Happy Valentine's Day!

Can't let the day of "love" come and go without acknowledging how important it is...

I feel like Valentine's Day is a day of love, not just for sweethearts, but for each and every person we love in this life.  It gives us an opportunity to make sure we've passed on the love we have within us to those that share our lives.  Love encompasses so much... compassion, kindness, forgiveness, acknowledgement, laughter, thoughts, friendship, kinship and whatever it means to you! 

Being loved is just about the greatest asset we can have in this life.  But not just being loved, but in loving others.  A heart full of love soars!  I know love can hurt, too.  I've been there where I thought I'd never recover and to make it from one day to the next I had to push the pain to the deepest part of my heart.  Heart aches come in all different ways, too. Being disappointed by someone we love. The pain of a lost love is one that everyone thinks they will never recover from, but we do. To me the worst pain is that of a lost life. When someone we love is called home to Heaven it makes a scar on the heart that lasts a life time. Oh, with time we can push it further and further back, then one day a memory comes flooding in and the remembrance of that loss renews the pain.  Here come the tears! If you're like me I try to hide them 'cause everyone doesn't understand tears from years past.  We are just flesh and blood trying to live in this world and the greatest need is love!  ༺♥༻

So for this Valentine's Day I wish you LOVE!

Don't keep it for yourself...pass it on!

And for each of you a virtual hug!

(((((((❤)))))))

Oh, Danny Boy...

I wasn't going to get carried away and post personal stuff "quite so soon," but today is different. I just posted this to my Facebook wall and because posts there seem to disappear I thought I'd go ahead and post it here, too.  Hope everyone doesn't mind.

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(¸.•´ (¸.•`This date, February 12th, has meaning in my life. It would have been my only brother Danny's 65th birthday. He left this earthly life when he was but barely 21 years old way back in 1969. I've missed him. We fought like all siblings do growing up and I didn't always understand him. After all we barely made it to adults when he passed and he'd been in the Navy for 2 years. What I remember was his big heart. He loved our Dad in spite of his being a mean man. He always let me have the dime when I'd ask to trade telling him the nickle was bigger. He knew the difference. He wouldn't take messages when I was away and wanted to know if someone special had called, but would always tell me by bedtime. He got a BB Gun for Christmas one year. He and the neighbor boys promptly went out to shoot birds. Danny killed a robin. He brought it all the way home, put it in a box and buried it in a special place in the yard. For weeks I'd watch him get up early every morning before school, go out and stand at the spot he buried that robin and let tears slide down his cheeks. He'd be mad that I told this story. He wanted to be a man in everyone's eyes. I named my only son after him just 4 months before he passed. I'm thankful God let him know I loved him enough to want my son to carry his name. He's been gone a long time. It still hurts, some things we never get over. Today is his birthdate and I'm blessed to have been his sister. ༺♥༻

Ready, Set...Go!

     I've wanted to start a blog "forever" and intended to do it on January 1st this year, but here it is February 10th and I'm finally putting words on paper.  Each of you will have to be my editors and tell me when to go and when to stop because I love to write so I write too much! It's as though my brain is at the end of my finger tips because I get a keyboard under my fingers and the words won't stop!  If I post a picture that is copyrighted, please let me know and I'll remove it or add your link and required information.  It seems there are so many pictures online anymore it's hard to be sure if your using something you shouldn't and honestly, I just am not sure how one finds out.  So if anyone knows out there, please drop me a line with instructions!  The templates and little snippets of pictures I've used for my background are from the Graphics Fairy@ and Vintage Workshop@, so as soon as I figure out how to put their links on here I will.  I love their vintage graphics and use them on everything!  When Vintage Workshop offered greeting cards I was one of the card designers...I loved it!

     Well, this isn't much, but it's a beginning!  I'm exhausted just from reading instructions and trying to figure this all out!  I'm not even close to doing all this right! I'll take any suggestions that anyone wants to take the time to give!  Ideas, instructions, critiquing all accepted with an open heart!