Marriage Thoughts

It has been a week full of loving! I look forward to continually growing old with this marvelous man.

Wednesday John-husband drove down to the NIH for check-up pre-malaria testing, and was asked: "So, you've been married a long time, right? What is your secret?"

He talked about the importance of dating your spouse, and the great advice he got from a college professor: if you only have an hour a week to spend with your family (between work/school) take your wife out. Show your children that you love each other first, and they will feel more secure.

Thursday I took the train down to meet John at work so we could go to the DC Temple. We did not get in a fight on the way down, felt pretty united and happy to be there together, and were still asked to sit up front. We missed the 6 pm meeting, but had plenty of time to wait for the next one at 6:30--so we sat side by side with two big Bibles and I showed him some of the things we have been talking about in seminary this week: Jacob falling in love with Rachel (kissing her before they started dating!) and his volunteering the 7 year work-off for such a beautiful bride, tricky father-by-marriage, Leah's lovely eyes, Jacob's dedication to marriage, his courage, his responsibilness and trustworthiness, his dedication to marry within the covenant and obey his parents.

We talked about our children, our hopes and dreams for them and our helplessness. It is out of our hands whom they choose. We can't send our most trusted servant to go and pick, by prayer, the first one to water the camels (I really wish we knew the name of Abraham's servant--so faithful and believing). We pray for our children, we keep dating and trying to be good examples of a happy marriage, so they will seek a relationship that can last through this life and after death. That is what we believe. It is what we hope. It is why we do everything we do.

We went to a wedding reception last night. The young groom looked a little dazed. They got married last week out west, where she is from. They were late to their reception--but look so happy, well-suited, matched evenly! Rolls, a dozen soups, cake & hot cider. We gifted them with some practical home stuff (no, not toilet paper, but I thought about it) and movie passes, for some dates!

Date Game

Try this at home: pick a famous pose, recreate it and take a photo and compare. Thank you, Grant Wood (this is NOT a married couple, it is a father & daughter).

We should have been facing more forward, with my shoulder overlapping behind him, and I should have been looking at John, not camera, and I forgot my cameo brooch pin and little collar!

Thank you, Guttenberg.
I should have been more humble with my face glancing downward. Funny what you remember, and forget. Except for the first couple photo (where we adjusting the lighting and camera settings for this cloudy day), we did these in one take. Point and shoot. Visual references were inside on computer. Photos would be more accurate if we had them in hand as we were trying to fix our poses.


Public domain dancing couple.
Ooohh, BOTH of my hands were supposed to be upraised, elbows bent...John in tails! And I really like her boots! We will try this game again. Visual memory testing with one shot photo shoot.

Cheap fun morning date!

Craft show; HAIR, and WE were interviewed

(Update from craft fair today! It was fun to hang out with friends, but sparsely attended show, not a lot of profits. My cordless HEATING BAGS sold out. Selling to interested locals $5.00=great gifts!)
(THIS is a preview of Suzu's costume, an anime character. She had a costume party last night, so a week before Halloween, we bleached her hair, as per her begging pleas and my in-experienced cooperation.)
(THIS is Roxie's inside out braid from Friday. One of the seminary students helped her with her hair before school.)
(THIS is us Saturday morning--and I know, I am wearing the same shirt from yesterday, it's still clean...we are standing in front of David's boxer paintings and you can preview the living room wall color behind us.)

Emma called. Pre-planned time, so we would both be here, and on our house phones, so all three of us could conference talk.

We talked for 1:40. That's longer than our usual sweet and short bursts of conversations between her classes.

She is writing a paper for her Marriage Prep class, and had some great questions for us. Pertinent stuff. "What kind of advice would we give our kids about intimacy in dating and marriage?"

I immediately thought of my 9th grade English teacher, Verda Mae Christensen. She had a list of 10 things she would tell her own kids, and shared with our class on several occasions, of how to act on a date.

Funny how powerful the influence of a teacher can be, decades later.

And sobering having our oldest be so wise and knowing.

(THIS is my "Mrs. Bennet" sepia version from a very recent photo on Emma's blog.)