The Other Side of the Pond

We have this beautiful pond in our backyard...

(only because someone ELSE put forth the effort to make it that way before we moved into this house.)

Last year was a bit of a learning curve for me as I discovered that my years of experience in teaching other people how to care for their swimming pools, did me absolutely NO good in knowing how to take care of a pond.... WAY DIFFERENT ANIMALS!!!!

So I humbled myself (after several months of failure on my own) and listened to the pond expert who told me to just buy some fish and they would take care of the algae for me.
Who knew it could be THAT simple!!!

We bought a few gold fish last year ...

(which was actually summertime before I became compelled to be humble enough to ask for help!!)

...and had some good luck. The fish ate the algae and kept the pond enjoyable not only because it supressed the algae, but they were fun to watch all summer long.
We even bought a black goldfish and convinced Nana it was a piranha... LOL!!!
This went on for weeks before Emma finally gave up our little secret... needless to say Nana was a little mad that we lied to her...hahaha!

This year, the algae is starting to get out of control already and I am not sure how many of the little fish survived the winter because they like to hide in the cracks in the rock wall and since it was still snowing as of last week, they haven't really ventured out much.

I decided that we needed some more fish this year, so I ventured to the pet store.
(This time Nana went with me to make sure I didn't come home with a piranha...hehe)

The lady told me that it was probably still a little too cold in the pond for them to survive, but what does she know... after all... the sun was shining this weekend!

(I'm such a bad fish mommy for not listening to her!)

So I came home with about 10 little gold fish and we put the bag in the shallow end of the pond so that the temp of the water in their bag would slowly change to the temp of the pond. After a few hours, we put them into the pond and of course, they were in shock at being introduced into a new environment. So being the scared little fish that they were, they stuck their faces down in between the river rocks on the bottom of the shallow end of the pond and stayed there.

They were paralyzed by the shock of what happened to them and probably a little afraid.

(ok, so I don't know if fish actually have feelings like fear, but since swim quickly away when you try to catch them and since I have watched Finding Nemo, I am presuming that they experience emotion and that means they COULD have been paralyzed by fear... roll with me on this... there is a point....LOL!)

A few of them moved around a little bit and found new hiding places
and eventually ventured down to the deeper end of the pond.

The next day, we discovered that about 4 of the ones who just hid their faces in the rocks, had gone gills up and are now in fishy heaven.
(see...I told you I'm a bad fish mommy!)

I was out there today watching a few of them swim around and pondering the idea that there were two sets of fish in the pond. Both seemingly oblivious to the other group.

There were the ones that have been there for most of their lives that were comfortable with the environment and understood the best places to hang out to be safe
from the weather and from other dangers and they all stick together.

Then there were the newbies.... they were dumped into this strange place where they didn't know any of the other group or the dangers or how to survive.
They let their fear take over and stayed in one place and didn't swim to keep warm.

I couldn't help but think of how that relates to us in life. Sometimes we find ourselves being yanked out of our comfort zone... whether it be a class at school, a new school, a new job, a new assignment at church or even a new church congregation.... there are lots of times in life where we find ourselves out of our comfort zone and paralyzed by fear
(and maybe somewhat by the frigid water).

Do we bury our faces and ignore the other fish, or do we try to venture to the other side of the pond to see what fish might be down there that we can be friends with and that might be able to help us get to know this new environment better?
And... on the other hand, if we are the fish that have been in the pond for a while, perhaps we need to venture out of the cozy crack in the wall  more often, to see if there might be any new fish in the pond. There are wonderful experiences waiting for us
....just outside of our comfort zone
....at the OTHER side of the pond!

Everyone Needs a Leslie

When I was about 4 years old, my family moved into a little house on a corner. It was so tiny that my brother and I shared a bedroom... actually, as I remember it,

 it was a set of bunk beds assembled in a walk in closet.

 I remember riding my big wheel one day (that dates me doesn't it...lol) and this older boy next door stopped me by grabbing the handle bars and in a very intimidating way informing me that he expected me to be good friends with his little sister.

 Little did I know that his intimidation tactic would be one of the best things to ever happen to me.

Leslie and I have been friends as far back as I can remember
 (for 40 something years now) 

and we have had some grand adventures!

Her family owned a store in the town we grew up in and the upstairs of the store was an old abandoned hotel that spanned the upstairs of several of the local businesses.
We used to go up into this old abandoned part of the building....
 at night....on purpose.... for fun.

 It was really scary at night because of some of the stories that her mom had shared with us.

 (Her mom tells GREAT ghost stories...hahaha).

Sometimes we would take other people up in the top of the hotel and relate these stories. Her little brother was our silent partner in crime and would hide somewhere with an empty fire extinguisher... 

If you have never tried to use an empty fire extinguisher, it makes such a horrible noise, that, when you are in an old, creepy, abandoned hotel... at night... with flashlights...
you can easily convince your unsuspecting friends, is the sound of pigeons being murdered....hahaha...LOL! 

(Disclaimer: Even though there were pigeons flying around inside the building, no actual pigeons were harmed in scaring the crap out of our friends!!!)

Her family also owned a haunted house that had not been lived in since the early 1940's....

 I kid you not!!!!

 So we used to take friends out to Dingle... 

... to tour the haunted house

.... at night!

(yes, this would be the same Dingle that I talked about in my earlier post about the Popo!

... see that post for a picture of the Ream Mansion)

The house has a sandstone facade that is wired to the house
(or so I remember it being explained to me)
 and when the wind blows, it sings on the wires.....
creepy, whining noises, that sound like ghosts!

This house was overgrown with bushes, had broken windows, lots of bats inside and there was still old furniture in it, as if the ghosts needed a place to sit in the parlor! 

Oh, and in the cellar under the house, there were turkey incubators and LOTS of hooks hanging from the beams. You can only imagine the tales we told when we showed this to our friends...

in the dark...with flashlights... hehehe! 

It didn't take much imagination to  really freak people out.

One time we loaded up about 10 people in her old '69 Cadillac DeVille 

(some had to ride the 8 miles to the boonies in the trunk of the car...hahaha)

and headed out to Dingle to take them on a tour of the Ream Mansion. Somehow her little brother ended up hiding in the house, with that empty fire extinguisher.

This was about the same time that all of the "too-stupid-to-live" movies like
 Friday the 13th were popular. 

 I don't recall all the events that happened,

 (I think it was so scary that I have blocked it out...

or I am just getting old enough that I am experiencing mentalpause....!!!),

 but I remember that somehow we ended up huddled upstairs... in a closet...

 because we scared the crap out of OURSELVES!!!! 

REALLY???? 

Note to self: if you cruising around a haunted house, at night, in the dark and something scares you....

don't run UPSTAIRS (where there is only one way back out)
and hide in a closet (with no windows)!!!

DUH!!!

After what seemed like hours (it was probably more like 5 minutes...lol), 

we mustered the courage to run for our lives!

We were so convincing in our stories that I would often have this re-occurring nightmare about our many  adventures in the old hotel, the Ream Mansion and even a few at the cemetery!!! 

As a side note: Leslie and her parents have since purchased the "haunted house" and are in the process of fixing it up. It has been fun to watch the progress and I often giggle at the irony that she now owns the house that scared the bejeezus out of us!

For our senior prom, we wore dresses that belonged to her mother and her aunt...

(they were like 30 years old).... we LOVED being different! 

This must have been where my passion for antique stuff started!

Leslie has a more quiet reserved personality which was a perfect balance for my more adventurous personality. We were total opposites... 

Leslie kept my feet on the ground and pointed in the right direction (and kept me from being grounded many times..haha). My mom would let me do pretty much anythnig... if I was with Leslie.
She has such a sweet spirit and I will always be grateful for the example she was to me growing up (and still is)
 and for the open door that her parents had in always making me feel welcome in their home...

especially during a time of much turmoil in my own home.

It's kind of like that story about the man walking on the beach, picking up starfish and tossing them back in the water. A stranger observed his behavior and asked him why he bothered because he couldn't possibly make a difference since there were so many starfish stranded on the beach as the tide went out. The man picked one up and tossed it in the water and said to the stranger...

"I made a difference to that one"

It scares me to think how different my life would likely have turned out if Leslie hadn't been there to make a difference to me!

It has always been a prayer of mine that my kids would have a "Leslie" in their lives... someone to be that influence and example of good... and help them make good choices. 

At the same time, I have always tried to encourage my kids to be someone's "Leslie" and to be that example and  positive influence to the people around them. 

I truly believe that we formed bonds with people in the pre-existence and when we find those people here on earth, we immediately recognize the familiarity of those eternal friendships....

and as the years go by and miles separate us, we still feel that friendship in our hearts.

I am so lucky to have found a few of these eternal friends!

Happily Ever After

I am so happy that the wedding is now a memory... a very fond memory. 

It all turned out better than I had imagined... and I have a great imagination.
We only had one epic fail.... the string balls.... but we had a lot of fun creating them.

There were a few near misses like the fact that the flowers arrived with light brown centers instead of black centers, so we added a little black eye shadow and boom... black centers!

Or the fact that several of my $2 boxes of lights didn't all work... go figure!
And then there was the moment when the screen fell onto the cupcake display... thank goodness there were no cupcakes on it yet! (Note to self: if it's not broke, don't press your luck!)
We were 40 minutes late leaving to go to the temple, Jupiter must have been aligned with Mars because  we were only 15 minutes late getting there....
thank goodness for the HOV lane and a smooth morning commute!
I love looking back at the pictures and seeing the smile on E's face and knowing that all the effort was worth it to make it a memorable day for her. But my most favorite moments were not captured on camera. It was the tender moments in the temple brides room, just her, her momma and her grandma... helping her get dressed in her temple clothing and knowing that she was worthy to kneel at the alter of the temple with a very special guy and begin their celestial marriage. One of the brethren at the temple told them that a celestial marriage is not something that you have to wait for. If you are worthy to be at the temple and you are worthy to kneel at the alter there, then you already have a celestial marriage. You just have to work to maintain that. I really loved that concept!

Here are a few of The Highlights:

The Reception

The Centerpieces (re-purposing my storm debris)

The Cake

The Cupcakes

The "Thing"

The boys

The Girls

The Daddy

The Momma

The Rings

The Bride

The Happy Couple

The Fam

The Blue Flowers

The Hooker Shoes

 The Cinderella Slippers

The Wedding Party

The Temple