Here's a slideshow of some highlights of our trip in March to Becky and Daniel's house. (Fifty points if you can figure out which three are from Douglas opening his mission call!)
I'm off to Women's Conference this week, and will be pretty quiet in the blogosphere for a while. Type to you when I get back! :)
What is his name? Gras, Flocken, Darling, etc.
How long have we been married? Eleven years last Saturday!
How long did we date? Way too long. Of course, I was 17 when we met. We had to wait at least until parental consent was no longer required! ha. Just kidding. Actually we dated a year and a half before our wedding, and eleven years since.
How old is he? 34, and boy, do I rub it in!
Who said I love you first? Can't remember. Romantic, I know.
Who is taller? He is, by exactly 3 inches.
Who sings better? Well, you know, I hate to brag.
Who is smarter? DC is way smarter. He was actually an EE major before switching to violin performance. He has a doctorate. Need I say more?
Whose temper is worse? Definitely mine. :(
Who pays the bills? Moi.
Who does the laundry? Me again. Although my darling often helps put away the clothes, especially when I'm huge and pregnant and tired.
Who cooks dinner? Me. And since food is kind of a hobby for me, I really actually enjoy it.
Who drives when we are together? Usually DC. Especially on long trips. Which suits me perfectly.
Who is more stubborn? I think a lot of people would be surprised to find how stubborn my darling can be. But it's not very often. He almost always lets me have my way. :)
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Usually me, and because it's usually me that's wrong!
Whose parents do you see more? Mine.
Who has more friends? I seem to lean on my friends more than he leans on his, but we definitely are each other's Best Friend. :)
Who wears the pants in the family? My manly husband.
Who eats more sweets? It's a tie. We are a bad influence on each other, and both tend to cave in whenever the other is partaking of sugar.
Who mows the lawn? Darling Gras.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.
Who asked who out first? Darling Gras asked me out first.
Who kissed whom first? Well, my goodness, that's kind of a personal question. :)
What is my favorite thing about him? His amazing Christ-like love for every person. I don't think I've ever heard him speak negatively about anyone. He has a celestial heart.
I tag Suzanne, Malauna, and Mom. . . .
I have a dear friend back in Tallahassee who is a very talented writer, even having recently published a children's book. We used to go to a writers' group together, and I will always be grateful to her for encouraging me in my creative verbal efforts! :) She sent me this poem a couple of months ago, and it fit so well how I feel. I have really good weeks where I feel almost normal, and then I have down weeks where I just want to stay in bed and cry and eat chocolate. (Not that I do, but that's how I feel). Thank you, Norma, not only for expressing beautifully what living with grief feels like, but especially for letting me "lean on you" through our emails!
Invitation
Don’t expect too much of me
Of something I can’t give,
I’m still searching who I am
and how I want to live.
My mind and heart are wounded now
the scars are wide and deep,
but my soul’s clock is ticking
with time-washed healing sleep.
So if you care to wait around
on the periphery,
One day I’ll reach out again
in new maturity.
--Norma J. Sundberg--
copyrighted, permission given to post on this blog
(original title: A Death Called Divorce)
If only we had photographed each and every savory meal we created and partook of during the visit!. . . .But then you would all have puddles of drool on your keyboards. :)
A few highlights, however:
Glazed Kielbasa (above), with red potatoes on the side
Taco Soup
Crockpot Salsa Chicken Burritos Oh, yum. These are absolutely heavenly, and SO EASY!!
Strawberry Pretzel Dessert (below)
Oh, honey. We had some great food!
Time to do some catch up on my blogging!
My beloved friend SuzieQ and her two sweet little ones came to visit us for a week in March. She and I have been friends since Tallahassee days, where we lived in the same apartment complex. She is one of my favorite people on the planet because. . . .
She is a true friend. I know she really cares about me and thinks about me, even if we don't get a chance to talk for a while. Then when we do, we pick up where we left off as if we had just spoken the day before.
She is amazingly talented. Her voice is like liquid gold, and she sings with the Spirit. I have often wept while accompanying her because of the power she sings with.
She cooks like a pro, and is a self-confirmed foodie. We love talking about food, reading food magazines, trying new recipes, and of course, eating. (We really tried to be good during this visit, but it was SO HARD. Waah.)
She is generous. She's always giving wonderful gifts to family and friends. Even back in our student poverty days she was always sharing treats and giving little surprises that would just make my day.
She is 100% dedicated to the gospel and her family. I hope I don't embarrass her by sharing this story. When she was studying music at FSU (not a vocal performance major) she auditioned and won the leading role in one of their opera productions. She had beat out performance majors and graduate students and boy, were they upset! I was so proud of her. But then she read through the libretto and score and realized that she would be expected to portray a character who was adulterous. She promptly turned down the role. What a splash she made in the School of Music! First, no one could believe a non-performance major had won the part. Then, all were completely flummoxed by her turning down the part! It was awesome. To say I was proud of her then is an understatement. She had become my hero. :)
There are many other neat things about her, but I want to start posting pictures of her visit, which was very fun.
( P.S. Beloved friends and family, watch out! You may just get the spotlight on you sometime on this blog! :)
"The recollection of past pleasure may become pain. . . .To remember happiness which cannot be restored is pain, but of a softened kind. . . .The good in this state of existence preponderates over the bad, let mis-called philosophers tell us what they will. If our affections be tried, our affections are our consolation and comfort; and memory, however sad, is the best and purest link between this world and a better." (Nicholas Nickleby, p. 65)
This is our neighbor's house across the street. See the water line on their fence? Yikes! (They are now replacing all the flooring in their house, which had about 3 inches of water in it at the peak of the flooding.)
The fresh exuberance of the blooms also give me a powerful reminder of the reality of resurrection. They make me think of growth and new life.
