Since People Won't Listen To Me Explain This In Real Life...

One of the definitions of the word angel is:

• A person having qualities generally attributed to an angel, as beauty, purity or kindliness.

So, this definitaion works in Monk & Neagle's song "Stars Would Fall" where the writer (who wrote the song for his wife) says:

You're an angel, you're a queen and I would give you everything

So there.

I feel better now that I was able to get that out.

This blog sure is a handy way to communicate. :) Especially since people won't listen to a person just innocently wanting to explain something.

Geez.

24!!!

Today I have been married 24 years to my best friend. Wow! What a great 24 years!

According to a comment left on my previous post, the great source of wikipedia, the traditional gifts for the 24th wedding anniversary is furniture.

I guess we missed it.

Last year for our 23rd anniversary we bought a coffee table. Oops! If only we would have known about the wonders of wikipedia. **SIGH**

This year Pete gave me a pendant. It's a green garnet. It looks like these earrings, but only one and green.
He spoils me so. :)

I gave him an armband for his iPod and sport headphones. He went running with them tonight and said he loved them!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I Love You! Thanks for a great 24 years.

Man Trivia

1. Who is your man? Peter

2. How long have you been together? We will be married 24 years on Monday!

3. How long did you date? We were best friends for 6 months or so, dated for 9 months before we got engaged. We were engaged for 13 months, which I do not recommend. We were so ready to make that commitment , but had another year of college to finish.

4. How old is your man? 47

5. What kind of car does he drive? A Mazda 3. Bright red. I have never seen him so excited about a car as this one.

6. Who said "I love you" first? Ummm... I really don't remember. But I would bet it was him since I was trying to let him lead with things in our relationship. (I hadn't done that in some previous relationships...)

7. Who is taller? He is 3 inches taller.

8. Who sings better? If volume is anything, me. He does a better job of harmonizing. I sing on the worship team at church. He plays an awesome piano.

9. Who is smarter? Hmmmm. I would say Pete, easily. He is an engineer. He can problem solve like nobody's business. He can even do math in his head! It's so amazing! But I can cook better and sew, and understand small children. I guess we each have our own strengths.

10. Whose temper is worse? Definitely mine.

11. Who does the laundry? Me. The kids have done their own for 7 years! Best parenting move I ever made!

12. Who takes out the garbage? I collect it in the house, he takes it to the curb, and I bring the trash cans back to the garage. Team effort!

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does. We switched once at my parents' house when I was pregnant so I could get up more easily to go to the bathroom multiple times during the night, but he could barely sleep! So we've never switched since then.

14. Who pays the bills? Pete. He loves the numbers thing and the spreadsheet thing.

15. Who is better with the computer? He understand some details like how the whole filing things works, Power Point and Excel. He is a whiz with spreadsheets. But I know how to change the wallpaper on the desktop (an important skill, you know!) and I love to do things with Publisher and can surf the web for anything.

16. Who mows the lawn? Thank You, Lord, it's Pete. I did not get the "mowing gene."

17. Who cooks dinner? Me.

18. Who drives when you are together? Usually Pete. When we are on a long trip, I'm usually the one who does the late night driving. I can force myself to stay awake. The down side of that is when we get to the destination, everyone else falls asleep quickly, and I am still awake because of the adrenaline I got going.

19. Who pays when you go out? Usually Pete, unless he doesn't have any cash, or left his glasses at home and can't read the bill...

20. Who is most stubborn? Quite likely me... unfortunately.

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably not me (See answer to previous question.)

22. Whose parents do you see the most? I would say it is about equal.

23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first (See #6) We were sitting on a bench near the campanile on campus talking about what we should do and where we should go with our friendship.

24. Who asked who out? I don't remember. We went to see a movie when we were friends and I was dating someone else. We decided that was too much like a date and we better not do that. After we decided to date (I had broken up with the other guy) I don't remember. We just hung out a lot "studying."

25. Who proposed? He proposed to me 25 years ago last month on an orange vinyl couch in an apartment he was living in for a summer. I didn't say, "Yes." I said, "Definitely!"

26. Who is more sensitive? Probably me. He's an engineer. 'Nough said. (I don't mean that as a slam, honey!) :D

27. Who has more friends? I think they are about equal.

28. Who has more siblings? Me. I have two sisters and one brother. He has one brother and one sister.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Petey, and he looks real good in them. I love you, Sweetie!
What new thing did you learn?

He Is

The lyrics to "He Is" by Aaron Jeoffrey

"In Genesis, He's the breath of life
In Exodus, He is the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He's our high priest
In Numbers, the fire by night
Deuteronomy, He's Israel's Guide
Joshua, He's salvation's choice
Judges, He's Israel's Guard
In Ruth, the kinsmen's redeemer
1st and 2nd Samuel, our trusted prophet
In Kings and Chronicles He is Sovereign
In Ezra, He's the true and faithful scribe
In Nehemiah, the re-builder of broken walls and lives
In Esther, He's Mordecai's courage
In Job, the timeless redeemer
In Psalms He is our morning song
In Proverbs, He is our wisdom
Ecclesiastes, He's the time and season
In Song of Solomon, He is the lover's dream
In Isaiah He is Prince of Peace
In Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
Lamentations, the cry for Israel
Ezekiel, the call from sin
Daniel, the stranger in the fire
Hosea, the forever faithful
Joel, the spirit's power
Amos, the strong-arms that carry
Obadiah, the Lord our Savior
Jonah, the great missionary
Micah, the promise of peace
Nahum, our strength and shield
In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He's brings revival
In Haggai He restores that which was lost
IN Zachariah, He's our fountain
And in Malachi, He's the son of righteousness rising with healing in His wings

(AND THAT'S JUST THE OLD TESTAMENT)

In Matthew Mark Luke and John, He is God and Messiah
In the spirit filled book of Acts, He is the reigning fire from Heaven
In Romans, He is the grace of God
Corinthians, the power of love
Galatians, freedom from the curse of sin
Ephesians, our glorious treasure
Philippians, the servant's heart
Colossians, He's God and the trinity
Thessalonians, our calling King
In Timothy, Titus and Philemon, He's our mediator and our faithful pastor
In Hebrews, the everlasting courage
In James, the one who heals the sick
In 1st and 2nd Peter, our faithful shepherd
In John and Jude, He's the lover coming for His bride
AND in the Revelation, in the very end, when it's all over, said and done, when time is NO MORE. He is and will always be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace, son of Man, Lamb of God, The Great I am, Alpha and Omega, God and Savior He is Jesus Christ the Lord HE IS EVERYTHING THAT YOU NEED!"

Oh, is that all?

Seriously, how awesome is that?

Honda vs. Mountain

This is a shot of Old Stage Road that leads up to Bear Trap Ranch. It's about 8 miles of hugging-the-side-of-the-mountain driving.

Isn't it pretty? Here is looking down to Colorado Springs. Quite an awesome view!

I have been quite impressed with the fact that Caleb has driven this road about once a week since he has been in Colorado. I've been to Bear Trap about 9 times and have managed NEVER to drive it.

Yesterday Caleb called his dad for help because he slid on the gravel and ran into the mountain.

Not every one can say they ran into a mountain. (quote from Amanda -- Caleb's girlfriend.)

What a mountain-side can do to your car:

With the help of his dad and the Internet, they found a place for Caleb to get things put back into place and the wheel replaced so it's drivable. The alignment needs to be checked next.

Praise God that Caleb was not hurt! I am more grateful he hit the mountain than if he went off the other side of the road and went down the mountain!

Oh the joys of learning how to deal with grown-up stuff, huh Caleb?

What I Came Home To

Megan and I just got back from a trip to Lawrence for her college orientation. She's all enrolled for classes now! We had a busy couple of days. We went to several different sessions together and separately. We learned such gems as, to be successful, you need to go to class and college costs a lot of money. Enlightening.

I think I can soundly say that I detest road construction season. It seemed like every where I tried to go in Lawrence, there was a street that was closed. Grrrr!!! Then there was the missed exit in Kansas City... But that ended up not being quite so bad, thankfully.

We left Sunday after church and got back last night (or this morning?) at 1:30AM. Needless to say, we are pooped today. It sure was nice to have someone else share in the driving.

A perk to the drive to Kansas is not having to only eat fast food along the way. Our favorite restaurant is a 5 minute drive off the interstate. Hickory Park is The Best BBQ restaurant ever. We can make it in and out in about 40 minutes. We were able to stop there both ways!

When we stumbled in the door at the wee hours of the morning, Megan walked in the back door and turned around and looked at me. She said, "What happened to the wallpaper?" My response was, "Peter!" Last week I told Pete I thought we needed to paint the front hallway and take the wall paper down. It was very scuffed from years of wear and tear. I thought that would be a great project this fall after the kids were at college. But my sweet, sweet husband got himself busy and did all the nasty work and peeled the wallpaper off. (He had removed the wallpaper in the kids' bathroom too!) Now we just have to decide on what color to paint. I am thinking the hallway needs to be the same color as the living room since the are next to each other. But the bathroom... it has red counter tops (yes, true red) and the toilet and the sink and bath tub are light gray. Any suggestions?

Before I went to bed, I saw all the other work he had been doing.... laundry, dishes, dusting, mopping, vacuuming. How nice to come home to a house like that. I have such an amazing husband. I am blessed. I should have been suspicious when I talked to him on the phone and asked what he had been doing and I got answers like, "Oh not much." and "You know, stuff..." That should have been a red flag from the man with the never ending to-do list.

Several years ago I went shopping for the day with a friend and when I came home, he had painted and hung a whole new closet system and organized all the clothes in our closet!

I am blessed woman.

Gotta go now and finish baking cookies for Bible study tonight.

Bear Trap Ranch

We really enjoyed our four days at Bear Trap Ranch. It is so beautiful and peaceful there. I wish I could bring that fresh mountain air home. I just loved it. (Just ask Megan -- I think I only said that Every Time I Walked Outside.)


Here are some pictures of Bear Trap:

The Cook House/Dining Hall

Wrangler's Lodge

Our Cabin - Teddy Bear

Megan (and Caleb) in the loft of our cabin.

The view from our cabin.

Caleb is really enjoying his time in the mountains this summer. His dad and I think this is just the place God wants him this summer.

This is the view from behind the dining hall looking into the kitchen:

A couple of pictures of Caleb working in the kitchen. He made a couple of desserts and some biscuits when we were there. They were yummy.

Caleb's cabin (Bear Trap Inn):

The day we arrived at Bear Trap, Caleb and the rest of the staff had climbed Pikes Peak! It was a 13 mile hike. Needless to say, he was beat.

Pete and Megan hiked these three peaks: