The Long Weekend Recap

I love a long weekend. This one was very welcome since Hubby had been out of town earlier last week for four days. When he is gone I usually get to the point that I don't know what to do with myself and can't wait for him to get home. I think that after almost 32 years of marriage, that is a very good thing.

Friday night we started off on a good foot. We went out for BBQ at a place we kind of stumbled upon. I really, really like the ribs. I am, however, thankful that it's a 25 minute drive away or else I would want to go there more often.

We debated about spending the weekend up in the mountains, but opted for a day trip instead. Saturday morning we hit the road heading towards the mountains of North Carolina. I had read in a quilting magazine about a quilt shop in a town called Franklin and the town sounded like a cute town with fun shops to explore.

As we were making our way through a small South Carolina town, Hubby all of a sudden pulled the car over and said there was a police car behind him with the lights flashing. He thought the police car would go on by, but it stopped behind us.

Uh-oh.

Turns out we didn't see the 35mph speed limit sign and the police Chief clocked us going 50mph.

Oops.

Back story::: Hubby tends to get pulled over for speeding every couple of years. He's not a crazy fast driver by any means, but neither of us can remember the last time he actually got a speeding ticket. He seems to only get a warning and more often, just a verbal warning.

So, back to Saturday morning.... the Chief of Police stopped us because Hubby was going 50mph in a 35mph.....as the policeman was checking things out I told Hubby there was no was he was getting anything less than a speeding ticket and I was wondering how much it was going to be when the chief came back and handed Hubby a ...... WARNING!!!!! I tried my hardest to wait until the policeman was back to his car before I burst out laughing! Of course my next move was to text the kids. They just shake their heads in amazement and think their dad is the luckiest person when it comes to speeding tickets. 

Back on the road....we arrived in Franklin and found an interesting restaurant for late lunch. The restaurant was attached to a gas station. The ambiance of the restaurant was quite nice and more than we expected given the location. The food was very good, too.

As we were waiting for our food, I looked up the quilt shop I was wanting to go to on my  phone to pull up the directions and saw that the shop had closed 45 minutes earlier! Phooey. I should have investigated this before we took off on our road trip. Oh well. The town of Franklin turned out to be a disappointment.

We decided to head back towards home, but stop at antique stores and farmer's markets along the way.

We found lots of yummy produce at the farmer's markets. We came home with strawberries, cucumbers a watermelon and lots of peaches (my favorite).

We stopped at an interesting store that had lots and lots and lots of architectural pieces. Think piles of table legs, piles of brackets, stacks of doors and windows, etc.  I have be wanting an interesting window to hang in our bedroom. Just look at what I found! I was excited that it is not just rectangular.

 
We also found some brackets and a basket.

Even though our initial purpose for our road trip was a total bomb, we ended up having a really good day together.


Sunday was a low-key day with church in the morning, lunch at a bagel place and a quiet afternoon at home. Sunday night we watched a movie I had saved on the DVR. Neither one of us had ever seen Dirty Dancing. When I saw that it was released in 1987 I knew why. That was the year our son was born. I doubt we saw any movies that year. But now that we have finally seen it, I feel like we are part of the 80s. ha. ha.

Monday evening we went downtown Greenville and hung out in a beautiful park by the river. Supper was at a really good burger place that was new to us. As we were paying our bill I got a text from our daughter wanting to know if we wanted to Skype. My answer to that text is always YES!

I think this Skype session was the most that Lydia (14.5 months old) has interacted with us. We had so much fun! We sing You Are My Sunshine to her every time we Skype and try to sing it to her when we see her in person. We hope she starts to make the connection that we are the same people she sees on her mommy's phone. The last couple of times we sang to her, Lydia smiled and did her cute baby wiggle-her-bottom-and-stomp-her-feet-dance. We also got a wave good-bye and a kiss blown to us.


It was a perfect ending to a good long weekend.

Oh, and one more thing.

Last week when Hubby was gone I tackled this job:

What are all those things hanging on the drying rack? Neckties. 199 neckties. (I think the total number of neckties was close to 210. Hubby kept a couple for himself, and I threw out a couple of knit ties and some horribly ugly ones that I knew I wouldn't be able to make myself use.) These all belonged to my dad. I spent a couple of days taking them apart, removing the interfacing and lining. I washed them all (in the washing machine) and hung them up to air dry. I hope to make a quilt or two with these someday. Probably a table runner or a wall hanging.

God's Plan All Along

Last Friday was my wonderful husband's birthday. While every year I am so thankful to celebrate his birthday with him, this year I learned something that shocked me and at the same time made me all the more thankful.

When I visited my parents shortly before Christmas, my dad gave me a box that was filled with my childhood mementos that my mom had saved. It had my baby book, (with not a whole lot in it which comes from being the fourth baby in six and a half years), old photographs, concert programs, the newspaper clipping with my photo from when I was four years old, to copies of my family's Christmas letters. As part of my birthday present (which is about two weeks after Christmas) I asked for Hubby's time to go through the box with me. One night I started to read several of the Christmas letters starting with the one from the year I was born. That year my parents had taken some time away alone without all four of us kids.  They picked me up before they gathered my three older siblings. I was in a basket on the front seat of the car between my parents (no car seats) and my dad tried to pass someone on the two-lane highway. There was a slight rise in the road and he didn't see the oncoming car. There was a head-on collision. Dad broke an arm, Mom shattered a knee cap, broke an arm and cut her head and spent three months in the hospital. I rolled on the floor and wasn't hurt at all. I was three months old.

I've known about the car accident my whole life, so what about that shocked me so much? The date of the accident was April 7th. The day before my husband was born! I fully believe that God spared my life that day to be that man's wife 23 years later.

Talk about God having a plan! Pretty cool, huh?

Me (the baby) and my family. My first Christmas. Notice my mom's left leg? Ever since the car accident she has only been able to bend that leg to a right angle. 

My sweet hubby as a baby and his mom. 

The Doxology, My Story

I grew up in churches that regularly sang The Doxology during the worship service. 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.


It is a simple song, with powerful words of praise that God deserves.

Years ago, when we lived in Southeast Asia, we took a family trip to Thailand.  We visited many tourist attractions including the Grand Palace in Bangkok.  It was the official residence of the kings starting in 1782. Currently it is used for royal ceremonies and state functions. And tourism. We were on a guided tour of the palace (which included strict dress codes: arms covered, legs covered to below knee) when our tour guide directed us into a large room that was The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. We had read that we could not sit with our legs crossed or our feet out in front of us (because it's rude to point the bottoms of your feet at someone), so essentially we were to kneel in front of the Buddha statue. The four of us walked in there, saw people kneeling before the idol, looked at each other, shook our heads "no", and walked right back out. Our tour guide had the most puzzled look on her face. Shortly after that we were amongst a bunch of people who were walking around with incense and praying to Buddha, I started singing the Doxology to myself. I felt such an evil presence there. I think we all did because we all agreed that we didn't need to or want to visit any more Buddhist temples while we were in Thailand. 

Since that trip, I often think of that day when I have sung that song in church.

Now I have even more memories associated with that sweet little song.

Before every meal my dad sings that song and my mom hums along and sometimes mouths the words. It gets me every single time, because since September 6, 2013, my mom has not spoken. A stroke is a cruel thing. It takes away so much. But my mom HUMS the tune to that song. So awesome!

Hubby and I gave this print to my mom and dad for a Housewarming/Christmas gift. It hangs in their new kitchen. I just love it!

We have attended a church here that sings an interesting version of the Doxology at the end of every service. They call it The Gospel Doxology. Here are the words:

Your perfect law exposes me 

I feel my sin and desperate need 

My best good works are powerless 

To satisfy your righteousness 

But there is One who lived for me! 

His life, my only victory 

His death, forever sealed in time 

That I am His and He is mine! 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow 

Praise Him all creatures here below! 

Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts 

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost Amen

I am often a puddle of tears when I sing this, in part because of the magnitude of the words and in part because I see and hear my mother humming along and mouthing the words.

The power of music amazes me.

Fall In The Mountains

I've been waiting to write this post, hoping my laptop would start functioning better, but that hasn't happened, so I am trying to use my tablet.

The last Saturday in October Hubby and I decided to take a drive up in the mountains with the hope of seeing some fall and some views.

It was sooooo pretty and a beautiful day!

Hubby searched for a scenic drive online and found a great hour and a half drive through the mountains that just got better and better as we drove along.

Some people say that when they look over the ocean, that peace comes to their soul. I get that feeling when I see the mountains. The expanse just speaks to me of God's majesty.

So much beauty! Hubby brought his really nice camera and took some pretty terrific pictures.

Hubby and I had a good day together and were thankful to see that the mountains aren't always socked in with fog like we experienced on our abandoned vacation the month before!

Oh, one more picture.... Hubby thought he needed to take a picture of me in the mountains. I should know that his "one" picture always means lots and lots of pictures.  This is the result after he took more than I wanted him to. Can't decide if I am laughing or screaming.

I am thankful to God for blessing us with a good day and for allowing us to see His creation.

What in the World?

Something happened last night that I just do not understand. I stayed up until 1:20am. (Okay, that's not so terribly weird since I am a night-owl) The really weird thing is that I stayed up to watch a baseball game that lasted FIVE hours. And the last hour was by myself because hubby had to get some sleep.

If you know me in real life, you know I am not a sports fan. Not at all. But for some unexplained reason I get pretty excited about watching a playoff game, IF it involves a team I like.  (And if it's not football, because, yuck.)

And by "team I like", I mean a team that Hubby cheers for because I don't have my own opinion about sports teams. Ha.

Hubby grew up 45 minutes west of Kansas City and his aunt lived in Kansas City and took him to Kansas City royals games when he was a little boy. He would listen to games late at night in bed on a transistor radio under the covers. Ever since, he has been a Royals fan. Then ever since Hubby and I started dating, I have been a Royals fan. Here we are at a game in 1985:

Yes, please, go ahead and laugh out loud. We'd been married a whole year at this point. I think this was the second Royals game I had been to. That doesn't count the number of times we listened to games on the radio. 

We took the kids to Royals games when they were growing up. They are Royals fans now, too.

I think this was the game we had to buy a ridiculously over-priced golf towel with the Royals logo on it for poor little Megan to actually be able to sit on the hot stadium seat without burning her little legs.


Megan bought this little onesie last year when she found out she was having a girl.

Here I sit tonight watching Game 2. What in the world is wrong with me???

(I do like spending the time with Hubby and learning about something he loves.)

What I Did On My Abandoned Vacation

Hubby and I managed to be pretty productive after we got home from our abandoned vacation, even thought The Rain That Seemed To Never End came along.  Hubby went back to work for two days, but we still did some fun things.

We managed to knock out several errands which included getting my new glasses adjusted, finding a shoe repair store to fix my favorite purse, finding a new hair stylist and making an appointment. (I really liked her!)

One evening before that monsoon hit, we tried a new restaurant (weren't impressed) and went to a movie. We saw The Intern and really liked it. One of my take-aways from the movie is that I hope I look to those who have walked this road called life longer than me and realize they have much more wisdom and life experience than me and that because of that they have much to offer.

Hubby didn't work on Friday so we spent the majority of the day knocking off the list of stores we've been wanting to explore. We checked out interior design stores, a consignment store, an antique shop, a couple of garden stores, Hobby Lobby, and World Market.

I noticed something at many of these stores that just has me baffled as to why this is a decorating thing:

Why would I want a giant painting of a cow in my house? It's not even accurate because it's not dirty and doesn't have slobber dripping out of its mouth. (In case my son-in-law reads this I realize this bovine may not be a cow, technically, but it is impossible to tell from the picture if I should call it a cow, heifer, bull or whatever else is an appropriate title. Let me use "cow" as a generic term, okay?) I have also seen paintings of pigs in this style. I just don't understand.

Anyway, I loved, loved, loved spending the whole day on Friday with my hubby. I was just telling God tonight that I am very excited for Hubby to retire someday because the older we get, the more I like being with him.

Friday night the rain started here. We spent basically all of Saturday and Sunday at home (while it rained and rained and rained and rained). Hubby worked on a bathroom removing a horrible wallpaper border and painting over the pink and green stripes and hanging up a new shower curtain. It looks sooooo much better!

While Hubby did those jobs, I worked some more on my sewing room. I threw out a bunch of fabric, although if you looked in there you would probably think there was no way I could have because I still have lots of fabric. Thus is the life of a quilter. I also have a ton of fabric leftover from my days of sewing garments for myself and the kids. I started to plow through all of that, but quickly realized it was too much of a scrapbook of memories for me to handle getting rid of too much. There is fabric from numerous pairs of pajamas I made for the kids, the crazy neon 90s shorts, the sweet dresses, curtains...you get the idea. Despite my slobbery self, I did manage to purge quite a bit. 

By Sunday afternoon we realized it hadn't rained for several hours so we decided we wanted to get out of the house and we went granddaughter shopping and out for supper.

It was a good three day weekend for us and I was kind of sad to see it end.

Like a River Glorious is God's Perfect Peace

My hubby is a wonderful piano player. I love listening to him play. When Lydia was here last month, he sat down at the piano and played for her.

She was entranced. This picture just melts my heart.

When I took this picture, Hubby was playing this hymn:

Like a river glorious is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth deeper all the way. 

Refrain:
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there. 

Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do;
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.

I didn't ask him if he chose that specific song on purpose, or if it was just a random choice.  Almost twenty-four years ago when our daughter was 20 months old, she spent three days in the hospital because of some sort of an internal bleed. (I wrote about it on my other blog a while ago, you can click here to read the details.) During those three days we were in the hospital, God put this hymn in my head. Every single time I have heard it since then, I tear up and remember those scary days. I also thank God for Megan's life and beautiful, godly woman she has grown to be.

The hymn's text celebrates the blessing of trusting in God's care and keeping. Such trust produces peace.

I saw this sign as I was shopping at Hobby Lobby last month with my daughter and granddaughter. 

As I thought about what we had gone through with our daughter, and I heard Hubby playing that hymn TO OUR GRANDDAUGHTER, I realized that there is so much of God's grace in this sweet, little, happy, beautiful face.

Lydia Mae when she was five months old and had been on her first plane ride to visit us.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below, 

Praise Him above ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The Weekend in Review

It was a stay-at-home-and-finish-up-some-projects kind of weekend.

Oh who am I kidding? The "projects" are really never, ever finished.  Heavy sigh.

Friday night, kind of at the last minute, we made reservations for dinner and dashed out the door. On the way there, I looked down at my shirt and realized I hadn't changed it like I had intended. It didn't look horrible, but I have kind of designated the shirt for a hang-around-the-house-and-maybe-go-to-the-grocery-store-kind-of-shirt. You know, the type: old, a little faded, a couple of small  holes, but not yet pajama-worthy. I only mention this because when we got to the restaurant and I saw someone come out in kind of nice, business-causal kind of clothes, I cringed. I felt severely under-dressed. I have never been more thankful for low-lighting in a restaurant! ha. ha. Anyway... the food was good, and we'd go back....dressed a little nicer, of course.

When we got back home, Hubby talked me through the things he was hoping to do on Saturday, which included hanging 544 more pictures. In my infinite wisdom, I decided I wanted to hang up ALL the "people" pictures we have. Believe me, after 31 years of marriage, we have a LOT of them! (And of course, I mean I wanted Hubby to hang up the pictures, because I am absolutely not the engineer in the family and would do a horrible job of it and would probably require having to redo all the dry-wall in the house.) And then on Sunday I decided to add six more pictures to the lot that didn't have frames, which of course required trips to Target and Michael's.

Anyway, back to Friday...

Before I got ready for bed I called my dad to catch-up as he had been to the Mayo in Rochester, MN the day before. He's getting some good help for himself and is striving to be in good health so he can take care of my mom. It was good to catch up even if the conversation was cut short because my brother and nephew showed up at my parents' house for the weekend.

Saturday was a pretty awesome day for me. I spent the whole day with Beth Moore and didn't have to leave my house at all! How? I signed up to participate in the Living Proof Live Simulcast. She was in Wichita and the conference was broadcast all over the world. 150,000 people! I just tucked myself in our bedroom with my laptop, Bible and notebook and had a blast. At the lunch break, Hubby asked me if I was glad I was participating and I said I am never disappointed with Beth's teaching.

Beth taught about living with audacity, which means to live with intrepid (resolute fearlessness) boldness. Certainly something I struggle with.

Romans 8:15  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Because of Jesus in my life, who has all the authority and is my Savior, I can have audacity.

I want to stay in the Word and not water it down to be more palatable to the world. (Here are words to a "lullaby" from Satan that Beth wrote: Rock-a-bye Christian lulled by the world. When the wind blows all hell will unfurl. Stay in your sleep distracted or scared so when I wreak havoc you won't be prepared."   Chilling.)
 
I want to pray for astonishing works of the Holy Spirit. 

I want to forgive and live forgiven. 

I want to hold on to Romans 8:18 - "For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us."

I want to walk in humility. That means I have 0% confidence in the flesh and 100% confidence in the Holy Spirit.

I do not want to exude pretense and showiness. I want to exude Jesus.

That's a brief summary of the notes I scribbled down. It was a cool thing to sit and watch and listen to Beth teach over my computer.

By the time I was finished with that, Hubby was in the midst of planting a bunch of bushes outside. Boy howdy, he sure is working hard to make this house look nice! By the time Hubby was all done with that and cleaned up it was time for him to sit down and relax and watch the Iowa State / Iowa football game. How cool is it that we got to watch that all the way out here? Unfortunately, Iowa State lost. Supper involved a little ordering on-line and me dashing to Panera to pick it up. Have I mentioned how much I love that Panera is 2.1 miles from my house?

Sunday was filled with church, lunch out, and an afternoon of putting things away and telling Hubby what stuff to hang up where. Poor guy. He probably doesn't want to ever look at another hammer again. At least he got to watch the Chiefs and the Royals play! A stellar weekend of sports for him to be able to watch all his favorite teams! Now he just needs a TV set up in the basement so he doesn't have to listen to my highly entertaining commentary. And by highly entertaining, I mean annoying.

And now on to this week...

The Story, A Re-post

This post popped up on my TimeHop app today and I was so fascinated by my own story I thought I would re-post this. (It was first published three years ago on my other blog.)


A little more than thirty years ago there was a couple of college students who were friends. They met through their involvement in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He was a driven engineering student with a passion for the college varsity marching band.




She was studying about preschool aged children and still trying to figure out how exactly to be a good college student.



They knew each other beginning their freshman year in college. Over the next three years, they would talk some and go out for ice cream with the gang. (Well, when he felt like he could spare a few hours away from studying all that engineering.) (And she always had time to be out with the gang. Studying? ha.) Their third year in college led to a deeper friendship. He let her cry on his shoulder about another guy she liked. By spring, she called him her best friend. He said he would write her letters that summer. He did. Every single week. That summer they traveled across the state to attend the weddings of some friends. They held hands in the car. He came to see her one weekend in the summer. She realized she was in love with him. She was afraid to tell him, afraid he would not like something more than their friendship. She wrote him a letter. Back at college in the fall of their fourth year, he told her he didn't want anything more than a friendship. She was confused. She asked if they could go for a walk one night after the IVCF meeting. He agreed. Then wandered onto central campus and ended up sitting on a concrete bench underneath the campanile. They talked. And talked. And talked. Then, to her surprise (and delight) he kissed her. Right there on that concrete bench under the campanile.






She could barely sleep that night because of the smile on her face. But she was quite nervous the next day that he would tell her it was a mistake. He came to her dorm room and she asked if he was sorry he kissed her. His answer was to kiss her again. They decided to date. Like, officially boyfriend and girlfriend date.

She called her parents to tell them that her relationship with him had changed. Her dad asked her what had made it changed. She said the boy had kissed her. Her dad said, "Oh you mean you sucked face?" (Her dad was referring to the movie On Golden Pond. You can see the scene in this clip. It starts at 35 seconds in.)

The day of that kiss under the campanile was thirty years ago today. The boy and the girl got married, had two children, have moved six times, (now seven times) raised and launched and married off those two children, and have just been through a lot of life together. Side by side. Him and her. She and he. Kissing.



                                               &

I should add here that last summer that boy and girl celebrated thirty years of marriage. We gathered with our kids and some dear friends back at the campanile and the site of the first kiss to renew our vows. It was a very special time and I am so thankful for those thirty years together and for the family we have made and that keeps growing. Here's a few pictures from the day of our vow renewal. (It was also the day we found out we were going to be grandparents!)

 This man is simply the best. I am so blessed.

Labor Day Weekend

Hubby and I had a really good Labor weekend together. Friday night we took off for North Carolina to spend some time with Hubby's uncle and cousins.  It's kinda cool to live close to family that we have never lived very close to before. 

A side note on traffic:

One thing I have observed about life in the southeastern part of the country is that the interstates really never have empty stretches without much traffic like one can find on interstates in the Midwest. In other words...traffic is almost always heavy out here in the east! It can make for some stressful driving.

We got into town a bit late on Friday, so we headed straight to the hotel. Saturday we did a little shopping (we are on the hunt for the perfect bedside lamps for our bedroom) and then headed over to Uncle's house after lunch. On the way there, I got a text from my daughter wanting to know if I wanted to Skype with her an Lydia. I am not one of those Grammy's who would pass up seeing my grand-baby, so of course I said yes! I even sat in the car for a few minutes talking while Hubby went in to his uncle's house. Grin. Miss Lydia even looked into the camera on the phone and smiled at me! I had fun watching her crawl around the house. Skype is the coolest thing. 

Another side note:

Remember encyclopedias? My parents had a couple of sets of encyclopedias and I remember looking through them when I was a kid. One thing I remember being fascinated by was the entry about how telephones in the future would have little TV screens where you could see the person you were talking to! It seemed so far fetched and beyond my comprehension at the time. Flash forward a few several decades and here I am, half-way across the country talking to and seeing my daughter and granddaughter on my phone while I am riding in the car! 

We enjoyed an afternoon of chatting with Uncle and catching up on the news and learning more about each other. Early evening Hubby's two cousins and their families came over to visit. Uncle treated us all to BBQ at his favorite restaurant. So good to connect with them all.

Sunday involved an epic shopping trip to IKEA.   We came out with two shopping carts full....probably the most we have ever bought at IKEA. We were buying some great things for organizing the fabric in my sewing room.(Of course we came out with a few bonuses because who can shop at IKEA and not come out with some extra stuff, I ask you?)

 Now to just do the organizing. Yikes. 

More pictures of that to follow...

When we got back onto town, we decided to head to downtown and find a place for sushi. Our daughter and son-in-law took us out for sushi a couple of years ago and now we actually like it! This was our first experience going out by ourselves and choosing everything on our own. We even ordered something that was raw.  We liked everything! Wonders never cease.

Monday afternoon we went to see the movie, War Room. If you haven't seen it yet, get your butt to the theater! It is good, people! A very powerful message on the power of prayer. Hubby and I have been talking about how to change our prayer lives as a result of seeing the movie. It is definitely worth seeing.

Hubby and I had a really good long weekend together. I'm grateful for that and was sad to see it end.

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.

The Weekend Review

A couple of posts ago I wrote that we were headed to the coast to my sister and brother-in-law's beach house  for Valentine's weekend. It turned out to be a very relaxing weekend and I'm so glad we went. We need to find a much better route, though. The last two hours of winding around on what seemed like back roads just was no fun. GPS was acting weird for us for some reason. When I entered the address of the beach house, it randomly changed it to a different address a mile on down the road. Frustrating.

Anyway.... I promised pictures:::

The view from the bedroom.

The house from the beach side. There is a pool at the bottom of the stairs that you can't see in this picture.

 When we have been there in the past, there have been over twenty family members there. The dining room, kitchen never looked like this:

The living room only had my Hubby (& me) in it. Notice the quilt hanging over the ottoman in the picture below. I never leave home without it. ha. I never had a security blanket when I was little, so I thought I should as a grown-up. I actually used it to snuggle under while we watched movies. It was chilly at the beach.

We enjoyed the quietness of  the weekend.

Saturday night we went for a walk on the beach as the sun was setting. It was romantic, but we didn't last long as it was super windy and quite chilly. I did manage a couple of shots of the seagulls and the sunset.

I admit to running at the seagulls to scare them into flight. ha. It gave Hubby a good laugh.

We even made an attempt at a selfie. We tried to get the sunset in the background, but obviously failed. You can tell by my hair that the wind was strong. I thought it was better to face this way rather than have the wind plaster my hair back. ha. Selfies are not for the faint of heart.

Me and my Valentine. He's been my Valentine for 32 years.

This beautiful piece of artwork hanging in the living room was made by my dad's friend, Pat. Pat and his family spent a week at the beach house last summer and this was his thanks to my sister and brother-in-law. Isn't it just stunning? What a talent!