Liebich & Lepp

Me and Ruth's wedding produced more than just a pair of sleepy, indecisive Canadians who consider the thought of a heaven without lattes to be a challenge to our faith. There was one girl who was a friend of Ruth's who rededicated her life to God after attending our 10 hour marital marathon that we called a reception. That is a very special thought to me. The other thing we'll try to take credit for is the meeting of David Liebich, one of me and Ruth's close friends from high school, and Kristy Lepp, one of my cousins. Apparently the sparklers that were lit during our first introduction weren't the only things causing sparks. David and Kristy were married a little over a year ago and are now expecting their first child. That's right; someone who met at our wedding is married and having babies before us. Blame it on that indecisiveness I was talking about.




David and Kristy came down for the weekend, and we showed them around Pike Place Market, as well as downtown Seattle and the inside of an empty cup of coffee. It went like this, "There's the flying fish over there, see the space needle over there, now watch..this is what an addiction to caffeine looks like..."
*-Slurp-*



Thanks for coming down guys. Please come back soon.

A very strange ball of light appeared in the sky this week. Apparently it signals the end of winter and the beginning of spring. I'm skeptical. From my perspective, It's clear purpose is to make sitting at a drawing table on a Sunday afternoon seem preposterous. It rose today, accomplished it's mission, and set. Now that it's down, I can blog without any guilt.

So Ruth and I went for a bike ride on our usual loop that takes us up Norway Hill, past million dollar homes, just so we can see what it feels like to covet. Just to see how it feels. It left me out of breath, but maybe that's because Ruth is the one who's been hitting the cycling class so hard lately. She kinda kicked my butt. But just for the record, even if I could've kicked her butt, I would have let her kick mine just so she could feel good.

There it is folks, the secret to a good marriage. Make your wife think she's kicking your butt when she's not, and when she is ; blog about it.

Royden St.

Ok I know this is kinda weird. I just want to say that off the bat. I've just always kind of had a strange fascination with my name. Because it's so rare, I never see it in print. I never see it on a sign or a website unless it's my own. So imagine if you'd never seen or met or heard of anyone with your name before, when suddenly for the first time you get the urge to look up your first name under the images search with Google. I'm facinated with the results. Such as Royden St. in Camden, New Jersey. Looks like it could use some fixing up.



If I find myself in North Carolina anytime soon, you can be sure I'll be stopping by the Biltmore Village Inn in Bed and Breakfast so I can stay in the Royden room.









Construction seems to be popular.



This band from Wharton, New Jersey is sporting my name. I just ordered one of their hoodies from their website. Too bad their music sucks.

There's an old on house on the side of the road before you pull into Salmon Arm back home. I've been dieing to shoot some pictures of it and finally got my chance last time we were home.

However, after I did I kinda had the creeps for a few nights. I spent a lot of time lieing in bed wondering why I ever stepped foot in the door.

Bang Bang Sushi Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my glorious wife who deserves nothing less than a day a Wade's gun range in Bellevue. And that's what we did. I seem to remember her giddy demeanor back in our teenage days, the first time I took her out in the woods to shoot some pop cans with a .22 rifle. She had the same glee 'popping caps' in evil Mr. Paper guy. "I swear he was coming at me with a knife!". For a paper villain, he sure looks relaxed out there with one hand on his hip. If I ever do shoot someone I doubt they will look so suave.



"Are you lookin at me?" Kind of, but more precisely I'm looking at that spot...

...where my gun registering, Canadian wife put 10 rounds through paper man's right shoulder from 21 feet. Nice clustering!

We met the rest of our posse at Flo's Japanese restaurant in Bellevue later that night. And it went a little somethin like this...




Thanks for everyone who came and helped celebrate. Go visit Josh and Brenda's Blog for some more excellent pictures from the evening. http://www.themillerhood.blogspot.com/ There's a really funny pic over there of me explaining to everyone with my hands, what we did that day.

Funeral for a soldier

George Lepp decided he wanted to take a bike ride to visit his friend Marie. The trip was many miles but I'm sure it was the sweet smile of Marie that made the ride seem only a few minutes. So when my immediate family stood around in the back room of the church I grew up in last Saturday, the church I was baptized in, the church I was married in, and we numbered ourselves at 71 I had to laugh at Uncle Ken's comment in my ear, "all of these people, just because Grandpa wanted to go for a bike ride." Mary (Marie) Lepp died January 2nd around 4:10pm. The first death in a family of 71.

She was 82, and she was a soldier. My greatest fear with her passing is the lack of prayer going to God on my behalf. Selfish isn' t it? There is nothing else to do but pick up where she left off. On January 2nd she put her sword and her helmet down for the first time, and now we pick up ours with renewed inspiration

What a faith we have! A faith where the same song was sung at both my wedding and my grandma's funeral, by my Dad. Faithful one. So unchanging.




Two of her most worn books.

After the funeral, all the cousins (grandchildren) and their kids (great grandchildren) met for an evening of games.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2005 is an empty bottle

And so is all that's left of that delicious Shiraz. Bill and Addie and Caley and Lauren and Colin and Josh and Brenda all agreed to pack themselves into our tiny apartment, and then only make it seem smaller by eating tons of food. We brought in the new year with wine and stinky cheese. Ruth made a baked brie with carmelized onions and peach preserve, along with curry pork satay's, and thai shrimp rolls with homemade peanut sauce. I married up. Everyone else brought various cheeses and dips that made a meal out of a table of appetizers. God poured His blessings on us in 2005, in 2006 I resolve to know Him more.

Christmas

Christmas comes and goes about as fast as good skiing conditions. Which we did this year thanks to my Father in law's birthday which falls on the 25th of December. We took him skiing twice while we were home to cover both Christmas and Birthday obligations. Christmas was full of food and family. And I've got pictures to prove it.



This is what I did after every meal too.