Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Reminiscing

I love Sundays because It is just a time for our family to be together with out all the pressures of everyday life. This Sunday Bill and I just started reminiscing about how far we've come from the endless days of working 2 jobs and going to school full time . When we were crammed into our tiny little 600 sq ft apt (behind the bar no less) with sweltering heat night and day because we couldn't afford to turn on the a.c. We reminisced about all our good times with our friends and neighbors. Damon and Sybrina-remember the 4th of July party & your star croutons, Branson's pirate party and his 1st birthday party when my face somehow landed in his cake. For that matter pretty much all of our kids' birthday parties. There are still a lot of memories you will have to help refresh. Liz and Patrick Maravilla, You guys were some of the best neighbors we will have. Too bad I can't find you anywhere. Loved all the cooking classes from Liz and home decorating tips from Patrick. There were of course the Best home teachers we have had. Bill and I were talking about the time that Mike Simmon's came over and Bill was outside in the middle of winter in his...pretending to swim. we'll just leave it at that. And the time that We hosted a "How to host a murder" party for our friends The Simmons, Kochs, Maravillas, and the McCleans." We turned our whole house into a 1920's speaks easy and I taught myself what scallopine was. I've been making it ever since. We remembered when we were invited to the Kochs Caesar how to host a murder party with the Rudds and also the Knights Japanese one. We had so much fun with all of you!
We talked about the winter that we were invited to the McCleans cabin & hung out with you and the Simmon's we had such a great time. All the Halloween parties and the BEST Bishop & family ever. (Maw's you know who you are- we just hope you know how much you mean to us!) That's where Darlene and I met-I will never forget how you were like 8 months pregnant with Mattie and you were climbing 3 flights of stairs trying to fill up a kiddie pool one bucket of water a time. I think I offered to help ( I might have even had a hose) and we sat up on the top of the stairs and chatted...we've been friends ever since. And we just wish Doug and Emily still lived closer. We might as well have been "Lucy and Ethel". I'll never forget the time that Katie Palmer came over when I got so sick I thought I was going to die and you brought me over a tea bag full of herbs and made me a hot bath and took care of my kids for me and When Emily did the same thing. There is just something to be said about the years of poverty & sacrifice that you go through when you are first married. There are always trials in their own way whether it's financial or starting a family or whatever it is, and I think it's how you handle it that draws you closer together.
I attribute a lot of mine and Bill's wonderful relationship to those years of pulling together, lifting each other up. To putting aside selfishness and supporting each other through everything. It's how you learn to rely on each other and especially the Lord. I never thought I would see the end of the tunnel when we were going through school, but in retrospect, I would never change those years for anything- we gained some of the best friends and we became the Best of friends and eternal partners.

by the way, this was just reminiscing, we have many more family & friends and this post would have been even longer we are constantly surrounded by wonderful neighbors friends and family & looking back in 10 years we'll remember these memories too. We love you all past & present!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

What???

For family home evening a couple of weeks ago, I was wondering what we were going to do. That's when Bill winks and shoots me one of those "I've got it all taken care of" smiles. I just smile back and wait for whatever lies in wait. This time....when the kids ask what we are going to do dad just says, "just wait." One of them must have asked will mom like it because all I remember is him saying mom will like part of it and some of it she won't like.
He proceeds to have us all gather around the table...draws a big circle on the sliding glass door with shoe polish and has us all name temptations that we encounter in our lives and labels them all with their first letter of the word. We have a great list and of course the middle of our target is Satan. So far so good... great lesson we'll probably use darts to stick to the window right?

WRONG! This is when Bill pulls out hollow pens and sticks little wads of paper in his mouth and shows our children the art of spit wads. GROSS! funny, effective... but Gross! I'm assuming this is the part that mom probably won't like.













However, even I all got into the action; once or twice. There is just something about sopping paper with my spit that makes me want to GAG! It probably brings back grade-school trauma
when boys used to spit spit wads in your general direction when the teacher wasn't looking. Just something about someone else's spit whizzing by my ear makes me cringe with disgust. Like I said ...effective- these are the lessons I hope our kids will remember when faced with a temptation from Satan.=)
By the way, we threatened our kids with their lives if they EVER tried this in school.