It's Been A While - An Update!

Hello hello hello! 

LONG time no "see"! I have good reason, I promise and I have several new blog posts coming in the next few weeks. Boy, I've missed this! 

I figured since it's been so long, a little update was in store. My area of the world has been through a whirlwind of a past few months (if you follow me on instagram, you know what I mean) and I do plan on sharing more on our "life" during the storms and after in future posts. I love where I live and have absolutely no intention of moving, but this year has been a doozy on all of us. First corona and shut downs, then hurricane season...I'm more than a little ready to move beyond this time in our lives!

Hurricane Laura impacted my hometown and personal home back on August 27th (also my birthday - and one I'll never forget)! Three weeks later, Hurricane Delta hit our coast just 12 miles from where Hurricane Laura made landfall. Thankfully, we had no additional damage to our home from Delta, but a lot of friends and neighbors did. It's sad to drive around and see devastation everywhere. Even now, two and a half months since the storms and things still look rough and likely will for a long time. Debris litters the roadways, homes have blue tarps on their roofs, exposed beams, or no roofs at all. In several instances, only a concrete slab remains where a home once was. Some say it's going to take years to get back to "normal".  To top all of this off, the insurance companies have made the struggle of repairing homes insane and ridiculously difficult. I don't want to get into it all here, but there are facebook group after facebook group that describe the over the top struggles we are having to face, just to get our homes repaired. Yes, I realize insurance companies are a business, too...but y'all, these cases are just downright absurd. 

My intention for this wasn't to be all doom and gloom, but I wanted to paint a picture of our current situation - this is literally where we are at in this place in our lives. Yes, we still function. Yes, we still continue on with our lives, work, church, etc because it's our "community" that is so important - we need each other in these hard times. And yes, there is still a lot laughter. :) 

Needless to say, my running groove has taken an impact since the storms as well. Downed fences means lots and lots of stray animals. Debris in the roadways means sometimes only once car can pass and it's just simply not safe. Jason works at an oil and gas refinery and they have spent countless hours in the past two months trying to get everything back up and running so the rest of the US can carry on as normal. This means he hasn't been home as much and running consistently with a 40+ pound four year old isn't my idea of a fun time, especially with the roadways as they are. Thankfully, Jason's schedule has slowed down a lot and I am just now (this week) seeing more opportunities to run so YAY for that!

As far as damage to my personal home - we are going to need a new roof, new soffit/fascia around a lot of our home, new window screens, a new sing set, repairs to our shed, new deck rails, and a new chimney on the roof. We finally have everything set in motion, we are currently on a list, waiting for our turn for repairs. In the grand scheme of things, our damage was SO minimal and I'm grateful for that. It truly is sad when you drive around town and witness some of the damage others homes have sustained. 

On a positive and incredibly random note, we are still planning on going to WDW in February on what should have been the Princess Half Marathon weekend. I'm also still planning on running the races around the resort property so that should be fun! Our plane tickets were officially purchased last night! Anyone else still traveling to WDW during that week?

Well, there's my update! I'll be back with more from Halloween shindigs to belated birthday celebrations, evacuating for hurricanes, Brayden 4.5 year update, and more! 

As always, if you'd like to stay up to date with our current lives, you can follow us over on instagram!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! 

When Disney Cancels Your Vacation

Happy Wednesday! This week is halfway done and it's almost time for another weekend! For us here, that means another weekend closer to our next Disney Cruise!

Yes, I promise to stop harping on our canceled trip after this post, but I wanted to share the details of all that went into our cruise that was canceled by Disney Cruise Lines.

For starters, we were booked on the September 9 sailing of the Disney Fantasy, Eastern Caribbean itinerary. As Hurricane Irma grew closer and closer to the Caribbean islands, we all knew that some sort of change with our cruise was going to take place. There was no way we would be able to safely sail into the port of St. John or Tortola and my heart went out to all of the people of those islands. The devastation Hurricane Irma left in her wake was so incredibly sad to see.

At this point, my mind didn't begin to compute the possibility of a canceled cruise. I kept saying that I didn't care where we sailed - if we just got on the ship and sailed into nothingness for 7 days, I would be fine.

On Tuesday September 5 at 12:30 p.m., Disney Cruise Line released their first official statement regarding the storm and their upcoming sailings. In that statement, DCL mentioned both our sailing and the Disney Dream, saying both were still on as scheduled.

That evening around 7:30 p.m. however, another advisory was released, stating not only were the Fantasy and Dream cruises cancelled, but the current cruise ship out at sea would be returning to port 2 days early.

Was I sad? Yes. Did Disney Cruise Line try to make up for a decision that was completely out of their control? YES again. 

In that statement, they also graciously agreed to refund our trip by 100% and they offered us 25% off a future booking!

Considering the fact that I didn't have trip insurance...whoops...I was incredibly grateful for DCL. On top of the 100% refund, they also took the safety of their guest, cast members, and the ship into consideration. After hearing horror stories about things that happened with other cruise lines, I was definitely happy with the decision made by Disney (although not right at first).

On top our cruise, we also had a one night stay booked at Caribbean Beach resort for the evening before our cruise. We planned to spend the day in Pandora and the evening at Food & Wine for dinner. Although I stayed on hold with Disney for a little over an hour, I was able to cancel my one night stay and receive a 100% refund on this as well, without penalty!

What about airfare? Well, Southwest was just as amazing. Since Orlando was in a high alert travel zone due to the hurricane, Southwest allowed us to change our itinerary over to new dates without any penalty at all, although our new projected dates cost about $300 more than we initially spent!

After scouring Jason's work schedule, we picked a new cruise date for October of this year and went with it (also WITH trip insurance this time)! We have a few friends sailing with us and we are so excited to share in our adventure with them!

Everything is booked as before minus Remy brunch (which we will try to book once we are on board the ship if possible).

I was excited about our original cruise for three reasons - Disney Fantasy, Halloween on the High Seas, and an Eastern itinerary - none of which I'd done on past cruises. I'm happy to say that our re-booked cruise has at least two of the three, although I'm not sure an Eastern itinerary will be doable for a long time and we will be on a Western itinerary for this sailing. We will continue to keep these guys in our thoughts and prayers.

So, despite the crazy situation, I feel as if Disney did everything in their power to take care of us and ensure our safety. Our 10th Anniversary cruise is still on, although not in the way we initially planned but that's ok with us!

Have you ever had to change travel plans due to a storm or event?

Dopey Traning Week 12 Recap

Happy Friday once again! Theoretically, I should be in Walt Disney World today, exploring the world of Pandora and enjoying the Food & Wine festival. Sadly, Hurricane Irma threw off our plans and I'm stuck at home. Whomp whomp. 

How did week 12 of Dopey Challenge training go? Let's take a look!

Currently Training For:

• Dopey Challenge 2018 - Walt Disney World
• Rock n Roll New Orleans Half Marathon 2018 - New Orleans, LA

Saturday - 6 mile run
Sunday - Rest Day
Monday - Squats/Lunges/PT
Tuesday - 2 mile run
Wednesday - Rest Day
Thursday - Squats/Lunges/PT with Cross Training
Friday - Unplanned Rest Day (to hopefully help the leg chill out)

On Saturday morning, I woke up early due to a full day of plans and headed out the door for a 6 mile run. I attempted to KT tape my hamstring and although I did a wonky job, I feel like it did help a bit!

This was a 6 mile run and the weather felt fantastic! I am so excited to have a reprieve from these 100+ degree temps! The run went ok and my hamstring didn't start to feel tight until about mile 5. I think a better application of KT Tape next time (now that I know what I'm doing) will help tremendously.

After staying cooped up in the house on Monday, we decided to go for a quick 2 mile run on Tuesday night before dinner. I couldn't stand the Hurricane Irma talk anymore and needed to just get out!

After we returned home from our run, I found out that our cruise had officially been cancelled. Again, cue the whomp whomp. I am super thankful to Disney for keeping our safety a #1 priority and I do feel for those poor people on the islands. The pictures I've seen from various places since the storm passed through are heartbreaking.

Brayden on the other hand didn't have a worry in the world about his mom and dad's cancelled cruise. He was OUT!

Last night, I decided to combine a total body cross training session with my PT routine. I chose a daily workout from the Tone It Up website and added several rounds of squats and lunges on my own. I know I'm going to be sore today!

I've decided to take Friday off to give my leg a little more time to chill out. Hopefully it'll be ok for Saturday's run. A cool front is passing through this weekend and I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Last but not least, here's a little stupid humor for you on this Friday! I know it's not a funny situation, but having been through multiple hurricanes in the past, I know a little humor does the mind some good. :)


Have a great weekend! Praying for everyone in Irma's path - stay safe, y'all!!

Three Things Thursday...Again!

Today is Thursday and that means another day of rambling thoughts, because that's just how my life seems to be going here lately.

Have I mentioned before how much I hate hurricane season? Everyone here in the south is always on edge and on their toes, just in case. It makes the traveling process tricky, because you seriously never know. Some years might bring along zero hurricanes and others might bring along several back to back hurricanes.

 Hurricane Irma

Thanks to Hurricane Irma, my cruise has officially been cancelled by Disney Cruise Line. Yes, we were scheduled to be on one of the three sailings that were cancelled. When we received the news on Tuesday night, we immediately began looking online for another cruise date and spent several hours doing so, trying to work with work schedules and off time. I'm not mad that the cruise has been cancelled AT ALL as I appreciate Disney looking out for everyone's safety. Our cruise was supposed to be an Eastern itinerary and have you seen the devastation on some of those islands after Irma passed through? It's insane. On top of everything, we have received a full refund from everyone and everything we booked (except airfare) and are receiving a 25% credit off a future cruise booking with Disney. Since I'm fully packed and honestly would like to stay that way, we are looking at an October or November cruise date instead. The devastation that Irma is causing on these islands is mind blowing. I feel so bad for everyone because I know a huge chunk of their income is travel related. Definitely keeping them and Florida in my prayers.

Southwest Airlines

So I mentioned that I was able to receive a full refund on everything except airfare, but I have a cool story with this one, too. As we sorted through possible dates and plans, I also searched for the price of airfare on our projected dates. A lot of families on our sailing received a credit from Southwest which is what I was anticipating as well. After choosing the October date, I realized that with a credit, we would still have had to pay an additional $300 to fly the October dates (due to the higher price of these specific October flights). Southwest has been great through this whole ordeal and online, I was actually able to choose my current flight and change my round trip flight from September to the October dates without any extra penalty. They honored my original booking price for September! I've always enjoyed flying with Southwest and will definitely continue to do so every time I'm able!

Madalynn

If you've been following my Madalynn saga, you know that she gave us a big scare last week when her vet discovered a lesion on her hard palate. The lesion was removed and sent off for biopsy to determine exactly what was going on. Her vet and I then discussed possible treatment options if it was cancer which ranged from another surgery to radiation, both of which were probably impossible due to the location. Well as of yesterday, I hadn't heard back from the vet and since I'd already had some bad news, I figured why not. Within a few minutes, the vet returned my call and I seriously couldn't believe my ears. Y'all. It's NOT CANCER! Somehow, she must have chewed on something which caused a foreign body to get stuck in her palate and her body had an inflammatory response which caused the ulcerated like lesion to form! OMG. I could NOT believe my ears. I had to get her to repeat herself because I was floored.

So as you can see, it's been a roller coaster of a week. I also haven't had a chance to read and commend on blogs as much as I'd like this week due to our serious scramble to change plans last minute, but I'll get back to that today and tomorrow for sure!  Oddly enough, I am grateful for the ups and downs of life as it causes us to be more grateful for the things we have and the relationships we have in our lives!

Have you ever had to change travel plans due to the weather or a storm of some sort?