The First 10...

October 30, 2014

10

Years ago today, Mr H and I were married.  

It was a gorgeous day in San Diego.  

We were surrounded by small group of dear friends and family.

We were joined as husband and wife 'til death us do part.

(Our eternal marriage, our temple sealing, would come later.)

By then I had known Mr H almost two years.

In my mind we were friends, but looking back,

I now realize we were "buddies," buddies who were willing

to commit to all that goes into two people living 

together and making a life together.  We were committed 

to each other.  True friendship is gained over the 

years as you come to learn about and support each other,

 look past weaknesses and differences, help them to be 

the very best Son or Daughter of God they can be.

We come from different backgrounds and have very

different personalities; we come from different

parts of the country with different culture, customs, 

and accents. {And which sometimes seem like

different worlds altogether!}

What we do share, and what is most important to us, is our

FAITH

That is what brought us together nearly 12 years ago 

(we met online). That is what sustains us, and will 

sustain us through this (sometimes very interesting) life.  

We have a common goal, and that is to live in such a 

way that we may return to our Father in Heaven and 

live as a family forever.  

We are building an Eternal Family.

And we have been blessed!

#lds #mormon #familiesareforever #faith #templemarriage

Anniversaries Trip 2014

 October 28, 2014

    Each year we try to do a weekend get-away to celebrate our anniversaries.  We've been over to Savannah, Tybee Island, up into North Carolina and over in Tennessee.  Some beautiful country, made even more beautiful because of the time of the year.

     This time Mr H suggested we go to Charleston for the weekend. I'd never been there, and he hasn't been there since he was in his 20's - it had been long enough!

     So he booked a room, and Friday afternoon we headed out in "Grandpa's zoom car."  (We finally had to take Connor's seat out of the back -- funny how a baby seat in the back of a zippy car is cool when you're a grandparent.  A badge of honor!)

     We had some great seafood (Mr H's favorite), went on a 90 minute bus tour of the town (I would recommend that to anyone going to a historic location), and walked a lot (A LOT! Which was great as Mr H doesn't have feet made for walking!).  

    Charleston is, of course, the infamous location of the start of the Civil War.  Ft Sumter. The Citadel.  Ft Moultrie. HUGE port town where cotton, rice, and indigo were the principle exports.  {I won't go into the horrors of the human trafficking that went on.} 

     They are still obviously proud of their southern heritage.  The inhabitants are doing a beautiful job of restoring the homes and other areas.  We felt safe walking all over.  I learned a few interesting things...

"Single"

*Many of the homes are long and narrow (all are multiple stories) with porches along one side, as you can see in the picture at right.  Those are called "singles" as they are a single room wide.  We were told it was much easier to keep the homes cool.  If the door was open, it meant the family was accepting visitors.

See the round things on the right side?

*There is an earthquake fault running through the area second only to the San Andreas in the US.  Many of the homes have decorative emblems on the sides of the homes.  These are actually braces that go through the home and are tightened periodically.  Huge bolts/cables, if you will.  If a family could afford it, they would add the decorative emblems.

*A nickname for the city is the "Holy City" for all the church steeples sticking out over the tops of trees.  Sailors gave Charleston that nickname as that's what they would see when they were coming into port.

They have a very cool bridge.

And of course Ft Sumter

So Happy Anniversaries, Mr H! 

 It was a wonderful weekend, 

and it's been a amazing and wonderful 

10 years!!

Happy Anniversary X 2!

October 27, 2014

     Each year Mr H and I celebrate two wedding anniversaries...

     We are Mormon, Mr H and I.  We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka Mormon).  We believe that Families are Forever.  We believe that being married in a LDS temple (we call it being "sealed") by one who holds the authority under the restored priesthood means that we are not only married while we live on this earth, but the marriage is forever and always - it lasts through the eternities. It is different than a civil marriage ("'til death do you part"), whether performed by a JP or in a church, which we call being married "for time."

     Mr H and I met a little later in life than most couples.  I was 47, he 50.  He has been married before so getting permission to be sealed in the temple is a little more complicated.  (I won't address that here, but I will tell you that the LDS church takes marriage [and hence divorce] extremely seriously, for which I am very thankful.)

     We planned on being married in the temple from the get-go, but because of Mr H's previous marriage, after 19 months of long-distance dating (we were formally engaged after 15 months) and determining that it may take a long time to finally be able to be married in the temple, we would be civilly married (for time only). We had developed a friendship and a love for each other that we knew we wanted to spend our lives together.  We also had the faith that the day would come when we would be sealed for time and eternity.

So on October 30, 2004, 

surrounded by a few family and friends, 

Mr H and I were civilly married.  

{This is our "first" anniversary.}

Newly minted Mr & Mrs H!

       Forward not quite two years...  2006.  Through a series of miracles and blessings, we received permission to be sealed for time and all eternity in a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Because we live in Georgia ("by the grace of God," according to Mr H),we chose the Atlanta Temple.  

Atlanta Temple

Atlanta Temple Sealing Room

Interestingly enough (at least to me), the next available date was 

October 14, 2006.  

{This is our "second" - and infinitely more important - anniversary.}

Heavenly!  Sealed as husband and wife for all eternity.

     So each year we have two wedding anniversaries, both in October.  There is so much more to the story - definitely many miracles.  Suffice to say, having had both a civil wedding and a temple wedding, without question, kneeling across the alter from a person you love, joining hands, and covenanting with each other and Heavenly Father that you will remain faithful and will do all within your power to live worthy to be together forever...

THAT is what heaven is made of... and THAT is worth celebrating!

#lds #familiesareforever #templemarriage #faith #ldstemples

Real Popcorn

October 16, 2014

A couple weeks ago I decided to buy a bag of real popcorn, not the microwaveable stuff.  It has been years since I've had popcorn made in a pan with a little oil topped with just salt.  Dad made popcorn a couple times, but he uses either an air popper or so little oil there's no flavor at all.  And he never salted his.  Microwave popcorn is…  I can't even think of how to really describe it.  I have been sucked into eating it since I moved here 10 yrs ago because I no longer had a popcorn popper and it's what Mr. H. ate.

But really.  The more I've read about microwave popcorn and the yuck they add to it to make it acceptable tasting, the more I feel like I'm eating poison when I do eat it.  (Of course I can say the same about Diet Coke, but I still have several a day.)

Anyway, yesterday I decided to pop some of the real popcorn.  I had gotten Jiffy White Popcorn, put a bit of oil in the pan and added a few kernels.  Put the lid on the pan and waited for those to pop 'cause then I knew the oil was hot enough.  (One of many cool things about the glass lid for my sauce pan is that I could see the popcorn pop!)  I threw in a few handfuls of popcorn seeds and voila!  Within about a minute the lid was being pushed off the top of the pot by the fluffy kernels.



Amazing to me, too, was how much that small bit of popcorn seeds made.  This whole huge bowl full!  And this is a huge bowl.  Between Mr. H. and (mostly) me, we killed off nearly the whole bowl.  I know, like real peanut butter, this is celestial food!

As I thought about that (and was enjoying the crunchy goodness), I realized how amazingly expensive the microwave popcorn is.  This whole bowl was a few cents (and is about the same amount as two big bags of micro-pop).  A big box of 10 packages of micro-pop can be on sale for around $3-4.  This bag was around $3 and will make 27-5 cup servings.  You do the math.

Plus the flavor is oh-so-much better.  It was yummy and I'm sure I'll pull the pan out again tomorrow (or game-day Saturday).

Popcorn - it's what's for dinner!

Catching Up and Being Consistent

(This was written on 1/18/14)

*So it's almost a year since the last post.  The Old Perry house was (almost) finished, and then rented to a nice young military couple.  Their lease is almost up so I don't know if they'll stay, but it's being (kind of) managed by a local realtor so she will get to take care of that!

*I went back to work full time in March 2013.  As of my last post I had no idea the job was coming.  A former colleague called and said he had taken another job, so his current employer was going to look to fill his spot.  Worked as a defense contractor; the contract would be over in March 2014.  No brainer.  Took it.  Nice people to work with, keeps me busy.  Not a career, but a job.  Mostly for the insurance.  I can live with that.

*Our SIL graduated from BYU and continues his work with the bank.  They moved from Provo to Salt Lake, but recently found out his department is going to be moved about 20 miles south, so they will move to another apartment closer to work for him.

(compliments of HH Photography)

*Hanna has taken to photography like a natural.  She was able to take a class last fall to fine-tune her skills.  She recently took some amazing pictures on Temple Square in Salt Lake.  Hanna is able to be home with Connor, which at this point still means sacrifices, such as only one car!  She's been great about it, still keeps the house so well

*Connor is doing great, has his own super little personality, loves LOVES loves books, was introduced to snow this year (and didn't think much of it), learned lots of sign language in his pre-talking life and is now learning to verbalize all that, loves cars (one of his favorite words), and after Grandpa visited over Thanksgiving, he loves Grandpa's watch.

*JH and I were able to do our annual weekend to Panama City Beach.

*I was able to scoot up to TN to visit my nephew's family when my sister came down from IL to visit -- on one of those trips, JH dropped me off and continued on up to IN where Trey was working at the time.

*I was able to visit my dad in San Diego for his 95th birthday!!  Five of the six of us were there - it was a good trip!

*For Thanksgiving, JH to Utah to visit the kids there, I went to North Carolina to meet up with a sister and all her kids/grands. They rented a nice "cabin" in the mountains a few hours from where my nephew is stationed (go Army!!).  He deployed the first week in December so we wanted to have a grand Thanksgiving together.

*Christmas was quiet.  But a perfect day for me.  Just JH and me as we had both been sick and didn't want to inflict anyone.  (Now that sounds weird saying it was a perfect day and that we had been sick… )

Lots more went on, of course.  One of the (many) bad things about not keeping up with your journal or blog is that there is no way to remember and catch up with everything that happens in 12 months. And there is always a lot.  So here we go...

Wisk It Out

My mom used two kinds of detergent, plus bleach, when she did the wash.  Of course not all in each load - one main well-known powder for everything, and one to scrub into stains and on my dad's shirt collars (Wisk).  The bleach she used on whites generally.

Throughout the years I've tried lots of different detergents, but mostly going back the one my mom used, but in liquid form.  None of them are really that good at anything but run-of-the-mill daily soil.  Most get the wash smelling clean, or at least not having any smell.  But I've been so disappointed that none of them clean stains as advertised.  (Now, don't ask me why I believe advertisements - I guess hope springs eternal that they are telling the truth and it's as easy as they advertise.)

So I've also tried all sorts of the additives, like the pod things and oxy-type boosters.  None of them has really worked.  I've even scrubbed liquid detergent into shirt collars and other stains -- nope.  Although most stains fade some, the stains are still there.

So the other day I picked up a bottle of Wisk.  My mom would only use it on Dad's shirt collars.  And if I remember back into the cobwebs of that time, it even came in a small, dish soap size bottle. I bought Wisk at a full $.05/ounce less than the other popular/well-advertised liquids, too.

Mr. H got a nasty "rug burn" the other day.  Which just looked like slightly shiny place on his elbow - it hurt a lot more than it looked like it would.  No bleeding. Well, during the night it decided it was going to bleed.  There went my nice white sheets… It looked like he took a rubber stamp to the upper half of the sheets and his pillow case (sorry, TMI?)

Enter Wisk.
Today I pre-treated those spots on the sheets and his pillowcases with Wisk and let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then washed.  (Pre-treating meaning mostly just pouring the detergent on those areas and let it sit.)  Thinking it would turn out the same as when I've done that same thing with my usual liquid.  But hooray!  Pulled out the sheets and my only disappointment was that there are a couple spots I missed treating specifically and they didn't wash out.  The other whites in the load looked good, too.

Now, I understand the needs for more than one laundry product, but if I can get away with just using one I will go with that.  I am disappointed it didn't get the stains I didn't pre-treat as those are the buggers, but at least I know it will get the ones I do.  At least it did this time.  Time will tell, but today my white sheets are white w/o nasty leftover stains and that works for me.

Your mileage may vary.