Just. Breathe.

This week didn't turn out exactly as planned.  Monday's bootcamp was ridiculous: 50 mountain climbers 20 squats 20 push ups 50 lunges 100 high knees 20 sumo squats 30 moving push ups 40 step ups (20 per leg) 50 run lunges FOUR TIMES THROUGH We made it through three times -- and my hatred for push ups stands. Ridiculously sore on Tuesday and Wednesday, which made what happened Wednesday even more difficult to figure out.  Monday's dinner was the lovely chicken and lime soup I wrote about here , and on Tuesday we took chicken and beef fajitas to Bug. She's house- and animal-sitting this week for friends -- and by animals, I mean 11 dogs, 14 horses, some number of rabbits, chickens, pigs, alpacas, and goats. It's been cold this week, so she's having fun feeding animals at 6am when it's 26 degrees. We fed her, then went and visited the animals. That adorable baby pig was fast! He didn't want to be held, obviously. Around 2pm Wednesday...

First, my deepest apologies to the two of you who have been waiting around for Part 3. It's been an insane week and not in a good way. Second, if you are my mother or my child, stop reading now. Seriously, there was nothing happening during this part of the trip you need to know about. Third, if you were on the trip with me, apologies in advance for the editing that's about to happen. It's because I know my daughter and my mom well enough to know they completely ignored my directions above. Cozumel ! Our last stop on the cruise was Cozumel, where I've been several times before, and that I love every time we go. All of us opted not to take excursions on this stop. The ship docks right at the pier, so you can set your own schedule and just walk down to the shops in town. It's very touristy and cheesy and I love it all. We left about 10 that morning after watching the Carnival ship park next to us. You're blocking my view, honey.   If you've neve...

[If you missed Part 1, click here . ] After all the snorkeling and kayaking in Roatan, we went back to the ship to change, then walked down the pier to the shops there.   And found Fat Tuesday's! Home of the spectacular frozen drink - margaritas, daiquiris, whatever they can mix up. And then, once you've had one of those... ...you realize something has happened to your shoes and you have to stay there! We wandered around sipping on something cold and looking at all the goods. There was an inlaid-wood ice bucket that I'm still kicking myself for not getting. Hey! If anybody's gonna be in that neighborhood, pick one up for me, k? On to Belize! Had a fun evening on the boat while we made our way to Belize for the 2nd excursion. Brenda and Doug were going on a different one from the rest of us -- cave tubing -- and they left early that Wednesday morning. Ours didn't leave until almost noon, and we boarded a boat directly from the ship, so we were nev...

I should realize I'm too old to wait very long before writing things down -- with my memory, two weeks is just asking for trouble! The Setup RDub and I settled on a cruise after weeks (months?) of discussing what we wanted to do for our 25th anniversary. We looked into all-inclusive resorts, travel to Europe, and any number of other options. We didn't have an unlimited budget, but we knew this would be a splurge and didn't want to worry too much about it once we decided what to do. We've cruised before (twice together, and another time for me) and have had good experiences -- nothing like what just happened to the Carnival cruise ship! While we were considering, RDub was talking to a friend who had sailed on this cruise line when he and his wife got married. Their tenth anniversary was 3 days before ours, and just like that, this became a party! The splurge was to make it a full week, and to get a balcony room. Now we're a party of four. But wait, there's...