House Pictures -- 1

I know, I know, I've been saying I'm going to post pictures of our new house. I think trying to post all of them at once seemed a little overwhelming. So I think I will post a room (or two) at a time. How does that sound?

Let's start with move in day last June...

 

Here's the front porch after Hubby painted the front door and the porch.

 Picture it all covered in snow. Ugh.

Yeah, like that.

Here's a view from the front door:

Another shot of the Entry Way area:

I just love the columns looking into the Kitchen and Dining Room. And the word "Welcome" over the archway is a nice touch put there by the previous owners.

The Living Room:

 Please note that there are actual window treatments, otherwise known as curtains, on the windows! (We lived in our previous home for nine years and I only had window treatments in two rooms.)

 A view from the Living Room towards the Entryway. The front door is on the right.

The sofa table right inside the front door.

 Closer views of the bookcases in the Living Room. (We bought the bookcases in Malaysia.)

 

The Thankful List

 1. God's mercy and grace. I don't even want to think about where I'd be or what my life would be like with out Him.
2. My Hubby. He's my best friend in the world. He works hard at his job and is a great provider. He loves me. (and that's an amazing thing)
3. My Son. He has such a great sense of humor. He loves God and his wife. It is such a privilege to watch him grow as a man of God.
4. My Daughter-in-Law. She loves God. She's a great medical student and will make a great doctor someday. She is the sweetest person I know. I adore her.
5. My Daughter. She desires to honor God with her life. She loves her husband and made a GORGEOUS bride. She's a great student of Pharmacy. I marvel at her smarts in the realm of science. She's a great cook.
6. My Son-in-Law. He has a desire to serve God. He's a man of integrity. He's a wonderful cook. I love how God answered my prayers for a husband for my daughter.
7. The ability to get away over this Thanksgiving weekend. (Both kids made their own plans -- time with other family and time with each other.) We escaped a bit farther south and to relatively warmer weather. Today it's 15 degrees warmer where we are. Yesterday it was closer to 50 degrees!
8. A charming Thanksgiving meal. Just the two of us. (Thankful for pre-made mashed potatoes and stuffing! I made the cranberry sauce at home. Hubby loves it.)

9. Wonderful pizza with wonderful friends tomorrow night.
10.There should be an even 10 things I'm thankful for, but I think the pumpkin pie and/or a nap is calling me....

I Do

I know I said I would post pictures of our house.

I haven't done that yet, if you haven't noticed....

My hubby had meetings in The Big City again last week and I tagged along. I will get them posted. Soon.

We stayed over the weekend to see a musical at a terrific dinner theater. We have enjoyed going to this dinner theater since we were on our honeymoon.

When we had been married all of three days, we saw a performance of I Do, I Do. I remember very well a couple seated next to us who introduced themselves to us and looked at me to introduce ourselves. I stuttered and told hubby to do it. I stuttered over the words, "This is my husband," since I had never said that before!

I noticed a few months ago that the show was back at the theater and happened to coincide with the week hubby had meetings to go to, so we made plans to attend. (That was a really long sentence...)

So, Saturday night we enjoyed a nice dinner and then were seated in the theater. The play covers 50 years of marriage of Michael and Agnes. The first scene is the wedding and they sing a song titled, "I Do, I Do."

I cried. I did.

The play really touched us. The newlywed wonder and fun, the child raising years, the struggles of the relationship, the What Do We Do Now The Kids Are Grown, the companionship of old age.  And we marveled at the timing. Seeing it first as a brand-spanking new husband and wife, and then shortly after both our children have married and started lives of their own. What a lifetime was lived in between.

I told my hubby I'd give anything to crawl into the head of that 23 year old me and see what I was thinking and feeling all those years ago.

It impacted us more than we thought.

I found this little video on YouTube of one of the songs that had tears streaming my face by the end of it.
 

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Joyce@From This Side of the Pond has come up with Wednesday Hodgepodge. Click on the button and go to Joyce's blog to read her answers and those of other bloggers.

1. What is the most amazing weather you've ever seen?

In Victoria, British Columbia. We made a stop there on our Alaskan cruise last summer. The tour guide told us the weather ranges from 44-74 degrees. No snow. Sounds divine! 
Up until last weekend the weather here has been quite nice for this part of the country, this time of the year. But now we are in for 5 months of ugh/winter.

2. What is a sound or noise you love?

Several months ago I bought this sound machine. I think I sleep a lot better with it. It covers up outside noise and more importantly, noise from my hubby. (I love you, Sweetie!)

3. Do you like seafood? What's your favorite seafood dish?

I LOVE seafood! (Well, what I consider normal seafood...no squid, octopus, eel, etc.) My favorite is lobster. About three years ago we spent 4 days on Cape Cod and I had lobster THREE times in those four day! Yum! One of our favorite restaurants when we lived in Singapore was a seafood restaurant on the coast. Oh, they had some wonderful, Chili Crab, Black Pepper Crab, Drunken Prawns and Butter Prawns. (Now my stomach is growling.)

4. What part of your day requires the most patience?

The morning. I can be so crabby in the morning. So I guess that calls for patience on the part of others. I spend most mornings alone now (no kids at home), which is a good thing for others. I learned to keep my mouth shut when the kids were home. I wasn't always successful, but I truly hated sending my kids off to school with my nagging voice ringing in their heads. And whatever "issues" I had early in the morning seemed not quite such a big deal by 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

5. What's your favorite shade of blue?

Sky. Especially today (Tuesday). I'm looking out the window over the open field, but all I can see is white. White snow on the ground, cloudy skies and fog. I can only see about a quarter of a mile. I'd love a bit of Sky Blue right now

6. Do people underestimate you?

I don't know. You'll have to ask them.

Sorry, that was a snarky answer.

Sometimes I really want to know what other people think of me, but in reality, I think it would freak me out. 

Basically, I have idea how to answer this question...

7. When was the last time you had butterflies in your stomach?

I don't remember a specific situation (that I can write about). There have been a few nervous moments with doing a few new things living in a new town.

8. Insert your own random thought here...

I saw this on a friend's Facebook page. It would be so awesome to be in a place where something like this happens. Watch it. You won't be sorry

HALLELUJAH!

A List

1. Friday night we went to a concert with two piano players. They were very good musicians, and quite showy. I think they would do quite well on a cruise ship. They enjoy lots of audience participation. It made us a little nervous since our seats were in the front row on the left, but thankfully, they didn't notice us. Whew.

2. After the concert it had started snowing/raining. We went out for a piece of French Silk pie anyway. The pie was yummy and it was wonderful to sit with my hubby and talk.

3. We survived our first snowstorm of the year. Saturday we woke up to this scene.  We got a total of about 8" of snow. It was really heavy, wet snow and made for tough snow-blowing for the hubby. (I have kind of on purpose not ever learned how to use the snow-blower.) (Yes, I am smart.) Saturday morning the power kept flicking off and on and off and on, and then it was totally off for about an hour. Thankfully it wasn't off for any longer. I get stressed when the power is off. I spent the whole day in my PJs. Nice. (That was a lot of random sentences in one paragraph...)

4. Sunday when we drove to church we saw why the power was having issues. There were a lot of downed tree branches from the heavy snow. I suspect the power lines were weighed down with the heavy snow.

5. We enjoyed the sermon on the book of Ruth at church. And, here's a first... people actually talked to us at church. We've gone to that church for about two months and last Sunday was the first time anyone talked to us. (More than a "hi" as they walked by.) I really miss our old church.

6. I spent a good part of today cleaning our bedroom and bathroom. It needed a deep clean, especially the shower and jetted tub. Now I don't think we can ever bathe again. Oh...just kidding.

7. Just to surprise my hubby, I made him his favorite treat after supper.

Gingerbread. It is soooo yummy hot from the oven! Hubby was very happy.

8. I'm working on taking pictures around the house. Since I have most of it organized and decorated, I thought I'd post some pictures here soon.

9. Nothing else to add to my list. Except this abrupt ending.

Winter. Ugh.

A view out our front door this morning.

I guess there's no way to avoid winter when in Minnesota. Sigh.

More Memory Lane Running

Last weekend my sweet hubby agreed to go hang out in the town (Iowa City) I lived in when I was in elementary school. I hadn't been there in a very long time. It was fun to drive around and dust off the old memory files.

And yes, there was drive-by shootings involved. And yes, we almost got into trouble. Yikes.

First.. the house all six of us lived in.

This is where we almost got into trouble. The people who live in this house started looking out the window at us taking pictures. Yep. We drove away and avoided any more drive-by stalking. :) I just wish I had the nerve to ring the doorbell and ask if we could look around the house. Oh well. I have my memories.

Next we went by the grade school I attended from Kindergarten to Grade 5. Here's a shot of the creek that we crossed on the way to school. I may or may not have stopped to play in it once and ended up very late to school. :) It's quite overgrown and was hard to get a good picture.

 

A shot of the HUGE hill I had to walk up to get to the school. It actually has shrunk a bit over the years. :)  I distinctly remember walking up that hill on the first day of spring. In the Snow. I was so annoyed that it was snowing on the first day of spring.

The front entrance. Does anyone know who Robert Lucas was?  Anyone??

 He was the first Governor of the Territory of Iowa. You're welcome.

 The Kindergarten room. I remember having nap-time, milk in cardboard cartons that wouldn't always open easily and singing songs while my teacher played the piano. All in a half-day!

We walked to school and even walked home for lunch every day. I thought it was a looong ways. Hubby discovered it was only 3 tenths of a mile. I think it was something like 4 blocks. I laughed so hard when I realized that.

After we stalked around the old neighborhood, we headed to downtown Iowa City. I just had to take a picture of the Rec Center. I hung out there a bunch when I was a kid. I also got the scar that is smack in the middle of my forehead there.

Did you know Iowa City was the first capital of Iowa? Yep. (Hey, this is quite an educational blog today.)

This was over the door on the Old Capital building. It amused me. IOWA. Love the period on the end!

A beautiful tree.

The next day we drove to hang out in a nearby Amish community.

And there were animals out in the countryside...

 

We then headed to the great small town where my hubby went to high school. ("Great" is sarcastic. It's not a very nice town, and he didn't like that he had to move there, but I am thankful hubby did because if he didn't, I would have never met him.) The house his parents lived in.

It was a very fun weekend with my hubby. I am thankful for all his driving and his patience with me.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

As my regular readers know, I have spent a lot of Wednesdays answering the Random Dozen questions. The blogger who thought up all those questions decided to hang it up. I think she ran out of questions...I know I would.

Another blogger, who I discovered through the Random Dozen, has decided to begin her own Randomness. Joyce@From This Side of the Pond  has come up with Wednesday Hodgepodge. She's brave! Click on the button and go to Joyce's blog to read her answers and those of other bloggers.

 

1. Do you think you're more like your mom or your dad?

I look like my mom, but have my dad's coloring. (Mom is a blonde with blue eyes. Dad had dark hair and brown eyes. [and I say *had* because it's white now] )

2. Do you like roller coasters?

I kind of used to. I can't even remember the last time I went on one. The last one I went on was likely at the MOA. As far as roller coasters go, the one there is relatively calm. When I was a kid I remember giving my mom a hard time when she wouldn't go on roller coasters with the rest of us. She used to say, "I did that when I was younger." Now I kind of agree. :)

3. How did you name your blog and do you now wish you'd thought about it maybe another five minutes before you hit publish? Would you change your blog title if it were not a huge pain in the derriere? (French makes everything sound a little nicer doesn't it?)

Here's my very first blog-post and the reason I came up with the name for my blog. It's from a book written by Stormie Omartian called, Just Enough Light for the Step I'm On.

I'm actually surprised that I was even that slightly creative. I don't have a lot of creativity when it comes to naming something. Case-in-point: When my son was a little boy, he was crazy about LEGOS. (Who am I kidding? He's a grown, married man and is still crazy about LEGOS.) Anyway... with each LEGO set came little LEGO people, (or as Caleb called them, "'ittle tiny 'EGO guys") and he wanted to name each one. I would throw out ideas to him all day and he would reject each one. Then Daddy would come home from work, suggest a name, and it was an instant hit! Hmph. 

So yes, I am still pleased with my moment of creativity with naming my blog.

4. What is the best wedding gift you received? Not married? Didn't get any gifts? Then what is the best wedding gift you've given?

That was quite a long time ago... 26 plus years. I do remember some random gifts and who gave them to us. *A family friend gave us a pottery bowl made by someone from the community I lived in during grade school years. (We just visited that community last weekend and I will be blogging about it later this week.) *My hubby's great-aunt and great-uncle gave us an electric knife that I still use. *My sisters and brother gave us a card table and chairs. *Probably the weirdest gift was a Sardine Server. It's a small silver tray (3"x5") and has a tiny spatula-like server. Weird. I don't think I've ever used it. I don't know which was the best gift. It would involve searching for our wedding book that contains the gift list. I think it's in the basement, which is, you know, all the way down the stairs... In other words, I'm mot going to go look for it.

My favorite gift we have given was a Scrabble board with a huge bag of popcorn. We gave it to some college students that we "adopted". They spent a lot of time at our house playing Scrabble and eating popcorn when they wanted to escape college life. It just seemed like the right gift to give.

5. What is the one bill you most hate to pay?

I don't think I have to answer this one since I don't write the checks that pay the bills. I declare myself exempt from Question #5. :)

6. Is the glass half full or half empty? 

Not full enough!? I tease my hubby that he never fills my glass full enough. When there is an inch at the top, it's not full.

7. What is your favorite word?

GRACE.

8. Now, this is where I insert one random thought of my own...

I love these potato chips. 

They are sold in a limited area (mostly Iowa), so we don't get them often. When we do it's a toss up between savoring them and devouring them.

(How's that for random?)

I Said I love You and That's Forever

My hubby and I have been married for 26 years, 3 months and some extra days. 


I am blessed.


I love being married.

I can't decide which opening line I like better. So I will use all of them.

This whole marriage thing has come into much better focus to me since it's back to just the two of us. What do I see? I see that we approach life very differently.

Some examples:

*He is a morning person. I am a night-owl. He gets up ready to go in the mornings, it takes me a couple of hours to feel human.

*Hubby is quite competitive. I don't think I have a competitive bone in my body. Case in point: We have the same cell phones. I found an application that was similar to Boggle, a word game both like. I was having fun playing it and seeing how many words I could find. Hubby then loaded the same game on his phone. He soon realized the scoring was not the same as the real version of the game and found a couple of things he didn't like about it. I hadn't even noticed. (Now I don't like the game either.)

*Hubby can fall asleep in 2.5 seconds flat. Some nights I'm lucky if I fall asleep in under 30 minutes.

*He loves to run and does it about four times a week. For 40 minutes or more. I hate to exercise. 'Nough said.

*Hubby likes to organize things and enjoys doing it. I love for things to be organized, but I tend to get stressed out in the process. Just last night I was attempting to organize all of our CDs. Hubby dragged the box full of CDs upstairs a few days ago. Late yesterday afternoon, I unloaded them all. (Believe me, we have a lot of them.) I started stacking them on the floor around me. Pretty soon, I realized I was in over my head. Hubby called to tell me he was coming home and asked how I was doing. I said I was buried in CDs and wasn't sure what to do with them all. He laughed and said he'd be home soon. As soon as he walked in the door, he jumped right in and within 10 minutes we had a plan on what to do with them all and within probably 45 minutes he had them all organized. My hero!

*Hubby likes to watch sports. Football, basketball, baseball. He likes it. I tell him I think every game looks the same. I don't understand how he can watch so many games. He loved being at our Alma Mater's Homecoming Game last weekend. I was bored out of my mind. I've asked a few questions, especially about football, and I still don't understand it or like it.

*He is a very patient person. He cheerfully let me wander down memory lane last Sunday. And has agreed to some more Memory Lane wandering this coming weekend.

*Probably my most favorite thing is that he loves me unconditionally. I am often blown away at his love for me. I am ever grateful for our marriage as an earthly example of God's love for me. A few weeks ago we got into quite a heated disagreement. It was mostly because of my fears. After we had apologized to each other and forgave each other I asked him, "What can I do to make you happy with me again?" He answered, "Sweetie, you don't have to do anything. I love you." I about fell on the floor. Isn't that the way it is with God? We really don't have to do things to make Him love us. He just does.

My conclusion? We are very different people. We approach life differently. We are amazingly crazy in love with each other. And Happy.

Our son Caleb took a bunch of pictures at his sister's wedding. This was one of them. It's my favorite, mostly because of the caption he put with the photo when he posted it on Facebook.

Marriage works, these two are proof.

**SIGH**

As I was contemplating this post I heard a perfect song when I was out shopping. Despite all our differences, I love you, honey. Just the way you are.

Election Day Perspective

Today is election day in the USA.  Please go read my son Caleb's post about having perspective on this day.

Daniel 2:20-21

Then Daniel praised the God of heaven and said:    

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
   wisdom and power are his. 

He changes times and seasons;

he deposes kings and raises up others.