25 Good Years

OK, it's official. I've now been an Adams for just as long as I've been a Lore.

A beautiful Spring day in April with our friends from BYU and family from California, Utah and Oklahoma. I didn't realize that marriage gets better with age - it changes and that love, passion, understanding, and care are flexible, growing characteristics and the infatuation and enthusiasm of early years can lead to a deep richness in later years. It's unfathomable how I could be happier on my 50th anniversary because life is really sweet right now. Watching how we have adjusted, adapted and changed shows that future trends look very good. We are not the same couple as we were fresh from university. Though I'm still more flighty than Jeffrey. I bring joy and lightness to his life and he brings meaning and purpose to mine. Marriage is really wonderful - I recommend it.

This was powerful the first time....now it's better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

I can't get out of my head the idea that we should be grateful and happy with our body and our life. Easter is a time of reflection and appreciation of what the Savior has done for us. A time to remember. Lanette said we should be grateful to have a wonderful body. She has a friend who would shout hoorays to move her fingers as she has multiple scoliosis and hasn't moved by herself in years.

I am thankful that I can see and walk and smell and taste. I have a wonderful life, a great husband, and beautiful children. To live with good health and in a nice home and I know I owe it to the Lord's guidance and direction in the commandments we have followed. It helps to be lucky and it helps to do what is necessary to have contentment in my life. I'm glad I have the luck of the draw without lots of turmoil in my life and I'm also glad I listened to my parents and teachers and don't have addictions and waited for a good husband. I'm glad I had my children and didn't worry about the worldly cares that change with the fads. I can't say I'm exactly satisfied with my body but I'm sure glad it works well, gets me where I want to go and I'm not addicted to anything - except chocolate. I'm happy to talk with my kids and watch them develop and work through their trials and choices. I am thankful for the Savior and his redeeming love for us. His sacrifice, care, and guidance. I'm glad to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm delighted to have responsibilities and service to render.
I'm indebted to those men who have lived their lives in such a way that I want to follow their leadership. Life is good.

Am I Old or staying Young?

I really need to be a grandmother. I'm old enough, my friend's have them. I have to actively remind myself to get excited and do fun stuff with my youngest. The tooth fairy, Easter Bunny and other holidays used to be so fun. When did I get to be old? I turned around one day and didn't want to go to the park. That must have been when I wasn't looking. Wouldn't it be nice to play for the day and then send them home? Anyway Easter at the Adams turned out nice (I think) and I had baskets for everybody and eggs - plastic and real - hidden everywhere before the children (they are big children) got up. Although I had to remind myself and I was out on the last minute run to get candy, baskets, plastic eggs and stuff. Do children keep you young or are they what makes you get old? I'd really love to go on a cruise. Bake in the sun then hike around a mountain lake, scuba dive in the ocean, and play on the beach. Maybe we could get the toothfairy to just come once and not have to remember late at night to make her run. What do you think about one great big gift instead of all the quarters every few months?

Laura's Camel

Laura assures me that there is a camel who lives here. She called me one night and said there was a camel sitting up on this hill, so we came to see him and well we found wild flowers and nice green grass. So another time she is with her family and calls and says the camel is out. Now I do believe there is a camel on her say so, and this is where I'm exercising faith that someday I may see him. But everytime I travel over the hill with Laura there is no camel.

I keep thinking about all those migrating Monarchs and how they ride the winds. There are millions of them and they are so small and hardly noticed but they have been coming in waves heading North all last week. When our family went back to the Nauvoo Temple dedication there were thousands of visitors and I felt very small and insignificant though thankful to be there. I couldn't help thinking then of all the planning and work and effort it took to go and to realized that all those thousands of people waiting in lines and walking around all had taken time, effort and sacrifice to be there and why did we all think about it together? What makes us swarm just like the butterfly's every once in awhile? We knew of one family that has driven for 2 weeks in a rickety van to get there and others who had saved for months. They were prepared for us when we got there. Extra chairs and tables at church were already set up and different wards around the temple came to help out the visitors who had traveled to get there. Conference time brings on prepared crowds too. I remember as a young child sitting on the Temple grounds around the tabernacle listening to the talks over the speakers if we couldn't get in to the seats. Long lines then too.
The butterflys run into obsticles like cars, shifting winds, children and dogs, bird swooping, and buses driving by. But still thousands arrive at their destinations. Did you know that their children's great-grandchildren are the ones who end up going back to the same place they did? Why did I end up visiting the same place my great-great-great grandmother lived? Of course we've only done it once in a lifetime and I hope my children and their children go back to visit without waiting a few generations.

Conference and a Menu

It is general conference weekend and we'll be having company for between sessions on Sunday. Both are connected with Nate though he won't be here. Jeanie Barta ( Nathan's friend Seth's mom-and of course my friend) and Faby Lopez who was baptized last week. Janelle has this really great idea (she's obviously thought about it and may even have traditions in place) and reading some of her comments from bloggers made me think maybe I should have a menu. The all important menu decision. So..... I think I'll run to Costco and see what looks like it's tasty and fool-proof. I've been spending time with Laura so you know I'll have a roll recipe to make rolls or Cinnamon rolls. Saturday is running around with the TV on and hopefully we'll catch most of it. Otherwise we tend to listen to the sessions over the next week. I'm one of the older crowd who remembers coming home from school on Friday and mom would be listening to Conference sessions then. I think in Pres. Kimball's day they shut down some of the sessions and meetings in Salt Lake.
I won't ever forget Bruce R. McConkie's bold witness. I won't forget being in the old Tabernacle as a young girl and listening in person either. One of the more memorable Conferences I was in Canada on a mission watching and the camera scanned down the stairstep kids of a family who happened to be my own and I saw my baby sister for the first time. Once I saw Jeffrey in the audience singing a hymn. But mostly the good, warm feelings and the wanting to be a better person is what stays with me the longest. Anybody who feels like dropping off an entree is welcome.