Port #2

Do you know where we are today?
This is Cabo San Lucas bay.
We are in Mexico today.
We will be tendered to and from the dock today and we be here from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
This is a new port for me. Have you been here?

Love,

Sailing Along

Today we are at sea again. Relaxing in the sun and doing whatever we choose to do. There are at least two swimming pools and hot tubs. The dining is unbelievable. We will see a show after dinner each night that we are on board. They will have movies during the day, games, lectures, classes on various topics such as make-up, cooking, napkin folding, health, exercise, etc. The is basketball (now that's interesting if it's windy and the ship is moving. You have to compensate for the movement in order to make the basket.

Some ships we have been had roller blading, ice skating, miniature golf, rock climbing, walking/jogging paths, and a MALL that looked like something you would find in Europe!

Come back tomorrow and see where our 2nd port of call is.

Love,

Port #1

Today we will be here.

This is Catalina Island.
This is my first trip to this island. I heard so much about it when I was growing up from my parents who went there several time on dates ;)
Our schedule is to be here from 7:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. We will be tendered to and from the dock. (The water in the harbor is too shallow for the ship.)

Love,

At Sea

Today we are at sea -- my favorite part of the cruise. I like the ports but sea days are so relaxing. We usually take a mile walk before breakfast. If there is golf, we may do that too before breakfast. The ship provides all kind of things to do. We love to play games with our friends so I am sure Norma and I will be doing our best to win over the guys (Oh, how they hate to lose to us --hee, hee). I will be checking out the exercise spa and the shops on board :)
Reading -- can't forget that!

Tonight will be our first formal night. (There are a total of three on this cruise.)

See you tomorrow!

Love,

Setting sail

Today, we board the cruise ship Infinity by Celebrity Cruises. We depart from San Francisco harbor at 5:00 P.M. We will meet up with our luggage quickly unpack, wait for the lifeboat drill, then . . . we're officially on vacation. Let's sit back and be waited on for the next 16 nights aboard the Infinity. (I do wish you could really join me. What fun we would have!)

Love,

On the bay

We are in San Francisco.
We will do some touring today and enjoy this beautiful city on the bay.
Come back tomorrow as we set sail on the high seas and our begin adventure!

Love,

It's sooo early!

We're up at 3:00 a.m. to be ready to leave at 4:00 a.m. in order to be at the airport by 5:00 a.m. . . to wait. We are finally on vacation!We are going a cruise (that explains the wardrobe). It am working on doing posts ahead for each day with pictures of our ports. So, travel along with me for a few days and see where I am going (hint - there are no Wal-Marts that I know of).

Love,

Don't Give Up On Me!

Hi everyone! I haven't left the country . . . . yet. I have been running around like a . . . . chicken with her head cut off. (Have you every seen a chicken do that? Me neither.)

Anyway, I have been busy doing this:

PACKING, AND PACKING AND ELIMINATING ITEMS AND ADDING ITEMS. Shopping, shopping. Working, and working and getting everything done ahead. Whew I need a vacation for sure. That's right, we are getting ready to leave for a long awaited vacation.
(Am I the only one whose husband DOESN'T pack his stuff? Wouldn't it be nice to have a wife to do things for you?)

May house gets messy while I pack. Can't you tell!

PACKING
WEIGHING THE SUITCASES
BAGGING THE LIQUIDS

PLANNING THE WARDROBE


CAN'T FORGET THESE


I just love this evening bag. It has a beaded handle, too.

This is the one I use the most. It pretty much goes with everything!

I will try to leave a day-by-day itinerary before I leave and then you will know where I'm going;)

Love,

I've been tagged....

I have been tagged from my real life blogging friend, Valerie. I am to tell how I met and fell in love with my husband.

Well . . . . one Sunday morning when I was about 6 years old, I was sitting on the front pew at church with my little girl friends. It was the time between Sunday School and morning worship, the service had not yet started.

Being a bunch of wiggly little girls, we were twisting and turning around looking at all the people. As I remember it, the church was full. I noticed this little boy sitting next to his mother and I realized that I did not know them.

As it turned out, his father was the guest speaker for the day and was being considered to fill the vacant pastoral position. When we turned around and looked at them, his mother saw us and leaned down and said, "Those girls are looking at you." He just buried his head in her side and grinned.

His father became our pastor for a little over 4 years. During this time my husband's sister was married. It was the first wedding I had ever attended. On the trip home from the wedding, I asked my mother,

"Can I have a wedding like that?"

Mom said "If you grow up and marry and good Christian young man, yes, you can have a pretty wedding like that."

I responded with, "Who, someone like Charles?"

Well . . . just call me a baby prophet because 11 years later I married him! :)

He was my first date and my last. (There were others in between ;)

During the last dating period, he lived near Dallas and I in Oklahoma. We dated for two years and were formally engaged for 1 year.

Yes, 38 years ago I had that beautiful wedding and I did marry a good Christian young man. He has been my pastor for 36 years. He's a very good speaker ( Oh, . . . . thank God!)

August 7, 1970

Love,

Black Buggy Day

BLACK BUGGY DAY
in
North Eastern Oklahoma

I can hardly believe that it has been a week since I posted last but my schedule is so stretched thin right now. I had promised to take pictures at the Amish festival this past weekend so here they are.

There was a quite a few people there when we arrived.

There were many booths: Food, crafts, flowers, knives and more.

The children had so much fun racing their stick horses.

The women's event was skillet throwing.

There was different horse events for the men and one or two women.

I thought this was a neat picture.
She was eating chicken and noodles.

This little darling caught my eye every time she passed by me.
She is about 4 years old.

These little guys were so cute!
They were watching the cattle corralling.

On the right, she is cooking homemade noodles!

Below are some Amish cooks in the restaurant tent. They are preparing all kinds of yummy foods.

Oh . . . and the baked goods!
Yum!

A clown making balloon creations for the children.

Fun for the kids!

The children's "train".
This little thing putt --putted around all day long.

There were carriage rides in this beautiful white carriage.

And of course, the line to the ladies "room".

It was such a beautiful day. The festival we went to the weekend before was rainy due to Ike being on our heels!

The area this festival was in has many Amish families who open their homes and restaurants. You must have a minimum of 10 in order to make reservations. They serve the meal family style and it is so delicious. Our church has gone as a group many, many times! It's best to not eat and save you appetite for their wonderful meal. If you ever get to go to something like this, don't miss it. Experience it at least one time.!

Love,

Happy Birthday dear MIL

Sunday was my MIL's birthday. She was 86 years young. We had a birthday dinner for her complete with a cake and ice cream. I fixed her favorite: roast beef, creamed potatoes, gravy, veggies, salad, sour dough bread and dessert.

She was my pastor's wife when I was 6 years. We go w-a-a-a-ay back.

Here's the birthday cake (spice - it's almost autumn),
cream cheese frosting w/toasted pecans.
Check out the candle -- it's a crayon candle.
Can you tell that small children dominate the domain at our house?

(Oops! That's a dead gave-away that this celebration was not planned
well in advance or there would have been an adult candle stickn' out of that cake :)

I'm really not cheap. I didn't have enough candles so I just used one.
Let's face it . . . 86 candles = house fire!

I must admit, it was pretty good!

Here she is with some of her grandchildren - my kids!.
Little Bryce is Great Grandchild #20!

May she have more happy and healthy years ahead.

Love,

It's raining, it's pouring . . . .

Saturday, hubs and I got up fairly early and headed out the door to Tupelo, OK to the Annual Amish Auction.

The Amish in this area raise money for their school by having an auction and selling their awesome food, furniture, buggies, animals and much more. There are other vendors there as well.

We anticipated a nice day in spite of the forecast for possible rain. Just as we got to the home stretch toward the auction, it started raining.

A little later the traffic began to slow down and eventually came to a complete stop. As we came closer to our turn, we saw the reason. A traffic jam . . . . on a DIRT road!

Here's a shot of the traffic behind us! I have never seen so much traffic on a DIRT road.

Finally we got through the gate and found a parking place. My camera could not capture the the sea of cars!










There were several large tents with vendor's booths. There was so much to choose from: Home Decor, Autumn, Christmas, Halloween items, jewelry, purses, candles, hair accessories, western theme items, country items, food of all kinds and even hermit crabs.









Yes, the Amish were very visible. These ladies were checking out the hermit crabs. The children were adorable in their Amish attire.

I wanted to take more pics but my hands were full with a camera and a very wet umbrella. Can your spell D-r-o-w-n-e- d R-a-t?

Hubs decided that he didn't want to follow me around shopping so he decided to head out to the auctions. Yes, there was more than one (how I wish I would have know that at the beginning). We did the stupid thing and did not set a time and place to meet. Mistake #1!

Mistake #2: I had forgotten to charge my cell phone :)

After doing some shopping, I decided to go to the auction tent to look for hubs. I searched in different places for about an hour. I asked myself, "where would a phlegmatic hang out in this weather?" I guess I don't know where a phlegmatic would have been because he wasn't in any of the places I looked so I decided to check the car.

Not there, either.

I got in the car and began reading a book while waiting to see if he would show.

No sight of him!

Back to the auction tent. Still couldn't find him. It finally stopped raining so I started searching in areas that I hadn't even seen while tromping around in the rain.

Guess what I discovered?

There were a least 4 auction tents.! NO WONDER I couldn't find him. I looked for the buggies thinking surely he would be there.

Nope!

As I started up the hill, I heard my name paged. Then I looked up and saw him with a BIG smile on his face. We started laughing and shared our adventure of looking for each other. -- in the rain! He had started looking for me about the time I went to the car!!! I guess my secret ambition of becoming a PI just went down the ditch with all the rain. ;)

We ate a yummy lunch of Amish chicken and noodles before heading home. On the trip back, it began raining again! We were in for even more rain as hurricane Ike whirled passed our area.

This Saturday we will be going to another one near Tulsa. There will be buggy races at this one and hopefully NO RAIN!

Love