My Daughter Is OVER A Quarter of a Century Old!

On the 24th of October, Haley celebrated her 26th birthday with her husband and two children and one dog.
I could rehash all those overused phrases: "How time flies!", "It was just the other day when she was so little.", "My oldest baby is all grown up!", "In a blink of an eye, she's out of the nest; she's flown the coup. She's......"
You get the idea without me saying any of those cliches? Good!
Having a 26 year old daughter makes me feel as if I should check into the Smithsonian Museum as an ancient parent.
We're mighty proud of our oldest "baby".
As I have said in the beginning, our children are our jewels from God.
Wild Thing is six years younger than Haley; No sweetheart, no spouse, no children, no college education, he sits today in our rocking chair. Wild Thing doesn't rock much, and he keeps to himself. One thing I can tell you about dear old Wild Thing, he has not flown the coup!
:-)

TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF MARRIAGE!
Our annivesary was on October 15th, 2005. We choose which road to take in life, and I guess we've chosen the one with the bumps, the rocks, the pits, the mud, the hills, the valleys. Driving on the edge of a mountainous pathway, we have found ourselves lost a few dozen times. Yep!
And just about the time we are considering the option of hiking, the good Lord locks the doors tight, and He reminds us to stay inside the vehicle. So here we go down this bumpy road of life. The tires are holding up.....so far.

I said to the Lord, "Lord, I need to start exercising, but my get up and go has gotten up and went. My soul is willing, but this whittle body is on hiatus. Help me." And He did.
He did all right. Driving on the gravel road from George's Cove, He zapped that left front tire flatter than a pancake. All righty, uh, thanks...., I think! At dusk, Robin and I locked the doors to Daisy Mae, our Suburban, and as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we stepped on to the yellow brick road to complete our journey....up, up, up hill....to our home.
With us were our dogs, Moses and Charlie. We had no leashes, so we used bungy cords. Why? Because our dogs are untrained, wild animals; our Moses, the Labrador, weighing in at 97 pounds, flunked obedience school twice. He assumes one position: CHARGE! It doesn't matter that his collar is pulled back to his tail bone, and his air passage is blocked. He's dragging my body as if I were a little powder puff. (Yea, I wish.) Robin handled Charlie, our Heinz 57 breed. And it wasn't bad! It took an hour. It could have taken longer, but, remember, we were in the CHARGE position.
Could we have changed the tire? No, the spare was on the right rear tire, having taken the place of a tire that had exploded on the interstate when I was traveling to Memphis a few weeks back. No walk was involved on that one, just me and the chiggers waiting patiently on the side of the interstate for four hours.
The good news is that Daisy Mae was rescued by Ruedi this evening on the 12th, after working a 15 hour shift. What has this self proclaimed procrastinator learned as a valuable lesson, family and friends?
Be cautious what you pray for, and wear tennis shoes. :-) THE END

Mr. And Mrs. Imholz, yours truly...

The phone rings, and it's one of my daughters. I'm hungry for all information updating what's been happening in her life. We talk about five minutes when our conversation is shattered by this deep voice from across the room. Ruedi has no idea what Mom and her baby child's (adult that she may actually be) subject matter is; he commences to shout out off the cuff remarks. He offers advice, his opinion and his funny one liners. Remind you, he has no idea the topic of the conversation. Consequently, I and my adult child are saying, "Huh?"
Finally, it dawned on me why we are having so many of these episodes. My husband is really wishing to hear this line. " She's asking to speak to you, dear." I tried that today, and, my goodness, it worked! Once he has had his turn on the telephone, the three way conversation ceases, and I can focus on the topic at hand. So, dear family, when you call, and you hear this deep voice vibrating close by, please ask to speak to it. ( I don't mind taking the second turn.) Thanks, sweeties!