TODAY IS IT!!

Today is our 50th Wedding Anniversary.
I think that's the golden one.



We received an e-card that said:
Sweethearts
Partners
Best Friends
Soul Mates

Perfect! That's what we have been, but most important, that describes us today.

We could also add some negative words because we actually experience both.

Thankfully, the scales are weighted heavily on the positive scale and continue to dip down on that side.



Happy Anniversary, Handsome!

We're looking forward to a special celebration tonight with our four kids and their mates at a wonderful steakhouse in a reserved room. This was our choice. We considered Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida, and nixed all. We chose our favorite thing to do, have fun with our family and enjoy being home. I think our traveling so much through the years and enjoying it has helped us know that our very favorite thing these days is to celebrate quietly with each other and with family and staying home. That's the best!

Today is a good day of remembering and celebrating.
MB

We're Swimming!

Our pool is open and is wonderful! We've been slowly working on getting the plants and flowers planted and set in place. With all the storms and hail and rain, we've had to move slowly. But, we think we're through!

Yesterday we were in and out of it all day long. I've realized that's why you need many bathing suits, not just one or two. Have you ever tried to put back on a wet bathing suit? Not a fun task.


Enjoying this is beyond both our expectations. We have so much fun. We're neither one great swimmers, but we love the water. I wear goggles and put my hair in rubberbands and put a cloth headband on to keep the hair out of my eyes. If you have a mental picture, you are right. I'm no bathing beauty, but it sure is fun.


We've decided the pool's been worth every penny we've spent on it.
Having fun in our senior years, way too much fun. Love it!!
MB

May Family Birthdays

I think in May we have more birthdays in our family than in any other month!!

Today is Ace's second birthday. We celebrated Tuesday evening at Grammy's (Cherri's) house.


May 14 was Mike's birthday. Mike is our wonderful son-in-law. He's that because he's Cherri's husband.


May 19 was Terri's 28th birthday. Terri is our first grandchild. Terri's husband Gabriel's birthday is tomorrow, May 22.

Even more birthdays to come!!


Melody, our third child who was born on our fourth wedding anniversary, has a birthday next week on Thursday, May 28!


Hudson, who is Brett and Kelly's first grandchild, will be two years old on May 27. And since Brett is our son, that makes Hudson another of our greats. And he is a great one!

Can you believe that? All those birthdays? And this year was the first year we didn't have Paul's Mom with us on her birthday, May 15. She would have been 91 years old. That was a sad day, but we remembered her by having Paul's family over and enjoying hamburgers and visiting together.

Well, it's really a stretch for my memory. I think I've done well so far, but May isn't over. And I certainly hope I haven't forgotten anyone in the family on this post.

Birthdays are so much fun, especially with the kids. Tuesday at Ace's party, when we started singing Happy Birthday, I think we scared him and he jumped up and ran from the room. Of course the laughter was even louder and even scarier. Too fun.

And as time keeps rolling along, one thing is certain. All of this will occur again next year. That's a certainty!!
MB

My Mom

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I did all the regular things. I gave Mom a card with a love gift of a check inside. Picked my Mom up at noon on Saturday and took her to see her three great, great, grandsons, our daughter's three grandchildren, two of whom are brand new twin boys. We should have done the five generations picture, but alas, I didn't think of that.

When I started taking Mom home, she mentioned she had not seen our new pool, so I took a quick right and headed for Norman, and took Mom home with me. We enjoyed a leisurely couple of hours sitting out by the pool and on our screened-in porch. Nice day for enjoying outside. Mom said she's buying a new bathing suit and coming down to swim. I said, "Oh? Are you sure you're invited?" She laughed and said, "Sure I am. I'm your Mother!" She's funny.

Oh, have I mentioned Mother is 91.5 years old. She'll be 92 in November.

We then drove to Edmond where every first Saturday of the month all those who can of my ten siblings and their mates meet at a hamburger place for a fun family time. One of my sisters and her husband and their entire family had just returned from Turkey where they visited their missionary daughter and husband and four grandkids. Their trip was our major topic of conversation. Quite enjoyable. The scarf Mother has on in the picture is her gift from Turkey.

I'm very grateful for my Mom and for who she is. She's a tough old bird in some respects. She's quite the talker and is always full of good stories and loves telling things that have happened in her life, one time, two times, three times, and more. JK A great feature of hers is her gift giving. She still tries to get gifts for as many of her 11 children, 41 grandchildren, ~89 great, grandchildren, and now 3 great, great, grandchildren.

I called Mom one night last week just to check in and see how she was doing. She was eating and I asked her what she was having. She was eating a hotdog and a big onion. I asked her if that didn't make her stomach hurt. She said her stomach always hurts just a little, so why not enjoy eating? She can still drink black coffee late and still enjoy a good night's sleep. I've wondered sometimes why I didn't get some of these good genes.

Of all eleven kids, I'm the one that most people say resemble my Mom the most. I take that as a great compliment. She's a good woman, who's living a good life, and has raised some good kids. Right?

One more funny thing: At supper Saturday night Mother was lamenting that she didn't feel like she'd been a very good Mom. I asked her why would she say that? Look at all the great kids she raised and how wonderful all of us are. Why would she think such a thing? She seemed a little confused about my humor, but because everyone else was laughing, so did she!

I love my Mom and am so grateful I can call her MY MOM!
Mary B.

The B. in Mary B.

I think the B in Mary B doesn't stand for my last name, but in this picture it stands for Billy Bob as in teeth.

I clog with the Okie Stompers and often when we're clogging at the state fair we open up with a fun dance dressed in overalls and Billy Bob teeth. Once after we did that, a kid came up to me and told me I was the ugliest person he had ever seen. I thanked him.

After our dance performance, often my brother who is a fellow clogger and I would walk the midway with our fun teeth still in place. We'd be talking and chatting, and we would get hysterical as we would see people trying not to stare. Some people would smile and nod and then get past us and turn around and give a shocked look like did I just see correctly? It's way too fun and funny.

Paul, my handsome feller, cannot understand why I so enjoy doing this. Honestly I don't know why. It's just fun. But the other funny thing is that Paul will not walk with Fred, my brother, and me when we are doing this. Pauls asks me,"Why do you like to look so ugly? It's awful!" That's even funnier. I guess I'm warped.

Anyway, I love FaceBook and Twitter and have great fun following people on these as well as reading blogs. Last night I put my cropped "teeth" picture as my ID picture on Twitter. Again, I think that is so funny. Paul wonders about me. He just doesn't understand it, but he does chuckle. On Twitter I wrote, "I decided to use my glamour shot picture. Like it?"

Hey, life is not only an adventure. Life is fun.

MB

Granddaughter Event

Tonight some of us are heading to Dallas to hear Terri, our oldest grandchild, play her very first solo performance with an orchestra. She will be performing the 1st movement of the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra in Caruth Auditorium at Southern Methodist University.

Since I'm not very knowledgeable about concertos and composers, I've been doing my homework. I've read the biography of Carl Nielsen and the history of how he came to write this flute concerto.

And then to train my listening ear and to prepare for a great experience, I downloaded this classical flute concerto to my iPhone and plan to listen to it on our trip to Dallas this afternoon. I've already listened to parts of it and I'm impressed that Terri can do this. How exciting!

Terri has always amazed me. She's made her way through life while encountering great obstacles. Of course, we're her grandparents and naturally we are extremely proud of her. But, she really is quite special and stands out from the crowd with her creative ability and her discipline to achieve.

Tonight will be special for many reasons. Looking forward to it with great anticipation.
MB aka Grams

Fun Day at Village BC

Today we attended a luncheon for the charter members of Village Baptist Church in Oklahoma City celebrating their 50th Anniversary. We weren't sure we would know anybody, but to our surprise we knew several.

Paul was 19 and I was 18 when we started our ministry at VBC in February of 1960. We were both college students. I was pregnant with our first and I had an afternoon job at Buck's Sporting Goods in downtown OKC. Paul had two other jobs besides this church job. He cleaned three doctors' offices at night and worked at the OKC tag agency in the afternoons. We were busy, but we were very young and had lots of energy.

During our time at VBC, every Sunday Paul preached to a gym full of third graders through high schoolers age-wise. We called it little church and it was going on at the same time as big church. VBC was one of the first SBC churches to have a separate church service for children.

Today there were several of those kids at the luncheon. and many of them remembered our being there and shared several fun stories and memories.

One woman came up to Paul and told him that she knew him from sitting in the stands at the high school where Brett was coaching baseball. Her son played ball on Brett's team. Small world!

Another lady was talking about being a child in children's church and she told me where she now goes to church. She knows my brother and sister-in-law very well. They've attended church together for years. Small world!

We were visiting with one of the deacons about events many years ago and I mentioned that my Dad had preached a meeting at VBC in the sixties. He asked me who my Dad was, and when I told him he went on and on about how well he knew my Dad and what an impact he had on his life. Small world!

As we were leaving, the pastor asked Paul to preach for Senior Adult Sunday services the third Sunday in May. We think that's hilarious, from children's church to senior adult church, all in the short span of 50 years. Seems short, but in a way it seems a lifetime. Well, actually, I guess it is!

It was a really fun day and the church was very gracious and kind. They had put together a book of pictures and events of the church's history and gave each of us one. Former staff members are going to be recognized in the morning service tomorrow, and we're planning to attend. Paul's sister and brother-in-law are members there and we plan to sit with them.

Just another fun day in life's adventure.
MB

Snow and Swimming Pools

What's wrong with this picture? We're having our swimming pool opened by the pool people next Wednesday, April 1. We woke up this morning with snow all over the ground. Huh?

We've enjoyed several 80-degree days, and so it seemed natural to hurry and get the pool de-winterized and ready to use. Now we've had snow.

We also ordered several trees and plants from a catalog order place our kids told us about. They've arrived, but somehow planting in the snow doesn't seem right.

But, that's Oklahoma. It's supposed to be 70 and above in the next few days, so hopefully we can plant then.

I'm ready for spring. I actually thought "spring had sprung" as of last Friday. Our tulips have bloomed and our trees have budded. And now they have snow all over them.

I actually like these surprises. Makes me realize all over again how much life is an adventure, the unexpected is often right around the corner.
MB

Grandson's Twins

Here I am with Kyle and Aaron, twins born March 9.

Did you notice the heading? Grandson's twins somehow sounds better to me than my twin great-grandsons.

I became a grandmother at the age of 39, and somehow at that time I just wasn't ready to be called, Grandma. I still had a grade school child at home and still felt young, much too young to answer to Granny.

I adored and loved my new granddaughter, but it was the Granny thing. Actually we settled on Grams, which was better. After more grandchildren came at a pretty fast pace, I became used to being Grams to thirteen wonderful grandchildren.

But, time moves on. Two years ago our grandson had our first great-grandson. Again, I just wasn't quite ready for the great-grandma title. Now I have three great-grandsons. I'm getting used to the great grandma title. Maybe I can be Great Grams or GiGi. That sounds younger, doesn't it? JK

Way back when I was a teenage Mom, I thought great grannies were old, old, and quite decrepit. Funny that when you get into that age bracket, it's not that way at all. I wonder if young people look at me and know that I'm a great granny. Hmmm...

I'll conclude with a joke: An older couple was sitting in a bar and the wife looked down at the end of the bar and saw an elderly couple and said to her husband, "That's the way we're going to look in ten or twenty years." The husband said, "You know that's a mirror, don't you?" Too funny. My sentiments exactly!
MB

Moving On

It was a really rough week just past. But, we've lived through it and this week brings a little hope.

So many friends and family called and wrote and expressed sympathy at our loss of Sherri. One of the most meaningful expressions was our daughter and her husband, Melody and Tony, sent flowers to our office staff with a card that said, "We know the shock and pain of suddenly losing a friend and co-worker, and we wanted you all to know that you are in our thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time. Tony and Melody Lenox."

We set up a little memorial table and hung Sherri's picture beside it. We do fun little polls sometimes in our office for a little break and Shelley found an old one that Sherri had completed about her first car. She printed it and put it on the table for us to read and remember. Jenny brought a photo album of pictures taken when we all traveled to Austin for a celebration of finishing a project. I took a picture of the spray of flowers we sent to the funeral and we hung it by the table. All in all it was just a sweet remembering time all week of how much we loved and are going to miss Sherri.

Yesterday I took everything down. The flowers were starting to wilt, and it was time to put things up. That's always a sad time. Anyway, we're now on the road to recovery and remembering.

Sunday, Paul and I traveled to Enid where our son pastors a church. Their third child, Boe, was heading out to San Diego to Marine boot camp and his birthday is today, Wednesday. We wanted to say good-bye and Happy Birthday!

Suddenly the war is not just a news item, it has become personal. We fully expect Boe to ship out after training.

So, life does move on. Some sad, some bad, some good, some scary experiences. Sometimes it's a stretch to say, "Life is good," but that's been my mantra for a long time. It still is, but now with even more depth and scars.
MB

Tribute to My Friend Sherri

February 16 I lost a dear friend, confidante, and coworker.

Monday I received two phone messages, one from Sherri's twin sister Kerri and the other from her oldest daughter Courtney. They both had the same message. Sherri's in the hospital and not doing very well. I spent the afternoon with family and friends, waiting and hoping. At about 10 pm that night the family was told Sherri was gone. It was over.

The next morning I had not heard, so I text messaged Kerri and asked for an update. The answer came right back. "Sherri didn't make it. I'm so sorry. Thanks for loving Sherri."

Tuesday was a tough day. I walked into the office past Sherri's cube and felt overwhelmed. I cried and wasn't sure I could go through the day. From my office I can see Sherri's cube and the top of her blonde head was always visible to me. It's a memory that will always be with me in our office.

As our other team members came in, we would share thoughts and memories and cry some more. All day long I was notifying people and receiving calls from others as they heard. To all, it was incomprehensible and shocking. Sherri was 44 years old and left a husband, three teenage children, a twin sister and a younger sister, parents, grandparents and many friends from various areas and things Sherri was involved in with her children, her college sorority, her church, her work, and her family. Sherri grew up in Norman and went to school here, including graduating from OU.

One memory I will share will let you know how I felt about Sherri as a worker and teammate. I was a coworker with Sherri on the same team as we both started at Saxon Publishers. In a few years I was supervisor of a team and she was on my team. At the end of the year we had to complete performance reviews on each person under our supervision. When I completed Sherri's that first year I was her supervisor, I gave her a "perfect 10" on every question or evaluation. HR came back to me and said I couldn't do that. They said that no one is perfect; if someone was that perfect, they would be at the top of the company. I was told that I had to come up with a few things that needed improvement in Sherri's performance. I said I would try. I ended up calling Sherri in and telling her the situation. I asked her to help me and tell me what areas she thought she could improve in. Her suggestions were what I put on her performance review.

But, the next year I refused to go that route again and turned in a perfect score for Sherri and told them that I knew it was hard to believe, but that was the true evaluation for Sherri and I insisted on leaving it that way. Sherri seemed embarrassed and was profusely thanking me that I thought that of her and gave her that rating. And that is my honest and truthful evaluation of Sherri's performance in the workplace.

Rarely does one find an assistant who thinks like you do and that you can totally trust to do what you would want in almost every situation. I have given her more and more responsibility and she took it and did a fantastic job. The only problem with that is that now she's no longer with us, I've got a lot of catching up to do to step in and do what she was doing. I will miss her so much!

One more thing that was humorous between us: Several years ago a pastor friend was talking to us about dealing with volunteer workers in the church. He said, "I would rather restrain a fanatic than try to raise a dead man." Meaning he'd rather have to caution someone about doing too much over having to try to motivate people to do something. I told Sherri she's my "fanatic I need to restrain" to not work so hard. She laughed. But there was nothing she wouldn't gladly take on and whatever she did, she did perfectly.

Well, that's my tribute to Sherri. Not only was she a good worker, but she was optimistic, kind, fun, gentle, and overall one of the finest people I will ever know in my lifetime. I will forever be grateful that I had the chance to know her, to work with her, and to be her friend. I wish everyone had that privilege. I will miss her so much, and when I think of her there is pain right now but I know that will change over time to warm and loving memories. She was such a special person.
MB

Valentine's Day 2009

Today is a day to express love to your sweetheart.

My sweetheart has been my sweetheart for a very long time. I figured it up, and this is our 50th Valentine's Day together as husband and wife.

Handsome gave me a Valentine's card that had printed text that said, "I wish I could find new ways to tell you what's always in my heart. I love you. Happy Valentine's Day" And then he wrote under that, "I love you for who you are...and for who we are together." And he addressed the envelope to "Beautiful." He meant me (in case you were wondering). How romantic and thoughtful is this.

Not only this, but he sent me flowers at work, beautiful cut flowers and a small vase of candy kisses.

Now, the obvious question you might be asking is what did you do for him?

Well, let me tell you something. Of the two of us, he's the romantic, thoughtful one. I'm the practical one. Poor fellow. He bought a jacket for himself on Friday and I suggested that I buy it for him for Valentine's Day. He agreed. Then when I got that really nice card early, I put a post-it note on it and re-carded it back to Paul. How practical is that?

Poor Paul. I'm so glad he loves me like I am. We make a good couple, at least in my opinion. :)

So, Handsome, Happy Valentine's Day to you. I love you very, very much. I'm a lucky lady.
Mary B.

Giving an A

Several years ago for my birthday Melody our daughter gave me a book entitled "The Art of Possibility" by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander.

The subtitle is "Transforming Professional and Personal Life." I probably thought yeah, yeah, here's another one of those transforming books. But it really has the potential of transforming me, if I could just remember to apply one of the best practices in the book.

It's Practice 3, or Chapter 3: Giving an A.

What I got from my reading this was that if you would start every relationship by giving the other an A, you would be surprised at how different your attitude would be toward that person. The author is a professor and he would tell his class on the first day that they all have an A. He's given each one of them an A. Now, they will have to work very hard to lower that grade. He found that the students had a completely different approach to his class.

Then the author suggests that this could really change relationships. I remember when I was first introduced to this idea that it completely upset my way of thinking. I didn't know it, but I found that I automatically gave everyone an F and they had to work hard to raise that grade. In other words, my natural way of thinking was critical and judgmental. Hmmm...

I'm about to face a new relationship and found myself saying, I need to give this person an A instead of having negative thoughts about how I'm going to handle certain things. Immediately I had a changed way of thinking. Amazing! This person will have to work hard to lower that grade.

I think what happens is that I start watching for positive things instead of negative things, and then when something negative might happen, I'm surprised because I wasn't expecting it. Brings to mind the old adage: you find what you're looking for.
MB

Making Plans

This year in May, Paul and I will celebrate fifty years of marriage.

For a couple of years we've been thinking about how we'd like to celebrate.

For awhile we thought we would like to have a big gathering.

We would ride up to the celebration on our motorcycle. The only problem with that one if I had thought it through would be the "helmet hair" thing. That's a real problem for a woman on a motorcycle. Between sweating and the smashing of hair, you look really lovely when you stop to eat and discard the helmet. I have a pin I wear that says "I love helmet hair." That's a lie!

Then we thought one of the entertainments would be my brother and I clogging. I think I must have wanted to overcome the idea of two little old people celebrating their fiftieth. My image of that through the years is old, old people who have finally gotten to this point.

As the time has drawn closer, Paul and I have realized we might just want to get away by ourselves and take a trip and celebrate the day all alone. How strange is that? What I think is happening is that we're both still working and we deal with people all the time. Sometimes we just get "peopled out."

This is still January and our thoughts may change, but right now we're looking forward to taking off and having an anniversary trip. We'll see.
MB

Boomer! Sooner!!

Go Sooners!

Enough said.
MB

Looking Forward to 2009

Happy New Year to you if you are reading this!

In our family we have several important events we are expecting to happen in this new year 2009.

The first major event is that our oldest daughter will become the grandmother to twin grandsons, which of course means that we will become great grandparents to our second and third great grandsons. This should happen during the first half of March.

The next major event is that Paul and I will be celebrating 50 years of marriage. What?!?! How can that be? We're still enjoying being married, we're still learning new things about each other, and we're still best friends. I thought that was supposed to change over the years. Hmmm... We talked last year about celebrating this event this year with a big celebration including a country and western dance, but as the time approaches, we're seriously thinking about skipping the country and revisiting Hawaii and spending a week together on the beach. That's more appealing to both of us.

Wade's book should be released in the spring. That will be a major event. I was privileged to be one of the ones who was asked to preview the manuscript. I'm eager for the release.

Last Saturday night my 91 year old Mom treated 9 of her children and most of their mates to supper at a local Chinese restaurant. There were 18 of us altogether. This is a monthly event scheduled for the first Saturday night of each month, but this one was special because Mother wanted to treat everyone. As we talked and laughed, we're realizing that more and more of us are retiring and our grandchildren are growing up and life is moving on. To an onlooker we probably look like a bunch of old people eating together. To us I think we still see each other as kids growing up. We had a fun, fun time and it was over at 9 pm. Time for old folks to head home and go to bed. : )

Looking forward to all the things I know about that are coming in 2009 and anticipating the things that will happen that will be a surprise.

Life is good.
MB

Cirque du Soleil

Last Saturday Paul and I drove to Tulsa and attended the Saltimbanco version of Cirque du Soleil at the new BOK Center. What a treat. Here are pictures of us at the BOK Center and of Melody, Tony, and Nataly, who treated us.



This was an interesting dilemma for us because we had two conflicts. The OU basketball team had a 3 pm game and Paul has season tickets. Oops. And then we've followed closely the Heisman trophy candidates and the 7 to 8 pm presentation was none other than Saturday night. Another oops. Can you tell I was the one who scheduled us to go to Tulsa?

But, on the other hand, I have wanted to attend a performance of Cirque du Soleil for the past ten years. I've had a couple of chances, but they didn't work out. When Tony called and invited us, I said yes, yes, yes. Later I thought about what else was happening. My handsome fella just said he was okay with it and he would DVR the Heisman program and watch it later, and he would give away his basketball ticket. My response was are you sure? His response was Absolutely!! What a fella!!

Here's how it worked out. The basketball game was on TV, and we arrived in Tulsa in time to watch the entire game. Yeah! Then when we arrived at our premier seating in the BOK Center, guess what! It had a TV right in front of us and we were able to put it on ESPN and quietly watched the performance AND the Heisman presentation. Would you like to hazard a guess at whose eyes were where? JK

The whole evening was absolutely fabulous. The Cirque met all of my expectations. What a treat!!

Mel and Tony were gracious hosts and it was great fun to be able to talk out loud and not disturb anyone and to see the show from a fantastic viewpoint and with family. Could life get any better?

Thanks to the Lenoxes for a great evening. We are appreciative.
MB

Tree Memorial

In February of this year our son-in-law's father died. Our family wanted to do something special for Tony to show our love for him and our care that he had lost his father.

I was discussing this with one of our daughters-in-law and she suggested a tree. Her Mom had given this to a friend who had lost a loved one. Our family gave Tony and Mel a cash gift to pick the kind of tree they wanted and enough to have it planted and also to buy a memorial plaque.

Tony's Mom was visiting back in October, and on October 31 the tree was delivered and planted. Here are two pictures Tony's Mom sent me so we could share the event via pictures.




Beautiful tree and a great choice.
May anyone and everyone who views the tree remember Gene and what he meant to his family.
MB

Remembering

We're having such fun on Facebook. What a marvel modern technology is!

One of the youth from the youth group "tagged" me in a photo, and it's this one. We had this made at the church for a bulletin picture. I think it's when we celebrated Paul's 25 years in the ministry, but it might have been when we moved there. Don't know for sure.

This picture brings back so many fun and interesting memories. Cherri was a new driver at age 16 and I was worried sick about her driving in the big city. The little town of Borger TX was just fine, but the big city? We probably overloaded her with things to remember and what to watch out for and I worried, worried, worried. She did great and was a good driver. Probably the best thing that ever happened was to move to the big city. Cherri's still a really good, fast, and careful driver.

Wade's still in high school in this picture. He had a mustache in this picture and sometimes a beard. In high school! Made him look older. One time in a shoe repair shop, he turned to me to ask for money to pay and said, "Mom." The clerk was shocked and said he thought we were husband and wife. Thrilled me but mortified Wade. Funny. Don't think that would happen these days. : )

Melody was in junior high or middle school when we moved. This was a tough time to make the change. Melody made friends quickly and all through high school there was a close group of church friends who did everything together. The three older kids graduated from Southwest HS in Fort Worth, and it was so different from the small town TX high school with all the big city type problems. The church group and James Robinson, the youth minister, were great and were some of the main reasons our kids made it through high school safe and sound. Their running-around group was mostly comprised of church kids. I'll always be grateful for James and Judy and the youth group!

Brett was in first grade when we moved to Fort Worth. He went through grade school in FW before we moved to Broken Arrow OK. He had the fun of being on the "runt" end of the kids and we often laughingly said that Brett had five parents instead of two. Those are such impressionable years. We were so busy with high school kids and an exploding and popular ministry that I sometimes wonder if Brett benefited or was neglected. Evidenced by the way he's turned out as an adult, I like to think that he seems to have benefited. I hope so.

Memories!! Fun to remember. Regrets fade and fun times come to the fore front. Grateful for that!!
MB

Halloween Hobos

That's I and my younger sister, Jenny, dressed up for Halloween as children.

I have fond memories of Halloween as a child. I had many brothers and sisters, and my Mom always made sure we all had costumes to go trick or treating. As we got older, we made up our own costumes. Not sure who helped Jenny and me with these costumes, but they're pretty good, aren't they?

Jenny and I always had so much fun together. She's two years younger, and I have great memories of our growing up together. But, I'm the older sister. My memories are good ones.

Sometimes I hear Jenny talk, and I'm not sure her memories are so pleasant of our times together. She recalls some of the times I got angry and mistreated her. I'm shocked! Sweet little ole' me? Really?

A good life lesson for me from this is to always stay open about my memories and check them out with the other principals involved. My girls and I have done that some and it's very interesting the result. Keeps perspective. When you plug in others' feelings and perspectives, memories come into focus and become a little more realistic.

I digress! Halloween is such a fun time. We grew up loving it. Just sharing some memories.
MB