Wonderful Wisconsin Weekend

We had such a great time in Door County this weekend. It was the perfect fall weekend, the colors were beautiful, the air was crisp, the trails were gorgeous, the food was terrific and the company was great! It's hard to be in this beautiful countryside and not sing and praise God for His creation. What an artist Our God is. Here we are driving into Peninsula State Park! Chris and I, with our friends Patrick and Terry. Having all worked with our Senior High Youth Group, Patrick insisted that we play the name game...where your fellow friends can give you a new name for the day. So, in this picture we actually have: Norm, Cherokee, Milo and Marianne!

Chris and I, at the top of Eagles Look-out, we climbed up after biking the first 10 miles. I wasn't sure I would make it. So here's proof!
Our lunch spot on day two, it was chilly on the trails (40-mid50s) but this was the perfect spot. We packed sandwiches, bananas, chips and salsa and some cookies! We were tempted to take a nap before heading out again.
Terri (Marianne) and I, gearing up after lunch. This was us sporting the "layered look" at this point I was wearing: bike shorts, long underwear, bike pants, two tanks, one short sleeved shirts, one long sleeved shirt, and two sweatshirts....headband and gloves were a must also!
This was one of three deer that we saw! I have a feeling that we sped by a lot of others that we just didn't see. Chris assured me that I could get a better picture if he went up the road and headed her in my direction. I felt this was a nice picture and didn't need to have a deer running at me. She was close enough!

Photo shot at the Bay! We had such a great time. We ended up biking 35-40 miles over the weekend. Peninsula Park has awesome trails, we stayed on the bike trail must of the time, but on one trip we decided to take a hiking path....what a amazing trail it was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. It was a very rugged course over a lot of tree roots, hills and of course billions of leaves. My body was sore that night but it was worth it!

The next day we actually started off on a course that was marked "off trail riding." The sign should have been enough of a warning....it had a mountain outline, but hey we thought it looked like fun. I don't think we made it a half mile before we turned around. The steep hill that started the course with logs the size of my thighs....was definitely not for us! Here's Milo and Marianne!


The beautiful bay! I can't wait to go back! We did have the best time! God is so Good! What gifts He gives us every day!

21 Years

Today is my Anniversary....21 Years. Who would have thought!

I still remember the day I met him. I was in Up With People, traveling through the Midwest at the time, with Chris's youngest sister Mary. We pulled up to where we were performing one day and there Mary stood with her brother and her boyfriend at the time, not knowing who was visiting her I remember asking her "Hey, who is that cute guy your with?" She replied, Oh him, that's my brother. Well, she introduced us and that night when the three of them were heading out for dinner....Chris came over and invited me to join them. We had a great time, we both agree now that we were just ourselves not trying to impress, since it technically wasn't "a date", and we both never really thought we would see the other again.

Well, obviously we did see each other again. And here we are 21 years later.

The Lord has blessed us and our marriage along the way. He blessed us with a loving family, wonderful friends, an awesome church, and he gave us both big hearts for our kids, our foster kids, our Senior High youth group and world missions.

I believe that if we are all honest, some Anniversaries are better than other. In any marriage there are good days, weeks, months and years and also a few bad. Well after 21 years of marriage to Chris I should have known not to clean out our basement yesterday. I should have know what would happen...I mean it has happened every time I try to organize. I start weeding through things and making piles you know.... garbage, give away, save. Do we really need to keep every book that my kids have ever read, I mean there's no way I would ever get rid of Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom, Curious George, Little House on the Prairie, you get the idea. I don't need to keep all those craft items, when I haven't touched crafts in the last 5 years. Do we need the McDonald Land toys from 10 years ago, when my grandson's collection from now a days is already out of control. And let's talk about the golf trophies.....you know the ones, the ones that don't make it into his office, the ones from 10-20 years ago....for second and third place, the ones that have been in a box in storage for 10-20 years.

Like I said...I don't know what I was thinking???? It was the day before our Anniversary!!!! As Chris was searching through the garbage, he saw me throw "something" away, he turned and said, "Hey, is that the remote control to the little t.v. that we've been looking for?" Yes, dear I finally found it....and just thought I would throw it away!!

We are heading up north to beautiful Door County, Wisconsin this weekend for a great weekend to celebrate! Praise God, there will be no closets or basements to organize!

In Memory

Today is my sister-in-laws birthday,

Vic would have been 53 today.

As we are remembering her on her birthday

she is walking with Jesus!

I just had to post this picture for you all to see!

Look closely...

Do you see the shadow in the background?

Do you see the profile on the wall?

JESUS

He is not just with her today,

He was always with her!

I look forward to the marvelous day we are together again!

The days where we will sing and praise our Lord together!

Friends and Homecoming

Kevin .....#88.....Captain for Concordia University....Homecoming.
My son, Christopher with brothers Kevin and Brian...who are just like my boys.
They call me "mom2". These boys have been friends since 5th grade, they have played football together for 8 years. Hard to believe they are "grown men"!
Another one of my "boys". This is Ryan,(and Caroline) he and my youmger son Loren have been friends since 3rd grade. All these boys played high school ball together and now Ryan and Kevin both play for Concordia. What a fun Homecoming game. We won...35..28 with one minute left!!!!
Chris and I, with our BFF's Mark and Mary (kevin and brians mom and dad) and Greg and Carol, who actually went to high school with Mark and Mary. What a fun day....Football and Friends...who could ask for anything more!

Tagged

I've been tagged by my sister-in-law Annie over at By Faith. These are always a fun way to learn new and different things about each other, so if your reading this consider yourself tagged and then make sure to let me know so I can stop by and read all about your man.

1. Who is your man? Christopher Arthur

2. How long have you been together? We will be celebrating 21 years this month!

3. How long did you date? We dated the first time for about 6 months, long distance and then after breaking up for a few months we were back together for about 8 months before we were married.

4. How old is your man? 50!! I'm a lot younger

5. Who eats more? He does!

6. Who said I love you first? He did!

7. Who is taller? He is..but not by much

8. Who sings better? He does...but we sound pretty nice together

9. Who is smarter? He is

10. Whose temper is worse? Probably mine

11. Who does the laundry? I do... but he is always willingly to help and will usually throw a load in every now and then..even without being asked.

12. Who takes out the trash? He does

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do...I have to. I'm one of those people who just can't sleep on the "other side"

14. Who pays the bills? He does...I would actually be in a lot of trouble if anything every happened to him.

15. Who is better with the computer? He is...I'm getting better, but doubt I will ever catch up with him.

16. Who mows the lawn? He does...he bought a riding lawn mower and loves to ride and smoke a cigar.

17. Who cooks dinner? I do...when we aren't eating out! :) But he will also help out sometimes with cooking.

18. Who drives when you are together? He does....he enjoys driving and would prefer to drive always. On long trips I will help, but usually not for very long.

19. Who is the most stubborn? Oh...we both can be very stubborn!

20. Whose parents do you like the most? We love all our parents...but we see my parents more, only due to location.

21. Who kissed who first? He kissed me.

22. Who asked out who? He asked me...I was traveling with "Up With People" with his sister the first time we met, he asked me to dinner while we were on the road.

23. Who proposed? He did! I had been wanting a pair of Reebok's newest tennis shoe....the saddle shoe. He put my ring inside the shoe and shocked me.

24. Who has more friends? We tie...we both have friends from school, work and church. But we spend most of our time with mutual friends! We have great friends!

25. Who has more siblings? He does....he comes from a family of seven, 5 girls and two boys. Our family is myself and 2 sisters.

Failure

What an awesome thing I read today in my Beth Moore Bible Study. Beth was talking about our failures and repenting. She says that God redeems something by buying it back through the payment of a ransom. He gave the life of His Son as the ransom to buy us back from the clutches of sin. He has also bought back the rights to our past and all its failures. If we cooperate, He'll turn every single one of those failures into something useful for His kingdom. That is the meaning of "full redemption"!

He wants to fully redeem every part of your life until even your failures bring Him glory. How amazing is our God!! He is so faithful to us!