The Life of Mrs. Miles

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Enjoy my ready-made half-blossom png – or cut out your own using the template included. If you are using Photoshop, you can easily recolor the center circle in two ways. First, you select the center circle layer, then go up to layer, adjustments, then choose hue/saturation. Once this dialogue box opens then 'tick' the box which says colorize. Once you've done this, play around with the sliders until you get the exact color and shade you desire. Alternately, you could, making sure you have the circle layer selected, look down on the bottom of your layers pallette, and choose fx (the letter f in a little black circle) Choose 'color overlay' and click in the red color which will be the default. Find the color you are looking for, then pull the opacity slider over until you have the circle looking the way you desire! Feel free to ask me questions if my instructions are not clear!

Welcome to a brand new week!

Barb's Accident Scene

(click to view larger!)

I've woken up bright and refreshed and looking forward to being victorious over Blogger today. I'm determined to share my tales with you and won't be taking no for an answer! Firstly, I'm going to share an amazing tale with you. A while ago, in the summer – just after my sister Nina's visit, in fact, I wrote about an accident which happened just outside Keremeos. We'd just had lunch and were about to head home when we heard emergency sirens and I asked Miles if we might investigate – perhaps there might be a news story in the making. We followed the sirens out of town – quite a ways out of town, in fact. It was a miserable day – the kind I'm sure had my sister questioning if she were home on the rainy coast. After driving for a good 15 minutes we arrived at the scene of the accident. It was a grim site – a vehicle had gone right over a HUGE embankment, all the way down to the the river bottom, landing in a pool. It looked impossible that anyone could have survived. In the cold, wet, driving rain the emergency response workers worked cautiously and calmly to do a check of the vehicle to check for people and to begin the process of retrieving it.

Honestly, I felt so odd taking the photos – I'd never want to profit on someone's tragedy, but at the same time I felt the photos would be newsworthy. I was unaware if the driver or passengers had survived this horrific accident and I prayed I was not documenting a fatality. It wasn't until later that I, thankfully, learned on the news segment on the local station, that the driver (the only person in the car that day) was OK. She'd suffered injuries, but she was (miraculously) OK.

So why am I reviving this story? I'm telling it to you again because an awesome thing has happened. This blog happened. I've been amazed at how the Lord has used my blog to do some incredible things – and this is one of them.

Amazing she walked away alive!

(click to view larger)

It turns out that Barb (really – same name as me!) who was the driver of that vehicle that fateful day, was searching the internet recently - and 'happened' upon my blog. I can only imagine what would have gone through her mind when she discovered that not only had I witnessed her accident, but that I also had taken the news photos of it. Apparently she'd contacted the local tv station, but they did not have the photos to give her, so it was unbelievable that she found me! Here's the good news. Barb is OK. In her own words (and with her permission)

“Thank you for the pictures. It really was amazing for me to see the accident from that point of view. I knew it was bad, but didn't realize how incredibly lucky I was. I mean, I know I was lucky, but this put a whole new perspective on it. I was beginning to feel as if I had maybe imagines the seriousness of it, and thought I should be over this by now, but seeing the pictures made me realize I have every right to work through this traumatic experience on my own time. The pictures do help though. Gives me clarity and somehow closure too. There were so many wonderful people who helped me and who I have found again to thank personally, and now I thank you too.”

“ I really was fortunate to basically 'walk' away with only a compound fracture of my left wrist and head trauma. This past week I just underwent surgery for my left thumb. They had to replace the tendon which had ruptured in the accident. So now I sit again with a cast for 6 weeks. But if that's all that I have to deal with physically, then I thank God every day for saving me and giving me this chance to continue my life and be there for my kids, my boyfriend and his daughter. It's what I live for. They are who I live for.”

Thank you for allowing me to share your story, Barb. I'm praying for healing for you – both in your heart and in your body. I've been blogging recently about being thankful for things in my life – I'm so thankful that I was able to be of help for you in this situation. I can't imagine how the photos make you feel – but I'm betting your current days are certainly more precious in their 'normalness'... excitement like this must give an entire different perspective on life. I'm counting my readers might pray for you and your family too.

So – since I'm on the subject of vehicles, travel etc... I'll continue on and share the story I was TRYING to publish the other day when Blogger robbed me.

When we went to the coast for Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take Highway 20 in Washington State for a nice change of scenery. We left plenty early in the morning somewhere edging towards 9, hoping to arrive at Mom's in the mid afternoon, figuring we would stop along the way to eat and take lots of photos. Well, it was a comedy of errors from the getgo. Firstly, we travelled all the way down the highway to Brewster where we gassed up before turning off to head west – when we could have turned off several miles back. Then, we drove over to Winthrop – a quaint western-themed town. We stopped a mile or so out, then reconsidered and turned back to the town to eat, figuring it would be too far to the next town and we would be too hungry and mess up our having dinner with the folks (they had promised to keep it for us)

So, we got back to Winthrop with the intent to eat there when I discovered that we'd forgotten the gas cap – yep, waaayyyyyyy back at Brewster. This has happened to us before on vacations. (hold your advice please – we've been here before and KNOW better LOL!) In the past we have always been fortunate enough to get our original cap back, but one time we did try to stick a 'generic' cap on in place to make do until we got our own. Well, they just don't fit. So, we knew we HAD to head back to Brewster, or worry constantly for the coming days while we ran around with an open tank. We could have phoned them back and had them hold it for us, but hey, we figured it was our consequence so we headed back. We took a wrong turn on the way back. The turn we should have been on in the first place, on our way here. Sigh. It took a few miles to realize we were not seeing any familiar landmarks, in fact I'm SURE we didn't see that pyramid shaped glass greenhouse on the first time thru. Oh MY. Add an extra 4 hours onto our trip – had us arrive at the folks at 8 pm. Thank goodness we at least got a few good pics! Plus, we had a pretty good meal at a Mexican restaurant in Brewster...

But we made it safe and sound – and had a wonderful time with family – so I'm thankful for this too.

I meant to share this idea with you all a while ago – but things kept getting in the way... so today's the day. When the apples were being picked locally, I got the hankering to make a big fat pie. We had guests coming for dinner and I'd planned a simple meal – homemade soup, bread and a pie. Comfort food. Well, my artistic side took over in the midst of the upper crust and I wound up getting creative on it. You may be wondering how I achieved this look? Its simple – just use jelly powder! Mine is not so neat and tidy because of being a first attempt, but it still looks pretty? I would suggest if you're to try this that you would make a stencil first (out of paper or cardboard) – or better yet, use a cookie cutter. Place the cookie cutter over the area you want to color, then sprinkle the powder over it. I would love to see what you do with this idea!







I declare this “Grumpy, Frowny People won't get to me Week! Right, Cis? We can't change those 'ol grumpusses, but we can make our own place a nicer one! Your blog is making me HUNGRY, Cis - thats a mighty good looking home-bakery item you've got yourself there - along WITH THE RECIPE .... mmmmm

Laugh a little – sing a little
As you go on your way!
Work a little – play a little,
Do this every day!

Give a little – take a little
Never mind a frown -
Make your smile a welcomed thing
All around the town!

Laugh a little – love a little,
Skies are always blue!
Every cloud has its silver linings,
But it's up to you!

Today in History:

1581 - Commissioned by Catherine De Medici, the "Ballet Comique de la Reine" was staged in Paris. A spectacle of dancing, this is often considered to be the first major ballet.

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte landed on the Island of St. Helena, where he had been sent into exile by the British after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

1860 - Grace Bedell, age 11, wrote to Abraham Lincoln with a request, grow a beard and she would try to get her four brothers to vote for him as president. In November, Lincoln won the election, then he grew a beard.

1892 - The United States government made the Crow Indians relinquish 1.8 million acres of their reservation for 50 cents per acre. A presidential proclamation, opened the land in the mountain area of western Montana to settlers.

1901 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first fishing magazine in the United States was published. It was called "American Angler".

1905 - Joining the other United States citizens that didn't want women to vote, President Grover Cleveland wrote an article for "Ladies Home Journal". The president said, "We all know how much further women go than men in their social rivalries and jealousies... sensible and responsible women do not want to vote." Cleveland wins our vote for the dumbest man to ever be president of the United States, he is also one of least remembered men to hold the office.

1931 - In New York, the production of "Cat and the Fiddle" opened for the first of its 395 performances.

1932 - The War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California became the first municipally-owned opera palace. The first opera performed there was "Tosca".

1951 - The immensely-popular comedy series, I Love Lucy, starring husband-and-wife team Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, aired for the first time on national television on CBS.

1964 - At age 73, Cole Porter, renowned lyricist and composer, died. Porter was responsible for classics like "I’ve Got You Under My Skin" and hundreds of others that crossed all musical style and format boundaries.

1984 - If you had a credit card, you could use the first public telephones on airplanes. Twenty flights offered phone service fort the low cost of $7.50 for a three-minute call, $1.25 for each additional minute anywhere in the United States.

1987 - Queen Elizabeth accepted the end of more than a century of British sovereignty over Fiji, expressing sadness at the military takeover of power in the South Pacific nation.

1993 - African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and South African President F.W. de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to end apartheid and lay the foundations for a democratic South Africa.

Barb's Handy Tip #312

I am WOMAN - I can D.I.Y!

Geared towards empowering women to do-it-yourself,

this website is chock-full of great advice!

BEJANE