Channeling the Carefree Caribbean

I see that my cruise counter started over--no, we're not taking another first cruise in 11 months and 2 weeks. But it has been almost two weeks since we got home! Our blog has been wondering if we decided to stay in the Bahamas and ship the kids out to live a lazy island life. Alas, no.

I wrote this depressing post last Tuesday but didn't post it because I was too depressed:

WE'RE BACK! Sigh. We had the best time! The Bahamas were beautiful, my swimsuit was new, Rick & I had a fabulous time together, and our dear old friends are as great as ever. Sigh. It was great. Since then, not so great. We've been slammed back into reality since the moment we stepped off the plane late Friday night and the car didn't start. Now it's in the shop and we're scrambling. I caught some kind of cold/cough/sore throat on the flight home--my ears got plugged up on the plane and I've had volume & hearing problems since. Coincidentally, Logan and Fisher welcomed us home with the same cold and sore throats, and yesterday Connor and Maddie joined them. So, rather than being able to bask in post-vacation bliss, I'm feeling MAJOR let down from going from our beautifully carefree week to struggling to play catch up while spreading my sick self between teary, fevered children and discovering 3 ants in the house. Don't even get me started on the ants. And my suitcase isn't even unpacked--just rummaged through. Did I mention I'm having hearing problems? Well I am. And it's snowing outside. So, we're back. It was a L O V E L Y trip that I will certainly gush about in a future post, but we're back. To our fellow cruisers I say, I feel like a half eaten roll.

THEN, I wrote this more upbeat post last Friday:

NOW, we're coming out of the trenches and I'm ready to gush! The car problems turned out to be an antitheft glitch that rendered our key non-compliant with the car, so the car had to go to the dealer to be reprogrammed to our keys. Random and irritating, but at least it wasn't something mechanical. I've stopped taking Dayquil which means I can think straight and breathe at the same time, I've said no to some extras that were putting me over the edge, and the babies are the only kids left with colds. I'm hearing better, which means Rick can stop signing at me, and my suitcase is finally empty and put away. Commence gushing:

THEN, I started to gush and post a lot of cruise pictures...until something happened and I lost all of the pictures and didn't have time to repost them until after the weekend. I chose to grocery shop on Monday morning and by Monday afternoon I was knocked down by a terribly high fever and sore throat that sent me to the doctor by yesterday morning. Misery. I have tonsilitis and strep throat--Rick stayed home yesterday because I was totally dysfunctional and he's staying home today because I'm already improving, but still can't talk (I'm whispering this) or sit up for too long. That said, I'm going to postpone gushing for a day or two more and go lie down again.

We did have a fabulous time...