Results from Regionals!

This past weekend was Olivia's Regional Competition. It started Thursday afternoon and ran through last night. What a weekend! Luckily, Liv's group wasn't scheduled to dance until Saturday morning (early!).

Funk was came first that morning. It received an Elite Top First, a Special Judges Award of Funky Fresh (I think...), and came in first over all. They won $150!

Then, that evening was the large group dances. Angels Among Us received a Top First award, a Special Judges Award of "Little Angels", and got 3rd over all. Wild Babies received an Elite Top First, a Special Judges Award of "Wild Award", and came in second overall for 8& under. Wild Babies also received the choreography award for all of the large groups--what an honor! Then, 5678 also received an Elite Top First, and got first over all for 8 & under. They received $175!

Sunday morning was Olivia and Kenny's duet, Love Shack. They had their new costumes and they looked AWESOME on stage. Ms. Jamie said they had an advantage b/c the judges would remember them from the last night. When it came time for awards, Love Shack received a Special Judges Award of Cutest Couple, got an Elite Top First, and came in first for the intermediate division ages 12 & under!!! They received a check for $25. Then, they also came in second place for all 7&8 duets and trios in the advanced category.







It was a FANTASTIC weekend... Makes us look so forward to Nationals this summer!

Putting my hope in Him.

By now I know so many of you have heard of our situation with Isabella that we've been dealing with the past few weeks. Just a little recap in case you aren't aware... Bella has had so many issues at her daycare. Honestly, part of it is her with her sensory/behavior and part of it is them and the lack of consistency and structure/routine. Well, we got a letter that gave us a reason to get out of dodge and find a new daycare--now. They had given up and would not follow her modifications on her IEP. So...I took off work one day to find her a daycare that she could begin the following week and spoke to her speech teacher for advice on the best placement for her the following school year. We visited and decided on a daycare for now and later a Montessori school.

With all of our struggles with her, I have been having an extremely hard time. We had been 'in the gray area' as far as testing goes--not severe enough for actual HELP on issues, but enough of a problem that it was causing a problem... We were frustrated and pretty desperate, actually.

Well, once again, in church we were singing and the next slide started with the line, "I put my hope in You..." and I about lost it. It is no coincidence to me that Bella's middle name is Hope. All of the sudden, my HUGE problem seemed so small as I realized that God was in control of Belle. Not that I didn't know that before, but it was as if the concept slapped me in the face. It was then I had realized I had been praying for guidance for her (even putting it on my prayer card each week in my ladies' bible study) and knew that the awful note, the search for a new (and better) place for her was all part of His GUIDANCE. Not what I had expected as an answer, but I had no doubt. Maybe there were signs before and this was our final 'shake you up' kind of thing to GET HER OUT...?? Who knows. But I do feel so much better about our situation knowing that this is exactly what needs to happen right now.

And now that she is in her new daycare until the fall, things are going marvelously well. Her new teacher LOVES her and keeps trying to convice me that she is not 'bad'. She said Bella just needed some structure and honestly, she does. The fact that the teacher is firm, but loving, helps a ton as well. Ms. Judy tells me how advanced Bella is and how much she enjoys her. I come to work every day practically in tears because I am so happy... It is a nice change. :)

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and thoughts. We still have a way to go, but we are definitely on the right path.

Easter

Easter weekend was so much fun. We started out the day on Saturday going to the egg hunt at our church. We always enjoy that. Then, it was to Emily's house. She had come up with several crafts for the children to do for the decorations on the lunch table the next day. In addition to decorating eggs, she had them create window cling stickers, made little bird nests, and egg-holding place markers.









Unlike the day before, Sunday proved to be a cold and rainy day... No egg hunting outdoors. But, the decorations looked great, the food was oh so YUMMY, and the company was great! Not only did Nathan and Dorothy come this year, but so did Ashley. The girls wore their flower girl dresses that they actually didn't wear in the wedding and looked so beautiful!

Coming Home

We left the cruise ship with no real problems. A little bit of waiting and some lines, but that was to be expected. We were in the car by 9:45. We drove to Houston and up 59 all the way. We never stopped for food...until about 3:45 (I figure we'd eaten enough all week NOT to feel hungry). We ate breakfast/lunch/dinner in Texarkana at La Caretta--one of our favorite places to eat at when we lived there. It was just as wonderful as we had remembered!

Then it was back in the car and 2 hours to see the KIDS!!! We hadn't talked to them at all on the trip and hoped they were doing well with my mom. We picked them up at 6:30 from Ms. Gina's house (mom had a hair appointment and the girls were both there so they were VERY surprised to see us. The plan was we'd get them on Friday--today).

We went and bathed the girls at mom's while we gathered their stuff and came home. We kept Bella home from daycare today and gave the girls their presents this morning.

We got the girls pink maracas, wooden beaded bracelets, charm bracelets with Mexican charms, color-changing T-shirts and rings, shell necklaces, and a coconut cup/bank.






I love this picture in particular. We call it her Mexican Bling...

Day at Sea--Day 5

I was so exhausted (and enjoying the bed SO much) that I could not seem to get up that next morning. Brian got up and decided to eat breakfast in the dining hall instead of the buffet. He came back and I was still in bed...did I mention I loved that bed? I got up, got dressed, grabbed a bagel and we were off to the towel-animal demonstration before heading to the debarkment talk that Kirk, the director, was giving at 11:00. We had run into Dawn and Wayne at both of those and sat with them. Dawn kept telling us that at 3:30 we needed to go to the Newlywed and Married Game Show. We agreed to go.

We grabbed some lunch and headed to the deck to lay out some more and read more in my book. Honestly, this was one of my favorite times of day. After an hour or two, Brian came to find me and we went down to the slide...we'd waited all week to be 'one of the kids' and slide. The water was FREEZING (we had forgotten it was straight from the ocean), but it was so much fun, we went again. While we were in line, we saw Dawn, Wayne, Jason, and Kasey sitting near the pool in the shade. We joined them after the second ride down the waterslide.

Dawn was very worried about us not getting a good seat for the gameshow, so they all went to get a seat while Brian and I changed out of our suits. We joined them in the balcony. Brian and I tried out to be a contestant for the game show by being Tarzan and Jane...THAT was interesting, but in the long run, another couple was picked by the crowd (at least a dozen tried out). It was hilarious!

Then it was off to shower and start steaming my dress for our last evening at table 282. We got ready early enough to have our pictures taken before going to dinner. We ran into Dawn and Wayne again as they were ALSO having their pictures taken.

Dinner was bitter-sweet. I hated for it to be over. It was the first night that we all 10 were at the table at the same time. We got a picture made of all of us and it is so cute! I got a picture of Ali and Amera (remembering I had not gotten one of them earlier in the trip).




Kasey hopped up during dinner (and we were afraid she was seasick again) but she returned to the table with her bottle of champagne that she had won in a game show several days before. Our table toasted to new friends and our fantastic wait staff.




The food was wonderful, as always, and then bid our farewells to Venera and Dante.



I was really excited about the show because it was to feature the Carnival dancers/singers. We went with Dawn, Wayne, Kasey, and Jason. However, we were disappointed, and actually left after a few songs. It was very abstract and had a Wizard of Oz theme to it, but I didn't get it. We were excited to see our pictures anyway (they were to be ready at 10:30). So, we picked out pictures instead. We bought a few and even ordered a canvas of one...what were we thinking? Ha!

Then, we went with Wayne and Dawn to the midnight comedy show. I didn't want to go. I am realizing I am not much of a 'comedy act' person, but went along for the ride. We got there early to get a good seat so we sat through the end of karaoke before the comedian started. We all stayed for about 15 minutes before leaving. There were some parts that were funny, but we were SO tired and hadn't even started packing, filling out customs papers yet, not to mention the surveys, etc... So we went back to the room--and found a cobra as our last towel animal. Our stateroom steward, Gabriel was awesome!



We were up a while, packing and then off to bed...for the last time on the Carnival Ecstasy...

Cozumel--Day 4

After our room service promptly at 7:30, we looked outside and saw that we were about to dock in Cozumel. A few minutes later we saw another ship pull up and thought it was the Fantasy...but we were mistaken. Another ship (a MASSIVE cruise ship) pulled up next to us. But right behind them, we saw Mike and Kathy's ship. Quite the popular place I'd say...



We got dressed and headed to the Gangway, but found it was closed. The gangway was always closed for safety reasons and regulations when another ship docks until that ship is cleared for debarkment. So, we waited for about 20 minutes and a few minutes after 9, we got off our ship and waited for Mike and Kathy.





When they got off their boat, we all made our way into Puerta Maya for some shopping. We worked out way down to the taxi area and took a taxi to the Forum Shops (the recommended route for shopping). We walked along the water, shopping, talking, and admiring the torquoise ocean! It was beautiful!




We ate lunch at Las Palmeras and had a wonderful meal. (when the ticket came, it was in pesos and it read over $800! Ha! Then below it had the amount in dollars) We were sung to while we ate, but we got to eat with a view of the ocean. How fun!

We walked on down to Margaritaville because we 'thought' it had a beach and could sit there, but it only had a deck over the ocean. It was still nice, but not what we had expected. Then we took a taxi back to the ship and shopped a bit more before saying goodbye to our friends and getting on our ship. We were sung to by a small band while we waited to get back on. I could see in the distance storm clouds coming. I could see in the distance storm clouds coming.

After boarding the ship, I had my daily nap (remember I was coming to RELAX? I've never done that before!) and when I woke up, Brian was gone to get sushi or something. I read my book, looking out the window and watched the sun set. It was amazing. You could see the storm off to one side and how it was rolling in on the other. I was glad we had nice weather while in Cozumel. I wondered how it would be for our last day at sea.



Brian returned and said it was raining. We got ready for dinner and noticed the boat was VERY rocky. I about fell out of the shower! Literally! As we went up to the Atlantic deck, we realized there were barf bags taped around the elevators.

At dinner, one couple was not there because of karaoke and a slot tournament, and another couple left because the wife got seasick. Brian ordered escargott and it was wonderful! I was surprised I liked it!

After dinner, the show was 'physical comedy' (aka, a clown-like act) that was ok and a comedian that I didn't particularly care for. Then it was off to bed, where we found a towel bunny and of course, chocolates.

Progresso--Day 3

We woke up Monday morning and had breakfast on the Lido deck, outside. Actually, our ship had docked an hour or so before, but there was a small window of time that we could get off before Mike and Kathy's ship, the Fantasy, docked next to ours. We ate outside, hoping to see them get off their boat...of course that didn't happen.

We knew that in Progresso there wasn' much to do. We had been told that shopping there was not good and that most people were doing an excursion to get to a beach or out of town. We got off the boat and shopped a bit in a duty free store before walking down the little walkway of shops. We returned to the spot near the duty-free store to watch the water a bit. Next to the boats were little grass huts for bars. It looked so Mexico as dictated by the advertisements.





And this one cracked us up... Sorry, just HAD to post it!



While we were sitting there, I felt someone put their arm on my shoulder...and it was KATHY! No WAY!!! They had gone into downtown earlier that day, looked around, and decided to come back. We sat at a table in the sun (on the sand) and visited an hour or so before we all got on our own ships for lunch (hey, it is already paid for, right? AND we weren't sure of safe places to eat there in the Yucatan). We made plans to meet the next morning at 9 in Cozumel.




Once back on the ship, we ate French food for lunch (each day the cuisine was from a different origin), and we went back out to lay out near the pool. It was AWESOME because the place was basically deserted. We got lounge chairs on the Promonade deck (deck above the pool). I stayed there reading for a few hours and about 2:00, I went inside. Another long nap...the midnight buffet was to be that evening so we knew we'd be up late as well.



Before dinner, Brian took me out on the deck and showed me that we could see Mike and Kathy's ship behind us. It was pretty cool. The sun was beginning to set and it looked awesome!





Dinner was amazing that night as well. Dante was his usual self (HILARIOUS) and we had the chocolate cake and a cappuccino again for dessert. The wait staff had us join them in the Cha-Cha Slide...hilarious! The late show was a talent show of other passengers. We missed some of it, but it was pretty cool. I was exhausted from being in the sun all day, but didn't want to miss the buffet and deck party.



(This one is out of focus, but I like it anyway)

The party started with music and team dance offs (odd-numbered cabins were RED, even-numbered cabins were BLUE). Of course, there was the electric slide, cupid shuffle, and a conga line. I did that one, but was so exhausted I really just felt like going to bed. Christina was all over the dance-off. Brian joined in for a little bit too.



Once the food lines opened I wanted to try some of the food. I was not hungry since we'd just eaten a couple of hours before, but come one, salmon enchilladas? How often do you get THAT?




I didn't try any desserts, but a lot of effort went into them, huh?

When we finally made it back to our room, we had a pig for our towel-animal. We knew we had to get up early to meet Kathy and Mike. We arranged for room service to be delivered to our room at 7:30 and went to BED...

Day at Sea--Day 2

We slept in our first morning on the cruise. We went to a shopping talk (about where the best places were to shop in Cozumel) and then barely made it to the buffet in time for breakfast. Then Brian and I went and laid out for a few hours. I took Twilight and he took some magazines. Talk about relaxing! I was actually cold for a little while because of the cold breeze, but it warmed up.

We wanted to eat later because we had dinner so much later. We got some lunch and went to Lido deck for the "Men's Hairy Chest Contest". Talk about HILARIOUS! Oh MY! Then it was back to the room for a nap. We knew that our formal dinner was that night so I spent some time steaming my dress and then I started getting ready. Brian went exploring on the ship while I showered. I called in some room service since we had so long until dinner (a fantastic center cut beef loin sandwich with brie cheese and then a fajita wrap--we tried them both).

At 7:15, we had the Captain's Party. We ran into two of the other couples from our table (Dawn and Wayne, and Christina and Joey). We sat with them and had so much fun.





Then the Captain introduced himself, as well as rest of his staff, to us and then dismissed us all to dinner.



Dinner was AWESOME...lobster! I had never had lobster before (well, I tried it a tiny bit once in Maine, but thought I'd give it another shot). And how could I forget to mention the dessert??? Actually, I had it every single NIGHT! It was a melted chocolate cake.... One word: sinful!




We met the 5th couple at our table that night, Kasey and Jason.




Each night, towards the end of dinner, the lights (normally blue) would turn red, the small clear lights would start blinking and the entire wait staff would come out and sing and/or dance. It was hilarious! We quickly learned that Dante was a HOOT!! His assistant, Venera was hiliarious too... Oh my, what she has to put up with! We were sang to by the both of them ("happy anniversary to you...") and then at the end of each line, Dante said "Kissy, Kissy!" He made you kiss through the whole song. Everyone they did it to laughed so hard through the whole thing they about cried!



After dinner, we watched Wayne play roulette at the casino before Dawn and I headed off to the show at 10:30 with the Carnival dancers/singers. It was INCREDIBLE!!!! It was country-themed. Brian and Wayne went to the 'cigars and koniac' thing that night. No koniac for them, but he said he wanted to feel like the guys on Boston Legal with a suit, on a balcony and a cigar. Oh those boys....



We came back to our room to a towel dog. That night, we slept VERY well. I hated to set the alarm clock, but we had heard that the other cruise ship (that left New Orleans) would hit our same ports with us and we knew that Mike and Kathy Johnson (Jennifer's parents, Abbey's grandparents) were on that ship. We had tried talking them into going on OUR ship, but they wanted to go out of New Orleans instead. We wanted to get up in time to catch them get off their ship.