My How Time Flies!

It seems just like yesterday. Walking across campus with my girlfriends, I could hear the voice on the loudspeakers waaaaaay over at the baseball fields where the University of Denver baseball team was playing. "Oh, there's Dan," I'd tell the girls, and they wouldn't believe I could tell who it was from so far away. Other people than Dan would announce for the games, you see, and there was no way of knowing ahead of time who the announcer would be -- so my friends were dubious. All they could hear was a voice on a loudspeaker, distant and garbled. But I knew when it was Dan; I'd bet them I was right, and I always was.

There's always been a connection there.  Even though I may have been all the way in the back rooms of our college newspaper offices, I knew when Dan walked in the front door. The hairs on the back of my neck would literally stand up. And my heart would pound. And I would wait for him to make his way back to where I was. (I know; it's disgustingly mooshy, kids, but it's true!)

But, here's the thing: eleven children and twenty-four years later, it's the same. I know when it's Dan calling my phone and very often pick it up to answer before it even rings. The door will open at the front of the house and I know it's him before I hear the sound of his feet on the floor. But then  I hear his distinctive voice, and there's no question it's him as he intercepts various small children -- teasing them and throwing them around a little --  Then I hear his footsteps in the hallway -- and I wait for him to make his way back to me. Which he always does. Dan has a way of kissing me with both hands on my cheeks that still makes my knees weak and my heart pound...  And I forget that we're not twenty-one years old any more. Who cares about the children and the laundry I'm folding, and the state of the economy and the world in general...

It's just me and Dan, the love of my life...

Followed by a caravan of children who want some more tickle fighting with Daddy and who want to know if it's snack time. So --alas! The spell may be quickly broken, but the kiss lingers in the air above everyone's heads.  And it's all good.

There's a place of stillness between two people who love each other where there is no interruption, no  past or future -- just a quiet knowlege of eternity. And a certainty of the rightness of it all.  Before Dan and I met an empty place waited in each of us for the other to fill. It was God's plan. And after we leave this earth, it will be to enter the eternity we've always worked toward together. One may leave first, but the other will follow. It's all good. It's God's plan.

I think it's this Breath of eternity that sent Dan's voice directly to my ear from the ball fields in college. And it's the same Breath that leads him to me wherever I might be hiding. And it's this Breath, blowing through our marriage that makes it possible to get through the stress of the big things, like bearing and supporting a large family, working through the issues of extended family relations, job loss, relocations, health problems... And the little dumb day-to day grievances, too --  like people who make coffee and dump coffee grounds all over the place,  and people who are so grumpy about sweeping up coffee grounds that they forget to appreciate the coffee...

But I digress... The point is that it's been a wild, amazing twenty-four years and the time has flown, but it's been good --  God is good. And I thank Him.  I am eternally grateful to have found this everlasting love.

Happy Anniversary, Dan. 

 I love you!

Howard Jones - Everlasting Love

Found at: FilesTube

If I should call you up, invest a dime...

Would you say you belonged to me and ease my mah-ah-ind?

Do you remember that song?

I've been sifting around through the lavendar-scented drawers of my memory, looking for all the old lost love songs I love the best.  If you look to the right in the sidebar, you can find my top six, a couple which are favorites for sentimental reasons and some I love just because they're beautiful. 

The first song on the list is Happy Together -- though it's being sung here by the wrong group.  And of course you know there's a story... Several of my girlfriends and I went to a concert of the acapella group The Nylons when they came to town in my junior year of college.  It was a really great concert.  We had so much fun.  The energy, the production, the fabulous music!  And so for about the next year, we played our Nylons cds over and over -- and over again -- at the newspaper office where we worked -- with Dan.  It drove him (and the other guys on the staff) NUTS, but we loved it.  Loved the music.  Loved driving the guys nuts.  Happy Together was one of our favorite songs.  My friends, Mary, and Leslie and I would stop whatever we were doing when that song came on, find each other and, swaying arm in arm, sing it at the top of our lungs right there in front of God and everybody -- and the sneering sports staff.

 ==sigh==
Happy memories.

 I think Dan has blocked the whole thing, but whenever I hear that song, I think of him -- and young us.  Ah, the happy carefree days of youth, and fun, and fledgling love...

What are your favorite love songs? Do you have an official "couple" song -- one that you call "your" song?  Is there a song that you love and your honey hates?

Another sweet love song -- this one by The Nylons.

A Banner Night

by Dan Davis

Hi, everybody.  First post on Lisa's blog, so let me say that I'm honored.

Regarding "Lisa's Finest Hour:" Many of the details of that particular night in October, 1985 have been lost to time, but the legend remains.  And even though I'm not honestly sure that Lisa and I have ever discussed the events of that evening in our 22 years of marriage (up until this week), it still feels like yesterday.

The University of Denver hockey program was emerging from a long period of apathy and slumber, and 1985-86 was a good year that would eventually land the Pioneers in the NCAA championship tournament (not yet called the "Frozen Four").  Early that season a group of us, DU students all, headed south to Colorado Springs to the old, small, low-ceilinged, smelly Broadmoor World Arena for a game against arch-rival Colorado College.

In Lisa's rendering of the story, she and I went down in separate group buses.  The Lisa legend actually begins on the trip down from Denver.  She was in possession of the most precious gift in the life of a college student:  valid ID as a 21-year-old, so on the trip down, she takes up a collection from her fraternity friends -- of which I was not one -- somebody convinces the bus driver to stop at a liquor store and Lisa makes a beer run (or was it wine coolers?) for the assembled masses.

In my rendering of the story, the two of us arrive arm-in-arm in a romantic, horse-drawn carriage, but whatever.  I was still short of 21, so the part about the valid ID and the illicit beer run was probably true, regardless.

Lisa and I both agree that, independent of how we got to the game, we did end up sitting next to each other.  In my version, it was by design.  In her version, it was more likely an accident.

That year, my roommate Greg and I had taken to spending our disposable time (which was abundant) and income (which wasn't) on creating enormous banners for the old DU hockey "barn".  The two of us created a phenomenon, via our most famous banner, that came to be known as the "Bleacher Creatures".  And OK, we'll take ownership of the giant "CC S****" banner that revived (created? doubtful) the famous cheer, but we plead the 5th on the dead squid and the frozen chickens launched onto the ice from the balcony following Pioneer goals!

For the CC game, though, we outdid ourselves.  Or rather, the mother of Greg's bride-to-be, Karen, did, creating a large, professional-looking banner in the Pioneer crimson and gold.  Man, were we proud of that banner!!

As the game gets underway, DU scores a goal and we're cheering and waving the banner like crazy, when suddenly there's a rustling in the seats next to me.  The banner's been snatched by a group of hoodlum CC students who are half-way across the arena before any of us knew what hit us!

So, I turn to Greg and ask him what we're going to do.  He's perplexed.  I turn back to Lisa, and...

SHE'S GONE.

I look down toward the ice, and there she is, marching after the hoodlums with the determination of a mother about to tweak her son's ear and call him by all three names -- you know the look?

By this time, the hoodlums are back in their seats.  So Lisa walks into the "belly of the beast," right up to the offending fan, looks him straight in the eyes, and says, "My friend's mother worked hard on that banner.  I want it back!"

To which the shocked fan looks at his buddies, looks back at Lisa, shrugs, and says, "OK". 

And hands over the banner.

Of course, by this time, the 3,000+ fans have turned their attention away from the game to watch the drama unfold.  Lisa walks back across the arena, alone, victorious, banner in hand, to a standing ovation (probably even some CC fans among those cheering).  The hockey team, obviously inspired by her heroics, cruises to victory over the Tigers. 

Or maybe not.  None of us actually remembers who won the game.

As we file out of the arena and back to the horse-drawn carriage, I can only remember thinking the same thing that probably half of the young men who made the trip down were thinking:

THIS is the woman I'm going to marry! 

Seven months later, I did.

H/T: Old friends,Greg and Karen, who e-mailed us the above pic of THE Banner, of distant and happily-remembered fame.

Pictureless Meme Day

Since I apparently have used up all the alloted space in my picture file for Blogger...  (Go figure; I never knew there was a limit!)  And since it takes 24 hours for the new space I purchased to appear...  (Because I can't live without pictures!) I'm interrupting my regularly scheduled Looking At The Sky On Friday post with this fun meme I found over at Therese's place!

The Spouse Meme

♥ What are your middle names
Bernadette and Mark

♥ How long have you been together?
22 years.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Well, I don't know if you could say we ever actually "dated" in the conventional meaning.  We worked together (crushing from across the computers and light tables at our college paper) for a good year before we admitted we liked each other...  I think we only "went out" once before we got married. 

♥ Who asked who out?
Well, actually a couple of friends of ours asked me out for Dan -- (Thank-you, Paula and Vee wherever you are).  Or, at least they convinced him that it would be the appropriate thing to do.  I don't remember the actual words Dan used, but I remember they were vague and I had to pump him to actually understand that I was being asked out on a date.  Bless him.  He was probably worried I'd say no, and was saving an out for himself.  Of course, once I understood I was getting free dinner, I said yes. 

Then, the date...  I expected Dan to walk me to the old stand-by college dive, Jonnny's, but Dan, bless him, had grander plans. Hoping to impress me maybe (?), he showed up to get me in an old jaloppy he and a friend  bought for $100. (Yeah.  Are you getting a mental image?) I've forgotten the make and model of that old clunker, but I do seem to recall  it was some dull and dreary shade of grey, and the engine sounded like it was trying to cough something up. Poor old thing. Though it tried valiantly and Dan, with hope in his voice, assured me it was a great deal for the price, the old car got only as far as the 'main drag" near our college and konked out in the middle of the street.  Goody. Thankfully, the direction we were going was somewhat downhill, because I had to steer while Dan pushed the car to the ice arena parking lot -- which was about six blocks away, but the closest place we could just park it and leave it.  I'm not sure how we made it there, but we did.  (Incidentally, I never did see that car again.  I have no idea what happened to it...)

But what to do now?  We didn't really want to go to Jonny's. Too many inquisitive friends there.  So we walked to a restaurant I'd heard the professors talking about.  I had a general idea of wher it was and knew that it was called something like "Reefers" or "Reevers."  So we set out to find it.  But it turned out to be farther away than either of us expected, and we ended up walking in circles trying to find it.  But, it was a nice walk through a pleasant neighborhood, and we eventually asked someone who steered us in the right direction.  So we did get to the restaurant, and we had a nice dinner, and only slightly uncomfortable conversation.  Then we walked all the way back to campus -- on a chilly Colorado spring night -- and I was wearing Chinese laundry shoes with no socks, so my toes were blue, but my heart was warm.  It was a wonderful evening, though, in spite of it all.  And Dan and I were married a year later.

♥ How old are each of you?
Dan's a year and a half younger than me, and I'm 45.

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most?
We see all of my siblings regularly, but especially my sister, Nina.

♥ Do you have any children together?
Ten on earth.

♥ What about pets?
Two dogs, unknown number of cats at this time, four goats, eleven chickens, one fish

♥ Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
In the rare case that we disagree on something, neither of us knows quite what to do. 

♥ Did you go to the same school?
Same college.

♥ Are you from the same home town?
Nope.  He grew up in Long Beach, CA, my family lived in Colorado when we met in college.

♥ Who is the smartest?
Hmmm....  I'll get back with you on that.  (No. Seriously.  Dan, by a long shot.)

♥ Who is the most sensitive?
Me.  But Dan has a tender heart, too.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple?
At home.  But for a treat, we go to BJ's brewery.

♥ Who has the worst temper?
Easy. Me.  It makes me mad that he doesn't have more of a temper.

♥ Who does the cooking?
Mostly me, but Dan is an excellent cook.  He's the family breakfast chef.

♥ Who is more social?
Me. Definitely.

♥ Who is the neat-freak?
Me.

♥ Who is more stubborn?
Me.

♥ Who hogs the bed?
Neither.

♥ Who wakes up earlier?
Dan does, in order to get into town for work.  But, on vacation, we wake at the same time.

♥Where was your first date?
Reevers or Reefers restaurant.

♥ Who has the bigger family?
Me.  I have six brothers and sisters; Dan has one brother.

♥ Do you get flowers often?
Yes.  I'm blessed that way.

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
The traditional holidays like Christmas and Easter, we spend at home with the family.  But, vacations together, Dan and I spend in the mountains.

♥ Who is more jealous?
Neither.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
About a year.

♥ Who eats more?
Gosh.  Hard question.  I'd say we're about even. 

♥ Who does/did the laundry?
I do.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Totally Dan.

♥ Who drives when you are together?
Dan.

The Ring

We have what we can call ordinary and extraordinary saints that make up the ranks of the Church Triumphant. The ordinary ones are the ones we can identify with, the ones that seemed to share our plight on earth, yet rise above it in holy but "earthbound" ways. These are the wonderful, somehow comforting saints not known for their miracles ~ saints like St. Maria Goretti , St. Francis de Sales, and St. Therese of Lisieux.

Then there are the extraordinary saints, ones that rise above the earthly in magnificent ways. Their examples go beyond piety to raise our minds to heaven; we see the power of God through them. These are the amazing saints known for their miracles, saints like St. Joseph of Cupertino, St. Martin dePorres, and St. Catherine of Siena .


Today is the feast day of St. Catherine of Siena, definitely an extraordinary saint.

She is one of the great and most unique souls celebrated by the Church: a Third Order Dominican, a writer of superb merit, a hermit, a mystic, a stigmatist, a civil and religious reformer, an incorruptible after her death, a saint known for wonders and miracles... The amazing story of her life is the stuff of legends. But the thing I always remember about St. Catherine of Siena is the ring.

You might remember that St. Catherine is one of the saints most highly favored in that she was one of the few who shared a mystic espousal to Our Lord ~ and when Our Lord took her for His bride, he gave her a beautiful ring.

Blessed Raymond of Capua, her confessor, documented that on the day of the espousal, St. Catherine was abstaining from the pre-Lenten feasting going on around her and was alone in her room "seeking through prayer and fasting the face of her eternal Bridegroom" when Our Lord appeared and said:

"Since for love of Me you have forsaken vanities and despised the pleasure of the flesh and fastened all the delights of your heart on Me, now, when the rest of the household are feasting and enjoying themselves, I have determined to celebrate the wedding feast of your soul and to espouse you to Me in faith as I promised."

Before He had finished speaking, His most glorious Virgin Mother appeared with the most blessed St. John the Evangelist, the glorious Apostle Paul, St. Dominic, the founder of the order, and the prophet David with his harp. While David played sweet strains on the harp, the Mother of God tood Catherine's hand in her own most holy hand and, presenting her to her Son, courteously asked Him to marry her to Himself in faith. The Son of God, graciously agreeing, held out a gold ring with four pearls set in a circle and a wonderful diamond in the middle, and with His most holy right hand He slipped it onto the virgin's second finger saying, "There! I marry you to Me in faith, to Me, your Creator and Saviour. Keep this faith unspotted until you come to Me in Heaven and celebrate the marriage that has no end."

OK, what do you say? Imagine being given away by the Blessed Mother, while King St. David plays the harp and St. Dominic and St. John look on. Picture Our Lady holding St. Catherine's hand, as Our Lord gently slips the ring on St. Catherine's finger. Wow.

The whole scene is unbelievably beautiful and miraculous, but, most touching to me, and most memorable (maybe because I'm just a very visual person) is St. Catherine's memento of the event ~ her wedding ring. Blessed Raymond tells us that, though the ring was invisible to everyone else, St. Catherine could always see it. What an an amazing, very personal reminder of Christ's love for her!

What an amazing reminder for us, too, though. In the ceremony of this mystical marriage, we see how much value Our Lord placed in the complete sacrifice St. Catherine made of her soul to Him, but we also get to see His complete understanding and sympathy for our earthly sensibilities. Our Lord surely didn't need to give St. Catherine a ring; she would have appreciated and understood their espousal without it. But Christ understands our human hearts. He knows how to touch us, and He knows how important visual symbols are for us. And a woman who has just been married really needs a wedding ring.

The wisdom of the Church, His wisdom, has always understood the power of symbols. This is part of the power and instruction of the liturgy and the sacraments, their value to us in their visual meaning. I love how the color of the vestments is an immediate hint about the feast or season, for instance. If you walk into church and see purple vestments, you think: penitential; if you walk in and the vestments are white, you think: must be a feast of Our Lady today! We can think of a sacrament and come up with an immediate image to go with it: Baptism - water, Holy Communion - Bread and Wine; Matrimony - a ring, and so forth...

But, I especailly love the symbolism of wedding rings.

* They are very often gold, because it is a precious metal valued for its purity and rareness in the symbolism of the Church. Did you know that the cup of all chalices used in holy Mass must be made of either gold or silver, but that the interior of the cup must be gold ? So gold has an association with gravity and sanctity. A golden wedding ring was also a promise of a new son-in-law to a loving father that he had the means to provide for his new wife.

* Another important symbol of a ring is its shape, a circle, the universal symbol for eternity.

* A wedding ring came to be worn on the third finger of the left hand to recognize the vena amori or vein of love, which was traditionally believed to have a direct path from the third finger to the heart, thus signifying a connection between life and love.

* Another old tradition connects the third finger with the Blessed Trinity. In medievel England, the bridegroom would slip the ring on each finger during the wedding ceremony, saying: In the name of the Father (on the index finger), the Son (on the middle finger), and the Holy Ghost (landing on the ring finger).

I think any faithful woman would agree that her wedding ring makes a circuit between herself, her husband, and God ~ a circle that passes through her heart. Christ understood the human importance of the symbol when He slipped the ring on St. Catherine's finger, and it was important to Him because He loved St. Catherine.

I look at my wedding ring when I think of St. Catherine and remember this all encompassing love: me for my husband, him for me, and God's love for us both. It's all right there. My wedding ring is not mystical in itself, but its meaning is. My calling is not as extraordinary as St. Catherine's, but it's just as important in God's scheme. And though I've not come remotely close to perfecting my love for Christ as St. Catherine did, He loves me just as He loves her. And His plan for me is all in the ring.

In my station, it's all about unity in marriage and commitment to the duties of wife and mother. And it's all wound up with saving souls ~ maybe on a small scale compared to St. Catherine, whose life affected thousands ~ but it's all of eternal importance, just the same.

For St. Catherine of Siena, the ring said it all, and it does for me, too.

St. Catherine, pray for us!

Happy Anniversary to my Wonderful Husband

In lieu of a real card...

There aren't words, really, my dearest. But these are close.

Make that twenty-one years ago...

Our oldest son, Paul, put this video together for us for our twentieth anniversary last year. Didn't he do a good job? The first part is the two of us, my honey and me; the second part is what we started... child by child, oldest to youngest. I just love it, and watch it sometimes just for a cheering up. It puts things in perspective for me, helps me remember what it's really all about.

For those family members who missed it last year, and for those new friends I've made here on the internet... this is a pretty good representation of us, as we've all grown up together.

Seven Things, Somewhat Random

Charming Ouiz at Chez Quiz snuck up when I wasn't looking and tagged me for a Seven Random Things Meme! I did one not too long ago, but these are really fun, so I don't mind at all being tagged to do it again!

Except, I'm disobeying the rules a little bit...

Here are the rules:

1. When tagged place the name and URL on your blog.
2. Post rules on your blog.
3. Write 7 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
4. Name 7 of your favorite blogs.
5. Send an email/comment on their blog letting them know they have been tagged.

Here are my seven random things. They're not exactly random, and they're more along the lines of nonimportant quirky little things that happened during a somewhat important time in my life:

1) My husband and I will be one year into our "Next Twenty" years of marital bliss this Friday, the 2nd of May, but we're so booked with unexpected and prior engagements, that we likely won't see each other until next week. But, at this time of our life, we're ok with that. We're holding out for the big kids to be back from school, so they can babysit and give us a good long weekend away sometime the first of June. Good things come to those who wait.

2) Ours was the first wedding after quite a long time in our small chapel twenty-one years ago. We had no wedding planner, no caterer, and no money. We were not practiced in the art of weddings at that time. Nobody remembered, for instance, that my veil was supposed to be flipped over my face before the wedding march. So, I marched out there, brazenly bare-faced. It was a sign of things to come.

3) My Mom picked my dress, my bridesmaids' dresses, the flowers, everything. It's a good thing she didn't mind, because I so did not care about any of it. All I wanted was that handsome, pale young man at the front of the church. Didn't care how it all came about. Just wanted him.

4) We were supposed to borrow a good friend's jeep to drive the few blocks from the chapel to my parents' house for the reception. It just tickled us to think of my veil flying behind us in the open air jeep. Unfortunately, that was not a memory we were destined to have. It rained. Buckets. (Which is good luck, isn't it? At least that's what everyone was saying at the time...)

5) Since it rained, the "overflow" of guests into the yard and patio at my parents' house, had nowhere to flow over. Every person we ever knew was packed into my parents' house. Elderly parishoners mingled with frat brothers, my little brothers and sisters played under the table with bridesmaids. Our parish priest rubbed elbows with our newspaper friends. It was insanely crowded and muggy. And the DJ didn't show up. But I have never been to a more purely fun reception in my life.

6) Our wedding day coincided with the 113th running of the Kentucky Derby and I desperately wanted to see the race, thinking that the winner would hold some kind of deep significance, it being our wedding day and all. But, I managed to miss it because I had a wide hoop skirt, under my victorian-style wedding dress, and due to the raucous pressing crowds, I was trapped on the stairs for most of the afternoon. It didn't occur to me until later that all I had to do was take off the silly hoop and loop up the back of the skirt. Duh! (Though I heard the roar of the crowd downstairs near the tv at the end of the race, I don't know, to this day, what horse won. I should google that!)

7) When it came time to cut the cake (which was the center of much amusement throughout the reception because the bride-and-groom topper insisted on leaning drunkenly to one side regardless of how many helpful guests shoved them up straight...) Anyway.... You know that part where you take the cake and offer the first bite, each to one another? You know how it is the custom in some uncouth circles to smash that first bite into the face of the newly assigned "better half"?

Well, I didn't. And he did.

But, my wonderful father-in-law (to whom I shall remain forever indebted) protested that he didn't get a good picture of my first attempt, and gave me another opportunity. (Isn't he truly wonderful?) So I got my groom the second time around.

And then I got him again last year on our twentieth anniversary... So much for couth.


Anyone serving any cake this year??
Now my seven favorite bloggers! How 'bout Cathy, Bia, Wendy, Kaila, Joann, Nicole, Matilda, and Laura.

Another Version, Ladies...

...of the Billie Holiday standard in my sidebar.

I love Billie, but Harry... Oh, Harry ~ what can you say?

Pleasant on the eyes and ears, isn't he?

Celebrity Crushes

Does your husband feel threatened by your famous people preferences? Does it come up? We didn't actually even discuss whether this was an issue for us or not until we'd been married twenty years!

So I guess it wasn't an issue. He knows I'm wild about Harry. I know he likes... Who is it? Angelina Jolie? Or that girl that sings Bubbly? Oh, good grief. I don't even remember!

Can you tell celebrity "crushes" don't worry either of us? Maybe we're just too old, or maybe we're just sure of one another. He breathes in, I breathe out. That tingle of jealousy that might have come with youth or insecurity has been replaced with a sweet, comfortable knowlege.

I'm glad of it. The fire is settled contentedly on the hearth, bright and steady but livened up with an occasional, unexpected pop and sizzle. You gotta love that.

If Harry came knocking at my door, and somehow could overlook the children at my feet, the grey at my temples and the rings under my eyes... I say, if Harry came to my door, and was even half the air-brushed, suave, leading man he appears in his videos, and twinkled his eyes and dimpled that grin at me...

I'd offer him a cup of coffee and ask him about his children, find out if he was still a practicing Catholic, and I'd call my husband to tell him to come home quick ~ "You'll never guess who's at our house!"

Uncannily Accurate!

This describes my wonderful husband to a T!

Who is Your Ideal TV Boyfriend?

Created by BuddyTV

H/T Matilda

But, then there's this...

Check out how husbands and wives can live longer...

H/T to the always witty and on-top-of-things Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

PS: I'll likely live to be about 108, right Honey? Expressiveness is a trait I've got a serious handle on...

A Must Read

Elizabeth at Real Learning has some wonderfully thoughtful and wise words today about our roles as wives. Elizabeth's blog is one of my first morning reads every day. Her gentle and deeply Catholic take on life and schooling is always an inspiration!

This is the guy

who took on a herculean task twenty years ago

~ when it was just me

and he was the perfect, loving, kind and patient young husband.

Then within six years, he was (allofasudden) the father of four little boys

that he tickled and threw in the air to come bouncing down on the bed in giggling heaps.

And then seven years after that, he had four little girls

that he tickled and threw in the air to come bouncing down a little more gently maybe in squealing giggling heaps on the mattress.

Then, by our twentieth anniversary, God added two more little boys to this good man's quiver

that he tickles and throws in the air to come squishing giggling down onto the memory foam mattress which we now need for our bad backs.

This is the pancake maker, the drain fixer, the baseball thrower, the playhouse builder, the rosary leader, the financial genius who runs this family.

He is still the soul of charity and perfect kindness, gentleness and integrity that I had the great blessing to marry twenty years ago.

Today is his birthday!

A birthday, by the way, that he proudly shares with our dear friend, St. Therese the Little Flower.

Boy, do we love him!

In honor of my husband...

Who did not feed it to the children, but who, himself, had chocolate cake for breakfast this mornin'.



via videosift.com

Is this the diet you were talking about, honey?

Just wondered.