NEED TO RELAX? TRY FISHING

On Bill's way to and from work, he always crosses the Rappahanock River. The shad are running right now. The heron, osprey, and humans are out fishing in hordes. Of course, as every true fisherman knows, it is past time to join the fun!!

Thursday evening we went fishing. The man beside us was reeling in a fish about every five minutes. It took me that long just to get my pole ready to cast. You have to understand, putting a worm on a hook is not my idea of how to spend my day in the park. By the time Bill got our poles baited, and our lines untangled from the bushes, he had very little time to fish. I decided to fish with a lure so that that baiting the hook with worms was no longer a problem. I managed to catch an eel, and about a four-inch sun fish--both returned to the water. Bill caught about four fish that he returned to the water as well. Maria caught two fish that were worth saving. We thought we would probably have them for breakfast the next morning.

When Maria was carrying the tackle box back to the van, it spilled, not being latched correctly. I helped her return the contents to the box. I did not realize until later that one of lures (this one had six little hooks attached to it) had snagged the hem of my dress. The harder I tried to get it out, the more entangled it became. I was feeling rather sick by this time, since I have a crises in the dress department already, and this was my best in-between going away dress. Bill tried valiantly to help me out of this pickle. The pliers he was using didn't work. In fact, it got stuck on the lure. Great!! Now I could walk around the rest of the evening with a lure and a pliers hanging from my hem. He finally pried lose the pliers, unbent the hooks, and released me from my prickles. What a guy!!

You may wonder--how did the fish taste? That is something we never know. Unfortunately, when we got home and were unpacking our gear, we discovered that we had the left the cooler with the fish in them on the dock back at the river.

What a relaxing way to spend and evening!! We really did have fun, in spite of everything. And we had some really good laughs. I am wondering, however, if this may not be one of the times that Bill secretly wishes that there would be at least one other male in the household to kind of help him through some of these trying times.

We have to go again. Somehow, I need to redeem the money I spent on my fishing license.

Harley in Heaven?

We have been studying Revelation in a Bible study I am a part of. During one of our breaks we got into a discussion about whether there are pets in heaven. My friend said that there had to be dogs in heaven because Harley, her recently deceased dog, is going to be there.

Is she right? I don't know. I do know that the Garden of Eden had animals. In my mind, heaven will be a lot like the Garden of Eden--only a lot better.

Of one thing I am sure--everything will be there that I need to be eternally happy!!

Ten Years Ago & Last Week

It's a girl!! Ten years ago today I arrived at the Fauquier Hospital to give birth to our daughter, Maria. I can hardly comprehend that it has been ten years ago. Parenting is one of the most satisfying things I have done. It has also stretched me in ways I hadn't been stretched before. As Dr. Dobson says, "Parenting isn't for cowards."

We plan to take her to a restaurant of her choice (within a budget:). Then, maybe at a later date we will have a few friends over to celebrate at the house.

I never wrote about last week. We so enjoyed having Marvin and Lois and family back in Virginia! Maria just loved having her cousins (adopted siblings) back to play with. The hours in their days were just not quite long enough. I felt like the time just flew. I told Bill that Lois and I never really got caught up.

My cousin, Ellis and Mary and their children were also here last week. That was such a special treat as well! It was great getting reacquainted with Ellis and Mary and getting to know their wonderful family. We enjoyed the late nights of chatting and playing Boggle. They spent three days touring D.C. I think their feet got tired before the sites all were seen. But they had nice weather, for the most part, and saw lots of things.

We headed up to SMBI for a couple of hours to celebrate graduation with my nephew, Hans. Follow his worldwide adventures at hansmast.com.

On Saturday afternoon we went in with Dave and Vonnie to a kite festival in D.C. We weren't the only ones there enjoying the hundreds of kites and the cherry blossoms, but we had a lot of fun. A highlight was running into some other friends, Tim and Brenda.

Now we are bracing ourselves for another busy and fun weekend at the Byler Reunion.