Simple Hobby Homesteading

As I sit here, at my desk, eating crème brulee made by my own hand, I remember the highlights of our cruise to the Bahamas. The food… yes, definitely the food. However, I have to admit my own crème brulee rivals that of the Royal Caribbean chefs! The people… yes, most assuredly the fun and kind people. The quality time with my family… yup, that was the best of the best. We spent seven nights straight all sleeping in the same room. Father, mother, and two sons. It has been more years than I care to remember since I fell asleep to the soft mutterings of our oldest son (he’s a sleep talker) and the constant exhale that isn’t really a snore but also not a regular exhale of our youngest son. Waking up to my husband beside me and my sons right above me was truly the best highlight of my trip.

On the last day we would be at sea heading back to the waters off the Florida coast. We all could have slept in as late as we wanted but go figure, we were all awake by 7:00am. I ran up to get coffee for me and fresh squeezed orange juice for my sick bay commando husband (he had been felled by a cold… of all the times!) before our room service arrived. Our room service breakfast arrived right on time and I was excited to have some yummy wheat toast with my coffee (it’s the simple things in life, right?!). I picked up the Texas style thick wheat toast and took a bite… let me correct myself… I TRIED to take a bite. It was hard as cement which made me chuckle! Room service hates us… it’s official. The boys laughed as well as apparently me trying to eat concrete is quite amusing. So I tried again… seriously, I risked a broken tooth so I gave up and stole Jackson’s pastry (hey, he went to the bathroom and left it out in the open… silly boy).

The boys and I headed up to second breakfast (a friend said it sounded like we were eating like hobbits and she is exactly right… so Erin, this is for you… second breakfast) and talked about getting out to join in the walk a mile at 10:30am but our full bellies 30 minutes later told us “Cash Prize BINGO” was more our speed. We had some time to kill before BINGO so we headed to the shops to look around and see if there were any trinkets we just had to have (there wasn’t) and then went down for more coffee, hot chocolate, croissants, and donuts at the coffee shop… ummmm I guess that’s third meal or maybe we’ll call it first tea time.

BINGO was a blast and this time we all got cards to play rather than the boys helping me with mine. Technically I bought all the cards as I think there’s a whole legal age thing as BINGO may be considered gambling… Who knows. Anyway, the boys had their cards and I had mine and it was fast and furious. I got closer… and closer… and closer… and then I stood (as is common practice for BINGO professionals)… I WAS ONE AWAY FROM A BINGO!! Then… it… happened…

I WON!!! I got a BINGO! A BINGO… ME… I GOT TO SHOUT OUT BINGO! I not only shouted it out but I jumped up and down like a crazy person. I was sooooo excited! Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are one of those “woohoo for other people” kind of people) several other people got BINGO at the same time as me so we all had to split the cash pot. I walked away with $52.80 which paid for all my BINGO binges on the trip. Nice! Better yet, I think I convinced my boys that BINGO is fun. I see BINGO tournaments in the Conway household’s future…

Towel Folding Demonstration at 12:30pm… grrr… we missed it thanks to our need to constantly shove food in our mouths. Yes, we were at lunch. Hey, we wanted to make sure we had good seats for the men’s belly flop competition so we had to get up to deck 9 (pool deck) early . Lo and behold deck 9 just happens to be the Windjammer Café deck… ain’t that a handy coincidence?

1:00pm Men’s belly flop completion which was hilarious! The heavyweight guy won but he was so heavy he had to get help up onto the platform that they had them jump off of. Probably not the safest contest on the ship but it was entertaining. Apparently this guy had won belly flop competitions in previous years at varying venues… admittedly he had great form.

After the belly flop exhibition we headed down in the air conditioned centrum for the 80s and 90s TV tune trivia contest. We don’t have cable, NETFLIX, ROKU, Satellite, or anything else like that at home so my boys are subjected to whatever Kevin and I buy on DVD. Yup, my kids get to watch the classics… Alf, Andy Griffith Show, Cosby Show, MacGyver, Gomer Pyle USMC, Beverly Hillbilly’s, A-Team, and Full House. Therefore, I thought we might have a decent chance at actually getting some of these contest questions! It was fun, but maddening as many of the tunes they played were on the tip of my tongue. I did immediately get Beverly Hills 90210 (of course), Frazier, Law & Order, The Simpsons, and a few others that are escaping my memory now. We got 12 out of 20 but unfortunately none of them were ones my kids were able to get and I realized that I watched way too much TV as a kid in the 80s and 90s!

Back up to the pool to check out the Summer Lovin’ pool party to kick off the classic movie “Grease” celebration. My boys had never seen Grease so we grabbed some meal number 5… maybe 6… and got prime seats for the showing of Grease. The boys liked it all right though they said it was a bit cheesy.

We left early because guess what… there was more BINGO! This was cash prize and WIN A CRUISE! The boys and I were excited. We had officially become BINGO addicts. The cruise was a cruise for 2 and you had to be 18 to “officially win” so I told the boys whoever went and got mommy a coffee would be the one I’d take on the cruise if… wait, no, WHEN I won. Gunner jumped at the opportunity. Silly boy… I’d be taking Kevin if I won that cruise. I think Jackson knew as he didn’t even contemplate falling for a coffee run. While Gunner was getting coffee I ordered a strawberry daiquiri (no alcohol)… I didn’t even have to get up the waiter came to me. I think at this point I had gained 5 pounds… I wonder how that happened?

BINGO started and we were cruisin’ right along. Three away… two away… and then it happened… I was one away AGAIN! I stood up excitedly for another couple numbers waiting for the one I needed. Bah, two other ladies got it before me. Grrrrrrr. They had to have a BINGO off to see who would get the cruise which we didn’t stick around for as we had a scavenger hunt to get to.

Jackson wanted to head down and hang out in the cabin with Kevin so Gunner and I did the red, white, and blue scavenger hunt. There were about 20 things (Gunner adds, “20 strange things,” and we found 18, though we had to be very creative for a few (picture of a bluebird… yes, we went to the cabin and begged Kevin to draw a picture of a blue bird in between his sneezes and nose blowing.) We needed a red drink so I felt it my duty to get another strawberry daiquiri… hey taking one for the team! Gunner and I came in second place and got medals. Of course a fellow homeschool family beat us. Those darn homeschoolers. We couldn’t find a blue pill and blue crayon… hmmmmmmmmm I’m ok with that lol.

6:00pm poolside movie San Andreas which we wanted to watch so we got supper and ate it poolside while watching the movie.  I thought it was a good movie. A little Sharknado-like with some of the tsunami flooding, but good nonetheless.

9:00pm final Farewell Production Showtime and the boys didn’t want to go so they got some food and went down to the cabin to relax. 10:00pm I swung down to get the boys to head up to the poolside again and watch Pitch Perfect 2 on the great big screen by the pool. Of course, we had to get late night supper to watch with the movie. Pitch Perfect 2 is a really good movie! In fact, we just bought it this week when it came out on DVD! Boys love it too.

Ummmm it’s late… I’m exhausted… boys are exhausted… and we didn’t think we’d be able to keep our eyes open for a SECOND showing of Pitch Perfect 2 at midnight though we do love the acapella. We rode the elevator down to deck 3 (as we often did when Kevin wasn’t with us… he’s a stairs man all the time… me, not so much). We all fell asleep pretty quickly after showing off our silver medals from the scavenger hunt.

When we woke the next morning at 7:00am we were already in port at Cape Canaveral. None of us were very hungry so we decided to pack up and head off the boat to get an early start driving home. We took showers, packed up, headed out, went through customs, caught the shuttle back to the hotel, got the Mazda and were on the road to Indiana by 9:00am… I kid you not! Amazing!

The drive home was interesting as Kevin’s cold was making him quite goofy. Usually he’s a quite serious and stoic man while driving or doing anything which involves the risk of injury, but on this trip home he was cracking jokes left and right and teasing like a teenager with a crush on his girlfriend trying to impress his buddies in the back seat (namely our two sons). A few hours into the drive I asked the family if I should take my phone off airplane mode. I should text our neighbor and our farm sitters that we were on our way home… My husband and sons all agreed “NO!!” So I waited a few hours and then slid it off airplane mode just to message our neighbor and farm sitters. Ding… ding… ding dingdingdingdingding… turn it off, turn it off! Dog training messages, extended family messages, etc. I really wasn’t ready to be back to reality so I sent my two texts out and put it back on airplane mode. Gunner of course slept through most of the trip home. We made it to north of Atlanta that first day and stayed in Cartersville (my brother’s name is Carter so it made us think of him) with a very young and friendly front desk woman who told me all about her car troubles, boyfriend issues, and crazy weird hours she has to work while I filled out our vehicle information on the registration. I wanted to ask for restaurant recommendations for dinner but wasn’t sure what conversation that would inspire so left the subject alone.

 

Applebees was the dinner choice that night (feeling like a super mom as it was the SECOND Applebees trip for my boys in a week). Kevin was feeling pretty cruddy so he rested at the hotel and we brought him back a burger. Uneventful night’s sleep at the hotel though I think we all kinda missed 10pm rations.

In the morning we were on the road and Kevin was all fun and goofy again. Time went fast (of course I can say that now… weeks later) and before we knew it we were pulling into our lane at The Shepherd Hobby Farm.  Home! We were home and it felt SOOOOOOOO GOOD! Everything and everyone looked great. Animals were wonderful and they got lots of snuggles. Someone had hit and demolished our mailbox while we were gone but that was no big deal… replacing mailboxes is fun, right? Well, not BINGO fun, but it’s its own kind of fun.That night Kevin and I slept in our own bed and the boys in theirs. Did they miss us as I missed them? There was a whole level of house separating us and I truly did miss them. I got up a couple times in the night and went downstairs to check on them. They slept soundly and peacefully. It reminded me of the days I would check on them as babies… you know, to make sure they were still breathing. It’s just what a mom does.

It was a good trip folks… a really good trip. No phones or computers but yet there was always something to do if we wanted to do it. No cooking or cleaning for me and plenty of people to socialize with if we wanted to (sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t). I can tell you all that we are hooked on the notion of cruises and will revisit destination options for upcoming vacations but for now we are all quite content to just be home. Home is good. We have created a place here that we really don’t need a vacation from.  We all agree that though the cruise was a fun vacation and we may do another one, we really like “stay-cations” best of all. The comfort of home is what this gal is made for!

 

Make your home someplace you don’t want to vacation away from… we all need that place of comfort!

Jhenna