Johnson Family Dish

On Marriage, some random (or randon) thoughts

So, occasionally I have these random thoughts as I am doing random things; such as sitting at a stop light listening to the words of a song.  I love to write, and occasionally I will jot down some of my thoughts so that later I can refine them and expound on them.  Today they were on marriage.

I believe that writing is an art form and that it is never done; it can always be changed by the author, or expounded upon, which makes writing something down very tricky because there is a fine line between making your thoughts more clear and muddling them up with attempts to be more clear.  I believe also that writing is a “living” piece of art because you can enter the mind of a person who is long since gone (or not), and they can teach you through the words they once wrote.   So writing, to me, is tricky and wonderful all at the same time.  And that is without considering if your reader understands or is interpreting your writting as you intended it to be read and understood.  This is another slippery part of writing.  Nevertheless, I love writing, I always have; so at the risk of being misunderstood or not articulating perfectly the thoughts in my head, here are my rough thoughts I was having today that I wanted to write something about; and my disclaimer that I am not attempting to preach in any way shape or form, I just want to write.

Marriage–What looks easy to an outsider, like the celebration of a 65th wedding anniversary, is not easy at all, not really.  Marriage is hard work, and 65 years worth of keeping your  love for your spouse alive is quite an accomplishment!  It seems to me that sometimes we just expect people to stay together, especially after a certain point.  It is shocking to hear of a couple who calls it quits after 30 years of marriage, or more, but it happens. 

It happens because marriage is a constant commitment to another person.  And constant can just be so constant sometimes.  Marriage is, arguably, the most important work of our entire existence; happy work but, work to be sure.  Sure, we have our babies to take care of our whole lives too but, realistically, they grow up and get married themselves.  Our children need us less and less as they grow.  Eventually they commit their lives to another person too and raise their own children.  That is not to say that they do not need their parents anymore, they do, just not as much.  And what are you left with when they go off and start their own lives?  Your spouse.  The person you promised to love, honor and cherish for eternity.  So in the end, it would seem to me that the bond between husband and wife must be the strongest.  It seems to me that the family group matters a whole lot (especially as children are in our homes growing) but coupling, and choosing a partner with whom you really want to be with for the rest of your existence is paramount.  It would seem to me that in the end, we would all be with the person we chose to marry: us, our children, and their children and on and on.  Ultimately, if we are adults in the eternities, this just makes sense to me.

Love is work.  Love is action.  Love is a hundred thousand little things you do just to please another person without hope of recognition, without any expectation that they will do anything in return; silently the giver of love knows the service they have done to keep their loved one comfortable and happy and that is satisfying.  In light of that can any of us really understand what it has meant to keep alive a love for 65 years unless we have been there?   I am not talking about those people who cohabitate because it is just easier now, the ones who once knew love together and lost it somewhere through the years; the ones who just tolerate eachother.  I am speaking of those who truly love, unconditionally and unequivically, for all of those years; those who are truly, madly, and deeply in love.  Those who give and serve eachother without selfishness, without expectation or demand.  That is a gift that they give eachother every day that they live.  I don’t think we can understand, not truly, the depth and scope of that love (unless we are there) but, we work our way towards understanding that kind of devotion one day at a time. 

Love seems to me to be misunderstood by so many.  Maybe that is why it is such a rare thing to celebrate 65 years of marriage.

Four Generations

At Randon’s Grandma’s Traditional Christmas party we were able to get this 4 generation photo.  From left to right: Randon’s Mom (Dorothy), Addi, Charis, Morgan, Great-Grandma Waite, Kelcie, Randon and R. Scott.

Christmas Morning

Scott got his spy cam car that he wanted (and a watch).

Kelcie got the Orange iPod she was wishing for.

Morgan got a green one.

Addi’s response was my favorite; she wanted a remote control car and she got a very large one!  It was so funny to watch her literally dance around it while ripping off the paper, priceless!

And Cherry who loves Christmas and was happy with everything!  She gave me my favorite present for Christmas this year (her last two pennies after she bought everyone something and this was what she had left.  She even put it in a box and wrapped it for me).

Charleau Gap

Randon’s jeep friend put a video of him and Scott’s latest 4X4 adventure to Charleau Gap.  Here is the link —->http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y7q45BxYRo . 

(I would load it here but you tube messes with my blog’s layout.)

Cousins

We had a great time with our Christmas time company, here are a few picts.

Scott and John hit it off and are great pals.  Scott missed John when he left yesterday.

Morgan, Kelcie, Addi, and Valarie; they also hit it off and Kelcie and Morgan LOVED Val, me too.

And lastly, Charlene and I.  We had so much fun together.  Charlene and I have a lot of common intrests (including running!) so, it was really fun to take her on an 8 mile run through our beautiful Sonoran Desert early on Monday morning and then to the gym on Tues. morning where she did her run and I did my stair stepper. 

I think it is funny how we look so different from eachother.  We are related through our mothers, who are both very beautiful women (mine brunette and hers blonde), and while I think that she and I are a nice mix of both our parents and we have subtle features that resemble our mothers (if I had some pictures of them I would post them but, sadly I don’t so you will just have to take my word for it).  I think this looks thing is so funny because my other cousin, my age, who I am very close to (and a lot of my readers know), Sandi and I look much more simularly to each other (we are related through our fathers).  I just find the whole looking like your relatives thing so fascinating!  I love to look at the child a couple produces and see how two non-related people can produce a child that is a beautiful mix of both parents.  I love to look at each feature and pick out who’s is who’s.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun with them and were sad to see them go but, they have more relatives in CA to visit.

Star

We took Charlene, John and Valarie to the temple Christmas light display last night.  They have added more lights to the display this year.

Randon made the star that is above the nativity, Charlene got this great picture of it with the kids under it.

Makin’ ‘Gingerbread’ Houses

with Addi’s class today.

Miss Addi, busy building.

Miss Addi’s masterpiece.

Tanner Gurr and Addi, we call him her banana buddy because when she brings a banana in her lunch she trades Tanner for something in his lunch because he loves them so much. 

Camry, who just frosted her plate and poured the candy on, she is super cute–don’t ya think?

Addi and Mommy, we had so much fun with her class!!

Our New House

color.  Here it is:

And, if it would stop raining we could finish painting the trim.  I painted all of the trim that I could reach on a 5ft ladder.  Because I am afraid of heights Randon has to do the rest, and happily would, if it would dry up around here for a day or so.  We have company coming for Christmas and family coming for a big Christmas party and I just wanted it to be done.   (In this picture it looks a little on the orange side, it really isn’t that orange but, I took this pict. at night so the porch light makes it look that way.  When we are blessed with sun again, I will retake it.)

I love the color, it feels like us!

Remember the old color:

Gatti Family Christmas Party

Sunday was our Gatti (my father’s side) family Christmas Party.  We usually don’t have it so early but since my cousin Charlene from Montana (on my mother’s side) is coming in on Sat. the 20th and we have a big family dinner planned (at my house) for the day that we normally would have gotten together, we had the Gatti party early. 

My Dad and Debbie.

Micheal and Dannielle (Debbie’s son and his wife)

Ellie, Kenny, Andrea, & Madaline

My sister Lisa and Charles, her husband.

My Brother Jason and Pam.

Lainee.

Scott.

Daddy and Addi cuddling up.

Cherry.

Naughty or nice?  Morgan was definately being naughty!

It’s Raining Babies!!

Look at my gorgeousl friends!

Melanie (expecting a baby girl the end of this month or early next).

And Sharon (expecting a baby boy next month).

There must have been 10+ pregnant women at Melanie’s baby shower this weekend and at half a dozen sporting their new arrivals with them!!  It was so cool to see the this part of the circle of life in action.  I have to say though that I am so glad it’s you girls, and not me!!

Morgan and Charis served as the lovely assistants, bringing Melanie all of her gifts. 

And Crystal and I got to catch up and so did Morgan and Hannah.