We will open the book. Its pages are blank.

We are going to put words on them ourselves.

The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce

New Year's Wishes

=

May you get a clean bill of health from your dentist, your cardiologist, your gastroenterologist, your urologist, your proctologist, your podiatrist, your psychiatrist, your plumber and the IRS.

May your hair, your teeth, your face-lift, your abs and your stocks not fall; and may your blood pressure your triglycerides, your cholesterol, your white blood count and your mortgage interest not rise.

May New Year's Eve find you seated around the table together with your beloved family and cherished friends.

May you find the food better, the environment quieter, the cost much cheaper, and the pleasure much more fulfilling than anything else you might ordinarily do that night.

May what you see in the mirror delight you, and what others see in you delight them.

May someone love you enough to forgive your faults, be blind to your blemishes and tell the world about your virtues.

May the telemarketers wait to make their sales calls until you finish dinner, may the commercials on the TV not be louder than the program you are watching, and may your checkbook and your budget balance, and include generous amounts for charity.

May you remember to say, "I love you" at least once a day to your spouse, your child, your parent, your siblings; but not to your secretary, your nurse, your masseuse, your hairdresser, or your tennis instructor.

And may we live in a world at peace and with the awareness of God's love in every sunset, every flower's unfolding petals, every baby's smile, every lover's kiss, and every wonderful, astonishing, miraculous beat of our heart.


Best wishes to all in the New Year.

-Author unknown

New Year's Prayer

As the dawn breaks on a new year,
let us give thanks for all we hold dear:
our health, our family and our friends.

Update for HELEN DODSON BURGER

This came from Loa Copp, daughter of Helen Burger

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"Helen Burger, while at Plaza West Care Center, has shown an almost miraculous recovery!

The family knows that MANY prayers were offered on her behalf and those prayers, along with the excellent care she is receiving has brought her back from what looked to be a hopeless situation.

She has most of her past memories back, her short term memory is still a little foggy but she is basically back to her normal self.

Physically, she is is in better condition than she was before all the sickness began. She can walk long distances and the therapists are amazed at her comeback. Now, the only part of her rehab that needs work is care of her ostomy site, which will begin very soon.
The way it looks right now, she will be able to go back to live with her daughter, Loa, in Auburn, with the aid of Home Health Care provided through Kansas Rehab Hospital.

Helen's four daughters want to thank ALL of you for your prayers as we know this miracle would not have happened without them!

We are so thankful to the Lord for His healing touch that still continues today!"

Helen would enjoy hearing from you.

Her address is . . . .

Helen Burger

% Loa Copp

Box 166 - 450 Milton St.

Auburn, KS 66402

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR MILITARY! THANK YOU!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The True Meaning of Christmas

http://www.llerrah.com/truemeaningofchristmas.htm

Some of you may know that I (Onnalee) have a great nephew that is a Police Officer in Lakewood, Washington. He was in a squad of 6 young police officers. 4 of them were shot in a coffee shop as they were preparing for their time of duty. My great nephew, Adam, would have been at the coffee shop with them but he had been detained by an earlier call - which the guy that he had stopped, bit him (Adam) on the calf of his leg. The guy was on PCP, so Adam went to the hospital to see what he should do about the bite. Adam’s other squad member was also out on another call. They both arrived at the coffee shop right after the shooting. When we first heard the news on Fox News, we were very panic stricken. It took us a few minutes to find out that Adam was OK.
We have many links to articles and radio interviews (with Adam) and videos of the memorial service, etc. But the most touching article we have is one that came out this week. It was a Christmas Story by one of the Police Officer’s at Lakewood.

Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story
You can click on the above link to read this article and read the comments.

However, I have posted the story below.

Posted By Mike Archbold on December 16, 2009 at 9:50 am

A little boy and his toy dinosaur who came by the Lakewood Office Department station last Sunday to honor the four slain police officers touched an officer enough that the officer wanted to share the story in a Christmas letter to friends.
One of the friends who received the letter, Tukwila police officer Mike Murphy, said he and his fellow officers were so touched by the story that they thought it should be shared with the community.
Murphy said the officer who wrote it agreed but wanted to remain anonymous.
"It is just a story of one child reaching out and helping heal the pain we have all suffered," Murphy said in his e-mail. "Our only goal in sending it is to reach out to our community and thank them for this and all the other love and support they have sent us through this very difficult time."

The Christmas story is reprinted below:
December 13, 2009

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I’m not much for writing Christmas letters, and in fact this year, I didn’t even feel like making the effort of buying and addressing Christmas cards at all. I’m sure you all have heard of the terrible tragedy that occurred here in Lakewood two weeks ago today – four of our officers, four people that have become my friends over the past 5 years as we all worked here together, were gunned down as they sat in a coffee shop. Three fathers and a mother – all of whom were dedicated to their jobs and their families – now dead.

The grief at our station and in our community has been overwhelming and we have all now just barely begun to process what this means for our department and for police departments all across our state and nation. Several times since this event happened, police agencies have responded to reports of individuals across King and Pierce Counties causing commotions and claiming to be planning to kill more officers. We do our best to maintain our composure and continue to do our jobs the best that we can.
It is hard not to remain bleak and jaded with these events so fresh in our minds. But something happened today, just 20 minutes ago, which made me want to send out a Christmas letter. I’m here at work and was just out in our secure parking lot helping another officer load collection bins into his car to take to a local Lakewood Police Independent Guild fundraiser event. I heard a woman, standing with a boy who couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old, calling, “Excuse me….” through our locked gate. She had apparently been trying to get to our front counter but found no one there, it being Sunday, and had just happened to see us in the parking lot. I walked over to her and saw that the little boy was holding a plastic baggy containing a dollar and some change, and was clutching a well-worn stuffed dinosaur.
The woman told me that her son, AJ, had seen the stories on tv about our 4 slain officers. She said that they had driven to our station all the way from Kingston because her son was so intent on helping the children of these officers. I opened the gate and the boy handed me the plastic baggy containing all the money from his piggybank and a note on which he had written “AJ….From me to Pleec. I Love You.” And then, with tears in his eyes, he handed me his stuffed dinosaur. AJ’s mom explained that he wanted to give the children of the slain officers the most precious thing that he owned, and that was his dinosaur, Bruno.
I told AJ that I would take the money that he wanted to donate, but that I thought the best thing he could do for the children of our 4 officers was to keep Bruno safe with him but to keep those kids in his heart when he hugged his dinosaur. He agreed and gratefully took Bruno back from me and held him tightly as if he never wanted to let him go again.
We have seen many, many acts of generosity and kindness over the past 2 weeks. We have hugged more friends and strangers than we could have ever imagined and have mended broken ties with people we haven’t talked to for years. Yet nothing has touched me deeper, or given me more hope for the future, than AJ and his stuffed dinosaur. I gave AJ one of our department challenge coins, explaining to him that we only gave them out to the bravest and most deserving people we came across. I hope he will realize someday how much more than a dollar and some change he gave to me and to the Lakewood Police Department today.
So anyway, none of that is about Christmas, but it is about hope and love and I thought it was appropriate to share this holiday season.
I hope this letter finds all of you well and eager to spend the holidays with those you love. Squeeze everyone a little tighter and hug them a little longer today because life really is precious. Merry Christmas!

l

And . . . . this is what Christmas is all about.

Jesus is the reason for the season!

RUSSELL VFW WEB SITE

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VFW Post 6240 - Russell, Kansas

http://www.vfwpost6240.org/

The blog that I mentioned that Duane Cronn does is not a blog -

it is a web site and it is wonderful.

Great job, Duane!

THANK YOU DUANE CRONN

I received the announcement about Loretta and Leo Baum from Duane Cronn yesterday. I was in a hurry when I posted it, as we had our granddaughter with us and I try to take more time with her. However, I really appeciate how Duane sends us information. I just have to copy and paste what he sends. In my rush I forgot to give him credit.
Thank You Duane for the information.

He sent this email to me this morning . . . . .

"Thanks Onnalee for running the wedding anniversary for Leo and Loretta. I should have told you that Loretta is my older sister. I was talking to her son Gordon at the anniversary and he thinks the blog is great and checks it out a couple of times a week. Everyone I talk to appreciates it, and looks forward to reading the new items, and checking out the old items.

I know it takes a lot of your time to keep it going. I’m the Post Quartermaster at the VFW in Russell. We didn’t have a website, so I was asked to set one up and have been operating it for about a year. I don’t have near the volume that you have but it stills takes a lot of time. In case you want to check the website out, the address is vfwpost6240.org.

Thanks again, and keep up the good work.

Duane Cronn"

(Now I know why he sends everything so easy to post - he knows what a blog is all about.)

Thanks again, Duane!

Leo & Loretta Celebrated 60 Years Together

Congratulations

to

Leo & Loretta Baum

for

Sixty Years of Marriage

Hope your celebration was Great!

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Loretta Cronn Baum was in the class of 1949 at Paradise High School.

Their five children, Leo Harold Baum (1969), Gordon Baum (1970), Leota Baum Hekele, Ginger Baum Cotton and Brenda Baum Roat attended school at Paradise. Leo and Gordon graduated from Paradise, but the girls graduated from Hoisington High School.

Leo and Loretta reside at 409 N. Court St., Hoisington, Kansas

CONNIE (WEBSTER) ANDERSON

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I received an email from Connie (Webster) Anderson Nov. 16, 2009

and for some reason, I just now found it.

This is a late for your Anniversary
Connie and John
but Congratulations for your
45th Anniversary - November 29th.

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And . . . . Thank You for your email.

Onnalee,

I really enjoy reading all the stuff on the Paradise blog. It is great and we can hear about people we haven't heard from in many years.

Keep up the good work and forget those nay sayers. They don't have to look at it if they don't like it. Let the rest of it enjoy it.

I am a 1962 graduate of Paradise and my sister, Carol, was in Millard's class.

Just wanted to let you know that my we will soon be celebrating our 45 wedding anniversary on the 29th of November. After we were married we spent 6 years in the navy and were mostly on the east coast, except for the 14 months John was in Viet Nam as a medic with the Marines. We came back to Osborne in April of 1970 and have been here ever since. I was a clerk in several of the businesses here in Osborne and John was a lab. tech in the local hospital for 36 years, retiring in 2006.

Thanks for creating the blog and I truly enjoy every article that you put on there.

Thanks a bunch. Connie (Webster) Anderson

HOW STUPID ARE WE?

HIGH SCHOOL -- 1959 vs. 2009

Scenario 1:
Jack goes quail hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
1959 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2009 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1959 -Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2009 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1959 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again..
2009 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The school gets extra money from the state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1959 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2009 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1959 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.
2009 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.
1959 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
2009 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state.. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English..

Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed..
1959 - Ants die.
2009 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents -- and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1959 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing..
2009 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.
Everyone should read this to show how stupid we have become!!
AMEN TO THAT !!!!

ONE MINUTE MINI RETREAT

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During this busy season, take out a minute for this
Awesome Mini Retreat for your mind.

http://www.thejoymovie.com/index.html

d

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UPDATE FOR DONNIE (MARTIN) MILLER

Just received this from Duane Miller about his wife Donnie.

Hello Onnalee,

Donnie had a break from Chemotherapy Treatments from January until October. Her CEA count was normal in January and by October it was elevated to 24.

Last Wednesday the Oncology Doctor advised after three treatments the CEA count was 3.5. The response to treatment to kill the cancer cells was very good. The fourth chemotherapy treatment was on Wednesday December 2nd and is expected to bring the count on down to a normal level.

The plan is after the CEA reaches normal level, she would have surgery to reverse the colon.

Donnie is doing good on the one hand, but on the other there is considerable pain and suffering from the issues of having cancer and diabetes.

I will let you know when the surgery is scheduled.

Thanks for the prayers. Our family wish you and readers of the Paradise Blog. a Merry Christmas and Happy New-Year.


Duane Miller