A Day in the Life (minus bad plumbing!!!)

Erma Bombeck always made me laugh at life. Her regular newspaper posts cracked me up and her wise words...

"When I stand before God at the end of my days I want to be able to say I used everything you gave me."

Help guide my life, my choices because how sad is it to waste God's greatest gift? Life?

These came from Great-Grandma Blodgett's garden via Grandma Blodgett... I think that makes them sweeter each spring, knowing the women who passed out bulbs to friends and family. Such a small thing to do to bring such joy each spring...

New Roof in Progress!!!  This long awaited home improvement came after too many back-and-forths with my husband and son-in-law about re-doing this roof.... I stood my ground and we hired it done because it's high.... It's tricky.... and these guys weren't afraid to use harnesses to stay alive! Whereas my very competitive show-off family men... Well.  You get the drift of what I'm saying.  :)  The roof is done, and everyone is alive, which was my goal all along!

Grandchildren snuggling baby dolls..... With cozy blankies, of course.

These pretty hyacinths came in an arrangement sent in remembrance of our grandson Joseph... Joseph was lost in the sixth month of pregnancy, a bitter time for all of us. But these little blossoms remind us of him... and of life renewed. When my day in heaven comes I will be seated right there, next to other grandmas and mamas, rockin' babies we never got a chance to hold here on Earth.

And we'll tell them stories.... and laugh and sing.

And rock them to sleep.... This is Xavier, Joseph's younger brother... He got a little naughty and we just cuddled for a while...

And then.... :)   Sleepy baby.

Isn't that like the best picture ever???

Oh, wait.... Yes, the sleeping baby is best ever.... but here is the below-grade completed (and inspected!) work for the new family room/foyer addition:

This is the crawl space that will be beneath the room and it will have a No Snakes or Mice Allowed sign permanently affixed to wall....

And here is the freshly poured concrete floor of the crawl space:

NOW....

NEXT WEEK!!!!!

THE LUMBER COMES!!!  AND WALLS WILL BEGIN!

The Lawman's Second Chance... a Real-Life Love Story...

Book Signing this Saturday!

The Friends of the Parma Public Library

are hosting a delightful opportunity for us to meet in person...

AND TALK!!! :)

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

1-3 P.M.

Parma Public Library

7 West Ave.

Hilton, NY  14468

Books will be available for purchase! We'd love to see you there!

I just love this cover.

I love this book.

I hate the reason I was moved to write this book because my beloved friend Lisa was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer less than two years ago.

I first met Lisa... the REAL Lisa... when she and her husband Jeff came to my house a dozen years ago to talk about watching their newborn daughter Taylor....

You can see Taylor here:

She's the older daughter on the left... my granddaughter Emma was the model for the younger sister in this sweet book.... How precious are they?

So back to the interview with Lisa and Jeff... we live on a farm. In an old house. Life is interesting here and during the interview, Beth discovered a SNAKE on the basement stairs... Luke went running to help her even though he hates snakes... they dispatched the snake with a lot of typical teen theatrics and laughter...

Interview over, right????? Because who would leave their precious 3 month-old daughter in SNAKE HOUSE??????

But, no. Jeff and Lisa thought that if a brother and sister could work together to laugh over disposing of a snake IN THE HOUSE that we must be doing something right. (Silly them!!!)

:)

Four kids and many snakes later (and the occasional mouse and one young squirrel...) we hit the brick wall of breast cancer. Lisa went on the offense with strength, power, prayer, courage and some tears... She dealt with two rounds of chemo... a bi-lateral mastectomy... weeks of radiation.... restructure surgery... loss of hair, loss of weight, all the downsides you associate with fighting this disease.

And today she's doing well... She looks great, she's back to work, I'm annoying her children as always and making fun of her in the nicest way possible...

I love this book. I love how it turned out, how I walked into Van Putte's Garden Center days after Lisa sat on my porch explaining the diagnosis and they were holding a Breast Cancer Appreciation Day.... And I could picture my heroine, running the show, fighting cancer tooth and nail... With everything at her disposal... While a young father struggles to put his life together after losing his beloved wife.

Cancer is indiscriminate. I pray daily for Lisa... for her family... and for researchers to unlock the key to making cancer no more a problem than polio... or tuberculosis... or any of the diseases we've eradicated through generations of faith/time/money/research.

This is a happy book... a feel good story of God's love and new beginnings and one woman's fight to make a difference in her corner of the world.

For a personal glimpse into the REAL Lisa's life, check out this book trailer created by Beth Jamison (former stairway snake fighter!!!) in honor of Lisa, Jeff and "The Lawman's Second Chance":  BOOK TRAILER 

And the three kids on the cover of "The Lawman's Second Chance" were modeled by Taylor, McKenna and Nolan Tydings....

Lisa's three oldest children. Brody Tydings was busy waging dinosaur wars with Fisher Price Rescue Workers swooping in to save the "little people" from the T-Rex's.

This is Brody, Megan and Elijah reading "Yuletide Hearts"... on the table, of course, because that's where everyone reads, right?  Last winter.... Clearly we consider reading to be a Most Valuable Skill!!!  :)

I hope you love this book and I ask you to join me in prayer for Lisa and all of the women fighting breast cancer... for cancer victims/patients of all kinds... and for research to rid us of this dreadful disease.

Click HERE to order The Lawman's Second Chance from Amazon.com....

And it should be available this week wherever Love Inspired Books are sold!

Loving the Southern Tier of New York

I love going down to the Southern Tier...

If you're not familiar with this phrase, it's the upper ridge of the Appalachian Mountains, the northern tier... which for us in New York State becomes the Southern Tier because the mountains and rolling hills become our border with Pennsylvania.

It's gorgeous. Rolling. Tree-filled. Animals, small towns, sweet villages, countryside, farmland, just...

Beautiful. Inviting. Embracing.

I fell in love with it in 2007 when I went to a series of Little League championship games in Wellsville, New York in Allegany County... I was there to cheer for the Plainview team, out of Long Island. My young friend Jordan Sekler was playing for their team and this gave us a chance to take the two-hour drive down and watch the games... We love baseball, we love kids, we love the Seklers, so this was a no-brainer. Inspired by both the beauty and the tough times the Southern Tier of Western New York had seen, I decided I wanted to set a series of books in that area.

When I got published, "The Men of Allegany County" became a series of books lauding the beauty of Angelica, Fillmore, Belmont, Wellsville, etc.

Angelica, New York my model town for "Jamison, New York" in The Men of Allegany County" books.

Look at the line!!! This is a yearly tradition of buckwheat pancakes and real Western New York maple syrup...
And yes, totally worth waiting in the snow! Welcome to spring up north, LOL!

Now we're spreading out a bit, including Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties in the mix with the "Kirkwood Lake" Series.... Imagine Chautauqua Lake set in the rolling hills of Cattaraugus County, and you've got "Kirkwood Lake".

I wonder sometimes if people realize the beauty that surrounds them. I think we don't, most often, until something wakes us up to the glory of our everyday existence. To be surrounded by hills, mountains, streams, creeks, rivers, lakes... This is God's country, green and growing.

I've always questioned if the barrenness of the Middle East adds to the torment of the people. Would they be as angry and aggressive if they had the solace of green grass... gentle winds.... tree-filled forests... trickling water... snowy nights?

How much does our setting define us?

I wonder.

Well, let me just say, I love this setting, the Southern Tier of Western New York. It is pastoral... sweet... bucolic... and it seems to be well stocked with TO DIE FOR HEROES, LOL!   :)

'Cause ya' gotta have a good hero, right? To match these pull-themselves-up-by-the-bootstraps heroines.

:)

If you're ever up this way, cruise the Southern Tier. Take I-86 (although parts of it need work, ignore that...) and hop off and visit the small towns. Grab some cheese at the Cuba Cheese shop in Cuba, New York. Swing by Angelica and visit the Black-Eyed Susan Acoustic Cafe for food and conversation... Grab some candy from Webb's in Mayville on the west shore of Chautauqua Lake... Grab lunch at The Texas Hot  in Wellsville and supper at the Beef Haus up the road....

The first "Kirkwood Lake" book comes out in three weeks. "The Lawman's Second Chance" is a 4-Star (Romantic Times, March) compelling read of how life takes sudden bends in the road... and how faith helps us travel unexpected paths.

More on that later.... For now have a blessed, prayerful and thoughtful Holy Week! God bless you!

Ruthy