Our son, Rob, and his girlfriend, Sarah, became engaged the week before Christmas. Sarah is a lovely girl, and we couldn't be more thrilled about their engagement!
Rob actually designed Sarah's engagement ring himself. He also secretly made plans to meet her whole family at a restaurant at the Gaylord Opryland Resort after he proposed, as they were already in town to attend Sarah's graduation from nursing school. He proposed to Sarah in front of one of the ice sculptures--how romantic! Rob is a 2nd lieutenant in the Army National Guard, and Sarah is a 2nd lieutenant in the Army. They are both waiting to receive their military orders before they set a wedding date.
In other exciting news, last week, I was chosen to be a contestant on LIVE with Kelly's Travel Trivia. I received a call from Laura, a representative from LIVE at 7:55 AM last Wednesday. How it works is potential Travel Trivia contestants are typically called early to let them know they are a contestant, then they call back when the show starts. Although I hadn't seen the show from the day before, fortunately I had recorded it on DVR. The hour between the first call and the second one gave me enough time to watch the show and take notes. I was ready when the second call came in. However, unfortunately, the host chat went a bit longer than usual, and they didn't have enough time to play Travel Trivia. I was told it was possible I could get a call back the next day.
On Thursday morning, I waited by the phone. I was thrilled when the call came in. I had been unable to participate via Skype the previous day, as the webcam on my laptop doesn't work well using Skype. However, I had remembered my son downloaded the Skype app on the ipad my family bought me for Christmas. I figured it would be fun to participate as a contestant via Skype using my ipad.
One of the show producers called me back about a half hour later to check the Skype connection. I set my ipad up on the table in our breakfast nook. I figured it would be a good idea to be close as possible to the wireless router, so that I didn't lose my connection during Travel Trivia.
While I was waiting for the show to begin, I got a firsthand, behind-the-scenes look at how the show is produced. I watched as executive producer Michael Gelman warmed up the audience before the show. It was just like being there in person and was fascinating!
As far as my appearance on LIVE, the video below tells the rest of the story. (Before you hit play, scroll down to my playlist at the bottom of the blog and stop it, so you can hear the audio on the Travel Trivia video.)
If you watched the video, you know I won the trip to Antigua, but there's more to the story. The reason why I was so excited when the wheel landed on the trip to Antigua was because that was where we really wanted to go for our 20th anniversary vacation. I had been entering every day and praying I would win. After several weeks of entering and waiting, I received an e-mail from Groupon for an all-inclusive deal at a resort in Antigua. The price was right, so I ended up booking it. However, the Groupon resort wasn't quite as posh as the St. James's Club.
After winning the trip on LIVE, I called Groupon. I explained the situation and was told they normally don't give refunds, but they would make an exception in my case. I appreciate their understanding and will forever be a Groupon fan!
The moral of the story? It's always best to wait on God's timing, because His blessings are far better than anything we can ever do on our own!
Thanks for stopping by!
