An Eventful Week!

My brain is exhausted but my heart is full

after this past week.

I hope you can follow the hop scotch manner of this 

post....it is the best I can do right now.

We have been many places, 

made Danish Donuts twice, 

played many, many hands of Dutch Blitz, 

become quite frustrated at Thai Uno

and 

enjoyed many deep and silly conversations.

We are way too quickly approaching Thursday

which is the day Johnny returns to Denmark.

Our entire family is going to miss him terribly.

However, we are doing our best to 

say "See you soon" rather than 

"Goodbye".

On Sunday afternoon a group of us drove to Delaware to 

the Firebirds Restaurant.

Chelsea, Johnny and I had gone to one in Virginia after our 

accident and really enjoyed it so we found the closest one

to us and planned a visit.

The funny thing is....

we drove to the wrong one.

I had reservations at a neighboring Firebirds

but when we mapped it we accidentally put in the wrong one.

It all worked out in the end.....

but I do think we drove a bit farther than we were supposed to.

This makes the "states" that Johnny visited while here:

Pennsylvania

Maryland

Virginia

Georgia

Washington D.C.

Delaware

From our end of the table....

And the other.

I love this picture of Warren.

Last evening our Moms planned a dinner for our 25th Anniversary.

They invited all of the kids...

and a few friends.

These lovely people are soon to be "related" to us...

through marriage.

Carl and Belinda are Emily's parents.

Emily and Michael got engaged yesterday.

More about that in a minute.

Grandma Georgia did a lot of planning for this special evening.

She had a speech prepared which I tried to muscle through 

without tears.

It was so special to hear her thoughts and her love for us.

Jonathan's speech also made our hearts feel so blessed.

He is such a caring and gentle young man.

I couldn't ask for better.

These two surprised most there when they announced their 

engagement at the dinner.

Her parents knew and I had seen the ring, 

which she was trying to hide until after the announcement.

This is a very happy event.

We are thrilled.

And the announcement at our 25th celebration dinner continues a brief tradition

that we began about 25 years ago when we made the same announcement

at Warren's parents 25th celebration dinner.

Emily brings sunshine and laughter to our family.

We are so thankful for her.

Chelsea and Johnny continue to get to know each other.

They are currently dreading the geographical distance that will 

soon separate them, 

however, they are going to be just fine.

They are both quite mature for their ages and have a plan.

We will see how God leads them.

Grandma Ruth

definitely drew tears from me when she read the poem

my Dad wrote on my wedding day.

Daddy best expressed his emotions through poetry

and we treasure these words left for us.

It is kind of like having him with us.....

well as close as we can get.

We got married on Mom's birthday so today is also

her special day.

We will have a lasagna dinner tonight in celebration of that.

Pastor Mike and Jenny joined the celebration.

You've heard me speak of him so many times over the years that 

you know he is "family" to us.

We love him dearly and are so happy that 

he and Jenny will be married

in May.   

So much romance in the air....seriously.

It is a bit overwhelming.

But so sweet.

Georgia brought beautiful flowers

for the table.

I need to get moving here.

Editing those terrible quality photos from my phone in a dark room

took just about all morning....

in between a nice visit with my Mama

and a few other things.

It is time to get moving on cleaning, dishes and making a few 

candles before starting the lasagna.

So much to do....

so little time.

But it is a great and wonderful life to be blessed with.

I do hope things are going well for you.

I hope to get around to visit blog friends soon.

And to meet up with several real life friends to catch up

also very soon.

Know that I value your friendship and love for our family.