VETERANS DAY!!! 

So thankful for men/women who have given their time, their lives, and their hearts to protecting our wonderful county. 

Actually, this morning a scripture from the Bible came to my mind.  It is from Romans and says in the NIV version: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die."  This country is made up of good and bad citizens.  Those that honor those that serve us and those that desecrate and trash our country and its symbols.   All these men/women serve  and many  die for BOTH types of our citizens.  

Hopefully you will see someone today that either is serving or has served and THANK THEM.  We do not have a perfect country, but it is the greatest one I know.  It is only stands as a country because someone protects its borders.  

Hugs. 

Ann   

How much do you know about your family...your genealogy?  To some, looking into the past is a waste of time, but to me it was a journey to find people that I never knew, yet were a part of me.  My mother was in her 40's when I was born and my dad already crowding 50.  I was the 17th child born to them.  

I never knew a grandparent.  Not one from either side.  I missed something for not having known them.  I also made the mistake of not talking to my parents about them before they, too, passed away.  I needed to find an anchor, a sturdy rock, to set my foundation on.  So off to North Carolina I went.  Thankfully, I had a sister (or two) that wanted to know the same thing.  It was a trip into the past. I loved all of the stories, seeing every grave, looking at every picture.  If only THEY could have been the one to tell me their stories. 

Because I only have partial stories (we do that you know...tell only a part of our story), I get to write the fiction I have always loved.  I am an avid reader; now I am an avid writer.   

Hugs.


Ann

I was in Jackson County over the weekend where I finished my BOOK!!!  Yay.  Also did some editing on it.   Took my niece, Barbara, with me, and we stayed at one of my favorite places.  The Tuckiseegee Lodge near Whittier.  You would love the view from their front porch.  Afternoons were warm enough to be out there and the quietness and beauty were overwhelming. 

The leaf colors are on their way out and fall is winding down.  I love fall.  My mother did too but once she told me that it was really a sad time for her.  "Everything is dying" she said.  I said, "I know but it will be come back in the sping."  She said, "Not the SAME leaves or the same grass." She had a point.  Maybe it's my age but I see her point now.  Our life winds down in much the same way.  There will be NEW LIVES, our children, grandchildren, etc, but they are not US.  But life goes one.  I realized you have to enjoy the "season" for its own merits.  I enjoy "this:" fall for its beauty and I enjoy this stage of my life for its own merits and realize that is all that I can do.  I do not plan on clouding the joy of today with the worries of tomorrow that might not ever come or, when it does, may be better than I dreamed.    

How do you feel about fall?  

Hugs,

Ann

I love genealogy.  My sister does also!!!  We have spent a good deal of time in the mountains of North Carolina researching both sides of our family (we both live in Tennessee). Those mountains produced some great people…people that have influenced my life in more ways than I first knew. Little phrases my parents said I have now found the origin.  Places they mentioned now are familiar to me.

 One thing I knew, and found that it carried back a few generations, were the great stories and superstitions that they carried with them.  I have heard more than my share of ghost stories, or 'haint' stories, from my mother and her brothers when they came to visit from North Carolina.    My bedroom was too dark and scary by bed time. Did you have those in your family?  I would love to hear some of those stories you were told.  Did they tell them to you as truth?  (Mine were told to be TRUE….maybe they were, maybe not. But they made for some really vivid memories in my life. LOL)

I would love to hear your stories. 

Hugs...

Ann

Hmm...what to say?    what to say? 

It's not that I have so little so say. Just the opposite.  I have never been referred to a a person with few words.  LOL.  But to narrow it to a short, concise blog.  I know your time is limited with the busyness of your life, as is mine.  But staying connected is so imporant in this world...with friends and friends-in-the-making as are some of you.  

You probably gather by  now, I am a writer.  I have been for quite some time, but my dedication to it waivered during times of raising a family, being a pastor's wife, working full-time job, and all that these contain.  But it's HIGH TIME, don't you think, to get on with what makes me really happy.   The front page gave you a preview of my current book that I am in the process of finding a publisher.  Go there and, if you don't mind, give me some feed back on what you thought about that first chapter.  Who knows?  A publisher might want to see my 'platform' and you can help me build it. 

No matter what, I am here for the long haul.  I will blog about my book, about life, where I am and what I am doing that I feel might interest you (especially when I am 'signing those books after publication'!!!!) 

Just for the record, would you like a chapter 'teaser' of the book at varying times??  Let me know.

Hugs, 

Ann