Our WONDERFUL 44th Wedding ANNIVERSARY

Our wedding anniversary was yesterday, and we had a wonderful time celebrating it. Actually, we started celebrating on Thursday. The National Convention of Sacred Harp Singers was in the Birmingham area and we decided to go listen to some of it Thursday morning. We knew it would be loud, so we sat on the back pew as far away from the singers as we could get. It was still loud, but we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

The soundtrack from Cold Mountain is one of my favorites and had already peaked my interest in this form of music, but I was not prepared for the emotional reaction I had to many of the hymns. I cry much more easily now anyway, thanks to my medical condition, but there were several times that I had to fight back tears of emotion while we listened, particularly on some of the slower, more majestic ones. I cannot praise God enough for the wonderful improvement in my condition I have been experiencing for the last few weeks, and the music just brought all those emotions welling up to the surface.

We had expected to stay maybe an hour.... and ended up staying the whole day. There were plenty of breaks, it was easy to slip in and out to walk around for a bit, and we ate lunch there with them, too.

Then yesterday, which happened to fall on our normal Date Day, we ate out for breakfast. We both ordered what we wanted, with no regard for price or the amount of food they would serve. And we ate almost all of it, it was so good. We went to a few yard sales and one Estate Sale, did a little shopping, went to a movie, and then ate supper at a very nice restaurant not too far from our house - one that we don't normally go to due to the cost.

We told everyone we spoke to that it was our anniversary and how long we had been married, laughed, joked, and just generally had a wonderful time together. I think I was glowing like a new bride all day long. All that has happened to us medically the last couple of years, plus all the stresses of care giving that had accumulated just seemed to melt away. We were young again, dating. And it was a glorious feeling.

Family Memories Carnival Coming April 28

I'm hosting the BLOG VILLAGE Quarterly Carnival focusing on FAMILY MEMORIES! It certainly seems like an appropriate topic for this blog.

So, how about sharing stories of your childhood, or maybe how you met your spouse. Does your family have special bonding rituals? Do you have some "strange" family members who help to make your family unique? How about sharing lessons you've learned from past generations. Are you into genealogy? Does your family story include adoption, blended families, or divorce? You name it - if it has to do with your family, past or present, we'd love for you to share.

You can click the banner to ENTER. Feel free to copy for your blog!

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DEADLINE April 25 midnight
Will be online here on April 28th.
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Playing Football at IHOP

We went to see Spider Man this last Thursday, as my Mother's Day present, as we're both big fans of the comic book genre. Mind you, I still enjoyed it, but we were both disappointed with it. The plot just doesn't seem to be there. Without plot, the special effects held little suspense, and I didn't even think the bad guys were very interesting. Thank goodness, we enjoy being with each other, and that's what made it a good day.

We went to IHOP for pancakes as a late lunch, after the movie, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. And we did what we always do. We played football with a folded up soda straw wrapper. We've been thumping that little triangle of paper back and forth on restaurant tables ever since we started dating in 1960, and we still laugh and enjoy ourselves. We don't play it in fancier restaurants, and fast food places don't leave any time for it, but with Shoney's, Denny's, IHOP, and other restaurants of that type, it's just as much a part of eating there as the food.

And oh, what memories it brings back each time we play it. It seems to touch a place where young love was blooming, and we're always closer to each other after one of our "battles." DH almost always "wins," but we aren't really keeping score. It's the ritual that counts. The waitress was one of the talkative, interested ones, and she was flabbergasted when we told her we'd been playing that game for 47 years. People just don't stay married long enough any more to have those kinds of records in their lives. I never cease to be thankful for my wonderful marriage and the time I've gotten to spend with the love of my life. I am truly blessed.