Good News

Just a few days before Christmas in 2009,

A gift will be delivered, but not by Santa this time!

A precious baby, a gift from above;

A sweet little blessing for us to love.

We don't know yet if it is a girl or a boy;

But we know this child will bring so much joy!

So whether or not we buy pinks or blues,

Rejoice with us as we share this good news!

What our dogs can teach us

Last week I "won" a new devotional at a silent auction that was planned to raise money for some friends who will be missionaries in China for the next couple of years. I love this new devotional! See below for the lesson I read this week - I have changed it up a bit to read "Lessons from Missy."

When you're happy, let the world know. Missy is a cute little corgi-beagle, and it is not hard to tell when she is happy. I love when Welles comes home from work because I get to see Missy's reaction. She barks, leads me to the door, and wags her tail like it might just fall off - she is so happy! Her joy is contagious, and there is no reason to keep it in!

Hold your tail up. Dogs exhibit confidence by walking with their tails held high. Missy is a confident dog, and when we used to take her to daycare regularly, the petkeepers there would place her in a kennel with dogs that were sad or needed to hang out with a balanced dog. We should hold our heads high with confidence.

Play, Play, Play. Missy reminds us that we should always take time to play and enjoy the moment.

Be thankful. Last night, we had some pretty bad storms in Birmingham. If you know Missy, you know that she was under the bed for a good portion of the night. In the midst of the storms, we must have forgotten to feed her! Aroud 2:00 in the morning when the coast was clear of storms, Missy rang her bell wildly - wanting us to feed her. After I fed her, she came back to bed and licked the back of my hand, "Thanks, Mom!" We should be thankful for every meal, every walk, every nap, and every friend.

Stay in the now! Missy greets each day as if it is the greatest adventure of her life. If we even go near our tennis shoes, she is whining for a walk. In fact, today Welles and I were planning to go to Dawson to work out today. We put on our shoes, and Missy sat at the top of the stairs while we picked up fallen branches in the driveway. We just couldn't leave her! So - we took that sweet puppy on a walk. Staying in the moment is the only way to experience God in my life. He is here now, in the moment, the greatest adventure life holds.

Thank you, God, for Missy and all the ways you use her to teach us life lessons!

Part IV: Reasons to Cruise

1. Chocolate Melting Cake - the best dessert and I had it almost every night!

2. Food is available at all times and is very good; and the best part is - you don't have to cook it!

3. You don't have to worry about cleaning your room. If you leave the room for 20 minutes - come back and it will magically be spotless.

4. Towel Animals on your bed every night

5. Meeting new people - we met some really fun friends on the cruise.

6. Travelling to new and exciting places in the same trip

7. So many activities on board the ship - Welles took golf lessons, I went to the spa, and there were great shows every night!

8. Opportunities to participate in contests. Welles won a trophy on a game-show and we entered a put-put competition one morning. Also - I won $250 playing BINGO the first night.

9. Beautiful Sunsets

10. Waterslides

Part III: Cool Places

The cruise left from New Orleans, and Welles and I woke up bright and early Saturday morning. We left at 5:00 Am and arrived at the cruise parking deck around 10:30. We decided to walk to Cafe Du Monde because Welles had never had these:

They were so good! After a walk through the Riverwalk mall, we decided to board the ship. As I mentioned earlier, that was not the best experience. Some lady made us get in the wrong line - no matter that I kept protesting - and we were 2.5 hours waiting in line to board the ship. Upon boarding the ship, I felt it was finally time to relax and just wanted to take a nap in our room. HOWEVER, nobody told me about the DRILL! We had to get our life jackets and head to the muster station that we were assigned to so that we could be led to lifeboats. It was not fun, but we did find a great spot to see the sunset as we headed down the Mississippi River.

Since we had the cruise drama, we did not arrive in Key West until 1:45 on Monday - we were supposed to be there at 7:00 AM. Unfortunately, that meant that we only had about 2.5 hours in Key West. We cancelled our kayak excursion and just walked around picking up souvenirs and a case water. (Note to all of those that want bottled water on the ship...you must bring your own or risk paying $2.25 for a .5 Liter bottle).

The following day, we cruised to Nassau.

I will say that someday when we have kiddos we both really want to take them to Atlantis! What a cool place! Check out the following pictures from Atlantis and then the Queen's Staircase in Nassau.

Part II: Cruise - Great Friends

We met so many nice people on the trip and many of them we hope to continue to foster relationships with. We met our cool table mates the first night. There were two couples that were newlywed, and one couple had been married just a little longer than us. Bottom row: LaPorche, Sherry, Angela, Megan;
Top Row: Ephram, Iketut, Welles, Brooks, Andy, and Glenn

There were many laughs and great conversation each night. We also made friends with our wait staff, Ketut and Glenn. They were amazing, and knew just what we wanted even before we asked!

We also met the Chapman and Parker families the Monday morning at breakfast. Thereafter, we went to a couple of shows together and enjoyed a couple of lunches and breakfasts. The last afternoon the group decided to master the water slides on the back of the ship. Paul, Chona, Pam and Larkin were so fun, and we had a blast with them! Some stories they told were unbelievable and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard! They always had great advice for us--both couples have been married 25 years.

From left: Larkin, Pam, Paul, Chona, Welles and Sherry

We hope to stay in touch with our new friends!

Part I: Cruise Drama

Despite the fact that we had a wonderful vacation, there were some bumps in the sea - some good and some bad. Fist off, our cruise was supposed to be a 5 day cruise from New Orleans to Cozumel and Progresso Mexico. Then, about a month ago the "Swine Flu" hit. Within days, we received word from Carnival that our cruise had been changed to a 7 day cruise to Key West and Nassau Bahamas! We were so excited!

We left one week ago today and boarded the ship around 3:00 PM. There was plenty of line-waiting trying to get on the ship, but once we were on board, all of that became a distant memory. That night, I won $250 playing BINGO - and won with my lucky number (B-4)! After a good night's sleep, we ate breakfast and headed to the first activity where we heard that the ship had to stop for a couple of hours the night before so that a passenger could be airlifted back to New Orleans for medical treatment. We did hear later that the passenger's condition had improved after being hospitalized.

No worries, though, because the captain planned to make up some time on our "fun day at sea" and we would only be 30 minutes late to Key West the next morning. Sunday evening during dinner, the boat came to a grinding halt and the captain came over the loudspeaker shouting, "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo!" We had no idea what it meant, but from the look on our waiters faces--it was not good. We all immediately thought, "PIRATES!" However, we later learned that a teenager named Bruce jumped overboard. Please keep this poor family in your prayers!

After searching for 7 hours, the Coast Guard released our ship, and we headed to Key West. Unfortunately, the delay meant that we did not arrive in Key West until 1:00 PM. We had to cancel our kayak excursion, but did enjoy walking around Key West for a couple of hours. We went by Captain Tony's and Bob's picture is still hanging there.

The last dramatic incident involves a minor one, but still caused the captain to stop the boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico for an hour or so. A boat had capsized, and one of the crew members noticed it as we were travelling back to New Orleans yesterday. Our boat stopped and some crew members were lowered in a lifeboat to see if there was anything the ship could do. Luckily, the Coast Guard released us and we were free to continue our journey home. More to come--great friends!

Cruise 2009 - because we will cruise again!

Welles and I just got back from our cruise! It was a wonderful and desperately needed vacation. We met some great new friends, and had an opportunity to relax, as this cruise had dramatic experiences--some that the captain said almost never happen on a ship. There is so much to post about that I think I will break this post into 4 separate posts. The following are the chapters:

1. Cruise Drama

2. Great Friends

3. Cool Places

4. Reasons to take a cruise