Words to Date

Since Adele has Delaney talking for her, she hasn't talked a whole lot. To date she has the following words in her vocabulary: Dada, Mama, up, down, book, apple, and of course cheese for all the pictures. She also can make a wide range of animal noises: dog, cat, sheep, elephant and roars like a lion. She loves running and chasing her sister and she has the most amazing belly laugh. We love our little Adelly Welly.

Our Proposal

I recently realized that the description of our engagement we wrote for our wedding guests was on an old computer in an outdated format. Scared to lose track of it forever, I am posting here to keep it safe. Enjoy!

Her Story:

Marcy, Jamie and I flew to Dublin on March 23 to see the sites and take in as much of the culture as we could even if it meant spending hours in pubs, drinking beer, looking for it. We started there but then went west to see the countryside. It was beautiful (when we opened our eyes from praying for our lives as each one of us took turns driving on the "wrong" side of the road.) The people were so nice and we found some great pubs and bed and breakfasts. We returned to the big city just in time to catch a big rugby match between Ireland and Scotland.

 On the 5th day of our trip, after a long day of walking and sightseeing on my own, I rejoined my friends at the hostel. While resting in the room, an employee came to tell me I had a delivery in the lobby. I went downstairs to find a bouquet of roses. Each rose had a card attached with memories from the past year and a half. Jamie noticed that there were only 11 roses and the desk attendant told me that the delivery guy was still outside so I could go get the 12th rose from him. I went outside and saw no delivery guy, just a busy street.

I looked one last time down the street. At the corner, I saw Greg with the rose. He had flown all night, with 2 layovers, to come to Dublin to propose to me. I only wish I could have seen my face. He knelt down right there on the street corner. After saying "yes" (how could I not after that), we were congratulated by Dubliners applauding as they waited to cross the street. It was like a movie... simply unbelievable.

His Story:

Susan wanted to be a surprised for her engagement which was a pretty tall order.  As her trip to Ireland neared, though, the opportunity and timing could not have been better.  The plan would be easy to put together but keeping it a secret would prove hard.  I enlisted the aid of one of her two trip companions, Jamie.  Because I did not want to arouse suspicion, we eliminated communication by simply planning to have Susan in the hostel between 5 and 7 on Sunday when they were in Dublin.  I trusted Jamie’s ability to have Susan and Marcy, their other unsuspecting trip companion, in place at 6pm Sunday.

Since I hadn’t communicated with Jamie since they left for Ireland, I decided to show exactly on time.  As I enlisted the help of the staff at the front desk, Marcy came to the desk.  I panicked, figuring that Susan must be around – I was a little upset that after all the planning and travel it would be a shortened proposal. Fortunately, Susan was resting upstairs. Jamie had kept the secret and, after I explained it all to a surprised Marcy, the staff went upstairs to announce Susan’s floral delivery.  I took my place on the street corner outside.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity.  Passerby's gave a curious smile to the guy standing on the corner with a rose in hand.  Susan came out of the doorway.  She looked across the street, up the street and down the street.  I was nervous she didn’t see me so far away so I waved the final rose and caught her eye.  She made her way slowly down the street still not sure why I was there.  Finally, I got down on one knee, and with her answer yes, got happy approval from the pedestrians nearby.

Laughing, Smiling, Playing Adele

Adele's laugh and smile are contagious and we just can't get enough. Check out these videos to see what she is up to lately:

Where did Adele go?

Blowing Kisses

Flying Adele

Don't Let This Happen To You

How we learned that you can get a passport in  one day but we don't recommend it.

At 10:00 p.m. Sunday, Greg looked at his passport and realized it expired 3 months prior. We were leaving for Brussels, Belgium 12 hours later. That was it... we weren't going. Greg decided he ruined our whole trip and there was no way we would be able to go. As he continued to beat himself up,  I grabbed the computer and started researching our options (if we had any.) This could have easily happened to either one of us. Neither of us even thought about looking at our passports well in advance. We didn't even get them out of the safe until that Sunday.

On the government travel site we learned there are a few options and one included submitting your application at a Passport Service Agency if you are traveling in 14 days or less. Our flight out of St. Louis wasn't until 11:00 a.m., so we would just head down to the office first thing in the morning. Well, St. Louis doesn't have an office. Little Rock, Arkansas has an office but St. Louis doesn't.  Alright.. we had 4 hours in New York before our flight to Brussels, so we could just visit the office there. We called the 800 number and learned that they didn't have an appointment until Wednesday. We spent the next hour trying to find a passport office on the Eastern half of the U.S. that had an appointment on Monday at a time that Greg could fly into town, make it in and out of the office, and then fly to New York to make a 6:00 p.m. flight to Brussels. This is, of course, if they even processed a passport in a day (or hour). Nowhere on the website did it say they did this but nowhere did it say they didn't.

Finally we made an appointment for 12:00 noon in Philadelphia and booked the flights on-line. We were very fortunate that our tickets to Europe were purchased with airline miles so up to this point, there was only minimal expense. The cost of the flights in and out of Philadelphia at the last minute made it more like a normal European vacation. The next hour was spent preparing a photo for the new passport and other paperwork. Luckily you can print your own photo if you have the right paper. We went to bed about 2:00 a.m. and woke at 5:00 a.m. so that I could drop Greg off at the Metrolink to get to the airport for his 7:00 a.m. flight to Philly.

Smooth flight in, fast taxi to the office and Greg enters at his designated appointed time to learn that he has to wait in line to get a number to wait in line. 

"How may I help you?"

"I need to renew my passport."

"When are you traveling?"

"Well, I would like to go today....."

"Oooh, that is tight but I think we can do it. You are making it tough on us. What time are you leaving?"

"6:00 p.m. ...... from New York"

"Wow, you are making it really tough on us. Take a seat and we will be with you shortly"

Minutes felt like hours for Greg and he didn't have anything else to occupy his mind except what was going on in line in front of him. He watched as each person met with a worker at the counter and then proceeded to tell him/her their life story. At least it seemed like this was the case. No phones were allowed in the office so he could not fill me in on his status. Greg was the next person up and got ready to go to the counter, the worker went on break. Finally, he got his chance and he would be getting his passport by 1:30 p.m. This means he was going to miss the flight he originally booked out of Philly to New York at 2:00 p.m. He snuck out of the building to call the airline and learned that flight had been cancelled and he was automatically booked on the next one. Take off at 3:00 and land at LaGuardia at 4:00.

Meanwhile, I flew out of St. Louis at 11:00 a.m. heading for New York still not knowing  what was going to happen. We decided that if he couldn't get the passport, we would just stay in NYC for the week; a trip we have been wanting to make any way. As I descended into Manhattan and saw the city skyline, I got excited about being in New York. I devised a plan as to what would happen next. I would call friends for recommendations, start asking for help on Facebook, and I would look into booking a hotel.  But, eager to learn my fate I turned my phone on a little early (shh...), looked at the text from Greg and saw that he had his passport, he just needed to get into LaGuardia in time to taxi to JFK and check in for our flight to Brussels.

I took the shuttle from LaGuardia to JFK and they were running behind so I found myself impatiently standing around for a while. I imagined I might still be there when Greg arrived.  I pretended I was on the Amazing Race and had to learn as much as I could to be fast and win. Waiting with me was an American Airlines pilot that was making friends with all the people around him. I figured he wouldn't mind me seeking his professional opinion so I asked him about check-in. Greg and I worried that he would need to be at the airport two hours before our flight and there was definitely no way he was going to make that. Joe, the pilot, wasn't sure but he thought only an hour was needed. He gave me the number to a cab company Greg could call if the taxi stand line was too long and said he would help me talk to the right people once we got to JFK. I started feeling better.

Due to the shuttle being late, Joe was late for his flight so we ran up the escalator once we got there. He rushed me to the entrance of the ticket counter and explained my situation to the Manager and then took off. Thanks Joe!!! Glenn, the Manager, said to get in line to talk to someone at the counter. He urged me to NOT go through security. Once past that point, there wasn't anyone who could help me. I waited in line and probably felt similar to Greg at the passport office. He texted to tell me his plane had landed at LaGuardia. Now it was a matter of rush hour traffic. I talked to Alison behind the counter and she confirmed that Greg needed to be checked in one hour before. He had until 5:10 or no go. She said to stay in contact with Greg and as soon as he arrived to wave at her and she would help us but she was going on break soon and left for the day at 5:00.

Greg walked into the terminal and found me in line ready to wave at Alison. It was 4:40....we had a whole half hour. Glenn and Alison saw us and were amazed he was able to make it so fast. They joked that we had plenty of time and we could sit and relax for a while. Alison quickly checked him in and Glenn walked us to security convincing the TSA agent that we could enter the First Class line because we had a bad day. Not sure how to type the sounds of a big sigh of relief but you can imagine that Greg and I both did this as we passed through security. We sat down for our first meal of the day at 4:50 p.m. and celebrated the official start to our vacation.

Lesson learned.... as soon as you book your next international trip, check your passport right away.

Delaney Says......

Starting around two, instead of saying I want you to carry me, she would insist "I want to carry you"

Around 2.5, heard around the house or at the store:

Twist tie for plastic bags at the grocery store = a leash.
Candy Cane = Candy Can
Grandfather = Grandpa Father

We live close to the Compton Water Tower so Greg pointed it out to Delaney as a sign that we are almost home. Problem is, she says "we are almost home" as we drive away from the house too. So, Greg started to say it means that we are near home. Delaney wants nothing to do with the change. She argues with him saying "no not near home, we are almost home." Stubborn as a mule.

What was I like as a Baby

Adele: What was I like as a baby?

Mom: You were an easy easy baby, just like your sister.  No colic, no allergies. You did spit up quite a bit until about 6 months but it went away once you started eating food. You weren't quite as patient as Delaney though but then she was the only baby and didn't have to be as patient as you. There was no doubt when you were upset. Your crying would get louder and louder and then wasn't crying at all but became screaming. Your face would turn red and you would close up your eyes so long that you couldn't see a bottle right in front of you.

You didn't get sick until you were 8 months old when you had your first ear infection. Poor Baby! Pain lasted three days and that entire time you didn't want to be put down or left alone for a second. Right after that, you top two front teeth came in while visiting Grandma Joan. You weren't a happy camper then either but before long, you returned to your smiling happy self.