Happy Birthday to our Brady Darrell, 8 years old today!

First things first. Today I pause to join in the celebration of our grandson Brady Darrell's 8th birthday. You've heard of daddy and his shadow, well, may I introduce you to our Rodney's little shadow, Brady. I'm sure Rod scratches his head sometimes when he thinks just how much Brady is like he was, and is. Brady is a remarkable young fellow who enjoys life. His dad was always the life of any party and Brady is able to hold his own as well. He's well taken care of by Rodney and Mitzi and his sisters Kyleigh and Lexie. We do love this boy and pray God's blessings upon his life. Happy Birthday Brady from your MiMi and Poppy.

My old stomping grounds this past Monday from central Louisiana.

Rise and shine and give God the glory...glory! That's one of the lines from the children's song and it's not a bad way to get us going here on this Thursday, January 9, 2014. I would suppose there are a whole lot of folks living in our great land who would just as soon not be hearing anything more about 'walking in a winter wonderland'. Those who have been cooped up for days with snow and ice surrounding their world, well, they are ready to sing a new song. Perhaps they would rather be humming 'In the Good Old Summertime'. I can remember growing up in Louisiana how excited we were as kids, when, we would on very rare occasions have snow on the ground. It was so much fun. We ran and played and had ourselves a ball. However, we soon learned the limitations of our jeans and jackets as they were not well suited for the cold and wet. Our shrieking for joy eventually turned to shivering as we ran out of socks and new layers to replace the wet ones. That's how it goes in life folks. All our hopes and dreams here are temporary at best, but we, like Abraham, are looking for that place of perfection, our heavenly home, that eternal city whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10) Amen.

While serving in the Obama administration, former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel gave us this memorable quote: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." There's a new crisis in the making that obviously has many folks in a panic. Recent news reports indicate there could be a shortage of Velveeta Cheese leading up to and including the time when the Superbowl will be played. What is this world coming to? I suppose we in our household are fortunate since we don't typically use Velveeta in making a dip, but given the amount of news coverage devoted to this subject, I suppose there are plenty of folks who do. Maybe the government can come up with a plan to help alleviate this potential disaster. That might improve the President's sagging poll numbers. Think about it. No one should have to live without their Velveeta Cheese dip. My personal advice: Don't pay any outrageous price for a black market processed cheese product, especially if it is being sold out of the trunk of a car. If you should get your hands on some, make certain it has the following ingredients: "Milk, water, milkfat, whey, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, sodium phosphate; contains less than 2% of: salt, calcium phosphate, lactic acid, sorbic acid as a preservative, sodium alginate, sodium citrate, enzymes, apocarotenal (color), annatto (color), and cheese culture."

Okay. That's my public service notice for today and I know everyone will benefit by me keeping us all informed. Or something like that. For those of you thinking about writing your member of Congress, please don't. The reporting like this is a huge crisis is very real, but my take on it is all in fun. Got it? I hope so. Now, get out there and have yourself a really great day and whatever you do, don't forget to give God the glory...glory. Amen.  ....More later.