Timing Is Everything

I have come to determine that I have the world's worst sense of timing. If I do decide to actually cook a complete meal, which really isn't all that often, I never get all the dishes done at the same time. We're always waiting on something. I'm a procrastinator in some things too. That does not help the timing issue one bit.

Last December I had laparoscopic surgery done to diagnose the problems I'd been having. I had that surgery two days before Christmas. How's that for bad timing? While I enjoyed the holidays with my family, most of my energy was spent on recovery. And now it's like deja vu. Here I am after having major surgery just days before a national holiday. People are planning bbq's and going on vacations, and I can't even walk out my front door. I would need to go down the stairs for that, and stairs are a big no-no right now. It's not like I'm super patriotic or anything, or that I love this holiday a great deal. I'm social though, and I love to be around people. I didn't think it would bother me all that much, but it is. Two of my four family members are gone with friends through the weekend.  The ones still at home are the ones who don't talk! My house is nice and quiet without bickering of siblings, but now the quiet is starting to grate on my nerves. 

I've been invited to a friend's house for a bbq, but even just getting myself over there and camping on her couch would be overdoing it. I know it. So, I sit in my bedroom with my little window to the world and read on fb and twitter about what everyone else gets to do this weekend. Am I feeling sorry for myself? Maybe a little bit.

Many, Many Thanks!

It's Thursday, two days after my surgery, and I'm home. While I feel like I lost two days to drugs and pain, all that is starting to fade as I feel better and better each hour. Thanks be to God!

Tuesday started out very early as I had to check in at the hospital at 5:15. In the morning! I'm NOT a morning person. All went well as they got me settled in a pre-op room and went through all the questions and unpleasantness. I think they asked me my name and birth date nearly 1,000 times I was there, "for safety reasons." No chance of getting the wrong meds or procedures at that place.  Good to know I suppose. One of the worst things was trying to get an iv started. I'm not an easy "stick" as a phlebotomist would say. When I've been fasting from all food and liquids for the prior 12 hours, I'm what they would call and "impossible stick!" It took 5 tries (from 2 different nurses on the iv team) to get a line started. I have the bruises to prove it. My hands and arms are all sorts of lovely shades of blue and black.  It wasn't their fault I was dehydrated.

The surgery went well. Or so I'm told. I was out.  In the holding area before they take you to the OR, they gave me something to relax. I don't remember anything after that. I vauguely recall an oxygen mask being placed on my face, but it's more like a dream than a memory. I also sort of remember a lot of nurses moving me into my room. Like making me slide off the gurney and onto the bed, and how dare they make me move! This hurts like you know what! After that they introduced me to the wonderful button I could push every 6 minutes to make the pain lesson. Which it didn't really until much later that night.

I wasn't an easy patient, what with my requests for pain meds that actually made the pain bearable. The doc finally gave me something more, and I was able to rest well Tuesday night (with the exception of the fever I got which made me get chilled and shake uncontrollably for 15 min.) Wednesday morning was another story. They took away the morphine, made me get up, and even showered. They kept having me rub my face with a cold washcloth because I kept dozing off when they were trying to talk to me. Drugs. It was the drugs. I was in pretty horrible pain and not happy that they seemed on evicting me from my room, but since they refused to give me the good medicine I decided I might as well be miserable at home.  Thanks very much to the insurance company for their kindness! (I know it's hard to tell sarcasm in a blog post, but that last statement is dripping with it.)

I was in a lot of pain on the way home, and into Wednesday evening. My family helped out a lot, and I watched a lot of tv. Fell asleep a lot too. I took a pain pill (of the low-dose variety) before bed and slept fairly well. Problem is I'm a stomach-sleeper, and have a hard time getting comfortable any other way. It was a challenge, but I did ok. I woke up today, a new person!

It's amazing how much better I feel. The nurse kept telling me once the anesthesia was out of my system and my body started functioning normally, I would feel so much better. She did not lie. I do feel better. My nurses would be so pleased to hear I'm drinking lots of water and reaping the um...effects of that, as well as allowing the gasses they pumped into me during the surgery to um...shall we say escape...the confines of my body. I guess I could be indelicate and say I'm finally passing gas and peeing like a race horse.  These are good things I'm told. At least days after major surgery.

I can't tell you how awesome it was to be a part of fb and twitter through this time! So many people wrote encouraging things to me and just let me know they were praying for me and thinking about me. That was such a huge encouragement to me! I cried today reading all of them. I was too doped up to really understand how many people care about me when I was in the hospital. I feel like I'm back among the living (at least as far as my brain is concerned), and I am amazed. God is so good to give me such great family and friends who care! Thanks to all of you who sent prayers up on my behalf, and for all the offers of help. We will be taking some of you up on that in the next week! I think the real challenge is going to be NOT doing anything. I'm feeling good enough today to have the thoughts of getting up to get myself something to eat. Then I remind myself my family is hear to help, and I have to let them. So, instead I ask for some iced tea, and sit while I'm waited on. So very strange to be in this position! Keep the prayers coming as these next 2 weeks I'm not supposed to do any stairs or lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk, and I can't drive either.  Patience will be needed for all who live in this house ;)

Rule Breaker!

The clock is ticking. By this time tomorrow, I will be out cold and I don't even want to think about what the surgeon will be doing. I'd rather not know. Just fix me. 

This is my last day of being able to do for myself for a week or so, and I want to make the most of it. Not quite sure what to do though. There's work to be done for sure. There's always work to be done.  Stupid dust bunnies need to take a vacation! Don't they know it's summer? 

There is some concern, rightly so, by those who care about me that I will not fully obey the doctor's instructions to rest after the surgery.  I have a hard time doing nothing. Ok, that's not completely true. I can do nothing for a short period of time and be quite content. The problem arises when I see something that needs to be done. I have to take care of it, be it laundry, the evil dust bunnies, whatever.  Blame it on the OCD, I can't let it be. You could also blame it on pride and impatience, but that would be delving a little too deep this early in the day ;)

Let me give you an example. This past weekend I was working on a landscaping project in our back yard. The pool was put in two summers ago, and the yard surrounding our beautiful pool looks just like it did after the installers tore it up with a bobcat.  Mt. Mongold (the huge dirt pile left by the installers) has diminished, but most of the ground around the pool is just dirt. I did put a path in, and started to put rock around the pool last summer. My goal this weekend was to finish the project. I bought 15 bags of river rock, and 21 interlocking brick edgers.   Saturday I was moving a load of dirt (heavy clay) in the wheelbarrow. It tipped right, and my wrist went left. That hurt. It wasn't too bad though, and I got quite a bit done. Sunday I forgot to ask Phil to move the rock out of my van to the backyard before he left for his softball game.  I thought I was pretty strong and with the wheelbarrow I could move some of the bags and start spreading the rock.  I parked the wheelbarrow right behind my van and loaded 3 bags of rock.  As I tried to maneuver the wheelbarrow out of the garage, it tipped left catching my left knee with the handle and smashing it against the van. Not good. I actually called out for help. Yeah, no one heard me.  By the time I managed to get my knee out and the wheelbarrow upright, I was crying my knee hurt so bad. I couldn't stand on it. Thankfully, no one saw this display of foolishness.  I was shaky for the next ten minutes. I got that stupid wheelbarrow full of rock to the back yard and tipped the cursed thing on purpose. Phil had to move those bags, and the rest, after his ball game. 

The good news is that I used all the supplies I bought, and got half way around the pool done.  The bad news is my knee still hurts, and I'm limping.  So, what to do today? I have some errands to run, and some last minute (unpleasant) pre-op things that need to be taken care of.  I'm totally being a rule breaker right now too. Shhhh! I was told to only eat jello and broth (basically a liquid diet) today. I just had two cups of coffee, dry toast, and some scrambled egg whites. If I don't eat anything at breakfast, I get a raging headache and am nauseous the rest of the day. I promise that was the last thing I'll eat today. Promise. 

Oh, one more random thing I need to share! A few years ago, Alisha decided she wanted her ears pierced. She did fine until it was time to change the earrings for the first time. I got the right earring out and she freaked. Wouldn't let me put a new one in, wouldn't let me take the other one out. She has a very low pain tolerance. I let it go. Drove me nuts to see her with just one earring in all this time. No one else has ever seemed to notice. Last night she was complaining of swimmer's ear, and so while I was putting drops in her ear, I took out the earring! How sneaky of me. She yelled and cried, but it's out! Haha.  I can't tell you how much joy that brought me. She's symmetrical again! OCD, people, I have OCD. 

I will try to tweet and update my fb from the hospital tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and kind thoughts!

Work Day

Today we made some progress on the house.  In the front by our driveway we have a cinder-block retaining wall that had chipped paint and looked pretty bad.  A few weeks ago my husband power washed it and got some primer on there.  It's been sitting since.  I decided it was going to get done today.  It became a family project of sorts. All of us (except Bekah who is a super-hero when it comes to dodging work) helped paint it. Check that off the list!

It was hot out there working, and even with sunscreen, I got a little burnt. Not too bad though.  The best part of this day was the fact that our pool is clear enough to swim in! Woo hoo! It was so refreshing to jump in after all that work. 

I'm pretty wiped out now. I think I'm going to crash on the couch and read the latest Dekker novel for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we tackle the back yard!

Worry Wart

Philippians 4:6-8(Amplified Bible)

⁶Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (^[a]definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.

⁷And God's peace [shall be yours, that ^[b]tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall ^[c]garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].

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TMI if you're a Guy

I don't know that any guys actually read this blog, but if they do, just wanted to warn you. This post may contain more information than you'd care to know. Not that I care if you DO read it, just warning you.

With that said, I'm on a countdown to my surgery date. Next Tuesday, very early in the morning, I'm having a hysterectomy.  Way back in December I had my first ever surgery, a d&c and a laparoscopy, to see why I was having so many um...female problems.  It was an outpatient procedure and I was home a few hours after the surgery. No big deal.  This time is going to be a bit different. The surgery is in a hospital and I have to stay! Overnight. Not sure how I feel about that.  What the doctor found in Dec. was that my uterus was in pretty bad shape. Endometriosis, enlarged, and a hole that should not be there.  Since we are beyond done having children, the best option to live pain and complication free is to take it out.  So out it shall come.

I've done the research, talked to other women who've had this done, and prayed about it.  I'm ok with all of this. That doesn't mean I don't have the normal "oh my goodness, what is this going to be like?" thoughts.  Today I went to the hospital where I'll be having the surgery to have some blood drawn.  I pulled up and was kind of surprised. It looked like the outside of a mall or a hotel. They even have valet parking! I parked my own car though. Valet parking makes me feel all snooty or helpless, and I'm not snooty or helpless (yet.)

I got through the first two checkpoints rather quickly, but then had to wait over 40 minutes until they called me to the lab. It seems none of the nurses wanted to stick me with a needle.  They must have known I hadn't eaten in 12 hours and had no caffeine in my system. I finally asked the receptionist what was up (her name was Kim and she was very nice), and she made one of them take me next.  After taking what seemed to be a large amount of my blood (4 vials!) I was free to go. First stop? McD's for an iced coffee!

I wanted to let you, my readers know what's going on. This blog really does help me sort out my thoughts and feelings.  I'm a pretty open person, and some might think I'm a little too open for sharing this with the world, but this is what I'm dealing with right now.  After the surgery they say I'm not supposed to lift anything (no laundry), walk up and down stairs (that laundry thing again), and generally take it easy (any one else hear Ricky Ricardo say "take-a-tizzy" in their head? No, just me...I thought so.) The rest of this week and the weekend will be spent prepping this house and family for my down time.  I'll keep you posted on how that's going.

I should be on a show

You know those shows on HGTV where the professionals come in and help the poor, hopeless people fix up their pitiful looking yards. One of those shows. I used to watch those shows and the ones where they redecorate the inside of the houses and make them look amazing for a few thousand dollars.  I can't watch them anymore. They just make me angry! I don't have the money or the skills to do the things they're doing, and in all honesty, it wouldn't come out looking that good anyway. 

Just venting. Today was supposed to be the day we started cleaning out the downstairs. It's a finished basement with lots of toys, computer parts, laundry area, shoe room (mud room), and two storage areas. In other words, it could take awhile.  The day was just too nice to stay in the basement though, so we decided to work outside. Phil worked midnights, so he was home too. As usual, things did not turn out the way I thought they would.

I saw us all working together to pull the weeds, put in the edgers, move some dirt around, and all in all get the yard in order as much as we could. So did NOT go like that! Marissa worked on the pool, but "lost" part of the vacuum in there. Problem is the water has an algae issue and you can't see down more than 2 inches! It's so icky. Eventually Phil, Marissa, and Alisha were in the pool shuffling their feet along the slimy bottom trying to find the piece. Ew! Not many things wig me out, but slimy, moldy, algae does. They eventually found the piece and the hope is that with the new filter and the fact that the water got stirred up with them in there, it'll clear up in a few days. I hope. 

The whole time this was going on, Bekah was complaining that it was hot, the leaves were gross, the rocks were dirty, she doesn't know how to pull weeds...and on, and on, and on. Mercy, that girl can whine sometimes! She worked for awhile, then I sent her inside because none of us could take it any longer.  I got a couple edgers put in and the weeds by the pool pulled.  I also moved two wheel barrows of dirt to level off some area in the yard, and I washed some of the deck furniture and moved it back where it belonged since Phil's done staining the deck. I guess it was a good day's work.

I just don't feel like we accomplished much. There's just so much to be done, it doesn't even look like we put a dent in it! That's frustrating.  Not to mention that now that I'm sitting down to write this with some ice water, my abdomen feels like somebody used it as a punching bag.  I refuse to sit around waiting for even one more week! I need to be active. Being lazy has done me no good. I guess I just need to suck it up and continue through the pain. People everywhere do it everyday, and they have much more serious issues than I. 

I have decided that we need some help though. I'm not sure whether that means hiring someone to do the work or beg friends to come help us out for a day (or two or three.)  Anyone up for a work day at the Mongold's? I'll feed you!

Good Blogger

I have attempted to be a good blogger and update numerous times this week. For whatever reason, my laptop and squarespace have NOT been getting along. It could have something to do with the fact that squarespace is giving away iphones, and they have yet to choose me as a winner. But I doubt it.  I would love to figure out the problem, but my limited knowledge of all things web-related means that's not going to happen anytime soon.  So, for now I'll be glad it's letting me access my account and bring you up to speed on what's going on with the Mongolds.

I don't know if I mentioned it here, but 2 weeks ago my husband was playing short stop and a ball bounced up and hit him in the mouth. He got a split lip and 5 loose teeth out of it. He has an extremely high tolerance for pain, and so, finished out the game and then proceeded to call me to find an emergency dentist. Of which, come to find out, there are none! I even called the ER's in the area.  We got him into a dentist the next morning, who worked on his teeth for over 2 hours.  The dentist pushed the teeth back into place and splinted them to his other teeth.  Of course through all this he never said it hurt, and went on to play a game of volleyball that afternoon.  He's annoying amazing like that.  The dentist wasn't too optimistic about two of the teeth, thinking the root had been severed and the teeth would die.

He had his follow up appt. yesterday, and the dentist's predictions were correct. Some of the teeth are dead. Now he has to have some horrific sounding dental work done to fix the problem. 

In upcoming news, my long-awaited surgery is a little over a week away (more to come on that soon) and I'm trying to prepare the house and the family for my 2 week recovery.  I managed to clean the whole upstairs and get it all clean.  At the same time!  That's an amazing feat in this household.  Now if I could only find the burst of energy I need to attempt the lower level. 

We're still looking to sell the house this summer. I know, I know, you can't sell your house with no "for sale" sign in the yard.  We're working on it.  Always working on it.  Part of that is getting the house in "showing order" and keeping it that way.  That's a lot of work!  The girls are behind it 100%.  Of course, after I ask them to help I have to remind them they're doing it for the sake of their own room.  It'll happen when it's supposed to happen.  I just wish that supposed to time was past.  But, in good news, I'm having a really good hair day! 

Thanks to squarespace (and my laptop) for calling a truce so I could get this out to the nice people who read my blog!

PPT

That title kind of sounds like something you would see on your insurance card or something doesn't it? It actually stands for: Positive Post Tuesday. With this being Tuesday and all, and me feeling pretty positive today, I've decided to give it a go. Here are "the rules" if you're interested.

I've made no secret of the fact that I struggle with depression. I have for many years. I've been on medications that have helped me to cope, and I'm ok with that. It's more of a struggle for me to see the glass half full as opposed to empty. Some days I win that battle, and some days I don't. Seeing the sunny side of life takes way more work than just pouting in the shadows. But it's worth it!

Since summer is here (woo hoo!) and I'm on break (i.e.- not working) I have a MUCH easier time being positive. I do love my job, but the stress involved in being a wife, mom, teacher, and employee all at the same time, is sometimes more than I can handle. I need this time off every summer. That's my first positive (+) in this post. I have the summer off! I don't have to work. I get to sleep in. I get to be with my girls all day.  I get to go to lunch with friends. I love teaching, but I love not working.

The rest of my postives (+) will come to you in the form of bullet points, because I'm feeling kind of list-y today.  As in, I need to make lists.  Bullet points just make lists prettier :)

• Someone wants Mt. Mongold!  That is a huge positive right there (+++)  If you'll recall the pool install way back here, you'll remember we were left with a mountain of dirt that could have been hauled away by the pool guys for $100 more.  That would have been the wisest $100 ever spent.  Here is Mt. Mongold in the beginning (2 years ago)...  Here is Mt. Mongold today.   It's about half the size it was, but since it's clay, it's not easily moved.  I put the dirt on freecycle, being very upfront about the fact that this was heavy clay and hard to move, and someone is still interested in taking it. 
• This year we had two graduations that directly affected our family. The first was Marissa's graduation from Laurel Preparatory Academy. She's a freshman folks!  We still don't know what school the girls will be going to in the fall.  Trusting that God knows what's going on, even when we don't have a clue.   The other graduation has more history involved. More history than I have time to go into at this moment.  This cute baby is Justin. The skinny girl is me (way back when I was a senior in high school)...no, really...that's me.  This handsome graduate is the same Justin.  Who pushed the fast forward button?!?  Stop immediately and push pause!  Life continues to speed by. Which is why we need to stop and live in each moment given to us. Happy Tuesday! Be positive, peeps.

Thursday on the Music Boat

It seems like ages ago, but remember when I went on this great cruise.  Yeah, well it's time to finish the story. 

Thursday was the one day of the cruise spent sailing all day.  Which meant everyone was on the boat at the same time.  I don't remember much about that morning, except I woke up too late to go get breakfast before getting in line to meet some of the artists.  Thanks to everyone else getting up on time, I was way back in the line.  Funny thing is I wasn't really sure who was going to be at this particular meet and greet.  I just got in line.  I like to talk to people, and so I struck up a conversation with the folks around me.  One guy, a youth pastor from down south, was pretty interesting.  When we got into the dining room where the artists were, I found out I was in fact waiting in line to meet Mercy Me.  Wait a minute, I already know these guys.   I also got to meet the guys from Audio Talks, First Day, and David Nasser.  Bart was being Sandi Patty for the day.  I got to talk to Mercy Me's manager, Joel, for a bit.  It was a fine morning, but I had to that point had no coffee or breakfast.  Not good. 

After I grabbed some breakfast, I went and started packing since all of our bags had to be outside our stateroom by 11pm.  In the afternoon, they had a Q&A session with various artists.  It didn't say who was going to be part of it, but I thought it would be interesting no matter who showed up.  It was!  Will from Audio Talks came running in dripping and barefoot straight from the pool to the stage.  Mercy Me showed up, and the illusionist, Brock Gill. They were all pretty funny, and I enjoyed listening to them talk about their ministries.  I think Steve Fee and one of the guys from Pillar were there too.

Right after that I ran (literally) to the pool because Matthew West was performing there.  He's a funny guy too.  Especially the song he sang for the weird "lady of the sea" statue that was in the middle of the stage. 

I left Matthew West at the pool to run and get in line to get Hawk Nelson's autograph for Marissa.  Now, I could care less about getting someone to sign their name on something, but I had promised her I would get theirs for her.  And I intended to keep that promise.  The line started on deck 4 and wound up the stairs to deck 14!! Insanity.  By the time we got to the top deck where they were, all of us in line knew everything about each other.  I didn't mind it too much.  I enjoy meeting new people.  One guy was so sweet and kept leaving the line to get his young bride ice cream cones.  Sweet!  They were both very nice. 

I ended up getting to meet the guys from Fee (turns out I had already met Heath in the elevator.)

I got the Hawk Nelson guys to sign the t-shirt I bought for Marissa, and made fun of Jason Dunn the lead singer for his ridiculous tweets (which his band mates confirmed as being true.)

I also got to say hi to the Barlow Girls, Alyssa, Lauren, and Becca.  Sweet girls, and so pretty! I also had a nice chat with their assistant and long-time friend, Becca Hart.   

I am so ridiculously burned, but on the plus side, it makes my teeth look nice and white.  After all that waiting in line to get pictures with the artists, it was time to get ready for dinner.  After dinner was the concert I'd been waiting for.

AA Talks opened the evening by talking about the orphanage they work with in Haiti, and a story of a little baby that was rescued and brought to them.  I don't think I'll ever forget that story, or the picture they showed of her today as a happy, 2 yr. old.  I cried.  David Nasser spoke next.  I'd heard of him, but never heard him speak before.  I very much enjoyed his style of speaking. 

Mercy Me is amazing in concert!  These guys are real and their music always leads me into a place of worship.  For Phil, he said it was a great concert, but he felt awkward.  You see, we were only a few rows back, and the MM guys could see us. 

They had never officially met my husband, and so they were looking at him.  Mike told me so the next time I saw him.  I thought that was pretty funny.

I wish I could remember the set they played, but I can't.  I know it was good, that's all.  It's always good. 

After the Mercy Me show we wanted to go see the 321 Improvguys one more time.  They were doing a version of the game show Family Feud with two of the entertainment directors from the cruise, as the hosts.  The improv guys were part of the "families".  It was pretty funny...until Phil raised his hand and got us up there!!  The rest of our "family" was the great people who were at our dining table.  Phil called us the McCoys hoping the other team would get it and call themselves the Hatfields.  They didn't.  It was fun, but I do NOTenjoy being in front of a crowd of people, or having to say anything into a microphone.  Our top ten answers were "children's story characters beginning with 'little'. It was pretty funny because the 321 Improv guys were giving goofy answers like Little Debbie snack cakes.  We ended up winning, and each got a Royal Caribbean keychain.  We left as soon as we were done, because we still had a ton of stuff to pack.  We found out later that we should have stayed because they called us up for the winners round at the end. 

The last event of the cruise was the "farewell concert" in the center of the ship.  I missed a lot of it, but got to see the Katina'splay and hear some of Matthew West's songs.  For the Katina's I was singing and worshiping only to open my eyes and realize that Nirva "Nirvassence" Dorsaint-Ready of Toby Mac's band, Diverse City was worshiping next to me.  I was kind of sad that the cruise was ending, but as I was heading back to our stateroom, I ran into the MM guys one last time. 

Friday morning we had a nice breakfast, and sat by the pool watching the sound guys pack up all that equipment while we waited for our color group to be called to disembark. 

Getting off the ship went smoothly, and we ended up riding in the rental car van with the drummer from the band Altered, and his wife.  I felt kind of bad that I hadn't even gotten to see his band play.  Nice people though. Phil got to hear them and said they were good.  A bit on the country side, which is not my thing.  We got our rental car and headed to the airport. 

Turns out we got to the airport so early, the airline wouldn't even let us check in or check our luggage.  Sheesh!  They always want you there early, but apparently 6 hours early is too early.  I was mad.  Spitting mad actually!  Here we were, on our actual anniversary, sitting in the FL airport.  For hours. I could have been sitting on Cocoa Beach for at least a few of those hours, thenwent to the airport.  Let's just say I didn't handle things well at all, and poor Phil took the brunt of my anger.  I did end up getting an iced tea, walking around the mall area (yes, Orlando Airport has a mall in it) and watching people.  That was interesting.  I ran into countless people from the cruise.  Like Pillar, Hawk Nelson, the Katinas, and David Nasser.  They were all hanging in the airport too. I didn't feel so bad then.  I refrained from talking to any of them, because I figured they'd probably had enough of fans trying to talk to them.  I did tweet James Katina about the food court, and he tweeted right back. 

The rest of our trip was quite uneventful. After we got some lunch at Chilis, we found a nice little alcove with comfy chairs.  Phil watched tv on his phone, and I lost myself in a book.  The day was redeemed.  Of course, I had to apologize for my earlier attitude, but my husband is gracious and all was well.

And there you have it folks!  You made it through the telling of the cruise story.  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  Go here to see some real pictures from the cruise!