June 7 – “The 45th Report”

Our big 45^th anniversary weekend is slowly drawing to a close, I suppose.  Kind of quietly evaporating into the ever-warming skies.  Well, ever-warming now that Tropical Storm Cristobal appears to be dissipating somewhere near Louisiana. 

 We had some really good moments in our celebratory few days thus far.  We had a good long chat with Josh to start the day off Friday.  Friday evening Chris made a chicken fried steak dinner.  Nice to get started a day early.  Then we sat on the swing in the back yard with a cup of ice cream and reminisced about where we were 45 years ago.  Hmm.  Neither of us could remember if we had a rehearsal dinner, much less where it was.  Was that even a thing back then?  We ended up chuckling about the things we remembered from each of our boys’ weddings.  I thought long term memory was supposed to come back.  Ah, well.  I gotta admit I never thought sitting quietly together on a backyard swing would ever look like so much better an option than even going out to eat.  Of course, the crazies that came in with the tourists this weekend made the decision an easier one. 

 Yesterday – the actual anniversary day - I got up early and went to the store to pick up some roses.  45 of them.  Well, 48 actually.  One for each year we were married and three to represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the center of our marriage.  How else could it have lasted so long?  I placed one cluster of them on the chair Chris generally sits in every morning to have her coffee and read through the news.  One went on the kitchen counter where she cooks breakfast.  One went on the dining room table where she works planning out our vacations.  And the final bunch went on the couch where we sit in the evenings to watch TV and talk.  Her comment was, “There are roses everywhere.”  I also presented her with the required gift for the 45^th anniversary (Hey, I did my research), some sapphire earrings.  Been saving up for that one.  They’re pretty, but of course their beauty pales next to hers.

 I really liked her gift to me.  A new critter.  He’s a stuffed chicken named B.C.  That stands for Beach Chicken.  He’s wearing an inner tube, sunglasses, and some very classy shorts.  I told Chris I wanted some just like those.  She answered a bit too quickly and altogether too abruptly, “No.”  She also made me a fried egg on toast, my current favorite breakfast. 

 Our anniversary lunch was a pickup order from Shrimp n Stuff.  Can’t beat popcorn shrimp and a tall glass of Chris’ sweet tea.  Then it was time to brace for a visit from the LaMarque Vaughan’s.  Christina brought over pulled pork and baked potatoes.  Kel came when he got off work.  We ended up playing three different games.  One was Uno with a Spiderman twist.  No one won that game.  Longest in history, so I’m told.  We finally just declared a draw do we could eat some supper.  The second game was called Telestration.  It’s a take on the old game of “Telephone” where you whisper a phrase in someone’s ear all down the line and then see how the message changes.  In this case though, the message is sent by drawing a picture.  On one round Micah drew a perfect picture of Texans star J.J. Watt.  By the time it got back to him the picture had morphed into a soccer field.  Guess we’re not very good artists.  The final game was called The Resistance.  It was one of those spy mission games where you have to carry out a mission while you try to figure out just who the bad guys are, while the designated bad guys are trying to sabotage the mission without being discovered.  Lies, intrigue, fast talking.  The first round Kel and I were the designated spies.  We won.  Mainly because Kel convinced Micah that Jachin was the bad guy.  Micah vowed never to fall for that ruse again. 

 Now, as I understand it, our weekend is not over yet.  We have church this morning, of course, but them we are heading over to Nathan and April and Cailyn’s for dinner tonight.  Wonder if it will be fried chicken …

 Meanwhile, I saw this post from one of the firefighters who is also a sheriff deputy:

“The seawall is stupid now, absolutely no regard for any law or the respect of other people.  People waving guns, showing guns.  There is going to be a shooting tonight.  People stay home.”  Sadly, he was right.  Thankfully after Kel and his crew had safely arrived home.  The only difficulty they had was making their way around the girls who exited their car at a stoplight and danced in the street.  Now that would have been a fun way to celebrate our 45^th.  WooHoo.  Hmm.  Maybe for our 50^th …

 Matthew 5:14 says, “You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”

 Father, thank you for our quiet celebration.  Please protect our first responders.  The weekend is not over yet.  Amen.