25th Anniversary Pictures!

Here are some pictures of our surprise anniversary party that Daniel and Erin hosted. They were so very pleased with themselves that they managed to surprise us! And surprise us, they did!!
The way they managed to do this, you ask? Welllll....they have been wanting me to give them piano lessons and asked if I could meet them at the church at 5pm and could Ed please come to keep an eye on little Jaylon. Made sense to me! :-) And, though I was pretty weary from a busy day, I didn't want to put them off as they have been wanting to start piano lessons for some time and I want them to so much!

BUT when Ed and I were almost to the church, we noticed that the parking lot was almost full and I told him, "Keep Driving!" He stopped the car just up the road and I called our pastor and asked him what was going on at the church. He said they had been busy and just to get over there! :-)

Well, when we pulled into the parking lot, we saw my brother, Bill, and our friends Pat and Dee and KNEW that something was up!

We walked into the fellowship hall and were so utterly surprised to see so many family and friends who had gathered to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. I was speechless! And if you have rendered me speechless? Well, you have really accomplished something! :-)

We had a wonderful time, needless to say, visiting with friends and family and enjoying the delicious food that some of my family had helped prepare! AND we had plenty to send home with many of those who were there!! :-)

Yes, Ed, I would do it all over again!!! :-)

Thank you, Lord, for keeping your hand upon us through the years. Yes, we have faced difficulties but have always looked to your for strength, wisdom and sustaining grace. You have never failed us as we have endeavored to commit each day to you, asking you to guide our steps as you see fit. Thank you for blessing our efforts and giving us a wonderful son, beautiful daughter-in-law and adorable grandson. Thank you, Lord, that Daniel has married into a godly family that loves him as much as we do. We are blessed beyond measure. We couldn't make it without you by our side. Thank you, Jesus, and help us as we continue serving you and look forward to your coming!

Still celebrating 25 years!

Daniel and Erin treated me and Ed to a night out Friday evening to see:

....which was presented at Ohio University in Athens, just a few blocks from where Erin works. It was an absolutely beautiful evening as we walked through downtown and across the green to the theater.
Jaylon was with us, too, and he was so good and enjoyed himself so much AND entertained everyone around us before the show and during intermission. :-) During the show, he was mesmerized and clapped enthusiastically with the rest of the audience!

Here he is playing a game on his daddy's iPhone before the show started:

AND me and Ed waiting for the show to start! :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BUT, not only did they take us out Friday night, come Saturday evening, we were the guests of honor at a SURPRISE 25th wedding celebration at our church which Daniel and Erin planned and hosted for us! More about that in a later post! :-)

Wednesday's ♥♥♥ Hodgepodge

It's time for Wednesday Hodgepodge which is sponsored by Joyce at From This Side of the Pond! Go on over to her blog to join in the fun!

1. Your favorite chocolate treat?
Well, Snickers is my favortie candy bar, so I might have to say that and I just had one Sunday, but I also like me a luscious piece of chocolate cake on the rare occasion because, as I have said before, I am not a big chocolate lover. I especially like the chocolate cake in a bowl with milk poured over it. The milk kind of soaks up into the cake and it is sooooo yummy!!
Sooooo....I think.....I'll go with.....the Snickers! :-) Because I would be more apt to grab a Snickers than bake a cake if I HAD a chocolate craving!

2. What more than anything else makes you feel loved?
Having read the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman....more than once....mine is Acts of Service with a little of Words of Affirmation sprinkled in there. I used to think it was Words of Affirmation with a touch of Touch until I really made myself think about it and really observe what made me feel loved.
I finally discovered that it was Acts of Service when Ed had to take on so much of the daily chores here at home when I was so disabled. I never felt so loved. AND, even still, if there is something that needs to be done, I mean something I am just dreading doing....if he goes ahead and does it....well, talk about feeling loved!
So it would be Acts of Service. That is my final answer! :-)


3. Cherries or blueberries?
You know, in all honesty, I am just not fond of either BUT if I have to pick one, I'll go with blueberry because I do like blueberry muffins.

4. What is the one trait you most want the leader of your country to posess?
Integrity

5. Are you a saver or a spender?
A spender. Thankfully, my husband is a saver and we tend to balance each other out nicely. He has taught me to be more thrifty AND a saver and I have taught him how to have a little more fun with the money! :-) Yeehaa!


6. If you gave a party for all of your friends would they already know each other? No, not at all. I am so thankful for my friends. They are all so diverse and truly they have enriched my life beyond measure.


7. Are you interested in antiques?
Does my husband count? He's over 25 years old! :-) and I'm definitely interested in him! I find antiques interesting but not to the point of collecting them. I find them interesting in that they bring back so many memories of my childhood and so on.


8. Insert your own random thought here.
Our 25th wedding anniversary was yesterday, Feb. 15. There was a time when I wasn't too sure if we would ever make it to 25 years, but, with the help of the Lord, some....okay...quite a bit of determination and a double dose of commitment to eachother.....here we are! :-) We went out to Bob Evans last night for dinner and I had my favorite salad....the Heritage Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing. Oh.my.word. It is to die for!!!
We had wanted to get married on Valentine's Day which was on a Friday in the year that we were married, but our pastor was out of town and would not be back till the 15th, so that is when we got married.
I remember that I didn't want a wedding cake. I'm just not that much into cake and couldn't see spending so much money on a cake, so I ordered 14 dozen heart-shaped iced sugar cookies from the bakery and the dear friend that did my reception, (Lyda Kornmiller) arranged them on tiered serving pieces.
Also, at the time, 1986, it still wasn't quite the thing to have anything more than cake, punch, nuts and mints, and perhaps chips at your wedding reception. Well, I wanted food at mine! We're talking a spread here! :-) We had ham and turkey breast, salads, buns and all of the sandwich fixin's, baked beans, fruit trays, veggie trays, cheese trays. It was sooooo wonderful!
My sister Bev fixed Ed and me a box lunch of sorts to take with us when we left the reception to head off on our honeymoon and I'm so glad that she did. That food tasted soooooo wonderful a short while later when we were in the car, on our way and somewhat calmed down from all of the excitement.
Our wedding day was all that I had hoped it would be and it is now a precious memory that we have. I'm so thankful to all of the people that made it possible.
I wish we had had our wedding videoed but I don't think they even had camcorders yet. :-) So, we will just look at our wedding photos together and remember together!

Tuesday Tidbits!

Hmmmm.....that might be a good title for a new meme but I'm not EVEN going to go there! I don't have the time AND my computer/internet just isn't fast enough for me to get much accomplished.

Anywayyyyy.......I am still among the living. Oh yes, I am. I will be honest and say that I do FaceBook and that is, no doubt, taking some time away from my blog, which I hope to remedy somehow. It would help if my internet were faster. :-/ BUT I am able to stay in touch with so many family members and friends through FB! Now, if I could only get them to come to my blog, perhaps I would not be so busy with FB.

Jaylon....remember that cute little grandson of mine?....... is growing by leaps and bounds! See?


He is asleep in his bed this morning. His mommy, Erin, drops him off at about 7:20 and most often, I rock him for awhile and he goes right back to sleep for a couple of hours. BUT he doesn't want to take his hat and coat off. Noooo...he goes back to sleep in his coat and hat. Kinda weird but who am I to argue? :-) We all have our little quirks.

TODAY is Ed's and my 25th wedding anniversary!!!! TADA!!! I can hardly believe it!! TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, people!!! Who would have ever thunk it??

I mean, when we got married....I was 34 and he was 43....my brothers acted like it was the Taming of the Shrew or sumthin'! LOL It wasn't THAT bad, for heaven's sake! :-) So, we will celebrate quietly and go onward with life and marriage and the Lord, for He truly has seen us through good times and bad. I can't imagine my life without Ed and I don't want to even try!

I made Ed and Jaylon heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast yesterday for Valentine's day. :-) AND I am NOT responsible for all of the butter and syrup on Ed's pancakes, k? :-)


AND while I'm on the subject of Valentine's Day.....when did it get to be like a mini-Christmas thing? I could hardly believe all of the space that Walmart and other stores devoted to V-Day! Sheesh! Only in America! AND I remember when I was in high school. I had a boyfriend but you didn't send flowers and balloons and all kinds of stuff to eachother at school. Or at least we didn't at our school. My boyfriend did give me a heart-shaped box of candy when we were alone but I just think it has all gotten out of hand. Actually, what holiday in America hasn't gotten out of hand, except for Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day? Just my opinion. :-)

We've had a Volunteer's of America store in our town for as long as I can remember....forever. Well, they decided to close it this past December and I was just devastated. I'm still getting over it, in fact. We bought so many great things there, like new, for next to nothing. Especially books. Like new, up-to-date books. Books for me and especially for Jaylon. And the most I've paid for any of these books is $1.91 for the Tonka Truck book for Jaylon. Most of them were $ .50 to $ .90 each. Unbelievable, hm?



I've purchased clothes for Ed and me, toys for Jaylon......a Tonka dumptruck for $1.91 (they price things kind of strangely) that was like new and sold in the store for $25.00! A Little Tikes basketball stand with rim for $3.94, which sold new for at least $30.oo or possibly more!

Well, we went to Columbus this past Saturday for the express purpose of going to one of the VOA stores there. AND, once again, we found some GREAT books for Jaylon and for me. We figured it up and found that we purchased over $100.00 worth of books for ten dollars and some change! And they were all like new!! We WILL be going back! :-)
Oh, and one last thing about shopping at VOA.....I was wanting a good radio because I like to listen to Focus on the Family and Family Life Today on christian radio but I dont' get good reception here in the hills with the radio that I have. Well, I found this great GE radio at VOA for $1.91! Talk about great reception! You just touch the dial and there's a station playing. So very thankful that I can once again listen to my two favorite programs!

The sun is supposed to shine "brilliantly" today or so the weatherman has said, so I am going to get off of here, get some things done so Jaylon and I can head outside later! :-) There's nothing like sunshine to help the "winter blues". :-) And I am needing a little assistance in that area...still.

I hope your day is off to a good start wherever you are and that the sun/Son is shining brightly upon you!!!

The best I've got......

Soooo, I was talking to my sister Debbie on the phone yesterday afternoon to see how her weekend was and how she was feeling.

She said her caseworker from Tri-County Mental Health had stopped by earlier to talk with her and see how she is doing.

Debbie has struggled with mental health problems for many years but is doing very well now, though she still counsels and also takes medications.

Anywayyyyy......our brother Johnny stopped by while Kim (Debbie's caseworker) was there. He asked Kim, "So, how's she (Debbie) doin'?"

To which Kim replied, "She's the best I've got!"

Well, it just struck me and Debbie as hilarious and we about died laughing!!! :-)

I said, "Good heavens, then what kind of shape must her other clients be in?" LOL Debbie thought the same thing!

It was just too funny!!! BUT I am so thankful that Debbie is able to laugh about it all because sometimes that just isn't the case, you know?

This was a good day. :-)


My dear sister Debbie shortly after she had her open-heart surgery two years ago. :-)

Groundhog's Day Hodgepodge! :-)

It's that time of the week, once again.....Wednesday! And time for Hodgepodge which is hosted by Joyce at From This Side of the Pond. Go on over to Joyce's blog to join in!!

1. Would you rather be seen as a person who did their duty or forged their own path?
There are times when I do things because they ARE my duty. You know, there are times when, if it wasn't for my sense of duty, I wouldn't do alot of things. So, I am thankful that I have and feel a sense of duty.
While, another part of me does walk to the beat of her own drum and I do believe there is a place for this as long as it doesn't go against what the Lord expects of me, according to His word.

2. This week's Wednesday Hodgepodge happens to fall on Groundhog's Day. In keeping with that theme, if you could have a do-over of any one day out of the last seven, which day would it be and why. If you haven't seen the movie Groundhog Day this question will make absolutely no sense but that's okay....you can answer anyway.
It would be last Saturday. You see, I left the house at 9:00AM so I could be at the church and ready to give a piano lesson at 10:00. I left the church at noon and headed to Walmart. I then went to the library to do some things on the computer. By the time I was ready to leave the library it was almost 4:00PM. Just then my cellphone rang. It was Daniel. He asked if his dad and I could take care of Daniel for 4 or 5 hours so he could finally take Erin out for their anniversary. *sigh* By this time of the day I was soooooo tired and was looking forward to just going home and doing nothing but I didn't have the heart to tell him no or to tell him that he should have planned ahead and given me an advance notice BUT I said, "Sure, that would be fine. I'll be right over."
They just live a couple of blocks from the library. And once I saw the cuteness that IS Jaylon, I didn't mind so much after all. :-) BUT I was still so tired and he had just gotten up from a two hour nap, so I knew it was going to be a long evening.
Sooooo, Jaylon and I arrived home and got all settled in with Papa and, all in all, we had a very good evening, though by ten o'clock, I was definitely wearing down and that is when the kids arrived to get the boy! :-)
Sooooo, if I had know that I was going to have Jaylon that evening for 5 hours, I would definitely have come straight home after the piano lesson and rested!
You thought my question was going to be weather related didn't you?

3. Hot cocoa...yay or nay on the marshmallows?
Nay, on the marshmallows. I just don't care for their gooeyness on top of my creamy hot chocolate. That IS my final answer. :-)

4. Do you wear makeup every day? What are the top two must haves in your daily makeup routine?
No, I don't wear makeup at all. I do wear lip balm, not gloss. In the summer, when it is terribly hot and humid, I use a bit of pressed powder now and again to take care of the shine on my face if I am going to church or somewhere nice.

5. Is it more important to you in a relationship to be loved or understood?
Well, I don't know just how deeply you can be loved if you aren't understood, too, at least to some degree.

6. Parsley sage rosemary or thyme... your favorite?
I don't know what thyme tastes like. I do like rosemary, in small doses. I like parsley, though I don't think it has much flavor to it. It is very subtle. AND I looooove sage! Especially in dressing/stuffing. Oh yum! And I put just a tad in meatloaf.
Soooo, I would have to say SAGE! That is my final answer. :-) (I couldn't resist saying that again! ;-p)

7. What do you do when you feel angry?
Well, my carnal self loves to slam things and throw things. BUT, because I have endeavored to submit myself to the Lord through the years, my spiritual self just has to get away from whatever is causing my anger. Go into another room and shut the door. If the weather is conducive, I go outside. Sometimes, I've even gone for a drive. AND there have been times when I have just found a place and gone to my knees and cried out to the Lord! AND, in all honesty, there are still times, though they are now very rare, that I have been known to slam a cabinet door.....still. :-/

8. Insert your own random thought here.
I have been dealing with a pretty severe case of the blues. *sigh* This is certainly the time of the year for them, hm? :-/ I've been trying, trying really hard to count my blessings, reminding myself that I don't have anything to be blue about. I am so blessed.
It's not been working very well for me.
I've even told myself......you COULD be living in Egypt, be in the midst of all that turmoil. You COULD be living in a third-world country where there is no electricity and so on.....not working. You COULD have just a loved one to illness or sudden death. Counting my blessings. Not working.
Then there was wonderful sunshine this past Monday. That helped some. I made sure to get outside and soak some of it in. Helped a little.
I've been feeling bouts of loneliness and I wonder, "How can this be?". I don't know. I have my dear husband. I have little Jaybug. I have my church family. Sibs. Friends that I talk to. Why in the world am I feeling lonely.....AND blue.
Is it REALLY just the effects of this time of year? REALLY? It would really help if I knew that that is what it REALLY is!
Oh, and we've been in some really wonderful services at church and a couple of other churches during this past week, too, and still......feelin' blue. *sigh*
This, too, shall pass, I keep tellin' myself. *little smile*
Oh, but let me tell you this: This morning, I was telling Ed something while we were sitting at the table eating breakfast with Jaylon sitting in between us. Well, I was being pretty demonstrative, spreading my arms out and all.
Well, that little Jaylon started mimicking me and it was soooo funny!! I started laughing at him and he started laughing at me. We laughed for a good five minutes, maybe a little more!!! :-) He is a dollbaby!!!
Oh and he is FINALLY calling me something! Yes.he.is!!!! Are you reading for this? He is calling me "Beh Beh". Sometimes he says really softly and it is so precious. And he says it with a staccato sound.
I'm thinking that he is really calling me "Baby" BECAUSE I call him "baby" all of the time. For instance: "Come here, baby." "Grandma loves you, baby."
But it really doesn't matter WHY he is calling me Beh-Beh, hm? :-) No sir, it doesn't!
I am BEH-BEH!!!!! Yayyyy!!! LOL