Day 2- fun day at sea

Monday was our Fun day at Sea. We started out with a walk around the deck and then went around to various activities. Here we are in the early morning, enjoying the fresh sea air and sunshine.

Our First order of the day: Trivia contest. We met in the Lindy Hop Lounge.

The outcome....

...are you really that surprised?? 1st place. 14 karat plastic ship on a stick trophy. My boys think it is the coolest. i got all the answers correct. I would have shared it with charles(as he was the closest competitor score wise) if he had known what the currency of India was. but he didn't. So the Trophy was mine.

Later on we went to Winstons Cigar Lounge for Ultimate trivia and were put on a team with 2 men and another woman.

Yep. 1st place again. We got the medals to prove it, too. Again the boys think they are pretty cool and are now playing Olympics with them. Apparently Transformers and Star Wars fighting on the Trampoline is a new Olympic event.

Later that afternoon was the anniversary party for Jon and Dee. We had it in the Lindy Hop Lounge. (this was a popular place for us)We had the Chips with salsa, guacamole and cheese dip. It was delicious. Then we had THIS cake, which was FABULOUS!! People were having a hard time keeping their fingers out of it.

Over the past month we have been finding all the baby pictures, growing up pictures etc. We have been scanning them and sending them to Charles older brother Robert, who compiled them all into a video. It was basically a 50 year retrospective of their life, their kids, grandkids etc. It was set to different music for each family and it was really well done. Robert spent a lot of time on it and Dee needed a box of kleenex. Jon excused himself to "go to the bathroom". It was very touching. There were gifts etc from everyone and all in all we had a great time.

That was the first Formal night as well. Lobster and Prime rib. YUM! This is charles and I in the lounge all gussied up.

And here is one of the beautiful sunsets from the dining room.

Later that night we were going to Karaoke, but it was too full of THOSE people (karaoke hogs) so we went back to the Lindy Hop bar with a piano sing along and "Larry". He could play just about any song requested, lots of Billy Joel and Elton John, easy listening etc. we sat around the round piano table and sang and had a good time. At first there was no one in there. Then we got in and started singing and having a good time and next thing we know it is packed. We made a loud announcement that the piano table was now free and it was close to the tip jar. so we got up and new people went to sit down and put money in his jar and fill it up. Larry was really talented.

So day 2 was fun. We went to bed a little later than I would have liked, but we got enough sleep for the next day which was Grand Cayman.

The cruise- Saturday and Sunday

We left Saturday, September 12th for our cruise. Here is us at the Charlotte airport, awaiting the departure of our flight. This was also our 12th anniversary. We flew into Ft Lauderdale,a day ahead of time, as it was much cheaper. Outside there was this brown lizard who was hanging out, and obviously had no fear of humans. I could get right up to him and he wouldnt move. The rest of Charles family were staying in Lauderdale as well and we all had fun at the Wyndham resort. They had 2 really nice pools, a hot tub, and mini golf. We had fun at all three.

Sunday morning rolls around and we pile in and head to the Port of Miami to our Ship, the Carnival Valor. We get on board and get settled. Here is Charles showing off his velveeta smile for the camera:

We walked around the ship and took pictures of Miami, the ship, each other etc. We didnt depart Miami until 4pm.

This is me and my Brother in Law Daniel. We met up with everyone at the diner and got something to eat. Everyone was just so excited to be on the ship and that everything had finally begun.

That night we went out to Karaoke. It was fun, but there were a few Karaoke jerkwads that made it not fun at times.(thats another post. I will tell you all about Martha and Todd) Here are Daniel singing Tainted Love and Jon David singing Every Rose has Its Thorn.

And here I am singing Walk Like and Egyptian. Sorry, it isnt that great. but it was fun. I am really uncomfortable at Karaoke, so I fidget and play with the microphone cord a lot. Dont you know the camera adds like 30 pounds, right??

So that was Day 0 and Day 1.
more to come.

Well...I'm back

SO here I am, back to reality. I have no waiter to serve me shrimp cocktails. i have no room steward to keep my bed made and make me cute little towel animals.
I have no announcements every 20 minutes from Gary, my cruise director informing me of what will be happening on the ship later on.
I have no one saying "hi how are you" every time I walk out of my room.
I have no 24 hour pizza buffet. No adult pool. No waterslide, ice cream machine, juggler, comedian, theater or bingo machine.
I can not look out my window and see the pristine blue waters of the caribbean, or listen to a steel drum band play hot hot hot 37 times a day. There is no "Larry" at the Lindy Hop bar.
There are no Karaoke douchbags to irritate me, no teenagers dressing like complete sluts and no Mormon girls who apparently think that when you are on a cruise your morals are on vacation.
sigh.

I have my house. I have my dog(who apparently at the kennel was eating food that did not agree with his stomach as he has been passing gas ALL DAY AND NIGHT), and I have two kids who are right back to being their "sweet" and "charming" selves.
I came home with 43 pounds of laundry (not lying, thats how much my bag weighed at the airport) and an urge to not go back to school. I am so tired I just want to curl up and sleep.

But it is back to Life and back to reality and back to my real world of daily grind, chores etc.

worlds worst mother...ME

What a lazy slug am I??

My kids started school waaaaaaaaaayyyyy back in August. I have had these First Day of School photos sitting in my camera for almost 3 weeks now. what a terrible mom I am, not documenting this until now.( I am not going to lie...The only reason they got downloaded into the computer is because i was clearing my memory card for our trip tomorrow.)

Why did this take me so long? What is wrong with me?

I feel like the worlds worst mother. So here we are, without further ado:

Here is Peter, starting 3rd grade. 9 years old and knows everything already. Oh and apparently I embarass him when i hug and kiss on him in public now.Sigh, only 7am and he already has something dribbled down the front. Why is it so hard to keep them clean??

Here's finn, the big bad 1st grader. He isnt as "mom you're embarassing me" as Peter, and even has moments of spontaneous affection in Public. Ohhh look. He has yoghurt on his brand new shirt. Surprise surprise.

And here is Jake, missing his boys. He has been moping around and when they get home it is an all out love and lick fest. Do you Love the 1972 rust "cobblestone-esque" vinyl flooring?. We pulled up the carpet this summer and found this underneath. We want to put in hardwoods to match the rest of the house. So until that gets done this flooring is what I am stuck with.Oh look, jake even has pine sap spots on his fur - i wonder if he did it to match the boys shirts?

Le Sigh

3 days until my vacation.
CARIBBEAN HERE I COME!

I am just so frantic right now. I am SO READY TO GO! Well, not ready ready. I still have to finish up laundry, pack, pick up Peters Meds, Print out their insurance cards, write up a power of attorney for my parents(who will be watching the boys while we are gone), get THEIR stuff packed, take jake to the kennel, print out our trip confirmations, ship documents and plane tickets, finish school for the week, get all of our "stuff" together (underwater cameras, rechargable batteries, digital camera, camera cards etc). I also have about 40$ in nickles, dimes and pennies that I need to dump in coinstar and get cash for. I would roll it up and take it to the bank, but honestly I am lazy and figure I dont mind getting 4$ in fees taken out. It saves me time, especially with my mile long list of things I need to do in the next 2 days.
So by the time Saturday morning rolls around I will be so raring to go I will not sleep a wink at all Friday night.

come on saturday!! I need you to be RIGHT NOW!

Dr. horrible's sing along blog

So how long has this been around and I am JUST NOW watching it.

Dr Horrible's sing Along blog was created by Joss Whedon and is a short movie musical made exclusively for the internet. This was written and directed during the WGA strike. It originally was set out in 3 acts, each about 14 minutes long.(this is all 3 in one lump sum. You can find the 3 different acts on hulu.)

It stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr Evil. he has a video blog and is trying to get into the evil league of evil. He has a PhD in Horribleness and is in love with Penny from the Laundromat.

His arch nemesis is Captain Hammer, played by Nathan Fillion. Captain hammer is a self centered, self absorbed super hero.

The music is so good. The screenplay is delightful yet sweet and beautiful and sad all at the same time. The acting is GREAT and I just really love it. I could watch it again and again.