Showers of Blessings

We have been on a bit of a schedule this month, as we have several very important things to attend. The first scheduled events were two wedding showers for our youngest son and his fiance.

Claire is a beautiful blushing bride-to-be, proudly wearing her "Future Mrs. Engelman" sash at the first bridal shower.

They played the "shoe game" at the shower. Both the future bride and groom are holding two shoes--his and hers. When asked questions, each will raise the shoe representing their opinion of the correct answer. We weren't surprised to find that they both agree that Blake is the messiest and Claire is the best dancer. But it was interesting to see some of the things they didn't agree on.

At the first wedding shower, we gave them the outdoor furniture we had purchased from their wedding registry. Then we decided we needed something to take to the second shower. That's when Denisa invented the "Bucket List of Marriage Advice."

It was filled with a beautiful assortment of things that every newly-wed couple will need, with poetic words of advice attached to each. For example, the toilet bowl cleaner in the bucket had a card attached that read,
"When the honeymoon is over and it's time to clean the stool,
He cleans it first, she cleans it next, that's the golden rule."

The following poem was attached to a roll of toilet paper:
"There's important household choices to make,
     and now we all just wonder,
How will you work out the compromise,
     Will the paper go over or under?"

The dish soap had the following poem:

There were a dozen different items and poems, but we won't bore you with all of our bucket list of marriage advice.

The next scheduled event was an 88th birthday party for Denisa's Mother.

We have to include a close-up picture, because that cake was truly a piece of art. Besides baking delicious cakes, our talented niece, Jennie, formed those iris blooms herself.

It's hard to even find the birthday girl in the picture below, because she is almost hidden by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren that came to celebrate with her. All of her children and spouses were there as well.

Between all the partying, we also got to hang out with more family members. We "enjoyed" spending time outside in the Oklahoma wind with Denisa's sister and brother-in-law at the soccer field.

We must be die-hard fans to sit through 40 mph winds to watch our great nephew kick a ball. Let's just say that the team playing with the wind at their backs had a definite advantage.

As we drove west across Oklahoma, we couldn't help but notice the changes. We saw green pastures in the eastern half of the state caused from an abundance of rain. . .

and brown pastures in western Oklahoma. This time of year should see things greening up, but the drought in the west means that ranchers must continue to feed their cattle that expensive hay.

Between the drought and the high winds, western Oklahoma is like a tinder box. We weren't surprised to find that a wild fire had started, charring thousands of acres and many homes. As we drove towards the panhandle we could see miles of black pasture land.

We are enjoying family time in Oklahoma. This is where we have seen wedding showers of blessings, as well as parts of the state in bad need of rain showers.