Cruising Day 1

 After losing our parents, my sister and I decided we needed to get away together.  After considering several options, we decided a short cruise would be the best option.  After some research I settled on a 4-night cruise to the Bahamas with Royal Caribbean.  

Day One

Monday June 2

    We arrived in Port Canaveral about 12:30 and were not scheduled for check-in until 2:00 so we walked to a nearby restaurant called Grills Tiki Bar. We ordered an appetizer and couple drinks. 

An added bonus was being right by our massive ship (this was the back of it). 

Boarding was very easy because I had all the documents I needed...actually finding the necessary documents was NOT easy and more than once we wondered whether we'd even be able to go on the cruise.  Thankfully, everything worked out and we sailed right through the boarding process (pun intended).  

Finding our room was pretty easy also.  We were on the 7th floor in room 128.  

Having a balcony was a must for us and, as it turns out, was the place we were the happiest and most content. We spent a LOT of time out there reading. 

Right after we left port, it was time to get ready for dinner.  We chose the earlier dining option (5:00) and felt very awkward sitting at a six person table all by ourselves and wished we had a smaller table.  But the service was great and the food was amazing!  On this day, I had soup for an appetizer, whitefish for the main course, and chocolate pudding for dessert.  

After dinner we walked around several decks on the ship just looking around.  

We ended up back in our room at about 8:00.  I took a shower and then we sat outside and read and then rented the movie Companion before turning the lights out. 

An Epic Saturday

 Sometimes living in Orlando can be so frustrating, but when an amazing theme park opens up just a short 10 minutes from your apartment, it is so worth it. 

Yesterday, my son was able to grab preview tickets for him, me, and my sister and we had the most wonderful day.  One thing I was worried about before the day began was that the temperature was supposed to be in the high 90's, but most of the cue's are indoors so it ended up being not a big deal at all.  In fact, there were times I was so cold while in line that I couldn't wait to get outside to warm up.

CJ and I took full advantage of the day and arrived about 10:00.  

We immediately headed over to How to Train Your Dragon. 

One of the creative aspects of the part is that you walk through a portal to enter each of the four lands.  

The land itself had stunning details and I could have just walked around all morning and just looked at stuff. 

The first ride we did was Fyre Drill which is a water ride, but not your typical water ride. On this one, you board a boat and shoot water from water cannons at flame-like targets.  Very fun!

After that, we jumped right in line to see the show Untrainable Dragon, and then headed over to do Hiccups Wing Glider.

Picture from Google (Orlando Informer Credit)

This was a disappointment for me.  This is exactly the kind of roller coaster I love - it had no big drops, just lots of twists and turns.  But the lap bar was designed in such a way so that it pushed into the tender points at the top of my leg (fibromyalgia fun) and I spent the entire ride saying, "ouch, ouch, ouch".  It really hurt!!!  If I was to do it again I  might try not closing the lap bar so tight, but it was so painful that I don't know if I want to put myself through that again.  

In a stroke of perfect timing, as soon as the ride was over my sister arrived so we met her at the front of the park and then headed over to Monsters. 

 

 The ride had the same ride system as Forbidden Journey.  Oh my gosh!  Did I love this ride. And an added bonus was the wait time was low to none!  We rode it more than once.  

After that, CJ and my sister rode Stardust Racers.  I know my limits and waited at a nearby table in the shade.  

As it turns out, it was a little to intense for my sister who ended up regretting her choice as soon as they reached the top of the first incline.  haha

We had a great lunch at the Oak and Star Tavern.  It was quiet, peaceful, no stress, and the food was awesome.  We all shared two portions of pulled pork with fries and bread.  There are four choices of BBQ sauces on the table.  I used the sweet, but it really wasn't sweet at all which was fine with me.  

This was the point that we hit the only frustrating snag of the day while waiting for the Harry Potter ride. 

 The cue was stunning.  

Unfortunately, the wait was l-o-n-g and was only made longer by the ride experiencing stops that required maintenance twice which added about 30 minutes to the already long wait time.  

The ride itself was good - I would say the ride system is like a combination of Gringotts and Spiderman. 

We couldn't resist a second go at Monsters and then went to sit inside Das Stakehouse and had some yummy snacks.

At this point, we had only one land left - Nintendo Land.  

The portal was the best one.  You step on an elevator and you are surrounded by visual and audio that makes it seem as if you are in a warp pipe.

Then you enter and....

It was visual overload but so very cool!  There was an incredible attention to detail and brought back strong memories of playing Mario, Mario Kart, and Mario Party!  

We went on Yoshi and then my sister left because she had about 1.5 hour drive home.  

CJ and I could not resist  going on Monsters one more time.  We hit the single riders line so we could skip the preshow and walked ride on the ride.  

Then we returned to ride the Mario Kart ride.  It was at least a 90 minute wait, but we got so incredible lucky when a women gave us her express passes, so the wait only ended up being about 20 minutes.  

We ended the perfect day with another ride on Yoshi.

I got home about 8:20 and was not exhausted at all!   It was so much fun.  

Brayden

 After losing my mom, my dad, and Ollie in a matter of 46 days, things around our house were pretty depressing.  Our lives were littered with sadness and, to a degree, anger.  Nothing could ever replace Ollie, but I felt that we needed some happiness and joy in our lives so I started looking for another dog. 

After several dead ends (mentioned briefly in previous post), I stumbled upon a lady about two hours from here who had mini-goldendoodles for sale and she was only charging $650 for a puppy.  

We talked on the phone briefly and she sent some pictures of the litter.  I forwarded them to Zack and let him pick.  There was a white one that resembled Ollie which is the one I thought he'd pick, but he surprised me and picked this one.

This was in mid-January and the puppies, who were born on December 17, 2024, were not available until mid-February.  The wait seemed endless, but we were finally able to pick him up on Friday, February 14. 

Brayden's gotcha day.  My plan was to put him in this bowtie collar for a picture, but we seriously underestimated his size and it was way to huge for him.  So here is Zack holding the collar so we could at least get the picture I dreamed of. Haha.

He also had hair covering his eyes and I don't know how the poor thing could even see well,  

so I quickly cut the hair away from his eyes.

Brayden was a dream puppy from the beginning (as was Ollie).  There was no whining or separation anxiety.  From the first night he went in his kennel without any whining and barking (about 9:30) and slept until 7:15 the next morning. 

He very quickly became attached to us.  Right now, he is very fearful of strangers.  If we are on a walk and he sees someone, his tail will go down and he will stop, turn around, run back to us, and sit at our feet. I do not want this.  I want a friendly dog, so I will usually pick him up and let the people pet him so he knows people are nice. 

He is also a very fast learner.  He does not usually have accidents anymore as long as we take him out every 2-3 hours during the day or after he wakes up from a nap.  I became real strict with him about his puppy bites. It only took one night and he no longer nips at me at all (Zack is still working on this with him).  He understands, "no" and will stop and look at me when I yell it.  Haha

He had his first (first with me) vet visit on March 3 and he was 10 pounds.  He got his second round of puppy shots, some heartworm pills, and some flea medication.  The vet said he will probably end up being between 30-35 pounds. 

He needs to grow into his car seat.  

We are having so much fun with him and he has brought so much joy into our house.  

The Grief Train

 To inject some kind of light-heartedness into our situation, I like to say that the grief train paid us a visit and just will not leave!  

My post on the worst day ever...I never would have thought we'd have two more just like it. 

Just 23 days after losing my dad, I was in my classroom on a Monday morning when I got a call from my sister. I happily answered my phone only to hear her say, "mom's gone".  I have to admit, my first thought was, 'gone where?' so I asked, "what do you mean?" She just said, "she's gone, Judy.  I don't know what happened. But they found her this morning." And my life came apart.  I kept my composure until we hung up and then, well, I've never cried so hard in my whole life.  Thank God my kids were in Art and not in my room.  My loud wails drew the attention of the teachers across the hall (who were also childless at the time) and they came in and listened and hugged me as I wailed over and over again the words, "both of them - they're both gone?"  One of them went to get our principal and somehow I got myself together so I could leave my room and my kids could come back from Art.   I then drove home crying the whole way. 

The strangest thing and the thing that gives me the most peace, is that on Sunday evening she made a post on Facebook saying that she could hear my dad in his "mancave."  I truly believe she did.  God tells me, "she wanted him, I sent him, and she wanted to go with him."  

I have this image of my dad in his mancave, looking young and handsome holding out his hand to my mom.  She grabs it and becomes her young and beautiful self, and they walk off together.  

And while we are left devastated, they are as happy as can be. 

As if that wasn't enough, 23 days after that, we had to put our wonderful, amazing, and best dog in the world to sleep.  Two weeks ago today, he ran across that rainbow bridge and jumped into my mom's arms.  I knew the time left with our sweet boy was getting short, but I was hoping for a couple more months to let our hearts heal a little.  But God had other plans and made it clear that it was his time. 

I've been on a grief roller coaster. Sometimes I am absolutely fine and temporarily forget about things, but then there are days when I can hardly breathe and the tears come easily.  There are days where my faith is strong and I whole-heartedly lean on God knowing he will lead me through this, and then there are days I just scream out, "why?" Or feel like running off somewhere and try to leave all this grief behind...but I realize that is not possible. I feel horrible that my dad gets lost in all this grief.  We knew he was not well and that he was not going to be around much longer. He had lost the ability to care for himself and had lost so much dignity, that it was a little easier to accept because he did not want to live life that way.  But my mom's death was completely unexpected.  She had a compression fracture in her back that was quite painful for her and she was losing weight, muscle mass, and getting weaker.  But never did it cross my mind that she wouldn't heal, regain her mobility and strength, and have a few more good years with us.  

I decided that we needed some happiness and joy in our life so I started looking for puppies/young dogs who needed homes.  The aways say adopt, don't shop, but after 12-15 inquiries on adoptable dogs not one single person responded.  Sadly, the animal shelters are overrun with pit bulls and pit bull mixes.  That is not my breed of choice and is a forbidden breed in my lease anyway. 

Finally, I looked at 'purebreds' for sale. Lord Almighty some of those puppies are going for $3,000 - $4,000.  I even saw a couple upwards of $8,000!  Nope and thank you!  

I hit a home-run finding a golden doodle born on December 17 for $650!  I love the poodle breed (Ollie had that as well) because the shedding is very minimal and they are good for people with allergies.  So Zack picked out our boy, named him Brayden (after Brayden Point), and I put a $200 deposit down on him. 

Meet our new family member

I can't wait to see how the cats will react. Just like in this picture, I predict Sadie will be completely unimpressed. 

Screaming From the Lion's Den

 I heard that phrase in a song a few days ago and I felt it so aptly described my situation and feelings right now. 

Screaming From the Lion's Den

I am in the darkest pit of my life right now.  Nothing I have ever experienced has even come close to this. Three huge losses in just 46 days! 

 At times I feel as if my heart is just going to break into 1000 little pieces. At times I feel physically sick.  At times I feel suffocated by the weight of this grief and unable to catch my breath.  

BUT

From this darkest pit, I raise my voice to heaven knowing that God has taken me there, but will not abandon me there.  He alone is holding my heart together in his hands.

He alone will slowly stitch it back together

I am "screaming from the lion's den" but JOY will come in the morning.