Below are the 9 most recent journal entries recorded in ahess78's LiveJournal:

Monday, May 22nd, 2006
10:41 pm	Family Camp This past month has been VERY rough. The night we got back from Sarasota Matt lost his Grandpa to complications from Lung surgery/pneumonia. Then two weeks later I lost my Uncle Tim to sudden cardiac arrest. So needless to say we thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers for both of our families. On a more fun note, we spent this last weekend with Julian at Cub Scout Family Camp. Us along with about 15 other families pitched our tents and brought as many blankets as we could stuff in our tents to sleep under, it was freezing at night. However, the sun was out all day Saturday; we had a great hike, and Julian was able to go fishing while we took an afternoon nap. We sat around the fire and made smores and drank so much hot chocolate it was hard to sleep from the caffiene high! The camp food was great, who knew you could make scrambled eggs in a baggie over a fire! We had Hobos for dinner and ate lots of unhealthy snacks! Julian had a great time, his quote to the Cubmaster was, "is this a free for all?" The answer was no, there were a few rules!! Matt build the kids a swingset over the last two weeks, it was only suppose to take one day to build bet 7 straight days of rain and 2 trips to Ohio slowed the building down a little, it turned out great, and the other night we had 9 kids out there playing on it with Julian! This week I get to stain it! Caroline and Taylor spent the weekend at the lake with Tom and Jean. Ashley and Brianna came up to play with Caroline, she was in heaven. They went on a boat ride Saturday after Kevin and Tom got some of the pier in. Caroline said she fell asleep on the boat! More updates later!! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
9:29 am	Update Well back to real life for us. Unfortuantely Matt's Grandpa passed away the night we came back from vacation April 15. So we spent much of that week with his family. Of course the girls and Julian were more than excite to see us return from Florida. Caroline keeps thinking we are going to leave her again, she'll get over it eventually!! Taylor looked at us like we were aliens!! Julian has started baseball, his first game is Wed April 26! My birthday was Saturday as was Grandma Dee's, for our birthfday we got a healthy baby girl!!! McKenna Faith Dee was born at 723am. She was 5lbs and was 18 inches long. She is beautiful and got to go home from the hospital today!!! We are so excited that she was healthy! For pictures see Jayme's website http://jayme.dee.googlepages.com (Comment on this)
Friday, April 14th, 2006
8:44 pm	Sarasota days 6 & 7 We have had a very busy last two days of our vacation in Sarasota. Yesterday I found a nice little pastry place downtown that I ate breakfast at. I then came back to the hotel to wait for MAtt to finish. We then went to Hungry Howies and had a pizza for lunch(nice and cheap, but good!!:)) We headed for The Sarasota Jungle Gardens and enjoyed a stroll amid wildlife and palm trees! It was very pleasant. There were crocodiles, alligaters, snakes... and then there were the turtles, they were naughty turtles( if you are interested in the pictures of the naughty turtles I would be happy to share them!) Also there were parrots we could hold, that was fun. Matt just flashed Sarasota Bay, I got distracted TMI< TMI< TMI< TMI:) Okay, where was I... We came back to the hotal and had our afternoon nap, which is great but causing me to not sleep well at night, then headed to St Petersburg for Tropicana Field and the Devil Ray's v. The Orioles. Great game, Tampa Bay blew it in the 9th, it was just like watching the Cubs:) We met Sarah and Tim there, we have missed them since they moved here from Ft Wayne, Sarah is Mandi's sister. We had a great time searching what seemed like the entire stadium for food!!! Today was Matt's last day of lectures, our last day to explore:( We didn't do much... had lunch at the Boathouse, located here at the hotel,but on the water. It was good food, and you can't beat sitting on the water! I fed fish through a crack in the floor boards, I think they liked the french fries!! We hung around the pool all day, then came and took our nap!! We went to St Armand's Circle for dinner and ate at Tommy Bahamas, boy was that expensive 72.00 for Matt and I, OUCH...it's a good thing Parkview was paying!!!:) We walked around the circle for a bit... then got our ice cream fix! Maybe we bought some goodies for the kids!!! I noticed as we were about to leave that the sun was about to set, so I grabbed MAtt and we walked toward the beach. The people were all gathering for the blessed event, as it is considered here. It was SO beautiful, I think it was the best sunset yet, I got a few pictures! I am so glad we went, as the sun set everyone clapped and cheered! We are back at the hotel now, sad that our time here is almost over, but excited to see the kids again.My parents tell me Taylor is crawling very fast now, and Caroline thinks it is funny. Caroline thinks that Jayme's house is the hospital, Julian is beside himself happy to be with Mama and Papa Dee. They golfed today and played baseball, and colored easter eggs. I can't wait to give them all a HUGE hug!! I also wanted to ask everyone for prayers for Matt's family. His Grandfather had recent surgery to remocve lung cancer and is not doing well. On this Easter please pray for him to be comfortable and to be with his Grandmother through this difficult time. His family very much will appreciate that. See you all in Fort Wayne on Sunday! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 12th, 2006
9:59 pm	Sarasota Day 5 To make everyone from Ft Wayne feel better. Today was mostly cloudy, a bit breezy and a little chilly!!! But still over 75 degrees! i enjoyed sleeping in today while Matt was at his lectures. He cut out earlly and we headed to Punta Gorda again. Only this time for our Sightseeing Cruise down the Peace River. It was a little chilly, as I said before so we stayed inside the boat instead of on the roof! The view was still great seeing as we wanted to see "THE WILD" which was closer to the water. We mostly saw birds, howeverI got 2 pictures of the lone alligater we saw!!! I was so excited they turned out:) There are many pictures of birds sitting, flying, diving, feeding their young, ect:) We ate dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. Neither of us had eatent here before and it was wonderful. I had filet mignon. IT was perfect! MAtt had something:) After dinner we thought we needed ice cream, so we went to St Armand's Circle where there are at least 6 ice cream places to choose from!! It's like Heaven to Matt!! I got a toffee ice cream, and Matt got something else!!!!! We then walked around and bought more STUFF!!!! I found the souvinier store!!! Aftere our "walk" we came back to the hotel and went to the hot tub where we met a very young couple. The girl told me she was 21, they are from here so we couldn't figure out why they were at the hotel (hiding out maybe"?) She is the manager of a diamond store, and lives on siesta key, an automatic clue that they have A LOT of money!! She pretty obviously had had some cosmetic surgery if you know what I mean. She confided in me that she was serious with her boyfriend that she was with, however before whe would get engaged he had to be able to buy her the $30,000 ring she already picked out!!!! I thought, "must be nice" They were both very nice people though! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 11th, 2006
9:54 pm	Sarasota day 4 We had another awesomely fun day (i don't know if that is a wordbut it fits anyway!!!) Today I started out doing laundry( not fun...but more fun when you are in Florida doing it:)) When Matt finished with his lectures we headed to Siesta Key to hit the favorite restaurant of Dick Vitale, the Broken Egg. Apparhently we missed him by about 3 hours, but when he is in town(often because he lives there) he goes to this place everyday at 1030. They are mostly a Breakfast joint(what gave that away?!!) So I got Croisant French Toast (Mmmmmmmmmmmm) and Matt got a Shrimp, bell pepper and cheese omelet, he said it was good, i didn't try it:) We then headed to Siesta Key Beach, which has the best sand in America!!! I guess it has been sold on ebay before! Anyway it was great for tanning! This evening was a blast, we went to the marina right by our hotel and boarded a HUGE sail boat for a 2 hour sunset cruise!!! We loved it, there were only 10 people on the boat, another couple, a family of 4( Dad was a Neuologist, so him and Matt could talk Doctor stuff), and then the captainand his wife... oh and there pet golden retriever, Abbie who is a trained therapy dog. She went to the school that the little girl Carley Brusha attended after she was killed to help the children cope. She has been on magazine covers, and has had stories on the news about her. Matt was SOOOO excited to have Abbie with us on this intimate cruise, wait til you see these pictures!! It really was a lot of fun!! Keep checking! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 10th, 2006
9:41 am	Sarasota Day 3 Tonight was so much fun. We went to dinner with the parents of my best friend growing up. She, unfortunately for our traveling purposes, is in Italy having a blast!! I was so excited to see her parents (Kathy and Gary Bender), they were like my second parents growing up, I did more things with them than I would ever have time to list. Including many trips to Florida!!! We ate with them at a restaurant/grill right on the bay. As we ate we watched dolphins playing in the water near us and fish jumping high into the air. We talked and reminisced for over 3 hours and at two different bars!! Kathy brought pictures of Wynn' wedding (she got married the same day as Tony and Jayme, so I was unable to attend) and Brad's (her brother) wedding. They also brought pictures of the 5,000 squ. ft. house Wynn and her husband are building in Ft Myers. I was SOOOO grateful she brought all the pictures, I LOVED seeing everybody, especially Brad's new family. He recently married and now has 3 stepchildren and 1 new baby boy named Peyton (afte Payton Manning I'm sure!!!!!), boy is he a cutie!!! In the morning I was able to take an adventure while Matt was in his conference. I went to Longboat key and drove for awhile then walked on the beach, it was very peaceful in the morning!! I then went shopping in St Armand's Circle. I can't afford much there, but it so much fun to look at the expensive stuff. I did buy a couple little things!!! Matt and I went to the Greyhound Race Track after his conference and had hotdogs for lunch while we bet onraces. I discovered that betting on Greyhounds is not my forte, I was horrible at it, I lost everyrace. Matt on the other hand was much better and won 6.40!!! His dog won! It was a lot of fun and made me think of Lexy! However Matt didn't think the idea of us adoptin a greyhound was a good one!!!Some things never change, he will always HATE dogs! More fun scheduled tomorrow, keep checking!! (Comment on this)
Sunday, April 9th, 2006
7:33 pm	Day 2 Sarasota We did a wonderful thing last night-SLEPT!!! Get your minds out of the gutters!!! We had a busy day today, for having no plans!!! We got up and were out by 1040. We headed for Mote Aquarium on Lido Key, only about 7 minutes away from our hotel. We saw all sorts of fish, crabs, sharks, manatees, sea turtles, dolphins, ect. While there we also visited Pelican Man's Bird Sanctuary, where we saw all sorts of birds. It was very interesting,both places are used for saving and rehabilitating animals and fish to send back into the wild,or to keep if they are too badly injured.If you saw my pictures, the sea turtle I took pictures of is actually blind and will live at the center until it dies. We layed on Lido Key Beach for about an hour, until we felt like the sun was getting through our sunscreen (we were right!). Then we went to St Armands Circle and found a restuarant called Cha Cha Coconuts,where we had sandwiches ( me Cheeseburger and Matt Grouper)It was excellent! They had live music! After coming back to the hotel we thought we would go down to the pool, after about 10 minutes there it got cloudy, so we thought we needed a drink!!! I got a Mudslide that was the size of my head( I couldn't quite drink it all) but it tasted wonderul!!! Now we are going to relax and enjoy the quiet sound of the water below us!!! The Pool with all the waterfalls is just below our room(pictures of that to come later this week!!) (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 8th, 2006
9:54 pm	I'm in Sarasota!!!!! Finally Well Hopefully for the first time in 7 months we will get a full nights sleep!!! We went to Siesta Key (BEAUTIFUL) the sand was SOOOOO soft and white.We had dinner at Bennigan's and had lunch in St Armand's Square. I think I found the BEST shopping in the world, I may not be able to afford much, but boy is it fun to look at all the stuff. There is over a hundred stores, REALLY COOL!Tomorrow we are going to go to the aquarium, it is right by our hotel. We scheduled cruise tours on Wed and Thur... Wed is a tour of a river in Punta Gorda, there is suppose to be gators and birds and nature stuff!!! Then Thur we are going on an ocean sailing cruise,Matt is going to tie me to the mast so I can yell, "I'M SAILING!!!!" For the Madagasgar Fans , when i asked Matt about the river cruise he said it will be like going into the WILD, I said, "THE WILD, YOU CAN ACTUALLY GO THERE" We are going to go to a baseball gaem sometime this week but not the homeopener like we had thought. We are planning on putt putting, Greyhound race watching ( and betting!!) and maybe go to the waterpark, of course we will be spending time poolside and at the beach... I can't wait to send out pictures of the pool here it is the coolest hotel pool i have ever seen!!! There are tons of waterfalls, and it has a walk in, like a beach! Even the hottub has a waterfall! I will write again later in the week, I am going to go enjoy some sleep now!!! (Comment on this)
Monday, March 27th, 2006
9:54 am	Monday Here is another update of our excting lives!!! Matt's Grandpa Hess had surgery 10 days ago at Lutheran Hospital for lung cancer. We believe his surgery was successful in removing all the cancer, he had his entire right(i think) lung removed. He is doing well with just one lung left, and went home from the hospital on Saturday. Taylor is just about to start crawling, she is rocking on her legs, any day and we will never be able to find her again... I know as soon as soon as she can move she isgoing to be GONE!!!!:) Caroline is not very interested in potty training, at least not as interested as I am!! She does however know how to take off her diaper! She spent the weekend following Julian and his friends around. Sometimes she acts like an 8 year old in a 2 year old body!! Julian was with us this weekend, he had his friend Chris spend the night on Friday. (We took everyone up to the hospital to see Jayme and Tony.) Then on Saturday he played with Chris and his other friend Andrew ALL day. They discovered my collection of pens from MAtt's drug reps and "started a business" upstairs, transforming Julians room into several "offices." Saturday night we had Kim, Marty, Cayden(2), Christopher(7mths), Jaime, Miranda, Maya(4), Paige and Reese (twins 7mths) all over for Lasagne (homemade), Casa Salad(a Fort Wayne thing), garlic bread, and Chocolate mousse pie!!! All the babies were born within 10 days. Having 8 kids in the house was actually not as bad as it sounds!!! On Sunday we dropped off a package that Julie (Johnson) Morris sant for Jayme, then met Emilie and Kelsey(8) (friends) at David's Bridal. Emilie is getting married July 8 and I am her Maid of Honor. We picked out shoes with her other girls!! Matt took all the kids home so that Julian and Kelsey could play for awhile with Caroline of course!! So that was pretty much it! I'll post again when something is worth talking about!! (Comment on this)