My Wonderful Valentine!!!

This post today is three-fold.  First,  I want to thank George Adams for being my Valentine for the past eleven plus years.  When I met George in 2001,  I found out ---for the first time in my 59 years--- what real love is.  I guess I'd been searching for love all of my life ---and never realized how truly awesome it is to love someone so much, and have them love me for who I am,  even with all of my flaws and craziness!!!  George is truly the nicest, most honest,  smartest,  most loving man I have ever known.  AND to think that he loves me is just amazing!  Thanks, Honey,  for being my lover, my friend,  my companion, my husband, and my VALENTINE.  I am truly blessed.

The picture above was taken on April 21, 2001.  We were at one of our favorite places,  Fall Creek Falls State Park.  This was our  fourth date in three weeks.  BUT--we knew by this day that we loved each other and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.  Fall Creek Falls is very special to us and we have returned many times since 2001.  That is also where our love of waterfalls began. If you haven't read 'my story' about how George and I met,  click HERE  and then HERE.    It is a wonderful story if you haven't read it yet.

This was at our wedding on June 23, 2001.   We got married outside beside the river in Knoxville, Tennessee with only family in attendance.   We had a gorgeous wedding and if you want to see more pictures from our wedding,  click HERE. 

Secondly,  I am thinking today about my youngest son.  He  and his lady-love will soon be  engaged, and hope to be married sometime this Fall.   SO---Jeff is on my mind as I discuss Valentine's Day today.   I'm not an expert when it comes to love and marriage ---but I certainly have gotten it right this time and just want to share a few things that may help Jeff and Dawn as they start their lives together.

Here are some things which every marriage should consist of:
-Make personal and date time for each other, no matter how busy you are;
-Communicate with each other CONSTANTLY;  Communication also consists of LISTENING to each other;
-Be aware of each other's feelings;
-Be yourself ---and accept each other as you are;
-Celebrate the good things about each other;
-Be understanding;
-Show affection to each other ALOT;
-Have fun together --with lots of laughing!!  Enjoy life;  it's too short not to!!!!
-Never go to bed mad... Work it out!!!
-Problems will occur;  Work them out;  Do NOT ignore them!
-Show your love in little ways,  as well as the big ways;
-Keep that 'spark' alive ---even years after you have been married;
-Marriage takes work ----so work at it all of the time;
-Other than God,  put your spouse FIRST in your life;
-Work out touchy issues (like religion, finances,  politics, etc.)  BEFORE marriage;
- Marriage is not 50-50;  It's 100-100... Help each other as much as possible.
-Find things which you enjoy doing together, and do more of them.
-Keep God at the center of your lives together.

Speaking of showing love in special ways,  above is a picture of my Valentine present from my sweet hubby. He knows how much I love both my backyard birds and windchimes... SO--he got me a new  bamboo windchime which includes a precious little birds nest on top.  Can't you just see the little Carolina Wrens enjoying this new birds nest this spring?????  Isn't this just awesome?  I love it!!!! Thanks, George.


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Following are more pictures of George and/or me ---enjoying our lives together.

Did you know that people in love can 'walk on water'?????

See these love-bird 'tree-huggers'?  Note that waterfall across the gorge?

There's LOVE in the Hot Tub!!!

Even if she is being scolded,  she's still laughing!!!!

And he still loves her,  even though she LOVES snow --and he doesn't!!!

AND--even when she pouts  (she broke her hiking stick),  he STILL loves her!!!

Two lovers in LOVE

The third part of this post is to wish  each of you a very Happy Valentine's Day.  We will be out 'waterfalling' ----so I'm sure we'll have a wonderful day!!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to YOU...  Show love to those around you!  LOVE does make the world go 'round!!!!

Hugs,
Betsy

Best of 2011: FLOWERS

This time of year,  when our yard looks bare and brown,  I love to look at some of the beautiful flowers we have grown this past year.   Seeing the beauty of our flowers makes me  yearn for spring...

Today I am continuing my Best of 2011 series...  I'm featuring some of the beautiful flowers that we had in our yard in 2011 ---not counting our Roses (which were featured HERE).  Sometimes,  we talk about our Roses and don't feature these other beauties enough...

Hope you enjoy seeing more of the flowers from my blog posts in 2011.  Hope these flowers are as pretty in 2012...  BUT--I pray that spring doesn't come too early because we have been known to have a BIG FROST in early April... Remember 2007????  All of the spring flower/leaves DIED that year due to the frost... So very very sad!

Above are some of our early Spring flowers:  our Daffodils (I grew up calling them Jonquils),  Hyacinths,  and Crocuses.... The early spring flowers are always so pretty. Be sure to click on the photos to see them larger.

Next came the Tulips.  We also have a wonderful ground cover in our yard,  our Periwinkle.  In Spring,  the Periwinkle gives us lovely blue flowers.  You can also see some Periwinkle in the distance in the first picture above.

When we visited Mt. Nebo, Arkansas last year,  we got to visit the Garvan  Woodland Gardens near Hot Springs...  This is where we saw lots and lots of Tulips --along with many other blooming spring flowers and shrubs. This photo looks like a painting to me.

Next came some gorgeous Irises.   This one is named Autumn Bugler.   We are lucky in that many of our Irises are now re-bloomers... They bloomed for us not only in Spring,  but also in Summer and Fall.

Another gorgeous Iris is one of my favorites...  Can you imagine why????  Its name is Tennessee Vol Iris....  Pretty special,  don't you think?

We had an abundance of lilies and day lilies in our yard in 2011...  This beautiful group of lilies are called Touching... They were some of my favorites in 2011.

And this group (another fav) are called Simplon.  Aren't they just gorgeous???

Finally,  even though there were many more beauties in the yard,  I will stop with this picture of our yard taken from the street during Spring.  It looks so different now!!!  I love winter ---but I really love spring, especially seeing all of the new leaves on the big shade trees... Note the pretty pink Azaleas in our yard, along with that gorgeous green grass.... Awe---Spring!!!!!   I just have to be patient to see this again soon.

On another note,  please say a prayer for us this weekend.  We have MUCH spring growth happening (due to our recent mild weather)---including new growth on the rose bushes.  BUT--our temperature on Saturday night is supposed to go down into the low teens.. IF that happens,  we could lose all of the new spring growth...  SCARY!!!!   But--there's nothing much we can do --except pray!  Thanks!

Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you on Monday.
Hugs,
Betsy