10 Years...Revisited

(Ack!  I didn't mean for the video to pick this gross picture as the place to stop...and I'm too computer illiterate to change it!)

A Marriage Worth Emulating

My Grandma and Grandpa “Top” celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary last month.  This coming Friday, the Lord willing, B.J. and I will celebrate our 10^th. 

I miss Grandpa and Grandma.  I miss seeing them at church on Sunday.  I miss Sunday evening lunches at their house.  I miss seeing them at chapels and at school.  I miss my kids hollering, “There’s Great Grandpa’s windmill!”

I’ve learned some things about marriage from watching my grandparents, things I hope B.J. and I emulate better and better in the next 45 years.

1)    My grandparents are affectionate with one another.  When we were little and happened to be at Grandpa and Grandma’s when Grandpa was either coming or going, we always witnessed a hearty smack on the lips.  I would guess they still maintain this routine.  Grandpa and Grandma do everything together.  Very rarely does a person see one of them without the other.

2)    My grandparents are generous.  Sunday mornings when I was young, Grandpa would regularly pass an envelope to us kids through the window of our rattletrap orange van in the church parking lot (the van also camefrom him).  “You give that to your dad,” he’d bark.  We all knew what it was.  A check that would help my parents pay our tuition.  They help others in the same way, prioritizing others needs before their own wants.  They drive Brandon to dialysis regularly.  The pass out garden produce to anyone who will take it.  The two times we’ve gone back to Iowa to visit, we’ve been treated to a five-course meat and potatoes meal and gone back to Colorado loaded up with food they’ve prepared for us.  Grandma’s been my most faithful letter writer since we’ve moved, too.  When one of her letters arrives in the mail, I save it until supper and read it aloud for everyone to enjoy.

3)    My grandparents are fruitful, even in their old age.  My grandparents do an unbelieveable amount of good for their age.  Indeed, they display Psalm 92:13-14: Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Their's is a truly a marriage worth emulating.

Sunrise over Lake Loveland

I met this young couple (whom many of you know :-) a week ago Saturday at Lake Loveland, to snap a few engagement photos for them.

I got there early and took my first sunrise shots since we've moved:  

 And still,

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning:

great is Thy faithfulness!"

Lamentations 3:22-23

Do you doubt that the Lord directs your path?

Does it seem to you that sin prevails, in the world and in your own heart?

Do not lean on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to Him.

Here is proof of His righteous presence:

"The clouds are the dust of His feet."

Nahum 1:3

the flood pictured

To see some incredible photos of our recent flooding, click here.

Photo taken in Loveland last weekend.

Willem Jay Mowery - 7!

It's a "mom" maxim: middle names are for when you're in trouble.
Your full name?  Triple trouble.

But "Willem Jay Mowery" is how Nathan refers to his older brother, always, constantly, from breakfast to bedtime prayer, only it comes out fast and a tad muffled in Nathan's slightly higher key:

"Where WiumJayMaui?"
"Look at me, WiumJayMaui!"
"WiumJayMaui stole my LEGO!"
"Father in Heaven, thank for Dad, Mom, Leah, WiumJayMaui, Mawee, Eli..."

Maybe Nathan figures that when it comes to Will, it's always that urgent.  (And it usually is.)

It used to be that when the doctor or the cashier at the grocery store or the old man at the park would ask our kids' names, they always had trouble with Will's name.  "Oh, Will-yum," they'd say hesitantly.  And I'd just let it be.  But ever since His Royal Highness Willem-Alexander became King of the Netherlands a while back, it goes more like this:
"Oh! Willem!?  Like King Willem?"
Yep.  Like that.

Only this Willem is:

King of LEGO-Building...
King of "Let's Go Fishing at North Lake Park"...
King of Paper-Airplane Folding...
King of 1,000 Reasons I Don't Have to Practice My Piano Today...
King of 1,000 Plastic Containers of Nightcrawlers in the Refrigerator...
King of 1,000 Plastic Containers of Insects in the Freezer...
King of Not Wanting to Get Out of Bed in the Morning...
King of Crafting Things out of Cardboard, Styrofoam, Wood, Nails, Screws, Sticks, Leaves, Trash...
King of Pedaling His Bike Like a Madman...
King of Cheese-Grating, Hamburger-Browning, Vegetable-Peeling...
King of Checking Out Library Books About 1) Airplanes.  2) War.  3) Airplanes and War...
King of Sneezing at the Breakfast Table...
King of "What Ifs" at the Supper Table...
King of the Calculator While Grocery Shopping (the only way to keep him from becoming King of Driving Mom Crazy While Grocery Shopping)...
King of Leaving His Loose Teeth in His Mouth Until They Fall Out and Are Swallowed While He is Sleeping...
King of Getting His Bedroom Ready for Morning "Room-Check" in 1-Minute Flat...

There are times when Will melts my heart.  Usually I'm too worn out for his sweet smile to do a number on me, but every now and then...  ;-)  The other night I was wiped out and helping him get ready for bed. Not a good combination.  While Will located his pjs, I picked a Chick-Fil-A meal "toy" from earlier this summer off the floor - a little booklet entitled "My Favorite Things." Most of the pages were still blank.  But on one page Will had drawn a smiling woman with a lopsided triangle for a skirt and a stringy pony-tail sticking out of one side of her head.  Beneath the picture was printed "My Favorite Place:  _________."  In the blank our beginning reader scrawled, "MOM."

Happy Birthday, Will!
Dad and I thank God for you.
(And I'm thankful that, for now, I'm still your favorite "place."  :-)
Love,
Mom