St. Louis Meatball Sandwich.... "a hot mess"!!

I've learned a couple of things while living amongst the St. Louis West County-ers  ..... one is that you know "the Hill" serves "legit italian" fare here in West County and it is very special.   My neighbor tells a story of going into a restaurant on "the Hill" one day, he heard a pop....pop... and looked toward the hustling and shuffling men's dress shoes sound that was connected to the popping and he realized that he had just heard a "hit" go down as the car screetched away........ I asked him what he did and he just said plainly, and like the question was crazy, "I proceeded inside to get a table and ordered lunch....?  why? "  Need I say more?    I happen to make a pretty "legit" St. Louis Meatball Sandwich and it is pictured above.... BAMB!

Cooking over the holidays.....

Hopefully this looks good to you..... It's local organic (st. louis) White Bean and Chicken Chili with Corn Fritters, Tupelo Honey and Sweet Iced Tea...  that is the sort of stuff that I'm making the family to eat over the holidays.  This is only important because, as you all know, I've lost 115 pounds recently and I've discovered the secret to a) losing weight and b) keeping it off......  SOUPS!  and, healthy other stuff.  The other meals I will post as well in case anyone is really interested in what we are eating over here.  I've had a lot of personal questions with respect to what it is exactly that I eat now.  It's pretty obvious that whatever is going into our bodies needs to be EFFICIENT in it's energy and vitamin transfer.   As both a cook and a eater, soups are the answer for me and hopefully, you will be encouraged to try them as well.  Peace!

What do You see in a Sunset?

Last nite I saw this amazing sky with JD while driving to work.  It is often that he and I notice sunsets and cool clouds.  He tried to take a photo for me on his new phone and he hasn't yet even read the manual.  Out of a moving auto, I think he did great.  Unfortunately, there isn't a camera or anything that can equally depict the glory of God in the heavens above us on many a night.   4S!  So, last nite, a train (a super long and heavy train) decided to stop and linger for a good 10 minutes,  so I had plenty of time to truly take the sunset in and I prayed that the Lord would just help me to stop and take in whatever He wanted me to receive and here is what I observed:

I was drawn to the many colors above me in the sky.  The background sky was it's normal sky blue and layered over the top were these "cloud stripes" that most resembled the lines within a seashell.  Just stretching across the sky in these beautiful stripes of blue, and green, red, but most of all, PINK, and every aspect of the color of PINK - the salmon, the magenta, to put those together on a canvas would have an artist thrown out of art school.  Those colors absolutely do not make any sense together and yet, when God does it, it's just breathtakingly beautiful!  OMG!  I was truly in awe of God as an Artist in that moment.  The great artists like Monet, Van Gogh.... they appreciated color and were both known for mixing their own colors and I thought to myself, " That's the message, isn't it, God"?  He began to show me through the continuation of the sunset before me, that with time and the wind, those many clouds began to turn and run away, leaving others behind to try and hold down the design in the sky.  But their efforts were in vain, as the dispersal revealed that each of those clouds were gray in color.  All of them.  All that time, I realized that it was the LIGHT, and how the cloud RECEIVED the light, was what gave each the illusion that they possessed their own color.  The simple truth seemed to stun me.   I think that I am a colorful person, and I see all kinds, and love all kinds of colorful people.   It came as really no surprise that all along, I was seeing how they "reflected" God's light.   How cool is that?

Christmas Cookies are the Bomb.....

                             

I love Christmas Cookies.  The ones that have a touch of Anise are my favorite as my german grandmother used to make them.  In fact, as grandchildren, we had complete "open access" to any and all Christmas cookies for the entire holiday at her house!  That was the most wonderful news to hear each and every year as we lumbered up the driveway after our long drive.  To know that at any time, day or night, I could go get a Christmas cookie if I wanted one, at age 5 was just the best and I will absolutely do this for my grandchildren.  She baked like a 1,000 cookies to keep up with all of her grandchildren's greed.  She never once ran out of freshly decorated Christmas cookies and I was amazed at that.  We tried, believe me, to eat her dry of cookies.  The german in her wouldn't let her run out of cookies and disappoint her grandkids.  No way.  I miss Bertha's cookies more than I can tell you. 

JD loves Christmas cookies, too.  He's the one who insisted on taking this picture.  That really makes me smile.

I've really got to get a move on as it pertains to the many different kinds of cookies I intended to make this year. 

I made a breakfast thing that would be great on Christmas morning:  Take a large foil pan and slice a loaf of french bread into 3/4 inch slices.  Dip each slice of bread into egg/milk and place in the pan.  On each slice of bread place a dolip of creme cheese and a spoon full of raspberry jam and top with the other slice of bread to make a little sandwich.  Top the sandwiches with sliced almonds and cinammon, a little honey and melted butter.  Bake in 350 oven for about 50 minutes (the sandwiches should be only slightly brown) if you need to cover to keep from over browning, then cover by all means.  Serve with a side of protein as it is VERY, VERY sweet.  But, the family really enjoyed it!

More Merry Christmas!

Thankful Things

As I prepare for the holidays again this year, a few things strike me as different.  I am more thankful this year than I have ever been.  and for the right things, too.  Those of you who are reading this already know that I have been sans-family for a real long time.  Not my immediate family, Dirk, JD, Eden and Higgins, but the other blood relative family on my side.  For many years, the thought of holiday gatherings, sent me into such depression it wasn't even possible to describe.  Every holiday gathering I tried to participate in seemed so completely different than the ones that I grew up with.  Both good and bad differences, too.  Not having anyone to verify that, believe it or not, I WAS once a child has been, up until now, really hard for me.  Then it happened.  I just gave all of that despair away one day.  I just decided that for me to really gain an appreciation of God's grace to me - I needed to show grace to my own mother and just let it all go.

I picked up the phone and called Ramona the other day and gave her a gift of "good news" regarding myself and my family.  Basically, let her know that we were all healthy and happy.   Never mind how the conversation ended, what is important is how it began.... and it began with the giving and receiving of a precious gift - forgiveness.  

I am grateful that God showed me this valuable gift.  Forgiveness is given to those who wish to move forward.  

I am grateful for my husband.  I am grateful for all that he is to me in my eyes and in my heart.  He has always forgiven me anything and I will always offer to him my gratitude.   He is a Godly man and gives me many reasons to be thankful of my choice in him.  I am also very grateful that God saw fit to return to Dirk his medical so that he can once again bust bugs on his windshield!  The FAA returning his medical - the hugest thing to my husband!  Go God!  Go Dirk!


I am grateful for my son.  JD is a person that I desire to spend time with - any and all the time he is willing to share with me, that is.  I am so proud to know him and be his mother.   He is deep waters and that is where I feel the most at peace (in deep water).

I am grateful for my daughter.  Eden is such a joy to my soul!  Her common sense, her nature and her sense of "who she is" is all so amazing!  I love that she isn't impressed much.   People seem to try a bit harder in her presence as a result.  I respect who my daughter is and I will stand beside her in her life always wanting to be there.

I am grateful for my dog Higgins.  Don't laugh.  He is really a fantastic dog.  Above and beyond stuff over here with Higgins.  Best dog in the whole universe.

I am grateful for my mother-in-law.  Donna has given me the example of how a mother loves in all circumstances.   I am so thankful for her deep love for JD and Eden and the willingness to do whatever is needed to help us in our tiny family.  We wouldn't be us without Donna!  

I am thankful for my friends.  My happiness wouldn't be possible if not for the many many friends who help us raise our family.  It takes the love of many to raise a good and decent "one" believe me.  Thank you all for listening to my woes and laughing with us!  We all know how important it is to have people who love and support us!  Thank you all so much!

God Bless us All Please.   
Peace.
Sarah

My Ghostbusting Weekend with Mellie

OMG!  Mellie (she is a great friend from Cessna)  and I decided enough with all the economic B.S. - or the fact that Cessna now finds it too costly to arrange for us to get together, post 9-11 stuff and the fact that we are no longer a GREEN company so we planned a girl weekend in Kansas City to ghostbust over the Halloween weekend.  I know, kinda cheesy, but hey - we can have fun just giving ourselves facials so, at least, we would be promised out of the room!!  We checked into the Hotel Savoy and, according to A LOT of people, it's haunted.  Supposedly, room 505 or something a lady drowned herself in the bathtub.  A claw foot one, in fact.  So, checked into 545 and it was the most beautiful Victorian Suite with a claw foot bath in one bathroom - the other didn't have a tub.  and Stained Glass enclosed master bed with a sitting lounge and fireplace just lined and lined with great big huge enormous windows covered in lace.   Can you just see this place, it was nice.  The ceiling is like 11 ft it felt way the hell up.  A very luxurious place given the age of the place.  Built in like the 1850's and it has a bunch of history of being a Speak Easy and such with Gangsters.....

Melanie and I planned at 10:00 p.m. to attend the Missouri Paranormal Assoc.'s Haunted Tour being conducted at the John Warnall House close to the Plaza.  So, at 10:00 p.m. we drove up to quite the set up.  The Paranormal Society was taking $50.00 per person to let you be there during one of their routine "investigations" during which, a guy named Harvey would be called by telephone and he would then let us know if, any spirits were present with us that nite.  The house felt like really "nothing" was going on in there and it just seemed to get sillier and sillier and I, quite frankly, thought Harvey was a fake.  My reasons for thinking this are as follows:  When Rob (the Para. Soc. leader) asked Harvey if "Roma" (a spirit they thought they recognized) was associated in some way with the history of the house?  Harvey, began to say "ooohh   ahhhh Yes..... something is coming in ..... yes, Wilma is associated with the history of the Woernald House!"   I mean, that's it precisely!  So, the next room was Rob's new machine called the Spirit Box that was supposed to Seek Spirits wanting to talk to us by randomly stopping on various fm and am frequencies.  Picture yourself going down the road in your car and you hit the Seek button on the radio..... it jumps around and lands randomly on a station..... for a second and then it's off again...... well..   if a word jumped out like :stop:  Rob would say "did you hear that?  it said for us to stop" he doesn't like it when we do this........    okay.......  so Mellie and I said we had to pee and exited FOREVER!  tee hee!

Now the story gets a lot better.........

We drove back and it was like 1:30 a.m. or close to 2:00 a.m. and we were laughing about our most recent debacle feeling a little like Lucy and Ethel, we were laughing and clinging on to each other in the dark nite without much moon.  Walking into the Savoy that nite - I felt like someone was walking in with us.  Once back in the room, I told Mellie that I needed to go downstairs and smoke my goodnite cigarette and asked if she would mind and be "okay".  She said, of course, and so away I went down to the stairs out front where I smoked and saw not one human body on the street or in the hotel.  I walked back in and when I was approaching the elevator to push the button (which this elevator had always required prior to lumbering to me) the door dinged and opened sitting empty.  I was startled at the "automaticness" of this door and I snapped a photo of the empty elevator.  I felt the presence of a "lonely older lady and I also felt like she was wishing I would just go back and be fun again with my friend.  She made me feel as if having my friend was the most valuable thing she wanted.  I turned to the empty elevator and said "thanks for getting the elevator for me" and went back to having fun with Mellie that nite.  The Cardinals WON THE WORLD SERIES!  Yeah!  We had so much fun together and she and I will now have many reasons to continue our ghost busting adventures...... check out the face in the photo on the right in the picture that I took of the elevator that was completely EMPTY!

 

Observations of Marriage on my 26th Year Anniversary!

OBSERVATIONS OF MARRIAGE ON MY 26TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.....

 Let me be perfectly clear on this one thing.... I now don't believe that anyone can "really" say they have a marriage until they have remained married for at least 25 years.  I know, it seems harsh, but true none the less.  After 25 years together a really wonderful thing happened - we realized that we didn't irritate each other any more and let me tell you, that's a big honkin deal!!  We had, surprisingly, earned enough respect from one another that we stopped impeding each other's progress.  It has been a wonderful discovery in the middle of the most challenging year in our marriage.  Isn't that just God's sense of humor at work, yet again, in our lives.... hahaha  I love that so much about my relationship with the Lord.  He promised me early on that He would provide a Coat of Armor for my personal "battles" but, He also warned me that the Suit of Armor would look beat to absolute Hell once I was done with it, but I would survive if I kept it on.  So, far so good on that...  Marriage is much the same way.  Dirk and I decided when we made this union that God would be at the center of our relationship as He would always want us to remain united.  I'm so glad we did and are.  i believe that in many ways God gave our marriage a Coat of Armor as well.  It has felt that way at times.  I am very thankful to God for my husband and children.  They are my inspiration to continue to Press on toward the Goal of the Upward Call of God in Christ Jesus.  As I did 26 years ago, my sweet husband, I dedicate the next 50 years to our Lord God for Him to keep us safely nestled in His loving arms.  

Thanks to all who are actively supporting our little family with your care and concern, prayers and laughter.  We are very thankful for you. 

 Us

 Self Portrait - :)

 My Fly Boy

 Somewhere over Illinois....

 Ta Da - My dismount was a 10!

 Blurry photo taken by this girl :)

 Beautiful Sunset ending to a perfect day....

oops!  one more photo

My Most Perfect Day Thus Far

So, most of you all know about the stuff with Dirk's flying and it's been a huge honking ordeal around here for, like, a year now or something... Anyway, Saturday presented itself the most lovely of fall mornings - trees changing color just bursting with pride all over St. Louis and temperature was just pristine for outdoor activity and all day, Eden and Dirk were like two little honeybees.... just buzzing here together and buzzing there together and whenever I walked out to the driveway to see Dirk talking to a Russian "driver" about picking he and Eden up, I was more than a little curious about what in the world was going on.  So, it's about 4:30 p.m. and the day is slowly going away and it's time for me to take JD to work so we head off together.  On the way, I actually started to tear up because I was sure that Dirk wasn't gonna take me to see Styx or Journey or Foreigner (all bands that I love dearly) at the concert that evening which was promised to be under a night sky for the memory books.  Once we drove up to JD's work, I saw Dirk and Eden sitting in this little table outside nursing drinks, so I joined them.  I was wondering why they were there...... they certainly seem like they are in a very GOOD mood - Eden looks just like she swallowed a Canary! :)  After sitting at the table for like, 20 minutes, finally, they pulled me across the street to show me - sitting there all by herself - a custom 250 Vespa Vingage in Portafino Green with my name on it!!!!!! and a white bow!   OMG! OMG! OMG!  That's right, it's OCTOBER and I've been married for 27 years to Peter Pan.... so glad I did that!


I drove off at 5:00 and came home around 11:00 p.m. that nite under the stars was way more glorious with Styx, Journey, and Foreigner playing in my ears while riding up and all over the world!!  For me, the question of "why on Earth would a mother, a woman with common sense, put herself in such danger"?  It's simple, really, when I get on my Vespa (her name is Flo now - cause I want to Go with Flo)  You know that feeling right before you ...... climax? WELL THAT FEELING LASTS FOR THE ENTIRE RIDE!  Now do you understand?  My wonderful hubby and kids gave me the most fun and joyful toy i've ever had for my 27th Wedding Anniversary!  Dirk - you are still "the bomb" to me, honey, thank you so very, very much!!  I love you bigger even!  

 

Lovely cry picture - but what can I say.

Here is where I actually realized that it was indeed mine - hand on womb means it's a big deal...

 I can't feel my legs!

Best Day ever Lived thus Far!

Advice for Beginning a Marriage

I've got a couple of nieces that have just married two soldiers.  Wow!  Exciting times are ahead for them both.  I was wishing on a star about 3 months ago, that there would be a way for me to give them some very sound and solid Christian advice as it pertains to marriage.  As you already know, I've been married for 26 years (in a month 27) to the same guy and it has taken some work on both of our parts.  I really hated the people who would just scare the pants off of you when you were just starting out.  The ones who were like, "OMG! You're actually thinking about marriage?  Aren't you scared it's a mistake?"  oh, yeah, that's helpful, thanks!  Of course, we are all scared that we've made a mistake - at first.  That's just it.... it takes a lifetime to completely put someone's mind at ease that you aren't going away.  You have to have gone through some ugly days and nights stuff together and come out the other end of it in tact... together.... always working on learning your partner's responses to certain things.  How does he act when he is really stressed financially?  If the man needs some down time - give it to him.  It's never pleasant to enter the house that has a "huge attitude" like wallpaper in EVERY room.  Right?  So, be gentle, respectful when he comes home.  Dirk has to deal with my big wart:  I can honestly say that "avoidance" has helped me out on many occasions for a while anyway.... but, it's really not the best tactic as it has a tendency to "out itself" on it's own.  The greatest tool to have in your tool chest if you are suddenly going through a storm together is:  wait for it:     TACT.  If you have tact with your partner, then you can keep communicating.  Okay, that's the first Hints to Make your Marriage Stronger In fact, that's just what I'll call these posts.  So, guys, if you really want to know how to make it a lifetime of joyful memories - just punch into this place for my very best "at bat".  I love you bigger than all of the raindrops X 1,000,006!  Auntie Sarah

it all began 26 years ago in the nite sky....

somewhere between San Antonio and Austin, Texas in the cockpit of a Saratoga that Dirk had rented for our very first (blind) date and as I relaxed way back into my seat right there next to the pilot - my date - who seemed to NOT be killing us, I realized that life can be way more exciting than I was currently living it... on the ground, that is.  The sky is just so much better all the way around.  It feels so much safer for me to be in a cockpit next to Dirk than in bed at my grandmother's house.  That very nite he showed me that a simple change of perspective could alter my whole life as it did that moment.  I chose him on that nite to be my Peter Pan.  In loving him, I became Wendy.  Before the lights of Austin showed up... I asked Dirk that nite to explain to me if he was flying VFR or IFR and he said, VFR which meant to visually fly by visual headings, to which I immediately responded "sort of like 2nd Star to the Right and Straight on Till Morning?"  and, he smiled, and said, "exactly".  26 years later, he may be losing his aviation licenses.  I may never have the opportunity again to hang there in the nite sky next to him cradled by the stars just watching the world sleep.  I loved that even more than breathing...