Saturday, September 22, 2012


She's the highlight of my summer!


There have been few updates on this blog because of one computer problem after another.....and FINALLY I have my computer back and working.  Joy!  This means I can now get phone messages again (after a year or more!). That's right!  I have not been able to access Voice Mail messages in forever!  No idea who has called me!  Probably all telemarketers.  So I have relied more and more on my antiquated cell phone, soon to be upgraded to a smart phone. :)  It means I can access Facebook on something other than Kindle.  I can check my hometown  newspaper each day.  I can check email and reply.  I can google subjects I am exploring.   Well, you get the picture.  Among other things, I can download all the photos of Ally onto my computer, edit  and share them with you!  And I can blog again!  At least a little more faithfully than a post here and there.  Life is good. 

Friday, September 7, 2012

Cardinal Timothy Dolan gave benediction at RNC and DNC

With a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” let us close this convention by praying for this land that we so cherish and love:
Let us Pray.
Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed to us so powerfully in your Son, Jesus Christ, we thank you for showering your blessings upon this our beloved nation. Bless all here present, and all across this great land, who work hard for the day when a greater portion of your justice, and a more ample measure of your care for the poor and suffering, may prevail in these United States. Help us to see that a society’s greatness is found above all in the respect it shows for the weakest and neediest among us.

We beseech you, almighty God to shed your grace on this noble experiment in ordered liberty, which began with the confident assertion of inalienable rights bestowed upon us by you: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.
We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love. Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.
We praise and thank you for granting us the life and the liberty by which we can pursue happiness. Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community. May we welcome those who yearn to breathe free and to pursue happiness in this land of freedom, adding their gifts to those whose families have lived here for centuries.
We praise and thank you for the American genius of government of the people, by the people and for the people. Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might, we ask your guidance for those who govern us: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Congress, the Supreme Court, and all those, including Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan, who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office. Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country. Help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself. With your grace, may all Americans choose wisely as we consider the future course of public policy.
And finally Lord, we beseech your benediction on all of us who depart from here this evening, and on all those, in every land, who yearn to conduct their lives in freedom and justice. We beg you to remember, as we pledge to remember, those who are not free; those who suffer for freedom’s cause; those who are poor, out of work, needy, sick, or alone; those who are persecuted for their religious convictions, those still ravaged by war.
And most of all, God Almighty, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country.
For we are indeed “one nation under God,” and “in God we trust.”
So dear God, bless America. You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

A Room of Her Own

Ally and Friends 

Could not resist taking this picture off Facebook, where Shannon had posted itl  Ally is over joyed to have her own room.  Although it looks to me like she's sharing it with a couple of characters who are bigger than she is!  
This smile is what I saw everyday this summer.  

Saturday, September 1, 2012

September 1st.  Labor Day Weekend.  The month begins. Not sure what it will hold, but here are a few things to look forward to - or not:

  1. Jury Duty notice.   Beginning Monday night, call in daily to find out if I have to report.  (groan)
  2. Jayme's visit.  Not sure when, but we have plans this month to go over to the coast and  park our chairs on the beach at Cayucos and sit and read for days!   Of course a Jury  call could change all of that.
  3. Tuesday Night Women's Bible Study at my house starts up again on September 18th.  Intro session with a light supper and lots of talk.  It will be just fun to see everyone again.  
  4. Precept class starts on Tuesday morning, September 11th.  II Thessalonians and I can't wait.  (of course a Jury call could change that for me too)
  5. I plan to work the phones  and walk the precinct for a particular political party's candidate for president.
  6. September is my month!  It's my birthday!  And there is something that just feels good about that! 


These photos from 2011 are in anticipation of September 2012 and some time at the beach with Jayme.