There Will Be Magic In My Garden

My husband and I dream and plan for the day we will own some property and have a garden. For now I content myself with simple herb boxes. But someday I will have a place for magic to spread and romance to bloom. And today I will make what magic and romance I can with what I have.

Our Adventures: Part 2

A large portion of our time in California was spent with my extended family. Only a few had seen Ethan, while almost no one had met Saoirse yet. It was so delightful to share my children with all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. While Roman's family is scattered all through NW Montana (plus several other states, oh, and England), my relatives are further away. But I have a much smaller group for him to meet, than he has for me. (My kids are two out of 35 great-grandchildren on Roman's side of the fam.)

We stayed with my dad's parents in Livermore, California. I have spent a lot of nights there, and now my kids have too. We were all still recovering from colds during the first couple days, and Grandpa had pneumonia too. So we spent time drinking tea, watching cartoons, and chatting. Saoirse and Gigi (Great-Grandma) had wonderful chats.

On our way down to CA we stopped in Medford OR to visit my great-aunt and my dads cousins.

The house I grew up in, Brentwood CA.

I know somewhere there is a picture of me in Grandmas tub, very similar to this.

Ethan kept us all amused with his goofy ways. One morning he found a red beret that he quiet liked the look of.  He quietly sneaked out (it was only around 7 am, so not everyone was up yet) to where Jillian and Hayley were sleeping to ask them, with a cheesy one-eyed smile, if he was cute. When they confirmed his cuteness, he giggled and ran back to the bathroom where Laurel was showering. He managed to open the door and wander in to play with brushes and who knows what else. Laurel - who did not have her contacts in - said all she could see was a bright red blob bobbing up and down. It was then that I realized where he was, and with a mild scolding took him back to our room to look in the mirror and laugh at his cuteness.

Baby has to take a bath in Gigi's sink.

Great-grandpa has been playing golf for years. Ethan learned a few basic techniques in the backyard, which he continues to practice, with a great variety in balls and sticks.

We also saw both my dad's sisters, and two of my cousins during our stay.

Then we spent an afternoon with my mom's brother, the firefighter with a great swimming pool.

Every house we went to had a dog. Saoirse tried kiss them, while Ethan tried to ride them.

Playing dominoes with great-grandpa (this is my mom's stepdad aka one the best firefighters ever)

Saoirse got along well with all the grandpas and uncles. This is my moms other brother.

The Anderson branch of our family tree:

back row; l-r my dad and mom, grandma and grandpa, my only cousin on that side of the family, my two uncles and one aunt.

front row: my sisters, my wee ones, and yours truly.

After a week in the Bay Area we headed up to the wedding. My mom's sister Christine is 20 years younger than her and 15 months older than me. So when we heard she was engaged we all planned to be at the wedding in TwainHarte CA. On a lovely tree farm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains she shed the name Daskam for Vigilienzone, nearly 26 years after my mom went from Daskam to Carstensen.

It was a beautiful wedding and I as so happy to be there for the event. I really missed Roman during that day. Weddings just make me wish to be close to the one whom my soul loves.

He started the evening with a cute newsboy cap. But there was a bridge over a creek and something had to be thrown in, so in the absence of pebbles the cap was the alternative.

She always looks so adorable.

My grandpa, my aunt and her groom, my mom, my uncle

The grandpa from whom my mom inherits many strong traits.

My gorgeous sister Laurel and lovely mother

With my dad, from whom I inherit so many traits, and Ethan from me.

Thoughts from another blogger (and an anniversary)

Ladies, you should all take a few minutes to read this article.
The Proper Lady: The Subtle Details of a Feminine Lady

Nina has some wonderful thoughts on femininity. As I raise my little girl, I want to exemplify to her all the delights of being female. I want my son to admire feminine traits, as his father does so very well. And I wish to show the world how delighted I am to be a woman, happy with my children, joyous in my home, filled with pleasure by my husband. God has been so good to give me a full life!

On the 3rd of July, 2010, it had been a fairly normal Saturday. I had worked in the garden, planned dinner with my beau, and gone to visit a friend recently returned from a missions trip. As far as I knew the evening was going to be a quiet one with Roman and my parents. But when I returned home from my visit, Roman showed up with his parents and a pile of gifts. A silk dress, light blue sweater, a blue topaz jewelry set, and shoes. I was overwhelmed and eagerly anticipating the coming evening which I hoped would hold a proposal. I will never forget his reaction to when I came out in the outfit he had so carefully planned for me. He looked down the hall from the couch, stood up, and as I entered the room his knees buckled and he sat
down.  Best compliment he could give me was the overwhelming inability to speak.

So we went to dinner and then to Flathead Lake, auspiciously to watch the sunset. At the end of the dock Roman presented me with a diamond ring and an anxious question. My answer sent him into utter delight; he spun me around, and we hugged while fireworks were going off all around us.
It has been three full years since that magical evening. We have moved four times, traveled some,worked a lot and have added a son and daughter to our lives. Each year we have gone back to Wayfarers Park on Flathead Lake to consider just how joyous our lives have been. Our date this year was short, but still magical and more meaningful. How full of bounty is our life! How good it is to be married! How glad I am that the Lord has brought Roman and I together forever!

July 2010 (Right after the proposal )

2011 (pregnant with Ethan)

July 2012 (pregnant with Saoirse)

July 2013 (just the two of us)

Independence Bell - July 4, 1776

There was a tumult in the city
In the quaint old Quaker town,
And the streets were rife with people
Pacing restless up and down-
People gathering at corners,
Where they whispered each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples
With the earnestness of speech.

As the bleak Atlantic currents
Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,
So they beat against the door;
And the mingling of their voices
Made the harmony profound,
Till the quiet street of Chestnut
Was all turbulent with sound.

"Will they do ti?" "Dare they do it?"
"Who is speaking?" "What's the news?"
"What of Adams?" "What of Sherman?"
"Oh, God grant they won't refuse!"
"Make some way there!" "Let me nearer!"
"I am stifling!" "Stifle then!"
When a nation's life's at hazard,
We've no time to think of men!"

So they surged against the State House,
While all solemnly inside,
Sat the Continental Congress,
Truth and reason for their guide,
O'er a simple scroll debating,
Which, though simple it might be,
Yet should shake the cliffs of England
With the thunders of the the free.

Far aloft in that high steeple
Sat the bellman, old and gray,
He was weary of the tyrant
And his iron-sceptered sway;
So he sat, with one hand ready
On the clapper of the bell,
When his eye could catch the signal,
The long-expected news to tell.

See! See! The dense crowd quivers
Through all its lengthy line,
As the boy beside the portal
Hastens forth to give the sign!
With his little hands uplifted,
Breezes dallying with his hair,
Hark! with deep, clear intonation
Breaks his young voice in the air.

Hushed the people's swelling murmur,
Whilst the boy crys joyously;
"Ring!" he shouts, "Ring! Grandpapa,
Ring! oh, ring for Liberty!"
Quickly, at the given signal
The old bellman lifts his hand,
 Forth he sends the good news, making
Iron music through the land.

How they shouted! What rejoicing!
How the old bell shook the air,
Till the clang of freedom ruffled,
The calmly gliding Delaware!
How the bonfires and the torches
Lighted up the night's repose,
And from the flames, the fabled Phoines,
Our glorious liberty arose!

That old State House bell is silent,
Hushed is now it's clamorous tongue;
But the spirit it awakened
Still is living - ever young;
And when we greet the smiling sunlight
On the fourth of each July,
We will ne'er forget the bellman
Who, betwixt the earth and sky,
Rung out, loudly, "Independence";
Which, please God, shall never die!

~unknown