Zoe- the toughest baby I've ever met

My good friend, all the way back to high school, Abby has the sweetest little girl.  She is also an incredibly tough and brave blessing.  When Abby was just a few months pregnant, they found out that their daughter had a severe heart condition that would require surgery within hours of being born.  (I should stop here and mention that my friend Abby, is also an incredibly tough and brave woman.  She faced fears, questions, and decisions that no parents ever wants to face.  She did it with grace and faith.  I am so proud to call her a friend!)

Zoe and I.  Isn't she precious?

Little Zoe is now 1 1/2 and has had three heart surgeries already.  Our children have faithfully prayed for Zoe daily since before she was born.  Finally, they got to meet her earlier this month.  For the first time, they got to play with and hug the sweet girl that have filled their prayers.  It was such a special moment for me.  We wore red to show support for the National Congenital Heart Disorder day.

Ok, so she was still a little unsure of us here, but it gets better.

Zoe warmed up to them pretty quickly (she kept her eyes on Nathan). Within just a few minutes, they were crawling around on the floor together.  

ahhh...see, there she goes, through the tube!

Zoe even walked to me before we left.

We spent the morning with Abby and Zoe at the Manatee viewing Center in Ruskin.  (This post is not about the manatees....there wasn't much to be impressed about on a cold, rainy, windy day when the manatees were just laying still in the water, but the people watching was great! It was amazing how many people were there!)

Look, I told you.  A manatee.

The fun times were spent with Zoe. 

We had lunch together at Panera Bread and celebrated Zoe's fight with a special heart shaped cookie with all proceeds going to the pediatric heart department at St. Joseph's hospital. 

 Keep praying for this little miracle.  She has beaten an incredible amount of odds!

Visit with Grandpa

The kids and I spent a day and a half in Naples earlier this month.  We had a lovely time visiting with my grandma and his wife Dolores.

Getting their usual balloon welcome gift:)

The kids played piano for Grandpa.

And...we even got Grandpa up to play us a song (that was special)

A couple of months ago, Grandpa gave me the jump rope that we used to use to have jump rope contests when I was Nicole's age.  It was very special to me.

Winter Estates of Edison and Ford

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take the kids somewhere that I haven't been to in years, probably since late elementary school (and I'm not saying how long ago that was).

Jeremy had to work in Ft. Myers for the day, so the kids and I decided to explore the Winter Estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  Although their permanent residence was elsewhere, they built beautiful homes and gardens in the heart of Ft. Myers over 100 years ago.  Edison had laboratories and workshops for his inventions and beautiful gardens filled with exotic flowers and plants.  Edison, Ford and Firestone were trying to find a plant that could produce a good rubber so we could stop outsourcing it to other countries.  So, they brought in a variety of plants and did lots of research and tests.  They finally discovered that they got their best rubber from the golden rod plant.

The Winter Estates welcomes you with giant banyan and ficus trees.

I'm not sure if the kids have ever seen a tree like this before.

They enjoyed running from plant to plant, looking at the sign and hearing what the name was.

We bought an audio tour which meant we got to carry around these cool devices.  When we found a numbered sign, we would type that number in and listen to a bit of history.  The kids thought it was pretty cool.

Nicole discovered that Henry Ford loved music and liked to dance.  They enjoyed wandering around the property, looking at unusual plants, and taking pictures with statues of the Edisons.

I know that I shouldn't be shocked to see a palm tree growing from a coconut, but I was.  How cool is this?!?

Did you know that Thomas Edison didn't just invent the light bulb?  He invented lots and lots of things.  He held a zillion patents (well, not quite that many...but a lot).  He invented the phonograph and was the first person to record a human voice.  He spent his childhood selling newspapers on a train and learning to operate a telegraph.  He was a hard worker, who saw a problem and tried to fix it.  He is quite interesting to learn about.

So, there was a lot to look at in the museum.

We got to hear a real phonograph that was 110 years old!  Amazing!

We learned the reason behind the saying "put a sock in it" (they used to put a sock in the opening of the telegraphs to help mute or quiet the sound).

The labs offered a replica glimpse of the tools and inventions Edison had.  I thought I remembered a light bulb that has never gone out there.  One that Edison himself made (but I never saw it on this trip).

Oh, I also found out that it was Edison's idea to line McGregor Blvd. with Royal Palm trees.  It's a beautiful drive, and all these years, I had no idea that it was because of him.  Ft. Myers is often called "The City of Palms", another mark that Thomas Edison made in the  SW Florida area.


To finish up our trip, we enjoyed a fun lunch on Sunday at Ford's Garage, a new hamburger joint in the Ft. Myers area.  Much to my dad's dismay (he's a chevy guy), we are partial to Fords.  We really enjoyed the details of the decor at the restaurant, and it went well with our recent visit.

Everything from a hanging Model T Ford,

Fry baskets to hold our french fries and imprint of Ford's Garage on our burger buns,

To sinks in the shape of tires and gas pumps to replace water faucets and door handles.

They even offer a burger the size of a model T's wheel and buns the size of  seat cushion.  It is only $125 and feeds 15-18 people I believe, hahaha (we passed on that for now).

I was a bit shocked to hear this because I wasn't in the best of moods on the day we visited the estates, but as we left Nicole said, "This was really fun mommy.  I liked it a lot".  So, two thumbs up from us!  (I hear it's amazing to go at Christmas time!)

Betta Bowl

Nicole wrote this poem today about her new Betta fish, Batey

Betta Bowl

The man of the bowl, look all big and tough,

Puff the feathers up and get ready for a fight.

Bate is the winner!

Snuggled in leaves and going through weeds,

Thinking of how tough he might be.

Guarding his home, day and night,

Having some fun as he comes to a fight.

Bate is the winner!

Getting fatter and fatter, eating the loser.

One day a girl comes and gets him,

And puts him in a bowl,

And writes a poem the next day.

© 2014

Vegas Baby!

I had the opportunity to take a work trip with Jeremy to Las Vegas last week.  Let's be honest, I'm a small town, conservative, Christian girl who still closes her eyes during steamy parts of movies (actually....now I fast forward since I have the remote ;)  The thought of spending 5 days in Las Vegas completely freaked me out a month ago.  It was the last place on earth I ever wanted to go.  But, I was invited to come along with Jeremy, and his boss with his wife (both owners of the company).  I saw it as an opportunity to spend time with Jeremy and get a little break from the every day life I live (which by the way...I love my life....even if it is boring! ha).

We had a wonderful offer from Jeremy's Aunt who lives just a couple of hours away to come stay with the kids, so we took her up on it, and headed to Las Vegas!

I got to ride in an airplane for the first time in several years, and even got to sit in First Class, for the first time in my life.  In fact, on two of our flights, we were in a plane that was just a month old.

And, I got a "first class" lunch (the salad and cookie were delicious....the pizza...eh, not so much).

Our long flight to Las Vegas offered no (personal) TV service (spoiled already!), so we got bored and started playing with the camera app....these are the best two pictures we snapped.

Once we landed, we were instantly greeted by the some of popular sounds of the Las Vegas strip....slot machines in the airport.  We went directly to our hotel, The Venetian, a large, beautiful hotel near the edge of The Strip.

The dome ceilings

Decorated like you were walking the streets of Italy, it was a lovely, classy hotel that we thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm still not sure if I saw everything...in fact, I know I didn't.  I never made it to the pool deck.

A person posing as a sculpture

Almost all of the hotels were decorated for Chinese New year

We entered our beautiful room on the 30th floor (they upgraded us for some reason...but I decided not to question why ;)

From the entryway

From the dining table

Looking into the bedroom (those dividers closed....they were so cool.)

I couldn't wait to crawl into that bed! haha

Our view was really pretty, both during the day, and at night.

We ate at a variety of restaurants, and I had my fair share of filet mignon for a while (although each one was delicious!)

At Table Ten, an Emeril  restaurant, we had a fun sweet and peppery bacon appetizer, along with a delicious filet  and sides.

The next night, we went to Hugo's Cellar at the Four Queens Hotel on the 'old strip' on Fermont Street.  Apparently it is a "famous" restaurant.  One of our serves had worked there nearly 30 years.

This was my favorite restaurant.  They gave each lady a rose as we entered, and the atmosphere was interesting.  A dark restaurant, with low ceilings...I felt as if a mob boss could walk in at any moment.  They made us our own specialized table side salad, a small cleansing pallet treat, another yummy filet and we tried a Bananas Fosters for dessert, also made table side.

Our third night, we had what felt most like a true fine dining experience at Prime, which was at the Bellagio.  From our table, we could watch the famous water fountain show every 15 minutes.  This restaurant had amazing mac and cheese, gratin potatoes, and Jeremy even tried Buffalo Steak.

Finally, our fourth night, which was Valentine's, we did not have reservations, and most of the restaurants were full, so we ended up at the House of Blues in Mandalay Bay.  It was fun, but really loud with a live band performing just a few tables away.  They finally played some oldies songs I knew and enjoyed.

It was certainly fun trying new restaurants and food!

When not in the convention we went out for, we spent time walking down the strip, in and out of hotels, and doing a little shopping.

Bruce Willis and I- old friends ;)

Of course, my favorite store was the M&Ms store (even brought a bag home with me).

the wall of M&Ms...every color and flavor imaginable!  I want one in my house!

I really wanted this "bottle" of M&Ms

I really enjoyed walking through all of the hotels.  It's so interesting how they all have their own style and draw for different audiences.  I think our hotel, The Venetian, was my favorite, followed with a close second and third by The Bellagio and Ceasar's Palace.

Ceasar's Palace pool area

The entryway of The Bellagio, again, celebrating Chinese New Year

This was an uptown looking area...really modern

New York New York, imitating the skyline of NYC

The Luxor

Several times we stopped to watch the fountains dance at The Bellagio,

Different angle during our daytime view

we saw the volcano erupt at The Mirage,

 walked through the pyramid and Egyptian theme of the Luxor,

checked out all of the sports bars and sports walls with monster screens, and of course walked through most of the casinos.

We did a little bit of gambling (and by a little bit, I mean...I think we lost $40 total...Vegas probably wasn't happy to have us there).  We also enjoyed an evening on Fermont Street....apparently this is the old strip.  They had a cool video graphic and song play every hour or so,

 and some street performers.

 I finally got to see some wedding chapels...and Elvis.

The highlight of our events though was probably going to the Cirque Du Solei "O" show.  Wow!  We had incredible seats, and even had the clowns come down our row, pre-show.

We were much closer than this picture was taken...we were row J....so, about halfway down this level, almost center.

The grace and beauty of the synchronized swimming, diving, and contortionist blew us away.  The stage would randomly transform from a dry floor, to a deep water, high dive pool.  It was remarkable!

playing in the gift shop

Our final day was sort of a free day. The convention was over, but it wasn't time to leave yet, so after a morning of conference calls for the guys, we headed out to Hoover Dam, just 45 minutes or so away.  I went to Hoover Dam when I was about 6 years old.  I remember staring that this huge wall, and didn't understand what is was.  I was even more confused because I wasn't allowed to say the wall's name "dam",  you know...because it's a bad word (I told you....I'm pretty sheltered...I still have a hard time saying it)

This time around, it was much more incredible.  The stories of how the dam was built were interesting, and the innovation behind it makes it a modern engineering wonder.  We took a little inside the dam tour which was quite interesting.  OK, to be honest...our tour guide was really funny to watch.  I think he was really nervous about forgetting someone.  I've never seen someone count so intensely before!

Good thing Jeremy was there, that bridge may have fallen down without his help!

We were even in two states at one time, but I don't have that photo yet.


Although we enjoyed our time together, it was still a business trip.  There were stressful phone calls to make, fires to put out back home, convention floors to be walked and so forth, but it was also a really wonderful time away.  Vegas wasn't that bad.  I kind of think that if you aren't looking for trouble, you may not find it.  I don't know...maybe that is naive as well.  I wouldn't take my kids there...but I made it out alive with most of modesty still intact.

The kids had a wonderful time with their Aunt Lisa.  They had amazing activities each day.  I think that Lisa enjoyed getting to know them...but also caught a glimpse of the life of a homeschooling mamma...no rest for the weary, right (unless you are in Las Vegas and your husband is on a conference call, then you get to sleep in and read a book in peace!)

The kids had a mystery day where they had professional pictures taken, sent out Valentine's while also learning about the post office, went to an Amish restaurant and learned about them, and took a hike in Myakka state park.  I'm so thankful they were in loving, safe, and fun hands.  They were really happy for us to be home, but they were doing just fine as well.

It was a wonderful 5 day trip...but I'm ready for real life, french fries, morning tickles, and yes...even the occasional argument.  Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible!