Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker

Thursday, February 28, 2008

PVD

This week Dave and I decided that we are suffering from something called PVD - Post Vacation Depression. We had an AWESOME time, and we spent more than enough time relaxing in the sunshine. I've never experienced anything like it, but I'm exhausted and lethargic at times. I want nothing more than to eat an entire acre of Chocolate Melting Cakes (a favorite on the cruise), and lay in bed all of the time. I feel like a crazy lady!!! If I can't handle coming home from vacation, I worry a bit about coming home with our child/ren after the adoption. Doc, get some happy pills lined up for me!!

Okay, I promised we'd share more stories and pictures from our vacation, so here are the next few days of our vacation:

Monday morning we woke up to Cozumel, Mexico! We had breakfast in the dining room that morning with some people from Upstate New York, and enjoyed hearing about their previous vacations. We headed out to the shopping district shortly after breakfast. It wasn’t what I expected, it was very touristy (and tourist trappy). We started walking back toward the ship in hopes of finding a beach that we could go to and lay out on. We ended up getting sucked into a schpiel about a vacation package that you had to pay a lot of money for that I didn’t even really fully understand. We were supposed to be able to hang out on their beach for free with free food, drinks and snorkeling for the afternoon just for listening, but they never ended the sales pitch and we ended up walking out of it. With aching feet from our long walk, and growling bellies, we went back to the boat, ate lunch and laid out on the (almost empty) swim deck. I took a nap, and then we headed back into Cozumel for supper and drinks. I found a beautiful bracelet and Dave did a good job bartering and we got a GREAT deal on it!! Cozumel was not our favorite vacation destination, and we were excited to move onto the next adventure.

Dave posing outside of the Cozumel Hard Rock Cafe. It was too early in the morning to go in - sorry Colleen!!

Dave loved the beautiful flowers...

The view of our cruise ship from one of the windows of the resort with the never-ending sales pitch This is the restaurant where we ate supper in Cozumel - they had the best guac EVER!

Me posing with my margarita on the swing at the bar in Margaritaville

Dave and I posing (me with a salesguy grin - weird) outside of our ship at night

A towel animal that was in our room that night - we think it was a puppy??

Tuesday was a sailing day, and Dave and I laid out on the sun decks A LOT that day. I went to the talk about what to do in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios, and then laid out on the sun deck a little longer. After lunch I took a looooong nap, and Dave played bingo. After that it was off to supper. We were pretty boring that day. We even stayed in our room after supper and just watched a movie we had brought along with us. It was I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. Dumb movie, two thumbs down.

The beautiful sunrise that Dave woke up extra early for The next towel animal - we are pretty sure this one was a bunny

Wednesday morning we woke up to Grand Cayman outside!!!! After eating a romantic breakfast in the dining room (we finally got a table for two and the waiters thought we were honeymooners, we didn’t correct them!!), we got in line for the tenders that would take us to the pier in Grand Cayman. The line was crazy long to get on the tenders, but it ended up going pretty quickly. We got into Grand Cayman, and oh what a difference from Cozumel it was!!! The beaches were tons more beautiful, the people were kind and never pushy, and the architecture was GORGEOUS! Dave and I caught a bus to the Seven-Mile Public Beach, and spent the entire day alternating between lying on the beach and swimming in the crystal clear blue waters of the ocean there. The water was the perfect temperature, and was shallow for a long ways out. You could see the bottom of the ocean no matter how far out you were. I was in HEAVEN. I think Dave got a little bored, but I LOVED going between laying out in the sun on the sand, and floating in the ocean. Oh how I wish we lived on the beach in a warm warm climate. I would totally be a surfer girl.

We took a tender back to the boat, and once back in our room I realized I made a huge mistake that day. I forgot to put sunscreen on my arms. I remembered to put it everywhere else except for my arms. I was fried, and with some very weird-looking sunburn lines because of where Dave had put sunscreen on my shoulders. Oh well, I guess that is the price I pay for forgetting to put on sunscreen on that gorgeous day. We ate supper that evening, and then watched part of Harry Potter under the stars. There was a lunar eclipse that night, so we enjoyed lying on the boat deck while watching the eclipse. Later that night we watched a juggling act and a comedy show, then hit the sack.

Dave and I on the tender to get to Grand Cayman

Dave and I on the beach in Grand Cayman (aka Paradise)

Dave waving to me from the ocean On the tender back to the cruise ship

A pirate ship that we saw on the way back, this was one of the excursions we could have taken (we had to take this one for our nephew, Kyle)

The towel snake that greeted us that night in our room

Harry Potter on the big screen. This is the Lido Deck on this boat (the slide on the left-side was tons of fun!)

Our failed attempt at taking a picture of the lunar eclipse

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Cruisin'

Cruising is definitely the way to vacation!! Dave and I had a fantastic time on our cruise, and did a phenomenal job of relaxing (if I may say so myself). It's honestly been a little hard to try to come up with what to eat since we got home, because all of the food is so easily within reach on the cruise!!

I tried to journal as we went so that I wouldn't forget anything, so I think I'll just copy that into this blog a couple of days at a time. Enjoy!

Saturday, February 16, 2008
We woke up at 3:15 this morning, and I remember glaring at Dave thinking that he was just waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and turning all of the lights on. Not so, he was waking up so we could get ready to go to the airport!

We parked at Michelle and Brent’s house and a taxi took us to the airport for $20. Ugh. It was only 6 miles away… Anyway, so we get to the airport with no jackets (HELLO – we are going to the Caribbean!!), and the Hobbit travel rep tells us its 45 minutes to wait inside to get our boarding passes, and only 15 minutes outside. We decided to buck up and wait outside in the freezing cold (without jackets, mind you!). It ended up only taking 10 minutes, although an old man behind us kept muttering, “Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous”. I wanted to turn around and say, “Then wait inside, crabby pants!” But I was in vacation mode so I just giggled and waited.

We got to our gate and waited to board our plane. An older couple came and sat next to me while Dave was off “reading a newspaper”. The wife brought the husband a cup of coffee, and here was how their conversation went (in VERY Minnesotan accents).

Old Woman: Oh, I wonder where the people waiting for this plane are going? Maybe they are all going on a cruise?
Old Man: DAMMIT this coffee is hot.
(They are both quiet, then after another 2 minutes)
Old Woman: Wouldn’t it be nice to go on a cruise? It says this flight is going to Miami. I bet these people are going on a cr--
Old Man: (interrupting Old Woman) DAMMIT this coffee is hot. Who would make coffee this hot?
(They are both quiet, then after another 2 minutes)
Old Woman: Well, I am glad that we got here early for our flight (theirs left AFTER ours, and we got there early for our flight. They must have gotten there like 3 hours early). I wish we were going on a cruise. That sounds like a good ti-
Old Man: (interrupting again) DAMMIT, who would make coffee this hot?
Old Woman: Well here, let me pour some of my cold water into your coffee. Does that make it better?
Old Man: Ahhhhh, that is much better.

I got a kick out of listening to these two while I was waiting for Dave to finish up his paperwork.

So we finally got down to Miami after a very bumpy flight down. We went down to gather our luggage, and waited for a bus to take us to the ship. The bus driver was something else, let me tell you. I’ve never heard such a racist person over a loud speaker. By the end of the bus ride, none of the Minnesota peeps were laughing at his jokes. We finally got to the boat and waited in a LOT of lines to finally get on the boat (after being told that we were ticketed onto the ship as Mr and Mrs TBA Hobbit – we had to get that changed as soon as we got on board, and found that it was because we booked such a last minute trip).

We were exhausted by the time we got on the boat, but we found the buffet and ate some lunch. We found our way around the boat, and went to the (LONG) boat drill. We watched and waved as the ship set sail and we were finally on our way! We ate supper with our tablemates for the week and had a great time meeting them. It turns out we were all from Minnesota, and all got booked as TBA Hobbit. We also got to meet our housekeeper that night who was from the Philippines!

We were so very tired and argue-y that day that I tried to take a nap after supper, but there was no rest for the weary. I could not fall asleep. We went to a show that night that the cruise director was in charge of, and it was hilarious. We fell asleep pretty easily after that show around midnight.

Sunday, February 17
We felt much more refreshed. We ended up ordering the room service breakfast (yay for free food!!), and ate breakfast in our room after a walk around the walking track (which was extremely crowded – ugh). After breakfast, we laid out on the deck chairs for a good long time and ate lunch in the dining rooms. We ate with a young couple from the Czech Republic, and another couple from West Virginia. We had so much fun talking with the couple from Czech Republic and having them practice their English on us. We got a few words mixed up, but all in all we had a great time talking with them! Dave was amazed that the wife looked almost EXACTLY like his sister, Michelle. We told her about that and what our last name was, and got some good background on what our last name means in Czech – fisherman – and how common it was.

I took a good long nap after lunch, and then we got up to hear all about the excursions for Cozumel that were available. After that presentation, it was already time to get ready for our first elegant supper. We had a great time at our elegant supper, and then got a couple of free drinks at the “meet the captain” party downstairs. We tried to stay up for the comedian at midnight, but ended up falling asleep after watching Transformers under the stars!!!

Here are some pics from those first 2 days of the vacation. I will post more about the vacation in upcoming days.
A self portrait as we sailed away from Miami
The ticketing tent for Carnival as we sailed away
The people from Carnival Imagination waving to us as we depart (if you look close you can see the people waving from the balcony)Mini-golfing on the very top part of the ship (windy but lots of fun!)Eating at our first elegant supper (one of our servers is in the background)

The crazy towel monkey that we found when we got back from our elegant supper. We got a new towel animal every night. Very cute!!

Friday, February 15, 2008

Note to self...

Remember to put on deodorant at 3:00 am tomorrow morning...
(Close to Home comic courtesy of Yahoo)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Stimulating the economy one cruise at a time

We're going on a cruise!!!!

All winter long I've been eyeing up the cruise prices on Hobbit Travel. Dave and I would find great deals, then hem and haw over whether or not to buy the tickets. As soon as we would decide to buy the tickets, we'd call and hear that they had just sold out 1 day, or even 45 minutes before we called. Ugh. So on Monday I checked the website, and saw that the super good deals were back on again. Dave really had to talk me into it, but we finally called and booked the tickets!!

We leave on Saturday morning bright and early (we'll have to leave our house by 4 am). We'll be cruising on the Carnival Freedom for a 7 day/7 night cruise. We will hit Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Ochos Rios. I am soooooo looking forward to WARM weather (if you're wondering how excited I am about this, check out this post and this post)!!!

Some people may be thinking, "You crazy people! You should be saving all of your extra money for the adoption!!!!". That's fine with us if people want to think that. We know how we are paying for the adoption, and we aren't worried about it. God has definitely shown us His provision throughout this journey. Plus, we wanted to enjoy each other on a luxurious "adult" vacation before we become parents. Thank you to those of you who encouraged us to do this for ourselves. We are very excited!! Oh, and thank you to President Bush for the stimulus package he has approved. Although I don't necessarily agree with the idea, I don't mind taking advantage of it.

We'll post pictures and stories when we get back!!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Goa-oa-oa-oal! Goa-oa-oa-oal! Goa-oa-oa-oa-oal!




Okay, maybe only Jon and Suze will know how to sing the title of my post, as well as anyone else who has been to a Minnesota Wild hockey game. We had so much fun watching the Wild win their game last night against the New York Islanders!!! The Wild won the game in overtime which made it so exciting!! I had never been to an NHL game, so we had a blast. Dave was loud and proud, and kept starting the clapping or booing with the people around us. He's always the loud clapper in church, so I guess this didn't surprise me much!

It was an extremely cold walk (I thought my eyebrows fell off at one point), but Suze and I ordered Peppermint Patties before we had to walk over to the game, so that kept us warm on our walk :) And it wasn't as warm in the Xcel Center as I thought it would be, but it was still a great reprieve from being outside!! I don't watch hockey on tv, but I would definitely go to a game again. There was so much to see and the game was great.

So now I am excited to go watch a Saints baseball game with Jon and Suze this summer in the open air baseball field. Ah, sitting in the sun, having a beer, cheering loudly outside and getting a little sunburn. I can't wait for those days...

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Thinking positive

I'm going to post a happy post today, even though I really just want to go back to bed for the next 4 days and make faces like Aaron and Sam because of the weather here. I think I would take the cloudy/raininess of Portland or Seattle over this brutal cold. But I said this was going to be a positive post, so we won't talk about that...

Today we get to go to an NHL Wild game with our friends Jon and Suze. Yay!!!!! I've never been to an NHL game, so I'm very excited about this. Even better, our friend Suze won 4 free tickets to sit in the box seats!! So we'll get to sit in some fancy seats while cheering on the Wild. Plus, it will be nice and warm in there :) I'll take some pics of our adventures to post later.

So I think we've decided on a beach to go to for our Philippines trip! My cousin sent pictures of 3 vacations they took while living in the Philippines, and our favorite pictures were of Coco Beach. If you check out the website, you may get a kick out of their explanation of services that are included in your stay. Especially watch for what happens if your electric fan quits working. So for now that is where we have decided to stay for the first few days that we are in the Philippines for our adoption trip. I hope you all enjoy the pictures as much as I have!


(photos courtesy of Calah Ronzheimer)

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Best Husband Ever Award

Dave wins the Best Husband Ever Award - hands down. Today he called me to tell me he was making a surprise supper. I was in a bit of a crabby mood so instead of being thrilled, I asked, "Is it something I am going to like??" He told me that he thought I would like it.

I'm going to preface what I came home to with some feelings I've been having lately. A few of the ladies I have "met" online who are adopting are doing their nesting by finding Philippine recipes to make. I thought that was such a cool idea, and was honestly feeling a little jealous because I don't have that urge.

So I walked in the door from work tonight, and Dave was cooking away in the kitchen. I look over at the computer that he has pulled up a recipe on. Dave was making Chicken Adobo with Philippine Fried Rice!!!!! I was floored, and had no idea that this was what he had in mind. I was so psyched, because I've been hearing about this recipe from the Ya.hoo Philippine group I'm in. I was so impressed. We called our good good friends and neighbors, Aaron and Nikki, to come over and try it with us. We dug into the food Dave made, and I have NEVER tasted anything like it!!! I absolutely LOVE Chicken Adobo, and the Fried Rice was delicious too. I think Chicken Adobo is definitely going on a list of food we make frequently.

I took a picture of the food before I dug in:

If you want the recipe, along with other interesting Philippine recipes, head on over to this website.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Random thoughts

I always seem to forget to pull my camera out to take pictures of fun/special events in our life. I always keep it in my purse, but even that isn't good enough to help me remember!

Anyway, I got together last night with a couple friends from high school - Jonny and Luke (aka Luuky) . I only get to see Luke once every couple of years, since he lives out in Portland, OR. I had lots of fun catching up with them, even if we didn't get to spend tons of time together. Today I'm wishing I had taken a picture since we don't get together often. Luke and I got somewhat caught up on what is going on in each other's lives last night. I was able to tell him about the adoption and he was very excited for us. I think that is one of my favorite things - being able to tell someone who I haven't seen in a while that we are adopting. Even better is when they also get excited about the adoption!!

I don't even know who our kids are yet, how many we will have by the time we are done, or any of that stuff. But what I do know is that I already feel like a mama. There are things I am definitely nervous about in becoming a mom, but I know that everyone experiences some kind of anxiety about what kind of parent they will be. The excitement in all of this far outweighs the nervousness. I know God's got an awesome plan for our family, and I just have to wait on Him to see what it is.

Well, Dave and I are pretty sure that we are going to take some extra time during the adoption trip to take a vacation in the Philippines before we pick up our children. We got some ideas from our good friends, Andy and Tyler, and are going to get other ideas from Rachel's cousin, Calah, on where to go. These peeps have all lived in the Philippines at some point, so they are definitely the people to go to for these plans. I'm really hoping that our adoption trip to the Philippines falls during part of the cold months next winter - the weather there is so beautiful!! Now I will leave you with a picture of the beauty of the Philippines (I know I'm dreaming of warmer weather!!)...

(photo courtesy of jedschannel.blogspot.com)