In Hot Water

Every time my husband is gone away from home for an extended time a "home crisis" occurs. Once the freezer in garage went out. I came home to discover blood running down my driveway from the unthawed meat! Gross! The list of these type of "trials" could go on and on.

As I said in my last post, my husband is in Milwaukee being a Harley biker. I'm tucked away writing the manuscript for my next book. Everything is calm and quiet. Until I trot out to the garage to get myself a diet Pepsi. Stop! Wait! Water is running through the garage and and down the driveway. Oh, great! The hot water heater ruptured--now I have no hot water and a soggy garage. Oh, well. What did Peter say?

"I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine (1 Peter 1:6,7 MSG)."

Okey, dokey! I will rejoice in the streams of hot water until the plumber arrives. Now what did I go into the garage for anyway?

A Harley Hog's Wife

My guy's a Harley guy. I love him dearly, but a two week motorcycle trip across country is a bit much for me.

My husband is off on a two week motorcycle trip with one of his buddies to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (We live in Las Vegas.) So for the next couple of weeks, I am watching chick flicks, staying up late, sleeping in late, plus eating all kinds of girly type of foods.

However, I can't wait to be serving meat and potatoes to my man again. I miss him a ton.

On another note, I was asked about my thoughts on The Shack. I did blog about it a couple of months ago. I just listened to the audio version of the The Shack. My personal opinion is the book is much better than the audio version. The audio version sounded amateurish.

All right, I am signing off. I have a movie to watch.

My Little Boy Blue

On Saturady we celebrated my grandson, Michael's first birthday. I wondered how the year past so quickly.

Grandmommy Barb and I reminisced about what we were doing a year ago. (Waiting anxiously for baby to arrive.) We were allowed the honor and privilege of being in the delivery room. Now a year later we sat together and celebrated his life of one year.

The exceptionally talented, in all areas, Grandmommy Barb created the monkey cake.

Times flies! Enjoy your family.

Nightmare Comes True--But Results in a Bargain

My biggest phobia is anything than crawls with six or eight legs. Just the thought of insects and spiders almost cause me to experience anxiety attack. My nightmares consist of bugs scampering across my sheets and onto my skin. I awake brushing "things" off of me and my husband, Mark, shakes to me reality "Susanne! There are no bugs"

So, I was in a store the other day considering a new computer case. I held it. I opened zippered pockets. I sniffed the new leather. I opened the bag wide to inspect its depth. Unfortunately, I disturb a very large, ink black cricket. It leapt onto my hand and twitched itself awake.

I screamed! I jerked! I danced as if I was on hot coals. I threw the bag.

The store clerk almost died of fright, too. (Not from the cricket, but by my frantic antics). She apologized repeatedly. Although she was jittery about insects too, she gallantly swept it out the door. Again, she apologized profusely.

My pounding heart slowed to a regular beat. I apologized for my over reaction to the critter.

We both stood looking at each other with embarrassment. Finally, I broke the awkward silence.

"Uh, I'll take the computer case," I said.

She responded with, "Well, I am giving you a twenty-five percent discount, for this unfortunate incident.

A nightmare come true--a bargain--I am still trying to figure out if was worth it.

Older than Dirt

Hey, I am back! I have to tell you that my dear friend Lysa has the best blog. I have laughed and thought to myself, "My goodness she has a funny life!"

Well, I guess I need to revisit my own daily life.

Recently I went to Myrtle Beach with four of my dearest friends. We ate tons of seafood, sat on the beach, laughed, shopped and decided to get a henna tattoo. Four of us headed into a store front that advertised henna tattoos. We trounced into the store to be greeted by a guy who had more body piercings than I have pores. We smiled. He scowled.

"We would like to get henna tattoos," I said.

"We're out of paint." he said.

"Out of paint?"

"Yeah, go across the street to the beach store," and he turned his back to us.

Hmmm. . . maybe he didn't want to mess with four very out of place women who were looking for a little adventure.

So we trotted across the street to the beachware shop. Still smiling, "We would like to get a henna tattoo, please."

"We don't do henna tattoos here, but there's a place down the street. Let me give you directions," said a very nice young man in his twenties.

He gave us the name and detailed instructions on how to drive there. As I listened, it didn't seem to me hat it was very far away.

"How far is it? Could we walk?" I asked.

His face turned serious and he reviewed each one of us closely.

"It's about a block and half away. Y'all look like you're in fairly good shape. You might be able to walk it."


Did I hear him right? Did he think that we "old" ladies might not be able to walk a block and half? I did hear him and he was serious. We thanked him and left somewhat deflated in our adventure.

We toddled off to the next store where we all finally got our little old lady type of tattoo and felt quite young as we sported our henna trophy back to our beach cottage for the night. It was about 7:00 pm. Hmmm . . .

In Faith,

Birds of Feather or Otherwise

I have two dear friends, Margaret and Debby, who are book lovers like myself. Now that doesn't mean that we always like the same books, but it so fun to share our thoughts on each book. Both of my friends are now reading Three Cups of Tea. I am excited to hear their opinion on the book.



My stepmom raved and raved about a book titled, The Patron Saint of Liars. I read it, but I haven't called her yet to tell her that I didn't care for it at all. Now, I am not sure why I didn't like it, maybe the story of mothers given their children up for adoption, hit too close to home for me. (When I was forty-five I found out I had a full-fledged brother who was only 11 months older than I am. He was given up for adoption by my parents--it was a well kept secret for 45 years. ) Maybe I just didn't like the story line--it didn't come to any crisis point. I kept thinking to myself "And so . . ." Or perhaps I just didn't understand the author's intent. Anyway, I need to call my stepmom and let her know. No go--on The Patron Saint of Liars.



I tried to read Crime and Clutter a Christian mystery. I couldn't make it to the second chapter. It didn't grab me, and for me not to finish a bood is very unsual. But I just can't couldn't make myself read it.



Right now, I am between books. Let me know if you know another great summer read. I am going to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with five of my birds of feather friends and would love to have a excellent book to tote to the beach.

Books, Theology, etc.

Wow! Lots of comments on some of my past blogs. Amy asked about being responsible to our call and our to biblical accuracy in writing.


Absolutely! As I write and speak the verse from James 3:1, " Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly" comes to mind. YIKES!

I always work to be doctrinally sound and within the context of the Scripture of the verses I am using. However, I think our own personalities will show throughout the writing. I think of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John they all wrote through their own experiences and personalities guided by the Holy Spirit.

I am currently working through a revision for one of my books. The editor was out-sourced from the publishing house. (Meaning she's not on staff, but contracted to edit). As I read through her comments, the one thing I find is that we "view" our Lord God very differently. Does that make either one us of right or wrong? No, but our life experiences, our churches, and our personalities tend to influence our writing. Does Andy Stanley write like Charles Spurgeon? Does Beth Moore speak like Nancy Leigh DeMoss? No. However, they all try to the best of their abilities to stay scripturally accurate.

All that to say no matter what we do for Jesus, let's make sure we are doing our best for Him.

Comments?