When Vacations Attack...

As I sit here on the couch on a Tuesday night. I find myself watching 'When Vacations Attack' on Travel Channel, and think to myself how very FORTUNATE Mark and I are. The stories are amazing about about elephants attacking in Africa, birds attacking, and raging rivers. Luckily for Mark and I, our vacations have been much less eventful.

In October we took a Southern Caribbean Cruise (that had been postponed from May, due to me being laid off) with Royal Caribbean that was fantastic!



I had mixed feelings about Puerto Rico. Upon getting to the airport and to our hotel I wasn't impressed. It seemed full of run down high rise buildings and poverty until we got into the Condado hotel district. We stayed at a reasonably priced hotel off the main street, and quickly hopped into a cab to head to Old San Juan, where we planned to spend all our time while in San Juan. Old San Juan is amazing! It's full of little shops, restaurants, old forts, and beautiful views. Enjoy the pictures above, they do nothing to show the beauty of Old San Juan.

Yikes....talk about a bit picture heavy. The trip was great with minimal difficulties. I love to travel and have always wanted to see the world. One of the best parts about traveling is getting to see different places in the world with Mark and trying new things, experiencing them together. Lucky for us, we have gone on a major trip each year without fail, and will continue to do so until we are blessed with children.

I haven't been saying it

Why haven't I been saying it? I'm really not that busy... I've seemed to let myself slack when I wanted to do more. Things are about to get busier in this house and I need to mentally prepare.

Here's the jist of what's going down:
#1 We are TTC
#2 We are fixing up the house so it's ready whenever kids come
#3 We are saving money for kids, new car, home improvements, vacations, etc....
Now let's back up a darn minute here. What am I missing that is about to rattle us?
#4 My Mother-in-Law is moving in with us in t-w-o weeks.

I like my MIL, I do. That doesn't make the situation any less....difficult. She's live with us twice before, both for very short periods of time, but this will be different. This time she needs more. She's hard a hard life and is in very difficult circumstances. We hope that within 6-12 months she will be back on her feet with the skills she needs to succeed, so that this won't be necessary again.

On my way home I was thinking about how I never thought I'd be in this situation. I never thought supporting a parent would be something we'd need to do until we were in our 40's or 50's and even then it would be due to illness. This is a decision we have made as a couple and I don't regret it. She's family and what needs to be done will be done. I'm trying to be a better Christ like person, and I know that this is what he would want us to do. I'm selfish. I like not sharing time with my husband with anyone else at night, eating whatever we want if it's macaroni or cheese or peanut butter and jelly or dinner. I'm going to be giving up some comfort and freedom, but let's get real...there are going to be some perks. Here is a run down of positives and negatives:

Good: She's going to clean the bathrooms (which I HATE doing...when I actually do it), we are doing as Christ would want us to do by helping others in their time of need, she is going to dog sit for us so my husband can go on a ski trip and I can go on a girls weekend, and I'm sure there are others.

Not so good: Decreased privacy and intimacy throughout the house, increased costs of everyday living (utilities, groceries, storage unit if needed, etc.), increased amount of things in the house, more noise, additional opinions when may not be appreciated, quieter TTC time, boyfriend being around that I don't like and am uncomfortable around, snoring, possible strain on my marriage, having to cook more frequently, among many others.

At this point, it doesn't matter what the negatives are. We are doing this. If things become too difficult then my husband and I will intervene as necessary to right the situation. We are going to do what we deem appropriate and feasible for us to help her, but we will be putting ourselves first.

We will not allow this to effect our marriage in a negative way. Our love for each other comes first.