Prologue
Charlotte Mannon's Journal
January 1, 2011 - This is my first journal ever in my 60 years, do you believe that? I bought a laptop so I can just type things out instead of handwriting everything. It is supposed to be easier. Besides, I can have a password to get onto this thing so I know no one will be snooping!
You see, I have a top secret project that I want to organize and writing this journal is going to help me do it. I made a New Year's resolution - I am going to make sure that one by one my children get married this year. I just can't leave it up to them anymore, they just don't ever get it right. I can't believe my children don't know how to fall in love, stay in love or pick the right people.
From this point on, learning about my plan will be on a need to know basis only. I made a mistake in telling my dearest husband Ethan about my New Year's resolution, his response was: 'Charlotte Mannon will you ever learn. Stay out of their lives.' Harumph! He obviously doesn't know our children very well! I'll show him! One by one our five children will get married this year, I guarantee it. Now all I have to do is find suitable partners for all of them. I have ideas, but I still need to do a bit of research and double check my facts.
I think Vanessa is going to be a fun one. Not super easy, but fun. All I have to do is make sure she and her first lover, Thomas Paulson (My son Jackson's best friend), get together. As long as I can get them in the same place, I think they can do most of the work themselves. Getting them there could be hard, though, because he is a Marine and we are never sure when he might come home. They are so meant for each other! I should have been very upset that, as teenagers, they had a tryst in my pool house, but I couldn't be too mad because I had hoped they would get together...just not in such a grown up way! Besides they were both adults by the time I found out and there wasn't much I could do about it then.
March 15. 2011 - I am horrible at this journal writing thing! As you can see by the amount of time that has passed since my last entry, things aren't going well. I don't know what I'm going to do, Thomas was almost killed in Afghanistan. We still don't know if he will even make it. I have to pray for him because I know he loves my baby girl and I want him to live and be loved. And my Vanessa will be devastated if she loses him before she can make things right between them.
If it were up to me, I would send her to be with him, but she has school to finish. She graduates in May! Ooh, why didn't I think of it before - I had an idea for the other kids that might just work for these two also. I'll write more later. I have to make a plan!
March 31, 2011 - I found a great way to get Vanessa and Thomas together - and maybe get the rest of the group married off too. We're going to take a family cruise to Alaska. I invited Thomas, who is going to be just fine. He is still in the hospital, but his brother Chris assures me that he will be up and about in time for the cruise! How lucky is that! Chris is such a good kid, he vowed to help me in any way possible.
You see, I figure if Alaska helped Ethan and I fall in love then it will also work its magic on the kids. I won't have to do anything special with these two though. They are so meant for each other that they will probably fall into bed the first night...Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't think too hard on that. ;) Romance on the high seas mixed with the beauty of Alaska! What could be better?
April 13, 2011 – Well, the cruise has been arranged and announced! Chris said Thomas is trying to back out, but we won't let him. He went through hell in Afghanistan and needs a break with the family who loves him almost as much as his own.
Gotta go, I have to write in the journals I am keeping on my plans for the other kids. Can you believe I have found mates for all of them now? And everyone is going to be on the cruise and or in Alaska already!
