I took a month off from my usual “Everyday Moments” post, but it’s back this month! These can be cumbersome to keep up so sometimes, you just need a break. That said, I love recapping my months like this, finding the good in every day. Even the crappy ones.

1 – A very productive day at work, Jeremy winning The Biggest Loser

2 – A pedicure with my mom

3 – Buying a new piece of luggage for my cruise (Jessica Simpson; $80, marked down from $400!), baking snickerdoodle cookies

4 – My nephew greeting me with a big hug and then running from the playground to give me another hug when I was leaving. (He is very stingy with his hugs so it made my day!)

5 – My brother’s wedding day!

Photo Credit: Do Re Mi Photography

6 – Sleeping in, buying new make-up products from Bare Minerals, and picking up my nephew! (We watched him for a few days while his parents were on their mini-honeymoon. So fun!)

7 – A running hug and big smile from my nephew after a stressful day at work.

8 – Making a long “to do before vacation” list for work and knocking out more than a few tasks.

9 – Cutting my hair back into a bob!

10 – An early Mother’s Day dinner with my mom, brother, and nephew.

11 – Last day of work before vacation!

12 – Making it to Ft. Lauderdale okay, a low-key night before our cruise began

13 – Embarking on our cruise!

14 – A fun-filled day in Key West, biking around the island and walking around all the touristy shops.

15 – Sleeping in until noon, spending the majority of the day relaxing and reading and eating.

16 – Being back in Grand Cayman. Kissing and holding sting rays. Kissing, dancing with, and hugging a dolphin. The feeling of island life.

17 – Being in JAMAICA! The amazing views presented in the rain forest. Zip-lining and the tour guides making things easy and fun.

18 – Enjoying our last day on the cruise by sleeping in, eating a lot, and taking lots of pictures to remember people by.

19 – Getting on the road early (7AM) and seeing DUTCH after a whole week. My brother and nephew coming over for a few hours that night.

20 – A lazy day at home, catching up on shows we missed while we were gone.

21 – My nephew’s school picture. It’s the cutest ever!

22 – The essays in the Stuff Christians Like book. If you’ve grown up in church, this book is SPOT ON for everything that happens. I’m already in love with Jon Acuff’s blog, now I’m in love with the book.

23 – Getting an “excellent” from my boss for my work on a tough project. (I was nervous!)

24 – The premiere for So You Think You Can Dance!

25 – Outback for dinner. Yum, yum!

26 – Long walk with a friend, catching up on life. It’s funny how we can let life get in the way of cultivating those necessary relationships.

27 – Finishing the #twookclub book, even if it made me cry and broke my heart.

28 – Sleeping in until 11, a day off from work, and a day spent doing nothing of importance. Perfection.

29 – A dreary, rainy day. I love rainy days.

30 – My first hard workout in a while. So needed & necessary.

31 – A long, soul-cleansing talk with God about Big Life Issues.

One of my favorite sounds from the cruise was waking up to hear the ship setting down anchor. I can distinctly remember each and every sound the ship made as it did so and the way the ship felt. There was something incredibly exciting about knowing we had arrived at a new destination and peeking through the curtains to see where we were.

And Jamaica was simply breathtaking.

I’m not sure why I felt such a pressing need to visit this country, but I did and it was the one destination I wanted to go on this cruise. We booked an incredible excursion and while we wouldn’t have long on the island (we had to be back on the ship by 2:00 p.m.), we planned to make the most of our short time there.

We left the boat a little before 7:30 a.m. and then I proceeded to snap picture after picture after picture of this beautiful country. I couldn’t believe I was in Jamaica and all the fun that awaited us this day! I was completely in the moment, soaking in the beauty and the people.

We were herded onto our bus quickly, with a large group of people doing this adventure with us. The bus driver was fantastic, telling us about the flavor of Ochos Rios. We learned it’s not "Yes", it’s "Yeah, mon" and now I want to make that a part of my everyday language. There’s just something relaxing about that phrase, am I right? Yeah, mon.

The drive to Mystic Mountain was quick and before I knew it, we were standing in a rain forest.

We were given a brief introduction of Mystic Mountain, then took an air tram up the rain forest to where the shopping, bob-sledding, zip-lining, and pool were located. We rode the air tram three times: up to Mystic Mountain, a round-trip ride after zip-lining, and then back down to the entrance of the park. Each and every time was absolutely sensational and I couldn’t stop myself from snapping picture after picture after picture. To be able to travel through the rain forest, be so high that I could spot our cruise ship in the distance, and listen to the sounds you only find in nature is an experience I will never forget. The air tram took 20 minutes one-way, so over an hour of our time in Mystic Mountain was spent on the air tram. And it still didn’t feel like enough.

Once we were in the park, we headed straight for the bob sleds. Our excursion was a bob sled/zip line package. My mom was most excited about the bob sled, I was most excited about the zip line. We got into our little cars, we’re given instructions on how to use the brakes, and off we went! The bob sled let you handle how fast or slow you wanted to go and I had the gears, so it was all up to me! I started out slow but then realized the bob sled was not going to fly off the track if I went full speed ahead so I went for it!

And then it was over.

It was the quickest ride I’ve ever been on and frankly, left me feeling a bit annoyed. I had so much fun on the track, making the sled go as fast as I could make it that to have it be over so soon was heart-breaking. (And while I could ride it again, it would cost $22 per person. No thanks.) I had a blast in the short time I was able to ride it, zipping through the rain forest, but I was really looking forward to the second part of the excursion: zip-lining!

Have you ever been in a rain forest?

First and foremost, Happy Memorial Day to my American friends! This is a special day for us, honoring those who have protected our freedom to the highest sacrifice. You are never forgotten and deeply appreciated.

Today, it’s all about Grand Cayman! While I wouldn’t call Grand Cayman my favorite island in the Caribbean, it still offers some of the best excursions of my cruises.

We stopped in Grand Cayman on Wednesday, the fourth day of our cruise. The day before was dreary and rainy and gloomy but Wednesday morning dawned bright and sunny. It was the perfect weather for a day on the water!

Our excursion didn’t start until 10:00 but we had to check in by 9:15 so we woke up early, showered, and headed down for breakfast. (Still missing the breakfast buffets…) In Grand Cayman, they have to put down anchor in the middle of the ocean and we ride by tender to the island. 
 
Being back in Grand Cayman felt a little like coming back home. I remembered the place so well, this little touristy area of the Cayman Islands, full of shops and tour guides shouting about great places to visit to anyone who would listen. My mom and I wandered around the shops for a while before checking in with our excursion guide. We still had a long time to wait until we needed to check in but I was being super neurotic about time that day, so we basically just stood around for a good half-hour. (My mom wanted to look around at the shops, but I was being a pain that day.)

In any event, we were off on our excursion soon enough. Our group was pretty huge, split into three different vans. We drove to Dolphin Cove, which was about a twenty-minute ride. There’s really not all that much to see in this part of Grand Cayman (aside from the stretch of the 7-Mile Beach but as a Florida gal, I have seen my fair share of beaches). We arrived at Dolphin Cove soon enough and walked through a bird sanctuary to get to the boat that would take us to Stingray City.

 
As many of you know, my mom and I visited Stingray City last year and absolutely loved it so we were excited to be back again. We loved it just as much the second time:

We spent about 30 minutes in the water with the sting rays where we kissed and held the rays, as well as getting to experience feeding a stingray – which is weird! Basically, you held calamari in your fist and held your fist below the water. The stingrays would come right up to you and SCHLOP! it out of your fist. It was pretty freaky! But also so fun and cute.

There were so many stingrays where we were swimming at. I can’t even tell you how many times I would just be standing around and feel a stingray bump against my leg as it was swimming past. (Yes, it’s as freaky as it sounds. But also so cool!) And I got my requisite kissing stingray photo for the year.

Sloppy and wet! Just how I like them.

Or not. I wouldn’t know.

Let’s move on.

After our time with the stingrays, we all loaded back onto the boat to go back to Dolphin Cove. The boat ride to and from Stingray City was 30 minutes each way, which took an hour out of our day. (And I’m pretty sure the boat ride from Stingray City is where I developed a bit of a shoulder sun burn. Not a fan!) We were back before we knew it and our big group split up into three different groups: the people who had just paid for Stingray City, the people who were doing the dolphin encounter, and the people who were doing the dolphin swim.

We got into the dolphin encounter group where we had a short lesson on the dolphins and what we would be doing. And then it was time to get in the water!

Our group split into two different groups of 15 and half of that group would be in the water at one time. My mom and I were in the first group to get in the water. We stood on a ledge in the pool and had about 20 minutes with the dolphin. Our dolphin was a male named Nemo and he was the Most Fun! He swam around us so we could pet him, splashed us, and then calmed down enough to do some dancing and kissing with us!

We each had a turn dancing with him. We put our hands out and Nemo would come up so we could take his fins and do a little jig! It was so fun! I didn’t get a picture of this because the pictures were $15 a pop and I had to be choosy. (We couldn’t take our own cameras, which had one of the participants complaining loudly about. Whatever. There are better things to complain about, in my book.)

Once we all had a turn dancing with Nemo, it was time for kissing! We would stand close to the edge of the ledge with our hands behind our backs, leaning forward so he could kiss us on the cheek. Once he came up and kissed us, we got to kiss him back! I gave him a big ole smackeroo and when we finished, Nemo did a little dance in the water! I was the only one he danced for after kissing, so basically, he wants to be my boyfriend. (And as a side note: the trainer asked if I wanted to kiss him or Nemo. An odd comment but, um, he was cute so… both?)

Nemo played a little hard to get with my mom when she tried to get a kiss from him but after much hemming and hawing, he did.

After the kiss, we took pictures with Nemo, where we got to hold him but those pictures turned out horrible so we only ended up buying one picture. The prices were pretty expensive ($15 a picture – and they weren’t the best quality – but no sale prices for buying a bundle of pictures. You could buy a set of ALL the pictures for $80 but that included everyone’s photos which… why would I want to pay that much for pictures of people I don’t even know?!)

We wound up on the bus back to Grand Cayman around 1:00. We were starving by that time but couldn’t find too many places within walking distance to eat at, plus the line going back on the ship was already starting to get pretty heavy so we decided to get in line and eat lunch back on the ship. (Plus, hi, it’s free!)

It was a fun day in Grand Cayman and I’m so happy we did this excursion! Unfortunately, it was a longer one so we didn’t have any time to shop afterwards but that’s okay. Experiences > stuff, in my opinion. I thought the dolphin encounter would feel weird and super touristy, but it was actually one of my favorite moments from my cruise. The trainers were awesome and while I most definitely want to do a dolphin swim someday, I didn’t regret only choosing the encounter. We didn’t get a WHOLE lot of time with Nemo, but even just those 20 minutes were pretty awesome. I wish the picture prices were more affordable, but what can you do? It’s a tourist trap!

If you’re ever in Grand Cayman, please, please, please visit Stingray City. I know it sounds freaky – swimming with stingrays – but these stingrays are domesticated and in the two times I’ve gone there, there have been no stingray attacks. (I even stepped on one by accident this time and didn’t get attacked!) It’s such an amazing experience and just to say I’ve gone there twice is incredible to me.

In any event, it was a fun day on the island and then a relaxing afternoon on the boat. We had another lovely, yummy dinner but it was early to bed for us because JAMAICA awaited us in the morning! Bob-sledding, zip-lining, shopping, oh my!

What’s the craziest thing you’ve done while on vacation? Would you ever visit Stingray City, if you have the chance?

 Sigh. I miss Jamaica.

1 – As a welcome back from vacation gift, my body has decided to rebel against me and get sick. It started with a sore throat on Monday afternoon and has morphed into congestion, sneezing, and just feeling very groggy. I can barely keep my eyes open at work, and sleep comes fitfully for me at night. I’ve been taking it easy after work but it’s been a very yucky week for me. I’m hoping I start feeling better by tomorrow because…

2 – I’m starting a new boot camp! To be honest, I haven’t really been feeling the new boot camp trainers at the boot camp I’ve been attending for a few months now that Michael Pittman is gone. I really, really liked the way he conducted the class and it challenged me in a good way and made me excited. Now that he and my absolutely favorite trainer are both gone, it’s not the same. So when I saw a Groupon for 4 weeks of unlimited boot camp classes for just $35, I snatched it up! I’ve actually seen this boot camp class at a park I sometimes run at and I thought it would be a good change for me. I’ll be going three days a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays) and I’m looking forward to challenging my body in a new way. And believe me, my body needs it after the past few weeks I’ve had!

3 – My dad friend requested me on Facebook two weeks ago. His request is still sitting in my inbox. On the one hand, giving him any sort of access to my life scares the crap out of me. And on the other? It’s my father. And I miss him like crazy. I don’t know what to do, but I can’t help but click on his profile once a day to see his face. And knowing he’s okay, for now, is a huge relief to me. (But I’m also not going to start back a relationship, unless change has happened in his heart and life.) For those who are confused, a back story on what happened with my relationship with my father is here.

4 – Who watched the premiere of So You Think You Can Dance last night? Last season was a disappointing one, in my opinion. (It was obvious who the judges favorite was and, well, she wasn’t mine…) So I’m hoping this season gets back to their roots! And also? Stella? Can she please go to Vegas? I know she’s, like, two, but I would vote for her! She had some serious moves and stage presence! (I’m keeping this episode in my DVR for whenever I need a pick-me-up. Stella has captured my heart.)

5 – I am completely, 100% looking forward to this three-day weekend. I’m hoping to use it to relax and catch up on sleep, as well as doing some home organization and meal planning (since I’m back at Weight Watchers as of yesterday…). I don’t have any fun plans but considering I just got back from a CRUISE… I guess that’s okay.

 
My mom and I weren’t sure what we wanted to do in Key West. We’d never been to the island at the bottom of Florida and weren’t sure what to expect. We also didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a pricey excursion since we chose pricier ones for Grand Cayman and Jamaica. After looking through the cheaper options, we settled on a bike tour. I thought it would be a better way to see the island and I loved the idea of a bike tour.

We arrived in Key West early on Monday morning and our bike tour was scheduled at 9:00 a.m. After a quick breakfast at the buffet in Lido deck (side note: I really, really miss the daily breakfast buffet…), we headed off the boat to meet up with our tour guide.

 
It’s usually pretty easy when you get off the ship to check in with your excursion guides. They have big, white signs with the name of the excursion you picked scattered around the area you enter when you step off the ship. We checked in and from there, headed over on foot to where the bikes where held. We had a fairly small group. I think 12 people in total, including my mom and I which is the perfect group for a bike tour, I think. Not too many people, not too few.

The tour guide was fantastic. He kept up an easy pace and I was directly behind him, with my mom behind me, the rest of the group behind her. He stopped frequently to talk about different historical spots, beaches, and housing structures. He wasn’t too long-winded but kept up an interesting conversation flow. It was really the perfect excursion for my mom and I – I was able to get my history needs fulfilled while my mom was able to get her exercise needs met.

 
The tour was two hours long and took us from one side of Key West to the other. We passed Ernest Hemingway’s house, traveled throughout little streets and down the beaches. We passed the Southernmost Point of the Continental United States, although fun fact: it’s actually not the Southernmost Point. There’s a little hotel located close by that’s actually more southern than that landmark and our tour guide thought it was more interesting that a "hunk of rock". Ha! So, sadly, I just got a quick snap of one of the most famous landmarks in Key West since he didn’t stop for us to take pictures.

 
I really recommend doing a bike tour if you’re ever in Key West. Since we had never been, it was a great way for us to get a feel for the island and learn about it’s rich history. (We also got a bit of a lecture from a writer of the newspaper in Key West, about how people are buying houses there but not caring about the history or culture of the island.)

After the tour, we had four hours left until we had to be back on the ship so we spent the majority of it walking around the little shops and streets, soaking in the sunshine and trying to find the perfect touristy keepsakes.

 
We had lunch at the famous Sloppy Joe’s Bar where we both got sloppy joe’s. (How could you not?) The feel of the restaurant was laid-back where you just walked in, found a table if you could, and a waiter would come to you for your order. I get nervous about those types of restaurants since the service usually sucks but this was not the case for Sloppy Joe’s. Service was prompt and friendly and the sloppy joe? TO DIE FOR. The perfect amount of spice in the meat and soggy bread in the sandwich to make it the best sloppy joe I’ve ever had.

I ended up buying a tank top and a key chain. (Key chains became my "thing" to buy in our stops. Don’t ask me why.) My mom bought a magnet. (Magnets became her thing.)

We had a really fun day in Key West and it was a pretty great way to spend a Monday. Much better than how I usually spend Mondays. The bike ride really got us pumped to buy our own bikes when we got home. I’m hoping to buy mine in the next few weeks. We were only cruiser bikes but it was such a fun way to get some exercise and fresh air.

 
Key West itself was a cute little town, although I would like to see more of the real island next time I go. We spent most of our time near the ship where all the tourist shops were, after the tour. And even on the tour, we just stopped by some famous landmarks, not stopping long enough to snap more than a few photographs.

But it was a great start to our cruise and we were pretty exhausted from all the biking and walking that our next day, a day at sea, we slept in until noon and spent the rest of the day being lazy and not doing much, other than eating and reading and napping. (On a Tuesday! Can you see why I love cruising? Offers the perfect balance of relaxation and being busy.)

Next up on our cruise was Grand Cayman, where we had a fun-filled day planned: visiting Stingray City and playing with dolphins!

Have you ever visited Key West? What did you think of it? Have you ever done a bike tour around a city?

Growing up, vacations were few and far between. I can only remember one long vacation when my parents were married and that was a god-awful trip to Ohio. We basically visited all of my dad’s childhood friends which, for a nine- and ten-year-old isn’t very fun. And there was a lot of fighting on that trip, which was my parents’ usual M/O. (I do remember some kick-ass games of Sorry! with my aunt, though.)

When I was in middle school, my mom, brother, and I accompanied my grandparents and twin cousins on a week-long road trip to Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia where we visited family and my brother and I skiied for the first time ever. That was probably one of my favorite vacations, mainly for the family aspect and being some place completely different.

There have been weekend trips to Orlando and a few week-long stays on the beach throughout the years but last year was the first time my mom and I took a Big Vacation. It was my first time on a cruise ship, my first long vacation, and my first time leaving the United States.

And it was the first time I realized what a gift traveling is. I had some of the most incredible experiences through that cruise – snorkeling in crystal blue waters of the Caribbean, kissing sting rays, touring ancient Mayan ruins – that I began to realize why people develop a passion for traveling. And I definitely developed a passion for cruising. While maybe I don’t get to spend a ton of time in a new country or get to feel the truly authentic way of life of the place I’m in, cruising allows me to travel to different countries in the span of a few days and get just a taste of the flavor of that country.

My second cruise was just as amazing – if not more – than my first one. It was filled with meeting new people, having incredible experiences in different countries of the Caribbean, and perhaps doing my fair share of kissing. (More on that later…) There’s something about looking out my window and seeing nothing but deep blue ocean that opens up a part of me I’ve kept locked up inside for the past year. It shows me that I do have the courage to try new things. I do have a spirit of bravery and I can try things other people are too scared to try to do. And that I need to grab hold of that spirit and take it with me into other areas of my life.

When my mom and I began looking for another cruise to do last year, I knew I wanted to travel to Jamaica. I’m not sure why the country appealed to me so much but it did. There’s something about the untamed wildness and lazy island feel that called to me. And we found a cruise ship that would travel to Ochos Rios, Jamaica. The views were breathtaking. The tour guide sang to us while taking us to our destination. The people we met were open and happy and in love with what they were doing.

Well, I guess *I* would be in love with what I did if my job was to zip line through a rain forest in Jamaica…

There’s something about being completely away from the reality of every day life that refreshes a person. It felt completely natural to be disconnected, away from the pressures of blogging and work and social media. I was so ready for this vacation. So ready to connect with myself again. I’ve been so busy lately, keeping up with work projects and Bible studies and blogging schedules and crazy health challenges that I barely have time to just be. To fall completely in the moment and not let myself get caught up in what’s happening next.

It’s so easy to get caught up in real life. It happens. There’s nothing wrong with being busy. There’s nothing wrong with getting caught up in all we have to do. But I think we always need to make sure we’re taking steps back. Re-evaluating. Making sure we’re living in the moment – even when that moment may not be as amazing as moments are during vacation. It’s very easy to be in the moment on vacation, not so easy when we’re fraught with stress from real life.

All this to say, my vacation was amazing. It was such a great getaway, something I absolutely needed. I plan on fully writing about my time in the different stops, as well as my time on the ship. But I learned a lot about what I crave from life from this trip. What I need to fully live out my passions. I learned about how overwhelming it can be to be around loud extroverts and how I can easily make conversation in a small setting but get lost in the shuffle in a larger setting. I learned I’ll never be a late-night owl – not even on vacation. (I stayed up until 1am one night and was super proud of staying up that late! I had a pair of tablemates who stayed out until 4am on a regular basis. So. Not. Me.) And I learned that I may be twenty-four, but going on vacation with my mom is still incredibly special and memories I will cherish forever.

And I’ve now done things other people think are crazy. I’ve kissed a sting ray, let one eat calimari from my hand, danced with a dolphin, snorkled in the deep ocean of the Caribbean, zip-lined through a rain forest, rode a bob-sled, flirted with a Jamaican, and survived two attacks by pirates.

OK. Maybe the last one isn’t true. But almost!

I want to take this crazy attitude into other parts of my life. I want to do crazy things, outside of vacations. It’s so easy to be crazy on vacation. But it’s even more important to be crazy and brave in our everyday life. I’ve been living life small. I’ve been scared to take chances, so terrified what will happen if I put my heart on the line. I’m slowly learning that in order to live the life I love, chances have to be taken. I have to jump off mountains, soar off cliffs, stop staring over that ledge and backing away.

It’s time to start putting those crazy plans in place. I’m ready to start jumping.

As I’m sailing the deep blue seas of the Caribbean, I’ve asked a few special gals to guest blog for me. Today is the last day of my cruise. Sad face! As I’m spending the day lazily sailing back to Florida, sipping fruity drinks and relaxing, I have another great post for you.

Today’s post comes from Ashley, who blogs at That Super Awesome Blog. She also started the website, Your Super Awesome Life, where she empowers teen girls to live a life they love. Sounds pretty, well, awesome right? Her post today strikes a chord in me, as I’m still trying to decide if I have it in me to tackle a half-marathon someday.

While Stephany is off cruising for a few days and soaking up the sun, I offered to step in and take care of her blog. Hi, I’m Ashley and can usually find me over at That Super Awesome Blog. Since Stephany has been writing a lot about her journey to a healthier lifestyle, I thought I would share a bit about my journey too. Thanks so much for having me, Stephany!

Six months ago I decided to run my first half-marathon. Before that, I was not a runner and had never actually ran more than 2 miles at a time. I knew finishing 13.1 miles would be a challenge, but it was on my Life List and it was something I knew I wanted to accomplish. I also knew that in order to run the half-marathon, I would need to begin training, change my eating habits, and basically, change my lifestyle.

So, I made a plan.

I started with a training schedule. I decided I would run four days a week, do strength training/yoga one day a week, and take two days off a week to rest. At first I was strict with my schedule because I thought that would help me stay on track. But after a few months, I realized that some weeks I needed to switch it up if work was extra hectic or I had plans one evening with a friend.

My first few runs were brutal. Even though I was just running two or three miles, my legs felt heavy the entire time, my breathing was shallow, and it just wasn’t fun. But I stuck with it. I kept running. And after a few weeks, I started looking forward to my runs. I’m not saying it became easy, because it’s not. But I couldn’t wait to get out onto the trails, put on my ear phones, and zone out for a while. I began to love the way running makes me feel and the high that I get after finishing a few miles.

I also learned to be easy on myself. Of course I had to give myself motivation talks during the longer runs and keep reminding myself that I had 13.1 miles to run on race day, so I couldn’t completely wimp out. But I took walking breaks. When my breathing was too shallow or my calves were tightening up, I walked. I listened to my body. When my foot started hurting, I took a few days off to let it heal. I was easy on myself because I knew if I pushed too far, I would get hurt and would stop the entire training process.

Another huge change was surrounding my eating habits. Before training for my half-marathon I was conscious of what I was eating, meaning I didn’t eat fast food for every meal, but I didn’t really care how my body responded to anything I ate. After a few weeks of running, I learned to pay attention to how I felt after meals and which foods gave me more energy. My pre-run snack is a waffle with almond butter and a handful of raisins. I eat lots of fruits and veggies, in salads, smoothies, or green juices. I upped my protein and carbs intake and I found that helped build muscle and gave me more stamina during the longer runs.

I don’t think it was just one factor that helped me become a runner. The combination of a plan, determination, and extra focus on my body and how I fueled it all played a part.

And on February 19th, I ran my first half-marathon in 2 hours and 39 minutes!

I loved the entire experience so much that I’m planning to run another half in the fall and I cannot wait!

What steps are you taking to live a healthier lifestyle? Have you ever run a half-marathon?

As I’m sailing the deep blue seas of the Caribbean, I’ve asked a few special gals to guest blog for me. Today, we stop in Grand Cayman where I will spend the day swimming with sting rays and dolphins. Try not to be too jealous of me!

Today’s guest blog comes from Lauren of Lauren Ever After. I’ve been reading Lauren’s blog for a long time now and I just absolutely adore her writing. I get swept away in almost every post she writes. She blogs about writing, her struggles, and school. Well, the latter for not much longer as she just became a college graduate! (Congrats, lady!) Today, she’s talking about the freedom found in closing the door on this chapter of her life and starting a new one.

I’ve been thinking about what life after college would be like for a long time. I had a love-hate relationship with school for various reasons: my parents and I arguing about my major, feeling as though my family was suffocating me with their expectations, having to put up with them constantly putting down my decisions throughout my academic career. Do you recognize a pattern? It might not be as obvious as it appears. I’m talking about external influences. They’re binding. If you let them rule your mentality, they will clasp their chains around you and lock you in a cold, haunting Charleston dungeon.

With graduating from college comes freedom. Opportunities await to grow professionally, mentally, spiritually. Freedom frees you, but it also challenges you. Freedom brings about change and new beginnings. I think probably the most freeing thing for me is knowing that no matter what happens, I know who I want to become. I have those standards set for myself. And I know what I love, I know what I want to do. As long as I’m writing, I’m happy, no matter my 40-hour job title. Writing brings its own opportunities. Writing connects me to people, helps me learn their ways. And in knowing that God gave me that gift, knowing that writing isn’t just something with which to please myself but also to please God and others, gives me far more comfort and purpose than it would otherwise, and that is a challenge in itself. A welcomed one. I like knowing that my gift is a craft, and in some ways a science.

My graduation isn’t just freeing me from the obligations of academics, but from the mindset that period of my life saw me in. I can’t change my perspective of the past, but I can change my perspective on it and learn from it. There is nothing more freeing than knowing that, as long as God will have you, there’s an opportunity to change, learn, grow. That is what graduation is all about: opportunities. We can search for them, make them, let them fall upon us. They will come. We just have to free ourselves enough to recognize them when they’re there.

How did graduating from college affect your mindset? Any advice to Lauren as she embarks on a new chapter in her life?

As I’m sailing the deep blue seas of the Caribbean, I’ve asked a few special gals to guest blog for me. Today, we land in Key West where I will spend the day biking through the island, as well as doing some shopping and eating. Sounds like the perfect way to spend a Monday, if you ask me!

My first guest blogger this week is one of my dearest friends, Melissa. I started reading Mel’s blog way back in January 2010 and I’ve been hooked ever since. She writes about music, traveling, and her struggles with finding her path. It’s been thrilling to watch her evolve as a blogger and even more thrilling to now call her one of my best friends. Enjoy her post!

Hi everyone!

My name is Melissa and I blog over at Press Play about goals, music, books, travel, and the things that
inspire me in my everyday life. I also tweet. A lot.

Stephany is one of my absolute favorite bloggers, and I couldn’t be more excited for her second ever
cruise! I love travelling- I don’t think there is anything I love to do more- so I’ve been bugging her
nonstop about all the details before she spends a few days in the middle of the ocean, discovering a new part of the world.

One of my favorite parts about travelling is all the extra time I have to catch up on reading. I’m such a
book lover that choosing which ones are going to come with me is the biggest decision on any trip I take.

I plan it out over the course of the last few weeks before I leave, depending on what I feel like reading,
what’s on my bookshelf, and what I feel like buying. It’s very serious stuff; I mean I could probably pack an entire suitcase just for books!

Luckily I have my Kindle to prevent me from flying with a dozen books at a time!

Since Steph and I share this extreme love for reading and I just know she’ll be spending quality time with her Kindle on the ship, I thought it would be perfect to share some of my vacation must-reads. I’m big on either extremely captivating or incredibly funny books while I’m on a beach.

Without further ado, if you haven’t read these yet… You’re missing out!

#1 – Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

 
I read ‘Sloppy Firsts’ while I was on a beach in Cuba and probably looked kind of crazy laughing all bymyself. Jessica Darling is such a well crafted character that any girl can relate to. She is a funny, often witty, and an extremely nutty teenager just going through her everyday life. Although she’s still in high school in this first book, she progresses right into her University years by the end of the five-book series.

#2 – 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

I actually did not read this while on vacation, but I probably should have. The story is about a girl
named Ginny who fits her life into a backpack one summer and travels to Europe by herself to follow
the thirteen letters her aunt left her before passing away. You follow Ginny as she visits half a dozen
European countries, and you’re most likely severely wander-lusting the entire time too. Not only does
the very IDEA of this book make me want to pack my bags and get on the next plane out, but the novel itself literally has me planning my next vacation accordingly.

#3 – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Although the plot of this book is much darker and more serious than what you’d normally want to read while you’re taking in some sun, I still highly recommend it as a vacation read because it’s just
THAT good. It’s actually one of my all-time favorite books. The story is about a young girl living in
Nazi occupied Germany, trying to come to terms with the world around her. When I was in Greece last
summer, two of my friends read it and had me wishing I had time to re-read it right along with them.
Not to mention they both ignored the rest of us until they got through those last 200 pages. Seriously?
You need to be reading this immediately. Don’t forget to re-apply sunscreen every 50 or so pages!

Have an amazing trip, Steph, and let me know what books you end up reading!

What are some of your favorite vacation reads?

I wrote a post with this exact same title on May 19, 2011. And here I am, one year later, writing a similar post. It feels so amazing to me that I made this dream of going on another cruise soon after my first a reality. I can’t tell you how many dreams I’ve had that I’ve just let fade away as other things come up.

I think we all have to find out niche in traveling. I was never interested in traveling until last May. Traveling through Europe or other foreign lands held no appeal for me and I put it off for a long time. Well, for one, you need money to travel and most of my life, we didn’t have much of that. But now that I’m older and both my mom and I are more in control of our finances, it’s becoming easier and easier to do so.

And cruising, quite frankly, is pretty cheap. It helps that I live within driving distance of four different cruise ports. (Yet another benefit of living in Florida. Woo!) I don’t need to purchase plane tickets, although my mom and I will be driving to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow and staying the night in a hotel before going to the cruise port.

We booked this particular cruise in August. It’s been nine long months of waiting and saving up and anticipating. I think vacation anticipation is one of the most fun things. I didn’t let myself get too excited over the cruise until a few months ago. It felt so far away before! I remember counting down with my mom and telling her we had “just 50 work days” to go. And now I’m down to my last day at work before leaving. Wow. (How am I going to survive this day?! Just glad I have a lot to take care of at work before leaving for a week!)

My suitcase is getting fuller. My excitement level is through the rough. And I am two sleeps away from being back on a Carnival cruise ship.

For this cruise, we have three stops: Key West, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman. I’ve been to Grand Cayman but have never been to Key West or Jamaica so I’m really excited to experience the island life there!

We’ll be in Key West on Monday and we’ve booked a short bike tour that will take us all around the island and to historic spots in Key West. It’s only about two hours so we’ll have plenty of time to shop and eat before getting back on the ship. I’m not sure what to expect out of this stop but I’m just excited to take it all in and be completely in the moment.

On Wednesday, after a day at sea, we stop in Grand Cayman. We stopped there on my last cruise where my mom and I booked a fun sting ray and snorkeling excursion. We’ll be doing a dolphin encounter, which may not be as cool as swimming with them but I still think this will be a neat experience. We’re not allowed to bring cameras to the encounter and photos are expensive to buy, so I’m a little bummed about that. We’re also stopping at Stingray City again where we’ll be able to pet, kiss, and hold sting rays! This excursion will take up much of our time in Grand Cayman, which I’m okay with since we’re dropped in a very touristy part of the island and I’m not all that fond of it.

On Thursday, we have our last stop in Jamaica. I am seriously excited about Jamaica. Not only am I excited about being there, but we’ve booked an awesome excursion: zip-lining and bobsledding. I mean, you can’t go to Jamaica and not bobsled, right? The excursion we bought takes us up to Mystic Mountain where we’ll ride a chairlift to get to the bobsleds, ride the bobsled “as it plunges through 3,280 feet of twists and turns down the mountain” (as the description lists on the Carnival site), go back up the mountain via tram, and go zip-lining through “the canopy on a series of cables and pulleys that are interconnected on both tree and land-based platforms.” Um, hi, MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE! After all that fun, we have time to swim in an infinity edge pool. We also have the opportunity to go on another bobsled ride for a fee. We’ll have to see how much we like it! I am really, really excited about this excursion, even though it’s way out of my comfort zone. I’m not sure I’m going to want to leave Jamaica!

Friday is another day at sea as we sail back to Florida and we’re back in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday morning. (Saaaaad face!)

There is so much I’ve been anticipating about this cruise. The excursions. Visiting different countries. Afternoons spent lazily laying on lounge chairs with the Caribbean as my backdrop. Fancy dinners and meeting new people. Waking up and seeing the deepest blue waters out my window. Breakfast buffets. Nightly entertainment. Walking along the decks. Putt-putt golf on the top deck. Watching the sun go down over the ocean.

To say I’m excited is an understatement. I have been looking forward to this cruise for nine months and I can’t believe I’m two sleeps away from reliving the most fun week of my life again. Only this time? This time it will be even better.

My mom and I will be driving to Fort Lauderdale (around a 4 hour drive) Saturday afternoon. If you’re so inclined, prayers and good wishes for safe travels would be greatly appreciated. We’re a little nervous about the drive.

What has been your favorite vacation you’ve taken so far?