Waxing nostalgic

Okay so Larry is out of town AGAIN and I miss him, so here are a couple of pictures of us. The first one is our wedding day (of course!) and the other is from a couple of years ago.

We were married October 2, 1981. It was a cool, damp Friday evening. Look at those glasses -they are HUGE!

Scary, isn't it? The best part of the whole picture is my flowers!

This was a hot summer evening at my cousin's home in Irondequoit. We look sweaty. I think Larry is way cuter now as he gets older. And no beard!!!! I was SO GLAD when he shaved that thing off. It was probably 1986 or '87. I can't remember that far back.

What's with the wind?

We woke up to another wind storm this morning. A shingle blew off the roof and crashed into the window of my mother-in-law's kitchen. Poor thing she got so scared. Thankfully, our windows are double pane and since only the outer pane was broken, she doesn't have cold or snow blowing in. We have an in-law apartment attached to our house so she's not alone but she still gets so frightened. And Larry is off in Madison again, but it's bitter cold there. 8 below as of 8:45 this morning with a wind chill of 23 below!! Bbrrrrrrrr.

A prophet has died

Gordon B. Hinckley. We will miss him. What a good man who loved the Lord and who loved us.

Mister Locke

The other day I called a young five year old friend to wish him a Happy Birthday. It was a short and very sweet phone call with him ending up saying "Thank you for calling, Sister Locke." (We call each other "Brother and Sister" in our church.) Well, no sooner do I hang up than the phone rings again and it's the dad saying that the birthday boy's three year old brother is UPSET and crying that HE didn't get to talk to me. So the little one gets on the phone and the conversation goes something like this:

3yo: sob, cry, sniff, SOB, "Hi, Mister Locke." SOB
me: "Oh, honey, don't cry. What's the matter?"
3yo: "WHAAAAAAAA!!! I wanted to talk to you!!!
me: "Oh dear, I wanted to talk to you too! I'm sorry we didn't talk before."
3yo: "WHAAAAAAAA!!! I love you!"
me: "I love you too!!! Are you okay now?"
3yo: sniff, SOB, "Yehehehehsss, WHAAAAAA!!!"
me: "Okay, go have a nice dinner now, I'll talk to you again."
3yo: "uhuhuhu okay" sob, sniff, hiccup, "byyyyyye. WHAAAAA!!!"

...and he hangs up. Oh my goodness it was precious. The poor kid. The funny part is that his older brother used to call me Mister Locke, too. I think they are trying to say Mrs. and Sister at the same time.

All these sweet little people really make me feel like a grandma. Very cool. Wait a minute. A grandma with braces. Oh brother.

New braces but no photo

Sorry guys, couldn't do it. I just could not publish a picture of my mouth for all the world to see. You really didn't want to see it anyway, right? Maybe I'll have Larry take a normal picture, just not a closeup. Take my word for it, I have the braces, my mouth is sore and I need to buy stock in orthodontic wax!!! I cannot BELIEVE how sharp everything is in there. Wires and hooks and all sorts of nonsense jabbing me here and there.

I was so apprehensive the night before. It was like getting married. There was no turning back. Once those braces went in, there they would be for TWO YEARS.

Ah well, I eat soft foods and am paranoid that there is stuff in my teeth. I don't know how you all did it as teenagers. God bless America.

Trivia

Some things that make me happy:

Neil Diamond concerts
hot showers
the smell of fresh basil
putting up the Christmas decorations
taking down the Christmas decorations
Wheat Thins
reading all of your blogs and emails and remarks
helping a woman have her baby
scrapbooking
pomegranates
volunteering at the Red Cross
a warm summer afternoon

Some things that make me sad:

cold showers
my hair when it needs a cut
waiting for a Neil Diamond concert
crazy drivers
dirty bathrooms
shoes that hurt
cooked spinach
missing Sicily
hot sticky summers
cold damp winters

No braces yet. They put the spacers in this week and now NEXT week is when my uppers go on. I'll be grinning on the blog soon.

And they call the wind...

Dangerous. What a windstorm we had here Wednesday. Lots of damage around the county and over 30,000 without power. The peak wind gust at the airport was 75mph. But we Rochesterians are a resilient bunch! We can take it!

Wind? Ha!

Icestorms? Ha!

Snow up to our waists? Ha!

Spiders are another thing....

Hurray for nursery!

My four little nursery kiddos were so sweet today. One loves the song, "Here We Are Together" and wants to sing it more than once. Another one has been having a hard time with his parents leaving him there but today he stayed for more than a half hour without his mom or dad. He actually smiled at me! A little girl has just begun coming and her mom was baptized today. And my oldest one left for Sunbeams during third hour. They are learning manners and sharing and obedience. What a lovely calling this is.

My mouth, minus the two teeth, is feeling much better. It actually wasn't so bad after all except for feeling so cold all the time. I guess my body likes warm food better than cold. Next week the braces go on so I'll have Larry take a picture and you can ALL bust out laughing with me!

Goodbye teeth

Went to the dentist today to have two teeth removed in prepartion for the braces. It was traumatic! One of them gave the dentist a hard time. It did not want to come out. I sent good thoughts to the tooth, thanking it for doing its job all these years, but it was time to say goodbye. I apologized to it for having to do this. It was weird but it made me feel better and maybe it helped. I asked to see my teeth that were removed. I wanted to cry! It probably isn't so bad when you are young but I've had those teeth for a VERRRRY long time! Now I look like a chipmunk, all full of gauze and Novacain. I'm only supposed to eat soft, cold foods for three days and keep ice on my face for TWO days. It makes my whole self cold!!

Your friendly neighborhood volunteer

So here I am in all my gear, just coming home from a fire. No makeup, no shower - scary isn't it?! The hard hat cracks me up but it definitely comes in handy while doing damage assessments in a place where the ceiling is falling down! I really like this work with the Red Cross. We do some good for people who are experiencing trauma in their lives. The things I am learning about people and situations and the right things to say have even helped me with my work as a doula and our work in the branch. It's all kind of the same work actually, which is being of assistance in time of need; whether it be labor and birth, recovering from a fire or teaching the young women!

This is Larry and our cat Elbie on Christmas morning. He is opening her stocking full of fun toys that Grandma Locke gave her. She is a sweet cat. Larry of course, is adorable!

Happy 2008, everyone!!