Lazy Beach Days For Two

Hubby and I are on our way to the Florida beach after a busy, busy month. We can't wait! Our daughter and son-in-law and their two little girls are staying home this summer and our son and brand new daughter-in-law are on their European honeymoon, so Hubby and I will be spending two lovely weeks at the beach alone this year. Not bad. It seems we rarely go anywhere alone and while we will miss our beautiful family, we are really looking forward to lying in the sun and walking on the beach together. I've mentioned before that we've stayed at the same place in Florida during the same weeks for over 30 years. So it's a home away from home and we've made lots of wonderful friends there that we always look forward to seeing and visiting with. I am looking forward to being totally lazy! It's been a non stop month of wedding prep and getting ready for out of town company. Even though both of those causes are lovely, it's nice to have some days to have absolutely nothing to do other than be lazy.

I haven't posted much in the last month so I've prepared some posts to publish while I'm away in hopes you won't forget about me! One of the posts will include pictures from our sons June 20 wedding. Enjoy the July 4th celebrations and lots of fun, safe summer days!

Liz, Craft From My Heart, recently gave me this "One Lovely Blog" award. Thanks Liz! I'm so sorry that it's taken me so long to post your award. I do so appreciate it though! I believe the instructions were to pass the award along to 14 bloggers that you have recently discovered. I'm going to have to think about that one! I have been so busy with the plans for our sons wedding that I have spent very little time on the computer in a month. I haven't even been to visit my good old favorite blogs, let alone have time to find new ones! I will look forward to finding and passing it along to new blogs as soon as the wedding and our vacation is over. It will give me lots of fun hours of blogging to look forward to! Thanks Liz!!!

39 Years and Counting!

Today is our 39th wedding anniversary! Where have the years gone? It simply seems impossible. With the wedding of our son just this past weekend I was reminded of the days leading up to my own wedding. My mother planned most of it for me. After all, what did I know about planning a wedding? I was just a 17 high school student! My goodness - I would have flipped out if one of my own children had entertained the idea of getting married between their junior and senior years of high school! Maybe it was a different time then, in 1970, and maybe we were special, but we've been mostly happy these 14,235 days we've shared in marriage in spite of the odds. Everyone who has ever been married knows about those odd days when it seems nothing can make one or both of you happy! We've had some of those too. We've had lean days early in our marriage when we had to borrow milk money. We've had days when we were frantic over sick babies. We've grieved together and celebrated together. We became grandparents together, worried over a preemie granddaughter and lost one grandchild. We lost more than one pregnancy of our own. We've both been diagnosed with serious illnesses and fought together to win. We tried for many years to have our two children and now we've seen them both married in the church we attended as newlyweds. Throughout it all, the good and the not so good of marriage, God has been our constant companion and guide. We're moving forward, on to 40 years and more!

It's Wedding Week!

Hello dear blogging friends!

It seems like ages since I posted. I have been buried in mounds of tulle and ribbon for weeks, helping to prepare for our sons wedding, which is Saturday. Jacob and Jenni have been engaged for 2 1/2 years, which seemed like such a long time, but now that it's here I can't believe it. Jacob is my baby so the occasion of his marriage brings mixed feelings of sadness and joy. He is marrying a girl I couldn't love more if I picked her out myself for my son. Their personalities complement each other perfectly. She is beautiful, quiet, and shy, yet determined, organized, and she knows what she wants in life. He is hard working, outgoing and funny - the party begins when he arrives! They are both work horses and willing to sacrifice for what they want. They're a perfect match. My husband and I love them both more than I can say and we are so happy that they will finally begin their lives together this Saturday.

Our responsibilities for the wedding are the rehearsal dinner and the church. The programs are printed and folded, the pew and candelabra bows are made, the arbor ready to decorate, a dozen 6 foot trees are potted, painted white, strung with lights and the bases wrapped in ivory tulle. White satin wreaths wait to be hung in the sanctuary windows, and 100 feet of ivory tulle garland containing strings of white lights are ready to hang along the molding surrounding the platform where they kids will stand to be married.

As you can see, everything is ready to go for wedding day. But as much as I love, love, love my future daughter-in-law, my heart isn't quite ready to let my baby boy go! He's already a grown man - has been for a long time. He's 27, lives in his own home, and is a partner in his own growing business. My boy is a moose of a man, tall and broad! But when I look at him, especially this week, I see my long waited for precious baby boy with big brown eyes and sweet baby curls, and a smile to die for. When he took me to show me the tuxedo he had chosen for his wedding I could just picture him in his toddler short pants and bow tie!

I have a busy, busy week ahead. My parents arrived today, my brother arrives tomorrow, and my sister on Friday. I will be decorating the church tomorrow and then we will be hosting a pizza party in the evening. I will begin Friday morning by filling trays with pastries and tarts I will make for the rehearsal dinner and getting them to the restaurant in time to get to the church for rehearsal by 4:30. Then we will celebrate with 60+ people at a wonderful Italian restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. Saturday, WEDDING DAY, will be a joyous marathon day with an afternoon ceremony and a dinner reception with dancing and 200 friends and loved ones. The kids will be off on their honeymoon to Italy and Greece while we celebrate Father's Day with a big family cook out at our house. Our out of town family will be with us most of next week. When they all head home, my husband and I will have two days to pack for a trip to the beach, which I think we'll happily enjoy after the month we've had!

I won't have much computer time for the next few weeks so it looks like I will be taking a blogging break until mid July. I hope each one of you will be enjoying each precious day of summer. I can hardly wait to post pictures of the wedding when I return! Who knows, I probably won't be able to wait that long - maybe I'll find the time to squeeze in a post next week!

Happy summer, friends!!!

So Long Self

So Long Self

Mercy Me

(Don't forget to pause the beach music on my sidebar before listening to Mercy Me!)