Valentine's Weekend

This is a bit late, but not due to lack of appreciation. If anything, due to a touch of guilt that I didn't really do anything for my husband. About the only thing I can take credit for is bringing home a 25" tv that he didn't know we needed or wanted. (It was a freebie from a friend who just replaced the set with a set that works with the new digital technology.) He carried it in from my car set it on the table where it remains--not even within reach of a plug. One of the problems is we don't have much in the way that is sturdy enough to hold it. The little cart we used for our 13" inch tv isn't at all big enough.

Jesse and I shared a great Valentine's weekend! We relaxed most of the day on Saturday.

Jesse gave me a very special gift--a new hair sweep. We had picked up the first one last fall at the Renaissance Faire. I very much liked it--wore it practically every day. I could wear my hair partially up, all up, or switch in the middle of day, according to my mood with the same sweep. And once I put it in, it would hold my hair better than just about anything else that I've ever used. The artisans' website has some examples of their hair sweeps, but they has so many variations in decorative shapes that the website doesn't do justice to their work. I was very disappointed when, in a completely unexplained way, the main part of the sweep fell out of my hair and was lost while the stick was still in my hair when I realized it was falling down. That was back in the fall, just a couple of months after we bought it. So when Jesse presented me with a new hair sweep for Valentine's Day, I was very excited! I've been wearing it everyday again. :)

Saturday afternoon, went over to his brother's to share a late lunch made by his mom. We stayed for a while.

During the day, we still managed to make progress on the unpacking and storing things away. Jesse had picked up some more of the large (~60 qt) clear plastic storage totes from Walmart a while back. So as we worked on unpacking, things we don't need regularly (hammock, air mattresses, hand gardening tools, etc) would go into the totes to go out to the shed. I believe Jesse moved at least 3 of those totes out to the shed by the end of the day and we had a couple more partially filled. I had cleared enough boxes out of the kitchen that we are once more able to open the refrigerator door fully (at least as fully as the wall allows). And he made enough progress on the living room that when EmilyRose came home, she commented on it immediately. But still plenty of work to do.

Sunday after church, we dressed up and headed out to Middletown. We had lunch at the Wayside Inn. The Inn is an old building in the town. All the servers were dressed in colonial dress to add to the old-time atmosphere of the place. The buffet was very good. Then we headed down the block to the Wayside Theatre to catch the musical performance Southern Crossing.

It was a very enjoyable weekend. Thank you, my Valentine!!

First night in our new home

... wasn't last night; it was the Thanksgiving weekend while my family was down helping us move stuff.

I think it was Thursday night. Our old home was full to overflowing with family, so C&I thought it would be a good way to loosen everyone's sleeping arrangements if we were to sleep over at the new home on an air mattress.

We trooped over (in the cold) with our nice, big double air mattress and lots of sheets and blankets and stuff. The electricity was on and the house was nicely warm.

We started unrolling things and Charlessa noticed a little glitch in our plans - at some point we had lost the plug to our big air mattress. Hmmmm. That would make things a bit rough.

So I carefully ran back over to our old home (I happened to be wearing a kilt. Don't ask.) and grabbed the first air mattress box I saw, and again, ran carefully back over to the new place.

We unrolled it and saw ... that it was a twin-sized air mattress!

Oh well. We love each other. We can sleep on a narrow air mattress without divorcing, right? Right. Builds character!

We inflate it, get the sheets and blankets set up, and manage to fit together on there. We chat away, pretty comfy at first, but I have a strange sensation that with every exhalation, I'm sinking in toward the middle. Must be my imagination.

After five minutes, I notice something. My hip is feeling something under the mattress.

It's the floor.

After another 15 seconds of verifying that, yes, it is the floor, I say "Charlessa?"

She cracks up laughing!

Thus was our first night in our new home!

(Everything turned out well. We re-inflated the mattress and tightened up the plug and cap as best I could. It probably took until 3 or 4 in the morning before we started hitting the floor again. We're even still married!)

Labor Day Weekend

Friday evening, we were able to relax some. We also did some laundry and packed for the weekend.

At 8:30 Saturday morning, we were on the way to meet the other cloggers to head up to the Shippensburg Corn Festival to perform. The performance went pretty well. The stage wasn't as stable as we would've liked, but no incidents. The weather was beautiful for the festival. We, of course, had corn on the cob for lunch.

From the festival, we headed up to see Jesse's sister and family. She had her second baby and first boy last week. He's very cute, healthy, and lively. He's also a bit fussy and isn't sleeping through the nights yet. She's hoping that changes soon!

We went on to Jesse's parents home for Saturday evening. We got in a bit late, but were greeted by his brother and mother and talked with them and grabbed showers before heading to bed.

Sunday morning, we went to church where Jesse and his family had gone for many years. None of his family are attending that particular church regularly now, but it was a great way to get to see a number of their friends. And it was good to be worshipping. Sunday afternoon, we had a pancake lunch, peaches for dessert, and naps. Oh yes, before falling asleep, we watch a documentary on Israel's rescue of the hostages from the Entebbe Airport. Sunday evening, we had corn on the cob for supper and played a game of Fictionary. Fictionary is perhaps a cross between balderdash and trivia. An individual player is given the real definition and an already written fake definition (from the Ficitonary dictionary) and has to pick the real definition. Some of the words were really easy--like zoom lens. Some of the words were a bit harder or surprising--like bolo.

Monday morning, everybody packed. Jesse and I packed to head back to Virginia. The rest of his family packed to leave for a major craft show in Ohio. We stopped back by his sister's house for the afternoon. We helped them re-assemble a carport that had blown down in a storm. We had a slightly later start home than we had originally planned, but still made it back to Virginia around 10:00.

It was a good weekend!

Happy Independence Day!!

Two down, Two to go.

The cloggers performed at Lovettsville on Thursday evening at 7:30. Joyce organized a potluck picnic with hamburgers and hot dogs. We ate while watching the fireworks.

Just before 1:00 on Friday morning, we were waken up by my cell phone ringing repeatedly. It was D. All she said was it was urgent for me to call home immediately. When I called, SR answered and announced that she was wearing a new pretty ring. She had just gotten engaged to her boyfriend, AK.

Friday morning (after the usual time to wake-up), JM and I headed over to Round Hill where we barely in time to catch the parade and ride the truck with WLCC. After the parade, the church was part of the fun in the town park by organizing sack races, water balloon tosses, and hoola-hoop contests.

Friday afternoon, we watched Unbreakable. It was a Netflix movie that JM had already seen and I was only somewhat interested in seeing. It was nice to watch it and know what people are talking about, but not on my favorite list.

Friday evening, in a light run, but under a tent, the cloggers performed at Franklin Park at 7:15. Joyce had organized a potluck picnic with pulled BBQ. It was very good! As we finished
eating, the fireworks started going off.

Today, we've run two loads of laundry to get our clogging performance clothes clean and will be leaving in just a few minutes to head to another clogging performance in Ashburn followed by a clogging performance in Hillsboro at 7:00.

I'm off to do my hair and get dressed!

Appreciate your freedom!

Easter!

As Jesse already blogged, we had a wonderful time in Pennsylvania for Easter weekend. I just thought I'd add a few random pictures from the weekend.

She said, now he said

/* Warning, may contain mush. */

It's silly-grin time at the McConnell household! Yeah, I've been sporting one since yesterday morning.

I happen to highly approve of Valentines Day because it gives me a wonderful excuse to do all the stuff I like doing, but feel silly doing without an excuse. She thinks that a foot massage is something I do for her, but little does she realize she's playing into my schemes to hold and snuggle with her. The poor girl keeps falling for the same old ruse, every time too!

Not only that, but she does all sorts of really wonderful things like write me cards and leave me a wonderful egg hunt for notes hidden throughout the house! So not only do I get to give her foot rubs, but she then leaves notes for me!

I've got the most wonderful wife in the world, because she really does know how to perfectly compliment me. Where I'm weak, she builds me up and encourages me. Where I'm rash she manages to get me to re-think (a miracle for those who know me well). And she even adds in wonderful bits of surprise to my life in the most wonderful ways! (ex. easter eggs with notes in them)

Yeah, I'm blessed beyond measure!

Valentine's Day - the beginning

Our second Valentine's Day. Wow, we've started the seconds...guess we've been married for a while. But you wouldn't know it by the way Jesse is treating today!

I only gave him a card and a bag of candy before he left for work this morning. Actually, the bag of candy probably doesn't even count--Jesse bought it for himself on Christmas clearance, but forgot about it and I found it while cleaning earlier this week.

On the other hand, Jesse has been dropping reminders for me to pick up the mail this week. When I picked it up over lunch, there was a package from China that I had to sign for. I haven't opened it yet, just because I know Jesse would've opened it by now! :)

When I got back from lunch, there was a bouquet of flowers on my desk! I put them in water and am looking forward to the lilies(?) opening out of their bud form. Meanwhile, their buds still add great color and contrast around the pink roses.

No big plans for the evening at this point (to my knowledge), just a regular clogging night.

My First Christmas

No, those are not the words on an infant's decoration or toy - those are to me!

For a multitude of reasons, my family has never celebrated Christmas much. The most we've done is attend the occasional Christmas Eve service or participate in my dad's family's gift exchange. I think those two events might have even happened on the same year! My reasons have never been particularly profound - mainly the typical "It's commercialized and nobody is paying attention to Christ's birth, so I'm not about to join in," sort of reasons.

One of the great things about being married is that there's another point of view and a different thought process that is with you every day - questioning and prodding one's own viewpoints.

If nobody is celebrating Christmas the "right" way, how should it be celebrated?
Why don't I celebrate it the "right" way regardless of others?
Are all the gift-giving, trees, and lights bad ideas, or is being distracted by them the problem?

After being bumped from my standard rut of being something of a Scrooge about Christmas, I've partly resettled. Not particularly far from where I was, but certainly far enough that I gladly enjoyed and joined with the in-law portion of my family for my first Christmas! We even had a very white Christmas!

StG was good enough to give us a ride out to the airport at 4:00 in the morning. I think that I, for the first time, saw Charlessa grumpy that morning! The poor alarm clock is supposed to be making a really annoying sound! :^)

But in spite of getting up at an ungodly hour, we had a great trip out to KS and arrived around noon. We were even in good spirits after we each grabbed naps on the flights!

Early morning basketball games, going out to feed the cattle, hauling hay bales, playing with Magnetix, spending lots of lazy days sipping "friendship tea", watching the snow pour and drift, shoveling LOTS of snow, building a snowman, playing with Magnetix, reading the Bible, visiting with family and extended in-family, going caroling, more basketball games, singing hymns and carols around the piano, discussing the Church and Bible, sharing presents with each other, playing with Magnetix, and teasing LG - it was a GOOD Christmas!

Certainly nothing very exciting, but very, VERY nice!

While I still haven't congealed my thoughts on Christmas celebration, this was a pretty good way to go about it! :^)

A Very Belated Post on Thanksgiving

Though we haven't said anything on our blogs, we did indeed celebrate Thanksgiving. Jesse picked up Jer from school around noon on Wednesday, picked me up from work, and by 3:30, we were headed out of of the area for PA. Along the way, we stopped for some Taco Bell supper and later an ice cream treat. As we got with-in a couple of hours of our destination, it began to rain. The trip went smoothly and we made it to Jesse parents' home around 9:00. We were greeted by his parents, David, and Margaret.

We'd barely gotten our bags in the door when David and Jesse were ready to compare martial arts moves from David's aikido class. In the living room, periodic "face-offs" continued through out the weekend as David showed Jesse the throws and rolls he has been learning and they practiced them on each other.

Jer was in heaven each night as his grandpa and his dad would each tell him a story before bedtime. Jesse's stories were recorded, so now we have a cassette tape of stories Jesse has told to Jer. Even David got in on the fun and told a story or two of his own.

Thanksgiving dinner was around 5:30 on Thursday evening. Jesse and I had been asked to contribute to the dessert. I'd found a recipe that was called pumpkin pudding. (When I described it to my sister, she called it pumpkin pie cake.) It did look a lot more like a cake. The canned pumpkin was mixed up with condensed milk, sugar, and spices (much like pie filling), then poured into a 9 X 13" dish. On top of the pumpkin mix, we sprinkled dry cake mix and drizzled that with melted butter. Bake. I forgot to watch the time, so the cake came out a bit burnt around the edges, but there was still plenty of it that was very edible and good. Jesse also mixed up some mashed potatoes with a variety of herbs in them. He'd tried the recipe for a work party the week before. Delicious.

Katie, Ryan, and Christina came over after they had Thanksgiving with Ryan's family. They brought a smaller turkey with them, as Katie's turkey the previous year had a been a big success and Katie wanted to make it again. Jesse's aunt, uncle, and cousins also came over bringing turkey and stuffing. We had a great meal and conversation and catch-up.

It drizzled most of the day. In the early afternoon, there started to occasionally see some snow mixed in with the rain. Throughout the next day, there continued to be very light flurries off and on. By the time we left, there had been enough snow to accumulate about .25" on the raised porch. Everywhere else it was little more than a dusting.

Friday morning, Butler had its Christmas parade. As Little Miss Smile, Christina had her own car in the parade. We all made it out to see Christina in the parade--very cute and smiley! :) Afterwards, we had lunch at Pizza Hut, Ryan had to head off for a rodeo (I think), some of the remaining family headed out to get pictures of Thanksgiving and the parade developed, the rest of us headed home to relax and work on some computer problems. Jer spent some time playing outside driving around his green truck.

Saturday morning, Katie and Christina headed home at the same time David headed for the airport to fly back to Florida.

Saturday morning, Jer and I went out to play in the snow again. He really wanted me to teach him how to make snowballs and make snow angels with him. But the snow was a little dry for making snowballs and it was hard to gather enough up to even really try. I was afraid that we'd end up with more dirt than snow on our clothes if we tried to make snow angels. We ended up playing a version of fox and goose (but he was pretending to chase the bad guy--me) in the tracks he'd made in the snow with his truck the previous afternoon.

Sunday morning, Jesse made pancakes for breakfast. Saturday evening, we had decided to try to leave around 11:00AM to head back to Virginia. When we were sitting down to a pancake breakfast after 10:00 and hadn't gotten serious about packing, there wasn't any way we were going to be leaving at 11:00. I felt like we actually did pretty well when we were on the road before 12:15. The trip back had 2-4 serious slowdowns at various points, but we made it back without any real problems. After dropping off Jer, we stopped by Jesse's aunt and uncle's home to wish her a happy birthday. We were very sorry to find that she was sick.

During the weekend, the family had played a game of "Imagine if..." one evening and had a lot of fun. Jesse's parents tied and it took several rounds for them to break the tie--they knew everyone so well! We also watched a couple of episodes from the sitcom Reba and another video or two. Of course, there were lots of conversations, naps, reading, and computer time.

Looking forward to being back in Pennsylvania for the new year!

6 Months After the Wedding

Wow! We've been married for 6-months! I'm not sure if I'm more surprised that it was only 6-months ago or already 6-months ago. Either way, we are still very happily married. And after serious consideration we have decided to stay married for another 6 months.

So, how have we remembered our 6-month mark? Somewhat belatedly.

Saturday, June 30th, was BRTC's 10-year birthday party! Jer was visiting us for the weekend, so we all got to spend the entire day with all our clogging friends. (There are a couple of great pictures of Jer from the Party at the link above!) BRTC Lightning (Team) spent the morning learning a new performance song. BRTC spent the afternoon learning a new performance song. Then 5-9PM was spent learning 3-4 more fun songs and having friends from other clogging groups join us for the cake and dancing! At the end of the day, we were all very tired.

It was on the way home that Jesse reminded me that the day was also our 6-month anniversary! We shared the honor of being "newlyweds" with Josh and Carrie Harrison--the instructors for the day--who have been married for just 9 months.

For our 6-month anniversary and to get some things done, we both took today (Tuesday, July 3) off of work. We didn't make it out of the house until 3:45 but we still accomplished:
- oil changed in Jesse's car
- the LAST of our wedding thank you notes mailed (with two exceptions where we don't have addresses yet). The notes been written for more than a month!
- the last of the gifts for our wedding party mailed. (Our apologies to Andy, Margaret, and Katie for being so late!)
- a gift for Jesse's dad for father's day was mailed. (Again, our apologies for being late!)
- a return completed for an item Jesse's parents had bought in the area and decided they didn't need.
- moving our cell phones to a family plan. (We are now both on Cingular/AT&T. Jesse has a new number.)

After all that, we sat in the car pushing all the buttons on our new phones trying to figure out all we wanted them to do and all they could do. (Instructions? Why bother?)

For the evening, we headed over to Lovettsville for a clogging performance at their Independence Day celebration. It drizzled and almost rained for the fireworks, but not enough to keep them from going ahead with their display.

Our Christmas Tree

BEFORE

AFTER

Lack of Posts

What?! We went a whole month without posting anything on here?! One would think that with less than 2 months to the wedding, we'd be doing SOMETHING as a couple that would be worth posting. Well, I can't say that either of us was much better about posting on our personal blogs.

Why the lack of posts? I won't try to analyze and answer that.

We did spend many hours addressing wedding invitations. I'd say we spend that time together, but I had an aching tooth that weekend. Jesse did most of the addressing while sitting at my kitchen table and I lounged on my couch. Jesse getting that done was a real blessing for me!

As a huge surprise, Jesse picked my sister up at the Baltimore airport and brought her into town to walk into the house when I was least expecting it! He also drove on the trip back up to the airport.

Jesse took the lead in getting our vows written. We'd found pieces of 2-3 different vows that we'd liked. He took the pieces and put them together for us. We then spent the next day or so proof reading the vows. The vows we'd ended up using as the base were off the internet and VERY poorly written. They had great sentiment, if you read them as intended rather than as they were written. For example, they included the phrase "until death do we part." I think if one diagrammed that phrase, you'd find that "we" are parting death, instead of death parting "us"--until death do us part.

One Saturday, we attended the Walk Through the New Testament seminar. (Along the same lines an the Walk Through the Old Testament seminar we attended in August.) Now we have sign/word cues to help us remember the major events of the old and new testaments in chronological order and enough geography to help place most of those events.

We spent Thanksgiving with Jesse's family. A very relaxing and enjoyable time. I'm very thankful that his family is so welcoming of me!

We finally signed the lease to rent a townhouse in Leesburg! We should be able to pick up the key today! Jesse's parents just got into town and are planning on helping me move this weekend. Then we'll move as much of Jesse's stuff as possible over the next month. His parents will move his final pieces after the wedding, before they leave town.

On finding a house, it got to the point where one just had to laugh or despair. We tried to put in applications on 3 or 4 different places, only to be told that we were too late--someone else had put in an application ahead of us or they weren't willing to negotiate on the price. Once the application for this place was in process, we got calls from two of the earlier places--for one place, the first applicant didn't have good credit history, so they were now willing to look at our application and the owner was now ready to negotiate on the price for the second place. But we didn't like either of those places enough better to back out on the lease process on the Leesburg townhouse. Though if they'd been willing to negotiate on the price earlier, it would've been very tempting--a house (not a townhouse) in Purcellville.

The final event of November--exactly a month before the wedding--Jesse was my driver after I got my lower wisdom teeth and the other problem tooth extracted. Thursday morning, Jesse picked me up. We stopped in Purcellville to pick up my prescriptions, a few groceries (soft foods), and the tags we'd had printed for the favors. My mother had mailed me (on the previous Friday) something for my recovery, but unfortunately it didn't arrive until today. We made it to the oral surgeons in plenty of time. They took my money and made me a follow-up appointment for next week, before I went in for the extraction. I'd met the doctor previously, but Jesse got the chance to meet him, ask questions, and hear all the instructions for after the surgery. He was also good about distracting me by talking about the heart monitor, controlling heart rate, and how much he'd like the chance to go under general anesthesia.

I had no problems with the anesthesia. They poked me, put on the oxygen mask, and the next thing I knew I was waking up and Jesse was coming back in the room. It was only about 40 minutes later. He helped me out to the car. I was definitely wobbly, though I've felt worse some regular mornings waking up. We made a couple of short stops on the way home--I was fighting falling asleep all that time I wasn't actually asleep.

Jesse helped me get settled on the couch with some ice chips on my jaw/cheeks. I was out for about an hour or so when I woke up to cold water running down the front of my shirt. I changed out the ice bag with the hole and fell back asleep. It was about 5:00 when I woke up more completely. Jesse had gone into work for half a day, as he had some pressing deadlines. He did stop by again between work and clogging. And brought me some food I was craving after clogging.

It's now about 28 hours after the procedure. My mouth and jaw are a bit swollen, but haven't had any real pain. Hopefully it will continue this way and I'll be able to enjoy the bridal shower the church is throwing for us tomorrow morning!

Labor Day Weekend

I got to spend the weekend with my "sweetie" (as SS puts it--and I agree)...and his family!

We headed up in the rain Friday after work. We headed first for Katie (his sister) and Ryan's home. We hadn't seen them since the wedding. Her due date is Aug 30, so we were hoping we'd get to see their little one this trip....it was not to be. We did get to spend the evening with them...and a good bit of Saturday, before heading on up to Jesse's parents'.

Saturday evening through Monday afternoon, we spent time with his parents, brother, and sister. It was relaxing. We visited, watch a few shows, sang hymns, went to church, helped them prepare for their next big craft show, and other pieces of things. We heard from Katie several times through the weekend, but never the call saying the baby was really on its way.

It was Monday evening when we made it back into the area, still hoping to hear from Katie about the baby.

Happy Independence Day!

My family has a reunion in Kansas this weekend. As I'm not going to be there and am now engaged, they were asking for pictures. So, Saturday, Jesse, Jer, and I headed out and got a few pictures taken. I meant to get them in the mail on Monday, but missed that. Since yesterday was a holiday, I'll get them in the mail today and hope they make it.

With Independence Day this week, Jesse and I are getting a bit of extra time together. So sweet, after all the travel earlier in the summer.

Sunday evening, we made it to Shenandoah University's performance of 42nd street. A musical that is song-and-dance heavy. Most of the dance is tap--close enough to clogging that it made it fun for us to watch and think about the challenges that went into the choreography and performances.

Monday evening was a clogging performance in Lovettsville for their celebrations. The performance went well. We both had a couple of songs that we performed for the first time. That always adds a notch of anticipation and energy to a performance. The evening was on the warm side, but very comfortable--as long as you weren't doing much. Clogging was hot with very little breeze. After our performance, they had a limbo contest and a hoola-hoop contest. Jesse was the runner-up in the hoola-hoop contest against teens! About 9:30, they shot off their fireworks display. We found a place with some of the other cloggers for a good advantage point for the display.

Tuesday, we had a clogging performance at 1:00 for the Pride of Purcellville celebration. That was a very hot performance. Fortunately, we had shade. But after the performance, it was home to recover in the AC and ended up taking a nap.

In the evening, Jesse and I headed over to Franklin Park to catch the community fireworks there. By the time we arrived, it was definitely getting dark. We knew that our pastor and his family were there, but we didn't know where they were in all the crowds. So, we gave a guess and started walking. While we were searching, we encountered a PHC/clogging family and stopped to chat for a few minutes. Very enjoyable, but made it that much darker as we continued our search for the pastor's family. By some coincidence or miracle, we did find them as we were wandering through the crowds. We enjoyed another good fireworks display and some good conversation as we waited with the family for the traffic to clear out after the display.

Tonight, the usual Wednesday evening church activities have been canceled. Jesse and I expect to have another evening together to just relax and enjoy the time.

Popping a couple buttons off!

I got to go to the PHC Christmas Party with the most beautiful woman there!

Ok, you can go back to whatever you were doing. I just had to get that off my chest!

;^)

The Story: Going On?

Big Grin!

Yeah, yeah. And she doesn't mention anything that she does for me, like cards and meals and movies and cheering me up! Some cards, bouquets or petals are the least I can do. It makes my day so much more enjoyable too when I can stop by. It's a monochrome, 2D day when I don't see her!

We've had a great time in PA for Thanksgiving. It was a meet-the-relatives time for her and she pulled it of so very well! Heck that's too tame - she was the picture of poise, grace and charm the whole time! None of the movie stuff from Meet the Parents! Charlessa already met and knew my mom and siblings, though she had never met my dad until shortly before Thanksgiving. It's always nerve-wracking to meet his/her parents for the first time, or going to their house for the holidays, but this went off without a hitch. Better than that, it was wonderful!

Now, lemme see, where were we? *rummages around through past posts* Aha! There we go.

From January on through the beginning of July nothing much happened that outside people would see, or at least I don't think much was showing through. Though I certainly had plenty spinning around through my head. Not to set Charlessa up on a pedestal (ok, well maybe a little bit!), but I had always loved the grace and wisdom with which she had always spoken. I tend to be too quickly harsh and it was always a blessing to me when I would get emails or talk with her. I'd be inspired by her ideas and reminded to extend Grace regardless of what I think of others.

So by the time I moved back down to Virginia in January I already had her on a pedestal of sorts. It quickly grew taller.

For six months I made up excuses to see or talk with Charlessa - clogging, helping in the library, plays, church, books, movies, Bible studies. You name it, I used it. But I still made every effort to appear casual and wouldn't say that I was attracted to Charlessa in that way.

We were just good friends.
I thought really highly of her.
I enjoyed her company.
We had lots of similarities and similar interests.
Nothing more!
(SU-U-U-URE!)

After a couple months those were sounding pretty thin, even to myself. My mom asked me about Charlessa a few times and I even had some friends ask me if something was happening. And so, around June (at karate camp to be precise) I finally caved. I couldn't go on in good conscience anyway. I'm only mildly telepathic, and so couldn't quite tell what Charlessa was thinking. :^) I hated to possibly be putting Charlessa into an unsure limbo. "Is Jesse looking toward something more serious than friends here or not? He spends a lot of time, but nothing definite?"

Shortly after July 4th, after a couple weeks of prayer and getting any input dad and mom had to offer, I jumped in!

I just didn't mention it to Charlessa.

( the big chicken that I am! )

Continue: The Story: June

Thanksgiving Trip

Thanksgiving has been one of my favorite holidays for being able to relax, spend time with family, and appreciate what I have. Since I moved to VA five years ago, I haven't made it home for Thanksgiving. I have never lacked friends with whom I can share a traditional meal and the afternoon for each of the past five years. Each of those Thanksgiving holidays was very enjoyable and helped me to appreciate blessings, but it has never felt the same as going home.

I won't go so far as to say that Thanksgiving with Jesse's family was just like going home. I still missed my family--parents, sisters, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. (I heard there were at least a total of 23 gathered for this year's Thanksgiving meal.) But spending Thanksgiving "weekend" in PA was closer to the family Thanksgiving I grew up knowing than what I've been able to experience for the last few years. I got so far away that I wasn't able to end up spending part of the day or weekend working in the library. I had time to relax, play family games, and appreciate the blessings of life.

Picking up Jeremiah around 9:15, we made it to his parents' home near 3:00. Shortly, we headed off from there to have the Thanksgiving meal with one other family, his aunt's. Jesse had made up a apple crisp to contribute to dessert. In some ways, I felt like a bum--arriving without any food and not part of the family, but no one made me feel like an outsider.

In the evening, four of us (Jesse, David, their dad, and myself) sat down to a game of Boggle and later three of us (their dad headed to bed) played their version of Scrabble. It had been a while since I've played Boggle, I discovered I've picked up the tendency to write down questionable letter combinations--those that might be words, but don't even know for sure myself. I tried to keep this rather annoying (at least for other players) tendency to a minimum, but will have to work on that some more. Scrabble has never been a game that I've been particularly fond of, but I think I could like it better if I played it a bit more. The way they play the game was very different from the way I've ever played it, but in some ways, I found it more fun. By the last round or two, I was beginning to really get into the game and even won a round.

Friday morning was, for me, very relaxing. Margaret was sleeping after having worked her night shift. The guys were all outside splitting wood. Jeremiah, Jesse's mom, and myself hung around the house, doing a little clean-up, and talking. Jeremiah did go out for a few minutes to hang out with the guys and ride the "tractor" (riding lawn mower pulling a wagon) which he decided was too loud.

The afternoon seemed even shorter, as we watched a movie and Jesse and I made a trip to visit with one of his website clients in the area. The evening arrived and Margaret was able to join us for a game of SolarQuest. Somewhat similar to Monopoly, which I've never liked exceedingly well. I was very soundly beaten.

Saturday morning went quickly too as we packed, visited for the final time, and prepared to leave. Stop at the library and the bank where Jesse used to work were made on the way out of town. Traffic slowed us down a bit on the return south, so that we were later than intended in getting Jeremiah home. We did end up staying for a bit for a meal of Thanksgiving leftovers that was good.

Of course, there is so much that happens that doesn't fit well into a stark recitation of events--the teasing, tickling, and playing between Jeremiah and his aunt, uncle, and dad; the conversations and discussions that take place casually and continually; the work-outs and work; petting and playing with the dogs; learning "magic" tricks; and just experiencing family life.

How can I thank the McConnell's for making me a part of their family life, even if just for a couple of days?