26th Anniversary

Today my husband and I are celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary. In the years that we have been together we have overcome many obstacles and I can truthfully say that we are more in love today than the day we got married. We have learned to celebrate life together and to enjoy those special moments in life, like: the birth of our children, their first words, first steps, their first day of school, our daughters weddings, the birth of our granddaughter, buying our first home, and there are so many other memories that I could share here but it would take pages and pages. There were times in our marriage that I wouldn't have wished it upon anyone, it was those days of growing, struggling and changing and now I hope that others have a wonderful marriage like I do, this marriage I would wish upon others. Today I woke up to this card:

For My Wife
Anywhere with you is my favorite place to be...
I love the closeness we share-
and all the ways you keep me falling more and more in love with you...
I love sharing everything with you-
my partner, my friend, the one who means everything to me.
Happy Anniversary

(These first 26 years have only been the beginning of what we have. I'm so excited for the next 26)
What wife's heart wouldn't melt with that!!!!!!!!!!

I have a husband that continues to grow and change, one that works hard to provide for his family. One that will admit mistakes. We laugh together, we've cried together, but mostly we live life together. We have lived our wedding vows and it hasn't always been easy, but it sure has been worth it.

My Tatoo

This is my first and only tattoo (for now). This tattoo has a lot of meaning for me. The rose symbolizes Christ to me, who is the center of my life, without Him I would not be where I am today, nor would I be who I am today. The banner with the name Randy is for my wonderful husband and the pink ribbon of course stands for finding a cure for breast cancer. So when you put them all together it comes to this: 2 1/2 years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer and instead of my world crashing in on me, I grabbed hold of my faith (in Christ) and began the journey of healing. I prayed and I stood and I had surgery. My husband was with me through every doctors appointment, biopsies, surgeries and recovery. He was with me as we prayed and believed. He was with me when I would break down and cry and He was with me when they told us that I didn't have caner anymore and Christ was with us every step of the way. My tattoo is my way of saying thank you to Christ and to my husband, the ribbon is to remind me what I am saying thank you for. Every time I see it I remember the journey, but mostly I remember the victory. I am blessed, not perfect, but blessed. After this journey through cancer my husband and I are so much closer and we were close before. We appreciate the little things about each other, do we still argue, of course, it's fun to make up. We remember that life could come to an end with one diagnoses so we appreciate every moment that we have together and Tuesday we will be celebrating 26 years together. I know that many women are not as fortunate as I am, that they not only lose their health but their husbands as well, so I am always thankful for all that I have been blessed with.

Dog or Cats

Dogs are the best, I have 2 of them. Sophie is 2 and 1/2 pound Teacup Yorkie and Chief is an 85-90 pound German Shepherd. They are the best. I keep a Sophie's hair up in a ponytail. My granddaughter Zoey loves Chief, every time she comes upstairs she has to see Chief, she wants to see Chief while she is eating. She comes to have us pick her up just so that she can see Chief and Chief comes to the fence so that Zoey can see him.

Zoey is real gentle with Sophie and they chase each other around the living room, it is hilarious. Sophie of course is a lap dog, she wants to be with her people all the time. She thinks anyone that comes over to our home comes to see her and she will do whatever she can to get their attention.
I have a pink purse to carry Sophie around in, the only problem is that she gets car sick really easily and I have to give her dogie Dramamine if I want to take her with me, unless we go in our friend RV and then she is fine. She loves other dogs we just have to be careful because if they step on her that would be the end of her.

My husband wants a Harley and right now we are working towards one, so in the meantime I went and bought Sophie along with a T-shirt for dogs that said Harley Davidson on it, I put it on her and when my husband came home I handed Sophie to him and said here honey here is your Harley, of course we had a good laugh.

I so prefer Dogs over cats, I don't want an animal that uses a litter box and then jumps up on the table I eat our meals on or the cabinets that I prepare food on, even though I have disinfected them I still don't like the idea. Our dogs bring much joy to our family and I wouldn't want to be without one. I wish Sophie didn't get sick because I would love to take her with me all the time. I could even bring her to class and no one would know that I had her with me because she is so quiet. I will have to add pictures of my dogs to this Blog.

Friends

Have you ever thought about the fact that your friends are the family that you get to chose. Many of us have so called family out there that don't even really know us, but then want to tell us what to do or judge what we are doing just because we are related by blood. Our friends however are those that take the time to get to know us, who share in our ups and our downs, who will take the time to pour into our lives and allow us to pour into theirs.

I am truly blessed to have friends that take the time to build a meaningful relationship with me, their are those who have been with me through some major struggles in my life, breast cancer being one of them (I had family who never even called to talk to me, with the lame excuse they didn't want to bother me) and those same friends are cheering me on as I am going to college at age 50 (while some of my family just wants to give me crap because I got a grant).

These friends of mine have loved me even when I have made mistakes, but so called family have sat back in judgement. I say shame on them. As you can tell I am still working through some of my feelings about some of my family, it is safe to say that I am truly pissed off at some of them. It would be nice if that could just be happy for us, because we have a full and meaningful life, but all of this is part of life, so you just have to decide how you are going to respond to it, at times it is like the grieving process and there are stages that you have to go through and right now I am in a little bit of a rough stage with some of it because of some recent events, so what I have to say is this, thank God for true friends. Thank God for those who will pick up the phone and call and say ok what is going on, because they have noticed that you have retreated or they will call and say let do lunch or some such thing, that means alot. Now don't get me wrong I have some family that does that too ( I won't say who because I don't want to hurt anyones feelings).

My friends know who they are and I just want to say to them Thank You and I love you and I can't wait to see where the next leg of our journey takes us.

Dear Shane

My dearest brother,

I can't believe that you have been gone since 1986. I still remember you like yesterday, your sense of humor, how you looked, but I can't remember your voice or your laugh, which makes me sad. I remember the ride I took in your MG and on some of your motorcycles, but not the one that took you from us. I wish you would have been here to meet my other children, however I did name my middle daughter after you, she has your sense of humor. You would be proud of how my life has turned around. I finished High School, I have been clean for 25 years and I am in college with my daughter who is named after you. Hopefully when I get to heaven I will be able to share these things with you. Bubba I am getting ready to celebrate my 26th wedding anniversary. So much has happened in my life since you were taken from us that I wish I could share with you. I don't walk around grieving but there are day when I still miss you so very much. God has been really good to me and my life is full, I just wish you were here to share it with. I still think of you as my big little brother because of all the times that you were there for me. I fought cancer and won, I fought addiction and won, and today as I am sitting here writing this to you I am healthy, healed and whole. I hope that you know this. It is hard for me to know what you are allowed to know up there in heaven or even if it matters. At least I know my 2 children that are in heaven as well are with God and you, I can't wait to meet them. I have been in contact with my birthson and hopefully someday you will get to meet him to, depends on the road that his life takes. We have a beautiful granddaughter that you would adore. I have been in touch with Donna and she has turned into a fine young woman, you would still love her, she has remarried and is happy, so I know that you would be happy for her. Our sister is still a mess but hopefully she will get herself straightened out soon, she is on her way, at least I think so. Well bud I miss you and I love you and I look forward to seeing you again.

The Pool

I spend as much time as possible out at our pool in the summer. I read, I journal and I reflect as I lay out in the pool. When I was a Youth Pastor I use to get some of my best words for the youth when I was our at the pool. We try and have BBQ's during the summer, swim and just build relationships, of course as our kids were growing up the neighborhood kids knew where the pool was and of course we shared. I will lay in the pool and look up at the sky and try to imagine what God was thinking when He created this earth, and how He created the sun to feel as warm as it does upon our bodies and to kiss it ever so genly with just the right amount of color. I look up at the clouds to see what shapes that I can find in them. Over the years I have discovered that my pool is the best prayer closet that I have. I know that God is everywhere but I feel closer to Him when I am outside. This year it will be really special because our granddaughter is old enough to really have fun in it and we have some special floaties for her. I love being ourside in the pool, I gues that is why in the summer I get up early even if I don't have to so that I can get my housework done and what ever else needs to be done so that I can go outside. I love to sit outside on the deck and have my coffee in the mornings and if it is warm enough I will stick my feet into the pool and just enjoy the morning. I am choosing to take this summer off from school so that I can enjoy the pool, because once I finish school and open our business we will be busy for many hours a day, so I will enjoy while I can.

The Ocean

One of my favorite places to be is on the beach. I love the sound of the ocean and looking out upon its vastness. I can hear the power that is within the waves as they come rolling in and there is no sound as beautiful to me as the sound of the ocean. I love looking out and the ocean seems as though it goes on forever.

I can spend hours just looking out on the ocean. I love to just lay on the beach, read a book and enjoy the sounds and the smell. My husband and I love to take long walks on the beach, I guess at some point we should move somewhere there is a beach. Watching a sunset on the beach is spectacular. We try and go to the beach once a year.