Clearwater, Florida and a Prayer

Because it is getting close to Christmas and also it seems that some of us have been a little "under the weather" I thought I'd share some prayers.

A prayer for family

Lord Jesus, be with my family.  Grant us Your peace and harmony, an end to conflict and division.  Gift us with compassion to better understand each other, wisdom and love to assist each other, and trust and patience to live peacefully together.  Grant that through the intercession of your mother, Mary, and St. Joseph, our family may become a holy family accepting each other, working together in unity, selflessly dedicated to one other and to You.  Amen.

A prayer to Mary, the Beloved Mother

Call upon Mary for help with healings and guidance.

She comes to anyone who calls upon her, regardless of that person's religion or past behavior.  She's all-loving and all-forgiving.

Beloved Mary, Queen of the Angels and Mother of Jesus, I ask for your help.  [Describe the issue.] Thank you for showering this situation with your blessings and giving me insight, so I may learn and grow from this experience.  Thank you for showing me God's will so that we all may have peace.

A prayer to Archangel Raphael

Anytime that you, or another person or animal, experience physical distress, call upon Archangel Raphael for angelic treatment.  He is a healer and he also aides in safe traveling.

Archangel Raphael, I need help with [describe the situation].  Please surround and infuse my body with your powerful healing energy of Divine Love.  I now surrender this situation entirely to God, and know that through this releasement, I'm open to revealing my God-given health in all ways.  Thank you for the energy, wellness, and happiness, God and Raphael!

A prayer to Saint Padre Pio

He helps with healing of all kinds.

Beloved Saint Padre Pio, please help me to [describe the situation].  I admit that this problem has stirred up disturbing feelings such as [name whatever emotions you can].  I'm willing to completely forgive myself and the others in this situation, and I ask that you help me do so.  Please help me reveal light, love, and forgiveness.  Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you, Saint Padre Pio. Amen.

For help with holiday stress, call upon:

Archangel Michael 

for strength and protection

Archangel Raphael

for health

Archangel Gabriel

for loving conversations

Archangel Uriel

for compassion, patience and understanding

Love always, 

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sarah

Clearwater, Florida continued...

Clearwater Beach, Florida

Hello everyone!  I thought I'd share pictures from our trip to Florida that we took in November.  It was lovely!  We went to Clearwater Beach.  Clearwater is situated along the west coast of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico.  It's just a jump away from Tampa.  In fact, we flew into Tampa and got in our rental car and hopped on the freeway that takes you right to Clearwater.  It was so easy!

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort and Spa.  I would go back again.  We got an ocean view suite.  Livin' in luxury!  It was wonderful!  Our room had an extra bonus because we also had a view of the beautiful pool.  

We are the kind of vacationers that don't like to have an itinerary.  Sure, maybe someday we'll be more adventurous, but this trip wasn't.  Ha!  We went to the beach everyday and ate really good food.  That's important to us.  

The weather cooperated.  We had two cloudy days.  On those days the temps were in the 70's, otherwise it was sunny and in the 80's.  Perfect.  Of course, it doesn't feel that hot when you're next to the ocean. 

There is something about the ocean that is magical.  It draws me like a magnet to it.  The minute I'd wake up I'd go outside to look at it and just stared in amazement all day.  I couldn't get enough.
  

“‎I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.” 

― Lauren DeStefano, Wither

This was a view from the balcony of our suite.  Our suite was situated perfectly because we could see basically all around us.  

Here is the view of the pool to the right of our suite.  Our suite was on the 9th floor and the pool was on the 8th floor.  I loved it because I liked all the people around.  It felt like "city life" to me.  Lots of people hung out around the pool and there was a bar called Swim close by where people could get drinks and appetizers.  Kris would run down to the bar and grab us a couple drinks.  I loved all the action going on.  And the bar closed by sunset so there wasn't any crazy stuff going on!  he he

Here's another view from our balcony looking to the south.  If you keep going south along the coast you'll run into St. Petersburg.  We attempted to drive down there one day.  That was the worst part of the trip.  Ahem.  We had driven about 30 minutes and all of a sudden Sophia starts screaming, "I'm hungry!  I'm hungry!"  Um....ok...I think....more like h-a-n-g-r-y.  State of anger brought on by hunger.  So, in a state of frenzy we pulled the station wagon (not really) into the nearest restaurant possible.  Big mistake.  Huge.  "Oh, this looks fun!"  "It's a boardwalk with a bunch of places to eat!"  Let's just say we took two bites of our food and ran.  That bad.  Sophia said, "Mom, dad, why are we running?" "I'm still hungry!"  Luckily, a little pizzeria around the corner redeemed our decision to stop at this boardwalk from circa 1983.  Seriously.  
By the way, yes we did pay for that horrible meal.  You pay before you get your food.  very tricky.

I can't complain because honestly that was the only bad part of the whole trip.  We just stayed put at the resort the rest of the time.  In the morning we'd walk up the street to Dunkin Donuts (best ever), then on our way back we'd let Sophia play at the park while we sipped our coffee.  Coffee is so, so important by the way.  The first two days of our stay we suffered through bad coffee.  It was hell.  I'm just saying.  When we discovered Dunkin Donuts I swear I saw a unicorn and a rainbow appeared in the sky.  We skipped to the park that day we were so darn happy!
The rest of the day we spent at the beach.  There was a store adjacent to the hotel where we bought groceries.  To be honest though we ordered room service every single dang day.  It was fabulous.  The food was great.  We did eat at the restaurant in the hotel twice.
I have more pictures to post on here from our trip. I think I'll stop here for right now.  Enjoy!

Love,
Sarah

Holiday Road

The Hess family cabin near Loveland, CO where we spent the night with cousins Kim, Bill, Brad and Colton. Wow is it awesome! No phones, running water, although it was pretty luxurious.

The old outhouse on the right, the new double seater on the left. Storm clouds brewing above.

Side view of the cabin.

Altitude causing the potato chip bags to poof up with air.

The meadow at the cabin.

More of the view of the meadow and mountains. Can you smell the pine?

A cow "lady" moose eating a snack. She was big!

The lovebirds posing in the outhouse.

Cousin Bill bear-proofing the cabin. 

Big Thompson Canyon, Hwy. 34 headed to Estes Park, CO. Three days later it flooded and washed out the highway, yikes!

Katie white knuckling it up through the switchbacks. Driving skill level: professional.

A view of the switchbacks, can't see over the hood.

Our condo at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. This is my kind of camping!

Did somebody say granite kitchen?

A view from the loft.

The Historic (and supposedly haunted) Stanley Hotel. It's actually georgeous inside, although I didn't get any inside pics, darn! The Elderflower Mule I had and the F.O. Stanley drink Chris had were top shelf drinks at the bar.

Elk just as we entered Rocky Mountain National Park.

Katie standing at the top of a who knows how tall mountain because we couldn't see down 10 feet for the fog. It was called the "tundra", not enough oxygen for trees to grow. And not enough oxygen to cure my Elderflower Mule hangover.

Christopher deciding which way we should go.

Ah the glorious Mount Rushmore! Tourists, fanny packs, cameras, flip up sunglasses, you name it.

Katie and Chris in front of the heads. It was really kind of an honorable sight considering today's government situation, shut down and all.

George from below.

South Dakota scenery.

The Iowa flag and the year it was considered "Iowa".  The end.