More good news! THE BRACELETS ARE IN!!!! Woohoooo!!!!!!!!
Some not so fabulous news... The game night fundraiser is currently postponed. The reasons don't need to be blasted here, but it's something I understand completely and am not upset about. We will figure out when we can reschedule it later, but right now my friend's focus needs to be elsewhere so we aren't going to fret over it now. No worries. I will update when that particular fundraiser is back on!
Our Scentsy fundraiser is still going, and going well!! Thanks to everyone that has ordered!
I think that's all the updates I have currently. I do want to add though, that our hearts go out to those who are suffering because of the awful Costa Concordia cruise ship accident. It's absolutely tragic, and I can't even put in to words how I feel about it, the whole thing just makes my stomach hurt. :( I am praying for everyone that was on board, and the family members of those who passed away or are still missing.
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Saturday was our last full day on the ship. We had already packed up just about everything, and planned on trying to make the most of our day at sea. I personally was hoping that the sea sickness would stay away!
Breakfast was the buffet and on our way back to the room we seen a table set up with all kinds of gold and white gold chains. Faith needed a new necklace for her Family Medallion which we had given her at the wedding, it broke about a week after she got it. We picked out a pretty white gold chain and measured out the length we thought was best. Then Danny chose a beautiful white gold chain for a bracelet for me. We put them both on our room card and they said they would be ready later that night (they had to put the clasps on).
Back in our room we discussed what we should do next.
"You know, we've talked about going to sit in the hot tub this whole time and I've never felt up to it. Let's do it today. I'm still feeling okay, and maybe if I'm IN water, I won't feel the movement anyway!"
"That's a good idea. Then we can go up to the deck where the FlowRider is and we can watch all the fun up there." I wish he could try that dang surfing thing, he was really looking forward to it.... Stupid cancer...
We headed to the adults only hot tub, which we had a view of from our balcony.
After sitting for quite a while, we were ready to get something cool to drink and head out to the fun deck. Danny got a drink from a server walking around with yummy looking drinks... and I went for the soft serve ice cream!!!
"Okay, lead the way. I have no idea where we are..."
"Babe... you never do."
"Uhhh, so?? I don't NEED to know where we are, you always do."
"Well, yeah, that's true." Ha!! I win!!
We stood around watching people surf, seeing most of them face plant. Then decided to walk around and see what else there was to do.
"Danny!! Look!! Mini golf!!!"
"Oh, you wanna lose?!" Who is he kidding?!?!
"Me? LOSE?! Against YOU, at mini golf?! Have you lost your mind?? Come on, let's play!"
Playing on a ship that's moving is WEIRD. I PROBABLY would've gotten a few holes in one if the ship hadn't shifted and moved my ball away from the hole. ;) I still ended up winning though...
After lunch we went back to the room because I, of course, started feeling sick. I took some medicine and tried to just lay down and relax.
The tv in the rooms show you the weather conditions, including "apparent winds." Everything had been calm all day, until around the time I started feeling sick. According to the tv, the apparent winds at that time kicked up to 103mph. I'm not even sure how that's possible, or if the tv was just wrong. But it was crazy that I started feeling sick around the time the apparent wind fluctuated that much.
We spent most of the rest of that day in our room and on the balcony, and I was so thankful we had packed up the night before. No way could I pack everything while feeling like that!
We went to the pizza place to eat dinner, and then went to pick up our jewelry order. Everything seemed to be on sale in all the stores, so we ended up doing more shopping. We bought my dad a bottle of Crown Royal, since he loves it and it was so cheap. We went to the photo area and claimed and paid for all of the pictures that we liked that had been taken by the RC photographers. That took forever, since the pictures were spread out all over. One of the packages we had paid for with gift certificates included a picture frame, and we decided we would have our formal picture put in it.
We also went to the computer area and paid a few dollars to get online so we could check in for our flight the next day. The flights were both crowded but we were still seated together, and I had a window seat, so I was happy.
Going over the paperwork back in the room, we had to fill out a few things involving customs. We also were assigned to late check-out from the ship, which I was worried about. Our flight left in the early afternoon, and the airport was well over an hour away. I had no idea how long it would take to check out (the video on the tv said it could take quite a while) so I was in a bit of a panic.
"I'll go down to the reservations desk and see if they can give us the early time, don't worry. I'm sure we'll figure something out." My husband is THE best!!
"Thanks babe!"
I spent that time putting all of our luggage together, and packing up the stuff we had just purchased. We were ready to go, except for the stuff we would put up after getting ready in the morning.
Danny came back and said that we could check out at any time, with the "our time" option. We just wouldn't set out our luggage for the crew to pick up. In the morning we would have to lug it around ourselves, but that was fine with me if it meant we could make it to the airport on time.
We set our alarm so we would wake up in time to get ready and beat the crowd of passengers trying to get off the ship.
The next morning we got up and rushed to get ready. Our phones were going wild, we had texts that were all being delivered now that we were in range of a cell tower. We headed downstairs to the exit, and waited around until the official leave time. There were only about 15 other people waiting around, so I figured we could get off the boat in about an hour... HA!!!!
We lugged our hauled down to the customs area, and handed over our passports to the man at the desk.
"Honeymoon?"
"Yep!"
"Congrats. When did you guys get married?"
"In June."
"Why is your last name not the same?"
"I was told not to change it officially until after the cruise, because the new passport wouldn't get here in time."
"Okay, well, everything looks good. You can go on." That's it? That's as long as it took?! It hadn't even been five minutes!!!
"Danny, I don't even think our taxi will be here yet. We are SO early. I thought that would take at least an hour!"
"Well, if it's not then we can just wait. Or call them. It's not a problem."
Our transportation wasn't there, but when I called, the lady said she was pulling into the port then. I seen the van and waved and she pulled in right in front of us. Danny loaded our luggage into the back, and we headed to Orlando.
The trip seemed to go a lot faster than the ride from the airport to the hotel did. We talked to our driver and she told us about her family. She was a really nice lady. We didn't really talk about ourselves, other than mentioning we were on our honeymoon and going back to Kansas.
We got to the airport and checked our luggage. We had LOTS of time to sit around and wait before our flight, and I was so thankful for such a huge airport with so many things to do. We had breakfast. We browsed some stores. I bought a book. And we people watched. I also checked in on Pixie and Zeus, they were great. I asked my friend who had been going to take care of Kira how she was doing, she had been wonderful the whole time. She also mentioned she seen my dad mowing our lawn. I called my mom and talked her ear off, telling her all about the sea sickness, swimming with Ziggy the dolphin, the Mayan Ruins. I told her what time we were set to get home and she said she would be ready to pick us up. Since she lives so close to the airport, I could just text or call once we landed.
And then it hit... We were going home. To our life. Our REAL life. We couldn't just sit back and enjoy anymore. It was time to get serious, make appointments, start treatments. I couldn't concentrate on the book I had bought. I wasn't even interested in people watching. I just wanted to get home.
We boarded our plane and took off without encountering a rude flight attendant, which I was thankful for. We landed in Atlanta and decided to have lunch in the ESPN restaurant since we had a long enough layover, and again, our gates were right next to each other. The food was great and the service was better than expected considering the entire place was full, not a single seat was empty. After eating, we headed to check to be sure our next flight was still on time...
A storm had moved in and the lightning was crazy. All flights in and out had stopped, but our flight time hadn't changed. We watched the radar on the tv, and the storm outside the windows. I called my mom again, just to let her know we might be a little late. I usually enjoy the rain, but it wasn't a welcome sight for me. I was feeling down about going back to our reality. And it's like the storm was mocking me... or preparing me for what was to come?
The storm stuck around longer than they did in Florida, but it finally moved out and the flights were back on. We were delayed about 30 minutes. Our flight was also overbooked.
"We are currently overbooked for our flight. If anyone would like to volunteer for a later flight, you will be compensated for your time." Uhhhh NO. I want to go HOME.
"I wonder how well they compensate for that... My time is worth a lot of money." They couldn't pay me enough...
"I'm just so ready to get home... I'm tired, we've been in airports all day, I want to sleep in our bed. Can we board yet?" Danny hugged me.
"Not yet babe..." I guess he knows there's more on my mind than just getting back to our house...
Our plane was crowded, but we got to our seats and got settled. It was already dark and I was unsure how I would handle not being able to see out the window... Turns out flying at night is even better for me! The lights were beautiful and I just looked out and got lost in thought.
How rough will chemo be on Danny? Will he have to have radiation? Will his new doctors be as wonderful as Dr Hyder is? Did the cancer spread, because of that one lymph node? If we hadn't caught this... would I have been a widow at 22 years old? 23? Oh God, no. No no no no no.
"How much longer do you think it will be until we land?"
"Are you askng 'are we there yet?'" He was smiling, and that made me smile...
"Yeah, I guess I am..."
"We should be there soon."
Around that time we were told to head to our seats and buckle up, which meant we just needed to stay where we were.
We landed and I called my mom to come pick us up. We went to claim our luggage... and there was no luggage to claim. The other passengers were looking around too, confused. It was late and everything was pretty much shut down in the airport, but that didn't mean our luggage shouldn't be available!
An attendant finally came around and said most of our luggage had arrived much earlier, and he would send someone to go get it all. Our luggage was on one of those carts, so Danny grabbed both suitcases and we went outside to wait on my mom... who was already there, waiting on us!
Mom asked about our flight, our time in Cocoa Beach before the cruise. I told her we would come over the next day to show off all the pictures. She dropped us off at our house and I couldn't get inside fast enough.
Kira HOWLED her greeting at Danny. She jumped around and her eyes literally lit up. I left them in the living room and started unpacking our bags. I didn't get far before I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore and I tossed our luggage in the spare room with the intent of finishing the next day. The next day... when all the phone calls would start, appointments would be made... ugh....
That's all for today, and I'm sorry again that the post was so late! It's been a crazy busy day! Tomorrow our story will continue. Please continue to follow and SHARE!!! Thanks for reading! :)
So glad you guys got home in one piece!! I was really expecting some terrible story about customs or the airport lol...glad you found a little luck :)
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