Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

I've had a great week with family coming for  the Fourth of July and my daughter visiting from California.  I could write about it, but this is one of those times where a picture...or pictures are worth a thousand words! And it's funny how having a baby around brings out the cameras!

God Bless America!

This Fourth of July, take a moment to consider the many blessings, we enjoy as citizens of the United States of America. For when we take these blessings for granted, we trivialize the great struggles and sacrifices endured by the generations of Americans who went before us. 

So for a few minutes today, be deliberate in thinking about what we are celebrating.  It's more than just barbecues and fireworks.  It's the celebration of a freedom dream that started over 200 years ago and lives on today.  May we never lose sight of that dream or lose the heart to defend it.

God bless America! 

Happy Fourth of July!

Summertime

Well, I did it.  I finally hauled out the little bistro table and chairs for our courtyard, all the while saying to myself, "I believe, I believe!"  Yep, I'm choosing to believe that the sun, that is forecast for the next several days, is just the beginning of the summer weather that we are craving.  After all, it's July 1, for crying out loud!

Last weekend, I went so far as to buy a new table cloth for the picnic table.  Now, I just need to get myself over to the nursery and find a few more plants to brighten the place up.  Because, darn it...I'm READY for summer! And if the weather people are right, we are even going to have a sunny Fourth of July!

You can be thankful that you can't hear me right now, because I'm doing a mighty fine rendition of "Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!" I figure it can't hurt...

Happy Father's Day!

On Father's Day, I always think of my dad.  He was a man of great intelligence, integrity and humor. But it was his family that was always most important to him. He cherished his wife and five daughters.  Next month, it will be five years since we lost him, and I miss him so much. So, today, I honor him. 





On Father's Day, I always think of my husband, Bud. He is a man of strong convictions who loves his God, his country and his family...especially his new granddaughter!  He has a tender heart that is easily touched by the blessings in his life as well as the hurting of this world.  I love him so much and have been privileged to raise two incredible children with him.  So today I honor him.

And today, for the first time on Father's Day, I think of my son, David.  A dad of only four months, his life was completely changed by the arrival of sweet Ella!  I love to watch the two of them together...they are totally smitten with each other!

So today I honor him.  Like his grandfather and father before him, he is a man of integrity who loves and serves his God, and cherishes his wife and daughter. And he knows how to make us laugh!   I could not be more proud!

Happy Father's Day!

Walking Companions

Nearly every day on my way to work, I drive by two women who are out doing their morning walk together.  One wears a bright fluorescent yellow safety vest and the other wears a bright fluorescent orange safety vest. And regardless of the weather, they are out there pounding the pavement at about 6:15 in the morning.

Over the past year my admiration for these women has grown as I have watched them plod on through the darkness in pouring rain, and freezing snow, bundled up to the max.  And to be honest, there have been a few times that, due to the weather, I've thought it might of been wiser to just take the morning off.

But yesterday morning was beautiful with glorious blue skies and early morning sun.  So when I spotted the walkers it made me smile because I knew they were soaking up the beauty.  Actually, I envied them that they had the time to be out there taking this early morning walk  instead of on their way to work. 

And it made me think...not for the first time...what makes them get up and out there every morning regardless of the weather.  Last winter when it was literally freezing and slippery outside, what possessed each of them to climb out of a warm bed, pile on the layers of clothes and those vests and head out into the dark, cold morning?  Was it the desire for exercise? Maybe.  But I'm a walker and I know that when it's really nasty outside, I choose my elliptical or...just being honest here..my couch.

I have to believe that the reason for the success of this daily routine is a commitment to their friend and walking companion.  Somewhere along the line, they must have agreed to do this thing together and to hold each other accountable. 

So when that alarm goes off in the wee small hours of the morning, signalling that it's time to get up, the fact that someone else is waiting for them, ready to face the elements together, has to motivate and encourage them to do it.  They are willing to keep going through the darkness and cold.  And then when they get a beautiful morning like yesterday, they get to share the beauty with their friend!

These thoughts ran through my mind as I drove past the women yesterday and it made me feel good.  Then I heard God saying  to me, "Laura, I'm your walking companion.  I've made a commitment to be there for you on every one of those dark, cold mornings. Together, we'll make it through.  And together, we'll rejoice on the bright sunny days!  The only question is, how committed are you to Me?"

You see, it just doesn't cut it in a relationship if the commitment is only one-sided.  I know that God is committed and He will be there for me when that early morning alarm goes off.  The question is, will I get up, put on my walking shoes and meet Him or, simply turn over, pull the covers over my head and remain where I am?

"Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth."  Matthew 28:20

A Friday Night Thought...

Yesterday I learned that layoff notices will be going out at my work starting the week of July 11.  Around 185 people will lose their jobs.  There's a part of me that wants to yell, "It's not fair!  It's not suppose to be this way!"

Tonight, I read this quote from an email my husband had sent to me the other day.

"Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."

In the coming days of pain and upheaval for so many people, I want to make the difference.  What are the circumstances of your life that are not the way they are "supposed to be" but where you have the power to make the difference?

Lordy, Lordy, It's Been Forty!

A couple of weeks ago, this little gem arrived in my mailbox! After a brief moment of confusion followed by a slightly longer moment of denial, I realized what I was looking at.  This was the invitation to my forty year high school reunion! That noise you heard was me choking on the word "forty."

I'm not good with math, so until this arrived in the mail, I could almost convince myself that it really hasn't been forty years since I graduated from high school.  But this changes everything. That big 4-0  printed on the postcard makes it pretty hard to deny. It was a very long time ago that I cheered along with my classmates, "We are the Vikings, the mighty, mighty Vikings. Everywhere we go-o, people want to know-o, who we are. So we tell them.  We are the Vikings...." Wow!  There's a blast from the past.

Then tonight I had another blast from the past when Sally, one of our cheerleaders, called to talk to me about the reunion.  Let me just say right here that never...I  repeat...never did Sally ever call me while we were in high school.  Not that she wasn't a nice girl, it's just that we didn't quite hang out in the same circles.  Go ahead and guess which group I belonged to:  popular-had-a-boyfriend-since-first-grade girls or quiet-shy-always-blushing girls.  Yeah...

But tonight, Sally and I were practically BFFs. At least we were once she figured out that I wasn't the Laura that she thought she had called but another Laura whom she insisted she remembers.  And she probably does; we didn't have a very big graduating class.

Anyway, we chatted and chatted and chatted. I kept waiting for her to get to the part where she asked me to volunteer for something.  But she never did.  She just wanted to invite me to the reunion.  And you know something, I think she would actually be pleased if I did show up.

Still, I don't plan on going to the reunion.  I did attend my twenty year reunion and had a fairly good time.  But I remember thinking then, "I don't need to do this again."  And that was twenty years ago!

So, in August, when those members of the Class of 1971 gather for our forty year reunion, I hope they have a wonderful time together.  I'll be picturing them fondly...all looking like their senior pictures in our yearbook!