If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been (or maybe not as I haven’t been honing my blogging skills well of late), this is where I was:
Wendy and I went on the Ultimate Scrapbook Cruise last week! The ship took off from Ft Lauderdale and had port calls in Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica. I had almost jokingly mentioned the cruise to Scott never expecting he’d go for it. Amazingly, he was on board with the idea immediately! Then my mother suggested I fly across country with Jack and Alice, have a layover in Atlanta, and she and my father would pick the kids up and watch them while I was gone. It all came together like a charm!
It was unbelievably wonderfully to have a week to myself, on a cruise, scrapbooking with so many fun women and gorgeous weather to top it all off! All in all, I felt like I had won the lottery!
I have never quite mastered the ability to pack lightly although I fervently admire anyone who can. In an effort to save room in my bag for yet another outfit I didn’t wear, I forgo taking my big camera. With only my point and shot that was being oddly tempermental I ended up taking very few pictures. Instead I’m being a photo leech and am going to download Wendy’s memory card. I’ll post some more photos once I do.
I just read Ali’s blog and was inspired by her list of 16 random things, so I thought I’d use that format for the rest of my post today.
1. I’m spending this week getting caught up from the cruise (I actually found being forceably cut off from technology for a week a very happy thing) and trying to get perhaps a tad bit ahead of myself so that I can enjoy my time at CHA next week. Christine Drumheller will be my roomie and I’m sure we’ll have a great time together! If there is anything you’ve seen in the previews that you find interesting, I’d love to hear about it!!
2. I’m enjoying the quiet of my house. Occassionally Daisy will let out a bark or two and Coldplay is on in the background, otherwise, there isn’t a sound. Why so quiet you ask? Jack and Alice are still in Georgia with their Marmee and Bop! My mother is flying them home next Wednesday (I’ll arrive at the airport at the same time). She wanted to keep them for both my trips and, as Jack is just in kindergarten and isn’t having any issues, I thought, why not? I miss them like crazy but I am 100% percent living in the moment and enjoying the serenity for all it is worth. With family on the other side of the country, time away from the kids is very rare.
And, they are having a blast with their grandparents! Everyday my mother asks if they want to go home. Everyday they tell her, “Not today Marmee.” Hmmm… makes me wonder just how much we are missed!
3. Having quiet time to reconnect with my husband is something I’m very grateful for. We walk every evening and while the children are away, we’ve actually been able to have long, deep, involved conversations rather than short bursts of words constantly broken up by wee little voices in need of something.
4. I am a dog person. For about six weeks I was seriously doubting my decision to bring another dog into our frequently crazed lives. Now with an additional 2 and a half months of maturity, her discovery that the backyard can be a fun place, better bladder control, less jumping up and her endearing puppy ways, I am truly in love with our not so little pup. And when those sweet puppy eyes are staring up at you, how can you do anything but fall in love?
5. I am itching to find time to do a house project. I have two rooms that I still need to paint in the house (somehow the builder’s cream color just doesn’t do the trick), and I would love to paint my workroom a light turquoise. Now to just find a solid stretch of time in which to do it…
6. I was in absolute awe of the unbridled enthusiasm Americans and citizens of the world showed yesterday for the inauguration. What an amazing site to see all of those people come together so peaceably to acknowledge and celebrate the change of power. I heard this morning that even with more than 2 million gathered in DC, there wasn’t a single arrest — that, in one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Incredible. Black, white, young, old, left, right, rich, poor, I think we can all come together with the hope that Obama will now be the right person in the right place to stop the downward slide our country is experiencing and put us back on the a better path. If he is not, I fear that our fall will be much longer and steeper than we can imagine.
7. My gym membership expires next week and I’m considering joining another club. As I’ve worked out about 10 times in the last two months (and am not going to the class I promised myself I’d go to today) I’m questioning if that would be a wise plan. Should I just save the money? OR, if I don’t join, will that just compound my excuses not to work out?
8. While I’m on my trip to CHA I want to read Suze Ormonds’ 2009 Action Plan. I don’t usually read self-help, literature is much more my genre, but I think you can’t be too prepared for the worst at this moment in time. I’ll let you know if there is any good advice.
9. I discovered that when traveling, it’s a good idea to double bag hair products. I’m off to the drycleaners in a bit to see if they can salvage the silk dress that was doused in smoothing serum on my way home. I found it on the sale rack after Christmas and fell madly in love. I’ll be so sad in it’s irretrievable. Anyone have any good ideas for how to get something like that out?
10. My favorite songs are What a Wonderful World
by Louis Armstrong, Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, 2000 Miles
by The Pretenders and Somewhere over the Rainbow
by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole. They each bring such a feeling of peace and well being.
11. My favorite food in the whole world is Chocolate lava cake — perhaps the very best part of the cruise was that I got to eat it every night!
12. My favorite books are A Separate Peace by John Knowles and The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I hope to read them again this year.
13. Another beautiful thing about the cruise was that I scrapbooked. As I’m sure many other small business owners can attest, there is very little spare time to partake in the pursuits that bring you pleasure when trying to run a business. Having the time to scrapbook on the cruise drove home just how much I miss scrapbooking on a regular basis and the joy it brings me. It’s so satisfying to see something tangeable that you have created, and accomplished. Unlike a cake you bake or a mountain you’ve climbed, something scrapbooked will be there for many, many years for others to appreciate as well. I’ll post some layout photos with the cruise photos.
14. I noticed this morning that the daffodils shoots are starting to come up. This first tangeable sign that, despite the frost on the ground, spring will again arrive in good time, I always find is a just reason for a happy start to the day.
15. I bought these for the cruise and I think they will be what I live in this summer (especially as I am swearing off shopping at Suze Ormond would no doubt approve of).
16. I’d love to have one more child but I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to talk Scott into it. We have 19 frozen embryos in deep freeze in Portland. I feel as there is a little soul still missing from our family. Unfortunately, he feels we have souls enough. If we were to have one more, it would probably be Ellen (my MIL’s middle name) or Max (just because).
****Daisy is having a puppy dream at my feet and is making the cutest little puppy squeaks — I wonder what she’s chasing in her dream…
WOW! That was actually more difficult to do than I thought it would be!
