OUR WEDDING DAY

Twenty-nine years ago Wally and I exchanged our wedding vows and became husband and wife.  As Wally has told me many times over the years, “I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

 

    A solemn moment but not exactly serious! 

 

The story continues…

FULL of SURPRISES!!

Wally has always been full of surprises.Here is a  couple of things he did in our short courtship.

He sent me a singing telegram while I was at work.  I thought it was kind of unusual for my parents to pop in on me one evening.  My Mom had a bag and said she was returning something in the mall, but she would not let me look in the bag!  Good thing, inside was a camera.  Not long after Mom and Dad go on their way, Leah and Marlin stop by to say hello.  Well, my next visitor was the Singing Bee!

Another time Wally came into Denver on a C5 mission.  He volunteered as they would be spending 24 hours out at Buckley Air Field…now Buckley AFB.  I was expecting to go to Leah and Marlin’s house for supper after work that day.  I remember standing on their porch and knocking but no one answered.  I was just about to give up and leave when they pulled up and out of the car steps Wally!! Now this is kind of unusual but true…he had received permission from the officer in charge of the mission for me to spend the night with Wally guarding the C5! Wally thinks it was January or February and he remembers it being really cold.  We sat in a heated truck most of the night.  But I do remember needing to use the bathroom and I had to climb up into the C5 to use the restroom there.  It was ice cold in that plane!!  My folks and Nathan came out early in the morning and got to go through the plane before it was loaded and then left.

See how young we look!

The C5 with two stages of a titan missile inside.  It was picked up here on Colorado at Buckley and delivered to Vandenberg AFB in California.

We thought the C5 looked like yogi bear!  The plane was smiling but I was pretty sad because inside was Wally, leaving me!

The year we were married, Wally’s parents had three of their children marry.  Leah and Marlin were married in January and Lewis and Becky were married in June. Then Wally and I were married in August.Whew… that's a lot of “marry-mint”!!  So Wally had come in January for Leah’s wedding…we were the candle lighters!  Then he surprised me by coming on the C5 mission.  We would be together one more time before our own wedding. We followed Marlin and Leah driving back to Indiana for Lewis’ wedding…I don’t really remember but I think we drove though the night to get there. 

Wally strutting his stuff at home

 

The story continues…

JUST MARRIED…29 YEARS AGO!!!

On Saturday Wally and I will celebrate our 29th Wedding Anniversary!  Wow!!! I can not believe how quickly the years have passed by.  I opened up some of my scrapbooks this week and got caught up in the past…on the inside I am still that young girl who fell in love so fast and so-o-o long ago!

I met Wally through his sister, Leah.  She had come to Denver to attend Denver Baptist Bible College.  She attended our church on the weekends and was my Mom’s helper in the second grade Sunday School Class.  She and I got to be good friends.  In March of 1980, Wally was coming to Colorado and meeting his best friend Ken Mendenhall here to ski.  Wally was just finishing basic training and tech school in the Air Force and was en route to his first base in California.  Well, Leah had a pizza party and I got invited.  I remember arriving at her house and Wally and Ken were coming out the door.  I said, “you must be Wally.”  Wally, in his sweet gentle manner said, “I’m Ken, he’s Wally” pointing to Ken and never breaking his stride down the porch steps!  Not exactly romantic first moments!

Well, Wally had driven his ‘62 Falcon from Indiana to tech school in San Antonio then to Denver.  That is where it broke down…with a broken exhaust manifold!  The pizza party was on Saturday night and on Monday night I was leaving town to visit some friends in MN.  But, guess who spent all day running him around to junk yards to find parts?  And who hung around a garage all day while Wally and Ken worked on it?  ME!  I guess it was our first date!

Well, after I returned home and Wally made it to California, I began receiving phone calls…yes, from Wally.  And then some letters began arriving in the mail and I answered them.  We had a long distance romance!! (and neither Wally nor I would recommend that to anyone!)  In May there was a long lapse when I didn’t receive any letters.  I was a little worried. I was working at The Denver Dry
Goods Store in Cinderella City.  (It was quite the mall in its day)  One day as I left for work I asked my Dad if he would bring me the mail if any came that afternoon.  Well, I did get my letters, and they were delivered to me at work.  Guess by who?  Wally!  He was supposed to be gone on a TDY mission and at the last minute his orders were cancelled.  So, he asked for the leave time and flew home to Indiana, collected his motorcycle and rode it back to California.  Denver was nice stop over! 

 

 

Wally, setting out from home in Kendallville, IN

 

 

 

 

Here we are in my parent’s front yard.  Not a very good picture, but I remember this being the only one I had to look at for a long time!

We rode his motorcycle to Estes Park and to the top of Trail Ridge Road.  I guess that was our real first date!

 

 

 

Wally, on duty at Travis AFB.  He was in the security police.  I always thought he was handsome in his uniform!

 

 

 

In October of 1980, Wally came for another visit.  On that visit, he asked me to marry him.

 

The story continues…

Down the Garden Path…

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.  If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. 

~Author Unknown

I have been trying to bring my thoughts into alignment with what pleases God and His Word.  I am sure that for most of my adult life I never understood that what I think on affects my words and my actions.  When  thoughts would come I would just mull them over and over in my mind.  You know, think on them.  The trouble is that thoughts left unchecked can make me grouchy, proud, critical, discontent….the list goes on and on.  I would wake up and everything would be just fine in my life.  But by the time I finished getting a shower, my world could be falling apart aided by those wayward thoughts.  It has taken me a long time to connect the two.  But now that I am aware I ask the Lord to help me recognize those thoughts as soon as they begin so I can pluck them right out of my brain!

I thought of that this week while I was weeding my flowerbeds.  Have you ever noticed that if you pull weeds while they are small, they come up pretty easily?  But if you let them go, they put down some pretty strong roots and it is hard to pull them up.  I learned this of course because I had not weeded my garden in….well, awhile! And even though the weeds were kind of big and easy to grab, they were hard to remove…I had to get that weed poppin’ tool and dig at the root in order to remove it. 

It is the same with those thoughts.  Left unchecked they put down some pretty strong roots.  Thankfully I have a weed poppin’ tool for them also.  It is repentance and God’s Word.  I must confess those ugly thoughts as the sins they are.  If I do that when the thought first comes it is pretty easy to remove them.   When I am particularly plagued or worried by thoughts, I have some memorized scripture I pray.  Just like an application of “weed-b-gone”, they wither and dry up! 

My number one weed poppin’ verse:

Psalm 56:9  “When I cry out to You, then my enemies ( my thoughts) will turn back; this I know because God is for me.”

I actually have hung that one on my bathroom mirror so when those shower moments get me, I just stick my head out the curtain and I am reminded of the truth!

Also very helpful to me:

II Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,  but mighty through God to the  pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ,”

Psalm 19:14  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

The daisies have been absolutely beautiful this year and seemed to bloom longer that I remember.  So sad for me to have to cut them back this week as their blooms were spent.

The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood

I agreed to participate in a chapter by chapter review of the book, Voices if the True Woman Movement, compiled by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  It is to be completed by September. I agreed earlier this summer, knowing I had all summer to get it done, and it is a rather short book so no problem, right?!?.  Yikes!  Here it is August 3 and I am just getting through chapter one. Double Yikes!! 

It has been quite a number of years since I wrote a book report.  But here goes my first attempt.

Chapter one was written by Dr. John Piper.  It is his goal to present the ultimate meaning of true womanhood.  He defines the meaning of true womanhood as “a distinctive calling of God to display the glory of His Son in ways that would not be displayed if there were no womanhood.”   Sounds kind of simple and I appreciate that. It is just another way of stating that my aim in life should be to glorify God. This is God’s plan for every believer, male or female. Yet in God’s plan He designed for women to do this in a way that is unique, through their femininity!  That make me feel kind of special.

I also appreciated the fact that in this chapter womanhood, and femininity is distinct from manhood and masculinity.  I thought this was important because in our present culture  the lines are constantly being blurred.  You cannot blur God’s design in creating men distinctly and women distinctly.  That leaves no room for homosexuality accept that men and women do choose that for their lifestyle. 

One other thing I appreciated was that womanhood was defined by each woman’s role, married or single.  How I as a married woman will glorify God looks different in many ways than for a single woman.  I am going to do that by keeping my marriage vows and loving my husband which displays in a small way the covenant keeping love of Christ for the church.  It also involves that word dreaded by so many women, submission! Dr. Piper gives two definitions that are quite helpful, headship and submission.

Headship:the divine calling of a husband to take primary responsibility for Christ-like, servant leadership, protection, and provision in the home.

Submission:the divine calling of a wife to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts.

The emphasis in both of these definitions is the “divine calling”  This is God’s plan and design.

There were also a couple of things I did not appreciate about the chapter. First, Dr. Piper begins this chapter with an assumption, wimpy theology produces wimpy women.  He follows this with several examples of women, who in very difficult circumstances of life, even martyrdom, refused to think of themselves and to deny Christ. They were glad to be  counted “worthy enough” to suffer or to die for Christ.  “Wimpy” is meant to portray the woman who is not surrendered to Christ and does not view her life circumstances, with their difficulty and suffering, as being opportunities to display God’s glory.  I understand and agree.  But I guess I just did not like the word “wimpy”.  That word pictures for me someone who is geeky, mousy, who is odd and does not fit in. The rub then, is that I think the true wimpy woman appears as successful, in control, savvy and well-put together, even desirable. But not at all as the word implies, wimpy.  I would have used a different word is all. 

Secondly, I read and re-read the paragraph on pages 19-20 where Dr. Piper says, “God’s ultimate purpose in creating the world and choosing to let it become the sin-wracked world that it is, is so that the greatness of the glory of Christ could be put on display at Calvary where He bought His rebellious bride at the cost of His life.”  A couple of things just bother me with that sentence.  Again I think I understand his point, and I may be wrong in this… but I believe God’s purpose in creating the world was because God desired to have a relationship with one of His creations, mankind. He did not “choose” to let it become sin-wracked, but He did allow man’s sinful choices to take their affect and for the consequences of sin to be played out.  I agree God designed salvation’s plan before the creation of the world, knowing that man would sin and break the relationship God desired to have with us. And so Jesus, in fulfillment of that plan, came to reconcile us to God.  II Corinthians 5:18 says, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ…”  verse 19 says…”that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself…”and verse 21, “ He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  So I guess what I am trying to say is that God’s purpose in creating the world was to have a personal relationship with us, available only through His son, Jesus. 

In conclusion, I think I can agree with Dr. Piper’s purpose for true womanhood, to glorify Christ in my distinct call; first as His child and secondly as a woman.  I look forward to reading how that will play out in the rest of the book.  See you for chapter two shortly!  

Grandma’s New Bag

This may not be blog worthy material, but as Andrea keeps telling me, “It’s your blog, you can post what you want”!  So… I got a new bag! It’s so cute!  When us girls went to tea on Friday, we wandered through some shops.  We went into one  shop that had a big sign, “Everything 30% off”.  Robin saw these bags on a shelf in the corner.  She has a good eye!

It even had a picture of Elaine on it!!! (Not really, I added that!)  Isn’t it adorable though?  And at 30% off, it was right up my alley! I am going to use it for my BSF bag this year (Bible study Fellowship).  What a great way to show off my granddaughter and carry all my stuff I need each week!

I really wanted to show it to Andrea…what do you think Sis?  Now I just need to choose two other picture to put in the other spaces.  That could be tough…but I still have a couple of weeks to get it done!!

Tea Time at Mrs. B’s

The mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose.  ~George Gissing

I love the time I get together with my Mom and sisters.  We have good discussions, share ideas and laugh a lot!  We often do that over a cup of coffee at family get-togethers.  But at least twice a year when my sister JoEllen is home, we make a point of getting together for a “tea party”! 

Today we went to a new tea place, Mrs. B’s Tea Parlor!  It was very nice! You can read about Mrs. B’s at http://www.mrsbsteaparlor.com/About_Us.html. 

Robin, Jo and Mom

Sisters…Sherry, Jo and Robin.  (BTW, youngest to oldest!)

Our tea table

Our tea goodies

Mom, Sherry, Jo and Robin

A Loving Recipe for a Perfect Cup of Tea

One willing friend who loves to sit and share,

One grateful heart to have a friend that cares,

One beautiful garden to show us God is near,

Many wonderful memories of times shared throughout the years,,,

Lots of smiles and laughter to brighten up our days,

Many prayers that we prayed for one another along the way!

from Mrs. B’s