Happy Halloween-ween

Happy Halloween-ween!  It is a beautiful fall day.  I miss the Halloween I had as a kid.  Friends my age-you know what I mean.  The real Halloween-ween.  Making our own costumes was a huge part of the fun.  Some years we planned for weeks, consulted with each other, eves dropped, got Grandparents involved-pretty good stuff!  Some years it seemed to sneak up on us-those were the 'Hobo' or 'Ghost' years.  I know your picturing it now.  My Dad would take us after dark with a flashlight.  No sidewalks on our street-oh horrors!  We knew to stay out of the way of cars and of course they drove slow and watched for us.  It was the one night of the year you got to see every one that lived in the neighborhood.  Not too many surprises there but Flour Bluff had a military base and us locals were always happy to meet 'the new ones'.  It was just as fun to pass out the candy after hearing "Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat".  Times they are a changing as Bob Dylan says. I wish some things just stayed the same way.  Have a Happy Halloween. kisses

Dad's Voice

It is a beautiful cool weather happy October day.  I love this weather.  I tried to call my Mom earlier and her answering machine picked up.  My Dad’s voice came on the line and I felt so happy and then I teared up.  My Dad passed from this world to the next almost 2 years ago.  I asked my Mom to leave his message on the answering machine.  My kids tell me the same thing that I do…if we call and the machine picks up we call back at least once more just to hear Dad’s/PawPaw’s voice.  Something about Dad’s voice was always so wonderful.  He would say to me ‘Hello Pumpkin’.   There is no one to call me Pumpkin anymore.  I guess that is silly for a 51 year old woman to say but I was never grown up to my Dad.  I miss him so much.  He was the best Dad in the wide world. He had a ‘regular’ job while us kids grew up but he went to TCU (Texas Christian University) and graduated with a double major, to be able to Pastor a church and he was always a Preacher at heart.  He is the only man I know that truly lived what he preached every day the very best he could and was always trying to do it better.  I learned so much just from his example.  I still am in wonder at how he chose to be a preacher.  I really think God chose him.  He had just the coolest family ever but they were not ‘religious’ and the only mention of church around my Grandmother and Great Aunt was talk of the Christian Science Reading Room.  It is the Friday before Halloween and I have a super cute costume.  Hope everybody has a party or a place to go have some Halloween fun!    kisses 

Feel Real

Today I will feel what I feel and try to keep it real.  I think so much of what we feel is a decision we make in how we look at things.  Since I was old enough to listen to adults talk I was always perplexed at those that said, usually over and over, “I have lots of problems”.   I don’t think I have ever had a problem.  I was taught early on that God loves us and even though some times bad things happen it is all part of life and something good can come out of even the worst stuff.  Cause, well, Jesus loves us and every little thing will be all right, simple as that.  I have recently let myself question some of  those things I tried to question as a kid and was told “Steffie, stop being so rebellious.”   “Steffie, Don’t question God!”.   Well I do have lots of questions cause lots of stuff just does not make sense to me or it seems just really mean hearted or unfair and gives me that yucky down deep feeling that it is just not right.  Like, ‘God is in control’.   If that is true then I do not think he is doing a very good job of it.  Just common sense or if you have ever watched the 10 o’clock news how could you not question that statement.   Another one is the no sex before marriage rule.  Like really?  Talk about a man’s world.  I wanna know what I am spending the rest of my life with and while sex is not everything it is really important. I think this rule was most certainly made up by men with very small penises or homosexual.   When God said go into all the world and preach the Gospel I do not think that was a business model to have Americans with real jobs support ‘missionaries’ that go to Peru and dress the natives in Wal-Mart clothes, pump them with our medication and tell them that what they have been doing for the last thousand years is all wrong.  America has been around for only 200 years and look what we have accomplished-so much better than jungle natives… yeah, right, whatever!  I just don’t buy it.    This next one really gets my goat ‘God never gives you more than you can handle’.  Is that even in the Bible?  I have heard that statement said during horrifying situations by well meaning otherwise nice people.  Can I be the only one that realizes what that statement implies?      So that I guess is how I feel today.  Tomorrow is another day.  Since I don’t make the rules....Today I will feel what I feel.  kisses         Photography by Michael Jameson