Miss Ann Says

Category: Uncategorized

• Hope

  Posted at 11:49 am by missannsays, on July 23, 2014

  Tomorrow morning I travel to Japan as a member of the "3rd International Outreach Program for School Children and Community Survivors of 3/11 Great East Japan Disasters". Amazing!!! Last year I was privileged to represent the 9/11 Tribute Center on the second trip. This trip will be similar as we will visit mental health clinics and temporary housing units, attend Rotary Club dinners/receptions, visit a school for the deaf in Koriyama and have a photo-op at the "Soaring Crane" Memorial in Kaiseizan Park. Even though some of the places we visit will be the same, this won’t be a “repeat” of the last trip. How could it be. It is a year later. Much can and does happen in a year. Things we deem good, things we deem bad and things that seem totally ordinary. I hope to see some of the people I meet last year but I also hope that they are no longer living in temporary housing. I hope those caring for so many people at the mental health clinics have not grown weary. I guess what I hope is that there is HOPE.

  Jeanette, fellow Tribute Center traveler and friend, sent me this prayer. It is my prayer for this trip:

  Prayer for a Safe Journey

  Blessed are You, Lord God, for You have created a wide and wonderful world
  in which we can travel.
  We ask Your blessing upon us as we are about to leave on this journey.
  Be our ever-near companion, our guide of travelers, and spread the road
  before us with beauty and adventure.
  May all the highways ahead of us be free of harm and evil.
  May we be accompanied by your Holy spirit and your angelic messengers, as
  were the holy ones of days past.
  On this trip may we take with us as part of our traveling equipment a heart
  wrapped in wonder with which to rejoice in all that we shall meet.
  Along with the clothing of wonder, may be have room in our luggage for a
  mystic map by which we can find the invisible meanings of the events of
  this journey – of possible disappointments and delays, of possible breakdowns
  and rainy day troubles.
  Always awake to your Sacred Presence and to Your divine compassionate love,
  may we see in all that happens to us, in the beautiful and the bad, the
  mystery of Your holy plan.
  May your blessing be upon us throughout this trip and bring us home again
  in safety and peace.

  Amen

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Japan, random thoughts, travel

• bucket list

  Posted at 10:34 pm by missannsays, on June 24, 2014

  We had been watching the World Cup soccer game between USA and Ghana in the bar where my son-in-law is a bartender. The added excitement was that members of the Reign soccer team were also in the bar. I enjoyed my tonic water with lime and watching my son-in-law interact with the customers. I am grateful that soccer is easy to understand, easy to watch and the USA won.

  As my daughter and I were leaving, I commented “that was the first time I ever watched a sporting event in a bar. It was really fun.” My daughter responded “you will have to check it off your bucket list.” I stated “I don’t have a bucket list but a lot of things I have done would be bucket list worthy”. She said “well start a bucket list of stuff you have already done and you can just check them off.”

  Tomorrow I am driving from MN to KS with my niece and her 5 small children. Well, it is actually my late husband’s nephew’s wife and children or my sister-in-law’s grandchildren and daughter-in-law. Anyway you say it, it is people who I count as family and love very much. And I am sure driving from MN to KS with a newborn, 2-year-old, 4-year-old, 5-year-old and almost 8-year-old would have never been on my bucket list but it is going to be adventure. You may ask why? My nephew is in the Army/National Guard Reserves and his annual active duty time is in Leavenworth, KS – his hometown. He will be finished on Friday so “we” are all driving to meet him at his folks, my sister-in-law’s house. I am pretty sure the stories from this journey will be bucket list worthy.

  Your prayers for safe travel, patience and keeping a sense of humor are greatly appreciated. 🙂

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged family, randomness, travel

• a birth story

  Posted at 10:29 am by missannsays, on May 31, 2014

  It was very early in the morning as I walked or was more like I waddled to the car. The baby I was carrying had a due date that had come and gone. The week before I had been admitted to the hospital but even medical intervention to induce her had not brought fore a baby. After a full day in hospital and no pain or movement, my doctors had said “baby isn’t ready. Go home and wait.”

  My bag had been packed for weeks. My mind had been ready to meet this little one for weeks as well. I was sure I was going to be eternally pregnant. I had a scripture verse I was holding onto. “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:16 I knew this baby would be born on the day God ordained and the good news was not a day later, bad news was not a day sooner.

  So on Thursday morning May 31, we awoke early to drive to the hospital to “have” this baby. I was up and ready to go. As we are heading out the door, Bruce, my hubby, announces he has to check the oil in the car first. what?!? Then as we drive the almost 30 miles to the hospital Bruce announces he is going to drive thru McDonald’s to get coffee. Did I mention I couldn’t eat or drink anything? An added note at the time McDonald’s sold this yummy little cinnamon buns which he also purchased. really?!? By the time we got to the hospital I was ready to “kill him”. I can look back now and realize that he was nervous and that was his way of coping but is wasn’t a pretty scene as we finally arrived at the hospital.

  I am admitted, gowned and the attempt to induce begins again. But this time I have one contraction and the baby’s heart rate drops. I am rolled on my left site, oxygen mask on my face and my doctor is called. All is good within seconds. One of my two doctors will come in and recommend since my body hasn’t done any of the necessary things to deliver a baby and it has been 3 weeks since my due date that they should perform a C section. My husband says “can’t we just wait until she has it naturally”. To which I say “doctor could you excuse us a moment.” My doctor walks out and I ask my beloved hubby why and what is he thinking. He states “everyone has been praying for a safe delivery so I think we should wait.” I said “we will wait until 3:30 when both of my doctors can be here. But if God hasn’t delivered this baby naturally by 3:30, the doctors are delivering it by C section.”

  I will watch my C section in the mirror my doctors placed for me to see. Bruce will be seated by my left shoulder and take photos but not gross photos as I instructed. There will be a curtained draped to separate my lower body from my range of view. I will have the sensation that my doctors are 1/2 way across the room but in reality I am not that tall. I will see our baby be taken from my body. It is a girl. She will be totally wrapped in her cord and the doctors will comment “someone was watching out for her.” I will hear her cry and the nurse will lay her little face on my left cheek. I can still feel her cheek. She will be cleaned up and Bruce will accompany her to the nursery. And today May 31, 2014 that baby turns 30 years old.

  She was worth the wait. I am so blessed to be her mom. I am so proud of the person she has become. Happy Birthday!!

  

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged family

• Mixing it up

  Posted at 11:34 am by missannsays, on May 24, 2014

  

  Continue reading →

  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged little things, randomness

• Travel Tuesdays S2E3 – Central Park, NYC

  Posted at 6:00 pm by missannsays, on May 20, 2014

  The first tidbit that surprised me as the walking tour began was “everything in Central Park expect the large rock formations has been placed here.” Wait, what!?! I assumed it was a big wooded area the city turned into a park. No, it isn’t. To quote the tour guide “it is basically a movie set”. That seems so bizarre but after 156 years I am sure those trees have taken root and those streams have found their own course so it is more “real” than staged.

  According to the walking tour guide and the Central Park website:

  “Central Park, the first major landscaped public space in urban America, was created in the 1850s as an antidote to the turbulent social unrest, largely as the result of the country’s first wave of immigration, and a serious public health crisis, caused by harmful environmental conditions. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the winners of the 1858 design competition for Central Park, along with other socially conscious reformers understood that the creation of a great public park would improve public health and contribute greatly to the formation of a civil society. Immediately, the success of Central Park fostered the urban park movement, one of the great hallmarks of democracy of nineteenth century America.”

  The park would suffer a time of neglect and decay and eventually the Central Park Conservancy would be founded and now oversees, manages and fundraises for the 843 acre park located in the middle of Manhattan. Central Park stretches from 59th to 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Central Park West (8th Ave). It has a great website centralparknyc.org and there is even a free app.

  I enjoyed the guided walking tour I did with friends late last month. One thing that always impresses me about the park is once you are “in” the park the sounds of the city fade away. Our tour guide said that is because the park is below street level. In the past I have taken a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park and that is a delightful venture. So if you are in NYC and need a break from the “hustle and the bustle”, take a walk in Central Park you will be pleasantly surprised.

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  
  

  

  

  

  
  
  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged little things, travel thoughts

• Travel Tuesdays S2E2 – 9/11 Memorial Museum

  Posted at 5:16 pm by missannsays, on May 13, 2014

  

  The National September 11 Memorial Museum will open to the public on Wednesday May 21, 2014. On Thursday May 15, there will be a dedication ceremony and for one week the museum will be open 24 hours a day to allow family members, 9/11 rescue and recovery workers, survivors, lower Manhattan residents and first responders from agencies that lost members to view the museum. The President and First Lady will attend the dedication ceremony. “Stakeholders” were selected by lottery to attend. I know a couple of my fellow docents who are attending and look forward to hearing their accounts of the event. The ceremony will be available for viewing on the National September 11 Memorial Museum website. I will not be attending the dedication. I will be visiting the Museum on Sunday May 18. It is actually my second visit.

  My first visit was in May of 2012. At that time the Museum was still more of a construction site than a museum. I was however struck by the size of the space. It was massive. The museum takes you down to bedrock to the original “bathtub walls”. To see the walls I had spoken of so many during walking tours was amazing. We were allowed to take photos but were not allowed to post them on social media. I assume the statute of limitations has run out on that as the Museum has been featured on Sixty Minutes, etc…
  

  As the museum opening approaches, there is an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. In one way I am glad it is finally opening but in another way the opening makes it all so real. It is hard to explain but the Museum opening is kind of the last piece in the September 11 story. Once the doors open it seems like the story is set in stone. But part of me believes the story is still being written. I believe there are still stories to be shared and learned from. I guess John W. Gardner’s quote sums it up for me “History never looks like history when you are living through it.”

  Please remember to say a prayer for those who the Museum opening is another chapter in that unwritten handbook “a personal loss (or story) in the midst of a national tragedy”. I will blog about my visit in the near future.

  Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment | Tagged respect, September 11

• Earth Day – not!!

  Posted at 11:01 am by missannsays, on May 2, 2014

  Yesterday, I drove past what up to 5 weeks ago had been my parent’s house. We had sold the house “as is” and I will admit the house and the property needed a lot of TLC and work. I was however shocked to see the new owners had chopped down every single tree. I mean every tree. My first reaction was saddest. Wait! Some of those evergreen trees had been our Christmas trees a very long time ago. My second reaction was really!? You cut down every tree. Didn’t I learn something in science as a kid about us needing trees to breath. Then I thought wow! I really hope people can’t look down from heaven because my tree loving father, arborist/firefighter husband and my environmentally conscious brother are going to be pissed. And then I laughed at myself because really my Heavenly Father, Creator of the Universe could be a little annoyed, too. Wait, wasn’t it just Earth Day!
  

  FYI: not my parents yard just some beautiful trees in Alaska. 🙂

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged Christmas, family, little things, randomness

• doesn’t it make you sad?

  Posted at 4:34 pm by missannsays, on April 11, 2014

  The other day a friend asked me a question that I have been asked before, “doesn’t doing tours and speaking to school groups make you relive September 11? Doesn’t being at the WTC make you sad?” I responded “No, it makes me feel blessed. I don’t associate the WTC site with Bruce. It is harder to be at his firehouse because that is where I think of him as being. I am tired after a tour but feel that I have accomplished something but mostly I am hungry.” 🙂 It is strange but I don’t picture Bruce being at the WTC site. I know he was there but I don’t try to imagine him there on the fateful day. I do sometimes think that he may have walked down Liberty Street on his way into the South Tower that thought gives me comfort as I walk that same street telling his story.

  In further conversation with my friend I shared what does make me sad or allows memories to seep or rush in is the things I hear on the radio or news. The crash of the Malaysian airliner, the anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing, a mudslide in Washington, the death of 2 firefighters in Boston or a police officer in New York give me pause and cause me to pray for the families because on some level the events are a “repeat” of what I have experienced. An event that captures the attention of the nation or even world, a loved one lost but no body, an act of terrorism, a line of duty death, I can identify and so I pray. I pray that their families will have peace and know that there is hope. I pray that people will gather around them as people gathered around me and my girls. I pray that in the not so distant future they will have strength to put one foot in front of other and smile. My heart is sad that another family will know the saddest that I know, that they will have to navigate a journey they never expected to be on. 😦

  On another note: when I was in the stall in Ladies Room at the Tribute Center on Monday, the lights suddenly went out and I thought this is not happening, give me a break. Then a voice said “sorry” and lights went back on. Someone had leaned against the light switch. I laughed because I was in fight or flight mode within a split second. No PTSD here. 🙂

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged prayer, random thoughts, respect, September 11

• Heard recently during Bible Quizzing

  Posted at 9:28 pm by missannsays, on April 1, 2014

  On Wednesday evenings, I am the “quiz master” for Children’s Bible Quizzing at the local church I attend. Since September we have been studying the book of Genesis. We have completed our 20 lessons aka “dig sites” and are now reviewing for the District Quiz on April 26.

  As part of our review, I asked the children to quote one of the 20 Bible verses. I asked for volunteers and nearly every hand started waving to and fro. “Put your hands down, we will just go around the table.” As we went around the table each of the children attempted to say a verse. Many knew the “address”. Some needed a little help but all tried. When I reached the last child, he announced “I got nothing”. To which I said “Where would I find that.” 🙂

  Last week as part of the review we made a family tree. We started with Joseph. We listed his 11 brothers and talked about his dad was Jacob and his mom was Rachel. Joseph had 1 full brother and 10 half brothers – they had the same dad but a different mom, Leah. We discussed about how Jacob had tricked Esau into his birthright. We discussed how then later Jacob was tricked by Laban and ended up with Leah and finally Rachel. We even figured out how many minutes Jacob worked to get Rachel. Great discussion and comments and then “So any questions?” A 10 year old hand goes up “I don’t understand if Jacob didn’t like Leah, why did he have so many children with her?” I almost laughed, thought of an appropriate answer and said “families needed a lot of children to tend the sheep.” And to think I left out the part that some of those 12 children Jacob fathered were conceived with his wives handmaidens. Wow, those Old Testament stories can be tricky to teach.

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

• landmark moments

  Posted at 6:56 pm by missannsays, on March 24, 2014

  land·mark (lănd′märk′) n.
  1. A prominent identifying feature of a landscape.
  2. A fixed marker, such as a concrete block, that indicates a boundary line.
  3. An event marking an important stage of development or a turning point in history.
  4. A building or site with historical significance, especially one marked for preservation by a municipal or national government.

  adj.
  Having great import or significance: a landmark court ruling

  Today was a landmark moment for the family and friends of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Today the words they had feared and dreaded were spoken aloud for all to hear. Oh, they were first said to those closest to the event but they were repeated for the world to hear.

  “It’s with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that according to this new data, Flight 370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean.”

  I can identify with “landmark moments” that the world shares. I remember vividly a meeting on September 18, 2001 in a NYC hotel. The mayor, the governor, the head of the FDNY all there to tell the FDNY families “we are going from rescue to recovery”. Oh, we knew first but within hours the world would know. See, when I am the “world” during a landmark moment, there is a sense of that is done, what’s next. The moment/event starts to fade from the headlines. But when I am the “first to know” there is a sense of utter disbelief, my hope wanes, my mind spins and I grasp for something to hold onto. My prayer for the families of flight 370 is simple “may they find peace, may they find strength, may they find hope, may they know God loves them”

  Today was also a landmark moment for the September 11, 2001 community. Today the opening date (May 21, 2014) for the National September 11 Museum was announced. Another landmark…
  http://911memorial.io/ONA3lS

  Posted in Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged respect, September 11

• Follow Blog via Email

  Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  Email Address:

  Follow

  Join 674 other subscribers
• Follow Miss Ann Says on WordPress.com

• Recent Posts

  • Exploring
  • Dinner with friends
  • Panic to peace
  • An example to follow
  • A mouse in the house

• Archives

  Archives Select Month June 2021 May 2021 March 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 September 2019 August 2019 February 2019 January 2019 September 2018 February 2018 December 2017 September 2017 August 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 May 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012

• Categories

  Categories Select Category books daily life faith kid stuff memories relationships respect in the real world September 11 then & now Uncategorized work in progress

• 9/11 Tribute Center 911 Tribute Museum Anne of Green Gables Appalachian Trail apple atore autumnal ballet Bill Bryson books Brussels cancer Christmas circus community Concert for New York City Corrie ten Boom counterculture David Bowie Department of State Downton Abbey Dunkin Donuts Facebook faith family FDNY following Jesus friendship frozen meatballs gated communities Halloween heart monitors Home Depot home improvement projects Hope iPhone Japan kid stuff le leche little things love story Mennonite Merchant's House Mr. Spock museum National September 11 Museum NYC pandemic Paris peace peer pressure prayer randomness random thoughts reading list real estate respect Seattle September 11 Shop Rite speaking Star Trek switch plates television telling the next generation terrorism The Whitney tours travel travel thoughts twilight zone walking tours writing

• latest tweets

  Tweets by avanhine

• December 2025

  M	T	W	T	F	S	S
  1	2	3	4	5	6	7
  8	9	10	11	12	13	14
  15	16	17	18	19	20	21
  22	23	24	25	26	27	28
  29	30	31

• Search for: