And, yes, he robbed the cradle

I want to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband Gary.  He turned 48 years old today.

Here are the top 48 reasons why I am the most blessed wife in the world:

1. He opens his heart to people.

2. He loves to tease me – and I love being teased.

3. He is an incredible spiritual leader for both me and our children.

4. He loves God with all his heart.

5. He is very, very active.

6. He helps to make me a better person.

7. He is even more attractive now than the day we were married.

8. He has awesome eyes.

9. He is a great softball player.

10. He is a man of his word.

11. He is faithful.

12. He has integrity even when no one is looking.

13. He works hard – all the time.

14. He plays hard.

15. He brings me flowers on a regular basis.

16. He appreciates what I do for him.

17. He pours himself into his children.

18. Even when he can’t completely understand his teenage daughters, he still tries to understand them.

19. He left at 6:15am to take Daniel to his hockey game yesterday while I slept.

20. He plays all kinds of sports with our children.

21. He loves to take Michaela with him wherever he is going, whenever he can.

22. He loves God’s word.

23. He loves to worship.

24. He is inviting and outgoing.

25. Even though he is very competitive, he is a good sport.

26. He encourages people.

27. He stays “plugged in” with his guy friends.

28. He has an incredible grandmother.

29. His family has always welcomed and loved me.

30. He encourages me.

31. He is interesting.

32. We never run out of things to talk about.

33. He is an entrepreneur.

34. He is not afraid to take risks – but he is wise in the risks he takes.

35. He is very interested in Christina’s wedding plans.

36. He pays very close attention to the things that are going on in our children’s lives.

37. He is supportive of my dreams.

38. He knows what my dreams are.

39. He is lots and lots of fun.

40. He does the dishes every day.

41. He lives by grace not by law.

42. I can always count on him to do the right thing.

43. He is full of ideas.

44. When I am weak, he is strong.

45. He is playful.

46. He is joyful.

47. He is forgiving.

48. Making a list like this is easy for me because he is a great guy.

Proposal Anniversary

Twenty-five years ago today Gary asked me to marry him. I said yes. I can’t imagine my life without him. It hasn’t always been easy but it has always been worth it. He is an incredible man and I am so blessed that he is mine.

Incredible Gifts!

Our children have recently given some incredible gifts to us.  For Christmas, they all chipped in and bought a night in Glen Eyrie Castle in Colorado Springs for just Gary and me. They also gave a gift certificate to us from Olive Garden. So in the middle of January we had almost 24 hours together, no children – just rest and each other. Wow. We had the best time. We talked and laughed and just enjoyed not hearing, “Mom, can I . . . ” or “Mom, can you . . .” It was such a blessing to us.

Then, for Gary’s upcoming 48th birthday, they chipped in again and bought tickets to the Chris Tomlin concert for Gary and me. It was, hands down, the most incredible concert that I have ever attended. It touched something deep inside my soul.

I absolutely love being the mother of six. I truly treasure every moment – I have even learned to treasure the moments that aren’t so pleasant. But, these two little respites from responsibility were exactly what we needed. It is like our children knew how demanding they can be and gave us the gift of time without them.

And the lyrics from last night will not leave my mind or heart -

“My chains are gone,

I’ve been set free

My God, my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love, Amazing Grace.”

The Lump is Gone!

Three weeks ago we discovered a lump the size of a small marble near Michaela’s carotid artery.  After having six children and seeing almost everything, it is a very rare occasion when I feel the need to take one of them to the doctor. (We try as many common sense/homeopathic solutions as we can.) But this time I insisted on seeing the doctor immediately.  The doctor determined that it was a very swollen lymph node (not related to her artery) and started her on a round of strong antibiotics.

We did this for a week and then waited for another week.  When we took her back to the doctor, the lump had only gone down a little bit.  So they sent us to have her sinuses x-rayed. Even though she had no symptoms, it turned out that she had a sinus infection.  The doctor prescribed two more weeks of the same antibiotic.   I decided to do a daily sinus rinse in addition to the meds. It was a challenge, to say the least, to preform this on  a three-year-old! When we started the rinses, the lump started to decrease. When I checked her neck it this morning, it was completely gone! We are very, very relieved.

I am going to call the doctor on Monday and see if we can discontinue the antibiotics. I know that you are supposed to always finish a round of antibiotics once they are started so you don’t develop an immunity to them or so the bugs don’t become immune to the drugs or something like that. But I hate to give it to her if she doesn’t need it. I am so blessed that all of my children are basically healthy and we have had so very few real health issues.

Longing for Spring

Winter.  I am entering my twenty-sixth month now. Have you ever read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? In the beginning the land of Narnia is in a perpetual winter. Or perhaps you have read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s book, The Long Winter. The family almost starved to death due to seven months of blizzards.

My winter actually started in a blizzard – December of 2006.  I had just become pregnant with our sixth child, David, in November.  (Being just over forty and pregnant is completely different from being just over twenty and pregnant.) In mid December it snowed, and snowed, and snowed and snowed. It seemed like the blizzards just came back to back until March.  There were weeks in which we literally couldn’t get a work truck out of the garage. I took a hard fall on the ice and landed on my head. My old, pregnant body just didn’t seem to want to bounce back.

And then David came in July. You don’t find many mothers who are as seasoned as I am with newborns. He had colic like nothing I had ever seen before. The first six months of his life were unbelievable. The unending screaming was unbearable. In that period I am confident that I rarely slept more than four hours in any given 24 hour period. And those four hours were never lumped together.  In August of that year, the husband of one my closest friends died after a two year battle with lung cancer. I also experienced the complete betrayal of someone I trusted during that time period.

Then I spent February and March of 2008 trying to run our office completely by myself (a job that six months prior to this was handled by one full-time and one part-time employee) while homeschooling two junior highers and caring for two little babies. As soon as I was able to hire someone to replace myself in the office, I found myself having to mediate two very emotional complex situations that were not related to our family or business. I had spent the past few years pouring myself out to a family that really needed some extra love. The teenage son got into trouble and we had to make some very hard decisions in order to protect other people. This caused the family to turn on us like a rabid wolves.

Then as soon as everything from that incident settled down, we had to face the consequences from the betrayal that happened when David was an infant. This meant sitting down with the IRS and making a payment installment agreement. This was one of the most frustrating and time consuming things that you can imagine. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. After that agreement was reached, the revenue agent with whom we were working decided that she wasn’t going to keep her end of the bargain. Even though our corporation has faithfully made EVERY payment in full and on time, she has decided to try to collect that same money on us personally.  The tax guy that we hired to help us with this mess has never seen anything like this in the twelve years that he has been doing this. We have an appeal set for the end of this month.

My soul is weary.

There has been very little rest emotionally, physically and financially these last twenty-six months. And one may ask, “Where was your God in all of these things?” And the answer clearly is right in the middle. He has been in the middle of it all.  Holding us. Teaching us. Strengthening us. Keeping us relatively sane. Loving us. His tender mercy with us has taught us how to be merciful to others. I am sure he is taking what was meant for evil and using it for His good. I have no idea what His plans are for us, but I trust Him. He is faithful.

But it is time for this to end. Time for rest. Time for us not to find a challenge around every corner. Everything within me is crying out for rest. Time for winter to be over and for spring to begin.

Rattle the Fence

I have been looking forward to Bob’s Merrick’s new blog and now it’s finally here. Bob has been a close friend of ours for years. Check out his first post about hearing from God; it is incredible.

A Budd Night Out

We had a birthday dinner tonight for Elissa.  It has been an exciting month for her; she finished high school, bought her first car with cash (yesterday) and her eighteenth birthday is in six days. I love family birthday dinners. We always go to the restaurant of the birthday person’s choosing. (Unless, of course, Gary bribes the child into going where he wants to go.) Then we all go around and each family member tells the birthday person what he or she means to us. I treasure those times. It is so wonderful to hear the different perspectives of each member of our family. It is my favorite family tradition.

And then we did something that will probably not become a family tradition.

We all piled in the van for the ride home – there aren’t enough seats when everyone is there, so we usually have one or two on the floor. (If the children’s safety-conscious fireman godfather, Dan Hoff, is reading this, I apologize. Most of the time we take more than one car so everyone can buckle.) Next, Gary put in an Amy Grant oldies CD for the children’s listening pleasure. Nate is now very excited to have Gary’s help in picking the music for the wedding. Many members were happy to blast out the lyrics to “Mountain Top” and “Old Man’s Rubble”.  The children were enjoying themselves so much that we decided to go look at Christmas lights just to extend our time together.

The newest member of our family

Nate Noe came to Gary and I earlier this month and asked if we would give our blessing for him to marry Christina. We had been closely observing him for quite some time now and were delighted to give this to him. He proposed to her tonight and she said, “YES”! Years ago Gary and I wrote out blessings for each of our children. We included a part in those blessings that described qualities that their future spouses would have. In Nate, God has given us everything we wanted for our precious little girl and more. So now, I present to you . . . .

THE TOP TEN REASONS THAT WE ARE EXCITED

TO ADD NATE NOE TO OUR FAMILY

10. In the unlikely event that I get tired of making fun of the Buffs, I can now make fun of soccer players.

9. Sarah will get to move out of the closet underneath the stairs and back into the room that she surrendered to Christina.

8. I no longer have to wander around Home Depot and try to get a salesperson to help me. I will not have to use the word “thingamajig” again. I will just drag Nate home, have him look at whatever it is that I am trying to explain, have him come up with the proper name of the part and then have him take me to the isle in which I can find it. This will save time and lessen frustration. I am always interested in those two things.

7. When my children start chanting, “Seven! Seven! Seven!” (which is their strange and demented way of asking for another sibling), I can just point at Nate and let them know that I don’t have to get pregnant again in order give them a brother.

6. Our whole family has pretty much resigned itself to just letting Christina have her way on pretty much everything. Nate has not given up in this area (yet). Go Nate!

5. If I had to line my children up from the mildest to the wildest, Nate would be closer to the milder side. This should help the noise level in our home.

4. I now have the guarantee that my grandchildren will be good looking.

3. He brings out the best in Stina. His attention-to-detail personality matches well with her big picture mentality. Together they will bless an untold number of people.

2. My daughter is deliriously happy. This makes me deliriously happy. I can stand some delirious happiness.

1. Nate passionately loves Jesus Christ with his whole heart. He knows the Bible. He is a godly man with integrity. He has an intimate and real relationship with his creator. Who could want more than that?

THE FINISH LINE!

Elissa did it! I did it! Other than a very small amount of anatomy (which she will finish on her own before Christmas), Elissa is done with high school. She had her last physics class today. Her last writing class. Her last class with me.

I am so glad that we chose to homeschool her.  What an incredible blessing that we have had this time together. Her sweet spirit has brought so much joy to me. Her tenacious determination is and always has been such an inpiration. She never gave up, no matter how difficult it was for her.

Look out world – HERE SHE COMES!

I HATE being lied to . . .

Yesterday a customer lied to Christina, my office manager/daughter. I had a conversation with this person a few minutes prior to the conversation that Christina had with this person. I unmistakenly and disctictivly told her something. This person turned around and told Christina I had said something other than what I had said. There was no “miscommunication” or “confusion” here. It was a lie. It wasn’t a big lie but it was still a lie. About a month prior to this I caught another person in a lie. I “called this person on the carpet” about what she had said and she refused to even acknowledge any of it.

Sometimes it is easy to guess the motivation of the person who is lying. I do my best to look at the person with grace. I try to put myself in their shoes and see the heart behind their words. But I still really, really hate it. I always teach my children that you can’t respect someone and lie to them at the same time. I know different people have different values. But when a person chooses to place his/her own pride above what is true or tries to get what he/she wants at the expense of honesty, it damages relationships. It damages people. And it makes me really sad. I think it makes God sad also.