Memorial Day and Damon's Birthday 5/24-5/30

Monday
The Shurtliff's invited us to join them at Spring Creek Beach.  We had thought about going anyway, but were deterred because of the weather.  It had rained during the night and the morning still seemed cloudy and cool.  But the idea of being with friends outweighed the dreary weather.  We quickly got our beach stuff together and headed over.  We went to a spot that we had only tried to access once before.  The water had been high the last time, making beach access a bit tricky and due to the rainfall the night before the water was again high.  We chose to make an adventure of it and waded across an inlet that went up to my ribs to make it to the beach area.  The kids of course had fun, even more so having friends.  I am so thankful that the quarantine is letting up just a bit so that we can be with other people.  We are ready to socialize again!

The rest of the day was just about like normal.  Doug and I went to the store together - which actually isn't normal.  I made molasses sugar cookies with Damon and the girls and then I got dinner ready while the kids had screen time.  We had hamburgers with a yummy fruit salad.

Overall a nice day - just so glad that we did something fun and different in the morning.  I was getting depressed with the idea of the holiday being just like any other normal day.

Tuesday
Well it is the last week of school for the kids.  They don't have much to do, and most of it is optional.  Chris did a scavenger hunt and the girls made school memory books.  I went to the dentist and had the worst cleaning ever - the technician was so hard on my gums.  Our end of year treat was getting a Kona Ice slushy.  Our neighbors reserved a truck to come to our neighborhood, so we walked over and got some.  It was a hot day, so they tasted refreshing.  The Shurtiff kids came over to play after that.  The girls played in the sprinklers outside while Drew joined Damon upstairs playing video games.  I made a stir fry while talking to my mom.  She just finished writing my dad's history and I am trying to help by editing it.  Its been fun to read more about my dad and his earlier life stories.  We are working on a large puzzle right now and I find that I like going over there and working on that instead of doing more important things.  sigh, oh well.

One important thing that I did get done today is that I called the Dr. office for Jenna.  We are in the middle of scheduling a surgery for her.  We haven't had to deal with surgeries before, so this is all pretty new to us.  Makes me grateful for our good health and less than risky kids - no jumping off of houses over here.  So I think we got things figured out with the estimate and what our insurance will pay.  The overall cost is over $10,000 but we will only have to pay our deductible plus 20% after that.  We have a high deductible plan right now, but we figured it was still cheaper than having the other play with what we would save on monthly payments.  So Jenna will have her ultra sound on Thursday, and her surgery next week.  Hope it all goes well.

Wednesday-
The girls had their "awards party" on a zoom call.  It was definitely different.  They had a great 2nd year, but I feel bad for all the craziness at the end.

 I had a GNO in the evening - our first get together since the quarantine.  It was so good to visit in person.

 Thursday-
We picked up the girls' school supplies and said good-by to their teachers.  Mrs. Sherrill and Mrs. Hebert.

 In the afternoon Jenna and I went to get her ultra sound.  It was really fast.  The hospital seems so empty since so many optional surgeries have been put on hold.

 The girls have really gotten into crocheting.  They picked it up really fast and Jenna's stitches are really good.  They made bracelets and necklaces for themselves and their stuffed animals.

Saturday
Damon's birthday!  It seems like this year I didn't do very much for the kids.  Since we couldn't invite anyone over or do much of anything it seemed a bit anit-climatic.  But we had presents and Damon asked for banana cream pie and key lime pie.  We still did our Saturday jobs and then opened presents after that.  Damon built his new lego set and he made the science kit.  It was a color blending crystal experiment.

Damon is a great son, he is thoughtful and willing to help most of the time.  Of course he can be a bit bossy and self centered too, but we're all like that.  He really is a great help at home.  I'm so grateful that I can leave the house and know that the kids are looked after.  He has grown so tall.  He is 5' 7" now and he voiced dropped awhile ago.  He is growing into a nice young man.  Crazy to think that he only has three more years of high school.  We need to start working on getting his learners permit.

Mediterranean Cruise Day 2 August 11, 2019

Sunday August 11,
We had a great breakfast on the boat.  There were so many choices.  American, Asian, English breakfast styles.  Lots of muffins, bagels, pastries, fruit, oatmeal, and cold cuts.  In the back I didn't even discover until the 3rd day you could could order eggs, omelets, waffles, and pancakes.

Since it was Sunday and we didn't have anything booked we called a taxi to take us to church.  It was about a 15 min drive onto the mainland.  It was a nice church, though the A/C wasn't turned on much in the chapel.  They gave us some headsets and a missionary translated for us.  I could feel the spirit, especially when we sang.  It was fun to try and sing in Italian.  The slower songs were easier.  We had the taxi driver come back when church was over and we went back to the boat for lunch and to change our clothes.  I'm glad we went to church.

The rest of the day we just wandered around Venice.  We went to a famous bridge and saw the Grand Canal.  It was all so beautiful! 

There were water fountains throughout the city so you could fill your water bottles.

The glass in Venice was exquisite.  I could have spent hours looking at all of the things in the shops.  I finally decided on buying two cute lady bugs for the girls and a necklace for myself.  It was so hard to choose. We also bought a fan - we had brought our cardboard 4th of July one, but it was getting beat up.  

On our way to the boat there were about 8 of these panels on the fence.  It is chewing gum! 

We got back to the boat in time to shower and get ready for our dinner reservation in the restaurant on the boat.  It was called the Trellis.  Our waiter was Fabian from Jamaica and Balsa from Montenegro helped.  The food was so good.  I tried to keep track of all of the things I ordered, but I've already forgotten most of them.  I'm pretty sure I ordered some shrimp on the first night!

 We watched the tow boat coming to take us out, but we had to leave to catch the first show. 

I enjoyed all of the shows.  There was a cast that toured with the boat that did 3 shows.  This night was the first, called Broken Strings.  The plot wasn't terribly clear because they told the story all through songs - modern and musicals.  The dancing was great, the vocals were decent.  So fun!

Sunsets on the ocean are beautiful!

After the show we played Exploding Kittens with the younger group in the therapeutic pool area.  Richard and Tannie had never played and Marcus and Annie commented that it was much more fun to play with adults than with their kids. :)  

I had a terrible night's sleep.  My pillow was way too big and I tossed and turned all night.  

Mediterranean Cruise Day 1 Aug 9-10 , 2019

Alright let's get back to blogging.  And what better way to start then to write about our amazing trip to Italy.  Our journey starts months prior with lots of planning, shopping, coordinating stuff for the kids etc.  We were gone for the first few days of school so I had to make sure I had everything lined up for them (outfits, backpacks, carpools).  Doug's sister Amy came out to watch our kids which was such a lifesaver.  I was able to enjoy the trip and not worry about what was going on at home.

But our official journey started on Friday August 9th (our 18th anniversary).  We left for the airport around 10:00 and got there plenty early.  The playing cards and air fresheners didn't go through security well and my bag was thoroughly searched.  Our first flight went to Toronto, Canada.  The conveyor belt for the luggage was broken, so not all of the bags made it onto the flight.  That made a quite a few people upset.  We were very very glad that we only had carry ons.

We had a few hours in Toronto.  We walked around the terminal and ate dinner then got on our flight to Venice around 8:30.  It was a 9 hour flight.  It was so hard to try and sleep.  It was a long flight.  The plane was older and not very big.  They didn't even had screens in the seat, you had to use our own device and hook up to their App.  Anyway, we tried to sleep, without much success.

Saturday August 10
 We arrived in Venice at 9:00 local time, which was 2:00am Houston time.  We waited for a bit in the baggage area, then went out the transportation area and I happened to see my mom and the rest of their group.  It was a tender mercy that we met up.  We bought a bus ticket to get us into the city to get to the boat.

There were lots of people, and our whole trip was full of smoke, lots of people in Europe smoke!  We got on a "People Mover" to take us to the port.  We had to wait in line to check in, it wasn't too bad.  At first they told us that we had to wait to leave our bags, but then Doug asked someone else and they said we could drop them off in our rooms, even though our rooms weren't ready yet.  We went to our rooms, through blocked off doors and dropped them off.  Then we met up with Marcus and Annie, ate lunch on the boat, and found a water taxi to our first tour.  We made it just in time.

This tour was of St. Mark's Basilica, the Dodge's Palace and the Bridge of Sighs.  It was a great tour.  Our guide was very knowledgeable.  She didn't think much of Italians though, it was pretty funny to hear her talk about their lack of planning and construction plans.  It was a great tour, though after 3 hours of standing and walking our feet were getting tired.

Mom and Evelyn went back to the boat after that.  The rest of us walked around Venice. It was so pretty.  Every alleyway looked like a postcard.  We took lots of pictures.  We found a little restaurant: Bar Academia.  I had Chicken Carbonara.  It was very good. It had been sooo hot all day.  It was much better in the evening when the sun we down.  We were tired and walked back to the boat.  I think I slept pretty soundly because I was so tired!

We saw a museum for Vivaldi, there were lots of old violins and other instruments. 

We bought our first gelato of the trip.  It was so good.  This time it was cherry and mango.