Happy Birthday to my Daddy!

Happy birthday to my dearly beloved daddy. He may have been the 2nd guy I danced with on the day this photo was taken, but he was the first knight to rescue me from harm and from an uncertain future, the first man to ever love me unconditionally as his own, the first guy to teach me by example to serve others sacrificially (all people, without showing partiality), the first one to build me a house and a stable with his own bare hands (for my dolls and horse figurine collection), and the first man I ever trusted completely and loved with all my heart. Now, he not only has my heart, but my kiddos' hearts as well. We don't deserve you, Pops, but we sure do love you and thank God we get to call you ours!

Celebrating our 15th Wedding Anniversary

We started celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary seven days early with a trip to the Outer Banks for a weekend getaway without the kids and then concluded our celebration with a fun date the evening after our anniversary.  After a trip to Israel in January, we could justify an extravagant trip again in June, but we made the celebration last.

I spent most of my dating years trying to be cynical about romance. I avoided romance novels like the plague, knowing that would set me up for unrealistic expectations, and I teased my roommate for watching fairy tale style movies and dreaming of her prince charming.  I am a realist.  I have studied the differences between men and women and have listen to enough Focus on the Family and Family Life Today radio broadcasts to know that all our needs must be met in Christ alone and that it is unfair and harmful to a marriage to expect a man to complete you, fulfill you, or act like Prince Charming.  I had high standards for my future spouse, but romance was not a priority.

When our anniversary rolls around each year, however, I get ridiculously sentimental.  Our real life love story is just like a fairy tale, you see.  Our love story would make a great movie, with all the twists and turns, highs and lows, and the happy ending, but what makes our story so wonderful isn't anything romantic, for it really has none of that. Our story is beautiful because it clearly reveals God's hand orchestrating events, prompting hearts, and directing our paths along a journey neither of us would have chosen on our own but which was the perfect journey for each of us looking back, for all the trials and periods of waiting served an eternal purpose and have made our marriage strong, happy, and Christ centered.  We can't possibly reflect on our love story and doubt God's matchless love and grace for us and His deep concern over every detail of our lives.  The God of the universe cares about the minutia of our lives!  That is so mind boggling to me.

As I looked through old pictures, I came across this grainy picture (how I wish we had high resolution digital photography back then), and remembered one of my favorite parts of our wedding.  It does seem very romantic, but you should know that put him up to it. But even so, he was willing to do something few (and certainly not I) would ever do - sing a solo at his own wedding.

As I stood at the altar, dressed in white,
My courageous knight grabbed the mic.
On this blessed day 15 years past,
He sang of a love that was meant to last.

I blushed and cried and smiled so wide
As this handsome tenor, crooned and sighed.
The weight of the words he sang that day
Have been tested and tried every which way.

The lyrics were not empty words to sing.
With Christ as our Lord, Savior, and King,
He's kept his promises with a love so pure.
God's grace and light are what make vows endure.

A sampling of the lyrics from the song he sang, "If You Could See What I See" by Geoff Moore and the Distance:

"I know there are days
When you feel
So much less than ideal
Wondering what I see in you

It's all of the light
And the grace
Your belief in me drives me to say
That I promise you
A faithful love, forever true

If you could see
Then you'd understand
Why I fall down to my knees
And I pray my love
Will be worthy of
The one who gave his life
So our love could be"

Given our love story involved a lot of waiting, in more ways than one, I had to caption this wedding picture, "Good things come to those who wait!".

Our wedding reception was held at a golf course across town.  My husband's Irish twin brother just got married on a golf course in Oklahoma. Here's a comparison of us then and now.

 Last Friday, we packed our bags, handed the kids off to my parents (God bless them!) and headed toward Nags Head. For the first time in my life, I've suddenly developed an interest in landscaping. (I've never been able to grow anything but weeds, but I guess becoming more interested in  flowers, landscaping, birds, and the weather proves that I'm getting old!) So I suggested that we drop by the Elizabethan gardens on our way to the coast for some landscaping ideas.

We just planted several crepe myrtle.  Can we prune them like these?

Reminder to  add some of these to our yard

 

Plant these in front of the wood pile for the fire pit.

Pretty, but not as pretty as the ones Mom gives me

This old oak tree was supposedly here when the first settlers arrived on Roanoke.

I would love to add some Hosta like these to our natural area!

How those limbs beckoned me to come climb!

"I do not want a husband who honors me as a queen if he does not love me as a woman." - Queen Elizabeth I

The day was cloudy and rainy, and my hair was quite frizzy, so after checking into our overpriced hotel resort, we went for a walk along the beach at sunset. The sand was soft all over the beach and the shells were sharp and rough, so walking barefoot was painful and strenuous as our feet sank with each step.  Even so, I still got to enjoy a few of my favorites during that walk (ocean, beach, sunset, and that guy!)

Someone must collect shells and enjoy using them to build things on the beach given all the  shell lined pathways and camps we passed during our walk.

We slept in and enjoyed a relaxing morning on Saturday.  I tried to run on the beach, but even when it was closer to low tide, the beach had no compact areas, so it was difficult running.  I would normally love the workout as they say running in sand increases workout intensity by 60%, but my old ankles and joints can't handle such uneven terrain, so I took my run to the roads when I reached the pier.

We toured the Wright Brothers National Memorial, walked past each of the first few landing sites, walked up the monument, and around the replicas, but we had to postpone the museum tour until Sunday, since we had an appointment to go hang gliding at 2pm.  Here are some photos from both visits to the memorial

After the hurricane made us evacuate the dunes right as we were preparing to hang glide two years ago, we could not ask for better winds that day.  It was perfect weather for hang gliding.  I managed to go the highest and the furthest (even past the landing limits), but my landings were ugly.  The first time, I didn't want to put my feet down because I didn't want the fun to end. :-)  The next few times I brought my feet down too far forward and crashed, scraping up my legs.  I liked it better when I landed on my belly.   Just when I thought I had the hang of it (it's like learning to ride a bike), our session was over.  My husband landed on his feet like a natural.

My husband went first!

 

Perfect landing!

 My Turn

Hang Check

Running into the wind

Fly!

After only five flights each, we had to hike back to the park station to clean up, receive our completion certificates and prepare for the nice Italian dinner my husband had been salivating over all weekend.  What a fun and relaxing day we had together.

The next morning, I woke up at 5am.  It is far more likely for me to not fall asleep until AFTER the sun rises, so that was a miracle.  I much prefer sunsets, but if I wanted to see the sun on the horizon behind the ocean on the east coast, sunrise was my only option, so I took my early wake-up as God's way of giving me a rare opportunity to watch the sunrise at the beach.  I raced out to the beach a few minutes too late, I thought, but clouds covered the sky.  I still enjoyed the view, however, because just like walking in faith, clouds and dark skies may come, but you can still see His glory and know He is there with you. It was awesome to watch the sky hues morph from cool blues to warm oranges.  I sang "This is the day that the Lord has made" as I walked along the beach littered with sharp shells and deep, sinking sand.  

We finished our trip by driving down to Hatteras Island.  I remember doing a history report and project on Hatteras Lighthouse in grammar school, so I wanted to see it for myself.  The lighthouse had been moved since I wrote about it to keep it from washing away with the beach erosion. The engineer in me enjoyed learning about the process used to move it.  Some of the foundation stones from the original location which were not needed at the new location were set up in an amphitheater pattern with the names of  lighthouse workers engraved on each stone as memorial to their faithful service.

The island was flooded in many parts, so I was longing for my old Blue Bessie (our previous ride, an AWD CRV) as we drove along the wet roads.

It's windy up there with nice views.  The picture at lower right shows where the lighthouse was previously located  (behind the parking lot) with the foundation stones serving as a memorial at the entrance.

 We celebrated again the following week with an anniversary dinner out, compliments of a family member who sent us a gift card.  The food was fabulous, and the time alone with my man was priceless.

Our daughter photographed us out on the porch before we left.

When we returned home from our date, we found made-from-scratch gourmet peach cupcakes waiting for us on the "You are special" plate with a sweet note from the kids wishing us a happy anniversary. We are so blessed to have such thoughtful kids!

The traditional wedding gift for the 15th anniversary is supposed to be crystal. Instead, we got something better, a handcrafted mother-of-pearl and mirror mosaic that reflects and multiplies the rainbow sparkles from our crystal chandelier all around the room.  My midlife crisis, which consists of changing my practical, function over form, neutral home decor to something that looks more like a disco ball and a box from Tiffany & Co., continues...

Our 15th anniversary present

I first saw this wall art at the orthodontist's office (orthodontists are rough on the budget in more ways than one!), but after scouring the internet and finally finding it, the price was out of reach.  Then it went on sale, and I found a gift card for the store selling it at a 26.7% discount for additional savings. Then we received a cash gift from my parents for our anniversary, so by the time I applied all those discounts, ordered through Ebates for another 6% off, and used the cash gift, we actually paid less than 10% of the original price.  It looks like it was made for our dining room, and I couldn't love it more.  It's quite large (20" x 30") and heavy (requiring special mounting brackets) and hand crafted in Indonesia.  I lost my patience just trying to clean it before we mounted it, so imagine the patience it took to set each piece by hand!

When we returned home, I got the feeling that our bunny had missed me.  She waited for me out on the front porch in anticipation of doing Bible study together, and then she rested her chin on my leg while I read my Bible and scratched her head.  Silly bunny.

Memorial Day Week and Creative Entertainment Ideas by the First Born

For Memorial Day this year, we invited some very special friends we met at church when we were engaged and have stayed in contact with all these years even when they moved to Maryland for a few years.  Their oldest two daughters are very good friends of our daughter, and we've been through major highs and terrible lows together.  This couple has gained a great deal of wisdom through recent struggles, and we were eager to learn from them as they counsel others with the hope of helping other friends who are going through something similar right now.

But before I prepared dinner for them, I wanted to get in my annual Memorial Day Murph workout.  This workout is very simple to remember, but not simple to do the first time.

1. 1 mile run to start
2. 100 pull-ups
3. 200 push-ups
4. 300 squats
5. 1 mile run to finish

It wasn't as hard this year, but I also skipped the mile run to start and mile run to stop (substituted biking for 45 minutes instead) due to a knee injury.  Now I try to do the workout (modified with the bike) every1-2 weeks. It's a fun way to remember the sacrifices our servicemen make for our freedoms.  It's a great workout too.  Hard core "murphers" wear weighted vests during the workout.  I tried holding dumbbells during the squats and a light pack on my back during the push-ups (I used push up handles this time for a deeper push-up), but I'm not ready for weighted pull-ups yet, especially given that 99% of women can't do a pull-up at all without an assist.  I'm content with my 20-30 unassisted pull-ups without weights.

One advantage of having a right brained girl is that I have never, not even once, had to come up with something for her to do when she feels bored because she always makes up something interesting to do. On Memorial Day,  she planned a full scale memorial service for our fallen veterans and Cody Moses (our late rabbit who died two years ago on Memorial Day) complete with songs, programs, speeches, flag, and umbrella covered processional to the grave site where we all laid flowers she picked earlier this afternoon out of our yard.

Each night this summer, she and her brother will be debating a different topic. Topics are determined the day before, with straws drawn to determine which side each person gets to take on the debate, so they have a full day to prepare their arguments). Their first debate was on the topic I chose, "Should parents' make their kids go to church?". 

When her brother signed up for Pop Warner football, she appointed herself his trainer.  She began designing workout programs for him and even developed a diet plan for him to help him build muscle.  Some of her ideas she got from me, and others are just confused in her mind. She really tells on me when she describes dinner as being whatever Mom puts in front of him and that if he could get me to actually do this (make dinner), that would be great.

Since she recommends fish (which no one likes), I made lots of fish for dinner that week, but in addition to wrapping the fish in parmesan cheese and bread crumbs, I also wrapped the fillets in bacon.  It was a eureka moment.  Delicious!

Cooking has been another creative outlet for our entertainment specialist.  She has taken over cooking dinner when she's here and not too busy.

Her first stir fry which she calls American SensAsian

She may be old enough to cook, but she still makes ugly faces for her brother.

Taco Salad

Her best entree' so far has been white chicken enchiladas, but I didn't get a photo of them fresh, and leftovers aren't very pretty but very tasty indeed.

She is so much fun that the two younger boys who typically come over to shoot hoops with her younger brother are now asking if she is available to play when he isn't here.  Water balloon fights are always fun, and as basketball player, she has really good aim.

Maybe I should write down all her activity ideas over the past 12 years and publish a book!