Mnemonic for the 10 Commandments

A friend emailed this to me yesterday, and I think it's really cool! I can list the 10 commandments, but I am always unsure of the correct order. Enjoy!

* Click on the graphics to see the big picture and read the text.

I'm a Great Aunt again!

Micah Clayton Stence arrived on Thursday, June 19!!* All 8lb 7oz, 19.75" of him. :) Isn't he so sweeeeeeeeeeeet?! Praise the Lord for his safe arrival. (June 19 is Great-Great Uncle Dan Cooley's birthday.)

Congratulations, Philip & Jennifer, Elanor, Jeremiah, Hana and Shylah!!

We can hardly wait to get up to PA to hold him close. * sigh *

*Yes, the post is a little delayed, but the news was a little delayed getting to me! :)

Dad's Day

This year Father's Day falls on June 15. Dad always enjoyed years like this. Since he was born on June 15 and got married on June 15 (18 yrs later), on a year like this, he celebrated a triple-special day!

Son, Andy, & Joy had hoped to marry on June 15, but their close friends, Dave & Joyce, snagged the day before they did. Daughter, Faith, & Ken would have liked to marry on June 15, but our idea for a Monday evening wedding was shot down, and we weren't dedicated enough to the idea to wait four years for the 15th to be on a Saturday. Grandson, Paul Jr, & Belinda have the special honor of getting married on June 15 (1996)!

Coincidentally, several other things happened on June 15 in various years: Dad's mother passed away due to injuries sustained from a fall the day before; Dad's first dialysis treatment was given; and a dear friend was killed in a plane crash. (The last two were on the same day.)

Dad wondered if perhaps he might die on June 15 and expressed that wonder from time to time, especially on June 15. He thought that would be "neat." Needless to say, the dialysis nurses and Mom were nervous wrecks the years he had dialysis treatments on June 15!

Not that he told me (or anybody), but I have always thought that when Dad kept holding onto life longer than anyone thought possible, he was trying to make it to June 15. He made it to May 1--only 6 weeks short!

I remember Dad for lots of reasons on lots of days and I miss him on more days than anyone knows, but I realize that in a sense he is always with me. Ken especially hears his admonition and phrases and stories and punchlines continually. Not too long ago he declared that he now knows Dad as well as the rest of us! LoL (That didn't last real long tho. When he read my May 3rd post, he discovered several tidbits of new info about both of my parents.)

I couldn't tell Dad Happy Father's Day, Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary, but I thought of him much today and thanked God for blessing me with such a wonderful father. I remember him speaking with awe of several Biblical parents, wondering how they constructed a spiritual foundation in their children in the few short years they had access to them that when those children were immersed in unGodly cultures and education they did not waver from their faith and loyalty to God: parents of Joseph, Moses, Daniel and the three Hebrew "children." They were Dad's heroes, and he wanted to know their methods!

Well, I don't know that any records of their precise methods exist, but Dad believed that Deuteronomy 6:7 figured in there. "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Any job we worked on together that didn't require our complete concentration was opportunity for him to talk with me about spiritual things. Even the shortest trip provided a few minutes for this principle or that. Longer/Long trips, meal times, and family altar allowed for in-depth, intense discussions. He took his teaching responsibilities so seriously, and truthfully, convicted me so terribly (particularly in my teen years) that sometimes I would say, "Do we hafta only talk about spiritual stuff?!" If only I had realized the golden moments I was snubbing!! Notwithstanding my sporadic inattentiveness, however, the incredible amount of training he packed into our 23 years together is still impacting my life. Thank You, God, for my wonderful father!

Two particular principles he drilled into my life were these:

It was his duty to teach me to obey him because if I did not learn to obey him, I would not learn to obey God. Sometimes he would tell me why he wanted me to do this or that and other times not. Sometimes he would say, "This time you must obey me without knowing why I want you to do this simply because you need to learn to obey God even when He does not tell you why He is directing you to do something because that is just part of the reality of the Christian life." Truer words...

The other principle ties into that one--it's about the "mystery bag." When Peter said to Jesus (about John), "what shall this man do?" Jesus replied, "...what is that to thee? follow thou me." Growing up in a Christian ministry setting, I constantly encountered people and situations I could not understand, and I would fume, "How can Christians do that?!" "How can God let this situation be like that?!" "Why won't God do something?!" And Dad would say, "Faith, what is that to thee? Put it in the mystery bag."

(Just in case you have never heard of a "mystery bag," it is a bag that always stretches to hold at least one more item, and it is thrown over your shoulder to be carried behind you. Whenever you encounter a person or situation you can't understand, you put it in the mystery bag. When you get to heaven, you can open it up and ask Jesus whatever you want to about all those things... if they still matter then.)

I never liked Dad saying, "What is that to thee?" or telling me to "put it in the mystery bag" (and sometimes challenged that he just didn't want to discuss things with me), but what a valuable spiritual lesson he taught me!

Again I say, Thank You, God, for my wonderful father!

From nachos to coconut cream pie

Saturday evening...

Back in April I saw a recipe on Dorcas Walker's blog for "Heavenly Coconut Cream Pie." I have never been a coconut fan, but the recipe is very simple, and I am definitely a simple recipe fan! (The kitchen is not my favorite room in the house.)

I finally made the pie tonight. (I probably wouldn't have to make this confession since the photo will make this obvious, but I have made very few pies in my entire life, thus the ugly job on the crust. And tonight is the first time ever for toasting coconut.) So far we have only tasted the last half cup of the pudding mixture left in the bowl, but wow!! I have never tasted anything coconut that tasted so good. The pie almost didn't make it to the fridge!

P.S. Ooo-la-la! That pie is M-m-m-m good!

Friday evening...

For our anniversary celebration, we originally planned to go Chinese because after we left our reception (at which we had each eaten about 10 bites), we went to the Chopsticks House restaurant in Harrisburg. Our fave Chinese restaurant in the area, Mandarin House, however, disappointed us on our last visit, flunked a recent health dept inspection, and is in Knoxville instead of local (read gas $$). Three strikes determined it was out.

So we decided on Texas Roadhouse, but when we arrived, it was crawling with people, so we decided to head to our fave Mexican restaurant, El Jimador. We thought we would have time to browse our photo album of wedding snapshots (not the scrapbook album which has the formal photos) while waiting for our meal, but in no time at all, our usual fare was on the table, so we postponed that until after we finished eating.

We had requested to be seated where our #2 preferred waiter would be our waiter. When he checked to see if we needed anything else, he stopped to see our pics. Since it was near closing time, not many patrons were in the restaurant, so he talked quite at length with us. He pointed to a photo of Ken and said, "Young. You Young!" How he laughed when he understood that our last name is Young!

.

We discovered that his wife also works there--and got to meet her, and that they were married just one month prior to us! That was pretty cool. One by one other waiters and waitresses wanted to see the photos. Before long most of the staff knew that it was our anniversary. Over and over they said, "Long time!"

.

We had been a little disappointed to switch from Chinese and then again from Texas Roadhouse, but by the time we left El Jimador, we felt like we had celebrated after all.

It's our 16th Anniversary!!

Wow. 16 years. No wonder sometimes I can hardly remember what single life was like!

Just in case you're wondering, L to R: (Back Row) Tim Cooley Jr, Paul Young, Dave Young. Don White, Jr. (Middle Row) Rebekah (Cooley) Stence, Beth (Sheehan) Haney, Faith & Ken, Janelle (Burnham) Schneider, Tabitha Cooley. (Front Row) Melissa (Young) Lemin, Rhoda (Stence) Grout, Greg Miller, David Young, Jr.

When we were coming up on our 5th anniversary and fairly new to the internet and creating websites and pages, I designed a surprise anniversary page to say "Happy Anniversary!" to Ken. So instead of trying to figure out what to post here... I'll just direct you there. (Not being lazy... I've been spending time creating and assembling a wedding scrapbook [about time, ya think?!] and didn't think about putting something together for here. That's why you can see part of a parchment quotation: This day I marry my best friend... )

Disclaimer: The anniversary page is ok, I think, but the site in general has not been updated for a while (that's stating it gently!) so dud links abound.

Q & A

Q: Who in the world goes to Golden Corral to eat a grilled cheese sandwich?

Here's your clue:

A: Ken! lol

(You may [or may not!] remember this from my Apr 29 post: One of the times Ken & I met Andy at the Golden Corral in Sevierville recently, Ken came back to the table from the buffet. I said, "What in the world? You're coming to Golden Corral for grilled cheese?!" Andy laughed and revealed that just before he had seen Ken's plate he had almost said, "Did you see the grilled cheese up there? Who in the world is coming here and eating grilled cheese sandwiches?!")

We're always happy when people charter Andy's coach for trips to MS and LA since that brings him through the Knoxville area. We usually meet up with him at the Golden Corral restaurant in Sevierville for lunch on his way back home. Today was our day! We enjoyed meeting up with Andy again... And Ken savored another grilled cheese sandwich! :)

Poll Results

Six votes for P & R; three votes for HIS & HERS. So Pete and Repeat it is! :) After the whole ordeal as a result of "the key," however, Ken carries only Pete's keys, and I carry only Repeat's keys. I guess that means "Everyone's a winner today!" We have Pete & Repeat cars and HIS & HERS car keys.

Thanks for your participation! :)

P.S. Remember Uncle Charlie saying, "Everyone's a winner today!" on the Children's Bible Hour radio program when there was a tie with the Bible Quickie Quiz? Do they still say that? I haven't heard that line spoken in years (decades?), but it popped up spontaneously!

Yeh, and now that I mentioned Quickie Quizzes, I have the pre-quiz ditty running endlessly through my brain: "It's a Quickie, It's a Quickie, It's a Quickie, Quickie Quiz. With the boys against the girls, 'til we're all in a whirl, It's a Quickie Quickie Quiz!"

Hehehehe, can you hear it now too?! ;)