Maverick and Louie take on the beach

When I got back into FL today, it was 80 degrees out! A little different than the 20 degree weather that I had just experienced in KC! So, my brother and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and we took Maverick and Louie to the beach. It was so wonderful to see Maverick come alive and enjoy playing ball and running again. Him and Louie did not want to stop as they ran back and forth from the ocean chasing the tennis ball. What a fun time and a wonderful memory as this will more than likely be Maverick's last trip to the beach before we move back to the snowy Midwest. 

Our First Christmas!

Jeremy and I enjoyed our 1st Christmas together in KC this past week. We felt incredibly blessed to be together and to be able to spend time with our family. For more Christmas pictures, visit our blog; http://stephanieandjeremy.blogspot.com/. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a happy and healthy 2009!

The Elf and her reindeer

Aren't my little reindeer cute?!

It is so great to see Maverick happy in these pictures! He still has his good days and bad days, and I am very thankful for the happy moments. Unfortunately, the vet said this past week that the cancer is progressing and he is showing more apparent physical signs of that. But, we will certainly cherish the time that we have left with him, no matter how long that is. The vet said that we should be able to get through the holidays which is what we are hoping. 

Please continue to keep my baby boy in your prayers! 

Santa came to the YMCA!

....and I was the perfect ELF!

It was really fun to have Santa at the YMCA and I took my ELF responsibility very seriously! 

It was really funny though to see the kids walk in to see Santa and they were all wearing shorts and T-shirts! I remember that was strange in Arizona as well when everyone was wearing 

flip-flops in 80 degree weather! We had to put a fan near Santa because he was 

dying of heat in that suit! haha!

Top Story in STL news

Now that more details have surfaced, I want to share a very sad, scary, and unfortunate story and ask for prayer for my family. On Tuesday evening in STL, my stepdad's ex-wife was found murdered in her home. It is believed that she interrupted a robbery taking place inside her home around 4:00 in the afternoon. Thankfully my stepbrother and stepsister were not there too during the time of the crime, but my stepbrother was the one to find her. The story is making headlines in STL as more details have emerged. Please, please, please pray especially for my stepbrother and two stepsisters. I cannot imagine the pain and trauma they are going through and will go through due to their loss of their mother. It is so maddening to think of such a senseless act of violence. Thankfully the cops/crime unit have been working on this day and night since it happened and it has been reported that two arrests have been made. Hopefully they have found the right people and have gotten them off of the streets. Thank you for keeping this situation in your prayers.

PRAYER

This is definitely a time to get down on our hands and knees and pray. We have a failing economy, a new and upcoming presidency, people addicted to drugs, lives cut short, and more and more people wrapped up in buying the biggest and best Christmas gifts rather than take time to understand and cherish the real meaning of the season. Where is God in all of this? Many people often wonder about this and even make this particular statement. God IS in all of this and even though it may be hard to understand why certain things happen, we know that God is faithful and just to those who believe in Him and will pray to Him in accordance to His will. Sorry to sound all preachy but I am writing this here as a reminder for myself as well. It is so easy to get caught up in life and then something bad happens and we are like, "What the heck?!!!" Unfortunately I was unable to attend my church service this past weekend, so I went online this evening to our internet campus. Ironically, Pastor Craig is in a new series called PRAYER. If you have ever wondered about unanswered prayers and have asked yourself, "Where is God in all of this?" you may want to check out this series, especially tonight's message. Go to www.lifechurch.tv and experience it for yourself. 

Memories in pictures....

We have so many fun pictures to share from our wedding, and they are just Kodak shots that my friend took with my camera! We still have about 700 professional photos to view that our photographer took! To see all of our personal pictures you will have to go to Jeremy and I's blog at: 

http://stephanieandjeremy.blogspot.com/

It took me awhile to upload them so I figured I would just put them on one site! Hope you all are having a great week! Oh, and if you need our new home address, please email me, I do not want to put it on the internet! 

Thanks! :)

Mrs. Stephanie Dulin!

Well, even though it is not legal yet (I still have to go and get my name changed officially), Jeremy and I's wedding was this past weekend and we were blessed with an incredible day! If I tried and share every detail about our wonderful wedding weekend it would take forever so here are just some highlights........

mom dancing on stage. a hilarious comic. great food. the most amazing wedding party. snow. snow. snow. a first dance to remember. personal message and ceremony. an amazing tribute DVD. wonderful photographer. laughs. love. lots of kisses. a little family drama. a fun limo ride. beautiful wedding colors. a blessed day. 

I will share pictures soon! For all of you who were able to attend, thank you for being there to celebrate our special day!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Have a blessed day!!

Love, Stephanie

3 more days!

Well, right now I am sitting in the ATL airport getting ready to board for KC! It is hard to believe it is Thanksgiving time already, and that means we have only 3 more days until the wedding! Crazy! Holiday travel has not been too bad actually, there was hardly a line in JAX airport this morning when we left. We pulled a 'mom' and got there early just to prepare for all of the holiday travelers and lines and ended up walking right through! Anyway, I hear it is pretty cold in KC so please pray for the unpredictable Midwest weather to have an  unexpected heat wave to go through KC on Saturday! That would be fabulous! Anything is possible in the Midwest right?!

Jax Jags Game

 Today Scott and I went to the Jacksonville Jaguar game! His company has amazing 6th row seats and we enjoyed the view with one of his co-workers and her boyfriend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous out, however, the Jag game was not so pretty. Sadly, but yet not surprising, they lost. However, we still had a great time and I was thrilled to experience my first ever Jag game. It is a very nice stadium and the company was fabulous. It is always a little difficult for me to watch a football game live though. As much as I like the atmosphere...I miss having the YELLOW LINE!

Happy Whitsgiving!

Today was our first annual WHITSGIVING and it was so much fun! It actually had the feel of being the 'real' Thanksgiving day. We played a game of touch football, watched a little college football, had a quite a spread of delicious food, and hung out together all evening. Everyone gathered at the Tayloe household and then ended up at Brandon and Stephanie's to play Rock Band. As you can see in the pictures, Scott did a little rapping for us and Josh was stellar on the guitar! I on the other hand, was horrible on the drums, but it was fun trying! Oh, and by the way, what girl would EVER plan her wedding around Thanksgiving???!!! I tell ya...I hope I can FIT in my wedding dress next weekend! I enjoyed the wonderful food (including divine desserts) during Whitsgiving AND the real Thanksgiving is just days away! Eeek!

2 more weeks!!!

Man, time is now getting away from me! I didn't realize that it had been a whole 2 weeks since I had blogged last! And, now there is only 2 more weeks before the wedding! Where is the month going?! Anyway, if you have not been to Jeremy and I's blog, we have decided that I will be moving to KC after the first of the year. It is bittersweet to be leaving FL, but it is for the best right now. We both feel that this is where God is leading us at this time. But, for now, I will enjoy the last couple of months here in the 'Sunshine State'. Last night the Whitsbury Crew got together for our regular Chili's gathering where we happened to see the shuttle from the restaurant window! That is not something you can do in any other state! It was cloudy last night, but we still saw the flames light up the sky as the shuttle went into orbit. It was a little humbling...here we are hanging out on a Friday night, while there are people heading up into space! ha!

Halloween on Whitsbury Court

Halloween on Whitsbury Court was very fun despite the fact that it rained for most of the night and there were not many kids out trick or treating!! The whole court got together and sat in Stephanie and Brandon's garage with a truckload of candy as we waited for kiddos to come. Unfortunately, we had only about 10 kids stop by the whole night so we ended up with A LOT of candy left over! But, it was really fun hanging out and there were some great costumes within the circle including Chuck Norris, Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo, and Venus and Serena Williams!

God loves his pumpkins...

I received this email and I thought it was cute....

"A woman was asked by a co-worker, 'What is it like to be a Christian?' The co-worker replied, 'It is like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. Then He cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see."

May your light shine to everyone around you! Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Part of the group....

I am officially now part of the TUBE SOCK TUESDAY group at the YMCA! 

Update...

I am very pleased to report that Maverick is doing fabulous! I am in awe as to how he is doing but not surprised since I truly believe that God is bigger than any tumor that he was diagnosed with! The road ahead is still unknown, but for now Maverick is not only acting more like himself, he is now playing ball and wrestling around with his cousins (which he didn't always do BEFORE he became symptomatic)! As hard as it was to hear that he has a massive tumor, I have come to see the blessings in it all. My schedule is very crazy and all over the place and it has always been hard for me to take time out of my day to spend with my 'boys'.  After I was told that something was wrong with Maverick it made me prioritize myself a little bit better and I vowed to enjoy the time I have left with him, whether it be 6 weeks or another 6 years. All of a sudden I found 10 minutes here and 15 minutes there and am now on a committed schedule of walking the boys 3x a day. I am ashamed to say that I have never walked my boys this often! I was always too busy or didn't feel up to it and now our 3 walks are the best few minutes in my day. Maverick is super excited to get out on our walks and Grahamy is too cute as his little feet try to keep up with us. 

It is often said that sometimes we don't know what we have until we lose it. Let me encourage all of you to throw that life lesson out the window. Enjoy the things you have been given and the people you have in your life because unfortunately, life is way too short to take anything or anyone for granted. And, heck, take a walk! Because even as crazy as life gets, you can always find 10 minutes out of your day if you really wanted to. 

TOOO FUNNY!!!

I believe I have mentioned it somewhere in an earlier blog, but our neighbor Brandon LOVES Marble Slab ice cream. However, out of the 7 of us (the Whitsbury Court crew) that normally hang out together on a regular basis, he is the ONLY one who prefers Marble Slab (we all like Coldstone or Bruster's, a local favorite). 

On Friday night the most exciting thing happened....Chipotle FINALLY opened up here in Jacksonville! So, the crew got together and made a trip out to the blessed hot spot. After eating food from heaven's buffet, we decided that we would then make an ice cream trip. Since Brandon was alone for the weekend (Stephanie is out of town at a wedding) we decided we would humor him and go to Marble Slab (mind you, we make fun of him, Marble Slab and the so-called ice cream of this place on a very regular basis). 

We headed over and as we rounded the corner we noticed that the lights were out! It was only 9 p.m.! Yep, turns out Marble Slab had been officially shut down and there was a STORE FOR LEASE sign attached to the window. We felt so bad for Brandon, yet it did not stop us from roaring in laughter and taking pictures! We could not have planned it better! We love you Brandon...just not Marble Slab ice cream!!!

Another State Plate

Well, I finally had to do it. I could not put it off any longer. I was very sad to take off my Arizona plate but went ahead and replaced it recently with a Florida plate on my jeep! The picture proves it is official! And, just today I took the words off the back of my jeep that advertised my Cards that BRIGHTEN your day! business! It was time to take that off as well due to the Frannie's name change!

HELLO!!!

Wow...I didn't realize how long it had been since I had blogged! A lot has been going on and it has been a crazy busy week. The YFL has me in the gym working out more (the challenges are kicking my butt!), wedding plans are still underway (6 more weeks!!), and I am busy with work and card order (praise God!). AND, the biggest news is that Maverick had his follow-up appointment this week and the vet was sooo pleased at how he is doing! He has been responding incredibly well to the medications and has been so much more alert and himself the past couple of weeks. We have been walking 3x a day and just this afternoon he was playing with the other boys! It had been so heartbreaking to watch him lay around in pain and now it has been so wonderful to see him 'come alive' again. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Mave! We still have quite a road ahead of us. We are still not sure what the prognosis is but we are taking it one day at a time and are thanking God that he has been showing improvement!

It's GAME TIME!!!

As most of you know, I work and teach classes at the local YMCA. I love it, not just teaching and being there, but I love the people. It is such a fun place to be! We have a blast being at the gym and we consider our facility to be the "Cheers" of all gyms...where you want to be because 'everyone knows your name'. 

Just this past week YFL started. YFL stands for the YMCA football league and for those participants, they form teams of four and compete against other teams. The gain 'yardage' for all of the workouts they do and weekly challenges they endure, both mentally and physically. I gotta tell you....I have never met soooo many competitive adults!!! It is crazy! But it is very fun to watch and awesome to have the gym packed with people getting into get their yardage every day for their team. 

Not only do we host fun events to get people excited about working out, the members make everything more fun as well! One guy brought in tube socks for a lot of the people that work out on Tuesday morning and it is now coined TUBE SOCK TUESDAY! I am not in the picture above because I did not get my tube socks until today! So, starting next Tuesday, I am in the tube sock group and am very excited and will be proud to wear my white and pink tube socks to the YMCA. 

A little funny to share...

So here is a little funny for y'all. Can you see what is strange in this picture??? Ok, not only do you see an old school pay phone, let me point out...there are THREE here!!! Seriously??!! So, you are telling me that there are SO many people that still use pay phones and there could be a chance that all THREE of them could be put to use at the same time? Really? Sorry, but I had to share this little funny with everyone...my brother and I get a kick out the triple pay phones every time we pass this gas station. 

Mya Grace is here!

To all of our surprise, Mya Grace arrived on Monday! She was due to make her grand appearance at the END of October, but opted to come at the end of September instead! (September birthdays ARE the best in my opinion anyway)! Congratulations to the proud new parents, and our wonderful neighbor friends, Jessica and Derek! Mya is going to be surrounded by a lot of love here on Whitsbury Court! We have all been fighting over babysitting rights already! 

My baby boy Maverick

Monday was a very bittersweet day for us. We were thrilled (and very surprised) to find out that our neighbors had their baby girl! The surprise was the fact that she was not due for another month, but Mya arrived healthy and very quickly! So, the start of the day was wonderful! However, that afternoon Jeremy and I took Maverick to the vet because he has been struggling over the past few months. He has been lethargic and has lost a lot of weight. He has not been able to put any pressure on his right front leg and has not had much interest in playing ball, which is something he has always LOVED to do. We expressed our concern to the vet and after a hour of labs and X-rays we received some very unexpected news. 

It turns out my baby boy has a massive tumor on his scapula and if he were to undergo treatment he would have to have his right front leg and scapula amputated along with chemo and radiation. So, we have opted for the pain management route with medication and we hope that this will alleviate some of his pain for the time being. 

This is extremely difficult news for me. Mave has been my baby boy for the past 6 1/2 years. He has been right by my side through A LOT of hard times and he has been such a blessing in so many ways. I know it may be hard for some people to understand the connection if you do not have a pet, but Maverick has been one of my children and I cannot imagine life without him. We have another appointment in a couple of weeks to determine what the next step will be and to monitor the tumor and his symptoms.

Thankfully, Jeremy was right there to hear the news with me. I am not sure how I would have handled it without him there. Also, thankfully in the past day Maverick has responded to the medication and has pepped up a little bit. He has been walking around a little more and I even took him to the beach for awhile where he fetched the ball a few times. However, the hard reality is that quality of life is a priority right now for him and I am just not sure how long we will have. Please keep him and all of us in your prayers right now. I have just been on auto-pilot the last couple of days and need strength to get through this. 

engagement pictures

Josh took our engagement pictures on Sunday afternoon and we had a lot of fun! We even got a few pictures with the boys. I have posted a few on this site and on our personal blog, but I just picked a few since we ended up having 235 pictures taken! 

New movie....GO SEE IT!

I have played critic on my blog before, although my critique is always good because I usually only talk about and recommend the good movies! Jeremy and I went to go see the new movie FIREPROOF this weekend. It stars Kirk Cameron (remember this cutie from Growing Pains?!) and is a Christian-based movie that was allowed to be released in the theatre (Praise God!) All I can say is WOW, and, if you go see it, you better have tissues with you! It was sooo heart-warming and they did an amazing job on it. I was an emotional mess afterwards! But don't let the emotion scare you from going...it is definitely a MUST-SEE. 

More Banzuke Pictures

And the teams were as follows 

(and believe me EVERY team name has a crazy Whitsbury story behind it!! haha!)....

5th Place, The Shockers-Brandon and Stephanie

4th Place, Short Stack-Jeremy and Stephanie 

3rd Place, The Va Jay Jays-Derek and Ashley

2nd Place, Team Gu-Mike and Shelby

and the Grand Champions of the 1st Annual Unbeatable Banzuke goes to....

1st Place, The Blueberry Muffins-Scott and Joshua!!!!!!

Unbeatable Banzuke!

Well, our Cul-de-sac Club took fun to the extreme this weekend, and Jeremy and I had our first marriage test! ha! We were on a team in the 1st Annual Unbeatable Banzuke and had a blast! For those who have never heard of Unbeatable Banzuke, it is a crazy Japanese game show that we have all watched together. They do a lot of crazy stunts and Whitsbury Court attempted to replicate it and had 13 competitions on the list. The events included the human wheel barrow race, the wheel barrow race, the pillow sack race, the water balloon toss, chicken in the pool, among with several other fun events! We all had so much fun and were so tired afterwards! We had so much fun and ended our night with a buffet of food and watching a movie.