My Handy Husband

For those of you who don't know and even for those of you who do, my husband Skylar is a very handy man. A few summers ago when one of my old roommates got back from serving a mission in South Carolina, all of us roommates got together and listed 10 things we loved about our hubbies (not all of us were married at the time, but those of us who were shared). Girly, no?


Immediately I thought of how much Skylar likes to just fix things on his own. I don't know if it's his Rackham trait of wanting to always save money or his confidence in his abilities, but he almost always (almost) will try and do whatever needs to be done on his own.
I collected some evidence around our apartment to demonstrate his skill:

This is Skylar weather proofing our living room window. It's a single pane window and lets in quite a bit of cool air. In an effort to not use our heater as much he decided to purchase plastic weathering something to keep warm air in and cool air out. 

And it's a darn good thing he did this. Not even a week later (okay, maybe more) a crazy wind storm caused a rogue shingle to crash into this very window and shatter it completely. I hardly noticed the change in temperature.

This is Skylar standing on the couch while completing this task. Cute.

What the devil is this you ask? Oh just a vent soaking in water, detergent and some other stuff to help strip the paint. Why? Because it was grungy looking. So if you soak it the paint will be so much easier to strip off according to Handy Man Skylar.

Stripping paint.

I came home one day and saw this power strip drilled into our plastic kitchen organizer. Before this was here, the cords were running to and fro across the kitchen.

What's this huge wooden thing you ask? Just a ramp that Skylar bolted together so that he could have enough room under our funky shaped car to change the oil. Nope didn't want to buy a pre-made set of ramps because this would fit our car shape better than a 

pre-made set. He's a thinker!

While I was taking the previous picture, I realized Skylar installed the light bulb in our closet to make that picture possible. Smart boy.

Speaking of lights he took out the previous bathroom lights and put these bad boys in.

And speaking of bathrooms, he took out the ugly wooden towel holders and installed these sleek polished satin holders instead.

Convinced yet? Well if not I could go on but I won't. I'm just grateful that he is so willing to do these things. I appreciate that he is learning these skills and ultimately saving us time and money. What a good husband. Look out ladies, he's taken.

Christmas time is laughter

Toboggans in the snow! Well Christmas time is just around the corner and it doesn't even feel like it should be. Maybe it's the lack of Christmas movies I've watched (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - boo) and listening to my favorite Christmas movie whilst cleaning (A Christmas Story - woot) doesn't really count.  But I'll recount my favorite Christmas memories of both past and present.


Growing up my mom had a huge video camera that followed us to any significant event. I think she was that person. You know what I mean. It was one of those huge cameras that sits on your shoulder and has the extended eye piece. 

One of these bad boys

I'm pretty sure Skylar would know the name of it being the film junkie that he is but I just call it the huge shoulder camera. It was a fixture in my childhood until the video mechanism stopped working and all it recorded was sound accompanied by a black picture. In any case, every Christmas my mom would whip out this huge shoulder camera. She would start recording all the Christmas cards we had received, usually tacked up on the wall and then the 4 foot Christmas tree we had had forever that we would mount on the side table in our living room, and then pan to all four of us sitting on the couch giggling before we opened presents. This particular year Kirstin was not giggling. It was pretty early and I'm positive she would have been content sleeping a bit longer before all this present opening occurred. In any case, one of my older sister's best friends was quite aware that this Christmas would be documented and double dog dared me to save all the gum I had over the next week and chew it while opening presents. We had a terrible habit in my family of saving gum in the fridge. You couldn't chew it at night obviously, it would get stuck in your hair. So we stuck it in that little compartment on the door where butter or something goes and would get it the next morning. 

Yup, butter. I was right.

After several days of doing this I had quite the wad. And so, true to the dare, I chewed the great wad of gum while opening presents that Christmas morning. It was pretty nasty as it had gotten to the point where it was so old, it was difficult to chew. But hey, a double dog dare is a double dog dare. 


There was something from this Christmas season that I am sure I will remember forever. My in-laws as well as some of my immediate family, being Christian, believe that we celebrate Christmas to remember the birth of Jesus Christ. Being Christians (and specifically members of the LDS church) we often read the story of Christ's birth. My mother-in-law teaches in a class with young women aged 12-17 and they would be reading the Nativity story. Skylar, Cohen and I would all be going to church with them that day and she asked that Skylar, Cohen and I all stand in front of the young women and dress up, that's right, dress up, as Mary, Joseph and Jesus. 

Just like this

Skylar was pretty embarrassed and I'll admit I felt a bit silly. However, it turned out to be a really nice experience. One verse in Luke struck me. I'd thought of it before but I really considered it in that moment. It's Luke 2:19 And Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. She had been told that she would give birth to the Son of God and it occurred to me that she would need to come to that knowledge also, even though she had been told. I feel like that verse was a little insight to what she was feeling. Maybe her coming to that knowledge and what that would be like as a mother. I'm sure all parents feel that to a certain degree. Just wondering what will come of your children? What greatness will they achieve? In any case it was a poignant moment for me. Something I'll remember.


I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! Be safe, have fun and as cliché as it is, try to keep the Christmas season with you all year round.

From the Beginning

Just a quick synopsis of how the Rackham family began. Skylar and I both started at BYU in 2005. He was studying Mechanical Engineering to begin with and I was studying Violin Performance. I was shorter than the sweet 5'6" boy so naturally he struck up some converstaion. After 4 school dances, freezing cold walks at night in January, and lots of drawn out conversation we started dating. 

A few months later Skylar received his mission call to Guadalajara, Mexico (viva las chivas) and would there spend his life for the next 2 years. He went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

After he got back, we looked like that:

Anyway, a few months later we got engaged. It was an exciting and stressful time as any bride to be will tell you. 

But we made it through and this January we'll have been married for 3 eventful, exciting and happy years! I can honestly say he is my best friend, the person I want to be with forever. I'm so glad we have each other and get to experience this crazy life together!