Cruise Part 1

Not sure how far I will get as I am nauseous and the world is spinning. In case you all can't tell we went on a cruise to the Bahamas lol. I was so excited for this trip because it was my first cruise and a lot of firsts for Maddy, as well as her second birthday. I stayed up all night Wednesday night trying to cram in school and make sure we had everything packed. I ended up spending all my time on school and still did not get everything finished. I worked 4 a.m. till 8:00 a.m. and then finished getting everything together. I was supposed to check Maddy's suitcase again but never did. You will understand why that is important later. Finally right around noon we were all ready to jump in the truck and take off on a 2 hour drive to Atlanta, GA to catch our flight at 5:13 p.m. It was perfect timing because Maddy was ready for her nap and I was also ready for some much needed sleep. We had to stop at a couple of stores to get last minute items and get some food as well. We stopped at Sonic and chowed down on some good food. Maddy stayed asleep until right as we got into Atlanta. I love looking at Atlanta because it is so pretty at night with the lights on the building. Maddy was eating her lunch finally and she looked like she was choking. We had a minor panic attack because she has never been choked and I felt like I couldn't get to her fast enough. She was breathing but she just seemed funny. She spit out her fry...or so I thought and then stuff just kept coming out in waves. After it was in my hand I realized she was throwing up. I was so worried that she was coming down with a bug. I decided to see how she acted at the hotel before I made any decisions at all. So we make it to the airport and man can we pile on some luggage. Between the 3 of us we had 5 suitcases to check in and then I had my backpack which was as full as possible, Maddy's so called diaper bag, and then Maddy's backpack. My mom had her backpack and a duffel bag and then my stepdad had no carry on luggage. With only 2 adults, because I had to push Maddy in her stroller, it was a bit rough getting it all in. We did put the checked luggage on a rolling cart, but my back was about to break lol. Airport security was a bit intense. They are so serious and try to rush people through and that is super hard when you have a toddler on top of all this luggage you have to take care of. I agree with airport security, but I think they need to have a line solely for parents traveling with children and have friendlier TSA's who understand it may take the parent a little longer to get everything. Once we got through security I felt as if I had run a marathon and we were just getting started. The air apparently wasn't working or was turned off because it was so hot in there we were all sweating quite a bit. We walked quite a bit on the people movers to get to our gate to board flight 75 to Fort Lauderdale, FL :) Our plane was on time and I was a bit nervous over Maddy getting sick while on the plane as well as would she enjoy the ride or would it scare her. Here she is on the plane:

I felt bad because I only brought one blanket and unfortunately it was on her lap when she got sick. I decided to use my jacket as a blanket in case she needed some comfort. Maddy seemed to enjoy the plane ride. We said, "weeeee" all the way down the runway. We had lots of bumps and a few drops here and there from the clouds that were around. I'm not sure what happened because I never get sick on planes but I almost did not make it through that flight without getting sick. I tried to stay strong and smile and laugh with Maddy, but I felt like I was not going to make it. We landed and all was well with both mommy and Maddy. Here is our view from the window once we landed

Once we stepped outside of the airport in Florida, we were instantly hit with extremely high humidity. It was so hot and muggy and the air was so thick that it was just miserable. We waited for our shuttle to take us to the Comfort Inn and Suites. The driver drove a little crazy and I was beginning to wonder if he was trustworthy lol. We made it and stood in the lobby for quite some time with absolutely no air conditioning. Oh man it was not fun. Once we got checked into our rooms we headed over to Taco Bell for some much needed food. The three adults all got nachos bellgrande and Maddy got the bacon chicken flatbread. The worker was so enthralled with Maddy and how beautiful she was. She just kept saying over and over oh she is so pretty! Once it was my turn to order she was like she looks like a porcelain doll and is just beautiful! I was beaming of coarse but started laughing as well because ever since she was born people have always said she looks just like a doll. She told me she needed to model and then decided I should stick her on Toddlers & Tiaras and she said she would win for sure. I was polite and smiled and said thank you, but in my head I was saying umm....I don't think so lady lol. I strongly disagree with Toddlers & Tiaras. I want to teach Maddy what real beauty is and I want her to know she is beautiful without all the "fake" stuff. By the time we got back to the hotel I think it was around 11 p.m. and me and Maddy snuggled up for night night. I am going to stop here for now to give you all and myself a break lol. I will try to post tomorrow night to talk about our first day on the ship :)

Cruise Pics

I decided to break the cruise post up into at least two different parts. I have a lot of pictures but I also have a lot to say. I decided to start with the pictures because I always enjoy looking at everybody's pictures. I will explain a few of them as needed but will keep it minimal so this isn't so overwhelming. I also will have to come back and edit this to add the video and pictures my mom has.

 This is when we were on the shuttle going from our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale to the Port of Miami. If you can't tell by her eyes Maddy was getting very sleepy and we still had a long time to wait at the Port before boarding the boat lol.

 This building is part of Carnival and used to have their name on it. It is a performing arts building. They ran into some financial trouble and this lady named Adrienne Arscht donated $30 million to them to allow them to keep going. Miami certainly has some money in that town!

 I realize you all must think I never fix Maddy's hair. This is simply not true lol. Maddy is just so active and her hair is so fine that the slightest touch of her hair and it starts to fall down. Plus when she is really tired she will sit and play with her hair which also makes it come falling down. This was sometime before noon and we had been up since 6:30 that morning.

 I love the look on her face here. She is the type person that will purposely try not to smile or laugh...this is her I'm trying not to smile face, well, a little bit of her I'm trying not to smile face.

 Maddy is Pops' girl as I've said many times. I thought this was a neat picture of the two of them looking at the ship

Here Maddy is telling her Nana that she will be right back. She is too cute because when she says that, she expects you to stay where you are and she will run off to wherever she is wanting to go. I guess she learned that from me because I always tell her I will be right back when I need to go get something and I tell her to stay right there lol...oops

She was very fascinated with the elevators. She wanted to know where they went in this pic.

 She was also very fascinated by the shower lol

I think I am going to stop here for now. These aren't even a quarter of the pictures I took. These are pictures that wouldn't really have a place in my actual post about the cruise so I will save the rest for other posts.

The Time Has Come...

This is a pointless post for most of you, but it is something that brings me great pleasure. The time has finally come for us to begin our cruise vacation. I just got done with my last 11 hour work day. Monday I worked 10 hours, Tuesday I worked 11 hrs and 45 min, and today I worked 11 hrs and 15 minutes. I will only have to work 4 hours tomorrow and I plan on working 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. and then have the rest of the day free. I am keeping Maddy home from daycare tomorrow. She was in a very fowl mood today. She woke up pretty early so I am hoping that is all that is wrong. Everything I asked her to do today was a big NOOOO topped off with a huge fit. I am hoping tomorrow is a much better day for her especially with us traveling in the airport. Tonight...besides finish getting me and Maddy packed...I have to write one 150 word response plus 2 50 word responses, take a quiz, compare and discuss something for my education class, turn in my selections for my final project, write a 250 word paper, and last but not least...write a 700 word paper. I think I will need more than just tonight to get this all done. Well, I have never been done with work this early so I better use this time wisely and get started on all this mess. I am very excited about this vacation if you haven't noticed and whereas I do not want the time on the cruise to fly by, I will at least be looking forward to sharing the pics with everybody when we get back. I hope you all have a good rest of the week and a great weekend. Oh yeah...Friday is Maddy's 2nd birthday. Our room is going to be decorated when we board the ship in birthday decorations and during dinner they will bring her out a chocolate cake and sing to her...that will make me cry I know!!!
Also, I found out some very exciting news yesterday that just made me feel so overwhelmed. Not long ago I had a heart to heart with God over how I was feeling in life and with my job and school. Soon after that I felt as if I would no longer be working at my current job for much longer which terrified me as you all know. Out of the blue it seems, a job opportunity may have just fallen into my lap and it will be doing exactly what I want to do. I don't know if this is a for sure thing because right now I am not quitting my current job, but I will be talking to the hiring person when I return from vacation to see if I can make it work out. The weird thing is I just felt like my life was fixing to change in a big way and that is pretty huge to switch jobs like this is. I also felt like when I returned from the cruise I would have a new job and that feeling may just be for real. I have been watching the movie Facing the Giants a bunch lately because it is such an excellent movie! I am going to steal some lines from it and say, "I want you to know I serve an awesome God!" What is impossible for God? NOTHING!!! Even if this particular job doesn't work out, I know God is guiding my every step, I just have to listen and obey Him. I also know that I do not have to be fearful. The bible says 365 times do not be afraid. All I can do is my best and leave the rest up to Him, but whether things are good or they are bad I still have to praise Him. I have been trying to work on that...have been since last year. When things get real hard and I feel like giving up I simply say, "I will still love you Lord" and it is amazing what that does.

Our Life

I normally wait until Sunday night or Monday to recap mine and Maddy's weekend. I was so excited to share some pictures with you guys that I decided to go ahead and post. This weekend is solely about getting ready for our cruise. We leave Thursday hopefully around noon to make it down to Atlanta in time to catch our flight. If you all have any ideas of good toys to take on the plane please share! I originally knew exactly what I was taking for Maddy to play with, however, I was not taking into consideration the noise factor and how other passengers would handle it so I am now having to rethink what I take. I know I am packing a lot of books because Maddy LOVES to read. I am also bringing her baby and doggy and blanket along with lots of snacks lol. I bought the book, "I Love You Forever" because it seemed sweet, however, as I was reading it with Maddy for the first time I realized it turned kinda sad. I almost got teary eyed because it is about a mother's love all the way up until she dies. Note to self...read the whole book before attempting to read it to Maddy. One of the things I needed to get was a formal dress for the captain's dinner. After having Maddy I do not have the body I once had so none of my clothes fit me. I was originally just going to buy Maddy a white cardigan to put over a casual dress she has to dress it up a bit. I knew I wanted to go to Penny's for my dress and I found the perfect dress. I am so excited because I have been wanting to wear my heels and now I have a reason to get them back out. There is no way this mama can wear heels at this stage in Maddy's life because it is a lot of walking and running around and they just get so uncomfortable. Here is the dress I picked out for the captain's dinner for myself: It is really hard to get a good pic of it but I will post another pic once we get back.

It's a flowy dress and I just love it! After me and my mom found the dress we wanted we headed up to Maddy's department just to try to buy a cardigan...until...I saw this dress.....

I think what stood out to me are the hearts. I can't explain my fascination with hearts, but that is my thing. I see a heart and I just melt. I did not want to pay the price even though it was a really good price and on sale, but my mom helped me change my mind and I am so glad I went ahead and got it. I cannot wait to see what she looks like in  her first formal dress. I know I will end up getting emotional on this trip lol. Please say a prayer for me because right now I am running a 100 degree fever and I am so worried I just made Maddy sick because I let her drink my drink. I am hoping my temp is elevated because I am exhausted and I heard that everybody's temp rises at night. I really think a good night sleep will make me feel so much better. Maddy's dress is the main reason I wanted to go ahead and write tonight, but I will share her halloween and Thanksgiving shirts we bought a few weekends ago as well.

 I bought this blanket first of all because it is so cute. The colors didn't turn out right in this pic but it's the best I could do. It is pink and brown and oh so soft. On this particular shopping day the temp didn't get as warm as I expected and she was so cold so I bought this nice warm blanket for her to cuddle up with and get warm. I was so excited because like everything at Penny's it was on sale lol. Maddy loves this blanket and I think it is my new favorite of all the ones she has.

 There were two Halloween shirts and I let Maddy choose which one she wanted. She chose this one. I liked this one the best, but I just don't like the idea of her being a witch...even for Halloween so I choose to ignore the "and of coarse me" part lol. Maddy is far from a witch!

 I don't consider this very Thanksgiving-y but it was all they had. I have never remembered to look for Thanksgiving shirts in time for Thanksgiving so I bought this one while I had the chance. I am hoping to find something a little more Thanksgiving-y, but I still thought this was cute. I bought her a pair of pink pants to match.

 Shoes...Maddy loves shoes lol. I had no intentions of buying her shoes on this particular day but Maddy was adamant about getting her some shoes. I gave in once I saw these heart shoes. They are about a half size too big right now, but by the time the cold weather gets here she should be able to wear them with no problem.

I forgot about this pic. Maddy is the biggest helper around the house. She loves to be given jobs to do and on this night her Nana was cleaning the house so Maddy had to pitch in and help. I told her to keep those cleaning skills up because I hate to clean and don't do a good job of keeping everything tidied up :( Tomorrow apart from school I am getting Maddy and me as packed as I can because this week is going to be so busy trying to get all my school assignments done before we leave and trying to get all my work hours in by noon on Thursday. I hope you all are having a great weekend and are spending quality time with your family :)

Life Changes

For at least a couple of years I have had this feeling that I would be leaving my current job. The only way I would leave on my own is if I could get another job or start my daycare. This has scared me because Maddy depends on me to provide for her. I used to stay stressed out constantly from worrying about it, but I was able to let it go. My fear has come back and this time it seems even stronger than before. I don't know what is going on in my life, but I feel God is preparing me for some changes. I automatically assume my job but it could be anything really. Last week I had a horrible week. Every day was just constant bad thing after bad thing. The icing on the cake...apart from my car not starting...was when I read my daily calender page. The day was September 8 and here is what it said, "If the job you've been doing ends,or the provision you've known shuts off, or the fulfillment level of your work and activities ceases, or something major happens to change the status of your life, don't be alarmed. These could be signs of a change God is doing in your life. He may be getting you ready to enter into a new and exciting season. God's Word says that those who love Him and live His way will bear fruit into old age and always be fresh and flourishing." As I read that, my heart just sank. I do feel my time is coming to an end, I just don't know what's coming next. I am trying to just trust God to take care of me and Maddy but it's not always as easy as cake lol. I have had two very real and very vivid dreams that I am still trying to figure out what they mean. One I understand a little...it is about my old friend, but it was a sad dream...meaning I just felt sad in my dream and he was sad. The dream that really has me puzzled is a God dream. I can't remember specifics now but it was like I was having a revival. My heart was so on fire for God and I was shouting something and I felt as if the dream would have continued a little more I was going to start speaking in tongue. I woke up thinking man, I wanna be THAT close to God in real life! For now all I can do is my best and make sure I am following God. I know where one door closes another one opens, but it can still be a scary ride. I will end with a prayer that is on today's page. "Lord, when it's time for me to do something different, help me not to cling to the past or be afraid to move in to the future You have for me. My times are in Your hands, and I know that I am secure as long as I can walk through them all with You. Give me strength, courage, health, wisdom, revelation, and faith for the journey. I trust You to keep me on the right path and to continue giving me the light I need for the step I'm on.

'Twas the Week Before the Cruise...

In just ten days we will be driving down to Atlanta, GA to hop on board our plane to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. We will be spending the night there and then on Maddy's 2nd birthday we will be boarding a shuttle to the cruise ship to wish Maddy a happy 2nd birthday!!! I will be talking about this nonstop because I am beyond ready to leave my problems behind for a few days. Close to Maddy's 1st birthday I made the comment that I would love the opportunity to take Maddy on a cruise for her 2nd birthday...little did I know that wish would come true. We are going on a 3 day cruise to the Bahama's on Carnival's Imagination ship.

This is where we will be spending the day on Saturday, I believe. We will have access to the Wyndham resort in Nassau as well as the beach.
I've been trying to think about what to get Maddy for her birthday. Her party is on September 30th at 7:00 p.m. I've been torn for a while now because I really wanted to get her power operated car, but $300 for a birthday gift is just not something I believe in. I finally figured out the solution on Sunday. I can get her the car for Christmas through layaway options and then I can stick to my smaller gift items for her birthday. One thing I am getting her for her birthday is an Elmo. Originally I was going to get her a tickle me Elmo. While I was at the store I found a potty Elmo. I decided to get both but make one for Christmas. I will give her the potty Elmo for her birthday in hopes it will make her want to start using the potty. I also got her two baby dolls and I may save one for Christmas...I haven't decided yet. Here they are:


She was actually with me when I bought these babies and there was another baby that made her laugh but the laugh the baby made seriously just pierced your ears and I quickly decided that was a NO! I have no idea if she will really like these babies. I feel quite certain she will Elmo just because she knows him...she calls him "Melmo!" I felt peaceful about her presents so that is what she is getting from me. I found lots of cute stuff so I am really glad Christmas is around the corner. It's kinda funny because she goes all year with no new toys and within a three month span time (birthday and Christmas) she is flooded with toys. I cannot wait to see her in her birthday dress and just see her enjoy herself. I am hoping she will sit with mommy on the plane instead of Pops...she is a real Pops' girl. I am hoping to come back with a lot of pictures from this trip and video as well, but I'm not sure how long me keeping up with camera's will last...especially with this being my first cruise as well and I will want to take it all in with my baby girl! I must now go finish my mounds of reading...I have make up reading to do from when I was sick last night. I hope you all have a wonderful week and try your best to give your problems to the Lord. I am working on that myself :)

Whew With Some VIdeo!

My week just feels like one constant stretch of bad day after bad day. This week started with some flooding around our town due to tropical storm Lee. The rain caused me to lose a $10 coupon I had because I did not want to get Maddy out in the bad weather. On top of a high dollar coupon expiring, I ended up with the stomach flu. Today is my first real day of feeling better and completely fever free. My poor mom has had the same kind of week and I added to her pile by seeing if she could get Maddy for me on Tuesday. Thankfully she was able to do so because I felt so puny! My mom and step-dad took Maddy out on a dinner date to O'Charley's. She had a hamburger and fries. Since I have been feeling so bad this week I didn't take one look at school but remembered I had something due on Wednesday. I tried so hard to complete the assignment but around midnight I just couldn't hold my eyes open anymore and my throat and ears started hurting pretty bad and then I took my fever and yes...my fever decided to return. Trying to work with a 102.6 fever is basically pointless so not only am I being questioned on why I did this and that at work and why I'm not meeting my numbers, I started this week out not meeting because I couldn't sit for any length of time. I know I am kind of all over the place right now so let me try to sum this up: Monday...woke up to flooding rains, lost a $10 coupon, was completely exhausted the entire day then I became sick and realized why I had been so tired, Tuesday...first day back to work for the week due to Labor day, my manager is on me about last week's numbers, running a fever, extremely nauseous and had to lay down for most of the day, got way behind in this week's numbers, had to get my mom to get Maddy and take care of her. Wednesday...Woke up with a horrible headache...started feeling some better and was able to sit up without getting sick...still did not meet my numbers at work, fever went back up, got a zero on my school assignment. Now here we are to Thursday. I at least made my numbers but I needed to produce a higher number. I will find out tomorrow if I met what my personal goal was, which is just what I was behind split in half. I have tons of school to make up and I'm still so tired. Now for a more positive outlook. One thing that has helped me get through this week is knowing that in exactly two weeks from today me and Maddy and my mom and step-dad will be headed down to Atlanta, GA to catch a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We will spend the night in Ft. Lauderdale and then when we wake up Friday we will catch a shuttle to miami to jump on our ship that is taking us out of this country!!!! I am soooo excited. I am praying the weather cooperates. Maddy already has some of her suitcase packed and this weekend I will probably go ahead and pack her clothes. Here in TN our weather is starting to cool down some. We are still going to have some warm days, but I don't think Maddy will need two more months of summer clothes so I am starting to put some away.  I have another post that I may try to do tonight after I work on school some, but if I don't have time tonight then def tomorrow because I am really struggling with my emotions right now. Thank you for taking time to listen to my ramblings and I will end by posting a video of Maddy.

Here is what our house is like when the cousins come over to play. All their hair had the just got out of bed look to it because it was the day after fourth of july and we were all exhausted lol.

I try to film in short segments so I can post on here without boring everybody. I sometimes get carried away in trying to get her to do something that I forget about the time. I don't know how to edit my video's to shorten the time of them so you may just want to watch the first 30 seconds of this one. One of these days I will get the hang of all this editing stuff lol

This shows more of Maddy's personality. I love how she says, "No!" and that's usually how she says it all the time unless she is really mad, then she screams no or just lays in the floor screaming and kicking. Right after she hit her car with her golf club if you look closely you can see her trying not to smile when I said, "Ouch!" I've never known a child that would intentionally try not to smile or laugh...she has done that for quite some time now and she looks like my uncle, mom, and me when she does that...so cute!