My sister, Gail, and her husband, Gary, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on May 15th with an open house at their church.

During the evening we were able to get a snapshot of Dad and Mom with us four kids.

Dad and Mom look great, don't you think? They will be celebrating their 55th anniversary on May 25th!

And a snapshot of myself with my brother, Dan.

We had a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was a good one!

1) Titus finished building and painting his wooden model airplane. Good job Titus!

2) I rototilled the garden in my bare feet ~ something I absolutely love to do!

3) Jim and I met Doug and MaryLynn in a town half-way between our homes to celebrate MaryLynn's 29thish (?) birthday at the Outback Steakhouse.

4) We had a big garage sale. (Sorry no picture!)

5) Abby played three pieces in a piano/violin recital. (Really regret that there are no pictures!)

6) We attended the wedding of William and Sandy ~ a very happy occassion!

7) We had the happy Providence of sitting at the same table as our dear friends, Sebastian and Helen at the wedding reception.

8) We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at Vic and Kayleen's house along with the Soles family. Good food, good fellowship, good times!

9) After the evening service, we headed to my folks' and celebrated Mother's Day.

10) Once home, we had our traditional Sunday evening phonecall with Cassie. I go to pick her up in eleven days! I'm still trying to figure out how to fit Cassie, myself, and all of her stuff in the car since she has to move everything home for the summer, but I digress...

11) We went to bed, exhausted, but refreshed from a great weekend!

I was finally able to get this video to upload (with a little help .

This is the 'Virginia Reel' which we danced at the very end of the evening. After dancing for three hours, most of us had run out of steam, but Betty-Ann and Brad's energy amazes me! I wish all of you could have been there! It was a tremendous amount of fun.

Saturday night, our church had a Scottish country dance. There were 60+ people in attendance and we all had a great time dancing for three hours. I've been trying to upload a one-minute video clip that Jim took of the 'Virginia Reel', but it refuses to load, so I'm posting a few pictures instead.

 Isaac, Taylor, and Fraser are impatient for the dancing to begin. Brad is reminding them that this is Scottish country dancing.

Jim and Laura dance 'Strip the Willow'. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Claire!)

Tasha twirls for the 50thish time. It was quite amazing that she was still standing up at the end of the night!

I think they are getting the hang of it...

Everyone had a ball!

Some members of a sister church of our church lost their precious 2-year-old son, Knox, in a very sad accident. Please pray for their comfort and peace in this heartwrenchingly difficult time.  May Knox's dear family be keenly aware of our Heavenly Father's everlasting arms upholding them.

Where God has stamp'd his image upon a mite,
'Tis meet that God should have his right:
After a few years past, a wearied breath
I have exchanged for a happy death.
Short was my life, the longer is my rest;
God takes them soonest whom he loveth best.
She that is born to-day, and dies to-morrow,
Loses some hours of joy, but years of sorrow;
Other diseases often come to grieve us,
Death strikes but once, and that stroke relieves us:
Therefore (my parents dear), take heed of weeping cross,
And mind my happiness more than your own great loss.
This is all I'll say to make the reckoning even,
Your dearest mercy is not too good for heaven.
Hasten to me, where now I am possess'd
With joys eternal, in Christ my only rest.

                                                                                                ~ Author Unknown

" And withal if ye consider this; had ye been at his bed-side, and should have seen Christ coming to him, ye would not, ye could not, have adjourned Christ's free love, who would do without him no longer." --An extract of Samuel Rutherford's letter to a bereaved mother (1645).

"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm." Isaiah 40:11

I was just wondering...what would you do if you came home and discovered an abandoned truck like this one on your pickleball court?

Well, I'll tell you what I did. First, not at once realizing that it was abandoned and assuming the neighbors were having some sort of work done and were using our pickleball court to access their property, I sent the boys over to ask the driver of the truck to please be careful not to drive on our drainfield. The boys were gone a long time. When they returned, they said that the truck had no license plates and all of the cabinets on the sides which should have been full of tools were empty. They had also spoken to our three closest neighbors who didn't know much although one neighbor had seen some kids driving up and down the road in the truck and then up and down the alley by our house. Later he noticed the truck on our pickleball court. At that point I called 911 (the whole thing was kind of creepy you know) and told them I wanted to report an abandoned boom truck on our property. They said to call the tow company to have it towed. However, when I called the tow company, they said that was an awfully large vehicle to tow and it was going to cost me a pretty penny. They really didn't want to touch it with a 9 foot pole and said to just put a big note on it that said, "Please remove this truck from my property". Yeah, right. By this time, one of our neighbors and his son had come over and were looking the truck over thoroughly, trying to figure out the whole mystery. Just then, the sheriff (who happened to be this particular neighbor's nephew (we live in a small town where everyone is related to everyone. We are even related to this neighbor somehow but I can't remember exactly how) drove by. Our neighbor hailed his nephew, the Sheriff, and he stopped and came over to appraise the situation. After climbing all over the truck and looking underneath of it, etc. he called the national vehicle registry who gave him the name of a business in Missouri that was listed as the truck's legal owner. The truck had not yet been listed as stolen. These three men were all surmising that some kids must have bought the truck real cheap, and then booked it up here from Missouri as fast as they could go. (There was a 30-day temporary license on the back of the truck that had been issued a couple of days ago.) They were also surmising that they must have needed a place to park it and were fairly confident that they would be back to retrieve it. The sheriff gave me their direct line number and told me to call anytime of the day or night if I noticed any activity by the truck. He said they would send someone out right away if I called. He told me not to try to talk to these people (I wasn't planning on it!) as they could be dangerous. At this point, the neighbors were telling me that I should have Jim take one of the wheels off to slow down their getaway. Then they came up with the idea of Jim loosening up some lug nuts. The boys were offering suggestions such as siphoning the gas out of the gas tank. And the sheriff said that after so many days, if the crooks didn't return to get the vehicle, we could license it ourselves and sell it. I was just wanting the whole problem to go away. It had already been an incredibly long day and now this. Finally, everyone left and I went into the house prepared to have a sleepless night listening for crooks. I decided I had better call Jim and give him the bad news. When he answered his phone, I started to explain the situation and he said, "Oh yeah, Ken asked if he could have a boom truck delivered to our place until he can pick it up. I guess I forgot to tell you..."

AS THE RUIN FALLS

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love - a scholar's parrot may talk Greek -
but, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
my heart into a bridge by which I might get back
from exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
you give me are more precious than all other gains.

- C.S. Lewis

I am SO happy! After a very long winter, we are finally having what some might call Spring! The sun started peeking through the clouds (sort of teasing us) about a week and a half ago.  I took these pictures on a recent walk along our road.

A very familiar sight from October-March this year due to all of the rain, wind, and snow...

The beautiful Canadian mountains. If you look closely you can see all of the water in the field behind the barn. That is not supposed to be there, but because the ground has been so saturated over the past several months, that field now looks more like a lake.

One of our neighbors collects old trucks, tractors, etc. Usually he gets them back into running condition, but I think he gave up on this one. It's sure cute though!

This IS a picture of a lake. It's more full than usual and you can see water in the yard as well. Isn't the weeping willow beautiful?

The beautiful mountains that you see here are the Three Sisters. They are part of the Cascade Range on the U.S. side of the border.

And we are finally seeing color after a dark, dreary winter. In the next few days we should see lots more because the temperature is supposed to get up to 68 degrees. Wa-hoo!!!

With all of this gorgeous weather we are having, I have big plans of getting the garden rototilled and all of the flower beds in tip-top shape. Tomorrow we will have a bonfire going so we can burn all the prunings that I'll be cutting while tidying up the yard. And the boys will split alder for their wood business. After that we will roast hot dogs and make 'smores. The absolute best way to spend a Saturday. Wanna come join us?

1. Grab the book nearest you and turn to page 18 and find line 4.
A. and back. Call 360-676-RIDE (7433) and talk to our friendly customer service

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can yo touch?
A. Three cameras, a Celtic Reflections on Hymns cd (thanks Kayleen!), a spiral notebook

3. What was the last thing you watched on TV?
A. Probably Emeril, but I don't watch much TV so it's hard to say.

4. Without looking guess the time.
A. 10:00 a.m.

5. Now look at the clock. What time is it exactly?
A. 11:26 a.m. (I guess that explains A LOT!)

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
A. The dryer running and a Yo Yo Ma cd faintly wafting in from the other room.

7. When did you last step outside? What did you do?
A. I came into the house after my dad dropped me off after we had both gone to the chiropractor.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
A. The comments on my last post.

9. What are you wearing?
A. A black T-shirt, jeans, and white socks with red polka-dots.

10. Did you dream last night?
A. Yes, I dream every night for what seems to be the entire night. I can usually remember most of my dreams, but I was so tired this morning that they all just sort of vanished into thin air when I opened my eyes.

11. When did you last laugh?
A. I started laughing after typing in my answer to #5 and I continued laughing until Natasha came in and I told her about my answer. That was when she noticed that I had originally typed 11:26 p.m. instead of a.m. (I've changed that now) and I started howling so all the kids came running in to see what was so funny. Anyway, I have finally maintained my composure once again and can actually breathe. Oh! That felt good!

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
A. A Norman Rockwell calendar, a cheery heart-shaped arrangement that I bought at a garage sale for a quarter (seriously!), a curio shelf, a sconce with a candle, a couple of pictures of baskets full of flowers, and some metal ivy plaques.

13. Seen anything weird lately?
A. It was snowing this morning. After that it hailed. This is April 2nd, mind you!

14. What do you think of this quiz?
A. Hmmm...let me get back to you on that.

15. What was the last film or video that you saw?
A. The Forgotten. Very bizarre. Would never watch again.

16. If you became a millionaire overnight, what would you buy?
A. I would use some of the money to remodel our house so that my parents could move in with us, set aside some for each of the kids so that they could have downpayments on their own homes when the time came, and I would give the rest to our church.

17. Tell me something I don't already know about you.
A. I become an extremely selfish person when there are Reese's peanut butter cups in my possession.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, without regards to religion or politics, what would it be.
A. I don't think that is possible. It seems like everything is related to religion or politics in one way or another.

19. Do you like to dance?
A. Absolutely!

20. Comment to George Bush?
A. I'm assuming this means George W.? "I am praying for you. Be a man of God's Word and look not to humans for approval."

21. Imagine your first child was a girl. What would you name her?
A. I already did! Natasha Lee, although up to a week before she was born she was going to be Rachel Naomi. We were at a friend's house on Natasha's due date (Dec. 18th), looking through a baby name book, and discovered that 'Natasha' means 'Christmas child' and we decided we really liked that. When she made her appearance on Christmas Eve, it seemed all the more apropos.

22. Imagine your first child was a boy. What would you name him?
A. Natasha would have in that case been Zachary James.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
A. Traveling abroad; yes. Living abroad; no.

24. What would you want God to say when you reached the Pearly Gates?
A. Come in good and faithful servant. The long, hard battle with sin is completely over for good! Now rest, enjoy fellowship, and worship in My presence for all eternity!

25. Five people who must do this on their blog: I think they have all done it. But if any of you haven't done it yet, go for it!!!

I was having some fun looking through some old photo albums and these two pictures captured my attention. Some things haven't changed!

This picture was taken of me in Atwater, CA about 40 years ago. We don't have that piano any more, but I still love to sit down and play the piano for awhile every day.

Unfortunately, I am no longer in possession of that fashionable pink plastic phone either. But I still love to chat with friends and keep in touch.

Have a great day!