Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday my sweet girl! Happy 17th Birthday. This is going to be YOUR year, you're a High School Senior! Whoo Hoo! Have fun and enjoy it! I love you!

My Runner

Bekah, I'm so proud of you! More importantly, I hope you are proud of yourself and your accomplishments. You are an amazing young woman. Your healthy living, your decision making, your appreciation for love, life, tradition and family are just some of the attributes that makes you so special. As your junior year in high school wraps up, things will start changing. People will start asking you "what's next", "what college" what are YOU going to do? Stay calm, stay relaxed and be yourself. Make your plans based on what you want to do! Your Dad and I are here to guide you, we want your decisions to be your decisions. I know you have heard me say this quote before "In a world where you can be anything, be yourself" this is so important. Find your passion early.
You did a fantastic job during Saturday's 5K. I know you were not happy with your time, be proud that you did it and that you finished. Your time was not your personal best time, but I have already seen how you are driven to beat not only that time, but previous times as well. I love your drive and determination. I remember when you were first learning to ride a bike. Your brother and the boys in the neighborhood were riding bikes and you were determined that you would as well. You tried so hard and never gave up, even after hitting a tree. You where hurt, you cried for half a second as you climbed back on the bike and asked your Dad to push you off. I love your spirit.

For My Family

In my blog, I write a lot about my family, especially my children. They are my "Sunshine" I love them more than anything and I enjoy every moment with them. When I started this blog, I wrote about my weekends home, away from work, away from Jeffersonville, IN and Louisville, KY. I wrote about Zack being away at boot camp and some of the changes we were going through. We went through those changes and came out on the other side. I continue to grow, learn about myself and appreciate those moments in life that make up time which is so special. We are now being faced with more changes. I am embracing these changes as I have learned that change can be exciting and even invigorating. I'm not saying that it is easy, however, I am remarkably more relaxed now. So, as I get the privilege to spend even more time with Bekah and Rich, (Zack is living in Arizona) I will continue to try to capture a piece of our life together. Maybe when I am gone, my children will have some of my words to reflect on, a little piece of me. Or at least how I was feeling at the time when I entered my "notes" in this blog. I am verbally and emotionally open with my family, so I don't think anything will be a "ah ha" moment or remotely close to a surprise. My hope is that someone will find it comforting, like a journal, as time passes on. With the death of Vonni and Jakki this year, two strong women who left us in their 40s, it reminds me how short life really is and we need to say what we need to say. I love you all.

Florida Conference for Women

On Tuesday, I went to the Florida Conference for Women. I went by myself attending seminars that I hoped would inspire me and get my mind going. It worked, they where just what I needed. I listened to women who went after what they wanted and achieved their goals. It was great to actually hear about their "stories" from the perspective that it wasn't easy, that things were not perfect, that they were human like the rest of us. But mustered up that inner spirit to keep going and to take risks for what they believed in. Their stories started in a surprisingly similar place to my recent story. I felt like they were talking to me.
Tori Johnson was the first keynote speaker, she is the Founder & CEO of Women for Hire & Good Morning America's Career Guru, truly genuine and her story resonated with me. and the second keynote speaker was Ariane de Bonvoisin, Founder & Chief Change Optimist, first30days.com - she was amazing, I could have listened to her speak all day. Even though I was one of a thousand, I connected with her. Her face lite up when she spoke, she was very inspiring.
During lunch there were four speakers, my favorite was Kelly Corrigan. If anyone you know is going through cancer, there is a book by Kelly Corriagn, "The Middle Place" - she talks about how she was in the middle of childhood and adulthood, being a wife and mother of two young children and finding out she had cancer.
She has a great sense of humor and captivated the audience with her story.
The breakout sessions were great, I went to Brand You! All about branding and getting your brand in the marketplace and "Reinvent Yourself" - Strategies for having the career you want. Loved it!
It is so important to feed out minds and spirit. I so needed that. Now I need to put one foot in front of the other and not get overwhelmed with all of the thoughts going through my head! One day at a time... right!

"Chillaxing"

"Chillaxing" this is Bekah and Rich's word, but it seemed fitting for our chill weekend we had at the beach. We went camping at Jetty Park and had a chillaxing time! Friday Bekah and Rich drove over in the afternoon, Brianna and I arrived at night due to other commitments we had. Saturday morning before anyone else got up, I went down to the beach to take some pictures. I had fun trying different settings on my camera, exploring and taking lots of pictures. When I walked back to camp, everyone else got up, we ate breakfast and played "Apples to Apples" and "Scattergories" until about noon. We were having so much fun. The weather was perfect, breezy and we were in a shaded spot. In the afternoon we walked down to the beach, put up our umbrella and "chillaxed" some more. Rich tried his hand at sand sculpting at the girl's expense. Bekah became part of an octopus and Brianna became a mermaid. It was fun to watch. Saturday evening, we went to Grills, but there was a 2 hour wait and we were all hungry! So, we walked down to Rusty's and had a great dinner. Got back to the campsite about 9:15 ish... the four of us took a walk on the beach and then walked back to the site. I was tired! Bekah and Brianna went for ice cream and scored by finding a Dairy Queen. Rich, Bekah and Bri ate their blizzards and I turned in for the night. Sunday, we all got up to wish Rich a Happy Birthday! I was also wished a Happy Mother's Day. Bekah ran and got breakfast for everyone (we didn't take a lot of food this trip). Then it was time to start packing up. Bekah and Bri hung out at the beach for a couple hours and Rich and I headed home.
Once home, Rich made a wonderful Mother's Day feast of hamburgers, hot dogs, shrimp, crab legs, corn on the cob, strawberry margaritas, and angel food cake!...then there was the chocolate chip cookie cake for Rich WOW! my mom and Rich's mom came over and we celebrated both Rich's birthday and Mother's Day! Fun weekend...

Wonderful!

I just realized I had not posted the details of our date that we had last Friday. I am sure that you are on the edge of your seat waiting for the update:). As previously said, we went to Leu Gardens to watch a movie on the lawn. It was wonderful. Rich made all the arrangements, the picnic basket full of goodies, brought the blanket and chairs and even the wine. Wonderful! (Okay, so I did embellish just a bit, we don't have a "picnic basket" but we do have Publix reusable bags and a lunch cooler, that worked perfectly.)
We got to Leu Gardens nice and early around 6:00 I believe, the movie was starting at 8:30 PM. I highly recommend anyone that is going to go early, it was fun watching people trying to squeeze into a spot later in the evening. So, we got there, it was a beautiful night. We set up our chairs and blanket and then walked around the gardens and yes, hand in hand...aww! Until my Mother called... just kidding Mom. We Love you! After a quick phone call, we resumed with our hand holding.
Food and Drink - one word "yummy." As we were walking around, we did decide to get a hot dog from the concession to tide us over until the movie and we opened our publix bag of treats. Rich brought cheeses, crackers, prosciutto and salami, little Italian thin bread sticks, grapes, hummus and chips, wine and for dessert, my favorite Milano cookies with chocolate and raspberry. He set it all up on a little bamboo platter and it was perfect.
I've seen the movie P.S. I Love you more than twice, it was one of my five movies when I lived in Louisville last year. I have to say this was by far the best time I have every watched it! It was just wonderful.
Thank you Rich for being you and taking such good care of me. I love you!

Lucky Girl

I am such a lucky girl! I don't think many would have imagined that after getting married at age 19 that I would be still SO IN LOVE with my wonderful man. He is my best friend. Not because he wasn't always wonderful, but because of our age and the length of time we were together before we got engaged. I don't blame those naysayers... with a daughter who is only 2 years younger than I was when I married Rich, I can't imagine her being married at 19. But it worked for us and I couldn't be happier. Rich and I were married when we were 19 and 21. I just turned 19 in August and we married in September of that same year, 1987. I graduated in June of '86, moved in with Rich on New Years Eve of 1986, Rich asked me to marry him on Valentines Day February 14th, 1987, we were married on September 12th, 1987. Wow! And here we are 22 years later, with a 20 year old and a soon to be 17 year old! Wow.. Wow.. Wow!
Just like the saying goes... Time flys when you are having fun!
Rich is so thoughtful, caring, fun, loving, funny and an amazing Father! I am truly a lucky girl! Rich and I grew up together, we grew trying new things, sharing everything we are with our children, opening our minds and hearts to new experiences. We grew together!
Tonight Rich is taking me on a date, Whoo Hoo! He was going to surprise me but he ended up telling me. We are going to Leu Gardens Movie night. We are going to see P.S. I Love you - a movie I really like. He is planning the date and I can't wait. Rich is such a wonderful man! And I am such a lucky girl!