I am still alive and as of today – I feel great!

Thank you all who emailed checking on me and worried that something happened to us!!!

Here is what happened, we went on a trip of a lifetime!  It was the annual Stampin' Up! trip that all demonstrators can earn – it was a Mediterranean cruise!  Matt and I took Emily with us since we have no idea if we would ever go back.  We went in early and spent some time in Barcelona.

Here are our favorites from Barcelona:
Matt – the water fountain light/symphony show they do every Friday night

Meg – the boutique hotel with the ancient two person elevator

Emily – our hotel was across the street from Haagen Dazs

Then we went to Italy where we went to Pompeii and then ate delicious pizza in Naples.

The next day was Rome!  We mastered the subway station there, saw the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi fountain, the piazza navona and much more.  We ate about a gallon of gelato while we were there 🙂

Then it was to Lucca and Pisa.  Most of the excursions took you to Florence, we opted instead to go to this little town called Lucca.  It was our favorite place on the trip.  We went there because a handful of years ago my sister had the opportunity to go and work there for a summer.  We found her apartment, ate pizza, had an amazing tour and thoroughly enjoyed the city.  Look it up on the Google, it is amazing!  Pisa has a crooked building and… gelato!

The next two days were a blur in France, we got off the boat and walked and walked and walked and walked and found a little open market with the most amazing strawberries and raspberries – that was our lunch for the day.  Can you guess what desert was?  (If you guessed gelato, you are correct!)

Then on the second flight home, I told Matt my throat was starting to bother me.  We figured it was because I was tired, we had been traveling for 20 hours at that point.

Got home at 9, at 1am I woke up hacking, sounding like a 94 year old smoker, severe sore throat and a high fever.

Once that part of my illness journey finished, I was so dizzy I couldn't stay standing for more than a minute.  I couldn't focus, couldn't watch TV (that made me dizzy), couldn't read and for sure I couldn't stamp!  Two weeks and many doctor appointments, the dizziness was still just as bad as it was in the beginning.  All the tests came back fine, the docs said it would just be a matter of time.

Time?  Who has that kind of time?  We have a new catalog, and I had a box of new stamps waiting to be used.  Ain't no body got time to be sick in bed for three weeks!  The doctor encouraged me to get up half way through the third week and stay up for about 20 minutes, then back to bed for a few hours.  And that continued for about 5 days.

Today – I feel 100%!  Thank goodness!  I am finally able to drive and to eat – the only silver lining is that being that sick helped me drop all the gelato/pizza weight I had gained on the trip!

Yesterday I felt great as well – but my first day feeling great I was NOT going to sit in front of my computer.  So yesterday I stamped.  I created.  I made a mess.  It felt amazing!

I have a full dry erase board of ideas to share with you and I can't wait to do that!

Thank you for being so understanding in my absence – being sick is miserable!