Absence and Fond Hearts, Part 1....

April 19, 1929 - August 14, 2006

"Live a good life."
Bernice Dodgen

1. She believed in the promise.
2. She was faithful. That is to say, she was full of faith.
3. She was one of God's people.
4. She worked hard and was diligent.
5. She was bold.
6. She lived a good (Godly) life.

Most of my last words to her came from the bible. Emphasis is mine.




Hebrews 4

The Promise of Rest

1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “ So I swore in My wrath, ‘ They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “ Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. 14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I miss you mom.....enjoy your rest, you deserve it.

Roots and All

Friday afternoon Amanda reported to me that while she was outside playing in the considerably larger than normal creek, she heard a cracking noise and then this tree just fell over. I didn't make out which tree it was from her description, but it turns out that it was a large cottonwood. A very large and old cottonwood tree and perhaps the tallest one on the property. Now it's just the longest tree on the property. This tree was big when I was just a kid and I have no idea how old it is, but it was there for a long time. The wind storm that we had 3 years ago did some damage to it and that may have helped along it's downfall. But I suspect the main culprit was the 4 or 5 days of constant rushing water around the roots that made it fall. And that's exactly what it did, pulled the roots out of the ground and fell over. I have no idea how I'm going to get it cleaned up, but I'll definitely have to wait until the ground dries out. We haven't had any rain yet today, but the streak is still alive. I decided yesterday that I could get some mowing done before dark and after about 3 passes it began to sprinkle. That was about the same time that my mower stopped in its tracks, buried to the axles in the soft ground. I ran in to get some help thinking that I could rock it out or something like that, but this new zero turn I have weighs a lot more than my old mower. A lot. Then, of course, with all of us out there trying to move it the sprinkle became a downpour. Eventually I tied it to the car and pulled it while Jeff sat on it and backed it up and we got it unstuck leaving 2 pretty healthy ruts in the front yard, not to mention 2 fairly deep holes where the rear tires sunk into the ground. So it's official then, the consecutive streak of rainy days is neat and all, but for me the allure is gone, I'm prayin' for shine.

The blank area marked with the red square is not Moscow, but the portion of skyline that once was dominated by the cottonwood tree.
This is a picture of the roots the day it fell while the creek was still up. You can only see just the top portion of the roots there on the left of the picture.
This is a picture of the roots on Sunday afternoon. I am standing right next to them and they are a little over head high to me. That would make it a little over 6 feet wide at the root.
My guess of the source of the loud cracking noise would be limbs of this cedar tree being stripped off of it when the big boy fell. I'm actually standing on the tree near the roots in this picture and you can kind of get a sense of the length of the tree looking up the trunk in this picture.
Here is a picture of the trunk from the opposite direction. You can kind of judge the thickness of the trunk in this picture. It was a massive tree and all it took to bring it down was a little water. Having known this tree since I was 11 years old, it kind of feels like I've lost an old friend.

Craig

Yes, the Creek Is Up

17 days and counting.

It has been raining for 17 days today. Everyday. Just the other day I was commenting, to anyone willing to listen, that having lived here my entire life I could not remember this many days of rain in one spring. It rained the week before the wedding. It rained the week of the wedding. In fact the day before, and the day of the wedding, the rain was absolutely torrential. Monsoonish. Rain may roll off a duck's back, but the ducks were having a hard time keeping up with it. I mean, this was a real test of a duck's dri-back feathering system. Anyway, it's been raining ever since. And just days after I made that comment it was reported that we have broken a 100 year old record of number of consecutive days of rain. Amazing.

Last weekend the report was that it would stop by Saturday and turn hot. Hello summertime! But the next day? Rain. And the report was that it would probably rain off and on until mid-week. And the report now? Well one station said that July 4th will be hot and dry, and the other two said get out your waders. So far today its rained pretty steady, heavy rain, light rain, mist, repeat. Of course the creek is up and has been for several weeks now. But it is much more likely to overflow in the last few days. We had some trouble driving home the other day due to water on the roads.

Today was my day to lead the devotional at work. I said that I had given thought to reading about the flood, but since we still had 20 days of rain to go before we needed to worry I decided to read something else. All this water though, it sure makes me appreciate the power that God has. It's silly to compare this little bit of water to the Biblical flood, but it's still very impressive to me. Which would bring us to God's promise of course, I've seen a reminder or two lately of that promise. Richard and I saw the other day what I consider to be the most impressive rainbow I have ever seen. It was so low to the ground it looked like a halo on the earth. It was very compact, and the colors were brilliant. And if I was to describe a normal rainbow as "hollow", I would say that this one was full. As in, the purple on the bottom was so bright that it made it look like half of a ball rather than an arch. The picture just does not do it justice, but I didn't have the right filter attached to get the color.

My daughter called a little while ago. She said the creek was running pretty high today. She was out splashing around some and she said she heard a loud crack and a large tree near her just fell over. I don't know which one fell yet, but if it was by the creek it probably lost enough dirt from the water washing it away that it just couldn't stand anymore. Amazing what a little water can do. I'm hearing a lot of thunder right now, so I stepped out of my office to look out the window. It's raining, visibility is about 50 yards I'd say, and I just saw a duck go by with an umbrella and a pained look on his beak. I wonder if Lowe's is having a sale on gopher wood........




Stay dry,

Craig

PS. If it rains until the 4th that'll be 22 days and counting. Amazing.

What a Difference a Day Makes......

Last Saturday I left the house fairly early, (for me anyway) to go and help a friend work on his car. Tandy said she had an errand to run and wanted to go to Lowe's and look at some paint for the entry hall. I said great and maybe look at light fixtures too and see what you might like, then I went on about the day's business. Well, the car fix did take longer than I first thought, (I'm a little out of practice I guess), but when I got back home there was a lot more done in the entry hall done than I thought possible. Now, the house was built in 1973 and we moved in when it was 5 years old and that wallpaper had never changed. In fact, there was a big bright square spot where the mirror had been for years compared to the darker paper around it. I never gave it a thought. That's the way it always had been and I never had a problem with it. Until it became MY entry hall, then it occurred to me. That's some ugly wallpaper there. And the light fixture, I'm not sure I can describe it all that well, kind of a lantern shape with a gold colored glass that gave off poor light. Well, that's why there was no objection to Tandy's wishes and since it was cheap to do such a small area it has become our first finished decorating project with, I'm sure, many more to come. Now, I failed to take a picture before she began so I had to go looking through some old family pictures to get a "before" picture of the hallway. But you'll be able to see quite a difference. I took a picture of the light out on the front porch since it matched the entry fixture. Tandy did all of the work. She taped it off and painted 2 coats and then she helped me hang the quilt rack for the flag that used to hang in my living room. Then we ran off to Lowe's together and quickly agreed on a new light fiture that was well within budget and I installed that and there you have it. For those of you that know that entry hall well it will be a striking change, for those that don't.......Hopefully the pictures will be enough to tell the tale.

A christmas picture from a few years ago, you can make out the pattern around the mirror.

Some of mom's flowers here, a better look at the 34 year old wallpaper.

Here is the lamp that matches the old indoor fixture.

Here is the bright, new hallway from the dining room point of view, note the new light fixture much brighter than the old one.

And here is a picture of the hall from the living room.

The "Mini-Moon"

I think I remember mentioning it rained on our wedding night. Torrential rains in fact. Anyway the next day was perfect. We went to a bed and breakfast in Guthrie for the weekend. Tandy didn't know what I had planned even though she had tried to pry it out of me several times. I had teased her more than once telling her that I thought we'd just stay at home since the kids would not be there. She'd just laugh and say, "No".

So, on the trip that night she asked where we were going and I said, "Oh, you'll see". When we approached the exit to go home I slowed down and started to pull over. "Are we going home?" Tandy asked nervously. I just laughed and said, "No".

Aaron's Gate country inn is an extension of the Arcadian Inn in Edmond, and is located near Guthrie.

You get a private cottage all to yourself instead of a single room in a boarding house. Breakfast is in the fridge in a ready-to-make condition and we had a plate of strawberries and cream and chocolate waiting for us. It was great. Breakfast was just for the first morning and we stayed there 2 nights so that Saturday evening we went out to dinner and then into Guthrie to get some things for the next morning.

We went to a place called Woody's on highway 33 East of Guthrie for dinner. Tandy's employer, (and friend) Holly said it was really good so we went searching for it and boy was she right. Some of the best bbq I've ever had. We had a Woody's sampler platter and shared it. Steak, chicken, a rib, sausage, and a baked potato. We meant to ask for a menu to keep as a souvenir but we forgot, I guess we'll just have to go back again another day. Tandy had never been to Guthrie before so I showed her around town a little. Cottonwood creek was out of its banks (of course) after the rain from the day before. We stopped at the store and got snacks and stuff for breakfast and communion the next morning.

We had a really pretty sunset that night but I didn't get a very good picture of it. Unfortunately we had to leave our little paradise the next day and it was immediately back to the real world. We set up Elizabeth's bed and her closet that afternoon when we got home so that she would have a place to call her own. She and Amanda are sharing a room for the first time, and there are still adjustments being made, but so far so good.

We had a good time that weekend, played cards, watched a movie, ate strawberries and chocolate and, you know, did some other stuff too. A good start.......

More of Tandy's Handiwork - Hereafter referred to as "Tandiwork"

Now that I know for sure it has been received by the giftee, I'm going to brag on Tandy a bit and show off the needlework she did for Louise Jane Wilson. Tandy was really working hard to get it done before she arrived, but didn't quite make it since Louise came a day or two early. Still, I was pretty impressed with the amount of work that was done in about 2 weeks time. The pictures don't really do it justice, but you can see she crocheted a dress with booties and a bonny little cap to go with. Pretty amazing stuff. We've asked for a picture of Louise in her dress so hopefully either here or on Laura and John's blog you'll get a special treat soon. For a special treat now, check out Laura and John's blog for pictures of Louise. OK, here are pictures of the latest "Tandiwork" (Click on the picture for greater detail):

Hola!

No promises of daily blogs this time. But I will try to catch up on events of the spring in not-to-distant future blog postings. Here's the Reader's Digest version of the Dodgen's spring 2007:

1 Got married March 30

2 Had the "mini-moon" that weekend at a local B&B.

3 Began moving Tandy into the house that following week. (Busy week)

4 Had my main editing computer at work crash, and tried to produce a program without it for 2 weeks. (Frustrating week)

5 Sold my house and began repairing it for the new owners.

6 Finalized (I thought) arrangements to buy my parent's house.

7 Found out that both house deals were falling apart while I was loading the truck to move from my house to parent's house. Literally the day prior to closing.

8 Changed the closing date.

9 Finalized (Again) arrangements to buy my parent's house.

10 Changed the closing date.

11 Scrambled to save the house deal (financing) on my parent's house and settled on a closing date finally.

12 Nope. Changed the closing date. Again.

13 May 18 Closed on my house. For real this time.

14 May 23 Closed on my new home. (Which was my old home years ago)

15 Rested. Just kidding. Tandy developed Bronchial Asthma, I hauled kids to many multiple year end school events, hauled stuff from storage to house, hauled kids all around town, and tried to keep Tandy from emptying boxes and wearing herself out.

16 Discussed putting off our official honeymoon. Didn't. Tandy got better finally.

17 June 1 Left for Groveton, Texas, then San Antonio, Houston and points South.

18 Reversed the above having completed the "full-moon"

19 Back to the real world of work and etc. Trying to catch up the week of work I missed.

20 Resting when I can and daydreaming of Cozumel........

Well, just an outline for now. Hopefully, I'll climb back up on the blogwagon and roll out some stories soon. Until then here's sunset on the beach June 7, 2007....