Western Carribean Cruise

That sure is a big boat!

The last week of February was cold and gloomy but we had an alternate plan, we went on a cruise. This was to celebrate D's 50th birthday. We saw blue blue water and white sandy beaches.

We dressed up for dinner and walked on deck in the cool sea breezes.
We ate warm chocolate melting cake and went to comedy shows and musical entertainment.

We saw beautiful sunrises and sunsets!

We climbed the ruins at Kohunlich and learned about them from an experienced archeologist. It was so fascinating but we just didn't have long enough to see it all.

This is the temple of the masks. These masks are carved on tombs and then covered by another structure to protect them. In some cases the outer structure crumbles leaving the original building exposed and we were lucky enough to see it.

We got out picture taken dressed up. D thought this was frivalous but I reminded him that our kids spent more money than we were on pictures with people they will never go out with again and we have been married for 28 years and rarely get our picture taken together and we looked good!

There were two elegant nights so we got our picture taken both times.
We were so cute.

We had a great time and had some warm days. We had cool days at sea and some days that were a little warmer and a couple of really warm days. I think February is a great time to go on a cruise.

This is only part of the trip. If I get to it I'll show you more.

tidbits

Ok, that was weird, I kind of expected my family to respond but nooooo. My good friends and customers. That is really funny. Ok Linda, these books were suggested by my sister and I think I told you about them.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
This book takes place in Afghanistan in the 80's I believe. It's a great history and culture lesson but sad. It makes one think about the purpose of your own life. I would give it a 3 1/2 of 5 because I like happy. Very well written and I learned a lot. Be grateful for our lives!
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
A book my sister learned of by association with the author on a writers blog. Well written, a book of unmet possibilities. 4
Then I still had the ride home and nothing to read so I picked up Eternal on the Water by Joseph Monninger in the airport. Easy read, thought provoking. I remembered to be grateful for every minute I have with those I love and my associations with people who inspire me and make me happy. also a 4 maybe even a plus.
I am a people person and love to be with people. I am motivated by people. My house doesn't get clean unless someone is coming over. I love to meet new people which is why I love my job. Anyway, more tidbits later!

So much to blog about, so little time. Should I blog about the great time we had on the cruise and tell you all the things we did? But I did that on facebook. Should I tell you the books I read last month?, two just while vacationing and enjoying the peace and cool sea breeze.

I could also blog about how I'm so lucky to have spent nearly 29 years with such a wonderful husband and how I'm learning to enjoy every good moment because there is enough sadness and difficult times to deal with.

Or, I could blog about D and his 50th birthday and the great cake R made for him or give you his list of things he accomplished in his 50th year like buying his motorcycle and riding it home from Vegas or rafting cataract canyon with L and the cruise that we took together
and zip-lining in the everglades and doing a perfect 360 degree flip off of a rope swing in a river in Belize.

I could also blog about the things we have done with K to try to teach her to take care of herself and her things and the next step in her life.

There is so much and I have so little time and when I get home in the evenings I have no energy and don't want to blog at all.

I'm also expecting a grandchild around my birthday and still run a salon which is a happy place right now. So many things and I still have nothing really to say. If there is anyone that reads this or anyone that has an opinion about what I should write about, leave a comment. If not, I'll blog in April. hahahahaha

Room of Disaster

This is what a tantrum looks like at our house: That is black sharpie on the bed. The bed is on the floor, not a frame because we learned years ago that any empty space is where all the nice and useful things go, all gobbed up and covered with any liquid close at hand, such as: lotion, glue, nail polish, blood, the list goes on. There was a washable marker in her room that she pulled apart, drained onto her hands and wiped on the walls, carpet and clothes. Thank goodness, this washed off pretty well.

Now, notice the purple marker on the box spring and on the carpet and then notice the spot just to the right of it that is NOT washable but black sharpie.

The interesting thing here is what set K off. D told her to eat her dinner. We had chili, which she usually likes and didn't say she didn't want. In discussing this with the therapist we think she can feel us withdrawing from her and acted out. D has been done for about a year and can't wait for this phase (foster parenting) of our lives to be over but I'm so concerned with the regression she will make. We haven't had a big tantrum in so many months but we can't have her constantly destroying our house. This is probably a good thing because as much as I've been hanging on, I think I'm on the same page as D now and CJ has been ready to be done for a long time. I think L thinks we are just giving up but as much as she wants to save the world she hasn't volunteered any time to help out. About a year ago R told me that she told her husband A that she wishes he had known us before K because we used to be fun. I thought about that and I'm not sure we would have been fun anyway. We used to have kids that got good grades and enjoyed school and friends and activities and were very involved in band and plays. Now we have K and CJ who just wont do school work even if he does understand it. It's not the best time of our lives but we are happy we are not in the position of some of our friends whose son is stealing and doing drugs and they are afraid to be home with him.
OK, back to the story. So we've discussed this with the therapist and case worker and it was decided that K needs to go to another home with higher level of structure and supervision. The interesting thing is that K asked if I would talk to the case worker and ask if she could go to another family for a while. Now we will do as she requests and she feels like she has control of her life. Maybe it all will work out just fine. The case worker wants her to stay in the area so she can go to the same school so I could still take her and do things with her without her taking over our lives. After being her mom for 4 years I can't just stop.

The consequence to the tantrum was to have the door removed and I took her "extra" clothes
so she wears her school uniform all day. She also lost TV, computer and phone privileges all week. D can't wait to get into that room and fix it up so it will stay nice.

Book review

Yes, I read a book and it was a 600 page book at that. I've read most of the Ender books by Orson Scott Card and wanted to read some of his non sci-fi books. Saints is a book about an LDS woman/family by an LDS author but certainly not considered an "LDS novel". It has some parts that are just to risque to be published by Deseret Book. It is however a story about a generation and polygamy in a positive light and tells the story of the characters gaining a difficult testimony of the "Principle". It made me laugh and cry. Since I don't have a lot of time for reading but become obsessed I usually read when I have a day or two off so I started it Thursday and finished it Sunday night and worked two of those days. Now I need to give my family some attention.
Last week I read The Associate - John Grisham. It was typical John Grisham and enjoyable.

Freshen up the house

So, back in Risa's high school days she had an interior design class and for a class project she and a friend painted our family room downstairs. they did faux painting and stenciled the ivy. It was the year 2000 and ivy was in. Now it's 2010 and ivy is out and the color never really matched the carpet so we decided we needed to move furniture down stairs but I wanted it painted first. This is what it has looked like for 10 years: This is the mess we created so we could start:

We had to prime the bottom half of the room and it took two coats of primer and heavy coats of paint

The colors are "baked cinnamon" which is a pretty tera cotta color and the other color is taupe.

This picture is blurry because the flash distorts the color.

See the legs behind the TV table? That's CJ putting all the electronics together.

The tera cotta color matches the fleks in the countertop of the kitchenette. I love it. Now I want to find some plaid with the right colors to make a quilt or two to hang on a quiltrack and would look great on the couches too. One more project done.... Many to go.

Christmas fun

We decorated and cleaned and prepared and spent time together.

I worked Christmas Eve so we had an appetizer night and everyone prepared their favorite appetizer and we feasted like we (I) had spent all day cooking.

We all hung our stockings and pretended we had been good all year.The next morning it was all over in a flash.
There was plenty of bounty to go around.

We kind of like the mess afterwards.
Where's Waldo

We even had some light-hearted tickling/wrestling fun.

Now everyone goes back to their homes/apartments and we go back to work and the Christmas music stops playing on the radio but I'm not ready to be done so I will still listen to my Christmas music on my i-pod and have as much fun as we can till everyone goes back to school and we get back to our routine. I can't wait till Christmas next year!