After All These Years

 I still see sparks

 when I'm in the room with Hubby.

It's gotta be love!

My Love

Happy Birthday!

The love of my life and I have grown up and grown out together.  

We've known each other close to a half century. 

It certainly has never been boring.  

He is my center. 

I am his challenge. 

Love you always, husband of mine!

He Reminds Me Of Uncle Bill

“Somewhere in Between” by Anne Worner CC BY-SA 2.0.

For Mindlovemisery's Photo Challenge #84

Uncle Bill faced life head on and if that meant running over some people along the way, so be it.  He ran over his wife and his children and never looked back. He had a mean streak in him a mile long but a streak of kindness just as big.

He was a Union man with an extraordinary work ethic and a drinking problem which he later traded for a gambling boat addiction.  

Uncle Bill trained all his dogs to take off his socks at the end of the day.  We thought it was a neat trick but Uncle Bill covered his physical ailments as well as his mental ones.

His final years were shared with a good woman that accented his playfulness and gave him the unconditional love he had always looked for in a bottle.  Family became important again.  He loved as fiercely as he had run from love in his youth.

Even lost in Alzheimer's he knew the love of his life and when she passed Uncle Bill died too. 

The Topaz

Prompt from Mindlovemisery's Menagerie

shared with Poets United

I was the topaz

between two diamonds

a Poe-ish love

Paris was a dream

talked of in tree houses

on rainy days

The passion of young love

the sadness of loss

could be tasted

in our tiptoed kiss

and then

I moved away

Japanese Death Poem

Jisei
Hanging by threads
I could have enjoyed more color
As a mother I loved you both
more than life
I let go
stepped back
and wondered
how I could have loved you
better

dverse~Poets Pub presents a prompt to write a Japanese Death Poem or Jisei...the last words before you die.  I have combined that prompt with the collage prompt from MindLoveMisery's Menagerie.

I am also adding a link to Poets United: Poetry Pantry.  Thank you all for encouraging me to write.

I Crave Not A Meal But You

From Imaginary Garden With Real Toads

Out of Standard prompt...

Pigeon Superstition

I crave not a meal but you

i kiss a bird's feather

and brush the dog

again and again and again

until you're here with me.

the same things i do

to convince you to stay

are done over and over

and you stay

the night we watched 

Haley's Comet

i thought you would go

but you stayed

i knew that night

it was your love

that brought you and my love 

caused you to stay

the rest was 

only pigeon superstition

i couldn't risk you leaving

to wait for Haley's Comet

i crave not a meal but you

Damsel Fly Exhibition

Damselfly

T'is the season and there is an abundant population.  Along the creek today, they were beautiful flitting here and there and avoiding my camera but I finally cornered one.

Hubby had driven me into the creek just to make me scream, I think.  After I stopped screaming I saw the magic of nature and just sat and enjoyed the beauty.

Then I either witnessed a battle

'cause they look like their facing off

to engage

in deadly warfare 

or foreplay

they danced or battled

It was definitely a contact sport

The reflections were as entertaining

as the actual shots

Maybe it was an airshow of the Blue Damsels 

mid air tricks for our enjoyment

I'm guessing love or war

sometimes they end the same...one goes away.

The Marriage Bed...An Obituary

GOTCHA!

Forty-three years ago the first bed was made.  Although we have changed beds through the years for some reason it has been a battle for poor Hubby.

Our first bed was my hand-me-down from my child hood.  It was a fine old iron bedstead that passed through generations.  It had the drop springs and a cotton tick mattress.  Our first purchase after we married was a new mattress and box springs (paid off by the monthly honor system).  We had to cut slats to keep the new set from falling through the frame. When we had company I was so proud of the new set that I would rip the bed clothes off to show my mattress.

As life went on the mattress went through the birth and young years of two children, we decided to upgrade to a Queen sized bed.  Hog heaven!  Room to move!

Hubby had no problems with these changes.  He enjoyed them however when it came time to change our Queen to a newer mattress the trouble began.  Hubby tossed and turned and pulled the fitted sheet off during the night and declared "We are never changing mattresses again!"  It took him a week before he could sleep.

The next change was necessary.  The box springs had broken (shhh, don't tell, I jumped on the bed with grandchildren) and no matter how often we turned the mattress there were permanent lumps in the bed.  Soooo here we go again.  Hubby laid on every bed in the store and finally, grudgingly chose a mattress.  It was another week of tossing, turning, flopping and not sleeping until he broke this bed in to suit his needs.

As we grew our bed shrunk.  So I started talking new bed.  No Way!!!  Not going through that again. After really seeing how nice and large a King was he seriously considered a new purchase.  The anticipation of his legs no longer hanging off the end of the bed finally changed his mind.  He bit the bullet and bought a new King.   It was wonderful...after his standard week of adjustment.

The last mattress we purchased still lays good and when I speak of it being time to change the mattress again Hubby runs backwards.  No way was he ever changing the mattress again!

I guess I said all that to say this:  Although we have gone through many mattresses we still are together.  A true testament to love that he endured the pain of changing a mattress...just for me.  He also holds my hair out of the way while I puke!  Now that's true love!

Happy Anniversary, Hubby!

The Keeper of Mamma's Flowers

I had the nicest compliment the other day from my nephew, Toni.  He said, The farm is beginning to look like Grandma and Grandpa are here.

As it must happen to all of us, our parents die.  That was a hard thing for me to accept because although I was getting older in my mind and heart Mom and Dad would always be what they had always been, loving, supportive, helpful and well, just there.  It didn't happen that way.

My sisters and I rallied and supported them, not financially but emotionally and lovingly.  As their needs increased we helped with everything from personal bookkeeping to personal care.  We as a family traveled through a heart condition, a stroke and Alzheimer's.   Both my parents would vocalize their sadness that they needed help and they shouldn't be such a burden.   I simply answered,  You cared for me for eighteen years this is nothing.  Oh, but it was.

I know many of you have lost loved ones and cried because you could not do more to ease the way.  I guess it's under the title of Shit Happens or Simply Life.  You do what you can.

My parents are gone.

We live where they began.  Honoring the land, honoring their wishes.  Never was much of a gardener, not my passion.  I was always a more hands on animal person but I've changed as we all did.  We do what's needed to return the farm to Mom and Dad's time.

My sisters and I are here with family and we are the elder ones.  Through tornadoes, ice storms, personal illnesses and family emergencies we still are here.

I look around  and agree with Toni, even though there are tons of things left to be repaired, upgraded, cultivated, it's beginning to look like Mom and Dad are still here.

There is a peace here that I find no other place.  We try to follow in our parents' foot steps but find it difficult for us.

I feel the joy they felt and see the treasure they saw in this beautiful valley. I know they are watching over us and proud of what we've accomplished by doing it their way.

I smile.  I know Mamma is pleased that I am still tending her flowers.

Painted Toes for The Mag

Tess Kincaid, Magpie Tales, The Mag

Tess's picture prompt for our word creation

PAINTED TOES

Dance on ivory keys 

Recalling the craziness 

As we rolled 

The piano outside

My sheer dress 

Slid across the piano top

As you called me

Your music queen

We made our own music

Chiffon fluttered in the breeze

You ran the scales

Higher than ever known

Our souls sang a duet

Creatures watched

In Nature we became

The Wild Things

Carry On With Poetry Jam and Real Toads...

The challenge at Poetry Jam this week is to spin a tale about the ability to "Carry On"...our take on the resiliency of the human spirit. Real toads challenges us with Hello/Goodbye.

    

My heart stopped
When his almost did
Do we stop
To count each mistake?
No
We carry on
Moment to moment
Knowing
We are not immortal
But our love is.

Our first hello
Was
Also
The beginning
Of our last goodbye
We carry on
Moment to moment
Knowing
We are mortal
Our love is not.

Marriage Is...

After yesterday's post, I want to clarify something...my hubby and I are very happy.  No harm was ever intended or thought about during this previously posted incident. It was just another funny story from the book of our life together.

Our marriage has laughter, love and friendship and I believe those are important elements or I never would have lasted through thirty-eight years!

Yes, Hubby has thrown me from a moving vehicle, placed duct tape in my underwear, oiled the commode ring, placed exploding fireworks in the kitchen cabinet and tied my pants legs in knots while I shower.  BUT, I have also dealt out as good as I got.  I have thrown rotten eggs in close proximity to him, hidden snakes in his truck, placed panties in his sandwiches, put Ambesol in his Carmex and Ben Gay in his pillow case.

Hubby brings me wild flowers and pretty rocks and understands my obsessiveness with animals.  I understand his dreams.  We tolerate and are entertained by my our differences.  We are an enduring match...we are both too stubborn to give up.

One year during our anniversary Hubby said,  After all these years, I can say I have never been bored!  To me that was the greatest compliment I have ever received.

All in all, we are the perfect couple, sometimes...no one is a perfect couple all the time.  It is the ability to work through those imperfections with love, laughter and understanding that has made ours a fantastic lifetime.

My Husband, My Friend

Every one has been saying such nice things about their mate, so I thought I would lie... not really. This is the man who puts up with all my crazies, all my insecurities, all my furniture moving, and all my horses and STILL LOVES ME!

If asked thirty-seven years ago(in June) what do you love about this man? I would have answered his eyes, his laughter and his butt. Now, if asked, I would have to answer what do I not love about this man?

Today he brought me a gift and I would like to share. Enjoy!

My wife sat down on the couch next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked, what's on tv? I said, dust.
And then the fight started.

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason took my order first. I'll have the strip steak, medium rare, please. He said Aren't you worried about the mad cow? Nah, she can order for herself.
And then the fight started.

My wife asked me if a certain dress made her butt look big. I told her not as much as the dress she wore yesterday.
And then the fight started.

Thank you, Den, for loving me. Thank you for the laughter. Thank you for picking me after all those girls you slept around with before we met. I love you, honey!