What a beautiful day! The sun is bright although it is only 34 degrees but it is going up to 61 today.  But, today is a big day. Julie, Heather, and Lisa are all coming in today. This evening we are having an anniversary celebration dinner at our favorite place to eat with about forty of our friends. Yesterday was our 50th wedding anniversary and it is a weekend of celebration. last evening, Neighbor Dan and his wife Minh had us over for dinner and wine. They are good folks.

So, I never got around to writing yesterday. We started rather early going to the florist, then to the grocery and to breakfast. From there we went to the church and spent most of the day preparing for Sunday. Not only are we having the dinner tonight, --- tomorrow we are hosting the entire parish for a luncheon after my second service. That should be for between 80 - 100 folks. This morning we need to go to Sam's Club and pick up two sheet cakes and then to Dewigs and pick up the meat trays. We also have some other decorating things to handle at the church. Then, it is come back home and get ready to head to the resturant by 5:30 pm. Or maybe we'll just head out a little later to do our running around and go straight to the dinner. That would make more sense and save about fifty miles of driving.

The yard was full of blackbirds when I came out here this morning. As always, the starlings are the worst. They are stripping anything that has barkbutter in in it. Most of the other feeders are still full, although I could certainly fill some back up.

I have been so looking forward to our 50th anniversary. It seems like such an accomplishment, and assuming our health holds out, we could see a 60th, and actually even a 70th.  That sure would be something. So, that is next goal; to make 60 years. But, if we passed away tomorrow, we would have had a life full of blessings, and I'm so grateful for every one of them. Ms. Kate and I were talking the other day and we can honestly say that we neither feel that we ever had a "bad spell" in our marriage. We had some rough times certainly, for lack of money or because of military deployments and separations --- but she and I never had a bad spell that threatened our marriage in any way. We have always loved and respected one another and I believe that is the key to our success. And --- we've always had God in our relationship. We may not have had the church in our relationship --- but we always had God as our guide. We taught our girls the value of family togetherness and that together, we can do anything. So, all glory to God and thanks for God's blessings. Now on to sixty!  Have a blessed day.