Liz's Letters

July 4th was a blast! We spent the day with our family and best friends. One of the best ways to spend the day in Texas...in July... IN THE POOL! I love my friend, Tricia, and her little guy! Fred and his best friend. Me and my best friends! We were having too much fun! The food was delicious! Waiting for the fireworks display! Me and my beautiful daughter! My oldest and dearest friend. Look at the silly kids behind us! LOL! I love, love, love these ladies! I love this young lady more than anything! What a fantastic Fourth!

My son's girlfriend has been living with us since April. It has been fantastic to have her here, for many reasons. This reason, though, I could capture in photograph. She loves to paint. She paints pictures - as in real pictures. She also paints the most fabulous flowers on my fingernail and toenails. She even likes to paint walls. Yes! She likes to paint walls...can you believe that?!? We have a game room upstairs. It is sort of the "hub" of the upstairs. It also is one room that I have done nothing with since we moved here 5 years ago. In fact, when we forgot to take "before" pictures, I looked to see if I had a photo of this room from when I took pictures of the house when we moved here - nope. I guess I didn't like the room much. Not that it's a bad room; in fact, it is a great place. It just wasn't very pretty. Thien (my son's girlfriend) didn't like the room much either but since we spend quite a bit of time in there, it became...

Amy Grant came to a Flower Mound restaurant prior to the release of her most recent CD titled Somewhere Down the Road. Our local (Christian) radio station featured her live one morning and she played this song on the air, live. It touched my heart. I have looked forward to hearing it and singing along every time it comes on the radio or my iPod . Various situations and people enter my mind as I sing along. But this last week, it has become my prayer. The song has ministered to me and given me hope, joy, and reminded me - strongly - of God's presence. He was with my hubby when his airplane crashed. He was with me when I received that unnerving phone call and He is very here while we recover...physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. Listen and praise the God who is always present, even when we are crying out in fear or pain.

LOL! Really? I did not know when I added the little snippet below on my blog last week that I would have to give serious thought to what it meant the very next day. And laughing out loud still helps, even when it is not the answer. Tuesday night, around 11:30 p.m., I received one of those dreaded, middle of the night phone calls. A stranger called to tell me that a man who claimed to be my husband had knocked on his door asking for help. My heart froze in my throat. Making a long story very short, my husband and his best friend of 20 years had made a crash landing in our small airplane. Sadly, the airplane was in a pond and my husband, disoriented, had been walking in a field for several hours. All the while, I was sleeping. A flurry of activity occurred as his friend had been looking for my hubby for hours, the police had been called and it was decided that my husband needed to go to the hospital for some stitches. We all met at a local Emergency Department around 1:00 a.m., and after...

is not the answer to everything. But most things.

Recently, I had surgery. Not a huge deal...just a little gallbladder problem. I am feeling much, much better, but still recovering. During the time I was required to stay home and recuperate, I received a basket of flowers from my co-workers. I don't think they had any idea how this lovely gift would entertain me, but I spent hours gazing at the beauty of the blooms that brightened the coffee table in my family room. No television show or book held my attention as long as these beauties. I was too tired to speak to anyone for any length of time. Reading tired me; plus the drugs I was taking didn't really allow for that amount of concentration and I just have to say it, I despise television - even when I am ill. So, I would sit and stare. Then I would see something and move just a little closer. And even closer, realizing how different things looked when I examined closely. The detail, the texture. Never mind the fragrance - that was there too, but what really captivated ...