celebrating another year together

Today, Ronnie and I celebrate fourteen years of marriage.

This is the third year that I have blogged about our anniversary and I thought it was time that I shared a few pictures from our wedding day.  Unfortunately, my scanner wouldn't work this morning, so the pictures aren't that great since I just took pictures of the pictures.  But, you'll still get some idea of what that day looked like for us.

No post about our anniversary would be complete without mentioning that today is also my parents' anniversary ... Happy 47th Mama and Daddy!

blogging is "therapetic"

It is hard to believe, but I have been blogging for two years!  This is my 215th blog post ... not counting all those that I never finished for one reason or another (or the ones I finished, but didn't have the guts to publish).  It is funny to me how blogging has changed my perspective on everyday things.  I take far more pictures than I ever have before, even if I haven't used any of them on this blog lately.  Little things that the kids do and say almost always spark some thought about how I could blog what they are doing.  I have noticed that lately I am not as good about posting those little things as I used to be.  As much as I enjoy blogging, I just haven't had the time for it lately.

Still, I started blogging as an outlet for writing.  I enjoy writing and truly find it therapetic, to borrow a term from Barney Fife.  Of course, blogging isn't just about writing my own posts, it is just as much about reading posts on other blogs.  I have been amazed to realize how many normal, everyday people blog.  One of the unexpected aspects of blogging for me is the fact that I feel like I know the authors of some of the blogs I read simply because of their candor in sharing their lives.  I haven't been successful in being that transparent with my blog, not because I want people to think that everything is all sunshine and roses in my life, but because I just can't figure out how to share some things without feeling as though I am giving more information than any of you could possibly want to know about my life.

Blogging has brought unexpected blessings into my life that I never could have imagined.  Besides being a creative outlet for me, it has brought me closer to several other homeschooling moms in the area and allowed us to form real friendships.  These ladies have become very dear to me and I am thankful for what we share, both in the blogging community and in real life.  In a way, I could attribute my place in our new homeschool group simply to this blogging thing ... but that is a story for another day.

If I had to choose what I have learned most from blogging, I think my answer would be simple ... gratitude.  As I have spent time reading other blogs, I have learned to recognize the small blessings in my own life.  Sometimes that happens because the author is intentionally pointing the reader in that direction, but just as often it comes by seeing the pain and struggle that people face.  For the most part, I lead a fairly sheltered life and sometimes I am just stunned by the things that people go through.  Not only has this exposure forced me to realize just how blessed I am in the things I have had to deal with, it has helped me to realize that I don't always handle adversity in the way that I should.

When I sit down to blog these days, I am finding myself more and more drawn to sharing something uplifting ... more directly stated, I want to point anyone reading my words to the Savior.  I don't have the opportunity to come into contact with many people outside of my little circle, so in a sense, this is my mission field.  Of course, most of the people who stop by here on a regular basis are probably already Christians.  Still, we all need encouragement from time to time and my goal is to be used to provide that for anyone reading this blog.  I have been encouraged more than I can express by some of the blogs I read on a regular basis and I guess I am feeling challenged to pass that encouragement along to the next person.

All in all, I am truly thankful for what this blog has come to symbolize in my life ... a place to share what God is doing in my life and in the the life of my family, not to mention, a place to connect with others in a way that wouldn't have been possible even just a few years ago.   I do appreciate those of you who come here and read my ramblings.  I am still not sure why you're here, but I sure do hope you keep coming back for the next 215 posts!

celebrate

Happy 13th Anniversary to my wonderful husband! 
Sometimes I can't believe that we have made it this far!

I LOVE YOU!

And

Happy 46th Anniversary to my parents!

What a blessing to be able to follow in your footsteps!
________________________

And finally, thanks to our friends, Brad and Amy, for babysitting tonight so we can go out to eat ... we'll be happy to return the favor in a couple of months for y'all!

As soon as my computer is back up and running I hope to post some pictures of Ronnie and me from our wedding!

forty five and twelve

On this day, 45 years ago, my parents were married. 33 years later, Ronnie and I chose to "borrow" their day for our own wedding. Now, 12 years later we are still celebrating on this day (not that you could tell it since today looked just like any other Sunday). We are truly thankful for the years God has granted us and for the lessons He has taught us over the last 12 years. On this special day, I thought I would share a little of our history with you.

First, I want to share just a little about my parents' wedding day. They grew up in the same town and went to the same church for most of their lives. Daddy is 5 years older than Mama and he loves to tell the story that when she was in 7th grade he saw her walking into the church and told one of his buddies that he'd like to marry her some day. Several years later, he and his cousin asked Mama and her best friend out on a double date. The story goes that the guys flipped a coin to see how the pairs would be for the night. Daddy ended up with Mama's best friend ~ who was very happy with the arrangement, and wasn't at all happy when Daddy asked Mama out a few months later. They were married in the summer between Mama's junior and senior year of high school when Mama was only 16 and Daddy was 21. Because of Mama's age, her father had to be present at her wedding. In order to accomplish this, they were married in her Daddy's hospital room where he was recovering from a broken back. Not the most romantic way to begin a marriage, but 45 years, 4 children and 11 grandchildren later, I don't think it hindered anything. As a side note, the other two people who shared that first double date have been married almost as long as Mama and Daddy have. Ain't life strange?

Ronnie and I met while I was in college and he was serving as youth minister in a town nearby. There weren't very many people his age in the church so one of his friends invited him to come to a BSU (Baptist Student Union) function and that is how we met. We met in September and began dating in November of 1995. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Fast forward a year to the night Ronnie proposed to me. I was pretty sure of what he was planning, but I didn't want him to know. I did think that we were going out for the evening, but he picked me up and took be back to his house where he had prepared a candlelight dinner. After we ate, he left the room and came back with a huge vase of roses, which he set on the table in front of me and then got down on one knee and proposed. I would love to tell you the wonderfully romantic words that he spoke, but I don't remember them. I can't even tell you what I said in response because I don't remember that either, except that it included me saying yes. What I do remember is looking at the roses and realizing that some of the decoration in the vase was on fire ... he had set it a little too close to the candles still burning on the table.

Now, if Ronnie were telling this story he would most definitely tell you why the flowers were such an important part of the proposal. Some time early in our relationship, I had mentioned something about the necessity of flowers being present if I were to accept a proposal from anyone. I wish I could remember what prompted me to make such a bold statement, but I can tell you that I would have said yes with or without the flowers. If nothing else, they did provide some comic relief.

I really what to share a few details about our actual wedding day, like how I wouldn't get dressed because my mother wasn't there and no one could figure out where she was. And maybe a little about how I had only met the minister the day before the wedding and how he kept trying to make us laugh during the ceremony. But, right now it is late and I am tired, so those stories will have to wait for another day. I am sure you are crushed, but try to hang in there!

I do want to take the time to tell you that while we haven't had a perfect twelve years, we have been, and continue to be, incredibly blessed. God has brought us through situations that I wasn't sure we would survive. I am thankful for the man that God chose for me. I am thankful for the life we have together and for the future we look forward to. I am also thankful for the example God gave us in our parents. What a blessing. God is good.