Muffie's take on things and Saturday Fun, Memories...

I think Muffie misses Delle, he snuggled under her black dress here on my bed...I had washed the dress when I saw it left in the laundry room, it had looked so pitiful left all alone and unwashed crumpled up by it's lonesome in an insignificant little laundry basket. It looked so sad! So I washed it and had it hanging in my room on a dresser drawer handle. Dh had placed the dress on the bed so Muffie playfully snuggled under it. So cute...(I think Muffie is wondering where Mar Mar and Delle are) Mar and Delle are in China teaching English this month, we miss them dearly and our mommy, daddy and sister prayers are as you can imagine...strong and feeling at this time.

Last weekend, Li Li, Dh and I went to Midtown and had a ball. Becs wasn't feeling so great so she was home watching a Hallmark movie.

Here is a colorful collection from our outing in Midtown I will share here...


The Hobbit Cafe! Dh.


The restaurant is situated in an old house amidst trees...so neat.



Li Li, this pic isn't the greatest of her we all agree but her eyes are so sparkly here, we were all having so much fun!


Me.


This was soooooo good! A black bean burger, so flaky, a lot like i make at home. Those fries....Bravissimo! Can I say an Italian word for French fries? But they were just that good! ; ) I'm being silly...

Me, love this black cotton skirt with a simple t belted. This skirt is great for sitting down on a picnic blanket at the outdoor theatre. Cool and flowie, stains? No worries there with a dark color.


Then off we go in the traffic to the outdoor theatre! beep beep! Hubs is a pro...he's a city guy originally and knows it like the back of his hand.

To town!!!


We love the look of the old Sears store. I'm thinking from the 40s? It's still open and one day I would like to go inside.


The museum district..love this old Methodist church. Several beautiful churches here.




See this statue? My dad climbed up to the top with his college buddies with a ladder. There assignment? To do a plaster of paris of the horse. Enough said on that... : ) But let's say the police back then all gathered around most amused.



The beautiful fountain at the turn around...The doc who delivered Mar Mar? His office overlooked this fountain. I still remember the dark blue velvet curtains with dingle balls on them. : ) Kind of foo-foo? (too foo-foo?)




Yay! The Miller! This is such a neat outdoor theatre. We're Heeeere!!!! A great place to just go and sit or roll down the hill if you get the druthers...A great place to walk doggies and all that good stuff. Pretty and green, very near the museums. My mother attended art school in the surrounding area.


Huge fans up above at the Miller...


The sides by the covered seating...Yes it really IS outdoors!



It was great, no sitting on the ground this time. We were able to sit under the pavilion in real seats! We saw the musical "Yankee Doodle Dandee" and may I say it was EXCELLENT. The quality and props were unbelievable...The end reminded me of a Turner Classics commercial with the wonderful effects as they showed many different musical characters..one by one... quietly, silently and almost ghostly walking and gingerly dancing around on stage as they showed how many musicals were influenced by George Cohan. Beautiful.


Ticker tape at intermission... So great.

The theatre and zoo is by the medical center, a city within a city; throughout the musical you could hear lifeflight helicopters more than several times landing and taking off. Clearly a matter for prayers when I hear that. My midwife who delivered Becs had been a lifeflight nurse at one time.



After the musical I tried to catch a shot of the beautiful buildings nearby lit up with changing glowing colors.

We stopped on the way home for ice cream. Me? Iced tea fit the bill. Dh was in quite a comedian mood so he definitely kept us entertained. : )


Then home sweet home under the stars with the cowboys. The Forest Cathedral. : ) It's great to be home under the stars again.


The next morning...Little Muffie? Here he is safe and sound on Hubby's shoe during home church. Isn't this sweet?

He's thinking....

"Come on home Mar-Mar, Come on home...Delle...We miss you so...."

Amazing Nursing Home Visit and Amazing Friends, Guess Who Came to Dinner?

Yesterday away we went to the nursing home...Neat morning sun over the fields peeping over those beautiful clouds...



My Buddy, is he not a cutie pie? He doesn't see well in one eye, doesn't hear well bless his heart... and whenever I pop in his room in the morning he's making his bed with the one hand he is able to use and he's in a wheelchair. It's convicting to me. So precious.

"Hey Buddy!!!" I say! He looks up and says... "Heeeeayyyyyy!"

We kiss each other on the cheek, "Muah!"

This guy has the sweetest spirit ever...







This is our new friend...He's a minister of the gospel and is just precious. After we sang with the residents and prayed, a sweet lady, the one who prophesied to me one visit thanked our group. Afterwards this darling gentleman turned his wheelchair around and started exhorting and encouraging the other residents....We were in awe. It was such a beautiful thing. He tells them something to the effect of...

"I too have had a stroke, we can keep our eyes on Jesus, we have to press on..."

It was like something you would see in a Hallmark movie.

Bless his heart, he was crying in the photo, he's had cancer and has had a kidney removed...He was so darling. He and I had fun talking politics and Bible stuff. : ) He was so sweet about two of our girls in China too. That is a blessing. He was very interested in their trip.





This is Li-Li and Howard. Remember Howard? He's here and was even joking around a bit. The hospice nurse had just left.

Please pray for all of these residents

A wonderful nursing home visit.

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Look Wh0 Came to Dinner!



Dh at the right head of the table and Tim at the other. See the four doglets? They are waiting for some "extras". : )

This is one precious family. They came to visit us before the girls left for China; they had come in from California to visit their grandma. I love this family. It was so great to be able to joke around and laugh-laugh-laugh with friends who are kindred spirits. Becs did manage a family photo shoot for them although it was very wet outside with thunderstorms, the husband is an artist for the Gallo company, just a very kind and humble man. Sheri is so nice and easy to talk with...I laugh at her jokes and she laughs at mine too. : ) She and her boys tell tales of the black hole she calls her sewing and mending pile... I tell her in a secretive whispered voice... "I have a stash and dash room" and she quickly snaps into a similar serious faced mode and whispers quickly like a spy... "I bet you do". ; )

I thought this shot looked so very Italian in a way...Just family. It really felt like family. The Body of Christ. Delle took this pic. We were eating my Grandma Oddo's pasta gravy and the works. The fragrance of my Grandma and Grandpa Oddo's home wafted through our home that night...I think they too would have been laughing with us if they were to be here.

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This morning as I was in prayer on the front porch, it was a precious time, the Lord and I. Blue skies...red cardinals and the beautiful pink rose bushes Mar planted. Autumn-like breezes ....So the Lord.

And...I was able to talk to our girls in China over the phone! Tears came to my eyes, the first time we had an audible conversation in three weeks. Thank you Jesus.


Thanks so much for prayers, life is so odd but God's not odd, He is faithful. : ) So much to be thankful for. Today has been a sweet day. It's been just Becs and I. She's a little chatter box...a rarity. I have her all to myself today. I cherish it. Major.

Tonight for supper? Pasta gravy is on the menu. Grandma would be proud... I thought of my grandma and grandpa this morning as I prayed and I wondered what in the world they would think on some things....

Love to all, ~Amelia

Monday, a Bloggy Mood and All That Goodness. What's on my Mind...

Hi Di Ho Everybody! Yep, it's Monday. Monday - Monday... : )

I've done my flylady things and I'm treating myself to some blogging time. Just some creative heart release time with my typing fingers to friends and the Father. I've got a soup going in the kitchen so that's set. I smell onions and garlic I just sauteed...Becs is doing a photo shoot with Li Li, props everywhere...Those are good things.

What's on my mind? Oh that song by Sara Groves, 'What I thought I Wanted' yep, that's a playin' these days on the turntable of my mind. It's been an intense time in the Italiana home. A time of praying for our girls on the other side of the world and a time of seeing someone who said they cared deeply for one of our girls...Seeing that very person quickly melt into the world especially in the ways of other girls... at a drop of a hat. I have no idea why. We saw glimpses but prayed for the best, I wanted to believe the best. I did know in my heart that if something like this were to happen it would probably happen during this time of our daughter being away.

I just knew this was a possibility... I'm the same person who could tell at the age of six that my first grade teacher was expecting by the way she said the spelling word, baby.

It's a hard thing for a mom to see. We love people, we care for people we so want the best for them...so much we did. Oh sooooo much! So much potential. God only knows. But sometimes people go for the cheap, ugly, temporal, losing sight of what is real and what is true what is beautiful in the Lord. We should never apologize for holiness or sweetness by the way.

I crawl into bed much like a little girl one night after seeing some tell-tale things on the pc. Li Li had told me... Mom you should just get off now, it's upsetting you too much. I was clearly broken hearted for more than the second time in a week over some rather overly friendly exchanges with said person and other girls. I said to Lea ..How can he do this to her? Why?

I tell hubby:

Hurt my feelings? Insult me in the worst possible way? Show me disrespect? It stings, it makes me cry. Sometimes it makes me cry hard, I lose my appetite. It makes me walk around like a zombie. But mess with my girls? I can't let that happen. That's the ultimate.

Hubby tells me...

Don't worry because I'm not going to let anyone mess with them.

I so want to love people, I want to love them to Christ and then they do this stuff.


It's okay, this is the one thing I know. God is the Revealer and like Li Li said the other day trying to quote some famous person...in the kitchen, the place where all problems of the world are solved...

If we knew what God knew we would go right along with Him.

That sure sums it up.



Sometimes I think these things happen to us so we won't be prideful. If all courtships went so perfectly? Like the front of those homeschool magazines from the 90s? We would be the most prideful people ever. There is no easy formula 1,2, 3. No, with the Lord it just isn't that way. He is the formula. Period.

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The other day Hubs took me out to eat at one of our favorite little places in smalltown...I love that place. This neat mexican restaurant is situated in an old airplane hanger. We've eaten at this place for 20 years. It's so wonderful, so very very wonderful to be a part of smalltown USA.

On the way out? Remember our piano teacher? From Midtown? The one who had moved to smalltown with her coach husband? The beauty who looked like Greer Garson in her younger years? My precious friend who has gone to be with the Lord? As I'm sliding out of my booth I hear two separate tables talking about her little home. They were talking of her home like a landmark. I turned to get a good look at them and I thought to go join them...I wanted to tell them...

Yes, I knew mrs. blount, she was my friend. She was my dear friend. She was lovely and content in smalltown even though she had the best music teachers in Midtown. She would so get me in this season of life, she had cried with me before. I know she would cry with me again or at least give me words of wisdom. You see my family has been turned every which way with all of this. Up and down.

How about some pleasant pics now???? : )

Here's some pics of that evening:

Tis I. I have my hair pulled back, and yes I know my shirt is hanging in the shower. Who cares. This is a very real blog, so who cares. : ) Maybe others will get the hint too to get real on these things we call blogs. I'm thinking...I had better hurry and get going!


Okay out the door! An unfinished walkway...


Look up at the trees, the evening sun shines and reflects. Here we are having cooler than normal weather. I actually had to put the bathroom heater on one night, can you imagine?


Bye, Bye, house! See ya in a bit! : )


On the way down the beautiful road to smalltown...A message? I think so. It always is.

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Yesterday? A Happy Sunday for the mostpart. : )


With just two of our girls, Hubby & I figured going to the old downtown church would be best. We felt it in our hearts. It started getting so overcast and dark!



I look down. Hubby's hand and my hand. This says multitudes. Trust. Care. Companionship of 32 years. A care and love for each other that improves over years, that's the way the Lord intended.


Okay, we're here! Not bad, we made it pretty quick! There goes the LightRail...









Watch out for the LightRails! They aren't too light if you get hit by one!


The service at the big beautiful majestic church was so good. There was a beautiful testimony of a middle aged man born in the 50s, he grew up being taught little boys weren't men if they didn't drink beer and drive trucks. Poor little guy. He ended up at Star of Hope mission and found Jesus. He now is studying in social science to be a counselor to help people. This testimony made me cry, it was such a neat thing. Now days you don't hear many testimonies at many churches. When they played the doxology I put my head on hubby's shoulder and closed my eyes as I sang. I opened up my eyes and the camera man was turned around smiling sweetly at us amused. He amused me that he was amused. : )

A beautiful service.

Afterwards in the bathroom I heard women talking and I was able to converse with one, she looked very down to earth and was very talkative talking about coffee in Sunday school and it's effects. ; ) I told her coffee was a vegetable because it was a bean! She liked that. I saw a Joyce Meyer books under the stall. A Sunday school lesson book. Sure enough I later heard ladies speaking of lessons from a Joyce Meyers book. I think that's pretty good, I'm not one hundred percent Joyce but I think she helps people. The pastor also spoke of a Jeanette Clift George book about feeling as if God is on the other side of Heaven. My dad went to college with Jeanette Clift George, my dad enjoyed drama. I sure would like to get that book.

After church? It was getting darker and darker, I am a people watcher and I notice people from all walks of life. Older men in ties and bow ties. Women, some in hats. Some people look middle class and some perhaps from a mission. Some old money? Who knows. It's interesting to watch though. They also have a Stephen ministry that I thought sounded wonderful for people.


Let's stand and hear the church bells?



Dh? Could you record the church bells? That would be so great!


Thunder?


Let's hurry and get in the car!



Yes, stormy weather. Neat.



We drive by this downtown coffee shop...loved the cozy lighting...love the effect here...


Me and Becs! We are happy, we're heading to the Mediterranean grocery to eat at their restaurant. A treat indeed.


We're HERE! Love the name of this salad...This place is HUGE. It has garage parking and contains two stories of neatness.



A very small portion of the goodies and bakery.


Outstanding made to order sandwiches? I'm not sure if they are really called sandwiches. In the front are pizzas. My "sandwich" was made with Zataar bread. So good!


You pick what ya want... nifty Zataar thingies. Fresh veggies! Yummo!


One little cubby hole, and one entrance to the neat restaurant part where we bring our sandwich thingies. (Around the corner is gelato...If I could have sugar I would order the pistachio orange blossom).



The other entrance around the other side...Becs and I march down to a table as we approach a darkened dimly lit stage at the end...A bass player, a piano and later a female vocalist with polka-dot heels singing like Ella Fitzgerald. Luverly on a rainy afternoon.



I've looked at life from both sides now...

Me from Becs view,


Becs, from my view through the glasses and aftermath of our delightful little lunch.


How could we go home without this shot? Ha! : D

That's the wrap...A long blog. Lots of pics. Hope you enjoyed your weekend with us!

Please pray for our two girls away at this time serving and teaching in China.

Something sooo cute a little child in China, a student, wrote to our daughter:

You are more beautiful than any actress and your eyes are big. : )

Something I like to hear:

My 82 year old mom calling on a Saturday eve as I bathe our doglets:

Amelia, Lawrence Welch is on t.v. it's a black and white one.

She says it like welch's grape juice. funny. I'm so glad that is what was needed. Yes, I'll be glad to turn Lawrence welch on!

I did and we enjoyed it. One of the very first ones. Our family enjoys those old shows.

God is good.

We can trust Him, He knows all about it.

We can run to Him and sit on His lap!

Love to All, Prayers are coveted friends, Mommies? Please pray over that situation above. It's icky. Could be painful. So much to write, but I will show restraint and wisdom and shutteth uppeth at this point.

~Amelia
P.S. One last thing...Why not? : )

Source: youtube.com via Amelia on Pinterest

Joan Chandler and John Garfield in "Humoresque" (1946) She is so sweet & he becomes so deceived by the love of the world. Real life lessons here for sure.