Orlando Vacation

We traveled on Monday, stopped for a bit of shopping, had lunch at Panera and dinner at Outback. Cary beat us all at Mini Golf-but it was close! Yesterday we braved Magic Kingdom. Mostly the girls (Shannon, Carissa and Kaylee) did the rides and the old folks (Cary and I) just sat and visited! It was a great day for all! Of course, it was a typical Florida day and I sweat from places I didn't even know you could sweat from! Today was a pool day, and we all enjoyed the down time! Tonight we went to Cirque du soleil. It was WONDERFUL, we loved it! If the weather holds out, we are planning another pool day and some shopping for tomorrow! Check in with you later!

Stress, part 2

Well, like I told you, we had a rehearsal and two weddings this weekend. When we got home from the rehearsal, we found Kaylee sick. She just had a hard time after her little surgery. The first wedding went well yesterday, but I cancelled Kaylee's babysitting job before we left for the second wedding. She just wasn't doing well! Before we left the wedding, Kaylee had called to say Carissa was home and very sick, for us to hurry home. We arrived and called a friend who is an ER doctor and he felt we should bring Carissa in to be checked out. We didn't want to leave Kaylee home alone, so we drug her along! He checked both of them out, and now, we will take our little family and their collection of drugs and leave on vacation tomorrow morning!!! We are praying they both start feeling better very soon! We'll be gone a week, and I'm not sure if I will get to check in or not, but I'll try! (It was VERY cold in the ER, and I told Carissa if she didn't take the hood off I would take her picture!)

Stress

My thoughts today are that this has been a week of stress! We don't often think about stress being "good" but for the most part, this was a week of good stress. Keeping secrets is hard. We had to keep the engagement a secret from the girls-Joshua wanted to surprise his sisters. We had to lie! That's stressful! The engagement happened, the secret was out, and then we had the fun and excitement of the engagement party. It was great, lots of fun to meet some of Joshua and Jen's friends that we have heard about but had not met. We got to help do research for the location of the wedding. And then...yesterday, Kaylee had a small surgery done in her mouth. She passed out on me in the Dr. office, had to have oxygen, all vitals checked, and a couple of hours later we were on our way home. THAT was NOT good stress. By the afternoon she was doing better and seemed to perk up at the thought of going with Jen to look at wedding dresses! We did, and that was lots of fun! Last night, Cary and I had dinner with good friends at their home. It kind of felt like a safe and quiet place carved out for us after a stressful week. My FAVORITE part of going on a Princess Cruise is that I get to have a "loveboat" every night. I do. No matter what, I have to have it. It's a crunchy chocolate crust with chocolate mousse on top. On our last cruise, I was able to get the recipe. Now, my dear friend-I call her Martha because she often bails me out of cooking issues, she made loveboats for us last night!!! Now, that was THE perfect cure to a stressful week! Cary is off today and I honestly looked at him this morning and thought "I haven't seen him all week!" We just got back from the pool and had a good visit! Tonight we have a wedding rehearsal, tomorrow two weddings! We are in the wedding mode around here! Honestly, this was a week filled with love- love from family and friends, loveboats, and lots of celebrating!

Engagement Party

The party went well! First, we got to meet the matron of honor, Mel. She is only here for a few days. We had a huge turnout of people, so many I felt like I didn't get to visit with too many. I think Joshua and Jen felt pretty loved and congratulated! Jen called first thing this morning and asked to come over and let Kaylee and I help her get started on plans. She and Mel came over and we had the computers burning and plans going! We had a great day together and very busy too!

ENGAGED!!!

The wait is FINALLY over! Joshua and Jen got engaged tonight. Joshua arranged to meet up with her on Sanibel, but it was a surprise because she thought he was working in Miami. After accepting her ring, they came here for dinner. She was very surprised, which we had worked at! Since she has only been in on the secret for a few hours, there really aren't any details yet, other than we're looking toward a spring wedding! As soon as we were finished with dinner, Kaylee had Jen in front of the computer looking at dresses. I'm not sure if Jen knew she was getting a wedding planner with the deal! Carissa and Kaylee were surprised-not that they were getting engaged, but about it happening tonight! Tomorrow night we will have an engagement party for them. It's been a busy and stressful couple of days, but it's good stress! Secrets are rough! We love Jen so much and know that she is the one we have been praying for. God is faithful! Stay tuned!!!

Happy Father's Day

We had a very nice day yesterday. Josh and Jen came to McGregor for Father's Day. We all went to Cantina Larado for lunch-one of Cary's favorites! We decided to have apple pie and cinnamon ice cream instead of DQ cake. The kids came to the house and Cary opened his presents. He got lots of clothes-which always makes him happy, a massage gift certificate, and tickets to cirque du soleil in Orlando. After church on Sunday night we went to TCBY and had ice cream. I think it was a good day!

High Tea at the Ritz

Wow! Jen and I had an experience today! We shopped our way to Naples, then went to the Ritz for high tea to celebrate her birthday. It was a bit out of our "norm". There was a grand piano and a gentleman playing the whole time we were there. We got to smell all kinds of tea and decide which one we thought we'd like. We were served tea in our own little pots, and our waitress (from Romania)returned often to pour us some more. Then, they brought out our scones, little sandwiches, and the yummy sweet stuff! It was all great, but what made it special was just being with Jen. When I made reservations, they asked if it was a special occasion, and I said it was for a birthday, but I had forgotten they even asked. We were ready to go and I asked for the check, but it never came...till the strawberries and cream arrived with the birthday candle lit and the pianist playing "Happy Birthday". I love giving memories instead of gifts, it is always my choice if I can. I know today will be a special memory for me, and I hope for Jen!

A Day on Marco Island

Uncle Rob and Aunt Laura have spent the week on Marco, so today we went for a little visit. It had been years since we had been to Marco-Joshua didn't even know he'd ever been. We had a very relaxing day at the pool and the beach. After we left there, Joshua took us on a tour of some of the big money homes he's been doing work on in Naples. WOW! There are some mansions down there! We enjoyed our day with family.

Happy Birthday, Jen!!!

Today was Jen's birthday! Well, to be real honest, we were expecting BIG things from the day. Maybe I should say we were expecting something pretty small. It is not a secret that a proposal is coming, so it seemed to make perfect sense to ME that today would be the day. We've been waiting, and waiting! And, we continue to wait. It seems that Joshua decided it wouldn't be a surprise if he did it today. He's right, it wouldn't have been! Personally, I wouldn't have had a problem with that! OK, enough about that. So, what he did do...he got her a beautiful cross necklace and planned a surprise dinner party for her. After dinner they came here for the traditional DQ ice cream cake. For her birthday I'm taking her to the Ritz in Naples for high tea. That will be next week, and we'll enjoy that! I've been saying that if Joshua doesn't hurry up and ask her to marry him, and give her a ring, I'm gonna go get a ring myself and ask her! I'll try to be patient and wait a LITTLE longer! So, if it isn't clear, we love Jen, she's part of the family and fits in with our family perfectly. Happy birthday, Jen, and I'm ANXIOUSLY waiting with you!

Ms. Bumble Bee

Look at this! Is it any wonder we love this child? Claire had her dance recital this weekend and she was a bumble bee. Only Kaylee got to go. This weekend was the golf tournament for raising money for our mission trip this summer, so none of us got tickets. However, the tournament got cancelled because of Tropical Storm Barry that came through the FIRST day of hurricane season! Funny thing, around here, we kind of enjoy the tropical storms! We get great rain and a good excuse to be inside and read a book! It was a slow weekend, no real excitement other than Josh and Jen came over Saturday afternoon and stayed for dinner.