Danielle - Update 12/7/09

As I'm sure most of my readers know, Danielle was in a car accident on Sunday, December 6th in Missouri. Although she didn't hit anything, she did slide into a ditch and cause a (as far as we know right now) fracture to her L1 vertebrae. No paralysis, but she will have to do some physical therapy.

If anyone has more info, or would like to get a hold of Danielle, please let me know!!!

I do know that she is at St. Luke's in Kansas City, MO.

4401 Wornall RdKansas City, MO 64111(816) 932-2000 **Room 1432???

Hope you get better soon, little sister!!!!!!!!!!! We love you.

Well, maybe the flatter belly part......

THIS MAKES GOOD SENSE

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.


I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.


I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore.I've even earned the right to be wrong.So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever,but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day(if I feel like it).

Interview with a Gracie

Video #3

Walking even better now!!! dont worry - the video looks like it is sideways, but it plays the right way :)

Video #2

Tyler Walking #2 - later that evening!!

Videos

I'm going to upload some videos!!!! Here is the first...Tyler walking...this was about a week ago~!

CHANGE!!!!!!!!

good morning!!

I may be changing over to a Shutterfly.com Share Site - i will be able to add you as a member, and you can make comments, order pictures, and NOT be a member of Shutterfly to do so. The site will also send you notifications (weekly, daily, monthly) when there are updates made to the site by me or Matt. Useful, no? I know not everyone trawls the Internet like I do every day - this way, you wont have to go looking just to see if I've done an update to it.

There is also an interactive Calendar (pending to see if Members can add to the Calendar - that would be *GREAT*) so that we can all keep up with what everyone else is doing! :)

You can check it out as long as you have the site (below), and email me at honeybee21@hotmail.com if you WANT me to make you a member (then you can tell me how cute Gracie and Tyler are right on the site! hehe)

THE NEW SITE:

http://the4magi.shutterfly.com/

Send me an email!!!!!!!

Jackie OR Matt!

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Gracie, Matt, and the Preschool 4 class went to Johansen Farms Pumpkin Patch on October 13. They got to pet the animals at the petting zoo, explore the corn maze, take a hayride, and pick out their own pumpkins! Even Matt got a pumpkin!



Gracie and the kids, hangin out.....

Gracie and Daddy - SELF-PORTRAIT!!!!!

Look at the cute little piggy!!! Her head fits quite well in there.... :)

Going through the corn maze! She's a tiny adventurer :)

The "Gracie Face" - rising star!

Waiting for the train ride around the farm....

The Hayride!! The girl on the left side is Miss Melissa, and the one in the middle is Miss Amanda, the head of the Preschool 4 classroom. Next to Gracie in the pink jacket is her friend Victoria, behind Gracie to the right is Alesha, and Beth is in the back with the bright pink hat. Gracie calls them "my friends" :)

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tyler (secretly) walks!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to share that our Tyler, content and joyful child that he is, has finally decided to try out taking a few steps on his own!

It all started about a week ago.. we were in the kids' bedroom, and Matt was trying to convince Tyler to go "No Hands!" and what do you know... Ty thought that was the funniest thing he's ever heard, and that he just might try it. So, 2 baby steps (literally!) later, he was about a foot closer to Mommy all on his own. He was so proud of himself - probably due to the frantic cheers and clapping by Daddy and Mommy - that he giggled himself back to sitting!!!

Since then, we have seen a smattering of 2-steps, but mostly when he thinks no one is looking :) There is a rumor that a 4-stepper was witnessed... but I don't have first-hand experience with something that amazing!

So next time you see Tyler - ask him to show you "No hands!!" :) You won't regret the grin/giggle/fall that is sure to follow! :)

Here is a video of Tyler taking a step or 2 at Mary Kay's house in Chicago - watch him show me that he is not holding on by lifting his hands up so I can see! :)

Jackie and Tyler - 9/19/09

I had to post this picture here too (it is my profile picture on Facebook) - I LOVE IT! Anissa was kind enough to send this one to me - such a beautiful moment with Mother and Son.

A few honeymoon pics!

Here goes!! A few lovely pictures of our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico. We stayed at the ME by Melia Cancun hotel, in the heart of the Hotel Zone. The hotel was very luxurious, almost totally empty (it is their slow time of year), and just what we needed!

A picture of the BeachHouse, the restaurant attached to the main pool - and yes, that is me, about 1 hour after landing in Mexico, having a wonderful margarita in the swim up bar....and Matt, making the first of many calls home to Gracie and Tyler.

This is La Isla, a very modern (read: Americanized!) mall just 5 minutes walking from our hotel. They had everything here - traditional Mexican crepe place (yum!) all the way to McDonalds. The shops were amazing - all the upper crust type places you would see at Fashion Island in California. It made for some great window shopping!

When we got back to the hotel after our first night out, we found a lovely welcoming gift from ME Cancun - chilled champagne and a birthday cheesecake for Jackie! :) Must have been my Mexican birthday.... worked for us, it was so delicious!!!!!!

Our second day, Tuesday, we decided to go for an "Adventure" - aka, riding the rickety, hot bus into the "REAL" city of Cancun (as opposed to the Hotel Zones). Armed with maps and a little Spanish, we found this great little place called "La Viva Mexico". This is the "before" picture.....

"During" picture (yes, Jackie drank beer!!!)

"After" picture... 2 Dos Equis (or, XX) and some awesome quesadillas later! Also, our penchant for self-portraits will become very obvious :)

Tuesday evening, on the beach behind our hotel... what a lovely day!!!! The sunsets were soft and full of pastel colors that we didn't even know existed...

Our dinner Tuesday night at Pat O'Brien's... a walk of about 10 minutes in the other direction from our hotel. It started to pour as soon as we got done eating, so we had to wait it out in the restaurant - which was a lot of fun, as this balloon guy and his little green friend found us and made a lovely heart for us!

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Wednesday, Day of Relaxation

A view of the pools from our room!!!! This was the "Premium Ocean View". It was even more beautiful than the pictures can show :)

A view from my favorite seat..........yes, those are my feet :)

A contemplative Matt... considering which piece of land we would like to settle ourselves on, and how many waves he thinks he can ride all the way in. Serious stuff.....

Matt in the Caribbean Sea - unbelievably serene.

The paragliders - these went by all day, up and down the coastline. This is an excursion that can be bought anywhere on the hotel strip - but, in all honesty, it is quite boring.... well, in comparison!

This guy had the coolest grassy hat i've ever seen!

Not sure which night this was.... but we are quite accomplished portrait-takers!

At La Isla, there was an aquarium attraction - if you look closely, you can see the guy in the water tank giving the peace sign - he thought he was pretty funny. But the fish were gorgeous - and HUGE! We didn't do the whole attraction - we just took the pic outside the front of it :)

Jackie on the beach...at night. NO ONE is on the beach at night - the red flags were flying (due to rip currents) and the guards were patrolling.


Matt in the hotel lobby - it was SO pretty, and it smelled SO good we couldn't wait to get back to it every day. Now I wish we'd taken more daytime pics of it, because they had some really neat sculptures throughout, and at night it was lit with probably 1000 candles scattered about. Every chair/couch/ottoman you could possibly sit on was also incredibly comfy - I contemplated napping every time I sat down!




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Thursday

Day of Chichen Itza Excursion!!!

A few pictures of the wares for sale at our first stop on the way to Chichen Itza ruins.... some of the most unique jewelry and masks, such beautiful workmanship - I could have gone broke at this stop!

Below, our arrival at the cenote (seh-noh-tay) - or, sinkhole. It is the purest one in the region; 30 feet underground, it is a 200-foot deep well that has been configured so that pesky tourists like us can enjoy it!

That's Jackie!!!! Jumping off for like the 15th time!! Can you see me????? There were grown men up there, scared to jump... I showed them what was up! :)
*****VIDEO!!!!**** This is Matt jumping into the cenote - I promise that Jackie did this too, but someone (???) forgot to take a video as proof. :)

Back on the bus after our refreshing dives..... soaked, already tired, and oh so happy!!!

Our Yucatean food (YUM!) as part of our excursion package...and the traditional Yucatan dancers (with FULL bottles balanced on their heads!)...

We have arrived at the ruins........

A sacred type of tree (again, wasn't paying attention, so I can't remember it's significance.) But ...Cool tree!

The grounds around the ruins were littered with these vendors... we were told that the ruins are not yet State property, so there are no laws that exist to keep these vendors from setting up shop there. But, the State is working to get this area declared protected, and the vendors will have to find somewhere else to hound the tourists. All of the items were lovely, and quite reasonably priced....but they were everywhere, and very persistant. "No, gracias" were the words of the day! However, this area is VERY poor, and the vendors have no other way to make a living and are doing the best they can for their families.

Chichen Itza.....This is the main building (the front of it at least!) This portion has been restored - unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the back portion, which has NOT yet been restored. Take my word for it - the work they are doing here is amazing. 2000 years of nature's growth makes the other side unrecognizable as a building!

The head of the snake, or Kukulcan. I didn't pay enough attention to the guide like I should have - I was too busy getting pictures and wandering around in complete wonder!

A small building near the Sacred Cenote - see below for the story on that....

Our guide, Hugo - he was incredibly well-spoken and knowledgeable, and kindly even to his more flaky attendants (like Matt and Jackie) who needed repetition of his stories!

Matt near the top of the Sacred Sinkhole, or "Cenote Sagrado". The text reads:

"Historical Mayan sources dfine this natural well as an important ceremonial center and pilgramage destination between the 5th and 16th centuries A.D. Rituals were conducted here and offerings were made of gold, copper, tombac (a kind of brass), obsidian, quartz, shell, wood, copal, rubber, textiles, and skeletal remains, mainly of children and adult males.

The nearly circular pool is 60 m in diameter. The distance from ground level down to the water is approximately 22 meters and the depth of the water is from 6 to 12 meters beyond that."

A view from above................. the water was as still as can be - kinda scary!!

The "Wall of Skulls" - this wall, most of which i could not get on one shot, represents the people who lost their heads (literally!) at ceremonial celebrations - our guide reiterated that these were not punishments, but rather offerings given willingly.

This is on one end of the "playing field" - a huge stadium for games that sort of resembled football or soccer... but no bleachers, as only the most "holy" and those of 'royal' status were allowed to watch the games.

This is their Observatory, where the Mayan people watched and tracked the movements of the sun and stars. As was pointed out by our guide, it is in the same shape as our modern observatories!

This is one of the buildings bordering the playing field I was describing above. The detail in the stonework was so intricate...

A few more shots.... of the grounds with the Observatory in the background, and the section that held "1000 Columns" - I asked why there were 1000, and the guide told me that that was just what the researchers estimated - they go on and on and on.... perfect rows, all perfectly the same height. It was quite intriguing.

Our Final Night in Cancun!!!! We had dinner at Lorenzillo's, a seafood place on the lagoon. The food was AWESOME!!!! LOL, and the wine was good too :)

Thank you for taking the time to go on this journey with us - we feel recharged and ready to take on another Illinois winter!!!!!

Check back soon....you know I'm always updating!

Love and hugs,

Jackie and Matt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!