As I wake this morning, the unseasonable cold, snowy Colorado weather has reminded me of this same day, 30 years ago. I am thinking of weddings and celebrations of love. I am also thinking of a bride waking to huge sobs that are her own. It is her wedding day. A day girls dream about all their growing up years but this is not the day in her dream. It is extremely cold, snowy, and windy. She was notified yesterday that her wedding rings were lost in the frantic Christmas mail, her veil had not arrived and her dress is not finished. Keep in mind this wedding has been planned in 6 short weeks through the Christmas season. Both the bride and groom are working retail management jobs. Cold weather, snow and holidays can have a big effect on weddings and celebrations of love. This story does have a happy ending but the start was truly a challenging one. There were phone calls; quick shopping trips and lots of tears but the bride and groom were at the church with rings and full regalia in time for the wedding that evening. It had been a long day full of blessings even before we knew the fullness of God’s abiding love. Continue reading
Month: December 2006
Cannot let this very special day dawn and not send heartfelt blessings out to each of you! This is such a beautiful time of year as we celebrate Christmas. The worship of Yeshua, the Messiah. I trust that you have made time somewhere in this busy season to reflect and soak in His peace. May this morning find you surrounded with friends and family, if not in person, then in spirit. We send you our thoughts, love, and hugs, may you wrap yourself in them and feel their richness. Continue reading
Kristina had only been in her new apartment just long enough for the dust to settle, a whole 4 days, when we headed off to Iowa for the Thanksgiving weekend. Matt, Kristina, and I leave Abby with the lovely Sharon and Jerry across the street, pack up at O’dark thirty and head east for lots of food and fellowship!
It was whirlwind time! God had laid a couple of people on our hearts to see and pray with. We worked those times in around two Thanksgiving dinners with family and a visit to our home church to see loved ones.
We arrived that evening to celebrate Matt’s birthday with Mom and Dad Grimes. Great Key Lime pie, Mom! This family doesn’t ‘do’ cake so Matt’s birthdays always have pie! We spent Thanksgiving Day with Mom and Dad Grimes watching old 8mm family movies of Matt as a young child and family life in England. Trips to castles and foreign countries, days spent with Gram and Grandad. Thanks to Mom for the idea and Dad for working so hard to fix the projector. Parts are not readily available or at reasonable prices for those 8mm antiques! I shed a few tears as we watched Gram and Grandad, wishing they were still with us and thinking of all they have sown into our lives. Continue reading
Sunday, the 3rd, was one of the most wonderful days of my life! The weekend following Thanksgiving is always long anticipated in our family. It is the day we go and get our Christmas tree. It is a day of togetherness and bonding that we experience no other time of year. Our tree is a symbol of life and freedom through Christ and the celebration of this whole season of His birth. It is more significant than ever as we go to the mountains we love and cut our own tree out of the National Forest. It is just a grand adventure! A Treasure Hunt of sorts.
This Sunday dawned sunny, crisp and beautiful. The snow still clinging to the pine boughs from the previous days snowfall. After church, we gathered around a warm and filling brunch discussing the days events. This family loves gathering for breakfast any time of day! The anticipation was high enough that our mountain loving dog, Abby, got excited as well without being told what was happening. She just knew an adventure was brewing and she would be a part. No one goes to the mountains without Abby and somehow she knows when we are going hiking. I am still not convinced that she doesn’t actually understand human conversation!
Armed with our saw, warm gear, cord to secure our “prize”, we headed off to Woodland Park and the Pikes Peak Ranger Mobile Office to buy our permit. As we wind our way through the Ute Valley Pass, we are met with tree-trimmed vehicle after vehicle coming down the Pass. Ah, no wonder attendance was so low in church today; everyone was up on the mountain! This constant, and I do mean constant, flow of trees down the mountain, builds the excitement and gives a passing thought, will our perfect tree still be there or is it already on the way down the mountain to some else’s home! Silly, Girl! I chide myself. There are so many trees in the forest there has to be a beauty still on the mountain for us! This is not like going to the corner Boy Scout tree lot. Continue reading
I have been slowly expanding my collection of banknotes. I renewed this interest earlier this fall and decided I needed a theme for my collection. I decided on trains and ships. One day I was looking around a website that specializes in old stock certificates and ran across an interesting item that not only fit my theme but was the same size as a banknote.
The Holman Locomotive and Speeding Truck Co. was incorporated under the laws of Iowa back in the 1890’s. In Sioux City if I remember correctly. It was a scam where the company made false claims of a locomotive with increased speed by using a special design of its wheels. This startling curiosity of locomotive design was to become known as Holman’s Absurdity.
Practical railroad men immediately assailed the design as a monstrosity: “It is a humbug. When we first heard of the Holman locomotive we supposed that it was the invention of some harmless crank who did not understand the elementary principles of mechanics, but we now believe that it has been, since its inception, an ostentatious machine designed to allure unwary capitalists into an investment which will be of the same real value as throwing gold coin over Niagara Falls.”
Nevertheless, the parties’ exploiting the Holman locomotive advertised their stock in numerous newspapers claiming that the invention was certain to come rapidly into general use and was destined to be the locomotive of the future. The engine was run a few trips on a straight railroad in New Jersey, which was used merely as a stimulant to stock selling. Unfortunately many people with limited savings were allured, into investing their hard earned money in this swindle, and they might as well have given it to a highway robber.
The semester is over! That’s a good thing. This course was really challenging but I learned quite a lot and it will help me with my job. So, now I get a month off.
We had planned to celebrate by going snowshoeing and then visiting a hot springs resort out west of Denver but something I ate last night got the best of me and I have been feeling poorly so we had to reschedule. That was a bad thing.
In spite of not feeling so hot we did go up the hill and take a nice walk in the woods. The winds were calm this morning, the sun was shining, and it was nearly 60 degrees. That was good thing and it was refreshing to get some exercise.
Josh and Kristina had to face some realities of life regarding differing lifestyles and decided sharing a townhouse was maybe not the best idea. Kristina found herself a studio apartment and moved out. In the long run this probably a good thing but it had it’s painful moments. Helping someone move rarely qualifies as a good thing but it went smoothly and for that we were all grateful.
Kristina’s lifelong friend Angie just announced her engagement. Not details yet but another good thing!
ITT had their annual Christmas party last weekend. They throw a very nice big bash down at the Sheraton. Dinner, dancing, lots of wonderful desserts, and entertainment. Had to dust off my suit, get all prettied up and take my girl to town! That was good thing too.
Went up to the movie store a little bit ago and rented the newest Pixar film called Cars. Nobody makes animated films quite like Pixar so this will undoubtably be a good thing.
Came back from the library the other day with several new books by some of my favorite authors. In particluar, Alastair Reynolds new book called Pushing Ice is quite good if you like the genre called New Space Opera which tends to be scientifically rigorous while ambitious in scope. It was very nice to be reading for pleasure for a change.
