Adventures of a November Bride: Flying?

It was December, 1984. We had been married almost 1 month. Cliff had a week of leave from the Navy so we decided to go home to NY for Christmas. Our plans were to fly home so on the designated travel day, we packed and headed to the airport. Now I have to stop right here and tell you that I have an insane fear of heights and had never flown before this.

We were waiting at the airport to get on a stand-by flight. Cliff left me to go get in line and purchase our tickets (BIG MISTAKE). While I was sitting there....all alone, two pilots came walking by and asked me where we were heading. "New York," I answered. "Oh," they said, "Rough travel and turbulence that way." That was ALL I NEEDED TO HEAR!!!!!!! My poor new husband turned around to check on me and all he saw was my back heading to the door. I left the airport all together. Not only could he not talk me into flying that day, he couldn't even get me back in the airport.

We went home and called my parents who were getting ready to head to the NY airport to pick us up. We then went to our pastor's home to get a check cashed because we only had enough money for the tickets. We then loaded up our Plymouth Duster and drove through the night to NY. It was a hard dose of marital reality for my new husband. I promise, he DOES laugh about this today and even enjoys telling this story!!!

Adventures of a November Bride: The Scream

So Cliff and I had been married about two weeks or so. He was in taking a shower and I was just hanging out on the landing of our stairs.

For some reason, I was thinking about screams and I realized I hadn't screamed in a long, long time (I really must have had nothing better to do!) Anyways, I thought maybe I couldn't scream anymore so I decided to give my vocal chords a good test. I opened up my mouth and let out a good scream. Not a blood-curtling one but a good hearty one. Like I said, I'd only been married a couple weeks and it never dawned on me that my scream might bother my new husband. Boy did it ever. Poor guy came tearing out of the shower and down the stairs...his eyes as big as silver dollars. I wondered what the big deal was. DUH!!!!!! I had scared the poor guy half to death. Needless to say, I've never wondered about my ability to scream again and Cliff really will laugh about this event....now.

Adventures of a November Bride: Ham 'n Ashes

This month, Cliff & I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. In honor of this event, I decided to start a little series, "Adventures of a November Bride," just a few stories from our 25 years together.

Today's adventure takes place in December of 1984. We had been married less than a month. We were just settled in our apartment in Jacksonville, FL when we had our first dinner guest. A single guy who was a good friend of Cliff's was coming over for Sunday dinner.

Ham n' Ashes part 2

Now, I knew how to cook amazing Italian food. While growing up in NY, my very Italian friend, Suzanne, thoughtfully taught me how to make the "gravy" (meat sauce), meatballs, lasagna, and chicken parmesan. This particular day, however, I decided to stretch my culinary skills and make a baked ham. Now I had seen my mom make ham before. I knew the glaze involved pineapple and brown sugar so that what I topped the ham with and slid it in the oven.

To my horror, about 46 minutes or so later, I saw smoke billowing out of the oven. PANIC!! While Cliff entertained our guest in the other room, I pulled out my ham, which was now glazed in ashed of burnt brown sugar. I almost cried. I removed the ham from the pan and scraped off all the burnt sugar. I wrapped the entire ham in foil and put it back in the oven. It turned out just fine but I've never made ham for company again and my cooking skills have greatly improved through the years.

Today I Was...

Today (Monday) I was a:
1. Chauffer
2. personal shopper
3. chef
4. dog catcher
5. daughter
6. friend
7. homework coach
8. TV viewer
9. host
10. dental consultant
11. maid
12. listener
13. mom
14. encourager
15. animal care-giver
16. wife
17. reader/student

*Today I was loved...by an amazing God and a not-so-perfect but totally amazing group of people I call family.

In the DVD series of "Sarah Plain and Tall," Sarah refers to her Aunts, who live in Cape Cod, as "The Treasures." That's exactly how I would refer to my grandmothers...Treasures.

I have been asked to talk about "Journaling" at our up-coming women's retreat. I have journaled since I was in the 5th grade....34 years. I knew my Grandma Adrian had kept a journal towards the end of her life. We had gone to see her about 2 weeks before she died and I remembered seeing my Grandpa continuing the journal because the cancer had gotten so bad. I asked my aunt the other day if I could read them. I did not know there were 12!! I started reading on Tuesday evening and haven't been able to put them down since. The earliest journal starts in 1939!! The story of her life on the farm in South Dakota...she wasn't even married yet.

I'm especially enjoying reading about her life here in Kansas. Since I live a mile from where they lived, I know all the places and alot of the people she writes about. I can see it all so vividly in my mind. Its been an incredible week. I feel as though I've been able to go back and spend some time with her. It's been amazing because I have missed her so much since her passing in 1985. I was just 2 months pregnant with Joshua at the time and she even wrote about how they would become great-grandparents....she didn't live to see the baby.

I hope one day my children and grandchildren will sit and treasure my journals as I have hers.

Grandma's Journals
The earliest one...1939-1944.

December 7, 1941..."Japan declares war on the U.S. this afternoon" (Pearl Harbor)

November 24, 2984....Mine & Cliff's wedding day....Grandma documented the entire weekend.

Stolen Pictures

I totally stole these pictures from my sister, Elizabeth. I give her total credit for the photography...she is an excellent photographer. I just LOVE these pictures of my youngest son, Jacob, and my nephew, Sam.

Jacob is 16 and a big guy with and very tender heart. Sam is his little buddy when we get to see my sister and her family (which is not near enough) and Jacob enjoys his company.

These were taken at my Grandpa Benzing's funeral last May. Sam made his way over to Jacob at the graveside and my sister so captured their relationship and Jacob's soft heart. I can get a little teary everytime I look at them.