Celebrations

When I was young time seemed to stand still.  Or at least not move along as quickly as I often thought it should.  But once I had children, time really began to speed up.  Children change every day.  You can almost see them grow.  Time became measured by them, in my mind.  All too soon they were grown up and gone, but time never did stop speeding by.  This past Wednesday Layne and I celebrated 48 years of marriage!  Somehow it stands out this year.  48 years.  How could that possibly be?  My mind now connects its vast collection of memories over 71 years.  No wonder there is a lot of stuff I simply can't find in my mind now.

Since selling our California condo, we find ourselves with a little extra money.  So we made a list of projects that we can now accomplish and used most of Wednesday
to make arrangements for some.  We are going to replace the laminate countertops in the kitchen with granite, replace the kitchen sink and the faucet.  I'm so excited about this.  We got it rolling on Wednesday, then went out to dinner.  As it turns out, a beautiful full moon emerged on Wednesday night and smiled down upon us, as if to congratulate us on 48 years together.

Here is the full moon I mentioned, behind a selfie of the tops of our heads.  Not exactly a quality shot.

It has been a week of projects.  I've already expressed my enjoyment of projects.  Well, starting them anyhow.  I'm working on getting myself to finish them and worked on that this week.  I'm almost done with one in fact.  I began making scrapbooks of my children's lives quite some time ago and managed to finish 4 of the 5 collections, which I've passed on to each child.  Only Gerald's remains.  It will be finished by this coming week.  It is such a good feeling to be done with something; I really should do it more often!

We have been in Idaho for a year and a half now and I still haven't seen many of the lovely sites that surround us here.  Layne isn't interested in checking any of them out so I talked my buddy Phyllis into driving with me to visit two places I've wanted to see.  On Saturday we drove up into the hills to a skiing resort called Bogus Basin.  It's a strange name for a place, if you ask me.  Bogus is lit up at night in the winter and we can see the sparkle from our house.  But there is little action in the summer so it is a good time to visit.  We loved the drive and took in a beautiful view of the Boise valley from the top of the mountain.  The Boise River flows through the city and beyond.  There is a 25 mile river walk along its banks that I wanted to see. So we checked that out as well. At least a small part of it.  It made for a enjoyable Saturday, and now we know of two places to admire about this Treasure Valley.

                                     Bogus Basin, with a view of Boise below.

A goofy picture of Phyllis and me, a selfie taken atop Bogus Basin.  Our picture taking effort made us laugh.

Here is a small piece of the River Walk; 25 miles of a walking path along the Boise River.

On this Father's Day I choose to rejoice, that I had a father who loved me, and still does.  A father who cared for me, looked out for me, protected me and provided for me.  He taught me that men are good things to have in one's life.  And so I grew up a lover of men.  I married one who has proven to be another very good man, who loves me, protects me and provides for me.  Because of these two men, my life has been filled with peace, safety, love and happiness.  I am so grateful.  I'm happy too that my husband loves his children.  He thinks of them, prays for them and serves them in every way he knows how to do.  My sons (and daughters) fill my life with happiness.  So, once again, I am assured that the men in my life are great treasures.  I love them all.

Here is my father, Gerald Charles Kiser, when he was 30 years old, taken right after I was born.

Layne and me in another selfie.  One gets desperate when there is no one to take the picture for us.  Once again, there is something about this effort that is uncontrollably funny!