You just lost 80 pounds! What are you Going to do next? Ending TR

[Poolrat]

And as some of you know, my grandfather passed this week and I'm trying to get myself together for that (had to shop-got the little black dress I wanted from waaay back-some of you may remember from my PTR).

Sorry about your grandfather. Family drama is not fun.

 

[DreamEagle]

Camille,

You my dear, should be proud. Way to go and I teared up just reading your glorious moment of realization. Bravo!
Like you, I too have recently lost a total of 80lbs and life is so much more extraordinary now. I am thrilled to be in photos now, I don't try to hide from them.

I am honored to be able to read this trip report. I'm honored to know someone who has made this incredibly journey and succeeded.

WELL DONE!

 

[addictedtothemouse]

Happy Birthday, Mackie!
I'm so sorry for the family drama. I hate drama and family drama is so much worse.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Sorry to hear about your grandfather and the likely family drama.

 

[catherines_mama]

Hugs Millie. I am sorry for your loss but understand the sentiment. I felt the same way when i lost both my paternal grandparents (who I was closest to). That generation lived such amazing lives. Each of them lived into their 90s and had full amazing lives before they went.

Good luck with the funeral and the family interactions. You'll be in my prayers.

 

[Caseheidi]

So sorry to hear about the passing of your Grandfather. I understand what you mean though. My sweet Mother-in-law passed on July 24th. While we are sad for ourselves, we are happy that she is now with her husband again and that she lo longer has to struggle with the Alzheimer's that frustrated her so. I hope all goes well with the family and you have a peaceful send off for him. We are finding that there is such wonderful comfort in remembering Mom and reading her journals.

 

[zanzibar138]

Sorry for the loss of your grandfather

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Happy belated birthday to Mackie! And I'm sorry for the loss of your grandfather.

 

[TarzansKat]

My thoughts and prayers are with you as you go through the next few weeks, hon.

 

[KatMark]

Camille, I'm sorry to hear about your granddad.

 

[Millie12591]

Sorry to hear about your grandfather. Sounds like he had a long and productive life, I hope there is no drama at the funeral.

Happy birthday to Mackie!

Thank you, Mary Ellen. And I about your dad. It's a tough time for families. While I'm a bit sad, I really am more happy for him, he was so ready, bless his heart.

Sorry for the loss of your grandfather. Hope the funeral is fairly drama free. I understand how hard that is...my family is going through a bit of our own drama centered around my grandmother right now. Not fun or productive.

Jill in CO

Jill, thank you sweet friend. I appreciate the support from you and everyone else. I'm sorry to hear about the drama with your family, I sure hope it's resolved soon. I tried calling you, hope we'll connect later. I'm sure you are out enjoying Lola right now, as long as the weather permits, I would be too!!

I am so sorry to hear about your Grandad. Sending prayers for lots of strength for you this week.

Alysa, thank you. You are such a sweetie, how are the kiddos doing? I haven't been by for a bit to catch up on your PTR. I hope y'all get to go on your trip, for the life of me I can't think of when it is! I'll be sure to get over there soon.

 

[Millie12591]

Sorry about your grandfather. Family drama is not fun.

Thank you, Pat. Drama stinks no matter what it is. Thank goodness there wasn't any to be had other than getting my dad through the funeral and cleaning out my grandfather's room at the nursing home.

Camille,

You my dear, should be proud. Way to go and I teared up just reading your glorious moment of realization. Bravo!
Like you, I too have recently lost a total of 80lbs and life is so much more extraordinary now. I am thrilled to be in photos now, I don't try to hide from them.

I am honored to be able to read this trip report. I'm honored to know someone who has made this incredibly journey and succeeded.

WELL DONE!

Oooh, THANK YOU!! Such sweet and encouraging words! It's so good to have people along who know the struggles and triumphs.
And way to go on YOUR WEIGHT LOSS!! It does feel good to want to be in pictures and to want to participate in life again. And by the way....

Happy Birthday, Mackie!
I'm so sorry for the family drama. I hate drama and family drama is so much worse.

Thank you!! Isn't family drama the worst?!? Oh well, it's over for now.

 

[Millie12591]

Sorry to hear about your grandfather and the likely family drama.

Thank you so much, it's over for now, thank goodness!

Hugs Millie. I am sorry for your loss but understand the sentiment. I felt the same way when i lost both my paternal grandparents (who I was closest to). That generation lived such amazing lives. Each of them lived into their 90s and had full amazing lives before they went.

Good luck with the funeral and the family interactions. You'll be in my prayers.

I appreciate the prayers!! They were truly felt, I just feel so bad for not having gotten on here to answer y'all back before I left. It was just too crazy to try and get on here for long.
And you are right, that generation is amazing. I went by the house my grandfather built for he and my grandmother, it was so strange to see someone else living in it and different from what you remember. There were some things still there from when he lived there, but over all it was someone else's now. The sweet couple that live there gave me one of the tiger lilies that my grandfather planted for my grandmother, they dug it up for me to bring home and plant in my own yard. I think my grandpa would have liked knowing that. Dust. In. Eyes.

So sorry to hear about the passing of your Grandfather. I understand what you mean though. My sweet Mother-in-law passed on July 24th. While we are sad for ourselves, we are happy that she is now with her husband again and that she lo longer has to struggle with the Alzheimer's that frustrated her so. I hope all goes well with the family and you have a peaceful send off for him. We are finding that there is such wonderful comfort in remembering Mom and reading her journals.

I know it's apart of life, but it's not always easy to take, is it? Knowing that they are feeling better and with those who they love and have passed before them, makes it a little easier.
Ooooh, so sweet to hear you are enjoying her journals, warms me heart to hear that.
The whole event was peaceful, I thought my dad would have been more of a stress case, but he did pretty well, considering. I think with my husband there (who has an AMAZING ability to swoop in and knows exactly what to do in a crisis moments) and both my sister and I, he was okay to just let things go when need be.

 

[Millie12591]

Sorry for the loss of your grandfather

Thank you, Lana.

Happy belated birthday to Mackie! And I'm sorry for the loss of your grandfather.

Thank you, Mark! I'm sure she will love that. And thank you for your condolences, very sweet of you.

My thoughts and prayers are with you as you go through the next few weeks, hon.

Very appreciated, sweet friend. Truly.

Camille, I'm sorry to hear about your granddad.

Thank you, Ms. Kat. We just got back late last night, Ty is off seeing his girlfriend in San Antonio so John and I have the house to ourselves to relax from this weeks events.

I appreciate everyone's kind words and support, I treasure each and every one of you.

Hope to have a new post up this week.

 

[jedijill]

Jill, thank you sweet friend. I appreciate the support from you and everyone else. I'm sorry to hear about the drama with your family, I sure hope it's resolved soon. I tried calling you, hope we'll connect later. I'm sure you are out enjoying Lola right now, as long as the weather permits, I would be too!!

I'm pretty removed from it thankfully but I think its resolving itself. My grandmother was admitted to the hospital a couple of weeks ago due to issues with the cumadin that she was put on for a blood clot. After getting a plasma transfusion she is doing much better but is in a nursing home for a couple of weeks since she can't go home alone. My dad and his brother don't see eye to eye on many things and my grandmother always defers to my uncle even if its not in her best interest. Ah well, family dynamics are fun.

I'm sorry I missed your call! I was indeed outside working on Lola. I was removing seats so I could have my friend try to fix the broken driver's side seat. It was worse than I thought it was once I got the upholstery off but he thinks he can fix it. So nice to have handy friends! I managed to get the passenger side seat out and my tools brought in before the rain started again. Looking forward to getting it all done so I can start driving her again!

Jill in CO

 

[Millie12591]

I'm pretty removed from it thankfully but I think its resolving itself. My grandmother was admitted to the hospital a couple of weeks ago due to issues with the cumadin that she was put on for a blood clot. After getting a plasma transfusion she is doing much better but is in a nursing home for a couple of weeks since she can't go home alone. My dad and his brother don't see eye to eye on many things and my grandmother always defers to my uncle even if its not in her best interest. Ah well, family dynamics are fun.

I'm sorry I missed your call! I was indeed outside working on Lola. I was removing seats so I could have my friend try to fix the broken driver's side seat. It was worse than I thought it was once I got the upholstery off but he thinks he can fix it. So nice to have handy friends! I managed to get the passenger side seat out and my tools brought in before the rain started again. Looking forward to getting it all done so I can start driving her again!

Jill in CO

So sorry about your Grandmother, I know how family drama can be, my mom doesn't see eye to eye with her brother either, I think they've stopped talking to one another for over 20 years now. It's so sad.

So exciting about Lola!! Wish I could be there to see her and go on a ride!! And yes, it is beyond wonderful to have someone who is handy, my Mr. Incredible is like that, he's gifted with the ability to figure out how to fix cars and many other things. Being an engineer I guess he's just blessed with that ability. Me, I'm more relational, I like to help fix things that have to do with people.

 

[Millie12591]

Day 2

When I last left you we were making our way through AoA to get to OUR room. I couldn't wait!! I so excited to see the beautiful Little Mermaid rooms for myself!!
As you know Mackie didn't make a lot of requests, but this was one of them, she loves the Little Mermaid, it's one of her favorite characters and movies.

It's kinda amazing to me, the Little Mermaid movie came out the year I graduated high school, 1989, and even with Pixar blowing LM out of the water (see what I did there) when it comes to the talent to portray under sea life, by way of Nemo, LM is still a favorite amongst kids and adults alike.
It's really amazing how Disney can do that, even with movies that aren't all that great (I know-blasphemer), the characters can be a favorite for decades to come.

Okay, back to our journey to AoA....

As we wound our way around to our room we finally make our way in...





Don't you just love the carpet??!!??
These rooms are so stinkin cute, and the colors just make you so happy!!
You can't help but be in a good mood in these rooms!! You can tell by the look on Mackie's face, hee-hee!

We got the exact location we wanted, well, for the LM rooms that is.
To say these rooms are off the beaten path is to state the obvious, but as long as it was close to the main walk way that went along the front of the resort and the most direct path to the bus stops....that's all we needed for that day and the next.

We made our way back to POP to return the cart and then proceeded to hop the next bus to DTD, as it was we were already starting to run behind on time. I thought we'd have enough time to make it to the Swalphin for Mackie's appt., but you know how the buses can be, especially when it comes to DTD.
As we were waiting for a bus, I text Brook to get the number for the spa so I could let them know we would be running behind, she was gracious enough to offer to call for us, but I told her it was no biggie for us to do it.
I called over and got a little bit later appt., and as we were STILL waiting for the bus to get there I text Jill, that would be our one and only jedijill.

I asked what she was up to and she said she was just leaving DTD to go back to her room to rest a bit, she asked where we were and I said DTD too, but trying to catch a bus to the Swan or was it the Dolphin? We were catching a bus to the Swalphin. And when we were done we'd be heading back to DTD for some lunch if she wanted o join us, I told her she didn't have to since she already had been there, but she was quick to accept and was sure to let me know she would love to come and meet up with us. Since she had a car she didn't have an issue with meeting up when ever we were ready.

We finally made our way over to the Swalphin and found our way to where we needed to be. If you've never been there I highly recommend finding your way over there, even if it's just for drinks, or spa treatment, it's such a beautiful hotel!!



Not the greatest picture of me.

Not the greatest picture. I guess that's the risks when you have someone else take it.



The breeze was amazing this day, we really enjoyed our time outside in the sun, in the shade we about froze our cute little polished toes off though!!


We finally found the hall to get to the spa, and came into this glorious entry...





You can see how crazy Mackie's hair is looking because of the wind. Bless her heart.

The lady came out to greet us and asked what it was we were there for and once we told her, off we went to get Mackie's toes a bright dark blue.
I know it's the in thing, but I just have an issue with painting one's nails to be the color of what you'd look like if you were froze to death.
That reminds me...there was this Barbie in the stores (back when Mackie was little) that was this pale blue color, I swear to the heavens she looked like she was dead, a pretty dead, but dead nonetheless.
And every time we saw it I'd say..."Why would you want a Barbie that looks like she's dead?!?" Use to drive Mackie nuts! LOL!

I would have gotten pictures of Mack getting her toes done, but there was another lady in the room and I didn't want to disturb her pedicure or make her nervous that I was taking pictures since she had just had a massage and wasn't looking her best, relaxed, but not her best.
From what I over heard, she had about $500-$600 dollars worth of treatments while she was there, I wasn't about to ruin it with me acting like a redneck taking photos of my daughter getting her toes painted.

I think if you look at the picture of the two of us (the blurry one) where we are sitting in front of the swan fountain, you can see Mackie's blue toes.

When we were done the nice lady gave us a tour and showed us all the different rooms around the spa, and explained about the amazing imported carved woods that seemed to adorn every room, it was certainly beautiful and it was most definitely relaxing and very peaceful, all I wanted to do was find a comfy chair and sit for a spell.
As we were lead out of the bathroom and into a relaxation room where we could have tea or ginger/citrus water, we were offered to do just that.
But not before Nosey Noserson had to "go to the bathroom." I knew she was going to explore, but I didn't care, she was safe and I wanted to sit and be relaxed, so I did just that. The picture does it no justice, but believe me I had an amazing view to sit and relax in front of....



I'm too lazy to change the size of the pics, so you'll have to forgive me.
Mackie finally makes her way back to the relaxation room and sits down next to me and starts taking things out of her bag....Mackie-"Mama, what do you think this is? <hands me a plastic thing wrapped up into a tight little package> Me-<half way into a comatose state tries to take it and drops it>
Mackie- <without missing a beat>"That's okay, I've got another one!" and grabs another one out of her bag. We both cracked up in the quietest way we could possible. I'm tellin ya, it's bad to take us Texans anywhere, we aren't the most quiet people.
Little Miss had gone into the bathroom where there are lots of freebies for the guests to use, she picked up several things while she was in there. I didn't discover most of the items she took until well into the trip. I couldn't help but crack up one morning (well into the trip) when she was trying to figure out how a certain feminine product worked. I think you ladies under stand what I'm talking about.

As we were finally done relaxing and sitting for a bit, we decided it would be good to use the ladies room and finally high tail it over to DTD for some yummy food AND for the first Dis meet of our trip!!
Gonna have to leave it here, I need to get to my workout. It's hamma time!

Hope y'all are having a great week. Be blessed and thank you for reading along.

 

[lovethattink]

Great update. You two look great despite what you think about hair and such. The Mermaid room looks sweet. I've always been a fan of the movie. That's funny about the bathroom freebies, lol!

 

[jedijill]

Love the spa over at the Swolphin! It is beautiful! They did such a good job with the LM rooms..so fun!

Can't wait to read the next part....

Jill in CO

 

[KatMark]

Cute rooms.

I wish I had taken advantage of the spa when we stayed at Dolphin in April, but we didn't have much time.