Blurb

The shoes didn't fit. It was an omen.













Friday, August 29, 2014

Celebrate the Small Things: Stadium Scott

It's another Friday to Celebrate the Small Things.

                                   This post is part of VikLit's, blog hop. Click this link to join.

Toady is my baby brother's  birthday. So I'm celebrating it in my own little way. In six years, he'll be fifty. MwaMwaMwa-a-ha! I might be the first to reach it. But it's coming his way. SOON!

The next six years will fly like light years in space. (just letting you know, baby brother) Fifty will be knocking on his door in less than a blink of an eye. Forty came rather quickly and it left the same. As did the years between then and now.

Even though I'm reaching a geriatric state doesn't mean I've forgotten anything about my little brother. Like:

* His very first sentence. He was close to four before he began to speak in coherent sentences other than grunts and moans and pointing to various things he wanted. One night at the dinner table, he spoke, "How do you spell relief, R-O-L-A-I-D-S!" It was a miracle to say the least. And he hasn't shut up since.

* The day he decided to put Legos in his nose and he sucked back. There is still at least one stuck in his brain canal somewhere.

* How he would scream whenever saw the doctor or the barber.

*How mom made him wear a football helmet because of his head-banging tantrums.

* How neat he kept his bedroom and organized his Hot Wheels and Star Wars figures. He's very OCD unlike his sister here.

*  He sucked his thumb until he was 11. My boyfriend at the time thought it cool to drive around the block one day and tell the neighbors via a PA system. My brother met him at the door that day with his plastic ball bat.

* His first hickey. He stubbed his toe over it when I pointed it out to him.

* How he'd lick his index finger and checked to see which way the wind was blowing before stepping outside. He didn't want his perfectly parted and feathered hair blown into oblivion. He did his best to protect it, turning this way and that while he shielded it with his hands, dodging wind while he made his way to the car.

* And the time he laid on his bed crying when Mother Rose came to visit my sister. He was horrified at 11, that he would be next to receive a visit from her.

Since then, he's grown up and has made a special place for himself in a football stadium. The home of the Buccaneers. He's been a diehard fan forever. He's been to every game since 1992 (I don't understand because the team really sucks). But he has bought a pass every season despite it, every year. ***rolling my eyes***

 Picture by Tyler Bradford, my nephew.

Football has been his life. He played it in high school, coached his son's games, and has scheduled his life around every game. Seriously! Replicas of his favorite team members sit on a shrine in the form of bobble-heads in his family room. And no one touches it!

He's known as Stadium Scott. His seat is right below the pirate ship in section 147, row Y. He holds seats 17 and 18. These are his seats. No one else gets them.

My brother believes football is a great team sport. It teaches one to be a team player. If one player misses his assigned play it throws the whole game off.

One of his favorite things to do while at the games is to raz the opposition fans by making fun of their FAT CHEERLEADERS. In which he told me, didn't exist. So does that make them INVISIBLE OR IMAGINARY CHEERLEADERS? ***scratching my head***

As you can probably tell, I don't do football. Eating worms and bugs seems much more appealing to me than watching any football game. If I get the last fifteen minutes of any game, that's good enough for me. But I wanted to celebrate my brother, Stadium Scott's birthday. And if anyone visits the Tampa Bay Buccaneer games, say hi and wish him a happy birthday. Hey! Is there a game this weekend? ***shrugging****

I hope everyone has a chocolate-filled weekend. Happy Shabbats if you practice!

Hugs and chocolate, all!
Shelly









*

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Celebrate the Small Things: Lightning

People are being struck by lightning ... a lot! California being one of many states that has felt the wrath.



About a month and a half ago, on my way to work one morning, lightning was whipping through traffic. Yes. You read right. It was streaking through traffic as cars were driving and stopping at the traffic lights.

Before I turned down the main drag, a long electrical whip raced across the hood of my car and the woman's next to me. We both looked at each other to confirm we weren't seeing things. Mind you, I live in Florida, the lightning capital.

A week later, on a Tuesday evening, I witnessed lighting stretching out of the night sky with intention. It was as if each strike had fingers zapping the road. In all my life I've never seen lightning with a mission.

What could this mean?

Are they yet more signs from the heavens that God's not happy with the humans on planet earth? Could it be a sign that we need to get our crap together? Does he use nature to show Himself?

In, The Science of God, Gerald L. Schroeder explains it as: 'We are told that two aspects of a transcendent infinity labeled as God have been "condensed" and projected into our spatially and temporally finite universe. One is revelation, written in words, that we call the Bible. The other reveals itself in the wonders of nature and the laws by which nature functions'.

He also quotes Exodus 14:21, where God used wind that blew all night to split the Sea of Reeds. The sea Moses led the people of Israel through. This of course is only one of many instances where God uses nature.

And with God anything is possible. But I'm still wondering if He is trying to get our attention through nature. Here's a video to think about before I Celebrate the Small Things:


What do y'll think? Ooky-Spooky, eh?

Now for my celebrations on behalf of VikLit, at Scribblings of an Inspiring Author .

* No-No and Ya'akov are staying safe. HAMAS shot fifty rockets on Wednesday. Only one landed near Tel Aviv, exploding on a main highway. Thank God it was in the middle of the night. No one was hurt.

* Sunday, I get to pick up the Glowstick for a sleepover and a shopping day. YAY!

* This week, instead of getting majorly depressed and giving up on the Killer Stilettos dilemma, I worked on another project and have come quite far with it.

* Hubby's cancer scans came back clean again. YAY!

* And I've dried quite  a few herbs from my garden this week, collected five more tomatoes, and six peppers.

Hope everyone has a chocolate filled weekend. Happy Shabbats if you practice!

Hugs and chocolate!
Shelly

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Celebrate the Small Things: Strange Trumpet Sounds: Is God Warning Us?

Before I celebrate, I thought I'd share something with y'll that I found when researching for a writing project that I'm working on.

Warning: It is a little strange and has to do with an atmospheric noise that people heard all around the world from 2011 to 2012. It sounds a lot like a shofar.

In the Torah, the shofar was used to warn the people.  Seven different angels, in Revelation 8, are given and blow a shofar prior to opening the specific seals assigned to them to release whatever judgement they are to pour out onto planet earth.
 
So is God trying to get our attention about something? Possibly. The entire world is in crisis .right now.

"There will be no more delay; on the contrary, in the days of the sound from the seventh angel when he sounds his shofar, the hidden plan of God will be brought to completion, the Good News as he proclaimed it to his servants the prophets." Revelations 10:6b-7 (The Complete Jewish Bible)

Of course, there is a scientific explanation for this. When there is a great number of natural disasters and strange weather patterns, it causes an atmospheric noise. But then, the Big Bang theory is parallel to the Creation Story. It was a lot of energy the first few days. A good book to read on this is, The Science of God, by Gerald L. Schroeder.

I believe God can use whatever He wants to speak to us. Genesis 1: 14 God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to divide the day from the night, let them be for signs, seasons, days, and years...et al. (The Complete Jewish Bible)

So here are three video clips of what I'm talking about.

This one was heard at a Ray's game. The sportscasters were bothered by it.


The next one is a clip made from news reports and people around the world hearing the same eerie noise.


This next one gives Biblical theory coupled with scientific explanations. The narrator also sounds off a shofar so you can here what it actually sounds like.


All three gave me chills. How about you?

Now for my celebration this week:

*No-No and Ya'akov, my daughter and son-in-law are staying safe. They both work in Tel Aviv and live in Bene Ayish, right between Ashkelon and Ashdod.

*The rest of my family is doing great. Sir Poops is still hanging out and is back in diapers. He's visited the Great White Watery Abyss of Torture a few times this week.

*And little by little, I've been getting back on track with my writing. Although, I've a got a really  strange problem with my MS. I had several chapter 35's with no ending. And today, I discovered more of the same chapter sprinkled through the last 10. Me eye-brains are crossing on this one.

*Also, we're still eating yummies from the garden.

This was posted on behalf of Viklit at Scribblings of an Inspiring Author .

Hope everyone has a chocolate-filled weekend. Happy Shabbats if you practice!

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

PS My friend Emily McKeon wrote a book on domestic violence. She's looking for help to get the word out. GO HERE

Friday, August 8, 2014

Celebrate the Small Things: Make the World Stop!

Ever feel like you just wanted to stop the world and just get off the ride it's spinning you around on? I do. And I did.

I needed a break from the Israeli/Gaza conflict, the ISIS issue, the Ebola crisis, and America's border problems. There are so many things going on. All so interconnected. And all a danger to us.

So I went to my younger daughter's house and spent time with her and my new grandson this week.

No matter what evil is thrown at us, there is always something to celebrate.






This post was brought to you by VikLit, over at Scribblings of an Inspiring Author.

Hope everyone has something good to celebrate despite what's happening on planet earth. Just know God is watching and is in control.

Have a happy weekend and a happy Shabbats, if you practice!

Hugs and chocolate, all!
Shelly

Friday, August 1, 2014

Celebrate the Small Things: A New Baby

WIt's another Friday to Celebtate the Small Things with VikLit, over at Scribblings of an Inspiring Author.

Today, I celebrate:

*my daughter still staying safe in Israel.

*the Iron Dome.

*my new grandson from my youngest daughter. What a surprise! She was due August 22nd.





*we had peppers from the garden this past Sunday, stuffed. And tomato and basil omelette a every morning. Yum!


*slowly but surely I'm still working on Killer Stilettos. But my characters keep coming up with stuff that will have to be resolved in book 3, Combat Boots.

So this concludes my celebrations. Have a happy weekend. Happy Shabbats if you practice!

Keep Israel and the Palestinians in your prayers.

Hugs and chocolate!
Shelly