The Trip We Almost Didn't Get To Go On

Ok, ok so I guess I've waited long enough to write this post. I have been dreading writing this post! Not sure why-could be because it's going to be long one and will take some time to write and I feel like I don't know where to start or could be because I don't want to relive the first part of our trip!

I've sat down several times to write but then just sit there with my blogger open and do nothing, and pretty soon I just close my computer and decide I'll do it another time.

So er go

Early Saturday morning, January 20th was the start of our trip. And for me it was even earlier than everyone else. But let's back up for just a second. Let's start on Friday. Or Thursday,- I went and got a facial, Freaking Amazing by the way! I wanted to get as pretty as possible for the cruise. Then Friday. Oh, Friday. This is the day before we leave, I start the morning off by putting a big ol' burn mark on my forehead from my straighter. Nice. Then I decided to go get my eyebrows cleaned up a little bit. I pluck my own eye brows and had them as thick and shaped as I like. But I decided I'd go have them slightly waxed to get that nice, clean, fresh waxed look.... But, I guess saying "just clean up the stragglers" isn't clear enough that "I don't want you to reshape my whole eyebrows and freaking wax the majority of them off"!! Let's just say next time I will be so specific they will think that I think they are dumb! If there is a next time! Wheph. End rant... that was just a little bit mean. But seriously my eyebrows haven't been this thin since high school 6 years ago. And it is going to SUCK to grow them back out! Ok. Moving on! So at least I have an Amazing lash lady *ughm* Tracy *ughm* that made my lashes look amazing! The only thing on my face that I had going for me! haha. I am a very all or nothing person, so if you're like that too you'll know what I mean when I say, I felt like my facial was totally ruined because of my burned forehead and eyebrow excursion. 

I just wanted to add this picture in here because it's cute :)

Tommy and I drove to Gooding Friday night so we could sleep in a little longer before having to be at the airport in Boise at 4:30 for our 6:30 flight. But like I said earlier, I got a jump start on the morning. We probably went to bed at about 10 and at 12:30 I was wide awake. And I could not go back to sleep for the life of me! It wasn't nerves or excitement (don't get me wrong, I was excited, but I love my sleep!) and I didn't feel the way you feel on Christmas morning as a kid. So I was awake from 12:30 to 3 when we all got up, which was very out of the ordinary for me. I can usually go back to sleep, especially that early and with only 2 hours of sleep. 

So moving on, we made it to the airport and got our tickets and bags checked and were making our way through security. Just a side note, I made Tommy carry my carry-on bag because it was heavier than his. Well going through security they pull "his" (my) bag to the side and ask "who's bag is this?", then pull us to the side and say "Don't touch or reach for anything!"..... Ok. I was thinking what in the world? I packed so carefully making sure all liquids, nail clippers, exc. were in the checked bags. As security started opening the side pockets of the bag, I said to Tommy, "I didn't even think to check all the pockets!" But seriously, what could it be... nothing too serious!..... HA! She pulls out a HANDFUL of 22 shells!! O.M.G! (palm to face!) And says to us, "this is ammunition, you are not allowed to have this", yes. yes, we know. Luckily we were just in Idaho, and small Boise airport! I sincerely apologized, told her to throw them away, and we were on our way.

This trip is off to a Real good start! 

Here's where it gets REAL good.

So there we are.... sitting on the plane, all boarded, all excited for our trip to finally start, getting ready to take off....

See there we are! All happy and excited!

Oop! Yup! There we are again-Close Up!
Just in case you didn't see us good enough the first time ;)

And Tommy decides to check the folder with our birth certificates in it. Bless his little heart! He then pulls out two documents and asks me, why is our marriage license in here?

........ And for a moment my heart stopped, then instantly dropped, and panic set in.

How could this be? Where was his birth certificate? Why was it not in that folder?! The birth certificate folder! That's where we keep them and we don't ever use/need/or take them out! WHY in the H (that's not what I said in real life!) was our marriage licence in there?! That's not where it belongs, that's not where I keep it, that's not where I put it! That folder is where our birth certificates belong! To this day, I do not know where his birth certificate is or how this happened. How it was not in the folder I always keep it in. We hadn't used it or touched it since our last cruise..... ??

So there we were.... sitting on the plane, all boarded, getting ready to take off, but no longer excited for our trip, because we may not be going on our trip.

In case you have never been on a cruise, if you don't have a passport, which we don't, you HAVE to have your birth certificate to board the ship. Believe me, we called, 4-5 times, and tried to see if there was any way Tommy could board without his certificate. So at this point we are getting ready to take off, so we quickly text both of my sisters and tell them and ask them to call Carnival to see what we could do. And then we lose service so we couldn't find out what Carnival said. I searched Carinval's website to see what I could find and with no luck in finding an answer I wanted, I started looking into ordering a new one-on a Saturday, and delivered-on a Sunday HA..... I was desperate! And Tommy started looking into same day flights back to Boise so he could go rummage the house and look for it. He was desperate! But I knew he wouldn't find it because if it wasn't in that folder, it wasn't anywhere. There was no other place it would be. And it wasn't. Thanks to our great friend Jake for rummaging through our house looking for it! But again, I knew he wasn't going to find it, because IT WASN'T THERE! I didn't know where it was, but it wasn't at our house, because if it would have been-it would have been in THAT FOLDER! But we had to try! We had to try everything we could to find it!

So you can imagine that 3 hour flight! We were helpless. 
I was a bawling mess the whole way, and was actually physically sick because of the anxiety and stress. I am not lying to you, that was the most stress I have ever experienced! Anxiety wise, it runs real close to one particular test in nursing school I remember having a little panic attack right before taking, but I was more stressed than I was taking my nursing boards! And that's pretty bad!! 

As soon as we landed in Minnesota we got in contact with my sisters who both had called carnival to see if there was any way Tommy could board, and there wasn't. We had to have his birth certificate or a copy of it. So as Jake was rummaging through our house trying to find his original, Janice thought she might have it at her house, but Tommy and I both knew she didn't. We knew that we had had it last. But again, we had to try everything we could to get our hot little hands on it! So we called another great friend in Gooding to go look at Tommy's parents house for it.

This picture was taken in Minnesota. Little can you tell that we were nervous wrecks! At least I was!

We flew from Minnesota to Michigan. Another solemn flight. with a few more tears shed. (by me). I'll have you know, Tommy was very calm through all of this! I was totally expecting him to flip, but he didn't! He did however, not talk to me much at all through this whole day! Haha but I don't blame him! And didn't expect him to! After all, if he wasn't able to board the cruise-it would have been MY fault!

It was bad enough that we had to fly that first flight from Boise to Minnesota and not be able to contact anyone or see what anyone had found out, but that flight didn't even get us to our destination! So now, we are again on a plane, unable to be in contact with our friends searching our homes frantically for us, flying to Michigan. 

When we got to Michigan I called Carnival myself, just hoping that if I got the right person on the phone they would have some solution for us. But was yet again reassured that a birth certificate or copy of, was required!

Tears...... Again. This is not how a trip is supposed to go. Tears are not supposed to accompany vacation.

At this point, I was just positive that we would be turning right around once we got to Texas and flying home, losing all that money we had spent, with the disappointment of not being able to go on the cruise with the rest of the family that we had planned and waited for! And ultimately, I was just sure Tommy was going to divorce me! I know that sounds silly-now! But he had been so excited for this trip!

We hadn't heard back from Bonnie yet, who was looking at Ted and Janice's for the birth certificate, but had heard back from Jake who was searching our house-with no luck-as expected.

Yet again, we boarded our last plane (FINALLY!), getting ready to take off from Detroit to Houston (FINALLY!), and Bonnie calls Janice who was sitting behind and kitty corner to us (by an off duty pilot, which is funny because we were supposed to have already turned our phones to airplane mode, but here we are talking on one. Whoops :/ But, I did not care!!). I hear Janice say "You found it?!" WHAT?!! NO FREAKING WAY!! 

Are you sure it's it??! Are you SURE?! Yes! Yes she was sure!

I was thinking, only a pure miracle by God's hand had she found this! And it was! I'll preach it! She hadn't found the original, but by a miracle, Janice had a copy!

So we are getting ready to take off so I'm kinda yelling/telling Janice to quickly tell Bonnie to send us a picture of the front and back (Carnival had emphasized that). Everyone around us is looking at us(me) and wondering what in the world is going on, and probably thinking I'm a crazy woman! If you can only imagine-I kind of was. 

The realization that we had a copy set in,.... Tears.

If you can imagine, this last flight was much more relaxing! And Tommy started talking to me again ;) I was still anxious to get on the ground so the picture could come through. I was still kind of nervous/doubtful until I could see the picture for myself. And even then, I wanted the document in my hand before I could feel completely at peace. But then I started having doubts about the document still not passing what we had to have and Tommy being turned down to board. So I decided I would be completely at ease when we were on the ship! 

"Houston We Have Landed"

We finally landed in Houston and I was so glad our day of flying was over! But our troubles weren't over yet.

We had decided to rent a car to drive from Houston to Galveston where we were staying that night and boarding the ship the next morning, and had pre-rented. We check out and go find our car and are exiting the garage when we have to stop to check out of the garage. Tommy hands the guy our paper work and he scans it and scans our car and something wasn't going through. So he scans our papers and scans the car again and still nothing. We sat there for probably a good 20-30 minutes with him trying to figure out what was going on and why our car wasn't lining up with our paperwork, and he finally told us we would have to go reprint our papers and get a new car. :( It wasn't too late but I was tired from emotionally flying all day, we had an hour and a half drive ahead of us, and the last thing I wanted to do was pull back around, wait around to reprint papers, unload and reload baggage in a new car and try this all again. But then he said "Your last name is XXX (whatever he said, some Hispanic name) right?" HA Nope! Apparently the lady that printed our papers off for us printed someone else's first and handed them to us, on top of ours! So then he gets to the second page (our real papers), scans them, scans the car, and TaDa!!

Finally on our way to Galveston

Compared to the rest of the day, that little glitch was nothin'! It just added to the day, which had been going like that.

We finally arrived in Galveston, which by the way is kinda ghetto! and at our hotel, which was also sketchy haha! And were finally able to get Tommy's birth certificate faxed to us! We finally had a copy IN OUR HANDS! (Thank You Bonnie!!! You were our saving grace!! I don't know how I will EVER repay you!!) 

I felt a lot better, now that it was tangible, but like I said earlier, still a little worried that for some reason it wouldn't make the cut-cuz hey, that's how our trip had been going so far!

When everyone else got to the hotel (we didn't travel together), we went to a restaurant next door for dinner and then to bed! It still wasn't that late, but we were exhausted! 


The next morning, even though I was so tired and had only slept like 2 hours the night before, I was awake at 6, and could hear the birds singing outside. Oh, it was glorious! When Tommy got up we went for a little walk (our hotel was on the coast) and took some pictures. 

That's the ocean behind us but it was too foggy to see. You could hear it though! It was loud!

We drove down to Walmart and got a couple things, ate breakfast and then Tommy had to drive 30 minutes to return the car. While he was gone the rest of us went to the beach.

In case you did't know, the whole reason we went on this cruise was to celebrate the 1st birthday of my baby nephew Cash, who was still born January 6th, 2017. That's what the "Cash Cruise" and "Cruising for Cash" is referring to :)

Kyla had to be my picture buddy while Tommy was gone

When Tommy got back we ubered to the port and boarded the ship! Yep! We got on! Got through security and everything! In fact they didn't look twice at his certificate! They just compared his name and date of birth against his drivers licence and that was that! Easy! (Ha! insert eye roll and sarcasm here)

You forget how big these ships are!

So just real quick, because I know this post is LONG. I just wanted to say first of all... We are getting passports!! And second of all, remember when I was awake that first night from 12:30-3AM when we were staying in Gooding? So about that night.... When I couldn't go back to sleep, that's what was actually on my mind was our birth certificates. I actually had the thought to go check for them (maybe even more than once too, I can't remember). But that was silly! I knew I had the birth certificate folder and there were two documents in there, so I knew I had them..... ya lesson learned. I'm pretty sure that this whole experience was for my sake! Because I am really bad at acting on promptings. Let's just say I'm working on that! And like I said at the beginning of this post, that was really odd for me to not be able to go back to sleep... and I'm convinced that that's why! I'm a hard learner.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this post! Because writing it gave me slight anxiety all over again! ;) That's how bad it was! Haha ...just the recollection.... wheph! 

And now that the nitty gritty is done and over with, I'll start working on the actual cruise post! (It will be much funner!)

Stay tuned!!

6 Years Down!

January 5th was Tommy's and my 6th anniversary!! Can you believe it?!! I can't! I know I say this every year, but seriously! It does not feel like it's been that long! Feels likes it's only been a couple years! I guess that is a good thing though, right? It's never a good sign when people say they feel like they have been married forever! haha

So Friday morning we started our day out at the gym, because we knew we would be indulging in good food and treats the next couple days. Then we headed up to Boise for the weekend! :) I asked Tommy if we could go to Boise so I could go to a running store and get fitted for shoes!

When I got out of the shower Tommy had 2 dozen roses for me.... He never fails!!
<3 <3 <3

First stop once in Boise was Cabela's of course! But I was ok with that because I was super tired and took a nap in the truck while Tommy was in Cabela's :) Then we went to the mall and shopped a bit there, and before heading back to the hotel, stopped at Cheese Cake Factory for a piece of Oreo dream cheese cake for after dinner! <3 

Got checked into the hotel and got ready for dinner! 

Any guess where we went?..... It's a no-brainer! Texas Roadhouse duh! It's hard to stray away from what you know is good, and we do love us some Texas! We had called ahead and reserved a table and it's a good thing because it was an hour wait!

We shared the steak and ribs combo (see licking face above ^)

We went over to The Village after dinner and walked around for a bit

They still had their tree and gingerbread house up and a skating rink! We didn't skate though, we should have!!

On the way back to the hotel we saw this place that had a whole bunch of Christmas lights and a cool lighted tunnel you walk through, so we stopped to check it out.

It was pretty cool!

Tommy made fun of my (his) hat, but I stayed warm!!

I was so excited to sleep in the next morning and even closed the heavy shade things on the windows so we could sleep as long as we wanted and the sunlight wouldn't wake us up......but that wasn't a problem.... we were both awake at 6am! :/ So Tommy watched TV and I read my book for a while (we're old and boring ;) ), then we got ready and ate breakfast.

First stop, new shoes!! Yay!! I have been waiting for this moment for so long!! The moment I get new running shoes, but even more-the moment I can try out running again in my new shoes!

We went to The Pulse in Meridian and how the fitting works, in case you didn't know (I didn't), is, you tell them what kind of fitness you do, what pain or injuries you have, and kind of what you are looking for and they pick out shoes for you to try. You then run on a treadmill in the different shoes with a video camera at the back of the treadmill videoing your run. You run for a few and then watch the video and pick apart your stride and what your stride looks like in the different shoes. It was really interesting and beneficial! I loved trying on all different types of shoes and running in them, finding which one felt best and where my foot and leg were in line. I highly recommend doing it!

Ended up with Brooks Revena's! I tried on different brands and could definitely tell which ones were and weren't Brooks, and that I LOVE Brooks the best!!

So excited to see if my foot is healed enough to where I can run and do the classes I love again! (cross your fingers!)

Next stop, the movie!! We went to The Village Cinema and Tommy was so great to take me to The Greatest Showman!! And Guys!!!!

So seriously! I had heard a lot about this movie and how amazing it was and tons of people said they had bought the soundtrack before they had even left the movie, and let Me tell You....... it was, Amazing. We were not even 5 minutes into the movie and I was bawling, ok not bawling, but when the little girl has to go to boarding school.... aww that got me! And then I cried through the whole movie. Every time I "turned around", there was a new scene and a something making me cry! With each new scene! haha (smh) 

Next, next stop, Hobby Lobby!! (for me) Tommy went to Sportmans. I should always learn to have Tommy drop me off at Hobby Lobby and then go to Sportmans instead of me dropping him off and then going to Hobby Lobby, because he always texts me that he is ready whenever I am, but I have just begun looking!! 

I have been trying to figure out what to put on the wall above my couch for.... 7 months now haha and couldn't decided whether I wanted pictures, a shelf, a mirror, one big picture/art/sign, but...... Hobby Lobby to the rescue! (as always! LOVE Hobby Lobby!) I found a sign that I think will be perfect!!

We wanted to eat Pie Hole for dinner, but it had to be at the one in down town Boise! And we were in Meridian. So we decided to go to their newly opened Wingers and share some wings (licky face) ;)

After lunch we drove to Nampa to watch Jake wrestle and ended the night at downtown Boise Pie Hole! (no pictures of either :( I was a slacker!) 

We felt pretty hip walking downtown Boise on a Saturday night! And wouldn't have minded staying all night, but, we had to head home :(

It was a great weekend! We had so much fun starting the year celebrating our 6th year of marriage! <3

2018!!

This year just feels like a good year!! Doesn't it?! Mine started off better than last! I wasn't sick!! And last year, more than anything, I wanted to be the stereotypical new year resolutioner and be at the gym! But I was sick and was so bitter about that! But this year (face of shame), I didn't go because I was so tired and slept in! and then couldn't make it there the rest of the day, but I went the next day!! January 2, starting off strong! ;)

This year, for the first time I was actually really excited for a new year! It actually meant something to me! I was just excited to have a fresh new year to accomplish goals in, and like I said above-it just feels like a good year!

So we were able to host our first (small) party at our home for New Years Eve! And it was so much fun!! I worked New Years Eve, but discharged all but one of my patients and the hospital was pretty dead so I got to go home early! Which I was so thankful for so I could get ready for the party!!

Just had a couple friends over and ate mexican food (seriously what better way to ring in the new year?!), and played games until the countdown, popped some bubbly, and toasted to the new year at midnight! And of course kissed my bae!

I didn't take a picture of our mexican spread but that whole counter behind the eating ware was full!

First picture, of many, of 2018! <3
New year resolution
                   *Take more pictures!

Happy New Year!!

May your year be filled with happiness, success or whatever......

Make it a GREAT year!

~Merry Christmas~

Tommy and I usually don't go down to Bear Lake for Christmas because we have worked Christmas since we have been married so we just celebrate here. But this year was a little bit different. 

We still worked Christmas Day, but we had Christmas Eve and the weekend of, off! So we were able to go down to Bear Lake Thursday night the 21st and stay until Christmas Eve morning! 

I was able to get an appointment with my childhood chiropractor in Soda Springs for Friday morning, which I was SOOO thankful for! For almost a week I had had a pinched sciatic and couldn't bend, lift, roll, squat, exc., and could only sit and walk for a short period of time....so that needed to be fixed! At the first of the week I had tried to get into my chiropractor in Twin but they didn't have anything available until the 2nd week of January! So when Bowman had an opening (several acutally!) for Thursday or Friday, you bet I took that!! He took one look at me and said "What did you do?!" (I don't know!) But I guess my whole pelvis was out of wack or whatever, tilted, "off", whatever he called it.

But anyways!, so that's what I did Friday morning, on the way home from Soda we stopped and visited Tam and Er for a bit, and then headed back in to town to make sugar cookies and icing for the party the next night-the whole reason we came down!

So we came down to decorate sugar cookies for Santa and have a party on Saturday night! But before I get to that, better finish up Friday..... So after making the cookies and icing, we took pizza out to my parents house, ate pizza and gave them their gifts! Buttttt... even before that, I got a snapchat from Lil, Case's wife, in the hospital!! So she was pregnant and due Jan. 5th but apparently something was going on! ;) So long story short, they had to induce her and early the next morning I became an auntie again!! <3

Oh I love "my" babies!!

So these picture's were technically taken on the 23rd, so.... onto Saturday!

Saturday we started the morning off with first waking up to about 8 inches of snow!! There was close to no snow the night before, but it snowed all night! <3 

then started the day off right by going to watch Briston play basketball! So much fun to watch him play! That is one of the things I miss most about living far from my family is watching my nieces and nephews do sports! So that was a lot of fun! Plus he's GOOD! So that makes it all the more fun!

Then I headed over to the hospital to see my newest niece, London! <3 (see above) And how absolutely adorable is she?!! After getting some quality baby time in, it was cookie time!

That night we had the cookie decorating party accompanied by dinner-white chicken chili, homemade chicken noodle, and/or loaded baked potato soups, rolls, and crock-pot hot chocolate!

And of course with all the fun we had at thanksgiving time playing the saran wrap game, we had to play it again! We did that instead of white elephant or doing a gift exchange. But it was actually kind of a gift exchange because we all brought $10 worth of good prizes and made the ball with them! 

The pictures are kind of blurry, but this time instead of having to put on a turkey hat, we had to put on a cute striped stocking hat with elf ears coming out of it! And then we decorated cookies for Santa, and ended the night by taking some food and cookies down to Case and Lil! <3

The next morning Tommy and I had to leave earlier than our norm to get back to Twin in time to go to his Grandparents for their Christmas Eve party! But before we left we had to go see London one more time!, and help Case take his truck home so he could drive mommy and baby home!

We made it back to Twin early evening and went out to the Grandparents for Christmas Eve dinner (Taco's), gifts, and games!

What a wonderful season! 

Merry Christmas!!

~UgLy SwEaTeR pArTy~

We had our annual ugly sweater party on Saturday night {12/9} at Jake and Blaike's house and had sooo much fun eating, laughing, playing games and exchanging white elephant gifts!

My sweater this year had cats in stockings on it! And then I taped pictures of my own cats on it! :D And you'll have to excuse the picture-it's not a very good one (of me!), after the party Tommy and I stayed and watched the NFR, so the picture was taken at about midnight! 

And the white elephant gift I got was pretty fitting as well! ;)

And Tommy got a framed picture of Jake (to put on his nightstand ;) )

And for your enjoyment..... this absolutely ADORABLE picture from a few days previous!

OH MY HEART!!
<3 <3 <3

Merry Christmas!!

Bass Banquet

So when your husband is in a bass club, you get to go to the bass banquet at the end of the year! :)

Sunday night {12/3} we went to the bass banquet for Tommy's bass club at the Blue Lakes Country Club! Fancy, I know!!

They serve us dinner (prime rib and ham) and then hand out awards from the years fishing tournaments.

Tommy getting his award from the club president for winning Rookie of the Year! <3

 I thought the story the president told was kinda cool. He told how Tommy got into bass fishing.... He was was trying to figure out bass fishing at Dierkes and just wasn’t having any luck or catching anything, so he spent hours watching bass fishing shows, learning and teaching himself, bought a little "boat", and worked his butt off practicing! And ended up being the 3rd place team with his Dad in the club this year!

Rookie of the Year!

Tommy and Ted getting their 3rd place plaque

What a lucky guy!....his wife let's him fish so much! ;)

He also won tons of raffle prizes throughout the party and then at the end of the party won the big raffle prize-a new pole!! He IS a lucky guy!!