Long month and a half......

Time sure does fly. Has it really been a month and a half since the wedding? Wow.....I thought I would be bored after the busy months leading up to the big day! Not so....first off....I have been sick since February 1. It seems to come and go but last week did me in and I finally had to go to the doctor to get antibiotic. YUK! I so would prefer not to have had to go, but I have to go out of town for work next week and I would have been miserable.

Anyway, I have been extremely busy at work.....WE as a center haven't been....it's been dead, actually, but I have a whole lot admin. things changing at work and it's keeping me hopping.

I haven't really been able to spend much time with Maddison and Mackenzee either. They all went through a week of so with terrible colds, flu, etc.

I am SO glad Spring is almost here. It's been a LOOOOOOOOOOONG winter.

Sara won tickets (she wins stuff ALL the time) to go see Plain White Ts (I had NEVER heard of this band before) in Grand Rapids, MI and a night in a hotel was included. The concert is tonight, so they headed out this afternoon. They took Laurel with them. She's staying at the hotel with the girls...they can go swimming and just hang out. Sara called and said the room is beautiful.

Sara's sister, Brandy, lives near as does her cousin, Christopher. Christopher actually works at the club right across the street from the hotel. Brandy is going to the concert with Sara and Mitchell, and I believe they were going to try to stop in and see Christopher if he's working tonight.

All the girls knew was that they were going to MICHIGAN (said with excitement!) and that Aunt Laurel was going with them. They were very happy...they love staying in hotels...Mackenzee calls them "bacations"!

Aunt Laurel sqeezing in between the car seats for the three hour ride!

Mackenzee, happy to be going to MICHIGAN!

Maddison cheesin' for the camera!

Papa giving Mackenzee a kiss goodbye ~ it looks like Mackenzee was giving him the what for about something, though!

Sara and Mitchell looking forward to the three hour drive ~ NOT!

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On another note, Ricky will be heading back from Virginia to New York this week. He's tentatively planned on coming home the next week to collect his wife and ftheir urnishings. He found out last week that they do have on base housing for them. I know Ashley is anxious to be with her husband.

I looked up "married housing ~ Ft. Drum, NY" and this picture is posted at the top of the website for Fort Drum. Pretty cool looking...I can't wait to go see their new apartment. This picture, of course, in NOT where they will be staying....they don't even know where they will be staying yet.

Ricky had a little excitement last week in Virginia. He was eating breakfast and choked on some meat. He couldn't get it out and couldn't breathe. A Seargant nearby ran over a began performing the Heimlich Maneuver on him. He still couldn't clear it so he had to put his hand down his throat. They sent him to the hospital to get checked out, make sure his throat hadn't been damaged or anything. He was fine and went to work. Later that day a Colonel showed up and presented that Seargant with a Commendation Coin for saving Ricky's life!!!
When Ricky was telling me the story, he said "Yeah, I almost died and I'm not even at war yet."

They're pretty sure that his unit will be deployed in November. Not good news at all, but we all, including Ricky, knew it was inevitable. The only thing we can do is pray for his safety.

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On a much happier note, an exciting piece of news in the Day house....Brent and I are finally going to go on a 'HONEYMOON"!!! We are going to Buzios, Brazil . Everything is set, except for our passports and visas. We have the pictures done and the applications filled out...we just need to get our buns down to the Post Office and get the process going. Sometime soon we'll be relaxing on the beach in Brazil! Oh yeah........

This is a picture of the sun setting on the beach. The picture was actually taken by a guest at my friend's inn where we are staying. This is the view from one of the suites. Oh how exciting!!

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Some of my favorites!

Oh, my gosh, we were all having a great time!

THIS IS MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PICTURE OF THE WEDDING!!! ASHLEY, THIS IS PRICELESS!!!!

From left to right: Joey Foltz's shoulder, Kass Foltz, Sandy, me, Ricky....

Again...from left to right....Ricky's cousin, Melinda, Laurel, and Ricky's first friend he made here in Fort Wayne nine years ago, Chad.

My in-laws, Karen and Harly

From left to right: the back of Laurel's head, Melinda, Teresa, Maddison, Brent, Kass Foltz, and I don't know who is after Kass...

Mitchell and Sara

Awwwwwwwwwwwww! Kenzee kissing Maddi. (I made those dresses!)

Ricky and Ashley getting ready to cut the cake...the cake that my mom and I made!

Ricky and Maddison dancing during the dollar dance....that's me next to them.

My beautiful granddaughters.............(I made their dresses!)

I have a video I will post soon of Maddison dancing to Beyonce's song.

What a difference a week makes!

It's amazing how our back yard can change in a week's time! Last week there was snow knee-deep back there. After two days of spring like temps and one full day of constant rain, there is no sign of snow at all and our little trickling creek has swollen into a RIVER! We could hear it rushing from inside the house when we got home from work last night. Brent took a few videos to show our family from the south.

Our grass is actually GREEN. I am SO ready for spring....bring on the tulips!

Texans in the SNOW!

Brent had hoped for weeks before the wedding that we would have lots and lots of snow so his parents from way deep south Texas could "enjoy" (experience, rather!) it. He got his wish. I think Harly may have taken just as many "snow" pictures as he did wedding photos! I know one night in the dark he was out in the woods taking pictures!
This is a shot of the woods behind our house. There is a little creek back there too, but no water in it and just snowed over.

My mother-in-law, Karen, on a sled! Maybe the first time ever??!!

My father-in-law, Harly, making a snow angel!

Harly practicing his shovelling tecniques on my patio!

Wow, this would have made a great Christmas card picture!

We had other Texans staying at the house as well. Wow, the snow was such a novel thing to everyone. YUK, YUK, YUK! Sure, on an earlier blog in November I took a million pictures of the first snow and raved how gorgeous it is. Well....it still is gorgeous, so was the ice storm ~ as long as I don't have to go out and drive in it!

Opening Presents

Ricky and Ashley came back from their honeymoon late Sunday night. They both said they had an awesome time, the weather was good and they met a lot of interesting people.

Ashley's mom, Dot, graciously invited Brent and I over on Monday night for a fantastic dinner and to watch the kids open their wedding gifts.

Ashley's (now Ricky's too!) little dog, Lilly, wanted to be a part of it too!

Dot, Ashley and Ricky.....they read everyone's cards and handwritten, heartfelt best wishes. Wow, are those kids loved by a lot of people!

Ashley and Ricky showing the set of dishes that Ashley's sister, Laura gave them.

(Yes, that is me holding TWO drinks on the far right, but I was NOT drinking two...I was holding Brent's so he could take the pictures!!)

Maddison and the Lindley PTA

Maddison attends Lindley Elementary School. She is in kindergarten, but goes for a full day. The first half of her day is with one teacher who teaches everything in English. The other half is with a teacher who teaches the exact same things they all just learned, but in Spanish.

The kindergarten and first grade classes sang at the PTA meeting last night. The video below is about seven minutes long and takes a while to get started (it's a little shaky in the beginning). You can see on the video when she spots her mom finally, THEN she spots her PAPA!

Brent was making signals and making faces while she sang and at about 6:30 into the video you hear her laugh out loud while singing.....that was because of her Papa!

Afterwards, Brent told Maddison she could pick anywhere she wanted to go eat and we'd all go. She picked Chick-fila, her FAVORITE, she said.

Mr. and Mrs. Ricky Nelson

Ricky and Ashley were married last night and everything was fabulous! Everyone had a great time at the reception.

They are on their way to Miami where they will set off on their honeymoon cruise for eight days.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA MICHELLE!

I've posted some random shots of Sara between 2 and 4 years of age. I could post HUNDREDS of pictures and that was when we usually only took pictures for special occasions, unlike today when we take pictures of almost every single moment of our lives.

What a stroll down memory lane it was this morning looking for pictures.

I remember the first moment they told me I had a little girl. Back then, I had NO idea if I was having a boy or girl and I really wished for a girl and wanted to name her Sara.

My wish came true and it's been a very happy 27 years. When Sara was born and throughout her first few years, there was NO ONE in the world who had a child as beautiful and wonderful as mine! I told anybody and everybody about my perfect child. My gosh, her first poo? Well, I made ten phone calls right then....OH MY GOSH people...you're not gonna believe this, she had her first pooey diaper! That was amazing to me. Her first fever? Yup, you guessed it, first I called the emergency room, then I called her doctor, and after being politely, yet sternly told that Sara was indeed going to live, that 101 degree temp in a 1 and 1/2 month old child would not kill her and that, NO, I did not need to bring her in, I called my mom. She also assured me that Sara would live. Then I called everyone I knew...Gues What? Sara just had a high fever (101 to me then was HIGH) and lived through it....isn't she just amazing?!! Her first tooth at 4 months? Holy Cow....I would have published it in the local newspaper if I knew how!

Then she did the MOST fantastic, fabulous thing ever. SHE TOOK A STEP! That was back before cell phones, digital cameras and the internet. I made a few phone calls, but we didn't really have the money to call long distance, so I drafted off a WHOLE slew of letters to those long distance with paragraph after paragraph about this amazing child who poos in her diaper, gets fevers, has a few teeth and now can WALK!!!!

I could ramble on for 27 years worth. I'm just so happy that even today, all those special memory moments are right there....not tucked away....not forgotten, but right THERE for me for ever and always.

I love you Sara! HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Sara at 2 1/2 years.

This was on her fourth birthday.

She was three here.

Christmastime and she was a happy camper!

She always wanted to help. Here she's making Kool-aid.

This was her fourth birthday too. I made her teddy bear cake!

This was at 2 1/2 at Christmas and she was so happy about something here!

My beautiful girl!

Whoa! This is a very familiar look! I think I've seen the EXACT same face on Maddi and Kenzee recently!

Sara in a box. She was almost two here.

Cutie and the Easter Bunny!

She loved Cabbage Patch dolls!

She insisted on wearing swimmies in the bath tub! The pink tinge on this and a few others is because the film got dropped into a little swimming pool. Years later, I took it to see if it would develop and sure enough, there were pictures on it! Just a whole lot of pink!

Swimmies AND a ring.....sure not going to drown in the tub NOW!

I know her grandpa loved her, but the hug in this particular picture is to hold her back from running at the camera. My mom had a Poloroid camera where the pictures shot out and you could watch the images appear. Once she figured that out, it was hard to get any shots except Sara running with her arms out to grab the picture!

Hey, again, I love you Sare Bear!

One week......seven days....and counting!

Wow! Time sure flies! Ricky and Ashley will be getting married one week from tonight.

I've been working since the day after Christmas on Maddison and Mackenzee's dresses. They are now complete except for hemming them up which I will do tomorrow when they are here.

I had Maddison try her's on last week. I didn't have the plum colored sash ready then.

Here's a picture of her in her dress:

I had Mackenzee try hers on today:

I have the ring bearer pillow all finished and I finalized the programs today. I will be printing them tomorrow.

Also, this week, with the help of my mom, I made a practice "proof" wedding cake. I only made two of the tiers. Ashley, my mom, Brent and I all tasted it. I took the rest to work on Friday and they DEVOURED it. Yeah! I also had three people ask me about making birthday cakes!

I think we're all ready for this now. Just so the weather holds out. There are a bunch of people coming from out of town!

Congratulations Hunter!

Our nephew, Hunter Carver, raised rabbits for 4-H this year and the auction was yesterday.

His rabbits went for $300. Great job Hunter! We are so proud of you and wish we could have been at the auction with you in the nice, warm, beautiful, shirt-sleeve weather.

We love you!

Uncle Brent and Aunt Kathy

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD DAY!

Karen and Harly have been married for 40 years today!

Here's wishing you 40 more!

January 18, 1969

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We love you guys!

Brent and Kathy

It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!

Maddison is a Daisy Girl Scout this year. Sara is a co-leader of the troop. Just like I was her leader in Kalamazoo for years and Laurel's leader in Corpus Christi for several years.

Maddison called me on Thursday night to let me know:

Yep! It's Girl Scout COOKIE Time!

And she wanted me to spread the word...her goal is 100 boxes so she can go with the troop to Build-A-Bear and Science Central.

Each box is $3.50 and you don't have to order and wait. The troop gets the cookies first so they are available immediately.

She went to her daddy's work yesterday and sold twenty boxes (they were still there last time I spoke to Sara, so she could have sold more). Apparently, Mackenzee is in on this too. Maddison isn't much of a speaker when it comes to strangers. Mackenzee doesn't know a stranger! She did the talking yesterday from what I gather...and did a darn good job of it!

Maddison will be going into her Papa's work next week, but a woman in the office there has a daughter in Girl Scouts and sent the order form around yesterday. So, not too sure how well she'll do at L.A. Electric.

I can't solicit at my place of business, but the word has spread that I can get the cookies, so she'll rack up some sales from me.

If you are reading this, please, give me a call and let me know how many boxes and what kind you would like. Maddison will personally call to thank you.

EVERYONE LOVES GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!

(and they freeze nicely!)