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Tag Archive for travel man

When Travel Man is out of the Country

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Renee Spindle

This is the first day of a three-week trip for Travel Man. He is on a work assignment that requires travel to Brazil, and will return long after the Fourth of July. The preparation that went on before this trip was so stressful. He was not originally slated to be dispatched for this job. What this meant was that we had to scramble to get a visa for him to travel yesterday. In the normal course of things this would not normally be an issue, but Travel Man had to get this visa on a “rush” order. He had to take all of his paperwork to the passport/visa service office last Tuesday in order to get the visa by Wednesday of this week at the very latest. He was flying out on Thursday.

On Monday afternoon he calls the visa service office, and is told his passport and visa are scheduled in that afternoon, and he will have to drive to their office to pick it up on Tuesday. We call again on Tuesday morning and are told that the Brazilian consulate has gone on strike this morning. They proceeded to find out if Tom’s passport and visa had cleared through the system before they went on strike. After 3 most stressful hours and numerous phone calls by Travel Man we find out that his passport and visa had been released, and he will have it on Wednesday morning. Remember he is leaving on Thursday morning. The major panic subsides for both of us, and Tom tracks the package via FedEx.

Thankfully his passport and visa arrived early Wednesday morning, so we could breathe a sigh of relief. If it had not cleared on Tuesday before the consulate went on strike there’s no telling when he would have gotten his passport back. This was the most stressful pre-trip preparation that Travel Man has had in a long, long time.

For myself, I have not been this stressed out since Travel Man went to Russia last year. My stress level stays right up there until I hear from him that he has made is to his destination, and has cleared customs without incident. My Travel Man has been all over the world, and had some crazy experiences going from country to country. Maybe one day he’ll find time to blog about it or write a book. For the time being this Domestic Goddess is thankful that her hubby is safe and sound and on the ground.

No comments Posted in Family, Travel Man, Travels

Just a word about Naps…..

Posted on June 16, 2012 by Renee Spindle

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know that I have become a Domestic Goddess in the last year. This is my new job title along with Chief Finance Manager, and Household Project Manager. Now for a little back story. When I was working in the corporate world and had a lot of stress in my life I would tell you, “I can’t nap. I’ve never taken power naps, can’t take power naps just don’t do naps”.

I’m now one year out of the stressfulness, fast paced, rat race. And here’s my revelation. I love naps. I can easily take a little snooze after lunch, after a busy morning. This is my favorite time to nap. I’m usually home by myself this time of day. It’s so quiet, and easy to find a spot in the house to nap. Travel Man teases me to no end on this subject. He says my napping is now an art form. He finds it quite amusing that I can now nap at the drop of the word nap. He’s been a power napper his whole travelling and working career, so I think there’s some sense of victory for him getting me to realize naps are good. Kind of like a welcome to the napping club thing!

That’s all for now on my napping update, Happy Saturday everyone.

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Travel Man

Fun Times here at Camp Grandma

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Two weeks of Camp Grandma have passed now. Evan has had some busy days here, and gotten lots of little projects done. I am fortunate to be able to have Evan here two days a week over his summer vacation. He comes to “Camp Grandma” on Thursday’s and Friday’s.

Each week I have something fun planned for us to do. Funny thing is when we have an extra person joining us for the day, Evan and I say we have a “special guest” with us for the day.

Our first week of Camp Grandma, we had special guest, Uncle Bryan with us for the day. On Thursday it was a gorgeous Southern California day, and we went to the beach. My favorite beach to take Evan to is Corona del Mar. Actually, I always took the kids to this beach when they were younger, because it’s a little inlet kind of beach, and the waves don’t get too outrageous. We packed a nice picnic lunch, threw the boogie boards in the car and off we went. Evan has so much fun in the sand and surf. He’s quite brave in the water, and made this Grandma just a bit nervous a few times.

Evan loves to be covered in sand and rolls around in it, especially when he is wet.

He spent tons of time in the water, and when we got into the car to drive home he was asleep in just a few minutes.

He got some boogie boarding lessons from his Uncle Bryan, and we decided he needs a little bit smaller boogie board to get his arms around. I wasn’t able to get any good pictures of the boogie boarding. I was too excited for Evan to be skimming across the water. He was a trooper and kept going back out into the water and eventually “caught a few waves” (translation – swam in on the whitewash of the waves!). Thanks to Uncle Bryan for being our first “special guest”, on our first day of Camp Grandma.

On Friday, of week one it was definitely a day of rest. We were so pooped out from beach the day before, that the only thing we did that day was read a book, went for a swim, and played some Go Fish (Evan’s favorite card game). Evan read “Go Dog Go” to me and our dog, Clyde. Clyde really liked the story, he went to sleep.

As a side note, the “Camp Grandma” phrase was coined by Travel Man. He’s excited for Evan and I to get to spend some time together again this summer. I think we’ll make some special t-shirts or hats that say “Camp Grandma”. I’m looking forward to lots of fun craft and science projects, and some reading mixed in there too. Plus we’ll mix in a few road trips to the beach, or the museum, or the aquarium. Stay tuned for more adventures with Evan and I in the weeks to come. Hope everyone’s summer is off to a great start.

No comments Posted in Around the House, Crafts, Evanisms, Family, Travel Man

Mark That One off of My Bucket List.

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Renee Spindle

The weekend is over, the daughters have gone back to work, and life is somewhat back to “normal”. What a weekend we had! As you may have previously read my kids gave me tickets to see Celine Dion in concert for Christmas last year. Well, Saturday night was finally the night we got to see Celine. And, oh my it was so worth the wait. Celine Dion is one of those singers that can just make anything she sings sound so smooth and wonderful to your ears. And I have to say it’s extremely difficult to put into words how her voice fills a room. The theatre at the Colosseum in Caesar’s Palace holds about 4100 people and the show on Saturday night was a complete sell out.

For me it was a truly magical experience. When you are having an experience like this and realizing that one of your dreams is coming true, it is just mesmerizing. Maybe that’s how I felt during the show, just mesmerized! he show lasted for about 90 minutes, and it was one good song after another. Celine sang everything from “Open Arms” by Journey to “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele, and of course a lot of her hits in between all of that. Her finale song was “My Heart Will Go On” from the Titanic soundtrack. Oh and her wonderful singing is accompanied by a 31 piece orchestra. Just phenomenal musicianship.

We did have a slight “faux pas” before we got to see the show. Hilary won’t want me to talk about this but I have to because it was part of our night. Hilary picked up the tickets at the will call window, tucked them in her little evening purse, and off we went to the gift shop. About half way through our browsing a gentlemen comes up to us and asks if we are going to the show. Of course we say yes, and he tells us that one of the employees found some tickets on the ground. Hilary checks here purse and the tickets are not there! We all have heart attacks, and Hilary finds the employee who found the tickets. He tells here they were taken to lost and found, and we try to calmly wait for the woman who took them there to come back. She gets back in the gift shop, and Hilary talks to her and goes over to will call to get the tickets back. Oh my – we were having conniption fits waiting. After the disappointment of not seeing the show in February, we did not need lost tickets. But Hilary calm, cool, and collective strolled back over to the will call window and got the tickets back with her big sister by her side. Naomi snatched the tickets from Hilary and put them in her purse. Our night went on without any other hitches. Just lots of girl talk, giggling, and fun times together.

Thanks to all my kids for such a wonderful gift. And a special thanks to Travel Man for putting up with our chattering in the car on the way to Vegas, and on the trip home. Hugs all around!

No comments Posted in Family, Travel Man, Travels

It’s Finally Celine Weekend

Posted on June 9, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Well ladies and gentlemen it’s the moment my daughters and I have been excitedly, yet anxiously awaiting. As you are reading this post we are on the road driving to Las Vegas. And I’m also happy to report that Travel Man is our chauffeur this weekend. I’m so glad he was able to make it home to join us.

Now, mind you it is not my normal modus operandi to pre-blog about an event, but this trip is worth giving you a little sneak peek. For Christmas last year my kids gave me tickets to see Celine in Vegas, in February, with my daughters. This is a dream come true for me. One of those items on my bucket list, as I have always followed Celine’s music, and love her singing.

In February the girls and I make a weekend of it. We leave for Vegas on a Friday after the girls are off of work to stay for two nights, as the show was on Saturday night. The girls do some zip-lining down Fremont Street (and no I did not join them, thank you very much), and we had a great time hanging out together Saturday morning.

Our sad Celine faces. Notice the billboard in the background.

As we are eating lunch on this particular Saturday, in February, I decide to check on the internet to see how long the show would be so we could make plans for after the show. And ugh! I found out that Celine has had to cancel her shows due to a virus. Boo-hoo! We were soooo disappointed, but daughter, Hilary, got right on the phone and got the tickets re-scheduled to the June 9th show. We ended up having a nice dinner Saturday night and made our way home on Sunday morning as originally planned.

So, today is June 9th. Celine’s return to the Colosseum at Caesar’s palace in Las Vegas. We are hoping for a fabulous, fantastic show that will knock our socks off! And if each of you could send us a little good juju (and if you’re a baseball fan you know what I’m talking about) we know that the show will go off without a hitch. We’re keeping our fingers and toes crossed, and will report on our triumph after the weekend, with pictures of course.