Rejoicing in the Lord

Last Wednesday (9/12) was a very emotional day in the life of our family.  We were mourning Brooks because it was the one year anniversary since my 4 month appointment where we found out that I had a miscarriage and lost him.  Providentially, my 4 month appointment for our new baby fell on the same day one year later.  Talk about facing your fears!  We were trying not to get too anxious that this appointment could go the same way.  We prayed that we would trust in the Lord and that we would be able to glorify God, regardless of the outcome of that appointment.

With lots and lots of tears of joy, I am happy to announce that this appointment went much differently than the last one!  We rejoice and praise the Lord that He is redeeming our sad memories with happy ones.  Our  baby's heartbeat was found quickly and he/she had a strong heartbeat of 153 beats per minute.  It was so emotional as we went through the same motions that we did last year that I just couldn't help but cry.  Cry as I thought of Brooks, cry as I thought of our new little baby that is squirming around and alive!  The doctor even asked me "What's wrong? Everything looks good!"  

One of the verses that I have been loving is Psalm 100:5 - "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."  As we prepare for the next generation of McDaniels, we can't help but worship our Creator, knowing that His plans are always good, even if we don't understand them at the time.

We planned a visit with my parents that weekend in the hopes to celebrate with them after a good report.  I didn't realize how much I was waiting to get through that appointment before beginning to get excited about this little one!  It was fun to start planning things with my mom.  We watched the new movie "What To Expect When You're Expecting," we threw out ideas for our nursery, and we looked at baby stuff at Target & Once Upon A Child.  My mom plans to throw a baby shower for me in Jacksonville and we were able to start making a list of people to invite. 

Here we are looking at baby shower invitations.  We can't make a final decision on them until we know if our baby is a boy or a girl.  We will be finding this out on October 8!

We finished the day with eating at one of our favorite places in Savannah, Sweet Potatoes.  We had a great time and I think all four of us were able to relax and enjoy the weekend! :)

Our 4th Anniversary to the Southernmost Point (Key West)

This was my first trip to the Keys, but it was Curtis' fourth trip!  We were there from June 10 - June 15.  We got a pretty good hotel deal through priceline.  Our first day in Key West, we went snorkeling.  I have a slight fear of water and I kinda freaked out on our snorkeling adventure during our honeymoon, but I was willing to give it a try.  Curtis claimed that the best place to snorkel in the United States is in the Keys.

We boarded the Jolly Roger in Marathon, Florida to begin our excursion.

I was a little nervous!

I think I did pretty well!  I was able to swim around and see all sorts of fish and coral.  I'm pictured above in my snorkeling gear.

The view was amazing!  We actually were able to see dolphins when we were traveling to our second location to snorkel.

Unfortunately, Curtis got a little seasick during it, but he was fine once we were back on stable ground.

For dinner, we went to a place called 2 Cents Restaurant.  Everything on their menu was much more than 2 cents, however.   It was very tasty though.  It was fun to see Curtis finally able to completely relax.

On our second day, we took a trolley tour to explore the entire island of Key West.  We thought this was a pretty cool sign above - it showed how many miles away we were from lots of places, in and out of the country.  We actually ended up purchasing a picture of a similar sign that we are hoping to put up in our Master Bedroom.

One of my favorite things that we did was we went to a the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  It took me forever to get a good picture of the morpho butterfly pictured above.  I love the blue color!

Orange.

Yellow.

These are baby quail birds.  I thought they were so cute!  They were placed in this ecosystem so that they will eat the fruit flies.  (Butterflies eat fruit, which brings fruit flies.)

Look at how little this bird is compared to Curtis' hand.

There were two turtles there too.

Here we are in the conservatory.  Curtis had a bird poop on him when he was sitting in one of these benches.  It was kind of funny...although, it probably wouldn't have been funny if it happened to me.  He had a good attitude about it though!

We also visited the Southernmost Point of the United States.  We were actually closer to Cuba than Miami.

You have got to love the dorky cut-outs!  Here's our advertisement for Old Town Trolley.

Everywhere we walked, we found baby chicks, hens and roosters.  This was the best one that I got all week.  Apparently, roosters were brought to Key West back in the day for cock fights (which is now illegal).

We also had the opportunity to see not only the beginning...

...but the end of US 1!

We went to Mallory Square because we heard they had some of the best sunset celebrations.  Not only were they selling all kinds of unique items, but they had magicians and performers.  We watched this guy do really cool gymnastic tricks.  I was impressed because he gave all the glory to God when he succeeded. :)

Here's the sunset at Mallory Square.  I even have a sailboat in the distance (on the left) and I caught a bird in mid-flight.  Not a bad picture for a iPod Touch camera.

Of course, we had to try Kermit's Frozen Dark Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie!

These pictures aren't the best, but it was my favorite way to eat a key lime pie!  (But I am a chocoholic.)

I think the third day was my favorite.  We went to Higgs Beach.  The weather was amazing and we had shade under this nice palm tree.  You can see Curtis was reading a book. 

Here I am under the palm tree.  I am in the midst of reading The Hunger Games Trilogy.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  What a great book for vacation!  

We ate dinner that night at a place called Paseo and it was probably our favorite place to eat.  We tried to eat there on about 2 or 3 different occasions, but they have really odd hours.  It was definitely worth the wait!

Margaret on Margaret Street.

We went on a Sunset Sail after dinner.  It was beautiful on the boat.  We met some nice people and got some great photos.

I love this picture.

And then the sun began to set.

How romantic!

Yes, this was my favorite day.

We even had an amazing dessert called "Cookie Monster."  It was a half-pound chocolate chip cookie, with 3 huge scoops of ice cream - "Brownie Boom," "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough," and "Cake Batter."

On our fourth day, we went to No Name Key and had a kayak tour!  I had never been in a kayak so Curtis helped me out by taking a double-person kayak.

We were able to see sponges, conch crabs, birds, fish and jellyfish. 

Every day we were there, it was perfect weather.

What a fun experience!

On our final night, we went to the top of the Crowne Plaza to watch the sun set go down one final time.  Curtis and I are already wishing we were still there!

VA Beach Days 6 - 10

The next day we travelled to Virginia Beach for the annual Presbyterian conference called General Assembly, where pastors and elders in our denomination meet to discuss business.

We had quite an adventure getting from NYC to VA Beach!  We planned to take a bus; however, we failed to notice that the address was on East Broadway Street and brought all our belongings to Broadway Street.  By the time we were able to figure this out, we had 10 minutes before departure to get there (and we were supposed to get to the bus station 20 minutes early)!  We caught a taxicab and they speedily brought us to our correct destination.  Thankfully, the bus was running a little late and we were able to make it to Virginia Beach as planned.

Here was our view out our hotel room.  It was beautiful (and very different from NYC)!  Thanks to Carol (our senior pastor's wife) for picking out a great hotel for us!  It was definitely nicer than the hotel we stayed at in Queens.

The weather was wonderful while we were in VA.  This little walkway was right outside of our hotel.

Unfortunately, Curtis was feeling very sick on our actual anniversary, but he did feel well enough to go to the beach with me!  You can see our anniversary date (6.7.08) in the sand. 

Here's a closer up view.

It was really relaxing to be there! Curtis had to spend most of his time discussing church business throughout the day and voting.

Curtis and I also went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse on our anniversary! It was very special because Curtis hadn't ever been there before.  He thoroughly enjoyed the steak!

I had a lot of fun getting to know Carol (the senior pastor's wife) during the trip.  It was also encouraging to spend time with other fellow pastors' wives in our denomination.  We were there from June 6 to June 10.  We were happy when we arrived back in Savannah after a long 10 day trip!  It was very memorable! :)

NYC - Day 5

This day was our last full day in New York City.  We went to Redeemer Presbyterian for church.  It was a great service!  Curtis really respects Dr. Tim Keller, the Senior Pastor of Redeemer.  Even though he wasn't preaching that week, we were happy to visit.  (Besides, we knew we would hear him at General Assembly in just a few days!)

We decided to go to John's Pizzeria for lunch.  This was recommended to me by a co-worker and it was rated very highly on Tripadvisor.

This pizzeria is one of the largest in the United States!  This restaurant was previously a cathedral and over 500 can be seated.  The pizza was yummy!

Next, we went to Central Park.  It was refreshing to come here after spending several days in the city because the pace was much slower here.  I think it was one of my favorite places to go.  Pictured above is a structure that we saw as soon as we entered Central Park.

There were lots of large rocks that you could lounge on.

Here's Curtis relaxing.

Here I am!

The view was great!

I really wanted to see the fountain.

Here's an up-close picture!

Curtis and I in front of the fountain! :)

Isn't this gorgeous!?

After this, we went back to Times Square to try for the Wicked lottery again.  And we lost for the third time. :(  At least we will get to see it in Jacksonville! 

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Via Della Pace in Little Italy.  The food was awesome - probably one of our favorite places to eat!  Here I am in the restaurant, it was a cute little couch with pillows that I was sitting on!

Our final plan before we left NYC was to have a caricature taken of the two of us.  We had this taken in Times Square - I love how the artist put an "I <3 Margaret" shirt on Curtis. 

Next up: we'll be traveling to Virginia Beach for General Assembly tomorrow!