on the road again

Looks like I will be doing some traveling for the month of September...will be out promoting a huge new dealer program on behalf of GM. No word yet on where I will be sent but I'm listing Wichita, Fort Worth, Miami, San Diego, Boston and Knoxville! Stay tuned in the event I get to go any of those places...my boss said I'll probably be in Waco, TX or something. Neat.

Back in the saddle

Unlike the lucky kids in Michigan, school started this week in Kansas. Alaina and Laura both started Monday, as did Sharon, who will work about 35 hours a week at our elementary school as a para-educator and a lunchroom aide ("Hey, take that Cheetoh out of your nose!").
Alaina actually had to start a day early because she was part of the school's Link Crew, which helps the freshmen get oriented. She also has started volleyball practice. They had tryouts earlier this week and play an alumni game this Saturday. First league contest is Sept. 1 against the East High Aces (think aviation, not gambling). Her team should contend for a league title.
Laura is taking both band and jazz band this year. My guess is that in about eight years, she can start playing Shine weddings. She already does a mean version of Gary Glitter's "History of Rock and Roll." She plans to try out for volleyball next month.
I drove Conor back to Minnesota earlier in the month. He wanted to get back early to hang out awhile before classes start on Sept. 8. The good thing is I got to fly back because we we left his car with him. Even better thing is I don't have to help him move to a new apartment on Sept. 1. He will work about 15 hours a week at the St. Paul Pioneer-Press as part of a class. He gets three hours of credit and he gets paid. Talk about a win-win. We had lunch with my friend Tom Webb who is a business writer for the Pi-Press. We also talked with Dan and Kim's friend Tom Fladung, who is the editor. We walked around the new on-campus football stadium, which is really pretty. Michigan State plays a night game there on Oct. 31. Conor says Chris Gibney has tickets for you Spartan fans.

Save The Date - Alison Is Turning 70

Our favorite wacky aunt from Miami is turning 70 this year and wants to come celebrate with us. As she told Peg, all the people she'd want to be at her party are in Detroit so why not have the party there? We'll have brunch Sunday, Oct. 11 at Peg's. Exact time will be determined later. Mark it on your calendars. And the last word is from Alison: "I am so delighted that you all are enthusiastic - you all mean so much to me."

Ahem!

Family, in the great tradition of all Shines before us...we are slacking on these posts. Is that because we are all on facebook peeking in on each other? Or because, like true journalists, we operate better under deadlines?

Sharon turns 50

Sharon turns 50 on May 16, so she was really surprised when we held a surprise birthday party for her on May 9. Saturday's party continues the tradition of holding one every 10 years for Sharon, whether she wants a party or not. We had the first when she turned 30 at the Wichita River Festival offices and her 40th at the River Festival as well. Alaina is still mad that I did not tell her about that one until it started. At age 6, she was still considered a security risk.
We had last Saturday's party at our house. Alaina, Laura, our niece, Tessa, her husband, Brandon, Tessa's parents Jerry and Julie, Sharon's friend, Brenda, and her sister, Donna, helped pull this one off. Tessa and Julie took Sharon to get her hair cut and to lunch as an early birthday present. The rest of us started setting up for the party. We managed to get it all put together before guests started arriving. Sharon arrived wearing a new outfit that Julie had insisted she wear home after she bought it. She was very surprised, mostly because I had bought everything for the party using cash, knowing that Sharon checks the checking account and Visa bill almost daily. We used this photo of Sharon, taken by me on our honeymoon, on the invitation. I'll upload some party pics when I get them.
If you want to mark your calendars, her 60th party will be May 16, 2019.

Bling-Bling Photos

It was great to be a part of the crowd when the newly-engaged couple arrived in Royal Oak. Our thanks to Mark for organizing the surprise party and for inviting us. It was fun knowing the news a couple of weeks  before Sara, though it was sometimes nerve wracking for fear of letting the news slip. Judy, Jack, Ken, Peg, Sue, Kim, Maeve and I were there, and Larry arrived shortly before Mark and Sara (prompting false alarms that the happy couple had arrived). 

We are all looking forward to the wedding. With so much time to plan,  I hope Mark and Sara can come up with something to top this. Regardless of how much planning time they have, I'm still bringing my videocamera - just in case.

Bling-bling!

Pre-engagement:Mark decided that we need to have a “date night” every week so for the past few weeks we’ve been dining out around Metro Detroit, having picnics and what not. I was starting to think to myself, “self, if we go to all these places and do all these cute things where will Mark have left to propose!?”

Friday 4/3:Earlier in the week Mark insisted we do our date night on Friday, I was excited and said I wanted him to keep the restaurant a surprise. That lasted 4 days--on Friday he broke down and decided to tell me where we were going. This is an integral part of the story, Mark is NOT (to my prior knowledge) that great at keeping things a surprise/secret. In fact, for Christmas he went online and pulled up a picture of the bracelet he bought me to gauge whether I liked it. The exact bracelet!

OK, back to the story: We drove downtown to Coach Insignia, a restaurant on top of the Renaissance Center with sweeping views of Lake St Clair, Windsor and, of course, Detroit (http://www.mattprenticerg.com/urc/coach.asp). We had some amazing food, lots of laughs and a great view of the water. As we were talking the owner/partner/manager/someone with clout, stopped at the table to pour our wine (this was not something Mark had planned) and since the two of us are so charming and good-looking the mystery man said he wanted to give us, “dessert on the house.” We quickly agreed and marveled at how cool this was. Since our waiter had mentioned before that there were some really neat private booths up in the bar area Mark thought this would be a good place to get our dessert. While I was in the powder room Mark clued in the waiter and made sure we had a booth available to us after dinner.I kept telling Mark we could just have dessert at the table but he was insistent we go up to bar area. The waiter led us back to this amazing, semi-enclosed suede booth; we ordered dessert and sat chatting, after a few minutes Mark asked me if I really thought I’d like to spend the rest of my life with him. Since I almost always fail to keep my sarcasm inside and literally had NO IDEA this was a set-up to the proposal I mockingly took a dramatic sigh and said, “I meannnnnnnnn, I guess so.” One look at his face and I back peddled and said I sure did and wasn’t sure why he would even ask such a thing. He said he was just checking and then said, “Really? You’re sure? You’d be the ‘Ninja Missionary’s’ wife?” (Side note: when Mark was a youngster he wanted to grow up and go around from church to church doing karate and other Ninja things while telling Bible stories to the people). I replied that I was already the Ninja Missionary’s girlfriend and that was working out. Next thing I know he’s down on one knee with a ring box. I was so taken aback that I am unable to retell anything he said from this point on except, “will you marry me?” to which I replied through tears, “yes of course!” Some hugging and ring placement later our dessert showed up and we were too excited to eat it! I had to cram a few bites of the chocolate caramel deliciousness in and he shoveled in some cheesecake before we left in a giddy mood.

Prior to dinner Mark had casually mentioned that his friend Vanessa called to see if we would meet her out at Good Night Gracie’s that night and since she is so radical I agreed right away. We figured rather than call with the news we’d show up and have a great story to tell her. Then, I thought how perfect it was my friends Courtney and Ami were out in Royal Oak too and preceded to try to trick them into joining us there so I could share in person. They texted that they were already back on the East Side. I said, “you should REALLY turnaround,” they declined. I said, no really. They declined, again. I called my parents, they didn’t answer. I was starting to wonder if I’d be able to find ANYONE to share the story with that night. Since we had now arrived and were walking up to the bar Mark said he wanted to cut through D’Amatos to use the restroom. I said, “Gracie’s is only 5 more feet,” (you’d think by now I’d be catching on, I wasn’t). Reluctantly I went into D’Amatos (www.damatos.com) only to be blinded by camera flashes and then saw glimpses of Mark’s family, my great friends and then the ultimate shock: my parents, brother and aunts & uncles were all there!

It was a beautiful, celebratory evening and I feel so lucky to have Mark and am excited to not only join his family but to have him a permanent part of mine!