Thanksgiving

     We had a great time with family yesterday.  I hope you did, too.
     As I mentioned in an earlier post that since our daughter's family is here for Thanksgiving and won't be for Christmas I decided to decorate the house early for Christmas.  We were able to pick up our tree--it is 11 feet tall--on Wednesday.  We immediately set it up in the living room so the branches could come down from being wrapped tightly for transport.
    Since my sister volunteered to put the lights on--which I really don't like to do, we brought in the ladder and left the bare tree standing till after Thanksgiving  dinner.  She did a great job with the lights even though there were a couple of problems with extension cords burning out.

    The tall ladder was a great attraction for the grandchildren so I had lots of help hanging the ornaments.
    It was fun and an opportunity to make memories.

Today

      Our daughter's family are on their way to Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with us.  When I talked with her this week she said the boys are both excited to see us and have lots of things on their agenda to do while they are here. I'm sure that helping Granddad "pick" the eggs and feed Bud, and riding the F-150 and the off-road trike are some of the things they are looking forward to doing.
      But they also want us to see their new looks.  Gage, who is 3 years old, and Gavin who is 5, each have something different to show us about their faces.  Gavin lost his first tooth a couple of days ago, and Gage is now wearing glasses.  He told his Mom he will wear the glasses into the house when he gets here and then he will take them off and say, "Now do you recognize me?"
     Gage's need for glasses was discovered when he went with his brother to a routine eye screen for kindergartners.  Because of his new ability to see the world clearly he seems to feel like an entirely different person and therefore he thinks we may not recognize him.  How wonderful his inability to see clearly was discovered at such a young age!  Our daughter was saying that they put up Christmas decorations Monday which included a little tree in the boys' room.  When they went in to check on the boys and to turn off the tree lights before going to bed themselves they found Gage asleep with his glasses on.  He had been admiring the beautiful lights as he fell asleep.  A whole new world has been opened to him since he got his glasses!
    As I was writing this I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 13:12 which in the King James version says "we see through a glass darkly" but I especially like The Message translation:  "We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!"  
      Gage's experience with new glasses illustrates this verse so well and helps me to understand it better.  How different things will look to us when God helps us to see clearly!

Christmas Decorating

     Since our daughter's family will be coming for Thanksgiving and not Christmas, and therefore I will be having lots of people here for Thanksgiving dinner, I decided to do my Christmas decorating early.  That's why I haven't had much time to write this week.  I have been dragging out all my decorations, sorting through them, throwing away some and looking for new.  I'm almost through except for the tree.
     We've always purchased a real tree to decorate for Christmas so I called a tree seller who said they are expecting their trees to arrive next Tuesday.  I thought if I could get everything else decorated now, then hopefully I would have time to do the tree on Wednesday before everyone comes for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.  I may have trouble accomplishing that while preparing for guests, and cooking some things ahead, but I'm going to try.
     At least the rest of the house will look festive--even if it is decorated for the wrong holiday.
     Here is a picture of the main area I've done so far.  I'm beginning to feel encouraged about the results.
   

Deer Hunting

    I was feeling a little sad Friday night and yesterday.  I know it is irrational, but I couldn't seem to help myself.  Let me explain.  Last week on Wednesday as I was working on my computer in the living room I happened to catch something move in the corner of my eye.  I glanced out the window and saw two big bucks in the woods at the edge of the yard.  I grabbed my camera and took pictures as I watched them for several minutes.  I snapped the picture below as the largest buck (and I) was about to discover a doe lying in the leaves.  As you can see she looks like a large rock in the left side of the picture.  I wish the picture was a little clearer, but I was shooting the photos through the glass of the window.  You get the idea though.  It was such a blessing to watch this little scene from nature right outside my window.

     I continued watching for quite some time and in the process discovered there were actually 4 bucks following her scent.   

 
      Then on Friday I looked out a window into the front yard and discovered they were back.  I didn't see any does, but I saw the bucks at different intervals as one would walk off into the woods and shortly another would come behind him.     
      I guess seeing them twice in one week made me feel they felt safe and protected on our property since it is bow hunting season.  And somehow I felt responsible for their security.  Of course I know that's ridiculous because it is a known fact that a buck will follow a doe anywhere at anytime for long distances once he catches her scent, but feelings don't always follow rational thoughts.
      Supposedly this time frame we're in right now is the peak of mating season and therefore a great opportunity for hunters to snag some unsuspecting bucks who have their minds on things other than watching out for hunters, so Friday afternoon my brother showed up to go bow hunting.  He has had permission to hunt on our land ever since we've lived here.
      In my head I know the deer population needs to be thinned--and when they get in my gardens I even wish I could help with the thinning--but somehow in seeing those beautiful bucks I guess I forgot all the damage they can do.  (In addition to the grazing they have done on my plants and shrubs and the corn and soybeans they have eaten, I have also lost several young trees because they rub their antlers against them until the bark is totally gone.)
     Anyway, to my brother's delight, he killed the biggest of the bucks.  When he told me, I'm afraid I didn't share his enthusiasm, and then I was sad for awhile.
      I'm pretty much over the sadness now.  I know shotgun season starts next week so someone else probably would have shot him.  I'm glad that if it was going to happen that my brother was the one to do it.  He was so happy!  He said it is the biggest buck he has ever killed with a bow--and he has done a lot of hunting and has many deer head trophies to prove it!
      I have to say, though, that I still haven't gotten to the point of enjoying seeing any of God's creatures dead, so when it happens it helps me to spend a little time mourning the loss of their beauty.

11-11-11 Prayer Tonight

The Gathering will be meeting for prayer tonight at 6:00 on this historic date of 11-11-11.  We are meeting to coincide with The Call Detroit, a 24 hour solemn assembly, meeting at Ford Field beginning at 6:00 p.m. tonight until 6:00 p.m. tomorrow night.  Here is the purpose of The Call--and our prayer time--quoted from their website:

TheCall Detroit 11.11.11

On November 11–12, 2011, thousands from across America will gather to Ford Field (Home of the Detroit Lions) to fast, pray and cry out to God. We will gather to this city that has become a microcosm of our national crisis—economic collapse, racial tension, and the shedding of innocent blood of our children in the streets and of our unborn.

But the place where they say there is no hope, God has chosen as His staging ground for a great communal healing and His house of prayer for all nations. Therefore, we are calling the nation to a 24-hour solemn assembly, daring to believe that Detroit’s desperation can produce a prayer that can change a nation.

Come and take your place on the wall in Detroit, where we will ask God to send fire on our hearts, to forgive our national guilt and establish justice in our land.

      Since we are unable to go to Detroit for this meeting we will be joining our hearts and spirits with them tonight at our house to pray for revival in this land.  I feel this is an extremely important meeting.  God answers prayer.  He says in II Chronicles 7:14, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 
     I believe we are at a crucial time in our nation when we must we take God at His Word and seriously pray for our country.  If you are feeling that also, please come.  We are planning to worship and pray a couple of hours unless the Lord leads otherwise.

Farmers Tribute: So God Made A Farmer.

I have always loved Paul Harvey and of course I love farmers, so I am posting this video as a tribute to both of them.

Bible Study

     Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time on the internet looking for a good video commentary on Colossians.  We have been talking in The Gathering that our main purpose and desire is to be focused on Jesus, who He is, what He has done, what He says for us to do.  We have been thinking we need to be studying the Bible consistently to know these things.  Since Colossians has a wonderful passage that sums up who Christ is I thought that book might be the best place to begin, so I was trying to find some enlightening video teaching on it and other books of the Bible that we could watch and learn from as a group.
    Through searching I came upon this great resource:        
                  http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/video_sermons.htm   
     The website says these sermons/commentaries are done by Dr. Bob Utley, a pastor in Texas, who, "as a local pastor, taught verse-by-verse through New Testament books on Sunday evenings and through Old Testament books on Wednesday evenings. All these teachings became the "Video and Audio Bible Commentaries" which are now available through this free website sponsored by Bible Lessons International."       
       What convinced me to listen to some of the sermons, though, was this comment:  "He approaches Bible teaching from an exegetical, verse-by-verse, historical- grammatical point of view. In addition, great effort is made to remove his, and our, social, cultural, experiential, and denominational biases. Bob tries to support his interpretation from the biblical text in one of six ways: (1) literary context; (2) historical setting of the biblical author; (3) word studies; (4) grammatical relationships; (5) parallel biblical passages; and (6) literary genres."  That sounds like the kind of teaching I need to hear and from which I could learn much.
     Country Guy and I downloaded and watched one of the sermons last night which we think could have been one of the best we've ever heard.  It is entitled, "The Bible is Eastern Literature." 
     We are thinking it would be a great one to watch at The Gathering Sunday night at 6:00.  (It seems our agenda may be changing--but didn't I say that might happen?)  We are thinking of doing the Mark Virkler series at a different time--possibly Wednesday nights--and then we could begin studying the Bible on Sunday nights.  Come hear Bob Utley Sunday night, if you can.  I think it will change your perspective on what it means to be a Christian and get you excited to study the Bible along with him as we watch other videos.

     Here is the passage on the supremacy of Christ which causes me to believe Colossians would be a great book to start with in our quest to better understand who He is.   Col. 1:15-20

    Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.
    He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him.
 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
    Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.
    He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. 

So he is first in everything.
    For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.
    He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

      I couldn't resist adding verses 21 and 22 here because they tell us the great news that through Christ's sacrifice on the cross our relationship with God has been restored.  Hallelujah!!

   Col. 1:21,22. "This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."

Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, cont.

      I am enjoying this book (see Sunday's post) very much.  It seems to answer some interesting questions, like why do some people get sick while others stay mostly healthy.  Even though it is not written as a Christian book, many of the concepts can be related directly or indirectly to scripture.  For instance, here is a quote from Hands of Light by Barbara Ann Brennan:  "Illness is the result of imbalance.  Imbalance is a result of forgetting who you are.  Forgetting who you are creates thoughts and actions that lead to an unhealthy life-style and eventually to illness.  The illness itself is a signal that you are imbalanced because you have forgotten who you are.  Illness can thus be understood as a lesson you have given yourself to help you remember who you are."
      This quote makes me think about who God says we are and what Jesus did for us on the cross.  He said that by His stripes we are healed.  Illness causes me to pray which reminds me who I am--a child of God--and what He has already provided for me if I am walking according to His will.
     Dr. Bernie Seagel says in Love, Medicine, and Miracles, a book I read years ago and loved, "I suggest that patients think of illness not as God's will but as our deviation from God's will.
    He then goes on to say, "I feel that all disease is ultimately related to a lack of love, or to love that is only conditional, for the exhaustion and depression of the immune system thus created leads to physical vulnerability.  I also feel that all healing is related to the ability to give and accept unconditional love.  I am convinced that unconditional love is the most powerful known stimulant of the immune system.  If I told patients to raise their blood levels of immune globulins or killer T cells, no one would know how.  But if I can teach them to love themselves and others fully, the same changes happen automatically.  The truth is: love heals."  
    And the Bible says, God is love.  He says we are to love one another as He loves us.  Could it be that if we actually chose to follow the "Good Book" we would live much healthier lives?  I believe that is true.  God has given us all we need for life and health, but we refuse--or ignore--what He has said and then try to find health in our own way.  How foolish we are!  I am often reminded of Romans 1:22 when I hear some of the ridiculous things said by politicians, but it applies to all areas of life.  It says, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."  (In case you're interested, Romans 1:18-32, tells us what happens when we choose to go our own foolish way instead of acknowledging and glorifying Him.  It sounds just like the world we live in.)
     I am interested and excited to be learning ways I can unearth some of my buried feelings to become a healthier and more loving person.  If this interests you, too, I recommend this book.  

Dr. W. Jerome Stowell's story

        I am reading a very interesting book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die..., by Karol K. Truman.  In the 2nd chapter she quotes Dr. W. Jerome Stowell as he tells his story.  It gets a little technical but don't give up reading it.  He shares some exciting discoveries in the story.  I find it really fascinating and extremely thought provoking.  Here it is...

Dr. W. Jerome Stowell’s story:

     “I was almost a devout atheist, I did not believe that God was any more than a conglomeration of everyone’s mind put together and the good that was there, that was God as far as I was concerned. As for the real, all-powerful God existing and loving us all, with power over everything, I did not believe that.

        Then one day I had an experience that really set me thinking. I was in a large pathological laboratory where we were attempting to find the wave length of the brain. We found a channel of wave lengths, and that channel has a mach room (unit of measure) in it wherein the different wave lengths of each individual’s brain are further separated in identity more clearly than are the finger prints of each individual’s hand. This is a point we should remember: God can actually keep in heaven a record of our thoughts as individuals just as the FBI can keep a record of our fingerprints in Washington, D.C.

       We wanted to make an experiment to discover what took place in the brain at the moment of transition from life to death. We chose first a lady whose family had sent her to a mental institution but who had been discharged. The doctors could find nothing wrong with her other than the fact she had cancer of the brain. This affected the balance of her body only. As far as her alertness of mind was concerned and in every other way, she was exceptionally brilliant. We knew she was on the verge of death and she was informed, in this research hospital that she was going to die.

       We arranged a tiny pick-up in her room to ascertain what would take place in the transition of her brain from life to death. We also put a very small microphone, about the size of a shilling, in the room so that we could hear what she said, if she had anything to say.

     Five of us hardened scientists—perhaps I was the hardest of the group—were in an adjoining room with our instruments prepared to register and record what transpired. Our device had a needle pointing to “0” in the center of the scale. To the right the scale was calibrated to 500 points positive, to the left the scale was calibrated to 500 points negative. We previously had recorded on this identical instrument the power used by a fifty-kilowatt broadcasting station in sending a message around the world. The needle then registered 9 points of the positive side.

         As the last moments of this woman’s life arrived, she began to pray and praise the Lord. She asked the Lord to be merciful unto those who had despitefully used her, then she reaffirmed her faith in God, telling Him she knew He was the only power, the only living power. He always had been and always would be. She praised God and thanked Him for His power and for her knowledge of His reality. She told Him how much she loved Him.

       We scientists had been so engrossed with this woman’s prayer that we had forgotten our experiment. We looked at each other and saw tears streaming down scientific faces.

        Suddenly we heard a clicking sound on our forgotten instrument. We looked and the needle was registering a positive 500, desperately trying to go higher only to bounce against the 500 positive post in its attempt!

     By actual instrumentation we had recorded that the brain of a woman alone and dying in communication with God had registered more than 55 times the power used by a fifty-kilowatt broadcasting station sending a message around the world.

      After this we decided to try a case very unlike the first one. We chose a man lying in the research hospital stricken with a deadly social disease. His brain had become atrophied to the point of very death. He was practically a maniac.

      After we had set up our instruments, we arranged for one of the nurses to antagonize the man. Through her wiles, she attracted his interest in her, and then suddenly told him she did not want to have anything more to do with him. He began to verbally abuse her, and the needle began to register on the negative side. Then he cursed her and took the name of God in vain. The needle then clicked back and forth against the 500 negative post.

       By actual instrumentation we had registered what happened to the brain when that brain broke one of God’s Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

       We had established by instrumentation the positive power of God and the negative power of the adversary. We had found that beneficial truth is positive, and the non-beneficial things covered by the “Thou shalt nots” of the Ten Commandments are negative.

      If we scientists can record these things, I believe with all my heart that the Lord God can keep a record of our thoughts.”

What an exciting football game we attended this afternoon!

    Our grandsons, Daniel & Parker, play football with the Marshall football team.  Marshall had an undefeated season this year so they are now involved in the state championship playoffs.  This afternoon was the 2nd game of the playoffs.  We played Bismark-Henning.  Marshall led most of the game, 14-0, but then in the 4th quarter Bismark scored two touchdowns and went for 2 points on the last one to bring the score to 15-14 with 17 seconds left to play in the game.  Almost everyone watching the game thought it was over, but we had a wonderful surprise awaiting us!
    Bismark kicked off to Marshall and the clock started ticking.  Marshall threw an incomplete pass, but pass interference was called on Bismark so the penalty moved the ball closer to Marshall's goal on the play.  With only 6 seconds left, the Marshall's quarterback sent the ball flying for a long pass from the 42 yard line to a player near the end zone.  The ball was slightly out of reach of the player who tried to catch the ball but instead tipped it.  The clock buzzer rang just as another Marshall player dove for the tipped ball, catching it on the ground in the end zone for a touchdown and Marshall won 20-15.  Absolutely amazing!
     Now Marshall is 11-0 for their season wins.  I really believe the Lord is showing me something with 11's.  Remember the World Series game we attended which I wrote about a few days ago, when the Cardinals won the 6th game of the series in the 11th inning and then went on to win their 11th World Series Championship in the year 2011?  Both the Marshall game and the Cardinals game seemed to be miracle wins.  I'm wondering if the message isn't that we are never to give up--that when things in our lives look impossible and we are about to despair, to remember that all things are possible with God.  Could that even be a message for our country?
      I believe The Call Detroit, a 24 hour solemn assembly to be held at Ford Field in Detroit is another important eleven.  The date for the assembly is 11-11-11 to 11-12-11, 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.  I think another reason I am seeing so many elevens is to be reminded to pray, particularly on 11-11-11 with the thousands who will be gathered to pray and fast for our nation.  I won't be able to go to Detroit, but I plan to join with them on 11-11-11 to pray and fast here at home.  Would you consider joining us?    
       We are planning a special meeting of The Gathering, Friday evening at 6:00 for the purpose of praying for our community and for our nation.  Please come if you can.

The Gathering

    As of right now, we are calling our new adventure, The Gathering.  We will check on the availability of that name when we apply for our tax ID number.  Hopefully, it is available.  We feel the name is a description of what we are doing.  We are a group of people gathering to know Jesus at a deeper level.  It is our desire to allow the Holy Spirit to teach us how to be Jesus' disciples because we know He said we are to go into all the world to preach the word with power, and signs and wonders will follow, and we don't see that in many churches today.   We are gathering together to learn what, when, why, and how He did the things He did, and to practice allowing Him to do the same things through us.  We expect this will happen through loving one another and sharing testimonies, inviting guest speakers, watching DVD series of anointed teachers, worship, prayer, and any other way the Lord leads.  It is our desire that each meeting will be Spirit-led, so there will be no set schedule--only a loosely held agenda.
     Since we do not see ourselves as a church--in the commonly held definition of the word, but only a group of people gathering to know Jesus at a deeper level, and to learn to do the things he did, it seemed to us the best time to meet would be Sunday nights at 6:00, so as not to be in competition with churches in the area.  All who are searching for, and desiring more of God, are invited to come whether you regularly attend church or not.  This is for everyone, who, deep in his/her heart, knows there is something more and wants to experience it.  Jesus said He came to give us abundant life.  If you aren't experiencing "abundant life" then come learn how with us at The Gathering.  It will be an exciting, life-changing adventure for all of us.
    Our plans are to begin this Sunday night watching the DVD series "Seven Prayers That Heal The Heart," with Mark Virkler.  (As I mentioned, though, our plans are subject to change if the Holy Spirit leads us a different way.)  It seemed to us this DVD series would be good to begin with because it's our desire to be free of anything that keeps us from loving, knowing and serving God.  We know that through things that happen to us in life we make wrong decisions and feel regret, or we get hurt, feel rejected, and can't let go of our anger because of our pain.  This series will help us pray through, and release those things that hinder us from doing what Jesus said to do.  We invite you to come participate with us in becoming all that God created us to be--representatives of His kingdom on earth.  I don't know about you, but I feel a real sense of responsibility to not misrepresent him, and I know that I have, and I do.  I want to learn to be a better disciple.
     I would be glad to answer any questions you have if you want to email them to me.  I hope to see you Sunday.

What a relief!

        I have been working practically non-stop on my new cookbook.  I had no idea it would take so much time!  One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had put in many hours for several days straight, typing, reading, re-arranging, proofing etc. Then I had to move everything I had done to a different word processing program because I used Pages and the publishing company wanted it to be in Word.  Each section of the cookbook had to be in a separate document so I cut and pasted to create the required divisions.  Then I realized the way my new computer works--with which I've barely had time to become acquainted--is that every time I tell it to save something in Word, it creates a new document.  As I went back to read the sections several times and made corrections, of course, I told it to save the changes.  What I didn't realize until I had saved several was that it was saving each bunch of changes in a new document!  It became very confusing and time-consuming to discover which was the last document I had saved and to send the others to the trash.
        This morning I finally composed an email with all the files attached and pushed the "send" button, so it is now out of my hands.  What a relief!  But a tad bit scary for me, too.  You could say I am somewhat of a perfectionist.  Once I pushed send, I began to have thoughts about whether there was a way I could have made it better.  I do have one more chance to look at the set-up before it is actually published.   Hopefully, I will be so thrilled with the way it looks in print that I will stop second guessing myself.  :o)
      I have had lots of encouragement in what to include, and some new additions submitted by my extended family, so it looks as if the count--as best I could tell--is 249 recipes.  When my cousin read about the cookbook on the blog she emailed me to ask if I would add our grandmother's orange bread recipe. I mentioned it to Mom, who had a copy, and then Sandra sent one, too, so I was able to include it.  How fun to have old recipes mixed in with the new!  I was even able to add Meredith's recipe which she contributed under "comments" on the original cookbook post a few days ago.  I am always thrilled to have readers' participation!
       After talking with family and friends, I am assuming there may be a few extra copies, so if you are interested in reserving one, let me know.  It looks as if the cookbook will cost less than I had originally thought because I ordered a larger quantity.  I think the price will be around $10 shipped, or about $7-8 if you can pick it up.  I still don't have the final cost yet, and I don't know how much shipping is, so I will let you know when I do.
      As I was sitting in the living room yesterday with my computer on my lap, working on the cookbook, I happened to look up.  This is the sight I saw out our front door.  Of course, I had to get my camera.  I have accused the raccoons of tearing up the mulch there, but it looks as if they have had some help.

Child of God by Kathryn Scott

Here is another beautiful song I wanted to share with you.

We had such a good time last night!

      One of the companies our business works with invited Country Guy and me to go to the 6th game of the World Series.  We have never been that interested in baseball, but thought it would be fun to experience a game of the Series at least once, so we enthusiastically said "yes".  On Wednesday we headed to the game with Sue, who works for the company and her husband, Dave, who was in my class in high school.  We were looking forward to spending time together, when Sue received a text from her son saying the game was postponed to Thursday because of rain.  We turned around, came home and made plans to try again yesterday.   Sue had made reservations for dinner and for us to stay in a nearby hotel because the game didn't start till 7:00 so they knew it would be too late to drive home when it was over.  Little did they know!  She had to remake the reservations on the way home and even change the hotel we were to stay in.
      We began our journey again yesterday afternoon.  The weather was perfect on Thursday even though it was a little chilly.  We checked into the hotel and then went to Carmine's to see if we could have dinner earlier than our reservation.  It was delicious.  As we were going out the door of the restaurant, a young man came running at top speed at us and through the door, bumping Sue & me, but saying "Excuse me" as he went.  Then there came two or three others chasing him, and then several police cars pulled up with sirens and lights.  We don't know what happened, but it was a memorable experience!
    We then went, carrying our winter coats and blankets, and settled into a packed stadium to watch our first major league baseball game in person in our entire married life.  And what a game!  Of course, since the game was in St. Louis, we were routing for the Cardinals, who weren't playing all that well for the first few innings.  But then it began to get really interesting.  I felt almost as if I was at a close football game.  The crowd became tense, and excited and then practically hysterical as Texas would score, and then the Cardinals would score.  We were behind several points for awhile, but at the end of the 9th inning the teams were tied.  Both scored 2 points in the 10th inning to tie again and so the game went into the 11th inning.  I predicted when they tied in the 9th inning that they would win in the 11th and that they would win the 7th game tonight, to achieve their 11th World Series Championship in this year of 2011.  Now I have something invested, so, of course, I will be watching tonight to see if it happens.

     Our seats were wonderful.  Here is a picture of the field from where we were sitting.

      See the arch in the background?   The tall building next to it is the Millennium Hotel where we stayed after the game.  Do you also see the arch mowed into the infield?  I wonder how they did that!
     The game was over after 11:30!  I could never have imagined spending 5 hours at a baseball game and having so much fun!  What a blessing to be asked to go!  We wouldn't have gone on our own without someone inviting us to go with them.  Once Sue told us the face value of the tickets were $250 and that they had seen tickets were being scalped on ebay for $2500 I knew this was an opportunity we would not have had except for God's favor and blessing.  I'm afraid I would have been tempted to scalp the tickets if they had been mine, and then I would have missed an experience that was priceless because so many memories were created.
      It's a good thing the Lord plans surprises for me that I have no way of changing, otherwise I would miss many blessings.

Cookbook

      I am in the process of publishing a cookbook.  Can you believe it?  The idea started when I decided to see if I could have the recipes from my blog printed into some sort of book to give my children and grandchildren as a surprise Christmas present.  After doing some research online I discovered it is much more economical to print many books (100-200) from a website that specializes in cookbooks than it is to print 25 from the site that specializes in printing from blogs.  It seemed a "no brainer" to get more for the same price, don't you think?
     But the catch is, it is quite a lot of work to determine what recipes to include and to get all them typed in the right format for submission.  I called the printing business to see if I could also include the comments I posted with each recipe on the blog.  They think it is possible, but won't know for sure till I submit all the recipes.  I have spent many hours the past few days working on getting it organized and have been enjoying the learning process.
    I'm almost ready to send the recipes in for publishing.  In addition to those posted on the Recipes Page I have been adding those I had planned to post in the coming weeks and months also.  And then yesterday the thought occurred to me that I would like to have at least one recipe included from other members of my family so I called them to tell them what I am doing--thus spoiling the surprise--to see if they want to contribute, too.  They all encouraged me in the project and most have sent me additions for the book or have given me suggestions of things to include in the book--such as Jess' idea of a "How to" section.
     I am excited to have all my favorites from family and friends, the new discoveries I've made over the years, and especially the recipes I learned to make from my Mom, all in one place.  It looks as if I have accumulated over 200!  Can you tell I have spent a lot of time cooking in my life?  Our family loves to eat but cooking is only fun for me if I am making something really good, or trying something new, so I'm always searching for great new recipes.
     If you have any you would like to share with me, I would love to have them.  It may be too late for this cookbook, but maybe next year for Christmas we could print another one filled with recipes from readers of this blog.  That would be fun!
    Since I am ordering many more cookbooks than I had originally intended, I'm sure I will have some extras available if you need "a one of a kind Christmas present" for friends and family.  Does that sound like a sales pitch?  I didn't mean it to be.  I don't think I will have any trouble dispensing of the extra books.  With Christmas coming up I will be glad to have extras, and then since we have lots of out-of-town guests it will be great to have something special to give them when they leave.
     I don't yet know the final cost--it depends on several things--like how many books I order, how many recipes included, and the format for the book.  Hopefully, I will be ready to submit the recipes by the first of next week and then I will know, but I would imagine they will be around $10-$12 shipped.  If you are interested in reserving one, send me an email.  (Or for those of you who have my phone number--just call.)