That shirt

So this past weekend, Madolyn and I were out of town for a three-day volleyball tournament in Indianapolis, Jay was working daylights and Lane was at one house and then another.  When I left on Friday morning about 5:00 a.m. I was not thinking about what Lane might pack to either sleepover.  He's at the age where I don't worry about it anymore - he usually remembers to take more than underwear.

Sunday afternoon I arrived home. Jay was at work, Madolyn was dropped off at the high school for musical practice, and Lane was waiting for me.  He was a chatterbox, which I love.  He gets that way every now and then, and I try to soak it up.  If you know this guy, he's very quiet and backwards for the most part...especially if you're not a close friend or family member.

I noticed that although Lane had on 'good' jeans (meaning no holes and they still fit, sort of - he's growing so fast), he was wearing one of his two favorite hoodie sweatshirts.  I was pleased that he wore 'good' jeans to a visiting church.  I didn't think one second about what was on underneath the hoodie because he almost never takes it off.

Later, as the chattering continued, and while I was in the kitchen cooking, Lane hollered "Hey, mom.  Did you happen to see what shirt I was wearing today?"

"No, I sure didn't, you've got your sweatshirt on."

He pulls the tail end of the shirt out from underneath his hoodie and says, "Look, it's that shirt I wore to Grandma Great's funeral.

"Oh yeah, " I said, acting as though I remembered...I didn't doubt him - it was solid red.

"As soon as I felt the material, I remembered I had worn it that day."

**Gulp**

My almost-twelve-year-old son remembers what he wore to Grandma Great's funeral almost two-and-a-half years later.

Just when I think he doesn't notice the small stuff...

Too easy

But at the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.
                                                                         Mark 10:6-9  (NIV)

Divorce...I see it day in, day out.  It's way too easy.  And it really shouldn't be.  They keep changing laws that make it even easier too.  It's now to the point where you don't even have to be separated a certain period of time, there are very few grounds for divorce...whereas in the past you had to pick something like irreconcilable differences or adultery.  Back several years ago, you had to be separated two years to get a divorce on irreconcilable differences, which means it was no one's fault, your marriage was just 'irretrievably broken down' and 'future attempts at reconciliation' were likely to fail.  Then they created this six-month waiver you both could sign to get past the two years...because good heavens, what if I want to get remarried right away?!

At one time, having counsel was a must.  Now, we have several pro se parties...which means they are doing it all on their own, thanks to the Internet websites that provide the forms and information.  You can even file a waiver of fees and get the filing fees waived too...so you can really bypass a lot of the excess and get that quickie divorce.

This is what pushed me over the edge today - I just scheduled a divorce for an over-the-road truck driver, whose present live-in has been the one calling me for court dates.  When I gave her the date, she responds by telling me that he will have to take the whole day off and how he doesn't want to waste too much time waiting his turn in court.

Oh, heaven forbid, you waste time on ending your marriage.  What an inconvenience.

Makes me crazy.

And weddings.   I can hook you up with a civil ceremony one Monday a month for a mere $10.  Now, if you can get married for approximately $37 (license is $27 I think) and you can have your fees waived for divorce - what a deal!

I'm not against all courthouse weddings because I do think that every now and then we get serious couples in who just want to be married and don't need all the hoopla.  That's fine with me.  It is a waste of money to spend thousands on a wedding anyway, in my opinion, at least.  But probably 75% of the weddings we see, we will again see in divorce court...or someone else will.

Or, hey, why bother with divorce?  Just move in with someone else today!  There is certainly no time to wait.

Marriage is serious.  It's a contract entered into by two people (man and woman in my book) saying - No matter what I'm sticking this thing out with you.  Even if I'm a jerk sometimes, or you're a jerk.  Even if I like marina sauce and you like nacho cheese sauce (haha, I had to throw that one in for Jay).  Even if things are not perfect.

I do realize stuff happens.  Marriages do break down and some for very good reason.  Some without fault by one party.  But  many times, you just have to push through the rough spots.

We live in a world that demands instant gratification and feel-good moments.  There is absolutely no time to wait on anything.  And for some reason our government has lost all sense when it comes to the laws regarding divorce.  It should really not be such a petty procedure.  I guarantee if they had some sort of app on the iPhone to get divorced, it would be a gold mine.

I may not have a perfect marriage, but I do have a serious belief in the commitment I made.  Maybe I got lucky when I married my guy, (I'd like to think so) but whatever the case may be, it isn't always easy.  And it shouldn't be.

Sometimes I have to accept the nacho cheese and do without the marinara.  ;)

Hutt, #11, is in the House!

Introducing our newest little critter - Black Labrador, and number 11 in the dog countdown - Hutt...

I'd like you to think that Jay is overcome with joy - but really it's very sunny!

Jay and I traveled across state lines to pick up Mr. Hutt last weekend.  It was a long haul - 8 hours one-way, but we enjoyed our time together and were super excited to finally meet the pup.  Hutt made the trek home without huge upset or mess.  We stopped a lot, but, overall, he was very well behaved and only whined and barked a little, which was to be expected.  We had ripped him away from his mother, after all.

The first meeting with Hank the Tank II was pretty uneventful.  It's obvious Hutt was looking for his mama though.

"Are you my mother?"

We are adjusting to life with a new puppy, which is much like a newborn baby/inquisitive toddler. Nothing left on the ground or within reach is safe, and I do mean nothing.  Bedroom doors are kept shut, shoes are on the counter, or up high, nothing is left untouched.  We know it will get much worse before it gets better.  That's just part of it.  (We've been through this process a few times, you know.)

I'm very thankful to Jay for planning the acquisition of Hutt around his long break at work.  In the past, that has not always been the case and it makes for an unhappy Sarah!  I'll have my shot at night-time duty this weekend when Jay is working nights and I'm left to march the fella outside at 2:00 a.m...though I may put a different plan into action.  It's called - not waking up to wake up the puppy to go potty, let him tell me it's time to go!!  We'll see how that goes.

Here's a little irony, or what I like to think of as a Godincidence.  Last summer when Jay started thinking about a new retrieving dog, he picked out a name - Hutt Jedi for the future pup.  This is months and months before he found this puppy.  I teased him about the name because I told him people would think he was a Star Wars junkie - and with the release of the latest movie, you know they would.  He didn't care, Hutt it was - though he decided to drop the "Jedi" from his common name.

We meet the dog guy and his two young sons at a truck stop to make the exchange and Jay asks the little boys what they have been calling the puppy.  They respond with "Bossk."  Dad chimes in and says, "Yeah, we are huge Star Wars fans; all the puppies in this litter were named after Star Wars characters."  How 'bout that?  Is that not the craziest thing ever?  There could not be a more perfect name than Hutt for our little guy.  Too funny.

I posted this picture of Hutt lounging in the recliner the other night while we played Dominos and a couple of the comments are hilarious.   "Best of luck to you, buddy!" and "Hutt...we need to talk. Be careful.  Be VERY careful."  Those two were my favorites, written by friends that know us a little too well, I do believe.

How can you resist that face?

Here's to you #11 and our new adventures!

Love one another

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the Lord.   Leviticus 19:18

If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him:  whoever loves God must also love his brother.    1 John 4:20-21

At nearly 41 years old, I would like to think that having my feelings hurt by someone else wouldn't happen anymore.  Unfortunately, we all know that's not the case.  I tell my kids all the time that they will never outgrow conflict or difficult people/relationships.

When we watch our children have friendship troubles, it is heartbreaking.  I know my first reaction is to fix the problem, but I also know that will teach my children nothing about dealing with conflict and resolution.  When you're an adult though, how do you approach an adult about something upsetting without feeling like you're 13 again?

Several scenarios run through my mind and I can't seem to come up with a good one to resolve the problem.  And when I say resolve the problem, I don't know that that is even in my control because, quite frankly, the 'problem' doesn't even lie at my feet.  It has very little to do with me personally, the way I see it.  But it bothers the daylights out of me.

There are times my thoughts are consumed with this situation and I have to stop myself and say, "God, please, please, please, let me let go of this!"  (And I sometimes add, "Seriously!" as if he doesn't understand my plea without that extra word.)  Why can't I just get over it?  They are entitled to their opinion, and I am entitled to mine.  It doesn't mean we can't be friends, right?

I don't have an answer.  I wish I did.  I wish I knew how this situation would unfold over the next few months/years.  I wish I could read the mind of those I'm struggling with.  I wish things could just go back to normal, the way things used to be.

I am also observing another situation not exactly like the one I'm troubled by, but one that hits close to home nevertheless.  And I find myself wondering, what will be gained by continuing this conflict? In the end, who truly wins this battle?  The one who pushes to the limits or the one who stands their ground?  Does it even matter...

In either situation, I have to believe that Satan is at the core.  Because we are taught that Jesus is love. Jesus would not want discord among believers...and yes, I'm talking about believers.  We should love one another, regardless of our personal opinions.

Like it or not, we are all part of the same family.

A new addition is on the way

And no, we're not adding another human to our family...we will be bringing home a pup full of joy this weekend, and it can't come soon enough.  I don't think I wrote about the aftermath of putting Abby down, but in the week or two that followed Abby's passing, Jay - in a moment of insanity - rescued a small, black, starving kitten from the middle of the road on his way home from work one night.

"We'll nurse it back to health and then find it a home" he says.  Yeah, because that always works out so well for us...

Bones, as he was so appropriately named, warmed up to us quickly.  He was barely five or six weeks old, had an extra thumb - (Google tells me he is a polydactyl kitty) and was almost skin and bones. He was pitiful.  Jay fed the poor thing and when the kids and I got home, Madolyn gave it a bath. After a day or two, Bones was right at home.  We loved the little booger too, but Jay and I both agreed that three cats in the house was just too much.  I'm not a fan of cat litter to begin with, but you add a third cat in the mix and UGH!

Boots & Bones up front; Josie in the back

Thankfully, we found Bones a good home - Madolyn's BF took him in and is now smothering their bunch to death :)  He is a cuddler.  But you can tell that our kitties, Josie and Boots, miss the little stinker.  The first couple days, Josie was on the hunt - looking high and low for that black little flash with the extra thumb.  We forgot that Josie was kind of like that when the litter of kittens left.  So she and Boots have had to resort to their own games to create fun, and you can tell it is just not quite the same.  (Boots has become the more dominant kitty and can overpower Jo.  Josie could easily take down Bones!)

And then there's Hank the Tank II - he is completely lost without Abby.  He and Abby used to follow and chase my car, then as Abby got older, she quit and so did Hank.  Well, Hank is now back at it...following me down the lane and into the road.  He also tries to sneak in the car or truck whenever he can.  He will weasel his way in if you don't watch it.  We think he is simply bored to death.  He mopes around the house too...he's lost his best friend.  Thankfully, he has his bud, Lane, or he'd really be in trouble.

But just in the nick of time - a new addition is on the way.  Jay has been talking about getting a hunting dog for almost a year now, maybe over a year...and after Abby passed, he started the search. He found one and we will be bringing the little guy home on Sunday.

We've been getting ready for the critter and have the crate in the living room.  Lane has been trying to get Hank to go in there - he is not having any part of it.  The cats are quite intrigued though.  A few mornings ago when I came out into the living room, Josie was sitting right by the crate door, staring inside.  She is super curious.  Last night Lane got the puppy toys out and got Hank all worked up.

We're all getting wound up for the new guy's arrival...

Josie, Boots and Hank the Tank II have no idea what is about to happen...hahahaha.

Jamaican me Crazy - the Finale

All week I was dying to go on an excursion.  Our travel agent told me prior that we could book excursions off-site there at the resort, but she would recommend staying put.  Jay was all about staying put.  His philosophy was that we had paid to be at a 5-star resort, why would we want to leave it?  I understood what he was saying, but I really, really wanted to see something else.  Finally, I won and we booked a half-day tour to the Dunns River Falls in Ocho Rios.

We got on a large van with our group and away we went on our last full-day there.  Our tour guide, Latoya, was sweet and it was her birthday.  She gave us lots of information about the culture and the locals.  I enjoyed learning a little bit about the country.  We stopped at a gift shop along the way and bought a few souvenirs and water shoes for Jay.  You could not go on the water falls tour without water shoes.  Fortunately, they sold them everywhere...ya think?

We caught on to the fact that everything was connected.  For instance, at this gift shop another tour bus had stopped.  When we bought something, we had to tell the cashier the name of our tour guide. We weren't going to stop and eat anywhere, we had to order our food on the bus from the tour guide.  She and the bus driver went somewhere while we were at the falls to get the food.  We noticed on the way back to the resort, our tour guide had two large bottles of Rum in a bag that she had not had before.  Do you catch my drift?

Carvings are on the back.

Latoya told us not to take anything with us on the falls tour.  "You don't need money or anything, just leave it on the bus."  We did.  Upon exiting the falls, you are escorted through a market with vendors and peddlers every five feet.  You cannot escape it. (Much like Disney and their gift shop traps.)  One really nice guy in a Dunns River Falls Yellow Staff shirt stopped and talked to us.  Because he had on the staff shirt, I assumed he was okay.  He had a carving instrument in one hand and these two wooden heads in another.  Before we knew what was happening, he had carved our names into the wood, put notations on it about our 20th Anniversary and we owed him money.  We explained to him, we didn't bring money.  "No problem, mon.  I follow you to the bus."  And I kid you not, he disappeared and beat us to our bus!  We saw other similar situations with the rest of the group.  It was common practice.  I think Latoya tried to warn us without saying too much, but we were naive. We did come home with a custom-made set of tribal heads or something though...

The River Falls were gorgeous, no question.  I couldn't imagine what it was going to be like beforehand.  But it was like what you might think - you are simply climbing up a gradual water fall as the water is pounding down from above.  Sometimes the currents were quite strong.  The rocks were rounded and not sharp, which I appreciated.

Funny thing - when we began at the bottom, our guide has us hold hands, all of us, and go in a line.  It was much like taking a kindergarten class to the park.  I was cracking up, holding hands with complete strangers while trying to stay upright on these rocks.  He was trying to keep us on the same path, I know, but it was still funny and kind of hard to manage at times.  My instinct is not to grab a stranger, but to grab Jay!

Missed it - he's peeking behind the tree.

They told me repeatedly to leave my camera behind.  As we were beginning the ascent, I said, "Will I get wet head-to-toe?"  "Well, not if you don't want to."  "Okay, I'll keep my camera, thank you."  I tucked it in down my swimsuit in my chest area and it remained dry.  There was only one place it might have been problem - had I wanted to go down a small waterslide.  I did not, but Jay did...and I just missed him.  (I'm not the best photographer on the planet.)

Along with our tour guide was a photographer/videographer.  They were happy to put a small DVD together at the end for the whole group to purchase.  It was probably a nice keepsake, but we were happy with the photos we got.  And our guide was nice enough to oblige us a few times and take pictures of us so we had a couple together.

I am usually not thrilled with getting in water unless it's about bath temperature.  This water wasn't too bad.  I'm still kind of surprised I did it without hesitation.  (Or maybe I knew to keep my mouth shut because Jay was not happy about the whole thing!)

This picture to the left reminds me of a fake background because it looks too perfect, but I assure you it is real!  This is my favorite picture from our whole trip.  It is going in the picture frame I bought at the airport...even though Jay says I could probably have ordered it online from China a little cheaper.  (This from someone who didn't bring swim trunks and bought them at the resort...)

We made it all the way up!

The picture at the end of the Falls was hilarious.  We had watched this Asian family take gobs and gobs of photos with this super fancy-looking camera.  The dad would position himself just so and click away.  They were standing there when we got to the end with the big sign everyone wanted a picture in front of.  I asked, or he offered, to take our picture.  He took three.  What was so funny - he did not even have the camera pointed at us.  By the third picture, I wasn't sure we were in any of them, but what do you say?  The final picture was by far the best, even though slightly off center.  He must have found the scenery more interesting than us.

Beef & cheese patty

I mentioned lunch on the bus ride back...Our choices were jerk pork with rice or meat patties (chicken, beef or beef and cheese).  I ordered a beef and cheese patty and Jay ordered the jerk pork with rice.  I had no idea what I was getting but figured you can't go wrong with beef and cheese.  Latoya described the patty as a hot pocket, and it was similar to that.  The texture was a tad weird, but I devoured it because I was hungry.  It came with this huge piece of coconut bread (delicious). I thought that was odd because the patty was already in a pastry.  After I had eaten a little of my bread, Latoya told us that the proper way to eat the beef patty was to put it inside the huge chunk of bread - like a sandwich.  WOW.  This is when she also told us, "We don't diet in Jamaica."  Yeah, no kidding - just try to find a Diet Pepsi around there, impossible!

Jerk pork & rice - FIRE, FIRE!

Jay loved the Jerk pork and rice, although it was definitely the spiciest he had eaten.  Latoya warned us that the Jerk meat we had had at the resort was nothing compared to the "real" authentic local stuff.

We were ready to be back at the resort and in our spot near the pool.  It was a decent experience, but I understood what our agent was saying, just stay put.

Before I wrap this up, I was worried about getting good water to drink while I was down there.  We had a fridge in our room and it was stocked daily with whatever we wanted, we just had to ask.  I asked immediately upon arriving for bottled water.  They didn't disappoint.  I got water, and not just any water...I got the good stuff, pure Jamaican WATA!

When nothing but Wata will do

If you couldn't tell from my Jamaican Me Crazy posts, we absolutely loved our trip to Jamaica and our stay at the Iberostar.  I will admit that I was very nervous that it would not live up to my expectations based on what we had spent.  We'd never done anything like this before and we wanted a good one. It was quite the experience and well worth it.  We do hope to go back some day again.

Our final picture before departing the resort.

 Our return trip home was almost as frustrating as our trip to Jamaica.  Our flight was delayed slightly in Jamaica thanks to something going on in Charlotte (again).  We finally boarded only to have to sit there for 30 minutes because of some default switch that needed reset.  I do appreciate safety, so I tried to remain calm, but there was no way we would catch our connecting flight to Indy in Charlotte.  We only had an hour layover and had to claim our bags and go through customs again.  There were many of us on that flight who missed connecting flights.

We developed a plan and hit fast-forward.  We made it to the front of the line at the airline counter and got on the next flight to Indy, which was less than a two-hour wait.  In hindsight, it's probably the flight we should have been on to begin with.  (Afterwards when I was telling our travel agent all of this, she said, "That never happens both ways."  Obviously, you haven't traveled with the Wilhoit's!) We were back home only a couple hours later than expected and our kids were still awake waiting on us.  It was good to be home and see those stinkers!

We appreciated the help we had from friends and grandparents while we were away.  It made it easier knowing our kids were being taken care of.  With technology today, I was able to communicate with family and Facetime Madolyn a couple times.

Now, when can we leave again and return where there are no problems, only solutions?

Yea mon!

Jamaican me crazy - Take III

 And now to the beach itself.  The stretch of beach that encompassed the three resorts was created for the resorts.  Each end had a rock-like barrier, obviously man made.  Beyond those barriers, it was unkempt, rough terrain.  There were rows and rows of lounge chairs and beds along the shore at our resort.  We did enjoy the lounge chairs in the shade a couple of times, but spent a majority of our time at the pool.  The wind coming off of the water made it very comfortable and there wasn't much noise so it was peaceful.  To the far left of this picture on the left, there are a row of huts and a lifeguard stand, that is the division between our resort area and the sister resorts.

Little nap in the shade

 The one drawback, and it was fairly minor, was the drifting odor from those that did come to smoke the local 'cigarettes'.  It was clear that the locals hanging out along the far end, on the rocks that are like a barrier, were local entrepreneurs.  It was also evident that those that chose the beds farthest to the left were friends of the peddlers.  No problem, mon, we'll just hang out on the right.  And seriously, it wasn't a huge problem, just something we didn't want to be a part of or close to.  (We really preferred being up by the pools and having our Racquel to wait on us.)

Outdoor Port Maria restaurant over my shoulder

We ate lunch at the Port Maria outdoor restaurant.  They had a huge buffet of all sorts of things, hot and cold, dessert, etc.  I had read reviews prior about people getting tired of the buffet.  That didn't happen for me.  They added things each day to make it a little different than the day before, and honestly, who eats like that every single day at lunch?  (Except this week and it showed by the end of our stay.)

If you look to the far right of the picture on the right, they were creating a VIP area for preferred guests.  Jay and I really don't get that though - the idea of this entire resort is that you're a VIP.  What more could you really ask for?  We assume there are some people who just like the idea of being singled out as special or more important than others.  The funny thing to us was - this private beach area was right next to the rock barrier where the peddlers hung out...not exactly what I would want to deal with if I was VIP, you know.

Pure relaxation

We both read books while relaxing and we tried just about every drink on the menu.  There were all sorts of interesting combinations and most of them were delicious.  (Many full of sugar!  Waistline not happy.)

A couple things of note:  You did not see drunk idiots causing a ruckus at all.  There was one man who got a little carried away one afternoon, but that was it.  Everyone was pretty well behaved.  (Minus about three hours watching a couple and two women fight - literally - over a lounge chair in the shade by the pool.  Utterly ridiculous to waste such beautiful time on that!) Also, there were either honeymooners (we assume) or people in their 50s-70s there, but not a lot of 40-ish folks.  We didn't know if it had more to do with kids or money.  Maybe a little of both.  The couples our age were probably next door...

Proof we got in the water!

Until the finale...

Jamaican Me Crazy - Take II

In the lobby after supper.

Because we had arrived a day late, we asked if we could extend our stay one night...sure, for $600.  We don't think it would've been an issue had it not been Christmas.  They say it is their busiest time of year, which surprised us a little, and boy, did they go all out for it.  They had the decorations just like we would and even had the Christmas music playing in the lobby area.  The day we arrived, we cracked up seeing all the blow-up decorations of Santa, Snowmen, etc., in the resort lawns. Towards the end of our week there, there was a bunch of hustle and bustle preparing for the guests that would be arriving the week of Christmas.  I've always thought it would be sad to not be at home for Christmas...I'm now having second thoughts...as long as my family was with me.

We didn't actually meet our day butler, but our night guy was all over it.  He had our supper reservations in order and even surprised us one night with a fancy bubble bath and bottle of champagne (they knew we were there celebrating our 20th anniversary).  We didn't know this, however, and were at one of the nightly shows so we took some pictures and appreciated the gesture...gave him a good tip later on too!

If you look closely, you'll see the white slippers.  We each had a set of slippers and a white plush robe for the week.  Jay absolutely loved these slippers.  It cracked me up.  As soon as we got in our room, he would slip his on.  I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

It took us a couple of nights, but we also figured out what it meant to have our beds turned down.  That was pretty nice as well.  Someone would come into your room in the evening and get all the decorative pillows and such off the bed.  We usually had rose petals and some design made out of a towel on the bed too.  It's the little things...

I could go on and on at how nice the resort was.  It was just like the pictures and a very relaxing atmosphere.  If you heard these phrases once, you heard them a hundred times, "There are no problems in Jamaica, only solutions."  "Yeah, mon, no problem."  "No worries."  They push a relaxing experience and you feel it.  We felt welcome and not rushed at all.  It was quite inviting.

One of the best parts of it all - their native language is English.  They have their own dialect, but where we were, it was all English - except for some of the foreign guests who didn't speak English.  That made it a little tricky sometimes for the Entertainment Staff.  We would hear them trying to communicate with French people and it was funny.

One evening when we went out for supper, there were random people in red vests walking around handing out surveys.  We took the survey, gave the resort high marks and turned it in, not having a clue what it was all about.  Later on before the show, Stella (our favorite) and Thunder (hilarious guy with dreadlocks and the clearest blue eyes ever) were nearby in almost a panic.  They stopped their conversation (in their dialect because they realized it was rude) and invited us to join their chit-chat.

Apparently, the red vests were there evaluating the resort and the Entertainment Staff.  You would've thought they were coming to execute these poor people.  Stella and Thunder were in total panic freak-out mode.  They were scared to death that they were going to get poor remarks and lose their jobs.  It was sad, frankly, because they did such an outstanding job and we hated to see them feel this way. The good news was their best show of the week, Boogie Nights, was on the agenda.  After seeing it, we knew there was NO way, they could have received negative markings.

Mr. Clean goes swimming.

A couple curious things - I received at least three comments on my hair.  I feel like my haircut is pretty common in these parts, but as I looked around, no one else (even the Americans) had haircuts like mine.  I thought that was wild!  Kudos to my hairdresser, Michaelle!

Mr. Clean gets Jamaican dreads.

The other thing that just cracked me up, a couple of the staff kept referring to Jay as "Mr. Clean."  Funny, that even down there, they knew who Mr. Clean was.

Looking towards the sea from the balcony off the lobby.

The balcony off the lobby.

All the food was delicious.  Jay is a seafood and jerk eater, I am not.  This was no problem, mon.  I ate steak, delicious steak, every single night.  I don't know what they do to their cattle down there, but it was heavenly.  We ate some sort of beef at the Italian restaurant and it was to die for.  Had we eaten there earlier in the week, we probably would've asked to go back.  There was a nightly buffet at the Cornwall, the Port Maria outdoor restaurant became the Jamaican restaurant at night, a Surf and Turf, Japanese and Italian restaurant.  We think there was another one, but we didn't go there.

Oh, this is a hoot - the Japanese Restaurant with the hibachi grills - the chefs were Jamaican! Funny stuff.  It was still delicious.

Jerk chicken & pork on the beach

Jay thoroughly enjoyed the jerk pork, jerk chicken, etc.  I tried it a couple times, but it was just way too spicy for me.  When food burns my mouth and lips because of seasoning and not temperature, I'm out. There was plenty of other stuff for me to eat.   One day they did a cooking show out on the beach and then everyone was welcome to eat lunch there.  Jay dove right in.  I tried it, but (see earlier comment) - off to the Port Maria outdoor buffet I went.

Racquel & I

Our favorite waitress in the pool/beach area was Racquel.  She was such a sweetheart, skinny as a rail and walked with a slight limp.  Jay picked up on it right away.  She was trying hard to hide it, but if you watched close enough, you could see it.  She was a doll.  Jay figures she was probably in pain most of the time though she didn't let on.  We tipped her well, and she found us every single day with a smile.  I'll take that.  She is looking forward to our next visit and so am I!

Jay and I both agree that we must bring our kids to some type of resort like this, here or there.  They would love it and we would love to have them experience it...though we were happy being on our own this time around.  We definitely were spoiled though - it might be hard to take our travel experience down a few notches.  In the weeks preceding our trip, our kids moaned and groaned about us leaving them behind.  I told Madolyn, "When you have been married 20 years, you can go to Jamaica."  Ha, in this day and age, we've earned this!

To be continued...

Jamaican Me Crazy - Take I

I had warned Jay in 2014 that we had better do something spectacular for our 20th wedding anniversary in 2015.  Jay had a big turnaround at work from June-October and was unable to take off during that time.  We knew that in advance and last February booked a trip to Jamaica for a week in December.  We figured the weather here would be cruddy - what better time to be on a beach?

As luck would have it, it was in the mid 60's the Saturday we left.  I talked Jay into sticking around for the Christmas Light Parade in town and we left (before the fireworks, dang it) from there and went to Indy to spend the night and do the sleep, park and fly deal at a hotel there.  Our hotel room there was awesome - nice surprise since I had slim pickings when making the reservation.  We had a wakeup call scheduled for 3:30 a.m., our time, so that we could be at the airport three hours in advance of our flight - travel agent's orders.

I hopped out of bed at 3:30 a.m., showered, got Jay up and off we went.  The weather was still fairly mild and it was nice not to have to bundle up to go to the airport.  We left our coats in the car for the week.  Yee-Haw.

We checked our bags, coasted through a very unfriendly customs process and settled in at our gate...alone.  Seems no one else takes the 3-hour-prior-to-flight rule as seriously as we did.  I began knitting, Jay walked around, we were pumped.  Pretty soon others started to mosey in and sit down.  As we were neared our boarding time, we noticed the flight board showed a change to our flight to Charlotte, NC.  DELAYED.  Of course, it was.  No worries.  It happens.

Then the announcement comes - "Due to fog in Charlotte, they are not accepting any flights into the airport.  We'll call your name if this effects your connecting flight."  And one-by-one they went in alphabetical order calling names...

They got down to the end of the alphabet and quit calling names.  Next announcement - "If your final destination is Jamaica, please come to the counter."  That would be us and one other couple...with their ukuleles in tow.

I listen in to what the gal is telling the ukulele fellow and it does not sound hopeful.  They move on and we bump up in line to hear the same information.  I'm not a crier, but at this point, I want to cry so bad.  At one point I tell the agent, "You know, I kept telling Jay I cannot believe we're actually doing this...and we aren't." I knew it wasn't her fault, and I wasn't trying to make her feel bad, but it was an awful letdown to an adrenaline-packed morning.

And fog for crying out loud...In December, I could foresee snow, ice, etc...but FOG?!

After making a plan and revamping it a couple times, we decided this:  We'd avoid Charlotte because they could have fog again the next morning, and we had never been to Miami...so Miami later that night it was.  Jay got on the phone and made a hotel reservation while I called the travel insurance people.  The silver lining - our travel insurance would cover everything extra.  (For once, insurance does what it's supposed to.)

We had to then get new tickets printed and go through the whole process over, but at least we had a plan and at least we were departing the Midwest.  Oh, the other perk - they booked us First Class to Miami (that was nice).

Our flight wasn't until the evening and it was mid-morning so we decided to call the hotel and get a ride back to the car.  We went and found a Mexican restaurant for lunch, went back to the hotel, parked and relaxed in the car.  We had a few hours to kill and Jay was not in the mood to shop (bummer).  Jay slept while I watched Netflix on the iPad and did some knitting.

As a sidenote - we were in line at Customs with Michael Waltrip, the NASCAR driver.  I was so excited. Jay begged me not to bother him in Customs and I didn't.  We then ended up at the same little bar watching football and I didn't have the nerve to bother him there because I was afraid he would think I was stalking him. I know he saw me staring at him in line earlier. Later on, we thought we spotted him sitting near a gate facing the window.  I grabbed a pen and paper and headed over to him to get an autograph.  I got ready to tap his shoulder, he turned his head and it wasn't him!  Thankfully, he didn't notice I was about to touch him!  I should have just asked him at the little bar.  After he left the bar, Jay leaned over to the lady who had been sitting next to him and asked her if she knew who he was.  Nope, not at all.  Though after he told her, she knew who he was.  Funny.

We made it to Miami that evening and, boy, is that a different world.  Honestly, the Miami airport felt more foreign to me than the Jamaican airport.  It was kind of neat though, when you exited the plane, you were outside and walked along a covered walkway into the airport building.  I guess with their weather, you don't need to be indoors.  We were definitely the minority and were thankful that although almost everything was in Spanish, they did still display signs in English as well.

We had a nice stay at the hotel in Miami. Our flight to Jamaica wasn't until around noon, so after a hot breakfast, I made Jay take a walk with me around the hotel a few blocks...just so we could say we had been to Miami!  He thought it was silly, I thought...why not?

All smiles now!

Our flight to Jamaica was uneventful.  We weren't in First Class, but we were in the Exit aisle which is almost as good as far as legroom.  Our flight was short and in no time, we had landed at our destination.

The Jamaican airport was definitely a treat.  Again, we exited the plane and walked outside down a ramp into this customs area.  As soon as we got within earshot of the building, we could hear fire alarms blaring.  Hmm.  We were ushered down this winding ramp into a very full waiting area with the zigzag maze line.  It looked like it would be a very long time in line.  Fire alarms still blaring.  No custom agents at any of the kiosks.  Tons of travelers crammed in area.  To our surprise, they opened up the closed-off area with the zigzag lines and directed us into that waiting area...which took us right to the front.  This is good because we are both dying to use the restroom!  Alarms still sounding.

I tell Jay that I bet the custom agents have been directed to a safe area because of the alarms and nothing is going to happen until the alarms are silenced.   I was right.  About 30 seconds after they stopped, the agents appeared ready to work. (We never did hear why the alarms were sounding.) Once they got going, it was very quick...but they wouldn't let us use the nice big bathroom in the waiting area - we had to go on through to the baggage claim and use the one-hole.  Finding our bags took forever, we took turns going to the one-hole and were on our way.  We immediately found our travel company and were put on a huge bus with many other excited tourists.

We had made it!  A day late, but we didn't care at this point. We were in Jamaica and the sun was shining.  Our trip to the resort was uneventful for the most part.  The only thing that caused me concern was when it was just Jay and I left on the once-full bus.  I asked the guy if that was a good thing or a bad thing, "Oh, no, it's a good thing.  The Iberostar Grand is very nice!"  Hmm, apparently we had made a good decision!

The next thing out of his mouth was: "Did you come to smoke weed?"  Uh-oh.

Our resort was inside a compound so-to-speak along with two sister resorts.  All three resorts shared a stretch of beach.  We could go to all three resorts, but only the guests of the Iberostar could be there.  It was an adults-only resort; the other two were family friendly.  We did visit the other resorts, which were also very nice, but decided this:  We didn't bring our kids and certainly didn't want to be around other people's kids...or their annoying parents.  We had made the right choice.

The Iberostar had five restaurants, one of which was a grand buffet, the Cornwall.  We had breakfast every morning at the Cornwall and I fell in love the first day with the banana waffles and ate them every single morning.  They were delicious.  You were encouraged to have reservations for supper so we had our butler (yes, we had a day butler and a night butler) make reservations for the week at each of the restaurants.

My knitting spot.

My day would begin on the balcony knitting while watching Netflix, and letting Jay sleep in.  (I'm an early riser no matter what.)  Awesome perk with Netflix is that in Jamaica you have a different selection of shows, one of which was Modern Family.  I had a great time watching that hilarious show the whole week!

After breakfast at the Cornwall, we would change into our swimsuits, grab our books and sunglasses and head to the pool area.  There were lots and lots of lounge chairs, beds and cabanas to choose from.  Some were in the shade, some were not, some were shaded various parts of the day.  We'd pick a sunny spot and settle in for the day.  Three mornings I attended the yoga or stretching class located next to the pool area.  It was very relaxing, for the most part, and I felt like I was doing something productive - to counteract all the banana waffles and bacon I was eating!

What our day at the pool looked like.

I conned Jay into going with me one morning, but that was it.  And honestly, after the yoga class I went to - obviously an advanced yoga class - I didn't go back.  Three out of six mornings isn't horrible, right?  I was clearly the youngest at every class, and not necessarily the most flexible.  Pitiful...

View from balcony - pool area

There were always activities going on throughout the day around the pool and beach area.  I played beach volleyball one day and have to say I think I surprised them with my serving ability (I surprised myself as well).

The Entertainment Staff was a very personable group of about five or six young Jamaican's.  They were so friendly and were constantly interacting and striking up conversation with you or anyone around.  I'm sure that's what they're told to do, but it was nice.  One day we were lounging on this bed by the pool and I thought something was in my hair.  I kept grabbing at it, only to find nothing.  I would continue reading and feel that strange whatever in my hair.  Turns out it was Stella from the Entertainment Staff.  She was picking on me...and asking us to join in on a game of beer pong...only it wasn't with beer.  That's how they would announce it too - "Beer Pong. Anyone want to play Beer Pong without the beer?"  We played and didn't win, but it was fun anyway.

The kinds of things the Entertainment Staff would do included stretching, yoga, water aerobics, volleyball, Zumba, dance class, volleyball, bocce ball, soccer, cooking class, and other activities throughout the day.  In the evening, they were part of the nightly shows.  They would dress in their costumes and mingle in the bar/lounge area before the 8:45 shows and some would try to get you to go to the Discoteque after the nightly show.  Jay and I went once...and that was it.  We are old, I guess!

We attended all the nightly shows except for one...that night we were so tired, we started watching the Discovery channel after supper and just crashed!  Exciting night life.  We would eat supper around 6 and then have to wait around until 8:45 for the shows...It was hard to stay pumped up and awake that long.  Two evenings we came back and took naps in between!  We decided next time, we should have our supper reservations a little later than 6:00 or 6:30.

Alex, middle, was an awesome dancer.  Look at those costumes!

The nightly shows were held in a theater just off the lobby.  They were great.  Our favorite was Boogie Nights.  It was a show full of 70s themed music and dancing.  We loved it.  Their costumes were neat too.  They changed costumes several times throughout the show.  One night we went to a sister resort to watch the Wizard, a magician.  He had walked around the pool area in the afternoon and hooked me.  We enjoyed his show...but not being around all the little kids!  Ahh, we kept saying, we love our own kids, but really don't want to be around someone else's.  Needless to say, we didn't last the entire show.

Our resort was all-inclusive so the entertainment, food, drinks, etc. was free so-to-speak.  We did a lot of tipping, but didn't really mind it.  We had great service.  I am guessing the shows we watched would've been in the neighborhood of $35+ per person had we paid.  It was quality entertainment without "stars."

 Stay tuned for part II...