Why I Started the New Year With 1000 Kicks

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Every year on January 1 our karate class practices a Japanese tradition called Hatsu Geiko. We all gather at our dojo to perform 1000 kicks together. After every 100 kicks our Sensei would ask someone randomly to tell what motivates them to keep on going to karate class even when they know it’s going to be hard.

I just knew she might call on me if I didn’t think of something to say. So the whole time I was kicking I was writing my answer in my head.

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My husband and I have been married 16 years. When we first met we were skinny little things. My husband had taken various martial arts off and on before we had met.

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December 2009 (Left to Right): Jonathan, Joshua, Ruth, and Hannah

Then married life hit us along with good cooking and bad eating habits. I don’t have very many pictures of those days. When we were expecting our second child, my husband would come home from work and just lay down on the floor and let our almost two year old son just crawl over him. That was all the energy he had back then. He knew he needed exercise. So he joined a Tae Kwon Do class. I just watched.

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Our karate class in January 2011

Then we were faced with a move a few months later after our daughter was born. We didn’t join any courses for a while but then my husband wanted to find another class in our new location. He found one that met at a YMCA and we both joined that time. My parents watched the babies while we went one night a week to karate classes.

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Mommy and Elijah during Haitsu Geiko January 2011. He was about 10 months old.

We moved again! This time we didn’t find another dojo for a while. I started gaining a lot of weight. I wanted to have a 3rd child but it didn’t seem to be the Lord’s will.

I was depressed! I tired easily. My back and neck both hurt.

After about a year of being depressed, I decided to see a doctor. According to his diagnosis there was nothing wrong with me.

I gave up.

Most of the time giving up is a bad thing. This time it was good.

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Our Family Summer of 2010

 

 

I quit worrying about not having another child. I decided I would just be happy with the two I already had.

I joined a local exercise place for women. I started losing weight. My husband decided he wanted to lose weight as well and found another martial arts school.I could have just let my husband do Martial Arts while I continued my own routine. However I had read in a Marriage book once that it was good for wives to participate in their husband’s hobbies. I decided to join him in Tae Kwon Do.

Then came Baby #3.

Then we moved!

Yes, we moved again. This time my husband had a very physically challenging job so he didn’t really need the extra exercise. I was expecting our 4th baby and decided walking up the stairs where we lived was exercise enough.

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Our Family March 2012 just before Elisabeth was born.

Then we moved again! This time we moved to our present location. We lived here for about a year and a half before I decided we needed to find another place to exercise.

It was about the time Hannah was 4 and wanted to be a football player. I knew she needed a sport and the rest of the family could use some exercise as well. I talked to my husband and he started calling martial arts classes in nearby towns. That’s when we found our present karate family.

Now what keeps me going to karate class?

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We had our family picture taken with Nobuaki Kanazawa in June 2012 at a SKIF seminar held in our dojo.

I’m not exactly what people imagine in a martial artist. You look at me and you see a mother with a whole bunch of kids! I’m not exactly the karate kid. I didn’t even do sports in school.

I do this because I believe that it’s not only good for me to join my husband in the hobbies he enjoys. It’s also good for us to teach our children that we can do things as a family. If mom is sitting on the sidelines or going shopping while the rest of the family works out what message am I giving my kids?

I think that we mothers need to have fun with our families. Even as I get older I can show my kids that I can still have fun.

How about your family? Is there a hobby that y’all enjoy doing altogether as a family? If not can you think of something you can start doing together? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear what your family does together for fun.

I am setting my goals on a monthly basis this year. I have a few goals for the year but mostly I’m going to reevaluate monthly. So for the month of January I’ll be trying to post two blog posts a week. I also plan to write one devotional a week. I also plan to write one short story book.

And that’s just my writing goals. I have plenty of family goals for this year as well. Including keeping the dishes out of the sink. Laundry is a whole nother matter. I think I can. I think I can.

Sign up for my free email updates in order not to miss anything. Happy New Year!

 

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Reflections on 2012

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Well, I wrote this last night but in my tired state of mind I didn’t hit publish. I fell asleep instead. Hmm… Maybe I should add not writing while tired to my New Year’s Goals. 

The end of another year quickly approaches. Right now I want to take a short moment and just look back at the past year. We have had so many blessings and I’ve learned so much from the things God has given us this year.

Our Newest Addition in 2012

I think one of our biggest blessings this year was the addition of Elisabeth Rose to our family in May. It almost seems that she has always been here. She just fits right into our family.

I’m so glad to have a husband and children that love our growing family. None of our children are at all upset at having another sibling. In fact they are surprised to hear when someone decides to not have any more children. They love every new baby that is added to our home. They also love each other and are each other’s best friends.

Kids and Mom at Church

Am I overwhelmed with this many children? If I am, I’m overwhelmed with love. My husband teases me that I never knew that I’d be this popular one day. I have no idea how I can love so much. Maybe it’s just practice. I have so many children to love that with each new child my love just grows even more. And as each one gets older my love for them grows with them.

I love how my 14 year old is growing into a man. Joshua is a hard worker. He loves his siblings and is so helpful. He has been showing great work ethic and has been keeping up with his education.

Our Family Picture in May

My 12 year old has grown into a beautiful young lady. Ruth, affectionately known as “Woofie” by her younger siblings, is such a good big sister. If I am busy with one child and another needs attention, she is right there with open arms ready to hold whichever little one needs holding.

Hannah is now 7 and is also growing up so fast. She was very happy the day I let her hold Elisabeth while standing.. Hannah is also our Drama queen. We are never short of laughter in our home. If there were ever a sign of life getting boring Hannah would be the first to liven the place up.

Then there is Jonathan. He turned 5 in November and just suddenly grew up right before my eyes. One moment I thought of him as a little boy and suddenly I realized he is now a big boy. He does things so grown up. He is also very inquisitive. You never know what he will ask about a given thing but you know that the question is going to be serious.

Next is Elijah. We call him Jonathan’s shadow. Which is pretty fitting since Elijah just learned about shadows this year. He loves to copy his big brother. Most everything Jonathan says is echoed by Elijah. Elijah can make some of the cutest faces too. He’ll look at us with those big brown eyes and then if you have a camera he hollers “Cheese!” while squinting.

Our newest blessing, Elisabeth came into our lives this year. I turned 35 while I was pregnant with Elisabeth. My doctor gave me the “High Risk” speech. But then she informed me that she had to give me that speech but if I preferred to be treated as a normal pregnancy that she would. I chose to have less tests done while I was pregnant with Elisabeth. I didn’t want to know if there was any problem. If there had been we would have continued to have her and love her none the less.

Elisabeth on my shoulder

I am so glad I had her too. I have had the easiest time taking care of Elisabeth. I haven’t had any serious postpartum depression. I’ve only had a few crying spells but nothing relating to the care of Elisabeth. If I hadn’t had her I would have never known how easy a baby could be to take care of. She has her fussy moments but overall she is incredibly sweet.

Our Family Picture in November

Oh! Happy New Year everyone. Ha! I was trying to beat the clock in writing this post but I didn’t make it. I’ve blogged into the New Year. I guess that’s fitting. 🙂

I really have learned so much this year. I look back over all my blessings. There is my God, my husband, my children, my family, my extended family, my old friends, and my new friends. I have really gone over and beyond my goals for 2012.

This past year besides having a new baby. I joined a writing course. I created a new blog with my own domain name. I started a Facebook page at https://facebook.com/rocksolidfamily. I joined twitter  and pinterest. I learned to use MailChimp and Disqus. I even wrote my first ebook.

I accomplished so much this past year without even planning to. How much more could I have accomplished if I had been more intentional about it?

I have very happy memories of this past year. There were some sad and frustrating moments. But overall it has been a very good year.

How was your year? Do you have happy or sad memories of this past year that you would like to share? 

May God bless you and your family in 2013!

 

 

 

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“Heaven and Nature Scrooge”

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This was Elisabeth’s first Christmas. This whole week has been a grand adventure. I published my first ebook “The King’s Christmas Spider” the beginning of this week.

Christmas Eve the 4 and half hour drive to my parents took an extra hour with all the stops we had to make with one child throwing up. Hannah was sick Christmas Eve. She was also sick the day or two after Christmas. I was very glad that she seemed to be fine on Christmas Day.

During our regular bedtime prayers we all prayed that Hannah would start feeling better and that everyone would be healthy in Christmas Day. The Lord blessed and everyone felt fine.

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We never rush to open gifts on Christmas morning. We ate breakfast, talked with my brother’s family on Skype, and then we all gathered to open presents.

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The girls both received American Girl dolls. Joshua received a Legos Star Wars ship and an Air Soft gun. Jonathan and Elijah both received Legos and Avengers Costumes. Elisabeth received a few toys and baby bowls, spoons, and a cup.

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I got my husband an Unbreakable Umbrella and an alarm clock.

My sweet husband bought me a ukulele and a necklace.

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We watched several versions of The Christmas Carol during the course of our Christmas celebrating. Every year there seems to be some major misquoting of Christmas songs.
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I believe it was last year that Hannah kept singing “I wish Miss Merry Christmas. I wish Miss Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!”

This year it’s Jonathan and Elijah that have new words for “Joy to the World”. I guess they decided Ebenezer Scrooge needed his own Christmas carol.

They have been going around singing “Heaven and Nature Scrooge…and Heaven and Nature Scrooge.”

I guess “Heaven and Nature” sung at the right tempo sounds a little like “Ebenezer”.

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It makes me wonder what song will be mis-sung next year.

I should start recording some of these songs the kids sing. It’s fun for the kids to listen to themselves from when they were little.
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I really enjoyed writing a book with my children for Christmas this year. I’ll probably make writing a book and showcasing my children’s art as a regular Christmas tradition. I also have a book that my husband plans to help illustrate for next year.
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It’s been a good week. I have really enjoyed visiting with my family. Hopefully all illnesses are over.

How was your Christmas? I would love to hear what you did that was special this year.

There are only 3 days left in 2012. I’m going to try to blog at least two more times before the year is up.

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My First Book

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Merry Christmas, everyone!

We worked long and hard to get this present ready. This being Christmas Eve, I finished it just in time.

The King's Christmas Spider Ebook

I was so excited yesterday that I squealed like Hannah. I read my book to my kids and it met their approval. They were so happy that they were a part of my first ebook. I was impressed with the quality of pictures I got for their ages.

Anyway, I’m going to keep my post short and let you download and read my book. Just click on the picture above and download the pdf.

Let us know what you think. I’ll be reading your comments to my children.

 

 

 

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Conquering Fears

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A few of our children have a fear of animals. Anything furry with four legs causes Elijah to scream terribly. 


One day while we were waiting for Joshua to get done with his work on a nearby farm, the rest of the children and I decided to help by giving hay to the horses.





Hannah was pretty proud that she could climb up to the feed trough with her arms full of hay.

Jonathan declared himself a real cowboy. He also said that he was a real farmer because he was wearing overalls.

 

Then there was Elijah. The closer we got to the barn the more planted his feet became. 

I offered to hold him. He agreed. I put him on my hip and carried him into the barn. 



Then it happened…

A horse looked at him! 

He started hollering and screaming. You’d have thought I was about to feed him to the horse how he was carrying on.

Until his sweet big sister, Ruth, came to his rescue. She offered him her back. He was okay as long as his sister was between him and the horse. 

He would even take hay and throw it into the stall from her back. 

By the end, she had him standing on the ground throwing hay into the stall without anyone even holding his hand. Now that’s pretty good!

And what did Elisabeth think of it all?

Well, she didn’t seem to mind his hollering. And was pretty happy to watch the others feeding the animals. 



Maybe we’ll get Elijah over his fears before Elisabeth is swayed by them.

You know two year olds are not the only ones to be afraid of something.

Even grown ups have fears. 

I am afraid of hurting people. I worry sometimes that if I say or write the wrong thing someone might get upset. I fear conflict.

I fear the time that someone will disagree with me and turn me into the “bad” guy. I’ve had that happen before. 

Once I was trying to help someone in a Christian chat room many years ago. (This was before Facebook and Twitter.) Chat rooms were an exciting place back then.

A person asked for help and I tried to give them what they needed.
Somehow they turned what I was saying to help them into my not caring. 

Then someone else came into the chat room and backed them. I looked like a terrible person. When I was honestly trying to help.

 The real problem was they didn’t want the help. I tried to explain that I was only trying to help. They told me they forgave me. Forgave me for what? I hadn’t said or done anything against them. 

That one experience had me so upset that I never went back to that chat room for fear that it would happen again. 

Is that any different than Elijah being afraid of the horse that looked at him? 


I’ve been working on facing my fears. I have slowly started reaching back out to try to help people. 

Maybe a bit cautiously at first. Like Elijah hiding behind his big sister. But I’m finally sharing that bite of hay. 

I am setting a goal to conquer my fears. I am going to do my best to  help people even when I’m afraid.

How about you? What fears do you have to conquer?

Feel free to share in the comments. I’d love to hear how you are working to conquer your fears.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. (Psalms 56:3-4)

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"Why?"

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Every night our family gathers together to pray before the children climb in their beds. My husband and I use this time to not only pray with our children but for discussion as well. 


Friday night having just heard the news ourselves, we decided we should tell our children about the tragedy. I told them how a man shot his mother and then went to the local school and shot 20 students and 6 teachers and then he killed himself.

“Why?” 

This question came from my 5 year old Jonathan. “Why?” 

I know I need to write about it. But I stare at my computer and the only thing I can type is “Why?” 

Every time I hear of yet another shooting. Why?

How do you answer your child? I told him that I didn’t know what was going on in that man’s mind. 
We know for a fact that God isn’t happy with what that man did. And we also know that the man wasn’t trusting God with his problems instead he killed his mother, 26 innocent lives, and then himself. Why?

I really don’t know why. I could speculate. That seems to be what many other people all over the internet are doing. Speculating. There is a lot of dangerous ground in speculations. I am not going to tell you what I think all the possible reasons are.

The things I know for sure… 
God wants us to love our neighbor. (Matthew 19:19)
God wants us to love our enemies. Doing good to those that hate us.(Matthew 5:43)

I am going to continue doing my part to raise my children to trust God with all their hearts, souls, and minds.


And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 
(Mark 12:30-31)


How has the news affected you? Did you find yourself speechless? What have you found to help get past the sinking feeling? Or are you past it yet?

For me it is finally finding the words to write.




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Team Work — How NOT to put together a bunk bed!

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Scott had the week of Thanksgiving off from his work. We went and visited my parents at the beginning of that week. 

When we arrived at their house my mom mentioned that she wanted to put together the bunk bed so that each child has a real bed to sleep on instead of some having to sleep on the floor.

I decided to volunteer myself as well as the older kids for the job. To measure the space that my mom wanted to put the bed in I brought in one of the mattress frames that was already put together. I told my mom it was easier than finding a tape measure. You can probably already see where this is going. 


Then I determined that it had to be about the right amount of space. We brought in all the parts to the bed. This bed had been one of our beds but we gave it to my parents in exchange for a 3 tiered bunk bed. We put this thing together before. How hard could it be?

Let’s just say we managed to put the top bunk where the bottom bunk should have been. We noticed that the rail was on the wrong side after we screwed all of the bolts into the bed. 

No problem! We just unscrewed the whole thing and turned the mattress frame a complete 180 degrees so that the holes would line up for the top rail. 

Now mind you there was a full sized bed and a twin bed in the room as well. We have to dodge and climb over those beds as well. We required 8 sets of hands to accomplish all the work we put into that bunk bed.

Finally, it was time to put the final rail on the bed. The holes were in the wrong place. In fact, they were in the wrong place on the other side of the bed as well. That’s when it dawned on us. We had put the top bunk on the bottom and the bottom bunk on the top. Then we managed to lose some of the screws that were made for the bed and put some bolts in backwards. We had a mess on our hands.

We called in the cavalry. My dad and Scott came in the room to try to sort it all out.  


Thankfully, they didn’t have to take the whole bed apart again.  They did wind up rigging it a bit. 


Dad helped pop out the bolts. Scott screwed in the screws and rigged the areas that didn’t have screws.
I don’t know how they managed to sort it all out but they did. 

We did get one thing out of this.  A lot of laughs! We were laughing so hard at the problems we were having putting the bed together. That’s when I decided to take out my camera. This much laughter needed to be recorded. We didn’t get mad about it. We just laughed. 


Did you know that laughing is very good for you? The Bible says that “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”  Proverbs 17:22

Have you ever had a failed attempt at team work? When was the last time you tried to put something together and it turned out all wrong? Do you have a funny story you want to share?

Tell us about it in the comments below. 

I have 8 more posts to write before the New Year and a Christmas Present to give my readers in about a week. Don’t miss any of the upcoming gifts and updates by signing up for our free email updates. You can also “like” our RockSolidFamily Facebook Page.

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The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

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Have you been noticing changes to my blog lately? Well, I’m not done yet.

All of this has been bringing me yet one step closer to fulfilling my childhood dream. Today, I am going to tell you about my next step.

I was invited to participate in “The Next Big Thing Blog Tour” by my friend, Katina. In this blog hop, I am to answer 10 questions about a book that I have written or am working on.

Did I hear a gasp? Yes, I am working on a book. I have several book ideas but decided to tell you about a book that I am almost ready to publish.

1) What is the working title of your book?

     The Year Santa Meets Jesus

2) Where did the idea come from for your book?
     Several years ago, I noticed the crowds of children at malls waiting in line to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. I started thinking about how many Christians visit their local Santa and yet never introduce him to Jesus. That’s where the idea for my book came from.

3) What genre does your book fall under?
This would be labeled as Christian Fiction and Poetry.

4) Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?

Hmm… I’m not good at remembering actors’ names. And if I were to name an actor I do know, you’d say why he’s not a kid anymore. So I’ll just describe what I think the actors would look like.

 I imagine Santa being a normal middle aged shopping mall Santa. Extra stuffing padding his belly and an overly white cottony beard.  For the boy I imagine him being around 7 or 8 years old with big brown eyes.

5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Everyone, including Santa, needs someone to care about them.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Right now I plan to self-publish. Unless an agent just happens to be reading this. 😉

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
It probably took me a week to write the first draft. The first draft was not a poem. It took me a few months to modify it and make it exactly what I want it to be.

8) What other books would you compare this story to?

It’s a picture book. Once I have the pictures, I’d probably be able to compare it then.

9) Who or what inspired you to write the book?

Well, God inspired me to write it. Most of the short stories and tracts I’ve written were simply things I felt I had to write because of problems I saw around me.

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It is short and sweet. It’s about a boy that cares more about giving to Santa rather than receiving something from him.

I see this as a story that parents can read to their children and show them where their hearts should be this Christmas. And who knows it may stir some grown up heart strings as well.


I was tagged by Katina Vaselopulos of Life’s Incredible Journeys. Last week Katina wrote about her upcoming book on her Next Big Thing Blog post here.

Do you have something big you are planning? What “Big Thing” does God have you working on right now?

As always feel free to share in the comments below.

And keep an eye out for a special Christmas present from our family to yours coming soon.
 
You can sign up for my email updates or “Like” our RockSolidFamily on Facebook to keep up with our latest activities.
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Our First Fight: "No, I won’t eat my children!"

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Most people don’t believe that my husband and I ever fight. We’re normally smiling ear to ear no matter where we go.

I don’t want to disappoint you but I need to set the record straight right here and now.

We’re not perfect! There I said it.

In my last post, 16 Happy Years I mentioned that things weren’t always easy during our 16 years of marriage. We have had our moments of what we called in the early years “interesting discussions”.

I’m going to share one of our first fights interesting discussions with you now.

After I met Scott I got a job at the same grocery store he worked at. He told me later that he thought I was coming there because he was there. The truth was I needed a job and a friend of my mom’s just happened to work there. She set me up for an interview with the manager the very week after I met Scott.

I got the job! I scanned groceries while Scott bagged them. We were fast becoming good friends. We both worked late shifts. I would often wait around for about an hour after I got off to wait for him.

Scott took two months off for the summer to go to Honduras. I spent all my summer’s pay checks on phone calls. Then he came back. Asked me to marry him. All those details you can read in my last post here

Scott then returned to Seminary, and working the evening shift. He would often think about the things he studied in school.

One day in Seminary there was a deep theological discussion of how bad mankind’s sin can be.

That discussion stayed in Scott’s mind the rest of the day. He was ready in season and out of season to give an answer. (2 Timothy 4:2)

This is normally a good thing unless your bride-to-be is not a seminary trained theologian. Then you might just get fireworks.

I was waiting in the back room for Scott to clock out. We were about to leave with several other workers. We saw one of the other employees go into the bakery and steal a cookie. I was shocked!

I asked Scott about it. He said that wasn’t the first time that had happened. Then the lesson they discussed that day kicked in. Just as I was about to say it he said, “Don’t say that you wouldn’t do that.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “I would not steal a cookie!” I said emphatically. Did he think that I was so low that I would do such a thing?

He then told me about the verse in the Bible that talks about how times were so bad that even the most upright and delicate women ate their children. Was I suggesting that I was better than them?

My eyes were as big as saucers at that point as I insisted that I would NOT eat my children.
I’d give my children my own limbs if it came to that.

Poor guy thought I was declaring myself incapable of sin.

Once we got to my home we both decided to listen.

I told him about the teacher that I had in elementary that told us not to say we wouldn’t do something because we would. Her example was we should not say we wouldn’t smoke because we might smoke. Well, I didn’t hear the might. I spent several years afraid to say I wouldn’t do something.

Later I realized that it actually was good to be resolved against doing evil. And so I had a firm determination that I wouldn’t do something that I know is wrong.

Scott explained that in his class they discussed Deuteronomy 28:56-57
and talked about how bad mankind can be under dire situations. I can’t say that I wouldn’t steal a cookie if I was hungry enough.

I admitted that I knew I was capable of doing bad things. But I would never eat my children. To me that verse speaks of how spiritually messed up the people during that time were if their best mothers would stoop so low as to eat their children.

Scott was glad to hear that I didn’t think I was perfect. And I was glad to hear him say that I didn’t have to eat my children.



We laugh about it now. Scott even bought a huge pot as a gag gift to me after our firstborn son was born. We used the pot for tamales but the kids sure enjoyed playing in it too.

Have you and your spouse ever had an interesting discussion? How did you finally resolve it?

Next time you have an argument interesting discussion brewing…Listen.

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16 Happy Years

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I’m not going to say they were all easy years. Some were very difficult. However there is a feeling of accomplishment with each obstacle we overcome.

My father, found Scott in Seminary. He would come home from work and tell me all about the questions Scott asked in school that day. My dad held Scott in high regards and was constantly singing his praises.

As the eldest of 3 siblings, I was beginning to get anxious to move out of the house. I was attending a local junior college but wanted more independence. I was willing to consider marriage but thought surely I would find a guy that met my high expectations in college. That didn’t happen. I was sorely disappointed.

Then the day came that I finally gave my dad permission to introduce me to the potential son-in-law of his dreams. Yes, I was slightly skeptical at first. I even told my dad that I would only guarantee one date. Then Dad would have to help me break up with him if I didn’t like him after that date.

My dad went to the seminary the next day handed Scott a business card with my name printed on the back and said, “Scott, my daughter really wants to meet you!”

I was rather embarrassed that my dad worded it that way. “Dad! You, made me sound desperate!”

Scott didn’t seem to mind that though. He might not have called if it weren’t for my dad making it sound like I really wanted him to.

Thankfully my dad answered the phone the day Scott called. He was coming to our church that Wednesday night. I was nervous!

My dad was preaching when Scott came in. We were a part of a small church. Scott claims he sat behind the prettiest girl in the auditorium. I’ll go ahead and believe him even though I was probably the only obviously eligible girl in the room.

After the service we all talked. No it wasn’t love at first sight for either of us. How does someone fall in love with a complete stranger just by looking at them? He seemed nice and was kind of cute but I wouldn’t describe it as love until I was sure.

My dad took us all out for ice cream after the service. I called our first date, “Date with Dad.” My dad did most of the talking and Scott knew how to talk to him. So I sat at an opposite table and just listened mostly.

I guess after that first date with my dad, Scott knew my dad would be a good father-in-law.

The next time I saw him I invited him to my band concert in college.

Easter Sunday, my Mema had invited him to eat with our family at her house. I picked Scott up that day. He was playing his guitar on his porch steps. We talked all the way to my grandmother’s house and all the way back. He wasn’t too shy to talk and yet didn’t mind listening either. I think that was the day that I decided he was a keeper. I didn’t know how he felt but I decided I wouldn’t be the one to leave.

Then one day he took me to the zoo. He asked me if he could hold my hand. Ah ha! He didn’t realize that he might as well have proposed to me. I agreed. He picked me a flower off the side of the road.

That summer he visited a Missionary in Honduras for 2 months. I spent all my money on phone bills that summer. We still have the numerous letters we wrote back and forth to each other.

Early one morning, he called my Dad and asked if he could marry me. My dad told him, “That’s why I gave you that card.” Scott asked my dad if he could get my ring size without my knowing.

The next day my dad asked me and my sister if we had any idea as to how he could find out my mother’s ring size without her knowing. He said that he was thinking about getting her a ring.

We asked which finger and he said he wasn’t sure. So we decided the best way was to get everyone in the family to measure all their fingers. Well, our idea didn’t work because mom never did measure her finger. I think my dad was smarter than I was.

Then Scott arrived back from Honduras. He imagined the perfect setting to ask me to marry him. However we went to a wedding that night and the rumor had gotten out that we were engaged already. Poor Scott didn’t know how to tell people that he hadn’t asked me yet. He decided that night that he better go ahead and ask.

We almost set our wedding day to be on my birthday in December. However that was an awfully busy time of year for his mother to come. We decided to move the date up to Thanksgiving. He thought he’d be able to remember it better that way.

Thanksgiving day, November 28, 1996, I married my knight in shining armour. Life might not have always been easy for us down the rocky roads of life but 16 years and 6 children later we have really been blessed.

How long have you been married? Where did the two of you meet? If you’re not married yet, do you know what you are looking for?

Never settle for less than God’s best.
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