Y is for Yangmingshan...

Yangmingshan (pronounced like "yang-ming-san") National Park is located in the north of Beitou. Yangmingshan was called Caoshan (Grass Mountain) during Japanese occupation of Taiwan, because it was covered with grass and seldom visited. 


After World War II, the KMT government renamed the mountain Yangmingshan and built a park here. Yangmingshan National Park is the only park in Taiwan that has volcanic geography and hot springs.  


The magnificent mountainous scenery and comfortable weather have made Yangmingshan National Park a perfect summer resort. 

(Photo found on Bing.com)

This photo was taken in 1971...over the years the floral clock has had various designs...but this one in 1971 is what I remember that the design looked like when we were in Taiwan (1974-1976).

The park is characterized by a large clock made of flowers with a diameter of 22 feet. Water runs around the flower clock and music is played every hour. The clock is the characteristic of Yangmingshan Park. (Info from Tourism Bureau Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Republic of China (Taiwan).

When my hubby and I were at my dad's visiting, I was able to take photos of quite a lot of old photos.  But I didn't get to the photos of the years we lived in Taiwan. There is a photo of my mom pregnant with my brother and sitting in front of this floral clock.

Here is a past photo of me back in 6th grade. Recently, this year book page was posted by a classmate on Facebook! I lost my yearbook, so it was fun to see these.

(I am the 4th one in the front row, 

with the two braids and glasses.)

I went to school in Taipei, Taiwan, while our house was actually on "Grass Mountain" aka Yangmingshan...

Here are a few of my memories on Yangmingshan...

My dad was in the Air Force stationed in Shu Lin Kou. I was 10 yrs old when we moved to Taiwan and 12 when we moved to Clark AFB, Philippines.  We lived on Yangmingshan in an area of housing set aside for the U.S. Air Force families. It wasn't on the base, but the neighborhood was set in the midst of Taiwanese neighborhoods.

In the mornings, we would walk to the main road to catch our school bus. I went to Dominican School (now called Dominican International School)...

Dominican International School is a Catholic, private school under the supervision of the Dominican Sisters. It was formerly a contract school for the United States Forces in Taipei. 
oops...I got off on another tangent!...(More about Dominican...on a future post...)

Back to...a few more memories of living on Yangmingshan...

The bus stop was right in front of an itty bitty "mom-n-pop" run candy shop. 


**I remember the stone step down into the narrow, low doorway...and the small, tight space with the counter that practically met you at the door....we all would go in to buy some little Chinese candies, toys or I loved to buy these:

"The plastic bubble balloon is magic toy for above 4-year-old kids, it blows by plastic straw, it is very light like water bubble, and could touch and play for 7-15minutes..." quote from Shin Dorn Co page.

(Photo found through Bing.com)

Don't know who this is...Isn't she so cute?  

and this is like the bubble balloons that we would buy.)

 & ...there was this little posterboard, that had numbers on it...you would pick and pay for a number...the number went to a piece of candy or a little toy surprise...like little tiny toy figures or like what I  used to find in a Cracker Jacks box. 


(Does anyone remember Cracker Jacks? Now, I think the prizes in Cracker Jacks are mostly stickers, but I can remember little plastic toys that used to be in them when I was little.  ...Oh! off on another rabbit trail...let me see...

Oh! ...yeah, along the roads were "Benjos"...these were large open sewage ditches...I remember that kids would say they saw the huge sewer rats that were as large as cats.  


I think I said that too...but after all these years...I can't really remember if I actually saw any...wish I had a picture...well...maybe not, except to prove to myself that it wasn't just  "a child's active imagination"!

I remember...riding my bike a couple of miles "up" the road to play.

...riding the tightly packed Chinese city bus from Yangmingshan down to downtown Taipei with my girlfriend! 


We had to stand up the whole way & I'll just say...I remember that we were not taking in deep breaths in that crowded, hot bus at "armpit level".  My dad remembers the drive from our house to Taipei to be about 20 minutes by car...the city bus took way longer, with the stops for dropping off and picking up. 


(We were only 11 or 12yrs old, going to get supplies for our science project..we had been at my friend's house working on our project...I don't think my parents would have let us take that bus trip alone...I can't imagine kids that age doing that now without an adult around in a busy city like Taipei.)

Bits and pieces of other memories filter through my mind...but one more memory of living on YangMingShan...fun times with a "Long ago prayers and Birthday wishes" answer -come true.

Joining in with:

Jenny's

 Alphabe-Thursday,

&
the ABC Wednesday Team's 

ABC Wednesday Rounds,
Please let me know from where you are hopping over from :o)

Alicia's 

Friday Photo Flashback,

&
Jenilee's
Wednesday's Walk 
Down Memory Lane,
& 
CFoxes'
Friday-Follow Me.

**********

Here is a slideshow of some music-inspired drawing orders. 

The first few drawings shown are ones that I've shared in past posts.


The song is another of our son's original pieces.  After he played the twelve string guitar, the  accordion, sang the main part and harmonized, he put it all together in a recording. The guitar and the accordion, he inherited from his great uncle. (Thank you for listening to the ones on last week's post...and if you haven't yet, please feel free to go back one post that is about his music...)
Our son posted this  and another of his songs at this site, that can be downloaded for free.
(I'd love to know if you get a chance to go there :o) ... I'm excited that I can download his original music even when he is away at college, and we are a 12 hour drive -here in Georgia!

Blessings & Aloha!


(Thank you for coming by and for commenting...
...I will be sure to visit you back.


And please do check back for my 100th post giveaways. I realized after my last post that I actually did not have as many posts as I thought! Blogger dashboard shows ALL the posts, actual and drafts and will show how many total of those.  I actually am only on my 90th.

X-traordinary, X-traspecial...

...gift of music.

For this post, I really wanted to share some of our son's music that he has created...

First a little background info:
My mom had a beautiful singing voice.
My hubby's Uncles, Great-Uncles, and Great-grandfather all played instruments and sang. (Our son is blessed with the beautiful guitars that belonged to some of them).
My hubby has a beautiful singing voice and has been blessed with an ear for music, he plays the ukelele (And he can tell you, that I LOVE when he "drums" on his djembe or anything actually...even the steering wheel along with a song on the radio! haha)

I am so thankful that our children have inherited these musical genes and are able to sing and play music. (somehow, it skipped over me from my mom and I didnt get any of this talent to rub off from my husband, even after 30+ years!.... let's just say...I like to "make a joyful noise" and I often have to get back in beat, cuz my clapping with a song...well, my rhythm sometimes gets off the beaten path...)

Here is our son when he was 7 months old, with my hubby's Kamaka ukelele.

--Hawaii, 1990--

Heartbreaker and Dad "jammin"

--Tulsa, Oklahoma 1993--

When he was about 14 years old, 

he taught himself how to play the guitar.

--at the beach on Tybee Island, Georgia--

2004

...he still was wearing the hospital I.D. band on his wrist
& the bandage on his neck from where the lymph nodes
were taken from the 2nd biopsy.

We are so thankful and blessed that this challenge is in the past. And Heartbreaker, with the love and heart for Jesus, has been a wonderful witness for what the Lord has done in his life.

Well, he has been playing ever since, and writing his own music. I would love to have all his music on a CD to listen to.  He made the following video and put his song titled: "A Reason for Traveling" on it for me recently, so this post was perfect timing.

(On YouTube, Heartbreaker had captioned...
"This is my Family. I guess we laugh a lot.")

The Christmas "slow clap" was actually from one of our daughter's (theLuckiestMrs.) past commentor's family traditions, which we thought was awesome and hilarious, so we thought we would try it out last Christmas. I wish that I could remember who it was! If any of you have seen this on another blogger's post, please let me know.

The last wrapped gift was for Malone, our older daughter and her Mr's pup. (**added note** LV, I have to admit that I wrapped Malone's gift over and over and over :o)  I do love that he really was attentive to the unwrapping of his gift!  heehee

When he was the 2007 Georgia Child Ambassador for Children's Miracle Network, he was asked to be one of the performers before a 2000+ audience, which had two of CMN's co-founders there-Marie Osmond & John Schneider, other celebrities like Lavar Burton, MaryLou Rhetton, Jonas Brothers. It was an amazing Xperience to hear him sing at the telethon being filmed in Orlando. (I'll save this & other photos for another future post).

--Photo for this magazine article was taken on the stage during rehearsal--

Orlando, Florida 2007

--he grew out his hair to donate it to Locks of Love.--

While in high school, he was part of some church dramas, like the lead actor/singer for the 2007 Savannah Christian Church's musical "Joseph & The Technicolor Dreamcoat".  He had gone to the tryouts with friends, actually as support.

1. from the posters/flyers of an Easter play (that's his image too)

2. the poster/flyer for the musical & closeup shot

For this post, I want to share two more of the (truly) countless songs that our son has written, played and sung.  These are playing on the following two video slideshows of past July 4th celebrations... The first song is titled : "you can find me Going Out Dancing"

&
This one is titled: "CANVAS"

Happy July 4th
to everyone! :o)

Our son just posted these 3 of his songs at this site, that can be downloaded for free.
(I'd love to know if you get a chance to go there :o)

I'm joining in with:

Jenny's

 Alphabe-Thursday,

&
the ABC Wednesday Team's 

ABC Wednesday Rounds,
Please let me know from where you are hopping over from :o)

&

Alicia's 

Friday Photo Flashback,
&
I do like to meet new bloggers, so I am joining this week with
Jenilee's
Wednesday's Walk 
Down Memory Lane.

*********
Here are a few music inspired drawing orders.

Blessings & Aloha!


(& this post is #97! For some reason, I was thinking that I had several weeks to go! 
*EDITED note here: I saw on my dashboard that it said 97, but I just realized that it also counts any old draft posts too! So, I was right...I am still a ways away from 100...This post is only #89! Sorry about that! I am learning something new all the time!*

Please check back on my 100th post for the giveaways. 
Thank you for each of your comments.)

Wings for flying...

Wings....angel wings....fragile, translucent dragonfly wings...vibrant patterned butterfly wings...
These ones on this post are about the silver wings that my hubby received in 1988. It's a symbol of something he had dreamed of accomplishing...

Even way back when he was only 2yrs old...

(photo taken on his 2nd bday - Dec 25)

He would hold his hands and "make" them "fly". He remembers doing this when he was little.  & in this photo of him and his brother, his hand was caught in action :o)

Fast forward from 1963 to 1988...

(2nd row...he's my handsome hunk...the last one that you can see on the right).

Here's a closeup:

This slideshow has some past photos during flight school and during our first assignment at Schofield Barracks/Wheeler Airfield, Hawaii.

This photo was one I found after I made the slideshow.

It is another one of Mr. B pinning on my little wings :o) 

(1988)

Each of the spouses received mini wings too :o)

(I think it is so cute :o)
I took this by a penny dated 1988-the year he completed and graduated from flight school.
I meant to ask him where his wings are... so I could take a picture of his next to mine.

Here's Mr. B, in Iraq, after flying his Apache helicopter (aka AH-64).
...cooling off in his tent with a little photo album we sent to him in a care package.

(2003)

A wee bit late (ok...pretty late!) ...but I am hurrying to get my "W" post in at

Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday.

(Thank you! Thank you! for letting me into "class", even though I am quite tardy!)

Another blogger mentioned to me to link up with
the ABC Wednesday Team's ABC Wednesday Rounds,
so I'm joining with this one too.
Please let me know from where you are hopping over from :o)

&

Alicia's Friday Photo Flashback.

Here are some drawing orders inspired by a variety of "wings".

This first was actually the Solo Flight certificate that I designed for each of those in my husband's flight class to be given after their Solo Flight was taken in the little TH-55.

(The TH-55 was enitrely drawn using the words PURPLE PIRATES)

**In trying to get these posted more quickly, I have combined the drawings on Photoshop** 

You can click on each, if you wish to see a bigger view. 

The following are three separate drawings...

1. The butterfly was drawn with the name KYLA.
(This was an order that was done in memory of a beautiful young teen).

2. The dragonfly was drawn for my sweet little niece with her name BRECKEN.

3. And the hummingbird & flower were drawn with the name LORI.

These three are also separate orders.

1.The shuttle was drawn with the name JIM.

2. The two little darlings are of a brother CALVIN and his little sister JULIETTE.

(Their mom and dad wanted little angel wings on their little angels :o)

3.The flying Tigger was for a wedding gift done with John & Anmy's last name SCHRADER.

Thank you for stopping by and please do leave a comment :o) I love to hear from you and will get by to visit too :o)

Blessings & Aloha!

(***Remember to come back and check on my blog

...cuz on my 100th post, 

I will be doing some giveaways for some drawings 

and also "Percents off" gift certificates to be used towards drawing orders.***)