Sledding in Arlington, Mass. This is the park we play at when we go to the Temple. There is a beautiful view of Boston from this hill. 

 Carly got glasses in January. She was so amazed at the details she can now see.

 Aubree and I take playing house pretty seriously. I had a baby this day. I've never had such an easy (and short) pregnancy and delivery. Aubree is such a proud big sister.

Aubree is famous now. She was in the newspaper a few weeks ago. (Story time at the library)

Ellie was baptized by Aaron on March 1st. It was a beautiful service. There were several people from our little branch there and several friends and neighbors who aren't LDS. We were especially grateful that Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Leon, and Nanny Nette and Grandpa could be there.

This is the only picture I have of Leon and Kathy here with us. So sad! Aaron and Kathy are doing family history and Leon is reading scriptures (pretty typical).

 Also while the grandparents were here we went to Newport, RI to the National Museum of American Illustrators. We love Newport! My parents stayed in a hotel while Aaron's parents were here, so the girls got to spend a couple nights at the hotel and go swimming. After Aaron's parents left my parents moved in with us for the next week and a half. They cooked, cleaned, fixed up, did laundry, entertained and spent quality time with the girls.

We also went to Haverhill, Mass to see the statue of Hannah Dustin (my 11th great grandma on my Dad's side). I wrote a post about her here. We also got a little pamphlet that told us her story and also included a letter she wrote to her church when she was much older. It was so cool because she included some of her favorite scriptures in it, and specifically which scripture she had in her mind during her captivity - Psalm 43 and Psalm 118:7. She said, "… I am Thankful for my Captivity, twas the Comfortablest time that ever I had; In my Affliction God made his Word Comfortable to me…" We had a family home evening lesson a couple days after visiting her statue about how trials can bring us closer to Heavenly Father and he can comfort us during hard times.

One morning Grandpa saw Aubree sitting on this bench and she explained to him that she was in timeout. So Grandpa held her on his lap and told her about a time when he was a little boy and tried to carve something and ended up cutting his hand. He also told her about how life was sometimes hard for him too when he was a little boy and how he liked to have his Mom hold him close and she would bounce him on her leg. (Now I know why my Dad likes to bounce his grandkids on his lap.) It was so sweet to see my Dad hold her close and show her such love and sympathy.

The picture hanging above my Dad is a puzzle that Ellie sent to Nanny Nette and Grandpa for Christmas. After they put it all together, my Dad "engineered" it into about 8 pieces, plus edges, and sent it back to us to put together and keep. (They have no where to put it now that they're homeless.) So, we put it together and then I glued it and framed it for Ellie's birthday.


We LOVED having family here - we are so lucky to have such wonderful grandparents for our kids!

The Coffin Date (straight from my journal)

Oct. 21, 2001

 Last night I went on a date with Aaron Parsen, it was so much fun! (First of all, Aaron is this guy who I have a crush on. He is an awesome guy. He is so funny and nice, and everything - he's the type of guy I'd like to bring home someday.)
   The date he had taken me on was a date that he and his buddies had been wanting to do since their sophomore year in high school. They picked us up at 3pm and took us up to "their spot" at Kelly's Canyon. This is a spot that they had always gone camping at together. So when we got there we went hiking, played football, and some other games. Then we started to make a hole in the ground where we could build a campfire. While we were digging the hole we hit a piece of wood - about 6 feet long -in the ground. I had the flashlight and I was scared to death that there was a dead body or something crazy like that in it. Even the guys were scared. The thing that made it scarier was that a few weeks ago a girl from IF was kidnapped and killed and they think she was buried somewhere. So as we were looking at this piece of wood I was thinking that we had found this girl. We lift off the piece of wood and underneath it there are bones!! I was freaking out. But then one of the guys sees some paper plates and utensils in the coffin. The guys all start laughing and we realized that they had planned it.  (The bones were from the deer that Aaron had killed the other day!) It was a great trick. After that, we built a campfire and ate a delicious dutch oven dinner.
   Then Aaron and his friend Jordan played the guitar and sang for us. (Aaron has an awesome voice!) Aaron started singing and made up a song about his buddies. He told about how they came here all the time to go camping and that one day they decided to carve their initials on a tree and they each put a + next to their names. They decided that they would each bring their future wives here some day and propose to them. It was so cute! It made me wish at that moment that Aaron was my boyfriend because it was so romantic! After the date, as Aaron was walking me back to my apartment he asked me if he could come visit me here some time! :) I hope he does. 

I've discovered that my journals are not literary works of art. I think Carly, at nine years old, has better writing style than I did in college (or even now). Oh well, I'm glad I have it recorded. :)

Before we left Kelly's our dates took us to look at "the tree" with their initials and we had this picture taken:

Aaron is third from the left (doesn't he look exactly the same?) and I am above him. 

I remember thinking that night, "I want to carve my initials in that tree"!
Well, two years later, my wish came true.
Here's that same tree twelve years after "the coffin date":

And here we are 12 years after that first date:

Journal Entry: August 14, 2001

Sorry, not the coffin date. I'm going out of order here. But, I thought this would be good to add to our dating story even though this was written before I even knew there was a person named Aaron Parson out there.

(note: the words in blue are the words straight out of my journal. the words in black are commentary from me right now.) 

I need to be the kind of person that is qualified - or like - the person I want to marry. So, I'm going to list the qualities:

• Someone who reads their scriptures regularly
- yep

• A return missionary
- and I'm pretty sure he was AWESOME!

• Gets along with their family and is respectful to their parents
-yep

• A hard worker (not lazy), focused, ambitious
- very much so!

• Mature, not worried about trivial social things and not starved for attention
- he's pretty much happy to just hang out with our family at home every day.

• Takes care of their body and keeps their body in good shape
- Wakes up at 4:30 every weekday to go to the gym

• Good sense of humor - laughs and makes me laugh
- In a house full of emotional girls this quality is immeasurable! has come in handy on more than one occasion. He has the wonderful ability to not take me too seriously, and even laugh (in a very caring and sweet way) when I'm in an irrational state of mind. Not to mention that he is just a funny guy. He makes jokes and laughs at my jokes and can laugh at himself.

• Thrifty, good with money, doesn't have to be rich to be happy
- Aaron definitely takes his responsibility to provide for our family seriously, and works hard at being successful in his career. That being said, Aaron's biggest financial dream is to own big dogs. Seriously. Now, when I talk about financial dreams I talk about trips to Europe, shopping sprees, nicer home, nicer car, the list goes on and on. Aaron just wants an Irish Wolfhound. 

• Someone who is humble, can admit when they're wrong, can say sorry and thank you easily and doesn't always have to be right
- I could write essays about Aaron's ability to apologize (even when he's not always to blame), and his overall humility. This is one of the number one things I admire in him (partly because humility is not my strong point) and has made our marriage much more peaceful. If I would have married someone with my amount of humility .... there would be a lot of fighting! 

• Smart, studies hard
- Always one of the number one students in his class. 

• Spiritual, but doesn't flaunt it, loves the church, has a strong testimony
- yep

• Honest
- yep

• Happy, enjoys life, has fun and is optimistic
- yep. Although, life is not always peaches and cream and Aaron (and I) definitely have our unhappy, unfun, and pessimistic moments. We're real. :)

• kind to everyone, makes people feel comfortable around them
- I've never met anyone who didn't like Aaron right away (unless we're talking about his previous boss, but that's a whole other story, and he doesn't count).

• someone who is willing to go out of their comfort zone
- yep. Just one example: moving to Connecticut for a job that is way bigger and better than anything he had ever done before is definitely going out of his comfort zone. (And, by the way, he's learning so much at his job here and LOVING it!)

It's been a good reminder for me to read over these qualities - for a few reasons. First off, I realize how lucky I did get in finding Aaron and getting him to marry me. I was shooting pretty high ... and I got lucky! Secondly, this is a pretty good list of qualities that I still need to be working on. Thirdly, the law of attraction (like attracts like) really is a pretty powerful thing. I wrote this journal entry one month before I met Aaron. So even though a lot of these habits and characteristics are ones that I don't naturally posses, I'm sure they were ones that I was working on in that month. So, think positive thoughts and positive things will come your way! :)

September 2001

I met Aaron for the first time at my friend Shawna's apartment. My friends and I were watching a movie when Aaron and his friends came to visit. We paused the movie to meet these guys and my first impression of Aaron was "I can definitely tell he is Brett's brother" (nothing more, nothing less), and I think that was the first thing I said to him. (His older brother, Brett, had married a girl who grew up in my neighborhood.) Well, I went back to watching my movie, and Aaron, along with a few other people, went into the kitchen to socialize. Several minutes later I heard laughing coming from the kitchen and saw that they were having a great time in there. My FOMO (fear of missing out) kicked in, so of course I got in on the conversation, which consisted of us joking around about how awesome it is to be a sophomore, and generally just have a very silly and funny conversation (you would have had to have been there to appreciate it) :) That night I talked to Shawna on the phone and told her she had to set me up on a date with that Aaron guy!

Well, a few weeks later I got a call from Aaron! (Major excitement and butterflies on my part!) He said, "I have a question to ask you.... what kind of weed killer do you use?" (it's a line from the seminary movie "The Telephone Call") We laughed (mostly a nervous, giddy laugh from me). Then he told me that he and his friends had a special date planned on Saturday the 20th (of October) and he wanted take me. I was scheduled to work that day, but said that I would try to switch with someone. He told me to just let him know as soon as I could so he could ask someone else if I couldn't go (I still remember being a little bugged that he said that - ha ha!).

Journal entry September 2001: 

"After I hung up with him I started screaming and I announced to my whole apartment that I was going out with Aaron Parsen [yes, I spelled it incorrectly] - I was soooo excited! I talked to Shawna about it later and she told me that he had a list of 3 girls that he wanted to go with and I was one of them. He choose me mainly because he had already gone out with the other 2 girls before."

Ha ha! It's so funny (and embarrassing) to read back through my journals!

Next installment: The Coffin Date

Hannah Dustin

When we arrived at my parents house over Christmas break I found this statue/liquor bottle sitting on my parents countertop. My dad told me that she was was the first women in the United States to have a statue erected in her honor. And she is my great great great great ..... grandmother (10 generations). This is the story (very condensed):

Six days after Hannah delivered their twelfth child (Martha), a band of Indians kidnapped her, her nurse (Mrs. Neff), and the baby. Then they killed her baby right in front of her eyes. (I can only imagine the emotions she must have felt). Over the next few days they marched approximately 100 miles, and were lead to an island (now named Dustin Island).

A young boy, Samuel, who had been living with the Indians for about 18 months was also with them. At Hannah's request, Samuel asked the Indians how they killed their captives and then relayed the information to Hannah. With the stories of what happened to Indian captives, and her desire for revenging the death of her baby and the cruel treatment of their captors while on the march, Hannah resolved to escape in any way that she could. After reaching the island, the Indians had become careless and no longer kept watch at night. Shortly after midnight Hannah awoke Samuel and Mrs. Neff and together they killed ten of the twelve Indians and took their scalps. They then escaped off the island and after several days of travel returned safely home to Haverill.

When I first heard that she helped kill 10 Indians I was totally shocked and wondered how she could bring herself to do it. But, after finding out that they killed her baby in front of her very eyes and knowing that she had family back at home that she desperately needed to be with, I understood her a little bit better.



My parents were able to visit Haverill, MA in October and see the statue. (They were back east because my Dad was awarded a Silver Medal by the US Dept. of Commerce!).

(For a more accurate and detailed history go to www.hannahdustin.com)