Lets take a trip down memory lane:

 I told you all about my first cruise.  The little "incident" on the public beach.  Well I was thinking that I wanted you to see the difference in the public beach and the private beach.

This is the public beach,  do you see the people in the back ground, this was before the incident - these people left before "the couple" got there

This is the private beach.  - you can see the difference!

I want to share with you the story of our cruise - because I'm digging for happy memories today:

    About 2 days before Christmas in 2003 my boyfriend (we were not married until 2005) had not purchased me a Christmas present (imagine a man waiting until the lat minute, I know that none of your men do that right?)  He and his friend rode to the job together every morning, and on the way back they were talking and Wes mentioned that he still needed to find me something for Christmas (gotta love him). His friend (Ricky) then suggested that they go to his travel agent and add onto the cruise that he and his wife and their friends were going on.  Wes thought this was a great idea, he'd been listening to them talk about this cruise for months and I guess he was secretly jealous of them. So right then he did it, he bought and paid for in full the cruise 4 nights from Tampa, to Grand Cayman, then Cozumel then back to Tampa. 

Now I must add right here that although we had been together for 4 years at this time these people were his friends, not mine. I was a divorcee with a kid, and they just really didn't approve of our relationship.  They thought I was just using him I guess.  When we all got together I was always treated like an outsider.

This is going to sound terrible, but when I opened the envelope and saw the cruise I was not excited.  I was furious.  My idea of a good time was NOT spending 4 days with people that didn't like me while Wes was having a good time hanging out with the men. We are all women, we know how women can make other women feel. So I tried as hard as I could to sound excited, because he was so excited. (this was me taking the higher road)

 On New Years eve at 5:00 Wes & Ricky were both given their walking papers.  The conversation went something like this "We are closing the plumbing department as of tomorrow January 1st, today is your last day,  Here's your LAST check.  Oh yeah - Happy New Year."  

 Just a few weeks later I started having some health issues.  These issues came "over night", I thought I had a bladder infection and with in 2 weeks a doctor wanted to test me for cancer of the bladder.  When we came home I decided that if I were going to be fighting for my life soon, I didn't want to leave Cameron behind while we went on this cruise, I wanted to cancel.  I was totally freaking out and the only thing I could think was that I wanted all the time with him that I could get. Just a few days later my dad came over with the money for Cameron's ticket so he could join us on the cruise.  He wanted us to go and to take Cameron too.  After all we didn't know what was going to happen.

I can't tell you how scared I was, the thought of fighting cancer, maybe loosing.  My child only 5 years old  would he remember me in 5 years if I was gone?  Where would he be?  Would they send him to my x-husband to live-he didn't know him, he hadn't seen him in 3 years.  Well the Friday before we left I found out it wasn' t cancer (THANK GOD) but I still had lots of tests to have done.  So at least this cruise was not hanging under a cancer diagnosis.

When we arrived with a child in hand you should have seen the way the others were looking at us.  You could tell that they didn't want a child with them on their cruise, at their table.  I was very uncomfortable, but I knew my son, I knew he would behave, and I knew that at least now I would have someone to hang out with, even if he was only 5 years old!

Well, I met one of my closest friends ever on that trip.  She was one of the friends of Ricky's wife, and we hit it off from the start.  She was even in our wedding!  And I must add my child was so well behaved!  He was perfect!  Before we left to come home EVERY ONE was singing his praises!  We are all friends now, and have even been on another cruise together - with Cameron!  The others never bring their kids....I never leave mine!  They never figured out what my health problems were  - I have my kidney function checked every so often, and as long as it stays the same - we don't worry!

Tip of the day: buy new sunscreen before leaving on a cruise - don't use last years, that stuff goes bad!