Day 24: Carpe Diem...407 months, 30 days and counting....

We are 1 day from 408 months of blissful marriage.  Am I saying every one of those days was blissful...in some aspects, absolutely!  God has molded and melded us over these years into His creation....and we are blessed being together.  Really, with running the school together, serving in church ministry together and vacationing together (and her food's not that bad either), we are 24x7x365...and still loving it!!!!

Today we had the chance to rest, reflect and rejoice in what God has and is doing in our lives, our marriage, our family and our ministries.  Our prayer is that we continue to grow more in love with Him, with each other and with each of you...and as we relaxed on our dining patio, I decided to show you some of the local lake fish that swim just below us...

 Our breakfasts are always filling as they include fresh peaches, yogurt, jam, granola, breads, cakes, juice, eggs, cappacinos and rolls with salamis and cheeses...if we can find room....so lunch today was meant to be lighter and so we split a take out pizza and gelato:)

It was super windy through most of the afternoon as we played a closely fought game of scrabble and read our novels...Peggy's is Eldest by Paolini (?) and mine is Herodotus' History of Greece.  Perhaps you can see some of the waves breaking on the usually calm lake...

 Dinner's theme was "Fish" and the first course had them lined up, salted, dried and in a row....looking at me....

 After doing my best, they stayed right there...in a row...looking at someone else....I just couldn't get myself to dig in to those heads, tails and internal "systems"....I did make the salad all gone:)

 The fresh pasta rolled with 4 varieties of local fish was excellent...especially in the thyme, parmeggiano reggiano and melted butter sauce...yum....

 The main course, that Peg and I split, was a smoked trout and lake fish tartare surrounded by red grapefruit and tomatoes filled with a a cream cheese of sorts and topped with mustard mayo....Also delicious....

 The dessert, which we shared again...(we're getting wiser as we get wiser), was a cherry and berry bread pudding dusted with sugar and surrounded by red currant-like berries.  another superb course...

Ahhh, if you've made it this far into the account of the day you are in for a real treat...especially if your name is Steve and Elva (they call her Alba)...here's a personal video clip from Ty and Paola saying hi to the Burlingham's, who they remember from last year, and are asking them to come back soon since Ty says at the end "we only have 2 and a half more years of "Prison"!"