Cruisin

Today I will go on a long car trip to a far away kingdom called Galveston.

Today I will board a cruise liner that I will pretend is the Titanic. Except with a happy ending.

Today I will be Rose and my husband will be Jack and we will fall in love all over again and he'll draw a G-rated picture of me as a stick figure on a napkin, and we will go to steerage and dance a jig with the emmigrants, and then he'll give me a ginormous blue diamond that I'll throw in the ocean when I am old and I won't tell Bill Paxton where it is.

Well, that last part may be stretching the truth a little.

In all truth, I am so excited because my husband, my boyfriend since I was 15, the father of my children, and my best friend ever is taking me on a trip for my 30th birthday.

We are not wealthy people and this trip is such a gift. We have very very little medical debt, we have modest salaries at our jobs that we adore. We have things that need to be fixed/replaced/purchased, but after some creative budgeting, gift from God money, and scrimping and saving, Ryland decided to invest in our marriage. And I am happy to comply with his decision.

We have never been away together without our kids. Sure there have been single nights here and there, but never out of town, road trip, adventure style get-away. It has been 4 years since we have vacationed alone and I am giddy excited.

I am so grateful to God for the gift of my husband. He is more than I deserve and over the last few years my opportunities to lavish him with love and attention have been less. There are two little people who have competed for my attention with their little people needs of dirty diapers, needing to nurse, and just keeping them from harm in general, I haven't always made the time for him that I should. I wouldn't trade the mom life for anything but sometimes my husband has graciously taken the backseat.

Over these four days I plan to enjoy him. I wish I could say that I had the body I had on our last vacation. Babies and gravity have taken a toll on my swimsuit figure, but I am so excited for ocean breezes, sunsets, and the arms of the person I love more than anyone else on this earth. And surely there will be at least one person on the boat squishier than me. Is that mean?

Thank you God for giving us this time! I am pumped!

I'll never let go Jack........