A Home Coming!

On Tuesday December 20th, I sent my children to the movies with my father (who is in town from Canada). I set up the house and welcomed in 12 women for a "bunko" party. During my set up I received a text from my husbands friend Chris. He was asking if I was going to be around that night, he had some gifts to drop off. (as a side note, my hubby had my birthday present delivered to Chris's house just a month before, so this was not abnormal) As the ladies and I started playing, about 5 hands into the game, Chris comes to the door. He asked me to get the kids, as there were a lot of small things for them to bring in. I told him that the kids were at a movie with their Grandpa, he asked to have the ladies come out and carry stuff in. We paused the game and everyone headed out to unload Christmas from Chris's car. I was the last out, as I had to go and find my shoes. I came out and walked over to the truck, Chris opened up the back door of his truck, and up stood my sweet Soldier!!!!!! I screamed and jumped up, wrapped my arms and my legs around him and clung to him like a koala bear! I cried and breathed a deep sigh of utter relief. "It's over," he whispered to me, "It's over!". Oh Glory be, he was home, home 2 months early! Home in time for Christmas! Home in time for New Years! Unbelievable!!!!

The Bunko girls went in the house and quickly packed up the party and headed out. Now we had the pleasure of coming up with a way to surprise the kids who were still out with Grandpa! We wrapped up a big box and set it up, so that we could just slide it over top of him when they got home. About 2 hours later, my kids came home, totally excited about their movie. Telling me all the details, until they noticed the giant gift on the floor. "Woa, what's that?" "that came for you guys while you were gone." "who's it from?" "I don't know, but I have my guesses." "Can we open it?" "hummm, I don't know, it's not Christmas yet...." "Please.......???" "let me get my camera, and then you can open it." "YEAHHHHH!!!!

They started ripping the paper off, until Alex (10 yrs) says "lets just lift it up right here..." He picks up the corner and out pops their dad. Liza (13) screams and grabs her dad! Alex (10) Later reported that he was scared because I told him that I didn't know what was in the box, and now a person was in the house. When he realized it was his dad he kept hugging him and cried with joy to have him home. Tori (8) took a minute to process what was going on, but was soon right in on the hugging, and crying with relief. Katie (5) really took some time to figure out what was going on. Her daddy lost 43lbs and shaved his head bald, so he looked very different, and she was very surprised!!! After he spoke to her and reached for her, she was right in with the other kids, just so excited to have him here. What a glorious reunion!!! We are all SOOOOO happy to have him home!!

Why I don't sleep.

People always ask me why I don't sleep. This is why

Sleeping Pro's:

You're not tired

Sleeping Con's:

No one does the dishes while I sleep

I get no time to myself

The laundry doesn't fold itself

My pile of proofing is still there in the morning

The house is a disaster area when I wake up

The dog never gets a bath, or his hair brushed

My calling never ever gets done

When I DO get in my bed, I don't want to get back out, then I feel guilty.

I feel guilt from leaving all my responsibilities.

Pros of staying awake:

My calling gets done and everyone is happy with me and the Lord is pleased that I've contributed to the building of the kingdom.

My house is clean

There are not fruit flies in my kitchen

My anxiety is low, because I'm not freaking out about all the stuff I need to do that day

The Laundry is kept up, and I get some "me time" while I fold it and watch a show or two.

I'm nicer cuz i got to socialize with other adults

My kids homework is completed and the teachers don't write me nasty notes about neglect

I feel good about myself if my house is clean and my life is in order.. even if I'm exausted

Cons of staying awake:

Tired the next day, but I still manage to do everything that needs doing, and I still stay up the next night.

So there it is. It's pretty hard for me to justify sleeping when my house falls apart every time I do it. For me, it's like a bad consequence for good behavior... it doesn't make sense. :-( I miss sleep... I wish I could have more... but for some reason, I just can see how it can be done. If only you could see my house.. you would cry for me.

Hats

This past sunday, our lesson in Relief Society was on hats.... that's right.. hats. :-) I thought it was such a great object lesson! I've thought about this concept all day yesterday and today.

So you have to get the background story the teacher was watching Sesame street with her kids, Zoe and Elmo were having a hat wearing contest.... the little muppets piled hats higher and higher on their heads to see who could wear the most hats. This sweet mom, feeling totally overwhelmed with her own pile of "hats" burst into tears watching these little muppets compete.

I almost cried during her lesson as she drew this connection, oh all the hats that I try to wear!! I've decided to take off my hats and sort them out. Sometimes I feel like I take all my hats throw them into a big garbage bag and then dig through the bag when the time comes to wear one. Sometimes I come home from a meeting for my calling, pitch the calling hat in the bag and pull out the mommy hat or the friend hat, or the chef hat, and forget that I even HAVE a calling hat, until something pops up in my inbox that reminds me that I need to go and dig that hat out!

Sometimes I loose a hat or two, and when I find it, I feel terrible that I'd forgotten that I even had that hat!

Sometimes I try to wear all the hats at one time... and then I just look ridiculous as I try to juggle everything.

So here are some of the hats that I have, I wanted to make a list.. almost an inventory, to see how well I am wearing each hat, and what I can do to make time to wear it better.

My first, and most important hat:

Daughter of God hat: Not always wearing so well. Scripture study and morning prayers often get lost in the shuffle. However, I do feel that I share His love rather well.

Wife hat: This hat has been a little easier to wear lately, in a little different mode, but handling it rather well I would say.

Mom hat: Sigh, I never feel like I wear this one very well. Always feel like it doesn't quite fit right. I wish that I could wear just this hat more often, i seem to try to wear this hat and at least 5 others at the same time. I would like to get better at wearing this hat all by itself.

Daughter hat: Boy, I wish I was better at this one... I used to be pretty good about birthdays, mothers day and fahers day cards, but this hat gets lost at the bottom of my black bag sometimes :-(

Sister hat: that's another hat that slides to the bottom, I know it's there, I want to get it out and place a few phone calls, send birthday gifts to nieces and nephews, but when ever I get in the black bag to find the sister hat, I always get distracted by all the hats and their jobs that are in my face, that I forget what I was doing, I forget to put that hat on. :-(

Friend Hat: I'm pretty good at this one, cuz it's a fun hat to wear, and often times it mingles with other hats, so it's not to difficult to remember to get it out

Visiting Teacher Hat: I'm good at the ones that mix with the Friend Hat, but struggle with the times I need to put it on to go see folks who don't necessarily want to see me.

Service Hat: I like to wear this hat, it feels good to wear this hat, but sometimes, it's very difficult to find time to take off your other hats and focus on this one

Chef Hat: I've been slacking on this one since the kids don't really care if I cook a delicious meal. They are happy with chicken nuggets. I am trying to make sure that they keep eating balanced and healthy foods, but it isn't easy to do.

Baker Hat: I love to bake, I hate the mess. If I could get someone to wear my maid hat, I would do a whole lot more wearing of the Baker Hat.

Maid Hat: Oh how I wish I could wear this one more often. When i put this hat on, I wear it well, but I really only wear it well about once a week. the rest of the time it is thrown on with a bunch of other hats.

Home organizer hat: OH I WISH I could be left alone for a week wearing only this hat!!! Oh, and a shopping spree to the container store that week would be good too. I love to organize and I love my life to be organized, but it seems that life keeps messing up my organization!

Physical Therapist Hat: I'm supposed to do Physical therapy on my knee every night..... not been so good about that, and my knee kindly reminds me, and prompts me to dig down in the bag and get my hat out.

Water Aerobics Hat: this one, I am forced to wear. Although I LOVE to wear it, I don't get to take it off for very long. An alarm goes off every MWF that says "find your hat", and off I go. No one gets to take this hat from me, I can't even take it from myself. And THAT is the key reason why I teach.... so that I won't let other hats get in the way of this one.

Photographer Hat: This is a hat that I love to wear... I love to wear it so much that I let it take up a large portion of my time. Sometimes too much. Because it is a paying hat, and clients are waiting for their photos, I have to wear it when i really don't have time for it.

Interior Decorator Hat: I suck at this one. I have such great pictures in my mind, I even have pain in my garage, but I just never seem to find the time to put the hat on and get to it.

Party Hat: I love love love to throw parties. If it were up to me, I would throw one for every occasion I could find. But I limit myself to small scale toe parties, and product parties, and then once a year a big 'ol Christmas party!

Historian Hat: I need to get better at this, seeing as how my last blogs have been 6 months apart... not a hat I wear well.

Public Affairs Hat: I want to wear this hat..... I really do... I feel like I don't really know how to wear it... I keep putting it on, and kind of feel like I look silly in it. This is a new calling for me. I'm warming up, but I think that my fear of the unknown is making me toss this hat to the side and leave it there until I get notice that I need to pick it up again.

Chauffeur Hat: I try not to wear this one... my kids walk to piano AND flute lessons (what a blessing) and they take the bus to school and home... I only have to pick up once a week, Liza for jazz band. Otherwise my chauffeur hat it not often worn. I dislike this hat so much that I charge my kids for a ride to school if they miss the bus... I do however chauffeur Michelle around all day long, but she is usually going to the same places as me, so it's not too too bad.

Grocery Getter Hat: This hat is worn at least once a week, to get fresh goods and then twice a month to gather meals. Generally this hat takes up about 2 hours a week... but it is one that must be worn, and can get to be quite the chore if this hat is worn well, and money is saved by clipping coupons. When I wear this hat well, we save $$

Financial Hat: this hat is worn off and on through out the month and is often forgotten till the bill comes in the mail. I don't like this hat. I gave it to Brent, but he gave it back for a while. :0(

Personal Shopper Hat: I enjoy this hat, but with 4 children, it's not an easy hat to wear. I can't buy them all the cute clothes that I wish they could have. I watch for consignment sales and purchase their clothing seasonally. I also store their clothing in bins according to age and gender, and that is a whole other ball game when that mess comes out, hours and hours every spring and fall.

Zoo Keeper Hat: again, a hat that I enjoy, but again, takes up time. I love my animals, but they need to be cleaned, and their homes need to be cleaned and they need to be fed, and their food and litter are found at different locations then where I do my normal shopping at, so that takes up time too. They also need walking and loving... I learned this weekend, while I was sick, that if I don't put on the Zoo Keeper hat, no one does and the Ferret and fish get very hungry :-(

Secretary Hat: I've got to make appointments for everyone for dentist, doctors, hair cuts, etc.. make sure that their appointments don't conflict with each other, or mine. AND make sure that every one gets to where they need to be in a timely and efficient manor.

Activities Coordinator Hat: as a mother of 4, there are many many play dates and sleepovers to coordinate. Birthday parties and such. I also prefer that my children play with their friends at my house, so I like to have little activities and sometimes snacks for kids to do around the house.

Food Storage Specialist Hat: I've been trying to build up our food storage, and so from time to time I put on this hat and place an order for food storage. Now, thanks to the Food Storage Specialist in our ward, who does a bang up job, and also thanks to Shelf Reliance, this hat is an easy one to wear, but I still gotta dig it out, and make sure that things are moving along in this department.

Spiritual Guide Hat: Family Home Evening, Family Prayer and Family Scripture study are a MUST. This hat MUST be worn, and it MUST be worn with a nice kind spirit too. (that's the hard part) I also need to support my children in their Young women and scouting and primary goals and requirements.

Teacher Hat: this hat comes on at night... after school, when the kids are tired and they want to play, I must strap on this hat, and answer questions and google the questions that i don't know the answers to. I need to follow up on homework assignments and sign all the books and ride the kid who brings home a stack of "F's".

Vacation Coordinator: if I want my family to take a vacation, this responsibility lies with me. I need to decide, where, when and for how long the family will go. I need to book hotels, notify family, get pet sitters, pack for everyone, plan food, watch budget, oh the list goes on and on.

I am sure that I've missed a hat or two.. but these are the ones that I could think of. Some of these hats are worn daily, the rest are at least monthly, if not weekly. And I wonder why I'm such a basket case. I have sat down, and tried to decide which hats I can toss, which ones are non essential..... my conclusion.... none! DARN if I cant get rid of even one of them. and so, the challenge lies in how to neatly hang my hats so that I can easily access them one at a time. I don't want to dig through the bag anymore looking for a hat. I need to pull out the organizing hat and sort out this mess.

Thank you Clarisse for this lesson, and the moment to look at all the hats that I wear, and see how i could wear them each a little more efficiently and a little less haphazardly, and also a reminder to take one off before trying to put another on so that I can give myself fully to one thing at a time.

I will continue to chew on this lesson as I sort things out.

One Last Chance. (Our final day :-( )

After a lovely Breakfast, we headed down to a towel folding class. Who wouldn't want to learn how to fold their towels into adorable little creatures???

Brent and I making the elephant
Robert making the elephant.
Too Cool!
And the pirate face again. LOL Such a ham!
One last chance at a dancing class. This one was Country line dance, so Brent was cool with doing it.
Another adorable towel critter... we spent some time today playing hearts and listening to a performer play guitar.
We went to our last Tea Time, in the piano bar. Brents tart had a really tough shell. LOL
Brent enjoyed sitting in the piano bar listening to Michael and his renditions on show tunes. The talked music and Michael told stories of past entertainment and brushes with fame.
One night we asked Santi which night was "Creme Brulee" night, he told us that they don't serve Creme Brulee on our cruise. He went to check into it and came back promising our table 4 servings of Creme Brulee on our last night. :-) Seeeeeeeee.... gotta love cruising. So, here he is, last night on the ship, with his personal desert.
And a last snap shot of dinner together.

And with Santi, our server.....
and Nalli our other server.
After feasting on our last dinner and specialty desert, we were feeling like we needed one last "Warm Chocolate Melting Cake." We asked Santi, he thought we wanted to take it to our room again. We clarified, or at least we thought we clarified, that we just wanted to eat it right there in the dining room, 4 cakes, 8 ice creams (come on, they were small!). We waited...........

then Santi, comes to the table... looking around all sly. He says, "I order your cake, but I don't ask this time if you can take it to room. Meet me at the back door, and you just take it." LOL we were dying!!! He pulled strings and felt like he had to sneak us out the back door with our cake. LOL!!
Brent and Robert with "The Goods"!!!!! LOL!! we even took the back elevators, to stay on the down low!
Eating our guilty pleasure in our state room...
and we were sure to leave the dishes out side someone elses state room... LOL!!! So funny.
We went straight from our stolen goods to the Final show. This one was 70's, 80's, and 90's music, so it was super good. We went early to get good seats, and we played hearts while we waited. The show was fantastic! All the entertainment on the ship was great. We really enjoyed all the little shows and silly stuff. We even went to a Newly Wed type game, that was cute too, as they had a little couple that had be married some 60 years!! The singing was great, the dancing from the russian dancers was phenomenal!
We headed out for one final stroll about the deck of the ship! This picture is the main lounge area at night. (obviously!)
We found this little sign, that should be posted EVERY WHERE that says that you can't save deck chairs.....HAHA, and that you MUST watch your children.... HAHA again!!!
We never did go on this slide. Day one, too cold and windy, after going on excursions too tired. Before we knew it, our time was spent. :-( So no slide, but it looks fun tho.
And Brent for one last look over the side of the ship... He loved to watch the water off the back of the ship.
Brent had to ride home with us. Poor guy. But he had some good sleeps.
A sign off the side of the road took us to an Airplane museum at an Air Force Base. It was a little bit out of the way, but it was free, and it was huge and amazing. We could have easily spent 4 hours there!
All kinds of planes and helicopters
and fantastic war displays. Tons and Tons of information
this was a display depicting the air attack on Hiroshima. A little chilling...
And a out door stop at a plane that is like the one that our neighbor Chris, used to fly in the air force.

We got home around 10 that night, exhausted and grateful to the babysitters. Thank you to Grandma, who came to stay with the kids. They had a blast, and are fairing well through their sugar detox. I get pieces here and there about the happenings while I was gone. Katie proudly told her preschool teacher that they were "breaking all the rules." The dog has ice cream in his fur, katie acquired at least, one puzzle a day, and I am finding bags of candy and wrappers all over the house..... LOL!!! Aren't Grandmas Grand? :-) Thanks again mom!!

Nassau, Bahamas

Breakfast in the Dining Rooms is the BEST!! This morning Brent decided to bring his own "Orange Juice" (as he likes to refer to it)

Here he is with is dew, taking a picture like the aforementioned Pirate guy!! LOL Gotta read the previous post to understand the face in this picture!
"Okay Robert, I'm going to take your picture..... when I say 3, you need to look at me, both eyes open and smile....One..... Two..... Three!" LOL!!! He is a tough one to take pictures of.

Michelle towing the line. She is good at towing the line, she gets lots and lots of practice. :-)

Yahoo! Here we are, in the Bahamas!! Nassau to be exact. I've always always wanted to visit the Bahamas. Although it was overcast we were in for an amazing day!
Over, across the water there, the pinkish building, is Atlantis on Paradise Island. We won't talk about how much we paid to spend a day at this resort, because that would ruin the whole mood of the blog. All you need to know is, although they are totally price gouging here, it was a totally cool, once in a lifetime opportunity.

This room, the one that looks like a bridge... $25,000.00/night!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!! I Suppose you only have to find one yoyo per year to break even. LOL

We STARTED on the slide that I was most afraid to go on. This picture just doesn't even do it justice!! It is a 60 ft, almost vertical drop that ends up in tunnel that runs through a shark tank. The tunnel could have been through China, and I wouldn't have noticed, my eyes were closed so tight and my heart was pounding so hard there is NO WAY I was noticing my surroundings! I got off, my legs shaking so hard I could hardly stand, and Brent says "That was SO cool!! Did you see the shark tank?" "Shark tank??? NO!! I totally missed the sharks! Now I have to go sit down, my legs are too week." I felt about 80 years old at that moment. But it passed.

And we were off to the next slide. Where I went very fast... I went faster then Brent! I know this, cuz they have timers! Timers that start when you push off! Michelle beat Robert too... I think it's cuz we didn't touch the slide the whole way down. LOL!! I can handle these bumpy ones.
Then we went on another one that was pretty thrilling, and fast. 50 ft drop followed by a 200 foot slide. It joined in the fun with the other two, of slamming our swimsuits up our rears and bruising our buttocks.
It landed us in the underground aquarium that was super cool! I certainly didn't expect that at the bottom of the slide. Glad we did that one, we almost didn't do it.
The lines weren't too bad, there were quite a few people there, but there was a lot to do. There was also a lot to look at while you stood in line, so it didn't bother me too much to have to wait.
We also went on another tube slide in there that took us through the same shark tank as the crazy slide did, but the tube drifted lazily through the tank so that you could actually see the sharks. That was cool too. See what I mean by totally unique!
Then we went on what I like to call the "not so Lazy River".
This thing was incredible! There were rapids, you had to be sure to keep your toes clear of the walls, and your bummy clear of the rapids. I guess it too wanted a shot at banging up our rears.
At one point in the river there is a wave machine..... Like they use in wave pools. This pushes you along, and quite a nice clip, for quite a while. Michelle managed to catch us at the top of a wave! (nice work girl!) This "not so lazy river" was SOOOOO long!
At one point we had to get on a little inner-tube escalator that took us up, just a wee bit to continue our "lazy" adventure.
At one particular junction, if you went left you continued on with the river, if you went right........ you were in line, for this..
Incase you can't tell what this is.. it is a GIANT inner-tub escalator, that you have to go up backwards to get to the top of the slides. That's right folks. No haulin' your tube up the stairs, no waiting in line while the kid in front of you shoves his tube in your face, and scratches your sunburn with the sharp little edges of his tube. You just sit back, relax, chat with your inner-tube buddy and wait for the thrill.
This slide begins at the top of a 121 foot tower, where you plummet down, only to be swiftly shot right back up the other side, like a roller coaster! (again with the bum! LOL) It was really something else!!! By the time this was over, us old folks were ready for a break and some food. Our excursion included lunch... which was yummo.. This sign cracked me up!!
Also at lunch we discovered a happy new thing:
BAHAMA GOOMBAY PUNCH! Which is not what I would call a punch at all, because it is carbonated. Oh, my friends, heavenly yummieness!!! And I will have all you "anti dew" people know, that there was no caffeine in this stuff, and we still loved it. And Michelle and I each brought home at least a dozen cans from the Bahamas! If they had this here in TN, I would bag the dew... okay.. I wouldn't drink it as often, but I will always like me some BAJA! But this just proves that it's all about flavor!
After lunch we went for a walk around the grounds and through the aquarium while our lunch settled. This looks so unreal. I kept telling Brent that it looks like a set at Universal Studios. Just amazing, the whole place.Here we are in front of "our room". :-D
We took lots of pics in the aquarium, but I liked this one cuz you could see the hotel up through the water and the rays of sun.
Conk is a delicacy here in the Bahamas. Isn't it ugly? That dark brown thing on the end is like a toe nail. who knew that those beautiful shells housed such ugly creatures?
I touched it.. ewwy.... They told us that in order to get these guys out of the shell, you have to break in the back way... they said you can pull and pull on them all day long and they won't come out the front.
Michelle touching a sea star.
Taken from inside the crazily priced Hotels. A standard room for 4 rents at about $700/night.
After our wanderings, we headed to this little lagoon area to see what we could see under the surface of the water. The Snorkeling was MUCH better here!
Tho the water was still cold, you could find a warm patch here and there. The day stayed over cast, and we had a few rain storms, so it wasn't a terribly hot day. The water here stayed rather shallow, but had rocks and weeds for fish to hide and play in, so there were way more fish.
Michelle was being a big baby about how cold the water was. Brent told her "just stick your face in and go." I had the camera ready for it.... this is what she did!! LOL!!! I love this woman!!!
Us, looking ever so loverly....
One Fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.
Really I'm just posting these to prove that we DID actually see some fish, some colorful ones too.
Can you see that scary looking guy. Brent took this picture. Apparently Brent is a very dangerous predator, cuz he can spot all the ones that are supposed to be hidden in their environment.
Michelle did get in... eventually, for a minute or two. :-) It was really cold again, and the two of us were out LONG before the boys.
Me, in all my proper snorkeling form.
This little guy tried to hide from my camera, but he was a little too impatient. He quickly hid in a hole when he saw me, but not 2 seconds later came out to see if I was still there, GOT HIM!

Brent was quite thrilled with his school of Angel Fish. He swam around with them for a while. There had to have been 30 of them. I think that snorkeling was one of Brents favorite parts.
One last picture before leaving the resort to head back to Nassau to shop and get some food.
We happened upon a Hard Rock Cafe!!! Brent collects Hard Rock Shirts and pins. So we went in there really quick.
Michelle found that guy she was looking for,
And I found mine. :-) Unfortunately, the roll up the sidewalks at 7:00 in Naussa. We got to go in a few Americanized shops, but no little Bahama market. :-( I like the locals so much better. We found where the market is.... so if anyone goes there, call me, I'll tell you were to head. But they were all closed up for the night.

We headed back to the ship rather late that night. We went up to the cafeteria to grab a bite. The boys were wishing they had some delicious warm melting cake. ... So were we. We decided that since the late dinner people were still in the dining room, it wouldn't hurt to go in and ask Santi if he could get us some cake to go. He pulled some strings and sent us off with 4 cakes and 4 ice creams. YUMMMMM!!!
We were greeted tonight by this darling elephant! Oh, I love Cruising!!