"Train up a child...

...in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
-Proverbs 22:6

"Teach children the value of work." President Spencer W. Kimball

(Ethan and Aunt Becca washing dishes, May 2009).

A not-so warm, fuzzy story.

I had such high hopes of this story having a good ending. In my hanging planter outside of my (sniff) old house, a mama bird decided to build a nest and lay eggs. The eggs hatched, and three little baby birdies came to the world. Not wanting to disturb the nest, I was just going to leave the hanging planter as a kind of house-warming present to the new owner. Well....while we were moving out, we had the storm door propped open to make it easier to bring boxes out. Someone walked out the front door, startled the mama bird in her nest and she SMACKED right into that storm door in her hurry to fly away and died instantly, right there at my doorstep. The baby birdies were only about three or four days old, not old enough to fend for themselves. We saw the daddy bird around, and were hopeful that he would step-up and feed them now that mama bird had bit the dust. I worried about these little birdies so a friend of mine tracked down some numbers of the wildlife people for me so I could call them to possibly have them come pick them up and take care of them. I called, but just ended up playing phone tag with them, and as it was in the middle of our REALLY crazy move, I just didn't follow up like I should have. When we returned to Tuscaloosa after moving everything to Wetumpka they were dead birdies in their nest. The dad bird was nowhere to be found. I think these birds were perhaps doomed from the start. Another time I walked out and startled mama bird and in her haste to fly away, so knocked one of the babies out of the nest to the concrete. David had to pick it up with two sticks around its neck to get it back into the nest without getting his scent on it. So, that is the story of our baby birdies. Moral of the story: babies need their mama. There are some things that only mamas can do for the babies.

Longfellow Park Chapel, Cambridge, Massachusetts

When I lived in Boston, I attended church at the Longfellow Park Chapel in Cambridge on the Harvard Campus. It was a stone's throw from the Charles River, and directly across the street from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow House. It is in prime Boston real estate territory, and because of the historical significance of the area, there were certain building codes that had to be met. It didn't look like just another LDS chapel. It was such a beautiful building.

I moved to Boston without knowing a single soul, other than my cousin and her husband that lived up in New Hampshire. But, itching for a change and an adventure, I moved to Boston in JANUARY of 2003, as in the coldest part of the freezing cold New England winter. It was one of the best moves of my life. I immediately immersed myself in the young single adult crowd of my church and made many wonderful, life-long friends that I still keep in touch with and get together with for reunions. I try to imagine myself without the friendships of my Randi, the Buchanans, the Wilsons, the Bishops, the LaPierres, and others, and I know my life would just not be as fulfilled without them. It was a place of great spiritutal growth for me, as well as giving me the satisifaction of knowing that I could make a good life for myself anywhere, starting with nothing. I loved living in Boston, it is a place that is very near and dear to my heart, and David and I both hope to be stationed at the Air Force base there at some point in his career.

The Longfellow Park chapel specifically was sort of the pinnacle of all my experiences in Boston. It is where I met my friends that I did lots of other fun activities with, it was the place where I received spiritual renewal each week and where I took religious institute classes that continued to increase my knowledge of gospel principles. I mean, it was just a building, but it was NOT just a building. I'm somewhat of a sentimental anyway, so when the Longfellow Chapel burned and was destroyed a few weeks ago, I cried and cried as I viewed the pictures.

The fire started on a Sunday morning, right in the middle of our church service. It started in the attic and people didn't realize it for some time. Thankfully, everyone was evacuated and no one was hurt. There are some really interesting stories from this fire, and I see the hand of Lord, even in a tradegy like this.
A sad, sad site.
The chapel got it the worst. The Quaker meeting house is directly across the street from our chapel. These were books they were able to save from the Institute rooms, and the Quakers let us store them in their meeting house, they opened up their nursery for the children that were there, and they even were handing out juice and cookies!The chapel end.
Mitt and Ann Romney talking with the Fire Chief. I'm sure they were there for church that day.
I remember this painting. It hung in the foyer, right outside of the badly burned chapel. As you can see, it made it through the fire just fine.




This is one of the most interesting stories to me. The girl in this picture had found a large box of important papers in an obscure place a few years ago and moved them to a cupboard in the library. The fireman told her that next to the chapel, the library was one of the worst destroyed rooms, completely burned out and one of the least-safe to enter because the floor was so soggy after the steeple had been hosed for over an hour to prevent it from burning and falling. In addition to blueprints of the building in the box, there were also letters from the city and building permits that were granted when the meetinghouse was first constructed in the 1950s. These documents will be important in the future as they apply for permits to rebuild, which may be difficult because of the great historical signficance of the neighborhood. The box made it through the fire unscathed.

A few more graduation pictures.

Sara Katherine and Aunt Meg twirling.
Pointing to daddy's picture on the law school wall that will hang there forever!

My favorite graduation day picture.
Little Miss Priss.
And with a ranch mustache.

Big Weekend.

Wow, what a weekend.

Saturday morning I attended a bridal shower and brought those most-amazingly easy bacon cheese mini-appetizers. They are a hit everywhere I take them and they are soooo easy. I have made them the past three weekends in a row for various showers and Pampered Chef shows. Golly, they're good.

I rushed home from the bridal shower to finish putting together David's graduation lunch. Barbeque for around 25 people. I used a new bbq recipe where you doctor up bottled sauce with beef broth, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, and other good stuff. They were sloppy and good! I also made German Potato salad, which Mama Ford introduced me too in college. I don't make it often, but I should. Then we headed to the graduation to watch David get "hooded". It was sort of a moment for me. It was neat to see him graduate in the same place I graduated from seven years ago (SEVEN years!), and it is truly the ending of an era for us. I have no desire to ever go get a master's degree, and unless David goes back to get his LLM, which he may one day, we are officially done with college until our kids start going. It's so weird. I've been a student or been married to a student for so long I'm not sure I'm going to know how to act any other way. The law school had a really nice reception for the graduates and their families, so we went there after the graduation and ate for free. Well, I wouldn't exactly say for free. We'll be paying back our law school loans for the next four to five years, and less time if David gets his way.





This morning we both had to speak in church. I spoke about the responsiblities of mothers, and David spoke about honoring our mothers. Then a good friend of mine's child got baptized, so we stayed for that after church, then we came home and thankfully my wonderful sisters in law and my mom and mother in law pretty much had the big mothers day lunch ready by the time we got home from the baptism. We had country fried steak, potatoes, corn, sugar snap peas and biscuits. And leftover graduation cake for dessert. When all the family left around 5:30, I crashed not too long thereafter and slept until 10pm. I need to go to bed, again. It's going to be a long, long week of packing and sorting and cleaning. Ugh. I hate moving.

David truly surprised me this Mother's Day with his choice of gifts. He asked Ethan what he wanted to get me for mother's day. Ethan told him he wanted to get me a necklace. So he took Ethan to Hobby Lobby and let Ethan pick out big stones to put on a necklace for me, my mom, and his mom, then David picked out beads that matched the big stones, bought all the jewelry clasps and wires and hardware and then they made us necklaces. And they're so pretty! I don't even think I could do that. I truly love my babies and my thoughtful husband. They fulfill me in every way! I should have taken pictures of the necklaces by themselves. You can't see them really well in these pictures, but they are so pretty! I'll have to post a picture of mine tomorrow. I think Sara Katherine carried it off somewhere and I can't find it right now!

Mid January 2010

Happy Mother's Day to My Three Moms.

I love you all.

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts." ~Washington Irving

"All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." Abraham Lincoln

So bangs are back...

Whadda ya think? I'm thinking they help cover up my forehead, and that is a good thing. I like them.

And David graduates from law school. Tomorrow. Holy smokes, where did the last three years of my life go?

New Address

As of May 19, our new address will be:

1521 Chapel Road
Wetumpka, AL 36092

Cell phone numbers will stay the same for now:

Jeni 334.652.8950
David 901.486.0414

NO motivation.

So because I know that we will begin the moving process in one week and be completely moved in less than two, I have lost ALL movtivation to keep a clean house. And I'm not just talking about clean, but clutter-free as well. I mean, I don't know that my house has ever looked as bad as it has the past few days. I have just let it ALL go, and while I thought it would be freeing in some way to overlook my OCD tendencies that have to do with cleanliness and organization for a little while, um, it wasn't really. I was going to take picutres of the horridness of my house and post them for your viewing pleasure when I got up this morning, but by the time I got up, David and Ethan had already completely cleaned the living room and were working on the playroom in the back. I guess it wasn't freeing for him either. I still have the kitchen to go, which I'm dreading, but as bad as it's been for the past little while, I'm just thankful that my house has not, and will never look like this person's -












I got these pictures forwarded to me in an email. This was a person who had to evacuate BEFORE Katrina. I think the irony of it all is the one picture where there is an iron and ironing board set up in the middle of all the chaos. Like, someone who could live like this gives a care if they are wearing an ironed shirt.