Thanks Pamela, you are special and so are so many others on this list. My freinds are only about 35 miles outside of Jacksonville, and will be arriving shortly. Let's hope we don't have war, but it sure looks like we are headed that way. It will be interesting tonight to talk with our freinds coming to visit. He is a Lt. Col. and they spent the night in Bixoli, Miss at the Air Forse Base there last night. We also have some Generals and a rear Admiral in the neighborhood, lots of former Air Force pilots, and Navy pilots as well. Mayport is only a few miles from me, and I can see the planes fly over each night or day from my back window. some of the area around us here at Queens Harbour also belongs to the Navy, which is a bit scary. I like you and many others on the list, hope we don't have a war. Guess we all will be glued to out TV sets tonight. Let's all say a special prayer. My freinds up the street from me lost their whole family when Hitler was the dictator that he was. So many horror stories. Bettye has been cooking all day for my special guest, and my daughter and the beautiful grandchildren will also come dine with us. My daughter loves all of my best girl freinds that I grew up with. I am still having a horrible time with my neck and the injury I got. Guess it will take time. Take care and lets all say a special prayer to whatever God you may worship tonight. Bettye

Hey Bettye, Thanks alot for the e-mail. Yes a lot of us have seen a lot of tragedy in our lives and those around us. When I was first married in Chicago we lived in Rogers Park which is the northernmost neighborhood in Chicago along the lake, just under Evanston. The neighborhood was mostly Jewish and back in the seventies there were still a lot of them who had been through the holicaust. Several of them showed me their tatooed numbers. Many of them never really recovered from the starvation and were little more than skin and bones. One man had been a child and had lost his whole family. He was grumpy and short tempered and always walked with his big german shepard. Then the dog started to limp and the vet had to put him down in about 6 months. The man was beside himself for awhile and the a relative got him a beautiful 7 month old doby. She was his pride and joy but he was harsh with her. I saw him hit her with the leather lease. I was afraid that some day she would turn on him. She did. one day she turned and jumped, put her front feet around his neck and started licking his face and kissing him. Within a minute she had turned this bitter man into a sobbing mound of jelly and he did nothing but spoil her after that. Somehow she knew how raw his heart was and what he needed. The little grandma who lived a half a flight down was supposed to be blind and deaf but she always knew whenever anyone went up my steps and she always worried until her daughter made sure I was alright. My ex=husband was an engineer and would talk to anyone. A young man from Iran came over and got his degree in engineering and had no family here so he would come over and talk with my ex-husband and ask for fatherly advise. One of my best friends at work is a young Iranian women who had to go back to Iran at christmas for an official morning period because her father had died there. I hope she is alright. She is very Americanized, not the burka type. I heard the Presidents speech tonight. It was very good. But it would be very surprising to me if Saddam left on his own. It sounds from the defensive moves he has made that he has most of his weapons right in Baghdad itself. Yes, we all need to be praying in this next 48 hours and then even more after that. I have no doubt that the arrogant little puppy will keep his word. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that he meant what he said. And no matter what their reasons, God bless Brittain and Spain. It is not easy for them to stand with us right now. But I can't find it in my heart to blame those who don't. We don't know all the reasons and just like God said, 'Revenge is mine'. I often tell people that the best and the worst thing I can do to them is turn them over to God. And even thought people feel that they are worshiping different Gods, the deeper and more honest the spiritual discussion gets, the more those Gods are similiar. I went to a funeral last week for a 25 yr old mom and her 24 week premie baby who had lived only 37 hrs after she died from a blood clot in her lungs. She left a young husband of 6 yrs and a 3yr old and a 5yr old. She was always so incandescently alive. I think of her and how all of us have pledged to help that young father keep their lives special. I hope this nation can focus on doing for the families of the soldiers, both those we lose and those who come back, as they did for the families of the victims of 9-11. I hope we can realize that the Iraqi people are the same as slaves, right now they can do nothing. I hope we can show the world that we mean good, not harm to them. We cannot wait, like we did in WWII, until they are literally knocking at all our doors before we enter the fray. I was really rather proud of that puppy tonight. But I feel for all the people who are afraid and/or genuinely don't believe in war. My brother-in-law is Quaker and was thinking he should be making a peace trip to Iraq not to many months ago. He is in his 80's and has been a peace advocate for over 50 years. He is a grand old man even though I don't always agree with him. Fortunately his health and wiser heads steped in and he and his wife are moving into an assisted living center which is much more appropriate to his condition than a flight to Baghdad. Life is strange. God bless everyone of you no matter what we believe or believe in. Mor than we ever appreciate, we need each other. Bless you Bettye. It sounds to me like your daughter, if I have that right, needs to start baking ang wraping cookies for the whole neighborhood. Maybe we could shower the whole middle east with good old American homebaked cookies. They always put our kids in a better mood and they were excellent bribes. What's your favorite homebaked cookie? And I'll amend that last paragraph to say homebaked cookies from all over the world. What if all those soldiers had a dozen homemade cookies to share every time they went out. I bet cookies will work faster than anything else to break down walls. And the propaganda leaflets they drop should all have a soft cookie attached. Hard ones might hurt. Come on, what's your favorite recipe? Ready, set, start baking! Here's to cookie diplomacy! Those things work on the oldest hardest grinch! Pamela BETTYBOAT@aol.com wrote: > > Thanks Pamela, you are special and so are so many others on this list. > > My freinds are only about 35 miles outside of Jacksonville, and will be > arriving shortly. > > Let's hope we don't have war, but it sure looks like we are headed that way. > > It will be interesting tonight to talk with our freinds coming to visit. He > is a Lt. Col. and they spent the night in Bixoli, Miss at the Air Forse > Base there last night. > > We also have some Generals and a rear Admiral in the neighborhood, lots of > former Air Force pilots, and Navy pilots as well. > > Mayport is only a few miles from me, and I can see the planes fly over each > night or day from my back window. some of the area around us here at Queens > Harbour also belongs to the Navy, which is a bit scary. > > I like you and many others on the list, hope we don't have a war. Guess we > all will be glued to out TV sets tonight. > > Let's all say a special prayer. My freinds up the street from me lost their > whole family when Hitler was the dictator that he was. So many horror > stories. > > Bettye has been cooking all day for my special guest, and my daughter and > the beautiful grandchildren will also come dine with us. My daughter loves > all of my best girl freinds that I grew up with. > > I am still having a horrible time with my neck and the injury I got. Guess > it will take time. > > Take care and lets all say a special prayer to whatever God you may worship > tonight. > > Bettye > > ==== BLACKSHEEP-CHAT Mailing List ==== > Unsubscribe from the list: > Mailto:Blacksheep-Chat-L-request@rootsweb.com?subject=unsubscribe&body=unsubscribe > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237