HAPPY 31st Birthdays to John and Jimmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is in front of the New York New York Hotel with my future SIL, my bro, and us.

John's birthday trip was sweetened when he saw and met Ken Shamrock an Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter.  He's the guy on the far right in the poster below and in the picture with John. 

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of all 6 of us but we all had a lot of fun celebrating in advance two birthdays and an anniversary (Charlie and Sun).  Our activties included walking up and down the strip to check out different hotels, watching La Reve at the Wynn, eating 1/2 pound hot dogs at Slots for Fun (we shared 3 between the 6 of us), watching the fountains of Bellagio choreographed to Andrea Bocelli's song 'Con Te Partiro', seeing some celebs (Pete Rose, Ian Zeiring - aka Steve Sanders from 90210, David Foster -musician and producer of many songs for Celine Dion, Chicago and Whitney Houston and he also wrote the St. Elmo's Fire theme song among a number of other songs, Nigel - judge and producer for the show "So you think you can dance?", and of course Ken Shamrock.  If it weren't for Charlie, we would have never known we crossed paths with these people.  My brother also sat behind Michael Vick the quarterback for Atlanta Falcons on his flight to Vegas. The highlight for me was the spa treatments at the Canyon Ranch Spa.  I had an awesome massage therapist who cracked so many knots in my back.  It felt AWESOME!!! We're looking forward to the new location that will open across the street from where I work.  Seems like a good place to go during lunch. 

Good times...good food...and great company!  

Remember the good old days at Watkins Mill?  This is where we used to meet for FSF about 8 years ago!  Yikes!!  I had to scan the picture because this is before most of us had digital cameras.  Suddenly....I feel old.  Good times....good friends.  We've come a looooooooooooooong way   More old pics to come.

Lucky me, I'm going here today for the weekend with my SIL-to-be.  It's The Ritz Carlton, Bachelor Gulch in Colorado.  This is the place where my brother is getting married in September.  I'm helping them with their wedding planning.  We're also planning on relaxing and enjoying the place.

This is the outdoor heated pool.  There shouldn't be any snow now.

I plan to spend some time in this lazy river hot tub to decompress.

I can't believe seven months have already gone by!! 

 Happy Anniversary to My Loving Husband!

It's been a while since my last entry. In a nutshell, married life is great!!  It's so nice to have a partner to do everything with and who loves you for being you. 

So, I've found myself planning yet another wedding   This time it's for my brother so there's a little less stress involved.  I can't believe my little brother is getting married.  My parents must feel so happy and blessed (and relieved) to get us both married off. 

Only one month away 'til the big day!!

How awesome is our God??  Read below to grasp what you are seeing.  I have a better picture if you want it.

THIS PHOTO IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. BE SURE TO READ THE TEXT BELOW TO HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT YOU ARE VIEWING. IT IS HISTORIC TOO AS THIS IS THE LAST MISSION FOR COLUMBIA.

The photograph was taken by the crew on board the Columbia during its last mission, on a cloudless day.

The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities lights.

The top part of Africa is the Sahara Desert.  Note that the lights are already on in Holland, Paris, and Barcelona, and that's it's still daylight in Dublin, London, Lisbon, and Madrid.

The sun is still shining on the Strait of Gibraltar.  The Mediterranean Sea is already in darkness.  In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands; below them to the right are the Madeira Islands; a bit below are the Canary Islands; and further South, close to the farthest western point of Africa, are the Cape Verde islands.

Note that the Sahara is huge and can be seen clearly both during Daytime and night time.  

To the left, on top, is Greenland, totally frozen.