Adventures in Single Parenting

Such a blurry picture, but I love this one of Link and me.

So before I start this post, I know staying home alone with my 5 month old puppy for a month is nothing akin to the struggles of single parenting, I'm really just joking, when I say that. But being alone with Link for the last couple of weeks has been an adventure overall. 

Adam had always planned to go to Wisconsin for a week or two, and he even had the flight booked for months now. But when his grandmother passed, he changed his flight to spend more time with his family, extending his trip by two weeks. Luckily, I saw him last weekend for the services, but  I feel we are living Elton John's song "Leaving on a Jet Plane" right now. 

The first night I had gotten home from work after Adam had left, I realized we were out of dog food. You think Adam would have told me this fun fact before I left work, so I could  have picked some up on my way home from work. But he did not. So I scoured the cabinets, and ended up feeding him Captain Crunch #parentingfail. But he did not puke, and since we never give him table scraps, that bowl of cereal officially made me the cool parent #parentingwin.

His not puking was a plus, because I don't deal well with puke at all. The week earlier we I taken Link to get neutered before work, and he got so nervous, that he puked all over the backseat. Making me late for work, since i had to go home and clean it up. Well, Adam cleaned it up, because like I said, I DON'T DO PUKE. So if he had puked from the Captain Crunch, I would have had to deal with it all by myself. The tragedy! 

When I told my boss why I would be late to work after that ill-fated trip to the vet, she said my baby was "sensitive." She is right. He is smart but not brave, and he has anxiety like his Mama!

The biggest issue with Adam's extended trip was deciding what to do with our little Linky during the day.  Adam works from home, so he has been staying with him everyday, and depending on the day of the week I'm gone 9-10 hours for work. We had thought about leaving him outside during the day, but he is an occasional digger. So we thought given that amount of time alone, he could have dug his way halfway to China. And gating him up for that long inside just seemed cruel.

So even though it would cost us more money than we wanted to spend, we decided to put Link in doggie daycare. 

My coworkers have given me such (funny) grief over me putting him in daycare. Teasing me that I treat my dog like a child, and that I'm obsessed with him. Which I totally am. But how could I not be obsessed with such a cute pooch?

The first time I dropped him off at the daycare, he cried. He didn't want to leave his mama. It broke my little heart. 

When he was picked up from daycare, they said he had done well, but that he was scared of the other dogs. They wanted to know if it was OK if they socialized him! Apparently, they have a group of puppies at the center, that come everyday, known as the Puppy Pack.

I said yes. I was so excited for Link! I felt like he had been asked to rush a fraternity. He was in demand! Heck, one of the members of the pack is the veterinarian's puppy! I knew my Linky would be well-connected if he fell in what that in-crowd.

So yes, Link is now running with the puppy pack. They are all bigger puppies than him, and his best friend is a great dane pup named Penelope. The say he is doing so well with the other puppies, and the workers all seem to adore him up there.

He makes his Mama proud.

He no longer cries in the morning when I leave him. In fact, he follows me around all morning while I get ready, looking at me like, "Is it time yet? Is it time yet?" He wiggles like crazy when I pull out the leash, and he hops right into the car. When we get to the clinic, he doesn't even glance back at me anymore. He is just like, "I'm going to go play with my friends now, I'll catch you on the flip side." My baby is so grown up.

But Adam needs to come home soon, because being a single working mother is tough stuff!

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A Texas Weekend

What a whirlwind few weeks I have had. I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I have been sick and out of town. I feel like I am continuously playing catch up at work and at home. And before I continue with my post of the recap of my weekend, I have a sad announcement.

 

Adam has been out of town for the last week, and he will continue to be out of town for the next few weeks, because his grandmother, Nancy, passed away. She was a wonderful woman. So kind, welcoming, and funny. She will be missed. I will be joining him for the services later on this week. I am missing Adam terribly, but I'm so glad he has had some time with his family, but I wish I could be there with him right this second.

Before I knew anything about Adam's grandmother, I had booked a quick weekend flight to Houston for my niece's Kayla wedding shower last weekend.

I worked my regular hours on Friday, and then I caught a late afternoon flight. My connection was in Atlanta, and then it was on to Houston. I want to say how freeing it was to fly now that I've lost so much weight. I can't remember the last time I didn't need a seat belt extender. Plus, I didn't have to worry about spilling over onto the seat next to me. Even the middle seat was comfortable!  I love just blending in, not worrying if people are worrying that they may have to sit by the fat girl on the plane.

My flight to Atlanta was absolutely uneventful, but no such luck with my flight to Houston. It was one of the worst storms I believe I have ever flown in. The plane was rocking like a roller-coaster, and all I could see was lightning outside. When we landed, everyone clapped and thanked the pilot, who said we all looked a little white faced!

When I turned on my phone after landing, I immediately got a flash flood alert on my phone. I didn't think too much about it, because I've  never really seen a flash flood in action. But walking through the airport, they made the announcement that due to the storm, they were closing the airport. No planes would be coming or going. My niece told me the storm was bad and not to try to drive in it. So I hung out for a bit in the terminal and ate some dinner. Once the storm let up, I headed to get my rental car.

While I was in the Hertz shuttle, heading to the rental car lot, the flooding I saw was unreal (this is a picture from a news article on the flooding). I saw an ambulance in a ditch, cars stalled out, and even our shuttle bus was sliding. I knew I couldn't drive in that in my little economy car. But I didn't know what to do, my niece's wedding shower location was still an hour away. 

So I called Adam very upset, thinking I was going to have to sleep in the Hertz office or live life like Tom Hanks in that movie, The Terminal. But Adam had the idea to get me a hotel room adjacent to the airport. So I grabbed my rental car key, took the shuttle back to the airport, hopped on the hotel shuttle, and checked into a really nice room at the Courtyard Marriott.

I was so exhausted from the day of travel, storms, and anxiety. I zonked out.  The next morning I grabbed some breakfast at the Starbucks in the lobby, and I finally picked up my rental car. I kind of love rental cars, they are so clean and so new. I headed an hour south to Sugarland, Texas.

My nieces' shower was a painting party. Which I thought was such a fabulous idea! I was so excited to hang out with both my girls. My nieces truly have my heart, seeing them is always a joy. I rather like my painting (it's not going to hang in the Louve, but looks nice enough in my hall). But I was so shocked I even got it home! 

When I got on the flight to go home, I kept leaving it all over the airport and having to go back and retrieve it. I'd be sitting at a restaurant, and all of a sudden I'd be like where's my painting!?!? And I would find it in the sink in the restroom.

The rest of the day after the shower was very relaxed. We went out to eat at a wonderful seafood restaurant, and we did a little shopping at the mall. 

The next morning I drove back to Houston, and took two very uneventful flights to get home. I loved that I could a take quick weekend trip to be there for Kayla.  It was worth all the travel headaches to see her smile!

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Disneyworld Trip 2015 Scrapbook: Part 9

This is the last installment of Disney scrap booking pages from the Disney world 2015 trip! Read about this part of that day here!

Materials Used:

Many of the Papers/Journal Cards/Elements are from Project Mouse

World Showcase Specific Items from Mad for the Mouse

Mary Page Kit Found Here

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Disneyworld 2015 Recap Trip: Part 11

This is the second part of our Epcot day, first part here. Read all of the trip posts here.

We had such a fun time in Japan, but we had to move along, and we headed over to Morocco. One of my favorite things about the Morocco Pavilion is the history behind it, as the King of Morocco sent his own artisans to help with the design. And the pavilion really shows off the effort! In the pavilion, there were wonderful mosaics and fountains.  I loved the merchandise they sold, especially the scarves! I had wanted to meet Aladdin and Jasmine, but we didn't have time (better luck next time).

For our snack in Morocco, we had the pistachio baklava from the Tangierine Cafe. It was soo crunchy and soo delicious!

If all the other pavilions are beautiful due to their simplicity, France is the opposite. France is blingy, loud, and fabulous! I just loved it, it was everything I would want Paris to be! The sun was starting to set by the time we got there, so everything was lit and sparkling. I had planned our food stop in France long before I ever got to Orlando. I had never had macaroons, and I was dying to try them. I decided this would be the perfect place. We bought an assorted variety. They were different than any other dessert I've ever tasted. But I loved them. My favorite was the banana, but I love all banana flavored things.

What happened when we were leaving France to head over the the United Kingdom was one of my favorite memories of the trip.  I really love Mary Poppins, and I was really hoping to get to meet her on the trip. However, I wasn't going to set aside time to do so.  So when I spotted her, and saw she had a short line, I took off running! Everyone teased me about that because not 2 seconds earlier I was complaining of tired feet.

She was a great Mary Poppins. She asked me if I was having a Super Califragilstic day , and we chatted about eating around the world. Then I told her I would be dressing as her at the Disneyland half, and she told me I would look Practically Perfect.

I was on a high after my encounter with Mary Poppins, and ready to take in all the U.K. had to offer. The United Kingdom was a lovely pavilion, full of little English touches. I stepped in the phone booth, it smelt a lot better than the one in London (or so I recall). I really wanted one of those tea kettles, freakin adorable. But just couldn't justify the cost at the time. When we were ready to eat, we went to the Yorkshire County Fish Shop and got a Victoria Spongecake. It was kind of like a lighter version of a pound cake with all sorts of goodies inside. Not bad.

Unfortunately, I don't have too much to say about our last stop, Canada. As most of the pavilion was closed, and we we unable to explore due to a private party. Luckily, one of the gift shops were open, so we could get our last snack to complete our eating around the world challenge. Canada had a bunch of weird flavored chips, so we grabbed some ketchup flavored chips. They were very different. Not bad, but I definitely wouldn't ever crave them!  

After we finished touring world showcase, we sat down to watch Illuminations. I had to post this picture, because Adam went to grab a donut, and him eating a donut in his Homer shirt was too classic. 

Although we were tired,  I'm glad we stayed for Illuminations. It was a fantastic show! I really, really loved the rotating globe, and the images from around the world were so touching. After seeing all 3 of the nightly shows, I will say Fantasmic is definitely my favorite! But I just can't wait to see World of Color in Disneyland.

We paused to take some final pictures of Spaceship Earth as we walked out the Epcot, knowing that would be our last time in the park. It all felt a little bit bittersweet.

The next morning we got up, and packed up all our stuff before heading over to the Polyneasian Resort for breakfast at Kona Cafe. It has always been a tradition of our friend group, that we  get together the last morning before parting for a good breakfast.

The Polynesian is an absolutely beautiful hotel, and I can see why it is so popular. I would love to stay there! Kona Cafe really had the best food. Jana got the Tonga toast, and I got the to die for pineapple macadamia nut pancakes.

Before we left, Jana and I made pouty faces, at the camera as we were having to leave our Disney bubble. We had the sad version of the Mickey Mouse club theme song playing in our heads, "And now it's time to say goodbye...."

Our trip to Disney was so much more than I could ever have hoped for. Truly magical in every way, I can see myself going back again and again for years to come.

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