HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY

ITS HARD TO SAY BABY BOY WHEN HE WAS BORN IN 1968.  But you know, in all honesty he still is our baby boy.  

Happy Birthday Jimbo.  You were quite a surprise in our lives.  Your sister was 15 years old and our lives were pretty well settled.  Then all of a sudden the doctor announced it was really not something that i had eaten that had given me indigestion, it was you!!!

So there I was with an unbelieving spirit and a husband in shock and a teenage girl absolutely bouncing off the walls with happiness.  So after working every day for the entirety of the nine months and in your defense never feeling better in my life, on the afternoon of September 9, 1968, after working til 2:00 in the afternoon, i went home packed a bag, got in the car with your Dad and sister and ventured to the Bethania Hospital,  You were scheduled to arrive the next morning and we had reserved the operating room for 9:00.  It was rather nice that evening, i had whatever i wanted to eat for dinner, had a nice big private room, and a good book, didn't feel bad and after kissing your dad and sister goodnight and them leaving, it all of a sudden hit me.

What on earth was i doing there.  I was not ready for this.  I wasn't all that motherly (as you would find out) my life was just peachy and all of a sudden someone small unable to take care of themselves, or even pick up after themselves was going to descend on my life into my space if you will.

It was a long night.  

Fortunately you were born while it was still a civilized event,  None of that room full of people, just anyone that wanted to drop by while the poor mother lay there in pain with legs spread asunder and belly in a sort of tent.  No, I knew everyone that walked in the room which would have been the doctor and the nurse and your dad and sister.  Even they were taken to a discrete waiting room when it was time for you and i to go the green mile, alone together, just you and i and the doctor who would put me to sleep and two nurses Plus, Dr. Richard Bates. One of the nurses, a lovely lady named Mary Rogers. 

She would be the one to announce your arrival to your dad, sister, your grandmother and your great grandfather, (again all waiting outside in a waiting room)

I vaguely remember being told your had gotten here, then i was put to sleep and it was later that evening when you came to visit me for a while  (we were also civilized about the babies staying in the nursery so that the mother could rest).  On that visit, just you and I, something happened that i did not expect......I fell in love.  It has never gone away.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY  

59 YEARS. STILL MARRIED

Today, we celebrate 59 years of marriage.  The marriage that everyone thought would never last. 

You know about Larry.  He is our preacher.  Has been for many years.  We love him.  Doing a series Sunday evenings on what the beautiful verses in Proverbs have to say about marriage.  We are only a few lessons in and I had no idea there was so much there.  (this of course being in part that I concentrate on the red letters). 

I listen to these wonderful words and try to figure out if Mate and I did even one of them correctly. We have realized we are the exception that proves the rule.  The Proverb rule that is. I think God actually saw we would need a bit more help than usual and sent an extra measure of the Spirit. 

Mate and I decided we should do something special for our 59th anniversary.  We are not prone to do presents;  haven't for years.  We have everything we need and certainly more than we want, and since we neither one like to shop, we just don't.  This year is different.  We are going to share a gift.  Its a big decision and frankly one of the most exciting things we have planned on doing in a few years.

In 59 years we have had one shower curtain.  Well not the same one, but the same pattern, over and over and over.  Its one we like. In about 1959, we bought the house on Dunbar.  Up til then we only had a tub, no shower.  Loved the fact that it had a shower.  Thought it would be wonderful to put in shower doors, so we did.  Consequently never needed a shower curtain.  Then some 30 years later we sold that house and moved to Lake Palestine.

House on the lake  had two and one half baths.  Needed two shower curtains.  Found a pattern at Lowes.  Loved it so we bought two just alike.   After about 5 years we moved into Tyler and we then had two bathrooms that needed curtains.   Went to Lowes and bought two of the same ones again.  Still liked it.  No need to change.

Moved back to Wichita Falls.  Have bought three shower curtains since we have been back.  Thats right.....went to Lowes.  Same pattern.  Still our favorite.  Couple of weeks ago we had a discussion about doing something special for our anniversary.   We made a  decision, one on which we both agree.  Sometime today we will go to Lowes and shop for new shower curtains.  This year, we will be daring and reckless.  We are agreeing to buy a different pattern.

You may think this is of no consequence.  Not so.  Somewhere in Proverbs I am sure it says that if a couple can live together for 59 years agreeing all that time about a shower curtain, then they have chosen very well.  Happy Anniversary Mate. 

Our one and only wedding picture.  Its not clear but it is 59 years old.
 

 80 YEARS OLD !!!!  NO WAY !!!!!

TODAY I AM married to an 80 year old man.  Can you believe it?  I can't.  Inside my head I still feel young.   My body betrays me sometime but by and large  I still think as if I am at least  no older than say 40 or 50 (my two best decades by the way).   And there is no way that I can even imagine him being 80 years old.   My mind tells me that 80 is OLD. But he will never be old to me. 

Why on earth am I married and living with an 80 year old? When did he get this ancient?  It was just a few weeks ago, Memorial Day to be exact, that I posted a picture of a 19 year old Marine, with a cute twinkle in his eye in one of those dress Marine uniforms; a Marine that had turned 18 in a foxhole in Korea.  Where did he go?

Well we already know he went to Korea.  Then he went to Austin, and then he came to Wichita Falls, then he went with me to get a marriage license and then he went with me on a journey that will have lasted 59 years when July 3 arrives.  We were joined on this journey  by two children, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.  But they dropped off one by one and started on their own journeys. Now only the two of us remain on this last part of the journey along with a cute white schnauzer we picked up along the way.  That is how it is supposed to work.   We are on a road that we have never traveled and which we will, God willing, travel together for most of the way.  I am thankful for that.  Thank you God for allowing this journey. 

So many things are easier now.  The road has become straighter.  Not so many burdens to carry.  Still worry about those who traveled with us but now realize that our control, if indeed we ever really had any,  ended a long time ago.  Living together is so much easier on the last part of the journey than it was on the first part.  So many things we thought were important are no longer even blips on the radar.  We don't really fuss about anything anymore, just sort of smile if one of us is irritable.  In other words we now are contented. 

Actually I know exactly where this 80 year old is.  He is sitting in the chair reading on the Kindle,  scratching the dog's back and I am blessed that he is there.  Happy Birthday Mate.

WALK WITH DAISY # 3

Find that where I previously thought I would never run out of things to say....  I ran out of things to say.  So I have not done a "writing" in a long time.  Needless to say much has happened and not much has happened.  I find that to be true as you get ......well.....older.  

Been retired officially since the second week in January.  Enjoying it a lot.  Wanted to do some giving back for all I have been given, so Mate and I are involved in several "good works".  I am attending Ladies Bible Class for the first time ever.  Every Wednesday morning during the fall and winter, ladies of a certain age (estimating from 55 on up through and including 98)  meet for an hour of Bible study and just plain old sharing of information.  I have known  these ladies almost my entire life.  I love them.  I am confident of few things at my age, but one of those things is that they also love me.  We share a history that cannot be obtained other than through the love and belief in a Savior.  Its so ......well.....WOW wonderful.  


I also decided I would become a better neighbor.   I know to say  "Hi" and sometimes,  "Boy we need some rain" with 3 others on our 6 house cul de sac.  Sad isn't it.  I aspire to correct this.  But I am not doing too good a job.  Seems we don't go outside a lot.  Neither do my neighbors.  We no longer work in the yard.  We hire it done.  I do walk the dog but not so much anymore since she has a visitor and they run for hours on end in the back yard.  I don't even see many people in a neighborhood with seldom an empty house.  When I was growing up we at least came out the front door and walked to the garage.  Now I go through my hall to get to the garage and car.  Where has everyone gone?  But I digress. 

 Did see a for sale sign on a house across from our cul d sac and saw a moving van with a young couple moving in.  Thought about it a while.  This is a good place to start.  Baked a chocolate cake, even put walnuts in the icing.  Took it over and with a smile announced my name and welcomed them to the neighborhood.  Blew this one big time.  Seems this was the young couple still moving out and they had lived there since 2000.  They could not even keep the cake as they were on the road.  However with much embarrassment I noted later that evening that no good deed goes unpunished.  We had a death in our congregation.  Wanda Ganzer, beautiful lady, one of those I have known all my life. Ladies responsible for feeding her family needed a cake.   I happened to have a welcoming one all iced even with walnuts .  I knew Wanda well and  it was indeed a welcome home to Paradise cake.