When Jesus walks the waters of the sea, how profound the calm!

I was reading Spurgeon's Morning and Evening Devotions the other day, and this one was really interesting.

'The rainbow, the symbol of the covenant with Noah, is typical of Our Lord Jesus, who is the Lord's witness to the people. When may we expect to see the token of the covenant? The rainbow is only to be seen painted upon a cloud. When the sinner's conscience is dark with clouds, when he remembers his past sin, and mourneth and lamenteth before God, Jesus Christ is revealed to him as the covenant Rainbow, displaying all the glorious hues of the divine character and betokening peace. To the believer, when his trials and temptations surround him, it is sweet to behold the person of our Lord Jesus Christ - to see Him bleeding, living, rising, and pleading for us. God's rainbow is hung over the cloud of our sins, our sorrows, and our woes, to prophesy deliverance. Nor does a cloud alone give a rainbow, there must be crystal drops to reflect the light of the sun. So, our sorrows must not only threaten, but they must really fall upon us. There had been no Christ for us if the vengence of God had been merely a threatening cloud: punishment must fall in terrible drops upon the Surety. Until there is real anguish in the sinner's conscience, there is no Christ for him; until the chastisement which he feels becomes grievous, he cannot see Jesus. But there must also be a sun; for the clouds and drops of rain make not rainbows unless the sun shineth. Beloved, our God, who is as the sun to us, always shines, but we do not always see Him - clouds hide His face; but no matter what drops may be falling, or what clouds may be threatening, if He does but shine there will be a rainbow at once. It is said that when we see a rainbow the shower is over. Certain it is, that when Christ comes, our troubles remove; when we behold Jesus, our sins vanish, and our doubts and fears subside. When Jesus walks the waters of the sea, how profound the calm!'

"The bow shall be seen in the cloud." - Genesis 9:14

Opera books, opera records, even an opera autograph!

The three of us went to an estate sale on Friday. What an estate sale. A 70 yr old lady had to liquidate her parents house (Father died in 73, Mother died in 84. We don't know why it took so long). The daughter actually studied opera and spent 10 years in Austria. Actually, her half-sister (25 years older than she is) was an actress back in the 40s. Jane Randolph.

Anyway, we got a cabinet full of vocal scores and music. Sarah found it (the entire house was set up as a sale, with a lot of the furniture still where it had been and not emptied!) and Mom asked the guy who was running the sale how much the sheet music pieces were. He said that normally he would charge $1 a piece, but if we would take the entire lot we could have it for $10! I couldn't believe it! She had the two scores that I had been thinking about buying, so I was thrilled even if I only got the two books. So, Sarah and I spent an hour packing it up. Five full boxes! Also, she had a collection of opera records to die for. Just my era, too. Mostly 50s, and tons and tons of Renata Tebaldi. Boxed sets, complete operas, recital singles. Well, we got four large boxes for another $15. I am thrilled because, aside from having lots of complete operas I don't have already, there are some titles where mine got ruined when our plumbing burst.

Another very cool thing . . . on Saturday night I was going through a stack of Met librettos (to see if there were doubles) and I found one that is autographed by Renata Tebaldi! I was thrilled as she is one of my favorite opera singers. I couldn't believe it when I found it!

Bogart, Bergman, and Flynn at Playhouse Square

To celebrate Mom and Dad's 25th wedding anniversary, we went up to Cleveland this past weekend and saw two classic (and I mean classic!) films at the Palace Theatre on Playhouse Square. Saturday night was Casablanca and Sunday afternoon was The Adventures of Robin Hood. We actually stayed at a hotel that was only a block away from the theatre. We checked-in around 2:00pm and then went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that was across from the theatre. Sarah and I shared this absolutely wonderful pizza that was topped with mozzarella, garlic oil, pesto, and brie. We also had these two wonderful appetizers - one was italian bread with mozzarella tomatoes, and basil, the other was spicy marinara with ricotta and you dipped fried pita bread in it. We have to try making this, it was so good. Actually, the entire meal was one of the most enjoyable restaurant experiences we've had. Before the film, we went back to the hotel and Dad and the two of us swam in the pool for an hour. It was so hot, the water and the air, that it was hard to breathe after a little while.

On Saturday night we saw the classic Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Thrilling and wonderful on the big screen. It went from one great scene to another, although the last scene is still one of Hollywood's stand-outs. Bogart was perfect as Rick and Ingrid Bergman was beautiful. However, Claude Rains as the French prefect of police steals every scene he is in. Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

Sunday morning, we packed up and checked out, and decided to go to Shaker Heights for lunch. It was a beautiful drive and we saw lots of cool buildings. We had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, which was huge! Sarah and I shared a white pizza and tiramisu cheesecake. Some of our favorite dishes. Back to the theatre for the 2:00 showing. This time we got to see the greatest swashbuckling movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Of all the films that we have gotten to see on the big screen, this one wins hands down. You can really understand what made Errol Flynn famous! It was great!



Here's a photo of Mom and Dad at the Italian restaurant on Saturday, then the two of us (I'm on the left, Sarah is on the right) on the stairs at the hotel, and then a cute photo of The Bunny sitting on our woodstove. Naughty, yes, but he is soooo cute! (He doesn't have anything to do with our vacation, I just thought he would like to have his photo on my blog. )

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
"What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." - Mark 19:6

Sweet Lelani

Yesterday (July 31) afternoon at 2:38pm, our cousin Patty had her first baby! We are so excited, we have been waiting for years for her to have a baby. :) Alex is very excited and so proud of his new daughter! Her name is Leilani, she was 7lbs. 9oz., and 19" long. They sent us a photo and she looks just like Patty and Gramma. She is so cute! She was actually born on Robbie's birthday, just 23 years later. Alex's mom flew up from Puerto Rico to be wth them, so Alex, his mom, Patty's mom, and Gramma were there at the birth. That 's so cool - both Grammas and the Great-Gramma.

"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward." - Psalm 127:3

New library furniture!

This week, Mom and Sarah both told me that my chair up in the library (where we do our hobbies and watch movies) was shot. So, on Wednesday it was so hot and we were all really tired that we decided to drive up to Mansfield to look at some furniture stores. First we went to Value City Furniture. I sat in every chair they had there. There was one recliner that was all right, but we remembered that there were two other furniture place in town, so we decided to try them before deciding anything. Next we went to Furniture Row to see what they had to offer. They had tons of furniture and I sat in all of those pieces too! (I did a lot of sitting down and getting up!) Well, there was a nice chair and a cool red leather love seat. So, we had lunch at Panera to take time and figure out the best course of action. We laid out all the pros and cons of just replacing my chair, or replacing Sarah's as well with a love seat for us to share. We eventually decided that we would go with the love seat. Sarah and I like sitting together and we missed that with two chairs. Also, we do several of the same hobbies which would be nice to do sitting together and the ease of keeping shared supplies between us. We did decide to go look at Ashley Furniture before totally settling on the red love seat though. So, off we went and I sat in a bunch more chairs, but nothing compared to that red leather piece. Back at Furniture Row we looked around again, finally ending up at the same red love seat. So, since it was 4:45pm, we measured it and called Dad who left work and made sure that the piece would fit through the doorways to get upstairs. Everything checked, so we told him to meet us up there. We looked around and found a clearance king-size headboard that matched Mom and Dad's bedroom set. We also decided that we would see if we could find a new chair for Dad, as he had been needing one for a while as well. We found the perfect chair, an Italian leather wall-hugger, non-rocking recliner. It was the last piece of a living room set that the store had. It has flat wings on the side and huge padded arms that make it ideal for lying with your legs over the side! I was sold the first time I sat in it. Dad arrived and agreed about the three pieces and it turned out that delivery included carrying the furniture upstairs! Yay! So we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, all very happy about our shopping day. God certainly arranged everything for us. I mean, the last love seat, the last chair, and a headboard without any sides or bottom! We felt very blessed.

Thursday was spent cleaning out the back room upstairs and when Dad got home, he carried chairs down stairs and moved all kinds of lamps and end tables. By the time we all quit and went upstairs to watch a show before bed, there was only one chair and the sleeper sofa left to sit on! So yesterday, at noon, the delivery people came and two young men carried both big pieces of furniture right up the stairs and had them in place in half an hour! We couldn't have been more thrilled. So Sarah and I pushed everything around until it was right where we wanted it and then we sat upthere on the new furniture and watched some "Big Valley" episodes.

Fasten Your Seabelts . . . Miss Bette Davis on the Big Screen

Last night, we saw "All About Eve" on the big screen at the Ohio Theatre. What an experience! This was the one film that I really wanted to see on the big screen and it was just as wonderful as I hoped that it would be. I was wishing that they would play a Bette Davis film, and you couldn't get a better one than "All About Eve". There were so many good scenes, the time flew by and it was over before I really realized it. The reel was in really good shape, without a lot of flicks and spots. Even though we have seen it twice on our TV at home, there is nothing that compares with seeing them on the big screen.

"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." When Bette Davis said this line, the whole theatre erupted in applause! It was very cool. It was fun to listen to all the different laughs, gasps, etc. You could tell that most people had never seen it before. Especially during the big scene at the end where Addison Dewitt tells Eve that he knows all about her, people were shocked. It was fun to experience an audience of people viewing a film for the first time.

One great part of the film happens very early on when Gary Merrill delivers a very good "soliloquy" about how people should not be snobbish about their preferred form of entertainment. It still holds true today. When Bette Davis talks about being a woman is another great part. This scene is when Margo and Karen are sitting in the car, after running out of gasoline. In the film, it is Winter and they are freezing. When they filmed it, it was early Summer and, with the heat and the lights, it was over 100 degrees in the sound stage while they were acting this scene! Another great scene is when the four friends are in the Cub Room and Bill and Margo announce their upcoming wedding. The film is cast superbly and everyone works so well with each other.

Thelma Ritter is one of my personal favorites, although her character in "Eve" is more of a plot device than an actual role. She is essential to the story in the fact that she is the one who sees through Eve from the very beginning, while the principle characters are too caught up in the sentiment of Eve's story. She is so good, and what an actress. My favorite part of the film is the scene between Margo and Birdie when Margo finally realizes that Birdie is right about Eve. Eve leaves the room, Bette Davis looks over at Thelma Ritter, who backs up out the door - not saying a word - just looking at her from across the room, and the scene ends with Bette Davis sitting in bed. Not a word is spoken by either of them, yet you know the whole conversation that just passed between the two characters. Fabulous acting and Thelma Ritter has no trouble keeping up with Bette Davis. Sadly, after the main characters have been alerted to Eve's real intentions, her character is dropped and Birdie makes an understated exit with a sable coat. Another great Thelma Ritter film is "Rear Window", where she has a very similar role and great lines.



"All About Eve" was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards, a record that hasn't been beaten since, and won six of them, including Best Picture! Considered one of Bette Davis' best roles, she was not, however, the first choice for the role of Margo Channing. Susan Hayward and Barbara Stanwyck were considered, but the studio actually signed Claudette Colbert to play it. However, while filming a different movie, she sustained a back injury that caused her to give up the role. Then producer Darryl Zanuck went personally to Bette Davis with a script, and asked her to play Margo.

This was definitely one of the best films so far on the big screen, right up there with "Singin' in the Rain". Bette Davis was made to be seen on the big screen. It was a very enjoyable way to end such a hot day! Since it started at 7:30pm, we didn't get home until after 11, but it is worth being a little tired this morning. What fun! This is definitely getting a page in my scrapbook.

"Watch out . . . They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." - Matthew 7:15

Eulogy for Old-Fashioned Book Sales

All right, for anyone who does not already know this - I am potty about books. Actually, I think it is more like obsessive compulsive. I even like books that I don't even want to read! There is nothing like sticking your nose inside the middle of a book and smelling the paper and ink! The feel, the look, the idea of them just makes me happy. Well, for months now I have been really yearning for a book sale. The swell old kind that happened all the time when we were growing up, like when the libraries used to close their parking garages off and fill them with tables and boxes, are pretty much gone. Mansfield now bought a building which is only open one weekend a month for four hours a day. Mount Vernon is going the same route now. The last good one is the AAUW sale that happens every October in the basement garage of the Mansfield Red Cross. It is the last of the old timers to still be holding on and the lady who does it is in her eighties! We know that it is on it's last breath, but every year it is thrilling to still be able to experience even a remnant of what it used to be like.

We used to fill our van with full boxes of books, bringing home a thousand or two at a time to keep or trade. It would take us weeks to clean, sort, and put away all of our new "gems". Now at a really good booksale we might get a box or two and a hundred books is a huge addition. A lot of times we are replacing beat up copies with nicer ones, or getting a second copy of a book that we each would like for our kids.

We are way over ten thousand books now, and Mom and I are going to really try and start cataloguing this year. We are trying to fill up any holes that we find in the different collections. Then, of course, WWII and British history are never done! We are debating on whether to replace our leaky sliding glass door in the dining room, or build another book shelf unit and put a single door in instead. We grew up getting rid of the sofa whenever we needed more book room. I keep telling Mom, who needs a double door to look outside with? Books are way more important! I love my record collection, but nothing compares with the books.

Yesterday was the day that the Mansfield book sale book shop was open, and as we were planning on going to Mansfield to get Dad some new dress pants, I asked Mom if we could go to town in the morning instead of the afternoon since the book sale closes at 2:00pm. Boy was it ever worth going! We got two banana boxes of really good books. A lot of British history and political books. I got several about the fall of France, one written by a Frenchman in 1941. A couple WWII ones and several Lloyd George biographies. Of course, a book sale wouldn't be complete without getting some Agatha Christie mysteries! I actually have outgrown the two shelves that are set aside for her, so I had to go poking behind the fiction to find half an empty shelf behind Louisa May Alcott!

One of the fun finds was "Beyond the High Himalayas" by William O. Douglas. The subject doesn't really interest me, but this is the book that Princess Grace is "reading" in my very favorite scene of hers from Hitchcock's "Rear Window". Sarah found it and she was like, "This is the book that Grace Kelly is reading!" I was thrilled. Who would have thought that they would have her reading a real book?

So, it was a very fun morning. We ate lunch at Panera and then went to Kohl's where Dad got two pairs of gorgeous wool dress pants and some new black shoes. We got some more wet food for the kitties and then headed home. While Dad and Sarah did some dishes, I cleaned all of the books and sorted them. I love to clean books. There is something so satisfying about it. You get to feel each one and look at them. Simply wonderful. Thank you God for books!

"Do you understand what you are reading?" - Acts 8:30

America: Why I Love Her

You ask me why I love her? Well, give me time, and I'll explain...
Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?
Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?

Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines?
Or heard the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and wonder at a Massachusetts shore...
Where men who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth Rock?
And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock?

Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies...way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea...
Or bow your head at Gettysburg...in our struggle to be free?

Have you seen the mighty Tetons? ...Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winters day,
Her waters rage along the shore in a thunderous display?
Does the word "Aloha"... make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?

From Alaska's gold to the Everglades...from the Rio Grande to Maine...
My heart cries out... my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her?... I've a million reasons why.
My beautiful America... beneath Gods' wide, wide sky.

Mom and I enjoy a perfect Summer day!

Thursday was a wonderful day. We were all a little tired having had several late nights in a row, so plans were slightly vague. Sarah decided to mow that lawn and took a nice, leisurely time about it spending two and a half hours getting a lot of the trim work done. It was such a lovely day that Mom and I decided to do hang up laundry. We did sheets, blankets, jeans, and lots of linens. It was 72 degrees, sunny and breezy. Mom and I have finally come to the realization that neither of us likes Summer. We both wilt the minute the sun comes out and the thermometer stars rising.

It was a wonderful day. Slow, calm, relaxing, and very satisfying. We actually got eight loads washed and dried on the line. We did leave some white articles out for the night and through Friday so that the sun could bleach them nice and white.

In the morning, I stayed in bed for a while and finished my new book that I had gotten at CHEO, "The Lost Clue" by Mrs. O.F. Walton. It was a very fun British story from 1907. The two main characters (Kenneth and Marjorie) were very nice and you genuinely liked them both right from the beginning. It is the traditional old-fashioned mystery story of humble boy finding out that he is really the son of a nobleman. The main Christian message throughout is how to have a positive attitude through tough times in life. There was a really nice poem that is based on Psalm 27:14 towards the end of the story, when the hero is really discouraged.

Oh, tarry and be strong;
Tell God in prayer
What is thy hidden grief;
Thy secret care.
Yet, if no answer come;
Pray on and wait:
God's time is always best;
Never too late.

To top off such a wonderful day, we drove down to the Ohio Theatre again to see "My Man Godfrey", starring William Powell and Carole Lombard. Not one of my favorite films, but Gail Patrick on the big screen was great! She is always good. The reels were in poor condition and at one point the picture disappeared and you saw numbers counting backward and then the picture came back. Mom said that used to happen a lot when she went to the movies. Downtown Columbus looked very cool as we drove back, all lighted up at night, however I still enjoy coming back to the good old country which always seems like home sweet home.

To part with a funny episode . . . when we get home at night we always let Dad go into the house ad turn on the outside light before we girls get out of the car (that is one city trait that has not faded through the years!). He did, and we all got out but as I was walking towards the side walk there was the loudest rustling in the yew bushes under the kitchen window. You should have seen the three of us beat a fast retreat and jump back into the car. Dad had to come back out and rattle the bushes to be sure that our unwanted guest had retreated himself! We all had a good laugh about it when we got into the house.

"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." - Psalm 27:14

A very cool t-shirt!

On Wednesday, we were at the Panera in Marion having lunch while our car was being fixed. A guy came who was a WWII veteran. He had the coolest t-shirt that I have ever seen. It turns out it is from an organization that helps veterans visit memorials in D.C. Well, on the front it has "Veteran - Honor Flight" with and airplane and image of Iwo Jima. The back had a saying:

If you can read this,
Thank a teacher.

If you can read this
In English,
Thank a veteran.

“We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.” - Will Rogers