Fw: Community Service for Sam

Sam is Ray's & my friend Gil's grand-daughter.
Since most of you are animal lovers, I thought you might be in a position to help.

Lisa

 

Hi,  this is Sam!.  For part of my high school graduation requirements, I need to complete 40 hours of community service and I have decided to start by doing some volunteer work at Cocheco Valley Humane Society - which is a local (to me) non-profit animal shelter.  I have recenlty attended the orientation program and I will be primarily working with dogs (since I love dogs), but I will also be volunteering my time to help the shelter fundraise and collect items.  For part of how I want to help the dogs, I want to tell people that if you have old blankets, sheets or towels, I will collect them and bring them to the shelter.  These things are used to help make the dogs kennels more comfortable, but since many dogs like to chew stuff (or have accidents while they wait to get outside), they don't last long and thats why they need so many (but some stuff might be used for small animals too).  Also, if anyone wants to donate food, toys or even money (even if it's just change), I will also collect anything like that and donate it. I will take any donations at anytime, there is no time limit on anything (so it can be now or in like 3 months) since me and mum will be at the shelter at least once a week (I am not 16, so mum gets to be with me and help too!).  I will be keeping track of everything I collect and donate and will tally everything because I want to see how much stuff I can help collect and donate during the time I am volunteering there.  If you have any questions about this, please email me and either me or my mum will answer the email.  Since I am just starting, I thought that asking my family and friends to help me get started would be a good way to get going and show that I want to help animals because they really cant help themselves!  Please pass this along to anyone else that you think can help me with this project!  Thank you for your help :)  Sam

A Clean Joke to Decifer

Learned in Yale A wealthy contractor liked to know something about all the employees who worked for him. One day he came upon a young man who was expertly counting out a large wad of the firm's cash. The contractor asked the man, "Where did you get your financial training, young man?" "Yale," the man answered. "That's good," said the contractor, who was an advocate of higher learning. "What's your name?" he asked. And the man answered, "Yackson." *Thanks to Pastor Tim for this joke!* cybersalt.org/cleanlaugh

2010 Breast Cancer Walk

       *******ONE FOR ALL, AND ALL FOR ROBIN**********
                  In Memory of Robin Burklund Drown, Age 51

Lisa's 5-Mile Walk In Memory of Robin

Several years ago, I joined three of my sisters (L,D,Ch) as we took the plunge and joined a team that was walking in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. It was a humbling experience, having just a minute understanding of the hurt and heartache that one endures or dies from, when they are battle cancer.

Six months ago, I found an old friend of mine that I had served in the U.S. Air Force with in 1980 - 1981. Michael Mosley was one of few friends that I bonded with on the desert that was Edwards Air Force Base, Mojave Desert, California. I found Michael six months ago, and two months ago he died from cancer. My only consolation is that Michael claims to have been a Christian and that he told me of his condition and died soon after. A sad, but bit of closure for me.

For ten years, a family friend/fellow christian was diagnosed with breast cancer and five years later bone cancer. This is the closest I've felt the ravages of cancer. So close to home...wrecking havoc with loved ones. So many tears, so many years now ahead for her family, without Robin. Yet, in heaven she is pain-free...and so we feel comforted by that promise.

Yesterday, my husband Ray and I walked in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Concord, along with an estimated 5,000 others. Leading our team, 'Rockin' Robin', were her sister, husband, mother, daughters, brothers, other family and friends. Perhaps that will bring some closure, too, for a long battle fought bravely.

The Concord Monitor has a photo of the brown and pink shirts in a mass exodus: adults, children, strollers and pets. Click on this link to see the newspaper's article.
http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/220825/bravo-concord-bravo

Fw: My Published Review of Portsmouth

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g46209-r82521448-Portsmouth_New_Hampshire.html

Hi Reader,

Here is my review of Portsmouth NH,

and now I get a FREE Shutterfly photo book

just for writing my little blurb.

If interested in getting your own FREE

Shutterfly book, you should check this out!

 
Regards,
Lisa
(The Writer)

Holiday Website Home & Gardens

Here is a site you will surely like:

 

Halloween Stencils

Check out these stencils that you can trace onto your pumpkins from Home and Garden!  http://www.bhg.com/holidays/?sssdmh=dm17.470505&day=11&esrc=nw100d1_11_11&email=990531

 

Enjoy your day and be stress-free!
Regards,
Lisa

Inland Harbor Cruise

I am going on that Inland Harbor Cruise

if I have to drive the boat myself!

 

I took a week off work, last week,

and this was my goal,

to relax and cruise the inland harbor

with my hubby of seventeen years

and hold his hand,

and feel his body's warmth,

the way his love has warmed my heart.

 

Darn it, I'm going on that Inland Harbor Cruise

today! Even if I have to drive the boat.

 

We want to see the land from the other side,

to be in awe like explorers of boat voyage days.

Today is the day I'm going to see the harbor,

even if I have to drive the boat myself!

 

Good news, there shall be no shipwrecks today,

for the ship's captain called in to say

HE would drive the boat!

 

 

Sweet Grapes At Last

Fifteen years the vines have twisted and stretched out

to cover the trellis my husband and I shirred up,

in hopes of getting a goldmine of homegrown grapes.

Over those hopeful years our hopes have mounted

and dashed,

for at the end of the lazy summer,

the cool Autumn yielded barely a live Concord grape.

Five years ago we dug up the old and planted the new

in hopes of reviving our hopes and dreams

of Concord grape jelly and

laying inclined to feed each other grapes of love.

A year ago today,

in my low-point,

I grabbed my pruning shears

and hacked at the vine intensely,

cursing one moment,

encouraging the next,

and finally singing a nurturing lullaby.

Into the wood adjacent are the vine remains

that have produced several homemade wreaths,

one of which is nestled nearby my wagon wheel,

on display. The other sent to a sister in Florida,

who longs for sentiments from a deserted NH home.

On our chair-swing I relaxed yesterday

while the sun began to fall from the sky,

my husband mowing the orchard where

apples and peaches and raspberries adorn.

There's grapes, he yelled, and off I ran

to distinguish the fake grapes I'd hung up

from the plump purple Concord grapes God grew.

Aaaaaaa!

Dangling down and about to burst

hung a dozen or more clusters,

some shriveled and brown,

but among them the survivors

who had beaten the odds and prospered!

Into my shirt I collected the crop

and dashed inside our house

to wash and squish the Concord grapes

into a cup that caught the all-natural juice.

A mere half a cup of liquid emerged

from the clump of seeds and discarded skins,

amid seeds and pulp thrown away

came away a half cup of grape-gold

that I coveted and protected.

I ran out to my hardworking husband

to share, sip by tiny sip,

the fruits of our labor,

the reward for our faithfulness,

the sweetest grape juice ever gifted.

What shall the sixteenth year bring,

I wonder, as I compare this crop

to my seventeen year marriage.

Oh! Wonderful, sweet heaven

that merges sun and rain and

produces harmonious love on the pallet...