So one... I am super sorry. I haven't written in awhile. Do you ever overload yourself? It is proven, I work best under pressure. But seriously, sometimes life happens... and it has lately... a lot.
First, I got a promotion at work a little while ago. It's nice. I hope I am doing a good job, Lord knows I am trying, but I found myself going from working only 3 days a week... to working 5. Everyone is like hey.. but you get off at 3pm each day not 7pm, but I still find myself struggling to go to the grocery store, had to hire someone to help clean my house, and even though I am "off" my email still dings and my phone still buzzes at all hours... day, night, weekend, holiday and vacation. This was all new for me. I was used to being off work and just walking away. There are times Mark has physically taken my phone away and said... "You don't want to respond with that right now.. trust me."
On top of the promotion, I decided to go back to college. Man... it sucks the second time around, I am not going to lie. Everyone is young, I feel really old. I am a perfectionist, so I can't understand half assing your assignments. I go to work, I pick up Trenton from school, I come home and do homework, try to work out, eat dinner, take a shower, get ready for bed and then Mark says... hey, you haven't wrote a blog in awhile... well, no shit, but I have written 9 papers and turned in 3 research projects. For the record, my professors do NOT understand my humor and are not very tolerant of my grammatical errors. I wanted to write back... "Do you have any idea how many people love my stories and don't care about my grammatical errors?!" and that is when Mark takes my computer away and says "trust me, you don't want to respond with that right now!" Why is he always right?
My little travel agent business has been thriving. I work really hard to keep all my clients happy and feeling special. I wish there was more of me to devote to it. I love helping people have fantastic vacations.
AND... we entered the new debate of do we move or remodel the house we live in? We found a house, negotiated a deal, jumped through hoops, drew up a contract and backed out right before we handed over the earnest money. It was exhausting. So then we decided to just remodel the home we live in because it is paid off. No mortgage allows us to cruise more often. Who needs a huge house anyway? Why don't we just make our current house into what we want? The remodel of the kitchen took 6 weeks. I almost lost what little sanity I had... The rest of the house is still waiting.
Here is the BEFORE:
And the AFTER:
Mark not only went back to college to pursue his Master's degree, but took a new job as well.. a scary job. He was the ONE employee for this division of the company in North America and was tasked with starting the new division here all by himself. As soon as he got acquainted with the leadership team from the other division of this company that was already based in America... they decided they liked him too. So they are splitting his salary and he is a new project coordinator for them as well. So I think what it boils down to... atleast what it seems... is the dude has 2 full time jobs somehow. He is really good at what he does. I certainly couldn't do it, but it leaves him traveling A LOT. Which means I handle more stuff at home.... so yeah, I have been slacking in the blog department.
The good news is... all this overloading we have been doing has just made the "we need to take a cruise" build up more. So Spring Break was really our only logical opportunity. I started looking at which cruise would accommodate our dates and I have to tell you ... I got a little miffed. None of us had 1 single offer from Carnival. Not a past guest, not a casino, not a thanks for cruising with us 4 times last year... NOTHING. How could that be? Hello Carnival... I could be your biggest fan!
Spring Break is a really expensive time to cruise so just for giggles I looked at a couple of other cruise lines in the area. Much to my surprise... Norwegian was offering a killer deal! One we could not turn down.
Each cabin was $82 cheaper on NCL than Carnival. Now that's not much, but the itinerary offered Harvest Caye in Belize and Costa Maya, Mexico. 2 places we have never been before. PLUS.. the NCL fare offered a free Ultimate Beverage Package (if purchased would have cost $1305.08 for 2), a free Specialty Dining Package (if purchased would have cost $162.82 for 2) and $100 OBC... Per cabin. Sooo.... while the monetary savings was only $164 for 2 cabins... the perks NCL was offering was over $3000. Hello Norwegian!!
(I found the picture on the internet).
So, I am a little nervous stepping out of my comfort zone, but I am taking one for the family. We are all really excited to try a new experience including a new ship and new ports. I have already noticed several differences in my pre-cruise planning so you can bet I will be passing my new found knowledge on to you guys. We sail away to Paradise in exactly 7 days!! Feel free to follow along on our When Ship Happens Page on Facebook.
