On Friday, the 25th, Stacey and I celebrated our 34th anniversary. When I tell people I’ve been married that long, I usually get several reactions. The most flattering reaction is when they don’t believe it because I seem too young to be married that long. I don’t get that response as often as I used to. The other reaction, usually from the kids at school, is that they ask me “to the same person?” When I say yes, they are often shocked and they usually go on to tell me about their parents who are divorced and remarried several times or living with a girlfriend or boyfriend not their parent. I like to assure them that some people get married and stay married, and maybe it will happen to them some day. It makes me sad that so many of them come from very mixed up, fractured, and dysfunctional homes.
Stacey and I were married in the Los Angeles Temple on Friday, May 25th, 1984 (5/25), at 5:25 p.m. The date was by choice, the hour was a happy coincidence. The day is a bit blurry in my memory. Stacey always remembers things like this better than I do. It’s one of the ways we compliment each other. I’m glad we took pictures – they help me with detail retention. I remember being nervous and excited and a bit overwhelmed. There were lots of family members and friends there. After the temple, we had a big family dinner at Stacey’s brother Bill’s house. It was Memorial Day weekend and Stacey and I only had the weekend off from work, so we drove that evening to a place up in the mountains by Big Bear for a short honeymoon. We were back home by Monday afternoon and back to work on Tuesday. And away we went.
Here we are 34 years later. In that time, we’ve lived in two apartments, seven homes, raised seven children, and worked at various jobs, held various callings at church, planted numerous gardens, raised flocks of chicken, pet rabbits, dogs, cats, canaries, and a cockatiel – and we’re still going. Stacey and I really do compliment each other, but not in the ways most people expect. We laugh when people compliment Stacey on her flower and vegetable gardens. The gardens have always been mine. And we chuckle when they’re shocked to find out that Stacey is out changing the oil on the car or repairing the washing machine. I am not mechanically inclined at all. She has talents and interests that I don’t and I have talents and interest that she doesn’t. Together our weaknesses and strengths make us complete. Besides, we have the most important things in common – our love for each other, our love for our family, our testimonies of and love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a desire to do what we must to be with our family for eternity. Love overrides all differences.
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| 1984 at the Los Angeles Temple. |
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| 2018 at the Palmyra Temple. |
To celebrate the occasion, we went to the temple yesterday. The drive to Palmyra and back was beautiful. The verdant spring scenery was lovely. Western New York State is a beautiful place. Almost as beautiful as Potter County.
Last Sunday evening we watched a bear stroll across the hill above our house. It has been wandering the area for several weeks now. It likes bird feeders. Back in April it wrecked my bird feeders. I had to repair two and replace one. On Wednesday night it destroyed them again – this time two of them beyond repair. I’m not replacing them, at least for now. So there is just one little feeder now and the birds are not happy about it. They crowd and fight each other for a place. Poor birds. Blame the bear.
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| The bear on the hill last Sunday evening. |
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| My bird feeders on Thursday morning. |
May continues to dazzle us with its gorgeous weather. The days have been warm and balmy. The air is sweet with the fragrance of freshly cut lawns, lilacs, apple blossoms, and the dusty sweet smell of the wild cherry trees in bloom all around us. I love the words we have that deal with pleasant smells – fragrance, perfume, odor, etc. I find myself saying “The air outside is redolent with lilac.” It sounds nice and they smell wonderful. The lilacs are better this year than they’ve been in a long time. We’ve had no frosts to blight them. I have three kinds of lilacs, pale purple, white, and dark purple with a white picotee edge. There are other colors of lilacs that I see in other yards around here and want to plant one of every color. Maybe next spring. Miriam cut some and brought bouquets into the house and now the house is also redolent with lilac.
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| Some of my lilac bushes. |
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| The purple picotee lilac. |
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| The pale purple lilac. |
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| The white lilac. |
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| Lilac bouquet. |
The flower beds have hit one of those lulls. The spring flowers are mostly gone and the summer flowers haven’t kicked in yet. The tulips and daffodils are finished, the forget-me-nots and bleeding hearts are still holding steady. There are lots of flowers with buds, but no blooms yet – poppies, lupines, peonies and irises will grace us in June.
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| Bleeding Hearts and forget-me-nots. |
June is almost upon us. June is usually the finest month of the year here. As lovely as May has been, I don’t know how June will surpass it. The poem says “What is so fair as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days.” I’m looking forward to seeing what perfect days June has in store for us.
Today is my father’s 88th birthday. When I was a child my father’s birthday always meant there would be strawberry shortcake for dinner. He loves strawberry shortcake. My father is a great man. In his profession he is renowned and respected. In his family he is adored. I am so blessed to be his son.
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| My father and our family taken last summer. |
This is Memorial Day weekend. On Thursday we put flags on the veterans' graves at the Raymond Cemetery. We do that every year in preparation for Memorial Day. This weekend is my traditional Planting Out Time. All those plants I started from seed and nurtured in the upstairs bay window all these weeks will finally go in the ground. I always find planting out exhilarating and a little scary. Sometimes the seedlings I fussed over indoors don’t last long outdoors. Some beast or bug destroys them. Or they fail to sink their roots into the earth languish, and wither away. I always plant more than I need as backup.
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| Tomatoes waiting for Planting Out Day tomorrow. |
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| Putting up flags in the Raymond Cemetery. |
We aren’t planning much for Memorial Day. Stacey and Miriam are working. I’ll be home planting and painting. I’m trying to finish a big order – an 8' x 8' compass star pattern. Tomorrow evening we will have some traditional Memorial Day food, but with adjustments. No hamburgers for Miriam. No potato salad or chips for me. If the weather cooperates, we might have our first fire out in the fire pit. Then school is out after Tuesday, June arrives on Friday, and summer is a coming in, sing we loud cuckoo!
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| The order I'm working on right now. |
Happy Memorial Day!
