Ten On Tuesday

1) This is all the goodies we came home with from the wedding rehearsal on Friday night! We each had a little bag of candy from the candy bar area... I think I had jordan almonds and crush jelly bellys and Darrel had almonds and a cookie. I had a separate bag for a smuggled cookie. Yes.. they were that good. As we were leaving the Mom of the bride told us we won the prize since we were last to leave our table and got all of the suckers! Ha!! I haven't tried one yet so I don't know what flavor they are. We also got one of the bottles of soda that they used for centerpieces. Isn't the label so cool with the couples picture?















2) Darrel took this picture of Lisa and I. The first one he took, I had my hand on my hip and lets just say it looks like I am trying to show off a prominent part of my anatomy... We need to be deleting that photo. This was shot #2... much better. I tried taking my glasses off but then the sun was totally making me squint.















3) Here is another picture from the weekend with my good friend Lori! Love that we just happened to be all color coordinated. Apparently great minds think alike! Ha! This was during the dinner reception. We also had a great time together at the barn dance reception that followed.

4) While I was at the beach on Sunday my favorite beach chair broke. I am not happy about this. We had 2 beach chairs, the plastic wrapped chaise lounge type, and one broke last year. We could not find a chair like it anywhere since it was the middle of summer. Then this spring, we spotted 2 chairs at Target. Unfortunately we only purchased one to replace the broken one. I was SO tempted to get 2 because I was worried the 2nd one would break and we wouldn't be able to find one under $50.... So guess what has happened now. I was trying to see what I could find online and have not found one like what we have. I was considering one of these. Not wild about the price. Plus, I like that it has 5 positions and reclines back.. however, no foot rest so I am thinking laying on your stomach would not work so well... There is this thing called an ostrich chair that you can look thru to read while laying on your stomach! How funny is that! However, it is even more expensive and I don't think the end folds down so you can put your feet in the water. I did see it in pink however... hmmm...

5) It's my birthday in like 20 days.... however this year, due to circumstances beyond my control... birthday week will be delayed. Instead of starting the week before my birthday, it will likely start on my birthday (july 19). I will explain why later. Anyways... as usual I am a birthday celebrating kind of girl and am looking forward to it!! This is what is on my birthday wishlist for this year. Hoping the birthday gift buying husband is onboard with this idea... I guess we will all find out in um 20 days...

6) Where we live, the last few years, every spring we have these tiny biting gnat things that just like to swarm you whenever you are outside and bite you like a million times. Their bites are quite itchy! 2 years ago they landed me at the DR needing a steroid shot and meds for a week because I had like 20 bites up the back of my arm that were quite swollen and inflamed and ITCHY! Since then I have learned if I spray myself with Vanilla they leave me alone. This usually lasts a month or so, and then they are gone for the rest of the summer. Well this year I had to use the spray earlier in the spring, but they also stopped a little sooner. UNTIL yesterday... Suddenly the stinkin little things are back! They were swarming me while I walked and I have at least 4 bites! So today... back to hosing myself down with vanilla. Glad I remembered and at least it worked!

7) Still having some eye discomfort and headaches. Heading to the Eye DR tomorrow. Sometimes it is a bad idea to look up symptoms online... you can scare yourself quite silly with all the what ifs.... perhaps next time I won't look. For now I am praying about it and doing my best not to worry. Just happy I get to see the eye DR in the morning and will know what is going on.

8) Remember the pink polka dot flip flops? I've wore them to work twice this week. I must say that someone should warn a person that it can be dangerous wearing flip flops when one is not quite used to wearing them. At least 2-3 times I have about fallen into or out of the car because of getting the flip part... or is it the flop part?? caught on the ground or the bottom of the car or something stupid like that... I am sure I have been quite entertaining. Perhaps there should be flip flop walking classes or at least instructions?

9) Have gotten myself out of bed early these past 2 days to do Zumba before going to work. Been walking after work. Am determined someway, somehow to get another pound to GO AWAY. I mentioned on facebook yesterday that it is probably a sign that I need much more zumba if I one hears the sound of their flesh slapping together while doing zumba... I was thinking this was not a good thing. Oh... and by the way... still loving the zumba shoes. SO much easier to work out in!!





















10) Here is another favorite picture from the wedding. My friend Lori told us to come take some pictures at the end of the barn like the photographer did for the bride and groom. She said we should kiss each other. Darrel didn't hear her and looked at me and said what? I said.. kiss me! To which he seems to have happily complied. I love the picture so um good idea Lori! And... good photography skills!

Still have lots more I want to share with you picture wise from the weekend. Hopefully will have some time tomorrow. We shall see. Blessings!

Coming Attractions

So it's been a busy weekend and I haven't had time to post and give you all the juicy details. SO... thought the least I could do was do a quick post and share a couple of favorite pictures from Saturday. Our friend Lori took this one of Darrel and I at a wedding we attended on Saturday for Lisa's step son and new daughter-in-law... Speaking of Lisa... Look how pretty she looked!




















Love, love this picture of Lisa and her great niece Delilah. One of those pics that just touch your heart! We had an awesome time at the wedding rehearsal on Friday. Lisa outdid herself with decorations. Wait till I show you! Plus, Saturday the wedding was beautiful and the barn dance reception was so fun! We even got to play with bubbles and glow sticks and there were fireworks! I promise to post soon.. maybe at least get a start tomorrow with lots more pics and details. Until then... I pray you have an awesome week and wish you blessings!

Thankful Thursday

How cute is this? This is an invitation to "Deanna's Date Night with the Girls Scrapbook Crop Luau" at my friend Lori's house. The invitation is the message in the bottle complete with sand, flower lei and even a cork for the top of the bottle. Is that creative or what? I was so touched and surprised and happy when I received this. I have good friends. Very good friends and I am so thankful for them. My husband is going to be away on a trip. I am not going to blog a lot about the when, where and why of that until a later time. Several friends though know about it and are already taking care of me. Darrel will be away on a Friday date night and so Lori is planning this girls night. Isn't that cool? I have another friend Kim and her and her husband and daughter have already said they will have to keep Deanna busy or "babysit" for Deanna while Darrel is gone. I love that my friends understand the bond and connection between my husband and I and therefore understand that we don't do apart so well. I am already missing him and emotional when I think of his time away. Call me a baby... gag if you must... that is just how we are. See the way I look at it, if God intends for us to be "as one" and if we have achieved "oneness" then of course it is going to hurt and not feel like things are quite right when 1/2 of that oneness isn't there. We like together... we do together good... but I am thinking you already know that.

I think I get a little side tracked there... we were being thankful for good friends today. I remember a few years ago when I turned 40 my friends Julia and Lisa jumped right in and helped plan and prepare a party that Darrel was working on. Julia even decorated the tables with pink flip flops and balloons. It was so cool. When we needed help putting a roof on our garage, friends from church showed up to help. When we've had vehicle troubles, friends have helped and even lent us vehicles. When Darrel had sinus surgery, Julia came and sat with me in the waiting room. When I had cataract surgery, friends were there to pray with me and care for me. My friend Twila left me a 12 pack of Diet Cherry Vanilla DR Pepper on my desk one day just because she knows how much I like it. My friend Lori had a Mother's day gift for me on a very difficult Mothers day a year ago when I was speaking at church. My friend Kay has been there for me and prayed with me thru many difficult things. My friend Lisa shares all her scrapping stuff with me and knows me so well. So many friends have been there for me and supported me and encouraged me with my weight loss efforts.. I could go on and on... these are just a few examples. I hope the point I am making is that I have good, good friends and really girls, you especially, feel more like family. Like sisters. I love you and I thank you so much for loving me and caring about me and just really "getting" me. You mean so much to me and I am so thankful for and cherish your friendship.

Other things I have been thankful for this week are:

• The Karen Kingsbury evening with the girls.
• A quite afternoon at the beach today.
• Our awesome, awesome anniversary weekend.
• Special cards for our anniversary and Darrel's birthday from friends and family
• scrapbook stuff from my friend Ashly
• southbend chocolate factory chocolate covered peanuts
• pompeii purple opi nail polish!
• a fun evening and dinner at my parents RV last night
• OK... I was just counting and I think there have been 3 new pairs of shoes this week... how did that happen? Thankful for polka dot flip flops, flower flip flops and zumba shoes!
• my Droid phone. Loving that phone and all the cool things I can do with it and how easy it is to use
• feeling comfortable in a bathing suit - who ever thought that would happen?
• my highlights! Loving the highlights in my hair.
• going out to walk even in the heat
• bobes pizza
• did I mention I had an awesome Saturday with my husband... its worth mentioning twice.
• La Caretta!!
• Seeing Darrel enjoy his new fishing pole and that he caught a big fish!
• my new black swimsuit skirt
• Jack... becoming more attached to him with Gracie missing. I love Gracie...
• bath and body summer vanillas. Love the berry one.
• suntanning and no.. I don't care if its in style or unhealthy... I like it OK?
• being able to get K-love on my droid phone. Love listening to it at the beach!
• grapes!
• fresh tomatoes. We had our first 2 little ones off the vine.
• my husband and 26 years together and 23 years of marriage

And... before I go... here are the new zumba shoes!
















These shoes are awesome! I am so excited to Zumba in them. I put them on and wow... I can turn and slide without getting stuck! I had no idea what a difference the right shoes would make. These fit great and are even pretty cute! The only way they could be better is if they were pink.... I bet you saw that one coming?

I better head to bed! Hope you have a blessed weekend. I hope to have some wedding pics to share! Blessings!

Ten on Tuesday.... a little bit late...

1) So as you can see I completely missed ten on Tuesday. I did not get home yesterday until 1 AM.... that might have had something to do with it huh?

2) While I was away yesterday Darrel went fishing with a friend and tried out his new rod and reel. I am guessing you can surmise from the picture that this was a successful fishing trip! He said this is the biggest fish he has ever caught and that it was VERY FUN. I loved seeing the grin on his face when he told me that. Here is another shot showing the results of the evening... I am told that many fish were caught and released...these on the other hand would represent some that were Darrel's dinner this evening and some that went into the freezer for the church youth fish fry in the fall.















3) As for my whereabouts last night, I was in Bloomington with 9 friends from church to see the Karen Kingsbury Baxter Family Reunion. It was good! Karen spoke, and her son and daughter sang while acting out characters from some of the books. There was a kids acting team that did "You're A Good Man Charlie Brown" which is also from one of the books I am told. I haven't read that one yet so not sure. There was fun give aways..and we got to see the premiere of the full length movie trailer for Like Dandelion Dust. The movie comes out in the fall. However, if we had been able to go back for day 2 of the reunion today, we could have also went to a free screening of the movie! That would have been fun. Was just not possible with work and the drive to get there. My friend Ashly stood in line and had Karen sign two books for her. One was Let Me Hold You Longer which is a beautiful children's book that Karen read at last night's event. Wow.. quite a tear jerker. It would be a great gift for any Mom.

4) Still struggling with the whole weight loss journey... Sometimes the length of time it takes to get one pound to go away about drives me insane..... However in my ongoing determination NOT to give up, I was doing some reading online about Zumba. It seems that it may be helpful to have the correct Zumba shoes. I had told Darrel that it was hard to do some of the moves because in my walking shoes, my feet don't want to turn and slide like the girls on the dvd do... It had not occurred to me this was a shoe problem. I was reading an article about Zumba on the weight watchers site and the discussion that followed mentioned how important it was to have the right shoes, such as dancing or cheer leading shoes. I did a little google search or two and found this pair on Zappos. I am eagerly awaiting their arrival! Should be here tomorrow. I am hoping they will help and will alleviate some of the foot and shin pain I have been noticing....

5)I have been battling sinus headaches for days. Literally days. It is beginning to be depressing.... I am not sure if its a weather issue, an allergies issue or something else. It hurts behind my eyes as well, but mainly the pressure is from right above my lips to just above my eyebrows... Does one call the regular DR? The eye DR since I have eye pain too? Or do I just need a big ol ice bag?

6) I forgot to take a picture, but need to remember to do that and show you the CUTEST invitation I received from my friend Lori. It's like a message in a bottle and has sand and a little flower lei inside too. It's for a girls night crop in July on a particular date night when my husband is going to be away that evening. Now how sweet is that?

7) Gracie has been missing for 5 weeks now. I still miss her SO much and can still get pretty teary pretty quickly because of it. I just want her to come home. I love her. I miss her. I need to hug her. I know she is a cat and I must sound like a nut... but still hurting and I guess grieving for my cat. I love her.. did I mention that?

8) It has been a busy week, which was preceded by a busy weekend so tomorrow I should take the day to catch my breath, focus... and get caught up around the house and get the laundry done. You know... stuff like that. However... should it be nice and hot and sunny... I fully intend to go sit at the beach. I have even been encouraged to do so by my husband. I am thinking this is a good thing.

9) While we were in Indy on Saturday we picked up some of these...They are perhaps THE best chocolate covered peanuts ever.... I am thinking it is a very good thing they are not readily available locally. I ate the last 4 this evening... I could have easily eaten a whole bag had they been there...

10) It's been in the upper 90's for days. I have still been out walking. I am trying to decide if this makes me really dedicated or really nuts. I've only been getting in about 3 miles, rather than 4 because mid way thru passing out or throwing up begins to sound like a really good idea. I have managed not to do either so I will consider this a victory.

With that I plan to now take a couple of Tylenol PM's... and go cuddle up in bed with my sweet husband. Praying for a calm, peaceful, productive yet relaxing day for tomorrow! Hope your week is going well. Blessings!

The One About Happily Ever After

OK it has been an awesome weekend! This was our official "it's our 23rd anniversary photo." Not to bad for a do it yourself self portrait huh? We took this before leaving the house on Saturday morning. We were headed to Indy for a day of shopping and a nice dinner out. I mean what a guy right? He loves to take me shopping.... What's not to love about that?




















He would not let us leave until I consented to this picture. I decided I would take this as a compliment.... It took a few tries to get one without my eyes closed... it's like a family hereditary thing to close ones eyes during any picture I think.

We went to Castleton Square Mall which is where we usually start out. While there we enjoyed some South Bend Chocolate Co. Double Dipped Chocolate Peanuts. SO good and a rare treat. I wanted to have an Auntie Anne's pretzel too but decided I wanted to save my appetite and my ww points for dinner later. I found a great little summer sweater at Eddie Bauer on clearance. It is like an orange/coral color and has crocheted flowers around the neckline. I also bought an oatmeal colored tank with some flowers around the neckline to wear under it. These were on sale for $9.99. We are attending a wedding rehearsal this Fri. night and I am thinking this will be my outfit.















I found this great pair of sandals at Rack Room Shoes. I tried them on... I loved them. I talked myself out of them and put them back and we went to the next store. On the way back by the store later.... Darrel went in and bought them. Now don't you just love a guy that goes and buys you cute shoes? I mean... I am loving the flower on these shoes.

We stopped at Verizon and got a car charger for our new droid phones and Darrel got a new phone case for his phone. He loves his current case, but you can't carry a Droid phone in a case with a magnet closure. It turns the phone on and drains your battery. Do you know how hard it is to find a phone case without a magnet?

We hit Macy's and checked out their clearance racks as well. I got this t-shirt in flirty pink... don't you just love that color name? I also got a black tunic tank that has a camisole that you wear under it. Both things were 60% off! Love that! We headed to Dicks Sporting Goods so Darrel could get some fishing lines, a fish cleaning knife and some other fishing supplies he wanted to go with his new fishing pole. He is all set for a fishing trip now... guess he just needs a license and um some worms... ewwwww...

At Sears in the Lands End swimwear I scored a little swim mini skirt thing in black for 1/2 price!! I have been wanting the black mini skirt bottom since last year so I can mix and match with the 2 tops I have So happy I found that and especially at 1/2 price.














When we first got to the mall we had stopped at a store called Jule. They have purses, scarves, jewelry and other accessories. I like their stuff but their clerk was getting on my nerves. She would not stop talking to me and leave me alone to look so I didn't stay long. However while there we did spot this little bride and groom charm for my pandora bracelet. Well before we left the mall for the day Darrel went back in there and got it for me. He said we needed it to remember our anniversary weekend. Yes... big grin on my face. The girl even put it on a pink ribbon in a little box. He said the clerk asked did he want it on a ribbon? She had red.. blue.. pink.... He quickly answered PINK! He is so smart.














Next it was time for dinner! We headed to The Cheesecake Factory for anniversary dinner. We only had to wait 20-30 minutes for a booth and got a very nice spot too! The waitress took this picture for us. I had the spicy cashew chicken. Darrel had chicken romano. Both were so good. Then of course came dessert!















I had my usual chocolate tower truffle cake which was oh my goodness soooooo good... and Darrel had their "30th anniversary" cheesecake which has the fudge cake, truffle cream and cheesecake.

I just love that they decorated the plates for us. I never understand the people who say oh no, don't make a fuss.... I am so a "hey we are celebrating lets make a fuss" kind of girl.. but I am thinking you have caught on to that by now huh?

The Fashion Mall where the restaurant is was open for about 1/2 hour after dinner so we shopped a little more. I bought a very cool necklace at Coldwater Creek on clearance. I am thinking it will go nicely with the new orange sweater. :)





















Once the mall closed we headed for home. On the way though we stopped in Downtown Indianapolis at Monument Circle. We parked and walked around the circle a few times and took a few pictures.















It's hard to get a decent picture when its dark outside! We didn't do too badly huh? Isn't the fountain pretty?















We thought about taking a carriage ride. We did that often in Chicago while we were dating but um now... it costs $50 for a 1/2 hour ride! Are they nuts? I figured it couldn't be that much because we kept seeing the carriages go by full of people! They must have been splitting the cost or something! Ha! Look at how cool the IPL building was lit up.

After that we headed home. It was a perfect day and we had such a nice, nice time. I love days like that. Today was spent at home. We slept in and had lots of time together which included watching a movie (Haachi) which someone should have warned me about because wow.. .needed a box of Kleenex.... and we got a pizza from town which was quite yummy. Darrel enjoyed some more birthday cake and I had some cheesecake factory left overs... I may now quite possibly have a food hangover.... UGH... I think I need salad and water tomorrow... serious.















Backing up to Friday for a moment... look what Darrel did? He had went to my office before I got there and left roses and a card on my desk. I was thinking there was no way he would do flowers again because of the pink roses earlier in the week. Guess the surprise was on me huh? That evening for date night we headed to La Caretta and then Zanders. Once again... food hangover... I need to stop that. NOT helping the weight loss. Glad I at least got up Friday AM and did some Zumba. Guess what I will be doing tomorrow morning too? We also stopped at walmart for some fishing supplies and a fathers day gift and look.....

Quite possibly the cutest $6 flip flops ever. Look at the polka dots?!! Lori... Lisa... you need some of these. :) They will be very cute for the beach with my new pink towel and now... my little black skirt! Don't you think?

And now I need to take my too much food sluggish body off to bed.... I am sooooo back on the wagon tomorrow AND so glad that I am no longer able to eat like this without feeling sick. I am glad it makes me sick... do NOT ever want to go back to the old ways again.

This week is busy. It's newsletter week at church. I have a big mailing to do. We have the Karen K. thing on Tuesday. It's grocery week. I am soooo going to the beach Thurs. and Friday and Sat. we have a wedding rehearsal and wedding! Sunday there is a lunch meeting... wow... so glad next week is a short week for me with the 4th holiday! Looking forward to that.

Hope your week is great. I will be back on Tues. for 10 on Tuesday. Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

I am loving this picture of the birthday boy with the lights from the candle. I am feeling so thankful today that I have gotten to spend 26 birthday's with this amazing guy who shows me such love. I don't know how my heart could possibly hold more love for him, yet each year, each day together it just seems to grow and become even stronger, even deeper. I am thankful for all we share and that he wants to spend his birthday with me. I am thankful that he enjoys birthdays like I do and wants to make them fun too. I am thankful that I can make him a carrot cake and banana bread and do all I can to make his day special.














We had a great day today. Darrel had to work, but he enjoyed starting off his day with hot banana bread and he was very surprised about that. Me on the other hand... well I didn't sleep so good between 2-5:30 (when he got up) because I kept thinking about the bread... can I smell it yet? Is it doing OK? Is it time yet? Did he find it yet? My mind would just not stop! Ridiculous huh? He got off a little early because of a DR appt. and met me at the beach for about 45 minutes. We had a nice relaxing time and talked for a bit. Next we headed home for birthday dinner. He wanted steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli and rolls. It was quite yummy. He did most of the cooking since he is our grill person. I have a love hate relationship with the thing when it comes to lighting the charcoal! Ha! Then it was time for cake! He blew out all 47 candles in one shot and um the haze in the picture above....well that would be the smoke! I told him at least he didn't set off the smoke detector!!!!














Did you know on your birthday you get as big of a piece of cake as you want. Actually I think if its your birthday and you want the whole cake and a fork... well then you should have it! ha!! I enjoyed a small piece since weight watcher wise... 1/16th of this cake is 11 points. Eleven! I get 28 for the whole entire day!














Would you believe that for some reason I only had pink icing on hand to write on the cake with? Imagine that. He said it didn't bother him.... Cake turned out pretty good huh? It was yummy....




















Next it was time for gifts! Look at his first gift.. um almost as tall as he is.. and trust me.. he is tall! Can you guess what it was?















A new rod and reel! He was happy about this and is already discussing plans to go fishing with some friends on facebook! I was glad he liked it since I know nothing about fishing poles.. I picked out what I thought would be a good one and then asked my Dad and 2 friends who are fisherman what they thought. They said I did good. One of them in particular said wow he wouldn't mind having one of those... I took this as a good sign. I also got him a little hand held voice recorder. We have some special plans for that that I will share later. Have you read The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin? That would explain a little bit about it...

It was a really good day and I enjoyed celebrating my husband's birthday with him... Other things I have been thankful for this week are:

• a quiet afternoon at the beach today
• being able to get k-love on my android!
• pink roses from Darrel and remembering that first day of our relationship 26 years ago
• clothes that are fitting a little looser since adding zumba to my routine
• getting a tan!
• our new camera
• my husband, family, loved ones and friends. they have been so on my mind this week because of the man from our church that passed away last week.
• all the awesome birthday greetings Darrel received in the mail and on facebook
• having a new door on the car! Darrel has started making repairs from the deer incident.
• having a second swim suit top to wear. It didn't fit yet when I bought it last fall!
• pink nail polish :)
• an awesome steak dinner with my husband this evening
• a pedicure with a friend this week
• anniversary celebrating coming up this weekend!
• going to the beach with Darrel on Sundays
• my new pink beach towel
• grapes... loving grapes lately.. must be ice cold!
• my new bandannas! Loving them and they are helping so much!

With that I must bid you goodnight. Hoping to drag my hiney out of bed early enough in the am to do some Zumba before work! It is looking like we will be having a movie/pizza date night. La Caretta is also a possibility. Going to see what we feel like tomorrow. Hope you have an awesome Friday! Blessings.

Happy Birthday To Darrel... Happy Birthday To You...

Are you singing with me? Here is the birthday boy. See he has a rule that the carrot cake pans are not allowed to go into the dishwasher until he has first scraped off every last bit of carrot cake and eaten it... He isn't like obsessed or anything huh?

OK... 2 pictures on the blog in one week with flat hair and no make up. What are the odds of that? Darrel.... obviously... took this one as I was getting the cakes ready to go in the oven. I told him if he planned on taking more well then I needed to go fix at least the top of my hair and put on some make up.

And here we have 2 cakes... out of the pan perfectly thank you very much. I hate it when I leave a hunk behind, stuck to the bottom of the pan. Apparently I did a good job of greasing my pans today. I learned a little tip for that somewhere... Use a brush to put your Crisco on your pan. You get much better and complete coverage than you do using a baggie or a paper towel. Oh.. here is another tip for you.. When taking your cakes out of the pan to put on the cooling rack... the little feet on the cooling rack go on the counter. NOT in the cake..Yes. I did it the other way this evening. I got my first clue when I set the rack on the counter and noticed it was completely flat against the counter... duh...

And now I am going to tell you a secret. Darrel and I used to have a tradition of making each other a special breakfast on our birthdays. Lately we have gotten away from this. This year I wanted to start off his day tomorrow with something special and yummy. My plan is to go mix up a loaf of his favorite banana bread. I am then planning to place it in the oven on time bake so that when he gets up in oh... 5 - 1/2 hours from now... the house should be smelling like warm fresh banana bread and he will have a yummy breakfast. Well... he will think its yummy. Me? Not so much. Not a banana bread fan. He has been saving bananas in the freezer to make bread with so this afternoon I had to figure out where to thaw them without him seeing them. I picked my cook book cabinet. I did not however think about the water they might give off when thawing... DUH... So now, yes, I have a wet cookbook and the bananas are currently hidden in the back of the fridge. I better go put them to use.

And, to my sweet husband: Happy Birthday to my beloved husband and best friend. You are the most amazing man. You are gentle, your are kind, you are strong. You are a man of God, you are caring, and you are a gentleman. You are considerate, compassionate and so intelligent... just how is it you like know how to do everything and you are good at it at the same time? I love you with all my heart. The oneness and bond that we share is like breath to me. P.

Ten On Tuesday

1) 26 years ago today (June 15th) my relationship with Darrel changed forever. What had once been a really good and close friendship, became a romance and a love story that has changed and blessed my life in every way. Neither one of us has ever been able to explain what was different that day. But let me tell you, that day, that June 15th, things were definitely different. It just suddenly felt different and it all started with me climbing part way up a ladder to hand him something. I don't even remember what it was. He told me he'd come visit me at my house when he was done working (he was working at our church, we were bulidng on an addition). He did... and the rest is history. I wrote him a note on facebook last night and today... well he came home with these pretty pink roses for me. Isn't he awesome? Thank you Lord for blessing me with the love of my life!















2) Um impulse buying is supposed to be a bad thing right? Well I am thinking no when it results in pretty pink beach towels. See I stopped at Pamida to buy birthday wrapping paper and birthday candles. I walked past their beach stuff... this thick, cute, fuchsia pink beach towel just SHOUTED my name... I looked at it... I told myself no... I don't need a beach towel. I have a beach towel. I put it back. I picked it up.. I saw the 40% off sign... and yes... it came home with me. My husband should have been annoyed I just spent $11.99 on a beach towel. Instead he shakes his head and laughs and seems to thoroughly enjoy the fact that I am in love with the thick, soft, pink beach towel with the cute flip flops that even have little straps on them that you can slip your fingers thru... see... once again.. he is awesome.














3) Got a new pedicure yesterday! This time my friend Ashly went with me. She is now a complete pedicure convert. It didn't take long with the warm water jets on the feet, the massage chair on the back... not to mention the calf massage and the result of cute toes. She declared that she would never wear closed toe shoes because her toes were too cute! I texted her a few hours later with this question... "still looking at your toes?" Ha! I told her I find myself doing the same thing. I love girly feet and find myself continually checking out the latest flower they painted on my toe.... We already have a pedicure date for next month! I think Pedi's even make all your shoes fun again because you have to try out all your sandals again to see how cute they look with the cute toes... or is that just me?





















4) I had to be dressy for work today. We had a funeral at the church. I had wore my black Capri pants yesterday and could not figure out what on earth I wanted to wear today. Most of my stuff is bright colors and that just didn't seem appropriate. I decided to go with this black t-shirt dress thinking that it would be dressy enough, but comfy enough after the funeral to work in... especially once I kicked off my shoes. Darrel was already at work so this was my attempt to show him my outfit because I couldn't decide if I was happy with it and looking OK.... Nice blurry picture huh? He declared that I even look good in a bad picture... after some clarification... I am thinking this was a compliment.... Let's just to decide to settle on that huh?















5) Darrel's birthday week continues. This was his gift for day six. Since I went a little over budget on the birthday gifts, I had to scale back a bit on birthday week gifts. So... this has been a favorite treats kind of birthday week. He has received a giant snickers, giant Hershey bar with almonds, almond joy, peanut M&M's, Cashews, and honey bbq Frito's. There has also been love notes and/or birthday cards...

6) This is the aforementioned birthday gifts. I do not enjoy wrapping remember? I don't enjoy wrapping regular stuff. Look at what I had to wrap. That long box? It's triangular.... I had to buy 2 rolls of paper to have enough for both.. And yes.. my husband is now anxiously trying to figure out what that could be... Tune in Thursday (if blogging time permits) for the full reveal. :)

7) Bought the birthday candles today. We both decided it was a very good thing that 2 boxes are still sufficient and we did not have to add a third. We will be placing all 47 candles on the cake and hoping an extinguisher will not be required.

8) I think I have tanning schizophrenia.... One day I decide I am not very tan yet and still need much more time at the beach and out walking. The next day I worry I am already too dark, and will be way too dark by later in the summer... the next day I am certain I have had too many days indoors and am quickly fading and not looking tan at all.... Darrel just hangs his head... laughs... and tells me I am "cute."

9) Got home late from work due to the birthday wrapping slash beach towel shopping. Still decided I should go walk even thought it was HOT. Got all ready and left for the campground. Get over to the campground and the sky is looking very funky. I drive around a bit trying to decide is it really going to storm? Or just threatening? I grab my phone and hit the weather.com web site and see a nice line of red storms on the radar heading our way. I turn around and head home and get here in time to see limbs down in my yard and very high winds. Had I not been home a little late... I would have likely been mid walking route when the storm hit so I am thinking for today.. the being late thing was a good thing.

10) Next Tuesday night I will be attending the Karen Kingsbury "Baxter Family Reunion." Our church recieved a batch of 10 tickets and I am going with 9 other ladies. I have not yet read that many of Karen's books, but have several on hand that I have been intending to read. So.. I am currently knee deep in Redemption and hoping to maybe get thru the 2nd one in the Redemption series as well before the event. Either way, I am thinking this is going to be a fun night!

I hope your week has been going well. I plan to post for Thankful Thursday, but may be late since that is Darrel's birthday also. We will see how the day goes. Will have anniversary fun and details to share on the weekend! Can't wait! Blessings!

Anniversary Birthday Week Begins

Friday Night... Date night.. Yes, you are correct, we headed to the big city! We had dinner at _______ Did you say Logans? Correct again! I mean gee that wasn't a hard guess was it? Where do we go? Crazy Buffet, Logans, um... are there other places to eat in Evansville? You wouldn't think so judging by us huh? Dinner was yummy as usual even though we had the same thing as last time. Love that brownie dessert thing and its fun to share!

Next we headed to Best Buy which was the whole reason we headed to the big city for date night. See, this Sunday (20th) is our 23rd Wedding Anniversary. Our gift to each other was a new camera that we will both use. I keep wanting to start my sentences with "see".... what is up with that? Anyway, Darrel is needing a small camera for a mission trip he is going on. We didn't want a new camera or to sink a lot of money into something he could use on the trip because we are not sure how safe (crime/theft wise) the area is he is going to and we don't want to send something we would be too upset about losing. Make sense? So he started looking at camera's on ebay but everything was going for more than we wanted to spend for that. We thought about the disposable camera's, but the cost of developing very many of those wasn't going to be much cheaper than a new camera. Serious! Then we started thinking about my little sony cybershot that I carry in my purse and use alllll the time. It is about 3 years old. We began to wonder about upgrading that camera and sending the older one with him on the trip. We both love photography and use a camera a LOT. You could have guessed that from blog photos alone I am thinking right? Then we discovered how much cameras have advanced since my cybershot and realized we could get a 14 mega pixel 10X optical zoom camera for a comparable price to what my cybershot was when Darrel got it for me for Christmas. I was SO interested in having a better zoom. That has been the main thing missing from my current camera. So the debate was on between the sony cybershot (newer model) OR a Nikon S8000.... And the winner is....














How cool is that? Perhaps we should take the sticker off of it huh? I am in love with the zoom on this thing. Plus it is as small as my previous camera, very light weight, very easy to use, very awesome! It was a hard decision. Both seemed like comparable cameras however Mr. Photographer.. um Darrel.. is quite the camera aficionado and he felt the Nikon brand as well as their lenses were a better choice. So now Mrs. Scrapbooker... um Me... is very happy and excited to have a new camera to enjoy! I haven't printed a picture yet but am thinking printing a pic and scrapping it should happen very soon... Some kind of scrapping should happen soon because its been since Natl. SB day... However.. that is another subject...















We stopped at Walmart in Newburgh.. I refuse to enter Walmart Evansville.....UGH... just so I could find some of these. Have I told you the bandana story or did I only mention that on facebook? Sorry if this is a rerun... I NEEDED a bandana to tie around my sweaty head while I am walking. For whatever reason this year, I am really noticing tons of sweat rolling into and stinging my eyes. I did not own a bandana. So the other day when I could find nothing else I cut a strip of material from an old t-shirt and tied that around my head for a headband. It worked... no sweat in my eyes... but when I looked in the mirror I told Darrel I looked like the guy with the bandage on his head in that patriotic picture with the 3 guys with the fife and drum.... He found this quite hilarious... Well now? I have a 5 bandana wardrobe! Um you may notice that 2 are pink.. hey.. they were different so I needed both. Couldn't help myself! Well Saturday I wore pink bandana number one... both for Zumba and walking. It worked so fabulous. Plus... pink swoosh on my nike's. Pink tank top. Pink bandana. Perhaps I actually was approaching cute in my walking attire? If someone had stopped me and checked out my fanny pack they would have also found pink cell phone, pink ipod and um pink pepper spray... I have a pink sickness remember?













On Saturday I walked 3 miles before getting completely overwhelmed by the heat. Then to reward myself I went and sat at the beach for 2 hours. Came home and did 45 min of Zumba... and then collapsed in my chair and played with the camera. Ok people.. here is a picture of me...sans make up... sans hair curling... Basically the wash and dry me... I guess I am either brave or stupid for posting it. Haven't decided which. Ha! Just figured I was pleased with the lighting from the new camera and... you can get a peek at the tan I am obtaining even though we are only in mid June. I had a good base from walking. It's amazing how much an hour a day in the sun will do. Add to that like 4 afternoons at the beach and viola! Tan.... Someone at church today asked me if I had been tanning... meaning tanning bed. I have never been in a tanning bed in my life... guess I don't need to start right now huh?

I have to share this with you... Remember my fabulous, now favorite new black platform heel sandals? I was sitting at La Caretta for lunch today.. .where else right?....And the waitress.. not our waitress... came up to me and said... " I love your shoes! Can I ask where you got them?" Now is it completely goofy that that made me like totally happy?

And now.. it is sunday night and time for bed. Tomorrow we have the visitation for the man from our church that died on Thursday night. I am hoping to meet a friend for a pedicure later on. Lots to do at work in between there somewhere and then in the evening home to hopefully at least do some Zumba and some work around the house. This week is also Darrel's birthday on Thursday and Our Anniversary on sunday. Can't wait!

Have an awesome week! Blessings!

Thankful Thursday

I was all set to blog about being thankful for the beach today... and I will get to that, but something happened this evening that I need to talk about first. A man from our church was killed in a motorcycle accident this evening. I am just feeling sad and so stunned about how life can change in an instant. This man has a very sweet wife and 2 daughters. My heart is heavy this evening for what they must be feeling and going thru right now. My mind is confused and is filled with prayers and questions and wondering why. I found it difficult to stop hugging my husband this evening so he could get in bed for work tomorrow. Things like this just immediately put your priorities and perspective in order don't they? We always think we have tomorrow or even an hour from now. But things like this remind us that we honestly don't know that. It reminds me to never let an opportunity pass to let my friends and family know I love them. It reminds me to be thankful that I know the Lord and have Jesus in my heart. We can think we will have other opportunities to do that... and again... we just don't know that will be the case. Please pray for Scott's family. And to my friends and family... I love you so much and am so thankful you are in my life. So thankful.

So before the sad events of this evening, I had a very nice day or at least afternoon at the beach with my Mom. We spent about 4 hours there today and just sat in the water and talked and relaxed and um fought off the spiders... When we first got there the "sand spiders" were scurrying and I was thinking oh no! Not today. I only remember one day last year during beach season when they were a problem. There are like 100's and 100's of little spiders crawling everywhere and making webs on anything that will hold still. We were afraid we were going to have to cut the day short. Until a lady sitting next to us told us that she had called the park guy and told him he needed to get his um... behind...that was not the word she used.... over to the beach and do something about it. They informed her he had already sprayed this week and she informed them will obviously they needed to spray again. Well bless that lady...because before we knew it, 3 guys showed up with spider spray and hosed the place down. It quickly made a difference and we were able to enjoy our day.

I am SO thankful for the beach. I enjoy it soooo much. I love the feeling of sitting in my lounge chair with my toes in the water. It's like a little afternoon vacation. I love feeling the warmth of the sun and I so enjoy reading at the beach. Because of my weight issues I had given up going to the beach for many years. It was too uncomfortable to be seen in a swim suit which was made worse by comments I would hear as well. I just wanted to hide at home. Well last year I had lost like 60-70 lbs and was feeling better about myself and decided to venture over and give it another try. So glad I got up the courage to do that. So glad I was able to find a suit that I actually feel comfortable in and that I can actually feel like I look OK. So glad that because of getting a good base tan from walking these past 2 seasons, I can now actually go to the beach and not burn and actually *gasp* tan darker. This is totally new territory for me! So thankful to live with the park area less than 5 minutes away which makes going to the beach so easy! Love, love, love the beach!

Other things to be thankful for this week:

• My husband....enough said considering the beginning of this post.
• My family and an awesome day with my Mom today.
• Good friends. You know who you are and I love you so much.
• Hearing Darrel call our cat Jack... Buddy. Something about that just makes me smile.
• Visiting with Darrel's family last weekend.
• the legacy of faith our families have passed down to us. I was so impacted this week seeing how the decisions my family and Darrel's family have made thru the years, to follow and serve the Lord, have directly affected our life.
• My brother and sister. I enjoyed taking pictures with them this week.
• Walking and Zumba
• Suntans!
• Being able to wear a fanny pack walking. It wasn't all that long ago that one wouldn't fit around my waist.
• my new appreciation for silver jewelry
• the white rose Darrel brought me the other night for no reason
• the new fuchsia razor I now own... I asked Darrel to pick up razor refills for me (I use the intuition) and instead he brought home a whole new razor because they now have fuchsia ones and he knew I wanted it but knew I wouldn't get it because there was nothing wrong with my old one.
• blogging! I so enjoy blogging and am especially blessed that there are people that want to read my ramblings
• birthday week... Darrel's that is. It started today. He got a giant Hershey bar with almonds and a little love note.
• dinner with my Mom and the yummy chicken and noodles I made us.
• my antique dishes. I enjoyed displaying some different ones on my hutch last night.
• that I actually accomplished cleaning, laundry, walking, zumba, dinner AND going to the beach today. I love productive days that have some relaxing time in there too...
• date night
• my music box. Do you remember the music box Darrel made me for our 20th anniversary? I was showing it to a friend the other night and it just made me appreciate it all over again.

For date night we may be doing some anniversary shopping. It is coming up next weekend!! I can't wait. We are spending the whole weekend together! Yay! Blessings to you this evening and don't forget to hug your loved ones.

Ten on Tuesday

1) OK... the left shift key on my laptop is NOT working properly and it is getting on my last nerve..... This is not helpful on Ten on Tuesday day when you are trying to put the little parenthesis mark after the number..... And yes I am aware I could use the right shift key but that is just not natural... OK?

2) So lets back up to date night.... Friday night. Rather than do the alone thing like we usually do, we had an opportunity to meet up with Darrel's Mom and Dad, his Uncle, 2 cousins and some family friends. His parents live in IL so we don't see them all that often. His uncle and one cousin are from AZ so we see them even less. It was a good night and a good visit. We had dinner at Springmill Park Lodge and had a nice visit together. We left late... and still had an hours drive home. Earlier at dinner we had both been somewhat dissatisfied with the dessert offerings at the restaurant. We just happened to be passing this little 24 hour diner - that has like been there forever but we've never eaten there - so we decided to stop for some dessert. It was a little late night date night tag on to the end of date night if you will. This place is little and has a 50's diner kind of look. Not like they decorated it that way. More like its been open since then. Darrel ordered a piece of Chocolate Meringue Pie...I had HOT fresh yummy french fries and a chocolate shake. THE best chocolate shake I've had in quite some time. It had real scoops of ice cream, placed in one of those metal cups and then put on the metal blender machine thingy. SO good. I would totally drive there again.. the whole hour... just to have fries and one of those shakes. We realized we tend to do this tag on to date night thing whenever date night has been spent with other people... it's like a reflex or instinct or something. I think I like it... the fact that we crave that time together. Here is a pic of the earlier dinner... ignore me looking distracted in the background.

3) Saturday we attended a graduation party for our niece Lauryn. Who can believe she is out of 8th grade and starting high school? Not me! Here she is looking all cute and smart... We gave her a gift card to Old Navy... I told her she was all set now to go buy like 8 pairs of flip flops...

4) While at the graduation party I got it in my head to take some pictures with my brother and sister. Sounds easy enough right? Um wrong... especially with my brother... Here is the result after like 10 tries... and no I am not kidding.





















Not too bad huh? I should be mean and show you the other 9 cause they are way too funny. I don't think he has a regular picture face...















5) Here is one with all three of us. I am the oldest. Jason is the middle child which perhaps explains a lot... Kidding... Jen is the youngest. She is the beautiful one. I cannot remember the last time we had a photo of just the 3 of us together so I am very pleased to have this. This also was the result of several shots... we could not seem to all pull it together at the same time. Good thing my husband is patient huh?

6) This is one of just Jen and I and you know what... I am thinking perhaps we finally have a photo where we actually do look like we could be related. Jen and I are opposites in lots of ways but we both do like makeup, shoes, nail polish and makeup... Our new thing in common is working out! She is the work out queen. I am now trying to take the title. Ha! I love my little sister!

7) Is this not the cutest photo ever? This was from Sunday. Darrel and I were in the sound booth. This is our friends little girl Lauren. Mom and Dad were both in praise team rehearsal so Darrel decided to help keep Lauren entertained. It makes my heart all a flutter to see my husband holding and caring for a little one. Just about had me teary eyed so of course I had to at the very least grab my camera.














8) Sunday after church we headed straight back to Bedford for lunch with Darrel's family. Another cousin treated us to a nice lunch in Mitchell. I had a grilled chicken salad and a very yummy piece of chocolate cake. I had been craving that since Friday night when I was disappointed the lodge restaurant didn't have it... We spent the afternoon visiting. This is Darrel with his sweet little Mom. Just love that picture...

9) After visiting, we were both hungry since we had a light lunch.. I was so glad I picked the salad because guess what? We stopped back at that diner. When we were there Friday night we had both said that we needed to come sometime and have a burger with the yummy fries and a shake. Well that is just what we did. The burger was good. The fries... yum... PLUS there was cole slaw. Like the best cole slaw ever. Serious. We both had a shake. Chocolate for me, strawberry for Darrel. Not only did they make it just as good as the other time, um there was extra left over in the metal cup she blended in and she brought us that cup too. Oh my gosh...it was wonderful. Everyone must go there and have a shake. I think I'd seriously drive there now to get one. My only complaint is that they don't have a non smoking area and there were lots of smokers. It was even worth that.

10) OK I have been doing Zumba and walking like day and night. Not even kidding. Most days I've been doing both things and every day (except Sunday) at least one of those things. I am praying this will help the scale to get moving. My birthday is July 19th. Like 6 weeks away I believe? I need to look again. I am praying and hoping and WORKING towards trying to reach the 100 lb mark by my birthday. Now one would think you could lose 9 lbs in 6 weeks. Um sooo not the case with me. I maybe do a pound a week when things are going good. I am just going to really give this my best shot and work out day and night if that will be what it takes... Now that I have told the blog world.. and the facebook world.. I am hoping it will help me stay even more focused and accountable. I will get there.

Hope you are having a good week. Blessings!