VACA

Along with some friends we decided that we needed a little vacation. My sweet friend Amy had just recently moved back from the East Coast and ended a 9 year marriage and needed to get away. Who wouldn't?! Lover Boy and I were telling her about the cruise my parent had taken us on and how much fun it was. She suggested that would be a perfect vacation for all of us, we (lover boy and I) could celebrate our recent marriage and she could celebrate the end of hers. You know it really doesn't take much to sell Lover Boy or myself on the idea of a vacation, let alone a cruise. We got online immediately and found a super deal with Carnival. It was a 4 day cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada Mexico and left from San Diego! How perfect, we could drive there and not have to be gone for too long, you know it's kinda hard going for too long when you have kids to leave behind. We asked all of our friends who would want to go, it was about 6 months away and we got a great response, we could've qualified for a group discount (off of what was already an incredible price); however we couldn't book it right away til we got some money saved up...by the time we booked everyone had backed out except the 3 of us who had planned it and 2 others. The price was still incredible so we weren't too bummed out about missing out on the group discount.

We were all so excited to go, we counted down months, weeks, days and then hours. About a week before we were going Amy had 2 friends decide they wanted to come along too. Drama happened after they had booked their room and one girl dropped out, Carnival wasn't too great to work with however. They would allow them to cancel their room for a full refund, but both would have to cancel. We suggested that the girl who still wanted to go just bunk with Amy and Deb (that way they would still get her money and she could still go, win/win); but they said they wouldn't do that but they would give her 1 hr to find a replacement. 1 HOUR!! Can you believe it? Fortunately we have modern day technology and she sent a mass text to her entire phone book explaining the situation. Her friend told her of a girl who might be interested because she had just mentioned that she needed a vacation. Anyways long story short(er) this friend of a friend got booked on the cruise.

We were a little worried about having such a small group with one person that none of us had ever met before, but once we met Candy-Mae we knew we would have a great time with her.

We left Sunday night and drove through the night, I slept most of the time (motherhood tends to wear me right out). We got to Cali and were a few hours early to board so we had some yummy breakfast and let ourselves get so excited!!

We had such a blast! We made friends with so many people and even met a group about our ages from good ol' SLC. We ate, danced, sang, ate some more, sun bathed and ate yet some more!!

The first day was my favorite. I loved exploring the ship and anticipating what good times we would have.

On this trip, (hahaha, you'll find out why I'm laughing at calling it a trip just now in a moment) I did something very "like" me, but out of control. I tripped every single time I saw this group of guys. HAHAHa nice right?! I'm there with my husband, but tripping every time I see guys. LOL...let me explain before you think I'm a jerk of a wife.

The first day as we are finding our cabin, Amy (who is recently divorced...well about a year) noticed a very attractive man walking out of his cabin just down the hallway from us. So everytime we would see him in the hallway we would tease Amy. Well by day 2 we began questioning his sexuality. Everytime we saw him he was surrounded by a group of beautiful men. One was obviously gay, but we weren't too sure about the rest of them. SO everytime I would see them I had to stare (ok, I should've only looked, but I couldn't help myself) for 2 reasons....they were beautiful and to see if I could tell if they were all gay or just the one. One morning, well it was the 2nd morning I was walking near the pool to "our" table that we met at each day and saw the group of "beauties" sitting at a nearby table. I turned and stared, and then tripped over the stupid LARGE lounger chairs, you know the ones that are right by the pool, those big long things that you could NEVER trip over!! Well I stumbled over 3 of them, needless to say I got that tables attention along with everyone else's who was on that deck. To hide my embarrassment I just smiled and said "well if you weren't all so pretty I wouldn't have stared, and then wouldn't have tripped". That was the worst of my trips so the only one I'll share, but I will just add that on the last night of the trip I had a few bites to eat with my "friends" and they thanked me for making their trip so unforgettable. They were flattered that I would trip every single time they came into view and so sought me out just to see if they could get me to make a fool of myself. At least I made them laugh right?!

One night on the dance floor, well first I should probably explain a little about my dancing abilities....I HAVE NONE!! The girls we were with can move, they are like fluid moving on that dance floor and looking rather sexy, well not I. So we were out there and rather than try to look halfway decent, I just looked as ugly as possible. Brandon (one of the fellows from SLC) decided to join me, after Lover Boy got embarrased and suggested that I remove myself from the dance floor. Brandon and I jumped and threw our arms about and had a blast!! So glad someone can make a fool of himself with me:) Lover Boy is such a great guy, not a dancer, but a great guy none-the-less. There was a guy out on the dance floor in a wheelchair just spinning in circles and having fun. Lover Boy grabbed me and another girl and told us to go dance with him and make his night. So nice of him to suggest that, so we did...I did feel a bit funny after the first song ended, you know with my husband sitting at a table while I dance with someone else, so I decided that I'd rather just dance by myself the rest of the night. There were some breakdancers out there...which I totally love breakdancing, so amazing!!! I thought maybe I could try one move like theirs...I attempted the backwords fish flop (ok I don't have a clue what it's really called) hahaha it was hilarious. I most likely embarassed all my friends, but o-well. I tried to breakdance.

A Daughter of God

As I sit here frustrated and confused, not uncommon in my life, while trying to make sure every base is covered before we leave for our "honeymoon" trip tomorrow I checked my emails. For some reason I scrolled down past quite a few emails that I had already viewed and then saw one that I hadn't yet, it was from Monday. How'd I miss it? I honestly don't know, so I'm just gonna say that someone upstairs knew I needed it today...although I think it would've been so nice to have gotten on Monday because the beginning of this week sure was a rough ROUGH one for me. Anyways the email was from my dear brother Braxton who is on his mission is Mexico City.

(I hope he doesn't mind but I'm pasting the entire email on here)
And it says:
how the heck is ya? hey i dont know if you read the letter i sent to mom, but this week i had an interview with elder tenorio(a member of the quorum of the seventy) and he was asking about each member of our family and a bunch of stuff and as he said the closing prayer he asked for blessings for the family in whole but asked for specific blessing for you and i thought you might want to know that a general authority has offered a prayer in your behalf. i love you a ton, dont worry about struggles in life, just remember your testimony and rely on the Lord to bless you, strive to strenghthen your testimony daily, it has been one of the greatest blessing for me to be able to do that in my life.
i hope all is well, tell joe hi and give him a hug for me. and make sure that my little princess knows i love her as well as little man even though i havent met him yet. take care. remember that i love you and that your a beautiful daughter of God!
farewell for now
brax

WOW huh?! Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I re-read this. It is so comforting to me that people, people who have never met me and likely never will, care. Life is rough for me right now, some days I just want to resign and quit...as if this is a game or a job or something. Don't get me wrong, my life is no harder than the next persons and I know that, I know that I am truly blessed and very fortunate in my life; however I just get on these kicks sometimes and let that ugly darkness enter my heart.

My patriarchal blessing tells me that "many times in life you will be discouraged and despondent" and it doesn't tell me just once...it's 8 times. I used to hate those warnings and just thinking about them would make me discouraged and despondent, however now I realize that it's one of those backward blessings. It's comforting to know that someone saw forehand that I will battle those feelings and will now bless me with the right people at those times to help me get through. I see it every time I enter the black hole of depression, there is always a sweet angel reaching out to help me get back to the light.

Thank you to all who have been an angel at one time or another in my life. You are my blessings that I am so grateful for!!