Blah Blah Blog

(you have to say the title like the "Da da da" song)

It's been a while since I've posted. I've actually started one, and have gone back and forth with whether or not I want to post it. So since it's been a while and that other one is nagging at me, I decided to post a very light, don't-have-to-think-about-it post (and one that doesn't require adding pictures, since I've clearly lost my camera cord since I came back from the cruise. bummer!).

Here are just a few of the blogs that I'm reading and loving!

First and foremost, the newbie and quite possibly the coolest ever (and I'm totally not just saying that because I'm sure coolness is hereditary) :) - my fave cuz! Lori just started blogging yesterday, but she has always told the greatest stories since I can remember, so I'm quite anxious to hear the stories of everyday life on a daily basis!

I'm only putting this one second because it's an obligation as BFF. Don't get me wrong, when Lindsey blogs, they're great, but she hasn't posted anything in almost a month, so they're few and far between. Maybe this will serve as a guilt trip into posting!! :)

Then we have some of the CP bloggers that I typically read at least once a day, Pete, Pat, Jenni, Jarrod. I love the mixture of inspirational, informative, personal and sometimes just plain fun! And I adore Brandi's stories of life surrounded by boys, and Carmen's with a new little one also!

I also love reading these two from the Mix - Rachel and Jessica. They're so much fun to be around, and I'm loving becoming better friends with them!

I've mentioned this one before, and I continue to read their story. They've had an update this week that is absolutely heartbreaking...again for their family. But Angie's neverending hope and devotion absolutely inspires me, and her writing is phenomenal. It paints a perfect picture of her actions and thoughts. It's amazing how reading a blog can totally change your life every time you read it.

Finally, just a silly one that I like to read from time to time, is this one, for all Slaves to Target! :)

Motivation, Such An Aggravation...

Just a forewarning...this is an extremely honest, confusing post.

I don't know if it's coming back from vacation, or it just being so warm outside, or work in general, or what, but I'm having the hardest time with motivation lately. I feel so unmotivated to do a lot of things, most of them unmentionable on the internet for everyone and their mom to see... and I feel like the major reason behind it is the realization of one fact in particular, and it's a huge frustration.


Pete was on a series called "Plan B" for a while. The irony of that is that this is my Plan A. Not to toot my own horn, but pretty much everything I've set my mind on, I've accomplished. At least, up to this point in my life. My life is ultimately where I expected it to be. I should have no complaints whatsoever, right? That's what I keep trying to tell myself, but I can feel the cold, hard truth weighing down on me that I'm just not where I'm supposed to be. Does that mean I should have waited things out? Does it mean I made a wrong turn somewhere? Or does it mean I'm supposed to wait and get more out of where I am now?


I hate having so many questions and ultimately not knowing exactly what to do. I have made a conscious effort to keep giving the worry to God, but I think there's a fine line between saying "Ok God...go for it" and knowing when God's telling you it's time to make a move (or even feeling like God's telling you to make a move). How do I know when it's God telling me to stay or move or even look, or when it's just me thinking about it too much? What's the difference in "feeling led" to do something, and doing it on your own timeline? And I feel so dumb even having those types of questions in the first place. Why don't I already know that difference? I just feel like it's continual questions and not much clarity, and that, overall, makes me extremely unmotivated.

The Fun Ship (Part 3)

Ok, I think this is the last post for the cruise, but there will be lots of random pictures. These didn't really fall into any particular category, so I may have tid bits of stories to go along with them...

DINNER was what we looked forward to every single night! We ate in the Spirit dining room at the late seating (8:15est). I had had some people say they recommended the early seating, but the late was perfect for us, because we got to take full advantage of the day in the sun before coming inside and getting ready (only 2 hours for 3 girls to get completely ready with one mirror, one shower and one sink!! Not too bad!). Here is our wait staff, Stoyan (from Bulgaria) and Tomas (from the Philippeans...is that how you spell it??). They were so adorable! I loved how Tomas said mine and "Little Caley's" names.

Stoyan remembered that Lindsey and I loved Coke, so he automatically brought them to us each night, and sometimes with hearts made from the straw paper!

Here is our entire table on the first night and then on the last night of dinner, along with the wait staff. We became friends with them all...especially the group of 3 girls from Louisville. One of the twins, Sarah, said she had just moved to Tennessee, also...and it turns out she lives about 5 minutes from my house! What a small world?!?

This is the family from Pennsylvania...their daughter Helene is so sweet!

Sarah, Emmy and Savannah from Lousiville.

Here are some random before/after dinner pictures of our 3..we bacame pros at the self-timer pictures!

The first night...

Formal Dinner night (the second night)

Also on the formal night, they had a midnight buffet. We were given about 45 minutes to walk through the line and just see all the food and take pictures, because they did a bunch of ice sculptures and awesome food carvings. The desserts looked so great, we went back just for them! :)

Captain's Cocktail Party (also Formal night)

Ok this one has a story...there was a juggler one night and every time he added a ball, he said "But how 'bout...ONE MORE???" and did this move. Caley and I thought it was hysterical.

After Formal Night dinner. We were trying to be serious and cool like the elephant. Clearly that's harder for Caley and me to do than expected...

Because we thought it was SO funny...

And we kept laughing!

Gorgeous sailboat that we saw one day.

Our cute little coconut monkey drinks!

Look at the straw on this drink! I'm amazed by the smallest things, clearly...

Ok, so when we got into our stateroom on Saturday, I said, "I want to wake up and see dolphins jumping outside our window!" The very next morning, I did! I literally screamed when I saw the first ones jump. You would have thought I'd never seen a dolphin in my life!

Here's one last look of that gorgeous, blue water. Makes me want to be back right this minute!

Jamaica Mon!

We were in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on Tuesday for our 2nd and last shore excursion.

It. Was. Amazing.

I was absolutely in heaven. Everything was beautiful, the people there were hysterical and so nice, and I didn't want to leave at all! Now let me say this also: I have heard horror stories about Jamaica, but we never left the area around our port so it was all very touristy, so we didn't get into the truly local area. They definitely warned us about staying together and not getting too far out. That said...I still want to go back! All the hills....wayyyy different from Grand Cayman!

Once again, we got up really early to leave the boat. We got to get directly off the boat this time (shown in the picture above), and immediately jumped onto buses to take us to our shore excursion: Dunn's River Falls and Bamboo Beach Club! Everyone that I've talked to has highly recommended we do the Falls. This is a 600 foot waterfall that we climbed up. Absolutely amazing. The guides took our cameras (so they wouldn't get wet) and took pictures for us, so here are some pictures we took before, and then the ones the guides took. We took a few with the waterproof camera, so again, if/when I scan the pictures, I'll add them also.

Us on the bus to Dunn's River Falls

About to climb up!

This was as we were climbing down and a quick shot of the Falls.

I love this picture because you can see the jungle, the waterfall and the beach and ocean!

Now as we're climbing...the water was so cold!!

We had an amazing time, and we didn't totally wipe out too many times...those rocks were so slippery! They also had a guy following us with a camcorder, so we bought the DVD of the hike up, too.

After we were done and had dried off, I saw this guy and took a picture of him, because I (stupidly, apparently) thought it was just a cool, local guy with a donkey. Nope! He immediately said "I work for donation!" So he insisted that I take a picture with the donkey. Hysterical...and slightly awkward...

We got back on our bus and went to the other half of the shore excursion...the Bamboo Beach Club. This was so nice and relaxing, because it was a private beach and they gave us all the food and drinks we could want.

And this was our view.

After we were quite full, we decided to go do some shopping at Taj Mahal...and spent far too much money on knock-off purses, dresses, jewelry and just about everything else you could imagine. I guess that's what happens when the people are nice and continue to bargain (good bargains, too!) with you! Quite different from Grand Cayman, we waited until just about the last minute before we went back to the boat. Here we are, waiting in line to go back through security with lovely Jamaica behind us.

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was our first port of call and shore excursion on Monday. We woke up really early that morning and went through security and got on our tender boat. The Cayman Islands are surrounded by a huge coral reef, and since coral is an endangered species, cruise ships have to stay further out and smaller boats carry us in groups to the island. Here we are on our tender boat, and then here's our ship with the tender boat beside it....look at that size difference!!

Here is the coast line of Grand Cayman as we got there. Oh I LOVE that beautiful, blue water! Isn't the land so flat though?

When we got to shore, we went directly to our shore excursion. Lindsey was the only one of the 3 of us who had ever been snorkeling, so we decided to try a "beginner level" snorkel...so we chose the Grand Cayman Shore Snorkel. (**We used our waterproof cameras for that, and not many of the pictures turned out very great, but hopefully I'll be able to scan a few and add them in later.**) We got our locker and our gear and everything, and listened closely to what the people were telling us. The woman said, "When you get in, you'll see some big fish, but they don't have teeth. They're my babies and won't hurt you. You can go out as far as that marker and can stay as long as you like. The water will only be about 6-7 feet deep."

Ok, so clearly this woman isn't aware of the fear of 2 young girls who have never been swimming with "big fish." Nor did she have any concept of the depth. First of all, I'm not really afraid of much...especially in the water...and I'm pretty much willing to try anything. I was one of the first to waddle (and I do mean waddle...walking in flippers isn't an easy task) out to the little pier we were supposed to jump off and into the water. Well, I get there with all this get up and nothing but this little guy grinning from ear to ear and Caley and Lindsey behind me to hear me shriek when those "big fish with no teeth" came straight to where I was going to go in. There was a line already forming behind us, so I just had to lunge. These "big fish" were gigantic and the ugliest, meanest things I've ever seen in my life. That was not what I wanted to see first off, let me tell ya. I must have gotten them scared off or something, because they were nowhere to be seen when Caley and Lindsey bailed in after me. I didn't even look down...I just closed my eyes and swam as fast as my gigantic flippers could carry me. Fortunately this was the only run in with the big fish (no pictures to vouch for how big or ugly they were...although they were as long as I am...we were to scared to stay around long enough to take a picture), with the exception of having to get back through them to get out of the water. Dumb smiling boy kept throwing them fish food...I'm sure we were the highlight of his day.

Anyway, so we swim around and see lots of coral and several pretty fish and we decide that the 'good' coral is deeper out in the "6-7 feet deep" water. When we got all the way to the marker, that water was no less than 30 feet. No biggie...it was actually really cool...but she could have accurately warned us. There were these cute little black and white fish that would swim all the way up to us (until we shot out of the water because we were scared again...) and would surround us in their schools. It was really cool! What I thought was even more weird was the fact that these fish would come so close, and we'd go above water and talk about it, and we'd look back below and there would be tons around us, and we didn't even realize it. Makes me wonder how much else I miss that I'm not aware of...

And I must say that I was apprehensive about snorkeling, because I tend to inhale the water when I've used one in the pool, but I think I only got about 3 mouth fulls of sea water. Not too shabby! After snorkeling for about an hour or so, we were pretty worn out and decided to go dry off and have lunch. Here is where we were snorkeling (look closely for the little specks of yellow...those are the other snorklers in their life jackets).

We were going to eat there, but the owner was a little on the rude side (we seemed to have that running trend in Grand Cayman...the locals weren't exactly friendly...), so we went to Margaritaville instead! That was an excellent choice, because we had a great time and incredible food (3 cheeseburgers in paradise - - my favorite!!!)...so much fun!!!

We did a little bit of shopping the rest of the day, and it was incredibly hot there...no breeze, so we took a few more pictures and then went back on the boat early to get some ice cream and cool off by the pool!