A Couple OF Requests Please

First item on my mind is:

"Image found through Google"

SHOUT OUT TO ALL MY "Crochet" Friends please. My friend, Lynn Wright, who is with the Wiarton Optimist Club is doing a fundraiser and is looking some people for Crochet participation! Here is Lynn's deal: 

I'd like to do a fundraiser for our Optimist club. We support a lot of youth functions in our area. We are currently working on a

basketball court and should have it completed by spring. We ...have also paid to send kids who can't afford it otherwise, for them to go to a summer camp, and we put on a family fun day once a year that is absolutely free for kids to attend. I'm thinking if anyone would like to donate a granny square , lets go with 4 x 4 in size, then I can join them all together and use it as a raffle at our next event. If anyone would like to help with this please send your square to:

Lynn Wright P.O. box 342 Wiarton, Ontario, Canada, N0H 2T0

Thanks so much! I would love to have them all here by the end of December so that I can get them all linked together in time for our next family day event . (crocheted squares only please).

To date, or last I heard, Lynn had received 2 Granny Squares by mail.

Second item on my mind:

"I am having a Christmas Give Away !  for this beautiful handmade Christmas Runner done by the Quilter's Club at the United Church in Hepworth, ON.  I purchased this lovely runner at their Christmas Bazaar a couple of weeks ago for this Give Away.  The material is wonderful.  Measurements? they would be, Length 52 inches and Width 15 1/2 inches.  Sorry I don't do CM, as I am stuck in limbo somewhere between Imperial and Metric."

How could you be eligible to "win" this nice little gift package?  Let me tell you how this could be ....

1)  Should you have a "blog", please post my Give Away within one of your Blog Posts, linking it back here, then leaving me a comment on this post that you have done so;

2)  No Blog?  Please share this blog link on your Facebook page, and/or with a friend or two via Email, by copying and pasting my link,  then leaving me a comment on this post that you have done so.

3)  Should anyone enjoy my Blogs posts, I would LOVE to have you join me as a Follower.

I am so looking forward to YOU participating in the Give Away !

A winner will be randomly picked and posted Friday, the 14th of December.  I am so excited as I absolutely LOVE a Give Away, do you LOVE them too? 

Third item on my mind:

"This is Bandit,who is of course the Top Dog around our place.  See that look of innocence? do not trust it as since he has been feeling better the past couple of weeks he has been a "huge" pain in the butt.  Our dear Lexus girl in now in a "heat" cycle, causing our Top Dog much grief of almost going out of his mind, and giving cause to me almost going out of my mind with his pining and whining.  The look of innocence here can be quite deceitful.  Ha !  I am please to announce, that after today we should have two proud "Checkerboard Aussie" parents by the first part of February."

A fourth item on my mind:

"The Drug Companies obviously have way too much MONEY when they start sending this garbage out in the mail.  *Sigh* ... never mind the postage, the quality of paper they are printing it out on !  Crazy ... and on the back? do an online survey for Shopper's Drug Mart?  too much some times, is it not?"

Last item on my mind:

The past Year I have made friends with a few others out there in Blog Land who I have become very fond of through our comments to each other, then through direct correspondence.  I hope these wonderful people  know who they are, as they have all become "special" to me in some way or another.

My dear friend John of Tok Tok Place had fallen ill last month.  He had emailed me to tell me he had pneumonia.  I know first hand how sick one can become with pneumonia after a 2 month bout last Christmas myself.  I had quite naturally sent off a Get Well Card in the mail to John.  Weeks went by when I then emailed again.  No reply to my email.  I then sent off a Christmas Card.  No response.

John had helped me gain a Pen Pal for my young friend, Ashley, this past Summer, through the Yass Tribune.  I asked Ashley to ask Nathan to inquire on my behalf about John's well being.  Nathan was very kind to do so, receiving a return Text message telling Nathan he would be contacting me shortly.  Just the other morning there had been a Post put up on John's blog at Tok Tok place.

My tears flowed freely, as I felt a piece of myself break away within, as these were John's words:

End of days .....

Hi All! Finally feeling well enough to put up a post even if it is not a pleasant one.

I am definitely unwell - Sarcoidosis effecting both lungs has resulted in complete respiratory collapse, congestive cardiac failure, pneumonia and advanced asthma. Just had 3 weeks in Calvary Hospital, Canberra, and now back home on "Home Oxygen" 24/7. Specialist says to sort out my affairs and make an appt. to see him in 3 months (nice way of giving you a 'time-line'!) 

Cannot eat - have lost 15kg (over 2 stone) in 3 weeks - Rhonda and I are making 'Life adjustments with a spirit of inevitable denial - we know what is coming. Grandsons coming down Saturday to see "Pa!" - guess that'll be their last Christmas with "Pa"!

Guess you won't see many more posts on here from me but when up to it I'll try to manage a few words. When the day arrives I'll have my daughter, Kat, put up a final message.

I really don't know what else to say this afternoon - we are going to fight this 'thing' for every hour and day we can claw back from it.

Must go for now, too tired to write more today but will post again. Have arranged for our daughter, Kat, to put up the eventual final post! Pain hurting, must go!

Not ever meeting John, or speaking in person over a phone call, I still had felt a bond with our blog comments, email and post correspondence.  I am going to continue corresponding with John for as long as possible until I am able to no more.

This last item on my mind brings forth a request to all my Family Members, Friends and Readers,  please that you say a Prayer for my friend, John of Tok Tok Place, as well as one for his wife, Rhonda, daughter, Kat, his Son-in-Law and two Grandsons that they be given God's strength to carry them through this difficult time in their present lives.  Thank you, as truly from my Heart I appreciate each and every one who does so.

On that note I will sign off to my own thoughts and prayers, "Just North of Wiarton & South of the Checkerboard".