In GOD we trust!

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them. After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side.When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?' 'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked. Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up.? The man gestured, and the gate began to open. 'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked. 'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.' The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog.

After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book. 'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?' 'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.' 'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog. 'There should be a bowl by the pump.' They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it.The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree. 'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked. 'This is Heaven,' he answered. 'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too?' 'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.''Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?' 'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'


Soooo..


.Sometimes, we wonder why friends keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word.Maybe this will explain. When you are very busy, but still want to keep in touch, guess what you do? You forward jokes. When you have nothing to say, but still want to keep contact, you forward jokes. Also to let you know that you are still remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared for, guess what you get?
A forwarded joke. So, next time if you get a joke, don't think that you've been sent just another forwarded joke, but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other end of your computer wanted to send you a smile. You and your dogs are all welcome @ my water bowl anytime!
Remember that prayer "Lord, please let me be half the person my dog believes I am"?
In GOD we trust

Thanks to Joanne in Florida for this!

Praying for Leroy

"Anyone with needs to be prayed over, come forward, to the front at the altar," the Preacher says.

Leroy gets in line, and when it's his turn, the preacher asks: "Leroy, what do you want me to pray about for you."

Leroy replies: "Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing."

The preacher puts one finger in Leroy's ear, and he places the other hand on top of Leroy's head and prays and prays and prays, he prays a blue streak for Leroy.
After a few minutes, the Preacher removes his hands, stands back and asks, "Leroy, how is your hearing now?"

Leroy says, "I don't know, Reverend, it ain't til next Wednesday!"

With a little help from your friends!

Early yesterday afternoon the phone rang. I answered and heard "Hi Judy, this is Traci Sampson". "Jeff (her husband) said he was talking with you at the horse show yesterday and you and said Tim was having trouble fixing your pickup truck. You know, Jeff is really mechanical and he will come over today or tomorrow to take a look at it and see if he can help Tim". "That's okay Traci, Tim is not going to be working on the truck, he is currently starting to take down the big willow tree in the back yard which is causing some septic problems with it's roots". "Okay, Jeff and Sam (their daughter Samantha who showed my mare Saturday at the horse show in Medina, and got another Blue Ribbon) will be right over to help with the tree".

"Judy, are you still there"?

Silence from my side of the phone call. Just tears falling down my cheeks.

"Yes, I'm still here, I don't know what to say". "Don't say anything" said Traci "You have paid your dues, Jeff and Sam will be over to help you in a few minutes".

What do you say to that?

I had already called our son Nathan to come help his Dad, and Nathan was on his way also.

You say: "Thank you Jeff and Sam, look what got done"

"Thank you son" " Dad and I really appreciate your taking your afternoon

off to come and help"

"Ah-Ha"!

Safe to say that these are extremely turbulent times. The mixture of wars, financial crisis and meta-crisis, election cycles, and a looming global recession have combined to form enough angst and fear that it makes emo seem like Elmo. And it is in these times that one could easly just pull the covers over your head and go back to bed. But in doing so, you’d miss some amazing opportunities.

I just had an "Ah-Ha" moment.

See what you think of this:

"If you are going to steal........steal time"

"If you are going to cheat.......cheat death"!

"If you are going to lie......lie with the one you love"!

Ahhhhhhhh-Haaaaaaaa!!!!!

Clarice Goebel Williams 1929 - 2009

Clarice Goebel Williams was my only female cousin. Well, actually she was only one of two cousins on my mother's side.

Clarice was my mother's cousin, so she would be my second cousin.

When I was growing up in the home of my father's sister and brother-in-law, who were much, much older, with married children who had children of their own, my summer vacations consisted of a one week trip to visit "Great Aunt May and Uncle Bill Goebel" and their two children Clarice and Paul. The trips to Lakewood to the house on Lincoln where the cousins would take a gangly, scrawny, tall kid with unruly hair to the Franklin Ice Cream store for a chocolate chip ice cream cone. Where I could sit on one of the two built-in benches on their front porch and attend mass at St. Clements Church.

Where I could later go to Gates Mills and visit the brick house on the huge, huge lot and Aunt May would prepare peeled and sliced oranges sprinkled with sugar on a breakfast tray for me.
Where Clarice (the College Girl at Notre Dame) and Paul, the high school senior would take time to sit at the spinet piano and teach me to play "Heart and Soul" and I played and played until I'm sure someone would slam the lid down on the keys.

Where I would sit in awe and watch Clarice come down the stairs in a silky gown that she had made herself.

Where later I attended her wedding in Westlake. Where later I attended the funerals of both Aunt May and Uncle Bill.

My happiest childhood memories were created by this family. The prom dress Aunt May bought me at Halle Bros. The lunches at Heilman's restaurant in Lorain. The blanket in the back seat of their car to keep me and my brother Bill from getting cold in the winter.

All of these wonderful memories tumbled back into my head last evening when I received the phone call from Clarice's son, John.

"Hi Judy, I am calling to tell you Mom passed away"!

She had moved to Florida to be close to her only child, but her only son's wife despised her.
So Clarice just faded away in Florida. Never to be invited to a meal at her son's home, or taken to church by him or welcomed into his home.

She lived in a senior complex a few miles away. When I would call, she seemed to be getting further and further away, as dementia overtook her mind. She would wait for the phone to ring. And wait, and wait.

Now she is gone and the waiting is over. She was 80. Just a few years older than me.

But now her constant talking has found new ears, and perhaps old ears too!

The art above is a painting she did that was put into the 2003 calendar for the Harford Art, Maryland annual Art Calendar month of May.

It seems we all would get tired of her non stop talking, reminiscing and chattering all the time.

Well,......I wish I could hear her now.

Yesterday I stopped to see my friend Jo Ann Wingfield in Wooster. Yesterday was the day the moving van arrived at their new home. She called me in the morning and said something akin to "stop me before I leap"!

I had to make a trip that way anyway so I stopped to bring a small bouquet of flowers, hopefully to put a little smile on her face.

She and I started to talk and something came up that I had forgotten about. I had gotten a speeding ticket recently, in Wooster. I was angry with myself for not paying attention, and had a lot on my mind. No excuse I know.

Jo Ann said she had only ever gotten one ticket, on her 21st birthday. You would have thought the policeman would have cut her a little slack. No way! Anyway, I was reminded of the day I was traveling on the shoreway into Cleveland to meet Tim at the Marriage License Bureau.

I was stopped for speeding, and was issued a ticket. On the way back from getting my marriage license, I was stopped on the other side of the shoreway, by the same policeman for speeding, and.....got a second ticket.

Tim was not happy. He knew someone at City Hall or someplace, and so when I went downtown to "pay" my ticket, someone at the desk gave me a "Pass Go, and get out of jail" card. After the passing of the ticket and fine etc, I piped up "what about the other ticket"? The kindly person behind the desk looked up with a shocked look on his face, and ...... you guessed it....he tore up the "Pass Go, and get out of Jail" card.

"Have a seat inside Mam'"

"Yes Sir".

Just pay the ticket and watch the pedal to the metal!