DESERT STORM BOAT RACES

This is how we spent a few hours on Saturday...it was a beautiful, but windy day at the lake. It was fun watching the FAST/EXPENSIVE boats flying over the waves 'with the greatest of ease'. This is a big event for Lake Havasu and has brought lots of revenue to our city. Not that we had to pay to watch, that part of it was free, but we saw boats from all over...Montana, Oregon, Utah, Michigan, Canada, California...and on and on. These people "with lots of money" had to stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores bringing money to our fair city. These boats are easily in the hundreds of thousands of dollars-range! Tom and I watched them parade down the channel on Friday morning, so we got to see them up close. Very pretty but glad we could look and leave them to someone else to care for and to have all the expense and up-keep!

DESERT STORM BOAT RACES

DESERT STORM BOAT RACES

Lots of helicopter rattled above us and the boats, taking pictures, etc. There was even a "rescue swimmer" aboard the helicopter just in case there was an emergency on the water with these race boats! Daniel was "skipping rocks" while we waited for the boats to race. We watched one boat go 150 mph. The tents along the beach are vendors selling food and 'wares'.

Thought for Today

LIVE THE THREE "E's"

1. Energy

2. Enthusiasm

3. Empathy

And.......the THREE "F's"

1. Faith

2. Family

3. Friends

And remember....Life isn't always fair, but it's still good.

And also....Bloom where you are planted.

Sour Cream Raisin Bars

SOUR CREAM RAISIN BARS

2 CUPS RAISINS

1 1/2 CUPS WATER

1 CUP PACKED BROWN SUGAR

1 CUP (2 STICKS) BUTTER, SOFTENED

1 3/4 CUPS OLD-FASHIONED OATS

1 3/4 CUPS ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR

1 TEASPOON BAKING SODA

3 EGG YOLKS

1 CUP GRANULATED SUGAR

1 1/2 CUPS SOUR CREAM

2 1/2 TABLESPOONS CORNSTARCH

1/2 TEASPOON GROUND CINNAMON

1 TEASPOON VANILLA EXTRACT

1. PREHEAT OVEN TO 350F. GREASE A 13X9-IN GLASS BAKING DISH

2. COMBINE RAISINS AND WATER IN A MEDIUM SAUCEPAN. COOK OVER MEDIUM HEAT 10 MINUTES; DRAIN WELL AND SET ASIDE TO COOL.

3. COMBINE BROWN SUGAR, BUTTER, OATS, FLOUR AND SODA IN A MEDIUM BOWL; MIX WELL. PRESS HALF THE MIXTURE INTO THE BOTTOM OF PAN TO FORM A CRUST. BAKE 7 MINUTES, UNTIL PARTIALLY COOKED AND SLIGHTLY SET.

4. COMBINE EGG YOLKS, WHITE SUGAR, SOUR CREAM, CORNSTARCH AND CINNAMON IN A MEDIUM SAUCEPAN AND STIR UNTIL CORNSTARCH IS DISSOLVED. COOK OVER MEDIUM HEAT UNTIL MIXTURE THICKENS AND RESEMBLES PUDDING, ABOUT 8 MINUTES. REMOVE FROM HEAT; STIR IN THE RAISINS AND VANILLA.

5. POUR ONTO CRUST AND CRUMBLE REMAINING OAT MIXTURE EVENLY OVER TOP. BAKE 25 MINUTES OR UNTIL SET. COOL COMPLETELY ON A WIRE RACK AND REFRIGERATE 1 HOUR BEFORE CUTTING.

NUTRITION FACTS PER BAR (MAKES 36)

CALORIES: TOO MANY

FAT: TOO MUCH

CARBS: YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW

FIBER: 1 GRAM---YAY!!!

Desert Bloom

"There are many things in your life that will catch your eye,

but only a few will catch your heart..."

THE DESERT BLOOMS AS PARADISE...

WHAT WILL MATTER

Ready or not, some day it will come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.
So too your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Even your gender or skin colour will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built.
Not what you got but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.
What will matter is not your memories but the memories that lived in those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

Thought for Today

The Window Through Which We Look
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next
morning while they were eating breakfast, the
young woman sees her neighbor hanging her wash
outside. That laundry is not very clean, she says.
She doesn’t know how to wash correctly, perhaps she
needs better laundry soap. Her husband
continues to look on in silence.
Everytime the neighbor hung her laundry to dry,
the woman would make the same comments.
About one month later, the woman was surprised to
see nice clean laundry hanging on the line and said to
her husband, "look, she has learned how to wash
correctly," I wonder who taught her this?
Her husband said "I got up early this morning and
washed the windows."
And so it is with life, what we see when watching others,
depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

QUOTES TO QUERY...

"The best thing about the future

is that it only comes

one day at a time."

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865

"Weakness of attitude

becomes weakness of character"

Albert Einstein 1879-1955

"Success is not final,

failure is not fatal,

it is the courage to

continue that counts."

Winston Chruchill 1871-1965

"No one can make you feel inferior

without your consent"

Eleanor Roosevelt 1884-1962

"The best things in life cannot be felt

or touched, but must be felt from

the heart"

Helen Keller 1880-1906

"In this life we cannot always do

great things, but we can do

small things with great love."

Mother Teresa 1910-1997

"Do what you can with what you

have where you are."

Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919

"It is amazing what you can accomplish

if you do not care who gets the credit."

Harry S. Truman 1884-1972

"An investment in knowlege pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790

"Be courteous to all,

but intimate with few,

and let those few be well tried

before you give them your confidence."

George Washington 1732-1799

"Love is the only force

capable of transforming

an enemy to a friend."

Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968

"A people that values its privileges

above it's principles, soon loses both."

Dwight Eisenhouser 1890-1969

"The worst prison would be a closed heart."

Pope John Paul II 1920-2005

"To reach a port, we

must sail, not tie an anchor,

Sail, not drift."

Franklin Roosevelt 1882-1945

"A good head and a good heart

are always a formidable combination."

Nelson Mandela 1918

"We must be the change we want to see in the world."

Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948

"Recession is when a neighbor loses his job,

Depression is when you lose yours."

Ronald Regan 1911-2004

BE THE CHANGE...

"BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD..."

GO A LITTLER FURTHER...

• At 211 degrees, water is hot.
• At 212 degrees, it boils.
• And with boiling water comes steam.
• And steam can power a locomotive.
  
• The one extra degree makes all the difference.

This little thought made me think of the children's story about the train going up a BIG hill and initially, it didn't think it could make it over the BIG hill, but with an attitude change...the little train said "I think I can, I think I can"....and so it did! If we go a little further...even one temperature degree...doesn't sound like much, but it's the difference between "powering that locomotive"..........

"BEAUTY AT THE BEACH"

The beach pictures are of Miami Beach in Florida before we left on the cruise last year for Derek's graduation trip. The beach chairs and beach are in Labadee, Haiti. And the feet, well, they belong to you know who! :-)

SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone.

2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted. Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working, doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.

3. When you're ready to quit, you're closer than you think. There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences."

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."

6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way.
Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what the Union Civil War general, Tecumseh Sherman said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn't fair. You make your own breaks. You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems. You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others."

15. Don't take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There's always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short.

Love This List...

1. Pray
2. Go to bed on time.
3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.
4. Say 'No' to projects that won't fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.
5. Delegate tasks to capable others.
6. Simplify and unclutter your life.
7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)
8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.
9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don't lump the hard things all together.
10. Take one day at a time.
11. Separate worries from concerns . If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety . If you can't do anything about a situation, forget it.
12. Live within your budget; don't use credit cards for ordinary purchases.
13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.
14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.
15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday.
16. Get enough rest
17. Eat right.
18. Get organized so everything has its place.
19. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life
20. Write down thoughts and inspirations.
21. Every day, find time to be alone.
22. Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don't wait until it's time to go to bed to try and pray.
23. Make friends with Godly people.
24. Laugh.
25. Laugh some more!
26. Take your work seriously, but not yourself at all. (Be able to laugh at yourself).
27. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).
28. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).
29. Sit on your ego
30. Talk less; listen more.
31. Slow down.
32. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe.
33. Every night before bed, think of one thing you're grateful for that you've never been grateful for before. GOD HAS A WAY OF TURNING THINGS AROUND FOR YOU.