Shoe Collection is Safe and Sound

When Chicken Little and The Blonde Bombshell prepared for Mexico I was worried. It's hard to blend in with a Blonde Bombshell. My fear was a drug Lord would see her as the perfect opportunity to take us hostage and make some cash with ransom. In the event the worst happened, my husband had my permission to sell my shoe collection in order to raise money to get us back..... Assuming he wanted me back. Shortly after we landed he knew I, as well as my shoe collection, would live to see another day. Yay for safe travel.

Castles in the Sand

 One thing I noticed about resort living.... People tend to sleep late. Almost every morning, Barbara and I had to wait for the restaurants to open so we could eat breakfast. One morning we were on the beach by 9 am. We were the only ones on the beach. Totally unsatisfied with just laying around, I suggested we build sand castles. We both sat at the beach line constructing our own castles. The day before I had seen a little girl with sand molds and I wanted to ask her if I could borrow them, but I thought that might be a little weird so I began my castle the old fashioned way.... With nothing but my hands.... And seaweed. I built a tall turret with sand walls connecting two smaller turrets. I even constructed a draw bridge which I thought was brilliant, and used seaweed as landscaping. Barbara constructed a sandman.... Also brilliant although I thought she could have put a little more thought into it. We took pictures of our creations. With our creations proudly finished we began to swim. I did my bobbing and twirling and Barbara floated in the very adult Super Model way she does everything. I'm perfectly happy being her frumpy sidekick. I looked down the beach and a tractor was headed our way making the sand all even and pretty so when everyone woke up the beach would be perfect.... Except, our sand castles were in his direct line of fire. That just could not be. I could not allow my castle to be mushed into nothingness. I quickly waded to the beach line waving my arms and pointing at my lovely castle and Barbara's unimaginable sandman. I finally caught the drivers attention and he waved back and oh so sweetly went right around our perfect creations. That's a real gentleman I tell ya. Later when we were looking at our sand castle pictures, she suggested my sand castle resembled something more.... Shall we say crude..... "Let me see that picture" I demanded.... "It does not look like..... Oh, well yeah... Actually it does look a little (or a lot) like the nether regions of the male species. The pictures had already been posted to Facebook so I added a disclaimer that not

everything is as it seems at first glance. Get your mind out of the gutter people.... It's a sand castle.... It's also art which is subject to one's own interpretation. How you interpret my sand castle probably says a lot about you. How I constructed it probably says a lot about me.... You be the judge.

Here Fishy Fishy

After watching Shark Week, what would make a better vacation than having an up close and personal experience with something bitey and dangerous. Not up close and personal enough to lose a limb, but I already have a logo arm so a little puncture wound on the other arm would balance things out. Barbara and I were swimming in the ocean.... Let me clarify that, she was standing and I have this weird thing about being in the ocean.... I like to bob up and down, I twirl and swirl and yes I even do some amazing dance moves where no one but the fish can see. Barbara was laughing at me..... "Jac, you are such a dork."  This I know, but I am a fun dork and nothing brings out the child in me like the ocean and snow. Those two things make me literally giggle like a tiny child. Actually, I may mentally be a tiny child stuck in an over sized adult body (who knows) but I do love, love, love to bop up and down and twirl around in the ocean. So I'm twirling and Barbara is contemplating the meaning of life when we both spot two fins sticking out of the water swimming just outside the swimming area. Barbara heads toward the beach where everyone is pointing and I (being a dork I suppose) head straight for the fins. I I get pretty close to where the fins are and then they cross over the buoys that define the swimming area. It was in the swimming area of the resort next to our resort and I was just about to swim under the buoy when I heard a frantic voice yelling at me.... I guessed it was me because no one else was in the water. I looked over my shoulder to see the manager of the resort waving his arms and telling me...... "NO, NO!" and waving me back to the beach..... "Darn it!" He was shaking his head and demanding I come back to the beach. "Great, just great. I was that close to seeing a fish I had never seen before. What a spoil sport." I drag myself up to the beach, head hung in shame because I felt like a

reprimanded first grader. Thankfully the manager took his little clipboard and headed back to the resort where people with real needs (like extra soap and towels) truly need his expertise. A few minutes later the little guy at the watch tower opened up for business. We had seen this fish at a distance the day before and I asked him about it. He had pulled it up on his cell phone to show me what it looked like. He said it was often mistaken for a shark but it wasn't dangerous and he had never seen one actually cross the buoys and enter the swimming area. He laughed at me when I told him about my scolding. He had already figured out I was up for an adventure. Later in the day we were back on the beach. It was our last day and I did not want to spend it just laying on a chase lounge chair. I wanted to do something. Barbara asked our little guy if he would take us out on the catamaran so he loaded the two of us up and we headed out into the ocean. Oh my gosh!!!! The ocean is paradise. He took us far, far out, but the water was crystal blue and you could see all the way down. We reached a sand bar where the water was pretty shallow and so clear it looked fake. He asked.... "Who is jumping in first?" Then he said.... "I will, I will be first." I jumped up and yelled.... "I'm right behind you buddy." Barbara looked disinterested and said.... "I'm fine right here, you two have fun, I'm staying right here." Really? "Barbara, we are here to face your fears. This is paradise. The water is perfect, it is amazing, you have to do it." Finally, probably out of pure desire to shut me up, she jumped in and you could see her whole body relax..... "Oh, this is amazing." She said..... "See, I told you so. You wouldn't want to miss this." We swam and giggled and felt like we could reach up and brush the face of God right there in the middle of the ocean. There are two places I feel the presence of God the most..... In the ocean and in the mountains.  These two places define the essence of God's majesty on earth.... At least for me. When we finished basking in the beauty of the ocean, we headed back. We learned all about our guide, his family, and how happy and content he seemed in his life. He was so sweet. When we pulled up on the beach, Barbara headed for the lounge chairs while I talked to our guide. His co-worker came out of the tower speaking frantic Spanish and waving his arms.  Obviously he had something exciting or terrifying to tell.  Finally the guide stopped him long enough to explain to me that his co-worker had been out by the buoys snorkeling when a barracuda attacked his flipper. He said it scared him to death and he fought it off but the barracuda became even more mad and attacked his flipper a second time. I was a little suspicious.... "If he got attacked, why didn't it get his leg?" I asked.... "The flipper looked more appealing to the barracuda than the leg. He swims out here every day and it scared him to death." I'm weird, and got really excited..... "Give me some snorkling gear. I want to go out. I want to see the barracuda." He shook his head..... "Oh no Ma'am, you cannot do that. Barracuda's are very dangerous." Regardless of how I pleaded and begged neither one would give me snorkling gear. I was so disappointed.... All I wanted to do was to see it, knowing it would make an awesome blog post. They would have none of it. I walked out toward the buoys, but everything was calm.... No barracuda, no fins. The guide told me I should come back in February when the bull sharks come. He said they go diving with them which sounds awesome. So, that's my "Almost saw something dangerous" story. Sorry it wasn't more gorey, but I have to keep things real.

Finding Hope

Wednesday was what the trip to Cancun was all about. The process of grief is a long lonely journey. I have seen people emotionally die when their loved one was taken, and I have seen others slowly rebuild their lives, not as it was, but as it now is. As one watching the process.... My Father and Barbara, as well as others, it is always my prayer that they will find the fortitude to put one foot in front of the other and make the ones who have passed from this world to the next proud of them. They will never be forgotten, and I believe their memory lives on through every adventure, every hurdle, every victory the one still living this life conquers. That was what this trip was about. Wednesday was Barbara's birthday.... The first birthday without John... "Don't let me be sad Jac.... I don't want to be sad." As a fixer with a million opinions about a million different things, I was terrified I would fail terribly at keeping Barbara from being sad. All I could do was my silly best and hope that paradise worked its beautiful magic. We had "A couple's spa" day planned, making it perfectly clear that I had a husband at home and she was the "Birthday Girl" Not that I really cared what people thought, but I thought it would be nice if we

all had an understanding of the circumstances surrounding the celebration. We arrived at the spa to a warm wonderful welcome. The aqua area was beautiful. A young man treated us to a foot scrub. He than lead us into a sauna where we steamed for 12 minutes. Then we proceeded to a series of shower; the cold waterfall shower, the mint mist shower, the mixed jets shower, and my favorite was the ice cold bucket shower. This one was particularly fun because he let me pull the chain on Barbara's bucket which brought me much delight... Her, not so much. Then we walked through what looked liked baptismal pools, one hot, one cold. We had to walk through alternating pools three times. From there we went to the dry sauna, and from there to the ice chamber where they rubbed ice on the bottoms of our feet and palms. That's a lot of water! Finally we made it to our massages where I'm pretty sure I drooled while they worked on my back, and later I woke myself up snoring (actually more of a serene purr). They woke us up with the smell of mint and monk chimes. They wrapped us in robes, put hot rice packs around our neck and escorted us to a room I could imagine Cleopatra lounging in. There were beautiful couch/beds with chocolate covered strawberries and champagne waiting for us. It was pretty close to heaven. That was just the first half of the day. When we got to our room, a knock on the door was room service with a chocolate mouse birthday cake and more champagne. I'll leave the squeals and giggle second half of the day for another post. It is safe to say that I saw moments of sadness in Barbara's eyes at times, but more importantly I saw lots of hope in her eyes. Hope that life could be good. Hope that John would be proud, and hope that more smiles and happiness lay ahead. I saw her realize all she had to do was reach out and be willing to wrap her fingers around hope when and where she found it. 

Blondes Going in Circles

We arrived to the resort just before lunch. Check in wasn't until 3 so we had some time to kill. We went to the grill that looks over the water and ordered lunch. They sat us on the platform overlooking the water and told us we were queens for the day. The scene was beyond beautiful.... so serene. We swam in the ocean and I looked like a lobster before we checked in. After we checked in, we dressed for dinner and sat on the beach after dark. We decided to call it a night so we headed back to the room. We stayed on the 2nd floor. We got in the elevator and pushed 2. When the doors opened we were in front of room 302. Oops, maybe we get there from the 1st floor so we pushed 1. The doors opened in front of room 320. We repeated the process to all 4 floors and each time the doors opened to room 3??  Seriously, I felt us move, I know the elevator went up and the down.... Why are we not going anywhere. Finally we found a worker who directed us to our room which is, yet is not, on any of the floors. I still think someone was filming the two blondes going in circles like only blondes can do. But if they were filming then they were sure to see how much fun we had going in circles 

Bobbing and Blogging

It's 4:30 am and we are headed to DFW airport.... Destination, Cancun Mexico. Our flight departs at 7, so we are right on schedule. I follow Siri's direction with little trouble due to the early hour. "Exit right on north service road." Which I do with no problem. Then she begins to direct me to make a u-turn. Siri's directions have become a vicious cycle. Apparently Siri needs Starbucks as badly as I do at 4:30 am.  We finally silence her and as for directions. In spite of the Siri mishap, we have made it on board  the plane. Barbara is rocking the ENTIRE plane with the constant bobbing of her knee. I've "fixed her a nice cup of coffee" so the bobbing should settle soon.  So we are bobbing and blogging and It's up, up, and away to fun in the sun and who knows what else.

Chicken Little and the Blonde Bombshell

What do you get when you put Chicken Little and a blonde bombshell together in a far away place. Well we're fixing to find out. A good friend and I are headed to Mexico for a girls trip. She's the blonde bombshell and I'm the frumpy Chicken Little. We are both pretty big chickens, she is just a much prettier version of chicken little.  We both have terrible travel anxiety. I'm praying that her constant nervous knee bobbing won't rock the plane right out of the sky, and also that we aren't kidnapped by angry drug lords. If we are abducted by drug lords, my husband has permission to sell all of my shoes to pay the ransom. Something tells me there will be much to blog about in the coming week. Look out Mexico we may be more than you can handle.