What the Hail

Last night, amid pouring rain and wind and thunder and lightning, the hail came pelting us with ice stones. It was actually pretty cool. They weren't terribly big but big enough that I wanted my mother-in-law to see them.

So I ran out the front door to grab a couple pieces of hailstones.

Then I attempted to run back in the house.

HA!

HA!

Instead, I fell. Actually slammed into the glass storm door WITH MY HEAD.

My glasses went flying, ZOOM off my head.

This is what I look like.

Two lumps on my forehead. Black and blue. My legs all scraped up. My glasses all bent. My face all swollen.

I'm a mess.

All this to show Larry's mother some dumb hail that all but melted in my hand before I got back in the house. But I hung on to it!

So this might be the third dumbest thing I ever did. The first and second are here and here.

A Pretty Amazing Weekend

So I've been doing a lot of studying about nutritional healing and stuff. I was all worried that I might be having gallbladder issues, so I did a regimen that is suppose to heal it. Yeah right, right? But this is what I did, according to the book:

For one day, all I ate was apples. Granny Smith.

ALL DAY.

Then before bed, I took two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil,

and two tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice.

It was amazingly good, not gross at all. I did that for five nights.

I HAVE NO PAIN.




Really.

No pain.

I also found out thanks to our friend Paul that drinking aloe vera juice will prevent acid reflux and eliminate the need for prescription medication.

It WORKS!!!

I am happy.

Then, our Stake Conference was this weekend. Sunday's session was a broadcast for the Northeast. We were sitting with our little pals -



and their parents. I was feeling grateful and sad at the same time. I love that young family and am VERY grateful to have them in our lives. Tender mercies of the Lord, you know?

Yet I was getting all weepy eyed, thinking YET AGAIN, "where are MY children?" then feeling bad because I still get that way after all these years.

Then somehow this happens. God knows us. The speaker, Elder W. Craig Zwick quoted from the Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3

1Verily I say unto you my friends, ^afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give ^bthanks;

2^aWaiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

3Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you, with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled; and all things wherewith you have been ^aafflicted shall work together for your ^bgood, and to my name’s glory, saith the Lord.

You can imagine how I felt. It was like the Lord was right there in my heart.

Like I said, pretty amazing weekend.

I Can't Eat WHAT?

I think I'm having gallbladder issues. Of course I am not sure. But considering that the pain occurred right after Larry and I had ONION RINGS, it's a good bet.

It is definitely weird pain. Almost like spasms around my back and to the front. It's been happening for a few days now and I am mad. Not only have the Yankees lost three, count 'em THREE games in a row, I have pain.

Curses.

I Broke a Man's Heart

I did. Really.

You'll love this story!

It happened forty years ago but just the other day I heard the WHOLE story.

Okay so I was 18 or 19 and we had friends from Sicily who had a nephew (Giovanni) coming to America for a visit. They thought he and I should meet. He was looking, and I was available but not necessarily looking.

This was me........

No No! Just kidding. (That's really my great great aunt Cesidia.)

THIS is me when I was cute. Except for the glasses.

So the meeting between the families was arranged. They came over to my grandmother's house......

and we sat outside in the yard.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He had reddish hair and was a little older than me, maybe like 25 or so. He was in the Italian Navy.

These were my thoughts:

"He's a nice man but not for me. He's too old. I can't speak Italian. I don't want to live in Sicily. This is ridiculous. HELP!!"

But we continued to furtively glance at each other. I didn't know what to do except smile.

(It gets better.)

So a few days later my parents and I were invited over to our friend's home for dinner. We were all sitting at this long table eating wonderful food when someone poured Giovanni a drink. He tasted it, then gave it to me to try. I'm dumb, so I took a sip.

WELL.

Everyone started cheering and clapping and carrying on like something BIG just happened. I was of course, clueless. I don't remember what happened after that.

Later, as we were leaving to go home, our friends' little 6 year old daughter came up to me and asked, "Can I be in your wedding?"

WHAT?????

I said, "I'm not getting married!!"

And she said, "Sure you are. You're marrying my cousin Giovanni."

I said, "Oh no I'm not. What makes you think we are getting married?"

Bless her heart, she looked at me like I was crazy and answered, "Of course you're getting married. You drank out of the same glass!"

WHAT????? (Do you see a pattern here?)

I looked at my father, pulled him outside and said, "DO something!"

The rest of the story is that my father had to explain to the family that I didn't understand what I was doing and that in my world, drinking from the same glass didn't mean I was marrying the guy.

Last Sunday as we were remembering this story with the same friends from forty years ago, I found out that Giovanni was so heart-broken that he cried and cried. Apparently he really loved me and wanted to marry me and take me to Sicily to meet his parents, NOT to live there. Ooops.

Nevertheless, I cannot understand this because we knew each other for like maybe three hours.

So the poor heart-broken man said that if he couldn't have Mary Ann he didn't want anybody so he went home to Sicily and never came back.

Rumor has it that he got over me, married a nice Sicilian girl and has four sons (and probably lots of grandchildren.)

I apparently knew that someone better was coming along in less than ten years!