Miriam Goes To Prom

Miriam goes to prom with who else but her drum-line friends.  She had a few requirements when it came to her outfit: solid-color dress, flat shoes, shawl, no makeup, no special hairdo.  It turned out she was comfortable and confident. 

 BFFs

The Corsage...

The Sass

The Stars with the rock = RockStars

The Children.  Aruj and Calvin.  Not Nick

The Core

The Gang

This girl...Miriam

Tim at UEFI 2018

 

Tim Lewis, CTO, Insyde Software  (Image courtesy of UEFI)

Although Tim attends and speaks at UEFI Plug Fest almost annually, I don't seem to recall seeing any signs that he was actually there at the conference except for swag that he brings home.  However this year was different.  Not only did my daughter and I join him in his trip and stayed at the hotel where the conference was being held at -- we also got pictures of him speaking!  Thanks to the UEFI 

Tim Lewis speaking at UEFI Plug Fest 2018  (Image Courtesy of UEFI)

Well, it looks like he is speaking in the picture.  Maybe he was actually speaking.  The podium bears the uefi logo.  It looks official.  And video camera was also in the picture.  That looks very real.  But there is one significant part missing in the picture - the audience.  Was he talking only to two camera men and one other person?  I'm sure there were more people in the room but the picture does not say that.  Anyway, I get to make my personal commentary on the photograph because I did not take the picture.  Nevertheless, I am sincerely grateful for the pictures!  

And to complete the story, here are two of my own pictures... 

Tim prepares to speak.

Miriam and her daddy work at the hotel lobby.

Miriam Visits UC Davis With a Different View

With her brother having studied and now works at UC Davis, Miriam got to know UC Davis from head to toe.  And yet today we brought  her to the university once again but this time Miriam had a different purpose - to visit her future school.  That's right, this girl will be going to study at UC Davis for her college education in Music.  In fact, I may say that she was sought after because the university offered her scholarship and invited her to join the university's Honors Program.  Needless to say she feels welcome and is very happy with the prospects of the next chapter of her education.

Brahms gave her a thorough tour of the campus to satisfy her curiosity.  There is nothing better than having your own brother as your guide - he gives the scoop that you need to know.  (Shannon also offered to give her a tour of UC Irvine if she had been accepted and chosen to go there.)  The only thing that would have made the tour better was if Tim was feeling better.  He was quite under the weather but he joined part of the tour anyway. 

UC Davis was photogenic today and so was Miriam.  In as much as she decided to join the honors program, she has the advantage of knowing early which residence hall she'll be living at.  She was particularly glad to know that the Music Department and her future dorm are not far from each other.  Many things were fascinating to her such as the size of the library, the bicycles, and the student union that looks like an airport.  :)  She has yet a whole new world to discover when she will actually live there but for now she can only imagine college life.

What that means to Tim and I is that we will soon be without a child at home.  Life for sure will be different.  We too will have a whole new life to discover ahead of us.  :)

We Praise God Always.

One Score and Seven Years

Tim and I have been married for a long time.  Twenty seven years!  And yet it seems like we just got done with our honeymoon and starting life together.  The time we've spent so far seem short.   If the old saying is right, then we must be rejoicing and enjoying this ride.  :)

At twenty seven years, we have enjoyed raising our children whom we love.  Our youngest, Miriam, will be going to college in the fall.  This means that Tim and I are about to start a completely different phase of our life - the second honeymoon.  Now we are older and wiser.  Twenty seven years has changed us from who we were when we first started.  We are in constant training to be more forgiving and accommodating of each other; less annoying, less irritating and less irritated.  And yet we are aware that as we train we are in the battle ground.  After these many years we learned that as much as we both know that we love each other so dearly, we are only one careless word away from making the other person feel betrayed and unloved.  Likewise, we are only one unguarded thought away from thinking that the other person is our worst enemy.  That's only one tiny area of our life together where considerable change occurred.  But I will talk about them some other time.

This year, we celebrated our anniversary by traveling to Vancouver, B.C.  It was the second anniversary first trip where we did not bring any of our children with us.  The first one was a total surprise to me when Tim organized to leave to our very young children with our friends and we drove thinking that we were going out for lunch.  Yes, we did go out for lunch but we continued to drive after that - towards the airport.  Anyway, that was half painful and half delightful trip.  This time however, was not like that.  Whew!  We planned together!  Vancouver was beautiful because it snowed on the day we arrived and sunny on the following two days that we were there. 

Just the two of us in the beautiful Fairmont Waterfront.   It was like a true honeymoon.  However, at this stage, I am not so used to the idea of not having any of our kids share experience with us.  We have always traveled together since they were little.  Now I have to train myself into a different stage in life.  Overall, it was a great trip, we had a lot of time reflecting on a lot of things.  We went to see many beautiful places, ate at great restaurants, ventured to understand the local culture and spent time just relaxing and being with each others uninterrupted.

Twenty seven years, and we have a lot to learn and experience.  To learn and experience not for our own glorification but for passing on so that others might also enjoy what God has allowed us to.  After all, the end goal of this life and this marriage, as a matter of fact, is to live in the knowledge   that God is God and Lord.

God is good.  He is gracious to us.