All God's angels come to us disguised. ~ James Russell Lowell

Yesterday I have to believe that this cloud was such an Angel. I was in my truck backing out of the drive-way and I saw this cloud and the sun shinning around it. What is so strange is the fact that for some reason I just had to get out and come back in and shoot this cloud. Maybe nothing would have happened if I had left on time like always, but just some little part just has to think… what if I had not taken the 5 minutes to shoot this picture? Maybe I’m more than a ½ bubble off center… hahaha…but sometimes things just happen and one just has to wonder why and maybe it’s nothing, but just what if it’s God sending us an Angel and it’s up to us to decide on how to act upon…



Maybe nothing would have happened if I had left yesterday if I had not taken time to shoot the picture, BUT we’ll never know for sure will we…

35 Years and Counting

July 12, 1976 was a Monday and I can almost remember every thing about it. I was twenty years old and never really been away from home and to come to Pascagoula was to say the least a very big thing. I had just taken a job at Singing River Hospital as a 3rd shift Computer Operator. Back then Computer Operators had to run the computer not just sit and watch a status board like today. Back then everything was on punch cards and it was our job to load the cards (data) into the big old slow machine to post charges, cash, payroll, and all that. Once the reports printed we had to walk them out to each department. There was none of this assigning the reports to a department printer and having it print there when finished… hahaha





It took a lot of hard work and being stabbed in the back many times, but after nine years trying to prove myself I was able to break into Programming and I never looked back. Now for over 25 years I’ve been writing reports and I must say I’ve enjoyed my job very much.


Now thirty-five years later --- I have 3 grown daughters, 3 grandsons, and 1 little princess and news of another one in February. I guess people could call me lucky, but the only lucky thing was I knew someone to that helped me get my foot in the door… it was my hard work and the willingness to go the extra mile that has gotten me to this 35 year pin.




I came to the hospital 35 years ago and didn’t know anyone--- today I can say I can’t go anywhere in the hospital without stopping to talk to a now “old” friend. Yes, God has been so good to me and I thank my Mom and Dad for being my role models for my work ethics and Jim Hatten for believing in me 35 years ago and walking out on that thin limb to help me get this job. Jim, I owe you big time.. and I thank you so much.

July 19, 2011 I received my 35 year pin from Singing River Health System and what made it for me was the fact that my little girl, Melissa was able to be there with me... I wish the Lauren and Mary could have been with me, but with 2 little ones Dad understands.. Melissa works at the hospital also.

Adventure-- Well you tell me

Middleton, WI
Sunset 07/13/2011

There’s no place like home… I got to spend almost a week in Middleton, WI last week. The weather was great and wish I would have had time to get out with my camera and just walk and shoot. I didn’t take my camera because I knew after being in class all day I would be dead tired and that was pretty much the case. The bike paths they had were great.. I wish we had the same down here and as much as possible the land was left to grow kinda wild-- the grasses and wildflowers along the paths. The trip was fun and nothing happened that would make a story… but when I got home--

 We got back in to Gulfport about 12 yesterday and to my surprise it had been raining. That was a very good thing. I had to rush home to be at Noah and Gage’s birthday party at 3:30 in Ocean Springs… No problem… so I unpacked and put my things in the washer so I could have them drying while I was at the party. Good idea.

Well when I got home I went to put something away in my bedroom and then I saw it… A SNAKE on the floor next to the wall… First thing that crossed my mind was OH NO… I’ve got to get Cody and Lucy out of here so maybe I can do something about this BIG problem. It didn't matter to me if it was a Black Mamba, King Corba, or just a Garter snake... I didn't care.. all I saw was a snake.. 


While getting them out I was looking for something to help make this snakes journey into the after life a easy trip.. if you get what I mean.. haha… when I got back there… well you know what I found.. NOTHING… he had eased off into hiding.. OH MY GOD… now I was dead tired now… I woke up at 2 Sat morning worrying the test I’ve got to take on the class and thinking about getting to the airport on time… so as you can image I was in NO mood for this… and to top it all off my air went out… I was hot and tired and was in no mood to play hide and seek with a snake. Jonathan came over to look at my air and I told him my little snake story… He helped me look under the bed, in the closet and around the room.. NOTHING… He told me just to keep the air down real low (laughing the whole time) … LOL… said I would ok… but when I asked if he would sleep in there he kinda said NO WAY… Son-in-laws… haha…


I was feeling better and had kinda made my mind up that everything would be ok.. but just to be safe I wanted a barrier around my bed… the bedroom has a tile floor thank God… so I came up with this idea… we had pulled the bed away from the wall so we could look all around.. so what I did was to get my pail and put pure bleach in it and mopped all around my bed… there wasn’t anything going to cross that line I promise… Well the bleach was so strong I had to let it dry and kinda air out before I could go to bed… I was sitting here on the computer reading Facebook updates and looking up how to get snakes out of your house. Did a lot of that….


Well Cody, my little dog, kept on wanting to go to bed… and I did also… I figured the smell had pretty much gone in the bedroom so I put him down and I saw something… OH YEAH.. my bleach done burned the old boys eyes also… I eased up and got Cody and Lucy to go outside.. all I needed was for them to see him and run him back into my room… Well when I got them out I got my good old Sears shovel… these are some good shovels … the handles must be very good OLD OAK… because I put it to the test.. I think I hid the snake so hard I busted my slab… hey at that point I didn’t care… If I could have gotten to my gun I would have shot him… but it was in the closet and I wasn’t going there… hahaha


Well let’s just say I got a good night’s sleep and I’m afraid there’s one less snake in the world today. The truth of it is – if I had seen him outside I would have never messed with him… but when he came into my house… OH NO… that was going just a bit to far for me….