READ MY LIFE AND TRAVEL EXPERIENCES AND I WILL THROW IN A CAKE

By Judy Tarvin

All the stories you will read in this book are true. My life and travel experiences are a collection of true short stories—some serious, some seriously spiritual, and some funny—covering over seventy years, fifty of which I have been a daughter to God. What exactly is my life worth? God gave his Son for me. That’s huge. He did the same for you.

I write this book for two reasons. The first, of course, is that you will get a glimpse of just how close God can be in your life even if you are not aware of it. God is always there for you as he has been for me.

I will never leave thee or forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5)

The second reason is that laughing helps us live better. You will not only get a good laugh, but you will have an opportunity to share a good laugh with someone else

Let me explain the “cake” part of this book. I took a cake-decorating course in San Diego, California, after marriage and two children. I loved it, and I began volunteering to do cakes for everyone I could. These stories I call “cake consequences” are hilarious and are thrown in at the end of this book. They are all true regardless of how crazy or laughable they might read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638147817

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READ MY LIFE AND TRAVEL EXPERIENCES AND I WILL THROW IN A CAKE

Judy Tarvin

ISBN 978-1-63814-780-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63814-782-4 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-63814-781-7 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 Judy Tarvin

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Preface

Life Experiences

High School in Iowa 1957–1959

Marriage 1962–1966

Becoming a Believer—September 1, 1968

Travel Experiences

Hong Kong 1970

Thailand 1970

Israel 1970

Traumas and Pranks 1980–2001

Alaskan and Mexican Cruises 2001, 2002, 2012

Youth Camps

Israel 2019

Cake Consequences

Postscript from the Author

This book and my life are dedicated to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This book is also dedicated to my little brother, Terry. Without him, I would not have been in so much trouble, and many of these stories would not have been lived.

Preface

All the stories you will read in this book are true. My life and travel experiences are a collection of true short stories—some serious, some seriously spiritual, and some funny—covering over seventy years, fifty of which I have been a daughter to God. What exactly is my life worth? God gave his Son for me. That’s huge. He did the same for you.

I write this book for two reasons. The first, of course, is that you will get a glimpse of just how close God can be in your life even if you are not aware of it. God is always there for you as He has been for me.

I will never leave thee or forsake thee. (Hebrews 13:5)

The second reason is that laughing helps us live better. You will not only get a good laugh, but you will have an opportunity to share a good laugh with someone else

Let me explain the cake part of this book. I took a cake decorating course in San Diego, California, after marriage and two children. I loved it, and I began volunteering to do cakes for everyone I could. These stories I call Cake Consequences are hilarious and are thrown in at the end of this book. They are all true regardless of how crazy or laughable they might read.

Life,

It is what

You

Make it.

Connect to God.

Don’t worry,

Be happy!

Life Experiences

Remembering Age Two

If I start at the beginning, I remember a few significant happenings from the time I was two years old. My brother is two years younger than me, and I remember when he was brought home. My dad took me for a horse ride while my mother was in the hospital. About that same time, I remember getting my long hair cut by my mother’s friend. I was not happy! I also lost a delicious piece of taffy down the kitchen drain on accident. That was a serious traumatic event. How do I know? I am still remembering it, and that I was not happy about it either.

My uncle lived across the street from us in Inglewood, California. My aunt planted pansies along their sidewalk. Pansies turned out to be my all-time favorite flower throughout my entire life.

The first traumatic family episode that I remember occurred when I was about five. My little brother was in some trouble, and he told our mother that he was going to run away from home. She told him she would help him pack, which she did. It made me cry, and I begged her not to let him go. At the door, she asked him where he was going to go, and he told her he was going to live with his uncle Ray across the street. He left, and she called her brother and told him he was on the way. My uncle was a large man, and when my brother knocked on the door, he threw open the door and yelled, What do you want? He dropped his little suitcase and ran all the way home. Well, that took care of that, and my little brother never ran away again.

I loved kindergarten. There was a palm tree in our play yard with a three-foot-high brick wall around it. That is where I sat with my friends and ate my snack of orange juice and graham crackers. Think! How far back can you remember?

Stolen Cookies

My brother and I got into a bit of trouble when I was about seven and he was five. We lived in Harbor City, California, and just across the street from our house was a small grocery store. We had some pennies, and without asking our mother, we walked to the store and bought some candy. While there, I hid a package of cookies in my sweater and took them out of the store. The two of us sat on the back porch steps eating those stolen cookies, and our mother came out and asked us where they came from. I may have been a seven-year-old thief, but I was not a liar. I told my mother I took them from the store.

Well, just like a good mother, she marched both of us back to the store to tell the owner what I had done and paid for the cookies. I learned part of the Ten Commandments that day.

Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15)

Cougar in the Coop

We traveled by train from California to Washington to visit my uncle Harry during Christmas. He and his family lived in the woods and owned a Christmas tree farm. His actual address was Christmas Tree Lane. His trees were sold in town at a big lighted lot. It was magical.

He was building onto his big house and had framed in a living room extension. The windows were not in yet, but I remember a heavy tarp was attached to the roof and hung down over the framework where the bay window would be. My brother, cousin, and I slept in the living room in a tent. It was a little scary, and it did not help my brother that I told a few made-up stories about bears. My uncle had given us the guidelines regarding bears and the play boundaries. I embellished significantly on those guidelines.

One night, we were awakened by the squawking of chickens and adult voices. We peered through the corner of the tarp and saw my uncle and grandfather run out to the chicken coop with their rifles. Within a few minutes, there was a gunshot, and a cougar was dead and being dragged out into the yard.

In the morning, my uncle and grandfather took it to town and hung it up in the town square. My grandfather had been the one that shot it, and he became a legend. I remember it hanging there on the corner from a balcony. I also remember that the sidewalks were made from wooden planks.

The Cat Is on Fire!

At lunch on our last day at Uncle Harry’s, we were all sitting around the kitchen table. Suddenly, my uncle’s fluffy cat came nonchalantly passing by with the tip of its tail on fire. Just as we all saw it, the flame reached the flesh of its tail, and the cat took off screeching. We found him later licking his wounds. He had swished his tail into the pilot light of the water heater.

The Bear and the Barrel

My brother and I visited our grandparents in Allen, Washington, but before I tell the funny story, here are a few things I remember about their home: no electricity, outhouse, kerosene lanterns, mint, and my grandmother put her iron on the wood stove to heat it. My grandfather made us a swing out of an old rusty barrel anchored between two trees by the woods. He lifted us into it and gave it a shove and went into the house. Through a hole in the barrel, I saw a bear in the woods. I miraculously jumped out of the barrel, left my brother, and ran for the house. Grandpa came out with his rifle, but the bear was gone. My brother brings this up a lot.

Limburger Cheese Sandwich

My grandparents left Washington and bought a cute little one-bedroom house in Los Angeles, California. They furnished the back end of their garage for us to stay in when we visited. I was the oldest, so I got to sleep in their house on the couch when I wanted to. My grandpa was a good cook and loved to make homemade soups. We would walk