Through the Years ~ Celebrating 44 Years of Marriage!

So, I'm slow to get this out there but I wanted to share how Jim and I celebrated 44 years of marriage. It's really hard to imagine. That's a VERY long time. It has been full of some unexpected and some unwanted lessons, to say the least. But also full of love and despite some pretty rough spots I would do it all again.

We were married on Aug. 5, 1970 in the LDS Los Angeles Temple for "Time and All Eternity."

 << This is what we looked like THEN

So, 44 years later we set out to celebrate: 

Our first stop was the Mesa Arts Center, featuring 4 exhibits ~ One was Betsy Douglas’ metal work; sleek, modern silver designs & computer circuit board jewelry (no pics). 

The next was Paper Art from several artists - most of it was intricately cut & assembled paper, 3-D structures & some wall hangings. To the right, the pink-looking work of art is by Erik & Martin Demaine - cut out of watercolor paper and painted.

 
This may look like lace or something but it's cut out paper. 
By Reni Gower - acrylic on hand cut paper. 




 There was also a very intriguing display called, "In/Visible," featured 3-D free-standing translucent figures that are layered with embroidery, silk screen & video projection. Very cool but a tad creepy. No pics.

The last exhibit I have mixed emotions on. Fascinating & disturbing (to me) because it was book art. The thought of altering or damaging books in any way really gets to me. But it was amazing - only front/back pics of one item.


OK, this is the back view - you can see the books stacked up on each other to create the "statue" the artist, Long-Bin Chen, of New York, made using books. He calls the piece, "Renaissance Man." 





And this is the front of "Renaissance Man." By Long-Bin Chen. The previous pic shows the books he used to create this by carving it and then painting it. The info card said Chen is actually making a statement about human consumption & waste. It also mourns the pre-digital ear of bound books.

After we went to the Mesa Arts Center, we had dinner at the Blue Adobe Grille. It was the first time we had ever been there. I looked up the top ten restaurants in Mesa. It was on the list - we loved it. Jim had a chimichunga, rice & beans while I had - wait for it - SALMON - of course. Ancho Chile Rubbed Salmon, to be precise. You can't tell from the pic because it is smothered in Chipotle Tomato Relish. It was fabulous!! And the Green Chile Potato (yeah, that ORANGE potato) & sautéed veggies were delectable!! (Jim doesn't like "hot" food but mine was perfection). When they found out it was our 44th Wedding Anniversary - they gave us a FREE Crème Brûlée to share. It was the 1st time either one of us had tried it. Yummy!! Yeah, we'll be back.

 

And I thought the sink in the ladies room was so cute that I took a pic of it too!!

 The last part of our 44th Anniversary Date was to go to the movies where we watched, "Guardians of the Galaxy." TONZ' of FUN!!!