AAASTINKIE is HERE!!

[Angell Wine]

All I got to say is that you the MAN !! A real Man with Honor.

 

[MedPretzel]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{HUG to Frank}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

 

[AAASTINKIE]

Pepere, I'm right here: N 44° 44.055 W 069° 29.233</font></span>
OK Deep in the woods of Canaan, Maine, about 15 miles from Newport, have your people call my people and we will do lunch...lol (PM Me)

MedPretzel, a hug from you, umm, I've been alone for a long time now, WOW!!

I had a wonderfull time at my daughters home, slept over last night, heard the children playing with their new toys downstairs, then they were coming up to get me so I got up and came down and we opened presents. My daughter cried when she saw what I had for her, here is a picture she made for me, it is on my kitchen wall now. (I can't get the picture to load now, I'll try it tomorrow)

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I went to a different store today to see if they had anyone getting their Grolsh bottles, no and they had 5 cases and 2 big ones!! I have about 40 upstairs that it has taken me 1 1/2 years to collect and scored 122 bottles today....ain't life grand...lol (25 cents each)
(I don't know why but I'm having no luck posting the picture my daughter made for me, I'll keep working on it though)

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I had a great idea, walk out in the kitchen and take the picture over again.

 

[Wade E]

Thats quite the collection of Grolsh. Walk out in the kitchen, thats using your noggen!

 

[AAASTINKIE]

I just happened to have had 12 gallons of beer waiting to be bottled, looks nice in the Grolsch bottles!!

 

[NorthernWinos]

WOW!!!!!</font>You and Polly and her Jester friend sure were busy last night!!!

 

[grapeman]

That's a lot of suds, but who better to help than Polly and friends. I recognize Polly and Clown boy, but who is the third one?


How often do you need to replace the seals on that type bottle-every time you fill or less often? What kinds of beer did you put in them this time?

 

[AAASTINKIE]

The other soap bottle doesn't have a name yet, but its a frog antenna ball from www.geocaching.com
the beer is American Light, 1/2 malt 1/2 sugar, sorry but its my favorite, nice light and clean with a good flavor. (fast drinkin' beer) I have an Octoberfest kit here with 3lbs of extra DME to try to make a High Test Maple beer one of these days!!
The rubber seals on the Grolsch bottles last a long time I think, you don't have to replace them unless they start to crack, but at $7 per 100 it's no big item.

 

[grapeman]

For the frog how about the obvious- Kermit.

I like both those beers too, butI think the Oktoberfest is now Decemberfest or maybe Januaryfest.

Good to know about the seals. I was thinking of trying some of those bottles, but my nephew gave me a few hundred new beer bottles a couple months ago and then gave me a thousand bottle caps so I will probably stick with regular bottles.

 

[Waldo]

Stinkie...what the heck did Polly get for Christmas?

 

[NorthernWinos]

Stinkie...what the heck did Polly get for Christmas?

Looks like she got a frog...

 

[Wade E]

Looks like the Party is at Frank's house this weekend!!

 

[kutya]

Stinkie: Polly looks real happy with all that beer....

 

[AAASTINKIE]

About a case and a half of the Grolsch bottles were really dirty inside so I had to make a power cleaning brush...lol

 

[Wade E]

Pretty cool idea. Nothing better than mopre power and less labor.

 

[AAASTINKIE]

My daughter posted this to livejournal Christmas night.



<TABLE cellPadding=3>
<T>
<TR>
<TD align=left =#c0c0ff colSpan=3>Monday, December 25th, 2006</TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" =#ffffff><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/marliah/" target="_blank">marliah

</A> </TD>
<TD>10:15p</TD>
<TD>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Once upon a time there was a girl. She fell in love with a wonderful man and married him and together they had 3 children. 3 boys who were the love and joy of their lives. Two of them had special needs, one was nonverbal.

One day when this boy was 5, his mom and dad and Poppy (her dad) decided they could not wait any longer and they set out to find him a voice. They all wanted so badly to hear him talk and knew he had so much to say.

Mom found him a talking machine, at a good price but still very expensive. Poppy said, buy it, I will help you so she did. So happy was everyone that this little boy would soon have a voice.

The girls Dad sent this note out to his family (the girl knew nothing of it):

This email is to all my brothers and sisters, my daughter Tara has 3 children, John (7), Matthew (5), and Dexter (2), John and Matthew are autistic. John is not too bad but hard to live with sometimes. Matthew does not talk and used stickers to show what he needs. I have been helping Tara as much as I can, buying her a dryer two weeks ago, with two of the boys still messing their pants and in cloth diapers I felt she needed one right away. Anyway, she bought a special computer for Matthew on Ebay last night and I said I would make the payments for it, if any of you would like to help me it would be appriciated, I would most like her to know we have a family that cares for each other.
I love you all.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi<WBR>ewItem&amp;ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:11&amp;Item=110068454397



On Christmas morning there was a Christmas miracle awaiting her. Her Dad handed her an envelope with a copy of this note and $720 which was given by members of her Dads family and his friends. This together with the $300 she already had was more than enough to cover the talking machine.

Tears of joy streamed down her face as she opened each envelope containing each persons donation and was overwhelmed by the generosity and love she felt. Initially they flowed out of gratitude for money needed to pay for this machine. Tears would flow many more times that day as the enormity of it all became clear.

It wasnt until that evening the girl saw that there was much more going on. She realized the dream she once thought shattered was not so, that her sons even through their disabilities would be able to do what she had most dreamed for them. To Glorify God. For even as a young child this boy had, people who had never met him, gave of love from the depths of their hearts to help him.

She also realized the amazing love that exists on this earth when people put the needs of others before their own. That amidst the evil and sadness and anger, there is still goodness and love out there. And so much of it that she had failed to see before.

Then she began to think that maybe the disabilities she had seen as a curse really were not, but maybe were in some strange way a kind of blessing. That perhaps God really had planned it to be that way, that maybe it wasn't her own screw up as she had always thought, but the master plan at work. That God had intended all along to use this child (actually both her children) to touch hearts and allow others to find the joy in selfless love. She knew now without a doubt that God did most certianly have a plan for this childrens lives and would use him for His glory.

Not only that but she herself had been blessed by these very children, she had learned so much about the power of love and the amazing love that her father (in heaven and on earth) had for her through her children. And that in all these trials, in the pain there were blessings beyond comprehension. Blessings that could only be recieved in the suffering. Learning to appriciate the small things (a word spoken, a letter written, a hug, being looked at, a touch, a smile), being touched by the love and kindness of others and finding out who her "true friends" in life were.

She saw how amazingly wonderful Gods love was and how obvious it was that He was showing Himself in all of this.

Of course, this girl I speak of is me.

I am completely and utterly overflowing with love and thanks for this day. For all that everyone has done and for the realizations I have been given.

This gift has touched my heart so deeply and changed my thinking about alot of things.

I was reminded today of times in my life when God had prepared me for this journey without my even knowing. One time stood out clearly in my mind.

When I was a child my family used to make maple syrup. One year God put it on my dads heart to give this syrup away for free with a donation to a camp for disabled children. We once even toured the place and many times drove by as we boated on the lake it was on. I believe that the whole experince in helping those kids and learning about them was where my love for disabled people was begun, it was then I began to realize that not everyone had a healthy working body as I did and that learning as easy as it was for me did not come so easy to all children. A seed was planted...

Imagine my surprise when a couple weeks back I was told about a summer camp that would accept the boys and it was the very same one we had supported so many years ago. All of the memories of that came flooding back today. And the reality hit me. God has been preparing me for this even then. He was so very present and so obviously knowing of what was to come. Its overwhelming to discover, to see it all so clearly. To realize all that at once leaves me in awe.

I'm so thankful and joyful for everything that I can't stop crying these tears of joy. God has used my dad so many times in my life to help me and to prepare me for this and again today to remind me of His love for me.

How grateful I am to my dad for hearing Gods call and doing what he knew was right. Thank you Dad for listening. You had no way of knowing then thay your obedience to God was preparing your own child for the life she would come to live. You have always been the most giving person I have ever known. How thankful I am for you painting this picture of what God looks like though the way you live your life. For showing me the love a father has for his child, and giving me a glimpse of the incredible love God has for us.

Its something so wonderful that words cannot explain it. Its a happiness that just has me filled to overflowing. Knowing my dreams are not dead, that God has a plan and will see it through no matter what happens. And knowing that I am so very loved. By God, by my own father, by family far away that I have not seen since I was a child....

Its been the Christmas to top all Christmases in my life.

I just had to share this with the world more because I can't contain this joy than anything else.

This passage keeps coming into my mind:

1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

*happy sigh* ....the greatest of these is love." Not only did I experience that love today, but I got to see that God is using our children to bring more of that love into the hearts of people. What greater service can they do for God? By simply being, they exalt His name. Only God could think up something that cool.

I stand amazed and so very incredibly thankful. To see Gods love so clearly. Its like sitting in the middle of a rainbow surrounded by sunshine and warmth and having big arms hugging you and never letting go.....thats what it feels like deep in my soul right now. My words seem simple and are incapable of describing what I feel inside so I will just leave you with that my feeble attempt.

And big thank yous to everyone who made this all possible through their help with funds:
God, of course!
My Dad
My Aunt Shelia and Uncle Pat
My Uncle John and Aunt Joy
My Aunt Joan and Uncle Ralph
My Dads friend Tracey
My Dads friend Cheri and her family
My Granny
Johns Father and stepmother
gen_here
Our Nephew Ryan
Johns sister Sandra and her husband Chris

And of course thanks to everyone else who brought gifts for us and/or the children today and just made today such a wonderful day. Love you all! </TD></TR></T></TABLE>

 

[masta]

AMEN!!!!!

 

[jobe05]

If that doesn't touch ones heart and bring out the true spirit and meaning of this time of year, and giving in general, nothing will.


You should be very proud of your girl Frank, and you should give yourself a pat on the back for raising shuch a sweet, caring, and very insightfull person.