Trying to Welcome the Wait

This is my fabulous husband, whom I love dearly. He is soo patient with me and he loves me despite how flawed I am. And trust me, I am flawed. This past 6 months has been kinda rough on me emotionally. I don't know what it is. I mean, I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. We have traveled the world in our 4 short years of marriage, I have a great job that I am really enjoying this year, and truly have some of the best friends anyone could ask for. I guess I have just been so melancholy over what God has been working on in me. It really dates back to July-ish. Caleb and I had decided about a year before that we would begin to venture down the road towards having a baby in August.. However, with Caleb beginning to pursue his MBA, we decided that it would be best if we wait until closer to his graduation. Immediately I was sad, and really began to grieve the loss of the life I was hoping we would have in the next year. There were so many things that I pictured in my mind being "the last before a baby" and all of a sudden those pictures changed. No longer would our Italy trip be "the last hurrah", nor would my school year be the last sans a baby. That lasted until sometime in August, when I finally got on my face before the Lord and just wept. I was beyond what I could handle on my own, which I know is exactly where He wanted me. I was trying to grieve alone, trying to be ok with something I really wasn't and trying to put on a happy face, pretending like I had it all together when I really couldn't be any further from that. I have always thought it to be so cliche, but in that moment when I was literally laying flat on the ground, face down the burden of my grief just dissipated.

Since that day, I have been in a season of restoration. He's restoring me to a right relationship with Him, where I trust His providence, love my husband more deeply, and really just savor this time to grow together before our lives are forever changed.

So... with that, I need to go plan my next vacation I didn't think I'd have!! Ski slopes, here we come!

The most AMAZING husband ever!!

Well folks, I must say that this time I have a GREAT excuse for the time between posts! Why, you might ask?? Because I have the most incredible husband ever! Let me explain... Last Wednesday was our anniversary- 3 years! About a month and a half ago, my husband shared with me that he was going to be out of town in Enid, Oklahoma for our anniversary on business. Well, I was quite sad, but understanding since he travels semi-frequently on business. It was even ok since we wouldn't be celebrating in the middle of the week anyways. So, we started talking about what we wanted to do. We are still in the middle of working on the house, just the outside these days, so we didn't want to spend too much money. Plus we've been talking about our "mission statement," so I thought it would be great to go camping. We talked about camping and Caleb just let me know that he wanted to take care of planning the weekend. Last Tuesday I washed clothes and he let me know that I would need to pack for the both of us for the weekend and should focus on bringing comfortable clothes, i.e. jeans, sweats, etc. So, I got geared up for what I thought would be a weekend of camping. And you must understand that for me, a Hayes girl, I had to get geared up mentally, since the only camping this girl had ever done was in the living room of her house underneath sheets suspended by couches and chairs. In the mean time, my wonderful friend Laura saved the day with an invitation to get massages on my anniversary since Caleb would be gone. Of course I said yes and so on Wednesday I got ready for an evening of fun. I was waiting at home for Laura with the blinds open and peeked outside to see a car that didn't look like Lauras, but didn't think anything of it right off hand. Well, by the time I did a double take I saw my precious husband walking up the sidewalk with a single red rose in his hand. He told me the trip was canceled last minute so we were going out for dinner and that we needed to go. I hopped in the car and was given a blindfold. Well, about twenty minutes and lots of speculation later, we arrived. Caleb got out of the car, came around to open my door, put a book in my hand and told me to open my eyes. What did I see?? Lots of cars... then I looked down at the book to see a Frommers New York City guidebook in my hands! Caleb told me that we were leaving right then to fly to NYC for a long weekend to see Megan and Will (my sis and her hubby) and have fun around town! After lots of questions about work and worry about who was going to cover my meetings (which of course my husband had taken care of 2 months ago--almost half of the staff at my school knew about this and were in on it!). Soo... for my anniversary my wonderful husband absolutely surprised me with one of the best surprises! Stay tuned for pics and details on the fun long-weekend getaway!

Cruise Part 1

Ok people. So here goes on the first half of the vacation...

SO, we knew that with all of the home renovations that we were going to need a break when it was all said and done. The timing of this vacation couldn't have been more perfect. We kicked off the vacation with the John Mayer and Colbie Callait concert at what is now the Super Pages dot Com center in Dallas. I blogged about that, so scroll down to find out about that. The next morning, we woke up super early (I think we got 3 hours of sleep) to catch our flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our vacation was not just "ours", but was shared with our wonderful friends Shane and Laura, who decided they liked us enough to vacate with us for 8 days! So, off to the airport we went and after a 5 hour plane ride, a nearly finished book (Marley and Me- AWESOME), the movie "21" and our last Dr. Pepper for over a week, we arrived in PR ready to play!

Us in Old San Juan, posing for a cute pic!

Looking out over the graves and the deep blue yonder, salivating to start our cruise early!!

Another view of Old San Juan and some of the fort.

Vacation Day 2... Waiting anxiously to get on the boat and get the real party started!!

I just could not contain myself with excitement over dinner.

Ok, I got it together. Past the thrill of unlimited food options, momentarily.
At the "muster"... They are smiling because they DIDN'T get in trouble.
I'm smiling because TROUBLE is my middle name... notice the smirk on my husband's face?? That's because I just got a stern "talking to" (more like a yell, but whatev..) by a crew member for not taking muster more seriously. Apparently photos aren't allowed. That wasn't in my Carnival Caper SIR!
DAY 3... St. Thomas, USVI.. On a bus to Magen's Bay, realizing that this trip is going to cost us more than we thought. Mexico and the Southern Caribbean should get together and talk about the whole bargaining thing and what a novel idea it is in tourism.

View of the boat and the cruise terminal in St. Thomas. I think the big (small in the photo) white building behind the ship on the bay of St. Thomas is the Marriott hotel my parents are going to next summer... Can we come???!?

The couples in St. Thomas.

And here it is... (GASP!!!) Magen's Bay! One of the most incredible beaches I've seen. Plus, it was Caleb's first view of true clear blue water. His only comparison is Gulf Shores and Myrtle Beach.. A-MAZING!

In the water between frolicks.. hoping we get the nice "base tan" we forgot to get before leaving so we wouldn't burn.. woopsie!

Who's ready for some board games on board??

Posing before dinner and BINGO.. are we lucky??

That would be a no....

But we learned that Caleb isn't picky over boogers.. He'll take what he can get!

Our cute towel animal... Can you guess what it is??

DAY 3: Dominica, an island that is nearly 100% rain forest and quite lush... Smile if you're ready to hike 2 hours to a waterfall in the pouring rain!!!

In the bus to the hike and waterfall.. shiny!

A banana plantation, one of the major exports of the country. And to answer the burning question, NO there are no monkeys on this island. For real... they would eat all the bananas.

Just a pretty picture at the base of our hike.

We are ready for what was alleged as a 45 minute hike... that took more like an hour and a half! It was amazing, though and worth the yucky hair dos and drenched clothing.

Caleb hanging on to bamboo.. which grows at a minimum rate of 1 inch per day in Dominica.

My tarzan... Isn't he cute??

What our guide says was NOT a waterfall... Yea, he's spoiled.. and obviously doesn't frequent Texas, where the only waterfalls you see are in someone rich dude's backyard that isn't in my neighborhood.

The top of the big mamma waterfall...

The middle of the big mamma waterfall...

And the bottom of the big mamma waterfall, including the pool we couldn't swim in because there was too much rain that day. Sad, but really I'm glad because I lived to see so many other beautiful places on this trip that I may not have had I been pulled under by the current of the falls in the pool. Hm.

Us posing and trying to look cute despite the destroyed hairdos and soaking wet clothes. Oh well, just focus on the waterfall, ok?

Another photo of the "un-waterfall". Incredible, huh?

This is crazy... This is a picture of a Banion Tree, aka Strangler Fig, that grows from the tops of the trees down to the ground, strangling the "host tree" and replacing it once it has died and no longer can get oxygen to survive.

We clean up well after a 4 hour waterfall hike, eh?

Them too...

STAY TUNED... MORE TO COME SOON!!

Exhausted!!

SOo... Here's just a quick update for you! We had a CRAZY BUSY day, but got so much done! We literally had a 12 hour work-day, leaving before 8 a.m. and not getting home until after 8:30 tonight. But wow, what a productive day! And for starters, I must give a few shout-outs to the rock-stars of the day. Geary, Caleb's step-dad and remodeling extraordinaire, came through like you wouldn't believe. He helped us rework the moulding on the tops of a few cabinets, helped us pick out a painters rig so we could spray the cabinets, helped us finish prepping the cabinets for paint, probably sprayed 4-5 coats of primer, helped us sand down the primer and prep the cabinets for paint and then sprayed a coat of the cabinet color. And that's just the stuff I saw, I know there was so much more he did that wasn't in my plain sight because I was working on other stuff. Next shout-out goes to my parents, Richard and Debbie, who were amazing. They came over with their yard materials, fertilized our yard, prepped both of the bathrooms for paint (taping, etc.), sanded down the wood in the bathrooms that had texture on it, filled holes, painted the ceiling, painted some walls, put up some sheetrock, put up some concrete backerboard and SO MUCH MORE!! Wow.. It was a crazy day, but it was so productive! I am most excited at this point about our cabinets, they look amazing! I can't wait to share them with blogworld, but it will have to wait because they are not finished. That's all for now. Sorry it was so short and no pics. You'll have to wait until next time!