Catching Up

I haven't posted in FOREVER!!! Not that I haven't tried to post...and my reasons are:
*Facebook! Just like my sister Beth from Alaska, Facebook takes up my time and is so easy to upload photos and such. I can do it right from my iPhone.
*Computer Virus!! Apparently my computer was full of them. Every time I actually tried to post my computer would freeze up, kick me off or some such nonsense.
*And now that it's fixed...I'm SO sad to say, ALL OF MY PHOTOS ARE GONE. LOST.

So no pictures today. Just a "hello", I'm still here and VERY busy.

As some of you may know, I'm preparing to return to Ireland in just two weeks. I loved it so much last year I wanted to go back to celebrate my 50 Birthday! Wow!! That sounds soo old.

Anyway, I'll be there for almost all of July. I'm doing a house exchange with the McKenna's. from Dalkey, Co. Dublin. We "met" online through a house exchange web site. Do you remember the movie "The Holiday"? well, if you do, that is what I'll be doing for July.

We are are very excited but extremely busy getting ready for another family to move into our home and drive our car. It's like spring cleaning on steroids!!!

Now that I've caught you up on what's been going on in my "Rosie World", it's time to get started with all that's on today's "TO DO" list.

If anyone out there has done a house exchange before (this is my first), I welcome tips from you own experience!

Thanks.

Lisa

The Little Princess Is Turning One

I'm so excited...Adalie will celebrate her 1st Birthday at Marmie's house!!

We are all thrilled to have this opportunity to be with Addie Bug as she turns one. Lillian and I went to Orlando this week end in preparation for her special day. The results are above.

So, be sure and check your Mailbox for your invitation!

Lillian Masie-Photo Shoot, Solutions Bridal Salon

I'm very proud of my little star. This past weekend Lillian did a photo shoot for a store in Winter Park, FL. The photographer was our favorite...CAROLINE JOHNSON. She is soooo amazing (let me know if you need to contact her). These are a few of her photographs...enjoy!

The Move to Tucson

You may have noticed that I have not updated my blog in a while. That's because I've been driving across the country from Columbus, MS to Tucson, AZ. As many of you know my son-in-law is a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and he has been transferred to Tucson to train on the A-10. So I flew up to Columbus on the day the movers came to load the furniture.

This is Adalie when we first arrived at her empty house after the airport. She was a little shy with me at first (in comparison to when I left her). I took this picture as we sat on the floor of her empty bedroom and played while becoming reacquainted.

The four of us spent the night across the street at Celia and Tim's who so graciously gave us their home while they were out of town. They will be making the same journey shortly as Tim will be an A-10 pilot as well!!!

The next day we strapped Addie in her car seat, gave her her "Lovey" and off we went...the first of many days in that car seat. I might add that my little granddaughter was a perfect Angel the entire way across the country!

Addie had many a meal at fast food restaurants along the way. She, of course, was eating whole grain cereal mixed with organic fruits or vegies...WE adults were the ones eating the fast foods because sometimes that's all that is available!

And so this begins the first two days of my 10 day adventure with this sweet little family. More to come shortly! Enjoy.

P.S. Isn't this the most beautiful baby ever!!!????!!!!

Hand and Foot With The Girls

This blog is, once again especially for niece, Michelle who lives in Japan. I spoke to her on the phone as I was on my way to pick up the pizza and promised her pictures of the evening.

Hand and Foot is a card game that is so much fun. We laugh and laugh while we play. Of course, we laugh when we are together doing ANYTHING!!

"Valentino's" pizza: pepperoni, green peppers and sausage. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. It was so nice and hot...Delicious!

Hand and Foot requires a LOT of cards. We are using 9 decks here.

left to right: Julie, me, Mom, Maura, and Melanie. When we play cards we like to practice our Irish accent. Maura (whose family is Irish) says a phrase just like her Auntie Marq's and then we try to repeat it. That's when the laughter erupts! I'd say we are easily entertained.

Mom made the most wonderful salad. Sister Jewels (Julie) has to have "roughage" with her pizza, you know.

Counting points! Look how serious Mom is...that's probably why she ALWAYS wins!!!

The Saga of the Retractable Dog Leassh: WARNING, Graphic Photo!

My sister Melanie asked me to blog this story in order to inform you of the dangers of the retractable dog leash.

Below is a photo of my leg, the result of being caught between 1 dog on a leash and 2 bigger dogs NOT on a leash. The retractable leash is thin and round like a rope. As the dog on the leash tried to get away from the other dogs, the leash wrapped around my leg. The wound was deep, like a burn.

Although I treated it for about 2 weeks with neosporin and saltwater bathes, it still became infected.

I'm happy to report that after 10 days on an antibiotic (4 times a day), silvadine cream, lots of hot water and wrapping it when I leave the house...it's healing nicely. My doctor informed me that it WOULD leave a scar. (Any scar preventing/removing remedies out there????)

Interestingly, when people ask me about my leg, if they have a dog...the have had a retractable leash injury! They are simply dangerous!!!! So my advice to you is to find another type of leash!!!!!

Graphic picture follows:

Happy St. Partick's Day

In honor of the holiday Ireland has shared with us all, St. Patrick's Day, I'd like to spin an Irish tale. (It's a completely true story...but you know, I did KISS THE BLARNEY STONE and therefore received the "gift of eloquent speech" or as others would say the "gift of GAB".)

I have lived my life believing that four leaf clovers were a fairy tale until Beth Nash told me her mother could always find them, wherever she looked. And she said, "If you find one, you can always find more." When I was visiting Beth in Alaska I actually found my first four-leaf clover right in her yard! (Yes, it was SUMMER!!!)

When I was visiting Ireland last year with Beth and my Irish sister, Maura Moynihan Berzman, I looked for the clover treasures everywhere I went. It's a wonder I saw any sights because my head was always searching the ground. I thought there could be nothing as special as finding a four-leaf clover in IRELAND, the land of the shamrock, the land of wishing steps, hills and bridges, the home of "luck"!

This is my friend Siobhan O'Leary Wills and I in front of her B & B, the La Cita Inn, which is just a very few miles from Blarney Castle. Siobhan's sister, Marion Walker is my neighbor here in La Cita, Titusville, FL. Anyway, she also has a vacation rental home in the country where Beth Nash and I stayed for a few days after leaving the B & B.

Isn't it a lovely home? Beth and I decided to take some pictures of the house as we were leaving, traveling back to Dublin to fly home. Our time in Ireland, this magical, green land was coming to a close without a four-leaf clover.


Before I got in to the car I thought, "This is my last opportunity. I'm going to take one more look." So I walked straight out in front of where you see me standing and looked into the grass.

And...you guessed it! Right in the center foreground of this picture I spotted the largest FOUR-LEAF CLOVER imaginable!!!!

And THIS is it!!!

Isn't it beautiful and amazing!!!

Even more amazing...just like Beth's mom always said, it was NOT the only one!

Beth and I spent at least another 30 minutes looking through the grass where she found 4 and I found 3 more! I framed all I found, one of which I keep in my bedroom to see it often. One is hanging at Siobhan's in the La Cita Inn and another is in La Cita, Titusville at her sister Marion's. (I framed the 4th for my Irish sister Maura for Christmas but I put away somewhere and now I can't find it!)

As I was having my quiet-time this morning, journaling and actually LISTENING to to the Father speak, He reminded me of the verse in His Word, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

And then, of this clover and the entire day (which held more special surprises).

As I remembered this day I heard Him speak to me, "I know you Lisa, I gave you what you longed for. It was not even necessary to ask Me. I told you in My Word 'I will give you the desires of your heart' and I DID". I will continue as you continue to delight yourself in Me, just like this (morning)."

And then I realized for the first time that a DESIRE OF YOUR HEART is just that...it's something that my heart longs for. Something I hold inside. How many times do we pray and beg God for the things we want? He knows full well what is in our heart spoken or not because He KNOWS us.

As I mentioned earlier, there were other special things, spoken and unspoken desires that I didn't even consider praying about because they seemed trivia in the grand scheme of things and certainly they were nothing I NEEDED. But God, He gave them to me anyway. Not only that ...He LEAD ME TO THEM (remember Bethie?). And the result was being completely overwhelmed with His goodness and kindness to me, which means so much to me that even now as I think of it, I FEEL it and my eyes well up with tears.

So if these things that I didn't NEED (Does anyone NEED a clover?) and didn't pray for, He gave to me because they were a hope in my heart...How much more will He DO when we ASK Him in prayer?

Either way, the thing is, we must first KNOW Him and SEEK Him... ENJOY Him and His Presence. Do you?