That Day In Pictures - The Story Of Us

Four years ago this month, I shook the hand of my dear friend Brittany's dad at a Sunday evening social that I didn't even want to go to but my two college kids forced me to go with them.  I'd known Brittany's dad for about ten years, known him by name and face only because he visited her from California a couple times a year and he would attend church with her and her family so from those visits, our whole congregation/ward knew the Reeves.  I also knew that about three or four years before that hand shake, he and his wife had divorced, a shock to us all.  I had been a divorced single parent seven years myself and as per an agreement with my kids to ensure peace, tranquility, and stability, I didn't date after my divorce and wouldn't attempt to until they all left home for college.   For us this was the right decision and actually quite liberating for me.  At the time of the hand shake, my youngest was a senior in high school.

At that Sunday social, the evening was winding up, my kids and I were about to leave and were saying our goodbyes around the room and Dan and I were introduced then;  he as Brittany's dad and I as the mother of Brittany's babysitter (my daughter Gabe).  We didn't even mention our names!  I thought he was kind and I could see where Brittany got her gentle nature from his voice and manner but that was the extent of my impression.  Dan however, (later revealed to me) had a strong impression as he shook my hand that I was someone he should attempt to become acquainted with.  He pondered on this as he drove home from the meeting, had no information with which to contact me or if he would and certainly wasn't going to ask his daughter for my contact information.  Serendipitously it was provided a couple days later when I sent Brittany a thank you note email for the nice evening and invite and my comment that it was nice to meet her dad since I had met and gotten to know her mom and various siblings over the years but never her dad (a note I sent out of friendship and good manners) and she forwarded my email along to him.    Now he had my name and email address and a few days later I was sitting at my desk at work and an email popped in from Dan Reeve.  I felt both trepidation and great surprise at this and then a red hot flush envelope my neck and face and go all the way down my legs as I began to read it; how he had struggled with fear and anxiety all week wondering how to word this email and that he wondered if it were possible to have a conversation at some point, something like that.  It was both careful and charming and I knew how hard this must have been to do.   I called my two older kids and read it to them because I had no idea how to respond or even if I wanted to and they both told me that I must!  Because he was Brittany's dad and they adored Brittany and I just should!  So I did, and we started with a few emails back and forth telling our stories, discovering how similar they were, then weekly phone calls, then both daily emails and phone calls, then cross country visits so we could go on real dates.  For five months my three kids knew and kept this to themselves sworn to secrecy and Dan's kids knew nothing about it nor anyone else.  We kept this friendship a secret because we thought it was best in case it just puttered out and no one would be the wiser, and to not worry his kids, and because we're both really private people, and also, no one loves to watch or give input to a budding relationship more than a Mormon ward or two.  Nine months after meeting, Dan proposed while I was visiting him in California.  At his point, his kids knew and were being really good sports about it, mine were hoping I would eventually marry him so they could be related to Brittany and everyone else found out about the whole thing once we were engaged. We married in Dan's beautiful Alamo CA backyard garden a year almost to the day of meeting surrounded by my parents, many of our siblings and all of our children.  Brittany's husband Jake, who was also my Bishop, performed the wedding ceremony.  I never could have imagined that I would someday marry Brittany's dad nor that my life would change so dramatically nor that I would gain five absolutely wonderful step children and be so incredibly happy and at peace as I am today.  It has been an amazingly joyful and fantastically fun three years of marriage and four years of knowing one another.  I look forward to every day to come with Dan.  Thank you Gabe and Heath for dragging me to that social.  And I thank God, my Father in Heaven for His hand in all this - in everything!

 Below, sealed in the Boston Temple for all eternity a little over a year later.

The Garden, Boy Shorts, Women's Conference And A Recipe

Tree Peony in the Rye front yard - Shima Nishiki

I've been working in the yard almost every day this week, morning until evening.  May to me means one thing - preparation for the rest of the summer and fall.  And it's done with the scent of lily of the valley, apple blossom and lilac accompanying me - remember how perfume can make one happy no matter how hard the task?   Once all the work/preparation and planting is done, the rest of the season is minor weeding/dead heading, consistent watering, and a ton of beauty and enjoyment and all the bliss that comes with the fruits of the next two seasons right here.  And I lose my winter back fat in May; so far I've lost 7 pounds since I got home from Australia and started yard work here and at the Yellow House just doing yard labor and you know I haven't stayed away from bakeries or cookies during this time.  Bippity! We've also been hand watering all areas of the yard every day because we have had almost no rain this May (except today as I type this we are getting real rain, steady and heavy - hooray!!).  In pictures, here are some scenes of the yard.

 There's a naughty plant eating creature that lives back there - he/she must be conquered!

 A hand full of apple blossoms

 Some delightful color and another view of the veggie garden area.  Soon that grass beneath the tanks will be removed and we will replace it with river rock so we don't have to mow/weed wack there anymore and it will look tidier.

 A week ago the pool was uncovered and green and murky and now it's just about ready for swimming!  Great job Dan!

This is how my hair looks at the end of every yard work day.

 The area on the back side of this fence where you see the stones kicked out of the ground is the home of some kind of critter that has eaten dozens of my plantings down to stubs all over the pool gardens.  We put a smoke bomb down in the mouth of its tunnel and covered the hole and we haven't lost any plants since nor has the burrow opening been disturbed.

 This is a walled bed in the pool area and just about everything there except what remains of course was eaten by whatever critter is now gone from this world.  I have to re do this area and now I have a whole new plan for it.

 Nice pool garden bed - you can see  behind where some of the veggie stock tanks are.

 Look for the blue bird houses here - I installed 3 of them last fall in this border and they all now inhabited by nesting blue birds!!

These are seedlings from a mesclun blend of lettuces - you scatter seeds and it's cut and come again.  And they have sprung up in one of the stock tanks.

A heavy fog rolled in Thursday night around dinner time and the golf course and neighbors' yards just disappeared in it.  It was cool!

 My neighbor's tree peony in bloom right now - I keep visiting it.

Our tree peony that we brought over from the Yellow House and after a shaky transplant last spring it survived and bloomed this spring - sigh of relief. 

Now, here are a couple of pictures you must see from a trip to England we took a couple Mays ago because they are so glorious - I was perusing these pictures recently and oohing and ahhing at the wisteria and english blue bells we encountered as we explored gardens and parks around London.  This is my Sunday That Day In Pictures piece of the blog post!

 My son Heath and his wife Emma walking in front of us as we explored this area - it was lightly              raining, hence the umbrellas, though you can't tell from the photo.

Now, about boy shorts, or man shorts.  I have quit buying women's shorts for the most part because it's just hard to find a pair that fits well these days without requiring a lot of pulling because the crotch is too short or the waist is too snug or they aren't long enough for my liking etc.  And male shorts, the sporty ones, are so much more inexpensive and there are lots of choices!  So now I have several pairs of them and all areas are roomy, there are many convenient pockets and I am happy about this.  Try on a pair that has a waist an inch or two larger than yours and that way they fall on your high hip a bit and not right around your natural waist.  If you have hit your mid 40s and beyond, you know that the waist you once had even if you are still fit and trim has thickened.  It happens soon after you become myopic and need reading glasses to see the small print.  Like overnight! Unless you are some kind of anomaly.  And then that's just not fair.  Here's what I'm talking about.

                                    This is a happy face because boy shorts are so comfortable

Saturday I attended a Regional All Faiths Women's Conference in Lowell MA with 3000 other women.  I drove down there with a couple of my BFF, Julie and Kris, and we listened first to two keynote speakers at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, then ate provided sack lunches out on the lawn, then over to the Lowell High School right down town there for workshops. 

                   BFF Kris is third from the left and Julie is at the end right next to me. The other three
                                 lovely ladies were new acquaintances made at the conference.

 The conference offered about 30 different workshops and we each had to pick just three.  My workshops were these:  Your Awesome Makes Me Feel Awful - (self worth and comparing ourselves to others), New Strategies For Finding Answers to Modern Problems in Ancient Scripture, and a Special Leadership Training (because I am the Relief Society president - the women's organization at my local church, I kinda had to go to this one).  The whole day was absolutely fabulous; the speakers, workshop teachers, the weather, seeing a lot of lovely ladies that I know there, getting such a spiritual lift, and Lowell.  Lowell has a really charming and beautiful downtown and I would love to explore it further.

 A big surprise - after the two keynote speakers spoke we were told an unexpected speaker would be crashing the conference - Elder Jeffrey R Holland!!  A collective gasp went out when that was announced and it was a real thrill to hear him speak to us for about 10 minutes.  He just happened to be traveling in the area and was asked to stop in if he could.

Now for the recipe.  I have been making Sour Cream Banana Bars with Browned Butter Glaze since my late 20s and these are really, really good.  Next time you have over ripe bananas hanging around and you don't want to make banana bread, make these.  Easy, super moist and tender, the glaze is exquisite and they are great to bring to potlucks and bake sales or just to have on hand.  I made them yesterday for an after church Linger Longer today.

                  SOUR CREAM BANANA BARS WITH BROWNED BUTTER GLAZE

Grease and flour a 15 x 10 jelly roll (large cookie sheet with a lip) pan.  Oven at 375 F.

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 stick, 1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
3 large mashed bananas (I just throw them in by chunks)
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Mix ingredients 1-4 together and beat well.  Add bananas and vanilla and beat well.  Add all the dry ingredients and beat until just combined.  Pour into pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes.  

Cool and then pour the glaze on.  
Glaze:
1/2 stick of butter - melt in a small pan and simmer until it turns a delicate light brown
Cool it a few minutes and then stir in 2 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 3 T or more of heavy cream, half and half or milk.  The richer the better.  Beat this until smooth and pour.

That Day In Pictures - Note Card

I bought this note card over 20 years ago when New England was just a dream.  I saw it in a gift shop and I was immediately transported down that little lane and imagined myself walking from one of those houses down to the water.  I bought the card and hung it on a cork board above my desk there in Nevada.  I'd had an obsession with New England since I was a freshman in high school and saw pictures of it in a calendar.  After that, I sought out books and movies that took place there and determined that although I had never been there before, I belonged there.  It's a long story to tell of how I eventually got here 17 years ago but I still have the card hanging on a cork board above my desk and I am just as obsessed with this wonderland even though I now reside here.  And I live in an old house like the white one (but yellowish) just down the street (lane) from the water.   And living my dream!

That Day In Pictures - The Jungle Room

When we bought our house a couple years ago, the third floor had one bedroom and one bathroom finished and then a third room, mirror to the other bedroom, left non-remodeled and used as a true attic storage room. A couple walls had a pepto bismol type faded paint over cracked horse hair plaster, the wooden floor, painted black, was badly damaged and duct and pipe were exposed here and there and a couple walls sported an atrocious wall paper that you see in the above picture.  It was a very ugly room.  I loved it!  I immediately got that excited, itchy, adrenaline rush, happy, joyful feeling I get when I feel a project coming on.  Our realtor told us he had sold this same house three times now in the past 25 years and no owner had done anything to that room he referred to as the Jungle Room.  I thought what a shame and I told him we would immediately transform it in to another bedroom.  A couple months later, I emailed him pictures of the remodeled Jungle room and he exclaimed his glad tidings back.  Here are before and after pics.  I go up and visit this room daily as it makes me so happy to be in it.  When we were in the process of moving in to this house, it was a four month process due to a major and painfully slow remodel we were having done on the master bathroom and some of the floors, and the master bedroom was being used as the holding room for all the contractor's materials AND Dan was gone most of the four months wrapping up his 25 years at his old firm back in CA (long run on sentence) so I slept in the Jungle room when he was gone because I loved it up there.  

We repaired walls, patched holes, covered ducts and pipe, skim coated, primed, painted, added new lighting, and had carpet installed since the floor was so badly damaged and not a candidate for refinishing.  We could have put in new wood flooring but the other bedroom was carpeted with a similar underfloor so we re - carpeted them both.  You will see the Jungle Room's mate (the Ocean room) in a future post.  We then moved in furniture from both of our previous houses including a mix of our former kids' rooms bedding and it worked.  Enjoy the Jungle Room tour.  

Did I get every angle?  Probably a couple times.  One of the beds has a trundle under it that folds out and up to make a King bed or one humongous bed when all three are pushed together.  This is a favorite with the grand kids.  A piece of wall paper is framed and forever preserved and hung outside the room in the little hall way and this room will be the Jungle Room forever.