Wednesday, August 26, 2015

A Friendly Hodgepodge Post

 I've been thinking that this week I should participate in the Wednesday Hodgepodge. Why the desire this specific week when I haven't been very regular to this party? Because last Friday I had lunch with Joyce, the author of this weekly fun! Joyce and I now live in the same community and we just needed to have lunch and finally meet in person! Let me tell you, fellow Hodgepodgers, Joyce is a delight! We enjoyed a yummy lunch and lots of conversation. It was fun to meet in person and cool that we already knew quite a bit about each others lives. 

Okay, on with the questions...


1. It's hard to believe, but next week's Hodgepodge will find us in the month of September. What's one thing you want, need, or hope to do still before summer officially ends?
I can't think of anything I want to accomplish before summer ends. Since we don't have any kids in school of any kind any more, I don't see summer ending as an "end" to anything. It's just a change of seasons to me now. Also, since we don't live in the Frozen Tundra up north any more, I am not feeling like months and months and months of forces hibernation are looming in the near future. Can I get an Amen?

2. When were you last at 'your wit's end'?
Late Sunday night as I was getting ready for bed, I couldn't find anywhere in the bathroom a pair of tweezers. I know this sounds trivial, but I really like those tweezers (have never found another pair like them) and I have had that particular pair of tweezers for 40 years. I looked every where and then had a sinking realization that I must have absentmindedly thrown them away. I know your thinking no big deal...just dig into the waste basket and pull them out! Only problem is Hubby had collected the trash and put it in the garbage can at the curb for pick-up Monday morning. I laid in bed for a ridiculous amount of time (at my wit's end) trying to figure out how or if I would be able to retrieve the tweezers. (Does this just have you sitting on the edge of your seat wondering how it turns out??) I hoped I woke up in the morning before the garbage truck came, but I'm not positive what time it tends to come by. Luckily, I woke up at 5:30 (never thought I would write that!), and Hubby was still home (yes, he goes into work super early). So I stumbled out to the kitchen and explained my plight to Hubby and asked if he knew how deep that bag of trash was in the garbage can, and he said it was right on top. So sweet Hubby retrieved said bag of trash, I sorted through it and found my tweezers!!! Hooray!

Oh boy, that was quite a story. About lost tweezers. (I am laughing pretty hard at myself right now...)

3. Describe a time you were figuratively thrown into 'the deep end'?
Since I can't think of a time when I was thrown into something I wasn't prepared to handle, it must have been a very long time ago.

4. Does the end always, ever, or never justify the means? Explain.
I believe it is important to live my life with integrity.  So, no, I do not think that the end justifies the means.

5. What makes your hair stand on end?
I tend to have a pretty vivid imagination, so I can imagine any number of things to scare me. I'm working on that. This verse is a big help:    
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

6. I read an article on the website Eat This! Health, that listed 11 foods we can eat to help end bad moods. Basically it's a feed your brain so you're less anxious, grouchy and lethargic. The foods are-mussels, Swiss chard, blue potatoes, grass fed beef, dark chocolate, Greek yogurt, asparagus, honey, cherry tomatoes, eggs, and coconut. Which of those do you think would most help end your own bad mood? 
Chocolate. Duh.

Which do you fear, if forced to eat, would put you into a bad mood?
I like all of those foods, except mussels. So, probably being forccd to eat mussels would put me in a bad mood.
(When we lived in Singapore, I didn't eat much beef because it was from Australia and it was grass-fed. This Iowa-raised girl, did not like the flavor of it verses the corn-fed beef I grew up eating. Interestingly, grass-fed beef now is all the craze. I'm still not sure what I think of it.)

7. What project around your home, office, or life in general feels like there is 'no end in sight'?
Finishing "settling" into this house. Whatever that means. It seems as though that does not have an end. Ever.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.
My daughter sent me a video last night of my five and a half month old granddaughter crawling! I am so thankful for technology that enables me to see that! (I think she's going to walk before she's a year old.)

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Company!

We had a pretty intense two weeks after our anniversary trip the end of July. Why? Because: COMPANY! For FOUR days we got to love on this little sweetie:


Oh yeah, and her mom and dad, too!

Before they flew in we spent a solid two weeks trying to put the finishing touches on the house. I like to decorate, but it takes me quite a while to get it "just right". The kitchen cabinets are really tall and have empty space on top, so I wanted to put some things up there. I had to use the step ladder to reach. Once I managed to slip as I was coming down and ended up with bruises on both shins and the arch of my left foot. Sigh.  Hubby spent a lot of evenings hanging somewhere around 496* pictures and quilts on the walls. And there are about 392* more pictures downstairs.

(*slight exaggeration)

We did a pretty good job on finishing things up, but have a little more to go. The house looks pretty good...just don't look in a few closets or that one room in the basement or my sewing room.

Then all of a sudden the day came for our visitors! Lydia (my granddaughter) did pretty well on the plane ride from Iowa. I think she loved all the attention from her mommy and daddy.

We very much enjoyed having our daughter, Megan, and her family. We tried to show them a bit of our new town and give them a feel for it.

We played:

Ate lunch downtown and walked along Main Street.

 Someone got a really good view point!

 We played:



We went swimming in our neighborhood pool:

Lydia loved the water!

Lydia played and laughed on one of Grammy's quilts.


I got so caught up in playing with Lydia a few times that supper ended up being later than I intended. Oops. :)

One evening we sent Megan and Zach out on a date and Grammy and Pops got to babysit. We all had a good time. We loved the one-on-one time with Lydia!

We spent Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market. This grammy sure did enjoy pushing that stroller with that little sweetheart in it!



Thank you so much for coming to visit us!

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Thirty-One Years

July 24th was my last post? Oh man. Let's do some catching up...

Hubby and I celebrated 31 years of marriage the end of July. I wrote to my hubby on Facebook the day of our anniversary:

Today marks 31 years since I married you. Doofus me forgot to buy you an anniversary card, but if the stack of cards I unpacked a couple of months ago that you've saved over the years are any indication, I'd likely write basically the same stuff: I love you always; Thanks for __ years together: You're a terrific husband; blah blah blah. This year you get a Facebook public card.
Sometimes I am amazed that God created this thing called marriage. How cool is it to get to choose to commit to another person and hang out with for decades doing life together? I am so privileged to get to do that with you. I have loved having the front row seat of watching you grow into the man God wants you to be. I love seeing your confidence in who you are in Christ grow and change who you are. I am honored to walk by your side. I am honored to be your teammate. Our becoming one in this married life, our partnership is one of God's great blessings on us.
How lucky are we (and by lucky I mean an overflow of God's great grace) to have been given those kids of ours? I love us together watching the two of them and their spouses growing together as their own families. God has blessed us abundantly!
And now, Part 3. Empty nest and being Grammy and Pops! Wheee! Let's have a blast together in this part of our lives, okay?
And guess what? I love you always, thank you for 31 years together and you're a terrific husband!
I love you.
Always.


I think he is just the best, if you can't tell.

We always like to celebrate our anniversary in some special way. Sometimes just a dinner out, but the past several years has involved a trip somewhere. This year we headed north and east to the mountains.


Kinda a hazy picture, but I guess there is a reason these are called the Smoky Mountains Or are they the Blue Ridge Mountains here? I better learn my geography a little better.

We found a cute cabin in the North Carolina mountains to spend a few days.  As we were making the reservations online I noticed that we could order a picnic basket for lunch, so I hopped right on that! And was I glad I did! Check out this adorable basket:


 


We spent quite a bit of time driving around those mountains and loving the beautiful scenery.  One day our destination was to the top of Grandfather Mountain:


 At the top of the mountain was a hanging bridge. Yikes! That's what I have to say about that.

 

Hubby walked across the bridge and I went to sit in the car to get out of the rain, but not before I gave him one more kiss. I don't like hanging bridges. Walking across air on something that moves? No thanks.





Thankfully, Hubby made it back all in one piece. Ha.

I loved these wind-blown trees. Just stunning.

In the evenings we snuggled into our cabin (I loved the chaise lounge in our cabin) and watched a couple of old movies. The lodge where we were staying had all sorts of old movies to borrow and watch. We watched two movies of The Thin Man. We were surprised at how good the movies were.

We had a great get-away and are so thankful we have so much beauty nearby to explore.