Watered Garden

I've never been a victim of sleep apnea but have a relative who does and a couple of others I know. Seems the one common denominator is that the sufferer snores like a Harley! My relative uses a CPAP I think, it's this big machine that hums and is attached to a mask over her face. I don't know if she is still using it since she has lost a good bit of weight. However, the other two folks I knew were NOT overweight. One guy was our next to last twig leader in Washington. We went out camping one night, and he slept in in their tent. You could hear him snore all over the place, and also hear him stop breathing for extended periods of time. I mentioned it to his wife, who thought it was funny. It is not and I hope he got medical assistance. It's not only tiring, my understanding is it's very hard on your heart and lungs and can cause problems with them in the long run. So keep up the treatments, guys, even if the machine bugs you at first. Thank God you got the machine and stuff to help you. WG

The fourth wife of a leader of the Taliban. WG

Nope, never did the Calypso roll away - that would have been way too much excitement for us little FLO-bots! And if that song was led by the sweet lady I think I remember, she did indeed have a heart of gold. WG

Yup. If it works, it works. The year we married some chick who had been in Fellow Laborers with both of us came up to me and said, "I can't believe Mr. Garden married YOU!" But he did and I am so thankful. My husband's family didn't know for years how old I really am. Boy were they surprised when they found out! WG

Well, I am 10 years and a couple months older than my husband. When we got married, I was 32 going on 22 and he was 22 going on 37. The big key was his maturity vs. my not exactly immaturity, but I have never acted my age and still don't today. We have a lot in common. We both love God and believe strongly. We both like travel and gardening. We both love the dogs we have and have had in our lives. Now that is not to say we are clones of each other. I watch TV a lot more than he does. I don't think for a minute I would enjoy teaching any grade, whilst he is an excellent high school business teacher with a great sense of humor, and an absolutely deadly "teacher look" (think Chloe on "24".) He loves every minute of teaching, and I would be in prison for homicide if I spent ten minutes with those little angels. We've been married 30 years, and took our vows seriously, and meant them every word. Hope this helps. WG

AND THE WINNER IS.......... Northern Virginia! Abingdon, to be exact. We really wanted the Door Peninsula, but it was a bit far and we will do that next year, hopefully. Abingdon is right on the border with Tennessee in Northwestern VA. Mountains, a nice trail through the woods, and an interesting sounding winery, all nearby. Got reservations at a pet friendly motel. Husband had a rough year teaching the little darlins' and wants a break before we start picking tomatoes (54 plants). I want to thank every one of you for all your helpful suggestions. Hopefully we will get to make every one of those trips at some point in time. Love, WG

My son and my former and future daughters-in-law all have tattoos. The girls' tattoos are fairly subtle. The former daughter-in-law has a huge, colorful orchid tattoo that covers the top of one of her feet and is unseen except when she wears flip flops. The future d-i-l has something on her shoulder I only saw part of once. Son, on the other hand, has huge, colorful, not really well done tats on both forearms. He is presently a landscaper, so it really doesn't matter, but he has been in other jobs and in social situations where he had to wear long sleeves. He is very sorry he didn't listen to us, and wishes to have have them removed at some future time. He also has a sunburst on the t op of one arm, where the shoulder joint comes together. This one he can hide. I think that to me at least, the huge colorful ones that show all over the place are not very pleasing to the eye. There is a couple around the town we used to live in that are very nice, seemingly well educated people who have tattoos one every visible portion of skin, including the woman's neck, shoulders, and arms and for all we know everywhere else. I don't know what the younger folks think of them, but to me it is somewhat less than attractive. If I don't like my makeup or hair color, I can change it. But a tattoo is forever unless you are fairly well off. To each his own, though. I have a relative who is a physician and has the Ohio State University block "O" on his ankle. Whatever makes ya happy. WG

My 12-year-old son and I planted flowers in the planters in front of our TC's house in the pouring rain so it would look nice for a class. When my son asked if he could come in for a minute to get out of the rain, he was told in no uncertain terms 'NO!' because he wasn't to be around the TC's precious perfect children since he was such an awful brat. then the TC's got into a loud screaming fight with each other! I took son and home we went. The woman had the nerve to come after me and say, "Oh gee you shouldn't have had to hear that," and demand I come back and plant the rest of the pansies. And I did, but I left son at home. She would invite me over for coffee, and then give me a bucket of sudsy water and a scrub brush when I got there instead. Oh and innumerable nights of free babysitting, including one where her house was so cold I went into hypothermia and almost died, much to her great indignation. (I'd been sick and was a newly diagnosed diabetic.) She had very strict and specific house rules, which included not touching the thermostat or getting a blanket out of her closet to cover up with under any circumstances. I later learn why I had been so far out of the realm of consciousness and explained the situation to her, and that I could very easily have died, and all she said was "You were absolutely right not to touch those blankets. You know I don't allow anyone to get anything in my house other than a glass of water from the refrigerator." WG

I think believing is just trusting in God to be a faithful God Who keeps His promises. I think the "All Believing Equals Receiving" law is just another "name-it claim-it" falsity. Kinda like that Janis Joplin song about "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz". That's what I think now. At the time we left TWI, in an "I quit you're fired" situation, I told my son "Now I'm going to die and it's all your fault" because he had been one of the major problems with TWI. We refused to "get rid of him" and that was disobedience to leadership and that was that. I had been taught that my diagnosis with insulin dependent diabetes was a result of some sin I had committed, some negative in my life, i.e. I didn't believe that LCM was The Man Of God For This Day And Time And Hour Unto The Entire World, or something like that. I was fearful and depressed for years, and still get that way sometimes (it's been over 10 years). The big problem for me was that I had let TWI doctrine replace the truth of the Scriptures in my mind. Craig said it, that settles it, I believe it. That's basic idolatry in my book. Just read the Psalms. Read the Gospels. Do something radical - pray to Jesus! Don't be afraid you will reap the results of negative believing or get possessed if you don't follow TWI-think to the letter. Which brings up a sudden thought. The fear of believing negatively and bringing negative resulst on my head kept me for a long time from actually thinking about what was happening in TWI at the time (early to mid-1990s), and kept us around a lot longer than would have been necessary. Maybe that's a reason we were so diligently warned to not think negative thoughts (like "LCM's a real jerk", for example, or "I don't see that in the Bible at all" for a better example.) WG

Still mulling it over - now we are looking at Virginia (It's for lovers, ya know!). WG

The successor to that bit of saccachrine fluff was "The Total Woman" by Marabel Morgan. I don't remember much about it, except that a wife should occasionally prepare the children's dinner early and have them fed, bathed, and in bed by 5:00 PM (broad daylight where I live nowadays). She can then prepare her husband's favorite meal, and greet him at the door in some provocative little costume, example was pink fluffy shorty pajamas with white patent leather knee high boots. Dinner was to be served with wine, flowers and candlelight, and well, you know the rest! I imagine if I had ever, even in my size 5 days, greeted my husband thusly, I would have had to clean the spewed-forth spittle off my glasses before I did anything else - he would've busted out laughing until he fell off the porch and landed in the flower bed! Total idiocy! WG (in jeans and a cool shirt, cause it's hotter'n a burnt boot outside) Oh, I forgot - I can kill my own snakes, spiders, and one time a bat in the dorm at Rome City - with a tennis racquet, and yelling "Say your prayers, Varmint!" with every swat! WG

In the early 90's LCM went on a rant about men not keeping their wives in submission and it was the wives who were talking about what they saw as wrong with TWI, "Itchy bytchy comments" I think he called them. After we were kicked out of FWC 20 we went to WA state and we were told I was not completely submissive enough and was not always without exception totally, absolutely, completely, completely absolutely totally COMPLETELY completely likeminded with my husband. Both of us had the same reaction: HUH? We always talked things over and made a mutual decision. The couple who were our TCs were a couple where she was 6th WC and he was spouse WC and she was a very strong minded, self-confident person who pretty much ran things. He knew when to keep his mouth shut and his opinions to himself, which was most of the time. However, they hammered me and hammered me and hammered me. She told me, "You are responsible before Almighty God to line up your thinking with that of your husband, so that you are always completely likeminded with him!" I found out many years later that I had done just that - he and I both thought she was full of icky icky poo poo. However, I am now scared to death to make a decision. My husband makes suggestions and I take them as God's Law, then he is shocked and somewhat defensive when I'm unhappy with the results. I honestly feel I place an undue and inappropriate burden on him. But I'm trying to do better. The reason for the minivacation thread on the open forum was to get ideas - he asked me to plan a minivacation and I just can't do it. What if I mess something up? It's something I deal with every day, like an addiction or something. WG

I think, and remember I'm not a theological member of the intelligentsia, that a lot of the controversy and concern arises from TWI doctrine that Jesus Christ is not God, but a totally, absolutely, completely, totally human man. If Jesus Christ is a mere human being, albeiet with "perfect blood" according to TWI doctrine, then obviously I can do every thing any other human being can do, including Him. Now before you intelligentsia jump all over me with that verse about "and greater than these things shall ye do also," let me say right now that I'm not sure any more what that means, but I will figure it out for myself, thanks anyway. Now if you believe that Jesus was a man, a man with perfect blood, but just a man, then when you look at His life, you have to realize how far below par we live. We get sicknesses and diseases, which the MOGFODAT clearly stated are a result of sin in our lives. But...Jesus lived a perfect life, totally without sin, so we can too, right? So why don't we? If Jesus performed miracles like feeding the 5000, raising the dead, walking on water, why aren't we? If Jesus loved perfectly in all ways, and always, then we can too because He is just a man and we are man/woman also. Or can we? Now in my opinion this is false logic which slapped more hapless twigbots into condemnation than you can imagine. But then I don't believe that Jesus is just a man any more, either. So I'm free to be saved by His mercy and grace. I'm free to realize I'm not perfect, and will only be perfect when I get to heaven. Romans 10:9-10 does not address salvation by grace; that's covered elsewhere. And I suspect a lot of people associated with TWI jabbered off the "confess" stuff without acknowledging before God they were sinners, helpless against the wiles of the devil, and NEEDED Jesus Christ to save them. It sure seemed to me that TWI made salvation using only Romans 10:9-10 about as serious as ordering your Big Mac with or without cheese. WG

I have always absolutely loved their work. At one time I dreamed of getting one of their dogs, but I'm too old now and there is this long long waiting list. Their first book, "How to be Your Dog's Best Friend" has served me well. When Sophie came to us she had no idea where she fit into the "pack" and I had to give her an alpha wolf roll once, if you can imagine a middle aged woman straddling a fat yellow lab on its back, smacking it and screaming "I'm the alpha bytch in this pack and don't you ever forget it!" (she had snapped at me, seriously, and I don't tolerate that.) she wouldn't look me in the eye for a month, but after that we have been best buddies. But I'm still the alpha. WG

There is an area of cols. Ohio called "little Somalia." I would not want to live in Columbus proper, because there is at least one shooting and one arson every night. The outlying areas are nice and safe, though. I sure don't want anyone to think for a minute I dislike people who are not white Anglo-Saxon protestants. However, living in a multicultural area is just not for me, especially at my age. WG

I'm certainly no theologian, but I think the TWI definition of just about everything was bogus. If we are to love with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation in the household" does that mean that we don't have to love anyone with the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation who is NOT in the household? Sure seemed that way to me, especially in the Martindale administration. I'm not even sure any more I believe that I am solely responsible to "renew my mind". If God gave Saul a new heart, maybe He does that for others. I've actually asked God to help me with this and He has, via Holy Spirit. Shifra, I personally have found myself listening to other Christian sources besides TWI and it can be helpful. You have to be careful, true, but I know personally I tended to over-examine, too minutely, everything that is not in "perfect alignment and flawless harmony" with TWI-talk. It's pretty shocking to realize that no, I don't have all the answers, and no, I'm not better than your average Joe Believer because I've had this class and that seminar, and the other advance 50 times running. I've learned a lot of stuff that has been quite wonderful, but like I say, I'm no theologian, and I generally don't like nitpicking - I really don't care how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. But I hope this humble rambling helps. Oh and to make a short story long, no I personally don't think I can love exactly like God loves. That's why I'm not God and He is. Love ya and welcome back, WG

Yeah! So great to "see" you! Regards to the family! WG

Waysider is right. You gotta investigate all the angles of living somewhere before you start driving there in a U-Haul. Example; Years ago when Husband went to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, I noticed a red corvette with the license plate "2 kg". I wondered aloud what that meant, and a friend said, "Oh, that's probably how much pot he had to sell to buy the car." The friend's wife was assistant dog warden for the county. She told the hair-raising tale of the chief dog warden, who was investigating a complaint of two vicious large dogs that were running loose in the county somewhere. Drove up, saw the dogs running loose, guarding a large field of marijuana plants. Got out to try to find the owner and was immediately charged by both dogs. He had a shotgun in hand, fotunately for him, and by the time he shot the one, the second was in the air aimed for his throat. The owner was arrested, paid a fine, and spent little if any time in jail. His replacement for the dogs was a 200 lb. mastiff named "Kilo." I will say one positive thing though. There is a fine veterinary college at Ohio State, and a lot of human hospitals, some of them excellent in the Columbus area. You could live in the Sunbury/Centerburg area, or other outlying areas. There are quite a few Hispanic immigrants in the area, not where I live, but I haven't heard anything about crime in the burbs. There doesn't seem to be any particular crime surge this far away from Columbus. (about 35-40 miles). You do have to like driving, though. I think the gun laws here are pretty liberal. You do have to have a license to carry concealed as I recall. If I were going to live elsewhere, it might well be Maine. Good luck and stay safe. WG

I asked my husband and he thinks it probably died of old age. WG

Nipping at his heels, piddling on his carpet, no doubt. WG

Door County is lookin' better all the time. Definitely 8 hours excluding the ferry time, which would be fun in itself. Took a ferry from the NC coast to Okracoke Island one time. Fascinating and peaceful. I found a winery I'd like to see. One more check with the husband and I'll try to find pet friendly lodging in that area., There's 5 in the AAA book on pet friendly lodging. May have a triptych made for us when we finalize. Thanks again. WG

I would strongly suggest you check with your local urgent care center, emergency room, or family doctor for instructions on how to save yourself when choking, since this has happened to you before. maybe you need to see a doctor anyway since this happened once before. There may be a self-Heimlich maneuver, but I don't know. Also, 9-1-1 locks into your address in most cities and can send help even if you can't speak. So thankful you are still with us. WG

Wow, y'all these all look awesome. I forgot one detail, however, the reason we have to drive is because we are taking our two geriatric canines with us. So thanks, 2Life, I'll do that after Maxx and Sophie have "crossed the rainbow bridge." They are too old to leave in a kennel and I really do think Sophie is getting Alzheimer's or something. She is totally paranoid at night without me in the same room or locked in the laundry room in her own little bed. We are thinking about lancaster co. PA but Southern KY looks good. Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year at the restaurant where my husband works part time. Next week I'll get him to look at some of the links. The Door Peninsula is definitely in the future tho'. Any other inspirations? I will let y'all know what we finally decide. Thanks, WG

Of course, if the poodle got into the familia............

We want to go on a 4 day vacation when school is first out. We want someplace we've never been before within 8 hours of Columbus, Ohio and NO the cornfield is not an option. We had thought of the eastern shore of Maryland, but they are all booked up because the National Poodle Breeders' Association is having a week long convention there. (I am NOT making that up). Then we thought of the area around the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin but that is a bit too far. Pennsylvania or Virginia or even West ByGod Virginia would be nice. We like neat stuff that is off the beaten path. Never eat in a Bob Evans if we can find a Mom & Pop where the farmers all eat and gab. Any suggestions? I'm running out of steam. WG