Thanks for the response Phi.lho.  I guess I'll just stick with processing and use the G4P and controlP5 libraries.  

You could always use the common Java GUI environment of Swing and AWT.

Thanks for the tip jeff_g.  As I have only been writing code in VB.net and Processing it didn't occur to me to look at the capabilities of Java (even though I knew processing is basically the same thing).  After a bit of research it sounds like AWT is the easier of the two to use; however, the ability to add progress bars makes me want to use Swing.  How about SWT? From what I read it takes the best of both and has fewer disadvantages.  Is there a reason you didn't mention it?

AWT & Swing come out of the box with Java. To do SWT, you need to add libraries, perhaps big ones (I never tried, I only know Eclipse, which isn't small, is built on SWT).
Swing is actually a super-set of AWT. Learning it can be harder but it is richer. Now, Processing is built upon AWT, looking at simplicity (and needing few features). PDE is made with Swing.
Note also that you have to integrate Processing in a GUI, you cannot use AWT or Swing inside a sketch. You do the reverse.