"The Notebook" is my all time favorite! Other favorites include "Pretty Woman", "Message in a Bottle", Sleepless in Seattle",and the new "Parent Trap". One of my other favorites is "The Family Man"! I also love classic films, and love the really old Jimmy Stewart movies, Shirley Temple movies,and Doris Day films.
MUSIC
Classical PIANO!! Chopin and Rachmaninoff are my favorites! I also love Gershwin, Poulenc, and anything from the Romantic Era. Haydn and Scarlatti are also favorites! I have recently discovered some classical piano music written by Billy Joel...yes, really!!...and it is fabulous. As for pop music, I love Clay Aiken, Michael Feinstein, Rod Stewart's new stuff, Tony Bennett, Melinda Doolittle, anything romantic, and I also love country music, and oldies from when I grew up in the 60's!
Anything by Nicholas Sparks, Danielle Steel, romances, historical fiction, and biographies, self improvement books. I love Max Lucado books, and books by AW Tozer, Chuck Swindoll, and Charles Stanley. I loved the "Zion Covenant" series by Brodie Thoene. What a fabulous series!
My favorite books of the Bible are Isaiah and Romans.
MY FAVORITE COLOR
RED...and red and Gray!
MY FAVORITE FOOD
French Crepes!!!
Pizza, chocolate pudding, Pot roast with potatoes and carrots....and CRAB!!!
My ER contacts are MonaLisa and Sunnysmiles4U. They both know enough about me to blackmail me and will always be able to find me, too! LOL!
NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS TO MY FRIENDS
I don't know how this turned into a Paris page. Was working on the page and started wondering how Paris would look in the Springtime..... Next thing I knew I was wishing I could go back to Paris. I will one day!
This is a slideshow of my trip there.
The background photo is one of my own photos. Took it in CA while visiting my daughter a few weeks ago. It is copyrighted so please ask permission if you want to use it.
I am a hopeless romantic and a classical pianist and piano teacher living in Virginia! I moved here from Michigan almost four years ago, and I love it here. Virginia is an incredibly beautiful state, and I have made some amazing new friends here. My family and friends are very, very dear to me.
The most important person in my life however, is the Lord. I am a "born again" Christian, and my deep faith in God has seen me thru my difficult experiences in life.
Overall, I really have had a wonderful, and very good life! I had a large private piano studio in Marshall, MI, and my students won all sorts of "Outstanding Performance" awards at local and state competitions, and participated in Master Classes with many famous classical pianists! It was a very exciting time in my life. Then, I moved to Florida, started a new teaching career and went through two major hurricanes...Jeanne and Francis!!! That was enough for me, and when Wilma was moving in offshore, I packed my bags and went home to Michigan!
Now I have a successful piano studio here as well as a music teacher job in the public schools, but teaching piano is my calling in life, I think. Who knows what the future holds? I wouldn't change my life experiences for anything! With the mix of sadness and joy that I have had, it has truly been an amazing life. My family...
WHAT I LIKE
I love....Babies, cool sunny days, photography, classical piano, Chopin and Rachmaninoff, sailboats, hot, freshly brewed coffee, tall ships, freshly fallen snow, spending time with very special friends, the USA, wrapping up in a warm blanket on a cool day with a good book, Christmas, the movie "The Note Book", reading, long walks on cool days, Jesus, pecan rolls, singing, Autumn, church on Sundays, family, traveling, San Francisco, the smell of lilacs in the spring, band concerts in the park, roses in the summer, Ohio State football in the Fall, the smell of a campfire, and watching figure skating in the winter. And ...I LOVE PARIS!
I love "American Idol", Michigan, "Dancing With the Stars", HGTV, the 4th of July...(my favorite holiday), Virginia, fireworks, and best of all time time with my children and grandchildren who all live waaaaay too far away from me!
WHAT I DON'T LIKE
I really do not like obnoxious and rude people, bad manners, cigarette smoke, BUGS of any kind, (I am terrified of wasps and bees), cats, or unpatriotic people. I don't like really hot weather, deep water, scary movies,tomatoes, and especially abortion!
HOBBIES
Photography, reading, watching Ohio State football in the Fall, playing on my computer,talking on the phone to friends and family, Play Station games!
I never used to watch much TV, but lately I seem to be watching more again. My favorites are "Grey's Anatomy", "American Idol", "Super Nanny", "Dancing With the Stars", "The Amazing Race", "What Not to Wear" on the TLC channel, "Ellen", Oprah, and "Dr. Phil", and I love Ohio State and Notre Dame football, and HGTV.
Thank you for your wonderful mail! I'm so happy for you and will write you an answer later. Just wanted you to know that I've read it and wish you a great rest of the week, my dear! I'm going to Luleå tomorrow to an acupuncturist and also look for clothes. I want something new for our trip to Scotland. But that won't be until May, so there's still time.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here is a little History for you.
St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is one of Christianity's most widely known figures. But for all his celebrity, his life remains somewhat of a mystery.
Taken Prisoner By Irish Raiders. It is known that St. Patrick was born in Britain to wealthy parents near the end of the fourth century. He is believed to have died on March 17, around 460 A.D. At the age of sixteen, Patrick was taken prisoner by a group of Irish raiders who were attacking his family's estate. They transported him to Ireland where he spent six years in captivity. During this time, he worked as a shepherd, outdoors and away from people. Lonely and afraid, he turned to his religion for solace, becoming a devout Christian. (It is also believed that Patrick first began to dream of converting the Irish people to Christianity during his captivity.) After more than six years as a prisoner, Patrick escaped. According to his writing, God's-spoke to him in a dream, telling him it was time to leave Ireland.
To do so, Patrick walked nearly 200 miles from County Mayo, where it is believed he was held, to the Irish coast. After escaping to Britain, Patrick reported that he experienced a second revelation-an angel in a dream tells him to return to Ireland as a missionary. Soon after, Patrick began religious training, a course of study that lasted more than fifteen years. After his ordination as a priest, he was sent to Ireland with a dual mission-to minister to Christians already living in Ireland and to begin to convert the Irish. Familiar with the Irish language and culture, Patrick like many before him including Christ, chose to incorporate traditional ritual into his lessons of Christianity. Rather than of attempting to eradicate native Irish beliefs he would give them new meaning. For instance, he used bonfires to celebrate Easter since the Irish were used to honoring their gods with fire. He also superimposed a sun, a powerful Irish symbol, onto the Christian cross to create what is now called a Celtic cross, so that veneration of the symbol would seem more natural to the Irish. Although there were a small number of Christians on the island when Patrick arrived, most Irish practiced a nature-based pagan religion. So for the most part St. Patrick did indeed Christianize Ireland.
Did St. Patrick remove the snakes from Ireland. Well some contend there were never were any physical snakes there to begin with. But in a symbolic way he did indeed remove the snakes from Ireland in the hearts of the Irish people. The "banishing of the snakes" was really a metaphor for the eradication of pagan ideology from Ireland and the triumph of Christianity. Within 200 years of Patrick's arrival, Ireland was completely Christianized.
The first St. Patrick's Day parades were in not in Ireland but in NYC staring March 17, 1762.
For symbols and recipes and more fun facts click the link below from the History Channel.
