, even at the same time. So my blues have disappeared, and my world is back on proper kilter.

So what is this about Mountaintop Removal - the fifth topic for the 12 days of Christmas blogging?

The only thing that comes to mind would be an avalanche. That would certainly be one way to remove all the snow from the top. The slightest noise sets one off and removes everything in sight. What are the advantages of an avalanche? It clears a path of everything in its way. Do you have anything that needs clearing? You might consider an avalanche.

Not what you mean by Mountaintop Removal? Well, I can't tell you then, as I don't know what the topic is supposed to be about. Is there a band by that name? It must be an avalanche of a band, cleaning up everything in its sight. If that's not it either, I'll just leave it for the clean-up committee. I'm sure they're good at removing unwanted items.

So until next time, have a great day and

Keep on Writing
Valerie - loving those snowflakes and a Packer win into the playoff's.

100. Saturday, 26 December	ID #681063
Posted: 12-26-2009 @ 9:14 am EST

The fourth day of the 12 Days of Christmas blogging - The politically correct use of Christmas.

Oh boy, now you've done it. I don't believe in being politically correct when it comes to Christmas. The government has done everything they can to eliminate Christ from Christmas by making it Xmas. Or calling it Happy Holidays. Christian Christmas carols can't even be sung in schools anymore. How many times can a person listen to Grandma got run over by a reindeer? There is one thing they have done that is very interesting in trying to do away with Christ in Christmas - the X in Greek stand for Christ so they have really failed to eliminate Him. Which only goes to show that no matter how hard they try you will not be able to completely eliminate Him from your holidays. But as I am not Greek, I will keep Christ in Christmas and I will sing my Christian Christmas carols while I pray for a Winter Wonderland, thanking God for the White Christmas and making a Frosty Snowman on my front lawn. Then at the end of the day I will sing the Twelve Days of Christmas enjoying each of the verses especially with what I've just learned about the song, another attempt at taking Christ out of our lives. It is only Christ who gives us something to hope for and brings the smile to our faces. When it comes down to it, it wasn't Santa who delivered all those gifts under your tree, it was your hard earned money that was spent in the stores as you pushed and shoved your way through the aisles to get the gift before someone else got it, and you walked away with the smile on your face because you grabbed it before the other person who was also reaching for it. Was it worth it?

It all goes along with the blog about how commercialized Christmas has become. In the attempt to make Christmas so politically correct we have shifted the focus from the Christ child born in a manger, the hope and love He promises, to the pushing and shoving, angry tones, and just as angry attitudes directed at the people we are buying for. It's time to get the political correctness out of Christmas and put Christ back. We will be much better off if we did.

Merry Christmas
Valerie

99. Friday, 25 December	ID #681045
Posted: 12-26-2009 @ 1:08 am EST

Hi all,

Merry Christmas to all my friends here on WDC. I hope you all had a happy holiday, filled with all the traditions you love most. I also pray you were blessed with the new memories you made today as you spent it with family and friends.

Today was a different day for me in a lot of ways. I'm used to being alone on Christmas as I work most holidays, today was no exception. My daughter normally goes to her fiance's mother's home in Milwaukee, my youngest son, who now lives with me spends the day with his girlfriend, the one who makes the fantastic baklava, and my grandson who also now lives with me spent the day with his other grandmother. I'm praying my daughter didn't travel today with the weather as bad as its been for the past couple days, but I haven't heard from them so I'm not sure whether she did or not. My oldest son I'm estranged from me by my own hand. He's a violent person and the last time I put a restraining order against him, so it will be awhile before I have any connection with him. So needless to say, I've usually spent Christmas alone.

I don't know why I just wrote this, except that I don't know you anymore than you know me, or even whether you read this or not. Anyway, with my son living with me now I was hoping I would have Christmas with at least one member of my family, but he went to his girlfriend's on Wednesday, and Jon left on Wednesday for his other grandmother's as well, so it's been really quiet around here, and extra lonely. I had the bah humbug blah's for a few days, and maybe I still do, but things actually got better when I finally got the tree up and trimmed. I love the lights that play the Christmas carols. I actually have two strings of them on the tree, they are a little out of sync with each other, but I think its the best sound around. I am not at all annoyed by it. With the tree up and watching the Christmas movies I had taped on the DVR yesterday and today it brought Christmas home.

It was a really messed up Christmas here in Wisconsin, USA. It rained instead of snowed. The rain has finally changed over to the white flakes I've been looking for all day, and at least there was still some snow left on the ground from the last blizzard we had a couple weeks ago. There are just some things that should not be changed, and a white Christmas is one of them.

You know Christmas isn't about what we get from other people, but what we give. I'm not talking about what money can buy. The gift given over two thousand years ago in a manger in Bethlehem was without price. Love was born in a manger 2000 years ago, and in a few months we will celebrate the reason for his birth in the death and resurrection of Jesus so we can obtain eternal life. God went to a lot of trouble for us, and most of us fail to acknowledge the gift even when we sing the familiar Christmas carols. The reason I love Christmas carols so much and could listen to them every day is because they tell about the love of God who sent His only Son to earth for just one purpose, to bring us back to Himself. Only with the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ can we hope to have eternal life. It was truly a message of joy and hope the angels sung about on the hills of Bethlehem that starry night to the some lowly shepherds. With Jesus birth we have hope and no money on earth can buy that.

When we give our time to help someone, when we say a kind word, just anything that shows a small amount of brotherly kindness it makes the person on the receiving end feel special, and it makes me feel like I just did something that cannot be expressed in a few words.

I do want just one year to spend Christmas with my children. I want to see their faces light up with joy when they open their presents. I want to know that I mean as much to them as they mean to me. I have never felt that. I've been an outsider in my family all my life. Not just with my children, but with my parents and siblings as well. I get along with all of them now, and my relationship with my children is growing, for which I'm grateful, but I will not impose myself on my children. If they want to spend time with me, wonderful. I will cherish each and every moment.

I'm sorry. Thank you for reading this. I guess I am more lonely than I thought. I hope your Christmas was wonderful.

The snow is falling outside so I'm happy about that, and can go to bed with a smile on my face for all the wonderful friends I've made here. Several years ago I wrote an article Christmas card called The Christmas Tree. Every year I've revised it and made it better. I placed it on my site last night to share with WDC. I wasn't expecting it to be rated, just read, though one person did rate it and I appreciate it, but please it's not necessary. It's my Christmas card to everyone this year. Be blessed as you read it. Thank you.

So while you take a break from writing, have yourself a wonderful Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Valerie - enjoying the snowflakes and the season. It's all about Jesus.

98. Thursday, 24 December	ID #680875
Posted: 12-24-2009 @ 12:55 am EST

Hi all,

How is everyone today? Blessed I hope. So am I.

Today was nice and quiet at work until the last hour, then it was non-stop calls, and it's only going to get worse. With the mid-west storm revving up across the country, flights are already being canceled which means that everything else will be too, cars and hotels. So it won't be a calm next couple days. Looks like I'm going to work for the holiday pay this year, it won't be dead like in the past.

Snow is supposed to start soon, here the accumulation isn't supposed to be very much . The weather forecast is for snow mixed with sleet for Christmas, and I'm really hoping my parents stay home and don't travel to my sister's. They are both in their late 70s and yes, dad still drives. So I'm getting concerned and hoping my sister calls off the get together until a later date. If they do a weekend day, just maybe I'll be able to go too. Then there is my daughter, Shiloh, who is supposed to go to Milwaukee. I just hope they think safety first.

Other than that there is no prompt for the Christmas blog, but I thought I would get in the habit. Who knows this could get to be a regular thing. Daily that is.

It is getting to the end of the month and though I have the study finished for January, the rest of my newsletter still needs to get started, let alone finished. Somehow it always does, and never ceases to amaze me with what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it.

I don't have my tree up yet, and with the fact that I have to clean this office and somehow rearrange it to put a love seat in here so I can put up the tree, it's going to take a little time in doing. I planned on last weekend, but being on the site was much more pleasant than what I have to do in my office.

I'm considering going to bed early tonight. It's just too quiet. Edgar and Jon are both gone until after Christmas, though Edgar keeps telling me he'll be home, I can't see it, especially with the storm coming our way, even driving a short distance will be hazardous with sleet on the way.

So I'm going to take a peak at the weather and go to bed. You all have a great Christmas, and hopefully I'll post again tomorrow. I can't think of anything else I need to do, other than work. So until next time

Keep on Writing
Valerie

97. Wednesday, 23 December	ID #680781
Posted: 12-23-2009 @ 1:50 am EST

Prompt 3 for The 12 Days of Blogging -- Is Christmas too commercialized or why? Or what can we do about this ... ??

I could answer this in one word - YES!

Back when I was a kid the Christmas season didn't start until Thanksgiving. Sidewalks rolled up at 5 p.m. and mothers spent the day baking Christmas goodies and putting them away until Christmas. Kids spent the day on sledding hills and on ice skating rinks. Christmas decorations hit the windows in time for Thanksgiving and were lit up and animated on Thanksgiving. At least that's the way I remember it. I loved going past the Christmas windows and watching all the great animated figures. We lived an hour from Green Bay, my folks still do, and we would come to Green Bay to do the major shopping about the week before Christmas. We would take the whole day and at night before we headed home we would take a walk through the downtown section where all the window displays were. There we saw Alvin and the Chipmonks, and other wonderful Christmas scenes. I could visit those scenes right now in the museum in Green Bay, but my work schedule doesn't allow, but it would be great to go back and reminisce.

Those were also the days when parents sent their kids to church on Saturdays to practice for the Christmas program. It was the same every year, no deviation, and so were the treats afterward. they were always the same too. The same candy and popcorn balls in every bag.

I don't know when it happened, but it was a gradual change when stores started staying open 24 hours a day from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Every day there were more advertisements on the TV - Remember the Cabbage Patch doll? I thought and still do think it was the ugliest doll ever made and refused to get Shiloh one for Christmas. Her grandfather got her the only one she ever had. Then there was Tickle Me Elmo. I'm sure everyone remembers that craze. There's something new this year too, but I don't know what it is, nor am I all that interested in knowing. This year the Christmas displays were up before Halloween. Christmas carols were heard on the radio in October. Now I love Christmas carols, and would love to hear them every day, but there are some people who believe enough is enough. That's how I feel about all the TV ads that have been pushing everything from Victoria Secret to jewelry and everything in between. Kids don't have to go to bed with sugar plums dancing in their heads, they have the TV commercials instead, and all they talk about is what they want from October to December. Every time they see something new they add it to their ever growing list.

It would be just wonderful to go back to yesterday when life was a lot calmer, kids spent their time on sledding hills and ice skating rinks instead of in front of video games. It would be great to walk down snow covered streets and hear the outdoor Christmas music from the upper corners of stores, yes there was that too in the little town I grew up in. It was a time of cherished memories, unhurried, filled with the aromas of cookies baking, and the chaotic menagerie of the Christmas program until everyone knew where they were supposed to be, which usually didn't happen until the program itself. Then all the lines were perfect and so were the songs, ending with Silent Night in a darkened church with candlelight from each hand. Perfect.

But those days are gone. Now there is the hurried chaos of store aisles where the shopper has to be careful he or she doesn't end up in the hospital as he or she reaches for an item someone else wants. There is no Christmas Spirit. What we need is to remember - Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings which shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace good will toward men.

Jesus is the reason for the season, not how many gifts we can put under our Christmas trees for the ungrateful children who will break them within minutes if not hours after they are unwrapped. Jesus is the one gift you can unwrap that will never break. He will enrich your life everyday, not just for a few minutes or hours, but daily if YOU ALLOW Him too.

Have a wonderful blessed Christmas, and remember, the wise men were the first to bring gifts and they were to Jesus, not each other. What are you going to give this year without worrying about what you will receive in return?

Thanks for reading
Keep writing
Valerie

96. Wednesday, 23 December	ID #680780
Posted: 12-23-2009 @ 1:15 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all doing tonight/today? Blessed I hope. I know I am.

This is me taken at work because I had the most customer compliments of 2009. This was a surprise to me. My TL took my pic last week, but didn't tell me why. When I got to work, I had several people tell me congratulations, and then one realized I didn't know why, then I saw my pic, and it is one of the best pics taken of me, so I had this pic sent to my email so I could post it here and everywhere. So now you know what I look like.

It was a different kind of day today. A flight that should not have been able to be booked but was. This is taking Back to the Future literally. The flight was booked as departing 22 December 2010 and Returning 03 January 2010. One, it is impossible for our site to do that kind of booking, but did. The passenger was already at his connecting point. His connection doesn't connect until tomorrow real time. The last impossibility for our site was a hotel booking that had all the right information except there was an extra letter in the street name the hotel was on, putting the hotel in a completely different part of the city. The street name was also spelled right, but not for the hotel booking.

It felt like a trip to the Twilight Zone with the kind of bookings and customers I had today. Strange.

I hope your day was a lot better organized than mine was. Now I'm going to get at my 12 Days of Blogging. I just thought you would be interested in my day. If not just bypass.

Thanks for stopping by.

Keep Writing
Valerie

95. Tuesday, 22 December	ID #680706
Posted: 12-22-2009 @ 11:03 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all doing today/tonight? Blessed I hope. So am I.

Well here we are on day 2 of the 12 days of Christmas blogging. Today's prompt is a story about what the reindeer ate.

Now we all know that reindeer eat sugar cookies, candy canes, and drink egg nog. Just about anything having to do with Christmas the reindeer eat. What you don't believe me? Okay, I'm not talking about your normal reindeer, I'm talking about Santa's reindeer. You know, Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Donder, and Blitzen, and the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolf. Those reindeer. You see Mrs. Claus is always cooking up something really wonderful for the elves and the reindeer. How do you think Santa got that great belly and that ho ho ho jiggly laugh?

Well now it was Christmas Eve, and the sleigh was all hitched and ready. The toys were nestled in the huge sack on the back of the sleigh. Santa was making one last inspection as the countdown commenced for liftoff. The list had been checked over earlier to make sure every boy and girl had been nice, and he was amazed to find that every boy and girl was. You see there is this economic depression thing going on, and parents had told their children they had to be extra good and help out because it wouldn't be easy to get the things they liked.

So I was particularly happy when I was able to get my all time favorite Christmas treat - baklava. Well let me tell you about my baklava. I had been waiting all year for it. It's a special Christmas present from my son and his girlfriend who is an excellent cook. What I didn't know is that it is also Rudolf's favorite Christmas treat, and with that red glow of his he was able to see all the goodies set out for Santa even before Santa slid down the chimney. Though he is one of the happiest reindeer, having been chosen to lead Santa's sleigh that one foggy night, the reindeer still play games on him, and this particular night, when Mrs. Claus made all the Christmas treats for the elves and reindeer, among the fudge, cookies, candy canes, jelly drops, and snow cones, was baklava, only Rudolf didn't get any, so he was on the lookout for this out of the ordinary Christmas treat, and he found it.

Under the tree, in Green Bay Wisconsin was a bright shiny green tin, and with his extra sharp ability to sniff out all the different delicious scents and see what they were as well, he spied my Christmas treat. Now you're wondering how a reindeer could get my baklava when Santa is the only one who gets into the houses and takes care of the toys for extra good boys and girls, well let me tell you Rudolf's secret. Rudolf is a magic reindeer. While the other reindeer, with their black noses, waited patiently on the rooftop, Rudolf put a jingle on the side of his bright nose and was able to leave the other reindeer without being missed and follow Santa down the chimney. Now while Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk set out for him, Rudolf grabbed my shiny green tin, opened it with his hoof, and quick as a flash, ate all my baklava, replaced the cover and was up the chimney before Santa finished the cookies and milk.

How do I know it was Rudolf and not Santa who ate my baklava? He left a shiny red glow in my green tin box. Now this story does have a happy ending. Santa visited my son's girlfriend's home right after mine, and explained the situation. Quick as a flash, because Santa was able to slow time down so it looked like she made it real fast, she had another batch of baklava made and replaced the tin under my Christmas tree. So if you have never had baklava, just try some this year, and you will know why it was Rudolf's favorite Christmas treat too. Me? I'll be looking out for sneaky reindeer with shiny red noses.

Merry Christmas.

94. Monday, 21 December	ID #680567
Posted: 12-21-2009 @ 2:23 am EST

Hi all,

How are you all doing tonight/today. I hope you are all blessed. I sure am.

Okay, this is the first blog for the 12 Days of Christmas blogging thing I promised you I would take a stab at. Now the first prompt in this little contest has to do with the Christmas Carol - The Twelve Days of Christmas - uh duh.

Okay for you guys who don't know, and I didn't either, I got this e-mail last week about the real meaning of the 12 days of Christmas. You might find this interesting - or not.

Between 1558 and 1829 Catholics in England were not allowed to practice their faith openly. The reason for that is that they were trying to do away with Catholicism altogether starting with the monarchy. Anyway they found a way to learn the basic doctrine of the church, and its become a timeless Christmas Carol since. A code was introduced into each of the days of the song.

1. On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a Partridge in a pear tree. -- The Partridge stood for the Baby Jesus
2. On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Two Turtle Doves stood for the Old and New Testaments
3. On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Three French Hens stood for faith, hope, and love
4. On the forth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Four Calling Birds stood for the Four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
5. On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Five Gold Rings stood for the Torah or the first five books of the Old Testament known as the Law of Moses.
6. On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Six Geese A-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. - Six Geese A-Laying stood for the six days of creation.
7. On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me Seven Swans a Swimming, Six Geese A-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Seven Swans a-Swimming stood for the Seven-Fold gifts of the Holy Spirit - Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, Mercy
8. On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Eight Maids a-Milking, Seven Swans a-Swimming, Six Geese a-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. - Eight Maids a-Milking stood for the Eight Beatitudes - Matthew 5
9. On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Nine Ladies Dancing, Eight Maids a-Milking, Seven Swans a-Swimming, Six Geese a-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Nine Ladies Dancing stood for the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit - Galatians 5:22-23
10. On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Ten Lords a-Leaping, Nine Ladies Dancing, Eight Maids a-Milking, Seven Swans a-Swimming, Six Geese a-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Ten Lords a-Leaping stood for the Ten Commandments
11. On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me Eleven Pipers Piping, Ten Lords a-Leaping, Nine Ladies Dancing, Eight Maids a-Milking, Seven Swans a-Swimming, Six Geese a-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Eleven Pipers Piping stood for the Eleven Faithful Disciples
12. On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Twelve Drummers Drumming, Eleven Pipers Piping, Ten Lords a-Leaping, Nine Ladies Dancing, Eight Maids a-Milking, Seven Swans a-Swimming, Six Geese a-Laying, Five Gold Rings, Four Turtle Doves, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a pear tree. -- Twelve Drummers Drumming stood for the twelve points of belief in the Apostles Creed.

This was the way Catholics taught their children doctrine during the dark days of religious persecution of all Catholics between 1558 and 1829. During this time if you were a Catholic you could be executed. So everything was hush hush.

Now on to other news. The food thief was at it again. My bad. I left some cinnamon sticks and chocolate dunkers from Pizza Hut on the table when I left for church this morning/yesterday morning. When I returned the boxes they came in were shredded on the living room floor, and the unopened container of chocolate Hershey's sauce was licked clean. I forgot I had them out when I left, but then I was also blinded by the fact I was wearing my computer glasses and not my regular glasses when my ride showed up, so things were a bit blurry this/yesterday morning.

I will have to get to the disappointing news about the Packers/Steelers game tomorrow. I can only tell you what I saw in the first half before I left to go Christmas Caroling with the church. It wasn't pretty. We need a new kicker. If he had made the field goal in the first quarter we might have won that game. Will know more details tomorrow when I've had a chance to watch the DVR tape of it. That is if I have time. My day is going to be hectic to say the least.

My schedule for today: I have two bills that have to be paid, both on different ends of Green Bay, which means a huge waste of time with the buses, and I have a hair appointment in the afternoon. I'm finally going to get this cut and colored. I'm beginning to look like a sheepdog, all because I didn't want to take time away from writing for the NaNo challenge in November. Another huge waste of time with buses. So if I'm on the computer at all today I'll be surprised, most likely about this time, hopefully earlier.

The snow forecast is looking good. There is snow in the forecast for today and tomorrow, and then Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Which of course means we will have a White Christmas. Was there any doubt? We did have a blizzard a week and a half ago. Anyway we'll be adding to our snow totals, and that will put a huge smile on my face. It's only flurries, but every snowflake adds up.

Before I forget, I want to thank everyone who sent me an e-mail congratulating me on going Yellow. Now while I get some much needed sleep for the day ahead, you all

Keep on Writing
Valerie - loving snowflakes and yellow suitcases