WEDNESDAY'S WORD ON THURSDAY.

Why Me?

Sometimes when things go wrong, our first reaction is, "Why me?"  Others might say "Why not me?" Sometimes I wonder why we don't ask "Why me?" when really good things happen.  There is so much that is good and beautiful in our lives, but too often we would rather blame God than appreciate the good things He has given us.   

Job didn't exactly ask "Why me?" when all his troubles came upon him, but he certainly did complain.  Not that I blame him. Even so, when God answered him, I find it interesting that He first asked Job a series of questions.  The questions seem to be designed to point out that there are some things in life that we just can't know.  Not that there aren't any answers, but that we are not able to understand them in our present state or while we are on earth.  But in the bigger scheme of things there are answers.  To tell someone that they just have to trust God, may seem irritatingly simplistic, yet trust is a profound emotion.  To trust God no matter what, is a level of mature faith which Christians strive to achieve.

T IS FOR...

TROUBLE!


Oh dear I'm in Terrible Trouble!  I miscalculated.  I was sure it was 'S' this week and have been Tootling along under That Thought, forming my 'S' blog in ma Tete (head) and now here it is Tuesday evening and no 'T' blog ready.

So the above paragraph will be my entry, but since I missed 'S' and I have some good photos from our recent Trip I'm going to pretend that I didn't know the difference.

Speaking of 'difference', do you know the difference between a ship and a boat?   Well, without getting into a lot of semantics, a good general definition seems to be that ships carry boats, but a boat can't carry a ship.  To the purist there are other more technical reasons, but that should do us for now.

SO...here are two photos of our SHIP that  I was pleased with, (the MS Rotterdam).

Our Ship surrounded by boats!

Barry took this one.

A second cruise ship joined us here.  Ours is the smaller one and more elegant I think.

I took this photo.

The most obvious 'S' that occurred on our trip was SECURITY and we didn't even have to fly.

There was the utmost security everywhere we went, not just for us getting on and off the ship, but also all around us where ever we went.

Here is a sampling of security in every port  and shore cruise:

In the markets

On the pier

Accompanying the buses

Gun boats in the harbor!

On the pier again.

In the towns

Riot gear??

I have to admit, the last few were taken in Lima, Peru where unknown to us at the time, the President of Peru and the President of Brazil were meeting in the Presidential Palace. So those of us who went to take photos of the changing of the guard in Lima were met with more police presence in riot gear than we had bargained for.

All the same, the police presence was noticeably there wherever we went and after a while I began to wonder if they knew something we didn't!

Still it was nice to know the security was so good.

Next week I'll do it right, and do ABC WEDNESDAY with 'U'

WHAT WE SAW --

ANIMALS in the wild:

Capuchin Monkeys

 We saw these in Costa Rica. as we were about to board our boat for the Jungle River Cruise -- think Disneyland, only these animals were real.  The people at the hacienda put out fruit to attract the monkeys for we touristas.

 CROCODILES

Enlarge, to see the teeth. (Click twice) He was getting a little aggravated with us.  He did a beautiful swirl and submerged.

Big and fat! Probably 8-10 feet.

SLOTH

 Yes, that's moss growing on his back

Sloth swimming 

Up a tree!

Toucan

 Toucan flying

Parrots

CORMORANTS

The above photos were taken by our friend Miguel, a crew member who had a better camera than ours.  He kindly shared these with us.  

We saw all of the above in Costa Rica and Panama -- for me, the most exciting part of the trip.

The jungle river was beautiful.

The steamy mist rising out of the jungle just added to the atmosphere.  Yes, it was hot and wet.

NEXT UP... THE LETTER 'S' ON OUR MEMORABLE CRUISE 

in honor of ABC Wednesday.

We're Back !

WHERE WE'VE BEEN

We took the Incan Cruise on the Holland American Line's Rotterdam

We left from San Diego (Hooray-- no flying!) on October 23rd and arrived back November 22nd.

We visited several ports in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Peru.

Perfect weather!  Saw lots of things, did lots of things.  Great cruise!

We were among the youngest on board - imagine! Everything was outstanding -- food, weather, accommodations, tours.

Photos and details coming up.

So good to be back.  I've been peeking at the posts of all my blogging friends and now that we are out from under the major necessities of our return, I plan to start blogging again.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

N IS FOR...

...NOMENCLATURE


To be honest the first time I heard this word, I didn't know what it meant.  I'm not sure I am really clear on it now.  However, this word, NOMENCLATURE was applied by an editor of some repute to my TRUE story which follows:


My husband is a pastor and teacher and our last name is Jones.  When our first son was born and we were deciding what name to choose, my husband kept pushing for Martyn Lloyd, after a well known preacher, teacher and writer in England, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones.  I wouldn't agree because I didn't think it was fair to have a child try to live up to a name like that.  So we decided to go with our Welsh heritage and chose GLYN.


When our second son was born, we went through the same debate, but I still wouldn't agree.  So this time we chose the good Welsh name, OWEN.


A few years later when Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones retired from his pulpit at Westminster Chapel in London, his successor was appointed.




His  successor's name?  ...Rev. Glyn Owen!

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY!

This post is part of the challenge ABC WEDNESDAY hosted by Denise Nesbitt and friends.

Wednesday's Word on Tuesday.

I apologize.

I have removed this post because although what was said was true, it was not all said at the same time under the signature of Ben Stein.  It was a cut and paste job that was passed on to me.  If you read it, you will know that there was nothing subversive or disrespectful about it.  But to my mind, it's not completely honest for me to publish it as though it were a complete article written by Ben Stein.  Too bad.  But I am sorry for the mistake.

Another Happy Ending

From this:

...to this!

..

A month or so ago, some friends at church told me they were looking for a silver tabby kitten.  So when this one showed up at the shelter, I called them to come and take a look.  Of course they fell in love with her!  So since I have "visiting rights",  I went to see her yesterday.  She is looking wonderful!  Sleek, soft, glossy, silver fur and a ton of energy to go with it.  But she is already learning what she can do and not do (like biting or scratching furniture) and she is such an intelligent little thing. I don't know if she is the same kitten in the first picture, but she certainly has similar markings.  Her name is Junie, because she was born in June.

A LEAVE OF ABSENCE

At the end of this week I will be taking a leave of absence until after Thanksgiving.  I will miss you all.  Can't take the lap top with me, so I will have a lot of catching up to do when I get back.  Don't forget me.  I will be visiting and making comments this week and doing my last ABC Wednesday on Tuesday. Until then... Happy Blogging to you all!