One of my favorite quotes!

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.--Ambrose Bierce

(born 24 June 1842 – date of death uncertain; probably December 1913 or early 1914) American satirist, critic, short story writer, editor and journalist. He is perhaps most famous for his serialized mock lexicon, The Devil's Dictionary, in which, over the years, he scathed American culture and accepted wisdom by pointing out alternate, more practical definitions for common words.

An example of THE DEVIL"S DICTIONARY: Love, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal of the patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder. This disease is prevailent [sic] only among civilized races living under artificial conditions; barbarous nations breathing pure air and eating simple food enjoy immunity from its ravages. It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to the physician than to the patient.

Baby Aaron Francis

First photo of our grandson Aaron Francis. What a beauty! May God bless the new family.

From Abuelita

Our Grandson was born!!!

STAN AND ILEANA VERMILYEA

ARE PROUD TO

ANNOUNCE THE

BIRTH

OF THEIR GRANDSON

AARON FRANCIS D’SOUZA

MARCH 23, 2006

2:30 P.M.

20 ½ INCHES LONG

6 ¼ LBS.

PROUD PARENTS

SHERYL AND KEVIN D’SOUZA

PORTLAND, OREGON

MUNDILLO BOBBIN LACE My Hobby

This is one of my past times. It is called Bobbin Lace, Old Time Lace and in Latin countries Mundillo. I learned how to make this lace while my husband and I were stationed in the Republic of Panama. Their national dress uses it in its construction. In Puerto Rico we have a town called Moca which dedicates itself to making this hand made lace.

This is the loom that is used in Puerto Rico. The project that I am working on is being done on a flat pillow that is used in England. By the way what you see holding the fine thread are very fine straight pins.

http://www.carts.org/artist_rosa2.html
This is Rosa Elena's mundillo. Visit and marvel at my hobby. It is almost a lost art.

This is a young Panamanian girl working on her mundillo, she is using a frame made from a large can of soda crackers, the pillow is stuffed with dried banana leaves, the material that covers this pillow is gingham in small squares. This material is used as a grid for all the patterns of the mundillo. There are no paper patterns to punch out and follow.

This the national dress of Panama. It is called the POLLERA. My sons are from Panama.

DREAMING BIG!!!

At the Car Show this weekend. My boys Dreaming BIG! Corvette




March 22, 2006
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
- Eleanor Roosevelt







Mustang Shelby Cobra


May be and may be not! We shall see what the future holds.

Saint Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Prayer

This day I call to me:

God's strength to direct me,

God's power to sustain me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's vision to light me,

God's ear to my hearing,

God's word to my speaking,

God's hand to uphold me,

God's pathway before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's legions to save me.

—from A Retreat With St. Patrick

Legends about Patrick abound; but truth is best served by our seeing two solid qualities in him: He was humble and he was courageous. The determination to accept suffering and success with equal indifference guided the life of God’s instrument for winning most of Ireland for Christ.

March 17, 2006
St. Patrick
(415?-493?)

There is hope rather than irony in the fact that his burial place is said to be in strife-torn Ulster, in County Down.

Rainy day waiting for the Rainbow!

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.--Dolly Parton

Thought for March 14, 2006

March 14, 2006
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the master calls a butterfly."
– Richard Bach

(The American pilot and author, became hugely successful with the publication of the slim novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull a spiritual quest about a bird who loved to fly rather than seeing flight as a means to an end. He was born in Illinois in 1936, a descendant of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. He has been an Air Force Reserve pilot, a flight instructor, and a barnstormer; most of his books involve flight either directly or as a metaphor.)

Thought for Today 13 March 2006

"What is harder than rock,

or softer than water?

Yet soft water hollows out

hard rock.

Persevere."

– Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong

Thought MARCH 12, 2006

"What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup."

– Boris Pasternak (Russian writer Boris Pasternak's only novel, the renowned epic Doctor Zhivago, was banned in Russia for three decades. He was born in 1890 in Moscow.)

To my Stepdaughter that I consider my own!

Prayer for Expectant Mothers

All loving God,

you created the human family

as a reflection of your own divine life

so that your creation might share in your happiness.

Hear our prayer for your daughter

who awaits the birth of her child.

She has cooperated with you in giving life.

Assist her now as she prepares to give birth

to the child in her womb.

May Mary be her guide and support,

calming her fears and strengthening her love.

May your daughter be filled with your peace and blessing

so that she may bring her child into this world

safely and in good health to the praise and

glory of your name.

Amen.

Our daughter is due April 1 2006. Her Dad and I are very excited about the birth of our grandbaby!!

Quote of the day MARCH 11, 2006

"If we don't change, we don't grow.

If we don't grow, we are not really

living. Growth demands a temporary

surrender of security."
– Gail Sheehy

(American author Gail Sheehy became an overnight success with her best-selling book Passages, about the stages people pass through as adults, from the "trying 20s" to the "refreshed 50s." )

We all can wait for change, even if it takes a bit longer than some would like. As long as we are evolving it matters not how slow we move as long as we do not stop..

Thought for Today 9 March 2006

In order to cultivate our sense of humor, we must thrive on change. We must learn to accept life and to accept ourselves…with a shrug and a smile…because it's all we've got.

Harvey Mindess
Educator and psychologist

PAPITO Y MAMI

Today as always I've been thinking of my parents. It isn't a special day in any way except here in central Ohio it is sunny and very clear today . The sky is like they enjoyed while living in Arizona next to my sister. She took care of them after they moved there from their beautiful island of Puerto Rico. I had not seen this photo of them until my brother sent it a couple of days ago. They looked good, daddy in my brother's Shady Grady and mami with her smile! How I miss them! I know that my sister and brother miss them as well. Life is so short. When you think you have all day to do something the hours and minutes disappear!
"Do what you need to do and want to do now for later will be too late", mami would say. She was right.

They were a fun couple! This gorgeous photo was taken Dec. 2003. My last Christmas with my Papito y Mami. My Mami died May 7 2004 and Papito January 4 2005. They are together as they were always meant to be.

The Twenty-third Psalm was my Mom and Dad's evening prayer. Mom recited it out-loud; Dad whispered it with her.