Casting Crumbs

Okay, everyone, I promised Tom I would post his Prime Rib picture. Prime Rib is Tom’s absolute favorite thing to eat on the face of this earth. . .but it can’t just be any old prime rib, it has to be JUST RIGHT! This one he had at Anthony’s on the Gulf was Prime Rib Perfection! He made me take a picture of it so that he wouldn’t forget this piece of meat.

Is it just me, or does this look disgusting??!!

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I must share a really funny story with you. The first night we got there it was about midnight but we stayed up till about 1:30 or 2:00 because we were so excited about being in Florida and hearing the call of the ocean just outside. We left the sliding door open in our bedroom so that we could hear the waves crashing.

I finally went to sleep and had the craziest dream. . .

I was there in our hotel villa and there were all these rabbits running around the room. They would hide behind the couch and whistle really loudly. I knew that the only way I could get them to quit whistling was to feed them a ham sandwich. I fed those darned bunnies ham sandwiches all night and just couldn’t get them to shut up! I was starting to get really annoyed in my dream because the ham wasn’t working. I woke up with a start and immediately realized that the sea gulls were flying all around outside and I was hearing them calling to one another!

Tom and I referred to sea gulls as whistling rabbits the whole trip.

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This is a little update on Mom. I know that she would greatly appreciate prayer as she goes to the Urologist tomorrow. They put some stints in when they did her surgery a year ago. She recently found out that normally they are taken out shortly thereafter. They never scheduled her a post-op checkup with the urologist that put them in, so she didn’t know. They have given her some problems and she has an appointment tomorrow.

I know that just going to the dr. for her makes her probably want to run away screaming, after all she has been through. She is a little anxious about the appointment and what taking the stints out will entail. She would appreciate any prayers for her.

Thanks, everyone for praying. We continue to stand on the promises of God and know that what he says, He will follow through on.

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As some of you know, Tom and I had the absolute privilege of going to Florida for our 15th Anniversary! Yes, we have made it to the 15 year mark and still really do like one another.

We left for Fort Meyers Beach last Tuesday. After several delays on our flight out of KCI, then missing our flight in Atlanta, waiting on standby for several hours, we finally made it to our hotel in Fort Meyers Beach. It was completely worth the hassles and the waits when we got there!

We stayed at the Pink Shell Beach Resort (I would highly recommend it!). It was superb! We stayed in the White Sands Villas which were basically apartments that overlooked the gulf. They had a full kitchen, washer and dryer, living room with floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the water, a HUGE bathroom with one of those big round tubs, and a separate bedroom with a screened in porch.

The Pink Shell – looking from the beach.

The screened in porch off our bedroom. We would leave the door open at night so we could hear the waves crashing in.

The pool area.

Our view out the living room windows.

We did a lot of exploring the first day and then went to this lovely restaurant called Anothony’s On the Gulf for dinner. We ate outside and watched the sunset. It was heavenly.

Anthony’s

Here is a picture of the sunset that night. We always made sure we were on the beach at sunset.

Our anniversary was a really memorable day for us. We drove down to Naples in our rented convertible. We honeymooned there and so we thought it would be nice to be there on our big day.

This car was a blast!

We did some shopping and then went down to the pier and walked the beach. It has one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. The shelling there is really good and we had fun picking up shells, seeing shrimp and other life on the beach.

You can see the Naples pier in the background here.

At sunset we walked all the way to the end of the pier to watch the sun melt into the sea. A large crowd of people had gathered there and we all stood in awe as the fiery ball began to sink. After it completely disappeared from view everyone broke out clapping. It was like God had perfectly orchestrated this beautiful event and we had all gathered to witness this performance. It was magical!

Isn’t this awesome! This is one of the photos of that sunset.

Our last day we went deep sea fishing. A real highlight that ended our trip on a really great note. It was exciting reeling in fish after fish and wondering what was coming up on that line. There were several of us on the boat and so we saw some really interesting fish. We caught mostly spot tail and red snapper. They weren’t big fish but were good to eat. They fixed all our fish for us and we took them back to the hotel.

Here’s the basket of fish we caught.

The chef in the hotel restaurant fixed us a really tasty meal of blackened fish. I usually hate fish, but this was excellent!!

Here is a picture of us at dinner that night. The hotel restaurant is like a big covered patio type thing. You are inside, yet there are no windows so you feel like you are outside. I love this photo of us with the sunset in the background. (As you can tell, I’m really into the beach and sunsets!)

All in all we had a wonderful trip! I wouldn’t recommend flying Delta or having a layover in Atlanta, but those are just part of the adventure. I must say a HUGE ‘THANKS!’ to our parents for watching all our kids and making this possible. It was so nice to be away and know that the kids are happy, well taken care of and having a time of their lives too. Thank you so much and we love you!

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Have you ever lost your keys? Your whole big set of keys? Well, I did! They are gone into that big black hole where those important things go that are never seen again.

There are certain things in life, that when you lose them you instantly feel naked. Keys, purses, cell phones and small children all do this to me! So, I went a couple of days feeling very naked and looking under everything and in everything and calling all the places I had been to find these keys. Nothing. Nada and Nowhere!

So my wonderful hubby went to the local Westlake and made me a brand new set. I was so excited and thankful. The next morning I had all the kids ready for school, loaded them into the van and stuck my shiny new key into the ignition. First it didn’t fit very well. Hmmm. . .I pulled it out and turned it over and stuck it in. It went in without a problem and then I did the magical thing that we do over and over. . .I started the van – not. It wouldn’t turn over. It would just rev and rev. GREAT! I thought something was wrong with the van so I went to pull the key out and it WOULD NOT COME OUT OF THE IGNITION! It also wouldn’t go back to the Off position, so the radio was on and the door was dinging. I was beside myself yanking and pulling on that key. It would not come out! So I called Tom at work and we figured out together, after pulling the owners manual out, that the keys to Honda’s are coded! Yes, for theft reasons a non-coded key will NOT start the van.

Needless to say, I had to call a Tow truck to wench the van out of the garage and take it to our local Honda dealer to get the key out. $162.00 later I have my van back!!!! Yes, $162.00!!!! The key removal was $53.00 and the rest of the highway robbery was by the tow service!

For all you Honda people out there. . . TAKE NOTE: DO NOT EVER EVER EVER GET A KEY MADE AND TRY IT IN YOUR HONDA.

Oh my, my . . .live and learn.

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grace‧ful  – Show Spelled Pronunciation[greys-fuhl]
–adjective
characterized by elegance or beauty of form, manner, movement, or speech; elegant: a graceful dancer; a graceful reply.

THIS I AM NOT!!!

klutz  – Show Spelled Pronunciation[kluhts]
–noun Slang.
1.a clumsy, awkward person.

THIS I PROVED TO BE ONCE AGAIN!!

Allow me to paint a beautiful picture for your mind to grasp. . .

Tom and I, with Jaden and Evely in tow, visited out local El Maguy tonight for a mediocre feast of Mexican fare. When we got there Jaden had fallen asleep which meant he would sleep through dinner and save us the $2.00 for another cheese quesedilla. When he is out – he is OUT! So I carry him in and they seat us at a table for four. They brought the highchair and sat it on the opposite side of the table from where I was seated and Tom put Evely in it. I decided the best thing for me to do was to slide over to the chair sitting next to me so that I can be nearer to Evely. I lift my butt off my chair slightly and plan to slide gracefully over to the next chair (Remember I am holding Jaden’s dead sleepy weight on my shoulder). As my fanny hits the next chair instead of planting itself onto the seat it scoots the chair aside and I being already in mid-sit fall flat to the floor continuing to hold Jaden!! His weight on my shoulder continue to push me back onto the floor and I am horrified to see my feet leaving the floor and beginning to rise over my head!

The place is absolutely packed out and in the whole two seconds that it took my flailing body to land on the floor I had a slew of thoughts go through my head. Ones like “Crap, I’m doing it again! Oh, this one is going to leave a mark! How many people are seeing this? How do I go on and eat a normal dinner after this one? Why does Tom have that stupid look on his face and he isn’t even moving?! Is Jaden going to get hurt? Will I even be able to get up?”

Well, All the answers came very quickly. The whole restaurant looked on and I heard the whispers of “Oh my that lady fell down with that baby!” Tom just started giggling and saying “are you okay?”. He takes Jaden from me – who is now crying from being startled out of a nice sleep by landing on the cold floor of a restaurant – good thing I padded his fall! I see several mexican faces hovering around with anxious looks on their faces. The people next to us are having a nice chuckle over my conversation with Tom about my butt and how much it hurts.

This is one moment in my life that seems to continue over and over. I truly am a klutz. I think falling down runs in my family or something.

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This week has been extra crazy for me. All three of the kids were sick with fevers and the two boys had major diarrhea! So when I say it was a crappy week. . .well I am serious.

Here’s a funny for all you Mom’s out there who can completely understand what it’s like to have sick kids. You can commiserate with being cooped up in the house for days, having grumpy children that all want to be held at once, changing poopy pants over and over and over. . ., going through a whole tube of Desitin and asking again and again that if you need to “toot” please sit on the toilet when you do it.

After the many bouts of diarrhea, Julian went to the bathroom last night and yelled at me “HEY MOM! I’M ALL BETTER. . .IT’S ALL STARTING TO HOLD TOGETHER!”

I just love the way kids say things!

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