Weekly Winners Sunday Meme

Here's all I got this week:

Cat fishing.

I am short on pictures this week.  I had a raccoon video

to post but I need to figure out how to edit and lighten

it up if possible. 

You can join this fun group by visiting
Lotus who created it.

Happy Aftermath

I should have taken some pictures of our Thanksgiving but I didn't.  I had so many more things to occupy my time, I didn't feel like it.  Sometimes, I think the camera interferes with company time.  I was cooking and then eating and then visiting.  Our only little one was Litsy who was two.  She was fun to play with.  My two brothers and families and my mom were here at my house.  My daughters and son were home from college.  We had a beautifully brined 23 lb. turkey which I lifted several times out of the oven to baste.  We had two different dressings, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, green bean casserole, broccoli/cheese casserole, orange mandarin salad, Waldorf salad, cranberry sauce, rolls, and 5 different pies.  We had a good time and I showed my brother my blog.  :D  We even got a little snow in the evening!  

In The Arms of The Angel (City of Angel music video)

Good movie, fantastic song....

Haiku Friday-Black Friday

Hello Black Friday

Getting up very early

A shopper's delight

Sales person's nightmare

Getting up very early

Have to face the frenzied crowd

People rushing by

To long lines at the check-out

Jostling, bustling folks

Is it really worth

The time, trouble, and effort

To get the discount?

Retailers love it

Most employees deplore it

Shoppers adore it

Big Bird

Happy Thanksgiving!

~The best things are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.~Robert Louis Stevenson



A mother asked her daughter, "Did you say your prayers last night?" The little girl answered, "Well, I got down on my knees and started to say them, and all of a sudden I thought, I bet God gets awfully tired of hearing the same old prayer over and over. So I crawled into bed and told Him the story of the three bears." taken from Humor Me by Barbara Johnson.


Hang in there! In just two days tomorrow will be yesterday. ~Barbara Johnson~
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Simon and Garfunkel

My kids watched Mrs. Robinson tonight. They asked me if I ever saw it. Yeah, when it came out! :D

Wordless Wednesday-"Far Side" -Eat more "Chicken"

Ewwwwwww..............

Pensieve's Poetic License-November

Want this button?
Robin started a group called Pensieve's Poetic License. I joined to try out my creativeness. I have written a few poems before, not many, but I'm going to give it a try. Here are the rules:
So, ready to write your own? You have a week to complete it, but PLEASE don't make this more difficult than it is--Pensieve's Poetic License is intended to be a fun exercise in linguistic creativity! This month's theme is "Thanksgiving"; broad enough to go in a thousand directions, but remember, since PPL's motto is "No Rules. Just WRITE!" you're pretty much free to do as you please.

For the month of November we are to write a limerick for Thanksgiving.

RSVP

Thanksgiving can bring out the best

For those who are thankful and blest.

For those who have need

Are those we can feed.

We invite them to be our guest!

We wonder why God does not see

Cruelty, injustice, poverty.

Since the fall of man

Darkness is at hand.

That's why God has called you and me.

Please go over to Robin's for more poems.

Holiday Giveaway!

Hop on over to Lindsay's for a chance to win one of several prizes, including a free blogger template! She will be drawing a winner November 26th.

Fun Monday

Karisma is our hostess for Fun Monday this week. And, here's the task:

"I want you to take a trip down memory lane, and keep right on going, right back
to your childhood. And I want to hear "THAT STORY". You remember the one?
Yes, you do! The one your parents, siblings, extended family or friends, would
never let you forget, live down or get over!"


I've already told you about the two knocked out front teeth
here. This is my first grade picture. My permanent teeth
were coming in by then. My brothers and I had to ride a school bus every
day. We lived way out in the country on a dirt road. I had a few new friends
who lived out near me now that I was in the first grade. I joined a group at
church called "SunBeams". They were going to meet after school at my friend's
house a few miles from my house. We were riding home on the school bus
and my friend was telling me about the meeting. I knew that I needed to
tell my mom that I was going to go, but I thought it would be o.k. to give
my brother a message for my mom. I told my brother Kenny to tell mom
that I was going to "Sunbeams" at Gwendolyn's house. Kenny said to me,
"Will you bring me some?" and I said, "Yeah." Not knowing what he was
talking about, I got off the bus at her house. So Kenny goes home and
my mom asks,"Where's Terri?" He tells her that I am gone to get him some
sun beans. I guess he finally tells her that I am at my friend's house, but
the important part is the "sun beans". Do you know what they are? We
used to find sun beans all over the place out around our house. They
are black and smooth and you could rub them on a rock and they would get hot.
Then I guess you could "burn" someone by touching it to them. Doesn't
that sound like fun? My brothers thought so. Anyway, I must have gotten
home somehow and Kenny asked me, "Where are my sun beans?" I
didn't have any for him so he was a little mad at me. I tried to explain
that I went to SunBeams, not sun beans. Yes, I did get into trouble for
going somewhere without permission. All at the age of six.

Weekly Winners Sunday Meme

My daughter and her boyfriend at the Flaming Lips Alley Dedication.
They marched in Oklahoma City at night and Wayne of Flaming Lips
walked in his plastic ball. They carried lit tiki torches. There were
about 1000 skeletons. Anyway as many as the fire marshall would allow!
They had a blast! She sent me this picture.

The trees above and below are around our town.
Bradford pears and maples.

I took a trip to T-town.

Utica Square. Where Williams Sonoma is located.
This is the prettiest shopping center in T-town.

They even have phone booths from Great Britain!
These phone booths and these big clocks below are
located all over the square.

Our house from the beginning of the week.
The wind and the weather changed so quickly
that the leaves' colors turned and then began
to fall. The wind blew rather hard one day
and night.


The leaves they are a'changing.


I do love the crunchy sound that walking on fallen
leaves make. My husband raked and burned some
leaves today. See--we live in the country, you can
do that!



Kissa found a new place to lounge and hide.


I thought it was my bathroom haven.
But maybe it is hers now?
You can join this fun group by visiting
Lotus who created it.
We will be posting on Sundays our pictures
that we have taken the week before. There
is also a link in my sidebar. See8

Chris Tomlin - Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

John Newton (played by Albert Finney in Amazing Grace) wrote the words to one of the most beloved hymns of all time between 1760 and 1770, while working as an evangelical pastor. Son of the commander of a merchant ship, Newton was captain of a slave ship for many years, until he underwent a dramatic religious conversion while steering his vessel through a storm.

November Pay It Forward Book Exchange- 19 books up for grabs!

This is a project of Overwhelmed With Joy. Many books are up for grabs. There are lots of people participating in the giveaways each month. Go on over and check it out!
I have a book I will be giving away soon. It is Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.

Girl With a Pearl Earring

This was found here on the author, Tracy Chevalier's website about her book Girl With a Pearl Earring. I read the book a few years ago. I think it is very interesting to imagine the story behind the painting. Here is what Tracy says:

"Little is known about Vermeer. For a start, we don't know what he looked like. There are no confirmed images of him, though in one of his early works, The Procuress, a man looks out at the viewer from the edge of the scene, which in Dutch painting of the time was often the artist himself. In The Art of Painting a painter sits with his back to us. We don't know if it's meant to be Vermeer, but it gives us an idea of what an artist in his studio might have looked like.
The few known facts about Vermeer's life come from legal documents, of marriages and births and sales and debts. The son of innkeepers, he was born in 1632 in Delft, a town of about 25,000 people best known for its blue and white glazed earthenware. He spent all of his life there, though he may have done a six-year painting apprenticeship elsewhere, possibly in Amsterdam or Utrecht."


"In 1653 Vermeer converted to Catholicism and married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic from a well-off bourgeois family. They had eleven surviving children. The family lived in the house of Maria Thins, Vermeer's mother-in-law, in an area off the main Market Square known as Papists' Corner because of the concentration of Catholics living there. Only 20% of the population were Catholic; the rest were Protestant. Catholics were tolerated but barred from municipal functions and required to worship privately. There were two "hidden" churches in Delft, one right next door to Maria Thins' house."


The book was made into a movie. I have watched the movie. Colin Firth plays Vermeer and Scarlett Johannson is Griet. Tracy Chevalier had this to say about the film.
"It was strange too to see that my scribbling had spawned a whole industry of Vermeer boffins - there were reproductions of Vermeers and other Dutch paintings tacked up everywhere in the production offices, and books strewn about that I myself had read for research. I confess it was rather gratifying to have Colin Firth elbow someone out of the way in the set canteen so that he could sit next to me at lunch and grill me about Vermeer. Someone else also turned to me in the canteen and said, 'Do you realise that your idea is paying all these people's wages for two months?' Yes, surreal it was."

Here is an excerpt from the book:
He got another of the lion-head chairs and set it close to his easel but sideways so it faced the window. "Sit here."
"What do you want, sir?" I asked, sitting. I was puzzled--we never sat together. I shivered, although I was not cold.
"Don't talk." He opened a shutter so that the light fell directly on my face. "Look out the window." He sat down in
his chair by the easel. I gazed at the New Church tower and swallowed. I could feel my jaw tightening and my eyes
widening. "Now look at me." I turned my head and looked at him over my left shoulder. His eyes locked with mine.
I could think of nothing except how their grey was like the inside of an oyster shell. He seemed to be waiting for
something. My face began to strain with the fear that I was not giving him what he wanted. "Griet," he said softly.
It was all he had to say. My eyes filled with tears I did not shed. I knew now. "Yes. Don't move."
He was going to paint me.

Housewarming for Juliebug and Tigger too

SCROLL DOWN FOR HOUSEWARMING GIFTS
UNDERNEATH THESE "OKLAHOMA" POSTS
NOVEMBER 16, 1907-2007
46th STATE!

"Flowers on the prairie where the JUNE bugs zoom"

John Schneider and Pam Dawber sing

Oklahoma, what a great state!

Oklahoma's 100th Birthday

The Oklahoma Statehood Stamp features a familiar landscape of an Oklahoma sunrise, with the sun rising from beyond a river flowing through a valley of high plains terrain. Stamp designer Mike Larsen, of Chickasaw ancestry, captures this tranquil Oklahoma scene. Also, the stamp pays homage to 1943 hit Broadway musical Oklahoma! by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. with the caption, “Oh, what a beautiful mornin’…” The musical’s signature song doubles as Oklahoma’s state song.

OKLAHOMA!

Brand new state!
Brand new state, gonna treat you great!
Gonna give you barley, carrots and pertaters,
Pasture fer the cattle,
Spinach and termayters!
Flowers on the prarie where the June bugs zoom,
Plen'y of air and plen'y of room,
Plen'y of room to swing a rope!
Plen'y of heart and plen'y of hope.
Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma,
Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.
We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine,
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.
Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.
Oklahoma,
Ev'ry night my honey lamb and I
Sit alone and talk and watch a hawk
Makin' lazy circles in the sky.
We know we belong to the land
And the land we belong to is grand!
And when we say
Yeeow! Ayipioeeay!
We're only sayin'
You're doin' fine,
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.

Housewarming for Juliebug and Tigger too

Housewarming Day for Julie at Another Chance Ranch.
I am giving her six of these chairs to put on her beautiful porch!
I think they will go nicely with her ranch style hacienda.

The party is also for Tiggerlane.
I have chosen this great Francis Francis Expresso maker to warm her house
and her heart. I hope it gives her much pleasure this winter.



This Housewarming Party is hosted by Swampy.
You can head over there to her place to see all the other gifts
being bestowed by other guests.
Let's give a big round of applause for Swampy!

Free Rice.com

I found this over at Donna's and played it. I got up to 600 grains before I got tired. It was late. I saw something about this on the news. They donate rice to feed the hungry if you play. The sponsors at the bottom of the page pay. I noticed Macy's as one of the sponsors. I did pretty good hovering around 40, got up to 46, and went back down to 40. The words are hard but if you think about the prefixes and roots you can figure them out. They take away points for missing but they don't take away the grains you are winning. Anyway, you can play here or over in my sidebar click Free Rice dot com.