FHE Fun

So, today is Monday, and for Family Home Evening (FHE) we decided that we'd write in our Jounal. Only, we're not very good at writing in our journal--but we are good at blogging!, so we decided to re-cap the last few weeks and blog about our life. Nifty, huh?



So, let's start back on February 21, 2008. We stayed up and watched the lunar eclipse. At first, we were standing outside in the cold, but then we realized that our living room window looked out right at it! So we came back inside and snuggled on the couch while we watched. Honestly, it was kind of excruciating, because by the time we got around to watching, the moon was mostly covered in the shadow, and we kept thinking it was changing, but I think our eyes were playing tricks. But, we saw it, and that's what's important.

On Sunday, February 24, 2008, we had some friends over to play games. We played charades, and the boys lost to the girls. There were some hilarious moments when we tried to act out the books, songs, and movies that the other team thought up. And, the game served two purposes: it was fun to play, and it got our friend Cherie moving around. We'd like to take credit for the birth of her baby girl not too long after their visit to our house. =)

Skip ahead a little bit, and we come to Saturday, March 1, 2008. We were trying to think of something to do, and the weather was nice (but cold), so we thought a drive would be nice -- we could be "inside" but "outside" at the same time! Jill planned this trip to Amherst using old roads that took us through little towns along the way.

Well, we only made it to (almost) Marlborough (about 1/4 of the way there). We saw this cool bookstore on the side of road, called Bearly Read Books in Sudbury, MA. We spent about 3 hours or so "browsing the stacks." They had so much cool stuff! A beautfiful, old (at least 150 years) family Bible; first-edition copies of various classics; I can't even begin to name them. We wandered around the book store, craning our heads sideways reading titles, gently pulling copies off the shelves, and leafing through their pages. If we had a library (and a budget to stock it), we probably would have grabbed armfuls of interesting books. One in particular was a "history of Presidential elections" as told by the New York Times; basically, it was a copy of every Times paper the day after the general electrion from Lincoln on through the (almost) present day. It was interesting seeing how the paper layout (and font sizes) changed, to see the election results, and what else was going on in history. We'll probably go back again.

But, while we didn't get very far on our drive, and didn't take a picture at the bookstore, we did take some other pictures along the way. We took some sideroads and found an historic inn and an old mill. [[Jill says the inn was the Wayside Inn. Longfellow wrote a poem about it. The mill was the Longfellow Wayside Grist Mill.]]

That night, we had a group of friends over again and played games into the evening. This time, we played Oodles and the Celestial Companion game, and had a lot of fun again. Jeremy had to sneak out to go get some vittles that we lacked; we were making chicken cordon bleu for the Elders and needed some ham and cheese.

The next day, Jill woke up not feeling well. She stayed home and Jeremy went to church. For the next week, Jeremy fed Jill lots of Jell-O and Jell-O pudding, chicken soup, Fresca, and applesauce. Thanks to a hefty dose of antibiotics started towards the end of the week, Jill started feeling better and was ready to go back to church on Sunday.

On Sunday, after Church, we went for another drive (since we had both been in the house all week), and just wandered around. After driving out past an old, condemned church building (and finding a road that connected to a "dead end"), we drove past a group of about 5-6 deer standing off on the side of the road. We stopped to take some pictures.

Then, somehow we found ourselves in Belmont. In an attempt not to sound too stalker-ish, we'll just say that our though process was, (1) ooh, Belmont. Lot's of pretty houses that we drove past. (2) I think the Romneys live in Belmont). (3) Mitt had to report his address when he filed his candidacy for the presidency. (4) We googled that file on Jeremy's Blackberry. (5) We drove past his house. And around the neighborhood. And back by his house (so we could get back to "our" part of town).

Then, seeing as we were driving past the homes of our friends, we decided to call and "check in" with the Gilbert family. We got their old address and drove past their home (in Needham) and around the high school (where Jeremy will be going on Wednesday to be a participant in a career fair. Funny, since he doesn't have a career...).

Finally, we ended up back at our home. Went to bed, and sent Jill off to work the next day, since she had played hooky long enough. ;-)

In the meantime, Jeremy has been looking for jobs; sending off resumes; looking for more jobs; and waiting to hear back. He'll be spending a few days in DC next week meeting with some contacts that he's made, and hopefully he'll figure out what he's going to do next.

We're excited for what may come, as we start a new chapter in our lives.