My porcelain doll making days were over when I left California. I guess I was still a little in the doll making mood because shortly after we came here I made these two cloth dolls. The picture below was taken in our back yard. Her wool yarn hair was part of a sweater that I bought in Greece years before. I had remodeled the sweater and had some left over so I unraveled it. I thought it made great hair.

Before & After

I was looking through old photos the other day and ran across this picture of our kitchen that I took right after we moved in over 18 years ago. I think we’ve made a lot of improvements over the years. The house was brand new then, but it looks better now.

The first thing I remember doing to the kitchen was putting knobs on the drawers and doors. My husband liked the cabinets the way they were, but I finally convinced him it would be better to have handles. About that time I made the stained glass to put in the highlight over the sink. Having the cabinets painted and glass put in some of the doors was a big improvement.

The most recent improvement was taking out the white ceramic tile and putting in a stone floor and backsplash above the counter tops. We’ve also replaced the dishwasher, stove, microwave and faucet. We don’t have any other changes planned, but may have to replace the dishwasher again. It’s about the same age as the first one was when it had to be replaced. There’s always something wearing out. I think right now the main thing that is wearing out is me. By the way, the "after" picture is my banner picture.

Several people have asked how my knee is doing. I had five knee injections (each one a week apart). I had the last one over a week ago. The doctor said it could take up to a month after the last injection for it to do what it's suppose to do. Right now it isn't any better than it was before I started the injections and I am not very optimistic that it is going to work. We'll see.

As a followup to my prayer request of yesterday, I received this e-mail today from Dorothy.

Thank you for caring. I have had lymphedema in my right leg since 1991. My regular Dr. wanted to see if he could find out why. He ordered a CT scan of my abdomen and pelvic. He didn't find anything that would be causing the lymph., but by doing the scan he found the mass on my kidney. The Providence of God!
I will keep you posted. Thanks for all the prayers.
Love, Dorothy

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

I just now received an e-mail from my friend Dorothy. If you read my January 29th post, you will know that she has been my friend since high school. Here is what her e-mail said:

Just wanted to let you know that I will be having my right kidney removed on April 3, at 7:30 pm. in Murfreesboro. Looking for something else, they found a mass on my right kidney. They say it isn't fast growing and seems to be contained. I pray such is the case. I believe that everything will go okay, but I need all the prayers I can get.
Remember me, Love, Dorothy

My husband and I are praying for her, of course, and we would like to have anyone who may read this to add their prayers for a successful surgery and recovery. I know many will be praying for her and please pray for her husband Vernon and the rest of her family at this trying time.

Charlotte

Another Food Item

Never thought I'd ever go to my refrigerator and take a picture that could potentially be seen around the world, but here it is - the top shelf. On this day there were only three of them there, but sometimes there is almost a dozen. No, I'm not talking about the eggs. I'm talking about Yoplait yogurt. I eat one of these almost every day. Key Lime Pie is my favorite, although when I'm eating Lemon Burst I think that is my favorite. The berry ones are very good too. Actually, they're all good.

I promise, this will be my last food post for awhile. Tomorrow it's our kitchen makeover. Hope you'll come back to visit.

Almonds Every Morning

Yesterday it was dark chocolate. Today it is almonds. Almost every morning, after my shredded wheat, I watch TV while I drink two cups of coffee and eat a handful of these almonds. The almonds also come from Trader Joe's. I use to buy the large bags of almonds at Costco, but decided the ones at Trader Joe's were better although they are a little more expensive.

Dark Chocolate

I usually post something on my blog early each morning. This morning I wasn't inspired to write about anything, so I went back downstairs and told my husband I didn't think I would post anything today. This would be the first day since I started that I didn't do a new post. We were watching the news on TV and a commercial came on where the woman was talking about dark chocolate. My husband said, "You could write about dark chocolate". Great idea!!! The pictures at the top are my stash of Trader Joe's dark chocolate. You may wonder why I have so much of it. For a while they were out of this brand and I had to try other chocolate bars. None of the others were as good as these, so now when I go to Trader Joe's I pick up several bars. They're packaged in threes.

You will notice the one with the square missing. This is the way I eat it, one square at a time. Although -- I do cheat a little and sometimes take two or three squares. I've heard dark chocolate is good for you.

A Prayer of Remembrance

I have been doing so much reminiscing since I started writing this blog that the following prayer by Ken Gire in his book Windows of the Soul seemed appropriate. It’s called A Prayer for Remembrance.

Help me, O God

To understand that when objects in the rear-view mirror appear

larger than they are,
they appear that way not to intimidate me
but to get my attention.
Help me to understand that those images looming in my memory
are just trying to get me to stop, turn around, and go back to my past,
to pick up something that’s back there,
something that is essential for the journey I am on,
something I need if I am to go on any farther.
Help me to remember the love I have received along the way,
and to be remembered for the love I have given.
Help me to understand how short that journey is,
and slow me down so I don’t pass any of it by.
And if you grant me the grace of a long life,
grant me the greater grace
to always remember who I am
and who it is that loves me . . .

DANCING

No, it’s not dancing with the stars. It’s dancing with my cousin. (the same one holding the football in the picture in my last post.) He was 11 years old. I was 10 when these pictures were taken at one of our dance recitals. I did enjoy tap dancing but got tired of practicing and going to class so I quit shortly after these pictures were taken. Jerry continued with a new partner for awhile.

Tap dancing was a big thing back in the 40s. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers may have had something to do with that.

OK It’s back to dolls again. This is my Jeannie Walker doll, (a Madam Alexander doll) that I got for Christmas in 1942. This was never one of my favorites. I was partial to baby dolls. I do think it’s neat that I have a picture of me holding the doll right after I got it. I’m wondering why the Christmas tree was outside. Maybe to take pictures. They didn’t have flash bulbs. That’s my cousin Jerry holding the football. My mother always said this picture should win some kind of award. How many people have a picture of themselves at Christmas with their finger in their nose. But then again how many people would want a picture like that.

As I said, this was never one of my favorite dolls, I don’t know how it is that I ended up keeping it all these years. It even still has the original dress on. Anyway, I’m glad now that I kept it. Man, that doll is 65 years old. If it was a person it could be getting social security.

It’s funny the things I do remember. I remember that the outfit I had on in the picture my Mom ordered for me and when it arrived it was too small. I wore it anyway. I remember a lot of things that happened years ago. Now if I could just remember yesterday.

My Blue Pot

In yesterday’s blog, Ginger http://enchantingcottage.blogspot.com/ wrote about my blue Martha Stewart pot. So I decided today I would write about it.

Of course there’s a story behind it. Isn’t there always a story behind everything? Anyway, here’s the story about the blue pot.

I saw one on display at a Macy’s store – in fact I saw it on display at two different Macy’s stores. I thought they were really pretty and I had been wanting an enamel coated cast iron pot that size. So, I looked at them at both stores for a long time, and finally walked away without purchasing one. They were on sale for half price too. I thought, I’ve got a birthday coming up, maybe I’ll ask for one for my birthday.

So when my daughter asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her I wanted a Martha Stewart blue pot. When she went to get one at Macy’s they told her they were all out of them. In fact, there weren’t any in any store in Arizona. I guess Martha Stewart had featured them on one of her TV shows, and every woman in Arizona had to have one. Well, I had already wanted the pot, but when I found out they were unavailable, I wanted it twice as bad. I thought, “Why didn’t I buy one when they were available which I almost did.”

Anyway, I got something else from my daughter for my birthday, a gift card from Sur la Table which I was very happy with. Sometime later, my dear husband, knowing how much I wanted the pot, called around to all of the Macy's stores in the area to see if they had one. Macy's is the only store that carries that line of Martha Stewart stuff. He finally found one at a distant store. We went there and purchased the pot. I'm glad he was with me to carry it to the car. It was quite heavy.

The blue pot that Ginger bought is really pretty. She got it at a great bargain price. If you haven’t read her story, click on http://enchantingcottage.blogspot.com/ to read it.

MARY

I venture into other areas of writing, but always seem to come back to dolls. I have so many dolls to write about, but this one isn’t about one of my dolls. It’s about a doll that belongs to my daughter.

Way back before I ever dreamed of making porcelain dolls, I made this doll for my daughter. I made it for her for Christmas when she was seven years old. She still has the doll and thinks it was one of the best Christmas presents she ever got. She named her Mary.

My Aunt Ruth made a life size rag doll for me when I was about 10 years old. It was beautiful. She made one like it for one of my cousins. Boy, I wish I still had that doll. I don’t remember what I did with it. I probably thought I had outgrown dolls and got rid of it. I didn’t realize that I never would truly outgrow dolls. My all time very favorite doll was a Sparkle Plenty doll that I got for Christmas one year. Actually it was the last doll I would receive for Christmas. Younger people than I will have no idea what a Sparkle Plenty doll was. It was all the rage back in 1947. It had what was called “magic skin” and yellow yarn hair. My parents and I drove all the way to Long Beach to a Bullocks store to buy it. After we brought it home, it was put up in the closet until Christmas. I talked my Mom into letting me look at it a couple of times before I got to have it for good. I did love that doll.

Books, Books and More Books

When I first started writing my blog, I mentioned that my doll room was one of my favorite rooms. This bookcase is in another one of my favorite rooms -- the room where we spend most of our time -- the family room.

My husband loves books. When we moved to our last church over 18 years ago, the preacher's office had beautiful bookcases, which would have probably been fine for most pastors, but there wasn't nearly enough room for his collection. So, the church built more bookcases for him. When we were thinking about retiring a big question was, "Where will we put all the books." So we had a bookcase built on one whole wall in our family room. A whole bunch more books are in our home office where I'm sitting right now. There are books everywhere. Guess what he got for Christmas? Among other things, he got about 5 more books. One thing for sure, we'll never run out of something to read.

Today I ponder – who will be our next president. I’ve been following the debates, news about candidates, etc. for weeks now. Who will I vote for. I have considered not voting at all since I’m really not thrilled with the choices we have. I think this would not be right though. When I think about who would be better on the war on terror, I say McCain without a doubt. I’m not sure the other side fully understands what we’re up against in this war with Islamic extremists. Can you sit down and make nice with people whose goal in life is to wipe you off the face of the earth? Do they hate us because they don’t understand us and we need to be nice and they will like us? NO. They hate us because they DO understand us. They think they are doing the will of God when they kill us.

Another big thing with me is who will appoint judges who will be on the side of keeping God out of our lives as much as they can. Liberal judges have already taken God out of the schools. In some schools the word prayer can’t even be mentioned. Not an actual prayer, but just the word prayer. If they could take the words that are engraved on the capital building off I’m sure they would do it. They are probably trying to figure out a way to do that already. Any day now they will take the words In God We Trust off of our currency. The liberals want to make this a completely secular country. They are succeeding at an alarming rate as far as I am concerned. I believe this will be the destruction of America if the trend isn’t reversed.

I don’t usually write a very long blog, because I think people’s attention span is short. Maybe I’m thinking of my attention span but I don’t think I’m too different in that respect from others. But I got carried away with writing today. This is such an important thing. The direction our country takes depends in large part upon how we vote. I believe every Christian should pray that God will show them who they should vote for. In the end, it is God’s choice that I want to see in the White House whether it's my choice or not.

A Prayer

The following prayer is from Ken Gire's book Windows of the Soul.

A Prayer for Understanding

Help me, God,

To realize it is in being crippled that I learn to cling, and in limping that I learn to lean,

that victory comes not in how courageously I struggle

but in how completely I surrender,

and that this is how I am to grow,

by being defeated,

decisively

by constantly greater things.

Help me to understand that Your power is perfected in weakness,

so that when I am rendered weak,

You are given the opportunity to be shown strong.

Help me to understand, too,

that "more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of,

for so the whole round earth is every way

bound in gold chains about the feet of God..."

Windows of the Soul

Nannykim left a comment on last Sunday’s blog where I talked about this wonderful book that I had discovered. It has been around for over a decade, but I just started reading it.

Nannykim’s comment was: “Well, what’s it about.”
It’s a book that is hard to describe what it’s about so I looked it up online. I got this picture there and the following description..

Are you straining to hear the still, small voice of God through the noise of your life? In this insightful book, Gire reminds us that God whispers to us through the ordinary experiences of our lives---music, laughter, the beauty of creation, even tears---to get our attention and to nourish our souls. 208 pages, hardcover from Zondervan.

This is a much better description of the book than I could give. I'm still reading it. There are a lot of inspirational stories in there.

Show & Tell

Valentines Day is over, but I’m still thinking hearts. Last week I talked about the pretty tins that Brighton jewelry comes in so today I decided to feature some jewelry. Here are two bracelets, two necklaces, two pair of earrings and a ring. (You can’t see it very well, but I have a Brighton belt on in the header picture.) I’ve been collecting Brighton jewelry for about ten years, maybe longer. I got Brighton for birthdays, Mother’s Days, anniversaries, Christmases, and other special occasions. I hardly ever wear any other kind of jewelry now. I have two Brighton necklaces with crosses. I guess they’re my favorites, but I like the hearts awfully well too. Maybe I should be a salesman for Brighton. I'm certainly sold on it. Of course, if gold jewelry is your thing, and not silver, you probably wouldn't like it.

Nannykim asked me what the book was about that I wrote about in last Sunday’s blog. Tomorrow I’ll answer that question.

My Valentine Sweetheart

This is my Valentine Sweetheart.

We will celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary in July.

Here we are in the “get away” car after the wedding.

We celebrated last Valentines Day at a resort in Sedona. We wanted to go somewhere special this year, but my knee still won't allow for much walking and anywhere you go there is quite a lot of walking involved. Maybe next year.

Another Horse

Yes, I sold the horse I won and bought a camera, but there would be another horse in my life.

This horse was a palomino that I named Pam. When I graduated from high school, we immediately moved to Colorado. My Dad had gone ahead and rented a house and bought me a horse. I really didn’t know anything about horses, but I thought it would be nice to have one and to learn to ride, which I never did. I think my Dad wanted the horse more than I did. I really wasn’t a horse person as you can probably tell by this picture. I’m not getting too close to it. We moved back to California in less than a year and my horse days were over. The horse stayed in Colorado.

From a Horse to a Camera

When I was in high school back in Oklahoma, there was a roller skating rink way out in the country called Lost Bridge. I went round and round at that skating rink probably thousands of times to the sounds of Hank Williams, Hank Thompson, Hank Snow and other country artists. (The Hanks come to mind.) We use to go there almost every night. I doubt seriously if it is there now. It has been over 50 years. There are probably houses, apartments or businesses where it stood.

Anyway, that was where I won a horse. No, it wasn’t for my skating ability, but because I had the winning ticket. I kept the horse for a few months and ended up selling it to the little brother of one of my uncles that lived about 85 miles from us. I sold the horse for $50.00. I used about half of it to purchase the Brownie Hawkeye camera. I don’t remember what I did with the rest of the money, but that camera was a good investment. $50.00 doesn’t seem like much for a horse, but this was way back in 1953.

Here is a picture of me and my little cousin Linda on the horse. By the way, the horse's name was Baby.

I just realized today marks one month of blogging. I posted my first one on January 12. What fun I've had and how great it has been to meet so many fellow bloggers.

Cameras and Horses

Photography has been one of my hobbies since I was 15 years old. That’s when I got my first camera – a Brownie Hawkeye. (It looked just like this picture.) So you’re probably wondering about the title of this posting. How do horses picture into this thing. Actually it wasn’t horses, it was one horse. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow, and post a picture of me and the horse.

Back to cameras, that little Brownie Hawkeye was the only camera I had for several years. After I had been married about 6 years, I convinced my husband that we really needed to get a better camera. So, we got an Agfa. It wasn’t a very expensive camera but it was a lot better than the Brownie Hawkeye. And you could take slides with it. So the next several years we took lots and lots of slides. We had another inexpensive camera after that one. Then in 1985 I got a really good 35mm Cannon camera. Then I was really in business. That camera still takes wonderful pictures, but it is awfully big and bulky and you have to buy film for it. So a few years ago, I bought my first digital camera. I’m now on my third digital camera. Boy digital cameras are the only way to go.

Now, are you curious about the horse? I hope so. Be sure to come back tomorrow to hear the rest of the story.

Something Less Frivolous

Since today is Sunday, it seems like a good time to write about something more important than dolls and tins and such.

Yesterday after doing my blog I went downstairs and looked for a good book to start reading. We have a whole wall covered with a bookcase full of books. Choosing one is always a daunting task. I picked out a book that I remembered my husband had talked about years ago as being one of his favorite books. I had never really looked at it before, but decided to now. The name of the book is Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire. I had not expected the reaction I had to the reading of the first chapter. No. I didn’t start with chapter 1. I scanned through the book and it looked like one that you could start just about anywhere so I started with page 64. When I finished reading that chapter, it took a long time for the lump in my throat and the tears in my eyes to go away. If you have access to this book, I would definitely recommend it. You might even consider buying it. I think it could be life-changing.

Tomorrow I will be writing about something more frivolous again but I won’t stop reading this book.

Violet Eyes

I decided to go back to my dolls today and talk about Elizabeth. I found some beautiful violet eyes at a doll show. I didn’t have a doll for them, but I bought them anyway because I liked them so well. I figured I’d decide later how to use them. I ended up putting them in this doll and named her Elizabeth, or Liz. (The pictures don’t do justice to the color of her eyes.) I just took this picture of her. As soon as I saw it on the computer screen I noticed that her hat had slipped a little. Too much trouble to do it again, so this will have to do. I also made the shoes she has on. The other picture is one with her coat and cap on. She doesn’t wear this much in Arizona. In fact, she hasn’t had it on in over 18 years.
P.S. To see more of the dolls I made, scroll all the way to the bottom of my blog to see a scrapbook.

Show & Tell

Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, my thoughts have turned to hearts. I love hearts. I have quite a lot of Brighton jewelry. Almost all their jewelry includes hearts in some fashion. When you buy their jewelry, they always put it in a darling little heart shaped tin. I had a whole bunch of these little tins that I gave away. I kept a few. I’ve been trying to think of ways to use them. The first thing I thought of was a good place to store straight pins and safety pins. Button boxes is a good idea. I just put them on my vanity dresser to look pretty. I bought the round pink tin at a garage sale several years ago because I thought it was pretty. I wonder what it contained when it was new. My best bet is CHOCOLATES. I display it in my doll room.

A Blessing from Ginger

Thank you, Ginger, for giving me this blessing. You have been a blessing to me as well.
Here is the way this Tag works.

The idea…it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friends. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose .

Since I have not been blogging very long I don't know very many other bloggers very well. So many of the blogs I have visited have been so interesting and inspiring that it is very hard to chose three. Many I considered giving the blessing to had already received it from someone else. Here is the final three I decided on.

1. Joyce from The Secret Gardner
2. Barbara from Ramblings from an English Garden
3. Lisa at A Thing for Roses

I would also like to give a blessing to everyone that visits my blog.

Sad Eye Joe

Before I write anything else, I want to acknowledge the terrible storms that hit our country last night. I hope none of my blogging buddies was affected in any way. But whether they were or not, it was a horrible thing and I am praying for them.
Also, I wish to offer my condolences to all those whose candidates did not win last night. I am included in that group. Oh, my candidate won some, but not enough.

OK. It’s back to the Berry Farm as it was in the old days. One of the most popular things there was ol’ Sad Eye Joe. Here’s his picture that I found in my old scrapbook. He wasn’t real, obviously, but when you went by the jail where he was and looked in, he would talk to you. He always knew something personal about you – where you were from, who you were visiting, and he would make other remarks that would make you wonder, “How in the world did he know that?” It took a while to figure out that someone in your party had gone ahead of the group (someone in the know) and paid at a front office to give him a list of questions. It was fun to see the puzzled look on their faces whenever relatives or friends would come to town that had never been there before. Boy, it didn’t take much to amuse us in those days.

My favorite thing there was the little chapel. You would go in, sit down, and the lights would go out. Then these doors would open revealing a life size picture of Jesus. It started out with his eyes closed, and with a change of lighting, his eyes opened during a description of him. This was pre-Disneyland and all the animation that was later invented. Here is a little hand-held version that I have kept all these years and recently scanned into the computer.
And then there was Disneyland. The first time I went there was in 1955, the year it opened. I’ll have to talk about that sometime in the future. I love to reminisce about Disneyland.

Another New Blogger

I had intended to write about Sad Eye Joe at Ghost Town today, but just found out that an old friend has started a blog and I wanted to write about that. So, ol’ Joe will just have to wait.

Connie moved here about the same time that we did in 1989. She and her husband lived about a mile from our house. Her husband passed away several years ago, but we continued to see Connie “all the time.” Connie sang in the choir as did I, so I saw her every week at rehearsal and we were in the same Sunday School class.

Connie’s blog is called Down on the Farm. http://www.downonthefarminmarana.blogspot.com/
She now lives in Marana which is in the desert close to Tucson. You wonder: “How can anyone farm in the desert.” It’s a challenge, but Connie is up to that challenge. I know you will enjoy her blog. She is a fun person. When she lived here she had parties in her back yard by the pool every Friday night for awhile. Her theme was Party Party Party. They were good clean parties, and no alcohol was ever served.

Blogging is contagious. I caught it from Ginger. Connie caught it from me. I’m sure Connie will inspire others to join in the fun.

Knott's Berry Farm

If you’ve been to Disneyland, and who hasn’t, you have probably also been to Knott’s Berry Farm. When people visit southern California, these are on the top of their list of places to go.

The first time I went to Knott’s, back in the 1940s, it was called Knott’s Berry Farm and Ghost Town. Can you believe it was all absolutely FREE, even parking. In fact, it was all free in the early 50s as well. It was such a fun place to go. As far as I’m concerned, they destroyed it when they started changing it into another Six Flags kind of place. Now it costs as much to go there as it does to go to Disneyland. Of course, I was just a kid in the 40s and my cousin who was a year older than I convinced me that there was a rocking chair on a porch there that rocked by itself. He was always trying to convince me of some wild story. He was the one that told me there wasn’t a Santa Claus. Of course I didn’t believe him and it made me very angry. (That's him, that's Jerry, in the covered wagon behind me in the picture.) I'm the one in the middle.

Yes, I loved that place in the “old days”, but now the only thing there I care about seeing is Virginia’s Gift Shop, and maybe eating at the chicken restaurant.
Here is a picture made in their “Pitcher Gallery” in about 1945 or 46. The girl in back on the left is now Ginger’s mother-in-law. Ginger, of course, is the Ginger of “Enchanting Cottage”. The younger girls on each side of me are cousins.

The other picture made there, the one on the horse, is me in the front, and my best friend Irene behind me. This one was made in about 1949.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about “Sad Eye Joe”, one of the favorite attractions in Ghost Town.

Super Bowl Sunday

Well, here it is - Super Bowl Sunday, which doesn't mean a whole lot to me because I'm not that much into football. This year is a little more interesting to me though because it is close to us. Glendale is about 45 minutes away. One of the teams, I think it's the Giants, is staying at a resort about five minutes from our house. My husband will be watching every minute of the game. I may watch a few minutes.

Church this morning was wonderful as usual. I can't imagine starting a week off without going to praise and worship God.

I've been reminscing a lot lately. I guess it happens when you get to be my age. I was thinking about Knott's Berry Farm and how it use to be in the "old days." Think I'll write about that tomorrow - maybe.

The Dancing Bear

When traveling on the roads in India, you never know what you might run across. (A friend who had been there commented that traveling on the roads in India is like a near death experience.) I think that is a good description. On our journey from New Delhi to the Taj Mahal we saw this dancing bear and his handler by the side of the road. Of course we stopped. After taking this picture and observing the bear for awhile, I started to get into the back seat of the car. I didn’t know the bear was going to follow me in. This may be the most scared I’ve ever been. The handler backed him out when Sharon gave him some more rupies. I never was so relieved. I even started breathing again.

By A Banyan Tree in India

Since my last two blogs have been about Leah, I decided to continue with this theme.

This is a picture of Sharon (one of the missionaries at KKH), Eisha, me and Leah by a large Banyan tree in India. They say these trees are only in India and Hawaii. I had my picture taken by a huge one that filled a whole city block in Hawaii in 1987. I'll post it sometime in the future.

We had just had lunch with Eisha and her husband, Ravi and they took us on a tour around the area. Leah gave me the outfit I have on. She also gave me two other outfits.

I've heard that Sharon is back in the U.S. and will be speaking at our former church so am looking forward to seeing her again.