Happy Birthday, Amy!

I love this kiddo!  I am so grateful that she's ours!!! 

She always asks for bizarre birthday themes - one year it was Cheese. Another, Ostriches.  This year it was...

 

                                                          Mustachioed Retro Robot

She wanted bbq-ed burgers and potatoes.  So, that's what she got.  I'm so glad she's easy to please :)

                                After the pinata was a pinata fail  (the bottom fell right out :/ )
                                 she made the best of the situation with a Pinata Head Disco

We discovered she has TWO boyfriends.  Those candles refused to blow out!

                                                         We found these in Vegas:

Lip tattoos!!

And, we ended with one of her favourite movies,

An outdoor screening of "Up"

I realize most girls her age are boy crazy and superficial and I am so glad this kiddo is just into being mischievous and fun and young.  So grateful for this girl!

Steve

I can't thank God enough for giving me this man as my husband. I lucked out. Not every woman gets to marry a good guy. One who chooses to love and to cherish for a lifetime.

We've been married 20 years today. Wow! I keep thinking it can't be that long, can it?! They have been full years. An adventure filled with joy, sorrow, hope, loss, beauty, pain, sickness and health.

I love my husband for so many reasons.

He's a true wild man. He can't be chained. He wants to go to the end of the line. Always. Whether it be 4x4-ing in the bush or hiking that mountain or building a snowman or cleaning the shed. Its all or nothing. He can't do things by halves. Which makes for adventure.   Some adventures more fun than others.

Our first true date was hours up a dark, narrow, blizzardy mountain with me getting out to push his rusty, little grey Shove-it (Chevette) up thru the steep, slippery parts.  In case you're thinking he's a cad...he did offer to let me drive but I preferred to do the pushing.  I was too scared I'd slide us off the mountainside. After about an hour of bushing it up the winding mountainous cow path in the blizzarding darkness, I began to second guess whether or not this was a good thing. Here, I am a young woman up in the who-know's-where wilderness with a promise of a lovely cabin cafe to come. I began to wonder about the wisdom of being with a virtually unknown guy way out in the woods. We crawled at a snail's pace through the narrowest of spaces between rock walls as high as my eyes could see. Mind you, vision was limited due to the blizzard. Just as this worrying thought entered my head, I saw a faint glow. Sure enough. A cabin cafe at 4000ft.  Chute Lake Lodge. Complete with a pool table and intimate, rustic dining. The owner was a childhood friend of Steve's mom. And, was she surprised to see us!  "How ever did you make it up here in this blizzard? And...in that?!"

(Chute Lake, April 1992)

We spent the beginning of our honeymoon road trip there after a beautiful wedding and a mischief filled reception which included a steer being presented to my dad. (Dad had joked to Steve that I was worth lots of cows. So, Steve decided he should bring a sample of the herd ;) )

And, my husband *is* Mischief as his friends will attest. 

He also has strength. And, wisdom.   I remember the first time I heard him preach. Wow! He makes God's word, The Bible, come to life. He was told by a sweet, elderly parishioner at University Chapel where we pastored that he was "just like that Pet Detective fellow when he preached. But...for Jesus." Jim Carrey for Jesus. ;D

He's soulful. He can still make me cry when he sings or plays the piano.  He was playing the piano as I wrote this.  Some old hymns from my childhood.  Tears on my face :S 

He is a man of integrity and a great provider.  If we were lost in the woods, he'd be most likely to find a way out.  If we were in a zombie apocalypse, we'd survive.  ;)ummm...

But, if I were to go back to the very beginning, I`d have to say that the first time I laid eyes on Steve was when I was barely 13. He was climbing a rather high, narrow ledge during a lunchbreak at a youth convention in Edmonton. I remember seeing his wild blond hair and sensing the wild in him while thinking, "Wow!"  I would never have admitted it.  I was a tomboy.  Not one of those girls.  Still, I wrote in my little diary about him, quickly locking it afterward with my little silver key.

Steve is without fear.  Almost pathologically so.  He loves to climb. He climbs mountainsides gear-less.   He has amazing balance. He freaks me out with crossing canyons on trestles or tightrope walking rickety branches over waterfalls.   He doesn't worry.   He is fearless.

He is free-spirited and questioning. He likens himself, occasionally, to the boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Emporer's New Clothes, that said,"But...that man is naked." (paraphrased)  He questions EVERYTHING...a LOT! He has many rants on many subjects. ;)

                                                       he still does his hair this way ;)

I think his freespirited-ness has a lot to do with his having a lot of freedom as a missionary's kid in South America. He and his siblings lived a very Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn pre-teen existence climbing the Andes mountains freely and frequently on daytrips (even overnight) by themselves. Occasionally, being taken in by compassionate Incas.  I tease him that his parents must not have loved him. No loving parent would let their 9 year old go up into the mountains by themselves for days, would they?! ;) A different, free-spirited 70's era that's for sure. He spent much of his childhood travelling and has a broader world view because of it.

Steve laughs. A lot. and hard.  So hard, he cries.  He constantly jokes. He can't help himself.  He quips.  A lot.   He, like the rest of the Anonby clan, is a mocker. Of everything and everyone, including, himself.   I love that he doesn't take himself too seriously. 

He's been teasingly called, Guru, by his family and friends for his uncanny insights into the world and those around him. Mind you...he was also voted the most likely to start a cult by his seminary classmates... I wonder what that suggests. Hmmm. ;)

While in my second year of university in Alberta, my parents and brother moved to the Okanagan. It was on a visit there that I saw Steve again. He was in chuch and I was with my first boyfriend. Steve turned around, smiled brightly and waved. I remember thinking, "Wow!" while my boyfriend at the time, growled in my ear, "Who's he?!" Ummm... Several months later, after a heartbreaking first breakup, I happened to be back for a visit to BC and we saw each other again in church. This time, I was free. And, Steve, with a wax candle melted to his hand (don't ask me why) and mischief in his eyes, was surrounded by girls flirting. I, being who I am, ignored him shyly while giving a few covert glances from across the room. He asked me out. :D  And, later, he asked my dad for my hand...and well... the rest of me too.

We've had a good, full life since then. Those vows we said on that warm Easter Saturday, we took seriously. To have and to hold. In sickness and in health. To love and to cherish. 

Oh...and, Steve's a great dad.   Really, there couldn't be a dad who loves his girl more. They are two of a kind too and have been from the beginning. 

I love my untameable husband.  I am very lucky and blessed to be in this life-long adventure with him. I thank God for him.   We've made it through financial losses, personal losses, miscarriages and health issues and the resulting marital stresses. It hasn't been easy all of the time.

But, to Steve Anonby, in the words of an 80's Huey Lewis tune, "I am happy to be stuck with you." And, I am so grateful that you've stuck it out with me. The only boy who could ever reach me was a son of a preacher man. I love you, Steve.

A favourite poem by a favourite poet

The Swimmer's Moment
Margaret Avison

For everyone
The swimmer's moment at the whirlpool comes,
But many at that moment will not say
"This is the whirlpool, then."
By their refusal they are saved
From the black pit, and also from contesting
The deadly rapids, and emerging in
The mysterious, and more ample, further waters.
And so their bland-blank faces turn and turn
Pale and forever on the rim of suction
They will not recognize.
Of those who dare the knowledge
Many are whirled into the ominous centre
That, gaping vertical, seals up
For them an eternal boon of privacy,
So that we turn away from their defeat
With a despair, not for their deaths, but for
Ourselves, who cannot penetrate their secret
Nor even guess at the anonymous breadth
Where one or two have won:
(The silver reaches of the estuary).

Happy 65th Birthday to my 50 year old dad! ;)

I do know that he *is* the Best Dad. Others may say that they have the best but I really do.

Here's 65 things that I know and love about him:

1. He's wise.

2. He's mischief incarnate.

3. He's a great provider.

4. He loves kiddos and always has lifesavers or candies in his pockets.

5. And Kleenex in his wallet for the women in his life, ie. his wife and daughters.

6. He, like the Boy Scouts, is always prepared.

7. He loves to give and is truly the most giving person (along with mom) I have ever met. ever.

8. He's everybody's friend. He puts everyone at ease and makes them laugh.

9. He's got a great sense of humour. Most of the time it's great, that is. Sometimes, it's just plain cheese ;)

10. He built us our own home when we were kids.

11. He worked hard for us. He would send us off to play for weeks in the summer at Sylvan Lake while he worked and joined us on weekends.

12. He let us play with dirt bikes and trikes. (even when a certain grumpy neighbour would complain) and built us trails, jumps and firepits. He's fun

13. He's humble

14. He is godly.

15. He takes to heart the verse about caring for widows and orphans. (There were many times as a child that I saw him going over insurance and paperwork and talking with lawyers and even writing out personal cheques @ our dining room table.)

16. He's loyal.

17. He isn't afraid of giving his time or going the extra mile.

18. He's kind.

19. He cares for the elderly. Ooh the great discomfiture us kids would feel when he and mom would cart us into hospitals and nursing homes - the seepage, the "see-sees," the visiting of Sister Ristos and great-grandparents. All of which I appreciate now, but... back then...

20. Did I mention he was/is mischief incarnate? He loves pranks. His neighbours are likely still traumatized from his Halloween hooliganisms.

21. He's a reformed daredevil - playing chicken in his youth along rural Alberta roads.

22. His favourite film as a kid was aptly Steve McQueen's Great Escape as he engineered his own from Camrose Lutheran College Hall's third story windows at age 16.

23. He's soft-hearted and compassionate.

24. He's thoughtful.

25. He's strong. Not just with those big shoulders but internally too.

26. He has a missionary's heart and spent time overseas building orphanages and caring for people. I remember a certain trip where he talked with some people and was considering taking us overseas permanently. God didn't lead that way but he was open.

27. He is gentle.

28. As kids, when we were sick, he'd bring us home comics and treats after work. Popsicles, if we had fevers.

29. He would shave the ice on the lake with his big machines and make skating rinks for us to play on and more ramps in the snow for the snowmobile.

30. He has a beautiful singing voice. really.

31. He's been a carpenter,

32. a real estate agent,

33. a builder,

34. an electrical engineer and worked at AGT

35. He likes change and has lived in different places and made many friends and has had many lives because of it.

36. He is patient.

37. He never once yelled at a certain sister of mine who crashed the car(s) several times in her youth ;)

He'd just ask, "are you okay?" That's all that mattered. The rest could be dealt with.

38. He's an ethical businessman using the best materials when he built homes ( no chipboard) even when it cost him out of his own pocket.

39. He's an artist - as a carpenter building furniture and shelving. He makes the most beautiful woodgrain pens. I love the smell of wood. it transports me to my childhood to all things homey and safe and good.

40. He'd tickle us to death as kids. naughty.

41. He loves his wife. Too many PDAs even yet. sigh.

42. He loves good, soulful music.

43. He's an encourager.

44. His favourite periodicals are Auto Trader and Buy and Sell

45. His favourite online sites include Craigslist and Kijiji.

46. He loves to buy and he loves to sell.

47. He's a Mr. Fix It

48. He *Loves* to tease.

49. We always had the fun cars - plush 70's vans in the 70's, firebirds and mustangs in the 80's. He gave Dee and I our first cars. They were matching robin's egg blue mustangs. He also purchased Dee an original cone lights and chrome El Camino that had the boys flocking to her side.

50. He took time for us kids. He'd take us out on is car hunts to the auto sales and yards and take us out for lunch afterwards.

51. He'd give us the shirt off his back. and did. Dee still has his old cardigan, I think.

52. He took us on adventures. camping and trips

53. He took us to church faithfully and if we were bored would let us fall asleep on his lap and/give us crayons and coloring books, toy trucks from his pocket and pilfered melba toast garlic sticks.

54. He'll travel miles to find you a deal.

55. He'll travel miles to help you in a crisis and make sure he's there.

56. He'll move in order to be nearer his kids in a crisis.

57. He'll purchase a business and then volunteer many hours at it until its on its feet.

58. He doesn't complain.

59. He likes his food. Thank goodness he's married to mom ;)

60. He's trusted my abilities and in doing so made me trustworthy.

61. He loves God and lives his life that way.

62. He prays for us kids daily. What a blessing.

63. He was a great son. He regularly visited and called his folks. Would rope us in to paint their house. He'd clean up after them and move them. He loved them.

64. As his sister will tell you, "He's the Best Brother."

65. And as you can see, He really is the Best Father.

I love you dad. I hope you have such a special day today and a really wonderful new year!

A Favourite Poem

Contraband


by Denise Levertov


The tree of knowledge was the tree of reason.
That's why the taste of it
drove us from Eden. That fruit
was meant to be dried and milled to a fine powder
for use a pinch at a time, a condiment.
God had probably planned to tell us later
about this new pleasure.
We stuffed our mouths full of it,
gorged on but and if and how and again
but, knowing no better.
It's toxic in large quantities; fumes
swirled in our heads and around us
to form a dense cloud that hardened to steel,
a wall between us and God, Who was Paradise.
Not that God is unreasonable – but reason
in such excess was tyranny
and locked us into its own limits, a polished cell
reflecting our own faces. God lives
on the other side of that mirror,
but through the slit where the barrier doesn't
quite touch ground, manages still
to squeeze in – as filtered light,
splinters of fire, a strain of music heard
then lost, then heard again.

Hmm...

Now we know where Donald Trump got the inspiration for his 'do. Blame Jimmy (Jimi) and his blond Elvis:

We discovered this drawing at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Both my hubby and I saw Donald not Elvis in Jimi Hendrix's doodle.

Lamentations 3:22-24

The steadfast love of the Lord never changes. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."