What my parents said...

A few Facebook postings from my parents while Bill and I were gone:

From my dad on Wednesday (day 5):

3 year old Sam to his grandmother when she was not coming fast enough to help him get down yet more toys. "Grandma, get in here. I really mean it!"

And also this one (which cracked me up):
This afternoon's dialogue. 3 yr old Sam comes up to little brother Nolan in his pack-n-play. Sam: "Nolan, do you want to get out?" Nolan: "No". Sam: "Nolan, do you want to get out?" Nolan: "No". Sam: "Nolan, do you want to get out?" Nolan: "No". Sam: "Nolan, say 'yes'". Nolan: "Yes". Sam: "Papa, Nolan wants to get out."

From my mom on Thursday (day 6):

While Beth's on a cruise I have the 3 boys. This morning was the greatest challenge - getting TJ on the bus at 8 am. Sam got up soaked, Nolan was crying again, and I overslept. However, I DID IT!!! Then I got home to find the dog puking. Oh, well.

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I just wanted to copy and paste those here, so I don't forget how funny my boys can be. And how nice my parents are. My mom said there were no major catastrophes, just the usual daily trials and tribulations. I did promise not to take another vacation like that until all 3 boys were in school full time.

I still find it interesting how differently each of the boys reacted to our absence. TJ really missed us. My mom said the week was a long one for him. He wasn't miserable, but he was very ready for us to come back. TJ has entered a bit of a worrying stage (doesn't like the dark, doesn't like to be left alone, doesn't like to be out of his comfort zone), so I spent a lot of time beforehand discussing everything with him so he would know what to expect. He knows a lot about cruise ships now!

Sam never asked about us once. Wasn't upset we were gone, but wasn't ticked when we came back and he had to 'move' back home. He was pretty ambivalent.

Nolan was angry with us. Not for being gone, but for coming home and disrupting the nice little routine he had going. When we went on our first cruise, TJ was 13 months old and he reacted much the same way. So, I was a bit more prepared. TJ's reaction 5 years ago was very upsetting to me.

First Words

By the time we arrived home last night, it was close to 9:30 and the boys were all in bed, asleep. I had promised TJ that I would wake him up and give him a kiss, but that child would NOT wake up! I gave up and let him sleep.

So this morning, it was the first time he had seen me in nearly 9 days. He knocked on the bathroom door while I was drying my hair. I let him in and he said, "I made you a cookie at Grandma Cindy's house! And you need to eat it for breakfast cuz we are all out of 'hot cookies'!" Hot cookies are what my boys have always called Pop Tarts. For the record, I have probably 5 Pop Tarts per year, and I did NOT have a cookie for breakfast. TJ was disappointed with me.

Sam wandered in the bathroom a few minutes later. I said, "Hi Sam! Did you miss me?" His response? "I saw baby Charlotte!" Hmmm.....Mommy officially ranks below baby Charlotte.

Nolan came in right after that. He gave me a big smile, so I scooped him up. He immediately pushed on my chest so I would set him down. I did, and he promptly started digging through my drawers to find my vitamins (they have a child-proof cap and he likes to use them for maracas).

So sweet. So touching. My children. :-)

2010 Cruise Day 7....The End

Argh! I had this whole post typed out and it vanished when I tried to upload it! Stupid cruise ship internet!

The Bahamas were beautiful today. I enjoyed every minute on the beach. Half Moon Cay is a private island owned by Holland America, so it is very quiet and peaceful. No commercial craziness there!

We disembark at 8:30 tomorrow morning and then have a 5-hour wait for our flight home. Boring! Then, Sunday morning it will be back to the reality of eating cold cereal at the kitchen counter. No one will be there to put a napkin in my lap or push my chair in. Sadness.

Five more years and we will do this again!

2010 Cruise Day 6

Today was our second 'at sea' day. I did not accomplish a whole lot. I have been hitting the elliptical, but apparently, hour-long work-outs are too much for me. My quads are killing me. I could hardly get out of bed this morning. So, I settled for a 3 mile walk around the promenade deck (that is deck 3...one deck below us). Bill read in a lounge chair and smiled supportively every time I walked by.

This afternoon, we went to an Indonesian tea ceremony. Turns out Indonesian tea is pretty tasty! The food they served with it was typical tea food (scones, pastries, etc). The majority of the wait staff in the restaurant is Indonesian, as Holland America has one of their two training facilities there (the other is in the Netherlands, of course!). The staff was decked out in traditional attire and seemed to be enjoying themselves. We were seated with one of the dumbest people I have met in a long time. She was about 5 years younger than me, and may have had two brain cells bouncing around in her head. She kept asking what time we land in the Bahamas. Dear, planes land. Ships DOCK. Oy. I was happy when the couple on the other side of Bill started chatting with us. They were there with her sister. The two women grew up in Nortwest Grand Rapids and went to the old Union High. They were very amused when I said I worked about a block from that building. They told us they had breakfast with a gentleman from Holland (Mi.) and felt like it was small world indeed.

Tomorrow we will be hanging out in the Bahamas. It sounds like there isn't much on the island besides a souvenir shop and a post office. The island belongs to Holland America. I am not sure why there is a post office there. I wonder if people actually live there, or if it is just staffed when a ship is docked there. I guess we will find out tomorrow!

Tonight is our second (and final) formal dinner. That means I have to shake the wrinkles out of my dress. They won't let you iron in your room. They claim it is a fire hazard. I think it is because they want to charge you to iron your clothing for you.

2010 Cruise Day 5

Today was St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. It wasn't at all what I expected. The islands are very hilly, almost moutainous. But it was beautiful and so rich with history. I wasn't crazy about how commercial it was along the shore, but that seems to be the way of life at most of these tropical destinations.

For our shore excursion, we went on a tour of Blackbeard's castle. Only it wasn't really a castle...just a watchtower (which had a rather terrifying circular staircase we had to climb), and some remnants of a retaining wall or two. Other than that, we toured some 19th century homes. And we shopped. I successfully bartered with a couple street vendors, and Bill okay'd me getting a tanzanite ring (from a jewelry store, not a street vendor!). It is beautiful. They seem to have forgotten to size it, so it will have to go to the jeweler next week.

Here is a picture looking up at the watchtower we had climbed and one of our cruise ship (docked next to the "Disney Magic"--what a rowdy ship!).

2010 Cruise Day 4

Today, we are in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I am currently sitting in a Starbucks, utilizing their free Wifi. I added pictures to my previous posts. We have already been here an hour, and Bill is looking bored, so I may not put many pictures on this post. As you can see by the first picture, the streets are narrow here. Thankfully, the drivers are gracious and not too anxious to run us tourists over.

It is beautiful again today. Bill and I toured Fuerte San Cristobal, a fort that is nearly 500 years old. It was beautiful. Lots of climbing was involved, and I was rather hot and sweaty by the time we were done. The two pictures of us above were taken at the fort. We took a brief bus tour of Old and New San Juan, but our tour guide's English was a bit difficult to follow. He did tell us how to swear in Spanish. Not really information that I can use in the future. I can also sign a bad word in Spanish. :-)

It hit me today...I miss my kids. I spoke briefly with my mom and TJ (Sam and Nolan opted not to talk to me...OUCH!), and I will survive, but I know I will definitely be ready to see them on Saturday.

Tomorrow, we will be in St. Thomas. If I can find more free wifi, you will get more pictures! I also need to do more souvenir shopping for some little boys I know!

2010 Cruise Day 3

Edited to add pictures!

Bill really wanted a picture of me standing in front of our ship. He said he would give you all some perspective. So, here I am in front of the ship. As you can see, the ship is bigger than I am. :-)

And I took this picture leaning over the back of the ship. Don't worry, I had the camera knotted firmly around my wrist, and I managed to hang on with one hand...(obviously I did not fall overboard!)

Here is the main pool on the Lido deck:

Art gallery:

Atrium:

Grand Turk:

We spent the morning and early afternoon on Grand Turk, one of the Turks and Caicos islands. It is beautiful here. Not too hot, not too humid, perfectly sunny, gorgeous blue water. Due to the ridiculous amount of time it takes to upload pictures, I am not going to attempt it today. Bill and I will look for free wifi when we are in San Juan tomorrow. I will go back and edit all of my posts to add the pictures I wanted you to see (I tried to upload 10 yesterday, and you can see how well that turned out!).

Bill and I went on a snuba adventure this morning. There were only 4 of us in the group, and one of the other women chickened out. She missed a lot. With snuba, you are connected to an oxygen tank by a long tube. Same concept as scuba diving, but the tank isn't on your back. It is on a raft. You can go down about 15 feet with the air hose. It was totally fascinating. I stayed along the bottom the entire time. I saw coral, all sorts of fish, and I scooped up a bunch of shells for the boys (taking coral is a no-no, but any unoccupied shells are free for the taking). Bill was a bit more hesitant and struggled with the pressure and water in his mask at first. He never came down as deep as I was, but stuck near me and even managed to retrieve a few shells of his own. At the end of our dive, one of our guides (we had 2 guides for the 3 of us in the water) found a sea urchin and let us hold it. So neat! Spiky, but not painful. I could feel it wiggling.

Grand Turk has a population of about 3700. Only about 1000 of those are natives (they call them 'belongers'). The rest are Jamaicans, Haitians, and some Americans who work for the government. It is a mix of nice, new homes, and homes that were badly damaged in a category 5 hurricane in late 2008. There are a lot of dead palm trees that need to be replaced. Holland America has a resort by the dock, and it was completely re-done after the hurricane.

Bill is off at the movie theater watching a movie, and I need to go hit the elliptical. Check back tomorrow to see if I managed to post any pictures!

2010 Cruise Day 1 and Day 2

Picture of Fort Lauderdale before we set sail:

Here is a portion of "The Oasis of the Seas". It is the largest cruise ship in the world (it's a Royal Caribbean ship). It looks like a floating apartment building. There is no appeal to me to be on a ship with 6,000 people. 2,000 people is plenty!


We have been at sea for a little over 24 hours now. We are on board Holland America's MS Eurodam. I have some pictures of some different rooms on the ship, but no outside pictures. I will try to take a couple tomorrow when we are on Grand Turk.

I have edited this post to add more pictures. I took advantage of free wifi at Starbucks in San Juan!

Ship pictures...

Bill checking out one of the interactive TVs on the ship (he was looking at how fast we were going, what the wind speed was, and where we were in the Atlantic):

Casino:

First formal evening (we have 2 this week):

Pictures of our room (it was listed as having a 'fully obstructed view' and so we were thrilled with the large window. It looks like a slider, but it does not open.

We kept busy today. We went to a multi-denominational service, which turned out to be led by a Catholic priest. I spent an hour on the elliptical. We went to a lecture on jewelry (maybe I will get something new!) and an afternoon tea. After that, Bill went to go see a movie (The Informant!) and I took a nap. Tonight is one of our formal nights, so we will go get our picture taken before heading to dinner around 8:00.

Boys, I hope you are being good for Grandma! I miss you!

2010 Cruise....Day Zero

Tomorrow, we leave for our cruise! Only, we sort of left today, since I am typing this from our hotel room directly across from Detroit Metro airport. I promised TJ lots of pictures, so I figured I'd start blogging today.

TJ says Grandma goes on the computer EVERY DAY, so he figured she would be able to find pictures of "Bill and Beth on the cruise ship". That is exactly how he said it. Bill and I were very amused.

Bill found quite a deal with this hotel. We are at a Quality Inn. The room was only $56. But it is a bit bigger than we expected, and it has a fridge and a microwave. We don't need to use either one, but were pleasantly surprised to see them. Plus, the fan on the heater/AC runs all the time so it drowns out the airplane noise.

Here's a picture of our room!

Check back tomorrow evening or sometime Sunday to see pictures of the MS Eurodam!

Who's Hungry?

Bill and I are leaving for our long-awaited cruise tomorrow evening. We don't actually fly out of Detroit until Saturday morning, but with the recent terror attempt near Detroit (the guy who tried to blow up his underwear), we need to check in really early, so my Dad is dropping us off at a hotel near the airport tomorrow night.

Be sure to check back often next week! We have limited Internet access aboard the ship, but have promised the boys that we will update the blog with pictures as often as we can. Since we are charged by the minute, you bet I will have my entire blog post laid out in my head before I log on.

Anyway, tonight I was trying to clean out the fridge. I made enchiladas for supper, but they aren't TJ's favorite. I saw we had some leftover chicken nuggets in the refrigerator, so I decided he could eat those instead. I pulled out the container they were in and set it on the counter. Sam, ever helpful, started poking at the container. "What's this, Mama?" he asked me. I informed him that they were leftover chicken nuggets.

"Chicken nuts???" Sam sounded shocked. "What are those?"

I was laughing too hard to answer him. Sam, of course, figured out that he had said something funny, and marched off to tell TJ he was eating chicken nuts for supper.

Now, who wants some chicken???

This is my 200th blog posting! If you've read them all, congratulations! Now, go find something better to do!

Christmas Memories 2009

Some of my favorite snapshots from Christmas. We celebrated many times during the month!



Finally, New Year's Day (yes, the Ducks lost, but we still LOVE the shirts!):

Daddy gets scared

Bill was in Detroit yesterday and today. That meant I had to get up at 7:04 this morning to make breakfast for my impatient older two boys (yesterday, when TJ had school, I had to drag him out of bed at 7:15. Today, when I could sleep in, they are up at the crack of dawn...). I made breakfast, took a quick shower, and then let Sam in the bathroom so we could visit while I curled my hair. When I say "visit", I mean that I smile and nod while Sam talks non-stop.

During this time, Nolan was still asleep. I have one child smart enough to sleep in. I had turned on the monitor in the bathroom so that I would hear him over the fan. Sam was very interested in the monitor and was asking how it works. I told him that I use the monitor so I can hear Nolan if he starts to cry. Sam thought about this and said, "Hey, there's another one in the basement! I think that is for when Daddy is downstairs. He might get scared or start to cry." I agreed that I would want to know if Daddy was crying. The monitor downstairs is an extra handset, so we can hear the kids if I am working out in the evenings or Bill is tinkering in the basement. But that's not what Sam thinks. And most of the time, it's pointless to try and change his mind.

Dream? Or nightmare?

Bill just told me about a dream he had last night. In his dream, I gave birth to TWINS...a boy and a girl. He couldn't remember the girl's name, but he says I named the boy Jules.

Oy. I can't even imagine one more baby let alone TWO! And (no offense to any of you Jules out there), but I would never name my son Jules.

I also had a dream last week that I was pregnant. I think we both have babies on the brain due to Charlotte's arrival, and the recent announcement that Baby Van Dop is a boy. But I promise you...when I held Charlotte, I loved her to bits, but was perfectly content to return her to her mother.