Posted: under "LOVE is LOVELY", Inspirationals.
Tags: age, anxiety, appreciation, bank, beauty, belief, blessings, bliss, blossom, blossoms, body, breakfast, bridge, burden, bus, cancer, care, check, children, clinic, color, colors, compassion, concern, courage, cross, delight, depression, dinner, doctor, duty, elderly, era, exam, example, exercise, eyes, faith, family, favor, feeling, feelings, fish, fishing, flowers, food, friends, funds, garden, gift, God, granny, gratitude, grown ups, gynecologist, happiness, health, heart, Heaven, highway, home, hospital, House, humanity, husband, imagination, inspiration, job, journey, joy, knowledge, labor, language, laughter, learning, letter, life, lifestyle, lifetime, love, mail, man, memories, mind, moment, money, morning, mountain, movement, neighbor, noise, nurse, office, others, pain, passenger, path, patient, perception, period, physician, plant, plants, present, quiz, relaxation, rest, road, role model, seniors, size, skin, sleep, smiles, snack, snacks, son-in-law, soul, sound, specialist, spirit, strength, stress, success, sugar, summer, sunshine, support, surgeon, surprise, task, test, thankfulness, thought, time, token, travel, treatment, trials, trip, vegetable, vegetables, veggie, veggies, vehicle, voice, weight, wife, woman, wonder, words, work, worries, worry

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The Rented Room
================
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Our house was directly across the street from the clinic
entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived
downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the
clinic.
.
One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at
the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.
.
“Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,” I thought as I
stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing
was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.
.
Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, “Good evening. I’ve come
to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a
treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no
bus ’til morning.”
.
He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no
success, no one seemed to have a room. “I guess it’s my face…
I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more
treatments…”
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For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me,
“I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus
leaves early in the morning.”
.
I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.
I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready,
I asked the old man if he would join us. “No thank you.
I have plenty.” And he held up a brown paper bag.
.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk
with him a few minutes. It didn’t take a long time to see that
this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.
.
He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her
five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from
a back injury.
.
He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other
sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing.
.
He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was
apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him
the strength to keep going.
.
At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him.
When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded
and the little man was out on the porch.
.
He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus,
haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said,
.
“Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a
treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a
chair.” He paused a moment and then added, “Your children made
me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children
don’t seem to mind.”
.
I told him he was welcome to come again.
.
And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the
morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the
largest oysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them
that morning before he left so that they’d be nice and fresh.
.
I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m., and I wondered what time he
had to get up in order to do this for us.
.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never
a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables
from his garden.
.
Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special
delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young
spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed.
.
Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing
how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.
.
When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a
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Mar 25 2012
Posted: under "A Slice Of Life", "DID YOU KNOW", Inspirationals.
Tags: Africa, African-American, age, aim, America, American, anniversary, arm, arms, army, beauty, black, blacks, bliss, body, bracelet, Brazil, Britain, British, campaign, caring, celebrity, ceremony, challenge, check, children, Chinese, college, community, companion, computer, couple, culture, designer, diamonds, diet, duty, earrings, earth, effort, election, England, era, Europe, example, exercise, family, fashion, finger, fingers, first lady, flag, food, funds, game, garden, global, globe, goal, gold, government, hair, hairdo, hairstyle, hand, hands, happiness, health, home, honor, House, hug, hugs, husband, icon, inspiration, internet, interview, jewelry, job, joy, kisses, labor, language, leader, life, London, love, magazine, man, Mathematics, military, money, moral, morning, mother, nation, navy, necklace, neighborhood, New York, online, partner, performance, period, photos, politics, power, president, project, recipe, ring, role model, school, service, sharing, show, smiles, soldier, soldiers, South Africa, sport, spouse, style, support, task, television, time, tour, universe, updo, values, veggie, veggies, veteran, veterans, voter, White House, wife, woman, words, work, world, youth

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As the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama has become a role model in the awareness arena for healthy eating, sharing her homegrown recipes via her cookbook. Next celebrity chef? She has also become a fashion icon and has been named by Forbes Magazine as the eighth most powerful woman in the world.
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First lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum in Washington….
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First lady Michelle Obama speaks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011, during an event to honor schools that met the first lady’s goal to double the number of participants in the HealthierUS School Challenge in year.
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Michelle Obama attends cultural performances in Brasilia, Brazil….
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Michelle Obama introduces President Barack Obama at a DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall, New York-
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Michelle Obama gestures before introducing her husband President Barack Obama at a DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall in New York. She’s mingled barefoot among Aspen’s elite, stirred a Vermont utility executive to tears and bucked up disenchanted New Yorkers. The 2012 presidential campaign is well under way for Michelle Obama, and the first lady is promising to put herself into the election effort like never before. More than a year from Election Day, she is hauling in millions in campaign cash and sketching a portrait of her husband drawn with an intimacy that no one else could duplicate.
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Michelle Obama speaks to children at Christ Church College in Oxford, England.-
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Michelle Obama speaks to children from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school in London as they visit Christ Church College in Oxford, England.
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Dec 18 2011
Posted: under "DID YOU KNOW".
Tags: African-American, age, America, American, arm, arms, army, aroma, baby, bird, black, blacks, bliss, body, bowl, breakfast, campaign, carbohydrates, celebrity, challenge, courage, diet, dinner, energy, era, exercise, family, fat, fats, First Granny, first lady, food, fragrance, fruit, fruits, garden, gold, granny, hand, hands, happiness, health, ingredient, ingredients, inspiration, joy, leader, man, Mathematics, meat, military, mother, mother-in-law, navy, oil, others, parrot, perfume, period, president, protein, recipe, scent, season, seasoning, seed, seeds, smiles, snack, snacks, soldier, soldiers, strength, sugar, sunrise, sunset, sunshine, tablecloth, taste, thyme, time, treats, turkey, vegetable, vegetables, veggie, veggies, veteran, veterans, vitamins, weight, White House, woman, youth

First Lady, Michelle Obama welcomes young runners participating in Run Across America health campaign at the South Lawn of the White House…
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First lady of the United States, Michelle Obama has become an advocate for healthy eating, veterans and military families, poverty awareness and women’s rights. Here are some recipes created with Michelle’s veggies in the White House kitchen, and served to the Obama family on a fairly regular basis….
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Enjoy…!
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Grilled Chicken Salad with Herb Sherry Vinaigrette (serves 6)
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2 pounds assorted seasonal garden greens like arugula and and baby spinach
6 chicken breasts (6 ounces each)
1 tablespoon thyme
zest from 1 lemon
6 sprigs chives, chopped
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For the Vinaigrette
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Dec 18 2011
Posted: under "DID YOU KNOW".
Tags: African-American, age, aid, America, American, beaches, bird, black, blacks, bliss, breakfast, carbohydrates, caring, celebrity, charity, check, cheese, children, color, colors, community, contribution, diet, dinner, donation, dream, duty, earth, energy, era, family, fat, fats, First Granny, first lady, fish, fishing, food, funds, garden, gift, girl, global, globe, granny, growth, habit, happiness, health, home, House, ingredient, ingredients, inspiration, job, journey, joy, labor, lake, land, life, lifestyle, love, Mathematics, meat, milk, money, moral, mother, mother-in-law, neighborhood, ocean, others, period, photos, pond, pool, present, president, protein, rain, recipe, rivers, road, school, sea, season, seasoning, sharing, show, smiles, snack, snacks, soil, stream, sugar, sunshine, tablecloth, task, taste, time, tourist, travel, treats, trip, turkey, universe, values, vegetable, vegetables, veggie, veggies, vitamin, vitamins, water, weight, White House, work, world, youth

Are you ready for Michelle Obama, kitchen goddess? The first lady’s pulling a Gwyneth Paltrow and publishing a cookbook. Americn Grown, on sale April 10, 2012, combines veggie growing tips with recipes inspired by Michelle’s White House garden.
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It’s a garden she’s toiled over since 2009. So have daughters Sasha and Malia, who help with the weeding “like it or not”. Despite being a gardening novice, Obama’s laid the groundwork for over 55 varietals of veggies. Stalks of black kale, bright yellow peppers, and beams of eggplant have grown from the most expansive garden the White House lawn has ever seen.
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Now it’s growing beyond the Obama home, and into the cookbook arena. According to her publishers, she’ll use the garden’s offerings as the starting point for seed-sowing, recipe ideas and personal anecdotes and photos of the Obamas’ home-base. The aim of the book is to show how “increased access to healthy, affordable food can promote better eating habits and improve health of families and communities across America,” according to the publishers at Random House, who
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Dec 18 2011
Posted: under "DID YOU KNOW".
Tags: age, America, awards, beauty, bliss, bouquet, bracelet, Brazil, Caribbean, celebrity, competition, contest, contestant, crown, daffodil, designer, diamonds, earrings, earth, era, fashion, flowers, friends, garden, global, globe, gold, gown, hairdo, hairstyle, happiness, Hollywood, hotel, jewelry, journey, joy, judge, lipstick, make-up, necklace, pageant, path, pearls, photos, prize, pumps, queen, reason, resort, resorts, road, rose, roses, smiles, style, surprise, time, title, travel, trophy, universe, winner, woman, world
AND THE WINNER IS . . . .

Alyssa Campanella
***

The winner of the 2011 Miss USA Pageant, Alyssa Campanella, will represent the United States at the Miss Universe pageant in Brazil scheduled for September 12.
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Alyssa Campanella
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Alyssa Campanella, who’s originally from Manalapan, New Jersey, is a former Miss Teen USA runner-up from 2007. She moved to Los Angeles, California after losing her Garden State
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Jun 21 2011
Posted: under "DID YOU KNOW".
Tags: abroad, airport, America, army, banquet, barbeque, beauty, belt, bracelet, Britain, British, Buckingham Palace, celebrity, chic, church, colors, companion, computer, couple, crown, daffodil, designer, diamonds, dinner, dress, Duchess, earrings, effect, elegance, England, Europe, eyes, fashion, fashionista, first lady, flight, flowers, food, foreign, garden, glamorous, gloves, gold, government, gown, hairdo, hairstyle, hands, honor, husband, internet, Ireland, Irish, jacket, jewelry, journey, King, lipstick, make-up, military, mini, money, necklace, online, palace, pants, partner, pearls, photos, pilot, plane, politics, president, prime minister, Prince, pumps, queen, Queen Elizabeth, reason, ring, rose, roses, royalty, silver, smiles, soldier, spouse, stunning, style, sugar, suit, tea, throne, touch, tour, travel, treats, trip, White House, wife
Michelle Obama goes glam and stays stylish while touring England and Ireland

Simply Stunning
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President Obama may have been touring Great Britain for political reasons, but the eyes of the fashion-forward were on Michelle Obama. Could she be able to keep up with the British prime minister’s wife, Samantha Cameron, who is known for being a bit of a fashionista? How would she measure up to Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and her accessible style? Would she make a fashion faux-pas and represent the United States while wearing a little-known foreign designer’s duds?
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Have no fear—she looked amazing. We took a look at some of her top outfits from the trip; here, the president and first lady pose with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip before a banquet at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
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Let’s take a closer look at that gorgeous dress, shall we?
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The ivory ruched Georgette gown by Tom Ford has white ribbon-and-bow detailing at the waist;
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May 31 2011