He asked, she said "Are you serious?"

On Feb. 24 five years ago, Kevin asked me to marry him. Every year since then, on the 24'th, we go back down to the place where he proposed and then usually have dinner. This year we combined that with a late Valentine's dinner but before I show you the pictures from that, maybe I should tell you just a bit of what happened that fateful eveing. :) Kevin had moved down to Fl temporarily since he traveled for his job anyway. He came down to the school where I taught one afternoon. He was dressed up in a suit and had gone into my apt. and got a dress and some dressy shoes. When my fellow Hobe Sounder co-workers came to bring me the clothes, they discovered that the dress was wrinkly and I really needed pantyhose for the shoes he brought. So... Sharron Teed ran around looking for an iron and finally made do with the de-wrinkle cycle on an old dryer at the school while Lora Gray ran down to a CVS on the corner and got me hose. (That has little significance to the proposal but I think it adds more interest to the story.) Then as soon as I got into Kevin's car, he blindfolded me so I wouldn't know where we were going. (One of my co-workers got to drive my car without AC home that day - bless them!) We arrived at the Breakers hotel in West Palm Beach where very rich people vacation and very poor people walk around and try not to gape at how beautiful and ritzy it is. Kevin told me that he knew I had been having a stressful week so he thought we would just walk around (yes, it's beautiful enough to just walk around and look at) and then go somewhere for dinner. (Yes, I was suspicious). We were out looking at the water and Kevin said, "Look at those people down there. What are they doing?" (as if they were doing something weird) I looked around but couldn't figure out what he was talking about. He said, "All the way down there" and by the time I turned back around, he was down on one knee holding the ring out. He told me how much he enjoyed being with me etc. and then asked me to marry him. I maybe should just end the story here on a romantic note but since my title already gave it away, I said [as romantically as I could of course] "Are you serious?" That wasn't the exact response I was supposed to give so Kevin asked me again after a few seconds and of course I said "yes". After that we walked back inside the motel and I found out that Kevin had made reservations at the upscale French restaurant there. We had a five course, $125 dollar a person french meal! Of course after that we called family and friends. When we got back to my apt. that evening, Kevin asked me if my evening was everything I could have hoped for and of course it was - but he wasn't done. When I opened the door to my apt, there were a dozen roses with a card sitting on a chair and then rose petals scattered all over the furniture, floor etc. (It was an efficiency and so it was all one room as soon as you walked in.) Kevin was like, "I'll vacuum them all up for you if you want". :) He knew that I was quite particular about things being clean but of course I didn't mind. I just thought it was funny that he said that. We go back to the Breakers every Feb. 24'th. Two years we have packed a picnic and eaten it out on the lawn right near where he proposed (people staying at the motel have actually stopped and asked us where we got the picnic stuff and if you could get it through the motel) :) A couple of the years we have had Kaelyn in tow and last year we ate (an appetizer and soup) at one of the "cheaper" restaurants there, which is still WAY overpriced. This year, since it was five years, Kevin wanted to eat in one of the more inexspensive restaurants there but after some persuasion from me, we just walked around, took pictures, then went somewhere that we had gift cards for. Ahhh - true love! :) We both feel thankful for the past five years even with its ups and downs and wouldn't do anything differently!


This was a self-portrait out by the ocean.


It was out along this walkway where he proposed.


This was the restaurant that we ate at (five years ago)


This is a shot of the dining area.


Another self-portrait out front.


Some of the beautiful landscaping - and me. :)


A genereal idea of what [part of] the front looks like.


Fountain out front.


The two of us out front near the entrance of the
Breakers Hotel.

What to do when you don't know the words

I have been meaning to video Kaelyn singing these songs for several months but haven't gotten it done. Since she has just been watching some of the older Pooh stories the last few days, I decided I better video her before she learns the real words. She hasn't seen many of the full length Disney movies but she has several sing-along movies and we have 2 CDs of Disney songs from many of the different movies. She has not seen "Jungle Book" but she has seen several pre-views for it as well as songs from the movie. She sings "Look for the bare sussesories, the simple bare sussesories" instead of necessities. That's the only parts of the song she knows - sort of. But my favorite is the way she sings the classic "Winnie the Pooh" song. Apparently the words go by too quickly for her to pick up on. The real lyrics are:

Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh;

Chubby, little cubby all stuffed with fluff;

He's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh;

Willy, nilly, silly old bear.

As you'll hear, Kay sings it "Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, Shunda, shunda, shunda, shunda, shunda, shunda" etc. I think "shunda, shunda, shunda" kind of has a ring to it so maybe the next time you find yourself in a situation where everyone is supposed to be singing but you don't have a songbook or know the words, you can just feel in the parts you don't know with "shunda, shunda, shunda" :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

How to use stickers correctly

Not much to tell here. The heart stickers came from a Mickey Mouse clubhouse Valentines book that we got Kaelyn. Hopefully, Kaelyn doesn't inherit my crazy nature and my overly creative brain. :)

When I put one on my nose, she wanted one on her nose...

...And of course after I put them both over my eyes, she

wanted them on her eyes. Thankfully, I escaped the eye

pictures.

And luckily there are 2 full sheets of stickers in the book.

All in a day's work!

These pictures are actually from a few weeks ago. Kaelyn was going through a phase of just pulling things apart or making messes faster than we could clean the last one up. On this particular day, I got as far as brushing her teeth, getting her clothes off, and starting the bath water than I went out to do something else quickly. When I went to get her a few minutes later, I discovered her in the office where we had the boxes of wrapping paper, bows, etc. I don't' know WHAT she was trying to accomplish, but she had several rolls of paper completely unwrapped and a lot of the Christmas wrapping stuff ALL OVER and she was trying to get "unburied" from all the paper. So there she was completely naked surrounded by wrapping paper. Just shortly after that episode, I got her all washed up and she was wanting to play in the tub so I decided I would let her play for just a few minutes. Usually, she just sits in there and plays as good as can be, but this day I heard a "splat" and ran in to see her dumping water out of the tub all over the bathroom floor. When I walked in she said, "Kaelyn, what are you doing?!" The next day (or 2 days later), I walked out to the kitchen to find her up on the counter splashing her hands in pepsi. (She's kind of obsessed with playing in water/liquids right now.) I had intentionally put the cup all the way to the back of the counter because of Kaelyn. We're pretty sure she had intentionally poured it all over the counter so she could mess in it because the cup was sitting upright. We got her down and shooed her out of the kitchen while between Kevin and I we mopped the floor and cleaned up the counter. Meanwhile, she went into Kevin's office and when he went back to see what she was doing, she had his wallet off of his desk and was pulling out all of his credit cards. I don't know if she was just "behind the curve" of getting into everything or what but we have hardly had any issues with her getting into stuff like that. I guess maybe it was good timing for her going to school. :) Anyway, I thought you all might get a kick out of these pictures. I tried to be as modest as possible considering she didn't have a stitch of clothing on.

Lion Country Safari

A couple of weeks ago when Kevin's parents were down here visiting, we all went down to Lion Country Safari. The animals were all more active than I've ever seen them (except for the lions, they were just lying around). We actually drove through the safari part right at what seemed to be feeding time so we got to see most of the animals very close up. After the drive through part, we ate lunch and then did a bunch of the other attractions. Kay loved feeding the sheep, playing in the water and doing the rides. After we left Lion Country Safari, we all went out to dinner at a place along the water in Port Salerno and had a great dinner complete with watching the full moon rising above the trees. All in all, it was a really nice day!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Stay away gray!

I have made an interesting and distressing observation in the past few weeks. Previously, I have had two little gray hairs in my head that I always pull out and that's that. But recently, I've discovered that all the sudden I have quite a few gray hairs. They're not really noticeable except to me but it seems that it's just been all the sudden that they are there. Given the difficulty sleeping I've had, then the troubling dreams I've had when I do sleep, mixed in with all the nerves and emotions I've experienced in the month of January, I shouldn't be surprised. My mind has basically jumped from one situation to the next to worry about it seems. Gotta' stop that. I'm scared I'm going to wake up one morning and be totally gray - ahh, something more to lay in bed and think about. :) All I'm sayin' is - go away and stay away gray! :) :)

Such a brave girl!

I'm sure that by reading the title of this post, you all thought that Kaelyn was the brave girl and you are confused by the picture but the brave girl is really... dum,dum,dum,dum (drum roll) no other than... myself. :) See, every morning that Kaelyn has gone to school since her second day, she has screamed and clung to my neck when we got into the classroom. She actually seems to love school other than the "me leaving" part so it's not been hard other than that part. Well, by Tuesday morning, I decided to just walk her in, give her a hug and kiss and turn around and leave immediately. I know that as soon as I leave they start getting her calmed down. Even though I just want to stay and try to convince her that it's going to be okay and that I will come back for her, I also realize that it doesn't help her or me feel any better if I stay around 5 or 10 minutes. So the last few days, I've walked her into the classroom, set her and her stuff down (or handed her right to the teacher), gave her a hug and kiss, and turned around and walked out. Then, as I walk away from the building hearing her screaming "Mommy, Mommy!", I sing merrily to drown out the thoughts in my head that I am being harsh to just walk right out like I have better places to go or things to do than comfort my little girl. I throw my head back and sing "Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I've got a beautiful feeling, Everything's going my way." **(see footnote below) I know that's the best thing for everyone involved so I am being brave and doing what I would want me to do from the perspective of a teacher rather than a mommy. One of my friends told me that it was "very mature of me" to do that and that I must be remembering my days of working as a teacher at a pre-school.
I do need to mention though that today when I put Kay-Kay down she said, "Bye-bye Mommy. Bye-bye Mommy". She didn't cling to me and she wasn't crying although when they started to take her coat off (it was 37 degrees when we got to school today!) as I was walking out she started fussing about them taking it off and it sounded like maybe she was going to start crying - I didn't stay around to find out. So, yeah for brave mommy and I'm sure Kay-Kay is going to be very brave about it soon as well. Though I have to admit, I still don't feel brave when I pull out past the crossing guards. They always seem to yell at me because I accidentally rolled up to the second stop sign instead of the first one or now I'm scared to go so I stop and sit there looking to make sure they are really waving at ME to go (don't laugh at me - it's confusing when you're already nervous) and then they wave frantically and yell for me to keep going. I thought I was going to cry the first day they blew their whistle 'cause they thought I wasn't stopping and I just thought I was supposed to go up to the furthest stop sign. It's funny now when I think about it but I was about to stop the car and get out and be like, "I'm sorry, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to pull forward". Then they would have really been yelling at me like I was an idiot. I think maybe they kind of like their job too much 'cause they feel important telling everyone when they can stop and go but until I can afford a helicopter and just land on the roof of the school, I will just drive by them with fear and trembling (or irritation depending on what mood I am in).
** Some fictitious details have been added for the sake of making the story more interesting. I don't even know anyone who ever feels that way in the morning - "I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way?!" Really?! The song is from the musical "Oklahoma" if you want to go listen to the song now - but trust me, you probably don't.