claudia chronicles

We’re leaving for the weekend, to celebrate both our 30th anniversary and the resurrection of Jesus, our Savior!  When I get back, I’ll do the post about our honeymoon that I promised, with some pictures and maybe have a few from our weekend away.

Have a blessed Easter, everyone!

30 years ago today we were somewhere between the end of our 1:30 wedding and the beginning of our reception…probably in line greeting our guests or having our pictures taken….30 years, sound so long, evidence proves that it’s been a long while, but it just doesn’t feel that long.

My dear husband and I were married in a simple but nice church wedding at the church my parents attended.  Two pastors married us, my husband’s and my parents.  I had been attending another church at the time, but it just seemed right to get married out of my parents church, and even though I had my own apartment, to stay the night before the wedding at my parents home.

The day before the wedding I spent a lot of time at the church decorating the room for the reception.  My mother was there to help some of the time, and did a lot to help along the way, but I had been on my own for 6 years, and was used to planning and organizing. I crafted our wedding invitations, and the program that would be used for the wedding ceremony.  All of the planning was so much fun.

The day was sunny and cold, tensions were a bit high at the house as I was the first child to marry, grandparents were staying at the home, but my focus was on the wonderful fact that when the day ended, I would not have to say “goodbye” to my husband, sending him home to his apartment, ever again.

We spent nearly every evening together during our short engagement, we had met at a church get together and found out that we worked only a block from one another.  What started out as getting together for lunch turned into getting together for lunch plus his coming to my apartment after work for “home cooked” dinner…and then he went home to his apartment…each and every night.

Our reception was nice and simple, a light afternoon meal, and time with friends and family.  But the best part of the day was changing out of my wedding gown and into comfortable cloths, saying goodbye to family and friends, grabbing the envelopes from the gift pile in hopes that there was a bit of cash to help us through our honeymoon, and getting into the car and driving away with my dear husband.  The feeling was overwhelming and wonderful, a big sigh, mission accomplished!

The first night was spent at a hotel, and the next morning, we left for our honeymoon destination.  I’ll tell you about that tomorrow.

30 years….2 apartments, 1 house, 2 children, a cat, dog, ferrets and assorted little creatures…later.  And I still love the man I married and wish there could be 30 more years.  But we will be thankful for the days that God gives us to be together, each one is a gift.

Now I’ve done it, I had a couple posts in “Draft” mode, and decided I wasn’t going to do them, so, trying to work and watch the news at the same time, I went into the area where you manage posts accidentally and deleted posts instead, Ugh!  I’ve always been pretty good at doing two things at once, but that seems to be changing:-)

The top news items today are the economic bailout, and the AIG hearings due to million(s) dollar bonuses that were given to some…the fun just never stops with the economy…and then there’s the sad news about Natasha Richardson’s ski accident and brain injury that, at this point, sounds life-threatening. That’s about all the news I’ll have time for today.

Spring is FINALLY beginning to show itself on our property here in NJ, we have had such a long cold winter that it surprised me to see the crocuses blooming yesterday, St. Patrick’s day.  So I’m to head out later and begin to clear the leaves off the plants, and will have more reason to post to my gardening blog, Weeds and Seed Swap.

It’s also time to spring clean the house, and not being one to be very motivated in that area, I use FlyLady, along with at least 500,000 other people all over the world. She’s kind of like your mother telling you what to do each day, and encouraging you with positive words, so that you don’t get discouraged, and feel gratified when you’ve accomplished just the few missions you’re assigned to do that day. Each week you work through one room in your home, and there’s lots of other little things you do in short spurts throughout the day, prompted by email reminders. I can’t say that I do this faithfully every day, but when season changes come, like Spring and Fall, I’ll use the method to get motivated and inspired to clean things up.

So that’s a couple of things on tap for today, back later with more.

Time really does go too fast, I can’t possibly have done my last post that many days ago, or so it seems.

The past couple of days I’ve been pretty consumed with eBay.  I used to sell very regularly on eBay, but have taken some time away from that.  Have quite a stockpile of things from auctions that are fun to read through. I sell books, photos, letters, all types of ephemera, but this last batch of things I’ve been sorting through had a huge stack of letters written by a husband to his wife during WWII.  He wrote every few days during a two year period.  I spent last evening putting all the letters in date order, then bundled them by months, then read the first batch last night.  Sigh, they were really romantic, plus full of interesting historical information.  I always wonder why family members let go of such treasures, unless there just aren’t any more family members to treasure them. I love the letters that my grandfather wrote  and can’t imagine ever parting with them. But there’s also the “business” part of it for me, it brings in a little extra money to supplement my husband’s income, and brings a lot of pleasure to me, because it’s so much fun to dig through stacks of papers and documents looking for treasure.  I love it.

Two nights this week were consumed with the premier of 24, FINALLY, and it looks like it’s going to be a good year!  Worth the wait!

Today the Christmas decorations came down, and the house isn’t as colorful, making me realize I have to find something colorful to brighten up the place.

Late today the news was intriguing to watch as they showed the rescue of the passengers of the US Air flight that crashed in the Hudson River, if you can call it a crash…more of a splash.  Amazing maneuvering by the pilot, and great work by the NY rescue teams.  Hoping that it is true that all have survived, and injuries have been minimal.

And tonight, our President gave his farewell speech.  I am going to miss President Bush, no matter what “they” say.  We have done a poor job as Americans in respecting, encouraging, and supporting our President.  Just MHO.

Hubby has been down for the count with bad back pain, will be trying a new Chiropractor tomorrow morning, hoping that he will recover quickly.

And that’s about it for now.  Good night!

U.S. Airways Crash…early video:

A quick post before going to bed…we’re having freezing rain tonight, I hear it on the skylights, and hope those that travel will travel safely tomorrow.  I always love how beautiful the trees look after freezing rain…not losing power would be nice, too.

Today we started another Beth Moore Bible Study at church today, the newest one on the book of Esther…I’m looking forward digging into the lesson tomorrow, and hope I’ll be able to keep up with it, my desire to read thru the Bible in a year, and my correspondence prison ministry work.  Shouldn’t be hard, especially if I spend less time playing around on this computer.

I spent the afternoon with my Mom, my church is 1/2 way between our home and hers, so after study is a nice time to go over sometimes and spend time with her.  I had some nice turkey soup that I’d made and frozen after Christmas, and made us turkey sandwiches for lunch.  It was a good visit.

Then it was home to make dinner, take out my neighbors adorable yorkie (almost as cute as mine :-) and make a little money on the internet.

So that’s my day…may be un-interesting to you, but this is my diary, sometimes it will just be that way.  Good night!