Please Pray For My Nephew

Things have really been busy here at our house and I haven't had time to post any updates here.  On my last blog post I had mentioned that my nephew, Buddy's wife had a major heart attack last Thursday.  Apparently she was without oxygen longer than what was realized and she never came out of the coma.  On Monday, she passed away at the age of 40 years.  We are all so shocked and saddened by her passing.  Please pray for Buddy and his son, Clinton.  This is an extremely hard time right now that they are going through.  My heart goes out to them!!  It just so happens that more of my family came on Sunday and my sister Vi was one of them.  Buddy didn't want her to miss this trip and insisted that she come inspite of the circumstances.  This has really been hard for her, but we are trying to keep her busy.  The services for Diane are being held on Friday.

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Yesterday afternoon, my family and I were out on an excursion.  When we came home this beautiful bouquet of flowers was sitting on the table.  Our Church family had them sent to my family in memory of Diane.  How thoughtful!!

A closer view

A family that is very close friends of Dennis and I from our Church brought this big delicious looking fruit basket for us.  There's more than likely a pineapple in the center of this.  How thoughtful!  We appreciate our friends and Church family thinking of us at this sad time!!

The card that was on the flowers

Again, I ask for you to remember Buddy and Clinton in the coming days and months in your prayers.  What a loss for them and Diane was so young!!

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We love you, Buddy and Clinton.  Wish I was there to hug you, but remember what I told you on the phone ~ consider yourselves hugged :o)  We love you and will continue to be in touch!!

Aunt Dorcas & Uncle Dennis

What A Day!!

Well, Thursday sure had it's share of ups and downs!!  The best part of the day was when I looked up and my sister, Charlotte and her husband Richard, walked into my office in the afternoon!!  We weren't sure if they were going to make it as their flight from Milwaukee was delayed and they only had a 50 minute layover in Charlotte, NC.  Apparently their pilot made the time up in the air although they literally had to run to catch the plane before the door was closed!  We went to Grand Old House last night for their delicious pasta dinner.  It was sooooooooooooooooooo good!!!

It's the first time we were there later in the evening and I looked over and saw these huge Tarpin swimming around.  So, we of course had to go over and get some pictures.  They are really big, big fish!!

If you look close you can see some fish in the water :o)  Dennis took a picture of Charlotte & I but it was really blurry.  We are so excited to have her and Richard here for a week.  Now, we're just waiting for the rest of the family to arrive on Sunday!!

Yesterday, March 22nd, would have been my Daddy's birthday.  I thought of him so many times throughout the day.  So glad that I had the best Dad!!  I sure do miss him!!!!!

Later in the afternoon while Charlotte and Richard walked out to the beach/Sea I took a few minutes to check my email.  I was so shocked when I read that my sister Vi's daughter~in~law had a major heart attack yesterday.  Thankfully Buddy was home and did CPR on her until the medical people got there.  She had a huge blood clot outside of her heart which the doctors were able to remove.  They had to put her in a drug induced coma to let her heart rest as she was having seizures.  Please pray for the family!  The doctors are cautiously optimistic about the outcome.  She is only 40 years old!!

While Enjoying Dinner. . . . .

Last week while we were out enjoying our weekly (:o) pasta dinner special this is what I watched happen before my eyes!!  Beautiful!!

Sunday Dinner

Can you guess what I made for Sunday dinner??  No idea right??  :o)

After not having cabbage with potatoes and ham for several months I decided that would be our Sunday dinner when . . . . . 

I went to the grocery store on Saturday and saw they had cabbage on sale for $.29 per lb. and the ham slices were on sale for a little over $4.00.  After not having this for a long time it was delicious!!  This was a meal that we had several times (and I mean several) when we were dieting!!  It won't be long until we doing that again.

Happy 5th Anniversary, Brett and Karissa

Five years ago today, Brett and Karissa were married!  It sure doesn't seem like five years already!  Brett called us last night to ask if we knew what today was and Dennis & I both remembered it was their anniversary.  He said he hasn't been home with Karissa for hardly any of their special day as he was deployed quite often.  Thankfully this year he is home and able to be with her!!  They planned a special get~a~way with just the two of them.  Sure wish I was in Albuquerque to be babysitting tonight for those two little munchkin's!!  They were married on St. Patrick's Day :o) 

Brett and Karissa,

Dad & I wish you a very happy anniversary and many, many more happy years together!!

We love you both!!

This picture was taken almost one year ago a few days after Brett came home from Afghanistan.



We Miss You, Matthew

It's so hard to believe, but six years ago yesterday, March 16th, my dear nephew, Matthew, passed away.  He had such an outgoing personality and was just a great person!!  I think of him often and can't imagine how his family must miss him.  So thankful for the memories of him!

We love you, Matthew!!



Come Again, Ya'll

Wow!  What a jammed packed week we had with my niece, Teresa, and her husband Donald.  From the time they arrived on Grand Cayman Island they were really busy.

They got to visit the majority of the tourist attractions around the Island, went out on the Sea on a jet~ski which was an experience in itself since Teresa nor I can swim, went to the beach several times to take home a nice sunburn with them and sooooooooo much more!!!

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Donald is a builder/carpenter and came the whole way to Grand Cayman Island to work :o)  Not really!  But our front door has been sticking and dragging on the ceramic tile and one day he decided to fix it for us.  We didn't even ask him!  He went out to the garage and found the tools he needed while we were working and in no time had it done!!  He did some other jobs around here, too, while on vacation!!  Thanks so much, Donald.  We're hoping you'll take Dennis up on his offer to fly you down here this summer to do some work around the Church and School for us.  We'll turn the a/c on for you :o)  That's a promise!!

And we played dominoes several evenings.  While doing so there was usually a lot of laughing and jokes told!!  The last night they were here we played until around 1:00 in the morning.

And we did a lot of eating!!  We took them to some yummy restaurants.  Time to diet again!  But I think I'll wait until after the rest of my family comes to visit and after our trip to the States after Easter to start dieting!!!  Ugh!!  Until then I'm going to enjoy life and food :o)

And speaking of food, fattening food that is, going to Dairy Queen about every night but two while they were here is another huge reason for needing to diet :o)

And we were able to show them some breath~taking sunsets!!  I can never get enough of them.  Just ask Dennis!!

And before all of us were ready they were heading back to their home in PA!!  That week went so fast and we're anticipating their next trip to Grand Cayman Island!!  I hope it won't be too long!!

And I forgot that they were so wonderful to bring quite a bit of stuff for us that we can't buy here in Cayman.

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Teresa and Donald,

Thanks so much for visiting us!  It was awesome to have such great company and not have to worry about waiting on you hand and foot.  You guys took off and did your own thing while we worked and did other things with us when it worked out with our crazy schedules!!  We love you both and thanks again for everything you did for us!!

Much love,

Dorcas & Dennis

Tuesday's The Submarine Ride

On Tuesday morning, Teresa and Donald went down on the submarine.

I think they really enjoyed it.

They saw about five turtles

The great escape :o) 

Looking out across the Sea at the cruise ships

Their Last Day

On Wednesday, Teresa and Donald were able to go out to Sting Ray City on a boat that a man from our Church owns.  They were out for several hours and had a great time.  Donald even dove into the Sea off the top deck of the big boat.  What a guy!!  These pictures were taken by the guys who took them out on the trip to see the sting rays.  Teresa didn't get off the boat, but Donald did and even caught and held some huge sting rays.  One of their tour guides dove to the bottom of the Sea and brought up some Conch and Star Fish.  Pretty cool!!

They said it was like a little city out there with all the boats loaded with tourists.  We haven't been out there yet, but hope to visit before too long!  Looks so exciting!!

See all the sting ray's in the water?

My sweet niece!!  Love you girl!!

Teresa holding the starfish that was brought up out of the Sea.  Look how big it is! 

Some of the edible parts of the conch!  YUK!!

Out near our home is a little place called Hell.  They went out to check it out!

They have their own Post Office.

And there are like stalagmite's there that Donald said are higher than he is tall.  Sure wouldn't want to fall on those babies!! OUCH!!

Tuesday ~ Our Venture Into the Deep Blue Sea

This morning Teresa and Donald went to the bottom of the Sea!  Literally!  They went down on the submarine while I was in my office and Dennis in his working :o)  But we had plans and plans had we!!  Before Dennis left home he called and made reservations for us to rent two jet skis to go out on the DEEP BLUE SEA!!  Yes, the deep blue Sea!!  Teresa and I were both pretty hesitant about this as neither one of us swim and here we were talking about going out on the DEEP BLUE SEA!!  So, about 2:15 Dennis called me at the office and said it was time to come home and get ready.  I hurried and cleared my desk off and home I went.  Shortly there after we headed to meet our reservation.  We got there and the guys waited in line while Teresa and I sat on a bench and waited for them.  After a short while, we were standing down by the Sea getting our life jackets and then we hopped on the jet ski's after having some instructions shared with us as how far in each direction, etc. we could go.  We had rented these for an hour, so we were out there having a great (and nervous :o) time.   After a while, one of the instructor's who was one a jet ski himself watching everyone and helping flagged us down and told us our time was up.  So, we headed back to the beach of the hotel where we rented it from.  After the guy helped us off and we got up on the beach I took off my life jacket and was waiting for Dennis when the workers discovered we had paid for one hour and only 30 minutes was up!  Uuuggghhh!!  So, back on went the life jacket and out to the DEEP BLUE SEA we ventured again.  Every once and a while, we'd see Teresa and Donald zip by us.  We were as far out about as the cruise ships were and here in Cayman they don't have a dock to go to ~ they dock in the Sea.  The wind of course was blowing and if you were going into the wind that salt water would be blowing right into your face.  NASTY!!  Dennis had bought googles, but they didn't work very long, so everyone ended up taking them off anyway.  Teresa had sunglasses on and the salt spray got in her eyes.  She also had contacts in and her eyes were burning very bad, too!  Well, Dennis and I were riding along when all of a sudden Dennis turned the handles and we flipped into the DEEP BLUE SEA!!!!!!!!  Now remember that I don't swim and we weren't in 3 or 4 feet water.  When I came up to the surface just let me say that I was panacking very badly!!  Dennis later told us some of the things I was saying and he said I prayed more in 10 seconds than I have in 20 years :o)  And he said I prayed to everybody but Mary.  I said if I had thought of her I would've been praying to her, too!!  It was so scary.  Dennis talked to me and held on to me and was doing all he could to help me.  I told someone that my life flashed before me (not really).  I didn't have time to think of that ~ trust me.  After a very short time, but really seemed like an eternity to me one of the guys who work for the company we had rented our jet ski's from came to our rescue ~ literally.  Dennis told him that I couldn't swim and was panacking.  All the while this is happening our jet ski was floating farther and farther away out to Sea.  So, the instructor grabbed our's while his floated away.  It so happened another kind guy stopped who was out riding and grabbed the two jet ski's.  The instructor and Dennis helped me back up on to the monster machine.  Then it was Dennis' turn to get back on.  Now let me tell you that it's pretty hard crawling up on a jet ski in the middle of the Sea when you are so scared compared to getting on it on the beach!  Finally, we were set and ready to take off again.  The only problem was that I had got on first which meant that I had to drive!  That was fine with me because I could see where I was going and previously that had bothered me somewhat.  Oh, what an experience that was.  I can't imagine what it would be like to drown.  I know how scared I was even though Dennis was there with me and I had a life jacket on and the instructor came to our rescue!  It was really bad for a few minutes.  I had said something to the guy while he was helping me and he was kind enough to say if I would drown he would find me :o)  We all laughed.  Finally, thankfully our hour was up and I headed the jet ski back toward land.  It was a fun time, but again very, very scary!  I thank God for keeping His hand on me when the outcome could have been very bad.  And I'm thankful that I had that big, huge bulky life vest on.  There's no way I would have gone out without it anyway!  Would I do it again?  I think so, but still not sure!!  It was an accident as Dennis had promised he would not throw me off and I know he didn't do it on purpose.  Oh, me!  We all just wish that there would be a video available of all that action :o)  Donald said it would be priceless!!  haha!!

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After our water venture we came home and got the sand washed off of us.  We previously had plans and had been invited to a birthday dinner for one of our friends.  Unfortunately and fortunately those plans fell through and we were able to once again go out with Teresa and Donald.

We went to the Calypso Grill out back here of West Bay.  That's only the second time for us to visit that restaurant.  Teresa got shrimp, Donald got grilled tuna while Dennis and I both got chicken.  Everyone enjoyed their dinner, but we had been telling Teresa and Donald about this restaurant's famous dessert ~ Sticky Toffee Pudding!  Well, really it is a cake with an goey, oey topping drizzled over it with a dip of vanilla ice cream.  It was delicious!!  Afterward, we walked out by the water. 

Going back to the car 

After we came home from dinner we finished our game of dominoes that we had started the night before!  But during the game there was a lot of talk and howls of laughter about the jet ski dumping us off.  Oh, my!  Did we ever laugh!!  Right when we ended the game and had it put away, our Vonage phone rang and we all got to talk to Brett, Karissa, Caden and Jordan on Skype then.  What a perfect way to end an perfect (?) day!! 

Monday Evening Dinner By the Sea ~ Again

Late this afternoon we took Teresa and Donald up to Macabuca's for dinner.  They have an awesome buffet and it's out on a pier by the Sea.

And as you can see we stayed until the sun was setting

Different picture ~ slightly different pose.  I won't tell you what the difference is, but will let Teresa tell you, Vi, when they get home.

This looked like a swimming pool tonight.  It was soooooo beautiful!!

The sun goes down rather quickly

Watching it about to go into the Sea 

Still there 

Going 

Going further down into the Sea

and further 

And just a smidgen of it left if you look close

Leaving to go home after a dinner of ribs, chicken, plantains, four or five kinds of salads, corn on the cob, beans w/hot dogs, fish, macaroni & cheese and a little type of roll.  Mmm good!! 

So, please excuse us now while we go play a game of Dominoes!!