Let's go to the Movies!

I love movies.

My husband loves them too.

I remember when we were first married going to two movies, in the theater, in one day.

And we love all types.

We watch romance, comedy, action, drama together.  

All of it.


One of my favorite things is to go to a matinee movie and come out when it is still light outside.  

It always gives me a thrill to walk out of the theater into the light.  

I think it has something to do with being so involved in a movie and coming out to the real world all lit up.  

"Oh yeah.  Real life."


I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to movies.  

I can't tell you the actors or the year it was made or what awards it won. 

And sometimes I can't even remember the plot that well.

I watch purely for enjoyment.


I'd like to think we're passing this on to our kids.  

We go on a date every Friday (at least we try to) and the kids take turns picking a movie to watch.

They love choosing movies from our local library or they pick something we have.

We've tried to introduce them to the classics like Davy Crockett, Herbie, Apple Dumpling Gang, Home Alone.  

And on Sundays they get musicals: White Christmas, Annie, Singing in the Rain, Annie Get Your Gun, etc.

Unfortunately, we can't show them too many movies from the 80's.  We've discovered that the language and innuendos are more intense than we remembered.


There have been sometimes, when the kids are on vacation, that we'll have a whole week of "Mom and Dad" movies. 

I think this might be one of those weeks.  

Saturday started with Support Your Local Sheriff.

Sunday was, Mr Blanding Builds His Dream House.

Thanks to our generous Aunt, we'll be going to Despicable Me 2 in the dollar theater tonight.

Any suggestions for the rest of Thanksgiving week?

Being Rooted (for)

When I was a kid, every Monday night when we would gather as a family, one of us would have the job to tell a story about one of our ancestors.

We had a drawer full of personal histories to choose from.

There were several stories that got repeated over and over again and became our favorite. And even though we had never met these ancestors we felt like we knew them through these stories.

When we got older, our parents compiled a notebook with these stories, and a few others from our pioneer history, and gave them to each of us to use in our Family Home Evening.

We love doing this in my family and now my kids have their own favorite stories that they share over and over again.

My parents have continued to put together histories of different ancestors and give us copies through the years.

A few years before my Grandpa died, my Dad put together his Dad's personal history in a book format.  It was a huge work of love and he had it published. 

It was so fun to learn new things about my grandpa and I felt so much closer to him.

Having caught the "book publishing" bug, my Dad decided he wanted to put together all of our old family history stories into a book format. 

He and my Mom gathered all of the old stories we used as children and found some new ones.  They even put stories from our own family growing up.

Each of my children just got their own copy as well as a copy of their great-grandfather's book!


For Christmas one year my father-in-law gave us a journal from his side of the family. As I was reading through some of his family's history, I thought that some of the stories sounded very familiar.

I wondered if our ancestors knew each other.

Then sometime around our second or third year of marriage my husband and I were taking a family history class and we came across a line that didn't branch like the others.  We realized that we shared a common ancestor.  (I believe it is our 5th great-grandparents.  Which, I think means we are 5th cousins.)

One of the histories that my mom put together actually included stories of this common ancestor. 

I was so thankful that I had been given information about these ancestors so that I felt like I knew them.

In fact, I had this vision of them in heaven; my ancestors and my husbands, looking down on us and celebrating that their descendants had gotten together. It seemed as if all of their work/history was being combined into our family. 

What a powerful thing to feel that we have our own (not so) little cheering section up in heaven rooting for us to honor their name and continue the work that they started here.

"If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

Sometimes the pressure is a little too much.

I hate the fact that if I have a bad day, the whole family seems to fall apart. 

A while ago, when I was feeling sorry for myself, I made a super long list of all the things that I was in charge of.

Then I made a list of what my husband was in charge of.

His list was really short.

I thought that seemed unfair at first.  But, then I realized that the number one thing on his list carries more weight than anything on my list.

His number one job:  keep me happy.

I'm lucky he does such a good job.

Birds and Bees

This is one of those topics that is never very easy to talk about - but I think it needs to be.

I've heard that the top 3 reasons people get divorced are due to problems in communication, money or sex.

There seem to be lots of classes and suggestions about the first two; but what about sex? No one wants to talk about it (which is reasonable due to the private and intimate nature of it).

But what happens if there is a problem in your relationship in that area? Who or where do you get help from?

There have been LDS books (my favorite) published recently that address this issue and they have been hugely popular. But I always think if I check one out of the library eyebrows are being raised. Especially in this time of rampant pornography it makes it more difficult to seek answers without seeming perverse.

Of course, the most important thing is to be totally candid with your spouse. But what else?

This should be the role of the parents, but how many of us are really comfortable talking about this with them, or they with us. (Luckily, I could talk about this stuff)

I am a very open person (probably too open) but I feel sorry for these young newlyweds who may not know where to turn to.

I've often wondered if there shouldn't be a Relief Society lesson on this subject at least once a year; or a more frank discussion about this in pre-marriage counseling.

There definitely is a line to draw when discussing things so they don't get too personal, but I am believer in how important this part of a marriage is.

Anyone else out there feel the same way?