A True Woman With a Heart of Gold

I just found out that a friend, Peggy, is very ill.

I can't even imagine how she is feeling and what her family is going through. My mind keeps flashing back to the memories of this woman who had a huge impact in my life before I moved to Utah. She was a great boss who to this day has a huge heart for everyone she has worked with, especially the kids' lives she impacted.

During the eight years on Dorm A that I worked under her tutelage I learned so much about what a true mentor really is and I have always tried to model after her and live up to her standard. Believe me she has a very high standard. :)

I never truly realized how much Peggy has influenced me until I moved out of state, and as in most things, I found that hindsight is golden. I can't even begin to tell you how much crossing paths with this wonderful woman has meant to me.

I feel blessed to have known, and to have seen first hand what a caring loving person Peggy is and how she has contributed to the success of hundreds of kids that were fortunate enough to have drifted her way and have cared enough to have taken part of her with them as they moved on. To witness the way she was able to listen to each individual person and make them feel heard and validated leaves me thinking how lucky all of have been to have Peggy in our lives.

My prayers are going out to Peggy and her family as they go through this very difficult time.

Anyone who reads this, please include Peggy and her family in your prayers.

I love you Peggy.

Vickie Treadway

A Day at Home

I can only say that today has been a blessing. My daughter moved back home until she goes onto her next college which will be in about a year and a half if things goes right for her. It is Saturday and we are sitting outside enjoying the 80 degree weather. I'm in the shade and my daughter is in the sun trying to get a little color to her fair skin. Russ is trying to get the sprinklers to work now that winter is behind us.

So far the wind has not been blowing too bad and we have clear skies. My dogs are running back and fourth between all of us making sure everything is aas it should be. Once in a while a prairie dog will catch their eye across the street and they'll watch it until it goes back under ground. My cat hunter is across the street keeping his eyes on the rodent population and I'm sure he'll do his best to bring the numbers down.

I have images in my head and words floating around in my mind just waiting to be put down on paper. At least for a couple of hours I can have the peace I've been looking for this whole last week. Life is good at the moment and I am not going to take that for granted, because things can change in a in an instant.

I hope everyone has a good day and are enjoying the blessings that have come your way.

My Latest WIP

Looking outside as it is snowing, is helping me to get motivated to do some writing. I've been working on this particular story for about six months and I still really enjoy working on it. For about three months I have not been able to even really look at it, because of going to school and doing the homework that was involved.

The story is written, but now I'm fine tuning it and trying to make it flow better. I love my characters and really like how the story itself fell into place.

This is what the story is about in a short teaser.

The Christmas Miracle, Never forgotten

Jacey McMillan finds love when she accepts a temporary job that takes her to Europe over the holidays. While there, a single phone call changes her life forever when she learns the truth about who she really is and that she had been kidnapped from her family who never gave up hope in finding her.

Happy Easter

This year is going by so fast. I can't believe it is Good Friday already.

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter or passover.

The celebration of Spring as new life emerges is always something to behold.

What ever you are planning to do, may it be at church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with family, friends, having barbeques, or even by yourself. I pray each of you have a great Easter weekend.

27 Years of Marriage

Celebrating 27 years of marriage. My husband made reservations at a nice restaurant for us to go to tonight even though yesterday was the actual day. Our lives are very busy and we hardly get any time to be together, but that won't always be the case. Once I finish my class, things will calm down and I will be able to get back to a normal routine and we will start doing things together on a regular basis again.

I just had a birthday this week too, and that makes me another year older as well. I keep asking myself where the time has gone and what the future holds.

Someone asked me recently; What is the magic behind the success of your marriage?

There are so many variables to this question, it is difficult to narrow it down, because as we all know love sometimes is just not enough to keep people together.

What I will say is that you have to want to be together through the rough and the smooth patches in life, because you just never know what life will throw out at you. Each time you overcome an obstacle you grow from the experience and hopefully it makes you stronger. There needs to be a mutual respect for one another and you should want to build each other up and not tear them down. Each should fulfill the dreams they have with the love and support of the other, after all we are all different and dream of different things. This should be an opportunity for growth.

Tonight as we ate dinner at the restaurant we celebrated our anniversary at, I observed a young couple come in. They were seated at a table for two not far from where we were sitting. They smiled, laughed and looked into each others eyes as young couples do when they first fall in love.

My breath caught when I saw the young man pull out a ring case and put it in front of the young woman. She looked at him in surprise. I didn't want to be caught staring, but I couldn't keep from watching this romantic scene playing out in front of me.

The young woman took the ring out of the case and looked at it. She looked up at her date with a smile and nodded. I couldn't hear what they were saying to each other, but the universal language of love was at play right in front of me. She slipped the ring on her finger with excitement and just glowed. She couldn't stop looking at the ring as she spread her fingers out and smiled. The young man grinned and nodded in full satisfaction and then they kissed. It was all so very romantic. I didn't even know them and tears came to my eyes.

Russ and I have lived a life time together and have had our good years and our not so good years, but we prevail and keep going with a deeper love and understanding than what we had when we were first married.

I wish the best for that young couple as their journey begins.

For Russ and I we are looking forward to many more years.

Life is good.

Listening with Love and Compassion

Watching someone you love hurt is not easy, because you just want to wrap them up in a blanket and take all the hurt away. As we all know that is not possible. We live life, make decisions and hope they are the good ones, so that one day we can look back and say, "Yes, I did something right."

I don't know if you do, but I find that when giving pep talks that I fall into the bad habit of giving cliche's like: Everything will be okay, don't worry all you really need to do is move on, another words get over it. lol Oh, man when I hear that I just want to hang up the phone and hit my head against the wall. That kind of advice is not what the person really needs or wants to hear. I know I don't when going through a bad time.

For most of us it is hard to trust someone enough to open up. Sometimes when initially making the effort to call for help we don't even really understand what we need in the moment, but when we hear it, it really hits home. Most of the time we just need someone to listen. We don't need to fall into the role of advice giving or telling someone what they have to do, "to get over it". We are human and we don't really work like that, and it isn't that easy anyway.

Most of us already know what we need to do, but our feelings get in the way and that is part that is difficult to work through. Our feeling makes us human.

One of the things I did say to this person I love is, sometimes we just have to give ourselves permission to move on, we have to tell ourselves that it is okay to forgive ourselves for things we think we have done wrong and take credit for what we have done right. It is okay to be happy and stand up and learn from our experiences. We take with us our experiences with people and situations and ultimately learn from them, and if we allow it, become better people because of them.

I could tell that I said something right, because first of all, I didn't get hung up on, or I didn't get the irritated deep breath, that people do when you have said something they aren't ready to face, or maybe doesn't really apply to what they are feeling, or what is going on. After all I'm not a therapist, but I'm a mom, a friend, a wife and best of all a woman who has gone through a lot of things in life that help me identify with hardships, disappointments, frustrations, anger, sadness, forgiveness, happiness and love.

We may not admit it most of the time, but we need each other. We need love, compassion, and most of all we all need to be heard. We need to know that we matter.

Take the time to listen and be there for someone, because you just never know when you are going to be the one who needs someone to lean on.

Vickie

Happy Valentine's Day

What are you going to do for Valentin's Day? is there a place you want to go? Is there a special person you are going to be with? What is your idea of romance and celebrating?

My husband and I won't be doing anything special on Valentin's day sad to say, because I have to go to school that night after going to work all day. Not very romantic is it ... Oh, well. (Sigh)

My husband and I were making plans for this weekend last week and talking about what we wanted to do and what places to see. We like to get away to Las Vegas, because it is close and there is a lot to do. Our lives are so busy we don't get a lot of time together lately, and we'll take this time to catch up with each other. I think it is important to make the time to be with each other.

Russ surprised me by saying that we needed to celebrate Valentine's day together this weekend since this will be our only chance.

I can't tell you how much that meant to me to hear. I hadn't thought about it and he did. You'd think I would have been all over this since I'm a romance writer and I love, love, even it it's most simple form. Maybe I'm losing my touch, but I have to say, it felt good for him to even acknowledge it. I'm thinking of what I'll do for him, but I'm not really sure what yet.

We have been married for 26 years and in March it will be 27. I'll post about that later, but even after all this time we both feel the need and want to have a little romance and we still want to spend time with each other.

What ever it is that you do for Valentine's Day, I hope it is a nice day for you. If you have someone in your life take the time to let them know how you feel about them. Don't wait, just go with what is in your heart.

Have a great Valentine's day to all.