33 Years Ago...

On this date 33 years ago I was walking down the ailse with my Daddy.


Being the football coach that he was, he kept asking me if I was sure if I wanted to do this. "It's still the 4th quarter; we can still kick a field goal and get outta here!" He had me laughing and crying at the same time. That's why I love this picture. It shows emotion. ...and look at my Daddy's boots!

Before this day and before I met Bob, I used to always believe that a girl would always have some doubt about getting married and and the assurance that it would be a forever marriage....after all, the divorce rate was high; people changed. But I also very vividly remember thinking and saying out loud that day 33 years ago that I was sure this was right. I had no doubt that we would have a forever marriage.

And by the grace of God, it has been and is a forever marriage.

I love you, Robert Wayne Spies.
Thank you for making me your wife.

Inspired!

Yesterday, I saw this:

and this:

and I remembered my long-neglected resolution to spend 30 minutes a day going through stuff--organizing and getting rid of it. So I set my timer and began my 30 minutes.

I started out on the stack in the first picture. It contained greeting cards from a couple of years back. Some of the greeting cards were from parents who are now dead. Needless to say, instead of being motivated to tackle the stack, I just was overcome with sadness and the enormity of the task before me.

This winter, about the same time I decided to manage the mess surrounding me in 30-minute increments, I came up with the idea that preserving family stories and heirloom pictures (or pictures of heirlooms) via a blog post would be a way to keep those stories alive, yet not be burdonsome in the form of just more "stuff". (I've been reminded very acutely that many, many stories get lost when a person dies. No longer can I have a question answered by just asking mom or dad....)

So yesterday, I started my debut blog post and entitled it "Overwhelming". But I just became sadder and more downcast as I wrote. So I trashed it.

Today, after a good night's sleep, I've looked at my "glass" again. I think I'm inspired! How many more good forgotten stories are there to uncover in those piles? A few, I bet. I'm going to try to look at the task before me as a treasure hunt...and yes, I'm trying to act my way into a better way of feeling, but hey, it works!!

By the way, it is the 33rd anniversary of my marriage to Robert Wayne Spies. I love that guy!