I'm leaving on a jet plane

Beaches of Isla Mujeres.

The thought of taking a vacation started to take shape clear back in June.  When we had our destination set and passports came in the mail, I was in countdown mode for December 28th.  I have never been outside the United States before and the idea of going somewhere warm and tropical was beyond my wildest dreams.  We planned our vacation for the second half of the Christmas break for three reasons.  1.  I wanted to get away during winter.  2. Nathan and I didn't go anywhere for our honeymoon, we didn't have the time.  3. It would be perfect to make this trip our "honeymoon" because our other kids would be with their other parents for those eight days making it possible for just me, Nathan, and Meow-meow to go play and have our honeymoon.

The plan was to fly out on Sunday, December 28th and fly home on Sunday, January 4th, giving us eight glorious days in the sun.  We planned two tours of Mayan temples and left the rest open to choose whatever we wanted to do.

I had help packing.

Our flight left at 9:45 am on the 28th and landed around 2:30 pm Utah time, 3:30 Cancun time.  We woke up early Sunday morning, packed the last minute things and my mother-in-law drove us to the airport.  It had started to snow when we were driving away from the house.  It was lightly snowing when we took off, and we had to go through deicing before taking to the air.

Sitting at the gate waiting to get on the plane

Getting all settled.  Meow-meow wasn't too sure about it all.

Meow-meow wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing.  He enjoyed watching the plane get deiced.  He was fascinated with taking off.  We watched some of his favorite Youtube videos and he played with his toys happily for the first half of our four hour flight.  Then he became Captain Cranky Pants.  We managed to get him down for a nap, but he woke up as we were making our descent into Cancun.  It may have been his ears popping but he didn't have any issues on the trip home.

Watching Youtube.

Here are some pictures out of the plane.

Lots of clouds

That's ocean under the clouds.

Cool cloud formations.

More ocean.

We just landed in Cancun and were taxiing up to the terminal.

We arrived, got through customs and made our way out to find our ride to our hotel.  I was in absolute heaven stepping off the plane and feeling the pelting waves of heat.  

We didn't stay in Cancun, we stayed in Playa del Carmen.  It was about a 40 minute drive from the airport to our hotel in Playa.  The sun sets early down there like it does here in winter.  I was a bummed at first, but in the end, didn't mind so much because it was so nice and hot during the day.  The sun was well into setting by the time we arrived at our hotel.  We stayed in the Casa Eijdo.  It was close enough to have a 15 minute walk to the beach but far enough away to not be horribly expensive.  

These are in the courtyard of our hotel.  Nathan was getting the keys and checking in when I snapped these.

We got into our room and relaxed for a bit, then worked on unpacking a little.  We asked the people at the front desk where to go for dinner.  They gave us a map and some directions but we went the wrong way from what they said.  We eventually found a  taqueria and I ate my first ever "real" Mexican food.....It was AMAZING!!  It was hard trying to communicate with the owner of the taqueria so we could order our food.  There was a really nice guy who spoke English that helped us.  He came over later and talked with us, we kind of got the feeling that he was practicing his English on us.

When we were out adventuring around for dinner, I was really scared.  In America, walking through a neighborhood like that would get you killed.  It was very humbling for me to realize that I have lived a very privileged life.  There was trash everywhere, graffiti on walls, and abject poverty.  We walked past a piece of property with trash everywhere and several make shift huts....and it hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that it was someone's home.  Where in America somewhere like that would get you killed, in Mexico it's just life as normal.  The people were great and we were perfectly safe.  

After dinner we walked back to our hotel and crashed for the night, or at least tried to......the bed was as hard as a rock.  We had originally had a tour scheduled for Tuesday but some event was planned and our tour was changed until Monday.  We went to bed early in order to be ready for a day of Mayan temple tours.  But that's another story for another day.

January 2014

It's no secret that I really really dislike January.  If I could hibernate the entire month, I probably would.   As it is, I don't venture out of the house unless I absolutely have to.  Consequently there generally isn't much that happens in January.  So since I'm doing my year in review in reverse order from least favorite to favorite, January hits number one as my least favorite month of the year.

So, what did happen in January 2014 for our family?

Meow-meow turned seven months old.

We got a new Tempurpedic mattress.  It's so very nice.

Happy Day!! Seeds in the store.  Just get through January and February and then spring will come!!

Meow-meow likes to chew on my bathrobe cord.

So my mom is extremely talented and she makes bead ornaments.  Here's just a sample of the things she makes.  I decorate my entire tree in her ornaments.  It's very pretty when the lights hit the beads and make everything sparkle.  I took these pictures as I undecorated the tree.

2014: A year in review.

I took this on Isla Mujeres.

Happy 2015!!  I spent my New Years on a tropical beach!  It was an amazing adventure.  So, last year I did a year in review.  I did it in order from my favorite month to my least favorite month.  I'm going to do a year in review again this year except that I'm going to flip the order.  I am going to go from my least favorite month to my favorite.  At the same time, I just had a grand adventure in Mexico and I really want to do it justice.  So I'm going to be random (what's better than that)?  One day you'll get a year in review and another day some memories of Mexico.  I'm going to be very detailed with my trip to Mexico and I'm doing it mainly for me to remember every moment of my first trip outside of the United States.  I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I will enjoy remembering it.

But before I begin, there are two men I have to thank dearly for my trip to Mexico.  

First is my dad.  Last summer, he offered to help out with this vacation.  It was very generous of him, but then my dad is a very generous man.  He's amazing, always there to help, and is the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back.  He's a very hard worker, jokster, and prankster.  His Navy stories always make me laugh.  So, thank you dad for helping make this New Years an amazing adventure.

Second is my husband.  Nathan is a very smart man.  He's worked very hard to obtain the education he has so that he can have a good job.  He works very hard at providing for his family.  He really doesn't like the heat but knows I live for it.  He was willing to put up with eight days of heat so I could have a magical New Year.  Thank you Nathan for the vacation of a lifetime.  Here's to many more of them.

It was in June, right after I miscarried that Nathan suggested that a vacation is the thing we needed.  Nathan knows how much I hate the snow and cold.  He suggested that we plan a vacation in December when our kids would have vacation time with their other parents.  I was all for that, I needed a vacation.  We started looking into options.   See, I have an awesome little brother and that awesome little brother lives in the United Arab Emirates other wise known as Dubai.  He flies for Emirates and earlier this year made captain.  Well, as a sibling, I get benefits.  We looked at going to the Saychelles, the Maldives, Dubai, or Mauritius.  None of it seemed to work out.  Nathan figured that we could do Cancun, it would mean not getting to fly on Emirates which is something I would have liked to have done.  In the end, I figured that Cancun would be good and we booked our flight, hotel, and tours.  We went down and got me my first ever passport and our plans began to take shape.

See, I hate winter.  I hate the cold.  I hate anything and everything to do with winter, except Christmas.  Christmas is the exception.   Apparently there is a medical reason for this.  We found out I have Raynauds.  I always thought that everyone's hands turned purple.  Not only does the metal in my body not like the cold but it's painful to be cold.  Getting goose bumps feels like pins pricking.  I always thought that was normal......apparently not.  I hate being cold because well, it hurts.  I spent several months looking forward to and counting down the days until my vacation.

I had a wonderful time, it was the adventure of a lifetime.  I am so very grateful for the experience and so very grateful to all of those who made it possible

Sit back and enjoy as we take a trip down memory lane to review 2014 and remember a memorable vacation.  :)

Memories of Popcorn

I am writing this blog post mainly for me and my children, to help us grieve and remember someone we loved very much.  Popcorn was a cat, a pet, but yet she was much more than that; she was a part of our family.  If you read this blog post, bear with me as I considered Popcorn a furry child. Her passing has been as hard on me as when my grandpa, who was my hero, died.  She is dearly missed. Popcorn died on Tuesday morning and I think I am ready to write this blog post.

I am a 100% cat person.  I love cats.  I love their soft fur.  I love their warm furry bodies snuggling up next to me.  I love the soothing sound of a cats purr.  I love their sweet meows.  I grew up with cats.  We lived in Pine Canyon and had an acre of land, behind that were huge fields.  We had cats to keep the mice in check.  You could usually find me out in the garage happily sitting under five or six cats.  It didn't matter if it was Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter, I would go snuggle the cats on an almost daily basis.  I have deeply loved every cat I've ever had and I can't remember a time where I didn't have one or two or three.  I have also lost many cats, whether to death or being in a position where I couldn't keep them and had to give them away.....each loss has always been sad and heartbreaking.   There have been some cats that have touched me more deeply than the others, Popcorn was one of those cats.

It was 2008 and I was living in Ogden.  I already had two cats at the time.  A friend of mine was living in Brigham City.  She was out for a walk one day and came across this sweet abandoned kitten.  She took it home and cleaned it up.  She couldn't keep her and asked me to take her.  I, of course, could not say no to such a sweet little thing.  She was this little white and brown fluff ball and I immediately fell in love.  She would snuggle up to me at night and sit on my chest when we would watch t.v.  The kids fell in love with her too, and so it was that Popcorn stole our hearts.  She got the name Popcorn because I thought she looked like a fluffy little piece of Popcorn, the name stuck.

Kids loving on Popcorn

Isn't that just the sweetest face you have ever seen?

 Popcorn loved to sleep in sinks.  I could often find her curled up in a ball chillin' in a bathroom sink.

This up in Ogden when she was still little and mostly white.

This picture was taken last year not too long after we moved into our house.

This was taken when we rented the house on Edgehill Drive.

Popcorn could often be found flopped on the ground on her back.  She wasn't a fan of belly rubs but every now and then she'd let me rub her belly.  It was just so funny to see her flopped on her back.

Our house

Edgehill house

Look at that happy content face.

 Popcorn loved Christmas.  She would bat and play with my ornaments and drag them all over the house.  Quite frequently, months after Christmas was over and the ornaments put away, I would stumble across a Christmas ornament hiding place.  She would take my small ornaments in her mouth to the bathtub and bat them around the tub.  She could often be found up in the branches of the tree.

Eyeing the ornaments

Playing 

She loved that spot.  

Chillin' under the tree.

One of the funnier things Popcorn did was prop herself up against a wall to clean herself.  She sometimes fell asleep.  It made her look like a drunken bum.

House on Wicker Lane

Edgehill house

 She also loved to sit in boxes.  She would also climb into clothes baskets but I never got pictures of that.

Our house

Edgehill house

 She was known to hang out on the stairs.

Our house

Edgehill house.

Or hanging out on top of plastic containers.

 She also loved to sit on the back of my computer chair.  She would gently nip my ear for attention and pets.  She would snuggle up to my neck and purr. She would rub her face on my cheek.  I loved it when she would do that.

Ogden house.

You could pretty much find Popcorn hanging out anywhere.

Her favorite place to chill out was on my brown chair.

Our house

Wicker Lane house

Her favorite thing to do was snuggle up next to my feet and rest her head on my legs.  She always seemed to know when I need her to snuggle.  She had such a calm and soothing presence.  She was a calm and gentle cat.  She loved having her ears scratched.

I loved it when she would do this.

Popcorn loved to be outside.  She would chase the leaves, climb the trees, and hide in the bushes.  She loved to catch birds and mice...then leave them for presents.

This was taken October 2013.  She was out helping us paint our pumpkins.

This is the hardest picture for me to post.  This is the very last picture that I ever took, ironic that at the time I took the picture I had no idea it would be the last.  Popcorn was always waiting outside my bedroom door in the morning, waiting for me to sit on the stairs and pet her.  As I would sit on the stairs she would come up to me and rub her head against mine.  She would put her little nose on my cheek.  She would follow me and nip my heels if I didn't pet her enough first thing in the morning.  She would follow me as I would go wake the kids up for school.  She was my shadow.  She loved Space Man Spiff and would sleep curled up next to him every night.  It's so hard to open my bedroom door in the morning and not see her there.  In going back through my pictures looking for pictures of her, I found myself regretting that I had not taken more.

This picture was taken on October 29, 2014.  She had just woken up from snuggling with me while Henry took a nap and I cross stitched.  

This is her final resting place.  She loved to roam around the back yard and you could often find her lounging under the pine tree.  The vet was very kind to let me bring her body home to bury her.  Eventually we will make a headstone for her.

I am writing this next part because I just can't get it out of my head, I keep playing it over and over.  I keep asking myself the "what-if" questions.  I know it doesn't do any good to ask those questions, but I find my mind wandering down those paths.  It was traumatic to lose her, but even much more because I saw it all happen.  Tuesday, November 11, 2014 started out like any other day.  Popcorn was waiting for me outside my bedroom door like she always did.  I stopped on the stairs to pet her like I always did.  She rubbed her head against mine, and put her nose on my cheek.  She followed me downstairs to wake up all of the kids.  As usual, after she had loved me and Space Man Spiff good morning, she wanted to go outside, and was let out.  I didn't know she had been let out.  I took the kids to school and decided on the way home to stop off at Dick's to pick up a few things.   Our driveway is very steep and we have found that it's best to pack into the driveway.  We've had too many groceries roll out of the car pulling in front first...and a heavy trailer hitch that landed on my foot.  I usually pull into the driveway of our neighbors across the street.  I came home and pulled into the neighbors driveway as usual.  There was a car coming up the road, and yes it was going too fast, but my van also was blocking the view for them to be able to see anything dart out from the side of my car.  I was looking over my left shoulder, watching for this car to go past so I could back into my driveway.  I turned to look and make sure everything off to the right was still clear.  It all happened so quickly.  I saw Popcorn, she had been in the neighbors yard.  She would always come running when she knew "mom" was home.  She always had to come in for snuggles and loves after the kids were gone to school.  She darted out just as the car was passing the tail end of my van.  It happened so fast and I, at first wasn't sure if the car had hit her or not, at most I thought she may have been clipped but hoped not too badly.  She kept running up into the driveway.  She made it up to a pile of leaves right by the front steps and collapsed.   I don't think the car that hit her was sure if they hit her or not.  They drove up the road a little way and briefly stopped, but then continued on their way.  I think that they continued on because they didn't see her body in the road and thought they didn't hit her.  It happened so fast that maybe they didn't know what they had hit.  Or maybe they saw her finish crossing the road and go up into the driveway and thought they had missed her.  I would like to think that if they knew they had hit her and fatally injured her that they would have stopped to help.  I say that only because they slowed down and stopped briefly.  I don't know, and probably never will.  Like I said, all of this happened so quickly....as soon as the car passed, I immediately and quickly finished backing up in the driveway.  It was as I was backing up that I noticed the car slow down, briefly stop, and then drive on.  I jumped out of the car and ran to her.  I desperately hoped that she had just been clipped and had a broken leg or something, an abrasion, anything that could be fixed.  But when I got to her body I realized it was much worse.  She had no outward sign of being injured.  Her tongue was out and she was struggling to breath.  Her body was contorted in pain.  I knew she probably wouldn't make it, but I could not sit by and watch her die.  I had to do something for her. I had to do all I could to save her or at least keep her from suffering too much.  I ran into the house and grabbed the first towel I could find.  I gently wrapped her in the towel and rushed off to the animal hospital that is just minutes from my house.  They tried everything they could to save her.  They gave her oxygen and shot her heart full of adrenalin to try and keep it going.  They hoped that if they could stabilize her that they could save her.  But her heart just faded out.  I was in the exam room, praying they could save her, but deep down knowing they probably couldn't, she was in bad shape.   The nurse came in and brought me back to the table where her body lay.  The staff and doctors were very kind, sympathetic, and understanding.  They gave me the time to pet her body and cry.  They hugged me and cried with me.  They explained to me all of the efforts they went through to try and save her.  I asked if I could take her body home, they gently wrapped her body in the towel I had brought her in, and carried her out to the car for me.  Nathan came home from work to be with me.  It gives me comfort to know that I did all I could for her and that the vet did all he could, and that she didn't suffer long. From the time she got hit until she passed was only about ten minutes.

My heart broke Tuesday morning and it broke again when I had to break the news to the kids.  Live Wire and Spider Monkey got home from school first.  Tiger Lily, Firecracker, and Lion Heart were sad, but they hadn't yet become as attached to her as I and my kids had.  Space Man Spiff took her death the hardest and I knew he would.  He sat out in the garage for 15 minutes petting her body and crying for her to get up and not be dead.  As a mother, it is one of the worst things in the world to see your children devastated like that and my heart broke for my children's broken hearts.  My nieces, who also knew and loved Popcorn came down and we had a little memorial service for her as we buried her.  That night was hard, as I was tucking Live Wire into bed, crying with her, and trying to console her, I heard Space Man Spiff downstairs breaking down.  I spent several hours back and forth between them trying to comfort them.  Wednesday night, was pretty much the same.  I had just finished consoling Live Wire and went downstairs to tuck in Space Man Spiff and Spider Monkey.  Space Man Spiff's bed is high enough up off the ground to be able to crawl under.  Space Man Spiff had some extra blankets under his bed.  I found him curled up under his bed in the blankets.  Popcorn used to lay there.  It has been so hard to mourn her for myself and even harder to watch my children mourn.  I wish I could take away all of their heartache and pain.

I decided to help us grieve and move on that I would find all of the pictures of her and put them together.   I also decided to write this blog post to help put all of my thoughts together.  It's Sunday evening and it was really hard to write this post, but at the same time very helpful.  Yesterday was the first day since Tuesday that I didn't cry, although I cried while putting this blog post together.   I do know that I will see Popcorn again and my kids know that they too will see her again.  She was one of Heavenly Father's creations, he made her, and he loved her too.  He called her home, she had filled the measure of her creation.  I pray that I was a good steward to her.  In this season of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Heavenly Father for giving us pets like Popcorn for us to love and care for.  I am thankful for my friend for bringing her into my life and Heavenly Father's hand in that.  She came into our lives at a time when we needed her.  She will be dearly missed and I look forward to the day when I can again scratch her ears and feel her nose against my cheek.

The Day Fairy and The Night Fairy

I went looking back through my blog posts about my cross stitch pieces so I could update my latest piece.  I discovered that I missed one of my pieces, it's the sister piece to the one I just finished.   I can't remember if I just missed it or didn't do it because I wanted to wait until I had the sister done.  Either way, it's done.

I love fairy's and as a Type 1, fairy are my mythical creature.  I had the patterns for years and a couple of years back decided to do both of the fairies in the book.   The pattern is Lanarte by Leisure Arts.  It is called Day Fairy and Night Fairy.   

I did the Day Fairy first.  I finished it a couple of years ago.

This is the Night Fairy.  I just finished her a couple of days ago.  She's probably my favorite of the two.

And here they are together.

  And onto the next project :)  There's always a next project or three waiting.