Carrie Underwood with Vince Gill How Great thou Art - 720P HD - Standing...

Royal Wedding - Fashion Event of the...

Is this from the set of "Mean Girls?"
Liked this so much, I put it as my Facebook profile picture - sort of my way of being there
Very classy and elegant - One of the few that doesn't look frumpy
Attractive but too tight
One of the popular styles of hats
Very English and very classy
More fun millinery
English women seem to love wearing hats on the side of their heads
Here's a red head of lettuce on her head
A gray garden...
Hmmm... no one told her black isn't protocol for women at weddings.... and it's a little too much skin for a royal wedding
Where Hollywood meets London
I know Victoria Beckham is pregnant, but this looks like a navy sheet with a hole cut out for her head, sort of a pancho? or mumu?
Cruella Davil is wearing blue... I know the royals like to match but this is excessive...
Purple people eater
Fergie's daughters were voted worst hats by pretty much everyone... one pundit said Eugenie (beige) looks like she has a pretzel on her head but it looks more like a spider to me. Beatrice (blue) seems to have a bird nest on her head...
Prince Charles' sister Ann inherited her (Queen) mother's taste
The wedding family in perfect Royal protocol - spring colors, closed toe pumps, hems to the knees, hats and pearls

while the Royal couple below is well... simply perfect.

What a 'splendid' day watching the royal wedding of Kate and William! As soon as I woke up, I turned on the television to see THE dress. I must admit... it seemed a little too simple for me, although beautiful. Alex LOVED it and said it's exactly what she would've worn if she could have, and thought it looked very 1950's a la Grace Kelly. I heard one pundit describe her dress as "serene and regal" which exactly describes Catherine.

Then I started watching the clothes the women were wearing, of which most were dreadful (British lingo.) They all wear the same thing, just in different colors! I realize they have to follow Royal wedding protocol, which is basically hem to the knee, closed toe pumps, arms covered, and something on their head, (something the Church of England says is a must.) So it was the hats where the women showed their individuality, (like Catholic school girls do with their hair since they must wear uniforms.) I'm so jealous! Here in the States, the only time it's fashionable to wear hats is for the Kentucky Derby. So, aside from seeing the true looks of love that William and Kate exchanged, my favorite thing was watching the hats! They were a Fashion "Save" from the horrid attire.

And I must say that it was magical watching the wedding, but not quite as magical as it was with Diana. When William and Kate kissed, I teared up and called DD in to come and see this historical moment. She asked why I had a tear, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it... I love weddings. I love to see two people marry their soul mates. And that it's not often that the first in line to the throne gets married. Too, seeing the wedding in the same cathedral where Diana's funeral was, did make me stop to pause at what a moment it must have been for William and Harry, and hopes that they can have happy futures. And lastly that this shot of true love to the world shows a hope for the future, not only for England, but for the entire world.

Long live the Queen!

"So ANYONE who disagrees with Obama is a racist?"

I am SO TIRED of the fact, that IF ANYTHING negative is said about Obama, then the person is labeled a racist....... What?! Are we not allowed in our FREE COUNTRY, to criticize our president??!! How about when Bush was president? That's ALL WE EVER HEARD!! Today CBS' Bob Schieffer called Trump a racist - why?? Because he's calling him out on what he's doing wrong? And THIS makes him a racist?? GIVE ME A BREAK!! And of course, Cher calls him a bad word because he's brave enough to take him on. And THIS comes as no surprise to anyone that Whoopi Goldberg says she's "playing the damn race card," because of Trump's alleged racism. This country has much worse race problems with Obama as president than we have had in decades. This man came to divide, not to unite.

It's going to be a long campaign.....

"Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Just a quick note to say DD was chosen 1 of the 2 co-captain's for the JV squad of 12! She's very excited and it's right up her alley! The cheer coaches texted the girls at the end of school today, and the other girls that tried out are so mad, they didn't congratulate either one of the girls. I find this sad really. I know they are disappointed, but sports has taught them to have good sportsmanship when they don't win. And these are supposed to be 'friends.' Well, as Alex said, when you get in this league, they are all 'in it to win it.' DD did not rub it in, as a matter of fact, she could only get excited with the family, since all the cheerleaders were so rude.

Guess it makes it bittersweet...

"Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale."

All the guys at work are complaining about the wall-to-wall coverage of the Royal Wedding this week. I told them, you know what?! We're STARVING for some good news; something, ANYTHING to get us away from all of the depressing news stories of the day. (It just occurred to me that it's called a "Depression" because it's DEPRESSING!!) It's why we watch American Idol and Dancing with the Stars -- these young hopefuls seeking the American Dream and going from obscurity to stardom or beautiful music, beautiful costumes, beautiful dancing - it's an oasis from this desert of uncertainty and ominous news. It's what my parents used to tell me about the Depression, that people went in the theater, and for a few hours they could escape their sad situation. And, it's probably no surprise that drinking alcoholic beverages is up as our fellow Americans cope with life as we know it. My grown children do not know how to plan for the future - they wonder if there even WILL be a future. And my best friend in California, even many states away, is feeling exactly like me, like we're just hanging on. It's like we have all of our fingers stuck in all of the leaks in the dam, but we fear the dam will break at any time.

So, yes, bring on the Royal Wedding. Let us talk about what Kate and the royals will be wearing. Let us walk down Memory Lane about Princess Diana and dream about the fairy tale we never had. And let us escape from our reality for a moment in time.

As Danielle Steel said, "If you can see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future."

"There's no such thing as a coincidence..."

These photos were taken last night, on Easter, at the White House. Here are the words of the photographer:

"A storm rapidly materialized in the Southern sky, and swept from the National Mall toward the White House. Instantly, there seemed to be lightning bolts dropping out of the heavens all around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - and the wind kicked up dramatically. A spectacular downpour started as the lightning built, with no preliminary drops; one moment it was dry, the next there was a gushing, blowing, massive water dump."

Coincidence?? I think not....

HE LIVES! Happy Easter

In Matthew 27: 50 - 54 it says in God's word, describing Jesus as He hung on the cross,

"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now the centurion, and those who were with Him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

"Earth's saddest day and gladdest day were just 3 days apart."

Well, my Saturday before Easter is complete - just watched Moses part the Red Sea, so I'm good. Yes, the "Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston is a little hokey, but it still moves me after all these years. (And yes, Charlton Heston is STILL my president.) When I was in early elementary school, Easter was the only day my mother took us to church. (She dropped us off at Sunday school otherwise.) My sister and I always got matching Easter dresses - hers was always light blue and mine was pink. Each year my mother would take my brother, sister and I to the dime store and let us get a real bunny and dyed baby chicks, which would stay in the back yard until they got big. Then one day we'd come home and they would be gone and mom would say they ran away...We would go to my grandparents house for an Easter egg hunt and small gifts and then go out to a nice restaurant in San Antonio or to the country club. Once we got older, we went to the beach every Easter, and my sister and I would, on our own, find a local church and go on Sunday morning. It just always felt wrong to miss church on Easter.

With my children, I have tried very hard to not commercialize this day. We always did the Santa thing for Christmas, but no Easter bunny for Easter. It's been harder to "Keep the Christ in Christmas" than remembering the real reason we celebrate Easter. For me, Easter is the highest holy day of the year, and should not be watered down with a bunch of pagan Spring rabbits! And no gifts like Christmas to worry about, just church and seeing family.

My youngest's public school DID have Good Friday off yesterday, but many of the public schools in Austin did not have a holiday. So sad... And we wonder why the schools have become so violent, but then remember, that we took God and prayer out of schools... Our biggest grocery store chain in Texas closes for 2 days a year, Christmas and Easter, but the rest of them are all open. In our small town, most businesses will be closed tomorrow, but in the city? Sadly, many will be open.... Whether people will admit it or not, the days between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday just feel different - deep in your bones. Some will deny it and distract themselves, but it's there. Some day, "every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."

Bow now or bow later...

Monsters among us...

Today I was going to write a post about Good Friday and Jesus, but I'm too upset now. What this country needs is Jesus.

Satan, is that you??

Seems Stephani Germanotta (Lady Gaga) is crazier than I had originally thought. She is now saying that she did NOT have these "horns" surgically inserted, and that they grew by themselves. She says, "They are not prosthetics. They're my bones. They've always been inside of me, but I have been waiting for the right time to reveal to the universe who I truly am. They come out when I'm inspired. We all have these bones. They're the light from inside us." Uh-hmmm.
AND she says that all of her "monsters" (her fan base) can "grow" these horn-like bones too.
I'm speechless...

4-20

Don't you find it strange that today is the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy, Hitler's birthday and the pot smoker's biggest day of the year?

And yesterday was the anniversary of Waco and the Oklahoma City bombs?

Mmmmm...... bad karma.

"The most important political office is that of the private citizen."

Little bit of family history...

Happy Birthday Alex!!

Alex, I pray all your dreams come true and you have a lifetime of great health and lots of love!

"Thou shalt not covet..." - the 10th commandment

I'm officially tired of Facebook. It's becoming what's wrong with this world. Just a bunch of hype. It's just the spin on everyone's life. But it ends up depressing me... My children and I compare ourselves to those who have it the best, and in comparison, our lives seem sad and boring. And then the coveting starts... I know, after living all these years, that these people have problems too, but Facebook is like television - it just puts the best foot forward, so we're always depressed that our lives don't look the same. I'm tired of seeing everyone's fabulous vacation photos. I'm tired of seeing friend cliques brag about their fun parties and get-togethers. But I draw the line when my daughter's so called friends only go places so they can take photos and post them for everyone to be jealous about.

UGH!!!!!

"All of life is a near-death experience." - Alan Harris

Today I had the privilege to hear a very inspirational speaker at a luncheon for the Red Cross. It was Dave Sanderson, the last person out of the "Miracle on the Hudson" US Airways jet. As he spoke, there wasn't a dry eye in the (very full) room and we realized there was a lot more to the story than what the media relayed. At every step in his story, there was a new "miracle," and Dave said that as soon as he started relaying the story, the more it has helped others in building their faith. To hear this man tell the story, blow by blow, you felt like you were there, reliving it with him, and it would have been terrifying. And, of course, the fact that only 2 were hospitalized (him being one of them) for only one night, and the rest were able to go home that night? Almost unbelievable... One of the things that struck me, was that each time he was in the worst part of the story, his mother's words would come to his mind. As a mother, this was certainly encouraging... And that now he feels like, with his second chance at life, he's not going to waste one moment. He's going to give the credit to God, because with a story like that, there's no other conclusion you can come to. And he knows this is his mission - to tell people about the goodness of God through telling this story.

That's how I feel now, after being healed of my breast cancer. I know I'm on borrowed time. I, too, can see the sands going through the hour glass, and want to make each moment count. I want to help people. I want to make a difference. Like Dave, God has blessed me with talents and abilities that I want to use for Him.

Every day my prayer is, "Send me, Lord! Send me!"

"Time marches on..."

Say it ain't so!! The daytime soap opera, "All My Children," has been cancelled. Granted I haven't watched it since I was in college, but just knowing it was still on and that Erica Kane (Susan Lucci) was still villainous (is that a word?) in Pine Valley was so comforting. When I was a student at the University of Texas in the 70's, my whole sorority house planned our schedules around AMC (and lunch, since they were at the same time.) We would rush back to all have lunch together at the sorority house, so we could all make our funny comments. There were over 30 girls crammed in a room, eating, gossiping, and watching this soap opera. Oh the estrogen!! Good times... (of course SOME day you graduate and head out to a job and real life, but it was fun while it lasted.) But somehow knowing Erica Kane was still out there, being her B_tchy self, was reassuring that I wasnt' getting older. SHE sure wasn't. Susan Lucci is in her 60's but still looks fabulous (and tiny.) Lucky... Ugh... I JUST don't want to be reminded that I'm getting older and that things are changing. For instance, a few months ago, Fox ran an anniversary show for Geraldo Rivera. I never really thought much about him over the years, but just seeing the old hair styles and all the life experiences, brought tears to my eyes. And so it is with this. All good things come to an end. Time marches on.

Dammmmmmittttttttt.

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

Can I tell you something about me? I am all about the truth, all of the truth. Years ago I played church and found it to be empty, and hypocritical. I walked away. I threw out the "baby with the bath." And I rebelled. For a long time. I'm not going to go through the entire story, but suffice to say, I want the truth and nothing but the truth. And so the church I attend now believes in the Bible, the entire Bible and they don't cherry pick what they like and leave out the part they don't like.

I say this to preface what I'm about to post. I believe there are prophets because the Bible said there are prophets, and that didn't stop when Jesus left the planet. It says Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. And none of the gifts stopped either. I'm not turning my blog into a religious one - no, I just want to say that I do read prophecies, and they are accurate.

On the Elijah List, there was a prophecy by Kim Clement on April 4, 2007 at Bethel Church in Redding, CA.( If you want to google, "Kim Clement prophecy April 4, 2007) you can read it too.

Here is an excerpt from that prophecy:

"I am God and you have called to Me, and many from this Nation have said, 'Enough--enough of religion and enough of dead speech.'" The Spirit of God said, "This is a moment of resurrection." For the Spirit of God says, "Honor Me with your praise and acceptance of this that I say to you. This that shall take place shall be the most unusual thing, a transfiguration, a going into the marketplace if you wish, and into the news media. Where Time Magazine will have no choice but to say what I want them to say; Newsweek what I want them to say; and The View, what I want to say."

"Trump shall become a trumpet," says the Lord! "I will raise up the Trump to become a trumpet and Bill Gates to open up the gate of a financial realm for the Church," says the Spirit of the Living God!

Just thought this was an interesting thing to share...

"Hell to pay...

Next week is Holy Week, and if you're a practicing Christian, then this is the holiest week of the year as we celebrate God sending His only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins and save us from eternal death.

Then you have people like Stephani Germanotta, a.k.a. Lady Gaga, who gets blasphemous (to me) and plays Mary Magdalene in her new video to 'Judas.' In the video, she witnesses a crime, falls in love with a black Jesus figure and ends up saving the person wrongly accused of the crime. Phoenix civil rights groups Chicanos Unidos Arizona, Take Back Aztlan and Nuestros Reconquistos are condemning her for exploiting the Catholic religion again. But then again she went to the same Catholic school that Paris Hilton did, so she must have an ax to grind like Madonna Ciccone did.

Some day she, like all of us, will meet our Maker face to face and account for every thought and action we've had. Will she point her finger at Him and say, "I don't believe in you!"

Stephani needs to remember that God says in His word that some day, "EVERY knee shall bow and EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord..."

"Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices."

News tonight says that Japan's experts are considering raising the nuclear accident severity to the highest level of 7, up from 5. That would put it at the same level of the Chernobyl disaster...

Why is nothing surprising me lately?? I knew after looking at that distressed nuclear plant, that they were never going to get it under control. There was just way too much damage... And you're dealing with the most dangerous substance on the planet.

My brother and I were talking yesterday, and he told me that a few years ago radioactive auto parts were sent to the U.S. and it wasn't discovered until they were already in vehicles. Then they had to go destroy all of them, so he says this could happen with the auto parts coming from Japan.

I don't know... it's all overwhelming. It's hard enough to rebuild after the gynormous earthquake, but then to have the worst tsunami in my lifetime that followed soon after, and then the nuclear incident that still hasn't been resolved... It's tragic. It's catastrophic for Japan, but we're all effected. The car industry... the car parts industry... the electronics industry...ugh. I still think, though, that we can get through natural disasters, but it's the man-made ones that really stump us.

I don't care what anyone says -- nuclear power is NOT worth the risk. Ever...

"Life is partly what we make it, and partly what is made by the friends we choose." - Tennessee Williams

DD had a sleepover last night with all of these girls at our house!!

"Too cool for school"

Just saw a cable commercial about how most of the Western countries (and others as well) now beat the United States with students in math and science. All I can think of is, what a shame... What a shame that this country spends a ton of money on each child, and we stink at teaching our children the two most important subjects. Those stupid teachers in Wisconsin could hardly teach their students how to read, yet want all the benefits. With the rest of us, we lose our jobs if we don't meet our goals, but not them...

Too, the kids these days don't think math and science are any "fun." They all want to be pop stars or rap stars. They want to stay in school until they are 25 or 30 years old. They want to win the lottery. But they don't want to go to a job for 40 hours a week.... As I've blogged before,

in my day kids would say finding a cure for cancer as one of the most respectable jobs, but you never hear that anymore...

Most kids these days are spoiled. They have entitlement issues. They have watched all the sitcoms, and think life's problems will be solved in 30 - 60 minutes. (It's why here in Texas we have illegal Mexicans who will do the work that no one else wants to do. Go to any restaurant here and see who the bottle washers are. They aren't the legals, I can tell you that.)

Who's fault is it? Well, the parents for not teaching them the right thing to do, but most of the parents work all day and are tired when they finally do see their children. It's also the teachers, who are also spoiled, and want to keep their cushy jobs but not give it their all. At the private school I just withdrew my 8th grader from, all of her teachers this year are very nice but they didn't teach. They have an A/B schedule, meaning that you have one set of classes on an A day, and the other set of classes of B days, each for an hour and a half. DD would come home complaining that they weren't teaching during that time, but just were talking about their personal lives for the first hour, and then they had free time the last 30 minutes. They didn't even assign much homework at all. DD even asked each of them, could they learn the subject, but each time the teachers got offended, yet still wouldn't teach and continued talking about their personal problems. And the coaches? They had their jock favorites, and were trying to be these kid's friends instead of coach/teacher. DD's home room coach/teacher was in her 20's and acted like she was a member of DD's bully's posse (who also happens to be their star girl jock.) But no one was teaching...

Now that she's in public school, she is enrolled in AP classes (advanced placement) but had to catch up. Seems the public schools at least put their best teachers in the AP classes, but the other classes have all others. Yes, it's no surprise to me that American kids are scoring poorly on math and science.

It's no one's priority...