This is not a political piece. Yes, it will discuss Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but it’s about blended families. Stay with me. While watching the lead-up to and the election results come in, I realized what I was really looking forward to. You know what I’m excited about the world seeing? What a blended family — husband, wife, ex/exes, children — who loves each other & who respect each others’ role in the family looks like. Not every divorce leads to messy, angry relationships. Some just become big, crazy families.— Jana Lawrence (@ohjanabelle) November 8, 2020 I’d like to talk about blended families, specifically Functional Blended Families. I’ll start with…
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Get up! Get dressed! We’re going to Disney! Christmas at Disney 2019
Every Disney story has a moral. They’re fairy tales and cautionary tales and hopeful tales. The moral of this post is simply this: It’s hard as hell to keep a secret for ten months. BUT TOTALLY WORTH IT! Last February, Brian and I tossed around the idea of spending Christmas 2019 at Disney with the three kids. As we talked about it and looked at packages, we realized how much fun it would be to surprise them with the trip. We booked the trip and then Brian surprised ME with a weekend at Disney, so then we really got excited about making the Christmas trip a truly magical surprise. I…
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O Canada! Victoria BC: Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene, D’you Know Juneau?, KetchiCAN (we move here stat?) Our last day on the boat. This would be a long day at sea, navigating the waters between Ketchikan and Victoria, BC, for a short night port-of-call. Like Juneau, the kids were really excited that my friend Karen lived in Victoria. They’d both read a few of her books and were looking forward to another “locals tour” of a city. Plus, her kids were going to meet us for the evening, too. We spent the day on the boat the same as other…
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KetchiCAN (we move here stat?): Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene, D’you Know Juneau? Ok. I lied. Sorry. I lied when Skagway and Juneau made us want to move to Alaska. Ketchikan really REALLY made us want to move. This is one of the cutest places I’ve ever been in my life. I mean, the cutest part used to be a street of brothels, but you know. We arrived at Ketchikan early, and as usual, we were up, watching from the balcony. The view of the marina and the outskirts of Ketchikan were absolutely adorable. The bright colors of the buildings contrasted…
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D’you Know Juneau? Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord, The Skagway Scene Oh, Juneau. Magical, magical Juneau. This is the day our desire to be Alaskans one day, was cemented. If we could have grabbed our bags and sent for our things without drama, we absolutely would have. It started when we woke up to this view. We pulled into port around 6am. We were up (can’t say before the sun) well before then and watched us pull in from our balcony. The day was foggy and damp, as we’ve learned is pretty typical for Juneau. There’s really no silence quite like the…
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The Skagway Scene: Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation, Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord On Friday, we finally got to put our feet on solid, non-moving ground. I love cruises so much, but I’ve never been on one where there were two and a half days without getting off the boat. I didn’t realize until we hit the ground in Skagway that my body needed to be off the boat. Good thing, because Skagway was our excursion day! We were already awake as we floated into port, so we watched from our balcony. Again, with breakfast and coffee. Our excursion wasn’t to leave until later in…
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Floating Through the Day at Sea and Tracy Arm Fjord: Alaskan Cruise 2019
Read about the rest of our Alaskan Adventure: Seattle and Embarkation. Post contains referral and/or affiliate links. Day At Sea The first full day on the Carnival Legend was our Day at Sea. Henry and Brianna were most concerned about what they would do on this day. “A whole day on the boat, what will we doooooo?” We started the morning ridiculously early. The water was really choppy due to a storm system in the area. Before bed, we each took a Dramamine and I had us all put a patch on for good measure. It was really good that we had all that, because we woke up in the…
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Taking on Seattle and the Carnival Legend: Alaskan Cruise 2019
When we told the big kids (now 16/15) we were going to take a cruise to Alaska, they weren’t real happy with us. “But what about the beach!” “That sounds so boring!” “Cruises are for old people!” “What will we dooooooo?” And then we told them there were bears. And eagles. And maybe bears. That changed their mind and they were all in. We booked a 7 night cruise on the Carnival Legend, leaving mid-June so we would be in Alaska for Summer Solstice. I mean, if you’re going to a place where you get little to no darkness during the summer, go so you can be there on the…
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Two Years!
The last time I wrote about my life — REALLY chatted about what was going on with me personally — I had just gotten engaged and was getting married in a few short weeks. Well, that was two years ago. Slacker? Yes, I am. Life has been pretty fantastic. And there’s this thing that happens when you’re really enjoying life and snuggling on the sofa at night and wanting to spend every waking moment with someone. You want to live it. Not write about it. So here I am, two years later, finally writing about it. Not that I’m not still snuggling on the sofa at night and spending every…
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The Summer of Life Skills
Life with teenagers is a blast. It’s basically the gift that keeps on giving. This summer, Brian and I decided we were going to help the big kids (16 and 14) learn some life lessons. Skills, if you will, that they will need as they face college and adulthood in the next few years. I found a few lists to use as inspiration, but as usual, we ended up flying by the seat of our pants. They did learn a few things, though. Groceries Are Expensive. We told the kids they were in charge of cooking dinner for us one night a week. They were to plan a menu, research…