A Week to Remember, Cont'd.

Back from the doctor now, so let's pick up where we left off. Darrel and I left Ellsworth Friday afternoon and headed for Kansas City. As we checked in to our hotel room, we were able to visit with an employee about our wonderful day at the prison - she was very astounded that we would even consider doing the ceremony. I love to see people's faces when you just love them no matter what they say or do! Next we headed off to the Plaza for dinner. It was such a beautiful evening, we decided to park the car and walk the 3 blocks to our restaurant. The seafood at McCormick & Schmick's was incredible - my scallops were perfect and Darrel's stuffed shrimp was the last word in shrimp. We had so much fun visiting with our waitress and watching the activity on the plaza streets below. We headed back toward our parking garage with a quick detour to the Cheesecake Factory for some Caramel Latte' and Boston Creme Pie Cheesecake. Needless to say, it was absolutely heavenly! I'm sure they'll have that in heaven! As we were leaving, we passed a man sitting on a sidewalk bench soliciting sponsers for the AIDS walk the next day. His name was Larry and he told us that he was HIV positive but had been symptom-free for several years without medication. Just as we were about to talk to him about Jesus, he informed us the reason for his good health was Jesus Christ in his life! He was very excited to talk with us about what God had done in his life. We sponsered him and then went on to our car. Sometimes we can have this surreal feeling that our lives are not our own - that our steps are indeed ordered by God.

The next day we headed out to Gail's Harley Davidson where they were having a huge bike rally with hundred of bikes, a band, food, t-shirts, etc. It was a lot of fun and we came very close to purchasing a new Heritage Softtail with an unbelievable paint job. But then reality struck hard and we remembered that I had indeed just had two major surgeries in the last 6 months and we should probably pay for those instead. Bummer. We did some shopping and then headed to a movie. I know it sounds strange to do something so ordinary as see a movie, but hey - we didn't have to find a babysitter, it was a matinee (something we never get to do), we didn't have to worry about what time we got home, etc. We saw "Skeleton Key" with Kate Hudson - it was great and I won't give away anything about it. Go see it, though. We had dinnner and drove around the plaza some more. Sunday we had a wonderful brunch at Tomfoolery's on the Plaza and then walked and window shopped. Once again, it was a beautiful day and the Chief's were playing at Arrowhead so the traffic was good and the streets and shops were basically deserted. We had such a great time just being Darrel and Diane - talking about things we don't slow down enough to talk about normally, looking into each other's eyes, holding hands... sappy stuff. We went to the JC Penney's outlet and then headed off to meet Doug and Brandon who had come up to go to my Aunt Marie's funeral visitation in Kansas City that evening.

Aunt Marie is my dad's twin sister. It is so hard to see my Uncle Al so hurt and lonely. They spent every waking moment together since their retirement. We spent the evening at the visitation, then went to the International House of Prayer (IHOP). It was a neat experience that gave us a lot of good ideas for the 24hour prayer house we are hoping to start soon. Monday morning was the funeral and then we spent a few hours at the house with my family. Darrel and I headed home Monday afternoon remembering all the wonderful moments of the weekend. We arrived in Lamar around 4:30 or so and waited for Doug to bring the kids home so we could all go to Mosiac. Sometimes our agenda and time schedule is nothing like God's...

More to come...