Monthly Archives: May 2010

Love Is Bound

Posted on by
Reply

Last night I handed a little grey box to Dwayne and asked him to do me a favor. He said, “but what if you say no”. I told him he didn’t have to ask me, just to put it on my finger. He opened the box and slid my engagement ring back where it belonged. It is so beautiful.

One year ago as I began packing our boxes to move to Abilene, I kept catching my diamond on the sides of the boxes and I was a bit afraid I would wreck it, so I packed it in my jewelery box along with my 40 birthday locket with pictures of my 3 favorite people in the world. Yesterday, I unpacked them and they now rest in their intended place.

I don’t care to wear much jewelery. I like it on others, but I’ve only wanted three jewelery items my whole life: an engagement/wedding ring if I was to be married, a locket to carry the pics of loved ones and a pearl necklace. I’m still waiting on the last one :) I have missed this sparkle on my hand. It marks the beginning of our adventure together as a couple. My nervous revelation that he had asked and I had said yes and my 31 year old life was about to change. A man like him and a girl like me loved each other. He’s the only one who I ever really trusted to stay when he saw the real me.

I have a favorite quote:

“Love is not blind. That’s the last thing it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound, the less it is blind.” Chesterton.

I don’t know the history behind the words, but to me they are so true. Dwayne and I have been married for 17 1/2 years and though we’ve often disagreed, hurt each other, struggled with understanding and frustration, I never for once doubted his commitment to our oneness. I always wanted him to see me as adorable, lovely and fascinating. You know how long that lasted…didn’t even make it to the altar before he knew better.

As time and experience are added to our relationship, I know that the love and commitment has bound us tighter together more each year and he sees me more clearly every day. He is not blind, but I wouldn’t want him be towards my fussiness, anxiety and anger. As much as I’d like to be seen as perfection in his eyes, what a lot of fakiness I would need to live.

As I type this, I see my rings. They hug me a bit tighter than 17 1/2 years ago, but they are a symbol of the covenant we made. One which I would say yes to if he ever felt the need to ask me again. I am bound to this man in love.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Lydia

Posted on by
2

This is a quick post. Ken and Heather are taking us out for dinner after the big day of moving, but I must tell you about this lady.

Lydia is a mom of a freshman college age daughter and a 13 year old son. Her husband teaches at ACU and she home educates. I met her through her son who befriended Levi and Caleb the first month we were here.  They moved here from Portland 7 years ago and knows the struggles of being uprooted.

She is such a blessing in my life. She invites me to everything, encourages me in everything and I can talk to her about everything. God knew what I needed in a pal and she is it.

Today she called up after all the moving was completed and said she wanted to stop by with something. She has an injury that kept her from helping in the move, but she knows every nick and cranny of our house cause she helped clean it from top to bottom. 20 minutes later she’s at our door with a pan of noodle bake, salad, watermelon and cake! You know the type of person she is cause I’m sure you have on in your life, or you are one in someone’s life. She is a true servant, always available for those God places in her life. I call over and she’s had an over nighter of 3 extra boys from age 2-7 cause the family had to go to Dallas for medical reasons, she may be driving someone’s dog across the country so it doesn’t have to fly on a plane cause she’s going anyway for a vacation. She mends, bakes, knits, entertains, babysits, teaches, tutors, etc. and she’s my prayer partner where she’s carved an hour out of her week to meet. She just called to let us know that their pool is open for the summer and we are welcome to use it anytime, even if they’re not there.

I know it sounds like it’s because of all she does that she is so important in my life. It’s more than that. It’s who she is and it spills into service. She loves the Lord and is always looking for a way to show His love in her world. I have learned so much from her in our conversations and watching her life. Just wish you all could meet her and have a lovely chat.

God love her and so do I!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

STUFF

Posted on by
1

Waahoo! Tomorrow we empty our storage bin of 10 months and move it all to our home. I’m hoping that we can find space for all our “stuff” and that we don’t regret bringing all the things. Today, after putting some things in the van from storage, I was walking into the house with 2 toilet plungers. Now why did we bring those? We could have bought them on this end. It will be interesting to see my thinking on what we chose to bring and what we didn’t as we unpack the boxes. I hope it’s not a “oh brother” type of experience.

We have 10 strong men to help us and the temp. should be about 30C. We are hoping to get it done by noon and have some lunch and send them on their way for the Memorial Weekend. We are so thankful for the ones who offered to help when I’m sure more interesting adventures awaited them.

Dwayne’s brother, Ken and sis in law, Heather arrived from Edmonton on Wednesday night and have been so helpful in energy and ability. We appreciate them being here for the Canadian connection in our maiden voyage in Abilene home ownership. We’re on the home stretch for knocking out our fire ant problem, garage door problem and weed problem. We are owners of a used “nothing runs like a deere” ride-on that the boys argued about who got to mow what. We hope that argument continues with the “get to” not switch to the “have to”.

So our stuff in on it’s way and we can spend some time figuring out the new configuration of our life of things. My best buddies, my books, will soon be resting in boxes on the garage floor where I can peek in and pull one or two out before we find a shelf for them in our home. I’ve missed you G. K Chesterton and Milton. “Love is not blind, that’s the last think it is. Love is bound and the more it is bound, the less it is blind.” and “When I consider how my light was spent…”. Ah, precious words.

Much of what we will be bringing will be remain in boxes until the walls are painted and the flooring changed, but it’ll be under our roof in one way or another. The apartment is clean, the smell of Lysol is now only a weekly thing, not an hourly thing, the dog next door loves to bring his toys over for a toss and a run and we received our immigrant visa cards in the mail! We are legal and the kids and I will get Social Security Numbers so we can be more than temporary aliens. Whew, what a week.

Night all. Hope you have a great weekend.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

And Then There Was Canada

Posted on by
2

On day six of creation, God announced to his archangel underling, “Today we’re creating a place called Canada. Pull out all the stops. Give it beautiful mountains, lakes, plains, forests, and sandy beaches. Under ground, give it oil, gold, etc. Oh, and plenty of fish and wildlife.

“Sir” interjected an archangel, “aren’t you being overly generous to these Canadians?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll balance it out,” said God. “Wait ’till you see the neighbors I’m giving them.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

An American couple get hoplessly lost while driving through Canada. Over the objections of her husband, the wife calls out to a pedestrian, “Hey buddy, can you tell us where we are?” The pedestrian smiles sympathetically and says, “Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.”

After she rolls up the window, her husband says, “I told you it wouldn’t do any good. They don’t even speak English up here.”

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Switch-a-roo

Posted on by
2

And now for something completely different. I want a dehumidifier. Ever heard of them? I hadn’t until I asked someone if there was a way to take out the humidity in our home. They suck the moisture out and drop it in a pan that you need to empty or if you by a window unit it runs out of the hose into your yard.
I’m sorry. I’m a die hard prairie girl where the cold is a dry cold and I can say when people complain of the rain, “ya, but it’s a dry rain”.
I know humidity is great for the skin and does wonders for my natural curly hair (no curling iron needed), but it’s just a bit different than Alberta air. I mentioned to someone that we have humidifiers attached to our furnaces so the static cling and chapped skin in the winter can get some relief and that was quite a concept.
So another difference in my life from north to south. Also, they vent the dryer and to the attic…wouldn’t that cause some major damage in the winter of the frozen north?
I’m not getting a dehumidifier. Apparently air conditioning does the same thing and we are using quite a bit of that.
Oh, and our home has a stove and dishwasher made in Canada.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Echo

Posted on by
Reply

Last night was Echo Night Of Worship Arts. They presented “Marvelous Light” a community wide praise and worship service with special presentations by the ECHO class of 2010 students in dance, sign language, hip hop, sword, song, and our River Rising Drama team. Our drama class acted out The Forth Man In The Fire. I played Ashpnaz the head soldier and Levi was Jesus. there are three videos because there are three parts. Enjoy :-D

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

We Moved In !!!!

Posted on by
Reply

Yesterday we moved in to are new house. We started packing up are apartment at 6:00 and had it unloaded by 9:15. We only moved are apartment and not the stuff in the storage because dad didn’t have enough time to do it. But that is ok because he will have enough time on the 29. We have not finished cleaning and we haven’t even started painting so YALL will have to wait for the pictures.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

The Call for Advil

Posted on by
6

Tomorrow I may be needed some help to move. After 3 days of moving using the van, we got a roofless trailer and moved the big stuff tonight. The apartment is empty and the house is already full. What will happen when we move our storage bin over???

Sometime over the last 6 months Levi has surpassed me in strength and Caleb has surpassed me in stamina. Levi took over for me to carry furniture and Caleb was up till 11 helping Dwayne hook up the tv, internet and phone. We were pushed for time cause Dwayne has a business trip tomorrow and he didn’t want to leave it all to us.

So tomorrow morning we will wake up to birds instead of diesel trucks and stomping up and down the stairs. We can jump and drop on a bed and play basketball in the living room without bugging our downstairs neighbors.

Our house still needs some cleaning and the grass needs a serious haircut but Levi was out tonight in the moonlight planning his bike jumps and when the bikes came from the storage bin I could tell the summer trip is too far away.

We thank God for giving us a day of no rain, thought the heat and humidity gave reason for ice cold root beer. So on to unpacking for the last time. In 10 days the storage things come and I’ll see if spending so much time packing 10 months ago was worth it :) We are getting plenty of help that day.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

POTATO NADES!!!!!!!!

Posted on by
1

In WWII, A Japanese sub came up from the water right next to a US ship. The Japanese guns couldn’t shoot that low because the US ship was so close. So the men went inside to grab their guns. The US ship didn’t have guns, all they had were a bin full of potatoes. So, they started pelting the sub with potatoes!!! The Japanese thought they were grenades so they stated throwing them back and into the water. This made time for the US ship to get into a position to fire on the Japanese sub.

That’s a MacGyver move. :P

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Levis Birthday

Posted on by
1

Friday was Levis birthday. We woke up at 7:00 AM, (not PM but that would be cool) and he opened his presents. I got him a pinnata. Continued tomorrow.

Ok, it is tomorrow and I am continuing. After Levi opened his presents we had breakfast and continued with our day. At 4:30 we picked up 3 friends and went to dads’ friend’s farm to play airsoft. When we got there, there was a gate and we didn’t have the right combination. So we waited 15 mins for dad to ask his friend for the code. by that time it was 5:30 and we had to get out of there by 8:30. (but we really left at 9:00) We played airsoft for an hour and a half then dad came with pizza. We stopped for 30 mins for food then played airsoft for the rest of the day. It was a fun birthday party and I want to do it again some time.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post