Not Hibernating Yet

...Just in case you were wondering.

Olivia and I spent a week in Ooooooooklahoma visiting my sister Rebecca and celebrating her (fill-in-the-blank) birthday by helping her paint/redecorate her house. Lots of fun. Also drove over to Arkansas to see my sister Marilyn, and enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner with her son, Frankie. Frankie has the coolest car ever. It's a red '68 Chevelle that sits low and has big, fat rear tires.

Something I noticed there in Oklahoma (besides the towers with tornado sirens on top of them) was the wind. It's always blowing. Then there's the 85 degree heat that's hanging around still in October. Not that I don't enjoy wind and heat. Just not in October. I'm a Pacific Northwest mole at heart, and love the crisp, dark fall weather we have. One thing I didn't see there was traffic. Lots of nice roads, but no traffic. And after everyone comes to a complete stop at the stop signs, they wave to everyone in the intersection, on the outside chance that they know each other. Y'all know what I'm talkin' about if yer from OK.

While we were there, I called up Ashley at Silver Wind Stables at Windy Meadow Farm and arranged for Olivia to ride a horse--for the first time. I figured that would be a good thing to do in Oklahoma, seeings how they've got a fair number of horse ranches around. Ashley runs the place and gives riding lessons as well as trail rides to green city folk like us.

Here's Olivia riding Rocky with Miss Ashley leading the way:

Notice the red dirt. Lots of brick homes in Oklahoma.

And here's Olivia leading Rocky back to the barn:

Guess who wants a pony for Christmas?

30 Years Together

Bill and I were married 30 years ago today, at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. I think we were about 14 at the time. In mulling over the events of three decades, here are three things I'm grateful for:

Bill

Bill is the total bomb in my book. I love his sense of humor, his generosity, and his faithfulness to me and the kids. He loves us sacrificially and would do anything for us anytime, anywhere. If I wanted the moon, he'd find a way to give it to me. He demonstrates Christ's love to me in tangible ways every day, and our time reading the Bible and praying each morning before he goes to work glues our hearts together. He truly is God's gift to me.

My Kids and Grandkids 
The Lord blessed us with seven children: Taylor, Peter, Andy, David, Jack, Olivia--and Annie, who went to heaven almost six months ago. We are thankful for our two beautiful daughters-in-law, Cris (Peter), and Naomi (Andy), and two sweet little grandchildren, Irene and Brady, (Peter and Cris'). They each have unique gifts that bless our family--we love them and pray for them every day.

Jesus
He is the Author and Finisher of our faith--and our marriage. How would our marriage have survived without His discipline, provision, guidance, healing and comforting? He is the third cord of our "3-fold cord" spoken of in Ecclesiastes 4:12, binding and strengthening us in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad. His grace covers all our sin, and makes us one--each day.

Praying for 30 more,

Jean

Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God's holy ordinance, through which he wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to his glory, and calls into his kingdom.

In your love, you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more than something personal—it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man.
As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "A Wedding Sermon from a NAZI Prison"