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Well our little cruise proved to be quite an experience. Leaving out of Norfolk was a blast! Fortunately, we arrived to the port on the early side and the lines were short. Good thing, since after we got settled in our rooms and were relaxing on the balcony we saw the huge lines of people waiting in the 100 degree sun. It took us under an hour from parking to ship. Those poor folks must have waited close to three hours. We partied by the pool as the ship pulled out of port- great views, great music, really cool. Had a blast at dinner and in the casino that night. And the the next morning, it happened. Hmmm, what was that strange feeling? It was like being on an escalator that never stopped. A dizziness of sorts that came in waves and made the walls move in and out. Not nausea but a strange overwhelming sensation in your head. Yes, I got seasick on my graduation trip. The dramamine didn’t touch it, so my tour of the ship took me next to the infirmary. Apparently, this is not uncommon because they had a giant bin of free seasick pills for the taking. And I took. The dizziness subsided briefly to make way for the medicine head feeling of being in a tunnel. I don’t know which was worse. Needless to say, everyone was having fun without me. Lucky them. I did manage to make it to dinner (and to the casino for a bit again, heh heh), but it was a struggle. How many people actually lose weight on a cruise where they feed you 24/7? Here’s one. I was so happy to get off onto dry, non-moving land. Good thing it wasn’t a seven day cruise. For those of you considering your first cruise, do yourselves a favor and get that ear patch thing from your doctor before you go. I’m told it’s easy to prevent seasickness, but not so much to get rid of it after you have it. Chalking this one up to a learning experience…might even consider another cruise, but not anytime soon! Turn this ride off, already!
One of my coworkers, Erik, lives and works from Spain. His new camera prompts him to take more photos than he did before. He recently took a panoramic shot of a Spanish river basin during low tide. I thought it would be cool to see the picture across my three monitors. Yes, I know I’m a geek. Here is the original photo.
Well the summer is in full swing- complete with 90 degree-plus days. We are SO excited that in 3 days we will be boarding the Carnival Victory in Norfolk, VA for a short excursion sans children. Woo hoo! This is part graduation getaway for me, part anniversary celebration for one sister and part birthday present for another sister. All in all, 6 of us are traveling together. We have rooms with balconies next to each other, buffets galore, pools, and (my favorite) a casino! The ship doesn’t actually port anywhere, it just loops around out in the Atlantic and returns to Norfolk in a few days. Basically a big fat floating party. Much needed after 2 years of boot camp, er, nursing school.
Well, it’s been about a month since I finished school (although studying is still very much a part of my life as I await a test date for my nursing boards), and I am really enjoying the kids. Mostly. Seriously- props to all those mommies who do this day in and day out, because it is HARD. When I’m not breaking up fights or pulling out splinters, I’m cleaning up spills, washing muddy clothes, and wiping up washable (yeah right) markers. My wine consumption has increased during the month of May- ha ha. It seems that the trick to maintaining sanity is to get out of the house- even if only to the grocery store. But with gas prices these days, you can only go so far. We try to get to the pool, but it doesn’t open until 3 during the week. For some reason, all the lifeguards think they need to finish high school. Don’t they understand I’m going crazy here? We try to play with the neighbor kids regularly, too. Visiting grandparents, running errands, paying bills. Great, now it’s 5:30 and I don’t know what I’m going to fix for dinner. How do all you mommies out there keep it together? The boys are actually playing together right now very nicely. It’s sweet. But I’ve got about 3 more minuted before the *%!@ hits the fan. And I need to fold some clothes. Catch ya’ll later!
This Memorial Day Weekend brought about a couple of firsts for me. The biggest first was that I became a member of a pool. As a kid in a small town, there weren’t many options. You had to be a member of the Country Club to be able to go to a pool. My family wasn’t a "Country Club Family". Mom and dad didn’t play golf, so it wasn’t cost effective to be a member if you were only going to use it for swimming. Below is a Google Street View shot of the pool. If you haven’t seen Google Street View mapping yet, you really need to go check it out. It’s really cool (and scary).
Anyway, the kids are going to LOVE the pool this summer. Amy is going to love it more. She will be able to take the kids to the pool every day, let them get worn out and bed time will be so much easier. I’ll get to enjoy it after work and on weekends. It should be a really fun summer.
The second "first" I had this weekend was watching my neighbor pull his son and nephew around his backyard in a boat that was being pulled by his lawn mower. I can’t believe I didn’t get pictures! …only in the South.
I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend and I’d like to say thanks to all the soldiers for their service to our country.
After two years of waiting, the time finally came for me to get a new truck. The deal was that Amy would go back to school while I worked and drove her Civic that had seen better days. After she graduated I would get a new car. She hasn’t actually graduated yet, but she only has 3 weeks left. She and I had the thought that we would test drive some trucks and get a feel for what we wanted. Well, we test drove and fell in love with one… so we went ahead an bought it.
I’ve only driven it from the dealership home and to work this morning, but I LOVE IT. It really is a nice drive. The boys are at home right now waiting for Daddy to get home so we can all go for a ride. “Daddy’s truck is nice!” was heard often over Frosty Flakes this morning.
Thanks to Uncle Mike (husband of Amy’s sister Emily). He works at the Nissan Dealership and gave us the VIP treatment.
Last weekend found us sitting inside watching the rain. This was yet another weekend that I have been unable to get out in the yard since the trees were cut down. Easter weekend followed by a lot of weekends in a row that were rainy has left my backyard in a state of messy.
Amy has been a trooper though. She and the kids have done a great job of raking and bagging leaves and pine straw. The yard is still a mess though. There is a lot of work that needs to be done, especially if we having any hopes of getting some seed down in time for summer. To my dismay, the news is predicting yet another Saturday of rain. We do need it, but come on already. Why can’t it rain when I’m at work?!
Anyway, it was warm outside and the kids were going stir crazy, so we put their boots on and told them to go play in the rain. They had a blast. You can see the mess of my backyard and the countless mud holes. They didn’t care about the mess, but they Loved the puddles. They splashed from puddle to puddle and had fun in a way that I haven’t enjoyed for many, many years. At one point while I was snapping these shots, I almost went in the house, put on my boots and joined them… almost.
Check out all the pictures of the boys having fun in the rain.