Fifteenth Anniversary

Our fifteenth anniversary, August 26, 2009

Fifteen beautiful years...

Seven beautiful children...

One beautiful love!

Isn't God good!

The best part of our anniversary was in the morning--at home, our favorite place to be. The photo above was of our favorite breakfast --ham and cheese omelets with lightly sauteed mushrooms and salsa on top. The girls helped decorate the table nicely with tablecloth, candles and little vase of flowers from the flowerbed. Sam took the picture. Didn't he do a nice job of catching Rose in the background, who had caught the kitty, who had jumped up on Jonathan's arm just as we were getting ready for the picture? (How would you like to diagram that sentence?)

After breakfast, since Jonathan was actually home for a couple hours in the morning, I decided that part of my anniversary gift to Jonathan would be to clean his truck for him. (It didn't need any cleaning, of course!) So I got Sammy busy helping, and we cleaned up at least part of the truck. We had to leave all the piles of papers and other things that I didn't dare disturb, but by the time we had vacuumed the floor and scrubbed the dash, console and such places, that truck looked good enough to sit in. I also got a seat cover that I had bought a couple years ago but hadn't had the courage to try to alter to fit that seat. The seat belt was presenting a problem so that the cover wouldn't work. On this day, however, I decided to dare to cut a long slit in that brand new seat cover, stitch binding around the edges of the slit, and then sew four laces (from a dark blue shoestring I found and cut into four equal pieces) in place to tie the slit together once it was in place with the seat belt through. I was just amazed that it worked and looked nice in the end. (Sometimes things work, but don't look nice, so the goal is to make things work AND look nice!) Jonathan was so amazed when he came out and looked, that he said, "My goodness! I won't know how to act!"

I had to drop the children two different places before going out to eat with Jonathan in the evening. Here the children are making cookies (or intensely involved in watching) to take to Grandma's to help out for supper.

"Don't you dare take a picture of me licking cookie dough!"says Crystal.

Carrie, a different personality entirely, licked some on purpose for the record.

I dropped Sam and Rose at our neighbors, the Bookmans, so they could walk home through the fields at milking time to milk the goat and do the chores. I really appreciated them being counted on to do the work so their dad and mom could go out for the evening.
The other children stayed at Grandma and pa Lucas's. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa! They had to try to get the baby happy, and Grandma miraculously got her to take a few ounces of goat milk in a bottle.

So Jonathan and I were able to slip away for a couple hours. We first got into that truck (was I ever glad I had cleaned it!) and went to a lovely German restaurant, Edelweiss. Jonathan had purchased a $25 off coupon for just $4 off an internet offer last Christmas time, and we finally had a chance to use it. We asked for a quiet corner and got one. I ordered a chicken dish, and Jonathan a combo dish including bratwurst and mushroom sauce. My favorite part of the meal was the lovely plate of several kinds of German salads. And then, as you can see in the photo below...

The waitress, who had found out it was our fifteenth anniversary, surprised us by bringing us a complimentary plate of German chocolate cake and whipped cream with two candles! She offered to take a picture for us. What a lovely evening!

After that, Jonathan apologetically wondered if I'd mind if we stopped in at Home Depot before going home, as he had things he needed to buy for work that needed to be dropped off yet this evening for his guys to start work early in the morning. (Try diagraming that sentence, too!) I laughed. Boy, isn't Home Depot a great place to celebrate your fifteenth anniversary!! But I said, "The main thing is for us to be together!' And so Jonathan and his devoted wife went sailing into Home Depot together to finish out the evening! I admired how he walks along so resolutely and sturdily, with a straight back and skilled mind, knowing just where to go and what to buy in that great store of millions of items. (He said he was in that store almost every day for a year while working on two big jobs, so no wonder he knew just where to go!) I admired his shirt and his boots and his figure and his face and his beard and just everything about him. Boy, am I glad I married him 15 years ago! I still can hardly believe someone like me ever got married. There are so many prettier, smarter girls, but I, of all things, got married! Maybe it wasn't so much that I was so great, as that I showed Jonathan that I thought HE was so great, and he just fell for it!! Ha ha! Well, it just proved to me that marriage isn't about looks or smarts or things like that. It is about love, devotion, care, choosing God's will, looking for the best in others and--being willing to do things like spend part of your anniversary evening in Home Depot!

So, we checked out, and started outdoors, and then Jonathan groaned, "Oh, I forgot some things!" Yea! More time in Home Depot! I told him let's just go ahead and go back in and get them. It was good exercise. And that is exactly how we have been able to spend 15 years together and still be happy--we try to think of the other person, choose duty over pleasure when it's necessary (which is most of the time), and try to maintain a good attitude (or gain the victory over a bad one) even when things don't go the way we plan. Thank You, Lord, for giving us a happy marriage!

Odds and Ends

When Dad comes home with a trailer we children like to run to to the end of our dirt road and ride home on the trailer. Here we are in a trailer the night Dad brought home three bales of straw for the goat and a bathtub for one of his jobs.

Kitty seems to find Hannah a tasty plaything!

On Wednesday we had an outing in town. There's a candy shop near our church that gives free tours during the summer. We were not allowed to take pictures in the manufacturing plant, but we got this one in the shop with all the pretty candies. We are listening as the tour guide gives us a little history of the shop, which is called Patsy's Candies. This is before the tour. The lady gave us samples of caramel popcorn, saltwater taffy, and two kinds of chocolates. She explained how they made saltwater taffy. They had a huge popcorn popper but it wasn't being used while we were there. That would have been interesting to watch.We watched a worker put pieces of toffy on a rack on a conveyer belt. The peices of toffy went under a machine that covered them in chocolate. Then they went under a machine that covered them in crushed almonds. We saw another machine eat pieces of chocolate, then spit them out wrapped neatly in gold foil, with crimped edges, the way they are when we buy them. There were rolls of foil advertising different businesses. The tour was very interesting.

Free airplane rides at Meadow Lake Airport

Hello this is Sam. On Saturday Dad took us to the Meadow Lake Airport ten miles away from us. They give free rides 7 times a year. We heard that it is the busiest airport without a control tower in America. Here I am in a RV-8. The pilot, Lee Lesher, showed me how to go up, down, left, right, and let me steer a little by using a "stick."

This is Crystal. Here we three girls are before getting into our plane.
Crystal on the wing getting ready to get down after the ride.
With our pilot, Patricia Kelly, in front of her plane, a Piper Archer. Garret, a young man who works for Dad, works here too. He told Dad that the oldest pilot at the airport was seventy-two, but someone else said this lady was eighty, so we don't know for sure. It wouldn't be polite to ask her! Last year we came for a free ride, and Carrie and I went with her that time! Children under eight have to go with an adult other than a pilot, and Mom wasn't ABOUT to risk her life riding in an airplane (Dad was at work), so only we four oldest could ride.

Just a few more photos of us

Baby Hannah just being a darling! She loves to coo and giggle and "talk" to us.
Happy Baby--Happy Mama

One of my goals this summer was to just enjoy the baby. I sure am!

Lovin' bein' a western cowgirl!

My dear mom surprised me and sewed this lovely black, three-tiered western skirt that she sent in the mail to go with the western blouse Jonathan got me for our anniversary last year. In less than 2 weeks, we'll be celebrating our 15th anniversary! That is hard to believe! Between a new baby, six older children, and a goat to milk twice a day, I'm not sure how or where we'll be able to celebrate, but we will try to do at least something special.

We're also making plans to go back to Illinois the first week of September to the second Morley Family reunion since my sister Kezia's wedding. I haven't seen most of my family for two years. It will be great to reconnect. We'll be getting together at the Pilgrim Holiness Campground where my brother-in-law Craig Bradford is the caretaker--I almost said undertaker! He does a super job of that undertaking, (see why I almost called him an undertaker!) and I am eager to see the improvements he's made there. I'm also eager to see my sister's newly remodeled home and my folks' home that I've only seen pictures of. The children are really excited about seeing all the cousins. We hope everyone will be there except probably Elon's family who are in Mongolia.

Aunt Iva's family comes to visit

It was great to have Aunt Iva (Anna's sister) from Pueblo West and her children here for Rosie's birthday. We managed to get them altogether with some of our children here in our front yard.

The children all love to ride up in Uncle Jon's dump trailer with Jonathan at the controls. We just heard that Uncle Jon McVey was pretty badly hurt yesterday when his truck was accidentally left in neutral and rammed him, leaving him with a broken ankle and messed up knee and toes. He'll probably be laid up for weeks. And he was supposed to fly to Ukraine with Jonathan and a Mission Helps team in late October. So I'm sure he would appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery and to be able to make up his work.

Sammy and Kenny are supposed to be washing and rinsing dishes. Kenny takes a little break to demonstrate to Sammy part of a story. "This is how to kill a pig!"

I couldn't resist this little scene: Cousin Sarah holding hands with Danny and taking a little walk to the wishing well to pour water in it. They're both about the same age.

We spent a couple days working at painting school desks and sanding and varnishing the seats. How different they look from the ugly, scratched, brownish color they were! Why do they make school desks such ugly colors? Jonathan told us what paint cans to use, and the children and I set to work spray-painting those desks. It was a harder and longer job than I expected as I was not used to using spray paint. Paint would drip down, and I didn't know how to prevent that, or how to fix it. Trying to fix it sometimes made it worse! Oh dear! So please don't look too closely if you come visit us. Just pretend the desks were this way when we got them. At least, after doing our best and getting tips from Jonathan, we managed to get them halfway satisfactory. The children loved making those desks pretty and the seats shiny with varnish. We used three different colors for each desk, which, of course, contributed to making the task harder than we expected. But they look so cheery now. I am always thankful for the opportunity to teach my children new skills, even if it is through trial and error on my part!

Rosie's Birthday

The three girls are knitting while Hannah watches.
Rosie made her own Melt-in-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake. It was delicious!Her birthday cake was decorated with edible roses.

Rosie's favorite birthday gift was this little kitten from Aunt Iva's family.

Sophie the mischievous kid

Naughty Sophie got in the house and jumped onto the couch!
Carrie chasing the naughty kid out the front door.
Yesterday Jonathan caught Sophie taking a nap on the old riding mower seat.