Moving on

Posted on by
Reply

oh me oh my.

We got a letter in the mail for Rob the other day from the government.

It was about the years during his previous marriage.

His ex wife had applied for some credits (that were quite trivial and insignificant really) and the government was sending Rob a letter to let him know what was being reviewed. He has to complete some paperwork, and then they will go through some process, or re-evaluation, and then come back with some answer….blah blah blah. It won’t change much really for Rob financially right now (just affects him later), but it’s a step back to the past – something he has well moved past.

I was actually stunned by the letter.

Blown away.

Even more stunned because his ex just remarried a couple of weeks ago to her common law boyfriend (who happened to be “a long time friend of the family” wink wink nudge nudge).

I can not fathom, so many years after the dissolvement of my first marriage, and then moving on to happiness with my current life, to want to reach back into the past to deal with some petty issue and cause more contention and discord, years and years later!

It really reminded me of a couple of quotes:

“Don’t look back, you are not going that way”.

and

“If you are depressed or angry, you are living in the past.
If you are worried or anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present”.

How grateful I am to be at peace. How grateful I am to be living in the present.

I am certainly guilty of worrying and being a little anxious about the future:)

But I am so so so grateful that I am not holding on to my past and hanging onto anger.

I am so grateful to have learned to forgive, let go, and move on. It is the most freeing and liberating thing there is. I can look at my ex husband and honestly, where hatred and vengeance once stood, there is nothing but amicability and general interest in his well being and certainly a huge vested interest in the well being of the two children, through no fault of their own, got stuck living in two homes (but super blessed to be living in two great and loving homes and to have their lives enriched by step parents and extended family).

Obviously going through a divorce was a serious hardship in my life, and it is a time that when I look back on it, is filled with black clouds and turbulent winds.

But, can I dare say, that that time was also one of the largest period of growth for me in my life, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to have lived through those dark times (eek. Can’t believe I just wrote that).

So coming from this place of peace and contentment with how our lives post divorce have turned out, and how super happy I am after meeting the most incredible man in the world to share my life with and join forces to raise the most amazing 5 children in the world, I could not believe how anger, bitterness, pettiness and vengefulness can take over someone’s heart for sooooo long!!!

I just hope she will get over it and move on. I hope she can move past the past and the associated anger, and into the peace of the present.

Until then, we will let these ongoing storms roll over us, shake our heads, and be happy we are in the place we are in.

Quote of the Week

Posted on by
Reply

It’s been a few weeks since we have done quote of the week with all the vacations and summer chaos. Happy to say, we are almost back on track.

Which brought me to this week’s quote of the week:

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”.

Time will pass whether you do something productive or not. You can sit in a great class and learn nothing, or learn amazing things. You can play a game and play with little effort, or give it your all. You can be doing lots of good things – but you can still walk away getting nothing.

The quote reminded me of what we have been talking about in FHE recently:
be proactive,  take responsibility and ownership of your life. Seize the day!

Last Day at Sea

Posted on by
Reply

Our last full dayL.  It was a day at sea, and everyone slept in a bit.

We had lunch in the main dining room, as opposed to the buffet we had been having every morning. It was a comedy brunch (we saw one skit), and the food was good – but way over the top!

Following breakfast, we went a played a little mini putt.


We then went down the slide a few times, and swam. We enjoyed tacos and burgers for lunch, and then everyone ate a little too much at the Chocolate Extravaganza buffet! It was decadent, but sickening.

The kids went back to the room to watch a movie, and Rob and I snuck off to the adults only section and napped and read on a hammock and then chatted and enjoyed the gorgeous views on a bali bed. It was really nice.

 
I packed everything up while Rob took the kids to the arcade and did some fun poses.


We enjoyed our final dinner and hit the sack early due to our early departure.

All in all, it was a incredible vacation. But aren’t they all?
I can’t say I have had a favorite vacation. I just want to do a whole bunch of different trips as a family so we have a ton of memories to draw on. I want the kids to be exposed to different kinds of travel, and this was certainly one on my bucket list! It was also awesome that it was a surprise.
Now back to reality…until our next adventure… and it’s a biggie!!

Grand Cayman

Posted on by
1

Grand Cayman was our number 2 spot! Seven Mile Beach is spectacular! The water is crystal blue, the sand is sugar white and so soft. It was amazing!
But before the beach, we had to get there.

Another tender process. We took some pics and played some geopgraphy games to pass the time!


We tendered to the dock and met our tourguide : Moby Dick. We took a short bus ride to the marina and then boarded the boat that took us out to snorkel and the to Stingray City.

I decided that today I needed to get a bunch of one on one pics of the kids for their Valentine photo books – so that’s why there are so many of “me and one of the kids” and “Rob and one of the kids”.

Snorkeling was a amazing – right beside a reef, lots of little fish that we were all trying to touch, and stunning water. Everyone is getting the hang of snorkeling.

 

Ok – before I go on – I need to post some more pictures of the water (it may all look the same but it was at different angles – all around us!!). It was the most stunning water ever. It was breathtaking. We kept saying to the kid s”Look at this! Can you believe it”? I’m not sure they appreciated how stunning their surroundings were. Paradise on earth.

We then went to “Stingray City” – an area famous for the Stingrays coming around to swim with you. They were incredible. I think it was a highlight of our trip. Zandra had a freak out as she was scared, but still managed to touch one.The rest of us were amazed by how soft they were, held them, kissed them (7 years good luck!) and took lots of photos and video. It was incredible.

Unfortunately my lense got a little humidity on it that I didn’t notice until later – so Rob is a bit smudged:)

 

After the tour, they dropped us of at Seven Mile Beach where we swam and had some lunch.

 

Back to the boat:) The kids stopped and bought some candy in the candy shop and we boarded the boat.

We got all fancied up for dinner, and took some pictures on the deck while the sun set. It was a beautiful night.


Dinner was fun as usual (we have the best conversations!). Zach entertained us with his “Pardon You” and his “Zachism’s” as we call them.

Gabe really did have a good time on the trip (I think). I’ll chalk his expressions up to teenage-hood

Sam looked so adorable and grown up in his tie:)

Josh was seriously addicted to their hot chocolate. He must have had them at least 3 times per day. I have to admit, it was the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had!

Zach had steak three time in the week!


We finished dinner, stuffed as usual (and every dinner is interrupted a million times by kids having to go to the bathroom – what’s up with bathroom trips on vacation??) and headed up to the top deck to see the stars and take some wacky pictures.  


Back in the cabin we enjoyed the awesome towel animals they made every night!

Another awesome day!

Roatan, Honduras

Posted on by
Reply

I think Roatan, an island just off of Honduras,  was everyone’ s favorite.
I’m happy I made it because in the wee hours of the morning I was not feeling so hot and was pretty sick. Thank goodness for all those airplane “sick” bags I had taken off the plane with me. They came in handy:)) 

Luckily, things looked up by the time we were ready to leave.

We arrived in port early and entered into the port area called Mahogany Bay that Carnival recently developed. We walked up to the main road, and met our private tour guide, Kenney.
Kenney took us around the island, pointing out the schools, cool soccer fields, beautiful beach areas, bridges that used to separate the white and the black people (no longer such restrictions, although the areas are now mainly separated by rich and poor). He gave us some history lessons, discussed religion and politics and compared real estate prices. It was awesome.

He then took us to a small monkey farm, where the kids got to hold some really cute (and feisty!) monkeys, a toucan, a parrot and pet a bunny and deer. This was a highlight of our trip. I took a ton of pics of these cheeky little monkeys because they were so cute and the kids were loving playing with them and asking me to take so many pictures of them!

Trying to take my dress off!

He just pounced and landed on Rob!

This was the best…the little monkey decided to run down Zach’s shirt! He tried to go down mine too but got stuck in my swimsuit straps and climbed back out. But he went all the way down in Zach’s shirt!

This seriously hurt. I think I had little holes in my head where his claws were!

 

Finally, we ended up at this gorgeous beach (West Bay Beach) and spent the rest of the time having a quick lunch of pizza and swimming and playing in the incredible water. The kids played on the giant connect 4 board too!

 

The day was far too short when we had to head back to the ship. For sure, we will return to this island!

We got to the ship and had some snacks and then relaxed a bit before heading to dinner.

 

Belize

Posted on by
Reply

We had to wake up early this morning as we had to take tender boats into Belize. Due to the reef, the ship has to anchor quite a way outside the port.
We were among the first to tender, and arrived an hour before our tour (Belize was 2 hours behind ship time which we weren’t aware of – thought it was only 1 hour).

We took advantage of the time to walk around. It was good for the kids to see how people live! I think our kids live in their bubble and don’t realize the reality of many others. It was eye opening for them.

We went to catch our tour – only to find out it had been cancelled. Not good. I politely freaked out on the guy and luckily he adapted things to accommodate (unfortunately for some other people, they cancelled their tour and they had to come with us). It was a long and HOT wait. The tour company was completely disorganized and it took 2.5 hours to get moving. We checked out some iguanas while we waited.

When we finally did get going, we headed to the Barrier Reef (2nd largest in the world next to the Great Barrier Reef) and did some snorkeling. The kids did great for first timers! They got to hold a starfish and some other cool stuff!

Mr. Biggs was our guide and he helped the kids out a lot!

After snorkeling, they took us to a place called Bannister Caye. It’s a “deserted beach” which has a little restaurant, change rooms and beach chairs and umbrellas. We didn’t get to stay long (due to the late start) but had a nice lunch there and swam and floated in the ocean a bit.

The funniest thing happened there. Josh went to the bathroom during lunch. He came back and said that the bathroom had a really cool sink….he told Sam about it (as Sam had just been in ) and Sam said, “Josh, that was a urinal”! We were laughing so hard!! Rob went to check it out and yup it was !!!

After our quick beach break, we headed out back to the ocean to find some manatees. We did! We saw about 3 of them. They were huge! We also some dogs swimming along  – that was very strange – stray dogs just out for a swim in the middle of no where!! The kids each got to drive the boat too which was fun. Except for Sam, who eventually fell asleep in Rob’s lap!

We went back, tendered back to the ship and headed up to the top to play some cards and have some ice cream. Everyone was a little sunned out.

Before dinner I made everyone go take some more pictures (they do get annoyed with it but my feeling is it is the least they can do for me:))

This gorgeous guy is not so crazy about leaving this spot to go pose for the camera:))

Dinner was in the main dining room again, and the waiters got a kick out of the kids we haveJ
After dinner, we decided to go the Rock and Roll show in the show lounge. It was pretty fun – they did music from the 50’s – today. Josh was embarrassed by the scantily clad dancers (and rightly so – it’s a not a strip show people), but Sam was clapping away and loving every minute! Halfway through the show, Josh fell fast asleep. I mean FAST ASLEEP! How he could sleep during fireworks, loud music and lights baffled Zandra (although she is one heavy sleeper too!).

We headed back to the cabins to find the cutest little towel guys. I first didn’t see the  one in our room, but was thrilled when I saw him hanging  from the bed. He was so awesome!

Everyone headed to bed watching a little TV – another early day tomorrow!

Cozumel

Posted on by
Reply
The ship arrived in Cozumel and after a quick breakfast, we made our way to the pier.

Today was the one day we didn’t have any excursions planned.  We caught a cab and headed to Paradise Beach and arrived just as they were opening. They have all these amazing water toys: trampolines, slides, ice bergs etc. and for a while, we were the only ones on them! The trampoline was pretty fun and then the kids had a blast going down the crazy high slide (Rob even dared, but it took him a while to come down!).

Gabe always had the video camera going!

Off the slide!

The beach
The pool was also pretty sweet, and we lounged about on the water chairs, ordered some pina coladas, and just relaxed! The kids were playing swimming Olympics – having relay races throughout the pool. It was so cute (and great exercise!)

In the afternoon after some snacks for  lunch, we did a bit of kayaking, floated on some mats in the ocean and the kids played some more  on the water toys.
We headed back to the pier a bit early so we could do a bit of shopping.

The kids got a couple of things: Zandra a cool “wrapper” purse (she negotiated a good price), a  pin for Zach and some playing cards for Gabe. Good thing, because when we got back to ship, we hung out in the dining room, ate some food and then played some BlackJack/21 with Gabe as our dealer!

I think Josh must be losing

The ship sailed out of port and we watched Cozumel disappear into the distance from the top deck.

Windy as we were pulling out!

The kids usually called their other parent when we were pulling our of ports!

We had a casual dinner at the buffet, but still got a few pictures in! After dinner we went to do starlight, star bright and snuck into the adult only section and swung on some hammocks. It was a great day!

Day at Sea

Posted on by
Reply

Our first full day on the cruise was at sea. After sleeping in a touch, the kids enjoyed the buffet and then we spent the day by the pool. It was a pretty busy pool area, but the kids made use of the water slide, and then the hot tub.

Josh waiting in line for the slide

Josh

Sam

So Josh – doing his signature Doggie swim

Zach

After swimming around a bit, Rob took the boys to play mini put. We had lunch around the pool, mainly the yummy burgers and the food from the Mexican place.
A little bit beat, we all returned to the cabin – ordered some room service to try it out  – and then everyone lounged around watching movies, playing on Ipods. The kids also played “Olympic trampoline on some cushions in the port hole windows. It was quite funny actually – I even did a routine!

Rob and Sam having a chat

The trampoline olympics routine by Josh

Rob and I snuck up to the adults only section of the ship and sat in the Jacuzzi and read and snoozed for an hour. We also explored the ship a bit and was in awe of what they have on board!

Dinner tonight was fancy   – and it was so awesome to see the kids all dressed up in their fancy clothes. We got some cute pics and had a great lobster dinner. I really need to figure out my camera for indoor….

Had to include this one as it is signature Josh

The ship was a little rocky at points, which affected some tummies for short periods.  But, a good sleep was had all.

Surprise! We’re Going on a Cruise!

Posted on by
Reply

One of the things I had put on my 40th bucket list that I wrote here (hmmm, I need to review this things more often!) was that I wanted to execute a big surprise
Well, I can put  a check beside this one because I did!!
For our vacation this year, we told the kids since we are saving for our big trip inMarch to Fiji, Australia and New Zealand (dream trip that we started planningas soon as we were marriedJ) we would just have a low key vacation in Florida. We would fly there, paying a good chunk with points (which was true), use a time share (which is what we usually do) and just hang out (which truly sounded good and usually what we do). We also usually take a second trip to a cottage every summer, which this year we didn’t do, partly due to our soccer schedule,but also due to the fact we knew what else we were planning….
So, we were up on the Saturday morning (August 11th) at 2:30 am to be at the airport for 4am. The kids love getting up in the night to leave for trips –even though we are in for an exhausting day!  Rob and I were a bit concerned we would make all our connections – as we knew we had a timeline – so we said a little prayer and were on our way. The flights went smoothly, everyone had a short snooze, played on their ipods, were a bit antsy during our 2 hour layover, but all in all it was a good trip. We arrived on time, we got all our luggage (the other thing we were so worried about) and started on ourway.
I had hired a taxi/limo company who knew about our “surprise”. He picked us all up – and never said a word. He mentioned he had to pick up another passenger too (which worried me at first) but that worked out even better! He told us before he brought us to our hotel he had to go to the port of Miami to drop the other passenger off. A bit annoying everyone thought – but who cares.

In the cab

On our drive there, the kids were asking us things like, “Can we go buy that new cereal for breakfast“, “Are we going to go to the pool today?”.  The best question: “Is our hotel on the beach”? My answer, “Yup, it’s right on the water”!

We dropped the other passenger off at her cruise ship and then continued on along in the port. Our driver all of a sudden said something happened and he had to drop us off in the port and we could call a cab to take us to our hotel.
“Huh?” weall said, “Ok. No problem”
Then I turned to the kids and said “Or, we can just get on the boat”
They were all confused. “What do you mean? Go on a cruise? What are you talking about?Are you serious”? The confusion continued and slowly they began to realize that were were actually getting on the boat and going on a CRUISE!
I got a great video of the excitement, confusion, surprise, shock, amazement and a little fear too! The kids asked a million questions and we told them we were off to Cozumel (Zandra’s dream has been to go to Mexico), Belize, Honduras and Grand Cayman.  A couple of months ago Josh was reading in a travel book (this one here), all about Belize and Honduras and both Josh and Zach had ironically told me that they would love to go to these places (Belize has the world’s second largest barrier reef). They were super excited!
We got agood pic taken by our driver just after we arrived.

Just found out what are plans were!

Unfortunately the line ups were out of this world when we arrived and it felt like we were never going to get on the ship. We finally did, found our cabins (which were pretty cozy) and had to go to the muster drill. Argh (ok – safety is importantbut it was so hot and we were so sick of the line ups!!).

Kid’s cabin

Our cabin

Sailing away from Miami

Exploring the ship

Finally, we found our way to food, had a yummy burger and fries, checked the ship out, and I went back to unpack (I need to get settled to relax) while Rob played chess with the kids (on the life size chess board on the top deck of the ship).
After some relaxing, we headed to the fancy dining room for dinner, and got a taste of the fun dinner will be. The waiters really push food on you. Gabe ordered one starter only because he was not very hungry, but the waiter insisted on bringing two. A couple of kids had Caesar salad and steak, and the waiter was insistent on bringing everyone fries too. It was a really nice meal, but everyone was totally exhausted. We headed back to the cabin – with the promise of star gazing tomorrow nightJ. The highlight of so many evenings was coming back to our cabin to see what towel animal was going to greet us!

It was a great day and I’m so happy how the big surprise turned out!