Father's Day

Father's Day is Sunday.

My dad and I have a lot of great memories together.  I get a lot of my nerd-iness from my dad- in a good way of course.

I like PBS shows because of my dad.  We grew up watching Nature and Nova and Masterpiece Theatre we were learning all kinds of things about the world. 

I like camping and being outdoors because of my dad.  Dad was always an outdoorsy guy and took us camping and to state parks.  I love that we had that as a family.

I love to work puzzles because of my dad.  Dad and I used to always have a puzzle going.  The more pieces the better.  One time we even flipped it over to the blank side and worked it that way!

I like music because of my dad.  Dad always had some kind of country or folk type music playing.  He knew all the words and could just belt them out.  Some of my favorite memories are singing songs in the car together on long trips.

I love to read because of my dad.  Dad was a big time reader.  Anytime he was sitting or laying down, he had a book in his hand.  I learned to love poetry, history, biographies, and the encyclopedia because of him.

My relationship now with my dad is drastically different.  Alzheimer's has taken him from us in so many ways.  He's still in there.  He still has his laugh and his smile.  I'm learning how to relate to him now.  Things are different but he will always be my dad.  And for that I am most grateful.

I am who I am today because of him.

For a glimpse of his writing--check out this book of his stories!

Happy Father's Day!

Marriage vows

I have 2 different co- workers that are getting married this year. Weddings are such sweet, romantic times and it got me to thinking of the marriage vows.

A vow is a solemn promise.

Larry and I will be married 29 years this year!  Twenty nine years ago we stood before a small group of friends and said our vows.

What did we vow all those many years ago.

To have and to hold from this day forward,
Ok, this is one I didn't fully understand when I got married.  Larry is definitely a cuddler.  His love language is touch.  That is far from my love language.  So I'm still working on this one.

for better, for worse,
The better--travelling, hiking, camping, geocaching, kids, babies, friends, kite flying, watching the moon rise, star gazing, laughing till my stomach hurts

The worse-fighting, raising teens at times, other stuff that nobody wants to remember or talk about and is way too personal to list here.  Yes, the bad stuff happens.  Sometimes it's so much worse than you could ever imagine or anticipate. 

for richer, for poorer,
I'll have to admit the richer is so much better.   But it was all those years of scrimping and saving and having an eat out limit of $2 each, that got us to this point.  Larry has always had a long term outlook.  We have always been pretty big cheapskates and that has allowed us the freedom now to spend a little more freely and bless others too.


in sickness and in health,
We've had our share of sicknesses and illnesses, broken bones and trips to the emergency room, surgeries,  strange swellings, rashes and other oddities

Otherwise we've been fairly healthy! Now that we are treating our whole bodies with nutrition and other natural methods, both of us rarely get sick any more.


to love and to cherish, 
When we first married, we had to define what love was.  We decided that it was first and foremost commitment, then there is friendship love, and then the "woozy woozy" love.  We might not always feel the woozy or the friendship, but the commitment is always there. 

Looking up the definition of cherish-- it means to hold something dear, to protect and care for lovingly.  Yes, Larry most definitely does this for me.


till death do us part,
We've been through the deaths of all my grandparents, Larry's dad, my mom, my niece.  Death is really hard.  It makes you realize how you want to live.  Death is something we will all experience.  I don't know what I'll do when Larry's gone.  I always joke I'll move to Fiji!  Maybe I will who knows! 

Contrary to popular belief today, vows do mean something.  It's not a one time deal.  I fail all the time.  Even after all these 29 years, I still have so much to work on.  But it's neat to see how far we've come.   It's even neater to see where we are going.