Just RK

They're baaaaa-aaack.  They had a great time, lots of relaxation, early to bed and early to rise, waited on hand and foot. Apparently they're so in sync now that they dress in matching outfits.  Ha! For those of you who wanted to see her ring , here's the unofficial picture. Here's a few pics from the honeymoon...they were at El Dorado Royale .  This is the view from their balcony. Does it get more gorgeous!?! This is from the inside of their room looking out over their private pool.  Yeah, private pool.  No fair. I'm glad they had a good time.  They're back to work, back to the norm, loving being married so far. Here's to many good years to come...

M was in C-U this weekend for a boatload of gaming. That left me at home with the two girls, and that wasn't going to fly, at least if we were all to maintain our quality of life and a scrap of sanity..  I planned to let the girls go to Grammy's for the weekend so I could knock out a bunch of WAY overdue jobs around the house...some just plain inexcusably neglected.  But I decided to have Mom and Ryan come up to help me with some of the more "manual labor" tasks for a couple days instead.  They took care of painting the yucky brown doors and trim.     Ryan also cleaned off the deck and the deck furniture and cushions.  He cleaned the grill, set up the hammock, and pulled a bunch of who knows what out from under the deck that had been there since before we moved in.  On Sunday, they managed to get the kitchen wall (where we had removed paneling last year) patched, primed, and painted.  They got alot done!  Braska went home with Grammy and Uncle Rya

As most of you probably know, I spend alot of time emailing, chatting with, responding to moms who fear DS for a particular reason, who are pregnant with babies who have been diagnosed with Down syndrome or those who have just had a baby and received a diagnosis. Each time there are different things to be said, and I often think I should compile the responses. So far I haven't, but tonight I re-read one that I'd typed up earlier this evening and just had a feeling I should share it here. I get alot of lurker traffic and I know many of them come after searching a variety of Down syndrome related things on Google. Who knows when someone else may benefit from something said. It's humbling to think so... but it's worth everything to even possibly help someone or save a tiny precious life. So for what it's worth, here are a couple excerpts from my comments to the latest new mom that I've talked to. Please be praying for her and her precious baby. I realize i

Isn't this how everyone does bathtime??  No??? 

Way back on 4/25, my sister-in-law Skye and I went to see Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman in concert. As most of you know, SCC is my favorite artist of any kind and any time. I've been to lots of his shows...I had a number, but now I can't remember. It's weird that Caleb, his son, is playing guitar in his band, and his son, Will Franklin, also plays drums with SCC now that he's graduated from high school. I remember when I saw a show in college and Will Franklin was turning 2 that day. Wow... that's forever ago, yet somehow I remember it well. And some of you will remember this and this from a year ago this week when SCC's daughter Maria was killed in their driveway accidentally when she was hit by the car her brother Will was driving. This week Mary Beth , Steven's wife and Maria's mother, wrote on her blog a few times about how they're walking through this month of both Maria's birthday and the anniversary of her death. My favori

I'm playing catch-up with a whole ton of things I've been wanting to post about for a long time, so there will be several posts on all the blogs over the next few days. (For that matter, I'm mid-way through...so if you haven't seen the last few posts, pop on over.)Thanks to Windows Live Writer (Meredith, you're thinking it's about time, right?!) I'm conquering more in a much shorter time at the computer. Drag-n-drop photo posting is so much nicer than uploading them separately. I'm scheduling posts so they don't all hit at once. If you've not been following Kinlee , check in on her too. She's growing so darn fast!!! So if you're on a reader, you're good to go. If you're not on a reader, be sure not to miss something wonderful! (Ok, so it might not be all that wonderful, but it might at least be interesting, thought-provoking, or entertaining. That's something!) Get those comment-typing fingers ready. Let's set some record

Braska practiced her walk. The bride, the minister (Cousin Jason), and the groom...and the church's "hostess." Long story. Patrick and Rachel at the rehearsal dinner at Lucas Park Grille where they met. The bride's parents (and mine too). My brother and sister-in-law. Me and M Dinner was very nice, although extremely dark. What's with these places who don't want you to see your food?? I guess I'm not appreciating the ambience enough. I like a romantic place, but wow...that was seriously dark. The food was GREAT! Overall, it went well, complete with a mini-tour of St. Louis on the way from the hotel out here to the restaurant in downtown. On the way home, the limo bus was rocking with a sing-a-long of a variety of songs from "Lovin' Feeling" to "Humpty Dance." Quite entertaining. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. D for a very nice dinner!

Forgot to put this up with all the busyness of last week. I got a VERY cool Mother's Day present. Braska and M presented this on Sunday morning, right when I was very frustrated with the way the morning was going... and it was a very nice change of direction for the day. (As always, click on the picture to make it larger. Check out the words, especially one very special phrase.) The frame came with the shapes, but the words were all chosen by M. The picture inside is a special version of a pic of the girls with a little caption on it that I did a few weeks ago. (Inspired by you Sara W!) It's from PersonalizationMall.com , and now that I'm aware of them, I'll be using them often. I've already ordered my first gift for someone from there. Great job, honey. Really good. And thank you, again.

We'll do this a little backwards since so many of you are anxious for some wedding pics... I've got a few of the rehearsal and dinner from Friday night, but we'll get to those in a couple days. I'm still trying to catch up on sleep...or at least I'm still super tired, so this is going to be pretty matter-of-fact. Imagine a few witty comments in here somewhere for me, ok? This was the stage at the chapel building of our church. Rachel rented the columns, and it turned out SO good that she did. Maybe those kinds of stories will come later... It was simple but very pretty. And let me say, there were lots of issues with the amateur photography of the day, at least with our camera...so these pics are FAR from great, but they still give you a peek. There will be tons of good ones, I'm sure, when the "real" ones come back. Before the ceremony, there were a few pics, without the bride and groom seeing each other, of course. This is Rach and Mom. In the "p

There is alot to tell, bunches and bunches of pictures to show, but I'm in need of sleep. And I've slept most of the day today, like my body is just finally letting go of all of the rushing of the last week or so. And yeah, it wasn't even my wedding...I don't know why it got so crazy. Bottom line: It went off pretty well, it was beautiful, and fun was had by all. Last night before bed, at way past midnight, I took my hair down. After removing over 50 hair pins, this is what was left. And I feel like this sums it up well. The newlyweds are off to Mexico in a few hours... I hope they have a marvelous week. More to come...

Congrats, kids! The new Mr. and Mrs.... Patrick and Rachel