We Made it to Maui

We had a wonderful flight to Honolulu. Ed really took care of us. We sat in first class from Dallas to Honolulu. This was great - the seats would lay back into beds. We didn't lie down too much but when we did...it was really nice.

Airplane seat controls

We flew into Honolulu and everything was running along like clockwork...until the pilot announced, as we were sitting in our seats on the jetway, that we have to switch planes due to a computer problem. We decided it was better to discover this on the ground rather than in the air...so off we went. This was only about a 30 minute delay but it did get into Maui around 9:30 pm. It was dark, so we couldn't see anything and by that time, we didn't care; we were very tired and hungry. We got into our room and went to bed.

Honolulu Airport

Hawaiian Airlines

Up at 6:30 am wide awake. We got up and walked down to the end of the beach where we found a nice little deli/cafe type place. We had breakfast outside with the wind blowing through our hair, sand in-between our toes and the ocean right in front of us. We had found heaven here on earth. It's called Maui, Hawaii.

For the next several hours, three to be exact, I layed out on the beach while Ed worked on getting our room upgraded, found a restaurant for our wedding dinner, and signed us up for a Starwood Villa Resort timeshare pitch - he felt like it was worth it because they give you 7500 points for an 1 1/2 hour sales pitch. He was one busy little boy. He eventually got out to beach with me, layed out for 15-20 minutes and my poor honey was lobster red by the end of the night. Next time...we'll definitely use the suntan lotion.

After the beach, we mosey'd over the gym for a nice little cardio/workout. Now, we're starving...time to eat. We found a great little restaurant, called Tropica, next to our hotel. Perfect..it was close, no line, not too many people and a little guy singing and playing the guitar, all right next to the beach. We had a wonderful dinner and a really nice time together. This dinner turned out to be pretty expensive so we learned we have to be more careful in our choices. Can't afford dinners like that every night.

Ed and Lisa at Tropica

Sunday...up for church; we're going to meet Pastor Dominic (Dom) Done from Calvary Maui. Pastor Dom will be marrying Ed and I this Friday. The church service was really really good, we both enjoyed it. Ed and I were both pretty surprised at how young he was. Ed thinks he was around 35, I thought he was closer to 30 years old. Nonetheless, he definitely has a love for the Lord and that is what we were looking for.

Calvary Maui Church

Inside church

Outside of church

Hawaiian 'Ed'

Van parked outside of church

After that, we drove down to Waimea, near Wailea, and had lunch on the beach. The view was great but the food could use some improvement. Did some explorin while we were there but we couldn't spend too much time - we had to be back to the hotel by 2:30 for the Westin time-share pitch.

Good news, we made it threw their sales pitch alive! We've done that before and it can be brutal. You actually feel worn out from the pressure. I guess because Ed is Platinum and has traveled so much, they let us off easy.

Ended up at the Tiki Torch for dinner. This was a a great find. They have a free hula show every night from 6:30 - 7:30 and live music until 9:00 pm. We really enjoyed all of that but my food wasn't all that great. No, actually it wasn't very good at all. Ed, however, liked his fish. They were very nice and didn't charge us for my meal which was very much appreciated.

Walked back on the beach and just had a great time together today.

Off to bed now. Trying to get up by 7:00 am every day to get in as much time as we can!

Night

We’re On Our Way!!!

We've been officially engaged for two months today --- and we're sitting in first class on an American Airlines 767 airplane flying to Maui, Hawaii to get married...can you believe it? I thought we would have at least a six month engagement, Ed would sell his house in Carrollton, move into an apartment in North Richland Hills, all while we learned more about each other. I guess we decided we knew enough to make the life-long commitment of spending the rest of our lives together. We've known each other for eleven years, dated for two and half years of that, had pre-marital counseling, and understand and appreciate that family is at the top of the priority list (including Jake!). Most importantly, we feel that God orchestrated our relationship and we want, and try, to make Him first and us second. I truly believe that will be the winning combination to a successful marriage. So...here we go!

At DFW airport getting ready to leave for Hawaii

In our seats and starting the flight off right with a Mimosa

The Countdown Has Begun!

Wow...hard to believe...only 2 more days before we leave for Hawaii!!! The only thing we have left to do is pick up the wedding rings and Ed will do that tomorrow when he returns from Atlanta. I will be at his house with the carpet cleaning guys. That is another big accomplishment...getting to the place where we were ready to get the carpet cleaned! Whew...another thing done!!!

By the way...last weekend we were busy getting my wireless working at his house and preparing the garage for 2 cars. It didn't take that long but we had to cut it off short because we had to be - can you believe it? - to the Jonas Brothers concert for Hannah's 12th birthday. It was a pretty good time; this was only the 2nd event at the new Cowboys Stadium, and her and her friends were pretty darn excited to see the JoBros.

Lisa in front of the new Cowboy Stadium
Pretty impressive I might add!

Hannah and friends

Sunday was Father's Day. We met my dad and his clan for lunch at Nikki's. This was special because his granddaughters were down from Missouri; Cortney and Brionna.

Lisa, Ed, Dad, Tyler, Mitch, Laura

Peg, Cassi, Mand,
Courtny, Blanca (Ty's girlfriend) and Brionna

As you can imagine, both of us are having a hard time working now as we're transitioning into vacation / wedding mode. I'm feeling excited and yet a little nervous because we don't have as much done with the house as I would have liked before we left. We're heading off for a wonderful 2 week vacation only to face mounds of work when we return and get me moved over there when it's 100 degrees outside. Oh well...it is what it is so I'll roll with it. I want to remember AND live by the motto "DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF"!!! Everything will be fine and will work itself out just like it has until now.

Counting down!!!!

We're almost there!

Finally, I think we are ready to get married!

Yesterday, I was able to get the 'beach permit' needed to perform our ceremony on the beach. Part of the process is to determine which beach you're getting married on so I made the last minute decision of the D.T. Fleming beach in Kapalua. This is supposed to be one of the more private beaches, only because it's longer than most; and it should be beautiful since it's right behind the Ritz Carlton hotel.

I also picked out my bouquet and the lei's we'll use for the lei exchange during the ceremony. The bouquet will be very simple with reg ginger, creamy-white and orange lillie's and the lei's will both consist of creamy-white baby orchids with maroon-red plumeria, pulling in a color from the bouquet. This is what my leis will look like and here's Ed's.

The cake is also underway. I spoke with someone from Maui Wedding Cakes Inc. The first step is submit a quote online. I decided on a 6" butter cream with swirls all over. I didn't want anything too much...just something to celebrate with.

The wedding dress. This has turned out to be more difficult than I thought. The dress I tried on in the store - fit perfect, so we ordered the same dress in the same size but in ivory. Gosh, the dress I got back did not fit like that at all. For the first alteration, we had the straps shortened in hopes of lifting the dress to fit tighter around my back and adjust the length. Well, this sorta worked expect for the fact that that top of the dress it is now right up under my arm pits and the straps are so tight they'll leave indentations in my skin. This isn't going to work! For the second round of alterations, I went to my regular tailor. This time we're lengthening the straps, removing the zipper to take in some from the top, and taking some in from the hip area. The only thing, now it's a little long. I'll see how long it actually is when I get it back on Friday. I'm hoping it's not too long that I have to have it shortened. More to come on that saga.

Oh yea, we had another storm come through town last week and blew Ed's fence completely down. I called the roofers to have them see if the roof was further damaged, because we really want a completely brand new roof for another selling point, and sure enough, there was more damage. Ed will call State Farm today to have the adjuster back out, but this time -- with the roofer.

Ed went up to St. Louis last Friday night to get his mom moved into her new digs. His family all came together, chipped in and was able to get this accomplished in one day. They moved her and got her all set-up in her new place on Saturday. She's now much closer to where she used to live so hopefully...her old friends will be over to visit and be able to take her to old church.

I'm sure there's more but that's it for now.

My 45th Birthday

Yesterday, I celebrated my 45th birthday, which was actually on June 2nd, and my dad celebrated his 66th birthday, which was June 7th, with all the family. Unfortunately, Ed wasn't able to be there because he had to go home and start the family conference call to determine the next steps for his mom.

Bunny trail...

Ed's mom has dementia and it's progressing to the point that she's being released from her current living facilities 'Lady of the Snow'. They're concerned about care and legal issues if she should escape to the outside world w/o their knowledge. Anyhow, they want her to be moved by the end of June, so the family is moving at warp speed to secure a new location that can care of patients with this type of mental disability. In fact, Ed's going to St. Louis this weekend to help move her.

Departing bunny trail...

We had a great time Sunday. We all met over at Laura's for dinner and cooked out. There was a full house, in fact, I think everyone was there except Kristin and that's only because she was at Tech for summer school classes.

I received some very nice and thoughtful gifts. The biggest, and most surprising, was the one from my honey. He gave me this beautiful necklace that I told him about some time ago - he actually listened and remembered!!! He loves me! I liked it because it kind of matches my ring with the round stone. It looks like one giant diamond but it's actually a white topaz stone. You'll see it below.

Just thought I would share some fun pictures of the family!

Lisa is now 45 and Dad is now 66

Cassi, Dad, Mandi, Lisa, LeNay, Tyler and Laura

Dad and Cassi

LeNay thought she was pretty cute. The cup reads
"Caution: Sr. Moment in Progress".
Wait...she's right behind me!

Laura - being 'Laura'

From Dad

'Life is not measured by the breaths that you take
but by the moments that take your breath away'

Love it!

Sarah, Dad and Hannah

Tyler and his girlfriend, Blanca

Beatiful necklace Ed gave me --- he loves me!!!
I love him too!!!

(I should have put make-up on!)


Dinner is served!

By the way...thanks everyone for making my birthday special. I have a wonderful family!

We're going to Honolulu, HI

Hawaiian Sunrise with Hawaiian music

Ed got the Good News today. He won the Oracle Club trip to Honolulu, Hawaii from July 5-9, 2009. We're totally shocked that he won this trip vs. the Lanai trip but we're grateful nonetheless. Especially since Oracle had numerous layoffs last week.

So...here's the new plan.

Ed and I will leave on Friday, June 26th for Maui - we'll spend the weekend there by ourselves. Kate and Will will arrive on Monday, June 29th and Mitch and Laura will arrive on Wednesday, July 1st. The wedding will take place on Friday, July 3rd at 6:15 pm. We'll spend Saturday, July 4th together and then all fly out on Sunday, July 5th.

Kate and Will will fly home; Will to Dallas and Kate to LA, Mitch and Laura will fly on to Honolulu, as originally planned....they wanted to see Pearl Harbor while there. Ed and I will be heading over to Honolulu along with them now. In fact, we'll see Pearl Harbor together on Monday, July 6th.

Laura and Mitch leave on Tuesday, July 7th and Ed and I will stay until the end of Club, Thursday, July 9th.

From here, Ed and I will fly over to the Big Island (Island of Hawaii) for the weekend. We definitely want to see Kīlauea, maybe the world's most active volcano.

Our trip will come to an end on Sunday, July 12th. We'll arrive back in Dallas on Monday, July 13th because this is an overnight flight. Unfortunately, Ed has to work on Tuesday, July 14th so he'll have little time for recovery. But, we will have had more down time than we've had since I can remember.

We now have a plan! I'm so excited -this is going to be great!!!!

There’s been a flurry of activity!

Wow…what a week!!!

I’ve wrapped up three events; Atlanta CFO of the Year awards with my GVP presenting an award and speaking; Houston Energy Capital Week Senior Financial Officer Forum where Oracle was the exclusive sponsor; and last but not least, the REALLY big fun one - the inaugural event of Cowboy Stadium with headliner George Strait, who was joined by Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton and “Dancing with the Stars” champion Julianne Hough. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend just because there were SOOO many other things to get accomplished this weekend.

Now, in-between all of that and preparing for June and July events…I got a lot of wedding stuff done too.

I have found and ordered a very beautiful, beachie type wedding dress at Terry Costa about 2 weeks ago. It came in on Friday and I was able to pick it up on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it didn’t fit as well as the one I tried on in the store but no worries; they had a tailor onsite. This cute little black lady, Claudette, helped me and she was great. I had to order my dress because we thought the one in the store wasn’t cut right so I asked her to see if we could get it in ivory vs. white. Good news, it did come in ivory but no beads on the neckband. Claudette said she would add the beads at no cost and she held true to her word. I pick up my tailored dress with beads next Saturday afternoon.

This is what my wedding dress looks like

We already have Ed’s wedding clothes. If fact, we found them in his closet and they’ve never been worn. He will wear a lightweight white cotton long sleeve shirt (untucked) with khaki colored linen pants. He even had the shoes. I might add…he looks pretty darn cute too! Perfect - he's done!

What else do you need besides wedding clothes? You need someone who can marry you!

My next project was to find an Officiant.

Thank GOD for Google!!!

I searched for Officiants on-line only to find several Sister wa-lu-lay-ees (not really a word...just some crazy name for someone who will do anything) who will marry you any way you want: Buda style, Christian style, Hawaiian style…any style you can imagine. Well, that wasn’t going work for me so begin to search for a non-denominational church. Certainly I can find someone who is of the same faith that could marry Ed and I. Of course, God has good churches everywhere…even in Maui. I found a church called Calvary Maui who had a mission statement on-line that met my criteria; I called to see if this was a wedding they could perform. I spoke to this really nice lady, Valerie, who said they could, but she had a few questions to ask first: 1st question “Are you born again?” and 2nd question, “Have you had pre-marital counseling?” I was thrilled when she asked these questions and of course, the answers were 'yes' to both. At this point, we were able to confirm that Pastor Dom (short for Dominick) would be able to perform our ceremony with a traditional Christian style wedding while incorporating the Hawaiian tradition of exchanging leis. The only requirement was a donation of $150. No problem - done!

Moving right along – the photographer

Quality is a must here! I learned there are many, many photographers in Maui since this is one of the top destination-wedding locations. I've also learned you can certainly tell the difference in their quality and style by the home page on their website.

Again…thank goodness for Google!

My girlfriend Shelly Williams, who was recently married in Maui, passed along some good info. She recommended her photographer, Scott Hughes. Gosh…his pictures are great and boy, does he charge a ton $$$ for them. I know…you get what you pay for, so I’m trying to be really cautious here. I called Scott, who's a very nice guy (originally from St. Louis) and he helped me a lot but in the end, he was too expensive: $2000 for 2 hours of shooting with full rights to all the photos on a CD, or 3 hours of shooting and a wedding book for $3500. I must say his wedding book was magnificent…the best I’ve seen yet.

Anyhow, I called another girlfriend, April Williams, who recently became a photographer herself (Photography by April.Williams). She said she would help me create a wedding book near her cost since she had all the software. This was great news, as it would allow me to move onto my 2nd choice.

You know how you usually end up going back to the first thing you find when you’re looking for something? Well, that’s exactly what happened here. Originally, I really liked the photographs at Paradise Dream Wedding and their price wasn’t too bad either. They only charged $995 for 1 hour of shooting, which meant 120 shots with full printing rights. 30 of them would be retouched and on a DVD as a slideshow with music. I could handle this! I called and was able to confirm their photographer Ian Shepard. Ed and I both reviewed his photo gallery and really liked his style. We were thrilled - another task accomplished!

One thing that I've been kicking around is, "what is our bedroom furniture going to look like – my bedroom furniture, mixed-matched with Ed’s?" I know, don’t sweat the small stuff, but I can’t stand a room full of unmatched furniture!!!

One second here while I take you down a bunny trail...

Ed has had this swing set in his backyard for 9 years, that's still in fairly good shape. We have tried to give that thing away, for free, several times and so far have had no takers. So…me being me…I’m going to find a loving home one way or another. I placed an ad in the free section of Craig’s list, along with a picture, and boy, did that take off…I had about 7 calls within the first 5 minutes of it being posted! “Oh my gosh…let me hurry and take that posting down because my phone is ringing off the hook!” The first call I received was from a sweet lady in Oak Cliff, named Flora, who said she would pick it up Saturday. As promised, her and her husband, of 32 years, showed up around 5:00 pm, took it apart, packed it in their old, very long van and hauled it away. The backyard is now swingset-less. Wow…this is great – anther thing done!!!

The swingset that has a new loving home in Oak Cliff

Departing from the bunny trail and back to my earlier story…

While on Craig's list, I was perusing through the furniture section and found two matching BEAUTIFUL Duncan Phyfe-type chests, both with a wood-framed mirror, for $200 each. “Hmmm…these might be exactly what I need to complete our bedroom furniture. This would ensure that both Ed and I had enough drawer space and most importantly - they matched”. Long story short, I ended up purchasing them at an estate sale on Friday. Mitch helped me pick them up on Saturday and we drove them over to Ed’s house and parked them in the garage. These were a great find AND a great buy for only $375. And yet – another thing done.

Oh yea…I would be TOTALLY remiss if I did not mention what Ed has been doing!!!

My poor honey…who can multi-task really well at work but at home…oh my gosh…he struggles. He's been multi-tasking like a crazy man this week and getting TONS of stuff done.

The job that's taken most of his time is getting the house painted. I found a great painter (who I would highly recommend and his price is right too) to paint the inside of the house and replace some siding. The last few days have been hectic to say the least!!! Some of the outside siding has been replaced and painted; the kitchen, master bath, 2nd bathroom and dining room all had the wallpaper stripped textured and painted; the living room paneled wall and the dining room built-in’s were all primed and painted; all the ceilings, doors and molding were painted; and the front door will be power washed and revarnished on Monday. This has been one huge project, and stinky too but Ed has handled it well.

Last Thursday, all in one day, Ed managed the painters (house now in shambles), Salvation Army coming to the house and picking up some old furniture, the window-washer washing all the windows, inside and out; Jason measuring the fence to give us a quote on replacing it, since it's practically falling over, ALL along with Ed trying to work and take his calls throughout the day. Oh yea, let me not forget to tell you that the painters were spraying the paint in the house for most of the day - they had on gas masks while Ed suffered through this ordeal without anything. He was literally a little goofy that night. Way, way, way too much activity going on at 4223 Arbor Creek Drive in Carrollton for one day. I won’t do that again!

I'm not done yet, because there was one other big event that took place last week - I turned '45' years old last Tuesday! It was a day full of lots of 'warm and fuzzies'. All my family and many of my friends called and emailed with ‘Happy Birthday's’ and warm wishes. It was very, very nice. No birthday party, though, because I was in Houston for one of my events. I spent the night in a Sheraton all by myself. On the positive side...this stay entitled me to one free weekend night stay at a Starwood property that Ed and I can use at a later time! The following night, Gwen Milligan took me and my friend Damarys Quintana (Damarys and I celebrate our birthday's together since hers is on May 30th) to a wine-tasting in downtown Dallas. We had a nice time and celebrated with great wines! I'll celebrate with my family tonight, at my sister Laura's house, along with my dad because today is his 66th birthday.

Wow...I really had no idea HOW much stuff did get done last week until I wrote this out. Whew...I’m exhausted just thinking about it all.

p.s. Ed is still sleeping and it's 9:41 am. He rarely sleeps this late. Normally we're up and heading off to church by now but I think I'll let him sleep until he wakes up today. He must be one tired boy!!!

Ciao

Finally....we have a wedding day!

We finally have it...a wedding day!!! Our big day will be Friday, July 3, 2009. It's sad to say that we had to determine our wedding around Oracle but the truth is...we had to. Because I'm in Marketing, I'm very busy the first 2 months of every quarter. Because Ed's in Sales, he's very busy the last month of every quarter; so the ONLY time that would work for both of us is either July or December and neither of us wanted a winter wedding. July it is!

Because of timing and all the Oracle complications we decided to get married in Hawaii. Why Hawaii and not in Texas as originally thought??? Ed had a great FY09 'selling' year and exceeded his target goal - this should have qualified him for a Club trip to Hawaii. Key word... 'Should'. As of today, June 1st, we don't have confirmation that he's qualified and even if so, we don't know when or where it will be. We're pretty sure he'll make it...so we're going to plan around it the best that we can. There will be two Oracle Club trips; the Top 100 Performers trip will be in Lanai from June 26-29 and the general Club trip will be in Honolulu from July 5-9. We're hoping for the Lanai trip; he should have made the Top 100 easily with his big deal. Anyhow, we decided to get married right in between those dates. We'll either have a wonderful honeymoon by ourselves or a honeymoon with a bunch of Oracle freaks! Time will tell. We'll be happy either way!

Our wedding will be very small and intimate. Only my sister, Laura, and her husband, Mitch, will join us along with Ed's kids, Katie and Will. We really wanted all the family and friends to be there but the timing wasn't working in our favor.

Ok...now that we decided to get married in Hawaii...next step...where in Hawaii?. Lot's of lovely choices and Ed's been to most all the islands so I told him 'he was deciding, I didn't care'. It took a while but we finally decided on Maui. We want a romantic beach sunset wedding. You know...the kind you always see in pictures. So, now I'm off doing my event planner research. I should be able to do this, right? I plan events for a living!

Gotta go...lots to do now!