Real Love Stories

Everywhere I look there are epic love stories.  How many movies have I seen, books have I read recording these stories.  They are often big monumental stories.  I mean, who didn't read the Twilight series or Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?

Well, let me tell you a real love story.

I have been sick this week.  I mean, like I haven't hardly been off the couch in four days.  In mom world, that is an eternity.  The kids have been watching gobs of TV and turning the house into a disaster.  I've been so sick that I actually went to the doctor, which I never do. 

In all of this crazy, Heber picked up the pieces every night.  He stayed in the morning to drive Leo to school.  He put the kids to bed.  He even took a day off to drive me to the doctor, bought me a magazine and fresca. 

This week I read an article of things learned from Anne of Green Gables (some of my favorite books), one of the things was, "Don't miss out on true love by expecting a fairy tale."  So true.  Love is the little things, it's saying nice things or cleaning the kitchen.  It's bringing someone their prescription or even just a drink. 

I'm glad I didn't miss my true love.

Toasting JB Weld

I went to Toastmaster's with Heber tonight.  Have you heard of Toastmasters?  No?  Well, it's an international club that meets weekly to foster improved communication and public speaking skills.  Heb has been going the last year and really liking it.  He presented his third speech and I snuck away to watch him give it.

He presented his speech on JB Weld.  I was just beaming with pride over what a good job he did.  He is funny, poised, a good communicator.  It was awesome and I was happy to be there to see it.  Here's the speech for you to read.  It's not as good as hearing it in person but I know you'll enjoy it.  And for the record, I only occasionally break things (or maybe every week, boo).  Good thing I married a handy man. 

Project 3 - J.B. Weld

Thank you Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters, and our welcome guests. I have a little problem I’d like to share with you tonight. Two little problems, actually. Nearly every night when I get home I am greeted with big hugs and kisses from my two wonderfully curious and rambunctious children. But, before I even get a chance to say hello to my wife, my children have zipped away and returned with a bevy of items they have broken that day, wondering if I can fix them. Sometimes, my wife will add an item to the heap, mumbling something about how the kids got tangled up in her legs, tripped her and she dropped the now broken item.

They say you only need two items in your toolbox, WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn’t move and it should, WD-40. It if does move and it shouldn’t, duct tape. While the duct tape would be an excellent way to contain my children for a little while, their steady diet of chicken nuggets and goldfish crackers provide them more than sufficient energy to gnaw through that duct tape and they would quickly return to their shenanigans. Fortunately, I have a third tool in my tool box, J.B. Weld. For the broken things, not the kids.

J.B. Weld is a two part epoxy that has saved me more time and money than I can count. To use it, one simply squeezes out equal amounts from each tube onto something you can throw away when you are done, like a note card. One tube contains the black colored glue, and the second tube is filled with white colored “magic”. You mix up the epoxy with a toothpick or cotton swab until you have a uniform gray mix and apply to whatever it is that needs repair. A little masking tape works great to hold parts together while the epoxy cures and a day later everything is right as rain.

The toys I have been able to save from the landfill are numerous. Endless matchbox cars that are crashed into each other, pieces of train track that are snapped by little hands still developing in dexterity, dolls that are inadvertently shut in car doors, and toy tools that do not have the same strength as the grown up versions.

Around my home you will find numerous glass beads and ornaments made by my artistic wife, and cracked in two by my inquisitive children. Those fine glass pieces are able to be rejoined with only the slightest evidence of previous traumas. One of J.B. Weld’s great strengths is that it can be cleaned up with just a wet paper towel. This means that I can keep squeezing those pieces of glass together and quickly wiping off the extra epoxy that squishes out until the crack is nearly imperceptible. This is a tremendous improvement over items that I have attempted to repair with super glue. Those items either got stuck to my fingers in the way that only super glue can achieve, or have big globs of glue highlighting the areas I clumsily tried to clean with nail polish remover.

The brand new kiddie pool that my children excitedly jumped into and cracked holds water again. The galvanized steel watering can that broke my wife’s fall when a toddler tried to dart between her legs, continues to deliver water to our garden without an errant drop.

When my wife and I announced that we were expecting our first child my father, with a lifetime of experience as an architect, built for us a robust and handsome crib. That crib survived my first child, then a cross county move, and then another cross county move, but not my sweet little red headed daughter, who is actively trying to prove the line from Anne of Green Gables that “her temper matches her hair”. There is no force it seems, like that of a red headed toddler who does not want to take a nap. My daughter has twice thrown herself against the ends of the crib with such force that the screws that hold it together have stripped clean out of the wood, knocking the ends of the crib right off. A little J.B. Weld however has ensured that that crib can survive even more children, even if my wife and I aren’t quite sure we could.

J.B. Weld is fantastic stuff. It has kept toys and household items out of the trash, is fine enough to repair delicate glass, and strong enough to contain a fiery red head. There is nothing that can’t be repaired with God’s gray glue, even my wife’s 1996 Saturn SL1.

My wife’s Saturn was a wonderful car. It got 40 miles to the gallon and you could repair anything on that car with just three screw drivers and a basic 10 piece wrench set. The car was incredibly simple to repair, which was both a blessing, and a curse because there was always something that needed to be repaired. One day my wife came to me and said that the car was acting sluggish. It just didn’t have the power it normally had and she was filling up the tank more frequently than usual. Poking around under the hood I discovered the cause, a leak where one of the fuel injectors attached to the engine block. I removed the fuel injector and found a pair of worn rubber O-rings that allowed the fuel to leak out. I ran over to the parts store plopped down 50 cents for a new pair of O-rings and quickly had the old ones replaced. After driving the car around for another week my wife informed me that the car still didn’t seem quite right. Another inspection showed there was still a little fuel leaking from that same fuel injector. So I bought and installed a whole new fuel injector, but still my wife informed me it just wasn’t right. Dejected that I had been beaten by a mere Saturn I took the car to a mechanic who quoted me $600 to repair the leak on a car that was worth about $1,200. I thanked him for his time, shoved his quote in the glove box and drove to the hardware store to pick up a package of J.B. Weld. That afternoon I glued my wife’s car back together. I smeared copious amounts of J.B. Weld all round that fuel injector until it was firmly sealed in place. Lest you think I was putting my wife in danger, J.B. Weld has a temperature rating of 500 degrees and I knew it was tough. My wife drove that car for several more months without any issue before we decided it was time for something slightly newer and I listed it on Craigslist for $1200. Soon a potential buyer came around for a test drive. He drove it around with great interest but I told him there was something I had to show him before we talked seriously about the sale. I lifted the hood and explained the work I had done. He looked over at me and offered me $1000 for the car. He handed me cash, I handed him the title, and as we shook hands our eyes met briefly. In that quick moment he and I both realized he was getting a great deal. Someday he and I would be gone, that car abandoned in a field somewhere. The tires would have long since rotted away, the frame and body rusted away too, but there would remain the engine block, with one fuel injector still firmly in place.

Virginia is for Lovers

We just got back from pretty much the most interesting weekend ever. 

We went down to southern Virginia to get away for a day or two and spend some time talking about what's next for us.  You know, the future and what in the heck we're going to do. (We still don't know, but progress was made).

The whole trip was memorable.  Heb and I aren't real planners (which is ironic because that's what I did for a living for several years).  We usually decide a location and wing it.  Not always the best idea. 

I found a hotel online, which is a risky business, that turned out to be the longest operating inn in America.  That's right, oldest continuously operating inn.  They didn't say that on their site.  You should have seen the hotels/motels that we passed to get to that one - there was the Super 8, the Motel 6 and any number of disgusting looking establishments.  Believe me, we were happy with where we stayed.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Shenandoah National Park.  When did Heb and I become city people?  I didn't realize how much I missed mountains and being alone.  That park is one of the most stunning things I have seen in my life.   It was so peaceful and it filled me up.  I think I understand why people love nature.  I got my summer wish to sit around a campfire and to see fireflies. 

Oh, and Leo was crawling all over.  He loves to be standing up and is quite a big boy.

It was overcast but there was beautiful mountains (real mountains!) and the Shenandoah River going through a green valley.

I'd say the best part was the Civil War Reenactment.  Oh yeah.  When I called to make a reservation the day before, the innkeeper mentioned the reenactment.  It had been on my list ever since "Lincoln July" and Heb was happy to oblige. 

The. best. people. watching. ever.  Really.

There were a few hundred in all that were participating and watching.  People, apparently, sign up to be reenactors.  They buy whole outfits and act out the battles for fun for days.  You know that I love to watch people who are passionate about what they're doing. 

There were horses, full on cannons and shooting guns but best of all was the crowd.  There were the confederate flags flying and people really got into it.  Definitely something to see at least once in your life. 

All of that and a cave, in one weekend.  Quite the adventure.  But the best part was hanging out with Hebs.  Pretty much anything would be fun, so long as we're together. 

Hotmail

In this digital world we live in, things change all the time.  I have to keep a list of all the sites and things I've signed up for and their passwords to keep it all straight.  I'm sure you do the same.  I don't know how many email addresses I've had over the years...at least 8 that I can think of off the top of my head.   But there has always been one constant through all the years, my hotmail account.

From the very beginning, I'm talking my first email address way back in high school, it was hotmail.  Over the years it's become a clogged junk account but for a long time it was my main one. 

Did you hear that hotmail is going away? 

I  just read an article about it and I have to admit that I'm kinda sad.  I think I'm sentimental about this old account.  You'd think that over the years and it filling up with junk that I'd shut it down like I have all the other accounts but I could never seem to get rid of this one.

 This account reminds me of who I was before.  Two big memories come to mind....

FCCLA
It makes me think of FCCLA (you know, the high school club, Family Career and Community Leaders of America).  When I was a senior in high school, I was a state officer for that organization and it was one of the most shaping experiences of my life. 

I grew up in a small town for my entire life.  Which meant that when I grew up and transitioned somewhat into the real me, people still saw me as I was all the time before.  When I was elected to state office, I was, interacting with people who had never met me before.  They didn't remember what I was like as a 7th grader or any age.  I could just be me and it felt so good.   It was all put together via emails on my hotmail account.

Heber
While Heb and I were dating, we would send each other emails.  There was a summer that I lived in Logan and he lived in Salt Lake, some of our most memorable emails are during that time.  When Heb left on his mission (way before we were married, we're talking almost a decade ago), I would occasionally get emails from him.   When you don't get any contact except letters from someone, seeing an email in your inbox is something to be excited about. 

Well, I guess it's time to see the chapter close.  Since the beginning, it's seen me through some really good times.  RIP hotmail, old friend.