Monday Musings...

No - I do not have a better title for you than that. It's Monday... to me if you think of a week like a day, well then Monday is the morning. Bwa ha ha ha Not at my best on Mondays.....If I made it out of bed, got to work, got something accomplished... then I did really good. And YES... I did all those things today. Yay me! Even though it's Monday, it was a good mail day! Look! My stamp order from Hero Arts came today. Now do you not love the flourish and heart winged butterfly stamp?! Now I have to catch up in the thinking inking class and use these babies! Love the big flower background stamp too. Isn't it cool? The little robot guy was a gift in my order... Cute... but I am thinking he was from the reject pile... ha!!!













Got out there and had my walk today and this is what I came home to see. Tanner was on the porch while Darrel was mowing and Gracie was laying this close to Tanner and no one was like bloody.. Perhaps we are finally learning to get along? Although 9 times out of 10 Tanner will act like she doesn't bother him, but on the 10th time he goes charging at her like he's all big and bad...which he is NOT. Well today Gracie was being her normal goofy self and was all wrapped in Tanner's rope there and every time he moved, she was laying backwards and upside down attacking the rope. It was too cute. Her she is in a calmer moment...














Isn't she pretty? I am so happy her personality has not changed with motherhood. She is still funny, affectionate and playful and she absolutely loves attention.

So I headed out for my walk today and it was one of those days where I was tired the whole time. I hate that. I wish someone could explain to me why some days I feel like I could climb a mountain and some days I just want to pull up a chair and sit down or perhaps laying down would be better! Ha!! I was like staggering tired by 1/2 way thru my walk.... so what did I do? I added some distance and walked farther. I know. I make no sense. I am just determined not to give up sooner or even go easy on myself on the hard days. I know if I do, well then the next time I will give myself even more of a break and think "well I am tired and it will just be too hard today so I'll skip it." I am NOT going to start allowing myself to do that. I am heading for that 80 lb mark!! I am at 76 so 80 is in my sight! While I was walking today I was thinking about 100 lbs not being all that far away at this point. How cool will that be? It blows my mind. I want to think of something to do when I hit 100 lbs gone to like commemorate that goal. I was wondering if I could afford some kind of small piece of jewelery or something to remember it by. I am sure it would need to be pink.....

I am wondering if Darrel will ever want to go back to the beach with me. Yesterday he had a number of problems not limited to his chair trying to fold up on him and then one end of it breaking completely.... After he was all situated he had to then get up and turn his chair completely around and use the foot rest end as the head rest... Turns out he also got quite a sunburn on his chest and the tops of his feet. Poor guy. I feel bad for him because I can tell by looking how much it must be stinging and hurting. We are like totally backwards this year. Usually he is the one all tan and brown and I am the one bright pink and in pain. From walking this year and getting just an hour of sun each day, I already had a good base tan this time and have not really burned like I normally would. I've always teased Darrel that he generally gets completely tanned just by thinking about it! Ha. So not sure what is up this year! Hoping he feels better tomorrow.



You didn't think I'd finish my post without the birthday ticker did you? 19 days.... and only 13 days till birthday week! yay!! Did you know its a 3 day work week for me? Yippee! Looking forward to the long weekend! We may go see the fireworks in Vincennes on Saturday. Not sure. The Drive In has also been mentioned again for maybe date night. Depends on the weather. Hope you have an awesome Holiday week. Blessings!

All Darrel All The Time...

I was pulling pictures to post and realized I mainly had photos of Darrel from the weekend... I told him it was like "all Darrel all the time..." bwa ha ha ha He thinks I'm weird... I told him I thought that was a pretty good idea! Ha! I know I could get used to it.

Do you see what my sweet husband has in his hand? Friday night, date night, we stopped at Schnuck's grocery store in the big city. We needed to pick up a jar of hot fudge topping and cool whip for the cake we still needed to make to take to Cole's grad party on Saturday. Well Schnuck's just happens to have some of the most fabulous roses ever. Can you see how long the stems are on these? Or how big the blooms are? I LOVE them. I mean I love roses anyway, but the longer the stem, the bigger the flower the better and these are perfect. Here is another pic so you can see how tall...



















Cool huh? Well I just peeked and kept walking and I turn around and Darrel is pulling flowers out of the bucket. I just love him. He even got them bagged up and found little water tubes for the stems all on his own and now.. they are sitting next to me.

Earlier for date night we had eaten at one of our favorite chinese places and then had headed to the mall to pick up my bracelet and get a card and gift for Cole. We did not come home with my bracelet. I was so disappointed! It was resized and ready, but the clasp wouldn't come open. We think it was bent while they were working on it so they had to send it back to the guy for a new clasp. So.. maybe next week it will be back on my wrist where it belongs. We found Cole a cool key chain/flash drive at Things Remembered and had it engraved with his initials. It was really cool looking. I also got to pick out a new pair of sunglasses. I have gone thru about 3 pairs of the cheapies from like JC Penney's. I have serious trouble with dry eye and have to keep my eyes protected from the wind. Also since my cataract surgery and the dry eye stuff, too bright of light really bugs me. There is also macular degeneration in my family and the eye DR says its important to wear good sunglasses. So I wanted something that wasn't the $10-$20 JC Penney or Kohl's styles since those keep falling apart on me. Yet I did not want to spend/could not afford to spend over $100 for something like RayBan's... Well finally at Macy's in Eastland Mall they have a sunglass hut and they had a pair of polarized fossil sunglasses for a good price and with a good warranty! yay!! I've worn them yesterday and today and am loving them!




















Saturday we headed to my parent's house to celebrate Cole's 8th grade graduation. Mom had made some yummy pulled pork for everyone and we were going to have a meal and spend the day together. This was Cole opening his gifts. Who can believe how grown up this guy is? He will actually be old enough for a learner's permit this year... wow!














OK Lauyrn, I told you since you were looking so pathetic I was going to have to show everyone and post you on my blog. Ha!! Lauryn is an awesome niece but was having a bit of a stomach ache because we were all eating too much good food yesterday! Ha! Isn't she cute?




















Picture #2 of my handsome husband with more to come.. This was in Mom's kitchen after dinner. Darrel and I were there, Mom and Dad, Jen and her family and Jason and his family. I think the last time we were all in one place was Mother's Day. It was pretty hot out so we mostly hid inside with the A/C and played a game or two and visited. It was a good day.













Now I am always told I look like my mother so yesterday we had Darrel take our picture. I am the one on the left... ha ha ha ha Kidding... I know you knew that. This is my sweet Mother. She doesn't look 20 years older than me does she. I think she looks pretty great. Not sure how much we look alike here. In some photos I can really see it. Not as much in this one. Sometimes other people seem to see it more than we do. I keep trying to picture one of us with the other one's hair color....




















See I saved the best pic for last. Cute right? Today after church we headed back to the beach! Yes, it is still June and I have been to the beach twice! LOVE it. Darrel got to go too today. We had a nice relaxing afternoon and are both currently feeling the effects of the sun. I plan to go again this week and I further plan to buy a summer pass! I am not letting another summer pass by and then realizing how many things I missed and didn't get to do. We want to go to the beach at least on Sunday afternoons. We want to go fishing. We want to hit Holiday World and we want to go to the Indiana State Fair. Can't wait!





Did you notice the ticker ? Yes, boys and girls, it is birthday countdown 2009! Only 21 days as of the writing of this post! yay! I love birthdays! Had you heard?! Ha! Darrel was asking me today what I want to do and what gift do I want. Would you believe I hadn't thought of a gift? I of course quickly came up with a few ideas. First there was this pair of australian opal earrings we saw at Fred Meyer Jeweler in the mall... Um thought that was a good idea till I just looked them up here and saw the price! Yikes!! Moving on to the next idea...We saw these cool fossil watches that had a pink face! I liked this one, this one and this one. There was one I liked even better that looks a lot like the first one, but with the rhinestones all the way around the face too. I really think the pink plastic one is cute too. Here is one on amazon that is really close to the one I liked best. This water dial one is pretty cool too. I love the oversize face and the water dial thing. I think I just linked that same one at Macy's didn't I? I think I am liking the oversize dial look on any of them. Wouldn't it be pretty to wear one of the watches with my pink bracelet Darrel got me? I also asked Darrel if he knew the new Vera fall fabrics were out and he said yes... he had read that on my blog... ha ha ha ha It would be fun to get this sunglasses case in the new Carnaby fabric. I just happen to have some new sunglasses to put in there! Ha! I keep thinking of getting the all in one wristlet too. Can't decide if I'd want that in the new Carnaby or in the Cupcakes Pink.... Of course there is always the old standbys.... gift cards for CJ Banks or clothes... Bath and Body Works stuff (love the PINK line...I know you are shocked... ) scrapbook stuff.... Heck... I just like presents remember? Ha!

As for what to do we aren't sure. It might just be dinner out where I want to go... (LaCarretta, Longhorn, um Cheesecake Factory again anyone? ) or shop somewhere. We wondered about the stores in Nashville TN where Opryland used to be. Is that a mall? Anyone been there? Is it good? Looks like this is the place I think. Wondering if we could/would drive that in one day or if we'd need to stay overnight. Love a nice hotel....

Any Avon users out there? I used to buy Avon fairly often when I worked/lived in IL. We had a rep. that came to the office which was convenient. I have rarely seen a book since we've moved. Well my friend Julia just started as a rep. so I got a new book to browse today. I always liked their glazewear liquid lip color. My favorite is the brown sugar but I am thinking of trying the dynamo PINK... very pretty in the brochure and its on sale for $1.99. I am also kind of tired of my mascara (maybeline in the green/pink tube) and wondered about trying some avon that my Mom likes (or used to like) which was the wash-off waterproof mascara. Anyone like that? Also interested in the Look Alert Eye Brightener. I used to have a similar product from Mary Kay that I really liked and wondered if this would work as well. Looking at Avon again made me think of a friend from IL that passed away a few years ago. She was my boss and a great lady. She loved the Avon shower gels (as did I) and she would talk about how she would get all the scents and have one of each hanging on her shower rod so she could choose a different one each day. I miss her. She was so great. Might need a shower gel just because it makes me think of her! Ha!

Speaking of lip color.... I just got 2 shades of the Bare Esecentuals Buxom Babes lip colors. LOVE love love them. They are beautiful colors, they taste/smell good, and they make your lips tingly. I got mine at QVC here. I picked the Chloe and Sophia. One is bronzey and one is coppery. Did I mention I love them? PLUS they had these at Sephora in the mall for $18 each. wow.... They are that good though. The price on QVC for 2 is $29.16 but when you add tax and shipping, you are pretty close to the same price.

Finished my book at the beach today. It was called I Heart Bloomberg. I enjoyed it and it was good Christian fiction. I now find out there are 2 more books in the series... now I of course need those. I know the library has one so I may head there to check that one out. The other is due out this year and I am not sure if its released yet. OK... just looked on CBD and #4 is due out 8/15. I need to track down #2 and #3. I started The Yada Yada Prayer Group today at the beach. So far so good on that one. It is a series too and looks pretty popular.

I am way behind in the Jennifer McGuire Thinking Inking class on 2peas! Bummer. I really want to do this and just stocked up on some more distress ink. I am going to go back to where I left off which um would be lesson #2....... and still try to do all of them, or at least most of them. I keep feeling like if I could get my head together and get a good to do list and a good plan... well then there just must be time to do all these things I want to do right? It's worth a shot anyway... see and now I need to fit in beach time too! Ha ha ha ha

Well.. still haven't shared my anniversary mini mini book..I promise to do that this week and show you the pens Darrel made for our Dads for Father's Day. He even made a box to put them in. Very cool stuff!!! Hope you have an awesome week. Blessings!

So yes... I Caved...

Ok so this is as much of a picture as you will ever see of me in a swimsuit... ha ha ha ha.... Remember yesterday when I mentioned being tempted to just blow off everything today and go to the beach.... YEP I am a slacker. I was brave and went to the beach all by myself. I sat in my pretty beach chair in the water and had a wonderful time. So peaceful... It was awesome. When you haven't been to the beach in awhile it takes some time to be ready to go. First you have to find your beach chair. That one was covered because my sweet husband put it in the car for me. I am assuming before he did that he opened it up and wiped it off and scared away all the spiders..... Then since you have lost some weight, you have to find out if you have a swim suit you can wear. I had 3 stashed in my drawer. All 3 were too big. One was really bad with the top stretched out and um hanging shall we say too low.... Tossed that one aside. Suit number 2 & 3 were both too big, but workable... one was more stretched out than the other on top and one gave me saggy butt... bwa ha ha ha since I planned on sitting mostly I picked the saggy butt! Ha!!!! Now to find the suntan lotion, my ipod, my book, my phone.... some water and pop in my pretty vera cooler bag my Mom got me.... and since I had not eaten an apple, a fiber one bar and some almonds. Got over to the beach and there were maybe only 15 or so people there. I liked that. The less crowd the better. The sand wasn't too scalding hot like I remembered from when I was a kid so made it safely to the shore and set up my chair in the water so I could hang my toes in while I read my book. I was having a little bit of a hard time. I always feel self conscious and like everyone is watching me. I just kept praying and was determined to enjoy the afternoon. Got my chair set up, got my towels laid out all nice, got my bag hanging on my chair and headed in the water to cool off first. Um it was warm enough to be bath water and its a lake for goodness sakes. I was amazed how warm it was. Of course after you've been on the beach for a bit you get pretty warm so then the water felt cooler/better. I texted Darrel a similar picture to the one above to show him I had actually made it to the beach... and then I settled in to read for a bit. Actually got to feeling like I had a little mini vacation for a couple of hours. At one point I looked over and I see these two young girls setting up their spot and I am squinting thinking is that my niece? Yep! My niece Lindsay was there with a friend so that was fun to see her.

So yes.. I pretty much successfully blew off everything today... Well not everything. I did walk 3 miles before going to the beach and I did do 2 loads of laundry this evening. On the downside I completely forgot I am supposed to make a cake for a grad party saturday so I will need to be figuring out what to do about that between now and Sat. at 1 PM. Oh well... I will figure out something... Ohhhh doesn't like a Baskin Robbins cake sound yummy?

When Darrel got home I was asking his opinion on the 3 swim suit dilema and he determined they are all too big and I need to get one. I was willing to make do with the one I wore today but I am thinking he would like to be sure nothing um like falls out. Ha!!! I would not be enjoying that either... at least not at the beach! Ha!!!! Ok totally kidding and its late and I am getting punchy and am feeling slightly sun burned.... Anyway was doing a little online suit shopping this evening and um finally thought I had one picked out and put it in my cart so it can tell me.... this suit is on backorder but will be shipped on 8/28..... ok Gee thanks.. That is really helpful... NOT... PLUS I have a question.. they put suits in all these categories like hides your hips, hides your waist, helps your bust... Now what if I am liking to hide all those areas? What category should I pick or is the message that maybe I just need like a gunny sack.. That ought to do the trick huh? Ha! I was beginning to consider the skirtini, tankini type things where you can buy a top and a bottom. Maybe that is the good choice to get the best bottom coverage and the best fitting/flattering top? I think I am lost. Plus as I mentioned since its late in the season, everything is pretty picked over with only certain sizes left.

Got an e-mail today from Verabradley.com. Did you know the fall colors are up? Check it out here. I really like the look of the Carnaby. Looks like there are also some new purse/tote styles. I like this pleated tote and also the saddle up. There are several new things at the top of the line up here.

In scrapping news, have you been over to Shabby Pink Designs lately? Lisa has a great new kit up here. Loving the Fancy Pants stuff on this one. Be sure to check it out. I also got the latest newsletter from The Doodlebug. They are starting to put out details for their fall retreat! Yay! Loved the fall retreat last year and can't wait to go again. You can check out the info. in the July/Aug Newsletter here. They are also having 2 classes in August with Kellee Goree from Basic Grey! I am sooo signing up for that. There is info. on that in the newsletter as well. The Scrapbook Tree has a big crop coming up in October I believe on the 10th. I am excited about attending that one as well. I think its for Scrap Pink. Scrapbook Tree had a great crop for NSD so I am thinking this one will be awesome too! So lots of fun scrapping stuff coming up!

Better head to bed. Work in the AM and I think we are heading to the big city for date night. I am hoping we will be picking up my bracelet that we took in to be resized. Yay! Love that bracelet. Have an awesome Friday. Blessings.

More Home Movies

As I started posting these pictures it went thru my head... is this the equivalent of like strapping someone in a chair and forcing them to watch your home movies or vacation slides? Bwa ha ha ha ha... I sure hope not. I mean I supposed you can always click on that next web site if you are sick of me by this point... but again... I hope not. I have really been enjoying sharing our story with you. It has caused me to remember and re-live a lot of old memories and really has me thinking about the girl I was then vs. the woman I am now and what has changed... More on that in a moment. Anyway... since I am having fun.. I thought we would move on to the honeymoon! The photo above ladies and gentlemen is my very first scrapbook layout. I started scrapbooking in 2001. I wanted a special gift for Darrel for our 15th wedding anniversary and what I decided to do was make a scrapbook with highlights from those 1st 15 years together. I started with our honeymoon. Back then I used to do a lot of my own art work and lettering on my pages. I have always liked art and took classes in high school. I drew the tree on the right and then cut it out and added punched leaves to create my tree. Not too awful huh?











So as I mentioned, our honeymoon was at Bull Shoals Lake Arkansas. We drove there the day after our wedding and it was a miracle we made it because we were both exhausted. I don't know how either one of us stayed awake long enough to drive that whole way. We stayed in cabin number 5 at Shady Oaks Resort. It wasn't like "luxurious" but it was nice and had a little living room, small kitchen area, bedroom and bath. It had an ancient window air conditioner that I LOVED because it blew like artic cold air. I like the A/C set on like "snow." Just ask my husband. We spent the week being very lazy by the pool, going to some nearby towns to shop and I can't remember if we went out on the lake. You got a small like fishing boat with the cabin rental, but no motor... handy huh? We went out for dinner each evening and mostly stayed in for breakfast/lunch.

We also had 3 of us in our cabin... Darrel... me... and the mouse. Are you remembering I HATE mice. We were sitting on the couch one of the evenings and across the room we see this mouse pop out of the stove burner and look at us. I of course screamed loudly. Darrel got a mouse trap from the resort office and set out to do some mouse hunting. He also got broken in really quick to the whole husband routine because he had to be on mouse patrol for several days. That was the loudest most obnoxious stinkin' mouse I've ever seen... Since I was just sure it was going to crawl all over us while we were sleeping, Darrel actually closed the bedroom door and like stuffed towels under it to make me feel better. I know, he is pretty sweet isn't he? In the morning before I could get up to head to the girls room... I would like want him to make sure the mouse wasn't in there... I am not that bad these days but again remembering I was only 20 at the time. One night the stinkin' mouse woke me up scratching at the door/wall trying to get in where Darrel had stuffed towels under the door... I of course woke Darrel up... He was sleepy and tired of being on mouse patrol and I remember he got up and slapped the door/wall and the scratching stopped. This had been several days since we first saw the mouse and no luck with the trap. Well after slapping the wall... less than 5 minutes later we heard the trap go off. It was on the opposite side of the other room and it was like Darrel had scared it and it had ran over there and found the trap. It was too funny and I was very relieved that the mouse was gone. Did I mention I HATE mice?












Darrel took this photo of me at the Bull Shoals Dam. I used to be all about the matching and noticed right away here I had on an orange tank top and orange earrings to match my shirt. I think I had khaki shorts. This is another photo where I remember being unhappy with how I looked because I had gained weight. This is also another one where now I am going... why couldn't I see what I really looked like. I mean goodness... it wasn't so bad was it?

Besides going to Bull Shoals, we also stopped in Branson MO, and St Louis MO. We did some shopping and sight seeing in Branson and in St Louis we went to the zoo and to Six Flags. Remember the shirt from the first photo I posted?

Our first home was a mobile home in Minooka IL. It was such a cool God thing. We had been saving for a down payment and every tiny little penny counted. We didn't have quite enough for what we would need. Darrel's job had been negotiating their contract and right at that time it was not only settled, but they got a raise, AND the raise was retroactive to the end of the last contract and that amount made up the amount we needed. In all the time Darrel worked for that company that had not happened before (with the retro pay) and did not happen again.

So our mobile home was brand new. We ordered it and got to pick colors, wall paper and furniture that came with it. While we were on our honeymoon Darrel's sister Renita decided to decorate to welcome us home.













You will be noticing lots of blue and mauve... that was so THE thing at that time in the 80's and I loved it. Um now... not so much. I am noticing how bare everything looks from being so new! Ha! We had things quite a bit fuller 15 years later when we moved to Indiana.













She also decorated the bed.... subtle huh? Ha! If I remember correctly when we turned the bed down... there was rice IN the bed. If I also remember correctly, we returned the favor when she got married. OH! Have to tell you another story about rice. The 1st morning of our honeymoon, Darrel was in his suitcase getting his clothes and I hear him say "I'm gonna kill Bill!" Seems he was finding all this rice all through his suitcase and he was certain his friend Bill, one of the groomsmen, had been the one that had done it. Several times on our honeymoon he mentioned he was going to get Bill for doing that. Well guess what? It wasn't Bill. It was his MOM! HA!!! Seems that the last day he was home, he was loading his stuff into his car and every time he went outside with another box, his Mom had grabbed a handful of rice, ran to his room, opened his suitcase and stuck her hand in and scattered the rice... She did this several times. It was so funny to find out later his Mom had been the culprit.

I moved into our mobile home about a month before our wedding. One day I came home from work and noticed the spare bedroom door was closed. I had not left it closed... so I go to open it trying to figure out if Darrel had been there and look what I found! A kitten. The kitten and I scared each other! Ha. I had been wanting a kitten and Darrel had gotten us one and surprised me. We named him Teddy and we had him for several years. I am not remembering why we had to give him away.

Looking at all these old pictures and talking about old memories has made me remember so many things about myself. I am realizing that somewhere over the last 22 years I had kind of lost that girl a little bit. It seems like because of having more and more weight issues over the years that I forgot I was and can still be that girl. That girl felt pretty and more confident and you know what? I am realizing I am feeling more like her these days. I am realizing she isn't gone, I just forgot about her and pushed her aside but I want her back. I want to not only be that me again but incorporate her into all the good things about me now. I am thinking if I was good at 20 I can be even better at 42. I don't think that is just a dream or wishful thinking. I am thinking that is up to me and it has way more to do with how I think than anything else. God made both girls and I think he is showing me she is all the same girl and that all these good things I am seeing are the things He made me to be.

Old memories also reminded me of all the music I used to listen to. When Darrel and I were dating was when I first discovered Christian Contemporary Music. I still remember getting my first album (yes... old.. vinyl.. big round black record...) and it was Amy Grant, Age to Age. I was home alone. I put that album on my stereo (records/cassette/8-track combo....) and turned up the volume and out came the sounds of "Sing Your Praise To The Lord..." which has an awesome orchestra like opening. I was hooked from the first minute. LOVED it... Got to thinking about that today and thought.. .well duh.. why haven't I checked itunes for that stuff? Guess what? They had my old favorites, Age to Age and Straight Ahead albums, plus I also found a couple others that were my fav!!! Beautiful Music, and Mountain Top.. plus then I found "Nobody Knows Me Like You" by Benny Hester. OK.. turned that one on and I was right back sitting in the middle front seat of Darrel's car... He had a cassette with that on it and we listened to it allll the time.

Have had an interesting week walking. Especially the last 2 days. Monday I was near the end of my walk and getting ready to loop thru the last campground area. I suddenly hear someone talking to me so I look up and there is this man sitting at a picnic table at a camp site and he is asking me how I am doing, etc. I thought it was a little odd that I hadn't seen him or looked at him yet he was making a point that I saw him and trying to have a conversation with me. I just like said I'm fine and kept going. As I am walking away I start to get one of those weird vibes... because I realize he doesn't belong at that camp site. I know who does, and I've never seen him around. Then I realize there is no one else around and start to feel kind of creeped out. If I kept walking the road I was on, I was going to go back by him again... so I followed my gut and where the road curved, I kept going straight right thru the grass and headed for my car. Just had that weird/creeped out feeling and usually when I don't follow my gut I regret it. I told Darrel about it and he didn't like it (of course) and told me I did the right thing.

Ok - so next day... Tuesday... I am walking along.. .listening to my music.. minding my own business and I hear a vehicle coming up behind me. This is normal but it was going slow enough that I am thinking I wish they'd just pass already... sometimes people seem to slow down rather than just go around and keep moving. Well this is a big silver pick-up with the big tires and pipes and the whole bit and a guy in it by himself. He slows way down and says to me "would I like to do some walking for him too...." I did not even know how to answer that. I just looked at him... and kind of waved him on, put my eyes back in front of me and kept moving. I don't think I said a thing. He pulled away. He was not just making small talk. I mean Darrel would never pull up by some woman who was by herself and start talking and it was kind of a weird thing to say. So as I am walking I realize he was probably going to a camp site and there was a good chance as I walked my route I could go by him again. I did go by him again but just kept moving and praying and he and his friend didn't seem to see me. This little encounter bugged me enough that part of my walk I had my little pink pepper spray in my hand. Probably didn't help that it was 2 days in a row and maybe he was just being nice, or maybe even "just" flirting or something but I'd just like to be left alone please. I mean with the slow driving up and then the whole exchange it felt like he was checking me out. I came home again and told Darrel about it. I came in the house and said to him "am I particularly cute in this outfit or something?" (and um totally kidding because I never think I am cute enough that some guy is looking at me ok....) And Darrel says why... did some guy say something to you again? Then of course he tells me I did look cute. Um NOT! I walk in walking shorts and an old tank top... no make up... and um completely slimy sweaty by that point... not seeing any cuteness in that! Ha! And NO - Darrel was NOT liking this either. I think he is ready to go find some people and beat them up... ha ha ha ha.... (He is so cute... he gets this look on his face and says "I don't like it..." ) Both incidents were actually kind of annoying...I am old fashioned and conservative but I thought it was totally inappropriate for either guy to go out of his way to make contact and conversation with a woman who was alone. Why do some men just seem to think its their right to look and make comments? Anyone got an anwer for me?

Since I whined and cried about the 5K people.. I have to tell you what they did. If you recall after the 5K we did earlier this month, we got to the walk to find out they did not have our registration therefore we did not get our shirts or goodie bags. I was very disappointed about this and was doubtful they would follow thru and send us our stuff. Well I was wrong. Quite wrong. Today not only did our shirts come, but also 2 goodie bags that were very decent AND a note that said they were sorry for the hassle AND a $50, yes.. I said fifty dollar... gift card from Casey's. Um... that is like $50 worth of GAS. I was stunned. So big wow and thank you to the 5K organizers at St Mary's Hospital in Boonville. We appreciate you going above and beyond to correct the situation.

Day at home tomorrow. I have sooo much cleaning and things to do so this will make NO sense... but I am tempted to blow it all off and either go to the beach or scrapbook or maybe both. I posted something about it on facebook and I got 5 votes plus my husband telling me the cleaning would be there later and they voted for the beach and scrapbooking! Ha! One friend even said and I quote "summer is too short. cleaning is for winter!" HA!!!! I told her I was going to print that out and hang it on my fridge! Ha! I may do the minimum tomorrow and try to catch a break. Life has been moving way too fast and when I get overwhelmed sometimes I tend to retreat. Sometimes it helps though cause I get a second wind and then get back in the game and get something done. Plus.. I started a new book and wouldn't it be fun to sit with my feet in the water and read? (I am reading Melody Carlson's I Heart Bloomberg which I just started but am really enjoying.) I told my facebook friends it was nice to have so much support for my being a slacker. ha!! I must say... weight loss and all I still have issues with going to the beach. I really want to go, but last time I went (a few years ago) some kids made some cruel comments and I came home hurt and sad. 75, almost 76 lbs later I feel like a new me... but the old things are hard to forget. However - I may not be, may never be a size 6 but I am finished being unhappy with myself and hiding at home. So - I just may brave the beach after all....

Blessings!

A Perfect Day

Saturday.... the big celebration day. Nope, it wasn't like the 25th or the 30th or those "big" years that people have a big celebration for, but we love anniversaries and celebrating our marriage and so we make every anniversary a celebration. We decided we would head to Indy for the day. Our whole relationship we have always enjoyed days were we just take off for the day together and roam the malls and shop and eat out and laugh and talk... seriously I think my husband's favorite part of the day is laughing at me. Ha! So we headed for Indy and Castleton Square Mall. But... before we left... it was present time. Now first, Darrel had a dozen red roses delivered to work on Friday. Here they are on my desk.




















That had me smiling for the rest of the day. Love, love, love receiving flowers from my husband. Love it! Roses are definitely my favorite. Used to always want red. Since the new pink obession he now sometimes gets pink too. But - for our anniversary - the red were the perfect choice because we had red roses in our wedding. It's several days later now and they are still holding up well and looking great! As for other gifts, we exchanged them before we left for the day. Now you might remember that Darrel's birthday ipod was a combo birthday/anniversary/father's day gift. That meant I wasn't going to have anything for him on our day. Did NOT like that so instead of just making a card, I decided to use this little Bazzill blank mini book (first pic above), and the pics we took recently and turn that into a "did you know I love you" book similar to the "I'm in like with you" book I gave him when we first started dating. He seemed surprised and he liked it, proven by the fact that he has been carrying it around with him to show everyone. And yes.. I liked that! I've already got too much to post and too many pics today so I will share more of the book later this week.










Next he hands me this giant box from Vera Bradley that arrived days ago and has been sitting in our dining room. Guess what he did? He ordered that Limited Edition Vintage Rose purse I've been thinking about/looking at for several months now. He saw when it went on sale on the Vera web site and ordered it for me. I LOVE IT! It is soooo pretty and very pink! The fabric is silky and has a watercolor look to the print. PLUS the inside is totally fuschia pink!!!! It is nice and roomy and has 2 end pockets on the outside and the regular pockets on the inside. I can't wait to use it. Is he good or what? He even pays attention to things like purses. The other cool thing.... I have not been able to find that purse once in any Vera store... and... when I went to look at it again on the Vera web site... it's gone! He got it just in time!!! Now, the other two things were from our trip to the mall Saturday. The Vera store there was having a 40% off sale on certain styles/colors. I got the limited pink nylon wallet for a great price and then Darrel decided to get me the umbrella too! Insert big smile here.












Since we were going to eat a big dinner... WITH dessert later, I did not want to eat a lot or like have a lunch meal during the day. Instead we like just had a fiber one bar for breakfast and then had a couple of "mall snacks" while we shopped. I have not had mall food for like 6 mos... or a year. I never can afford to use the points and then have a meal too, plus I don't have the appetite for both these days. Saturday though, we enjoyed some double dipped chocolate peanuts from the South Bend Chocolate Co. Soooooo good. YUM. We just got a small amount and there are still some left! Be VERY impressed. We also enjoyed an Auntie Anne's pretzel!












My fav... jalapeno pretzel with hot salsa cheese! It was SO good. Know what? When you don't have one just anytime... they like taste better when it's a once in a while special treat! Where the pretzel place was, there was no where to sit down.. and um its kind of hard to walk and dip your pretzel and hold your purse, etc.. you know? Well there was this emtpy kiosk right in front of the place and other people were sitting there so we walked over and sat down. See..here is Darrel.. isn't he cute?




















He had the cinnamon sugar pretzel sticks. After we'd been there a few minutes this mall security lady comes up and stands and has a conversation with a custodian worker for like 5 minutes. She sees us sitting there the whole time. Then she suddenly decided to tell us "we ask that you don't sit on those..." To Darrel I'm like what is that supposed to mean? "We ask..." Who asked? Was it posted somewhere? Was there a sign when we came in? Do not sit on the kiosk? I don't think so... Plus... what exactly was it going to hurt? Yes... I was in a sassy mood and she annoyed me. I didn't like the way she put it and I didn't like that she did not say please. When she was telling the lady on the other side the same thing I looked at her (the mall cop) and said "please" because she still wasn't being polite about it. So now Darrel is laughing at me and I am venting about being harassed by the mall cops... ha ha ha ha ha ha (we once got in trouble at the Art Institue in Chicago while on a date.... that time it was Darrel.... see we are quite the rebels.... bwa ha ha ha ha)











I forgot to share this picture! We took this one before we left the house in the morning. I said it was our "here is how we started our day" picture. Ha! I went back to last year's picture to see how we'd changed (as in do we look older....don't answer that...) and found out Darrel had on the same shirt! Too funny! He looks good in that color don't you think? I told him he didn't look older... just cuter. Any other votes yes on that one? Ha!











Next it was time for dinner! So we headed to the next mall (The Fashion Mall) where The Cheesecake Factory Is. OH! I forgot to mention we stopped at Archiver's... the reason I need to tell you is this.... I bought one thing... It was $2. I was at Archiver's and I spent $2... Maybe I was sick? Ha! After that we headed to the restaurant. We put our name in and asked to wait for a booth (because we HATE their regular tables.... It's like all the customers are sitting at one big table don't you think? WAY too close for my personal space preferences...). We had a great waiter and we told him it was our anniversary and so therefore, would he mind taking our picture. This was the shot he got. Not bad huh? I like it!












I decided to get my favorite cajun jambalya pasta. Oh my gosh YUM. Now all the times I've ordered it before it was a mix of chicken and shrimp. On Sat. the waiter informed me I could get just shrimp, just chicken or both. I quickly said just shrimp please because usually I am like trying to ration the shrimp because they are so good and I am always sad when I run out. Ever do that where you keep digging around in the pasta hoping you missed one?! Ha! So all shrimp this time was awesome!! Darrel had the crusted romano chicken which is basically Chicken Parmesan.














When it came time for dessert, I knew what I was ordering... Remember the Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake? Well Darrel decided to get the same thing. When the waiter came with our plates - look what they did for us!














OK - how awesome is that? How did they know that I love, love stuff like that? They wrote on our plates in chocolate and added little colored sprinkles too! I didn't think it was possible, but that might have even made it taste better. Ha! Neither of us could finish our dessert so we just enjoyed some left overs this evening... and again YUM... Best chocolate dessert ever.



















We walked around that mall a bit after that. I found this great daily agenda thing in one of the stores. Totally my kind of thing. It's called the MyAgenda or the Mom Agenda. Have you seen these? I love this thing. The monthly/weekly calendar section is laid out prefectly and then it has other categories and sections for other projects... and it comes in pink... I did not buy one Saturday... However when I checked it out better online and saw that it has 17 months, comes in PINK, starts in aug 09, and found a web site where it was on sale ...um yes...I just might have ordered one. Not loving my current calendar and thought maybe a new one would help my current state of confusion with my long undone to do list! Ha!

After that we drove thru downtown Indy and around monument circle and then headed home. I read most of the way home and enjoyed the time to finish my book (Vanishing Acts, Jodi Piccoult). We got ourselves home and had to take care of the kittens, get stuff gathered and ready for our Father's day trip to Mom & Dad's house and church in the AM and we headed to bed. It was a long full day but it was perfect. I have the best husband ever and love him so much. Thanks honey for a great Anniversary.

I want to share some Dad's day pics and pics of the gifts Darrel made for our Dads. I also have pics of that mini book and some other things. I'll share some time this week. Figured that was way too much for one post. Plus... now that anniversary celebrations are complete... you know what that means don't you? Count down to birthday week begins! Spread the news!

Can I Have A Weekend To Recover From The Weekend?

It has been a LONG weekend but it was truly awesome. Now it is Sunday night, it's late, I am tired, I am feeling like I could use a weekend to recover from the weekend and yet the work day will be here soon.... I don't have the time or energy to share all the details with you but thought I'd leave you with a little peek of our Saturday. Our waiter took this picture while we were having dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It was SO good... YUM. I want to tell you about that, the flowers Darrel sent me, my gift to him, his gift to me... shoppping... Father's Day.... see... no time to share now. Stay tuned and I hope to at least get started tomorrow! Have a great Monday!

22 Years Ago

22 Years ago tonight, right about this time actually 8 PM Illinois time, this is what I was doing. Sitting at Babas's restaurant having our wedding reheasrsal dinner. My husband is hugging me and looking sly there because he was about to give me this....

Do you see that box in my hand? Do you see my Mom trying to act lke she has NO idea what it could be.... She lies. She knew! Ha. Well Darrel had just given me my wedding gift from him and guess what it was? LOOK...












Pearls! Yes, he got me a string of pearls. Loved them!! Loved them , loved them. I wore them on our wedding day and lots and lots of times since them. My Mamaw and his mamaw always had pearls and I always thought they were such a cool heritage keepsake, heirloom kind of thing and was (am) so thrilled to have my own strand. He is good.. I keep telling you.

So it's date night and we are sitting at Zanders, the fabulous gourmet ice cream place. Did you know they have free wi fi? Love free Wi Fi! Why doesn't everyone have it so I could just bring my pretty pink laptop with me where ever I go? Makes sense to me. Since we are having the big anniversary celebration tomorrow, we needed a low key inexpensive evening for date night. A very sweet lady from church had blessed me with a gift certificate at Christmas time and we put it to use tonight for dinner. It was good. Then we headed over to Zanders and enjoyed a little um ice cream before soaking up their Internet... OK - the ice cream... they have something called Vanilla Jimble. Oh my goodness... my new favorite. Homemade vanilla with oreos and chocolate chips! YUM. It ranks right up there with my first favorite here which is mint chocolate chip. PLUS I asked for extra chips on top. I meant chocolate chips. She thought I meant the waffle cone chip they give you in your ice cream cup and she gave me like 8! YUM.. Did not even know you could get extra of those so thought I'd share that great tip! We were staking out the best table but someone beat us to it. (the square glass table in the window) Well since we are hanging out for a bit, when they left we took up residence. Ok 2 problems with the "best" table. One... it's glass.. my pretty pink wireless mouse does not work so good on glass so I am currently using my date book as a mouse pad! Ha. Two.... the seats in these chairs are DEEP... they are for TALL people like my husband. I sat back in it and asked my husband if I could sit at the grown ups table! Seriously... my legs were like dangling and I felt like a little kid in her parents chair! Bwa ha ha ha... I have since discovered my purse makes a pretty good back cushion and solved the problem. I know you were worried.

Ok awwwwwwww! While I am sitting here blogging to you Darrel left a comment on my blog on yesterday's post. He is going to get me all emotional here.... You have to see what he said... Check it out here... Awwww he is the sweetest thing ever.



















Here is the promised wedding dress photo. Not too shabby huh? I LOVED my dress... I think I mentioned that yesterday. This was it.. THE Wedding Day! I think I can remember every moment. This photo was taken at my parent's house. I met here with my bridesmaids to get dressed and ready for the wedding. It was HOT and HUMID and rainy. I did not care. My hair did not come out like I wanted. Didn't care. My makeup wasn't perfect... um yep didn't care. I was so calm, happy and peaceful this day... I didn't care about any of that stuff. I was just so happy to be getting married to Darrel and had never been more sure I was with the right person doing the right thing according to what God had planned for us. God's peace was the peace I felt that day. You can get so wrapped up in wedding details that you think it will matter if everything is not perfect. Wrong.. it isn't about that stuff. It was about the two of us finally becoming one and nothing could have been more right or perfect and all the stuff just didn't matter.

Noticing the pearls right? Weren't they even the perfect length? The one thing I would change about my wedding day was my wedding bouquet. When I got to my Mom's and saw my flowers I was disappointed. They were beautiful, but they were not the picture I had in my head. You know what I mean? This was the first time I remember learning that if you think you are on the same page with someone, and that you both have the same picture in your head... you never really know that till you see the results. You need to show people like actual pictures/samples not just describe it to them because they can put together a way different image. When we were dating, not even engaged yet, a friend of my Mamaw's had shown me her granddaughter's wedding photo and she had this beautiful cascading bouquet that was all purple flowers. It was gorgeous. That was what I wanted but red. A beautiful cascade of red roses. So not what I got. My first thought was what is all this white stuff in here? See one thing I kept running into with wedding planning was florists, photographers, dress people that wanted to sell you and tell you about what a "traditional" wedding bouquet or a traditional wedding whatever they were selling should look like. I didn't care about that. I wanted this cascade of red. Never knew we were adding all these white flowers and things cause um I don't even care for carnations. Even though I am whining now... that day.... I really didn't care. It was quickly forgotten. (Ask Darrel about how we can be watching a wedding on TV and the bride will have a beautiful all rose bouquet and how even today I'll go - "see how come she got to have an all rose bouquet?" ha ha ha ha ha)



















It's very cool to look at a 22 year old picture and be typing about it and look down and see the same ring on your finger. Love that! Only thing that has changed is the brushed look on the bands wore off and I now also wear an anniversary band he got me on our 10 year anniversary.












Hot, humid and rainy, our wedding day was still beautiful. Random memories would be: Talking to Darrel on the phone before the wedding. Seeing all of my bridesmaids um exit the getting ready room when one of the girls decided she was using like tape and bandaids for her support under her dress... enough said.... Watching my Mamaw weave back and forth behind the photographer trying to take a picture of me. Too cute. Driving up to the church and seeing my brother in his tux and my Mom's reaction to that. Getting out of the car at the church and the first one I saw was my Grandma. She had been SO excited about the wedding and was such a blessing. I remember she told me she had even been on time today and Grandpa hadn't even said anything. Going to the bathroom before the ceremony and running right into my Aunt Mary whom I didn't know was coming and not recognizing her at first. Too Funny. Waiting outside the sanctuary to go down the aisle and being soooo stinking excited to see Darrel. Getting to the end of the aisle and wanting so bad to hug Darrel but not doing it because I thought I wasn't supposed to before the vows, etc. Still regret to this day NOT hugging him. I mean WHY did I care about what I was supposed to do? Seeing the look on Darrel's Mom's face when I came towards her to give her a mom's rose. She is so sweet. Giggling during our vows because each one of us had kept stumbling over the words in one section at the rehearsal and we made it thru at the ceremony. Hearing you may kiss the bride.... Answering to Mrs. Koontz as soon as they called us back into the sanctuary for photos and they were talking about Darrel's Mom! Ha! Getting in the car to head to the next location and informing Darrel that I had a 2nd garter on that was for him to keep. (he had removed and thown a blue one. I had another red fuzzy pretty one). It took him all of 30 seconds or had the sentence even left my mouth before he had that puppy on his arm.... Let just say he wasn't shy....













After the wedding we did photos and then a cake and punch reception in the church basement. I loved our cake. It had a fountain and little bridges to side cakes.




















And NO we did not do the smearing of cake in your loved ones face. I hate that and would not have been happy about having cake in my hair and veil and nails and dress... I had enough problems with the rice later! Ha. We calmly polietly fed each other cake. We also opened our gifts at our reception. That was fun. We were supposed to go to the park and take outdoor photos but again..the rain. After that was a family dinner so we ended up having time to kill because of no park photos. Well it stopped raining for a minute and he took one or 2 pics right outside of the church. This is my favorite wedding photo.




















The family dinner was great and I have good memories of seeing everyone together. We stayed at a hotel in town for the night and then headed to our honeymoon destination the next morning.



















We drove to Bull Shoals Arkansas and stayed in a cabin there for a week. They have a beautiful lake there and its just pretty and peaceful and quiet. We had a GREAT week. We went out most evenings for dinner and found a favorite pizza place (which we have visited again in other years we went back there) and the nice restaurant I mentioned which was Gastons.

And so tomorrow we celebrate that 22 awesome years that came next... the happily ever after part. No, it's not been perfect. There was and I'm sure still will be some really hard stuff... Stuff like depression, infertility, serious financial struggles.. but we got through it stronger and more united and more in love. When you put God at the center he can see you thru anything. Happy Anniversary Honey. I love you more than there are words to say. You are my friend, my husband, my companion.... I am so blessed by every moment we have had and will have together and I will continue to thank God for blessing me soooo much. ILY... P.

After She Said Yes...

This picture was taken at Christmas which was just 15 days after we got engaged. We were at Darrel's parents house and my hand is around his shoulder like that because his sisters were trying to get a picture that showed the ring! HA! Have I mentioned I love my ring? Yes, still, 24 years later. I am gazing at it lovingly as I type. Ha. Ha.




















The day after Christmas our wedding announcement was in our local Joliet paper. It is the small one on the right. In Feb. of 1986, Darrel's Mom surpised us and put the larger announcement with the photo in their local paper in Morris IL. How cool was that? She worked at the paper at the time. I can't remember what her job was. Darrel and I had the picture taken a few months before we got engaged, but we liked it so much we used it as an engagement photo a couple of times. Darrel worked at a department store in the mall at the time (Bergners, which turned into Carsons which turned into Macys....) and they were doing a photo special for customers and employees got like a 50% discount. As you can see we wore the famous pink and gray outfit that was in that picture with my birthday roses! Ha! I still love that picture. And um yes... my middle name is Yvette. Bet you would have never guessed that one right?



















Then it was on to wedding planning and details. We had a year and 1/2 to plan so plenty of time, but wow what a big job right? When we settled on a wedding photographer part of his package included taking engagement photos so these are a couple of the ones that he took for us. Can you tell I liked big hair? Still do. Ha! I am trying to remember if I had color on my hair or if that was the real me at the time? My hair has gotten darker as I have gotten older.



















I am just noticing that once again we matched. I am sure we must have planned that but I am not remembering for sure. These would have been taken in 1986. It's goofy the things that stick in my head... because I am remembering that the photographer liked "the line of the pearls and the line of the tie" in the composition of his photo! Ha.




















Next it was on to the dress shopping. Oh my gosh how fun was that? I went to look for my dress knowing that I wanted a wedding dress.... Know what I mean? I wanted a princess dress, a foofy dress a wow that is a wedding dress kind of dress. Can you believe I still have this magazine page complete with notes? I am a scrapbooker of course you can. Ha! OK first of all like a good little bride I went right out and got myself all the latest bridal magazines. That is a requirement right? But I did not pick this dress out of a magazine. I had thought I wanted like victorian, sweetheart neckline, long sleeves... Um so not what I got. It seems once you start trying on things you find out in a hurry you can like something completely different than what you thought. Of the many shops we went to one was this ritzy, fancy kind of shop that really was kind of snotty and not all that nice.... however they put me in this dress. After trying it there I found the picture of it in one of my mags. The snotty shop wanted $625. Well once I had the picture, I took it with to any of the other shops I visited later to show what style I liked. One of those shops saw my notes and did better on the price and then the next shop which I liked the best and went with matched the better price of $550. I can remember the week or so trying to decide on a dress. I swear I was completely distracted and could not think straight about anything except which dress to pick. My Mom was like worried about me driving and stuff! Ha!! Don't worry I survived and went with my gut and have never been sorry about my decision. Loved this dress. Still do. I'll show you a picture of me in the dress tomorrow or Sat on the big day!




















Our wedding colors were red and white. At first my favorite color was purple and the wedding was going to be purple... However in my bridal magazine I spotted a picture that had a bridal party with the girls in red, guys in black tuxes and red roses. I loved and adored red roses and loved that look so I did what any woman would do and quickly changed my mind! Ha. I later found out that Darrel's sister Dee was making us a precious moments cross stitch picture of the wedding party and she had already stitched a purple flower in the brides hair... oops... She fixed it though. She is good and yes, she is still speaking to me. These were our wedding invitations. Aren't they pretty? I loved that verse on the front and I loved how they read inside. It was not the traditional Mr and Mrs Davis and Mr and Mrs Koontz invite you kind of thing. It talked about Darrel and I being "the children God had entrusted" to our parents and wanting God's will for our lives. It was very cool and did I say pretty?

Almost anniversary day.. I guess tomorrow is officially anniversary eve. My present came the other day... It was on the porch when I got home Wednesday in a pretty good size box. Normally Darrel gets home first but of course this day... it was me. I saw who the box was from... but have no idea what is inside and yes.. I am very curious. Guess I will find out Saturday! You know what comes after Saturday don't you? COUNT DOWN TO BIRTHDAY WEEK. yay!!!!! I just love birthday week. Had you heard?

Hope you have an awesome Friday. We probably aren't having a big date night tomorrow because we are going out Saturday, but I am sure we will do something together. Then Sunday - Father's Day! We are going to go and have lunch with my Dad and see him for a bit. Will make for a busy but good weekend. Blessings!

The Smoke Detector Did Not Go Off

So we decided that if you could still fit all of your candles on your cake that it was a good thing and means you are NOT old. I actually got a good blowing out the candles picture didn't I? Plus.. he got them all in one shot! See I told you, good at everything. Were you aware that one can blow out 46 candles and NOT set off the smoke detector? We were just wondering because when Dad blew out his 64 candles a couple years ago.... um the cake was like ON FIRE... and the smoke detector DID in fact go off. It was way too funny! So see, yet another reason why we are officially NOT old. If you are old the smoke detector goes off! Sorry Dad! Ha! So lets start with earlier in the day.

I left Darrel's card for him to find this morning. He liked it. I liked that he liked it. He sent me a nice e-mail to thank me. Then he got to work and got on his E-mail to find out that a whole bunch of people had wished him happy birthday on facebook (thank you!) and that I had left him a message on my blog. Plus in a first for my blog... he actually left 2 comments on the previous post! How cute is that? First time you get to hear from both of us. You of course should go and read his comments because he was very sweet to me! Ha. So we both finished our work day and then met at home for dinner. Darrel had decided he wanted steaks and baked potatoes made on the grill, steamed broccoli and rolls. Even though it was his birthday, he did the grilling honors. I handled the rest. First... the table.













I pulled out a tablecloth that belonged to Mamaw. I pulled out some of our antique china and the crystal glasses from my Grandma that I mentioned yesterday. Because... if its your birthday, you should of course be eating on pretty dishes right? While Darrel was out checking the grill, I placed his birthday gift on his plate. Do you see it? Know what that little package is?


















I got him his own ipod! He has never had one and I love mine so I decided this was a good idea. Sounds expensive I know... but this gift is for his birthday, our anniversary and father's day. I told him if he had known he'd be getting these combo gifts all his life he might have opted out of getting married 3 days after his birthday! Ha! Poor guy, he is just so neglected. He was tickled with his gift. He said I picked the right color (black) plus, I had the back engraved. It has a Bible verse that has always been special to us..."this is my beloved, this is my friend." He liked that too.

We enjoyed our very yummy dinner.... after we finally got everything cooked. Am I doomed to do dumb stuff on his birthday or something? Today we had all the food pretty much done and I realized I had never turned on the steamer for the broccoli. DUH... so we had to keep a few things warm while we took care of that. It still all came out good. To go with the steaks we also cooked some vidalia onions with garlic, garlic salt and some spray butter. YUM... you should definitely try that! Then it was time to prepare for cake! Now... in further things that mean you are NOT old.... you are not old IF....










You need less than 2 boxes of candles on your cake. We decided this today... we must be right don't you think? I mean hey, he even had 2 candles left over and it only took me like what honey.... 1/2 an hour to light all of them? Bwa ha ha ha ha Kidding. The lighting of the candles was not bad but he was laughing at me because as the lighting was finished I was singing happy birthday... turning off the lights and trying to take a picture all at the same time. I figured when you have a cake on fire with 46 candles... you shouldn't mess around about getting them blown out! Ha! I didn't want to melt the cake.













This was just before the official candle blowing out. Was lighting up the kitchen pretty good huh? Now.. after one blows out the candles do you know what comes next?















You remove the candles from the cake taking the time to lick off the icing from each and every one so that not one drop of carrot cake icing goes to waste! He had a whole little candle removing, icing eating rhythm going. OK would you like to know how many points in a piece of homemade carrot cake? ELEVEN and that is if you cut it into 16 servings. Um we used to do like um 8 servings.... so now, for me I eat a 16th.... if you are the birthday boy, well you can have the cake plate and a fork if you want... Calories do NOT count on your birthday right? Hey I have a Hoops and Yoyo birthday card that says that there are no rules on your birthday so I think that includes food! Ha. We will see if I feel the same on my birthday. I bet I won't....

It is not only Darrel's birthday today. Did you know Darrel has a twin sister? Her name is Deanna.. Yes, that was not a typo. Well we saw Deanna last month and I had shown her the beautiful pink pen Darrel made for me. She said she would sure like one of those. I asked her what was her favorite color? She said yellow and purple. Well look what he did...











Isn't that cool? He made that. Plus,we found this old pen box we had and personalized it a bit. Darrel dug in to my scrapping supplies and stamped his own little "I made this" tag here.... Didn't he do a good job? Then we decided to make this for the outside top of the box.













Dee called Darrel today to thank him and he said she loved the box. I am glad. I would love to share what we did for father's day gifts with you too... but I am not 100% sure my Dad won't see it so I am waiting.... I'll post for you next week because it is pretty awesome.

So tomorrow I have so so many things I could do that I don't know what to do. Ever have that problem? My house is driving me NUTS and I am feeling the need to do like spring cleaning kind of cleaning... Plus we are behind on mowing. We've not gotten any flowers for the porch or flower beds. The house needs power washed. The dog needs a bath. I have a DR appt. I have library books due. I need to get my walking done. I need to finish something I need for Saturday... um is that enough? It will be OK right?

Did you see the 2nd video is up for the Thinking Inking Class? Today's topic is stamping with distress ink and then some embossing and watercolor techniques. I can't wait to try them out. I was already checking with Lisa over at Shabby Pink to see what ink colors she has in stock that I am in need of HA... Jennifer also uses this awesome butterfly stamp today and I just happened to find that over on the hero arts site! Yay!

Do you like cooking and new recipes? I cam across this site linked on someone else's blog. Can't remember where. I am thinking one of the first things to try is the chocolate chocolate chocolate chunk muffins.... OR these molten chocolate lava cookies.... do those look YUM or what?

So now off to bed (or maybe work on that project I mentioned for a short bit) and then tomorrow and Friday we look forward to celebrating our anniversary. Darrel gave me 3 choices for what we could do... they are hard choices too!!

a) we go to Indy for the day and hit some malls, shop, that kind of thing and then have dinner at Cheesecake Factory... can you say Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake?

b) we go to Louisville and shop and have dinner at The Melting Pot. Oh my gosh.. have you been there? So fun and so good! I don't think we've been there since our 20th wedding anniversary which we celebrated in Colorado.

c) we spend time together Saturday and have a lazy morning/afternoon and then go to E-ville to The Longhorn.

Ok I love all 3 of those choices... Too hard of a decision... although the temptation of that Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake just may win me over... ha!!!

Hope you are having an awesome week. Blessings!