June 7 - “Catching up a bit”

Let me catch up a bit on our 50th celebrations. 

The day before our big day, I got to go fishing with Cary, Corbin, and my new five-year-old friend Lily. We did pretty well. We landed a red, some specs, croakers, sandies, a stingray, piggies, and a catfish. Lily helped reel in several, and even caught a few completely on her own with her little rod and reel. She got a kick out of touching each fishy critter. Oh, and she told me a fish story about how she went fishing with her dad and grandad once. They didn’t catch anything and she caught three. I think we might have a true fisherwoman there. 

That afternoon we were treated to dinner by the fishermen (and fisherwoman), with Chris, Kay Lynn, Rachel, and “Little Sister” (Lily called her just that. And Lily informed me that she was “the best big sister ever.” Hey, who am I to argue?). We went to Shrimp n Stuff, so good food, good company. 

Then that night at home group, they all showed up with a party in hand - fruit and a cake and some of the shrimp dip I love and a whole watermelon for Chris. We even got some gifts. A nice little serving tray with Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses to go in it. And then there was the bag full of “gold” (for the golden anniversary). Everything from Gold Peak tea to a bag of goldfish (the kind you eat) to golden Oreos to Rold Gold pretzels to gold toed socks to a golden bag of Ghirardelli chocolate. And the table was decorated with a big golden 5-0. Thanks, guys. 

That brings us to the Big Day. 

My gift to Chris: began with a list of things to remember from our 50 years together. 

Her gift to me: began with a list of things to remember from our 50 years together. 

Yep. Not a typo. Great minds and all that. Hers was more creative, though. She had 50 items.  

I also gave her a gold Holy Spirit dove thing to hang from a necklace. 

She also gave me the one baseball card I needed to complete a set. Also, the four cards I needed to go with the autographed baseballs I have. Yep. Five cards. One for each decade. 

And she also gave me an awesome shirt with a message on the front. It says”I’ve been married 50 years. Nothing scares me.”  I wore it when we went out to lunch. 

We spent a good part of our anniversary morning … doing yardwork. Hey. Some things just gotta get done.  And all the hard work led to our anniversary lunch. We had a gift card to Saltgrass Steak House. Chris had some chicken. I had steak and shrimp. Good stuff. Oh, and yes. We both wore our gifts to each other. Chris had her dove necklace and I had my emblazoned shirt (Which, by the way, elicited a rather flirtatious exchange from the cute lady at the table next to us. Of course, she was probably 80 or 90 years old and had been married 57 years. She admonished me when she left to “behave yourself.”  Of course I replied, “Yes ma’am.”). 

Last night we went to the yearly fire department pinning ceremony.  I was asked to do the invocation and benediction. It’s always great to be around that family of guys and girls. 

‭‭Mark‬ ‭8‬:‭35‬ ‭says, For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it.

Father, thank you once again for those fire fighters. It is an honor to included with them. Amen.