Twenty Seven Already?

Tomorrow is the twenty seventh anniversary of our wedding. It is actually pretty amazing that God has been so gracious as to allow this relationship to weather all of the storms that typically can scuttle a marriage like ours. I love the lyrics the song "What God Has Joined Together" by Paul Overstreet.

Yeah! I know that I've posted these lyrics before but they still ring true!

With shaky knees and my old nervous grin We stood before the Lord and all our friends. Your daddy cried a teardrop as he gave his girl away. I promised to keep lovin' you until my dying day.

--chorus--

And what God has joined together let no one come between Or try to put asunder lovers building their dreams. The light that shines forever is now burning in our hearts. What God has joined together, let no one ever part.

Well that was several years ago today. And we walked some rocky roads along the way. But the Lord has helped us make it through the crazy ups and downs And when we took the wrong road he turned us both around.

When the evening of our lives on earth is near, And our eyes grow weak and words are hard to hear; Well, I pray the Lord is tender when he comes to call us home, And he lets us go together so we'll never be alone.

--chorus-

What God has joined together, let no one come between; Or try to put asunder lovers building their dreams. The light that shines forever is now burning in our hearts. What God has joined together let no one ever part.

What God has joined together let no one ever part...

I couldn't find Paul singing it on Youtube but this guy does an adequate job. At least you get a feeling for what the song should sound like.

I took tomorrow off to be with my bride! I wonder what will come of that?

Fifty Shades of Green

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It has been 5 1/2 months since my last post. It's not like I've been in a coma or anything. It's just that I'm not like the Pioneer Woman who can make mowing the lawn sound interesting.

In spite of the title, and the fact that this is a dirty post, you'll find that you will will not need to cleanse your mind after reading it. The dirt, after all is just the kind of earth in which one might plant their roses.

Anyway, my first wife Debbie, ok, she's my only wife, has been going crazy for a number of months or years about some arbor vitae that we had lining our driveway. She finally convinced me to take action. She wanted to buy a chain saw and reduce them to stumps. I was a little hesitant to spend that money as I already had a saw that I had bought in a garage sale a few years ago or maybe ten. The tricky part was that in all of the years that I'd owned this saw, I had never actually had it running. :( Well, I spent a few minutes with it and Oh My Goodness! You got it! I got it started and sawed down all of the arbor vitae along the driveway. As it turns out, the saw does have issues but the arbor vitae are gone and there was suddenly room for a new era of plants and yard decore. She had a vision which included an arbor, roses, hydrangeas, various other flora, statuary and digging, a lot of digging! By the end of the day, I thought that I had dug my own grave. Fortunately for me, I have been taking my pills and I survived the physical labor. Let me share a few images of the finished or at least, nearly finished project.

This image is what the driveway looked like before the project began.

These images show the yard as it looks today!

As much as I hate working in the yard, I believe that there is a marked improvement. Who would have thought?

Cowboy Life Wisdom

I know that it's been said that friends don't let friends listen to country music. Whether or not that's funny certainly depends upon who's reading it. Though I don't listen to a lot of country, I have been listening to it a bit more than usual for a couple of weeks.

The links that I've provided on this particular post go to Youtube videos and I'm hoping that you'll not only take a look at each of the videos but come back and read the rest of the post. Better yet, just read through the post and then come back and watch the videos. (If you have little kids, make sure you watch the Rodney Atkins song.)

I don't know that the post is particularly life changing but the thoughts are important to me and I hope you'll share them with me this time at least. I appreciate you all and thanks for taking a few moments to reflect with me.
Here it is the last day of the year. Wow! That's almost hard to believe. The passing of time is a remarkable phenomenom. A life seems like a long time. A year does too and even a month. Strangely enough though, a month is just a collection of a few days which is another collection of a few hours. We are often pretty cavelier with seconds, minutes, and hours but in what seems like no time at all a complete year of our life is over. It might be a good idea to start to take some account of the time God has granted us. Just sayin'.

For instance there is a song by a group called Alabama. I think it's called "I'm in a Hurry (And Don't Know Why). Tell me if these lyrics don't ring a little true.

I'm in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life's no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I'm in a hurry and don't know why.

Thankfully, God has been gracious and given health to me and the people close to me. However, a prudent person might want to take the opportunity of a new year and evaluate the way that they live their life.

I love the lyrics to Tim McGraw's song Live Like You Were Dying .

"I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."

Perhaps it's a bit late for me but anyone reading these words with young moldable minds might want to take note of Rodney Atkin's song "Watching You" .

He said, "I’ve been watching you, dad ain’t that cool?
I’m your buckaroo, I want to be like you.
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.
We like fixin’ things and holding momma’s hand
Yeah, we’re just alike, hey, ain’t we dad?
I want to do everything you do; so I’ve been watching you"

With tears in my eyes I wrapped him in a hug.
Said, “My little bear is growin’ up.”
And he said, “But when I’m big I’ll still know what to do.”

I have to say, those are some pretty powerful words.

Another song along those lines is Love Without End, Amen from George Strait.

And he said, "Let me tell you a secret about a father's love,
A secret that my daddy said was just between us."
He said, "Daddies don't just love their children every now and then.
It's a love without end, amen, it's a love without end, amen."

You know it is the end of a year and the start of a new one but every moment is a good time to re-evaluate one's life. I hope that you'll take the time to take a look at your life and perhaps make a few valuable changes going forward.

Monticello Antique Marketplace Old Fashioned Christmas Show 2011

Wow! As always the days immediately preceding the show are grueling. However, I think that once again, the rewards will be worth the effort. Tomorrow is the show opening so if you're interested, you'll want to be around at 8:00am. That is when the doors will be opening.

I've had an opportunity to look through the various displays created by the different vendors and I am confident that those who find themselves here tomorrow will not be disappointed. Let me just tease you with some images from our space at the show.

Now it's time to hibernate for a while.

Will There Be Pizza In Heaven?

Do you know the song The Devil Went Down To Georgiaby the Charlie Daniels Band? Click on the link to listen to the song or let me tell you the abridged version. As the story goes the Devil is a little short on souls so he ventures down to Georgia and comes up on a fiddler named Johnny. The Devil decides to wager his own skill as a fiddler against Johnny's ability. The bet is a golden fiddle against Johnny's soul. As the story goes, the Devil puts forth an outstanding performance but Johnny comes back with a rebuttal that is beyond outstanding and the Devil admits defeat and relinquishes his golden fiddle.

Let's just pretend that the wager is not playing the fiddle but instead has to do with the construction of a wonderfully palatable pizza. Now that is a contest almost but probably not quite worth someones soul.

Anyway, I have been working on constructing an outstanding pizza that can be built at home without any influence of the local pizza parlor. That has been a challenge that traditionally, the Devil might have had an easy victory.
Recently, however, I have come upon a significant breakthrough that could even up the playing fields as it were. I give the credit to two major break throughs in my culinary discovery. As it turns out, I have no knowledge regarding a palatable pizza crust. I mean that is the foundation of the pizza. In my book, no crust, no pizza. Simple, sad, but true.

Ok. Enter the pizza crust offered by Grand Central Bakery or even New Seasons Market. I've used both and had outstanding results. The next most important ingredient is the sauce. As it turns out, that isn't that difficult. I just take any can of tomato sauce and add appoximately a tablespoon of dried parsley, a tablespoon of basil, and perhaps a tablespoon or so of oregeno. The secret ingredient is umami. Google that word. I'll make it easy for you. One ingredient that is pregnant with umami (don't forget to google the word; it's important) is anchovie paste. I add some anchovie paste to the tomato sauce. A tablespoon or so to a can of tomato sauce is sufficient to blow your tastebud's minds. After the crust and sauce, the rest of the pizza is completly subject to your own imagination. I have made a number of remarkably outstanding homemade pizzas and am convinced that the secret to pizza is number 1, the crust, number 2, the sauce, (look up the importance of umami) and number 3, your imagination.

Dude! Tonight included two more blow your mind pizzas.

Oh yeah, the simple answer to the original question? Heck yes!!! There's going to be pizza in heaven and like it or not, there is going to be anchovie paste in the sauce. Just sayin'.

A Three Stranded Cord Is Not Easily Broken

Let me just bluntly state that though I am wholeheartedly in favor of marriage, I am not necessarily all that keen on being in attendance when they happen. I appreciate the stamp of approval that God and the State puts on the relationship but having to hang out during the ritual is kind of a bother to me. I go when I need to in order to encourage the new couple. I believe with all of my heart and mind that the vows are sacred and meant for a life time. You know, till death do us part. Anyway, I've been to two weddings this year, both of which were performed at Applegate Christian Fellowship in Ruch, Oregon. They were each involving family members. Unlike so many other weddings that I have witnessed, these were kind of interesting. The first one happened in July.

The cool thing about this wedding was that it was done in about 15 minutes. I don't know if the preacher just forgot or if he knew it would be a quickie, but he never even had us sit down after we rose for the bride coming down the aisle. You know what? I was cool with that. In fact, I appreciated it. Now the second wedding was just this last week. This one took just a little bit longer but it was still short as some weddings go.

I wanted to share some thoughts from this last wedding. I always describe this family as being a bit like geese. You know, we mate for life. My father remained married to my mother until death parted them. My wife's parents have remained married and faithful to each other from their wedding day until now.

The official at this last wedding referred to the ancient text from Ecclesiastes 4:12 "A chord of three strands is not easily broken."

The inference is that a relationship of two people with the active involvement of (the third strand) the Holy Spirit, is a relationship that can withstand any of the stresses that life can throw at it. He also profoundly spoke of the idea that once a person chooses to marry the person they love, it is time for them to forget all of that and choose to love the person they married. That is an ideal that I agree with wholeheartedly. I plan to choose that path for myself.

I was brokenhearted this week when I heard of a relationship that I had believed was scribed in stone had been shattered by selfish indulgence. Somehow the two strands of that marital bond and carelessly begun to ignore the third strand and the bond was allowed to break. It is a tragedy for which I grieve this evening.

Let me just implore you to not forsake the importance of that third strand. It will make or break the bond between you.

Life and All of its Ups and Downs

The month started out with a great couple of days off down in Southern Oregon. I even got a chance to get some fishing line wet on the Rogue River. It would have been fun to actually catch a fish but alas, that wasn't to be. It was a beautiful day on one of the finest rivers in the country.


I did see a lot of evidence that the kings were in the water and even saw some other guy catch one. What I got was memories, (Brother-in-law Terry and nephew Wyatt)


poison oak,


and pictures!

Life was about to change significantly.

We got home and had to start setting up our space at Monticello for the Fall Show. For no apparent reason Debbie was experiencing significant pain in her neck. She saw the doctor who prescribed a mild narcotic but that had virtually no effect. The next day a significant pain killer was prescribed and again almost no effect on the pain. Suddenly, I found myself with her in ER.



That doctor prescribed a opiate called Dilaudid that probably would put most people under the table. It apparently did take the edge off and Debbie was finally able to sleep but she must have some serious resistance to pain relievers. She must have a serious resistance to pain as well because she quit taking the pill pretty quickly.

We still don't know what the origin of the pain is but fortunately, it has subsided significantly.

Anyway, we were able to get the space at Monticello set up and it has been a sucessful show so far. Let me leave you with a few images of our portion of the show. Check out the Monticello links that I've provided earlier in this post or come by in person for a more complete view of what's going on over there.

This is kind of an adendum but I have to mention that today would have been my mother's birthday. She is still survived by her husband, four adoring children and more grandchildren than I care to count this late at night. You need to know that we still love and miss her and want those of you who knew her to remember as well.