One Step Closer

Last night my hubby and I had the privilege of witnessing our daughter receiving her 

School of Pharmacy pin and a fancy White Coat ceremony.

As her name was called, I watched her beautifully walk across the stage to get her 

white coat put on and receive the pin,

 

I leaned over to Hubby and squeezed his arm and whispered, "That's our kid."

She's got one more year where she'll do a series of rotations at a bunch of different kinds of pharmacies, graduate, take a monster test, then she'll be a real life Pharmacist!

Zach and Megan

This ceremony was just one step closer.

We are so incredibly, super proud of that girl of ours! She has always been a very determined girl and has always liked challenging herself since she was a little girl. I remember her teaching herself how to use her big brother's math flash cards when she was only 4 or 5. (She would get out a pile of crayons. For 3+4 she would count out three crayons in one pile and four crayons in another and then count them all for the total. I remember watching her and begin amazed.)

(No wonder I'm now amazed [because she's amazingly smart] at her accomplishments.)

#23

It seems kinda surreal that my baby is 23 years old today.
 

 

About Sixteen Months Old

Second Birthday

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!

I love you so very much!

Month of Thankfulness - Day 18

Sunday: A Blessed Day

Hubby and I joined our son and daughter-in-law at their church this morning for worship. I love their church. The music is always fantastic. Today's instruments were a piano and a cello. (The sound of a cello just gives me the chills.) I am so thankful that they are able to worship at a church that truly preaches the gospel. I always get so much practical stuff from the sermons. Every sermon wraps up with the gospel message. The service usually ends with me in tears, I am so moved. What really got me today was being served communion by my son and daughter-in-law. Words cannot describe the emotions. What kind of a loving God do we have that would allow me (& hubby) to experience that moment?

After that simply marvelous morning we enjoyed a yummy BBQ lunch and some fun shopping with the son and daughter-in-law.

Then I spent three and a half hours at Panera (which in and of itself would be great) with an old friend. We first met in choir when Hubby and I were first married and lived in Wichita, Kansas. My friend and I have moved around a lot over the years and even lost touch for several years. We got back in touch and text each other often, but don't often get the opportunity to actually see each other. This trip it happened to work out that we were both able to spend some time together. SO MUCH FUN! I don't think we really spent three and a half hours just sitting there talking, but that is what the clock indicated, so I guess I have to believe it.

This evening we enjoyed a late supper with our daughter and son-in-law. They encouraged us to try something brand new to Hubby and I.

Sushi! At one point in my life I thought I would never want to eat sushi. Megan and Zach have told us about this place and we said we'd like to go with them sometime if they would order for us. And can I say? We really did like it! I'd go again (with someone who knew what they were ordering).

I am thankful for...
...God's truth being preached
...singing with the body of Christ
...partaking in communion
...an afternoon spent with a friend I first met 28 years ago
...that friendship
...my daughter
...the enjoyment of food

Fourteen Points on the 14th

I've been thinking about this blog all week, trying to figure out a specific subject to bore my readers with write about. Now it's Friday night and I haven't come up with anything. So I think that means a random-thought post is the solution:::

1. I've meant to write about our weekends for the last three or four weekends. Let's just do a little photo recap.

2. Mmmmm.... my favorite pizza was consumed last weekend. Love that thick wheat crust. They even have honey in the restaurant to squeeze into the crust. Mmmmm....

3. Several weekends ago we went to visit our parents. On Sunday we got to worship with my parents at the church where Hubby and I were married. We hadn't been there for a long time. It was good to be back and good to see a friend from high school days. I sneaked this photo during a prayer. Shhh... don't tell.

4. The skies on the drive back home were fantastic. There were several storm cells around us.

5. Labor Day weekend we had honest-to-goodness-real-live-company! Our daughter and son-in-law came for the weekend. (And Charley!)

6. We had fun at a picnic:

7. Someone had fun chasing a ball and a frisbee:::

8. And that puppy had even more fun hanging his head out the window. 

Seriously, doesn't he look so happy?  

 9. That puppy LOVED his Pup Cup at our local ice cream shop.

10. I can't even begin to say how much we enjoyed having Megan, Zach and Charley here for the weekend. We rarely get company so it was such a treat to plan and fix meals for them and just to have more voices in the house.

11. Have you ever started a project with a great goal in mind only when it was almost done you realized it's not going to turn out quite like you envisioned? I've been working on finishing up a quilt top I started while I was watching the Olympics. I think it is mostly the fabric I chose that is bugging me. I like the fabric, but just not for the pattern I am using. Hubby convinced me it will be a great take-outside quilt. So today I finished the borders. I guess I learned not everything turns out like I pictured in my head and what type of fabric works better for that specific pattern.

12. This weekend is a quite one at home. Hopefully I can finish the backing for my take-outside-quilt and get it ready to put in the mail to The Missouri Star Quilt Company on Monday. I've had two quilts quilted there and just love the work they do.

13. The city has put a ban on lawn watering due to the lack of rain. Right after Hubby (& Megan and
Zach) worked hard to re-seed part of the lawn that was dead due to the lack of rain. Ugh. All week long I have noticed county highway trucks filling up tanks from the fire hydrant on the corner of our property. Hmmmm... Should I let the city know where all their water is going? :)

14. I'm going for fourteen random comments, but can't really think of anything else, so this non-comment will have to suffice as a fill-in. :)

Two Years

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my daughter and son-in-law!

It was a rainy day, but a perfect day! And besides, who cares about the rain when the bride and groom were (and are) so happy?

A Week Away

Last week I was away. I played. A lot. And by playing I mean lots of shopping, eating out, and talking with friends.

I drove down to Columbia, Missouri. All by myself. In one day. I was impressed with myself since I usually can only stand to drive about two hours when Hubby and I are on the road together. I listened to music and sang really loud, stopped to eat some ribs at my favorite BBQ place and listened to some CDs of Beth Moore. (The CDs were of her teaching at a weekend conference.) I got super tired when I was only two hours from my destination but just couldn't stop then.

The reason for my trip was to spend the week visiting with some friends who are missionaries in Budapest. They are in the states for the summer.  An added bonus was having my daughter meet me for a few days! Our friends have a daughter who is only 6 days younger than Megan and it had been a long time since those girls had seen each other. We also celebrated the first birthday of our friends' grandson.

This little guy looks so much like I remember his mama when she and my girl were babies. I couldn't decide if I felt old, or just happy to spend some time with friends we have known for 24 years. Both.

Aside from seeing our friends, I felt so blessed to be able to spend a couple of days with Megan. She and I had fun shopping (I love to shop with her...she looks adorable in everything she tries on), eating out and talking, talking, talking. Bliss. So thankful. She's grown in to a pretty terrific young woman. I like her. A lot.

Did I take any pictures of my friends? Nope. Silly me. Just pictures of the adorable baby.

 And of course I took pictures of food.

My friend and I went out for Sushi. I had never had Sushi before. This was very yummy! But I think it wasn't "normal" Sushi, so I'm not so sure how brave I will be to try it again.

Another highlight for me was shopping in three different quilt shops. So much fun to wander around. I had a long list of things I wanted for some projects I am working on and managed to get those and some extras because the fabric was so pretty and hard to resist. My sister-in-law told me about a quilt shop in Missouri (Missouri Star Quilt Company) that has lots of YouTube tutorials. Yes, I have spent a lot of afternoons watching video after video. On my trip back north, I changed my route so I could stop by the shop! It was a great shop and I'll have to stop again because the day after I stopped, they moved into a bigger building. And I need to meet the woman who does all the videos.

Hubby and I decided to meet in Des Moines for the holiday weekend. I was so excited to see him I actually did a real live happy dance when he got to the hotel we were staying at. :)  We spent Saturday at an Iowa history museum a botanical garden and even got to see a movie.

This collage I like to call Exotic Flowers and Plants of Des Moines:

 At the museum gift shop I saw this display of a children's show I watched when I visited my grandparents in the summer time:

Fun memories!

A pretty picture of the Iowa Capitol Building.

So, now I'm back home and all caught up on the laundry. Back to "normal" life. Sigh.

Gotta head to my sewing room to tackle some of those projects I bought materials for!

!!!

I am so very extremely excited to see these two this weekend:

(and of course their spouses)

You know, even though those kids of mine are all grown up and married and everything, sometimes (more than you may think) I still see them and feel them in my heart like this:

The Golden Package

Two days ago, my baby turned 22 on the twenty-second -- so it was her Golden Birthday! I thought for a long time about what I wanted to do to celebrate that momentous day even though I am 450 miles away from her. I went to a party supply store and found some gold wrapping paper, bows and shredded paper. I also bought a Golden Anniversary card (a 50th wedding anniversary card) and crossed out words and added words to make it fit a birthday. Cheesy, but fun!

I packed the gold wrapped gifts, gold shredded paper and some gold wrapped chocolates all in a box and even put some gold stars on the box. (The lady at the post office got a kick out of the stars.) 

Don't you like my oh-so-professional editing to remove her address?

Megan said she loved all the gold and had fun opening the gifts! Happy Birthday, again sweet-pea!

My Girl is Golden

This is what I looked like twenty-two years ago this morning:

It was very early in the morning. Very Early. But Hubby and I were on the way to the hospital so we could meet this sweet little angel:

Oh, just look at those cheeks! So, so sweet! We were all enthralled with her from the moment we heard, "It's a girl!" (...and we are all just looking at the adorable baby in the picture and not looking at the just-given-birth-mom, right? Good!)

We named her Megan partly because it's the name her daddy liked the best from our list and partly because we knew her almost three year old big brother would be able to pronounce it correctly.

Those big brown eyes and that endearing smile captured our hearts. It was fun to have a girl with all the girly clothes and things.

With the addition of Megan, we became a family of four. One boy, one girl. One kid for each hand. Two babies to fill my heart with more love than I could imagine. More hugs, more kisses, more tears to wipe away, more laughs.

This girl's love of ice cream started at a young age thanks to her grandfather. She really liked it and kept wanting more after she got over how cold it was!

I had so much fun staying up late on Birthday Eve making her a shape cake every year for her birthday. Eighteen of them. Her nursery was decorated with bunnies, so of course a bunny had to be her first birthday cake. It was a lemon cake with lemon icing. She even shared a piece with her great-grandma.

Such a sweet picture of two so very different generations.

And then that little girl grew...

 

...and grew...

...and grew...

 ...and before I knew it she was a bride...

This daughter that God saw fit to bless us with has been one of the best things in my life. I admire her so very much. She is smart, works hard, a good cook, very beautiful and a loving and loyal woman. She loves God with all her heart and loves her husband too. How lucky have I been to be her mom? 

Megan, I pray for you on your 22nd birthday that this will be a joyful year for you, that you will know many days of happiness, that you will learn more about becoming the woman God wants you to be, that you will love your husband even more, that you will be a blessing to those around you. I cannot even express how much I love you. Happy Birthday, sweet-pea!

In my heart I will always be holding your hand.