THANKFUL!

Thanksgiving Day, 2014, a day of giving thanks.  But really, shouldn't each day and minute of the day be one for giving thanks?  Boy, do I miss that most days!

My family has already eaten the turkey last Sunday at The Girl's house.  It was a delicious turkey and meal with wonderful people and a memory not soon forgotten.  I will say The Girl and The Son-In-Law entertained in a mighty way.  I am happy that I will never worry about their ability to prepare good food to sustain them.    Delicious!

So for today, The Husband and I are having a day together.  I prepared a nice breakfast, we ate leftover lasagna for lunch and will feast on Grilled Salmon with Herb and Meyer Lemon Compound Butter (a Chef Anne Burrell recipe) for supper.  I chose salmon because the favorite grocery store had a sale and The Husband and I need to eat a boatload of fishy foods.

For the main event of the day, I find myself giving thanks with a grateful heart.   Material things we consider blessings when considering what to be thankful for, are really not the big deal.  It's those things of the heart that are most wonderful.  Not to forget those material things and be grateful, but especially not to forget the things that are "unseen".

So here goes.  I'll give it a try....thanks...

...for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has given grace, mercy, and salvation to me and who loves me all the time, even when I'm very unloveable.  And believe me, there are some days I am surely that.  Some days I don't even love me.  But He does.  Thanks....

....for my Savior's unseen hand that guides me through hard times gripping me tightly and "claps" with me through the easy, happy times of rejoicing.  Thanks....

...for the blessing of family.    What a wonderful one I have with The Husband, The Girl, The Son-in-Law, The Parents, The Sister and her Family, The Siblings and Families of The Husband's, The Church Family....the list goes on and on.  Thanks....

...for the blessing of friends, those old and those new.  The ones that maybe just passed through my life only a short time never to be heard of again, but touched me in a way that I will never be the same.  Thanks....

...for health, such as it is.  Medicines to control the pains, heating pads, English pea ice packs in the freezer, insulin pumps and sensors, insulin, glucose tablets, and doctors who have knowledge.  Thanks....

...for the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the easy and the hard.  Daily.  Thanks...

...for the comfort of a warm home, food on the table, clothes on my body, and all those material things I thought of and the ones I take for granted.  Thanks....

....for answered prayer.  Ahhh, what a big one this is!  So many answered prayers and not always the way I wanted them to be answered but the best way because the big guy way up there that controls my life knows best.  And isn't it great that He does?!  Thanks...

....for the sounds of children singing.  How I love the sounds of children singing!  "Dear Lord we vow to thank you for all the good you give.  For birds and trees, for skies and seas, the world in which we live.  Dear Lord we vow to thank you for family and friends.  For food and for your faithfulness, you love which never ends"...my very favorite of the church Thanksgiving songs!   Thanks...

...for so many more things to be thankful for, I could count all day long.  THANKS!

I trust the Lord knows my heart and the thankfulness it contains and gives to Him and Him alone.  As the scriptures say, "In EVERYTHING give thanks" so on this day I say again, Thanks for it ALL!

Amen!

NORTH

Last week The Husband took me on a trip.  We had planned for a couple of months after he told me to decide where I would like to go.  He said he would go anywhere I wanted.  Well, being the good wife I am, I felt I should choose somewhere he might enjoy as well so after much thought, I chose upstate New York and the Adirondacks, a place neither of us had explored.

We flew into Rochester and found a small airport.  I mean really small.  It was nice after the zoo in our own local airport.  We began driving toward the southern part of the Adirondacks to spend the night at the Herkimer Motel.  After getting a recommendation from the nice Northern motel attendants, we ate a nice supper, then came outside the restaurant to find the rain had begun.  The rain continued for a couple of days.  I'm not talking a little rain, but a lot of rain.

Many have asked about my pictures from the trip.  I seem to have this reputation among my friends that I can take good pictures.  I will say that I take a LOT of pictures and eventually get some keepers but really, I'm not a very scientific good photographer.  I do enjoy the effort, though.  Rain doesn't make for very good picture taking efforts.  In spite of the rain many days, I still got some I like so I will share.  You can learn about the trip as we go along.

As I said, we began the first two days with rain....and we actually ended the trip with rain....and had some rain in the middle, too....

We visited Lake Placid and spent a night there.  The 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid.  We took a wonderful tour at the Olympic Center.  Our tour guide was a gentleman who served on the Lake Placid Olympic committee from the beginning of the bidding process.  He had some wonderful inside stories for the two of us, the only two of us on the tour.  It turned into a private tour.  Nice.

The 1980 Olympics is the one where the USA beat Russia in ice hockey.  Who could forget that?  It was also the year Eric Heiden won the five gold medals in speed skating.  The hockey game somehow overshadowed the individual efforts of the five gold medalist in speed skating.  It should not have.  Eric Heiden also broke a world record and an Olympic record in addition to his five individual gold medals.  Quite a feat, I would say!

Here we are at the entrance to the hockey rink where the famed hockey game took place back in 1980.  Yes, I had on a long sleeved shirt, a fleece vest, AND a fleece jacket along with a scarf and gloves in my pocket.  It was cold...at one point 39 degrees with a windchill of 31 degrees.  Brrr.....

There was the 1932 figure skating rink where Sonja Henie won the women's figure skating medal.  Olympians still train there today.  The rink itself was quite smaller than the hockey one and had many, many fewer seats.

We saw the speed skating rink where Eric Heiden won his five gold medals.  It is immediately next door to the Olympic Center right in front of a building that looks very governmental.  Turned out that building is the high school there in Lake Placid.  It has been there for years and years.  The speed skating rink is still used today. 

After our tour ended we visited the museum housed on the lower level of the center.  While it was very small, there were many interesting things.  Here are a few....

We ate lunch, then drove out to the ski jump area which was actually closed for the day.  I was able to get some photos from across the street.  While it is localized in a very small area, it is very high as you can see from the pictures.

After that, we drove to the bobsled, luge, and cross country skiing areas.  Some young men were training on the bobsled for some tryouts that were coming up.  The Husband and I found a viewing area, listened for the starting horn and bobsled sounds and I got my camera ready.  The bobsleds were SOOOOO fast!  I actually had my camera ready about fourteen times before I got a bobsledder in the photo!  I have all fourteen pictures to prove it!   This area, too, is amazing.  The whole "Olympic" experience makes us look forward to the next Winter Olympics....kind of puts a different spin on watching.  Get it?  Skating...spin?  (Insert smile here.)

We found a lodge that made their own maple syrup and sold in their shop on the "honor system".

Unfortunately, Whiteface Mountain (the Olympic ski mountain) was closed also and with the clouds there, was fairly impossible to photograph so we drove on to Plattsburgh, an hour or so from the Canadian border.  (No, we did not go into Canada.  We are passport-less.  We stayed on our home turf).

The Husband's planned fishing day on the ever so large Lake Champlain was postponed for a day because of wind threats so we drove up to the border, took a look, then crossed into Vermont and drove a ways before taking the Lake Champlain ferry back into New York. 

Before we got to the ferry, the rain began yet again...and you can tell from these Vermont flags that the wind blew as well.  Brrr....

On the fishing trip, The Husband and his guide caught many smallmouth bass fish, a kind of fish he had never caught before.  Imagine that...with all his fishing experience and skills.  I was happy he had a fun day and success.  I spent a little shopping time, then a little motel resting time and had a fun time as well.

As we headed out to Cooperstown the next day, we saw many beautiful sights of color, water, and mountains....all with a blue sky! 

We saw loons, ducks, and beaver areas.

At Cooperstown,  we ate a supper of New York Style Pizza. Our meal the next day at a very small diner consisted of hamburgers--one a VERY jumbo burger.  Guess who ordered such?

We enjoyed seeing the sights of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The most memorable things I saw there were these....one is made out of baseball cards--front and back, the other two statues made completely out of wood.  AMAZING talent for sure.  

We visited the Farmers' Museum. 

I took a picture of this pig pen to remind us all the horrible shape the prodigal son got in before coming back home to his father....

It was their last open day of the year so they were giving free carousel rides.  The carousel was unique and had different animals and paintings of New York places.

Our trip neared it's end as we headed back toward the airport, stopping in Auburn (not of orange "War Eagle" fame) NY to spend the night.  That route showed us much beautiful farmland amidst more rainy skies. 

The next morning as we carried on toward the airport, we also had time to go north of the airport and get a glimpse of the windy Lake Ontario before returning our rented car and checking in.  It was REALLY cold there by that large body of water.

We arrived at the Rochester airport to more rain.  The landing at the airport back at home happened on the second try as wind was a factor.  Turbulence in the air is not my idea of a good time.  I don't like those kind of landings at all but all turned out well. 

The trip gave me many more photos.  Leaves were two weeks past their peak but still this beautiful....

For now, that's all folks!  Hope you enjoyed the "journal".