Love created by God alone.

Twenty years ago today, Mike and I were married at Southside Baptist Church by Pastor Rooney from the Methodist Church in Hatton. The church in Hatton is where we were members, but it wasn't big enough for all of my family. I think we had 300 invitations mailed out. I would have to dig out the scrapbook my mom made to get all the details right. I'm not quite sure how to start down this little memory lane trip, so I guess I'll take you back to the beginning.

In 1987 I turned 16 and got my license. There was no getting a permit before you turned 16, just going and testing for your license. In preparation of my 16th birthday, my parents bought me a 1965 Chevelle Malibu Supersport. My Dad, brother and I worked on that beast for a long time. It was not quite ready by the time I turned 16 so I drove Mom's old Chevy Caprice Classic. The thing was a boat and so not a guy magnet. But, it did give me a chance to go out on the weekends. Finally, June rolled around and we had the car finished. It was cherry red with new interior and enough power under the hood to be the envy of many teenage boys. My brother had put a cassette player in it and gave me his Sammy Hagar tape for the night. You know, you just gotta have "Red" and "I can't drive 55!" in when you're driving a car like that.

I headed to Auxvasse because I needed gas if I was going to make it to Mexico. My brother followed me up there and bought my first tank of fuel. He also told a boy from school he'd beat the crap out him if he touched my car. It was so funny. I can still see the scene in my head. The guy walked over, was going to lean against the car (trying to look all impressive) and then my brother pipes up. I loved it!

My brother and I parted ways at the gas station and I headed into Mexico. We used to have two Hardee's in Mexico - Hardee's East and Hardee's West. The cruising loop was from one to the other. Pretty easy to figure out by the line of cars going through the drives on the weekend. I jumped right in and made a couple of loops. I was beginning to wonder if I would even see anyone I knew. About that time, a girl from school hollered at me. The main problem, I discovered, was that I was driving a car no one had seen before, it was night and they couldn't easily see my face to know who was in there. I pulled over to say hi to the girl. I knew her face from school, but didn't really know her very well. Well, it turns out she was talking to three guys. Mike just happened to be one of them. This girl was trying oh so hard to impress a friend of Mike's. She was posing as a college girl when she was still in high school. I stood there a while listening to the two of them talk but could easily tell who I was attracted to. The quiet blonde guy who looked just as bored with that conversation as I was. Finally his friend realized no one else was talking (quite an accomplishment for him) and told us to talk already. So, Mike asked about my car. His friend rolled his eyes, not expecting a girl to know anything at all about cars. Mike and I began an hour long conversation about my car, his car, cars in general, what kind of work I had helped with, what kind of work he wanted to do on his Mustang. He had (actually still has in the shop) a 67 Mustang. It was a beast! It needed some body work, but mechanically it was more than sound. The night came to a close and all I knew was I met a great guy named Mike who drove a great yellow Mustang and I sure hoped I found him in town again sometime.

The summer passed quickly. I was working in the hay fields for my Dad. Mike was helping his Dad farm. Thankfully, Mike's best friend, David, was a huge Chevy fan. The next time I saw Mike in town I honked at him and waved. David fell in love......with my car. So that's how the summer went. Driving around, looking for the 'Stang with the cute guy and then spending the rest of the evening talking. I have no idea what we talked about all the time. I did learn he was a farmer who liked raising cattle AND he was 19. Uh oh...parental problems ahead. My parents had a rule that I couldn't date anyone more than 2 years age difference. Gonna have to figure a way around that one. In late August my aunt and uncle had a fish fry and Mom asked a cousin whose kids went to Mexico High if she knew anything about Mike. That's when she learned he was 19. We managed to negotiate that hurdle somehow without either of us having to throw any fits.

September rolled around and we still hadn't gone on a real date. Finally one night at the car wash David made him ask me out on a double date the next Saturday night. I knew I had my nephew's birthday party that evening but thought I could just bow out early and avoid too many questions. My sister made hot dogs and lots of other food for supper, but I was supposed to be meeting the guys at Pizza Hut. I think I ate about half a hot dog, fed the rest to their dog when no one was looking and hung around long enough to sing happy birthday. I slipped out and headed to town. During supper at Pizza Hut, I was trying to be all dignified and refined and cut my pizza with my fork and eat it with a fork only. The problem there was the crust was so hard I wasn't getting it cut and my piece ended up flying off my plate onto the floor. I was wishing I could just disappear at that point. Mike and David had a good laugh at me (and many more through the years). We went to the movie (no clue what we watched) and then cruised the loop a few times. I ended up asking if he wanted to go to homecoming with me the next weekend and the romance grew from there.

We dated all of my junior and senior years in high school. My senior year college planning was all based on Mike. I had an offer to play Division II basketball in Kansas City at a college, but it was too far from Mike. No way was he going to be moving west. I looked at schools near his grandparents in IL. Finally I settled on Mizzou because it was close. Not exactly the way you should choose a college.

In July, Mike and I went ring shopping. In early August, he called and asked if I wanted to go out to supper in Columbia and pick up the ring. I told my Dad I needed the night off from haying. I got all dressed up (yep, even wore a real dress) and Mike was all decked out when he picked me up. We went to Red Lobster for supper. While we were eating, the friend that he was with that first night walked over and said hi. I think he figured out what was going on, but didn't say anything. Of course, you don't have to be Einstein to know if the two of us are all dressed up and eating at a nice resturant SOMETHING must be up. I kept a close eye on the time because the ring shop was in the mall and I wanted to be sure we got there to get the ring that night. Mike, on the other hand, was dilly dallying around. When we got to the mall, he told me he needed to go to the bathroom before we went to the store! I'm sure the look on my face was utter shock! C'mon man, we're picking up an engagement ring. Work with me here! By the time he came back (completely planned timing) the gates to the mall were locked and we couldn't get in to the store. I suggested we just go up and explain to them and beg for mercy. He wouldn't budge. I began to rethink this whole plan. Was he really this stubborn? Didn't he know all that I had to arrange to get to come tonight? What was up here anyway?

We walked back to his car with me saying very little if anything. I was confused and yes, just a bit ticked at him. We got into the car, he leaned over and said he was sorry. I said, "Yeah, ok." He asked if I still loved him. "Yes, but my Dad is going to be so mad that I took off tonight just to go out to supper with you. We're trying to get hay made, in case you didn't notice!" I'm sure it took all that was within him to keep from bursting out in laughter at this point. He said, "So you still wanna marry me? Still love me?" When I looked at him and said yes, he pulled the ring out of his pocket and said, "Good thing I've got this for you then."

We got married the following June 16th. It's been a great life that God has blessed us with. I don't know why in the world, God chose to give me such an amazing man in my life. When we were engaged, I didn't think I could love him anymore. Then when we got married, I thought I was as deeply in love as I could get. At the births of our two sons, I thought that was the pinnacle of love. Now, I know, the love created by God between us just continues to grow, to deepen and to amaze me each day.

My sister reminded me that I needed to post....

and honestly, I'd love to fill this post with pictures. Unfortunately my computer and this blog aren't getting along well with uploading pics right now. I'm going to have to have a serious talk with them.

This morning we got up and going early once again. I went out and weeded and tied my tomatoes higher up on their stakes once again. All I can tell you is they love cattle manure. Here's where a picture would be nice. My tomatoes are nearing 4 ft tall and are loaded with blooms and a few little green tomatoes. I was hoping I might get to pick a few of the cherry tomatoes before we go to Jr. Nationals but it's just not looking promising at this point. I also have another sweet banana pepper ready to pick and a bell pepper in the works. The rabbits/squirrel ate all but two of my cucumber sprouts. I saw the squirrel in there the other day and called for the dog out the back door. I'm threatening to stake her out by the garden one night if he doesn't leave my plants alone!

While I was working in the garden the guys loaded some cows for embryo transplant, a bull and the heifers for hoof trimming and headed out. They should be walking in the door any minute now telling me how starved they are. Hopefully some of these eggs will take.

I need to sit down and make a list of all that I need to do between now and next Saturday so that I'm ready for us to pull out of here. We'll be spending a fun filled week in Spencer, Iowa! Ya, I know, party town. I looked up some info on where to find different points of interest while we're there. You know, Wal-Mart, restaurants, hospital - all the normal need to know spots. I do need to find out if they have wi-fi anywhere in town for a meeting I need to log in for. If not, I guess I'll just miss that meeting.

Yesterday we met with the guys' ag teacher. She came out to look at Chris's SAE projects. Unfortunately, she forgot she was coming to a working cattle farm that had just gotten 1 1/2 inches of rain in about 36 hours. She didn't bring mud boots so she could only go in the barn and see what was there. Mike talked to her a little bit about Chris's accomplishments. She was impressed with all the guys do here. She did make a comment about some kids only taking ag their junior and senior years (like ours are doing). She said it'd be so much easier if she had them all 4 years. I didn't say it to her at the time, but I don't think our boys would've benefited any more from being involved any sooner. The reason they have advanced ag knowledge is because we've been doing ag at home with them. The MO State FFA organization doesn't acknowledge homeschooled students though. Therefore, in order to be able to show until they're 21, they have to attend an ag class at a public school in MO. It's a compromise on my part to even send them. It takes away from valuable hands on farm time - real learning, in my opinion. She and I are both learning the fine art of give and take.

Tomorrow Mike's oldest niece, Rachael, and her husband, Jason, are bringing our newest great niece over for a visit. I'm making us kabobs, rice, loaded salad and maybe strawberry shortcake with homemade ice cream. Charlotte Elizabeth (nicknamed Charlie) was born May 30th, just a couple of hours shy of Mike's birthday. She'll be all of 12 days old tomorrow.

I think that's it for right now. Time to work on that list.

Planning and calendar maintenance.....

At this point in my life I'm wonderin if it's a genetic flaw in the male chromosome. I live in a house with 3 men and have contact with both Mike's dad and my own dad on a very regular basis. Most of our cattle customers are men. Wanna know what I'm thinking? Calendars are for women only. I finally sat down today and made out a calendar for each of our dads with all the things the boys have going on in the next two months. I had a call from one dad needing help this morning and another call from the other dad wanting them this weekend. I figured it'd be just as easy for them to look at a piece of paper and ask to be written in for a free day. Is that crazy of me? Does anyone else need this kind of help? While the boys aren't involved in a lot of outside activities, they do seem to be eating up some time in the next few weeks. And both dads want hay done....yesterday. Next week we have a day for church, Chris has 1/2 day for FFA, both have a day for 4-H and then one day for us at a show. THUD. Somewhere in there I'm sure one or both dads will need one, two or more of us to help with something. AGH~~!
I have papers everywhere on my bulletin boards and desk with dates. Maybe that's what I collect.....date info.

I also got around to update two websites today. Mike's encouraging me to get that going as a side business that might eventually pay for some bills. I enjoy it a lot, can do it from home at any time and best of all, I could make a little money off it. We'll have to see how it all pans out. You know, as soon as I get it on the calendar. :)

Summertime!

Ahh....it seems as if summer is here. We kicked the air on yesterday due to the fact that we were having company for lunch and didn't want them to be terribly uncomfortable. Today, it's just nice to have a cool place to come in to.

Yesterday we had our interim pastor and youth pastor and their families over for lunch. It was a fun and casual afternoon. We tried out the new ice cream maker that I bought with some birthday money. I think I have our FOREVER FAVORITE ice cream recipe. It is so incredibly easy: for 4 quarts you need 4 cups heavy cream, 4 cups 1/2 and 1/2, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cup sugar and about a tablespoon or so of vanilla. We tend to go a little heavy on the vanilla but that's just our preference. It is so very tasty. Ahh...summer treats.

Today we all got up early. I got the laundry finished up, got Jesse's enrollment packet filled out for ag class next year, got some stakes for my tomatoes, went to the feed store and took the truck and trailer to bring home 3 pairs that Mike wants to AI. That was all by 11 am. This afternoon I got the yard mowed and am thinking as soon as it starts cooling off I need to weed the garden, stake the tomatoes and maybe even water it a bit. I also need to pick up the pepper plants that Chris picked up for me at the FFA greenhouse. The squirrels and rabbits have eaten several of the originals I planted. They didn't touch my tomatoes though. Hmm? Picky pests. We did get to pick the first two strawberries out of Jesse's patch today. They are huge! I'd love to weigh the bigger one just to see how much it weighs but our little kitchen scale seems to be broken. Our raspberry bushes that we just planted this sping are leafing out. The lavendar bushes I ordered are beginning to leaf out a bit now too. It's so fun to watch everything come to life.

Tomorrow I'm headed to the Amish community with my sister and mom. Should be a good time and hope to find some bargains this week.

The whirlwind weekend and the aftermath....

So, last weekend our niece, Lara, married the man of her dream, Brandon. It was a perfect wedding for them. Nice, not overdone, not huge and just a pretty relaxed time for everyone. Then on Sunday our nephew, Nick, graduated from high school. I can't tell you exactly how many miles we put on our car over the weekend but I do know Mike is looking high and low for our next car. Sometime last week I looked and noticed our car has 274,000 miles on it. Yes, that's supposed to be a 2. It has served it's purpose and is about to go to car crushing heaven. And the only request I have is that we NOT buy another white Pontiac Grand Prix. I need a bit more variety in my life than that. Our car before this one was just like it. We started driving it before Jesse started school....he'll be a junior in the fall. So, now the search is on. Jesse believes we should just buy a Shelby GT and let him drive it most of the time. Unfortunately that's about 6-8 times our budget besides the fact that I'm sure we'd just fall over dead at the insurance bill on that with an 18 year old son and a 16 year old son.

We had a discussion in Sunday school this week about what made America a great nation. While I do agree with the first answer given ("Our Founding Father were men of great faith and prayer.") I believe there's more to it than that. I believe our nation was founded by people not only of great faith but also of great determination to do whatever it was that God called them to. They were not deterred by hard times, lack of resources or bitterness. They simply blazed ahead and did whatever it was that God asked of them. I have a huge concern about the work ethic of the majority in our country now. It seems to me that more and more people believe they are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness at someone else's expense. The Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 that if a man does not work, he shall not eat. How does that work in our society? Somehow, we've come to the idea that if you don't work, it's ok, someone will provide the food for you. While I'm all for taking care of those who do need help, I believe most people are able to do some sort of work in exchange for food or money. The thing is, our country has fed them the line that it's not necessary. I see commercials on tv offering options to get out of paying off the credit card debt so many have run up, how to get out of paying their mortgages, car loans, etc. I cannot find the words to express how disappointed and frustrated that makes me. IF you buy the stuff, you need to have a plan on how to pay it back. A solid plan at that. During the latest housing crisis many people found themselves upside down on their home loans. Upon further investigation we learned that many of them had been paying interest only on their loans for 5 to 10 years. They actually had no plan to repay the loan. They "thought" they'd get a better job, spend less money, etc, but didn't plan for it. When we look back historically, this country never would have survived as a sovereign nation without men and women who worked hard and put back food and money for the future. I hope that is one lesson our country will learn for our current economic crisis. If not, I'm not sure we'll even survive as a country, much less have the strength as a nation that we had in our parents' generations.

A new goal for me....

I'm setting a goal that for the rest of May I'll make a weekly post (minimum) and then in June I'll do at least 2 posts a week. Eventually I'd like to update this daily but we shall see. I will not count this little PSA as my weekly post. I'll get to that in just a minute.

Reflecting....

No, I'm not looking in a mirror or a puddle of water. I'm thinking back over the years once again. Chris will soon (as in as soon as he finishes his final language paper) be a senior in high school and Jesse will soon (as soon as he finishes HIS final language paper) be a junior in high school and I'm realizing just how soon our homeschool adventure will end. We allowed Chris to take an ag class at the local high school this year. It was the only way he could join FFA and we wanted him to have that experience. I was not sure it was going to be the best thing for him, but knew at his age this could work. We bit the bullet and let him go. He has done amazingly well in his class and has developed leadership skills and confidence in the man God has made him beyond what we ever could have imagined. It thrills me to see this transformation.

A few weeks ago he said they were going to have officer interviews. We encouraged him to apply for an office. He came home from the interviews and said he knew who probably would be president. He was right in his guess and it wasn't him. BUT the chapter chose to have an FFA Chaplin. They've not had this position in the past and I figured our school was so politically correct they never would. You know, it might offend someone. But they chose to have this office and Chris will fill that position next year. I don't think he understood what an honor it really is. And I'm guessing at 17 I probably wouldn't have either. The thing is though, they looked at the kids that applied and chose him to be the one stationed at the Bible, to guide the spiritual presence and moral participation of the chapter. To me, that means more than being the president. From the beginning of our children's education we felt that faith in God would always trump any other aspect in education. If they excell in head, heart and mind knowledge and faith in Christ, the rest is just icing on the cake. I know a multitude of people will disagree, but these are our children. We do know what's best for them. Last night as he was announced as this officer God spoke quietly to my heart that while this will be a growing experience for him (speaking and praying in front of groups of people) this will also be a chance for him to boldly show his faith in Christ in a public school setting.

Both of the guys are going on the church's mission trip again this year. They will once again miss our county fair but they feel like the opportunity to minister to the Indian tribes in North Dakota will have a more lasting impact. I pray that they are like shining lights always, but especially on the trip. This year the plan is for them to build some playgrounds on the reservations. Young men doing manly work for God. It doesn't get any better than that. Jesse is really stoked about it now that he knows he can use power tools if needed. I'm guessing he'll find a need for them no matter what. That's my boy. Jesse has grown up so much this year and I often find myself forgetting that he's only 15. He's looking into colleges and scholarships and trying to figure out how to make his life all work out. I so remember being like him at about 16 and 17. I was even so bold as to fill out my 5, 10 and 20 year plans in my senior album. I thought I knew exactly where I was headed. I do hope the one thing he's learned that I hadn't was to be flexible. Life will be much easier for him if he has learned that little skill.