Thinking of Jeremy

It's been 32 years since that day that we went to the Holy Cross Hospital and met Jeremy John for the first time.

I was thinking of him today. I think of him often, but today was a special day because it was his 32nd birthday.

I wonder what his path in life would have been if he had walked a little farther.

Would he have been mischievous? He looked like he would have been a lot of fun. His smile made you melt. He would have had his mama wrapped around his little finger, with that smile.

Would he have enjoyed Sunday school like his big brothers did? There were lots of kids his age in our church.

Would he have been a good student in school?

Would he have graduated from Western Christian like his brothers and sister did?

Would he have married his high school sweetheart?

Would he have children by now. Would we be grandma and grandpa to more precious grandchildren?

No matter. What might have been, is not.

What is, is the knowledge that he is in the presence of the Lord. That he is loved, more than even we could love him. And that one day we will meet again.

But still we miss him. And still we think of him, and wonder.

ENGLISH ?

I was cleaning up some files today and came across this. I don't know who wrote it...but it is somewhat interesting...and thought provoking...and maybe even just a touch amusing.

Maybe it was Andy Rooney from 60 Minutes. It sounds kinda like something he would write.

Have a read.

If you enjoyed it, leave a comment. If you didn't enjoy it, lighten UP!

You think English is easy???

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.



2) The farm was used to produce produce.



3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.



4) We must polish the Polish furniture.



5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.



6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.



7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.



8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.



9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.



10) I did not object to the object.



11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.



12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.



13) They were too close to the door to close it.



14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.



15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.



16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.



17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.



18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.



19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.



20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?







Let's face it - English is a crazy language!

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French Fries in France ..

Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.



And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?



If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?



Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?



How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?



You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.



English was invented by people, not computers and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why when the stars are out they are visible but when the lights are out they are invisible.



PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?



You lovers of the English language might enjoy this...



There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP'.



It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?



We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.



And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.



We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.



When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP! When is rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When is doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.



One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!



Oh . . . one more thing:



What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U-P!

WE REMEMBER...WE ALWAYS WILL...

November 9, 1979 - Rochester, Minnesota

Jeremy John Mooney

Budded on Earth to bloom in Heaven



She would be 100!

Clarice (Hurlburt) Mooney

Today, August 15, 2010 would have been my mother's 100th birthday.

She was a good woman and a wonderful mother.

I wish I could give her a call, as I always did on Sunday evening. I'd wish her a Happy Birthday and tell her that I appreciate her more every day. It seems that you have to age and mature, (grow up) and experience some of the things that she experienced as she took her journey through this life, before you can truly understand what a precious gift you have been given, and what an incredible loss you have experienced.

Happy Birthday and thank you Mom!

I love you.

I miss you.

If you would like to know more about this wonderful woman please go to my older posts and read about her life as expressed last September on the tenth anniversary of her graduation to her new life eternal!

Jeremy John

The song in my heart today has been a melancholy song. A song of yearning. Yearning for something that is just out of reach. It has been a sad day.

Grandpa Jack's Meaty Slow Cooker Stew Recipe

Grandpa Jack’s Meaty Slow Cooker Stew

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 potatoes, cut into small chunks (I wash them and leave the skins on)

• 1 or 2 onions, skinned and cut into chunks

• Lots of white button mushrooms, sliced (or whole if they’re small)

• 2 – 3 sticks celery, washed and chopped

• 3 – 4 carrots, washed and sliced into chunks

• 1½ - 2 pounds (or maybe even a little more) lean stewing meat, cut into chunks

• Green pepper, sliced and cut into chunks

• 2 cups (500 ml) beef stock

• 2 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

• 2 tablespoon soy sauce

• 1 tsp (5 ml) dried marjoram

• black pepper to taste (lots of pepper, lots of taste)

• olive oil for sautéing the meat (if you choose to sauté the meat)

• flour

• 2 cups frozen peas

• 2 cups frozen corn



INSTRUCTIONS:

• Prepare and place the vegetables into the slow cooker.

• Dredge the meat chunks in flour and then sauté in olive oil in batches till browned.

Or

• Add the meat chunks raw and add a little flour to the stew to thicken the juice.

• Add the stew meat to the vegetables, add the herbs and spices and mix well.

• Finally add the beef stock, the Worcestershire sauce and the soy sauce.

• Give the mixture a good stir and then cover the pot securely with aluminum foil before putting on the lid.

• This tight seal ensures the maximum flavour!

• Cook on high setting for 45 minutes and then reduce to the low setting for about six to eight hours, (hey, it’s a slow cooker!!) adding the peas and the corn for the final 30 minutes of cooking.

• This is an excellent recipe using Beef, but it is equally good for wild meat like Antelope, Deer, Elk and Moose.

It's like someone read my mind...

Yeah...surprise, surprise. Haven't been motivated to share anything for almost a year. Just don't have a lot to say.

This isn't original. I received it in an e-mail from an old friend and thought you might enjoy it, as I did.

Thanks my friend.




1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.



2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.



3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.



4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.



5. How the !*%#! are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?



6. Was learning cursive really necessary?



7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.



8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.



9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.



10. Bad decisions make good stories.



11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.



12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.



13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.



14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this - ever.



15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? xxxx it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice mail. What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?



16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste!



17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.



18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.



19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.



21. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.



22. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.



23. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.



24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.



25. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?



26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!



27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.



28. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.



29. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey -but I'll bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!



30. My check engine light has been on for three months now and nothing's happened. I'm starting to think that my car is just an attention whore.



31. I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?



32. Sometimes I pretend not to remember details about people because having a good memory apparently equates to creepiness.



33. My GPS says "Estimated Arrival Time." I see "Time to Beat."



34. Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".



35. My keyboard needs a removable crumb tray like my toaster.



36. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?



37. I wish it were appropriate to say to a complete stranger, "Excuse me, would you like me to show you how to discipline your child?"



38. I never understood why the Lions and Cowboys always get to play on Thanksgiving. Shouldn't the Patriots play the Redskins, and then steal their stadium afterwords?



39. Double-Stuffed Oreos should just be called Oreos, and regular Oreos should be called Diet Oreos.