The Lord's Day

Have a blessed day, y'all!

Image Source: Pixabay


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Sunday Stealing

I just learned about this site while visiting Denise over at: Coco's Momma. How about giving her a visit as well as the Sunday Stealing site.





1. Are you a very open or private person?

In some ways I am open, but overall, I am a private person. It really depends on who is on the other side of the conversation.


2. Change one thing about the world what would it be?

Little children wouldn't suffer from big diseases.


3. Live in any country/city, where would you choose?

After the United States, my next choice would be Ireland.


4. What perfume do you wear?

I don't wear perfume, but when I did, it was Elizabeth Taylor's Passion.


5. How are you feeling right now?

Tired, but there is too much on my mind to even bother trying to go to sleep.


6. If money was no object, where would you move to?

Ireland.


7. Who was the last person to make you cry?

It depends on how you look at it. David and I were talking about our daddies and our grandparents. I can't talk about either without crying.


8. What age do people usually mistake you for?

490.  Really, I don't know. I think they think that I am older than I am and 50 is old enough, thank you!


9. Is there a song which can bring you to tears instantly?

Yes. "Streets of Heaven" by Sherrie Austin.

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10. Do you play video games?

Not usually. The closest that I come to that these days is playing the Solitaire game on the computer and sometimes Mah Jong on my phone.


11. What do you think about before you go to bed?

I think about how tired I get of having to go to the bathroom and how I don't want to go to bed, but know that I need to.


12. Have you ever online dated?

No. I was married long before this sort of thing came into fashion. I wouldn't have even if I hadn't been married already. I don't get the whole idea anyway. Dating should be in person. How is it a date if it is online?


13. Do you get cranky when you’re hungry?

Yes, sometimes.


14. What drink did you last consume?

Diet Coke.


15. Have you ever tripped while walking up the stairs?

Yes, and down them, too. Stairs have never been my friend. When I was in 7th grade, I tripped going up the stairs at school and my glasses got broken when another student stepped on them after they fell off my face. Another time, I was carrying one of our babies down the stairs and fell down the stairs. He was okay, thank goodness! Stairs have never been my friend!


16. Is there something you’re happy about at the moment?

Yes! I am happy about having a potential customer at our Etsy store.


17. Are you a shy person?

I am a very shy person, sometimes painfully so. I am also an introverted person. These are not the same thing.


18. Were you happy when you woke up today?

I was in a decent mood. I don't know that I was either happy or sad, just awake.


19. Do you like rain?

Yes, most of the time. But not so much this week. We have been dealing with flooding in our town. It is upsetting to know that many of the townspeople had 3 to 4 feet of water in their homes.  See this post: S is for Say a Prayer and this one on David's blog: Flooding in Wharton County Texas.


20. Can you go a day without music?

I can and have on many occasions. But I like it better when we listen to The Statesmen Quartet on a daily basis.

Photographing Trees

I am still trying to learn how to use the camera on my smart phone. It is pretty bad when a phone is smarter than its user. :)

Some of the pictures are coming out looking like impressionistic images instead of regular photographs. I guess that is because I do not know how to properly use the zoom feature and they were shot in low-light situations. Anyway, I decided that I would go with that thought and play around with the pictures in Photoshop and Painter to try to get an even more impressionistic feel from the images.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this image. I have a zillion more to play with!

31 Days in the Moment - Uncle Bobby Joe, Part 1

26 October 2014

Today brought lots of interesting things in the evening. I am working with one of my paternal cousins on our family history and she has started sending me files regarding our Uncle Bobby Joe.

Bobby Joe Gunter was born 14 September 1938, in Anderson, South Carolina, to Andrew James Gunter and Evelyn Floree Fowler Gunter. He was my daddy's oldest, and only, brother.

I never got to know this uncle as he died a little more than two years before I was born. He died in a streetcar accident while stationed in Germany with the US Army.

31 Days in the Moment - Sunflowers and Slushies

19 October 2014

Laynie's eye is looking a little better today. She plans to go to the health center at the university on Tuesday to see what they have to say about it and to check on why she's lost her voice. David, Laynie, and Mags are all pretty sick right now.

We took Laynie back to her dorm this evening. We stopped at a Stripes store on the way for a nature call and noticed an advertisement with a code on the bathroom mirror offering a free 32 ounce fountain drink. Mags decided to get a Pepsi with her code. When she showed the clerk the site that the code directed her to, it said that the offer was only good in Waco and, I believe, the Dallas area. We are in the Houston area. This wasn't the only issue. Mags had just grabbed a cup from the display, one that was meant ONLY for slushies, apparently. The clerk told her that she would have to charge her for the "free" drink because of the cup that she put the drink into. I told Maggie that maybe she could go and put it in the correct cup. The clerk said "Mama, go change the cup for her." So, Mama did that. I didn't know what they wanted me to do with the used cup (it was a plastic one, not Styrofoam like the correct cup). I left it in the fountain area and told the clerk what I did. She said that was okay, that someone would throw it away. Okay, so they couldn't afford to let her take her free Pepsi out in the plastic cup, but somehow they could afford to throw the cup away? That doesn't make any sense to me at all.

We got Laynie back to her dorm, reminded her to use her eye ointment, and headed back home, where David and Maggie seem to be getting sicker by the minute. Please keep them in your prayers.

©2014 Suzanne Gunter McClendon

31 Days in the Moment - Boot Leave Family Day

12 October 2014

The plan had been to go to church this morning and show off our Marine. Mags woke up not feeling well and Davey didn't want her to be here alone. He wanted this to be a family day as it was the last day that all five of us could be together for a very long time to come. Laynie goes back to school tonight and Davey flies back to San Diego early Tuesday morning.

We spent a while playing Pony-opoly, which is always fun. In a little while, we will be celebrating family day with sparkling grape juice in the special glasses and then having Bubba Burgers for supper.

Shortly after that, we'll be on the road to the big city to take Laynie back to school.

31 Days in the Moment: At the Zoo!

5 October 2014

Today we had an adventure. We went to the Houston Zoo. It was the first time for Mags, David, Jr., and myself. David, Sr. went when he was a little boy. Laynie gets to go on a regular basis because her school's mascot is housed there.

David, Sr., can't walk for now, so Davey rented a motorized chair for him to ride in. It had a canopy, so he was a little more comfortable than he would have been in a regular, uncovered wheelchair. By the time we were done, I felt like I'd walked a hundred miles! Davey would have gotten me a chair, too, but I'm just not comfortable riding them. I feel like everybody is staring at me. I would rather be invisible.

Invisible isn't so easy, though, when you are not exactly a small person and you have a camera sticking out of your face.

There had to be a zillion people there, because there were only two free parking spaces total in all of the parking lots that we rode through trying to find a space. The line was pretty long and slow at first, but as we got closer to the ticket window, it went much faster. There were only four ticket windows opened to start with. Finally, they opened a third window on the side we were on (I don't know if they opened up more at the other side or not). We were the first ones called to the newly opened window, Ticket Window #3.

We got inside, rented the cart, stopped by the "facilities", and then commenced gawking at animals and people. Watching the little people enjoy the zoo is probably the best part of the whole zoo experience. Of course, the best part today was the fact that we were there with our new Marine and our daughters!

I spent the day trying to master the art of "make the fence disappear" so that I wouldn't have a camera full of chain link fence pictures. Sometimes it worked; other times, not so much. In some of the photos, the fence made a really cool abstract design.

These are two of my favorite abstract-ish images:

  

There were several baby animals at the zoo. I don't remember what this animal is called, but we got a shot of one of the babies nursing. That always makes such a sweet scene, I think.

This is baby Ruby:

The zebra loves little Ruby:

Overall, it was a very good day!

Chatterbug College: Social Studies - Hometown

I was born in Anderson, South Carolina during the summer of 1965. My daddy was born there, my grandpa was born there and a few zillion other members of my family were born there, including our surviving children.

Anderson is located in the Northwestern corner of the state where South Carolina borders with Georgia, which also has a good bit of my family's history contained within its borders. Anderson has four distinct seasons, but doesn't always get snow in the wintertime. As I've gotten older, it seems that the snow times have gotten fewer. However, it seems like since we moved out here to Texas, they've gotten more snow back home than they ever did while I was there. So unfair! :)

I lived in South Carolina until 2004, so until just after I turned 39 years old. My first birthday in Texas was my 40th birthday.

What I love about Anderson County, South Carolina, is the family history there and the beautiful scenery. It has a rolling landscape, not flat as a pancake everywhere for miles. When the fall comes, the leaves on the trees change colors and it is an awesomely beautiful site, most especially in the mountains. No matter where I turn, something involving my family is there.

No matter where my life's journey takes me, South Carolina will always have my heart.

Please be sure to visit Chatterbug College to join in the assignments!

The Sunday Community

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

David E. McClendon, Sr.

Happy Father's Day, first of all, to David. Thank you for all of our beautiful babies!

Happy Father's Day to all of you daddies out there and to the women that made you fathers.







To those fathers that have touched our lives and have gone on to their eternal rewards, we love and miss you very much!

Jimmy Ray Gunter

Jimmy Ray Gunter (1941-2012) My daddy...the man who gave me life and kept me fed, clothed, and sheltered, and made sure my life was not boring.

Robert Bruce McClendon, Jr.

Robert Bruce McClendon, Jr. (1935-1987) My father-in-law...the man who called me "Su-d-lou" and drug me out into the street, kicking and screaming, because he thought he could dance the shyness out of me.

William H. T. Spence

William Howard Taft Spence (1910-1992) My grandpa...the man who taught me that I should pray for my enemies, good prayers, and not to pray directly for those hot coals that I wanted to land on them!

Andrew James Gunter

Andrew James Gunter (1918-1980) My papa...the man with the false teeth, who always made me laugh by flicking his teeth out at me.








To all of the rest of you, those that I never knew, thank you for looking over our family and for being who you were. I am me because you were you!

The Sun Has Gone

The sun that brought hope
Has gone from my sky.
The storm clouds rise
The rain pours down
As I break down and cry.

©2014 Suzanne G. McClendon

A tribute to our son, David, Jr., who has just left for the US Marine Corps.


Today has been a very difficult day. Our youngest son has left for the US Marine Corps. He was my miracle baby and it is so hard to let him go.

Just over 21 years ago, I prayed desperately for Heavenly Father to give me another baby. Our other two children were six and two at the time. I had the "I want a baby" urges really, really strongly. Heavenly Father heard my prayers and I became pregnant. However, she was not meant to be in my arms on this earth and she was stillborn 15 July 1993 after the health care people said that I was not pregnant. I was devastated and so hurt and angry. I could not understand why the medical people wouldn't listen to me and how Heavenly Father could give her to me just to take her before she even breathed her first breath. I guess those are things that I will never understand.

This brought on baby fever even stronger. Within six weeks, I was pregnant again. As with my other pregnancies, I knew the gender of the baby and that I was carrying a son. I was scared to death that something would cause me to lose him, too. We still didn't know (and don't to this day) what caused Dorian to be stillborn. Every little twinge that came along, I just knew that I wouldn't have this baby either. I am glad that I was wrong.

Going into delivery, I was scared to let him go. In my confused and depressed mind at the time, letting go, allowing him to leave my body meant that I was losing him. I used all of what little strength I had trying to fight the birth and to keep him inside of me. The little guy's head was born approximately twenty times before I just could not fight it any longer. He was born and on his due date.

He is my miracle baby because Heavenly Father gave him to me in my heartache and let me keep him.

Now, twenty years later, I am forced to let him go. Never in his life has my son gone with complete strangers or been gone somewhere that I could not contact him or where he could not contact me whenever he wanted to do so. This is new to both of us. His daddy and I are beside ourselves. There's not a dry eye in our house.

This is the boy that was trained, along with his baby sister, to be a puppy by their older sister...and the boy that did the peanut butter dance on the dining room table with his little sister when they were toddlers.

Please pray that he will remain safe in his new adventure and will come back home to us as healthy as when he left this afternoon. Also, please pray for those that remain here in our home. This year holds a lot of changes for all of us and most especially for our youngest daughter. She's never known life without Davey. They are my almost-Irish twins, born thirteen months apart. As with me, it is like a big part of herself has walked out the door and the future is so uncertain.

A to Z April Challenge: 3rd Week Recap

I hope that you're all having a very blessed Easter Sunday!


The A to Z April Challenge started on April 1 and goes until the end of the month. The goal is to post each day during the month, with breaks on Sundays. Each day has a letter assigned to it, ultimately going through the entire alphabet.

The first week included the letters A, B, C, D, and E. The second week included the letters F, G, H, I, J, and K. The third week had the letters L, M, N, O, P, and Q.  Tomorrow, the week starts off with R and ends with W.








Here are links to this past week's A to Z April Challenge posts:

April 14: A to Z April Challenge: L is for Love

April 15: A to Z April Challenge: M is for Music

April 16: A to Z April Challenge: N is for Neighbors

April 17: A to Z April Challenge: O is for Off-key

April 18: A to Z April Challenge: P is for Poetry

April 19: A to Z April Challenge: Q is for Quotes

A to Z April Challenge: 2nd Week Recap

The A to Z April Challenge started on April 1 and goes until the end of the month. The goal is to post each day during the month, with breaks on Sundays. Each day has a letter assigned to it, ultimately going through the entire alphabet. The first week included the letters A, B, C, D, and E. Tomorrow, the week starts off with L and ends with Q.









Here are links to this past week's A to Z April Challenge posts:

7 April: A to Z April Challenge: F is for Flowers

8 April: A to Z April Challenge: G is for Gemstones

9 April: A to Z April Challenge: H is for Historic Homes

10 April: A to Z April Challenge: I is for Ice Cream

11 April: A to Z April Challenge: J is for Jasmine and...

12 April: A to Z April Challenge: K is for Kids

A to Z April Challenge: 1st Week Recap

The A to Z April Challenge started on April 1 and goes until the end of the month. The goal is to post each day during the month, with breaks on Sundays. Each day has a letter assigned to it, ultimately going through the entire alphabet. The first week included the letters A, B, C, D, and E. Tomorrow, the week starts off with F and ends with K.

Here are links to this past week's A to Z April Challenge posts:

April 1 A to Z April Challenge: A is for Artists


April 2 A to Z April Challenge: B is for Birthdays


April 3 A to Z April Challenge: C is for Cats


April 4 A to Z April Challenge: D is for Dogs


April 5 A to Z April Challenge: E is for Eggs

The Sunday Community

Spamalot

Maggie Mae, Spamalot, February @2014 Jackson

Recently, our three youngest children had occasion to go to a local theater to see a version of Monty Python's Spamalot. Seven of their friends were performing in this event. They were very excited to be in attendance. It was performed in a local historic theater.

The initial plan had been for our son to sit between his two sisters. He decided that perhaps that wouldn't be a good idea because he wouldn't hear a thing if they got to talking. This was a very good move on his part, as he soon learned.

Our youngest daughter took the middle seat, having no clue what was going to transpire before the afternoon was over. Had she known, she probably wouldn't have taken the middle seat, either!

Unknown to the kids, there was to be a moment of audience participation. Our youngest daughter was in the "victim's" seat and was brought onto the stage. She was totally shocked at this turn of events. She got through it like a trooper, though.

I asked her later what she thought about what happened, about her debut in community theater. She wasn't at all impressed by the surprise, but if she'd had advanced warning, she would have been ecstatic to be on stage in that theater.

After the performance, she got lots of hugs and apologies for having it sprung on her like that. Everyone was very nice.

It was definitely an afternoon to remember for them all!

Man's Best Friend

I know that many of you out there are dog lovers. I was looking for free Kindle books and came across one that I thought might be a good one to share. I haven't read it yet, but from the description, it sounds like a nice inspirational one. It doesn't have any bad reviews thus far.

Just click the picture of the book cover to be taken to its page on Amazon. It was free when I got it, but be sure to check on the price before you click to buy it. The prices go from free to not-so-free in the blink of an eye. Enjoy!



Disclosure: The link to the book is an affiliate link. If it is no longer free when you click to buy, our family will financially benefit from your purchase of this book. Thank you for your support!

The Sunday Community

It has been a long time since I last participated in this inspirational meme. I think the last time was just before David's most recent hospital incarceration. "Incarceration" because a hospital stay is a prison of many sorts. We are blessed that He is in charge of that light at the end of the tunnel.

I Am an Expert at...?

If you could be an expert of anything, what would it be?

Family Tree ©2014 Suzanne G. McClendon

I would want to be a Master Genealogist. I have always had a love for history and that extends to family history. If I can see where my family fits into the scheme of things, that makes it mean even more to me. I would love to be able to help other people research their family histories and find their places in world history.

The more I research and see my family's place in this country's history, and the histories of other countries, the smaller this world seems. We're all connected, one big family. None of us are little peas in a big pod. We all make a difference.

So, what would you want to be the master of?

I'd love to see your responses in the comment section or a link to your own blog posts answering this question.

The Sunday Community

Image Source Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)
Object Name: V838 Monocerotis
STScI-PRC2004-10