Welcome home, Mark! A true patriot...

Remember that I blogged about a son of a BSP sister of mine up in Illinois? Well, Mark is now HOME, and his town gave him a grand welcome...
From Mark's mama: It was awesome. The VFW and Legion did a bang up job welcoming him home. He got to ride on top of the fire truck with police escort and sirens all the way to our house. It was truly a hero’s welcome.

And here is the happy family reunited (after TWO tours of duty--Iraq and Afghanistan):

And ever the military mom that Leet is, here is another comment from her to our BSP online group of sisters:

I would be remiss if I did not thank you once again for your support through all this. There are thousands of soldiers serving in Afghanistan right now, so please do remember them and their families in your prayers. Also remember all who are giving up their freedom in other parts of the world and in the USA to serve us.

Freedom is never free. Thanks to ALL our troops everywhere. God bless y'all real good. And come home safely real soon.

Oklahoma, Mayberry style!

Last night, several of us went to see the dress rehearsal of "Oklahoma" at a nearby playhouse. It was 'girlie' night--no guys wanted to attend. Imagine that. Joy, Debora, and Hannah went with Haley, me and the wee girls, and what an evening it was!

The cast did a very nice version of the play, although early on Miss M asked if "these people could go for 20 minutes without singing?!" I can see her eight-year old point of view. That girl wanted more playing, she later stated on the way home. An hour of music is plenty long enough, in her humble opinion.

And after several minutes of 'woe-is-me' by one of the guys, saying how worthless, misunderstood, yada, yada he is, and that the world would be better off without him, Miss A piped up and said, "He sure has some ISSUES." That cracked us all up, even the folks in the row in front of us! And she was spot on in her analysis.

So that was just a little bit of culture, Mayberry style. I hope y'all have fun. We are going to the resort for lunch today to celebrate Logan's birthday, so we'll definitely have fun...and lots of pasta! Life is very good! Happy Birthday, Logan!!!

Wonderful Wednesday…

Weather is cool here in Mayberry, sitting on the deck, next to the calm lake……and watching the last few kilometers of today’s stage of the Tour.

What’s not to love about that?

Happy Wednesday, y’all!  Life is GOOD…go Astana!!!

Tuesday stuff...

Enjoy a little more 'yard art'...and no, I didn't buy the airplane, but it sure is cute!
Paul Newman founded the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children stricken with cancer, AIDS and blood diseases. One afternoon he and his wife, Joanne Woodward, stopped by to have lunch with the kids.
A counselor at a nearby table, suspecting the young patients wouldn't know that Newman was a famous movie star, explained, 'That's the man who made this camp possible. Maybe you've seen his picture on his salad dressing bottle?' Blank stares. 'Well, you've probably seen his face on his lemonade carton.'
An eight-year-old girl perked up. 'How long was he missing?'

So today is a busy one. I will also be 'missing' this morning, as I have two meetings to head up and errands to run. Just another day in paradise. Y'all enjoy your Tuesday!!! Make it a good one.

A lesson...

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism works and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. Everyone would be the same.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on a socialism plan."
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less, and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

Hat tip: Judy C.

Class is dismissed. Enjoy your Monday...but study hard! Life is (still) good...

Sunday stuff and stampin' fun...

God's Problem Now...
His wife's grave side service just barely finished, when there was massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance.
The little old man looked at the pastor and calmly said, 'Well, she's there.

~~~Enjoy your Sunday. Our card class is this afternoon, so there will be stamping, cutting, pasting, oohing and aahing. Y'all know by now that Haley is the (excellent!) teacher...and this is what I made last time... focus on that word PLAY..............

I'm sure I'll bring home some more great ideas today, something about "Tropical Getaway" being the theme. Sounds good to me! Life is short...make FUN of it!!!

Summer festival fun...

Haley and I enjoyed our time together at the Butternut Creek Festival this morning. See that cute dragonfly she is holding? The wings are made from two table knives and two blue beads for its little head!
Yard art critters...and flowers.........

Amy would like this ele...I bought a small butterfly in memory of my mom...and a pretty hummingbird.

So that is our Saturday fun. Hope you enjoy your day and that you count your blessings!