''To aII the ships at sea and aII the ports of caII.To my famiIy and to aII friends and strangers. ''

my message for him...

this is not goodby...l  will never say goodby ...

"Thanks for the times that you've given me

   the memories are all in my mind.
And now that we've come to the end of our rainbow
  there's something that I must say,

You shared my dreams, my joys, my pain
   you made my life worth living.
And if I had my life to  live over again
  I'd spend each and every moment with you.

When we were together
    the moments I treasure with every beat of my heart.
To touch you, to hold you, to feel you, to know you"

     only death could keep us apart
  
from "Three Times A Lady" written by Lionel Richie

Helloooo

insomnia (ɪnˈsɒmnɪə)
chronic inability to fall asleep or to enjoy uninterrupted sleep
Related: agrypnotic

It's exactly 2:42 am...I've been awake since 12:30 am...went to bed around 9 pm....







I'm sure the coffee and m&m's that I'm indulging myself with isn't helping, but hey !!!  if I can't enjoy some much needed rest I may as well enjoy the awake time...that's my theory anyway...

I spent most of the day unpacking and displaying the Christmas  decorations in my home...candles, lights, santas, angels, yule trees...red, green, gold, white, ...lovely reminders of the season.

 Historically, Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth to a young maiden from Galilee.

 Theologically, Christmas is the celebration of the incarnation of God in Jesus the Christ, the self-revelation of God to the world in human form for the reconciliation of humanity to Himself. All the details of the various accounts concerning Jesus’ birth revolve around that central truth.

My faith lies in the theological version...  

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

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Bobby and Brian

Enjoying a slow-paced, quiet morning with two of my best buddies...watching TV

Jack watch us..watching TV

a repost...I needed a smile...'changed it up a bit..

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Question

Would he know my name, if he saw me in heaven?

Forever In Our Hearts

A million times we needed you, a million times we cried,
If love alone could save you, you never  would have died.

In life we loved you dearly, in death we love you still,

In our hearts you hold a place that no one can ever fill.

A light from our household is gone, a voice from our life is stilled,
A place in our  home is vacant, which never can be filled.
Some may think you are forgotten, though on earth you are no more,
But in our memory you are with us, as you always were before.

It broke our hearts to lose you, but you did not go alone,

A part of us went with you, the day God called you home.

Your precious memories are for keepsakes, with which we'll never part,
God has you safely in his keeping,
... we have you forever in our hearts

you and me, babe.... I'll never let you go.........

Herk

Laura

Eddie

Barbara

Nicki

Brian

Bobby  playing the thumping game

da boys

yesterday

Nov. 13th...seven months
April                                                                    



May   new life

June  Nick, Anna and Katy  come for a visit

                (from Texas)

July  Brian and Bobby are here,,for four weeks!

            from Texas

August Nicki is here for a week

                   from Chicago

September  Barb and  I go to Destin

 at school with  Thomas  for Grandparents Day..

October   Ed and Marty are here for a week

                           from Eden Prairie, Mn.

November  

going to Dallas for a week.....

GOD IS GOOD

On Becoming a Slob

"Main Entry: slob

Part of Speech: noun

Definition: pig

Synonyms: boor, draggletail, hog, ragamuffin, slattern, sloven, swine, tatterdemalion "

I plan  to pick up, hang up and clean up...it may even be today!



Letter # 44

"March 5, 1952

Hello Darling,
   Guess where I am at present.  Since it would take approximately 18 days to receive an answer to this query I'll tell you.  I'm in the 16th Field Hospital in Nurnburg.  Question two, guess what I'm being treated for.  Answer, "the mumps"...Now ain't that a shame? A twenty two year old self professed man lying in bed with the mumps.  Sounds slightly degrading doesn't it?"

(It turns out he ended up spending 20 days in the hospital, with ice packs between his legs.....that's right...the mumps dropped to his testicles...which could have made him sterile...we lucked out...it did not...proff, we had 5 children together)


"If I'm not mistaken, it has been a month since I've written.  I hope you don't think it's because I've forgotten you.  How could I when those eleven days in paradise were spent with you .I've often wondered if that wasn't as near heaven as I'll get."   (I'm not sure that I totally believed that  at that time...his letters has become so infrequent. ) " I sometimes think that I'm living too much in the past and not giving much thought to the future. You'll have to excuse this penmanship as I'm writing while lying in bed.


Kitten, take some good advice.  Have as much fun as possible while you're in high school.  Date every available, decent male that you can because you'll miss those good times after you're out of school.  Believe it or not, I didn't date anyone while I was in high school.   During the last 4 years I've tried to make up for all the time  I lost though,. " (A ha ! is he trying to tell me something? just kidding......he never had a problem saying exactly what was on his mind...not with me anyway.)
"I want you to be sure in your own mind that you're ready to settle down before I get back. I hope that I'm not taking too much for granted in talking to you this way.


Know something, I wish that you and I could take a weeks vacation in Florida about Feb. '53, but there are those social conventionalities that prohibit things of that nature. I don't mean to be vulgar or obscene,but we  could have heaps of fun, couldn't we."  (Ah..the good 'ol days...when that was considered vulgar and obscene!)   


"I've been admiring this latest photo I have of you and you look much older than when I left Prettier too, if that's possible.


You keep asking if I'm coming home in June.  Sorry honey, it's impossible.  It'll be sometime in Feb. of '53.  There's one consolation though, ..I'll be home for good then.  Remember this darling, we'll be together again someday.  That's a promise.


I love you, Kitten,
Bob"


I would receive only one more letter from him...a month later.  Maybe he was still trying to make up for all those "good times" he lost out on during high school :)   ...He loved me though...and he proved it when he came home and for the next 57years ...

"say what?"

Idle thoughts at 3am...

Do we not all have  memories of special words or, beter yet, translations of words that our children have amused us with when they were very young?  What came out of the mouth was different than what entered the ear..  Here are three of the Peete family's...that we oft times still use today.

"high heels" became "hill-highs"
"coat hangers" became "hanger-coats"
and my favorite:
"bon fire" became "box-a-fire"

In  2001, while on a visit here is see Barb and David,  we had a bon-fire ...what we burned were boxes... Bobby (grandson) who was 4 years old at the time couldn't get the idea of "bon-fire" in his head...we were burning boxes so therefore it was a "box-a-fire"...don't know where the -a- came from...

What were some of your family's?

Pain begets Pleasure..."I don't think so!"

"If love is a universal language, then the pain it often causes ( some might say it inevitable causes) is equally universal, yet that begs the more important question: Why can sad poems, songs and stories bring  us a strange kind of pleasure? I'm sure the psychologist have an answer to that question, and I'm equally sure that it's a different answer than a poet would give.

Maybe, in the end, the answer isn't so complex.  A burden born by one can often become too heavy to bear. Maybe, in the end, each of us knows that sharing our pain is the only way we can live with the pain."

I find myself needing to share my grief with anyone who will listen...needing to talk about it all the time..(as the posts on this blog bear wittness to)..and I find that others who have recently experienced loss need to do so as well. I continually cause myself to remember his illness and his death...heaping piles of grief upon my heart...why is this? Is it my way of bearing the pain...is it my way of punishing myself for perhaps some unacknowledged guilt I may have because he suffered and died and I did not...he, the one most undeserving of such suffering!  Although I certainly suffered, and continue to do so..he suffered both physical pain and emotional pain and death...I did not
I believe we will be together again some day...but some day is not here yet...and I must try to accept and overcome some things that are killing the old me...Maybe I do need to see a counselor.  I know I need adeepe r faith and trust in God.

JUST FOR FUN

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Halloween Party Saturday night

Double L and Barb had employees from the shop and their families over for hot dogs, fun and games...I'll have to get pics from Barb's camera as mine was not working good...