29 years and counting

These Pix are in the wrong order. The top one is at our reception. That is a light , not a bubble coming out of my nose. The pic below was taken on the night we were engaged. We are in my apartment in Provo. It was Oct. 4, 1979.

Before I wrote about the New Year, I should have written about our anniversary. On the 28th of December, Glen and I celebrated our 29th anniversary. Doesn't that sound amazing? It does to me because I can remember our wedding day and many other days since then as if they happened yesterday. In another way, it does feel like a long time, since when I look back, some of our memories feel like it was other people living our lives then from who we are now. Does that make sense? I guess that just means that we have grown and experienced a lot in 29 short years. Here is a short synopsis of these 29 years.

We were married 29 years ago in the Los Angeles Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After the wedding, we drove up to Clovis, CA. My sister Donna had prepared a wonderful lunch for us all to enjoy. Glen's family was there. We had a reception at the Gettysburg building that evening. It was terribly foggy that night, so it prohibited a very large attendance. But, it was nice. My Uncle Floyd sang and so did my past youth leader, Connie Bybee. We spent our wedding night at the Airport Marina Hotel, which is now named something else. The next morning, we went back to my mom's house and opened our gifts. Then, because my car needed a new radiator, we ended up driving to Phoenix with Glen's parents towing a little trailor with our gifts and a little furniture from my mom.

On New Year's Eve in Phoenix, we had an open house. It was well attended. It was held in Bishop Pottle's home here in Phoenix. Elsie Webster was here visiting her daughter Chris Mecham who was having a baby. She was the only person from home that I knew, and I was glad to see her. Finally, after that night, Glen and I drove his mom's Plymouth Valiant, a circa 1960 something orange car, on to Provo Utah.

In Provo, We had an apartment on State Street, next to the Beasley Monument Co., and across from the cemetary. I had graduated from BYU and needed to find a job. Glen had been going to school at BYU, but transferred to Stevens Henegar Business College hoping to finish more quickly. But, he was going to school on the GI bill, and they decided that they needed to council him before they sent him any more money. Unfortunately, It snowed badly, the worst storm in 50 years, and the Valiant wasn't very valiant. We walked most places and getting Glen to Salt Lake was not working. We also couldn't afford a phone. We had to walk to a pay phone to call our parents to borrow our $100 rent each month. Soon, Glen found a night time job as a janitor at the Orem Mall. He couldn't stand owing our parents money though, so one day he talked to the recuiter and re-enlisted in the army as a russian linguist

We moved to Monterey CA, then to San Angelo , TX and after that, Wurzburg, West Germany. That was when there was still the Berlin Wall. We saw the guards and wire and so forth. We lived there for two years, and that was where our first baby was born. After we left Germany, we finished the military life in Manhatten, KS. Since that time, we have lived in Phoenix, AZ, in three different places. This is where our other 5 children were born. I am trying not to continue to bore you all with the details, but they are vivid to me. I have truely loved my life with Glen. I can't say that we have never argued, but mostly we don't and I feel sorry for everyone who isn't us because we love each other so much and we feel so blessed. We are not rich and we don't live in a mansion, but I love what I have, and I am so thankful

For our anniversary this year, we went and ate at a very expensive Brasillian restaurant. It was awesome. We did it in honor of two of our sons, Aaron who served and Tyler who is currently serving as missionaries in Brazil. They are such great young men. All of my children make me feel so proud. The Lord has truely blessed us. I have felt His love in our lives throughout our marriage, and that is what I want for my children, because there is nothing better than to be married to a good companion who is spiritual, smart, strong and good. Everyone's lives should be filled with such love and I know the source of that love that is eternal. So, for this first 29 years, I give thanks to my Heavenly Father who has blessed me beyond my capacity to be worthy of those blessings. And I will end with this, I love you Glen.