I’ve taken plenty of pictures the past few days, but the dial-up internet connection here at the folks’ house isn’t up to uploading them, so they’ll wait until we get home on Sunday. (To be quite fair, my folks aren’t Luddites in the least when it comes to the internet; they simply live so far out that their only options are dial-up or ridiculously-expensive satellite. But I digress.)

It’s such fun to have the whole family together again for a weekend – Andrew and Heather are in from Washington; Ryan is here from Chicago; we’ve come up from Iowa and the rest are, for the moment, locals of Richland Center, WI. I have a feeling these full-family gatherings will be fewer and farther between as the years go on, so we need to enjoy these when we have the chance.

New Years’ Eve we celebrated Christmas as a family, exchanging gifts and eating rather too much. I was blessed with a case for my iPod and a copy of N. T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God, a lengthy volume that will likely keep me busy for a long while this upcoming year. (Thanks, Ryan!) New Years’ Day was rather uneventful; much decorating was done at the church, and it was concluded by my brother Aaron’s bachelor party – a party much unlike what typically comes to mind when you say “bachelor party”. Let’s just say it was attended by nearly 20 men who carried Bibles and weren’t afraid to use them. It was a good, encouraging time, enjoyed by all.

Yesterday, though, the preparations continued in earnest for Aaron and Emily’s wedding. Final decorations were hung; we walked through the rehearsal; finally, we ate a LOT of tasty catered Mexican food for the rehearsal dinner, and celebrated Aaron’s birthday. Oh, and Rebecca made the cakes, and whipped up a LOT of frosting. (Pictures to follow.)

Now it’s Saturday morning and we’re praying that the freezing rain forecast for late this afternoon holds off for a few extra hours so everyone can make it to the wedding. The big event is at 4:30 this afternoon, with dinner and dancing to follow. Big congratulations go out to Aaron and Emily on this landmark day in their lives. Now if you’ll excuse me… I think I have a shirt to go iron.

Nothing like a holiday and a week off work to slow down the blog posting.

We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, attending the service at Stonebridge. While it was a bit longer service than I expected, it was quite good, and the girls managed to sit through it (a whole hour!) without making too much ruckus. Then we made a quick trip down to the Fedex office to pick up the new laptop that had made it as far as the distribution office but not actually delivered.

Christmas morning we opened presents. Highlights for the girls: Addie got a little tent and sleeping bag; Laura got a scooter and a “spotting scope”. (It looks like a pirate spyglass to me, but Diego calls his a “spotting scope” and that’s all that matters to Laura. ) The girls also ended up with a multitude of puzzles and DVDs. I got some good stuff, too: some gift cards to my favorite local fast-food places (guilt-free eat outs!), a new fountain pen (OK, I’ve had it for a few weeks, but it’s a Christmas present none the less), and a couple of CDs. I got Becky a new jewelry box and a Baby Blues book; she appears to be enjoying both of them.

More Christmas photos on Flickr

On Wednesday we’re headed up to Wisconsin to see my family; Andrew and Heather are in from Washington; Ryan is in from the other Washington (DC), and Aaron and Emily are getting married on Saturday! Exciting times for the Hubbs family. Then next week “real life” starts again and I have to go back to work. I am thankful, though, for this Christmas break. A week and a half off of work is such a lovely thing this time of year. Happy New Year to you all!

It’s my mother’s birthday today, and out of respect for her (a respect that I wasn’t prone to show in my younger years, but that’s another story) I won’t mention her age.

However, I will mention that she has accomplished much in her years, raising and schooling five children, serving and caring for friends and family, consistently modeling Christ-likeness to those around her, tireless for nearly 37 years as a wife and nearly 32 as a mother.

Today, this son rises to call her blessed.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

Lately I’ve had a quote from Chuck (a rather fun TV show on NBC Mondays) set as my IM status message. (Oh, it’s also at the top of my blog header.) In the show, Chuck complains that it’d never work to have a relationship with his hot love interest Sarah, because she’s a CIA agent, and he says he’d try calling her, and she wouldn’t be available because she’d be “off somewhere in Paraguay quelling revolution with a fork…” I loved it. What a great line.

So it’s been my IM status for a week or so now. And every time Ryan starts a chat, he starts it out this way: “viva! viva! viva!”. (The first time he followed up with “fork that!” )

For Ryan, I have but three words, and I’ll even make ‘em Spanish: ¡Si se puede!

I am the oldest of five children. We span nearly ten and one-half years from oldest to youngest, four boys and then a rather special little sister. Today we reach something of a milestone: that youngest of the Hubbs children, our sister Rebecca, turns 21. To honor her on her birthday, I thought I’d pull out some photos. Unfortunately, I don’t have any really OLD ones to post.

(She’s the one in the middle in this picture, with my wife Becky on the right and Aaron’s fiancee Emily on the left.)

At Andrew’s wedding this summer, with her oldest brother:

She’s HOW old?

Happy birthday, sis! We love you lots!

After the beach we took a couple of days to travel up from Long Beach to Leavenworth. The stop in Yakima wasn’t really anything to write home about – Yakima is quite different from the other places in Washington we visited – dry, dusty, more desert than anything. But it was a good stopping-off point. Becky shot pictures from the moving van like a wild woman. She did get a rather nice one of Mount Rainier:

Also, on our way up to Leavenworth, the girls had fun throwing rocks into this little mountain stream:

Once we made it to Leavenworth, we had a great time with family and friends at the wedding. We stayed at the Riverdance Lodge, which you really must check out via their website to appreciate. It’s a ridiculously posh vacation home which happens to be right next door to the house that Andrew & Heather were borrowing for the wedding. So, our family rented it to stay for a couple days. Fantastic choice.

I’ve got a whole set of photos on Flickr from the rehearsal and before and after the wedding, and it’s really hard to decide which ones to show here, so I’ll just give you one of them and you can go visit the set. In this particular pic, Andrew and Heather were kinda bored during the photo shoot and gave me this little pose:

Such fun. There’s one more I’d post, but somehow I didn’t get it uploaded to Flickr yet. I’ll make a separate post for that one picture – how often can you say you have a guy relieving himself against a tree in the background of a wedding picture?

The wedding was beautiful and went about as smoothly as any wedding I’ve ever been to. I played the piano, Ryan sang, Laura and Addie were beautiful flower girls. They also had a lot of fun dancing afterwards. What a fantastic time of celebration.

Ten years ago today, on a sweltering night in Charlotte, NC, friends and family gathered as Becky and I exchanged our vows and became husband and wife. I don’t remember a whole lot about the ceremony itself; the pictures, though, show a geeky boy of 21 looking warm in a basic tuxedo, and a girl looking beautiful if a bit uncomfortable in a white dress and veil. We look so young! Were we really ready to start upon a lifetime together?

Ten years later we have been through much. New places to live, new jobs, new friends; two beautiful little girls added to our family; a lot of what we promised in our vows: sometimes better, sometimes worse, sometimes richer, sometimes poorer, sometimes sickness, sometimes health. One of the few constants through it all has been my wife Becky by my side, supporting, encouraging, and loving me. While we have our ups and downs, we truly do make a great team.

That night ten years ago my buddy Daniel sang a song that Rich Mullins wrote that included these lines:

If you find a love that’s tender,
If you find someone who’s true
Then thank the Lord -
He’s been doubly good to you.

And truly He has been good. I love you, Becky, and thanks for 10 wonderful years.

The little four-footed creatures have a way of finding a place in our lives and hearts without us hardly noticing it… until they are gone. Frankie was part of our household for nearly nine years, from his birth as a little kitten out at the farmhouse until his untimely passing after an accident at home last Friday. Becky picked out some of her favorite pictures and asked me to post them… so here you go.

Some weeks ago Becky and I were enjoying a date night with a stop at our local Coldstone ice cream shop when we overheard some college students discussing a plan – a plan we liked so much we decided to turn it into a tradition of our own. It’s really quite simple: the first day in the spring and summer that the high temperature for the day surpasses the next 10-degree mark, we go for ice cream.

It just so happened that our date night weeks ago was on the first 70-degree day of the year. And it just so happened that yesterday was the first 80-degree day of the year. So after getting a bunch of outside work done, we packed the girls up in the van and headed for Coldstone. I figure we have at least two ten-degree trips still coming this season, and if, God forbid, we hit the third (110°F), we’ll at least be happy for the relief!

So here are a few pictures from the night. Oh, and our ice cream flavors:

Addie: Chocolate with sprinkles
Laura: Cotton Candy with white chocolate chips
Becky: Chocolate & Coffee with cookie dough
me: Cake Batter Chocolate with cookie dough