A Secret

Year: 2010

Month: May

Day: 9th

Occasion(s): My 28th Birthday and my 2nd Mother's Day

One memorable gift: Surprise destination trip ... just Mom and me.

Can you guess where? Well, if you can't, here are a few hints...I bet you still don't have any idea, do you? Those of you who already know, just shhhh...That wasn't much more help, was it?

Am I at least allowing you to get a little warmer with your guesses or are you still freezing cold?

Does this look familiar to anyone at all? I bet you've guessed it now!! And, if you haven't... um... keeping comments to myself.

But, that's right, we went to San Fransisco! You ask, "How did she keep it a secret for so long?" Well, you see, I love to be surprised. And when Mom offered the trip to me in February or March, I was so excited about the unknown that I didn't want to know. I will tell you that SF was not at the top of my list for places to go, but I am so glad I went and would go back if I had the chance.

So, how/when did she tell me where we were going. That's kind of the funny part. We were in the airport having our luggage checked and she asked the lady a question to make sure that our luggage would follow us all the way to our final destination because we didn't have a direct flight. The lady's response: "Yes, the luggage will follow you to San Fransisco". Mom and I just looked at each other and smiled. I am not sure when she would have told me, but that didn't matter any more.

After leaving the luggage lady, we were on the way to security and mom told me that the reason why she chose San Fransisco was because that was her mother's favorite city and she had never been there before. She wanted to go and visit and see what it was like and what better way to do that than to go with her daughter. I almost started to cry, so I jokingly asked her to stop talking. I just wanted to be excited about the trip! For those of you that do not know, my mother's mom ("Grammy") passed away in February of 2008. She was 80 years old. Infact, she had just celebrated her 80th birthday on February 5th of that year (and passed on the 20th). She was a wonderful lady and a very special Mom and Grandmother to four children and eleven grandchildren. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be sharing this experience with my mom.

We only where in San Fransisco for a weekend but it was jammed packed with sight-seeing and tours. Mom loves to do those kinds of things because you learn so much more about the, um, "behind the scenes" stuff about the big cities. Especially when you have a good tour guide.

We visited the Golden Gate BridgeAte at Boudin Bakery each morning for breakfast, rode a double decker bus for a tour and got just a wee bit burnt after we only talked about putting sunscreen on, took a tour of Alcatraz...Saw the production "Wicked" with a dear friend of mine that lives near the area, saw the most expensive home in San Fransisco -- which is owned by Danielle Steele, toured downtown twice but saw different things each time, had a wonderful veiw of Lombard Street but my camera just wouldn't take a good picture of it, rode a cable car, and to wrap up the tours, we were able to view these famous "Ladies"...
Now, those were just some quick highlights from our trip. This posting would be way too long to detail EVERYTHING we saw and did. However, here are some things that I noticed while we were there and walking around.

1) The homeless don't lie: While walking the streets of SF, you will find that there are many homeless people asking for money. However, you should take note of their signs that request money. "No need to lie, it's for weed" or "No need to lie, its for beer".

2) Seafood smells make me nauseous: We stayed at Fisherman's Wharf and walked near the water quite a bit. There are several seafood resturants in a row on the main drag there and oh, my golly... do they stink!! Ewwe.

3) Danielle Steele is really rich: So I mentioned previously that we saw the most expensive home in downtown SF. I really shouldn't say that I saw the home because there is a HUGEMONGOUS hedge on the property borders that block the home, but I was able to see the top of it. So, she purchased that home for a whopping $30 million and the tour guide told us that before the market crash, the home was valued at $60 million!

4) The homeless (and others) will do some interesting stuff to earn money: I saw a man sitting on a crate holding a large tree limb/bush in front of him. There were a few picture takers behind him. He was facing on coming walkers and every so often he would shove his limb out a little bit and say "BOO!" and scare the day lights out of the people coming by. It was quite entertaining. Maybe it was because he didn't scare me... the first time I saw him do it, I was on the side of the photographers and I knew what he was doing when I came back by. I beleive the girl in front of me just about fell off the curb. It was quite histerical.

5) The Golden Gate Bridge: Is painted yearly and it takes 365 days to paint. Just as the painters are finishing the last stroke at the end of the bridge they turn right back around and begin again. Can we say, "job security"? However, if you go to visit the bridge make sure you go at the right time of the year because if you don't, fog will cloud your view of the bridge even as you drive on it.

So, again, I had a marvelous time and will cherish the memories of this trip forever. Thank you Mom for planning such a trip and maybe, just maybe, we can do something like this again?!?! :)

Marriage Retreat Weekend

Well, before the time passes too much more, I will let you know how our weekend on the marriage retreat was. We actually had a good time. Wayne had reservations in the beginning because he just didn’t know a lot of the people. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but we went with a group from the church that I grew up in. Yes, we have been visiting this church for a few months now, but Wayne was still very unfamiliar with a lot of the people. We were in a house with 4 other couples. Two of the couples were closer to our age and hadn’t been married quite as long as us. The other 2 were older and had been married a bit longer. I think their years of marriage were 11 and 12, maybe?

Friday night was just a time to get settled in and meet the owners of our bed and breakfast homes and check-in. We did have a time with the whole group as an introduction period and we each discussed 2 things that made our marriages stronger. The pastor spoke a few words of encouragement and then we broke to play games and basically settle for the evening.

Saturday morning, we woke bright and early and had breakfast at our homes around 8. I must say that our home owners were wonderful chefs. Breakfast was one of the highlights of our weekend. For most of the morning, we separated into small groups and had discussions about our marriages and how they can benefit (and possibly break down) the church. This time for Wayne and I was very beneficial. During the second session, we were talking about change in the church and change in general. A lot of the topics dealt directly with some of the changes going on in that church specifically so, Wayne and I just kept quiet. Well, someone spoke up and asked us what we felt about change because we had been kind of quiet. It was then, that Wayne really spoke up about some things that had happened to him in the past and a lot about our spiritual walk. By the end, I really started to get emotional. I am not sure why. I think it was more because of the fact that now someone else knew what we (I) had been feeling. Our spiritual life, covering since the time that we met, was laid on the table – by Wayne. Well, I say “our spiritual life”, but really more-so Wayne’s. I think the tears were more tears of joy and relief that our story was out to these other 3 couples. I also think the relief came because he was telling it. He was opening up.

In response, they gave very good insight to what Wayne was saying. One of the ladies and the lead gentleman followed up at the end of our session and stated that we all needed to think about either mentoring or being a mentor to another couple in the church. It definitely will serve as an accountability partner. Not just for one of the spouses, but for both. If you can’t tell already, I have a very soft and tender heart about our spiritual walk. I tread very lightly when it comes to this matter because my conscience gets to me more about this than anything else. I know there are a lot of things that I need to work on when it comes to my faith. There are things that Wayne and I need to work on together.

** Sidenote: Wow, that was much more than I planned to put into this. But, I guess when the words start going, I just can’t stop! Oh, and it does help to put it out there. I guess this is the start of my “diary” part of this blog. **

For the majority of the remainder of the weekend, Wayne and I spent a lot of time together and walking around New Bern. We took a lot of pictures as well, as you can see from my previous posting. We did have a GREAT time watching a lot of the group learning to square dance Saturday afternoon. Now, that… was a HOOT!

All in all, I am really glad that we took the time to go on this retreat. I think this is the beginning of something special for Wayne and me. He may not think the same right now, but maybe in the future, he will look back on this and then think the same.

Random Photo Ops in New Bern, NC

Love... Wedding... Marriage...

This weekend, Wayne and I will be attending a marriage retreat with the church that I grew up in. We will be going out of town, so you know what that means? Jackson will stay here. Grandma will be the lucky one to keep him this weekend. She is very excited. Now, I am also very excited for her and excited about going, but not so excited to leave my little man here. I know he will be fine, and I will worry about him more than he will wonder where we are at... but... it is just going to be hard.

Now, for the weekend, it will be nice to get away and have some "me and Wayne" time. He has been begging for a while and we are finally going to be able to go. Just another tidbit of info... it will not just be this weekend -- but we are heading out again next weekend -- just the two of us. So, Mr. Boykin... if you are reading this... you must know that you are really special to me because I am going to go off with you without my little man for 2 weekends in a row!

I am also ready to have a few days of digging deep into our marriage. We have been married for just about 5 and a half years and I still consider us amateurs about the whole marriage idea. It will definately be good to obtain more insight and understanding about what God tells us about marriage and being a husband/wife. Also, learning more about what our roles are in the church as husband and wife.

So, hopefully, I will have lots of info to post about next week. Until then...