Oh Look Lindy!

I have slightly rosy cheeks after just moderating a comment from dear Elaine who asked "OK...Where Are You??" I must confess, I am honored to be missed. It's been a crazy week. I've no better answer than that. I could tell you I've been taking our dear friends here from Up North to see the beaches, spending lovely bits of time at SeaWorld, the Zoo and other fun spots here near Sunny... But that would just be bragging on how wonderful things are here in Southern California. Especially if I told you how absolutely beautiful the days have been without a cloud in the sky and completely perfect weather.... You just might end up not wanting to hear my accounts of life in this house any longer.

But ~ I will go ahead and tell you as I do owe dear Elaine an apology. I've also found myself without a camera once again as JJ has taken ours back to University. (My birthday is coming and I promise to ask the Birthday Fairy for a nice new little 8 pixel or mb or such.) Back to the visitors....

We've had a lovely time chatting about where life has taken us as we've not been able to visit face to face for twenty-five years. Seeing your college buddies after years is always a delightful event. There's something unique about seeing that same youthful spirit now enjoying life with grown-up obligations. I think Heaven may be a bit of the reverse... We're going to see our someones with a youthful exuberance and joy without the burdens of a lifetime. Doesn't that sound intriguing??? Oh, dear. I've gotten completely away from explaining to Elaine where I've been lately...

The night before our good friends were to leave to go back to Up North (at 5 am) we found ourselves looking through old crickety-crackety photo albums of a trip I'd taken to visit my friend Lindy at his home back in 1981. They were amazed I could find these photos, and DJ reminded them ~ she keeps everything... These dear friends had found each other years later than when this photo had been taken, (now here's the Paul Harvey-rest-of-the-story section) but in one of the pictures we found, Lindy is standing next to his bedroom dresser right beside the bottle of cologne his future wife had given him as a Christmas present when they were young adults and he was a busy young guy home from college. What a priceless photo!

Lindy with the Jovan Musk Oil.

I have a feeling he may be getting another bottle for Christmas this year...

Looking Ahead...

I need to write more in-depth posts here. I suppose I will "when the Lord leads..." (that's a saying from my childhood.) But I keep finding these great things to pass on, so for now, I'll just take it that it's my calling to be a spot for a smile. How's that! Perhaps when it starts to snow and we're brewing cider I'll have more deep heart-warming posts that move you to ponder truth deeply. In all honesty, usually the smiles I share are designed to do the same thing. But that's just between us, o.k.?

DJ was looking through some material at church this morning. He handed me this paper and commented, "This is absolutely the best advertisement for a Sunday morning class I've ever seen."

Attendance should be outstanding.

Hugs!

#377

Once again...Jon has done it once again...it's a must read. Truly. Especially if you've grown up attending church with a married minister of music. If you've grown up Catholic, you could probably go to another blog and be more appropriately amused, but if you've been raised Baptist, Assemblies of God or maybe even Church of God, you do not want to miss this one. Especially if you had a minister of music who's wife did a lot of solos....

Stuff Christians Like - # 377.

Almost Like Christmas

It seemed like an average Thursday yesterday...off to work, trying to get the phone situated (we have a new hands-free law here) and the sun was shining (I really love living in Sunny) on the drive in to the beach...

Mid-morning a new friend came by to help organize some things at the church and we just had a hoot of a time. We cleaned and cleaned, laughed and laughed and then went for a great little lunch just down the street listening to the seagulls the whole time. Later, and much to my delight, I picked up a box from the main office. It was a nice gift pack of ceramic stuff that came as a freebie! How fun! Then I opened a letter from another dear friend with photos she sent and a card to cheer my heart. Mid-afternoon, JJ phoned to say he'd made it and was unpacking at the University --- safe and sound. And then finally....here's the drum roll...boom, boom, boom, I received a delightful gift book and card from none other than Elaine at Peace for the Journey. I recently 'won' this book on her blog, but the note just made me teary-eyed. I opened up my e-mail later and had such delightful messages from friends near and far --- and thought, just like Pooh does when he thinks aloud --- "This is just like Christmas today."

So today, just because, I'm going to do everything I can to pay it forward so to speak... A little Christmas in August might be just what we all need.

What a Wonderful World

Does anyone out there remember when this is the way we approached every morning? "Well, look-y there! It's a great big wonderful world and we're going to make our place in it!"

JJ and Honey are set to arrive back at the University today. If you're a faithful reader here at Grace Today, you know they are recently engaged. They have so much to plan...the colors, the flowers, the date, the music, the minister, the dinner, the guest list. I'm sure there will be far too many lists. But that is part of the fun --- right? We've already assured JJ that there will be many, many, many conversations about these plans. He'll see magazines he never knew were in existence, we're sure. We pray for them every day, of course. One of our prayers is that the next year will be delightful and full of joy. And we'll let you know the colors they select as soon as possible...

...

from Lamentations, Chapter 3, 21b - 23:

and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Life is Good

Aren't these guys handsome? It does seem that JJ has just passed up his dad in height, but they wouldn't do the 'back-to-back' thing and let me measure....

We had the most blessed summer and it was wonderful to have JJ home. He was able to work with DJ out on the site (DJ builds large homes) and they carpooled (or truck-pooled). JJ learned how to use a few new tools and DJ was able to introduce his son all 'round. What summer job could be better than that!

Thankfully we have our friends here from Up North and we're out and about all over Sunny for the next few days --- or we would be very, very sad. We still have some tears inside, but at least we have a good diversion. Master Max moped all around the house yesterday as JJ loaded up his stuff into the car. But then we got out the "Happy Machine" to grill steaks for dinner. Max went to bed quite happy.

And we know JJ made it to the first stop on his journey just fine. We knew he would, but you still like to get that call. We know he'll get there in good shape and have lots of fun on the drive out this week... Just like we know God has all his days planned out and He will be with him always... God even knows who is actually the tallest in our family...

Out to Lunch

We've had a lovely time this weekend visiting with some good friends who are here from Far Away. We're showing them all the sights in Sunny and laughing more than is probably legal. As JJ is loading up this morning to take off for University, it's been a good distraction as we usually get fairly teary-eyed to see him go.

Saturday we drove down to the harbor and amazingly passed by four weddings that were taking place there. Four! We chuckled at the first one and by the time we reached the last one --- well, we were just plain laughing out loud. You see they were all set up with flowers, rented chairs, arches, djs, buffets and all the trappings of formal weddings --- in places like parking lots, grassy areas just off the highway and, ridiculously, the last one we passed was in the middle of a traffic island. (I kept looking around to see where I should be smiling for the camera.)

As we were watching the wedding party having all their photos made in the middle of the traffic island, we heard the rumblings of a large truck. The wedding had obviously just ended. And there it came....Raphael's Party Rentals. They pulled up right behind the Bride & Groom, Moms & Dads and all the kin folk. Next thing we knew, they had carts loading up the flowers and pulling out the chairs from underneath Grandma.

The wedding just across the road on the lawn of the nice restaurant was just starting, so I'm sure they were watching the big truck also. But then again, maybe the two weddings were sharing the flowers....

We had a nice Sunday lunch with our friends yesterday. After I loaded the photos on the computer, I realized how much everyone here in Sunny is getting into the Olympic Spirit....

(DJ and our dear friend from Up North)

Back to Reality

Yes, our weekend was delightful and JJ is now packing up to go back to University out East. Or out West, depending on where you're reading this with your coffee and crumpets. Our dear Aunt Lu is coming over for dinner tonight and I needed to stop in at the Big Box store for a few things for our dinner.

I was searching and searching for something that seems to be moved every month. Not moved just across the aisle or up or down a shelf, but they must have some sort of goal to reach for using man hours to move things in that Big Box store. The stuff I wanted wasn't near the office supplies like they were in the last visit. It wasn't by the sunglasses like they were the previous month, or near the cds wrapped like gold from Fort Knox even. Nope.... when I found an employee after (well, I don't need to share that much of my frustration today) he told me I needed to look in the Christmas section.

Yes, I wrote that correctly. The Big Box store has Christmas goods out. Not a lot. But still, it's August 7th. I suppose out here in California, I should rejoice that he was bold enough to refer to it as the Christmas section. The Christmas cards are always under a sign that says, "Holiday Greetings."

I almost looked for some Christmas ribbon --- just to have on hand, but stopped myself. I'm not giving in. At least not until JJ is back at school, and we're finished with our summer visitors...

A Perfect Weekend

Some things are worth waiting for... We are so happy to share the news that JJ & Honey became engaged this weekend. I told them I would wait for them to post it on their various posting spots and I've tried really hard to be patient the past 48 hours.

The ring is beautiful, almost as beautiful as Honey --- no actually, she outshines it completely. And JJ is standing just a tad taller, I believe. We had a whirlwind for a few days, doing our best to help JJ surprise Honey. I think it worked. We went to a wonderfully romantic event last Friday night and then Saturday was the big day. She, however, thought DJ and I were completely absorbed with our household chores and I'm sure she wondered a time or two why we weren't interested in spending the afternoon with the two of them... I think she's forgiven us now.... DJ and I are so relieved we were able to pull off the surprise of having her parents here (from her home town a few hours away) to greet her as they walked in to 'tell us' the news. Too much fun ~ it's just too much fun!


Dear Honey & JJ,
We're praying God's richest blessings will always be with you.
We love you! Grace & DJ

Blogland

Is it just me? It seems like the activity in Blog Land is way down. My dear friend who hosts Beloved Mama has actually posted "On Hiatus until August 10th." Where are the pictures of the lil' ones throwing household items into the toilet? Where are the memes? Where are the awards? Where are the Word-Filled/Wordless Wednesday photos??

These are questions I must ponder over the next few days. I can visit Peace for the Journey and Life and Times of Life at Home, or Joy of Desserts, I suppose. They have all been faithful bloggers through the summer. I just hope my wonderful friends who have moved to Kentucky, hosted VBS' and taken trips all across the country with their lil' ones have taken lots of photos and written down all the stories of the humorous adventures with family, and visiting the Corn Palace in South Dakota, because we bloggy friends need our bloggy friends.

"On Hiatus." "Oh, bother." xox, my friend...