My Daddy

Today is my Daddy's birthday.  I've been thinking alot about him lately.  There are times that I still think "Oh!  I should call Daddy and ...." I miss being able to call and talk to him.

I am so thankful that Elianna and I got to spend his last month and a half with him.  Some days were not easy.  I missed being home but knew when I did go home, it was because he was gone.  I felt so guilty for wanting to go home.  One of the best memories of that time was when Elianna would go in to tell him goodnight.  He would be laying in the hospital bed with his eyes closed, not really moving or talking.  But when that little girl came in and kissed his cheek, he always opened his eyes and smiled at her.  That little gesture meant so much to me.

Elianna has what some would call a strange or morbid childhood.  She has grown up around cemeteries.  When asked, she can name off the people she knows in Heaven "Toree, Papa John, Opa, Kalei."  When we were on vacation, we visited Toree's grave, my grandpop's grave, and my great grandparent's grave.  It's not weird to her.  For which I'm thankful.

I'm so thankful that Daddy was there when we found out Toree was sick.  He was there for her funeral.  He came Thanksgiving the year Elianna was born.  It was right after that that he found out he was sick. I'm so thankful Elianna and I got to visit him in February after his first surgery.  To visit him for his last Father's Day.  To have that last Christmas with both him and Kalei.  And, of course, to spend those last few weeks with him.

It makes me smile to think of him in Heaven with my sweet little one and Sissy's sweet little one.  A granddaughter on each knee.  Happy Birthday Daddy!  I love and miss you!

Vacation 2013 {Part 5 - Wedding Pictures & Reception}

After the wedding ceremony, the wedding party (and me) headed to a park about 30 minutes away to take some pictures before the reception started. Weddings in NJ are sooo long! An all day affair. Ah well!

She had toe jam that needed taken care of right then and there

Picture from Janet Lanza Photography

Picture from Janet Lanza Photography

While the bridal party (excluding the flower girl and ring bearer) were taking pictures, Elianna decided that it was a good time to twirl. She had a great dress for it!

In spite of a long day with no nap, Elianna managed to make her rounds during the reception.  She became particularly fond of one of the groomsmen, Shaun. At one point, he came and asked me "How do you get away from her?"  Of course, like any good mother, I answered "If you find out, let me know."  Then I found Elianna and showed her where Shaun was hiding.  Apparently I'm a good friend too.  :-)

Davey Mac and Elianna

Cassy (Sister of the groom) and Elianna

Happy wedding Dave & Lauren!

Vacation 2013 {Part 4 - Wedding Ceremony}

There probably isn't a better way to show the wedding day than pictures. As "they" say, a pictures worth a thousand words. Be prepared for thousands of words than. (All of these pictures aren't mine. They had an app you could download onto your phone and people posted pictures on there to share, so some pictures are from other people.)

The picture right before I crashed through the coffee table

I love that they had their parents wedding pictures on the table too

Dave's (Groom) view while waiting for the wedding to start

He also posted this picture of a note his grandma gave him

Proverbs 15:22 "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor from the Lord."

The ring bearer decided that he did not want to walk down the aisle so Elianna went on her own

Making sure Rylan isn't coming

Sorry for the blurry bad picture. Too cute to not post though.

Explaining the significance of why the ring goes on your fourth finger.  Pretty cool - although Dave looks like he is in the middle of a bow and Chris looks like he is holding his breath.  {Click here to read}

May I present to you Mr and Mrs Davey Chowda!
(Oh how I wish Chris would have said that!  Haha!)

Vacation from Vacation

So apparently I am taking a short vacation from blogging about vacation.

In our guest room, we have had some boxes with miscellaneious storage stuff in them.  Technically they needed to be gone through but I always had in my mind we wouldn't be in this house for very long so why bother.  Well.... we have been here 1-1/2 years.  The night I got home, the huge stack of storage boxes fell into the middle of the floor.  Yes, we were scared to death!  For about 2 weeks, I left everything how it fell.  It was getting on my nerves and I had to get to it and clean it up.  While I was in there cleaning it up, we decided to sort through everything and get rid of a bunch of stuff.  I also had to put our winter clothes away and officially bring out the summer clothes.  When we left in May it was still occasionally snowing.  Now it is July and we are in need of our summer clothes!  While we were switching, we also purged.  Boy does it feel good to get rid of stuff!

Hopefully, I will get back to blogging about vacation.  I'll try to work on it this weekend.  That is if I don't get purge happy and throw my phone or the computer away.  Ah, never mind ... wouldn't be able to function, right?!??