10 years

The Exuma Islands, a place we have dreamed about and talked about for over 10 years. We sat at Willow River State Park, drinking strawberry daquiries one hot summer day dreaming about sailing around the Exuma Islands. This was before we bought our sailboat and sailed for 2 months in the Florida Keys and realized that we were not ready for the cross ocean venture.... However, our 2 month sailing adventure on our teeny tiny sailboat made us both realize that we should spend the rest of our lives together. We knew we would get married near or on the ocean, a place we both love. So on Friday December 13th, 2002 we got married on the ocean pier at Sandals Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  It was the best decision and we loved every minute of it. I remember saying as we left the resort, "we will have to come back to Sandals on our 10 year anniversary!" 

December 13, 2012 we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary not only at a Sandals Resort but a new Sandals Resort that happened to be in the Exuma Islands, a place we have been talking about for 13 years. We knew this was the resort to be at.  

The anticipation of leaving about killed me. I literally did not sleep the whole week before we left. I had never been away from the kids for more than 3 nights and we were going to be gone 7 nights and 8 days....it was so difficult. I cried about it, worried about it, stressed about it.... there was no fun part of the anticipation of this trip.  We had a good plan, detailed notes, friends stepping in willing to help and Grandma so we knew the kids would be fine. 

Once we arrived at the resort and handed our glass of champagne I was able to relax. We had a few hitches early on in communicating with my mom and the kids back home but we got that figured out with in the first few days. We spend the majority of each day at the beautiful beaches & fabulous pool drinking dirty bananas.  Man, they were yummy! We loved all the different restaurants and tried a lot of different foods we wouldn't normally try. We also took many many walks up and down the beaches, a lot of the talks would either end up being about the kids or about how we need to buy a bigger sail boat and so another sailing trip someday. Both topics made me smile & feel happy! 

We took one excursion, a boat trip to some of the outer islands to snorkel, swim, feed the iguanas & pigs and mostly get a glimpse of the beauty of the cays of the Exuma Islands. The water was amazing! We saw Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's private island and home. Stopped at a lot of islands and got to swim, hike and look for shells. We (mostly Jacques) also got to feed the wild pigs and iguanas,  I took pictures. Although it was cool to see them on these uninhabited islands, they were kind of scary and I stayed my distance. We hiked to the top of this cliff where on one side it was the Atlantic Ocean and the other was the Caribbean Sea.  While the Atlantic Ocean looked so deep blue and rough, the  Caribbean Sea was calm, beautiful and peaceful.  This day trip was definitely the highlight of our trip! 

 We went to the french restaurant at the resort for our anniversary and had a wonderful dinner and dessert. It was definitely our favorite night of the trip. We talked a lot about how our life has changed in the past 10 years but really how much it has stayed the same. We may have built 3 houses, moved 3 times and had 3 kids but we still have the same dreams and goals. This makes my heart smile. 

The time came to say good bye to this beautiful week and amazing island. And even though we had full bellies from all the food and drinks, a tan from all the sun, we were feeling a little empty with out our three favorite people. We got home at 9pm and when we pulled into the garage and waved at them with the door open, there were tears of joy! It had never felt so good to hug our kids.  It was great to nurture our relationship and have some "us" time but it was good to be HOME! 

~It's My Life

Still believers

I don't know if you know this but this is my absolute favorite time of the year, Christmas time. I love the decorations, Christmas cards, gift buying, wrapping presents, the whole shebang but mostly I love  living the magic of the season through my kids' eyes. Each year, I wonder how many more Christmases until the magic dies down and when one of the kids tell me they know about "santa" or "elfie."I think my heart will break. This year I was starting to question Wylie's beliefs about Elfie, (our Elf), until yesterday . . .

Our Elfie comes to us on December 1st every year, well this is his 3rd year joining our family.  Our Elfie is a friendly Elf who sits in places that he can be seen the most and in places where we spend the most time because he just really wants to be part of our family this time of year! 

So yesterday, Elfie was sitting in the plant on the window ledge behind the kitchen sink. Last night, Wylie said, "mom come here." He was in the bathroom crying. I said, "What's the matter?" and he answered, "mom I accidentally touched Elfie." He was devastated. I was so relieved that HE STILL BELIEVES. I just quickly said, "if it were truly an accident Elfie will know that."

A few hours later I am getting ready for bed and doing my nightly Elfie duties, I noticed a letter sealed in an envelope for Elfie. So I opened it and this is what it said:

My heart just melted. It was then that I noticed  there was another letter on the counter also. The other letter said the following and was from Kasey: This letter also filled my heart with smiles.

Fast forward to this morning. Elfie was in our dining table center piece with a little note of his own for the kids.

                                       Dear kids, I got your notes, Thanks! Wylie, it's ok! Luv Elfie

Wylie woke up and was so happy that Elfie said it was "ok" and also laughed that Elfie spelled "luv" wrong. A few minutes later Kasey wakes up, reads the note and started crying. I asked her why she was so sad and she said through some serious tears, "That note I left was for when we see Santa tomorrow, Elfie wasn't suppose to give it to him, I was!" Oh boy, one kid elated, one kid devastated.  So I quickly tell her that if she asks Elfie really nicely maybe he can go through all of Santa's letter and get the letter from you tonight and bring it back to us tomorrow. She is convinced that there are way too many letters and that Elfie won't find it.  Who knows though, our Elfie is one good little Elf! Until tomorrow morning. . .

                                                                 ~It's My Life
                                                               

Catching up

My last post was titled "Overwhelmed." Today I sit less overwhelmed and a tad more confident in our new gluten free adventure. It has not yet been 90 days, although it seems like it has been 190 days. It is definitely still a day to day challenge but the thought of going grocery shopping at three different grocery stores no longer makes me almost cry. The hardest challenge for us and for Wylie mostly is finding snacks that taste good and budgeting the expensive change.  I have baked a lot of breads, cookies, cakes, etc which all have turned out great. Most of our dinners are turning out to be good now as well. I still look up a lot of things as I am not confident in the "hidden gluten" list.  Most importantly is that we believe it is making a difference in Wylie's day to day living. He is not complaining and in tears on a daily basis from stomach pain.  This is why it is easy to keep going and going. I see progress and he feels better!

I guess I also missed a Halloween post.  Once I printed off the gluten free candy list we started celebrating. We realized he did not have to miss out on too many of his favorite candies and/ or chocolates.  The weather was great on Halloween and we all went trick or treating together while my Dad stayed at our house and passed out candy to the trick or treaters. It was a fun & tiring night for all.

Oh shoot, I also missed the entire month of November and now I am trying to remember what we were up to.  I must get my memory from my Dad (hehe).

I had a few personal highlights this month:  I had my Twilight party for the final Breaking Dawn movie.  It was a fun night, full of laughs and one that we all can look back on and laugh at our patheticness.  I also got the great news that Mister Jon Bon Jovi was starting his tour early on in 2013 and also bought some tickets to a few different shows.  So far to date, I will be going to Nashville with Jacques to sit 5th row. It will be his 1st JBJ concert and my . . . . 21st! I will also be going to the St. Paul show (sitting close enough to hopefully be sweat on) and to the Des Moines show.  More to be announced in the weeks ahead!

We also had a few things that were not quite as fun. Tori had another surgery to put tubes (3rd set)  in her ears and do some prep work for a potential future surgery to her ears. She did great and was so brave! I was very proud of her. We also hosted Thanksgiving again for my family, which turned out  to be a big flop. Wylie got the stomach flu the night before Thanksgiving, Kasey got the flu Thanksgiving night and I got it Saturday morning.  My brother, his daughter and his girlfriend went home early and I missed out on my black friday shopping that I had been looking forward to for the past year. On the bright side, the cousins got to spend some time together and we did get to  enjoy a good Thanksgiving dinner together which included with plenty of laughs and lots of wine!

~It's My Life~