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Heaven is For Real

This is the story of an almost four year old who visits heaven and how he describes it. He has emergency surgery and as far as his stats are concerned, does not die on the table, but he visits heaven. One statement at a time he reveals what he saw when he was there. He starts out with the statement, "I liked it when the angels sang to me". He knows things that he has no way of knowing, he describes things that are backed up by biblical verses and he sits on Jesus' lap. Imagine that!

This book is a quick read, but it really gets you thinking. I have personally always believed in God, Jesus and Heaven, but this takes it from a "faith" concept to a "reality" one.

I liked it a lot and as a christian consider it a confirmation of our beliefs and an uplifting book. 4 stars.

Hell's Corner

This is what I would call an action thriller. Unfortunately, I did not like it as much as I have like previous books by David Baldacci with the character Oliver Stone a.k.a. John Carr, former government agent. It just wasn't that exciting. I would give it 3 stars.

Willliam Shakespeare - You know more than you think!

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. (taken from Wikipedia)

^{Learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare}

He has had a lasting influence on the spoken English language. A lot of the sayings we throw into our daily language can be contributed to Mr. Shakespeare.

Here is a list of common expressions that we use in everyday life, that were first written by Mr. Shakespeare.

The ones I have heard of and used often are in bold. You may have a different list, but I'm sure you have used many that are listed below.

A countenance more in sorrow than in anger

A Daniel come to judgment

A dish fit for the gods

A fool’s paradise

A foregone conclusion

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!

A ministering angel shall my sister be

A plague on both your houses

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

A sea change

A sorry sight

A tower of strength

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio

All corners of the world

All one to me

All that glitters is not gold / All that glisters is not gold

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players

All’s well that ends well

An eye-sore

An ill-favoured thing sir, but mine own

And shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school

And thereby hangs a tale

As cold as any stone

As dead as a doornail

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods

As good luck would have it

As merry as the day is long

As white as driven snow

At one fell swoop

Ay, there’s the rub

Bag and baggage

Bated breath

Beast with two backs

Beware the ides of March

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks

Breathe one’s last

Brevity is the soul of wit

Budge an inch

Cold comfort

Come full circle

Come the three corners of the world in arms

Come what may

Comparisons are odorous

Conscience does make cowards of us all

Cowards die many times before their deaths

Crack of doom

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war

Dash to pieces

Dead as a doornail

Death by inches

Discretion is the better part of valour

Dish fit for the gods

Dog will have its day

Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble

Eaten me out of house and home

Elbow room

Et tu, Brute

Even at the turning of the tide

Every inch a king

Exceedingly well read

Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog

Fair play

Fancy free

Fatal vision

Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man

Fight fire with fire

For ever and a day

Foul play

Frailty, thy name is woman

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears

Full of sound and fury

Get thee to a nunnery

Give the devil his due

Good men and true

Good night, ladies

Good riddance

Green eyed monster

Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings

He will give the Devil his due

Heart’s content

High time

His beard was as white as snow

Hoist by your own petard

Hold a candle to

Hot-blooded

Household words

How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child

I bear a charmed life

I have not slept one wink

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips

I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

If music be the food of love, play on

In a pickle

In my heart of hearts

In my mind’s eye

In stitches

In the twinkling of an eye

Into thin air

Is this a dagger which I see before me?

It beggar’d all description

It is meat and drink to me

It smells to heaven

It was Greek to me

It’s a wise father that knows his own child

Kill … with kindness

Knock, knock! Who’s there?

Laughing-stock

Lay it on with a trowel

Lean and hungry look

Let slip the dogs of war

Lie low

Like the Dickens

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Love is blind

Make your hair stand on end

Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water

Milk of human kindness

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows

More fool you

More honoured in the breach than in the observance

More in sorrow than in anger

More sinned against than sinning

Much Ado about Nothing

Mum’s the word

Murder most foul

My own flesh and blood

My salad days

Neither a borrower nor a lender be

Night owl

No more cakes and ale?

Not a mouse stirring

Now is the winter of our discontent

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo

O, Brave new world

Off with his head

Oh, that way madness lies

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more

One fell swoop

One that loved not wisely, but too well

Out of the jaws of death

Out, damned spot!

Parting is such sweet sorrow

Play fast and loose

Pomp and Circumstance

Pound of flesh

Primrose path

Rhyme nor reason

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything

Screw your courage to the sticking place

Send him packing

Set your teeth on edge

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Sharper than a serpent’s tooth

Short and the long of It

Short shrift

Shuffle off this mortal coil

Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em

Something in the wind

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Sorry sight

Spotless reputation

Star crossed lovers

Stiffen the sinews

Stony hearted

Stood on ceremonies

Strange bedfellows

Such stuff as dreams are made on

Sweets to the sweet

The be-all and the end-all

The better part of valour is discretion

The course of true love never did run smooth

The crack of doom

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose

The Devil incarnate

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers

The game is afoot

The game is up

The lady doth protest too much, methinks

The naked truth

The play’s the thing

The quality of mercy is not strained

The Queen’s English

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on

The working day world

The world’s mine oyster

There is a tide in the affairs of men

There’s method in my madness

Thereby hangs a tale

This is the short and the long of it

This is very midsummer madness

This precious stone set in the silver sea, this sceptered isle

This was the noblest Roman of them all

Though this be madness, yet there is method in it

Throw cold water on it

Thus far into the bowels of the land

Tis neither here nor there

To be or not to be, that is the question

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily

To make a virtue of necessity

To sleep: perchance to dream

To thine own self be true

Too much of a good thing

Truth will out

Under the greenwood tree

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown

Unkindest cut of all

Up in arms

Vanish into thin air

We are such stuff as dreams are made on

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers

We have seen better days

Wear my heart on my sleeve

What a piece of work is a man

What the dickens

What’s done is done

What’s in a name?

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions

Where the bee sucks, there suck I

While you live, tell truth and shame the Devil!

Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure

Wild goose chase

Woe is me

Pulp Fashion- The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave

This is Isabelle de Borchgrave. She has a new exhibit at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco. She has created beautiful dresses out of paper from famous paintings. I LOVE paper, I can't wait to see this. The Handsome Husband says he is not interested - oh, but I am. I'm obsessed with it and I'm not quite sure why. I always love all the paper decorations at Anthropologie and paper goods for parties. Why? I don't know, I've always been fascinated by paper mache. It looks so easy, but it isn't. It's the artist that sees the form and can make it come to life. I just don't have it, but I really appreciate it.
Here is her team painstakingly painting the fabric pattern to be used on the dress below.

Which is taken from the painting below.

"Elenora di Toledo with Her Son Giovanni "

(ca. 1545) by Agnolo Bronzino, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florance

Here are a couple more dresses to interest you.

Elizabeth I court dress (above), 2001, inspired by a ca. 1599 portrait by

the studio of Nicholas Hilliard at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire.

(Photo: Andreas von Einsiedel)

The attention to detail is meticulous.

So, I'm planning a day trip to San Francisco to see this exhibit. Seriously!

The Social Network

Last night, we finally watched The Social Network. It is the movie that tells the story of the inception, development and aftermath of facebook. Very interesting. I can tell you that after I watched it, I seriously wanted to close my facebook account. It would be like living without a phone. I use it personally to see what my kids are up to in college and what my friends are doing. I'm on it at least 3 times a day. It is addictive.

I couldn't believe how arrogant, selfish and socially inept Mark Zuckerberg was. Supposedly, it is a true to life account. The part of the movie that really stuck with me was when Mark screwed his only real friend, Eduardo, out of his shares of the company. During the deposition, Eduardo looked at Mark and said, "I was your only friend. You got one friend". All the other people who jumped on the bandwagon after facebook's success, were taken care of in the company, but his only friend and initial investor, who spent his own money so Mark could achieve his goal, was Sh#* on. I have no respect for Mark Zuckerberg at all. He was portrayed as a smartass, disrepectful, arrogant and moral less.

So, that brings me to the Oscars. I have seen 7 out of the 10 movies up for an Oscar. Usually, I have seen 1 out of the five. I have seen: Black Swan, Toy Story 3, True Grit, The Social Network, The King's Speech and The Fighter. My favorites are: Toy Story 3, The King's Speech and The Fighter. I'm excited that an animated, feel good movie is up for an Oscar. So this year, I'm feeling a little more "in the know" about the nominations for The Oscars. I might even watch them. I never have watched them all the way through. The stars' speeches bore me, but I like to see what they are wearing.

Catching up on the Birthdays

In Jan. we celebrated Delaney's birthday. Some of her friends came over. We had chicken artichoke pizza, played a HILARIOUS game of celebrity and enjoyed a homemade, german chocolate cake (made by the Handsome Husband).

You might notice a piece is missing? We were having so much fun playing celebrity that the time got away from us. Those who had to work the next day announced they had to leave. We quickly started to dish out the cake, but wait, we forgot to sing happy birthday! At least only one piece was dished out before we caught our mistake.

She hates to be the focus of all the attention, but she is getting better at it. She is happy and that makes me happy.

In Feb. we celebrated Katie's 21st birthday. We had to wait for her birthday celebration at college to be over. She celebrated with various friends and activities from Thursday night through Sunday night. It was finally our turn on Monday. She chose this cherry blossom theme. (I had a hard time putting this tablescape together for some reason. I never felt that I got it right.)

While we waited for the Beef Stroganoff to finish (her choice 4 years in a row), they all watched The Hangover.

We then sang Happy Birthday and she loved it. (She loves being the center of attention).

We made lemon bars and had sparkler "21" candles. She doesn't like frosting that much and since I made the cupcakes for all her college friends, she wanted something different.

These were the cupcakes I made for her college party. I couldn't really get a good picture for some reason. I added white sprinkles later.

I ordered the little toppers from my friend Katy Larson. She does a beautiful job making all kinds of birthday and holiday paper goods. Click here for her blog. It is very inexpensive and she does a terrific job.

And finally a picture of the birthday girl living it up.

This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!

My friend posted this Bible verse on facebook this morning and it made me happy when I saw it. I did some morning chores and then I stepped outside into the glorious sunshine and this beautiful day. I can't complain about our weather. Look at that sky. So blue, so big, and the clouds, so fluffy! Truly this is God's handiwork.

It was really warm for a couple of weeks, then we had rain yesterday and rain is forecast for tomorrow and a couple more days after. But today, it is BEAUTIFUL.

I'm headed outside to sit on my patio and read some of my favorite magazines. Life:Beautiful, a wonderful Christian magazine. It comes out every quarter and it is filled with interesting articles about walking in the Christian faith, fun family ideas, recipes and beautiful images.

I'm not from The South (although my grandmother was), but I should be. I seem to have so much in common with these women and their traditions. I'm from Southern California, does that count? I look forward to the middle of the month when I receive these two magazines.

I can't wait to go from cover to cover. First quickly so I can satisfy my curiosity, then slowly so I can savor each word and picture. These magazines also have tablescapes in them which I stare at and soak up the details. Recipes from my childhood and interesting places to visit in the South. I even like the ads. My So. Cal magazines just want to give me another recipe for Salsa and exercises I can do at my desk - blah!

David Austin Roses

This is the a new David Austin Rose named Anne Boleyn that I just ordered. I love Peonies, but since they don't grow well here in So Cal, I've purchased this beautiful rose. I think it kind of looks like a Peonie. It has a slight fragrance too. I love to garden, but unfortunately, I'm not very good at it.
This is a David Austin rose called William Shakespeare that I have had in my back yard for at least 7 years. It does very well, blooms year round. I love the deep, rich color. I wish I had more space to plant all the beautiful flowers that I love. All the David Austin roses are so beautiful, it was so hard to pick just one.

Happy Valentine's Day!