My new family

The whole reason I even have this blog is because of my new Mother-in-law. She has a GREAT blog, which inspired me to give it a try.
The last couple of weekends Jeff and I have been helping out at his parent's house with a room re-do. His parents live in this cute little historic part of our community and have a great house with so much character, but it is an older home, so what we anticipated would take one weekend has stretched to two. Understandably with plaster walls, adding crown molding, new base boards, bead board to one wall, a BEAUTIFUL shelf, and a window seat/bookcase unit around the front window. My Father-in-law is a genius when it comes to wood working and making a vision into reality. WOW!
Thankfully I got to do the easy stuff - caulking, brush painting and drinking Diet Coke. But finally it is a finished product with new furniture, and draperies, I absolutely love it! I love seeing my hard work turn into something so beautiful - I know it was hardly my hard work, but hey, I helped. :)

Anyhow, I got off subject, this is about my new family. I LOVE them! After all my years of hearing horror stories and watching movies depicting nightmares of in-laws, I was sure that with my luck I would get the worst of the worst, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Jeff's parents and grandma welcomed me into their home immediately, and I felt very comfortable with everyone (even the two darling dogs) from the very beginning.

Now, I know I haven't made my story with Jeff entirely well known, but let's just say that we moved pretty fast according to the worlds standards from when we met to the time we got engaged and then to the time we got married. My family, of course, had no problem with this as it is very common for this to happen in LDS (Mormon) communities, and my family is LDS.

Jeff's family is not LDS, (I'm still not sure what their religious beliefs are - I guess I'm still a little intimidated to bring up such a deep subject.) anyhow, they were not used to such rapid movement in a relationship. Now, I don't know what they might or might not have said to Jeff, but they were always very kind and non-judgemental to me. I'm sure it must have been a scary idea to let their son just marry an almost complete stranger, but they had some kind of faith in us, and didn't try to talk us out of getting married so soon.

Now, don't get me wrong, Jeff and I have had our fair share of struggles as we have been getting to know each other better and learning how to live with as husband/wife, but I imagine they aren't much different than most other couples go through when they first marry or begin living together.

Gosh, I keep getting off track! Anyhow, my in-laws accepted me into the family immediately and treated me like a daughter. I still don't know them nearly as well as I would like to, but the more I get to know them, the more I love them. Jeff and I live in the same city as his parents and grandma, so we get the chance to see them once a week at least - it is great to spend time together hearing them talk about old memories and family experiences, playing kings in the corner, eating MARVELOUS food and cakes, watching movies and just hanging around chatting. I truly feel that I have another family, and it is wonderful.

Loves,
Rachael